Chronicle

Michael reports that John follows Eusebius regarding the sequence of the high priesthood (Chabot 1899: 77) and that he dated the Incarnation to AM 5500. Maktbānūtā simply means 'writing' but the references to John as witness for chronological computation suggest that his work was actually a chronicle. The identification of this John is uncertain. Two Johns are mentioned in the preface of Michael's Chronicle: John of Antioch (i.e. John Malalas) and John of Ephesus. In his preface (Chabot 1899: 2) Michael says that John of Antioch wrote a history covering the period from Theodosius to Justinian. Since John the Chronicler is mentioned by Michael as a source for the Jewish high priests, Michael is probably referring to an author distinct from John of Antioch. Chabot suggests to identify this chronicler with John of Kaisum on the basis of a Syriac note to the Arabic translation (Chabot 1899: 479). The passage where John of Kaisum is quoted seems however to refer to events of his own time and not to previous ones (so Baumstark 1922: 294) and hence the identification is unlikely. An identification with John of Litarba is not to be excluded. However, he is quoted in other passages with his epithet. This suggests that the generic 'John' in our reference should be considered to be another, unknown person. He may have written in Greek.