Arethas of Caesarea

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Arethas of Caesarea (Greek Ἀρέθας Aréthas ; * around 860 in Patras , Greece; † after 944) was Archbishop of Kaisareia (Latin Caesarea ) in Cappadocia (today Kayseri in Turkey). He is considered one of the most learned theologians in the Orthodox Church .

Little is known of Arethas' youth. He was a student of Leon the mathematician may and also from Photius and was in Constantinople Opel for deacon ordained. In 902 or 903 he became Archbishop of Caesarea. In this position he theologically represented the orthodoxy of Photios.

Arethas is significant for the history of literature through his manuscript collections and scholias on ecclesiastical and secular writers. Among the most valuable codices that were made for him are the Codex Parisinus Graecus 451 , through which a large part of the Greek apologists has come down, and the Codex Clarkianus , which contains most of Plato's works and is one of the most important text witnesses for them. According to the traditionally prevailing opinion, Arethas inserted the scholia in Codex Clarkianus himself, but according to more recent research results they probably come from the late antique model of the manuscript. Other Greek classics such as Euclid have also come down to us through Arethas.

Arethas wrote numerous interpretations of biblical texts, in particular a commentary on the Apocalypse of John , in which he supplemented, deepened and corrected the older commentary by Andrew of Caesarea . At the request of Emperor Romanos I , he wrote a refutation of Islam in the form of a letter to the emir in Damascus. In it he went into detail on the conflict over the Trinity .

Editions and translations

  • Karl Förstel (ed.): Writings on Islam by Arethas and Euthymios Zigabenos and fragments of the Greek translation of the Koran (= Corpus Islamo-Christianum , Series Graeca, Vol. 7). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009 (Greek and German; contains Arethas's letter to the emir in Damascus)

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Maria-Jagoda Luzzatto: Codici tardoantici di Platone ed i cosidetti Scholia Arethae . In: Medioevo greco 10, 2010, pp. 77–110.