Question-and-Answer Literature

Question-and-answer literature, also known by its Greek name erotapokriseis, is a genre of Byzantine and late antique literature written as a series of questions and answers in the form of a dialogue between an anonymous or lightly characterized teacher and pupil. Its topics include Christian doctrine, biblical interpretation, canon law, cosmology and riddles, and its answers are generally offered as gnomai, or dogmatic truths, rather than as open arguments. The genre began around the year 400 and reached its greatest popularity between the seventh and ninth centuries, later declining before a revival in the fifteenth century.