Julian Petkov - “The Apocalypse of St John Chrysostom”: Techniques of Camouflage in Apocryphal Literature

How does an apocryphal text promote itself to its intended audience? A well-tested rhetorical device to do so is to refer to a renowned authority or even to use the disguise of a famous author of ancient days – a phenomenon commonly described as pseudepigraphy. In the special case of Byzantine apocalypses, however, not only prophets and seers from the Old or the New Testament got posthumously involved in the production of eschatological treatises. Well known fathers of the church like John Chrysostom were repeatedly claimed to vouch for the message of an apocalyptic writing thus significantly contributing to its diffusion.

Some attributions even succeeded in vastly increasing the popularity of a notional patron as occurred with the Revelation of Methodius of Pathara, which became one of the most influential medieval apocalypses. Peaces of eschatological relevance were moreover inserted in the Vitae of popular saints like Basil the New. Now and then a sensational novel about a fictional saint like Andreas Salos remarkably popularized the incorporated apocalyptic material.

It will be worthwhile then to shed some light on how patristic pseudepigraphy was used to render apocryphal texts of the eschatological type more appealing and less suspicious - with the side effect of not only promoting apocalypses but also posthumously augmenting the authority of already distinguished fathers of church.