Byard Bennett, “John the Grammarian’s First and Second Homilies against the Manichaeans: An Early Sixth-Century Christian Neoplatonist on the Problem of Evil”

The first half of the sixth century A.D. witnessed a remarkable resurgence of interest in Manichaeism on the part of Greek theological writers. This interest was initially stimulated by controversies associated with the rise of Monophysitism. Discussion of Manichaean teaching on the two principles (Light and Darkness) and the formation of the present world also allowed Greek anti-Manichaean writers to draw upon and contribute to discussions of certain disputed issues within later Neoplatonism.

This paper will analyze two homilies against the Manichaeans which are attributed to John the Grammarian in ms. Vatopedinus 236 and were included by Marcel Richard in his edition of the works of John of Caesarea. An analysis of these texts supports both an early sixth-century date of composition and Richard’s attribution of these works to the neo-Chalcedonian theologian John the Grammarian, whose views were opposed by Severus of Antioch in Contra impium grammaticum. It can be seen that these texts are not “homilies” in the conventional sense, but rather lectures given by a Christian teacher of Neoplatonic philosophy to Christian students, discussing and attempting to resolve certain aporiae (quandaries) raised by Manichaean teaching on good/light and evil/darkness. John’s homilies can be seen to be dependent upon Basil of Caesarea’s second homily on the Hexaemeron, Theodoret’s Haereticarum fabularum compendium, and Titus of Bostra’s Contra Manichaeos The homilies of John the Grammarian nonetheless transcend their patristic sources by the shrewd use John makes of Proclus’ teaching on matter and the nature of evil.