The Epistles III-IV of the Corpus Dionysiacum and Their Christological Reception in Greek, Syriac, and Latin Traditions

Within the Corpus Dionysiacum, Epistles III-IV are those most directly devoted to Christology. In this contribution, we will examine their reception in the Greek, Syriac and Latin contexts. After the oldest quotation from Ep. IV in Severus of Antioch, we will consider the early Scholia by John of Scythopolis (first half of the 6th century), first translated into Syriac by Phocas bar Sergius (between the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 8th century) and then into Latin by Anastasius Bibliothecarius (9th century), with the additions by Maximus the Confessor and later by further scholiasts. We will thus consider the theological interests at stake in the various stages of reception: on the one hand, the particularities of the commentaries of the scholiasts, and on the other, the omissions, changes and additions that translators made to previous commentaries. Our focus will be primarily Christological, with particular attention to the disputed expression θεανδρικὴ ἐνέργεια, which is debated in the Monoenergetic-Monotheletic controversy.