The Question of the incorruptibility of Christ’s Body in the “Chronicle” of John of Nikiu

Abstract

The article is devoted to a fragment from the “Chronicle” of the Coptic hierarch John of Nikiu, dedicated to the Aphthartodocetic disputes. The convinced Monophysite John of Nikiu is characterized by sympathy for Aphthartodocetism, since his vision of the “right faith” corresponds to the views of Julian of Halicarnassus — the idea of the original incorruptibility of Christ’s Body and the suffering of Christ as a volitional process. From the corresponding text of his Chronicle, an attempt is visible to attribute Julian’s radical views to the moderate Monophysite Severus of Antioch, who was very hostile to Aphthartodocetism and actively polemicized with Julian of Halicarnassus. John of Nikiu falsifies the views of the Orthodox hierarchs, Saints John III Scholasticus and Eutychius of Constantinople, towards the Monophysite doctrine, which is presented with a great bias towards Aphthartodocetism. The “Chronicle” also distorts the views of the Holy Emperor Justinian, to whom the Pro-Nestorian views are attributed. Such distortions can be explained in the context of the information war against Orthodoxy, when Monophysite, in particular Aphthartodocetic, views were attributed to Orthodox authors in order to increase the authority of Monophysitism. On the other hand, imposing heretical (Nestorian) views on Orthodox writers could lead to their being discredited. It was all the easier for John of Nikiu to carry out such manipulations, since there were no Orthodox theologians in Egypt at the end of the seventh century, nor even the Orthodox see of Alexandria, which was temporarily destroyed as a result of the Arab conquest.