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The Chronicle of John of Nikiu: Historical Writing in Post-Roman Egypt

Yirga, Felege-Selam Solomon
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1594681955418996

Abstract Details

2020, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History.
While there has been a great deal of work on the late seventh-century Chronicle of John, the anti-Chalcedonian Bishop of Nikiu, since its 1883 publication and French translation by Hermann Zotenberg, there have been few modern studies devoted exclusively to the author and his work. What is more, these modern studies primarily engage with the text as a source of data for the reign of Emperor Herakleios, and the Arab conquest of Egypt, meaning that modern historians often read past the author to a layer of sources beneath them. This positivist utilitarian view of the Chornicle often involves reducing John’s worldview to that of a monophysite historian and a Coptic proto-nationalist, and as such interprets the relevant data through this framework. Modern scholarship has further transposed this world view onto the author’s world, creating the impression that the Chronicle presents a narrative which reflects the development of a Coptic identity characterized primarily by hostility towards the Chalcedonian church, and the Roman state which had previously supported it. Anything in the text which challenges this view is dismissed as the product of John of Nikiu’s method of compiling sources and inverting pro-Chalcedonian and pro-Roman sentiments where they appear. This dissertation moves beyond the heretofore utilitarian-positivist approaches. It instead argues that the entire Chronicle must be viewed as a complete work which, while compiled from a variety of identifiable and unidentifiable sources, still reveals a coherent and distinct historical narrative and theory of history, and one that does not neatly align with the theological and historical positions of the Egyptian Severan Church. This dissertation examines John of Nikiu’s theory of history and prescriptive guidelines through a series of challenges to established scholarly views of the Chronicle. The first chapter challenges the notion that the Chronicle reflects a parochial view of world history centered primarily on Egypt and its monophysite Christian population and as such represents a break from the Byzantine world, which had left an indelible mark on the education and worldview of the bishop of Nikiu. It argues that John’s theory of history, as it applies to the realm of politics, focuses primarily on the effects of individual actors on the broader safety and stability of the entire Christian oikoumene, rather than the Egyptian Christian population alone. The third and fourth chapters challenge the image of John as a mere compiler of data. Chapter 3 reveals one dimension of his theory of history by demonstrating the presence of a coherent mechanism of God’s interaction with humanity in human history. It studies God’s dynamic interactions with the Roman state, the Christian church, and the citizens of the empire more broadly, by focusing primarily on the depiction of natural disasters and floods. I argue that John used natural disasters as a narrative tool that demonstrated the precise mechanical outcomes of individual moral and ethical failures and successes. Rather than explaining how one ought to live a morally and ethically upright life (according to the guidelines prescribed by John himself), the Chronicle answers the question of why one ought to live in this manner. Chapter 4 reveals a second important dimension of the bishop of Nikiu’s theory of history, the role of Satan and his demonic army. The outsized role of demonic forces on the plot of the narrative reveals the text’s monastic outlook, which ultimately serves to further highlight the way in which lapses in moral and religious discipline invite the destructive influence of the demonic and diabolic forces that threaten the security of the Christian oikoumene. The final chapter seeks to understand how John of Nikiu conceived of his own doctrinal and theological position.. The Chronicle provides a history of the Egyptian Severan Church not as an independent institution, but as a community of true orthodox believers within a universal church that was besieged by heretics—Chalcedonians, pagans, Arians, and non-Severan anti-Chalcedonians—who used the state and Church to persecute the community of true believers. Together the four chapters reveal that John used as his framework the Byzantine genre of the universal chronicle to present an ethically prescriptive metanarrative of world history, which explains the long-term consequences of the ethical successes and shortcomings of individual actors. This ethical approach enabled him to connect the community of Egyptian Christians to a long, and universal Christian tradition. In other words, John sought to remind his Coptic-reading audience that they were still part of a universal Christian community by showing how their own actions had a significant impact on the well-being of all Christians, despite the fact that by his own time, doctrinal disputes and half a century of alienation from the Roman empire had substantially separated Egypt from Rome.
David Bernhard Brakke (Advisor)
Anthony Kaldellis (Committee Member)
Kristina Marie Sessa (Committee Member)
209 p.
Ancient History; History

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Yirga, F.-S. S. (2020). The Chronicle of John of Nikiu: Historical Writing in Post-Roman Egypt [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1594681955418996

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Yirga, Felege-Selam. The Chronicle of John of Nikiu: Historical Writing in Post-Roman Egypt. 2020. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1594681955418996.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Yirga, Felege-Selam. "The Chronicle of John of Nikiu: Historical Writing in Post-Roman Egypt." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1594681955418996

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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