Book Description

In 563 AD, a Syrian scholar named John Malálas composed a history of the world subsequently called the Chronographia. The Chronographia was written in Greek, however, John was drawing from both Greek and Syriac sources and created one of the longer historical works of the era. His Chronographia was later translated into several ancient languages, and fragments survive in Georgian and Old Slavonic. It was eighteen volumes long, however, is of limited historical value, as it combines ancient mythologies, biblical stories, and events copied from older historical texts into a fantastical history of the world. Some of the earlier historians that John drew on are accepted as the Greek writers Eusebius of Caesarea and Eustathius of Epiphania, however, his Syriac sources are undocumented. John’s work is unusual for the era as he was focused on creating a work for monks and commoners, not the aristocrats. This is likely why it was carried to as many lands as it was and used as a source by later authors. One of the major works to use it as a source from it is the Primary Chronicle, one of the earliest Eastern Slavic works, believed to have been compiled near Kyiv in the 1110s. John’s literary style was simple, reflecting the straightforward communication of the written language of everyday business of the era. The majority of the Chronographia focused on the history of Antioch and then Constantinople, which is believed to have reflected John’s move from Antioch to Constantinople in 540, caused by the Persians attacking Antioch. Based on his diction, he is believed to have been a lawyer, however, some have theorized he was a religious scholar. A very small section of his work mentions the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt, which has garnered the attention of academics studying the era. His text is clearly influenced by the Syriac tradition here and ignores the Greek entirely for some reason. He referred to the seven martyrs Antiochus Epiphanes killed as the Maccabees, the same as the Syriac poem Martha Shamoni and the Maccabean Martyrs, which Western biblical scholars have dubbed 6ᵗʰ Maccabees. None of the Greek, Hebrew, or Arabic translations refer to the martyrs as the Maccabees.