Decapitation of John the Forerunner

Passio de Iohanne Baptista

Standard abbreviation: Decap. Bapt.

Other titles: none

Clavis numbers: ECCA 400; CANT 180.2

Category: Hagiographa

Related literature: Birth of John the Forerunner, Life and Conduct of John the Baptist, Life of John the Baptist by Serapion, Life and Martyrdom of John the Baptist, Martyrdom of Zechariah, Protevangelium of James.

Compiled by Tony Burke, York University

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Decapitation of John the Forerunner.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/decapitation-of-john-the-forerunner-by-his-disciple-eurippus/.

Originally posted April 2017. Current as of January 2024.

1. SUMMARY

The Decapitation of John, the Forerunner, attributed to his disciple Eurippus, is extant in two Greek recensions and in Slavonic. The story repeats the martyrdom of John’s father Zacharias as  reported in Prot. Jas. 23–24: Herod’s soldiers, in search of infants for the Slaughter of the Innocents, kill Zechariah, but Elizabeth and John escape and hide in a mountain. When Herod dies, Elizabeth and John return home (teleported from the mountain by an unnamed angel). At the age of 30 John begins his baptism career and here draws upon the Synoptic accounts of his appearance at the Jordan and subsequent arrest and imprisonment. Additions to the story are found in Herod’s interrogation and scourging of John. Then the action moves to the birthday party as found in Mark and Matthew (Mark 6:19–29//Matt 14:5–12). After John’s death, an angel comes to Elizabeth and instructs her to collect John’s body and take it and bury it with the body of Zechariah (which mysteriously vanished after his murder). Both of them are buried beneath the altar in the temple. Then we learn the fate of the Herods, who all meet suitable ends for their roles in John’s death. The text closes with an attribution to a certain Eurippus who calls himself “the second of John’s disciples according to strictness” and says he wrote his account to encourage his fellow Christians to observe a festival commemorating John’s death August 29, which today remains the date for the commemoration of the beheading of John in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox calendars.

Named historical figures and characters: Archelaus, Augustus (emperor), Elizabeth, Eurippus, Herod (the Great), Herod Antipas, John (the Baptist), Jesus Christ, Michael (angel), Philip (tetrach), Polia (=Herodias), Salome (daughter of Herodias), Zechariah (priest).

Geographical locations: Bethlehem, Judea.

2. RESOURCES

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Manuscripts and Editions

3.1.1 Greek (BHG 832, 833deg)

Recension A

A  Montecassino, Archivio di Montecassino, 431 (formerly 277; 413), fol. 58v–60r (11th cent.) ~ Pinakes

B Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, D 92 sup. (Martini-Bassi 259), fols. 134v–135v (10th/11th cent.) ~ Pinakes

C Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 2072, fols. 182v–184v (11th cent.)

D Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 1989, fol. 232r–234r (12th cent.)

E Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 1192, fol. 65v–68r (15th cent.)

J Oxford, Bodleian Library, Holkham gr. 43, fols. 270v–273v (14th cent.) ~ Pinakes; Bodleian

K Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canon. gr. 19, fol. 186v–190r (15/16th cent.; =BHG 833e) ~ Pinakes; Bodleian

Zavorda, Monê tou hagiou Nikaneros, 66, fols. 35v–37r (14th cent.) ~ Pinakes

Vasiliev, Athanasius, ed. Anecdota graeco-byzantina, pars prior. Moscow: Imperial University, 1893 (editio princeps of A, pp. 1–4).

Recension B

P Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, gr. 683, fol. 200r–201r (9/10th cent; =BHG 833d)

Q Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, gr. 770, fols. 264r–268r (dated 1315; =BHG 833g)

Allatius, Leo. De Symeonum scriptis diatriba . . . Originum rerumque Constantinopolitanarum manipulus, variis actoribus. Paris: Piget 1664 (title and explicit given of an unnamed manuscript, p. 92).

Berendts, Alexander. Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Zacharias- und Johannes-Apokryphen. TU, N. F. 11/3. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1904 (description of the text, pp. 12–13).

Nau, François. “Histoire de saint Jean Baptiste attribuée à saint Marc l’Évangéliste.” PO 4 (1908): 521–41 (description of the text pp. 523–24).

3.1.2 Church Slavic

Berendts (1904) and de Santos Otero (1978) list the following:

Moscow, Russian State Library, Museum Coll. 435, fols. 229r–234r (15th cent.)

Moscow, Russian State Library, Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery, 231 (656), fols. 98v–104r (15th/16th cent.)

Moscow, Russian State Library, Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, 681 (410), fols. 777r–781r (1627)

Moscow, Russian State Library, Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, 680 (409), fols. 374r–380r (16th cent.)

Moscow, State Historical Museum, Dormition Cathedral 795 (997), fol. 1138r–1140r (16th cent.)

Moscow, State Historical Museum, A. S. Uvarov 1883 (147), fol. 51v–56r (17th cent.)

Moscow, Russian State Library, V. M. Undolǐskij 590 fol. 17v–21r (16th cent.) ~ de Santos Otero identifies this manuscript as Mart. Zech.

Berendts (1904) lists also:

Moscow, Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Great Mineja for August, 96 (17th cent.)

Kholmogory, Cathedral of the Transfiguration, Cod. 41 (16th cent.)

Moscow, Russian State Library, V. M. Undolǐskij 232 fol. 120r–122v (15th cent.)

Moscow, Russian State Library, V. M. Undolǐskij 560 fol. 372r–375r (15th/16th cent.)

One additional manuscript, not listed by de Santos Otero nor by Berendts, is mentioned by Francis Thomson:

Lviv, Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine, Manuscript funds, Antonij Stepanovič Petruševič 67 (16th cent.)

Angelov, Bonju Stojanov, Christo Nikolov Kodov, Kujo Kuev, and Klimentina Ivanova.  Kliment Ochridski. Sǎbrani sǎčinenija. 3 vols. Sofia: BAN, 1970–1977 (Church Slavic text from Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery 231, vol. 2, pp. 467–70).

Berendts, Alexander. Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Zacharias- und Johannes-Apokryphen. TU, N. F. 26.3. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1904.

Franko, Ivan. Apokryfy i legendy z ukra ï ns’kykh rukopysiv. 5 vols. Lviv: Nakladom Naukovoho Tovaristva îmeni, 1896–1910 (Church Slavic text from Petruševič 67, in vol. 5, pp. 9–13).

Santos Otero, Aurelio. Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der altslavischen Apokryphen. 2 vols. PTS 20 and 23. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1978–1981 (manuscripts listed under Protevangelium of James, vol. 2 pp. 1–32).

Thomson, Francis J. Review of Aurelio de Santos Otero, Die handscriftliche Überlieferung der altslavischen Apokryphen, vol. 2. Slavonic and East European Review 63 (1980): 79–98 at 74 (with corrections to de Santos Otero).

3.2 Modern Translations

3.2.1 English

Burke, Tony. “The Decapitation of John the Forerunner.” Pages 158–77 in vol. 3 of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. 3 vols. Edited by Tony Burke with Brent Landau. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016–2023.

3.3 General Bibliography

Berendts, Alexander. Studien über Zacharia-Apokryphen und Zacharias-Legenden. Leipzig: Deichert, 1895.

Burke, Tony. “The New Testament and Other Early Christian Traditions in Serapion’s Life of John the Baptist.” Pages 281–300 in Christian Apocrypha. Receptions of the New Testament in Ancient Christian Apocrypha. Edited by Jean-Michel Roessli and Tobias Nicklas. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014.