Vitaly Permiakov: Temple, Cross, and Jerusalem: The Old Georgian Homily on the Dedication of the Holy Anastasis, Attributed to John of Damascus

Out of the corpus of homilies attributed to the Byzantine poet and theologian John of Damascus (d. c. 754), only ten homilies are recognized as authentic in the critical edition of his works (Kotter, Die Schriften des Johannes von Damaskos, vol. 5). The homily “On the Dedication of the Resurrection of Christ our God in Jerusalem and on the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-giving Cross” (CPG 8095), extant only in Old Georgian (ed. N. Goguadze, Dzveli metaprasuli krebulebi [Tbilisi: Mecniereba, 1986] 197-220), is attributed to John of Damascus in the manuscripts, but is not usually included in the discussion of his authentic homiletic works. Michel van Esbroeck published the French translation of this homily in 1997 (OCP 63 [1997]: 53-98) and placed its composition in 690-692 CE – however, after this publication, van Esbroeck’s acceptance of the manuscript attribution and his dating of the homily has been neither confirmed nor contested in recent scholarship. Based on the close reading of the Georgian text, this paper revisits the question of attribution and dating of this homily, and places it in the liturgical context of the annual commemoration of the Dedication of the Holy Sepulchre on September 13, one of the major feast days in the 5th-8th century Jerusalem liturgical calendar. Likewise, this paper examines the major themes of this homily in connection with other known homilies on the feast of Dedication, including those by the bishops of Jerusalem John II (d. 417) and Sophronius (d. 638).