Martyrdom of Habib the Deacon

The Martyrdom of Habib the Deacon is a Syriac Christian martyrdom text. The setting of the text takes place at Edessa in which biblical scholars have deduced the occurrence of the martyrdom to the Diocletianic Persecution.[1]

History of publication

Habib's martyrdom account was first only known in an abridged version written by Symeon the Metaphrast.[2] It was not until 1864 that the manuscript (Add 14645, folios 238b–245a)[3] of the Martyrdom of Habib was edited by Dr. Wright, and translated to English by William Cureton in his Ancient Syriac Documents (London, 1864).[2] The manuscript is written in Syriac and dated to 936 AD.[3] Later, Francis Crawford Burkitt would also publish an English translation in his Euphemia and the Goth with the Acts of Martyrdom of the Confessors of Edessa (London, 1913).[4] Richard Valantasis published an English translation in his Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice (New Jersey, 2000) by incorporating Francis C. Burkitt's translation together with Ernst von Dobschütz's enumeration.[5]

Narrative overview

The text begins with the reign of Roman emperor Licinius who had commenced repairs of altars of pagan deities everywhere and the worshiping of Jupiter.[2]

At the time, Habib who was from Telzeha, encouraged Christians in different villages not to worship those deities. His actions were soon reported to Licinius who ordered a search and execution of Habib. Habib's friends and family were arrested in Telzeha. After, Habib went to Edessa from the village Zeugma to surrender himself to Theotecnus, the caretaker to the governors home. Theotecnus encouraged him to leave in fear of his life, but Habib refused because he wanted to preserve his salvation. He was then taken to the governor for an extensive discussion, then after, he was imprisoned, tortured, and put to death by being set ablaze.[2]

Much of the populace was emotionally distressed about his death. Both pagans and Jews sympathized with him after his death, so they covered his body after.[6]

Connection with other Syriac texts

The Martyrdom of Habib along with the Acts of Shmona and of Gurya are claimed to be authored by a Theophilus who also claims to have witnessed the martyrdoms.[7] Scholars compare both texts with the spurious 5th century AD texts Acts of Sharbel and the Martyrdom of Barsamya in order to determine the reliability of the texts.[1]

In the Doctrine of Addai, a list unique to the text concerning the names of Addai's first Christian converts are also mentioned in the Acts of Sharbel and the Martyrdom of Barsamya. According to Harold Attridge, Addai's first Christian converts mentioned in the Acts of Sharbel and the Martyrdom of Barsamya were implemented with literary concepts from the Martyrdom of Habib and the Acts of Shmona and of Gurya. Because of this, Attridge concludes the authors of the Acts of Sharbel and the Martyrdom of Barsamya were most likely pagans trying integrate their ancestral paganistic ideology into the Christian community through the use of the literary concepts from the Martyrdom of Habib and Acts of Shmona and of Gurya.[8]

Evidence of Habib's martyrdom

The reliability of the text is not universally accepted;[6][3] however, biblical scholars acknowledge the occurrence of Habib's martyrdom.[9] Ephrem the Syrian mentions Habib in his Carmina Nisibena,[10] and relics of Habib were found in Edessa.[11] His name is also written in the Menologion of Basil II[2], and on a martyrdom calendar manuscript dated to the fourth century AD which list names of martyrs from Edessa.[10]

Citations

Sources

  • Attridge, Harold W.; Hata, Gōhei (1992). Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 9780814323618.
  • Efthymiadis, Stephanos (2016). The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-04396-6.
  • Heal, Kristian S.; Kitchen, Robert A. (2013). Breaking the Mind. CUA Press. ISBN 9780813221663.
  • Millar, Fergus (1993). The Roman Near East, 31 B.C.-A.D. 337. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674778863.
  • Saint-Laurent, Jeanne-Nicole Mellon (2015). Missionary Stories and the Formation of the Syriac Churches. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520284968.
  • Valantasis, Richard (2000). Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691057514.
  • Wace, Henry (1911). Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature. Delmarva Publications, Inc.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.