Guiding to a Blessed End: Andrew of Caesarea and His Apocalypse Commentary in the Ancient Church

Introduction

I N T R O D U C T I O N No patristic composition has exerted more influence over the canonical acceptance and continuous interpretation of any biblical book as Andrew of Caesarea’s commentary has of the Apocalypse of John for the Orthodox Church. Andrew’s commentary stands alone as the most important ancient commentary on the Book of Revelation produced by the Greek East. It became the standard patristic commentary in the Eastern Christian tradition, significantly influenced most subsequent Eastern commentaries, and decisively influenced the reception of the Book of Revelation into the canon of the Orthodox Church. Long after the biblical canon was fixed in the West, the Christian East wavered in its attitude toward the Apocalypse. Certain councils, bishops, and patriarchs might accept it, but in the main it remained rejected , viewed skeptically, even suspiciously. This seemingly odd treatment of one of the most extraordinary books in the Bible has roots in doubts regarding the apostolic authorship of Revelation. Raised during the fourth and fifth centuries by influential Eastern bishops, these doubts resulted in the book’s exclusion from the Orthodox lectionary and from the canon of scripture in the view of most Orthodox Christians for many centuries. While the invention of the printing press may have contributed in some degree toward the acceptance of the Apocalypse in the biblical canon, because of its appearance within printed Greek New Testaments , this uncertain canonical status continued well into the modern era. During the course of the intervening centuries, Revelation had slowly gained acceptance in the Orthodox world. Muslim conquests   Introduction and occupation of many traditionally Orthodox lands had renewed eastern interest in Revelation. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the experience of daily life under sometimes-hostile Islamic rulers, including persecution and martyrdom, advanced Eastern Christian interest in John’s apocalyptic vision. The eventual reception of Revelation into the Orthodox New Testament canon occurred in large measure due to the commentary penned by Andrew, a respected ancient bishop and thoughtful orthodox interpreter of the Scriptures, who occupied the celebrated see of Caesarea, Cappadocia. Composed against a backdrop of epic calamities, disease and famine , barbarian invasions, and wholesale destruction of cities, Andrew’s commentary provided the first patristic Eastern Christian insight to the most challenging and problematic book of the Bible. Even though his commentary was not the first in the Greek language (that honor must go to a philosophically trained writer, Oikoumenios), it can truly be said that Andrew wrote the first Greek patristic commentary since he alone stood squarely in the stream of Eastern Church tradition. He summarized virtually all of the Eastern ecclesiastical tradition of Apocalypse interpretation and expanded upon the interpretation in a manner which encapsulated a classic Eastern Christian approach to Revelation in every aspect: exegesis, theology, spirituality, patrology, liturgy, sacraments, and ecclesiology. The commentary so resonated with the faithful that it outshone the earlier commentary by Oikoumenios and found an enduring home within the Eastern Church tradition , not only for itself but for the Book of Revelation. Commentary on the Apocalypse exists in eighty-three complete Greek manuscripts, thirteen abbreviated versions and fifteen manuscripts with scholia from Andrew. It was published in Migne’s Patrologia graeca, vol. 106 (Paris 1863), 215–457, however, the first critical edition of the Apocalypse Commentary of Andrew of Caesarea was published in 1955 by Josef Schmid.1 Before the commentary ever appeared in print 1. Josef Schmid, Der Apokalypse-Kommentar des Andreas von Kaisareia, vol. 1 of Studien zur Geschichte des griechischen Apokalypse-Textes, 3 parts (München: Karl Zink Verlag, 1955–56). Introduction  in the Greek original text, Theodore Peltanus, a Jesuit scholar and professor at the University of Ingolstadt in the mid-sixteenth century, published his own free Latin translation in Ingolstadt in 1584 which is reprinted in the same Patrologia Graeca volume. Several additional Latin editions were also subsequently printed.2 I would like to thank Dr. Paul-Hubert Poirier for his encouragement and guidance during the research and writing of this book. I extend many thanks to CUA Press for deciding to publish a book on a subject not very well known but which deserves more attention. Special thanks go to my brother, George Scarvelis, who spent many hours reading the manuscript and suggesting stylistic improvements. I also thank Dr. John Fendrick of the University of San Diego, for his time, help, and especially his good humor, as...