Time Immemorial: Archaic History and Its Sources in Christian Chronography from Julius Africanus to George Syncellus 9780884021766, 0884021769

Citation preview

TIME IMMEMORIAL ARCHAICHISTORYAND ITSSOURCES IN CHRlSTIA_N CHRONOGRAPHY

FROMIULIUSAFRICANUSTO GEORGESYNCELLUS

William Adler

DUMBARTO OAKS STUDIEST\VENrr"Y-S]X

© 1989 DUMBARTON OAKS TRUSTEES FOR HARVARD UNIVERSITY WASHINGTON, D.C.

Contents

Acknowledgments

vu

Introduction Scope and Method of the Present Study Citations from Earlier Sources in Syncellus' Antediluvian Chronology

9

I Primordial History in Christian Chronography up to Eusebius

15

'O M11Aoi;xQ6voi;: Archaic Chronology and Its Conventions in Greek Historiography Christian Chronography: Its Adaptation and Critique of the Classical Tradition Babylonian and Egyptian Antiquities The Christianization of the Oriental Chronicle

Il

Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data Adler, William, 1951T une immemorial : archaic history and its sources in Christian chronography from Julius Africanus to George Syncel!us/ William Adler. p. cm. - (Dumbarton Oaks studies; 26) Bibliography: p. 239 Includes index. ISBN o-8402-176-9 1. Chronology, Ecclesiastical. 2. Time-Religious aspects-Christianity. 3. History (Theology)-History of doctrines-Early church, ea. 30-600. 4. History, Ancient-Chronology. I. Title. II. Series. Cfa5.A35 1989 907' .2---dc19 88-13942

Africanus, Eusebius, and the Problem of Primordial History Christian Chronography and the Era ah originemundi Eusebius' Chronicle and the Antediluvian Narrative of Genesis Babylonian and Egyptian Antiquities and "Cosmic" History The Greco-Egyptian Chronicle in Late Antiquity Religious Syncretism in the Bookof Sothis The Oriental Chronicle and Pagan/Christian Polemic

III Panodorus as a Critic of Eusebius Eusebius' Chronicle and Its Legacy Greco-Roman Theories on the Primitive Reckoning of Time Panodorus on the Egyptian and Chaldean "Short Year" The Jewish Pseudepigrapha in Alexandrian Chronography Panodorus as a Product of Alexandrian Christianity Panodorus and His Successors

8

15 18

20

43 43 46 50 55 60 65

72 72 75 78 80 97 IOI

v1 IV

Contents Civilization before the Flood: Euhemeristic Historiography in Alexandrian Chronography The Origins of Civilization in Hellenistic Historiography Jewish and Christian Exegesis of Genesis 6 The "Sons of God" and the Primordial Kings of Babylonia IO.Cµma in the Antediluvian Cosmography of Annianus Euhemeristic Interpretations of Genesis 6 after Annianus

V

Syncellus and His Critics

Text and Redaction in Byzantine Chronography Gelzer's Reconstruction of the Textual History of Syncellus' Sources Syncellus' Indirect Knowledge of His Alexandrian Authorities Text and Redaction in Syncellus' Sources for Primordial History Jewish Pseudepigrapha in the "Logothete" Chronographers Secondary Collections of Pseudepigrapha: George Cedrenus and George the Monk

Conclusion Abbreviations Bibliography Index

l07

113 117 122 125

Acknowledgments

George Syncellus and His Predecessors Syncellus' Critique of His Alexandrian Predecessors Syncellus' Adaptation of Borrowed Sources

VI

106

132 138 145

159 160 165 172 193

206

232 235 239 253

It is my pleasant duty to acknowledge the several people and institutions who assisted me during the preparation of this book. Professor Robert Kraft of the University of Pennsylvania directed the doctoral dissertation that forms the basis of most of the material in the present volume. Professor Michael Stone suggested the _topi~and invited me to speak to his graduate seminar at the Hebrew Umvers1ty of Jerusalem on various aspects of Christian chronography. Professors Otto Neugebauer and O. A. W Dilke were kind enough to answer my inquiries on technical aspects of ancient chronography and geography. Professors Louis Feldman, Anthony Grafton, Sebastian Brock, and my colleagues Bruce Mullin and James VanderKam read the manuscript at various stages in its development and offered many helpful improvements in style and content. Professor David Auerbach and Nancy Overbeek assisted at the final stages of the preparation of the manuscript. I wish to thank North Carolina State University for its financial and material support. Professor Robert Bryan, head of the Department of Philosophy and Religion, granted me a reduced teaching load in the fall semester of 1986 in order to finish the writing and research of this book. The Interlibrary Loan Department at D. H. Hill Library was always prompt in tracking down obscure books and articles. I also owe acknowledgments to the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Committee for approving a subvention for the publication of the book. It is my pleasure finally to express my gratitude to the staff of Dumbarton Oaks, especially Professor Robert Thomson, Director, and Frances Kianka, Manuscript Editor. I am also grateful to the anonymous readers of the manuscript and to Christopher Dadian who did an extraordinary job in copyediting it. I dedicate the book to the. memory of my father. Raleigh, North Carolina

Introduction

Measured by the rigorous standards of accuracy that Thucydides applied to the written monuments of former generations, the Christian universal chronicle would fall far short of the mark. After experimenting with primordial history, Greek chronographers had concluded, not without reason, that their own sources for this period were either incredible or inadequate. But their Christian counterparts were as likely as not either to dismiss these concerns as simple narrow-mindedness or to exploit this caution for their own purposes; if the Greeks could not know the past with certainty, it was, they said, only because the Greeks themselves were once notoriously negligent archivists, forcing their posterity to make do with erratic and contradictory records. 1 Christian chronographers, on the other hand, far more optimistic even about the remotest segment of world history, rarely succumbed to such doubt. Even Eusebius, with whom we associate the most candor in acknowledging the ambiguities of primordial chronology, never goes so far as to consign it to the realm of the "mythical" or "unknowable." Nor is he prepared to attach much of the blame to Moses. Granted, he acknowledges in the introduction to the Canons,there are obstacles to devising an absolute chronology of events from Adam; but this is principally because the records of the Greeks and barbarians for this period were so spotty.2 1

Among the many works written on the Greek treannent of primordial history, see the excellent discussion by Arnaldo Momigliano, "Time in Ancient Historiography," Historyand Theory~Be~eft 6 (Middletown, 1966), 14-22; idem, "Historiography on Written Tradition and Htstonography on Oral Tradition," Studiesin Histori-Ography (London, 1966), m-20. 2 See Jerome's Latin translation of Eusebius' introduction in Die Chronik desHieronymus n-12F, ed. R. Helm, 2nd ed., GCS 47, EusebiusWerke7.1-2 (Berlin, 1956) (hereafter Canons). There he states as one of his reasons for beginning his Canons from Abraham the fact that f~r th~ preceding period "nee Graeea nee barbara et, ut loquar in commune, gentilis invenitur histona." In the first part of his Chjonicle, Eusebius does, however, acknowledge the existence of variations in different versions of Genesis. For Eusebius' treaanent of the chrono-

2

Introduction

Introduction

From its very inception, Christian chronographers canvassed a much larger field of human history than their Greek counterparts. Whatever scepticism they might have inherited from the Greeks about the accessibility of the remote past was quickly overruled by the grandiose expectations that they brought to the discipline. One of the reasons why Greek historians felt uncomfortable about venturing into the primordial past was simply because, in the words of Momigliano, it left so many "empty periods."3 Such gaps would have been far less daunting to the Christian chronographers. They were, after all, guided, at least initially, by a different 1:tA.oc;,and one for which the simple ordering of events would have proved sufficient.4 For example, behind the plan of Julius Africanus (ea. 160-aCwvxai auwu i:ou xa-raxA.uoµou, xai ri:eQi-rou Nooe xai Tfi£ xtl3wi:ou, tv ol£ xa( -rtva c>Laµeoou T£QaTOOc>lJ cpdoxet, W£-rcj:J BriQoooocµyeyQaµµeva)." The same excerpt is found in the Armenian translation of Eusebius' Chronica6.1411.34. 17. Abydenus: 39.1-27 ('Ex -rmv 'Al3uc>evou), "On the kingdom of the Chaldeans (IleQi Tfi£ -rmv XaAc>a(wv BamAe(a£)" = Eusebius,

Chronica15.27-16.29. 18. (Ps-)Apollodorus: 40.5-25, on Berossus' succession of Chaldean kings before the flood (cf. Eusebius' Chronica4.18 ff.).

(a) 18.21-19.17 (Mave-Om o ~el3evvu-rri£ UQXL£Q£U£), "Concerning the ancient history of the Egyptians (IleQ( Tfi£ -rmv Alyuri:-r(wv aQxmoA.oy(a£):' a table of primordial Egyptian kings from Hephaestus to Zeus. This list is not attested outside of Syncellus, possibly belonging to (ps-)Manetho's Book of Sothis; (b) 41.u-19: "Letter of Manetho of Sebennytus to Ptolemy Philadelphus ('EmITTOAT) Mave-Om -rou ~el3ewui:ou 11:Q0(.; Il-roA.eµa[ov -rov LA.cic>eA.cpov)." According to Syncellus (41.7-9), this letter, addressed to Ptolemy II Philadelphus, introduced the BookofSothis (tv -rfi l3C/3Acµ Tfi£ ~oo-Oew£). 19. Manetho:

20. Panodorus: Although Panodorus is named in several other places (35.7; 35.31), there is only one passage that is unambiguously attributed to him (o Ilav6c>WQO£... A.eywv; 41.30-42.20); the passage is an extract

from Panodorus' interpretation of (ps-)Manetho's (i.e., the Bookof Sothis) primordial history. In other places in which Syncellus might be quoting Panodorus, Syncellus uses only