John bar Aphtonia

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John bar Aphtonia (c.480–537) was a Syriac monk of the Miaphysite persuasion who founded the monastery of Qenneshre ("Eagle's Nest") around 530. A key figure in the transmission of Greek thought and literary culture into a Syriac milieu, his monastery became the intellectual centre of the West Syriac world for the next three centuries.

John was born in Edessa and raised by his mother, Aphtonia.[1] (His surname means "son of Aphtonia".) His father was a rhetor.[2] John himself was bilingual in both the Syriac language and Greek.[3] At the age of fifteen he was sent to the monastery of Saint Thomas in Seleucia Pieria near Antioch. Sometime between 528 and 531, he left with several other Miaphysite-leaning monks facing persecution from the pro-Chalcedonian imperial authorities. They established the monastery of Qenneshre on the banks of the Euphrates near Jarabulus and elected John as their first abbot.[1][2] According to the historian Zacharias Rhetor, John was part of the Miaphysite delegation that negotiated with the Emperor Justinian I in Constantinople around 531.[1][2]

A Syriac biography of John was written after his death by a monk of Qenneshre.[1] John himself wrote in both Greek and Syriac.[3] Among his surviving works are hymns;[1] a commentary on the Song of Songs, which survives only in excerpts in catenae; and a biography of Severus of Antioch.[2] His Greek hymns were often associated with the hymns of Severus. They were translated into Syriac a century later by Paul of Edessa, another monk of Qenneshre.[2]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Watt 2018.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Childers 2011.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Tannous 2018.

Bibliography[]

  • Brock, Sebastian P. (1981). "The Conversation with the Syrian Orthodox under Justinian (532)". Orientalia Christiana Periodica. 47: 87–121.
  • Childers, Jeff W. (2011). "John bar Aphtonia (d. 537)". In Sebastian P. Brock; Aaron M. Butts; George A. Kiraz; Lucas Van Rompay (eds.). Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition. Gorgias Press. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  • Krausmüller, Dirk (2013). "God as Impersonator of Saints in Late Antique Hagiography: The Case of the Life of John bar Aphtonia († 537)". Mukaddime. 7: 23–45.
  • Menze, Volker L. (2008). Justinian and the Making of the Syrian Orthodox Church. Oxford University Press.
  • Tannous, Jack B. (2018). "Qenneshre, monastery of". In Oliver Nicholson (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. p. 1255. |volume= has extra text (help)
  • Watt, John W. (1999). "A Portrait of John bar Aphtonia, Founder of the Monastery of Qenneshre". In J. W. Drijvers; J. W. Watt (eds.). Portraits of Spiritual Authority: Religious Power in Early Christianity, Byzantium and the Christian Orient. Brill. pp. 155–169.
  • Watt, John W. (2018). "John bar Aphtonia". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, Volume 2: J–Z. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 819–820. ISBN 978-0-19-881625-6.
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