Andrew of Caesarea

Andrew of Caesarea was archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia at the end of the sixth or the beginning of the seventh century and a Greek theological writer, the author of the oldest Greek patristic commentary on the Apocalypse. His name is not in the Orthodox calendar, but some old manuscripts added the word “saint” to it, and many Christians regard him as a Father of the Church.

Almost nothing is preserved about his life. Some scholars placed him in the first half of the sixth century, others between the fifth and the ninth, but it is now regarded as certain that he lived at the end of the sixth and the start of the seventh century. The years 563-614 are sometimes cited as the limits of his life and writing.

His main work is the Commentary on the Apocalypse, the oldest Greek commentary on that book written by a recognized Father of the Church. In its preface Andrew says humbly that he does not claim to have fathomed the depth of the spirit hidden in the book, but leaves perfect knowledge to the divine wisdom, which knows the times when what was foretold will be fulfilled. To prove the authenticity of the book he relies on early Christian writers: Papias of Hierapolis, Irenaeus of Lyon, Methodius of Patara and Hippolytus of Rome. His commentary preserved many Eastern traditions, oral and written, connected with the Apocalypse, and was so influential that it preserved a particular text type of the book, called the “Andreas type.” It survives in nearly a hundred Greek manuscripts and was translated into Georgian (in the tenth century), Armenian (in the eleventh) and Slavonic, at the latest in the tenth century, in Bulgaria. Until the middle of the fifteenth century the Slavs knew the Apocalypse mostly in Andrew's commentary and less in the bare text. In the tenth century Archbishop Arethas of Caesarea reworked his predecessor's commentary, adding some details. Andrew also wrote, according to a catalogue, a commentary on the Visions of the prophet Daniel and a work called Therapeutika, of which only fragments survive. An English translation by Eugenia Constantinou appeared in 2011.