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Who is the forerunner? John of Damascus: Ishmaelites

Posted: July 30th, 2018, 3:57 pm
by Stirling Bartholomew
Ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἡ μέχρι τοῦ νῦν κρατοῦσα λαοπλανὴς θρησκεία τῶν Ἰσμαηλιτῶν πρόδρομος οὖσα τοῦ ἀντιχρίστου. Κατάγεται δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἰσμαὴλ τοῦ ἐκ τῆς Ἄγαρ τεχθέντος τῷ Ἀβραάμ· διόπερ Ἀγαρηνοὶ καὶ Ἰσμαηλῖται προσαγορεύονται. Σαρακηνοὺς δὲ αὐτοὺς καλοῦσιν ὡς ἐκ τῆς Σάρρας κενοὺς διὰ τὸ εἰρῆσθαι ὑπὸ τῆς Ἄγαρ τῷ ἀγγέλῳ· Σάρρα κενήν με ἀπέλυσεν.

There is also the superstition of the Ishmaelites which to this day prevails and keeps people in error, being a forerunner of the Antichrist. They are descended from Ishmael, [who] was born to Abraham of Agar, and for this reason they are called both Agarenes and Ishmaelites. They are also called Saracens, which is derived from Sarras kenoi, or destitute of Sara, because of what Agar said to the angel: ‘Sara hath sent me away destitute.’
οὖσα looks like it refers to θρησκεία.

postscript: Reading some John of Damascus at the recommendation of Robert Spencer and others.

Re: Who is the forerunner? John of Damascus: Ishmaelites

Posted: July 30th, 2018, 10:52 pm
by Barry Hofstetter
You appear to have adequately answered your question. I don't see how it could refer to anything else. However, what I liked was the transparent compound λαοπλανής, "people deceiving," λαοπλανὴς θρησκεία "people deceiving religion."

Also very quaint folk etymology:

Old English, "an Arab" (in Greek and Roman translations), also, mid-13c., generally, "non-Christian, heathen, pagan," from Old French saracin, from Late Latin saracenus, from Greek sarakenos, usually said to be from Arabic sharquiyin, accusative plural of sharqiy "eastern," from sharq "east, sunrise," but this is not certain. In medieval times the name was associated with that of Biblical Sarah.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/Saracen

Re: Who is the forerunner? John of Damascus: Ishmaelites

Posted: July 31st, 2018, 12:57 pm
by Stirling Bartholomew
Barry Hofstetter wrote: July 30th, 2018, 10:52 pm You appear to have adequately answered your question. I don't see how it could refer to anything else. However, what I liked was the transparent compound λαοπλανής, "people deceiving," λαοπλανὴς θρησκεία "people deceiving religion."

Also very quaint folk etymology:

Old English, "an Arab" (in Greek and Roman translations), also, mid-13c., generally, "non-Christian, heathen, pagan," from Old French saracin, from Late Latin saracenus, from Greek sarakenos, usually said to be from Arabic sharquiyin, accusative plural of sharqiy "eastern," from sharq "east, sunrise," but this is not certain. In medieval times the name was associated with that of Biblical Sarah.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/Saracen
Barry,

Thanks for looking at this. I am stumbling through patristic authors without any aid from secondary literature. So even the most obvious things sometimes appear to be less than perfectly clear. In popular eschatology ''a forerunner of the Antichrist" would be a personal agent.

RE: Σαρακηνοὺς

Can't be certain where I first encountered this word in English. Perhaps in C. S. Lewis or T. E. Lawrence. I may have been somehow connected the Grail literature. I looked in the index of Jessie L. Weston, Ritual to Romance but didn't find it. I had a good friend eons ago who did her MA studying under a Grail scholar named Bonnie Heintz at SPU.