Month: August 2009

Caistor St Edmund (Venta Icenorum) from the A140

Posted on by Roger Pearse
Caistor St Edmunds from the A140
Caistor St Edmund from the A140

To Norwich, to saunter in the sunshine and the humidity.  One pleasure of approaching the city from the south, up the A140, is the sudden view across the valley to the right.  There to the east in the distance is a rectangular field bordered by what look very like ramparts.  (Click on the image above to get the full-size picture)

And ramparts they are, with stone still peeping out, white against the grass.  For this is the site of the Roman city of Venta Icenorum, Caistor St Edmund as it is known today.  In the top right corner stands a medieval church, surrounded by trees in the churchyard.  No doubt the first church was built in Saxon times, sheltering in a corner of the old city.  In the middle of the near side is a gap in the bushes, and indeed a gap in the rampart, for this is the west gate of the city.  Aerial photographs in the dry season caused a sensation, revealing the street layout.

On the way back I stopped the car and took a couple of photographs.  Here’s a cropped version of one of them.  The view is actually better on the other side of the road, which is higher, but the A140 is very busy and I took enough of a risk stopping as it was, even for you, dear reader!

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Untranslated portion of Chrysostom vs Jews – translator found

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Further to this post, a Chrysostom scholar has written to me and expressed interest in having a go at translating this “lost” portion of Oratio 2 against the Jews by John Chrysostom.  I’ve offered my usual terms, and he’s going to look at the Pradels text and (German) translation and see what he thinks.

My intention is to make the translation public domain.  Chrysostom’s sermons against the Jews are found in English in various places on the web (some of them polemical anti-Jewish sites).  My intention would be to try to get all these sites to add the extra material on the bottom of their version, and thereby ensure that the full text is the one available everywhere, rather than the mutilated version. 

In that way the damage would finally be healed, and become a historical footnote.  If I don’t do that, it is likely that the translation of the extra material will simply be forgotten, and the “vulgate” text of this oration (about 30% of the whole thing) will remain the standard text.

 

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If you could take 6 months off, what would you do?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

We’re all getting older, and earning a living is what we tend to do.  Every week much the same as the rest, often doing things we don’t especially like or dislike, month after month, year after year… and suddenly we’re old, tired, ready to retire, and wondering why “life” was something that happened to someone else.

With the recession, some of us will be forced to spend months at home, living off our savings.  Some of the time will be spent looking for work, but that’s often only a small part of it.  But … what could we do? 

I’ve been wondering about this myself.  Is there any way one could simply go off for six months, or a year, and work in some scholarly environment in Rome, or the US, or somewhere, doing something completely different, mixing with people — which in my case is something that normally happens infrequently — perhaps doing some teaching, or whatever?

Surely it should be possible, particularly if we pay our own way and don’t ask for much money?

Does anyone have any ideas?  What could be done?

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

To Cambridge, to obtain a photocopy of Sbath’s Vingt traites.  The copiers double as scanners, and I tried to scan rather than photocopy but they defeated me.  Various puzzled-looking people were trying to work out how to charge their cards for the photocopier.  So I now have a pile of photocopies, and a PDF of Sbath.

Item 20 in the collection looks interesting: “20.  Of the way in which the truth of religion should be understood, by Hunain ibn Ishaq, Nestorian physician and philosopher, died 873.  Followed by the explication of this treatise by Yohanna ben Mina, a coptic writer of the 12th century.”  I might try commissioning a translation of that.  It’s 20 pages,  I think.

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The lost part of John Chrysostom’s second sermon against the Jews

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Another forgotten paper has emerged from my pile during scanning of articles, and reminds me that I need a translator; someone who can handle Chrysostom.

John Chrysostom preached eight sermons against the Jews during his time at Antioch.  The second of these is markedly shorter than the others; about 30% of the size.  This led researcher Wendy Pradels to wonder whether the text was damaged, and to search for manuscripts.  Her article on the search is here, and in 1999 her persistence was rewarded by the discovery of an unknown manuscript in Lesbos which contained the full version of the sermon. In 2001 she published the extra text, with a German translation, and I have just come across my copy of it.

But as far as I know, no English version of this exists.  I wonder whether a scholar would be interested in making me a translation!

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Thinking about Sbath’s “twenty philosophical and theological treatises”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A few weeks ago I had a gentleman write to me offering his services to translate some Arabic stuff, for money.  His CV on the face of it seemed good, and I was wondering  what I could offer him to do. So I enquired in the North American Society for Arabic Christian Studies group whether anyone knew of any short but interesting Arabic Christian texts that might usefully be translated.

A reply popped up a couple of days ago, from Sasha Trieger, suggesting some of the treatises published by Paul Sbath in Cairo in 1929 as Vingt traités philosophiques et theologiques (Cairo, 1929). There is a French introduction and notes, but apparently few have been translated into any other language. 

Of course the first problem is simply to get hold of the book.  There are three copies in the UK, so I learn from COPAC.  One is in Cambridge.  Well, I could go there.  Unfortunately they have closed their car park next week for resurfacing, which makes it difficult; other car parks charge meanly high prices, out of an elitist anti-car ideology.  The book is 200 pages, which might take a bit of copying.  Still, maybe the car park will be open tomorrow.  A quick check reveals that it will, at least to 5pm.  It will cost me around $30 in petrol to get there, plus photocopying charges.  Hmm.

I can’t help noticing how inefficient this pre-internet way of publishing was!  Just to work on a text involves unnecessary awkwardness.  But back to the contents.

Dr. T. listed the contents, by author. Unfortunately I’m pretty ignorant of Arabic Christian authors.  So I thought it might be fun to expand the list.  I grabbed Graf’s majestic handbook, pulled down the index, and let’s see just what’s what.

  • Ibn Zur`a (Nos. 1-4).  Graf 2, pp. 252-254. 

This chap was born in 943 in Baghdad, died 16 April 1008.   He was a Jacobite.  Sbath pp. 6-19 is a letter to a Moslem friend on the attributes of God.   pp.19-52 is a letter to a Jew in 4 chapters.  pp. 52-68 is an apologetic treatise against Islam. pp. 68-75 is another apologetic work, “On the Trinity. 

Ibn Zur`a also wrote treatises in response to questions about biblical contradictions; another with 12 answers to further questions such as the historical existence of Christ; a treatise on the single nature of Christ; two more on monophysite theology; and finally one on why Christians can make use of logic and philosophy.  All the treatises are short, and many sound as if they could use attention. The only ones published are the first four, the rest being still in manuscript.

  • Elias of Nisibis (No. 5), Graf II 177-189.

Clearly an important chap, from the length of his entry!  So what does Dr. Graf have to say about him?  Born 975, died after 1049. He was a Nestorian monk, then bishop, in Mosul.  He wrote a big Chronicle in Syriac, which we have in his own hand, with a parallel Arabic translation, also in his own hand for the most part.  He composed a Syriac-Arabic dictionary.  He wrote lots, apparently.  Sbath pp.75-103 is a theological treatise on the creation and the trinity.

  • Sam’an ibn Kalil (No. 6),

 I couldn’t find this author in Graf.

  • Ibn `Assal (Nos. 7-8),

Nor this one.

  • `Abdallah ibn al-Fadl (No. 9), Graf II. 52-64.

This one was a Melchite, and sometime Metropolitan of Antioch, ca. 1052 AD.  He was also a translator from Greek, translating the commentary on the Six Days of Creation by Basil the Great, and sermons of Chrysostom.  Unfortunately Graf does not indicate which of his works is edited here by Sbath.

  • Daniyal ibn al-Khattab (No. 10), Graf II 281-284, as “Daniel ibn al-Hattab”.

Born 1327, died sometime after 1382.  A Jacobite from Mardin, but lived in Egypt.  Sbath pp. 148-151 contain five chapters of his “Dogmatic compendium”, which has also been translated into French by Sbath on Revue de l’Or. chret. 22 (1920-21), p. 203.  The first 14 chapters of the work are intended as a reply to Elias of Nisibis.

  • Ishoyab ibn Malkun (Nos.  11-14),

I can’t find him in Graf.

  • Yahya ibn `Adi (Nos. 15-17), Graf II 233-249.

Another Jacobite, born in 893 at Tikrit, went to Baghdad and studied in the philosophical school there.  Died 13 August 974.  A voluminous writer.  Sbath  pp. 168-171 contain a treatise on the truth of the Gospel, using syllogisms. p. 171f is another similar treatise;  p. 172-175 on the credal statement, “He became flesh by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary.”

  • Abu al-Khayr ibn al-Tayyib (No.  18), Graf II 344-348

A Copt, writing between 1204 and 1245.  Sbath p. 176-178 prints an extract only of his book “The medicine of understanding”, 24 chapters against the attacks of Moslem polemicists.

  • Abu al-Faraj ibn al-Tayyib (No. 19), Graf II 160-176.

An Iraqi Nestorian, philosopher, physician, monk and priest in the first half of the 11th century.  Another voluminous writer, including massive biblical commentaries on the Psalms and Gospels.  Sbath prints p.179f, a work on miracles and philosophy.

  • Hunayn ibn Ishaq, with a commentary by Yuhanna ibn Mina (No. 20).   Graf II p.122 f.
Of course we all know Hunain, as the translator of so many Greek scientific works at the court of the Abbassid caliphs, especially Galen.  Sbath p.181-185 includes a work, with commentary on 186-200, but with my dodgy German I can’t quite work out the subject!

So there we have it.  Does it make your blood tingle?  Because it certainly doesn’t mine!  Yes, we ought to have all this in English.  But I have to say that all this Trinitarian and Christological noodling seems dull to me.

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Eusebius, Eclogae Propheticae – Gaisford edition now online

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’m still going through piles of photocopies, turning them into PDF’s and throwing the paper copies out.  Occasionally I’m finding treasures.  I had forgotten that I paid the rare books room at Cambridge University Library 16.51 GBP — about $25 — to make a copy of the latest (1842!) edition of Eusebius of Caesarea’s Eclogae Propheticae. 

This curious work is three books of a now lost work, the General Elementary Introduction to Christianity, originally in 10 books.  The eclogae is books 6-9, found in a Vienna manuscript, and consisting mainly of extracts from the Septuagint Old Testament prophesying Christ, and for some reason always known as Eclogae Propheticae.  A few other scraps of the General Elementary Introduction exist; I suspect these will be fragments from catenas.

Gaisford’s edition is a little book, with a Latin introduction and no translation (drat the man).  I’ve created a PDF, and uploaded it to the web at Archive.org, here.  It’s about 28mb in size, although not searchable — I don’t have ancient Greek OCR capabilities! 

There has never been a translation of this work into English.  I am advised, tho, that such a translation would be very easy to make.  I know of at least one person working on Porphyry who has translated a large chunk of it for his own purposes, and may complete the work.  I seem to recall that someone else also has a projected translation.

If nothing emerges in a year or two, I may commission one.

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An old sick man defends himself and gets five years – an interview with Tony Martin

Posted on by Roger Pearse

It has been ten years since an old man named Tony Martin awoke in his remote Norfolk farmhouse and realised that a gang of professional thieves were breaking into his farmhouse.  Old, sick, alone but valiant, Martin reached for his only weapon, an old shotgun, and discharged it at the thieves.  By pure luck he injured one of them fatally and the others fled. 

Martin had been burgled repeatedly, and the police had done nothing.  That night Norfolk Constabulary were busy elsewhere, nicking motorists for minor traffic offences on the King’s Lynn bypass. When at last they did arrive, they promptly arrested Tony Martin and charged him with murder.  He was put on trial, and the liberal establishment threw the book at him.  But a public outcry ensured that he was convicted only of manslaughter. 

But the spite did not end there.  Most criminals would be released after serving half their sentence.  But Martin, brave to the last, refused to play the system and pretend remorse that he did not feel and that most of the country did not consider appropriate.  Meanwhile the media ran a campaign to blacken his name.  He was released after serving two-thirds of his sentence, when criminals are automatically released.

His assailants, of course, had been released long since and had committed a series of further crimes.

Martin has since been forgotten, but his case epitomises the feeling of most ordinary Britons, that the police, the courts, the law and the prison system are unjust and unfair and biased against them.  Tender and generous to a fault towards the villain, especially if coloured or otherwise favoured by the establishment, these institutions showed no mercy to a confused old man defending himself.

Today is the anniversary of this event, and the Daily Mail has an interview with Tony Martin.  He has never been able to go home, or to disclose his whereabouts.  As he remarks, “nothing has changed.”  The same events could happen today.

This is not a political blog, and will not become one.  But I see myself in Tony Martin, as so many ordinary people do.  While he remains unpardoned, and uncompensated, none of us can have any confidence in the criminal justice system.

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A couple more letters by Isidore of Pelusium

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Explanations of biblical passages form quite a portion of the letters.

1243 (IV.48) TO AMMONIUS

For fear of presumption,  a terrible ill from which one can escape with difficulty, lest we remain on earth and be deprived of the heavenly rewards, the Lord said:  “Now let us leave this place!” [John 14:31]  Indeed, having engaged His own power in the word which He spoke, He delivered his true disciples from tyrannical passions and made them pass into the celestial assembly.

The French editor, Pierre Evieux, tells is that the following letter is also preserved in the catenas on Romans found in two manuscripts, Vatican. gr. 762 (10th c.) and Vienna. Theol. gr. 166 (14th c.). 

In Romans 1:32, Paul condemns people who, not merely commit a sin, but even approve of those who do the same.  Theologios queries why it is wrong to consider those who encourage sin in others as worse than those who actually commit the sin themselves.  Isidore’s reply is interesting as showing that some were willing to suppose a corruption in the text here.

1244 (IV.60) TO THEOLOGIOS THE DEACON

Since you’ve provided us the occasion to return to the apostolic treasures — in fact you said:  ‘It says “Not only do they do this, but also they approve of those who do this” [Rom. 1:32] and you added:  If the approval is worse than the action itself, why did Paul adopt this order [of words] here?’ — call a little upon your good sense to work out the sense of the apostolic saying which is escaping you, and listen. 

There are some people who did not understand the quotation but which, being embarassed like yourself and supposing that the apostolic expressions are corrupt, have interpreted them this manner: “Not only are there  those who do this, but also those who approve those who do this.”  According to them, the primitive text was presented thus to make it understood that the action was the more serious and approval of it less serious.  For me, without saying that the apostolic books display an error in this passage, without siding either with those who did not understand — because perhaps, even if they are wrong on this passage, on others they are right, and they have caught the direction of passages that, for my part, I did not manage to understand — I will set out what I understood and will allow the judgement of the readers to decide if I am right. 

So, in my opinion, it is because to praise the culprits is much more wong and more serious from the point of view of the punishment that this sentence is relevant:   “Not only do they do this, but also they approve of those who do this.” Because he who condemns his sin after the misdeed will be able in time to repent one day, finding the judgment of the sin a very great help in changing his attitude;  while he who speaks in praise of the evil will deprive himself of the help which repentance procures.  So because this judgement concerns a corrupt conscience and a heart tainted with an incurable disease, he who speaks in praise of the fault of the culprit is rightly judged more culpable.  Because the one will very quickly be diverted from sin, the other not at all, according to whether the judgement relates to he who commits the misdeed or he  who approves it. 

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A bit more on the Zosimus affair

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Isidore of Pelusium writes to his friend Harpocras about the gang of corrupt clergy in Pelusium:

1285 (V.48) TO HARPOCRAS THE SOPHIST.

Undoubtedly it is to better endure insults in silence, like a philosopher, but your attitude is not without elegance either.  Indeed, as a victim of individuals known for their perversity, I mean Zosimus, Maron, Eustathios and Martinianos, you had found malicious to avenge yourself on them by bringing them to justice, but also reducing their supporters to silence:  then, you inflicted on these insolent men a verbal punishment, limiting it to sarcastic remarks which usually wound those at which they aim without being dangerous.  However, in my opinion, the initial reasoning which encouraged you to write is better than the text itself;  therefore I would advise you to add to it what is lacking, i.e. a noble attitude and language free from scandalmongering.  Because even if those people deserve to hear these sarcastic remarks and others even more severe, however it would be wrong for you to pronounce them, you whose language is a sanctuary of purity. 

Harpocras received 28 letters from Isidore, and was teaching in Pelusium.  He composed a monody against these clerics, which is mentioned several times in the correspondence (e.g. 1291, 1292).

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