Approaching Old Age in the Discourses of Philoxenus of Mabbug: Some Initial Principles and Presuppositions

Abstract

This article forms part of a larger project of writing a social history of old age and aging in early Christian thought, a topic currently lacking in scholarship despite the plethora of studies on children, childhood, and education being produced. One early Christian source that has a lot to say about old age is the Discourses of the prolific Syriac author Aksenaya, better known to most as Philoxenus, probably born sometime in the 440s near Beth Garmai, ordained as bishop of Mabbug in 485, and who died in exile in 523 CE. This study aims to delineate some of the central presuppositions and principles of old age and aging in Philoxenus’s Discourses, which will then serve as a basis for further, more in-depth textual studies on the topic.