Ce travail de thèse porte sur l’édition, la traduction et le commentaire de la Description du Tableau représentant le monde par Jean de Gaza. Ce poème de sept cent trente-deux vers (29 trimètres iambiques et 703 hexamètres) écrit en grec est datable de la première moitié du VIe siècle. La nouvelle édition s’appuie non seulement sur l’examen du témoin principal, le Parisinus Suppl. gr. 384, mais aussi sur la mise en perspective des copies apographes et des éditions anciennes. La traduction, en français, est le premier travail de ce type proposé dans une langue moderne. Les notes ont pour finalité d’aider la compréhension de la lettre du texte. Le commentaire, quant à lui, s’organise autour de deux thèmes : d’une part la relation entre la Description rhétorique et l’iconographie qui peut lui être associée, de l’autre des considérations sur la poétique de Jean de Gaza à travers l’étude littéraire, intertextuelle et philosophique du poème. Les Annexes comportent un lexique, la scansion intégrale du poème, les illustrations, la bibliographie, les indices et tables et la table des matières. / The aim of the present doctoral dissertation is to edit, translate and comment the Description of the Depiction of the World by John of Gaza. One can date this seven hundred and thirty two verses poem (29 trimetres and 703 hexametres) written in Greek to the first part of the VIth Century A.D. The new edition of the poem relies on studying the main manuscript (Parisinus Suppl. gr. 384) as well as considering the apograph copies and the ancient editions. The translation into French is the first work of that type ever offered in any modern language.The notes help the direct understanding of the text. The commentary is divided according to two prospective: first, the relation between the rhetorical Description and the associated iconography, second, some considerations about John of Gaza’s Poetic through the literary, intertextual and philosophical study of his poem. The Annexes contain a lexicon, the integral scansion of the poem, illustrations, bibliography, indices and tables and the general table of contents.

From its beginnings, Christianity has been fundamentally conditioned by the idea of repentance. However, while the institutional practice of repentance in the early Christian world has received much scholarly attention, relatively little exists which deals with the development and applications of the wider concept (of which its institutional aspect is only a part). The purpose of this dissertation is to provide both a re-assessment and a re-framing of this foundational concept of repentance in Christian late antiquity, with special reference to formative Greek monastic sources from the fifth to seventh centuries. Following a discussion of scholarship, terms, and methodology in chapter one, the question of defining repentance in the Greek patristic world is addressed in chapter two, looking first at the major sources for later approaches (the Septuagint, the New Testament, and Classical/Hellenistic texts). A significant re-appraisal of the dominant scholarly narrative of repentance in the early church will be offered in the following chapter, making way for a close study of the chosen monastic authors: Mark the Monk, Barsanuphius and John of Gaza, and John Climacus in turn. A threefold framework whereby their respective approaches to repentance can be understood in their integrity and diversity will be suggested, involving 1) initial or 'cognisant' repentance, in which the sinner recognizes his or her fallen state and turns it heavenward; 2) 'existential' repentance, which involves the living out of repentance as a way of life, governing all the Christian's actions and intentions; 3) 'Christ-like' repentance, which serves as the summit and ultimate goal of the Christian's personal repentance, whereby the loving and sacrificial 'repentance' of Christ for others and the world at large is assimilated and worked out in the Christian's own life. It will be argued that this framework provides a new and significant hermeneutical lens through which not simply the early Christian concept of repentance in itself can be better understood, but also through which the development of early Christian self-identity and self-perception, particularly in an ascetic context, can be gauged.