Month: April 2010

From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

What happened to my evening?!  It sort of disappeared!

First I had to deinstall Office XP from my PC, then install Office 2007.  Then Microsoft wanted to download some updates — about 1Gb of them!  I did some, and waited and waited, and then decided the rest could wait.

Then I had to scan a few pages of Iturbe’s edition of the Arabic version of a Coptic catena containing fragments of Eusebius’ Gospel Problems.  The Arabic is much more complete than the Coptic original, you see.  The translators of the Coptic wanted to see some more.  So I did that, and then uploaded the new PDF.  It took a while at 600 dpi, which is more than I would usually use.  But Arabic has all these little letters, distinguished only by dots.  Not much choice, but high resolution really.

Then a correspondant has sent me a sample of a translation of sermon by Severian of Gabala.  It’s a little awkward, and English is not his first language.  Bang that over to a reviewer.  Then the reviewer comes back to say that three sentences isn’t really long enough — true — and so I write again for some more.

Meanwhile the same chap turns out to be a Severian enthusiast, who has translated one of Severian’s sermons extant in Armenian, in a publication to which I have no access.  This is really interesting.  But he also asks if I have the Savile edition of Chrysostom which contains some otherwise unpublished sermons.  Well I do; but in PDF’s which are a Gigabyte in size.  How to upload those?

And so on it goes.  And somehow, there’s no more time, and the uploads are still going on, and I need to go to bed!

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Eusebius, De sollemnitate paschalis – translation done

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Angelo Mai retrieved various things from the margins of Vatican manuscripts in the 1820’s.  Among these was an epitome of another lost work by Eusebius of Caesarea, De sollemnitate paschalis (On the celebration of Easter).  This has never received a complete translation into English, although it is fairly short.

I commissioned a translation of it a couple of months back, and the first draft arrived today.  It’s an excellent and professional piece of work, as always with that translator. 

My original intention was to place the thing online.  I’m being slightly tempted instead to bundle it with the Gospel Problems and Solutions translation, and to think in terms of a volume of Minor works of Eusebius, rather than just the original idea.

Probably that’s a bad idea.  It’s taken long enough to get as close to completion with the Problems as we now are, and further delay would be involved if the scope expands.

Still tempting tho.

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Eusebius update 2

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I emailed someone this morning about transcribing the text of the Coptic fragments of Eusebius of Caesarea’s Gospel problems and solutions.  Rather to my surprise he did the first fragment then and there into unicode, and perfectly well.  I’m so used to delays on the Coptic that it is delightful to find someone getting on with it.

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Eusebius update

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Good news – the Greek text that the Sources Chretiennes sent me turns out to be exactly what they printed.  I had half the Ad Marinum checked, and there were no deviations. 

This means that all the Greek text has now been checked and is ready to go.

I’ve written to someone to type up the Coptic text in unicode.  That shouldn’t take too long.  I’ve put the translators of the Arabic and Coptic in contact, and they’re agreeing to disagree about the reading of some passage.  The Arabic is all done, translated and transcribed; the Coptic I think is probably the same.

I need to prepare the Latin text myself of the Ambrose fragments (unless someone else wants to, for money).  I need to assemble all the Greek in files in the right format.  And then…. we are basically done!  At that point it can be sent for typesetting.

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Greek texts from the library of the Patriarch in Jerusalem

Posted on by Roger Pearse

John Chrysostom was exiled from Constantinople at the instigation of the empress Eudoxia, assisted by Severian of Gabala.  But the people rioted before he had gone far, and Chrysostom was recalled.  An armistice was patched up between the two men.

In Migne there is a little group of three sermons, only in Latin, all headed De Pace — On Peace.  The first two are by Chrysostom, and refer to “our brother Severian”.  The third is by Severian himself in reply.

Quasten tells us that the latter is only fragments, and that the full Greek text only appeared in print at the hands of Papadopoulos-Kerameus, St. Petersburg in 1891, in vol. 1 of Analekta hierosolumitikes stakuologias, p.15-26.  My heart sank as I saw this, and contemplated how on earth I would ever even locate such a volume. 

Slightly hopelessly I entered his name in Google; and a list on Archive.org came up.  And here it is, courtesy of the good and generous people at Harvard Library, who have given freely of their store to the world!  There’s also a catalogue of manuscripts in that library.

Looking at the PDF of vol. 1, after the prologue in Greek, sure enough, on p. 15 (Roman numerals; p.50 of the PDF), is the sermon peri eirenes, taken from ms. Saba 32, fol. 130a-135b.  Migne’s Latin text is printed in parallel where it exists; no translation where it does not.

Anyone fancy translating it into English, for money?

On p.556 of the PDF is a list of contents.  Any care to give us an idea of that lot in English?  I can see it starts with Andrew of Crete, then Severian, then Paulinus’ Life of Ambrose…

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Problems with Berchman’s translation of the fragments of Porphyry “Against the Christians”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve been looking at Harnack’s edition of the fragments of Porphyry’s work against the Christians, and comparing bits of Berchman’s translation against it.  Berchman did not translate Harnack, but had his own ideas; nevertheless, we can connect the two.

Fragment 21, from Jerome’s prologue to his commentary on Galatians, reads:

Quod nequaquam intelligens Bataneotes et sceleratus ille Porphyrius in I. operis sui adversum nos libro Petrum a Paulo obiecit esse reprehensum, quod non recto pede incederet ad evangelizandum, volens et illi maculam erroris inurere et huic procacitatis et in commune ficti dogmatis accusare mendacium, dum inter se ecclesiarum principes discrepent.

which Berchman renders as:

Porphyry, completely ignorant and criminal, in the first volume of his work against us, says that Peter was reprimanded by Paul, that he did not go out immediately to evangelize. And thus he wanted to brand him with the blemish of error, the lie of impertinence, and of publicly fictitious teaching because between these princes of the church there were difficulties.

Now this didn’t look very good to me, not least because which bit renders “Bataneotes”.  Searching for this word, I discovered that the 19th century Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers translation had included this prologue, and renders this passage thus:

That wretch Porphyry Bataneotes [*] by no means understood this, and, therefore, in the first book of the work which he wrote against us, he raised the objection that Peter was rebuked by Paul for not walking uprightly as an evangelical teacher. His desire was to brand the former with error and the latter with impudence, and to bring against us as a body the charge of erroneous notions and false doctrine, on the ground that the leaders of the Churches are at variance among themselves.

[*] Probably from Batanea, the ancient Bashan, where Porphyry is said to have been born.

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An opportunity to translate some of Severus Sebokht

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The Syriac scientist Severus Sebokht lived in the mid-7th century in Syria and was possibly the most learned man of his day.  He lived at the great monastery of Kinnesrin, which was noted for Greek studies.  He is the first western writer to refer to what we today call “arabic numerals”. 

Two works by him have been translated into French; On the astrolabe and On the constellations.  The French translation of the former was run into English, and I scanned that and placed it online.  I translated part of the latter and also placed that online.

I also dumped whatever information I had on him online here.

Most of his works have never been published.  A lot of them are to be found in a manuscript in the French National Library in Paris, ms. Syr. 346.  I obtained a PDF of a microfilm of this years ago.

I’ve had an offer today by a chap who is fluent in both Syriac and Arabic to translate some of it.  I think I’ll take him up on this!

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Eusebius’ lost work against Porphyry – extant in 1838?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Eusebius’ refutation of Porphyry’s attack on the Christians is lost; but it seems it may not have been lost that long ago.

Does anyone know whether there are manuscripts still in Rodosto, a town 60 miles west of Istanbul and now known as Tekirdag? Or if not, where the mss of the expelled Greek community now are?

I ask because of references to manuscripts of Eusebius of Caesarea against Porphyry. There is a statement in Harnack’s edition of the fragments of Porphyry’s Against the Christians, p.30:

A listing of manuscripts in Rodosto, written between 1565 and 1575, on p.30b: Eusebiou tou Pamphilou Kata Porphuriou (s. Forster, De antiquitatibus et libris ms. Constantinopolitanis, Rostochii, 1877; cf. Neumann in Theol. Lit. Ztg. 1899, col. 299). In 1838 a great fire broke out in Rodosto.

It would be most interesting to know whether this ms. exists anywhere.   Does anyone know who would know?

I wonder if Forster and Neumann are online.

Harnack’s next paragraph continues with a statement that an ms. in the Iviron monastery on Mt. Athos, codex 1280 (s. XVII) which contains Eusebius, biblos peri ths euangekiwn diaphwnias; Eis thn prophhthn Hsaian logoi t konta [sic]; [Kata] Porphyriou logoi l’ [sic]; topikon logos a’ etc (see Meyer, Ztschr. fur. K.-Gesch. XI, p.156).

But this last is probably a red herring.  Long ago I scanned and translated MEYER, Ph., Der griechische Irenäus und der ganze Hegesippus im 17. Jahrhundert, Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte (1890) pp. 155-158 (English translation).

Iviron 1280 mainly contains church music, but at the end is a letter with a couple of pages containing merely a list of books, which mentions Hegesippus, Irenaeus, Methodius against Porphyry, plus Eusebius Against Porphyry and his Biblical Questions (diaphonias).

There are a number of these lists from the renaissance and later in existence. Nigel Wilson has written that at least some of them look like the productions of dealers in the East, intended to draw in the too eager western buyer in order to do a ‘bait-and-switch’ scam. One of them even looks like a deliberate joke.

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A novel from the Theodosian Code

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The emperor Theodosius II drew up a legal code in the 430’s AD, which reduced Roman law to a manageable proportion.  Further enactments were known as “novels”, and were added on the end.  This one caught my eye, while browsing the English translation by Pharr.

Notice how the emperor blames those he intends to persecute for his own actions.  Notice also what he says about the destruction of the economy caused by over-taxation and the stripping of the soil to provide food for the dole-fed mobs in Rome and Constantinople.

The list of heresies is also interesting, containing not just Manichaeans — perceived as a security risk for their links to Persia — but also various flavours of Montanists.   The Priscillianists were a rigorist group from the west.  The Borborites were a gnostic group of filthy morals.

TITLE 3: JEWS, SAMARITANS, HERETICS, AND PAGANS (DE JUDAEIS, SAMARITANIS, HAERETICIS, ET PAGANIS)

Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian Augustuses to Florentius, Praetorian Prefect.

Among the other anxieties which Our love for the State has imposed upon Us for Our ever watchful consideration, We perceive that an especial responsibility of Our Imperial Majesty is the pursuit of the true religion. If We shall be able to hold fast to the worship of this true religion, We shall open the way to prosperity in human undertakings. This We have learned by the experience of Our long life, and by the decision of Our pious mind We decree that the ceremonies of sanctity shall be established by a law of perpetual duration, even to posterity.

1. For who is so demented, so damned by the enormity of strange savagery, that, when he sees the heavens with incredible swiftness define the measures of time within their spaces under the sway of the divine guidance, when he sees the movements of the stars which control the benefits of life, the earth richly endowed with the harvests, the waters of the sea, and the vastness of this immense achievement confined within the boundaries of the natural world, he does not seek the author of so great a mystery, of so mighty a handiwork? We learn that the Jews, with blinded senses, the Samaritans, the pagans, and the other breeds of heretical monsters dare to do this. If We should attempt by a remedial law to recall them to the sanity of an excellent mind, they themselves will be blameworthy for Our severity, since they leave no place for pardon by the obstinate wickedness of their unyielding arrogance.

2. Wherefore, since according to the ancient maxim no cure must be employed for hopeless diseases, in order that these deadly sects, oblivious of Our age, may not spread too wantonly into the life of Our people like an indistinguishable confusion, We finally sanction by this law destined to live in all ages, that no Jew, no Samaritan, who does not rely on either law shall enter upon any honors or dignities; to none of them shall the administration of a civil duty be available, nor shall they perform even the duties of a defender. Indeed We believe that it is wrong that persons hostile to the Supernal Majesty and to the Roman laws should be considered the avengers of Our laws under the protection of a surreptitious jurisdiction; that they should be protected by the authority of a dignity thus acquired; that they should have the power to judge or to pronounce whatever sentence they may wish against the Christians and very often against the bishops themselves of the holy religion, as if they were insulting Our faith.

3. With an equally reasonable consideration also, We prohibit any synagogue to arise as a new building, but license is granted to strengthen the ancient synagogues which threaten immediately to fall in ruin.

4. To these regulations We add the provision that if any person should seduce a slave or a freeborn person, against his will or by punishable persuasion, from the worship of the Christian religion to an impious sect or ritual, he shall suffer capital punishment, together with the forfeiture of his fortune.

5. If any person of these sects, therefore, has assumed the insignia of office, he shall not possess the dignities which he has acquired, and if he has erected a synagogue, he shall know that he has labored for the profit of the Catholic Church. Furthermore, if any of these persons has stolen into a position of honor, he shall be considered, as previously, of the lowest condition, even though he should have obtained an honorary dignity. If anyone of them should begin the building of a synagogue, not with the desire merely to repair it, in addition to the loss of fifty pounds of gold, he shall be deprived of his audacious undertaking. Besides, he shall perceive that his goods are proscribed and that he himself shall immediately be destined to the death penalty, if he should overthrow the faith of another by his perverted doctrine.

6. Since it behooves Our Imperial Majesty to embrace all contingencies in such a provision that the public welfare may not be injured in any way, We decree that the decurions of all municipalities and also the gubernatorial apparitors, shall be bound to their onerous duties, even those of the imperial service, or to the various obligations of their resources and the duties of their personal compulsory services, and they shall adhere to their own orders, of whatsoever sect they may be. Thus We shall not appear on account of the contumely of corrupt solicitation to grant the favor of exemption to men who are execrable, since it is Our will that they shall be condemned by the authority of this constitution.

7. The following exception shall be observed, namely, that apparitors who are members of the aforesaid sects shall execute the sentences of judges only in private suits, and they shall not be in charge of the custody of prisons, lest Christians, as customarily happens, may at times be thrust into prison by the hatred of their guards and thus suffer a second imprisonment, when it is not certain that they appear to have been rightfully imprisoned.

8. Hence Our Clemency perceives that We must exercise watchfulness over the pagans also and their heathen enormities, since with their natural insanity and stubborn insolence they depart from the path of the true religion. They disdain in any way to practice the nefarious rites of their sacrifices and the false doctrines of their deadly superstition in the hidden solitudes, unless their crimes are made public by the nature of their profession, to the outrage of the Supernal Majesty and to the contempt of Our times. A thousand terrors of the laws that have been promulgated, the penalty of exile that has been threatened, do not restrain them, whereby, if they cannot be reformed, at least they might learn to abstain from their mass of crimes and from the corruption of their sacrifices. But straightway they sin with such audacious madness and Our patience is so assailed by the attempts of these impious persons that even if We desired to forget them, We could not disregard them. Therefore, although the love of religion can never be secure, although their pagan madness demands the harshness of all kinds of punishments, nevertheless We are mindful of the clemency that is innate in Us, and We decree by an unshakable order that if any person of polluted and contaminated mind should be apprehended in making a sacrifice in any place whatsoever, Our wrath shall rise up against his fortunes, against his life. For We must give this better victim, and the altar of Christianity shall be kept inviolate. Shall we endure longer that the succession of the seasons be changed, and the temper of the heavens be stirred to anger, since the embittered perfidy of the pagans does not know how to preserve these balances of nature? For why has the spring renounced its accustomed charm? Why has the summer, barren of its harvest, deprived the laboring farmer of his hope of a grain harvest? Why has the intemperate ferocity of winter with its piercing cold doomed the fertility of the lands with the disaster of sterility? Why all these things, unless nature has transgressed the decree of its own law to avenge such impiety? In order that we may not hereafter be compelled to sustain such circumstances, by a peaceful vengeance, as We have said, the venerable majesty of the Supernal Divinity must be appeased.

9. It remains to be said, O Florentius, dearest and most beloved Father, that all inaction shall cease and that the regulations shall be put into swift execution which have been issued in innumerable constitutions against the Manichaeans, always odious to God, against the Eunomians, authors of heretical folly, against the Montanists, the Phrygians, the Photinians, the Priscillianists, the Ascodrogians, the Hydroparastatae, the Borboritae, and the Ophitans.

10. Therefore, since it is dear to your heart to exercise implicit obedience to both the divine and the imperial commands, Your Illustrious and Magnificent Authority, by duly posting edicts of Your Excellency shall cause to come to the knowledge of all that which We have decreed for the insatiable honor of the Catholic religion. You shall also direct that these commands shall be announced to the governors of the provinces, so that by their like solicitude they may make known to all the municipalities and provinces what We have necessarily sanctioned.

Given on the day before the kalends of February at Constantinople in the year of the sixteenth consulship of Our Lord Theodosius Augustus and the consulship of the one who is to be announced. 19 January 31, 438.

INTERPRETATION: This law specifically orders that no Jew and no Samaritan can attain any honor of the imperial service or of an administrative office. In no manner can they undertake the office of defender or be guards of a prison, lest perchance under the pretext of any duty they may dare to harass with outrages on some occasion the Christians or even their priests, or lest the above mentioned persons who are enemies of Our law might presume to condemn or to judge some person by Our own laws. They shall not dare to construct a synagogue anew. For if they should do this, they shall know that this structure will profit the Catholic Church and that the authors of the construction must be fined fifty pounds of gold. But they shall know that the concession is made to them that they must repair the ruins of their synagogues. The regulation is also specifically included in this law that no Jew shall dare to convert a Christian, either slave or freeborn, to his own religion by any persuasion whatsoever. If he should commit this offense, he shall forfeit his resources and suffer capital punishment. As for the remainder, this law condemns the sects whose names are listed and contained in the law.

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