08 — Sources and Legacy
The material history of the Corpus and the theological judgment that history invites. One file traces the transmission: the Greek manuscript tradition with its accompanying scholia, the writings’ first appearance at the 533 Constantinople colloquy, and the early Syriac and Latin versions that carried the Corpus across the languages of Christendom. The other draws the assessment: that the enduring authority of the Corpus rests on its theological truth and its reception by the Church, and so does not depend on the pseudonymous name it bears.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (the Corpus Areopagiticum)
The Corpus has come down to us through a rich and well-studied transmission — Greek manuscripts hedged with the scholia of John of Scythopolis and Maximus, an early Syriac version made by Sergius of Reshaina, the Latin versions of Hilduin, Eriugena, and Grosseteste, and the printed and critical editions that culminate in the modern Corpus Dionysiacum. That material record is itself part of the evidence about the writings’ date and reception. This section sets out the transmission and then turns to the theological assessment it grounds: how an unquestionably pseudonymous work has held, and continues to hold, genuine authority in the Church.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Transmission and the Greek Text | The manuscript tradition and the scholia; the first datable appearance at the 533 Constantinople colloquy and Hypatius’s challenge; the early Syriac version of Sergius of Reshaina and the Latin versions; the modern critical edition. |
| The Theological Assessment | The enduring authority of the Corpus despite the pseudonymity: why its standing rests on its truth and its churchly reception rather than its attribution, and how an Orthodox reader weighs the writings’ value against the borrowed name. |
See Also
- The Pseudo-Dionysius Problem — the dating evidence the transmission supports
- The Orthodox Handling — the reception that grounds the assessment
- Maximus and the Scholia — the scholia carried in the manuscripts
- The Church Fathers — the patristic tradition that received and transmitted the Corpus
References
- Rorem, Paul. Pseudo-Dionysius: A Commentary. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
- Rorem, Paul, and John C. Lamoreaux. John of Scythopolis and the Dionysian Corpus. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.
- Louth, Andrew. Denys the Areopagite. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1989.