Seven sleepers from Ephesus
The Legend of the Seven Sleepers is a sacred legend with a tradition in Christianity and Islam . It describes how seven young men fleeing from a persecution of faith seek protection in a cave and there, protected by God, fell into a sleep lasting several centuries. Sagas and legends with a comparable motif are widespread. It is believed that the origin of the motif lies in pre-Christian times.
In Christianity
The legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus was first fixed by Jacob von Sarug . There are also fixations by Gregory of Tours , Dionysius Telmaharensis and Jacobus a Voragine as well as prose and Islamic texts. A complete version probably already existed around AD 500.
The legend
In the year 251 the Roman emperor Decius came to Ephesus to personally take part in the festival of sacrifices for the pagan gods and on this occasion to supervise the persecution of Christians . Some Christians hide from Decius, but they are found and martyred . The corpses are piled on the city walls; these threaten to collapse among the crowd of dead. Seven Christians, sons from noble families, who serve in the palace at Decius, are betrayed and brought to the emperor. When they refuse to sacrifice to the pagan gods, the emperor gives them time to think about their young age and sets off on a journey to the surrounding villages.
Now the Seven begin collecting and distributing alms for the poor in the city. They plan to hide in a cave in Mount Anchilus so that they can pray to God in peace. They send the youngest of them, disguised as beggars, into town to buy food. Justament comes back to Decius. The boy escapes from the city and returns to the others in the cave. In the rush he hadn't been able to get enough bread. The companions break out in wailing, eat the scarce food and finally sleep gently, placing their souls in the hands of God.
Decius gives the order to look for the seven young men. Since they are not found, he threatens the Fathers of the Seven with torture. These therefore reveal where the companions are hiding. Decius believes the youths are still alive and has the cave entrance locked:
"Therefore the access to the cave should be closed and sealed with large stones so that they are buried alive and die miserably in that dungeon."
Theodorus and Rufinus, two other Christian servants of the emperor, decide to secretly write down what happened on lead tablets. They hide them in a box under the stones at the cave entrance. Decius dies soon after.
In the 38th year of the reign of Emperor Theodosius II , heretics contest the resurrection of the dead in the region , and even Emperor Theodosius is unsure of his faith. In Ephesus, Adolius wants to build a cattle shed, and his workers use the stones from the entrance to the cave for this. When it is opened, God awakens the seven sleeping young men to new life. They get up but do not realize that they have slept for about 200 years. So the youngest of them suggests:
“As I told you yesterday evening, the emperor, along with other citizens, lets us seek to sacrifice to the gods in his presence; but if we do not obey his command, he will let us be tortured. "
He then takes some money to sneak into town and buy new groceries. When he comes to the cave entrance, he trembles because he cannot explain the stones there. He is also very surprised to see crosses on the city gates of Ephesus, to hear people calling on Christ everywhere and to see many changed buildings. The dealer from whom he wants to buy bread cannot explain the origin of the old coins, which still show the image of Emperor Decius. The youth is tied up, taken through the city and finally brought to the bishop and governor. They interrogate the young man, who now learns that Decius died a long time ago. The boy leads the people to the cave, and the bishop discovers the tablets with the written story there. When they enter the cave, the faces of the seven glow and shine like light. The people thank God that they were allowed to see this miracle and notify Emperor Theodosius. When Theodosius arrives, the seven testify to their resurrection and then finally fall asleep. The emperor, firm in his faith, had a church built over the cave.
Important points of development and contradictions in Christian legends
The traditions of the legend of the saints of the Seven Sleepers vary both in the length of the text and in the level of detail. The result is sometimes very contradicting information on individual points in the legend. This can be observed most conspicuously with the number of young men, with the names of the seven sleepers, with the duration of sleep and with the subject of heresy.
The number of young men
Jacob von Sarug - like Dionysius Telmaharensis after him - still clearly reports on eight young men: the son of the proconsul and his seven companions. The book Theodosius de situ terrae sanctae from the early 6th century tells, like the Islamic version in the Koran, of seven men and a dog. In the Christian tradition, the variant with seven youths without a dog, as passed down for example by Gregory of Tours, finally prevailed.
The names of the seven
The question of the names of the seven sleepers is closely related to the number of young men. Jacob von Sarug gives only one name: Iamblichus, who returns to the cave with him after the resurrection with the people. The book Theodosius de situ terrae sanctae , which appeared next in time, already has seven names. With Gregory of Tours, the names are found for the first time, which can be found in all traditions written in Latin.
| source | year | Number of sleepers | traditional names |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jacob of Sarug | ~ 500 | 8th | Iamblichus (+ seven companions) |
| Theodosius de situ terrae sanctae | ~ 530 | 7 + 1 dog | Achilledes, Diomedes, Eugenius, Stephanus, Probatius, Sabbatius, Quiriacus |
| Gregory of Tours | ~ 560-590 | 7th | Maximilianus, Malchus, Martinianus, Constantinus, Dionysius, Johannes, Serapion |
| Dionysius Telmaharensis | ~ 750-770 | 8th | Maximilianus, Jamblicha, Martelus, Dionysius, Johannes, Serapion, Exustadianus, Antonius |
| Jacobus a Voragine: Legenda aurea | ~ 1270 | 7th | Maximian, Malchus, Marcianus, Dionysius, Johannes, Serapion, Constantin |
The duration of sleep
Most Christian traditions, based on Jacob von Sarug, state that the time of sleep was 372 years. Some Arabic Christian traditions call it 309 years. The time between Decius and Theodosius II is not even 200 years. Some chroniclers report an almost realistic period of time, for example Cedrenus at 170 years or Jacobus a Voragine at 196 years. Since the legend of the saints was originally written down by scholars, it can be assumed that they must have noticed this discrepancy of over 170 years between the specified sleep duration and the historical framework with Decius and Theodosius.
In 402, Theodosius II was appointed co-emperor ( Augustus ) by his father . The 38th year of the reign of Theodosius II is therefore the year 440. If one counts back 372 years from this year, the result is the year 68, in which Emperor Nero died. A persecution of Christians took place under his rule, which was spoken of with horror even years later. The use of the number 372 thus reinforces the impression of the miracle effect on the reader, both through the very long time span and through the reference to the terrible atrocities under Nero, which makes the persecution of the youngsters appear more dramatic.
The heresy
Editorial work and contemporary events seem to have influenced the legend on this topic: Jacob von Sarug does not mention any heresy in his first tradition , an early Syrian prose text leads a dispute over the views of Origen , Gregory of Tours already writes of heretics. During the reign of Theodosius II, the admiration of pagan philosophies was seen as problematic by the Bishop Synesius of Cyrene . He also doubted the resurrection. He may have been the reason for the heresy argument to be included in the legend.
Another possible cause is the Second Council of Constantinople , which condemned the ideas of the origins. This took place shortly before the presumably writing of the legend by Gregory of Tours.
Adoration of saints
In the Catholic calendar of saints, the Seven Sleepers are commemorated on June 27th. Exceptions are the dioceses of Regensburg (September 12th) and Aquileia , Salzburg and Passau (September 13th). The Greek Orthodox memorial day is August 4th, the Eastern Church day is October 23rd. The Seven Sleepers are considered the patron saints of the boatmen, but are also called upon in the event of fever and insomnia. In the Christian variant according to Western tradition, the Seven Sleepers are the seven brothers Maximian, Malchus, Martinian, Dionysius, Johannes, Serapion and Constantin; in the Orthodox tradition they are called Maximilian, Jamblicus, Martinian, Johannes, Dionysius, Constantin and Antoninus. The city of Ephesus is generally regarded as the place of action, where the dormouse cave with a church and a burial area can still be seen today.
There are only two churches dedicated to the Seven Martyrs of Ephesus. In Germany, the Siebenschläferkirche in Rotthof (district of Ruhstorf an der Rott / Lower Bavaria) is dedicated to them. The second church is Sept-Saints near Vieux-Marché in Brittany . The Islamic scholar Louis Massignon initiated a joint pilgrimage of Christians and Muslims to Sept-Saints.
In Islam
In the Koran the legend of the "Companions of the Cave" ( Arabic أصحاب الكهف, DMG aṣḥāb al-kahf ). It is the only Christian legend in the Koran that does not exist either in the Bible or in the apocryphal scriptures.
The tradition in the Koran
The Koran takes in the 18th Sura "al-Kahf (الكهف) ”-“ The cave ”- in verses 9 to 26 reference to the companions of the cave. So it says:
"9. Or do you mean that the companions of the cave and the inscription are astonishing among Our signs? 10. When the young men took refuge in the cave and said, 'Our Lord, show us mercy from you, and prepare a right way out for us in our business.' 11. We then let them fall into permanent sleep in the cave for a number of years. 12. We woke them up so that we might know which of the two groups best grasped the length of their stay. 13. We tell you their story according to the truth. They were young men who believed in their Lord and whom We increased their guidance. 14. And We strengthened their hearts when they arose and said, 'Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. We will not call on any other god besides Him, otherwise we would say something wrong. 15. This, our people, has taken gods besides Him. If only they would bring them a clear empowerment! Who is more unjust than someone who invents a lie against Allah? '"
The Koran also describes how God protects the bodies of the companions of the cave from decay by turning them several times and a dog lies in front of them and guards the entrance to the cave.
“You mean they are awake even though they are sleeping. And we turn her to the right and to the left while her dog stretches out his front legs in the anteroom. If you saw them, you would truly turn to flee from them and be filled with horror from them. "
And even in the Koran, the companions of the cave do not notice their long sleep:
“And so We woke them up so that they would ask each other. One of them said, 'How long did you stay?' They said, 'We stayed a day or part of a day.' They said, 'Your Lord knows best how long you have stayed. So send one of you into town with these silver coins of yours; he shall see what their purest food is, and bring you a supply of it. He should be careful and not let anyone notice anything about you. '"
The Qur'an also points out that only God knows exactly the number of companions in the cave. However, the Quranic commentaries interpret verse 18:21 to mean that seven is the correct number. There is no reference to the location of the cave or the names of the Seven Sleepers in the Qur'an.
After all, the Koran names 309 years as the time frame for the duration of sleep; this indicates the difference between lunar years and solar years: 300 solar years are 309 lunar years.
“And they stayed in their cave three hundred years and nine more. Say: Allah knows best how long they stayed. His is the hidden of the heavens and the earth. How excellent is He as one who sees everything, and how excellent He is as one who hears everything! They have no patron besides Him, and He does not involve anyone in His judgment. "
However, the first sentence of the 25th verse was taken by some Koran exegetes as a direct speech of the people who had already "made assumptions" in verse 22 ( Sindhi رَجْمًا بِالْغَيْبِ) on the number of people in the cave. The subsequent correction of the Koran, "Say: 'God knows best how many people lingered in the cave'" is the answer to people's guesses. An almost identical wording can also be found in verse 26 regarding the duration of sleep: "Say: 'God knows best how long you stayed there.'" Because of the identical sentence structure, those exegetes came to the conclusion that the introductory sentence in verse 25 was rather should be classified as direct speech, since people continued to make assumptions about the duration of sleep in the cave, whereas the Koran intervenes again to correct it. Accordingly, the understanding in verses 25 and 26 of Sura 18 is as follows:
“And [people said], 'They stayed in the cave for 300 years,' and some added 9 years. Say, 'God knows best how long they stayed there.' [...] "
Important points of development and contradictions in the Islamic legends
The Islamic legend of the Seven Sleepers is developed and told , especially in the Koran commentaries , due to the short structure in the Koran . Similar to Christianity, the formation of legends leads to contradictions and ambiguities in the Islamic texts, especially with regard to the location of the legend and the names of the Seven Sleepers.
Tabari
Tabari prepares the version of Muhammad of the Seven Sleepers in his commentary on the Koran around 900. He reports on six young men (Maximilianos, Malchos, Yamblichos, Martinianos, Dionysius, Johannes). Even before the birth of Christ , when Decianus ruled Syria, they were servants at the ruler's court. They foretell the resurrection of the dead and refuse to worship pagan gods. Therefore they are pursued by Decianus and meet the shepherd Antoninos with his dog. He accompanies them and together they hide in a cave. There they fall into a sleep that lasts 309 years. When another shepherd seeks protection from a storm, he opens the cave of the seven, who awaken as a result. Yamblichos is sent to go shopping and - similar to the Christian versions - brought to the ruler and interrogated. When Yamblichos leads the people to the cave, he is the first to enter to inform his companions. The seven youths die and the king, who has waited in vain with the people outside for the seven, has a chapel built over the cave and a board put up on which what has happened is written down.
The following characteristics are noticeable in Tabari's version of the Seven Sleepers:
- He does not mention the city of Ephesus.
- He does not write of any heresy.
- He mentions an angel of the Lord who turns the Seven Sleepers from side to side every day.
- To support his testimony, Tabari reports that Jesus announced the resurrection of the Seven Sleepers and falsely claims that it is mentioned in the Christian Gospels .
Tabari claims that there is another version of the legend in which the cave was walled up. However, he considers this to be wrong, as it would contradict the Koran.
Masudi
Al-Mas'udi only briefly reports on the Seven Sleepers in his world chronicle “The Golden Meadows”. However, he brings a reference to the city of Ephesus in Islamic literature.
az-Zamachshari
Around 1134, the version of Az-Zamachschari has strong similarities to Christian variants, for example the version of Jacobus a Voragine. It must be assumed that they used the same text template. He passed on the names Jamlicha, Makschalinia, Maschlinia, Marnusch, Darbanusch and Schadanusch. As the seventh youth, a shepherd serves again with his dog. Al-Zamachschari is the first to give the dog the name Qitmîr. In contrast to Tabari, he also mentions the problem of heresy. At the end of the story, the king gives the order to build a mosque over the cave. In contrast to other versions of the legend, he names Tarsus as the setting .
Adoration
Since no specific place is named in the Koran, seven sleeper sanctuaries were created in many places, mostly near caves or grottoes and referring to regional versions of the legend. Islamic pilgrimage sites are z. B. Loja , Sefrou , Sétif , Cairo , Damascus , Ephesus and Tarsus. The seven sleepers are considered to be witnesses of the resurrection in Islam. Your dog ar-Raqim or Qitmîr is one of the three animals in Islamic heaven. In popular belief, intercessions are made to the Seven Sleepers in search of a cure for illness, the desire to have children and the blessing of the weather. A visit to a pilgrimage site of the Seven Sleepers in the run-up to the Hajj also seems to be of increasing importance.
Similar motifs in other sagas and legends
With a religious background
- In Hinduism there is a story about King Raiwata in the Puranas . He goes to Brahma to ask him for advice. Raiwata hears a song, and when he then asks Brahma his question, he learns that the time of 20 human lives has already passed.
- In the Jewish Talmud a story is told according to which Choni Hamagel wonders about Psalm 126 how a person could dream for 70 years. (cf. Ps 126,1) Thereupon he falls asleep and rests under a rock for 70 years.
- The book of Daniel describes, among other things, how three noble Jews at the royal court of Nebuchadnezzar refuse to worship a pagan statue, are persecuted because of their faith and, with God's help, survive a fiery furnace.
General sagas and legends
- Epimenides slept in a cave near Knossos for 50 years.
- Tundalus appears to have been dead for three days and during this time he is shown heaven and hell by an angel.
- Famous heroes wait for the day they come back and sleep until then, for example Holger Danske or Friedrich Barbarossa in the Kyffhauser legend .
In art
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe uses, among other things, the Islamic dormouse legend in his collection of poems West-Eastern Divan .
- A modern literary processing of the motif can be found in the novel Il cane di terracotta ("The Terracotta Dog") by the Italian author Andrea Camilleri .
- The oratorio Die Siebenschläfer was written by Ludwig Giesebrecht and composed by Carl Loewe .
- A farmer's rule says: if it rains on dormouse day , it may rain for seven weeks.
- The dormouse chapel in Stegaurach is dedicated to the holy dormice.
See also
- Dormouse day
- Dormouse (nocturnal rodent)
- Felicitas and her sons
- Ar-Raqim
literature
- Jacobus de Voragine: Legenda aurea (= Reclams Universal Library. No. 8464). Selected, translated and edited by Rainer Nickel . Philipp Reclam jun. GmbH & Co., Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-15-008464-4 (Latin / German).
- Michael Huber: The hiking legend of the dormice. A literary-historical investigation (= addition to the annual reports of the K. Humanist Gymnasium Metten for the school years 1909/11, ZDB -ID 1244708-0 ). Harrassowitz, Leipzig, 1910
- Hermann Kandler: The meaning of the dormouse (Aṣḥāb al-kahf) in Islam. Studies on legend and cult in literature, religion and folk beliefs with special consideration of the dormouse pilgrimage (= treatises on the history of geosciences and religion-environment research. Supplement 7). University Press Dr. N. Brockmeyer, Bochum 1994, ISBN 3-8196-0270-4 (also: Mainz, Univ., Diss., 1993).
- John Koch: The legend of the dormouse, its origin and distribution. A study of mythological and literary history. Carl Reissner, Leipzig 1883.
- Oswin Rutz: The dormouse church in Rotthof. 1506-2006. Legend, history, art history. Published by the Catholic Parish Office Ruhstorf ad Rott, Ruhstorf ad Rott 2006.
- Ekkart Sauser : SEVEN SLEEPERS from Ephesus. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 21, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-110-3 , Sp. 1438-1439.
Web links
- Literature about the dormouse in the catalog of the German National Library
- Seven Sleepers ( Memento from April 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- The Cave of the Seven Sleepers Tarsus
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Aarne-Thompson Index , which is authoritative for narrative research , lists the motif of the magic sleep under the code AaTh 766 ( "dormouse" ).
- ↑ John Koch: The dormouse legend. 1883, p. 11.
- ↑ John Koch: The dormouse legend. 1883, p. 14.
- ↑ Tunc in illa urbe Inventi sunt septem Christiani: Maximianus, Malchus, Marcianus, Dionysius, John, Serapion et Constantine, qui hoc videntes nimis dolebant. See: Legenda aurea. Selected, translated and edited by Rainer Nickel. 1988, p. 250.
- ↑ Quod CCCLXXII annis dormiisse dicuntur, dubium esse potest, quia anno Domini CCCCXLVIII surrexerant, Decius autem regnavit uno tantum anno et tribus mensibus, scilicet anno Domini CCLII. Et ita non dormierunt nisi CXCVI annis. , freely translated as: That they should have slept 372 years can be doubted because they were resurrected in the year of the Lord 448, but Decius only ruled for one year and three months, namely in the year of the Lord 252. And so they have 196 Slept for years. See: Legenda aurea. Selected, translated and edited by Rainer Nickel. 1988, p. 262.
- ↑ John Koch sees here “the explanation for that peculiar duration of sleep.” Cf.: Die Siebenschläferlegende. 1883, p. 71.
- ↑ The following verses come from the Koran translation by Dr. Nadeem Elyas.
- ↑ Hermann Kandler shows that there is no agreement in the Qur'an commentaries on the number and rhythm of the turning of the seven sleepers: The meaning of the dormouse in Islam. 1994, p. 35.
- ↑ The Miracles of Science in the Quran: The Calculation of the Lunar Year ( Memento of March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Quran, Sura 18:22
- ↑ Quran, Sura 18:26
- ↑ Muhammad Asad: The Message of the Koran . Patmos, ISBN 978-3-491-72540-9 , Sura 18:25.
- ^ Yusuf Ali: The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary . Sura 18:25 [comment 2365].
- ↑ Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik: English Translation of the Meaning of Al-Qur'an . Sura 18:25.
- ↑ Mustafa Islamoglu: Kuran Meali . Sura 18:25 [commentary].
- ↑ See also Pickthall, Cemal Külünkoglu, Mehmet Türk, Ümit Simsek
- ↑ Hermann Kandler: The meaning of the dormouse in Islam. 1994
- ↑ Dormouse Chapel. Retrieved April 22, 2019 .