Athanasius of Alexandria (ca. 296–373)

Bp. of Alexandria and Greek author.

Bp. of Alexandria and Greek author. He became bp. of Alexandria in 328, but spent much of his life in exile due to his vigorous opposition to Arianism. Many of his numerous writings (in Greek) were translated into Syriac, and some of these survive in several recensions. Most of Athanasius’s works in Syriac are only known from early Syr. Orth. or Melkite mss. (in some cases there have been some dogmatic alterations). Timotheos I , however, in his Letters knew of several works, and the Letter to Epictetus is quoted in both E.- and W.-Syr. dogmatic florilegia. The only work transmitted in a large number of mss. is the Life of Antony, which was later incorporated into ʿEnanishoʿ ’s ‘Paradise of the Fathers’. The following are the most important translations which have so far been edited:

1. ‘On the Incarnation’ (* CPG * 2091), ed. with ET, R. W. Thomson, Athanasiana Syriaca, vol. 1 (CSCO 257–8; 1965). This represents the short recension of the Greek text.

2. ‘Life of Antony’ (* CPG * 2101), ed. with FT, R. Draguet (CSCO 417–8; 1980); earlier editions by P. Bedjan in Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum, vol. 5, and E. A. W. Budge in Paradise of the Fathers (1904). Draguet’s view that the very free translation represents a lost earlier form of the Greek text is now discounted.

3. ‘Exposition of the Psalms’ (* CPG * 2140), ed. with ET, Thomson, Athanasiana Syriaca, vol. 4 (CSCO 386–7; 1977). There is both a full and an abbreviated form.

4. ‘On Virginity’ (* CPG * 2145), ed. with FT, J. Lebon in LM 40 (1927), 205–48; ET in Brakke 1995, 303–9. This is only known in Syriac and Armenian.

5. Homily on Matt. 12:32 (* CPG * 2096), ed. with ET, Thomson, Athanasiana Syriaca, vol. 2.

6. Letters:

a. Festal Letters (* CPG * 2102), ed. W. Cureton (1848); FT of the Syriac index in A. Martin and M. Albert, in SC 317 (1985). IT and study in A. Camplani, Atanasio di Alessandria, Lettere Festali; Anonimo, Indice delle Lettere Festale (2003). The Syriac translation is particularly important since most of the Greek originals is lost.

b. The following letters have been edited, with ET, by Thomson: in Athanasiana Syriaca, vol. 1: to Epictetus (* CPG * 2095); in Athanasiana Syriaca, vol. 2: to Adelphius (* CPG * 2098), (Serapion [* CPG * 2096]), the Africans (* CPG * 2133), the Antiochenes (* CPG * 2134), Maximus (* CPG * 2100); in Athanasiana Syriaca, vol. 3: to Jovian (* CPG * 2253). The Letter to Epictetus was also published by P. Bedjan, Nestorius, Le livre d’Héraclide (1910), 577–96.

c. To the Virgins (* CPG * 2146), ed. with FT, J. Lebon, in LM 41 (1928), 169–216. This is only found in Syriac. Unpublished Syriac translations include Against the Arians (* CPG * 2093), in ms. Damascus Patr. 12/24 (beginning and end lost; see S. P. Brock, in LM 86 [1973], 437–42).

A number of writings claiming to be by Athanasius were put out under his name by Apollinarians; some of these were translated into Syriac and have been published: On the Incarnation of God the Word (* CPG * 3365), ed. with ET, Thomson, Athanasiana Syriaca, vol. 3; That Christ is one (* CPG * 3737), ed. with ET, Thomson, Athanasiana Syriaca, vol. 3. (These were also edited earlier by J. Flemming and H. Lietzmann, 1904).

Other texts wrongly ascribed in Syriac to Athanasius are:

1. ‘On the Cross and the Passion’ (* CPG * 2247), ed. with ET, Thomson, Athanasiana Syriaca, vol. 3.

2. ‘Against Apollinarius I’ (* CPG * 2231), ed. with ET, Thomson, Athanasiana Syriaca, vol. 3. Three recensions are known.

3. ‘On the Incarnation against the Arians’ (* CPG * 2806), ed. with ET, Thomson, Athanasiana Syriaca, vol. 3. This is now attributed to Marcellus of Ancyra.

4. Another treatise on Virginity, ed. with ET, D. Brakke (CSCO 592–3; 2002).

5. A baptismal address, ed. with ET, S. P. Brock in OC 61 (1977), 92–102.

6. An Anaphora, ed. A. Baumstark, in OC 2 (1902), 90–129.

There is a Syriac biography of Athanasius compiled from Theodoret and other Greek sources (edition by M. Hollerich in preparation); this was a source for Barḥadbshabba ’s notice on Athanasius in his Ecclesiastical History.