Tradition and intertextuality in the Eastern Christian apocalypsis: the motf of the Kings of Ethiopia and Nubia in the (Arabic) apocalypse pf Ps.-Athanasius and its testimonia apocalyptica

Abstract

The present article deals with the motif of “the kings of Ethiopia and Nubia” in one of the textual families of the Arabic Apocalypse of Ps.-Athanasius. Through the analysis of the features which constitute this motif, our aim is to show how the authors of the Apocalyptic texts worked on the basis of a material which to a large extent was standardized. This material, which we label as testimonia, was used by these authors according to various circumstances. The task expressed throughout the apocalyptic texts was created and developed in the heart of a textual and literary tradition in which intertextuality acted like a determining structural mechanism in the shape, modeling and survival of this literary genre throughout the centuries within the several Eastern Christian communities.