Revising the Date of the Armenian Lectionary of Jerusalem
This article challenges the current consensus dating of the Armenian Lectionary (AL), the earliest record of the feasts and liturgical readings of the church of Jerusalem. For over fifty years, most studies have followed Athanase Renoux in assigning the Greek Vorlagen of AL to the early fifth centur...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
[2021]
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| In: |
Journal of early Christian studies
Year: 2021, Volume: 29, Issue: 1, Pages: 61-92 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Renoux, Charles 1925-
/ Armenisches Lektionar
/ Dating
/ Church
/ History 439-479
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| IxTheo Classification: | KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history KBL Near East and North Africa RC Liturgy |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article challenges the current consensus dating of the Armenian Lectionary (AL), the earliest record of the feasts and liturgical readings of the church of Jerusalem. For over fifty years, most studies have followed Athanase Renoux in assigning the Greek Vorlagen of AL to the early fifth century c.e., or more precisely, to the years intervening between 417 and 439. This paper highlights severe problems in Renoux's arguments, however, and produces new evidence supporting a later dating. It concludes that AL reflects the city's ritual practices in the years following (a) the dedication of Eudocia's Church of St. Stephen (439), (b) the collapse of the bishop Juvenal's efforts to integrate the 25 December Christmas feast into the local calendar (after 439), and (c) the construction of Ikelia's Church of Mary Theotokos (Kathisma) near Bethlehem (c. 456). In turn, through a close comparison of AL's readings for the 15 August feast "of Mary Theotokos" with homilies by two local preachers—Hesychius and Chrysippus—the paper concludes that the Greek Vorlagen of AL can date no later than 479. In this analysis, AL represents the ritual practices of the Jerusalem church at the beginning of its patriarchal period—that is, after the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, or roughly during the episcopacy of Anastasius I (458-478). |
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| ISSN: | 1086-3184 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of early Christian studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/earl.2021.0002 |