Geòrgios Koressios (c.1570–1659) was the most prominent theologian of the early modern Greek world. This reputation is based not only on his valuable works on theology, but also on his title as ‘theologian of the Great Church’, which he received in 1631 from the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Koressios was renowned for his achievements in theology, but he was also a polymath, writing treatises on rhetoric, natural sciences, and medicine. Born on the island of Chios around 1570, he studied at the University of Padua. Well-versed in the classics, especially Aristotle, he won the support of the Medici family, securing for himself the position of professor of Greek at the College of Pisa (1611). After his sojourn in Italy, Koressios returned to Chios, where he taught until his death at the School of Chios, located in the Monastery of the Holy Anargyroi (‘silverless doctors’) Kosmas and Damian, the two saints who performed medical work without requesting payment. It was here where he devoted his time to theology, while taking part in the theological and confessional debates between Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants. His anti-Calvinist views brought him into conflict with Antoine Léger (1594–1661), the chaplain of the Dutch embassy in Istanbul, and close friend of the notorious Patriarch Kyrillos Loukaris (1572–1638). These religious debates fuelled Koressios’s most representative theological works (e.g. ‘Essay on the holy Sacraments’, ‘Dialogue with a friar’, ‘About the excellence of theology’). He died around 1660 in Chios and was buried in the grounds of the monastery where he had taught in the last part of his life.
Among Koressios’s theological works there is a treatise entitled Exēgēsis eis tēn tou Iōannou Apokalypsin (‘Exegesis of the Apocalypse of John’), which he composed probably in Chios around 1640. The genre of apocalyptic literature became increasingly popular during Ottoman rule, and Koressios’s text was one of its representative pieces, being preserved today in many manuscripts. The Exegesis is a systematic commentary to the Apocalypse of John the Theologian. Scholars have suggested that it is rather a compilation of Koressios’s teaching notes which he delivered as a course for his students at the School of Chios. This assumption is based on the high register of Greek employed by the author as well as on the unpolished redaction of some passages. While arranging, Koressios uses many Biblical quotations, and he displays a deep familiarity with Christian and classical authors, as well as with the works of some Jewish writers and rabbis. The purpose of the Exegesis is not to offer a systematic polemic against Islam, and as such the anti-Islamic arguments found in the text are developed in direct connection with Koressios’s interpretation of the Apocalypse, for which the Greek expert draws extensively on Byzantine works and other Christian and non-Christian sources. Moreover, the anti-Islamic imagery he employs in interpreting the allegory from the Apocalypse reflects a Catholic influence, while the polemic remains rooted in the much longer Christian polemical tradition.
The passages below reflect Koressios’s approach towards Islam. In the first excerpt, he discusses the interpretation of the number of the Antichrist (666), and attempts to identify the meaning of his name by employing the rhetorical tool of isopsephy (i.e. calculating the numerical values of letters). The second excerpt features a discussion on the seal of the devil, whether Muḥammad fits the type of the Antichrist, the time of his coming, and a commentary on the allegorical figures of Gog and Magog.
CMR online edition, ‘Geōrgios Koressios’ (forthcoming entry) This is a translation of MS Bucharest, Library of the Romanian Academy – BAR 323, fols 84r-v, 102v-103r.
And his number is 666.
But, because it is unclear whether the Antichrist will make use of the Greek or the Hebrew language, the exegetes differ about his name. Some say that his name signifies the sixth day in which the world was created. And that he wants to affirm about himself that he is the creator of the world, and that he is referred to with the three sixes, because God is often mentioned three times, as ‘God, God, God’ and ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’. And other [exegetes] want [to say] that this is Muhammad, according to Kedrēnos and Zōnaras [in] Book 9 of the Chronicles. They are all the same in error, for Muḥammad came to rule 620 years after the Lord and died in 630. Others claim that this number denotes Antichrist’s name. For he will be called ‘Latin’, according to Irenaeus and Arethas. According to others, he will be named Genseric, for the tyrant who sacked Rome was called Genseric, and so metaphorically the Antichrist will be named Genseric, that is the destroyer of Rome, walking through which peregrinating the humble apostles brought the unbelieving people to faith, chapter 26 [of the Acts of the Apostles].
Even if we analyzed the inscription on the seal of the Antichrist, how are we now to grasp the case of the seal of the devil? Or does the Hagarene [Muḥammad] fit the type of the Antichrist, since he started his own despotic rule which was also maleficent? For which reason, he [Muḥammad] was claiming to be the father, and now he is the Antichrist. For, whoever does not confess the divinity of the Christ is the Antichrist, whether Arian, Scythian, Turk, Jew, or Greek. And the seal is twofold: divine, like that of baptism, through which the soul of the baptized is inscribed and he becomes the son of God and sheep of God; and devilish, through which the soul which has not been baptized is imprinted and becomes the sheep of the devil. For, through denial of Christ, that soul is imprinted by thought and will. Which thought means contemplation, while the hand [is defined] by deed; for the hand makes known the deed. Because of this, the Trojans considered Ajax to be the mind, and Hector to be the hand. For the forehead signifies the thought and will of the mind, which is in the head, and of the soul; and the hand [signifies] the deed. And [the fact] that 1,000 years does not signify the coming of the Antichrist is clear also because, since those [years] have [already] passed, the Antichrist has not come, and [also] because the Antichrist will appear a little after the judgement, in other words, after a short time. And this will happen differently from those of Gog and Magog. For, according to Ezekiel [chapters] 38 and 39, after the destruction of Magog the inhabitants of the cities of Israel [will be] at peace, as ‘those who live securely in the coastlands,’ and ‘they who live in the towns of Israel will go out and make fire of the weapons and burn them.’ And below: ‘Now I will restore,’ he says, ‘the fortunes of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel,’ and ‘I will never again hide my face from them.’ So [the things said about] Gog and Magog will be understood [as having happened] before the [coming of the] Antichrist. For, the [land of] Asia is called Magog, which is also called Hierapolis, according to Pliny, Book 6, chapter 25. For, the Turk also emerged there, and [in chapters] 7 and 11 of Daniel, therefore by Gog and Magog is meant the Hagarene. And the divine Neilos, in [his] one hundred questions on scripture, by Gog and Magog understands the Pharaoh, and Muḥammad is a pseudo-prophet. [fols 84r-v, 102v-103r]
– Octavian-Adrian Negoită
FOOTNOTES
157 Rev. 13:18.
158 Geōrgios Kedrēnos was an eleventh-century Byzantine historian, and Iōannēs Zōnaras was a twelfth-century Byzantine historian. In his chronicle, Epitome Historiarum, Zōnaras actually discusses Muhammad in Book 14. The error here was most probably made by the copyist of the BAR 323 manuscript.
159 See Irenaeus of Lyon, Adversus haereses, V:29, and Arethas of Caesarea, Commentarius in Apocalypsin, XXXVIII. The numerological value of the Greek word ‘Lateinos’ (‘Latin’), which signifies ‘Catholic’ in Orthodox thinking, is equivalent to the number of the Beast (666). In this case, the association between the name of the Antichrist and the word ‘Latin’ is due to the anti-Catholic polemic.
160 Genseric (428–77) was leader of the Vandals and Alans; he earned his notoriety by sacking Rome in 455. In apocalyptic literature he plays an important role as one associated with the Antichrist owing to his deeds against Christianity. Koressios mentions Genseric as the numerological value of the letters of his name equals the number of the Antichrist.
161 Acts 28:16–31 describes how Paul, at liberty in Rome, preached to the polytheistic inhabitants.
SOURCE FOR ARTICLE
Octavian-Adrian Negoita, “Georgios Koressios. Exegesis to the Apocalypse of John“, in: M. Frederiks (ed.), Christian-Muslim Relations. Primary Sources, Vol. 2: 1500-1700, London-New York: Bloomsbury, 2023, pp. 58-60
FURTHER READING
Asterios Argyriou, Les exégèses grecques de l’Apocalypse à l’époque turque (1453-1821). Esquisse d’une histoire des courants idéologiques au seindu peuple grec asservi. Thessaloniki, 1982
NEO-Historicism - End Times Eschatology From An Eastern Orthodox Christian Historicist Perspective 