Prophecy of Empire

Christopher J. Bonura is Assistant Professor of History at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland.

• Contents  AcknowledgmentsNote to the ReaderAbbreviations  Introduction. A Syriac Apocalyptic Tract on Political TheologyWhat is the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius?Pseudo-Methodius and Political TheologyThe Problem: Misunderstood Origins  PART ONE. CONTEXT1. Plague, Taxation, and Conversion to Islam: Pseudo-Methodius’s Date and Historical ContextThe Arab Conquest as Context for Pseudo-Methodius?The Second Fitna and the Devastation of Northern MesopotamiaUmayyad Consolidation and Taxation after the Second FitnaDating by Weeks of Years  2. Far from Byzantium: The Author and the Literary Context of Pseudo-MethodiusThe Place of CompositionThe Christological and Ecclesiastic BackgroundSources and Literary InfluencesIn Search of an Anonymous Author  3. The Prophecies of Daniel and Syriac Eschatology: The Context of Pseudo-Methodius’s Political TheologyThe Four Kingdoms in the Book of DanielRome and the Fourth BeastThe Hippolytus-Jerome InterpretationThe Preterist InterpretationAphrahat’s InterpretationThe Reception of Aphrahat’s EschatologyDaniel’s Prophecies in the Late Seventh Century  PART TWO. CONTENT4. The Historical Part: A History of God’s Kingship and Daniel’s Four KingdomsNimrod, Yonaton, and the Prophetic Origins of KingshipA Counter-Umayyad Message?The Succession of the First Three KingdomsThe Jews and the Three GiftsThe Four Beasts and the Four WindsThe Family Tree of the Kingdom of the Greeks  5. The Prophetic Part: The King of the Greeks, the Surrender of Power, and the End of the WorldPrevious Theories about the Surrender SceneThe Surrender of Kingship and Aphrahat’s Fifth DemonstrationThe Removal of the KatechonThe Son of Perdition  PART THREE. RECEPTION6. From Mesopotamia to Constantinople: The Syriac and Greek Reception of Pseudo-Methodius’s Political EschatologyThe Syriac ReceptionThe Greek Translation and the Byzantine ReceptionThe Greek Redactions and Post-Byzantine Legacy  7. From Byzantium to the Orthodox Kingdoms: Pseudo-Methodius’s Political Eschatology in the Non-Greek EastThe Armenian ReceptionThe Egyptian and East African ReceptionThe Slavic Reception  8. From Merovingian Francia to Early Modern Empire: Pseudo-Methodius’s Political Eschatology in the Latin WestThe Latin Translation and the Latin RedactionsPseudo-Methodius in the Early Medieval Latin WestA Ghibelline ApocalypsePseudo-Methodius and the Late Medieval Joachite RevolutionPseudo-Methodius at the Dawn of the ReformationThe Habsburg Dynasty and the Fourth Monarchy Men  Conclusion. Pseudo-Methodius: The Unlikely Prophet of Christian Empire  Appendix A. Translation of the Syriac Pseudo-MethodiusAppendix B. Early Interpolations in the Greek Pseudo-MethodiusReferencesIndex