Zacharias of Mytilene also known as Zacharias Scholasticus or Zacharias Rhetor, was a bishop and ecclesiastical historian.

The life of Zacharias of Mytilene can be reconstructed only from a few scattered reports in contemporary sources (the accounts are also partly conflicting - for example, some Syrian authors have "Melitene" instead of "Mytilene

Mytilene

Mytilene is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lesbos, of which it is a municipal unit. It is the capital of the island of Lesbos. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is built on the...

"). Zacharias was born near Gaza, which hosted a significant school of rhetorics in Late Antiquity. That was also where he received his initial education. In 485, he travelled to Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

, where he studied philosophy for two years. In Alexandria, he was embroiled in a conflict between Christians and Pagans in connection with the Horapollo

Horapollo

Horapollo is supposed author of a treatise on Egyptian hieroglyphs, extant in a Greek translation by one Philippus, titled Hieroglyphica, dating to about the 5th century.-Horapollo:...

 affair (see that article). It was also there he met Severus

Severus of Antioch

Severus, Patriarch of Antioch , born approximately 465 in Sozopolis in Pisidia, was by birth and education a pagan, who was baptized in the "precinct of the divine martyr Leontius" at Tripoli, Lebanon.- Life :...

, who was later to become a notable patriarch of Antioch

Antioch

Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...

. Zacharias was baptized and travelled in 487 to Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

 to study law at the academy there. He stayed there, leading a very ascetic life, until 491, but he also made several journeys to different parts of Palestine in search for religious knowledge. He finally moved to Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

, where he worked as a lawyer for a long time. Zacharias, who was leaning towards moderate Monophysitism

Monophysitism

Monophysitism , or Monophysiticism, is the Christological position that Jesus Christ has only one nature, his humanity being absorbed by his Deity...

, seems to have often played with the thought of becoming a monk. He apparently had good contacts with the Imperial court and that probably won him the appointment as Bishop of Mytilene (on Lesbos). His successor is known to have taken the post in 553, setting the terminus ante quem for his death. He was certainly alive in 536, as he took part in the Synod

Synod

A synod historically is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not...

 in Constantinople that year.

Zacharias composed several works in Greek, among which a Ecclesiastical history

Ecclesiastical History

Ecclesiastical History or ecclesiastical history may refer to:*Ecclesiastical history *Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum by Bede*Church History , pioneer work on the Christian Church by Eusebius of Caesarea...

 that was probably completed towards the end of the 5th century. The document, dedicated to Eupraxius, a dignitary, contains valuable historical material and describes the time period from 451 to 491. It was used by Evagrius Scholasticus

Evagrius Scholasticus

Evagrius Scholasticus was a Syrian scholar and intellectual living in the 6th century AD, and an aide to the patriarch Gregory of Antioch. His surviving work, Ecclesiastical History, comprises a six-volume collection concerning the Church's history from the First Council of Ephesus to Maurice’s...

 for his own history. The original is lost, but a truncated and revised Syrian version has been preserved, as a Monophysite monk from Amida

Amida (Roman city)

Amida was an ancient city located where modern Diyarbakır, Turkey. The Roman writers Ammianus Marcellinus and Procopius consider it a city of Mesopotamia, but it may be more properly viewed as belonging to Armenia Major....

, now known as Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor, incorporated it in his 12-volume compilation, 'Historia Miscellanea', of ecclesiastical histories (volumes 3-6). Zacharias also composed three biographies of Monophysitic clergymen that he had met personally: the above-mentioned Severus, Peter the Iberian

Peter the Iberian

Peter the Iberian, or Peter of Iberia, is a Georgian Orthodox saint, who was a prominent figure in early Christianity. Some have claimed that he is the author of the works written under the pen name Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite....

 and the Egyptian monk Isaiah the Younger. The biographies have been preserved with varying quality. Zacharias also wrote several polemic works, e.g. against the philosopher Ammonius Hermiae

Ammonius Hermiae

Ammonius Hermiae was a Greek philosopher, and the son of the Neoplatonist philosophers Hermias and Aedesia. He was a pupil of Proclus in Athens, and taught at Alexandria for most of his life, writing commentaries on Plato, Aristotle, and other philosophers....

 and against the Manichaeans. The first english translation of Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor, published under the title 'The Syriac Chronicle' in 1899, was translated by F. J. Hamilton and E. W. Brooks. 'The Syriac Chronicle' was part of a five-volume series, 'Byzantine Texts' edited by J. B. Bury. A new english translation of Pseudo-Zacharias was published by Liverpool University Press in 2011 under the title 'The Chronicle of Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor: Church and War in Late Antiquity'. The english translation, edited by Geoffrey Greatrex and translated into english by Robert R. Phenix & Cornelia B. Horn, consists of a translation of volumes 3-12 of 'Historia Miscellanea', with a second book planned for the translation of volumes 1-2 of Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor. Additionally, Simcha Jacobovici & Barrie Wilson have an upcoming partial translation of 'Historia Miscellanea' in their forthcoming book, 'The Lost Gospel', which they claim is a coded text relating to Jesus of Nazareth.

Editions and Translations

• The Chronicle of Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor: Church and War in Late Antiquity. Ed. by G. Greatrex. Liverpool 2011.
• Historia Ecclesiastica Zachariae Rhetori vulgo adscripta. Ed. by E.W. Brooks. Louvain 1924
• Die sogennante Kirchengeschichte des Zacharias Rhetor. Ed. by K. Ahrends, G. Krüger. Leipzig 1899.
• The Syriac Chronicle known as that of Zachariah of Mitylene. by F. J. Hamilton & E. W. Brooks. (being one volume of 'Byzantine Texts' Ed. by J. B. Bury)

Secondary sources

• P. Allen: Zachariah Scholasticus and the Historia Ecclesiastica of Evagrius. In: JTS 31 (1980), p. 471–488.
• S. Jacobovici & B. Wilson: The Lost Gospel: Jesus' Marriage to Mary Magdelene, Bride of God. The Overlook Press, 2012.