John of Damascus

John of Damascus was an eighth-century Christian theologian whose defense of sacred images became central to later arguments about icon veneration. St John Damascene on Holy Images presents three discourses written during Byzantine iconoclasm, insisting that honor shown to an image passes to the person represented rather than to its material. Mary H. Allies translated the English edition published by Thomas Baker in 1898. Barlaam and Ioasaph reached English readers through a very different textual history. Long associated with John of Damascus, the Greek spiritual romance adapts the story of an Indian prince who renounces royal privilege; modern scholarship generally rejects John's authorship and treats the attribution as traditional. G. R. Woodward and H. Mattingly translated the Loeb edition issued in 1914. Reading the two titles together therefore requires care: St John Damascene on Holy Images belongs to John's recognized theological legacy, while Barlaam and Ioasaph illustrates how medieval authority, manuscript transmission, and mistaken attribution can attach a famous name to a widely circulating tale.