Basil Lourié - The Eleutherius Recension of the Twelve Firdays: A Syriac Anti-Jewish Apocalyptic Work Preserved Only in Slavonic

The “Twelve Fridays” texts are known in all Chalcedonian Christian traditions; they enumerate the 12 Fridays which must be especially venerated by strict fasting and prayers. Only in Slavonic, however, there is so-called Eleutherius recension which contains a relatively long legend introducing the text on the 12 Fridays. The latter contains, in this recension only, some explicit references to the Arab invasion and a prophecy about its duration similar to that in Pseudo-Methodius. I argue that the original language is Syriac (although it is unclear whether the Slavonic translation is made from Greek or from Syriac directly), the date is nearly the same as that of Pseudo-Methodius (the late seventh cent.), and the story of Eleutherius and his dispute with the Jew Tarasius is composed in the vein of the sixth-century Syriac hagiography related to the conversion of the Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula, especially in Nagran.

An English translation of the story of Eleutherius from Slavonic is provided.