Stephen of Thebes (or Stephen the Theban) was a Roman Egyptian Christian ascetic writer who flourished around AD 400. Although virtually nothing is known about his life and he is scarcely studied in recent times, his works were once widely disseminated, translated and excerpted. Originally composed in either Greek or Coptic, translations into Arabic, Ethiopic, Georgian and Old Slavonic are also known and some excerpts were translated into Armenian.
Life.
What is known of Stephen's life is limited to what can be inferred from his name and his writings. He was probably a native of Thebes or the Thebaid in Upper Egypt. He probably lived in the late fourth to early fifth century. He was an ascetic who probably lived at least for a period in the monastic communities of the Nitrian Desert in Lower Egypt. His writings belong to the same Nitrian literary milieu as the "Sayings of the Desert Fathers" and the works of Evagrius Ponticus.
Stephen's writings stress the close relationship between the ascetic and his cell, which is typical of the quasi-anchoritic Nitrian asceticism. Several later sources explicitly call him an anchorite. The catalogue of the library of the Coptic monastery of Apa Elias of the Rock, lists as an author "Apa Stephen the Anchorite", which is the same name under which his work was copied in the Greek manuscript Parisinus Graecus 1598. Ibn Kabar, in his "Lamp of Darkness", written in Arabic, places the annual remembrance of Stephen the Anchorite on Pashons 17 (May 7).
Stephen of Thebes may be the writer named Stephen who appears in two lists of Origenist writers in the "Lausiac History" of Palladius of Galatia, who wrote towards 420. Palladius claims that Melania the Elder read Origen, Gregory (either of Nyssa or Nazianzus), Stephen, Pierius and Basil, while Ammonius, one of the Tall Brothers, read six million lines of Origen, Pierius, Didymus the Blind and Stephen. Topically, Stephen of Thebes fits in these lists, but he is not known for his Origenist theology; Palladius may have had a different Stephen in mind.
In the past, Stephen has been erroneously identified with Stephen the Sabaite, who lived much later.
Writings.
Five writings attributed to Stephen are known. One is certainly spurious and the authenticity of two more has been questioned. Two are certainly by him:
In addition, Georg Graf assigned a sermon "On Penitence", found only in Arabic in six manuscripts, to Stephen of Thebes. He gave no argument and the attribution has nothing to recommend it.
Notes.
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Bibliography.
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