After the Fig Tree: The Literary and Cultural Structuring of the Monastic Curse in the Narratives of Syrian Monks by Theodoret and John of Ephesus

Abstract

Abstract:The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how the early Christian curse tradition, which we find as early as Jesus’s cursing of the fig tree, developed in the early Christian hagiographical literature of late antique Syria and Mesopotamia, with reference, specifically, to Theodoret of Cyrus and John of Ephesus. The study begins by providing some background of the issues and authors, after which the various monastic curses in the texts are analysed and brought into conversation with the social, cultural, and religious contexts. It is shown that, like the curses we find in Acts, for instance, these early Christian monastic curses represent a highly developed curse tradition that fits in firmly and comfortably in the ancient Mediterranean cultural and religious world.