Library › John of Damascus

On Heresies

De haeresibus

Written about 730 to 750, by tradition in Lavra of Saint Sabas (now Mar Saba, West Bank). The date is disputed or rests on weak evidence.

A list of one hundred heresies, the last of them Islam; part two of The Fount of Knowledge.

Treatise · first written in Greek · a major work

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Not yet on the site. We have not yet found an English translation of this work that is in the public domain.

How we know the date and place

Date written not sure

The letter at the head is to Cosmas as bishop of Maiuma (743), but the parts were written and revised over years (Louth 2002; Kotter 1969-73)

Place written by tradition

Later lives say he was a monk at Mar Saba; Louth (St John Damascene, 2002) says the proof is weak and that he lived in or near Jerusalem