st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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jg5 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
Golden Legend. The question
of its
genuineness l
would be too long and difficult to enter upon here.
It may suffice to say that, on the one hand, the
frequent citations from Gregory of Nazianzus and
other confessedly favourite authorities, as well as the
occurrence of passages verbally coinciding with parts
of the Orthodoxa no less than the Fide," prolix
discussions on the personality
of God and the worship
of the Holy Images, offer a strong presumption in
favour of John of Damascus as the author. On the
other hand, the statement (p. 1028) as to the proces
sion of the Holy Ghost from
the Son as well as from
the Father, would be at variance with the acknow
ledged teaching of a writer of the Eastern Church.
It might no doubt be easily maintained that the
words are an interpolation and
; perhaps more con
vincing reasons, to some minds, would be drawn
from the general style of the work. From the title
of it no certain conclusion can be derived, owing to
the varying forms under which it appears.
In one
manuscript 2 it is
given as A profitable history of
Barlaam and Josaphat,
from the interior region of
Ethiopia, composed by our holy father and poet,
1
When Boissonade published
the Greek text for the first
"
time in vol. iv. of his Anecdota Graeca" (Paris, 1832), he
tantalized the reader by saying that he had meant to discuss this
question fully, as also that of the occurrence of Syriac names in
a story of which the scene is India or Ethiopia but postponed
;
his plan in deference to an expected edition by Schmidt and
I Kopitar cannot learn that this latter has ever appeared.
Quoted by Leo Allatius in his "Prolegomena" (Migne s
ed., vol. i., p. 155).
Leo Allatius concludes, on the whole, in
favour both of the genuineness
and authenticity of the work.