Timur Shchukin, Oleg Nogovitsin. “Thirty Chapters against Severus” by Leontius of Byzantium: Genre, Dating, Historical context. Vol. 5. No. 1-2. 2020

Publication Details

“Thirty Chapters against Severus” by Leontius of Byzantium: Genre, Dating, Historical context
Title in the language of publication: Трактат Леонтия Византийского «Тридцать глав против Севира»: жанр, датировка, исторический контекст
Authors:
Timur Shchukin
Associate Research Fellow.
Sociological institute of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Address: 25/14 7-ya Krasnoarmeyskaya str., St. Petersburg 190005, Russia.

Oleg Nogovitsin
PhD in Philosophy, Senior Researcher.
Sociological institute of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Address: 25/14 7-ya Krasnoarmeyskaya str., St. Petersburg 190005, Russia.
Issue:
P. 209–228.
Language: Russian
Document type: Research Article (introdaction)
Acknowledgments: The reported study was funded by the RFBR, project number 19-011-00778 “Leontium of Byzantium and Patristics”.
DOI https://doi.org/10.31119/essephts.2020.5.1-2.9
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Abstract

This article is a preface to the commented translation of treatise “Thirty Chapters against Severus” by Leontius of Byzantium The article pays attention to the place of the treatise in the corpus of Leontius’ works, the manuscript tradition, as well as the dating. Date of the treatise “Victory and triumph over the Nestorians” as terminus ante quem is accepted but the hypothesis by B. Daley, that the last treatise was a Leontius’ reaction to the edict of Justinian against Origenists is rejected. It is shown that this is impossible due to the fact that the discussion on the “Three Chapters” was initiated by the emperor much earlier than the ‘Origenist case’ and therefore the treatise by Leontius, which does not deal with the “Three Chapters”, but with another set of Nestorius’ predecessors, reflects rather an early stage of the polemic with the latter. Due to the fact that in the manuscript tradition the “Thirty Chapters” are adjacent to the treatise “Refutation of the Syllogisms of Severus”, the hypothesis that the last treatise was written during the life of Sevier of Antioch is considered. The article also discusses the position of Leontius’ opponent Acephalus in this treatise. It is concluded that most of his arguments correspond to the Severus’ views recorded in his texts, and some arguments correspond rather to the views of his opponents in the antichalcedonian camp, for example, the views of Sergius Grammaticus. It may indicate that the position of the Severians who polemicized with Leontius in the 530s was not homogeneous and it cannot be reduced to the position of Severus. A preliminary analysis of the topic of the article is also made. The conclusion is made about the thematic proximity of the “Thirty Chapters’ to the “Refutation”.

Keywords

Leontius of Byzantium, Severus of Antioch, John Philoponus, Christology, Byzantine philosophy, Capita Triginta contra Severum, Chalcedonites, Monophysites.

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© Timur Shchukin, 2020  © Oleg Nogovitsin, 2020

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