The Flying Head of John the Baptist
I have started some work on apocryphal traditions of John the Baptist. One of the texts I am consulting is the Life of John the Baptist ascribed to Serapion (read the text HERE). The text was published almost a century ago and tends to be overlooked in CA scholarship. But it has some interesting, and bizarre, traditions within it. Just to whet your appetite, here is a scene about the amazing abilities of the head of John the Baptist:
But immediately after the head of the blessed John let the locks of its hair rise from the dish, and it flew to the middle of the convivial room before the king and his high officials. In that very moment the roof of the house was opened and the head of John flew in the air…As to his head, it flew over Jerusalem, and cried for three years to the town, saying: "It is not lawful for you, O Herod, to marry the wife of your brother while he is still alive." After it had cried for three years, it went to all the world shouting and proclaiming the horrible crime of Herod, and repeating the words: "It is not lawful for you, O Herod, to marry the wife of your brother while he is still alive." Fifteen years after it had been cut off it ceased proclaiming, and rested on the town of Horns. The faithful who were in that town took it and buried it with great pomp. A long time after, a church was built on it, which is still standing in our time.
WOW! That is an impressive head!
I’m going to add the Life of John the Baptist to my list of books not to read before going to bed (Revelation is on that list).
I’m picturing John’s flying head spinning around and cutting sinners down like Odd Job’s hat. This must be where Army of Darkness got its inspiration. Now I’m picturing John’s head harassing Bruce Campbell until he blasts it with his shotgun. “Groovy.”
Interesting group of texts.
It has parallels to the Infancy Gospels, particularly the opening 1/3 of Protevangelium of James, and possibly to some of the John material in the Slavonic version of Josephus.
Am I being too greedy for asking if someone can translate the other John Passion texts into English or French?
Professor Burke, you might be interested in the re- use of John myths in medieval Anglo-Norman literature.
A Reference to flying head of John the Baptist in the “Travels of Sir John Mandeville”
The “Travels of Sir John Mandeville” (1) is a 14th century travel itinerary that described pilgrimage routes from Europe to the Holy Land and its author’s purported voyage to the Mongol court in the Far East. The book was extremely popular until discoveries in the later Age of Exploration showed that it contained many imaginary details (2). This led to the suspicion that the author of the book was an armchair traveler who used a combination of research and imagination to provide the content of his travel guide.
The following passage is from Chapter 5, “Of different things in Cyprus” from “The Travels of Sir John Mandeville”(3).
“On the way to Cyprus men pass by a place that is called the Gulf of Cathaly (Adalia), which was once a great and fair country, and there was a fair city in it that was called Adalia. And all that country was lost through the folly of a young man. For there was a beautiful damsel whom he loved well, and she died suddenly and was in a tomb of marble; and on account of the great love he had for her he went one night to her grave and opened it and went in and lay with her and then went on his way. At the end of nine months a voice came to him one night and said, “Go to the grave of that woman and open it, and behold what you have begotten on her. And if you go not you shall have great evil and suffering.” And he went and opened the grave, and there flew out a very horrible head, hideous to look at, which flew all around the city, and forthwith the city sank (4), and all the district round about. And around there are many dangerous passages.”
The paragraph above contains parallels with two apocryphal Christian texts, one about John the Baptist, the other about the apostle John. John Mandeville appears to have conflated the two Johns and combined their separate stories into one narrative.
A story about a necrophiliac youth is found in the Greek and Latin texts of the Apocryphal Acts of John the Apostle:
“70 And as John was discoursing yet further unto the brethren that they should despise temporal things in respect of the eternal, he that was enamored of Drusiana, being inflamed with an horrible lust and possession of the many-shaped Satan, bribed the steward of Andronicus who was a lover of money with a great sum: and he opened the tomb and gave him opportunity to wreak the forbidden thing upon the dead body. (5)”
The story of a vengeful head hovering over a city is found in an apocryphal biography of John the Baptist. The text has been dated to the late 4th century and was known only in Ethiopic prior to its 19th century discovery by Europeans and subsequent translation into English:
“As to his (John the Baptist’s) head, it flew over Jerusalem, and cried for three years to the town, saying: “It is not lawful for you, O Herod, to marry the wife of your brother while he is still alive.” After it had cried for three years, it went to all the world shouting and proclaiming (p. 253) the horrible crime of Herod, and repeating the words: “It is not lawful for you, O Herod, to marry the wife of your brother while he is still alive (6).”
The Aegean location of the “Travel’s” story, suggests that its associated John the Baptist with John of Patmos. The real city of Antalya never experienced an episode of widespread destruction and was described as a beautiful and populous city in the early 14th century (7).
Adalia is located on the coast of Asia Minor , east of Cyprus. A pilgrim from Western Europe would have encountered Cyprus before Adalai. This casts doubt on the accuracy of “Travels of Sir John Mandeville”.
In conclusion, a passage from a 14th century secular text was based on information in much earlier Christian apocryphal stories. I do not know how how John Mandeville learned the legend of John’s flying head, when the story is known to modern readers only through an Ethiopic text.
1 ) “The Travels of Sir John Mandeville”, translated with an introduction by C.W.R.D. Moseley, Penguin Books, 1983. “The “Travels of Sir John Mandeville” dates to the late 1300’s. The book purports to be a travel itinerary to the Holy Land and and East Asia. The book first appeared in Europe between 1356 and 1366.
2 ) Ibid. See Introduction, p. 9 et seq.
3 ) Ibid. p55.
4 ) Other evil deeds found in Apocryphal texts, that resulted in the destruction of a city and/or a Temple:
“ … his (Zacharias’) blood boiled on the earth for fifty years, until Titus son of Vespasian, the Emperor of the Romans, came and destroyed Jerusalem and killed the Jewish priests for the blood of Zacharias, as the Lord ordered him.”
From “Life of John the Baptist ascribed to Serapion”, A. Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshuni, vol. 1, Cambridge 1927, pp. 138-287.
‘42 … And the half of the temple fell down, so that the priest was slain at one blow by the falling of the (?roof, ? beam).’
“47 … Another manuscript (Q. Paris Gr. 1468, of the eleventh century) has another form of this story. John destroys the temple of Artemis, and then ‘we’ go to Smyrna and all the idols are broken:…”
A Latin manuscript of Chapter “XIX states “shortly the destruction of the temple of Ephesus …” From The Acts of John in “The Apocryphal New Testament”, Translation and Notes by M.R. James, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924.
5) From The Acts of John, in “The Apocryphal New Testament” Translation and Notes by M. R. James Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924). The text is available at:
http://gnosis.org/library/actjohn.htm. Recovered 12/06/2012, and http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/actsjohn.html. Recovered 12/06/2012.
6) From “Life of John the Baptist ascribed to Serapion”, A. Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshuni, vol. 1, Cambridge 1927, pp. 138-287. The translated text is posted at:
http://www.tonyburke.ca/more-christian-apocrypha/the-life-of-john-the-baptist-by-serapion. Recovered 12/4/2012, and http://archive.org/details/woodbrookestudie01theouoft. Recovered 12/4/2012).
7 ) Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354. Translated and selected by H.A.R. Gibb. Edited by Sir E. Denison Ross and Eileen Power. (New York: Robert M. McBride & Company), p.123.
“From Alanya I went to Antaliya [Adalia], a most beautiful city. It covers an immense area, and though of vast bulk is one of the most attractive towns to be seen anywhere, besides being exceedingly populous and well laid out. Each section of the inhabitants lives in a separate quarter. The Christian merchants live in a quarter of the town known as the Mina [the Port], and are surrounded by a wall, the gates of which are shut upon them from without at night and during the Friday service. The Greeks, who were its former inhabitants, live by themselves in another quarter, the Jews in another, and the king and his court and Mamluks in another, each of these quarters being walled off likewise. The rest of the Muslims live in the main city. Round the whole town and all the quarters mentioned there is another great wall. The town contains orchards and produces fine fruits, including an admirable kind of apricot, called by them Qamar ad-Din, which has a sweet almond in its kernel. This fruit is dried and exported to Egypt, where it is regarded as a great luxury.”
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/batuta.asp. Recovered 2012/12/06.
Ibn Battuta left an accurate documentary account of his travels. This is unlike the “Travels of Sir John Mandeville” which is now considered to be a sensational account based on other traveler’s works, assorted legends and a vivid imagination.