The “Sacra Parallela” of John Damascene

In 1712, Michel Lequien printed the complete works of John Damascene (d. ca. 749) in two volumes (download from here and here), together with a Latin translation.  This edition was reprinted by Migne in the Patrologia Graeca, vols 95 and 96.  Among the genuine works, he printed in volume 2 a text which he called the “Sacra Parallela” or “Sacred Parallels”, with an appendix of more material from a codex Rupefulcaldina.  (In my previous posts we discussed the pseudo-Josephus text, which appears in this edition as the final portion of the material.)

The text is an anthology of extracts from earlier writers; what is called, in academic jargon, a “florilegium”.  As the literary culture of antiquity faded, the Byzantines, who were trying to preserve it, found that one of the most effective ways was to compile anthologies.  A great number exist.  Many which survive are compiled from still earlier anthologies.

So what we actually have is a bunch of Greek manuscripts, held in various manuscript repositories.  Each manuscript contains extracts.  Some manuscripts are copies of others.

The “Sacra Parallela” is one such florilegium.  Lequien printed it from one Vatican manuscript, the “Florilegium Vaticanum”, and the appendix came from a “Florilegium Rupefulcaldinum.”

A collection of extracts needs an index, so that the reader can find whatever subject he is looking for.  So the “Sacra Parallela” starts with a short prologue, followed by an index, and then the body of the text.  The index itself may be copied from one anthology to another, and modified (often inaccurately), so may tell us something about the chain of transmission.

Here’s the start of the index in Lequien’s edition, vol.2, p.281:

The work is divided into sections. Each section is called a “stoicheion” (“element”), corresponding to a letter of the Greek alphabet.  So here we see “Alpha”.

Each letter is divided into “titles” – subjects, basically.  Letter A is divided into 51 titles, for instance.  The first of these, title 1, is “On the eternity of the holy and consubstantial Trinity, and that there is only one God over all.”  Title 2 is “That God cannot be avoided…”.  Title 4: “On the love and fear of God…”.  Title 6: “About angels…”  And so on.

Here’s the start of the body text, at the end of the index, on p.297:

Here we see stoicheion/letter “Alpha”.  We start with title 1, “On the eternity of the holy and consubstantial Trinity…,”  and continue with a bunch of bible quotations, which Lequien helpfully printed in Italics.  After a page and a half of these, we get the first extract, which is from Basil, followed by three extracts from Gregory Nazianzen.

The extract author is given in the margin.  For Gregory Nazianzen the Greek says only: “of the theologian” (i.e. Gregory Nazianzen).  I suspect this is exactly what is found in the manuscript margin, rather than by Lequien: marginal author identification.

After letter Omega, there is a list of authors referenced on p.730.  I don’t know if this is an addition by Lequien rather than something in the manuscript.

That concludes my overview of what is usually meant when we refer to the “Sacra Parallela”.  I’ll look at the prologue next.