Josaphat of India | |
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 Fragment of an icon: St.Athanasius of Athonite, Barlaam of India, Joasaph of India. End of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. From theCathedral of Saint Sophia in Novgorod | |
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| Born | India |
| Venerated in | Eastern Orthodox Church Catholic Church |
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Barlaam of India | |
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 Barlaam and Joasaph, a 1680 Russian engraving | |
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| Venerated in | Eastern Orthodox Church Catholic Church |
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Barlaam and Josaphat, also known asBilawhar and Budhasaf, areChristian saints. Their story tells of the conversion of Josaphat toChristianity. According to tradition, an Indian king persecuted the Christian Church in his realm. After astrologers predicted that his own son would some day become a Christian, the king imprisoned the young prince Josaphat, who nevertheless met the hermit Saint Barlaam and converted to Christianity. After much tribulation the young prince's father accepted the Christian faith, turned over his throne to Josaphat, and retired to the desert to become a hermit. Josaphat himself later abdicated and went into seclusion with his old teacher Barlaam.[1]
The story ofBarlaam and Josaphat orJoasaph is aChristianized and later version of the story ofSiddhartha Gautama, who became theBuddha.[2] The tale derives from a second to fourth centurySanskritMahayanaBuddhist text, via aManichaean version,[3] then theArabicKitāb Bilawhar wa-Būd̠āsaf (Book of Bilawhar and Budhasaf), current inBaghdad in the eighth century, from where it entered into Middle Eastern Christian circles before appearing in European versions.
The first Christianized adaptation was theGeorgian epicBalavariani dating back to the 10th century. A Georgian monk,Euthymius of Athos, translated the story intoGreek, some time before he died in an accident while visitingConstantinople in 1028.[4] There the Greek adaptation was translated intoLatin in 1048 and soon became well known in Western Europe asBarlaam and Josaphat.[5] The Greek legend of "Barlaam and Ioasaph" is sometimes attributed to the 8th centuryJohn of Damascus, butF. C. Conybeare argued it was transcribed by Euthymius in the 11th century.[6]
The story of Barlaam and Josaphat was popular in theMiddle Ages, appearing in such works as theGolden Legend, and a scene there involving three caskets eventually appeared, viaCaxton's English translation of a Latin version, inShakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice".[7] The poetChardri produced anAnglo-Norman version,La vie de seint Josaphaz, in the 13th century. The story of Josaphat and Barlaam also occupies a great part of book xv of theSpeculum Historiale (Mirror of History) by the 13th century French encyclopedistVincent of Beauvais.
One of theMarco Polo manuscripts notes the remarkable similarity between the tale of "Sakyamuni Burkham" (the name that Polo uses forthe Buddha) and St. Josaphat, apparently unaware of the origins of the Josaphat story.[8]
TwoMiddle High German versions were produced: one, the "LaubacherBarlaam", by BishopOtto II of Freising and another,Barlaam und Josaphat, aromance in verse, byRudolf von Ems. The latter was described as "perhaps the flower of religious literary creativity in the German Middle Ages" byHeinrich Heine.[9]
In the 16th century, the story of Josaphat was re-told as a defence of monastic life during theProtestant Reformation and offree will againstProtestant doctrines regardingpredestination.[10]
According to the legend, King Abenner in India persecuted theChristian Church in his realm, founded by theApostle Thomas. When astrologers predicted that his own son would some day become a Christian, Abenner had the young prince Josaphat isolated from external contact. Despite the imprisonment, Josaphat met the hermit Saint Barlaam and converted to Christianity. Josaphat kept his faith even in the face of his father's anger and persuasion. Eventually Abenner converted, turned over his throne to Josaphat, and retired to the desert to become a hermit. Josaphat himself later abdicated and went into seclusion with his old teacher Barlaam.[1]
In this context, the name Josaphat is derived from theSanskritbodhisattva.[11][2][12] The Sanskrit word was changed toBodisav inMiddle Persian texts in the 6th or 7th century, then toBūdhasaf orYūdhasaf in an 8th-century Arabic document (Arabic initial "b"ﺑ changed to "y"ﻳ byduplication of a dot in handwriting).[13] This becameIodasaph inGeorgian in the 10th century, and that name was adapted asIoasaph (Ἰωάσαφ) in Greece in the 11th century, and then was assimilated toIosaphat/Josaphat in Latin.[14]
The name Barlaam derives from the Arabic nameBilawhar (بِلَوْهَر) borrowed throughGeorgian (ბალაჰვარBalahvar) intoByzantine Greek (ΒαρλαάμBarlaám). The ArabicBilawhar has historically been thought to derive from the Sanskritbhagavan, anepithet of the Buddha, but this derivation is unproven and others have been proposed.[15] Almuth Degener suggests derivation from Sanskritpurohita through a hypotheticalMiddle Persian intermediate.[16]
The name of Josaphat's father, King Abenner, derives from the Greek nameAbenner (Ἀβεννήρ), although another Greek version of the legend gives this name asAvenir (Ἄβενιρ). These Greek names were adapted from the GeorgianAbeneser (აბენესერ; later shortened toაბენეს,Abenes), which was itself derived from the Arabic version of the legend where he is named KingJunaysar (جُنَيسَر). According to I.V. Abuladze, during borrowing from Arabic to Georgian, misplacedi'jām resulted in the misreading ofJunaysar asHabeneser, after which the initialH- was omitted.[17][18] The origin of the Arabic name is unclear.
Barlaam and Josaphat were included in earlier editions of theRoman Martyrology with a joint feast day on 27 November,[11][19][20] however, they were not included in theRoman Missal. Since 1960 a different Saint,St. Josephat, Bishop and Martyr, has a celebration on 16 November.
Barlaam and Josaphat were entered into theGreek Orthodox liturgical calendar on 26 AugustJulian (8 SeptemberGregorian),[11][21][22] and into liturgical calendar of the Slavic tradition of theEastern Orthodox Church, on 19 NovemberJulian (2 DecemberGregorian).[23][24]
There are a large number of different books in various languages, all dealing with the lives of Saints Barlaam and Josaphat inIndia. In this hagiographic tradition, the life and teachings of Josaphat have many parallels with those ofthe Buddha. "But not till the mid-nineteenth century was it recognised that, in Josaphat, the Buddha had been venerated as a Christian saint for about a thousand years."[25] This was ascertained through the researches of Edouard de Laboulaye and Felix Liebrecht in 1859-1860. The authorship of the work is disputed. The origins of the story may be a Central Asian manuscript written in theManichaean tradition. This book was translated intoGeorgian andArabic.
The best-known version in Europe comes from a separate, but not wholly independent, source, written inGreek, and, although anonymous, attributed to "John the monk". It was first attributed toJohn of Damascus in the 12th century. Although this attribution was attacked in the 19th century,George Ratcliffe Woodward andHarold Mattingly sum up the arguments in favor of John of Damascus' authorship as follows: The work's doctrine is remarkably similar to St. John's, to the point where "in many passages the resemblance amounts almost to verbal identity"; there are frequent quotations from St. John's favorite authors, such as St. Gregory of Nazianus and St. Basil; "The defence of images, coupled with the denunciation of Idolatry, the enthusiasm for the monastic ideal, and the scant regard shown for the bishops and the secular clergy, almost compel us to place the work in the time of the Iconoclastic Controversy. The position, taken up and defended, is exactly that of the Icon-venerators; and we regard this fact alone as conclusive evidence for an eighth century date."; that St. John was often known as "John the Monk", so the fact that he wasn't specifically named in the earliest manuscripts doesn't rule him out.[26]
Nonetheless, many modern scholars do not accept this attribution, citing much evidence pointing toEuthymius of Athos, a Georgian who died in 1028.[27]
The modern edition of the Greek text, from the 160 surviving variant manuscripts (2006), with introduction (German, 2009) is published as Volume 6 of the works of John the Damascene by the monks of theAbbey of Scheyern, edited by Robert Volk. It was included in the edition due to the traditional ascription, but marked "spuria" as the translator is the Georgian monkEuthymius the Hagiorite (ca. 955–1028) atMount Athos and not John the Damascene of themonastery of Saint Sabas in theJudaean Desert. The 2009 introduction includes an overview.[28]
Among the manuscripts in English, two of the most important are theBritish Library MS Egerton 876 (the basis for Ikegami's book) andMS Peterhouse 257 (the basis for Hirsh's book) at theUniversity of Cambridge.The book contains a tale similar to The Three Caskets found in theGesta Romanorum and later inShakespeare'sThe Merchant of Venice.[27]
Three Croatian versions exist, all translations from Italian.[29] The olderShtokavian untitled version originated in theRepublic of Ragusa and was transcribed to a codex from an earlier source in the 17th century, while the youngerChakavian translations, one manuscript and one printed, originated in the beginning of the 18th century.[29] The book was published by Petar Maçukat inVenice in 1708 and titledXivot S[veto]ga Giosafata obrachien od Barlaama and is currently held in theNational and University Library in Zagreb.[29] Both manuscripts were published in 1913 by Czech slavist Josef Karásek and Croatian philologist Franjo Fancev and reprinted in 1996.[29] TheChakavian translations had a common source while the olderShtokavian one used an earlier Italian version as well as theGolden Legend.[29]
Hungarian
Barlaams saga ok Jósafats is anOld Norse (specificallyOld Norwegian) rendering of the story ofBarlaam and Josaphat.[30][31] This Old Norwegian version is based on a Latin translation from the 12th century; the saga ofGuðmundur Arason records that it was translated byKing Haakon III Sverresson (died 1204).[30] There are several other Old Norse versions of the same story, translated independently from different sources. There are twoOld Swedish versions, the older of which draws on theGolden Legend, while the younger uses theSpeculum historiale as its main source.[30] The early sixteenth-century IcelandiclegendaryReykjahólarbók includes a version translated from Low German.[32]: 170
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)y que ya en el s. XVI se convirtiera en un arma defensora de la validez de la vida monástica y del libre albedrío frente a la doctrina luterana.[and that, already in the 16th century, it would become a weapon defending the validity of monastic life and free will against Lutheran doctrine.]
Sanskrit Literature and the West.".A History of Sanskrit Literature. New York: D. Appleton and Co. p. 420.Le nom de Josaphat dérive, tout comme son associé Barlaam dans la légende, du mot Bodhisattva. Le terme Bodhisattva passa d'abord en pehlevi, puis en arabe, où il devint Budasaf. Étant donné qu'en arabe le "b" et le "y" ne different que ...
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| International | |
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