Early Eastern Christian Responses to Islam: The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius (Greek Version)
Of the various local Christian responses in the Middle East to the rise of Islam and the Muslim conquests during the first century of Islam’s existence, the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, originally written in Syriac in the latter half of the seventh century CE (a conventional terminus post quem being 692 CE), stands out for the fact that it very quickly entered into circulation in the West, being translated into both Greek and Latin (the latter being a translation of the Greek translation) by the eighth century CE.
Moreover, despite its relative obscurity among modern readers, the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius continued to be highly influential in Europe for many centuries after its original composition, with repeated reinterpretation of the work to apply it to crises and threats facing Christian communities and realms. An early example of reinterpretation can be seen in the Greek version translated in this post, as it contains an extended interpolation likely written in reference to Muslim assaults on the Byzantine Empire in the eighth and ninth centuries CE. Much further down the line, the secondary literature has highlighted that the work was even being reprinted in 1683 CE during the failed Ottoman siege of Vienna in Austria, around a thousand years after it was originally written.
The work is conventionally dubbed the apocalypse of ‘Pseudo-Methodius’ because it was attributed to Saint Methodius of Olympus, who was ‘martyred’ in the fourth century CE. The precise identity of the real author is not certain, but the preface of the original Syriac version claims that God revealed the vision of world history and the future to Methodius in the mountains of Sinjar, probably to be identified with the present-day Sinjar Mountains located in Ninawa province in northern Iraq today near the border with Syria. It seems plausible also that the real author of this work came from this area.
The apocalypse is a simple work to follow with the division of the course of the world into seven millennia. A central aspect of the apocalypse- and an important reason for its influence in Christendom- is the conflict between the people of Ishmael (the Arabs/Muslims) and the ‘Romans’ (the eastern Romans/Byzantines of the author’s day). While the Ishmaelites may have gained supremacy for now over the region and brought about great oppression upon the Christians and induced many if not most to apostasy (clearly reflecting the original author’s anxieties about conversions to Islam spurred by the Muslim conquerors’ imposition of second-class dhimmi status on the local Christians), the king of the Romans will strike back, driving them out of the lands they had conquered and allowing for the Earth to enter into a state of peace.
This driving back of the Arabs/Muslims, however, does not translate to the final end of history. Rather, the world will still face the invasion of the filthy peoples who were locked up long ago in the north by Alexander the Great, and the Son of Perdition will also appear. The king of the Romans, for his part, will hand the power he had to God, and eventually God will destroy the Son of Perdition in the Second Coming of Christ. This Son of Perdition is not an Ishmaelite but in fact of the Israelite tribe of Dan. In short, the apocalypse presents a message of hope for Christians, who will see the defeat of both the Ishmaelites and the Son of Perdition with the triumph of Christianity.
Below is my translation of the Greek version, based on the edition produced by Benjamin Garstad in the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library. Garstad did his own translation of the text, which is generally fine apart from a few errors and occasional awkward expression. I have also annotated the text with notes.
I would like to dedicate this translation and overview to my friend Rasha al-Aqeedi, who happens to have her birthday today and is also from Ninawa province like the probable author of this apocalypse.
The words of our father in holy affairs Methodius, the bishop of the people of Patara and martyr. These words have been carefully outlined regarding the kingdom of the peoples. There is also a precise outline up to the last days. The account begins from Adam until the end of the world.
1
It should be known that when Adam and Eve left Paradise, they were virgins. In the year 30 of their exodus from Paradise, [Adam came to know his wife Eve carnally. She became pregnant and][i] she gave birth to the first-born child Cain and his sister Kalmana.[ii] After another 30 years, she gave birth to Abel along with his sister Debora.
In the year 130 of the life of Adam, Cain killed his brother Abel.[iii] Adam and Eve wailed in lamentation over him for 100 years. In the year 230 of the first millennium, which is the first age, Seth- a giant man in the likeness of Adam- was born.[iv] In the year 500 of the first millennium, the sons of Cain prostituted the wives of their siblings.
When Adam found about this, he felt great grief. In the year 600 of the same first millennium, the wives of those siblings were struck by the arrow of unchaste love, went mad, and carnally enjoyed their own men as though they were women, and truly they became a manifest disgrace for the eyes, as they shamefully prostituted their chastity.
In the year 800 of the life of Adam, the defilement of fornication was spread about on Earth by the sons of Cain who had killed his brother.
Adam died in the year 930 of the first millennium.[v] Also at that time the family of Seth and the family of Cain separated from each other, and Seth brought his family to the top of a mountain that was next to Paradise, whereas Cain and his family dwelt on the plain, in which he had carried out the killing of his brother predestined by God. In the year 40 of Jared,[vi] the first millennium was completed, or rather the first age.
2
In the year 340 of Jared, that is of the second millennium, rose up men of evil practices, who were wicked and law-breaking, full of every sort of lawlessness. They were of the sons of Cain, Joubeth and Thouloukel, the children of Lamech[vii] the blind, who had also killed Cain. The devil gained control of them and turned them towards making all kinds of musical arts.
In the year 500 of the second millennium, all men in the group of Cain became even more inflamed in lawless fornication, having become worse than the first generation. They also set upon each other like animals devoid of reason: female upon males, male upon female.
In the year 700 of the life of Jared, that is in the second millennium, the wicked and destructive devil imposed on the sons of Seth to bring about a war of fornication upon Cain’s daughters, and he thrust and pushed the giants of Seth into the abyss of sin. The Lord God became angered at the end of the second millennium, and thus the flood of the waters arose and the first creation and formation disappeared.
3
In the year 612 of the life of Noah, that is the year 12 of the third millennium, after Noah left the ark, the sons of Noah built a new settlement in the outer land and they called the land by the name of Thamnon, named for the number of those who came out from the ark, for they were eight in number.[viii]
In the year 100 of the third millennium, a son was born to Noah in his likeness and he named him Ionetos. In the year 300 of the third millennium, Noah bestowed favours upon Ionetos his son and sent him away to the land of the east.
After Noah died in the year 690 of the third millennium, the sons of Noah came out of the eastern land and built for themselves a tower in the land of Senaar.[ix] There the languages were confounded and divided on the face of the entire earth.[x]
Ionetos the son of Noah came to the east all the way up to the sea of the so-called land of the Sun, as the Sun rises there, and there he dwelt.
This Ionetos received the grace of wisdom from God, and he was the first to discover the skill of astronomy. Nebrod[xi] the giant came to him, was taught by him and received from him counsel so that he could become a king. This Nebrod was one of the heroes who were the children of Shem[xii] and he was the first to become a king on the Earth.
In the year 790 of the third millennium, Babylon the Great was built and Nebrod ruled in it, and after this the sons of Ham[xiii] made one of their own to be a king for themselves. His name was Pontipos. In the year 799 of the third millennium, that is the third year of Nebrod’s kingdom, they sent powerful men from the children of Iapheth,[xiv] who were very wise builders and architects, and they came to Ionetos the son of Noah in the eastern land, built for him a city and called it Ionetos after his own name.
Much peace arose between the kingdom of Ionetos and Nebrod until now. But there was no peace during the reign of Nebrod the son of Shem and Pontipos the son of Ham. For in the days of Nebrod, the sons of Ham and Iapheth waged war on each other.
Ionetos thus wrote a letter to Nebrod, telling him that the kingdom of the sons of Iapheth was going to wipe out the kingdom of the sons of Ham. So these were the first kingdoms to be displayed on the Earth and after this all the peoples learned to appoint kings for themselves.
4
In the year 74 after the reign of Nebrod with the third millennium already having come to an end (i.e. in the year 37 of the fourth millennium), both kingdoms constantly made war on each other. The kingdom of the Egyptians was overcome by the kingdom of Nebrod. The kingdom of Babylon became very powerful in Nebrod’s offspring up to Chouzimizdes. This man took a wife for himself from the children of Ham.
When Chouzimizdes died, his offspring Izdes took his own mother as a wife and begat Eresdes. This man acquired much power for himself and attacked the kingdom of the children of Ham, took them captive and burned all the lands of the west with fire.
In the year 2 of the rule of Chosdro, the son of Eresdes, the sons of Ham assembled and came down to the east to wage war on King Chosdro. They consisted of 320,000 foot-soldiers and only had rods in their hands.
When Chosdro heard about these men, he laughed and let them pass until they came to the river Tigris. There he sent against them his own army mounted on elephants, and he killed all of them, and not one of them was left alive, and the sons of Ham did not continue to make war any further.[xv] Thereafter the kingdoms were provoked against each other.
5
At the end of the fourth millennium, that is the year 25 of Chosdro, the year 5 of the fifth millennium, Sampsisano came from the east. He was from the family of Ionetos the son of Noah, and he desolated the land from the Euphrates up to Edroega: that is 67 cities and their lands.
He attacked the three kingdoms of the Indians, burned them with fire, laid them to waste, came out to the desert of Sheba, and destroyed the encampment of the children of Ishmael the son of Hagar, who was the Egyptian woman and maiden of Abraham’s wife Sara. All of them ran away, fled from the desert of Yathrib,[xvi] came to the inhabited land, made war with the kings of the peoples, caused devastation, took captives and gained control of the kingdoms of the peoples that were in the Promised Land.
The land became filled with them and their forces. For they were like locusts, went about naked, ate the meat of camels prepared in skins and drank cattle’s blood and milk.
So when the sons of Ishmael gained control of all the land, desolated the cities and their lands, and gained power in all the islands, they then prepared ships for themselves. Using these ships like birds, they rode on the waters of the sea and came to the lands of the west as far as Rome the Great, Illyricum, Gigetum, Thessalonica, Sardinia the great and then Rome. They gained mastery of the land for 60 years and did what they wanted in it.
After eight and a half weeks[xvii] of their dominion, during which they ruled all the kingdoms of the peoples, they felt exalted in their hearts as they saw how they held sway and ruled over all.
In that time there arose among them four tyrant generals, who were sons of Umayya[xviii] who was thus named by them. Their names were Oreb, Zeb, Zebaie and Salmana. These men waged war with the Israelites, and just as God granted deliverance for the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians through His servant Moses, so indeed in the same way and at that time God showed mercy for them and granted them deliverance from these people through Gideon, and Israel was freed from servitude to the sons of Ishmael.
This Gideon destroyed their encampment, chased them away and expelled them from the inhabited land into the desert of Yathrib, from which they arose.
Having been left to remain there, they struck peace treaties with the sons of Israel and nine tribes came out to the outer-desert region. They are to come out once again, desolate the land, gain mastery over the inhabited land and the countries at the entrance of peace, from Egypt to Ethiopia, from the Euphrates up to India, from the Tigris to the entrance of Nod[xix] the kingdom of Ionetos the son of Noah, and from the north to Rome and from Illyricum and Gigetos to Thessalonica and Oboia, and up to the sea of Pontus,[xx] and their yoke on the neck of all the peoples will be twice as great.
Moreover, there will be no people or kingdom under the sky that can wage war on them for up to the number of seven weeks of years. After this they will be defeated by the Romans and made subject to Rome, for Rome will grow mighty over all the kingdoms of the peoples and will never be destroyed by any of them. For it has unbeatable weapons, through which all will be laid low by Rome.
6
So consider from the cycles of time of the kings, and how this truth of the acts makes itself manifest, without any error or deceit.
For from Nebrod the hero up to Perousdek, the kingdom of the giants ruled the land of Babylon and from Perousdek up to Ses the old man from Idrouegan, the Persians ruled, and from Ses up to Perousdek, those from Slek and Ctesiphon ruled, and from Perousde up to Senereb,[xxi] those from Babylon ruled.
Senereb took Hieknad from Ararat[xxii] as his wife and she gave birth to Ardemelech and Tzaratzar for him. These boys killed their own father and fled to the land of Ararat.
There Saradon came to rule over Babylon in place of his father Senereb, and Nebuchadnezzar was begotten from his father Louzia and from his mother the queen of Sheba.
When Senereb came to wage war on the king of India, went as far as Sheba, and devastated many lands, Nebuchadnezzar came out with him, for Senereb had actually brought Nebuchadnezzar with him. Senereb also made Nebuchadnezzar his chief general, and because of Nebuchadnezzar’s power and lordship, Nebuchadnezzar was given the kingdom of Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar took Erousdoum from the Medes to be his wife, and after Nebuchadnezzar and his son Baltasar[xxiii] died, Darius the Mede,[xxiv] the son of Erousdoum ruled, and Darius married Doroum who was Persian, and from her was born Cyrus the Persian.
7
Then hear how these kings became united with each other, those of Babylon with the Medes, and the Mede with the Persians, and how those of Babylon gained power over Ethiopia, Sheba and the kings of the peoples from the sea to the river Euphrates, and also the kingdom of David via Nebuchadnezzar, as well as the Arabs and the Egyptians.
Darius the Mede gained mastery over the kingdom of the Indians and the Libyans, while Cyrus the Persian gained control of Thrace, delivered the sons of Israel and sent them away to the Promised Land, having ordered for the rebuilding of the temple of God that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and through this matters turned out in accordance with the orders of King Cyrus.
8
In turn, listen carefully as to how the four kingdoms became united with each other: the Ethiopians with the Macedonians, the Greeks with the Romans. These are the four winds under heaven, which Daniel observed to be stirring the great sea.[xxv]
For Philipp the father of Alexander[xxvi] was Macedonian and married Chouseth the daughter of King Phol of Ethiopia, from whom was born this Alexander, who became tyrant of the Greeks. This man founded the great Alexandria and ruled there for 19 years. This man came to the East, killed Darius the Mede and gained control of many countries and cities, and went around the Earth. He came down as far as [the dawn and] the sea of the so-called land of the Sun, and there he saw unclean and ugly peoples.
For they are descendants of the son of Iapheth, whose uncleanliness he beheld and thus he was disgusted by it. For all of them ate, like dung-beetles, dirty and base things: dogs, mice, cats, serpents, flesh of corpses, aborted foetuses, stillborn babies, foetuses not yet completely formed or preserving some mark of deformity, and these things of cattle, as well as all kinds of unclean animals. They did not bury the corpses, but rather they ate them.
When Alexander saw the unclean and unlawful things being done by them, he feared that they would sully the whole earth and so he begged God to grant him power over them, and so he bound and brought together all these peoples as well as their wives, children and their encampments.
Driving them out from the eastern land, he followed behind them, until they were brought to the borders of the north, and there is no entry or exit in these places from east to west, through which anyone could traverse or come to them.
Then Alexander immediately called on God. The Lord God heard his entreaty and ordered the two mountains that are called the breasts of the north to approach each other. They approached each other up to a distance of 12 cubits away from each other.
Alexander also built bronze gates and plastered them with asyncite,[xxvii] so that if any of them should plot to open them with iron, that person could not do so, nor could they dissolve them with fire, but rather fire is immediately extinguished on contact with it. For such is the nature of asyncite, that it does not yield to the clanging of iron or the dissolution of fire. Thus it renders all the schemes and designs of demons null and void.
Then these accursed, base and very unclean peoples tried all magical works of evil, and in these affairs of theirs, they employed filthy and inhuman, or, to put it more accurately, godless witchcraft, but thus it was they could not force open such gates with fire, iron or any other scheme, and thus they could not escape.
But matters will be otherwise in the last days, in accordance with the prophecy of Ezekiel that says: in the last day of the end of the world, Gog and Magog will come out against land of Israel.[xxviii] They are the peoples and kings whom Alexander shut within the boundaries of the north. Gog, Magog, Anoug, Ageg, Achenaz, Dephar, the Photinaians, Libians, Eunians, Pharizaians, Deklemians, Zarmatians, Theblaians, Zarmatianians, Chachonians, Amazarthians, Garmiardians, the man-eaters called the Kunocephalians, Tharbians, Alans, Phisolonikians, Arknaians and Asalterians.[xxix] These 22 kings have been placed under guard within the gates that Alexander wrought.
9
So after Alexander the first king of the Greeks died, his four generals ruled in his place,[xxx] for he never married. His mother Chouseth departed for her native land of Ethiopia.
So Byzas, who built the city of Byzantium, sent his general Germanicus by sea to King Phol of Ethiopia and made peace with Phol, having written to Phol regarding Alexander’s mother Chouseth, so that he might take her to be his wife and appoint her as queen.
When King Phol received the letters from Germanicus, and saw and received the honours that Byzas rendered to him, he was very gladdened. As such he arose and brought together men from all the regions of Ethiopia. He then immediately took his daughter Chouseth and went to Byzas, having with him 30,000 Ethiopians. He was received by Byzas beyond the sea at Chalcedon with utmost joy. Byzas gave very many gifts to those accompanying Phol, while Phol came to Byzas and rendered unto him great honours and very great gifts in accordance with kingly generosity.
King Byzas took King Phol of Ethiopia’s daughter Chouseth, and from her a daughter was born to him. He named her Byzantia after the name of the city. Romulus Armelaus the king of Rome married this girl. On account of her great beauty, he loved her very much. He himself was also very simple-minded and generous in giving gifts, hence as part of the dowry gifts, he gifted her Rome. When his senior officials heard about this, they became very displeased with him.
Byzantina bore him three sons, one of whom he named Armelaus after the name of his father, another Urbanus, and another Claudius.
Each of them ruled separately: Armelaus in Rome in place of Armelaus his father, Urbanus in Byzas the city of his mother, and Claudius in Alexandria.
Thus the offspring of Chouseth the daughter of Ethiopia’s king Phol gained control of the realm of the Macedonians, Romans and Greeks for a period of time. As such the realm of the Greeks, which is of the Romans, is derived from the offspring of the Ethiopians. This kingdom “will stretch out her hand to God”[xxxi] in the last day according to the prophetic revelation. For the blessed David foresaw in the eyes of the spirit and anticipated that Chouseth the daughter of the king of Ethiopia would raise up the kingdom of the Romans, and so he prophesied saying: “Ethiopia will stretch forth her hand to God.” There are those who have thought that the holy David said these things in an allusion to the kingdom of the Ethiopians, but those who have thought such things have falsified the truth.
For this kingdom that arose from Ethiopian offspring acquired the great and revered wood of the honourable and life-giving cross that was fixed in the middle of the Earth [on which the lordly and immaculate body was hung because of our sins],[xxxii] thus David the Father of God spoke appropriately: “Ethiopia will stretch forth her hand to God.” For there is no people or kingdom under the sky capable of oppressing the kingdom of the Christians, “until” it should be fortified with the life-giving cross (as we said above, it is what was fixed in the middle of the earth), under which the boundaries of the world are indeed very precisely outlined according to width, length, height and depth. For what sort of strength or what dominion is ever capable of claiming the power of the cross, by whose might and holiness the kingdom of the Romans has been armed through our Lord Jesus Christ who was fixed on it?
10
So let us hear what Paul the divine oracle predicted regarding the last day and the kingdom of the Romans, for he says in the second letter to the Thessalonians: “We ask you, brothers- by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and your coming together to him- not to be hastily shaken from your intention, nor to be terrified because of the spirit, word or letter as has come from us, because the Lord’s coming is at hand. Let no one deceive you in any way. Because,[xxxiii] unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed: the son of perdition, who is adverse and transgressing against all called God or an object of worship, such that he sits in the temple, showing himself to be God…only the one who holds back now until he should be removed from the middle, and then the lawless one will be revealed.”[xxxiv]
Who is the one that should be removed from the middle except the kingdom of the Romans? For every power or authority of this world will cease without this kingdom.
For it will wage war and not be defeated, and all the peoples clashing with it will be defeated by it, and it will rule, until the last hour will appear, and then it “will stretch forth its hand to God” and in accordance with the apostle who says- “when every power and every authority will be abolished”- then also the Son himself “will give the kingdom to God the Father.”[xxxv] What sort of kingdom? Plainly that of the Christians.
For where is or will be a kingdom or another power showing itself superior to this one? If you wish to examine the accuracy of the matter, take from me the example of the people of Moses who destroyed the Egyptians through such great signs, marvels and the depth of the sea. Take from me also the example of Joshua the son of Nun, by whom both the Sun was set still over Gibeon and the Moon over the chasm of Elom,[xxxvi] and by whom also some extraordinary miracles were done, and consider plainly the whole power of the Hebrews, how it was utterly destroyed by the kingdom of the Romans. Did not Titus and Vespasian massacre them all? Did not Hadrian plough with his plough after pillaging the temple? So what other kingdom has arisen or will arise against it? But we will find no such kingdom, if we consider the truth.
Did not the Hebrews rule for 1000 years? Their kingdom was destroyed! The Egyptians ruled for 3000 years. They were likewise destroyed. The Babylonians ruled for 4000 years, but they were destroyed. So after the kingdom of the Macedonians was destroyed, and truly that of the Egyptians, the kingdom of the Barbarians- that is the Turks and Avars[xxxvii]- was armed against the kingdom of the Romans, but they too were destroyed by it.
Then once the kingdom of the Persians has been destroyed, in place of it the sons of Ishmael the son of Hagar will attack the Romans. The Scripture (specifically Daniel) has called him the “arm of the south.”[xxxviii] They will be set in battle against the kingdom of the Romans in the year seven on the basis of the number of the weekly cycles, for the end is at hand and there will not be any more time.
11
For in the last millennium, that is the seventh, the kingdom of the Persians will be uprooted, and the seed of Ishmael will come out from the desert of Yathrib and coming out they will all be gathered together at Gabaoth the Great,[xxxix] and there the words spoken by the prophet Ezekiel will be fulfilled: “Son of man, call the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky and urge them on saying: ‘Come and be gathered here, for I will offer a great sacrifice to you. Eat the flesh of masters and drink the blood of giants.’”[xl]
So in this Gabaoth all the lords of the Greeks (i.e. of the Romans) will fall at the edge of a sword. For just as they killed the lords of the Hebrews and the Persians, so they will also fall at the edge of a sword at the hands of the seed of Ishmael, who is called a wild ass,[xli] for in rage and anger they will rage about on the face of the entire Earth against men, cattle, beasts, groves, plants, bushes and every kind of fruit-bearing plant.
Their coming will be a merciless chastisement, and four plagues will precede them on the Earth: destruction, perdition, ruin and desolation.
For God says to Israel through Moses: “It is not because the Lord God loves you that He leads you into the Promised Land to inherit it, but because of the sin of those who dwell in it.”[xlii] So it is not because the Lord God loves the sons of Ishmael that He gives them power to rule the land of the Christians, but rather because of the sinfulness and lawlessness committed by the latter. For similar deeds of theirs have not arisen, nor will they ever arise, among all the generations.
Why so? The men have put on the clothing of adulteresses and prostitutes and adorned themselves as women, and have openly stood in the streets and squares of the cities and “transformed intimacy in accordance with nature into intimacy that is against nature,” as the holy apostle puts it.[xliii] So also the women have done these things just as the men have done.
For a father has lain carnally with one woman, as have his son, brother and all the kin of the generation. For they have been ignored by the female companions. Hence the very wise Paul appropriately cried out ahead of time when he said: “Because of this, the Lord has given them over to the passions of dishonour. For the women have changed intimacy in accordance with nature into intimacy that is against nature. Similarly also the men have laid aside intimacy with the female in accordance with nature and have been kindled in their appetite for each other: male towards male, committing obscenity and receiving within themselves the reward for going astray.”[xliv]
Because of this God gives them into the hands of barbarians, under whom they will fall into filth and foulness, and their women are defiled by the defiled, and the sons of Ishmael will draw lots.
The land of Persia will also be given to ruin and destruction and those dwelling in it will be led into captivity and slaughter. Armenia and those dwelling it will also be given to captivity and slaughter. Cappadocia will be brought into destruction and desolation, and its inhabitants swallowed up in captivity and slaughter.
Sicily will come into desolation and its inhabitants will be given over to slaughter and captivity. The land of Syria will be desolate and utterly destroyed and its inhabitants will be destroyed in slaughter. Cilicia will be made desolate and those dwelling in it will be destroyed in slaughter and will be taken captive.
Greece will be destroyed, and its inhabitants will be brought into captivity and slaughter. Romania[xlv] will be brought into destruction and slaughter, and [its inhabitants] will turn in flight, and the islands of the sea will be made desolate and their inhabitants will be destroyed in slaughter and captivity.
Eastern Egypt and Syria will be brought under the yoke and immense affliction and will be oppressed without mercy and a weight of gold will be demanded of their inhabitants beyond what they can pay, and the inhabitants of Egypt and Syria will be in difficulty and affliction that is seven times greater than that of those in captivity.
The Promised Land will also be filled with men of the four winds under the sky, and they will be “the multitude like locusts”[xlvi] that is gathered under the wind, and there will be hunger and plague in these lands, and the heart of these destroyers will be uplifted and raised into haughtiness, and they will prattle verbose words until the time ordained for them, and they will gain control of the entrance and exit of the north and the east and west of the sea, and everything will be under their yoke: men, beasts and birds. The waters of the sea will also obey them.
The desolate cities that have been made desolate of their inhabitants will belong to them, and they will register the mountain and deserts as property for themselves. The fish of the sea, the trees of the thicket, the soil of the Earth, the stones, the fertility of the land will be part of their revenues. In addition, the toils and sweat of the farmers of the land and the inheritance of the rich and the things brought to the holy sites- whether gold, silver, precious stones, bronze or iron- sacred and glorious garments, and all the foods and everything deemed of value, will belong to them. Their heart will be elevated until they should also demand those things from the corpses of the dead themselves in the same measure that they demand them from the living: likewise also from the widows, orphans and holy men.[xlvii]
They will also not have mercy on the poor and destitute. They will dishonour all the elderly and they will oppress the poor and they will not have compassion for the weak and powerless, but rather they will mock and laugh at those illustrious in wisdom and those prominent in political and public deeds. All will hold back in silence and fear, not being able to answer back or speak plainly and say: “What is this?” Or “What is that?” All those inhabiting the earth will be terrified [and afraid].[xlviii] Their wisdom and education will be natural for them, neither increased nor granted to them through progress, and there will not be the one capable of altering or finding fault with their words.
Their way will also be from sea to sea and from east to west and from the north to the desert of Yathrib. Their way will be called the way of narrowness and elderly men and women will proceed upon it, as will poor and rich, hungry and thirsty, captives, and they will deem the dead happy.
For this is the chastisement (i.e. the apostasy) proclaimed by the apostle. For he says that “unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness- the Son of Perdition- is revealed.”[xlix] For the apostasy is chastisement and all those who inhabit the earth will be chastised. Since God called Ishmael their father a wild ass, because of this the wild asses, the deer of the desert and all kinds of wild and tame beasts will become hungry and diminish, and they will cut down all the trees of the thicket and the beauty of the mountains will disappear. The cities will also be made desolate and the lands will be untrodden because of the small number of men, and the Earth will be stained in blood and withhold its fruits. For the tyrannically ruling barbarians are not men, but rather they are children of the desert and will come into desolation. They have been corrupted and will be sent to perdition. They are detested and embrace abomination. In the beginning of the period, when their exodus from the desert has taken place, they will strike the pregnant women with a sword, and seizing the babies from their mothers’ arms, they will smite them, and those babies will be food for the wild beasts.
Defiling the priests within the holy sites, they will slaughter the priests, and they will lie carnally with the women in the venerable and holy places, in which the mystical and bloodless sacrifice is performed. Their wives, sons and daughters will put on the holy garments. They will also place these garments on their horses and spread them on the couches, and they will bind their flocks in the tombs of the saints, and they will be corrupted murderers, because the fire of testing belongs to the Christian people.
12
For the holy apostle says: “Not all those of Israel are Israel.”[l] So not all those called Christians are actually Christians. “For 7000,,” as the Scripture says, “of the sons of Israel have been saved: they have not bent the knee to Baal,”[li] and all the people of Israel have been saved through them.
So then in the time of the apostasy and chastisement of the sons of Ishmael, few true Christians will be found, just as our Saviour said in the holy Gospels: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the Earth?”[lii] In that time the spirit of the perfect will be diminished.
Many also will deny the true faith and the life-giving cross and the holy mysteries, and without force, chastisement or discomfort, they will deny Christ and follow the apostates.
For the holy apostle anticipated this and proclaimed it when he said that “in end-times some of the people of the faith will apostasise, holding to the spirits of error and the teachings of the demons that speak lies in hypocrisy and have their consciences seared.”[liii]
In addition the same apostle says: “In the last days, difficult times will arise. For men will be selfish, lovers of money, pretentious, arrogant, blaspheming, disobedient towards parents, useless, regarding nothing as holy, lacking natural affection, untrue to their promises, slanderous, lacking self-control, savage, not loving what is good, treacherous, reckless, haughty, loving pleasure rather than loving God, having the semblance of piety, but having denied its power.”[liv]
All those who are weak in faith will be made clear in that chastisement and they will separate themselves from the holy churches by their own choice. For that time will summon them to go astray. As for the humble, quiet, good, truthful, free and chosen, they will not be sought out in that time.
But in place of these people will be sought those who are selfish, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blaspheming, rapacious, greedy, drunk with wine, merciless, apostates, untrue to their promises, lacking natural affection, ungracious, regarding nothing as holy, slanderous, lacking self-control, savage, untamed, treacherous, reckless, haughty, loving pleasure rather than loving God, catamites, adulterers, thieves, perjurers, liars, slave-dealers, having the semblance of piety, but having denied its power.[lv]
These people will be the attendants of those days and they will unflinchingly carry out all the orders given to them by these sons of Ishmael, and those who fear the Lord will not be reckoned of any value before their eyes, but they will be held in dishonour like excrement trampled under the foot.
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For men will arise in that chastisement of the sons of Ishmael and they will be in anguish to the point that they will despair of their own life. Honour will be removed from the priests, the ministry of God will give way and all sacrifice will cease from the churches, and the priests will be like the laypeople.
In that time, that is in the seventh week, at a time when the number of the years of their dominion through which they have ruled the land will be fulfilled, the affliction against men and cattle will be multiplied and there will be hunger and plague, and men will be destroyed and cast on the face of the Earth like soil, and on each day in that time, one further calamity will be imposed upon men.
Man will go to sleep in the evening and arise in the morning and find on his doorpost those demanding from him a weight of gold or silver and pressuring him, and all his supply of gold and silver for bartering will be spent. Man will sell all his useful property as well as all his iron tools and funeral attire.
In this time of the week, men will sell their children. For what reason does God disregard the faithful enduring these afflictions, except that the faithful and unfaithful should be shown and the darnel should be separated from the wheat, since that time is a fire of testing?
God will be long-suffering towards the afflictions of the just and faithful, so that the elect may appear. For the Lord thus told us in advance: “Blessed are you, whenever they chide you and persecute you and lyingly say every evil word against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because your reward is great in heaven. For thus did they persecute the prophets who came before you”[lvi]; “The one who has endured to the end, this person will be saved.”[lvii]
So there will be this affliction that has arisen at the hands of the Ishmaelites, and at that time men will be in danger amid their oppression, not having hope of salvation or deliverance from the hands of the Ishmaelites, persecuted, oppressed, wronged, hungry, thirsty and naked, while these barbarians will be eating, drinking and boasting in their victories and the desolations by which they have desolated Persia, Romania, Cilicia,[lviii] Syria, Cappadocia, Isauria,[lix] Africa, Sicily and those living near Rome and the islands. They will be clothed like bridegrooms, and say in their blasphemy that “the Christians have no rescue from our hands.”
[Then suddenly they will come ten thousand times more numerous on chariots and horses. For they will come out in the first month of the ninth indiction and capture the cities of the east, overwhelming all of them. They will divide the land into three realms, devastating like a winter-storm one part as far as Ephesus, another as far as Pergamum,[lx] and another as far as Malagina.[lxi]
Woe to you oh land of Phrygia, Pamphylia and Bithynia,[lxii] for when it becomes ice-cold, Ishmael overtakes you. For he will come like a fire consuming all and his sailors will be 70,000 in number, and they will make desolate the islands and the inhabited areas of the coast.
Woe to you, Byzas, because Ishmael overtakes you. For every horse of Ishmael will cross through and the first of them will set up his tent opposite you, Byzas, and begin to wage war and shatter the gate of Xylokerkos and enter as far as Bous.[lxiii] Then Bous will cry out loudly and Xerolaphos[lxiv] will cry aloud, being worn out by the Ishmaelites.
Then a voice will come from heaven saying: “This vengeance suffices for me.” The Lord God will then take away the timidity of the Roman and cast it into the hearts of the Ishmaelites, and He will cast the courage of the Ishmaelites into the heart of the Romans, and turning around, the Romans will chase them out of their own lands as they suddenly thrash them. Then what has been written will be fulfilled: ‘One will chase a thousand and two will rout tens of thousands.’[lxv] Then their sailors will be finished off and disappear].[lxvi]
Then suddenly affliction and difficulty will come upon them, and the king of the Greeks (i.e. the Romans) will come out against them, and with great rage he will be awakened from sleep like a man awakened from sleep after having drunk much wine- a man whom men reckoned to be like a corpse and to be useless. This man will come out against them from the sea of Ethiopia and bring slaughter and desolation upon Yathrib, which is their fatherland, and he will take their women and children captive. Against those inhabiting the Promised Land will come down the sons of the king and with the sword they will drive these people out of the land.
Fear will descend upon these people from all sides. They and their women and children and those nursing their babies and all their encampments that are in the land of their fathers will be handed over to the hands of the king of the Romans, in slaughter, captivity, death and destruction.
The yoke of the king of the Romans upon them will be seven times as much as their yoke was upon the Christians. Great difficulty will seize them: hunger, thirst and affliction. They themselves, their women and their children will be slaves and they will be slaves to the ones who were slaves to them, and their slavery will be 100 times more bitter and painful.
Also, the Earth made desolate by them will be at peace, and each will come back to his own land and the inheritance of his fathers- Armenia, Cilicia, Isauria, Africa, Greece, Sicily- and all remaining from captivity will go back to their private abodes and patrimony
Men will multiply like locusts on the Earth that had been made desolate. Egypt will be made desolate, while Arabia will be burned with fire, and the land of Abran[lxvii] will be made desolate, and the land by the sea will be at peace. All the rage and anger of the king of the Romans will burn against those who denied our Lord Jesus Christ and the Earth will be at peace. There will be great peace and quiet on the earth. There have never been nor ever will be such peace and quiet, for they come last and at the end of the ages.
There will be merriment on the Earth and men will dwell in peace and rebuild the cities. The priests will be freed from their constraints and men at that time will gain rest from their afflictions.
This is the peace that the holy apostle declared when he said: “When they say, peace and safety, destruction will suddenly fall upon them”[lxviii]; and also the Lord declared this in the Gospels, thus saying: “For just as men were eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage in the days of Noah, so it will be in the last day.”[lxix]
So in this peace men will sit on the Earth with joy and merriment, eating and drinking, marrying and marrying off, leaping and rejoicing, and they will build homes and there will be no fear or worry in their heart.
Then the gates of the north will be opened and the powers of the peoples that have been confined within it will come out, and all the Earth will be made to shake before their face, and men will be terrified, flee and hide themselves in the mountains, caverns and in tombs. Many will be mortified and destroyed with fear, and there will be no one to bury the bodies.
For the peoples coming forth from the north eat the flesh of men and drink the blood of beasts like water and eat unclean things, snakes, scorpions all the foul and abominable beasts and beasts that crawl on the Earth, the brutish things, and the corpses and the untimely born babies of women. They will slaughter infants and give them to their mothers, and they will boil their flesh and gobble it up. They will also destroy the Earth and stain it, and they will obliterate it and no one will be able to stand before them.
So after a week of years, at a time when they seize the city of Ioppe, then the Lord God will send one of His top generals and he will strike them in one moment of time. After this, the king of the Romans will come down and dwell in Jerusalem for a week and a half of years, and once the ten and a half years have passed, the Son of Perdition will appear.
14
This son will be begotten in Chorazin, raised in Bethsaida and rule in Capernaum. Chorazin will be overjoyed because he was born there, and Bethsaida because he was raised there, and Capernaum because he ruled there. Because of this, the Lord in the Gospels pronounced woe three times when he said: “Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida; and you, Capernaum, who have been exalted up to heaven, you will descend to Hades.”[lxx]
When the Son of Perdition appears, the king of the Romans will go up to Golgotha,[lxxi] where the wood of the cross was fixed, in which place Christ our God endured death.
The king of the Romans will raise his wreath and place it on the cross, and spread out his hands to heaven and give the kingdom of the Christians to God the Father.
The cross will be taken up to heaven together with the king’s wreath, for the cross, on which our Lord Jesus was hung for the sake of the common salvation of all, will appear before him in his coming as a refutation of the unfaithful.
There will be fulfilment of the prophecy of David that says regarding the last of days: “Ethiopia will stretch forth her hand to God,” because those from the seed of the sons of Chouseth the daughter of King Phol of the Ethiopians will finally stretch forth their hand to God.
So once the cross is raised into heaven, and the king of the Romans hands over his spirit, then every authority and power will be removed. At this time also the Son of Perdition openly appears- this son is of the tribe of Dan according to the prophecy of the patriarch Jacob that says: “Dan, a snake lying on the road, biting the horse’s hoof on the path, and the horsemen will fall backward, waiting for the Lord’s salvation.”[lxxii]
So the horse is the truth and piety of the just, while the heel is the last day, and these holy ones in that time on the horse- that is mounted upon the true faith- will be bitten by the snake (i.e. the Son of Perdition), on the heel, that is in the last day, because of his flashy appearances and deceptive signs.
For he will then make many signs and wonders on the Earth, feeble and fading. For blind people will see, lame people will walk, deaf people will hear and people afflicted with demons will be healed. He will turn the Sun into darkness, the Moon into blood, and in those deceptive and flashy wonders of error, he will cause the elect to go astray if possible, just as the Lord foretold.
For the patriarch Jacob, who gazed intently with the eye of consideration, saw beforehand the future affliction and difficulty that would come upon men because of the sinful snake (i.e. the Son of Perdition), and thus he foretold when he put these words in the mouth of the human race: “We await your salvation Lord.” So also the Lord foretold when he said: “If possible, to cause also the elect to go astray.”[lxxiii]
For this Son of Perdition will go into Jerusalem and sit in the temple of God, portraying himself as equal to God, when in fact he is a man of flesh from the sperm of man and from the woman’s womb and is of the tribe of Dan. [For Judas Iscariot who betrayed the Lord is also of the tribe of Dan].
So when the affliction of those days is multiplied by the Son of Perdition, the divine view will not bear the perdition of the race of men, whom He redeemed by the blood of His household, and so He will then immediately send His own genuine servantss Enoch and Elias to refute the adversary. So in the presence of all the peoples, they will refute his error and expose him as a liar that is against every man and worthless, pointing out that he came forth for the purpose of the perdition and error of the many.
So when the peoples see that he has been put to shame and that his error has been refuted by the servants of God, they will abandon him, recede from him and follow those just ones. So when he sees that he is clearly being refuted and despised by all, he will boiled with rage and anger, and thus he will destroy those holy ones.
Then the sign of the coming of the Son of Man will appear and he will arrive on the clouds of heaven with heavenly glory and “the Lord will destroy him with the breath of his mouth,” according to the apostolic revelation.[lxxiv]
Then the just will shine “like stars in the world, presenting the word of life,”[lxxv] while the impious will be chased out and turned away to Hades, from which let all of us who serve the living God be saved, by the grace and love of mankind from our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him, the Father and the Holy and Life-Giving Spirit be honour, glory, power, majesty and magnificence, now and always and forever and ever, Amen.
Notes
[i] Apparent gap in the original text supplied by these words that come from Genesis 4:1.
[ii] Also called Aclima. She is not mentioned in Genesis. Her name rather comes as an explanation for how Cain had a wife as noted in Genesis 4:17.
[iii] Cf. Genesis 4:8.
[iv] Cf. Genesis 5:4, which places Seth’s birth in the year 130 of Adam’s life. The same verse also says Seth was in Adam’s likeness, but does not say he was a giant.
[v] Cf. Genesis 5:5, which mentions that Adam lived for 930 years.
[vi] Adam’s great-great-great grandson (per Genesis 5).
[vii] Cain’s great-great-great grandson (per Genesis 4).
[viii] Cf. Semitic language words for eight like ‘thamaniya’ in Arabic.
[ix] i.e. Shinar in southern Mesopotamia.
[x] Cf. Genesis 11:1-9 for the Tower of Babel story.
[xi] i.e. Nimrod.
[xii] One of the sons of Noah, for whom the Semitic peoples are named.
[xiii] Another of the sons of Noah, for whom the Hamitic peoples are named.
[xiv] Another of the sons of Noah.
[xv] και οὐ προσεθηκαν ἐτι πολεμησαι ὑιοι Χαμ. In his rendering of the text, Garstad reads it as saying that the sons of Ham have not given up making war, but the meaning of προστιθημι with the infinitive is to continue doing something.
[xvi] Yathrib was the name for Medina prior to the Prophet Muhammad’s purported migration there in 622 CE.
[xvii] A ‘week’ here meaning a period of seven years. Hence 8.5x7= 59.5 (i.e. around 60 years).
[xviii] Umayya was the reputed ancestor of the Umayyads, the ruling Arab dynasty at the time the apocalypse was composed.
[xix] The land east of Eden, cf. Genesis 4:16.
[xx] The Black Sea.
[xxi] Sennacherib the Assyrian king.
[xxii] Referring to Mount Ararat in Armenia.
[xxiii] Belshazzar.
[xxiv] A figure mentioned in the Daniel 5:31 as having succeeded the Babylonian king Belshazzar.
[xxv] Cf. Daniel 7:2.
[xxvi] Alexander the Great.
[xxvii] This word only occurs in Pseudo-Methodius.
[xxviii] Cf. Ezekiel 38.
[xxix] The majority of these peoples cannot otherwise be identified, the main exception being the Alans, and one arguably being a reference to the Sarmatians. In effect, all these peoples are supposed to be dwelling north of the Caucasus.
[xxx] The Greek text reads παιδες, which literally means “children.” Alexander’s generals who succeeded him and fought for control of the empire he established were known as the Diadochi.
[xxxi] Cf. Psalm 67:32 (Douay-Rheims version).
[xxxii] An interpolation.
[xxxiii] Missing in the original text: “Because that day will not come.”
[xxxiv] 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8.
[xxxv] 1 Corinthians 15:24.
[xxxvi] Cf. Joshua 10:12-13.
[xxxvii] The Avars notably cooperated with the Sassanids in the assault on Constantinople in 626 CE, which was repelled by Emperor Heraclius.
[xxxviii] Daniel 11:15.
[xxxix] Probably corresponding to Gabata in the Mozarabic Chronicle and the Battle of Yarmouk in the Arabic sources, whereby the Muslim Arabs defeated the Byzantines. This event was seen as decisive in paving the way for the Muslim conquest of the Levant.
[xl] Ezekiel 39:17-18.
[xli] Cf. Genesis 16:12, with the rendering of a ‘wild ass’ being the result of the Syriac translation of the verse.
[xlii] Cf. Deuteronomy 9:4-6.
[xliii] Cf. Romans 1:26.
[xliv] Cf. Romans 1:26-27.
[xlv] The core Byzantine realm (probably Asia Minor).
[xlvi] Cf. Judges 6:5/7:12.
[xlvii] Normally, the jizya poll tax in Islam that is imposed on Christians as People of the Book is only levied on free, living adult males. These words suggest that it might also have been imposed in the author’s day on categories beyond them, including dead persons and widows who might have inherited or managed their property.
[xlviii] Interpolation.
[xlix] 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
[l] Romans 9:6.
[li] Romans 11:4.
[lii] Luke 18:8.
[liii] 1 Timothy 4:1-2.
[liv] 2 Timothy 3:1-5.
[lv] Cf. 2 Timothy 3:2, 1 Corinthian 5:10-11, Romans 1:31 etc.
[lvi] Matthew 5:11-12.
[lvii] Matthew 10:22.
[lviii] A region corresponding to southern Turkey and part of northern Syria.
[lix] A region corresponding to the interior of southwest Turkey.
[lx] A renowned ancient city in Asia Minor.
[lxi] A district in Bithynia. It does not appear in records until the late eighth century: i.e. nearly a century after the apocalypse was originally composed.
[lxii] Bithynia and Phrygia are regions of northwestern Turkey, while Pamphylia lies in the south.
[lxiii] Lit. “the cow”: referring to the cattle-market in Constantinople.
[lxiv] A hill of Constantinople.
[lxv] Deuteronomy 32:30.
[lxvi] This extended section is an interpolation and is indicated as such with square brackets.
[lxvii] Hebron.
[lxviii] 1 Thessalonians 5:3.
[lxix] Cf. Matthew 24:37-39.
[lxx] Cf. Matthew 11:20-24.
[lxxi] Aka Calvary.
[lxxii] Cf. Genesis 49:17-18.
[lxxiii] Cf. Matthew 24:24.
[lxxiv] 2 Thessalonians 2:8.
[lxxv] Cf. Matthew 13:43 and Philippians 2:15-16.