Euthymius Zigabenus or Zigadenus or Zygadenus ( or Ζυγαδηνός; died after 1118) was a 12th-century monk and commentator on the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

. He was a friend of the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus, for whom he wrote a lengthy work on heresies, ''Panoplia Dogmatica'' or '' Panoply of Doctrine'' (or "Full Armour of Belief"). This began in the apostolic era and continued down to the

Bogomils Bogomilism (; ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", bogumilstvo, богумилство) was a Christian neo-Gnostic, dualist sect founded in the First Bulgarian Empire by the priest Bogomil during the reign of Tsar Peter I in the 10th century. I ...

, some of whom he personally examined. The entry on the Bogomils is our main source of information about them. Nothing is known about his life. He was a monk and lived in the monastery of the Virgin Mary near Constantinople. He was favoured by both the emperor and his daughter Anna Comnena, who extols his learning and piety in her ''Alexiad''. He also wrote a commentary on the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

, one on the

four gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sense ...

, and one on the

Pauline epistles The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest ext ...

. These are based mainly on

patristic Patristics, also known as Patrology, is a branch of theological studies focused on the writings and teachings of the Church Fathers, between the 1st to 8th centuries CE. Scholars analyze texts from both orthodox and heretical authors. Patristics em ...

sources. Works translated into English include
Commentary on the Holy Gospel of LukeCommentary on the Holy Gospel of JohnCommentary on Hebrews and Titus
Spurious works under his name include "The Exposition of the Nicene-Constantinople Creed" and "Dialogue with a Muslim".

Pericope Adulterae in John

Bruce Metzger Bruce Manning Metzger (February 9, 1914 – February 13, 2007) was an American biblical scholar, Bible translator and textual critic who was a longtime professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and Bible editor who served on the board of th ...

argued that "No Greek Church Father prior to Euthymius Zigabenus (twelfth century) comments on this passage, and Euthymius declares that the accurate copies of the Gospel do not contain it". But this is somewhat misleading, in that

Didymus the Blind Didymus the Blind ( Coptic: ; 398), alternatively spelled Dedimus or Didymous, was a Christian theologian in the Church of Alexandria, where he taught for about half a century. He was a student of Origen, and, after the Second Council of Constant ...

discusses it, albeit not in John's gospel. Zigabenus says: :But it is necessary to know that the things which are found from this place to that where it is said: Therefore Jesus again spoke of these things saying, I am the light of the world: in the more exact copies, these are either not found, or marked with an ''obelus'', because they seem illegitimate and added. And the argument for this is because Chrysostom makes no mention anywhere of this; but for us we must also declare that this, because it is not without usefulness, is the chapter on the woman taken in adultery, which is placed between these. Patrologia Graeca vol. 129, col. 1280 C-D, via Roger Pearse
Euthymius Zigabenus and the Pericope Adulterae
2009.

Bibliography

* J.-P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, vols. 128–131. * Schaff, P.
History of the Christian Church, Volume IV: Mediaeval Christianity. A.D. 590-1073.
section 150. Erroneously calls Anna the emperor's wife rather than daughter. * with bibliography * John Raffan
Edition and translation of Euthymius Zigabenus, Commentary on the Psalms

References

{{Authority control 12th-century Byzantine monks Byzantine theologians Byzantine writers Alexios I Komnenos 12th-century Byzantine writers 12th-century Eastern Orthodox theologians