Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, information access, and more
David Wilmshurst has sent me an amusing GIF of the (amicable) 13th century debate on christology between Latin and Syrian monks…
‘And how many natures, persons, hypostases, wills, energies and activities do you ascribe precisely to the Incarnate Christ? Think carefully before you answer …’
Click to enlarge.
Yesterday I gave the first of the four passages in the Glaphyra in which Cyril quotes Matt.27:25, “His blood be upon us and our descendants.” Today I continue with the second. The TLG entry is as follows:
This is found in book 7 of the Glaphyra which starts at col. 336, and begins as follows:
On the blessings of the twelve patriarchs.
The scope and principle of the present book is to narrate the things which Jacob predicted for the sons descended from himself. But first it is obvious that the meaning of the text is very intractable, and not easy for ordinary people, but contains an abstruse and obscure significance within itself. But the blessed method [of interpretation] is not confused, and will not have it so, and that so far was more difficult than this. Indeed the divine Jacob undertook to predict to his sons what the final outcome would be. Indeed he made mention of the past, and measured sin, indeed firstly of Reuben himself, and after this for Simeon and Levi. Who indeed would dare to say that a legitimate commemoration of past things and of sin was a road by which blessings would come? Would he not be considered a liar, and a stranger from the true faith? And so it is very awkward to take up this passage with these feelings. What then shall we say, inviting full approval from them to our design? Because the explanation of our prophecy or prediction will introduce completely a type of the synagogue of the Jews, or, to speak briefly, of the whole race, and of exactly those who are of one tribe, of what sort they were in their day, whether they should be condemned or on the other hand approved: likewise in what way, if he was in them, or ??? For look at the way in which he describes another covenant to come, from those which had already been made, and truly sets forth the event of the future for others from the declaration or interpretation of their very names. Therefore it was written so, “But Jacob called his sons and said, ‘Gather together, and I will make known to you what will happen to you in the last days. Gather together, and listen, sons of Jacob: listen to your father Israel.”[1]
With these words Cyril gives us fair warning that he is going to discuss the future of the Jews, as seen in the words of Genesis 49. We need to understand the context, of course.
He then moves into a section headed “Concerning Reuben”. But almost immediately he mentions the actions of Reuben in sleeping with his father’s wife, and says that “the rest of what is given here, I believe nobody will consider as relating to what will happen in the last days. It would be absurd to think so.” Instead he suggests that the story relates to the unfaithfulness of the “synagogue” – i.e. the doctrinal adultery of Israel – to God. Quotations from Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Christ himself are used to point up their willingness to transgress the law of God. “The fornicating woman is, therefore, the synagogue of the Jews. But the chaste and blameless virgin, ‘free from any spot or wrinkle’, is the church…” “For old and wrinkled is the synagogue of the Jews, and on the other hand the new and faithful people flourish.” … “For it is right to understand the people of Israel as impure and full of wrinkles, who would not accept the purification of Christ.” … “And Christ himself asks, ‘Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill? And you have filled up the measure of your fathers.” He continues by quoting the “vehement attacks” of Christ on “the leaders of the Jews”.
The next section is headed “Concerning Simeon and Levi”, and starts by quoting Genesis 49:5-7, on the wickedness of the brothers Simeon and Levi. He then discusses the shedding of blood for redemption, illustrated by various episodes in the Old Testament, and the section ends as follows, before moving on to “Concerning Judah”:
Although each of these may be said to be complete in its own time, nevertheless we now remind and repeat this. You understand that some were freed by their own covenant from the accusation of shedding blood through the [sacrifice of a] calf, which represents Emmanuel. For it is right, I think, that they, when they justify themselves, speak thus: “Our hands have not shed this blood.” Of course you will discover that the people of the Jews never said this, but in fact instead, after sacrificing the calf, they dared to say further, “Our hands have shed this blood.” This is the same as what they ignorantly said concerning Christ, “His blood be upon us and upon our children.”[2]
It’s interesting to see the sacrifices of the OT linked so definitely to Christ. But one can’t help feeling that the listener would not be induced to regard the Jew with esteem by any of this; rather the reverse.
Two more passages to go.
The 13th century Syriac writer Bar Hebraeus wrote before the Mongol invasions that devastated the Near East and reduced it to the backward condition in which it has languished ever since. The same events also brought an end to the production of Syriac literature, and caused the loss of vast amounts of what already existed.
Among his works are two histories. The second is the Chronicon Ecclesiasticum, an encyclopedia of Syriac people, both Syrian Orthodox and Church of the East, with details of their lives and works. This was printed with a Latin translation, but has never been translated into English. Until now.
David Wilmshurst writes to tell me that he has translated it, and has now received the proof copy from Gorgias Press, who are issuing it. I would imagine that it is an essential purchase. Here’s the blurb:
The Ecclesiastical Chronicle of the Jacobite polymath Bar Hebraeus (†1286), an important Syriac text written in the last quarter of the 13th century, has long been recognised as a key source for the history of the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Church of the East. Bar Hebraeus describes the eventful history of the Jacobite and Nestorian Churches, as they were then called, from their earliest beginnings down to his own time, against the background of christological controversies, Roman‒Persian wars, the Arab Conquest, the Crusades and the 13th-century Mongol invasions. Two continuators bring the story down to the end of the 15th century, shedding valuable light on a relatively obscure period in the history of both Churches. The Ecclesiastical Chronicle was translated into Latin between 1872 and 1877, but has never before been fully translated into English. Gorgias Press is proud to publish the first complete English translation of this influential text, by respected Syriac scholar David Wilmshurst.
This elegant translation of the Ecclesiastical Chronicle, six years in the making, captures the distinctive flavour of Bar Hebraeus’s style, and is complemented by a facing Syriac text. Wilmshurst also provides a detailed introduction, setting the chronicle in its historical and literary context. His translation is accompanied by five maps, showing the dioceses of the Jacobite and Nestorian Churches and the towns, villages and monasteries of Tur ‘Abdin and the Mosul Plain. A helpful bibliography and index are also provided.
David Wilmshurst was educated at Worcester College, Oxford, where he took a D Phil degree in Oriental Studies (1998). He has spent much of his life in Hong Kong, and is one of the few modern scholars of the Church of the East who can read Syriac, Arabic and Chinese. He is the author of The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318–1913 (Louvain, 2000), a study of the Christian topography of Iraq and Iran, and The Martyred Church (London, 2011), a general history of the Church of the East. Both books have been warmly praised by leading scholars.
I hope that the price is reasonable.
A tweet this evening drew my attention to the fact that a search by author on Piranesi at the Spanish National Library produces heaps of results, available in very high quality and very large images. I looked through these, and found a couple of gems.
First, an external view of St Peter’s: “Veduta dell’ Esterno della gran Basilica di S. Pietro in Vaticano”. This is too large to display here, but it features the vanished 3rd century circular tomb, known as the chapel of St Andrew, which stood to the south of St Peter’s and was demolished in the 18th century. I’ve made a detail picture, itself still very large:
I have also found the two images of the Colosseum and Arch of Constantine, which I dealt with yesterday, but in much higher resolution. In fact it is only when you see the original detail, that you realise quite how special these pictures are.
But what I was most interested in was the vanished fountain, the Meta Sudans, visible in them. Let’s remind ourselves of how this looked ca. 1900, a stubby thing of brick with the upper portion gone.
As a coin of Titus shows, it was originally tall, and slender:
So how did it look ca. 1800? In the first Piranesi etching, “Veduta dell’Arco di Costantino, e dell’Anfiteatro Flavio detto il Colosseo”, accessible here, I have zoomed in on the Meta Sudans:
The second, “Veduta di Arco di Costantino”, online here, shows the fountain from the other side through the Arch of Constantine. Again I have extracted a detail:
It’s pretty obvious that at this time it stood much nearer to its original height. We can see the point at which it was then chopped off, in a tidying-up exercise, losing two-thirds of its height in the process.
As we can see, by comparison with the massive stub in the 1900 photograph, this was a big monument!
Cyril of Alexandria wrote quite a number of commentaries on the Old Testament. There is the De adoratione et cultu in spiritu et veritate, in 17 books, in the form of a dialogue with a certain Palladius. There is the massive line-by-line Commentary on Isaiah, in 5 books; and his Commentary on the minor prophets, with which we have been concerned recently. There is also a collection of fragments from a Commentary on the Psalms, collected by Angelo Mai. But not all of these are genuine.[1]
But there is also the Glaphyra, the “Elegant Comments”, in 13 books, which he deals with select passages from the Pentateuch. 7 books are devoted to Genesis, 3 to Exodus, and 1 book each to Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It appears in the Patrologia Graeca volume 69, cols. 9-678, and as far as I know has not been translated into English, or any other modern language. The work was also translated into Syriac in the 6th century by Moses of Agel, and fragments of this translation are extant.
The work begins with a preface (cols.9-10) in which he makes clear that the purpose of his exegesis is to show that “the end of the law and the prophets is Christ.”
These notes are necessary, for I find that an online search on Cyril of Alexandria and Glaphyra produces almost no information. But of course our interest is his references to Matthew 27:25, “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” The TLG gives 4 results in the Glaphyra in Pentateuchum {4090.097}, when searched:
So let’s go and look at the first of these. As ever I give the Latin text, which I can OCR using Abbyy Finereader 12 Screenshot, rather than the Greek which I cannot; and translating from it.
The first passage, col. 44, is on Genesis, the story of Cain and Abel.
For everywhere they [the Jews] live, as strangers and foreigners, and fearful, and that which is right for free-born men, without liberty. Now Cain received the sign so that they might not kill him. For not all Israel was ruined. But the rest were made saved, as the prophet said, who understood this and prophesied, saying “If the Lord of the Sabbath had not left us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrha.” For this reason also the divine psalmist, lest Israel might be dissolved in the world, called upon the God of the whole world, saying, “Do not kill them, lest they forget your law.” So Cain went out from the face of the Lord. For so it is written, “And Cain went out from the face of the Lord.” The same thing happened to the Israelites, to whom it was spoken by the voice of the prophet, “When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you; and if you multiply your prayers, I will not hear you. For your hands are full of blood.” For they killed the Lord of all, and in their extreme impiety dared to say, “His blood be upon us and our children.” The blood of Abel cried out only against his single killer. But the precious blood of Christ cried out so greatly against the cruelty and inhumanity of the Jews, for he freed the world from sin, for he was poured out for it. For this reason the divine Paul says, “”we come near, we who are justified by faith, by the shedding of the blood which is called better than the blood of Abel.” I think that this must be added to what has been said: “For afterwards”, he said, “Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and gave birth to a son, and called him Seth, saying, ‘God has appointed for me another seed, in place of Abel whom Cain killed.”[2]
As usual with Cyril, we see an Old Testament story being interpreted as a prediction of the events of the New Testament.
More in due course!
Another work attributed to Severian of Gabala, On the sacrifices of Cain, CPG 4208, has come online at Academia.edu here. It contains parallel Greek and Latin from Migne.
Marvellous!
The Meta Sudans is (by now) familiar to us in old photographs, as a Roman fountain extant as merely a brick stump outside the Arch of Constantine in Rome, which was demolished by Mussolini in the 1930’s. But until the 19th century it was twice the height. Ancient pictures on coins show a slender, pointed item.
Here is a drawing by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1760, of the Arch of Constantine, which I saw on Twitter here. It is notable because we can see the Meta Sudans through one of the arches.
This seems to be an engraving called “Veduta dell’Arco di Costantino Magno”. I learn from the British Museum site that it comes from a volume called “Le Antichità Romane”,[1] where it is Plate XXXVI, figure II of the first volume. It is a 1756 etching, apparently.
Here is another, also by Piranesi, from here:
This etching is labelled “Veduta dell’Arco di Constantino e dell’Anfiteatro detto il Colosseo”. Sadly it is not clear to me whether this is part of a series, or how it should be referenced. The Library of Congress make a high resolution image available here.
The British Museum site also has another etching and aquatint, “Veduta del Monte Palatino, dell’Arco di Costantino, e di Tito, dei Tempi di Venere e Roma e parte del Colosseo”. This also shows the double-height Meta Sudans, looking rather unfortunately shaped (which may explain why its upper storey was removed).
Let’s have a detail of the Meta Sudans:
This was made between 1800-1820. The more info we can find from before the partial demolition of the 19th century, the better.
Yesterday I discussed 5 passages from Cyril of Alexandria’s Commentary on the XII minor prophets, which according to a TLG search supposedly reference Matthew 27:25, “His blood be upon us all”. Passage #1 was a glitch, and #3-5 are genuine and I gave the passages in translation using the Fathers of the Church translation.
But it is passage 2 that I want to discuss now. For I was unable to see it, in the Google Books Preview of the commentary. The TLG result is as follows:
As we can see, the Greek of Matthew 27:25 is right there. Here is the page from the Pusey edition[1], volume 1, page 530 (click on the picture below for a larger image):
So … why did it not show up in my search of the Fathers of the Church translation?
The running header in Pusey tells me that this is from the Commentary on Amos, chapter 9:4, at the end. If I look at the Fathers of the Church 116, Commentary on 12 Minor prophets, volume 2, p.120 indicates the start of Pusey p.530, and p.121 shows the start of p.531. But it is noticeable how much less text there is, than between “(531)” and “(532)”.
There’s only one conclusion to draw. The translator, for whatever reason, has omitted this passage from his translation.
This may be an honest error. After all, similar passages do appear translated in the next volume of the same commentary. But the passage might be considered anti-Semitic, and so politically controversial. I have referred before to the atmosphere of fear in US universities these days. It would be worrying if it was omitted for reasons of self-preservation: just as copies of the Talmud in medieval Europe omitted material about Jesus, out of fear of the inquisition.
I have asked a correspondent for a translation of the missing portion, which I will add here. And I shall write to the editors of the FOC series, and draw their attention to the omission.
UPDATE: Two kind commenters have had a go at the passage (see below). Bryson Sewell has sent in a version in PDF, with some notes on an unusual Greek usage, which I attach. Comments are welcome!
“And the wretched crowd of the Jews has endured this, who transferred his righteous blood upon their own heads. For when they were persuading Pilate to crucify Christ, they said, ‘His blood be upon us and upon our children!’ Accordingly, they all perished with their whole households and their cities were plundered together with their men, so that no one was able to escape. As regards the sort and number of the things that they have suffered, the long history books of those who have written about such matters sing of them.”
In addition I have looked again at Pusey’s edition, and verified that there are four, and only four references to Matt.27:25 in the commentary on the 12 prophets:
The evil day has arrived, when I have to sift the references to Matthew 27:25 found in the works of Cyril of Alexandria. Woe is me.
We start with his Commentary on the 12 Minor Prophets. The TLG search gave us the following five references:
The edition used in the TLG is that of Philip E. Pusey in 1868-72.[1]. I would prefer to map this to the PG edition, in PG71-72 (which reprints the Aubert edition). The page numbers are to the Pusey edition.
Thankfully I learn that a translation (in three volumes!) of this work exists, published by Catholic University of America Press in the Fathers of the Church series, and made by Robert C. Hill, a man who deserves very well of this age. Better still, Google Books previews exist. The text used was the same Pusey edition.
The first passage – Pusey vol.1, p.90 – does not seem to reference Matt.27:25, and when I examine the original volume, it does not appear there. The list of references was supplied to me by a kindly colleague, however, and it may simply be a glitch.
I shall comment separately in a moment about the second passage, where something unusual has happened!
The last three references, all from Pusey’s volume 2, all appear in the FOC translation. Here they are.
From FOC volume 3, p.51, commenting on Zephaniah 3 (“volume 2” p. 232):
I shall leave in your midst a people gentle and lowly, and the remnant of Israel will reverence the name of the Lord; they will not be guilty of iniquity and will not say idle things, nor will deceitful talk be found in their mouth (vv. 2-13).
Again he addresses Zion, or the holy city—I mean Jerusalem—in which he also promises will be left the gentle and lowly people. Though in fact the synagogue of the Jews had raged against Christ the Savior of all, and had turned murderer of the Lord, and of it he requires an account, yet not all perished; the remnant was preserved and the survivors saved, a great number of them coming to faith. (232) These were the gentle, not venting on Christ their rage like a bull, like of course those who at that time brought him before Pilate, crying out in the words, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him,” and adding to this the cry, “If you do not kill him, you are no friend of Caesar’s.” In fact, what could be more cruel than such people, and more fierce than their anger? They brought innocent blood upon their own heads in saying without a thought, “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” So the people who had no share in their savagery were gentle, therefore, and likewise lowly in their subjection to Christ, submitting the neck of their mind to his yoke, and willingly heeding his loving call, “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I shall give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
They are therefore also conformed in this to Christ, who for our sake made himself poor, as though unconcerned for the glory proper to God and his pre-eminence by nature, in order that in the divine plan he might endure the condition proper to a slave. Let those who enjoy spiritual guidance from his laws therefore model themselves on him. It is they who will also reverence the name of the Lord; the divinely inspired disciples, who before others also have the role of light of the world, are among those who have particular love for God. Now, those who love God, and are good, will avoid iniquity and idle words, he says: they will not say idle things, nor will their talk be false, the meaning of deceit. By contrast, this is spiritual adornment, highly befitting the ornaments of virtue like a kind of crown: …
From FOC volume 3, p.124, commenting on Zechariah 3 (“volume 2” p. 324):
Lo, I am digging a pit, says the Lord almighty, and I shall get a grip on all the injustice in that land in one day.
He presented our Lord Jesus Christ as light and dawn, and the fact that he will illuminate like daylight those in darkness and the shadow of death, that is, in error. But it was also necessary to forecast the fulfillment of the divine plan, namely, death for the sake of us all, which he willingly underwent by surrendering his own body to the cross, because the Jewish race had also offended and forfeited their relationship with him. You see, since the wretches did not understand the mystery of the Incarnation and became murderers of the Lord, consequently and very properly they were deprived of hope and perished miserably as miserable people, caught up in terrible and ineluctable calamities. So he actually likens the cross of the Savior to a pit, since those who shed the Lord’s blood fell into a pit, as it were, even presuming to give over to crucifixion the Author of life.
Now, if the Father himself spoke of digging a pit, let no-one be scandalized, but consider rather that the expression is redolent in some way of the Incarnation; it is like what is said wisely and precisely by Christ, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” Admittedly, while there is truth in claiming that he did not come for this reason, for some people to become blind, nevertheless it was not only the fault of uncomprehending people that ntisrepresented the manner of the wonderful Incarnation; they refused to see, in fact, despite having access to the divine light. This is the way to take it here, too: while the Father sent the Son “so that the world might be saved through him,” on account of the folly of those who failed to understand, he who was sent became a pit and a trap for those who crucified him. Perhaps it was the one who sent him who is somehow thought to have dug the pit; so he actually says, I shall dig a pit, and I shall get a grip on all the injustice in that land in one day, by digging a pit meaning, I shall seek it out and carefully pry into it.
You see, they killed the holy prophets, and like hunters they assailed those sent at various times, abusing some, maltreating others, killing still others. God was still tolerant, however; the victims were servants and fellow slaves of those who committed the murders. Since in their unrestrained assaults they went to extremes, and contemplated such an unholy outrage as audaciously to do violence to the Son himself, and fell into the pit by crucifixion, he no longer forgave their unbridled sin. He sought out the offenders and submitted them to punishment, decreeing the destruction of the whole of Judea on one day when they paraded him before Pilate and cried, “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” Even if the effects of divine wrath did not immediately befall them, even if the penalty was not sought without delay, nevertheless the just sentence from God took effect on them, destruction gripping the land of the Jews, as I said. (325) While the Savior was taken off to crucifixion, therefore, women followed him, weeping and wailing; he then turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me: weep for yourselves and for your children.” They were, in fact, delivered to destruction and slaughter, and there happened to them what was said in the verse of Isaiah, “Your land is desolate, your cities are bumed, foreigners consume your very land before you, and it is devastated and overwhelmed by foreign peoples.”
From FOC volume 3, p.216, commenting on Zechariah (“volume 2” p. 454):
…of all—Christ, I mean—and be subject to him, they stupidly associated themselves instead with those who slaughtered and sold them. The Only-begotten Word of God became man, remember, and clearly said in unmasking both those men’s knavery and the sincerity of the divine plan for us, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, whereas the hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and takes to flight. (454) The wolf snatches them and scatters them, because he is a hired hand, and does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd.” Now, the Jews, miserable though they were and needing to voice their criticism of the hired shepherds, did not do so; rather, the good shepherd, who laid down his own life as a ransom for all, they abused in countless ways, stoned, reproached, and in the end opened their mouth wide against him, crying out along with their leaders in demanding from Pilate, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him,” and actually bringing down his righteous blood on their own heads in the words, “His blood be upon us and upon our children.”
Hence I shall no longer spare the inhabitants of the earth, the text says: they no longer deserved pity from God; instead, each person was delivered into the hands of their neighbor and into the hands of their king or ruler. In fact, they crucified Emmanuel, and became murderers of the Lord, completely sacrilegious. But God called them to repentance, and did not immediately inflict on them the effects of His wrath. After the lapse of thirty years from the crucifixion of the Savior, however, peace departed from the country of the Jews; there were enemies everywhere, city invading city, people in each one divided among themselves and fighting with one another, the result being that they found themselves in equal trouble from one another as befell them from the enemy. The bold Roman generals were in control of the land of the Jews, burning cities along with inhabitants, (455) and subjecting the country to the yoke of slavery. Those capable of fleeing dwelt in the lands of the nations, which is still the case today.
A Google Books search of volume 1 and volume 2 turns up no results. In fact there are no results to be found in these volumes. I will discuss passage #2 in just a moment.
At least I got Procopius done. But I really feel he’s too late a writer for me to worry about, in the survey of early Christian writers who wrote about Matt. 27:25. I don’t know about anybody else, but I am getting a little fed up of this particular story. Perhaps it’s time to write about something else, even though we are not done yet.
Jonathan Armstrong’s translation of Eusebius’ Commentary on Isaiah arrived today, and interesting it is too. At various points Eusebius signals where each book of Origen’s lost Commentary ceased. It’s a reasonable assumption that there’s a relation between the texts, if Eusebius thought that worth doing. He also refers to his Onomasticon in the work.
I really ought to start thinking about Methodius of Olympus, and getting a handle on the Old Slavic versions of his works again.
And Eutychius is still not done – it would be nice to do more of that.
Always so much to do. But I think that’s enough for tonight!