Phil Booth: The "Earliest" Life of the Virgin Attributed to Maximus the Confessor: Questions and Doubts

In a string of recent publications, including a new English translation of the text, Stephen Shoemaker (following Michel van Esbroeck) has argued in favour of the attribution of a tenth-century Georgian Life of the Virgin to Maximus the Confessor, and moreover put forward various arguments which would date the original Greek text on which the Georgian depends to Maximus's lifetime. This paper argues, first, that Maximus cannot be the author of the original Life and, second, that it cannot date to the seventh century.