Month: July 2010

The Chronicle of Zuqnin, part IV — another chunk

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I translated here the start of part IV of the Chronicle of ps.Dionysius of Tell-Mahre, also known as the Chronicle of Zuqnin.  I thought I would do a little more.  Chabot prints a footnote on most lines, but I have omitted these.  He does say that the poll-tax imposed by the Moslems was actually brought in by `Umar, not by `Abd al-Malik, and references Bar Hebraeus (Chron. Syr. p. 103), Cedrenus and Theophanes for this.

Here is the next chunk of the Chronicle of Zuqnin.  As before, dates are in Anno Graecorum, the Seleucid Era, but Chabot has added dates AD after them.

In the year 943 (631-632), the king of the Arabs, Abubekr, died and was succeeded by Umar who reigned twelve years.

 [7] In the year 944 (632-633), the Roman emperor, Heraclius, went to Edessa. A battle took place at Gabita and the Persians withdrew in disorder from Mesopotamia.

In the year 948 (636-637), the Arabs invaded Mesopotamia and, after they had cut the Romans to pieces, their leader Yâdh reached Edessa.

In the year 952 (640-641), the Arabs besieged Dara and attacked the city. There were many dead on both sides, but especially the Arabs. Finally, a treaty was concluded, the city opened its doors and thereafter nobody else was killed.

That same year, they besieged Adabin, where a great multitude was put to death : up to twelve thousand Armenians [perished].

In the year 953 (641-642), the Arabs took possession of Caesarea in Palestine.

In the year 955 (643-644), the patrician Valentinus, general of the Romans, came to fight the Arabs. He was seized with fear in their presence and fled, leaving all the riches he had with him, which the Arabs seized.

That same year, Procopius and Theodore made an impetuous excursion to Batna-Sarug. They plundered and devastated the city and, having taken possession of everything they wanted, they returned to their country.

The Patriarch Athanasius was succeeded by John, his disciple.

At that time holy John, patriarch of Antioch; John, Bishop of the Arabs; Simeon [bishop] of Edessa, Matthew, Bishop of Aleppo, from the holy monastery of Zuqnin, and Mar Thomas, bishop of Amida, from the same monastery, became renowned.

 [8] In the year 956 (643-644), `Umar, King of the Arabs, died. His successor was `Uthman who reigned twelve years.

In the year 960 (648-649), Mo `awia invaded Cyprus, and the same year, Aradus was taken.

In the year 961 (649-650), Mar John, the patriarch of Antioch, died. He was buried in Amida in the church of Saint-Mar-Zo`ara.

The same year, holy Mar John, bishop of the Arabs died, who was buried at Amida in the church of St. John the Baptist.

That same year, also at Amida died holy Mar Simeon, Bishop of Edessa, who was also buried in the church of Mar-Zo `ara.

In the year 962 (650-651), Mar Theodore became patriarch of Antioch.  Edessa had as bishop [Cyriacus].

In the year 963 (651-652), the Arabs and the Romans fought a battle at Tripoli.

In the year 964 (652-653), Habib invaded Mesopotamia, and Procopius came to make peace with the Arabs.

In the year 965 (653-654), the Roman emperor, Heraclius, died after a reign of thirty-one years; and he was succeeded by Constantine the Younger, who reigned one year.

In the year 966 (654-655), this Constantine died and was replaced by another Constantine who reigned twenty-seven.

In the year 967 (655-656), `Uthman, King of the Arabs, died.

Discord arose between them, the region was disturbed, and the Arab people full of confusion. Misery multiplied on the earth, there was plenty of bloodshed among them and by them, because they did not want to submit to a single prince, but each one seized power, all wishing to reign. A general named Mo`awia, who was in the western region, was ambitious of power. The West loved him, picked him [9] and submitted to him, but the eastern region of Mesopotamia rejected him and elected another general called `Abbas, whom they established as king. Thus struggles and bloodshed began among them. They each watered the land with their blood. They fought many battles in all places, and a period of about five years passed in the midst of these discords and these struggles.

In the year 968 (656-657), a great battle was fought at Sofa between `Abbas and Mo`awia, and blood flowed freely on both sides.

In the year 973 (661-665), `Abbas was treacherously slain by his own nobles, on a Friday, while he was kneeling in prayer. Thereafter Mo`awia held sole power and reigned twenty-one years, including the five years that the discord and struggle between him and `Abbas lasted.

In the year 976 (664-665), died holy Mar Theodore, Patriarch of Antioch. He was succeeded by holy Mar Severus Bar-Mashka.

 [At Edessa, Bishop Mar Jacob succeeded Cyriacus.]

At that time shone the Persian Aaron, nicknamed the Persian interpreter.

In the year 988 (676-677), Mo`awia, king of the Arabs, died and was succeeded by Yazid who reigned three and a half years.

 [10] In the year 990 (678-679), on the third Sunday in the month of Nisan (April) there was a great and violent earthquake that toppled Batna-Saroug, and also the ancient church of Edessa, in which a large crowd perished.

In the year 992 (680-681), Yazid, King of the Arabs, died and Merwan reigned in his place for one year.

In the same year Constantine, Emperor of the Romans, died, to whom succeeded another Constantine for sixteen years.

In the year 993 (682-683), died Merwan, King of the Arabs.  He was succeeded by `Abd al-Malik, who reigned twenty-one years. In this reign occurred a dissension which lasted nine years during which the Arabs, refusing to obey a single ruler, never ceased to make war and spread misery.

In the year 994 (682 683), holy Mar Severus Bar-Mashka died and the Patriarchate remained vacant for five years because of the disagreements of the bishops.

In the year 999 (687-688), holy Athanasius was elected patriarch.

In the year 1002 (690-691), peace reigned, and, the entire region being willing to recognize `Abd al-Malik as sovereign, he ascended the throne.

In the year 1003 (691-692), `Abd al-Malik invented the Ta`dil, that is to say, he impose dit on the Syrians. He issued a stern edict that everyone should go to his own country to his home village, to register his name, his father, his vineyards, olive trees, his property, his children and all that possessed. Such was the origin of the poll-tax; such was the origin [11] of all the ills common to the Christians. Hitherto, indeed, the kings took tribute from the land, but not from men. Since then the children of Hagar have begun to impose the Egyptian bondage on the sons of Aram. But, woe to us! because we have sinned, slaves rule over us. — This was the first census that the Arabs made.

In the year 1014 (702-703), died `Abd el-Malik, King of the Arabs, after a reign of twenty-one years, including nine years of discord. Walid reigned in his place for nine years.

In the year 1015 (703-704), died holy Athanasius, patriarch of Antioch, who was succeeded by holy Mar Julian.

In the year 1016 (704-705), there was a great and violent plague on the earth, so that men were unable to bury all the dead. It occurred mainly in the region of Sarug. In this scourge seventy-two men died in the monastery of Mar Silas alone.

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Borrowings from Christianity in late paganism

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Quite by accident I encountered a paper by Andrew Fear in a Festschrift, entitled “Cybele and Christ.”[1]  In this article, he makes the interesting suggestion that late paganism started to adopt various features from Christianity.  His examples are the cult of Cybele, but probably the trend would be equally visible elsewhere.

There is the well known statement in the Historia Augusta [2] that Alexander Severus had a shrine in which he had statues of Moses, Orpheus, Apollonius of Tyana, and Jesus, alongside his ancestors.  This text is now known to be fourth century.  Indeed such an attitude towards Jesus is difficult to imagine in the second century, and not that easy in the early third century.  Jesus was a disreputable figure in that period, as the accusations of Celsus in Origen’s Contra Celsum, or of Caecilian — possibly copied from Fronto — in Minucius Felix’ Octavian make clear.

In the early fourth century, the idea of the sage was present to all.  In Eusebius’ Contra Hieroclem, we find discussion of the cult of Apollonius of Tyana, whom Hierocles had remanufactured as a pagan Jesus as part of the Great Persecution in the reign of Diocletian in the late third century.  Eusebius attacks this; but he makes the interesting statement that he would otherwise treat Apollonius as a sage, someone of wisdom and knowledge, advocating virtue, and in a way laying the groundwork for the Christian gospel.  In all this we see the germ of the later Byzantine habit of treating pagan philosophers rather like Jewish prophets, both predicting the coming of Christ; although the collections of sayings of the philosophers that were used to prove this all seem to be bogus!

But what of Cybele?  Was the cult redesigned in the mid fourth century, to adopt certain elements of Christianity?  It’s an intriguing idea.  Fear refers to the “resurrection” of Attis, recorded by Firmicus Maternus ca. 350 AD, and dismissed by him as a new fabrication in response to official pressure on a discreditable cult.  Julian the Apostate refers to Cybele as a virgin goddess [3]. That description makes nonsense of the key cult myth.  This may be summarised as follows.

In this, Attis is the boyfriend of Cybele.  One day he goes off and shags a nymph, and his missus finds out.  She drives him mad, he chops his willy off while under the influence and dies.  Then she calms down and decides this wasn’t a good idea.  She asks Father Zeus to resurrect Attis.  Zeus, no mean shagger himself, disapproves of this adultery=castration myth, and declines.  The most he will do is preserve the dead body.  And there the myth ends.

The myth makes no sense if Cybele is a virgin goddess, and still less when the fertility aspects of the cult are considered.  But the Christian cult of the Virgin Mary explains all — someone felt it necessary to attribute this idea to Cybele.  Julian himself tries to get the pagan priesthoods to do the social work that the Christians do, to try to compete.  His Hymn to the Mother of the Gods is still extant.

But the most interesting element of this is the 5th century work, the Life of Proclus by his successor Marinus, online here.  Fear suggests that Proclus composed a “bible” for the cult, although the actual statement is more prosaic:

33. But if I was to enumerate all the facts of this kind, and to report the particular devotion which he held for Pan, son of Hermes, the great favors he received, and the numerous times he was, in Athens, saved by intervention of the divinity, and to relate in detail the protections and the advantages he received from the Mother of the Gods, of which he was particularly proud and happy, I would no doubt seem chattering vainly, to those who may light on this book by chance, and some may even think I am saying things little worthy of belief. For there were a considerable number of episodes, that were of almost daily occurrence, when this goddess [Cybele] spoke or acted in his favor; and their number and character are so unusual that I myself do not have their exact and precise memory.

If anyone desires to know with what favor he was attached to this goddess, let him read Proclus’s book on the Mother of the Gods, and it will be seen that with inspiration from on high he has been able to expound the whole theology relative to the goddess, and to explain philosophically all that the liturgical actions and the oral instructions mythically teach us about the goddess, and Attis, so that they will no longer be troubled by those seemingly absurd lamentations [for Attis] and all the secret traditions related in her ceremonies.

Certainly, however, we see the philosopher composing a tract describing a “theology”, and explaining away all the discreditable stuff about Attis and his self-castration by allegory.  It is unlikely that any such effort would be felt necessary before the fourth century.

I think we could use a proper list of borrowings, from primary sources.  The material given by Andrew Fear is a good start, but it is partial.  Paganism was syncretic.  If there was useful material to be borrowed, there was no reason not to do so.  But specific evidence would be most interesting to see.

1. A. T. Fear, “Cybele and Christ” in Eugene N. Lane (ed.), Cybele, Attis and Related Cults: Essays in Memory of M. J. Vermaseren. Religions in the Greco-Roman World, 131. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996. Pp. vi + 441. $138. ISBN 90-04-10196-9.  Mostly online here.
2. “Alexander Severus”, 29.
3. “Against the Galileans”, 262D.

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A little light dusting and the Chronicle of Zuqnin

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I have a tendency to have Word documents on my Windows Desktop.  A couple of these have been staring at me for a while now, and I decided that I needed to do something about them.  What, I wondered, was “denys.doc”?

Well, it related to this post; the opening portion of the fourth part of the Syriac Chronicle of ps.Dionysius of Tell-Mahre, otherwise known as  the Chronicle of Zuqnin from the place where the manuscript was found.  I must have scanned the opening pages — although I don’t seem to have that scan now — and perhaps I worked on them on another PC.  Anyway I have tidied them away.  But the material was certainly interesting, relating to the end of the Roman period and the Moslem invasions.  The French was easy enough, and online.  I may look at this a  bit more this evening.

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From my diary: Problems with the Nielsen UK ISBN Agency

Posted on by Roger Pearse

One of the minor pieces of bureaucracy in publishing a book is getting an ISBN for it.  The International Standard Book Number is something all books need to have.

The translation of Eusebius Gospel Problems and Solutions will be published in the UK, which means that I have to apply to the Nielsen UK ISBN Agency for a block of 10 ISBNs.  They have a website, with a form.  Unfortunately it is the sort of PDF form you have to download, print off, and fill in by hand.  But you can send the result in as a scanned PDF by email.  They also expect you to fill in your credit card details in that PDF form and send it in, insecurely.  I didn’t like that bit at all!

They don’t seem very efficient, tho.  I emailed in a form on Thursday.  I heard nothing on Friday.  On Saturday I emailed one page again with a correction, and asked for an acknowledgement.  This morning (Monday) I got a note that they had received the one page, but not the rest.  So I email in the original PDF again.  I get no reply.  A couple of hours later I email asking whether they got it.  And I get a note from someone else “thanking me for my application.”  What’s the betting that my correction gets lost?

These people charge $150 for this trivial service, which could (and should) be a webpage automatically allocating them.  And they want me to wait 10 days.  I don’t know who made these muppets into the gods of the UK book industry, and I need to be on holiday, not worrying about it.  Oh well.

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Religious persecution in Britain today

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I happened to see this item, which succintly highlights why Christians in the UK are in trouble.  The writer omits to mention the attempt by the last government to make any statement about homosexuality other than warmest approval liable to prosecution.  Attempts to introduce a free speech clause were repeatedly voted down.  A government minister gloated that the churches had better start hiring lawyers — in a country where no-one other than the privileged can afford to go to law.

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Severian of Gabala, sermon 1 on Genesis online

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A little while back I started translating the six sermons of Severian of Gabala on Genesis from the French version of Bareille.  Not that this process  has any scholarly value, but it should help to get Severian better known.  Unfortunately I had to stop after the first sermon for pressure of other things.

I found the first sermon on disk this afternoon, and I have tidied it up and uploaded it here.  I place it in the public domain. Have fun!

A proper academic translation of the sermons of Severian on Genesis will be coming out at the end of the year.  Translated by Robert C. Hill, it’s published by IVP.

IVP have a big programme  to translate patristic bible commentaries.  I know it needs doing; but I’m not sure that I approve.  IVP has a defined mission, to publish popular books to support people doing the Lord’s work through evangelism at our universities.  I really do not see patristics as part of that.  SPCK once had a mission for the gospel.  It too once went down the patristic route.

IVP is doubtless accustomed to sharing in the hostility that its Master attracts.  Preaching the gospel is hard, in our selfish age, and living it still more so.  It is very easy to linger on the “plain of ease”, doing stuff for which men will mostly only praise.  I hope that this venture does not mark the dilution and extinction of the key Christian publisher of our days.

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Yet more Eusebius

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I do need to take a week off and just potter around. But I’m still hacking away at the Eusebius. 

I sometimes go out to a local restaurant.  I tend to find that it takes them a while to take my order, to serve each course, and so on, so I tend to take a book with me.  In this case I took the print-off’s of the Eusebius volume, and a red pen, and worked through  the Syriac fragments.  I came back and typed them up, and then did similar changes to the Coptic and Arabic.  And … somehow it’s 5 O’Clock! 

Looking at the Coptic made me realise how little related these were to the rest of the fragments.  I suspect that a good many of them are spurious.

I’ve passed the manuscript across to someone to advise on whether to get it professionally edited or to go straight to typesetting.

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Eusebius the liar

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The testimony of Eusebius of Caesarea about Christian origins has often been found inconvenient by those determined to attack the church.  Ever since Gibbon, the accusation has been made that Eusebius deliberately suppressed material that might throw discredit on the church.  Indeed Gibbon insinuated, and fools have believed, that Eusebius actually made a policy of such activity; that telling lies for the glory of God was acceptable.

In Eusebius’ Gospel Problems and Solutions, To Stephanus question 4, I find the following statement on precisely that issue:

May such an argument, that a falsehood has been composed to the praise and glorification of Christ, never by any means prevail in the church of Christ and of God, the fathers of the strict truth!

Worth remembering, I think, when the headbangers howl.

 

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From my diary – book completion day

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Today is the day that the Eusebius book must be completed and sent to typesetting.  Up early and on with it!

First I’ve reread the contract with the Sources Chretiennes and made sure I acknowledge them in the proper way on the title page and reverse.

Next I’ve applied for a block of 10 ISBN’s from the Nielsen Agency, here in the UK.  I’ve decided on “Chieftain Publishing”.

And I’ve also emailed a friend who runs an online shoe-selling business to ask for recommendations for a commercial website designer – I’m not going to attempt it myself, when money rests on it.

UPDATE, 10:39.  Deep into it now, dealing with all the little notes scattered throughout the text where I marked (with “qqq”) that I needed to come back and deal with some cross-reference.  I’ve also converted a cross-reference table to the PG and Mai editions into Word format and am updating it with Cramer references.  Finding the odd bit of sloppy work by some hired editorial people, unfortunately, as well; trouble is that checking  they did it is as much work as doing it myself again.  Trudge trudge trudge…

UPDATE, 11:38.  Most of those notes dealt with, the cross-references added.  The only “qqq”s are in files like indexes and so on that need populating.  It’s been a slog but worth it.

Bad news in the Latin materials; I originally intended to footnote each page in the CSEL text that we printed.  That’s probably 2 days work, and we haven’t got the time.  Indeed if I was ever to do it, it would already have been done.  Too late now.  Just do without.

Time for some lunch.  After that, process in the last batch of translator changes, then print the whole lot off and sit down with a coke and read it all!

UPDATE, 13:37.  All the “qqq”s done, and some sort of minimal index of the main biblical passages created.  I’ve also tracked down all the uses of theotokos in the text and highlighted them with a note.  It is, after all, highly unlikely that Eusebius used in 300 AD this battle-cry of the 5th century, so it suggests interpolation.  Both the ecloge and the fragments have it, which suggests that the addition was made early on.  Now to process in the translator’s comments.

UPDATE, 15:54.  All the translator’s comments processed, and a bit of to- and fro- over a couple of them.  Now printing it all off; or trying to!  The Greek text (which I got from Claudio Zamagni and the SC) is all over the place; paper size wrong, paper tray set to manual, varying margin sizes.  Fixed it all now, but it all cost time.  Still printing…

UPDATE, 16:13.  All printed, and a pile of paper an inch and a half thick on the side.  Now to read through it all…

UPDATE, 17:53.  I’m getting a definite impression that some professional copy editing would be a good idea.

UPDATE, 19:00.  Enough!  My eyeballs are giving out.  The manuscript is complete.  It just needs some professional copy editing by someone NOT so far involved.  Then it can be typeset.  So I am contacting people who might be willing to do that.  Let’s see if we can get that done in a week or two and then get on.

This human weakness thing is a nuisance.  I’ve decided that if we  get a choice in the New Jerusalem, I’m opting to come back as a dalek.

It would give the cherubs a shock, anyway… 🙂

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