The Vision of Dorotheus
[3] While the Vision's poetic merit has been criticised, its poet being described by Vian (1985) as having been "satisfied with a superficial epic varnish" and its faults denoting "an amateur who had not received a solid academic training";[4] the value of its insight into early Christianity has been noted, Livrea (1986) claiming that such a text "should arouse a burning interest", "even in the eyes of the most superficial reader"[5] and Kessels & Van Der Horst (1987) noting its status as a "unique, autobiographic early Christian poem", giving "much food for reflection to scholars in the fields of patristics, history of religion, classics, and also psychology of religion".
[2] On the final page of the transcript of the work, after a brief credal affirmation of "Jesus is God" ("ἸΘ", abbreviating "Ἰησοῦς Θεòς"), the author is identified with the postscript: "τέλος τἦς ὁράσεως // Δωροθέου Κυΐντου ποιητοῦ".
According to Kessels & Van Der Horst (1987) and James & Lee (2000) the earlier usage of a patronymic in line 300 establishes the latter translation.
[6] Similarly, through textual interpretation, Bremmer (2002) suggests that Dorotheus had some literary training, evinced by his quotations of Homer, Hesiod, and Apollonius and use of some obscure Greek words (which are only found elsewhere in Hesychius's lexicon).
[14] The "solid academic training" and "good Homeric culture" of Quintus, according to Vian (1985), apparently did not pass down to the "superficial" and "shameless" Dorotheus.
This claim has been criticised by James & Lee (2000), asserting that Dorotheus' declaration of poetic inspiration (340-1)[c] bears much resemblance to that of Quintus in Posthomerica 12.308.
The Cicero dedication is a Latin tabula ansata, containing the words "filiciter // dorotheo", below which is the text "UTERE [F]ELIX DOROTH[EE]"; similarly, the Hadrian dedication is a bilingual tabula ansata, with an inscription of "ⲉⲡⲁⲅⲁⲑⲱ" (ἐπ’ ἀγαθῷ in the majuscule Coptic alphabet) and "filiciter // dorotheo".
[18] From afar the men looked at me in astonishment seeing how big I was and that I did not have simple clothing, but a cloak, when I was standing at the gate as before, was I wearing, made for me from two different sorts of linen (?).
[20] van Berchem (1986b) puts the date later, in the early to mid-4th-century, comparing Dorotheus' military uniform (329–334) with those of the soldiers at Arch of Galerius and Rotunda in that period.
[21] Livrea (1986) suggests a more specific date of 342–62 CE, based on an 8th-century story of a Bishop of Tyre, Dorotheus, who was martyred under the Roman Emperor Julian (r. 361–363) at the age of 107.
[24] This identification has been criticised by Usher (2001) who puts forth the Christian Sibylline Oracles (dated to before 303)[25] and by Simelidis (2009) who proposes Gregory of Nazianzus's (329–390) large corpus of poetry.
[34] Many expressions in the poem are conspicuously borrowed from Homer's own usage in the Illiad and Odyssey, alongside quotations from Hesiod and Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica.
[35] The poetry includes many metric errors (with elongations and depressions in the poem, where the poet incorrectly identified vowel lengths).
[37] The poem contains many interesting or obscure Greek terms, often philosophical in origin, which Bremmer (2002) has called "typical of this culture which likes to show off its erudition".
He tries feebly to defend himself, but Christ again sees through this and orders a primicerius to throw Dorotheus into the signa (a Roman military prison) and have him flagellated (106–142).
Christ, angry at this betrayal, follows Dorotheus as he is imprisoned in a cave and flagellated by a group of angels, led by Gabriel.
The following response is hard to interpret, but Dorotheus is refused and made to remain as gatekeeper, though his uniform is changed into a that of a cloak, orarium, girdle and breeches (243–335).
Additionally, he touches upon the fact that the papyrus of the Vision was found near the site of the Nag Hammadi library, to suggest Dorotheus' possible acquaintance with the local Gnostic groups.
