Euthymius the Georgians

Eutymius the Georgians, a Georgian fresco from the 13th century

Saint Euthymius the Georgians (Greek name form Euthymios , also Euthymius At (h) onita (s) , from Iberon , from Iviron ; Georgian ექვთიმე (ეფთჳმე) მთაწმიდელი ; * 955 or 963; † 1028 ) was abbot of the Georgian monastery Iviron on the Mount Athos and as a translator an important mediator between Greek and Georgian culture. His feast day is May 13th.

Euthymius revised the older Georgian translations of the Gospels and translated the Apocalypse of John into Georgian for the first time . His Bible text, which was revised one more time by one of his successors in Iviron, Abbot Georgios († 1065), forms the starting point for the liturgical text that is still in use in the Georgian autocephalous church today .

A total of around 160 translations from Greek are ascribed to Euthymius, including translations of the writings of Basil the Great (not translated after 981), the commentaries on the Gospel by John Chrysostom (not after 1008) and the ladder to heaven by John Klimakos (not after 983). His translations are geared to the needs of his Georgian readers, therefore often offer abbreviations or explanatory extensions and are characterized by a simple language free of Graecisms.

The authorship of the Barlaam legend

The question of whether Euthymius is the author of the Greek version of the legend of Baarlam and Joasaph has not been finally clarified . In two Greek manuscripts of family c and one of the two Latin translations from Greek ( BHL 979b, from 1048), Euthymius is named as the author, while the text in other Greek manuscripts and also in the second Latin translation (BHL 979, 12. Century) is attributed to John of Damascus . The attribution to Euthymios, particularly represented by Paul Peeters (1931), was initially emphatically rejected by Franz Dölger (1953) in favor of the Damascus. The question was considered undecided for a long time, especially since other authors such as Johannes von Mar Saba (9th century?) Were put up for discussion. The discovery that the Greek text is based on a Georgian model or is at least influenced by it and also undoubtedly uses the Chrysostomos eclogues compiled by Theodorus Daphnopates († 963) in the 10th century , has since made the attribution to John of Damascus less likely , while the authorship of Euthymius has gained plausibility because a Greek version of the Georgian Vita of Theodoros of Edessa ( BHG 1744), traditionally attributed to Euthymius in Georgian research , was able to demonstrate extensive textual parallels to Baarlam . Since the Barlaam is already used in most of the hagiographic writings of Symeon Metaphrastes († around 987), Euthymius would have to have written his Greek version at a relatively young age.

Remarks

1. ↑ Christian Hannick: Art. Bible translations I, 7. The translations into Georgian . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 6, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin [u. a.] 1980, pp. 203-204
2. ↑ Information on the date of origin of the translations according to the dating of the manuscripts in Oliver Wardrop, Georgian Manuscripts at the Iberian Monastery on Mount Athos , in: Journal of Theological Studies 12 (1911), pp. 593-607
3. ↑ Cf. Ekaterina Kiria: De Oratione Dominica of Gregory of Nyssa and Its Old Georgican Translation , in: Maurice Frank Wiles (Ed.), Papers presented at the Thirteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 1999 , Vol. 4, Peeters, Löwen 2001 (= Studia Patristica, 37), ISBN 90-429-0957-9 , pp. 121-125
4. ↑ See Robert Volk: The Writings of Johannes von Damaskos , Vol. VI / 2, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin [u. a.] 2006 (= Patristic texts and studies, 60), ISBN 3-11-018134-7 , p. VIII ff.
5. ↑ A. Kazhdan, Where, when, and by whom was the Greek Barlaam and Joasaph not written? , in: Wolfgang Will (Ed.), To Alexander the Great. Festschrift for Gerhard Wirth on the occasion of his 60th birthday , Hakkert, Amsterdam 1988, ISBN 90-256-0933-3 , Vol. II, pp. 1187-1209
6. ↑ Robert Volk: The continued work of the legend of Barlaam and Ioasaph in Byzantine hagiography, especially in the works of Symeon Metaphrastes , in: Yearbook of Austrian Byzantine Studies 53 (2003), pp. 127-169

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