Author: Roger Pearse

Philo of Carpasia and his “Letter to Eucarpius” – Part 3 – Translation

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve now made a translation from the modern Greek version of Philo of Carpasia’s Letter to Eucarpius, using a mixture of ChatGPT and Google Translate.  Unfortunately I had no access to an electronic text of the ancient Greek, but I was able to scan the modern Greek and work with that.  As usual, I make the results public domain.  Use them in any way you like!  Update 24/09/24: This is also Letter 42 of Basil. See here.

Philo, Bishop of Carpasia, Letter to Eucarpius

1. I shall become a mediator for you in a matter of salvation, my true brother, if you gladly accept our advice on what you should do, especially regarding the things you yourself asked us to advise you about. For, although perhaps many have dared to begin this solitary life, it seems to me that few have bothered to sustain it worthily to the end. And the objective of it is not just the intention, but the objective is the reward of the effort.  So there is no benefit to those who rush to reach the end of the goal while they remain merely at the beginning of the solitary life, and instead abandon it and become a laughing-stock, and are accused by outsiders of cowardice and vacillation.  For the Lord says about such people, “Who, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate if he has the means to complete it, lest, after laying its foundation and not being able to finish it, passers-by begin to mock him, saying that this man started to build and was unable to finish?”[Luke 14:28]

Therefore let (those at) the beginning maintain a steady progress along this course, which hastens to reach the goal of the good deeds.  For the bravest athlete, Paul, teaches us this with his own achievement: not to rest on our past good deeds but to move forward day by day, saying, “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of the heavenly calling.” [Phil. 3:13-16]  Such is the whole life of men —to be not content with what they have achieved, but to delight in what is to come.  For what’s the use of yesterday’s full stomach, if today the stomach is hungry for lack of food?  Similarly, there is no profit for the soul for yesterday’s achievement if today’s act of righteousness is lacking. “For in whatever state I find you,” he says, “so I will judge you.”[1]

So the toil of the righteous man is in vain, and the way of repentance of the sinner is irreproachable.  So it is with both of them, the end (of the righteous man), who fell from the best to the worst? and of the other (the sinner), who changed from the worst to the best.  You can see these things also in the prophet Ezekiel, who declares with the Lord’s mouth, “For if the righteous person strays and sins, I will not remember the righteous deeds that he did earlier, but he will die in his sin.” [Ez. 8:24]  And again, he says, “And I will not remember the sins of the sinner, and if he turns to the right way and does justice, he will live in this righteousness.” [Ez. 18:21-3]

For where then is Gehazi’s great companionship with Elisha, who, because of his greed, brought leprosy upon himself?  And what was the benefit of Solomon’s immense wisdom and the great favour he previously received from God, since he later fell into idolatry because of his obsession with women?  Even the blessed David was not left blameless by pride, for the wrong he did to Uriah.  But the fall of Judas from the better to the worse would be sufficient for anyone living in obedience with God to avoid such errors; he, who for so many years was a disciple of the Lord, later, for a minor offence, sold his teacher and bought for himself a noose.

2. This, then, let it be known to you, brother, that it is not he who begins well and then comes to evil, who is righteous before God, but he who ends well, this is the righteous before God. Therefore brother, do not give sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids, “so that you may escape like a gazelle from the hunter’s trap, like a bird from the fowler’s snare.” [Prov. 6:5, Ps. 124:7]  Be careful, for “you are stepping among snares, and walking on the battlements of a high wall,” [Sirach 9:13] and for this reason, a fall is not without danger for the one who falls.  Therefore do not stretch yourself immediately to the extreme of asceticism, especially if you do not have confidence in yourself, so that you do not get dizzy and fall from the height of asceticism.  For it is better to climb little by little, progressing step by step toward the height of your achievements, rather than descending step by step because of the weakening of your strength, which is reprehensible and even harmful to the soul.  So free yourself little by little from the pleasures of life, eliminating each habit from yourself, for fear that, if you drop them all at once, you bring upon yourself a flood of temptations.  But when you overcome one passion or one pleasure, take your stand against the next, and in this way, you will easily conquer all pleasures.  For though pleasure is one word, its forms are many.

3. So, my brother, be patient in every temptation—for the faithful are tested with various temptations—they are tested with accusations, earthly losses, lies, disobedience, slanders, persecutions; by these and similar things, the faithful are tested. Do not be reckless in your words, nor argumentative, quarrelsome, vain, or ostentatious, but dignified; not a chatterbox, always eager not to teach but to be taught, as these faults bring you no benefit.  Do not concern yourself with the life of the world, as the Psalm says, “that my mouth may not speak the works of men”; [Ps. 17:4] for he who delights in speaking of the deeds of sinners immediately stirs up thoughts of pleasures against himself.  Do not neglect reading, especially the New Testament.  “Examine everything and judge, hold onto what is good, avoid every evil thing.” [1 Thess. 5:21-22]  Everything is permissible for you, but not everything is beneficial. [1 Cor. 10:23]

Therefore, with those you meet and with those with whom you associate, be in all things blameless, cheerful, loving, gentle, and humble.  Avoid gold as a treacherous enemy of the soul, and the father of sin, and the ally of the devil.  Avoid pleasures, pursue self-control, train your body to endure hard work and your soul to patiently bear trials, with the conviction that the perfect separation of soul and body is a release from every evil.  Always seek to learn about the lives of the righteous, for in this way you will find benefit for your soul.

Do not be fond of traveling or wandering around villages or cities, and do not leave your place under the pretext that you need something; for when you leave your place, maybe you will also leave behind your way of life.  Do not seek out the favour of the crowd, nor be a lover of dancing, nor a friend of the cities, but rather be a friend of solitude, always remaining unmovable in your dwelling, considering prayer and psalmody your work.  Don’t make hospitality hard because of a lack of luxurious foods, but be content with the necessities of the monastic life, and do not accept anything more than those from anyone; and don’t be greedy, not because gold is inherently bad, but because, for those who have a passion for it, it becomes evil.

Don’t make yourself a slave to greed under the pretext of helping the poor; and if someone brings you money for the poor and you know of people who are in need, advise the one who brought the money to take it directly to the brothers who are in need, in case the acceptance of the money stain your conscience.

4. But above all, wait for the enjoyment of the eternal blessings, of which all the saints have become partakers. And you, weighing everything with the scales of the mind, should put pious reasoning in the place of devil-thoughts, especially when a wicked thought arises and says to you:

“What is the benefit of your life in this desert place?  And what have you gained from your withdrawal from human society?  Haven’t you seen the God-appointed bishops of the churches of God, holy men, socializing with others and effortlessly celebrating the spiritual festivals, from which there is much benefit, especially for those who attend them?  For there, explanations of proverbial riddles are made, interpretations of apostolic teachings, listening to theology, and encounters with spiritual brothers, all of which offer great benefit to those who meet together, as they witness Christian conduct.  But you have alienated yourself from so many great blessings and sit here like a wild man, equal to the beasts; because here you see a lot of desolation, not a little inhumanity, lack of teaching, separation from brothers, and much idleness concerning God’s commandment.”

5. When, therefore, the wicked thought disturbs you with such seemingly reasonable arguments, you should counter it with pious reasoning based on your own experience, saying to it:

“Since you assert that the things of the world are good, well, that is why I live here, because I judged myself unworthy of the good things of the world, for, in the middle of its good things, the bad is always present.  For when in the past I was present at spiritual festivals, I did with difficulty meet a brother who seemed to fear God, but in fact was possessed by the devil, and I heard from him beautifully spoken words, lying myths, and behaviour that deceived those present.  I also met others after him—thieves, liars, many greedy and tyrannical people, many who were full of pride.  I saw the vulgar gesturing of drunkards, the blood of the oppressed; I saw the beauty of women, which tormented my chastity.  And though I escaped the act of fornication, I still stained my purity with the desires of my heart.  Though I heard many edifying words, I found no teacher whose works were worthy of their words.  I also heard countless songs, the obnoxious voices of foolish talk and indescribable profanity, the tears of those who were robbed, the cries of those captured and forcibly taken away by tyrants, the sighs of the tormented, the lamentations of the wronged; for sighs and lamentations follow the wronged to reveal the endurance of the poor.  And I saw that it was not a spiritual festival, but a stormy and troubled sea that sought to engulf everyone with its waves.

Tell me then, O wicked thought and demon of fleeting pleasure and vanity, what is the benefit to me from seeing and hearing all these things, since I was not strong enough to help any wronged person, nor could I stop the violence of the wrongdoers, nor was it permitted for me to correct the guilty, who, together with the others, might have destroyed me as well?  For, just as a little clean water disappears in much mud, so I was.  The few things that we think is good to do in the lives of men are overshadowed by the multitude of evils.  What, then, is my benefit?  To lose my soul.

That is why I go and live in the mountains;  ‘like a sparrow, I have escaped from the snare of the hunters’ [Ps. 124:7] through the grace of Christ.  For in this desert I live, O wicked thought, where the Lord dwelt with divine favour. Here is the oak of Mamre, under which the Lord appeared to Abraham.  Here was the heavenly ladder and the army of angels that appeared to Jacob; here is the desert in which the people were purified and given the law, and thus entered the land promised by God.  Here Moses saw God; here is Mount Carmel, where Elijah lived and became pleasing to God.  Here is the desert in which the blessed John, eating locusts, preached repentance to the people.  Here is the Mount of Olives, where Christ went up and prayed, teaching us to pray alone; for He says, ‘Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am among them.’ [Mt. 18:20] Here is the ‘narrow and difficult path that leads to life’; [Mt. 7:14] here are teachers and prophets who ‘wander in deserts and mountains, in caves and holes in the ground’; [Heb. 11:38] here are apostles and evangelists, and the monastic life of desert dwellers.

These things, uncorrupted, I have accepted, and they have been commanded by the martyrs of Christ and the righteous one, so that I can say confidently: ‘By means of the words of Your lips, I have kept to difficult paths’; [Ps. 17:4] for I have understood that the God-beloved Abraham obeyed the voice of God and dwelt in the desert, that the simple Isaac was oppressed, that the patriarch Jacob was exiled, that the wise Joseph was sold, that the three champions of endurance fought in the fire, that the devout Daniel was thrown a second time into the lions’ den, that the outspoken Jeremiah was cast into a pit of mud, that Isaiah, the seer of mysteries, was sawn in two, that John, the reprover of adultery, was beheaded, that Peter was crucified upside down, that Paul was persecuted constantly and imprisoned and then beheaded, that the rest of the apostles and the martyrs of Christ were killed in various ways.  And to avoid being long-winded, even our saviour Christ was crucified for our sake, to give us life through His death and to anoint us all with patience, and through patience to draw us to Himself.

Therefore, I hasten toward Him and His Father and the Holy Spirit, striving to be found genuine, having judged myself unworthy of the good things of the world; for I am not for the world, but the world is for me.”

6. So think about these things and pursue them seriously and willingly, and according to the saying, “Fight for the truth until death.” [Eccles. 4:28] Indeed the Apostle Paul says, “Take heed, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” [Heb. 3:12-3] —for “Today” means all the time of our life.

If you live in this way, my brother, you will also save yourself and you will give joy to us and you will glorify God, whose glory and power are forever and ever. Amen.

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  1. [1]This is an apocryphal saying of Jesus, found in Justin, Dialogue with Tryphon 47; Clem. Alex. Quis Dives Salvetur 40, John Climacus, The Ladder 7, Life of Antony 15, Ps.Josephus Contra Graecos/Discourse to the Greeks on Hades 8, and others.↩

Who was Philo of Carpasia and why do we care?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The name of Philo of Carpasia is known to… practically nobody. [1]  I’d never heard it until a couple of weeks ago, when I learned that a long section of his Commentary on the Song of Songs existed in a manuscript in Ge`ez, classical Ethiopian, and indeed has been printed with Italian translation.[2]

This Carpasia or Karpasia – or even Karpathos, apparently – was an ancient Greek town in the Karpas peninsula of Cyprus, and this Philo was ordained bishop there by Epiphanius of Salamis in the late 4th century AD.  We know this from chapter 49 of the hagiographical Vita of Epiphanius[3], an unusual text in four sections, where the opening section is from notes by Epiphanius’ disciple John, but the remainder somewhat later by an otherwise unknown Polybius of the 5-6th century.  Unfortunately c. 49 is by the latter.

The Suda tells us that a “Philo of Karpathos” composed a Commentary on the Song of Songs, and we have 10 Greek manuscripts listed in the Pinakes database which contain such a commentary which attribute it to “Philo of Carpasia”.  One in Modena is 12th century; Vaticanus Barb. gr. 334 (13th century) is online here.  Two more are 15-16th century, and the rest are later.

Vat. barb. gr. 334, fol. 1r (excerpt showing the author)

There are also extracts from the Commentary in the medieval Greek bible commentaries, the catenae, and four passages in Cosmas Indicopleustes in his Christian Topography  10, 57-8.

As well as the Greek manuscripts, we have an ancient translation of the work into Latin.  This was made in the 6th century at the request of Cassiodorus.  It is preserved in a single manuscript of… the 6th century, which must therefore have a fair chance of being the autograph or copied directly from it.  This ancient manuscript is online, MS Vaticanus latinus 5704.  Comparison of the Latin with the Greek reveals that the Greek text has been abbreviated in places.  Unfortunately Cassiodorus thought that the commentary was composed by Epiphanius of Cyprus, as he says in his Institutions, book 1, 5:4. After mentioning  commentaries on the Song of Songs by Origen, as translated by Jerome and Rufinus, he adds:

Post quos Epiphanius antistes Cyprius totum librum Graeco sermone uno volumine sub brevitate complexus est.  Hunc nos ut alios in Latinam linguam par amicum nostrum virum disertissimum Epiphanium fecimus Domino iuvante transferri.

After them, Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus, treated the whole book in one brief volume in Greek. I have had this book like others translated into Latin with the Lord’s aid by my learned friend Epiphanius.[4]

Thus on folio 4v the Vatican manuscript states: Incipit expositio Epiphanii episcopi Cyprii in Canticis Canticorum.

The ancient Latin translation is important in biblical studies because it quotes from the Old Latin text of Song of Songs, itself not well preserved.[5]

There are extracts from the Commentary in an Old Slavonic catena known as the “Commentary of Philo.”  These seem to come from the catenae.[6]  The Ge`ez text seems to be from the original full Greek text, although the translator apparently struggled to translate the ideas from the Greek text into the less flexible Semitic language of Ethiopian.

There is no modern critical edition of the Greek text, although the ancient Latin translation was critically edited with an Italian translation by A. Ceresa-Gastaldo.[7]  The 1750 editio princeps by Foggini is online here, which appeared in Rome under the title S. Epiphani Salaminis in Cypro episcopi Commentarium in Canticum Canticorum.

The Greek text of the Commentary was first printed in 1772 in Rome by Giacomelli, 1772, Philonis episcopi Carpasii enarratio in Canticum Canticorum, with notes and his own translation into Latin.  It is online here. This edition is reproduced in PG40, cols. 27-154.  The same text was reprinted by without notes by K. Hadjioannos / [Chatzēiōannou, Kyriakos], Ἡ ἀρχαία Κύπρος εἰς τὰς Ἑλληνικὰς πήγας / Hē archaia Kypros eis tas Hellēnikas pēgas, vol. 3, Leucosia: Ekd. Hieras Archiepiskopēs Kyprou (1975), together with a modern Greek translation.

A couple of bits of the Commentary have been translated into English by Brian Duvick, and are accessible on Academia.edu here and here.

There are two very useful articles on the Commentary by S. Sagot (1981)[8] and M.A.Barbara (2019).[9]

We also have two Greek manuscripts containing the Letter to Eucarpius by Philo of Carpasia.  I will post a translation of this shortly. Update 24/09/24: This is also Letter 42 of Basil. See here.

Finally there are also two fragments of an Ecclesiastical History by a certain Philo (CPG 7512) preserved in works ascribed to Anastasius of Sinai (7th century).   A recent article and edition argues that the author should be identified with Philo of Carpasia.[10]

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  1. [1]For more information, please consult the marvellous article by Solange Sagot, ‘Une récente édition du “Commentaire sur le Cantique des Cantiques” de Philon de Carpasia’, in: Vigiliae Christianae 35 (1981), pp.358-376.  JSTOR. (http://www.jstor.org/stable/1582998. ↩
  2. [2]Details in Tedros Abraham, “The Gǝʿǝz Version of Philo of Carpasia’s Commentary on Canticle of Canticles 1:2-14a: Introductory Notes”, in: Aethiopica 15 (2013), 22-52. PDF download here. ↩
  3. [3]BHG 596-9, PG41, col. 85, English translation forthcoming from Claudia Rapp in the TTH series↩
  4. [4]Translated by J. Halporn in TTH 42, Liverpool (2004), p.123.↩
  5. [5]Vide Ceulemans and Dimitrova.↩
  6. [6]Reinhart Ceulemans, Margaret Dimitrova, “The Slavonic Catena also known as the ‘Commentary of Philo’ and the Greek Catena Hauniensis on the Song of Songs” in: The Literary Legacy of Byzantium: Editions, Translations, and Studies in Honour of Joseph A. Munitiz SJ, Brepols (2019) pp.109-144.  https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SBHC-EB.5.117146↩
  7. [7] A. Ceresa-Gastaldo, Commento al Cantico dei cantici / [di] Filone di Carpasia ; nell’antica versione latina di Epifanio Scolastico, Series: Corona Patrum 6 (1979).↩
  8. [8] S. Sagot, “Une récente édition du _Commentaire sur le Cantique des Cantiques_ de Philon de Carpasia” in: Vigiliae Christianae 35 (1981), 358-376↩
  9. [9] M. A. Barbara, “Note sulle traduzioni latine del Commentario al Cantico dei cantici di Filone di Carpasia,” In: In ricordo di Sandro Leanza.  Giornate di studio di  Letteratura cristiana antica, a cura di M. A. Barbàra – M. R. Petringa, Sicania,  Messina 2019, pp. 41-52. ISBN: 978-88-7268-155-8. Online here.↩
  10. [10] L. Van Hoof &c, “Philo of Carpasia, Ecclesiastical History (CPG 7512)” in: Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique 112 (2017), 35-52. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.RHE.5.113225↩

Psalm 82 and Eusebius of Caesarea’s Commentary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Psalm 82 is as follows (NIV):

A psalm of Asaph.

1 God presides in the great assembly;
he renders judgment among the “gods”:

2 “How long will you[a] defend the unjust
and show partiality to the wicked?[b]
3 Defend the weak and the fatherless;
uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

5 “The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing.
They walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

6 “I said, ‘You are “gods”;
you are all sons of the Most High.’
7 But you will die like mere mortals;
you will fall like every other ruler.”

8 Rise up, O God, judge the earth,
for all the nations are your inheritance.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 82:2 The Hebrew is plural.
  2. Psalm 82:2 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here.

This psalm always tends to remind me of an unsigned pop group in the late 1960s, formed out of the most competent members of other local groups, which modestly called itself “The Gods”!

On reading the psalm yesterday, I found myself wondering about this “gods” and how it should be understood.  The modern punctuation, using apostrophes around “gods”, is not in the original Hebrew, nor in the Greek nor even the Latin Vulgate.  Modern punctuation is an innovation of the early modern period and later.  But it is a nice way to indicate how the modern translator understood the text.

But how did the ancients understand this psalm?  Well, there is always Eusebius of Caesarea’s massive early-fouth century Commentary on the Psalms, still awaiting an English translation.  So I found myself consulting it.  Fortunately there is an Italian translation, which I have run across into English.  I’ll post the output here, and then add a couple of thoughts of my own.

Note that in the ancient Greek translation of the psalms, the Septuagint, this psalm is numbered 81.  This was the numbering that Eusebius knew, and his text references it so, and the biblical footnotes from the Italian are also in the LXX numbering.

PSALM 81

Verse 1a: “A Psalm of Asaph.”
Verse 1b: “God stands in the assembly of the gods, and in their midst He judges the gods.”

The previous psalm accused the entire Jewish people, as God clearly said: “My people did not listen to My voice, and Israel did not obey Me. So I sent them away to follow their own desires”;[1] and again: “If only My people would listen to Me, if Israel would walk in My ways, I would quickly humble their enemies.”[2] In continuity with that, this one accuses those who preside over the people, since it addresses princes and judges, saying: “How long will you judge unjustly? And will you show favour to sinners? Defend the cause of the poor and the humble, do justice to the orphan and the needy.” Then it adds: I commanded this, but they “neither knew nor understood: they wander in darkness.”

He nevertheless calls them “gods,” either because of the honour they received from the people, so much so that they were approached with fear and reverence as if they were God Himself; or because, having the responsibility to administer justice, they acted on God’s behalf, punishing and chastising the wicked according to the law that was in their hands; or also because they were honoured by God with adoption as His children, to the point that it is said of them: “I have begotten children and raised them up”;[3] or again, because they are made in the image and likeness of God,[4] due to the intellectual and rational substance that is in man. And in this psalm, indeed, he continues by saying to those he accuses: “I have said: You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. But you will die like men, and fall like one of the princes.”

The Word of God, therefore, in judging those who preside over the people, that is, priests, high priests, and other leaders, declares these things. For this reason, it is said: “God stands in the assembly of the gods, and in their midst He judges the gods”; or, according to Aquila: “God stands in the assembly of the mighty; in what is inward, the Lord judges”; and according to Symmachus: “God stands in the council of God, in the midst, God judges.” The one who judges is this God, that is, the Word of God, and He judges the so-called “assembly of the gods,” declaring His accusations against those being judged. And since the powerful will be examined according to their power, He rightly separates the group of those He calls gods and judges them apart, while in the previous psalm, He had already declared His accusation against the mass of the people. But He also judges in the sense that He discerns those who are worthy of salvation and those who are not. He judges without arrogance, without the ways of a tyrant, without sitting high above, but, lowering Himself towards those He must judge, He stands among them, in a form similar to theirs, because of the man He has assumed. For this reason, He first addresses those who will be judged, to lead them to wisdom, so that they may avoid falling under punishment in judgment, so that they may correct themselves, so that they may be careful to avoid the causes of accusation that are being laid out.

For this reason, He says: “How long will you judge unjustly? And will you show favour to sinners? Defend the cause of the poor and the orphan.” The Spirit of prophecy cried out similar things to them when it said through Isaiah: “Learn to do good; seek justice, defend the orphan, and plead the case of the widow. Then come and let us reason together, says the Lord. And even if your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white as snow.”[5] Certainly, these things had already been commanded by Scripture before, yet those who are honoured with the title of gods and made worthy of such teachings “neither knew nor understood: they wander in darkness.”

These words can also be referred to the time of the first coming of our Saviour among us, when, going to the synagogues of the Jews and standing among the leaders, He conversed with them and accused them, attesting to and describing what would happen to them in the future judgment. Thus, at that time, God stood “in the assembly of the gods,” and there in the midst, He judged these gods, as mentioned. Instead of “judges,” Symmachus and Aquila translated it as “judging.” But observe how He called those He judged “gods” and did not hesitate to speak of the “assembly of the gods,” to the shame of those who deny the divinity of the Saviour. Indeed, if He does not hesitate to call gods those who are accused and found guilty of iniquity, how much more justly should we revere with the august honour due to God the author of such extraordinary works, the one who has received from the Father the power to judge? It is with these objections that the Saviour Himself addressed the leaders of the Jews to confound them. For when they said, “We do not stone you for a good work but for blasphemy because you, a man, make yourself God,” Jesus answered them: “Is it not written in your Law: I said: You are gods? If He called those to whom the word of God came gods — and Scripture cannot be annulled — do you say of Him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world that He is blaspheming because I said: I am the Son of God?”[6]

And do not be surprised if the Saviour says, “Is it not written in the Law?” because He lets us know that any word of God, not only through Moses but also through the prophets, should be understood as a sort of royal law. Therefore, it is entirely appropriate to call the precepts given by the prophets the laws of God, and this also applies to the psalms. He Himself, then, the Word of God, “taking the form of a servant and appearing in human form,” placed Himself in the assembly of the “gods,” and, standing among these men called “gods,” He judged them when He said: The word I have spoken will judge you. Thus, we should understand our text in this way, rather than thinking it refers to God the Father, who transcends all, and who would be standing among other “gods.” For it is not permissible to suppose that anyone could be His equal, nor to lower Him to the point of thinking He could stand among men in such a way, standing there in their midst. All this, instead, can be referred to the Christ of God. It is He Himself who, saying: “How long will you judge unjustly? And will you show favour to sinners?” does not only address those He is speaking to personally but all those who have received the power to judge others. And it is right that He criticizes those who hypocritically favour the rich and oppress the needy, while it is with the scales of justice that one must judge, remembering that the Law says: “You shall not show partiality in judgment.” And certainly, we too are often severe judges towards the poor for the small faults they commit, and we show no mercy in our judgments against them. But when the rich commit even grave offenses and then come to the Church of God, we show them favour. Thus, the words of the psalm are appropriate for us as well: “How long will you judge unjustly? And will you show favour to sinners?” By saying, “How long?” He reminds us that we must leave this life. Indeed, He asks: How long will you act this way? And after that, you will face the judgment of God.

Therefore, he adds: “Defend the cause of the poor and the orphan, do justice to the humble and the needy. Rescue the needy, and deliver the poor from the hand of the sinner.” If we, then, listen to these words, correct ourselves, and observe what is commanded of us, we will enjoy the benefits that come from these words. For it will also be said to us: “They neither knew nor understood; they wander in darkness.” And what is it that they neither knew nor understood, if not that, within a short time, they too will have to appear before the tribunal of God to give an account of what they did not judge justly? But those who do not keep the judgment of God in mind wander in darkness because they have filled the eyes of their souls with the darkness of ignorance. Therefore, it benefits them to be illuminated by the splendour of the Word, or not to engage in judgment at all, mindful of the One who said: “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged”;[7] or, if it is indeed necessary to judge, to do so in the most just way and to rebuke sinners, even if it requires dying for the truth, firmly convinced that the end will come for all and that situations will change at the time of the universal judgment of God, which will happen through His Christ.

And this is also indicated by the present text, as it continues, adding: “All the foundations of the earth will be shaken. I said: You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. But you will die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” Once again, with these words, He addresses the aforementioned “gods,” the leaders and chiefs of the people. The God who came among them teaches that, in imitation of the Father’s generosity, He was not held back by jealousy in sharing His divinity with them, even going so far as to call them “gods” and to declare them all children of the Most High—a status that, however, belongs to Him alone. But they responded to grace with insults.

You will then understand how those who have received power from God are honoured by their subjects almost as if they were gods if you observe what was said to Moses: “See, I have made you like a god to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.”[8] Just as Moses, who was a man of God and was honoured by Him, is declared a god to Pharaoh, so too are all those whom God honours considered by their subjects to be acting in the place of God. Therefore, the subjects approach them with reverential fear, not because of any armed escort, wealth, or power they possess, but because of the honour God has bestowed upon them. Thus, the face of Moses was filled with glory, as were the faces of the apostles of our Saviour, the ancient prophets of God, and all those who are truly servants of God. Though they may remain without glory and poor in their lives, they are honoured by the faithful because of the grace that God has given them.

“So then,” he says, “this is how I wanted it, and I said: ‘You are gods’, because I wanted you also, like me—God who stands among you—to become children of the Most High. But you have despised this grace. And indeed, you die because of your human wickedness and your sins. For, ‘the soul that sins shall die.’[9] Therefore, ‘you die like men, and fall like one of the princes.’ Because there was a time when even the devil was in honour before God, and was one of the princes of the angels in heaven, but then, for having followed an evil purpose, he fell from his status as an angel, so much so that it is said of him: ‘How have you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who rises in the morning?’[10] Likewise with you: it is not by nature that you are wicked, but by your wicked choices. Therefore, as for me, I was calling you to divine honour, but since you have imitated the fallen prince, behold, you also ‘fall like one of the princes.’”

Verse 8: “Rise up, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit all the nations.”

In perfect continuity with the previous psalm, where the entire Jewish nation was accused, in this one, which we are now considering, addressing the leaders of the people, the psalmist prays for the reconciliation and manifestation of Christ, not for the nation of the Jews but for all the nations. Therefore, it adds: “Rise up, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit all the nations.” And who receives this inheritance, you may ask, but examine the facts and you will see that it can only be the Christ of God, to whom the Father had said: “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.” To urge Him, God who is in the midst of those “gods” and reproves them, this psalm asks Him to finally bring to completion the promise He received, saying: “Rise up, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit all the nations.” Indeed, it says, those who have already been accused and have been poor judges have wandered in darkness. But it is your duty to judge with justice, for only you, the Son, have the judgment entrusted to you by the Father. Therefore, rise up, and with your resurrection, bring about the common resurrection of all men, and “judge the earth,” that is, all the people who inhabit the earth. It is up to you to judge all people “for you shall inherit all the nations.”

Thus this psalm has spoken of the “assembly of gods,” of God who is in their midst and “judges the gods,” and has outlined the whole doctrine of judgment, then at the end adds: “Rise up, O God, judge the earth.”

All this has been expounded by the Holy Spirit through the prophet Asaph. However, since we have seen that Psalm 49, also attributed to Asaph, has already dealt with judgment in a manner similar to this one, it seems appropriate to consider it analogous to the one we are now examining, given that it is also by Asaph and shares the same theme. In Psalm 49, it is said: “The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken, and has called the earth, from the rising of the sun to its setting.” Observe how the ending of what we are considering says: “Rise up, O God, judge the earth,” while Psalm 49 begins with: “The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken, and has called the earth.” Furthermore, here it is said: “For you shall inherit all the nations,” and there it says: “From the rising of the sun to its setting.”[11] Moreover, Psalm 49 says: “God will come manifestly, our God, and will not keep silent,”[12] while what He will do is taught here: “God stands in the assembly of gods, and in their midst, He judges the gods.” How He judges is explained in Psalm 49, which says: “A fire will burn before Him, and a mighty tempest will be around Him. He will call to the heavens above, and to the earth, to judge His people.”[13]

So for these reasons, it seemed right to us to consider that Psalm 49 is connected to this one. It should also be noted that the psalms of Asaph that follow this point deal with the repudiation of Israel and its causes, and Psalm 49, by the same prophet, also introduces the topic of the abrogation of the Law of Moses, declaring that sacrifices are rejected. Thus, the context in both psalms presents similar themes. As for why Psalm 49 has been separated from those that are placed here one after the other and placed before the confession in Psalm 50, this we have already explained in our commentary.

An interesting commentary indeed, and I find myself wondering about the explanation of the position of psalm 49.

The Italian translator has treated the first verse as a summary of the psalm, rather than as part of the psalm itself.  Judging from the commentary, this is how Eusebius saw it also.

It is interesting that Eusebius treats psalm 82 as a continuation of psalm 81.  We think of the psalms as composed independently, and then gathered together at some subsequent point.  We always treat them independently in church use.  But here Eusebius plainly thinks that the psalmist composed them in the order in which we have them, and wrote them down in that order.  Furthermore it looks as if he thinks that the collection we now have is disarranged from the original, judging from the final remark.  Of course he could be right, or he could be speculating.  No ancient source preserves anything about the process of composition of the book of psalms, as far as I am aware, so imagination may play freely.

The rather shocking “God stands in the assembly of the gods, and in their midst He judges the gods” he understands as we do; as a reference to human beings, to the “great ones” of our day, who behave like gods over our lives, without regard to our wishes or even our votes.  The whole psalm then becomes a warning to the great, that God is watching them, and indeed to us when we have authority over others.  The non-Septuagint translations of Aquila and Symmachus are referenced, making the same point in different ways.

It is good to check a modern exegesis against the thoughts of antiquity!

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  1. [1]Ps. 80:12.↩
  2. [2]Ps. 80:14.↩
  3. [3]Is. 1:2.↩
  4. [4]Genesis 1:26.↩
  5. [5]Is. 1:17↩
  6. [6]Jn. 10:33-36.↩
  7. [7]Mt. 7:1/↩
  8. [8]Exodus 7:1.↩
  9. [9]Ezekiel 18:4.↩
  10. [10]Is. 14:12.↩
  11. [11]Ps. 49:1.↩
  12. [12]Ps. 49:3.↩
  13. [13]Ps. 49:3.↩

From my diary – Philo of Carpasia and his “Letter to Eucarpios” – Part 2

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Many thanks indeed to Diego and Matthieu Cassin who both contributed a lot of useful information in response to my last post.  Let me summarise their comments.

It seems that the K. Hadjioannos (1975) edition of Philo of Carpasia’s Letter to Eucarpios is a straight reprint of a text printed by A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus’ in Analekta Hierosolymitikes Stachyologias, vol. 1 (1891), item 16, 393-399, minus the apparatus and biblical references. His text was taken from MS St Sabbas 408 (9-10th c.), folios 34-40.   Interestingly the manuscript leads off with two works by a certain John Carpathius.

The Analekta volume is a collection of texts printed from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem and its churches in the surrounding area.  Papadopoulos-Kerameus in fact made a detailed catalogue of the manuscripts at the Patriarchate, which includes manuscripts from the monastery of St Sabbas (or Mar Saba as it is often known).  The Mar Saba manuscript appears in this catalogue in vol. 2 (1894) p.536, entry 3 (online here), although I learn from Pinakes that more up-to-date catalogues also exist.  Apparently microfilms of around half the manuscripts at the patriarchate were made in 1950 by an American expedition.

The marvellous Pinakes database also lists another manuscript of the Letter to Eucarpios here.  It is in Greece, on Mount Athos, in the Iviron monastery.  It is Iviron 673 (numbered 4793 in the Lambros catalogue), and dated to the 14th century.  Here the Letter follows two works by Chrysostom, so clearly the Mar Saba manuscript is not just a straight copy of the Iviron manuscript.

I’ve begun to scan the modern Greek translation of the Letter to Eucarpios.  I don’t know a word of modern Greek, but I thought it possible that Google Translate or ChatGPT might be able to do something with it.  Google Translate certainly attempted it, but the results were not very good.  ChatGPT on the other hand has given a very fluent translation of the whole thing, which I will post once I have tinkered with the output a bit.  At one point in particular the thought is obvious but the raw output obscures it.

The letter is written to a monk who is just starting out on the ascetic life and is despairing, and wondering, “what’s the point?”  The response is more interesting than you might imagine.

Update 24/09/24: This is also Letter 42 of Basil. See here.

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Graham Kendrick, “Paid on the Nail” now available as MP3s

Posted on by Roger Pearse

This will mean nothing to most readers of the website, but today I learned by accident that the Graham Kendrick 1975 album “Paid on the Nail” is available for purchase online on his website here.  You have to look for the links, but look for “Paid on the Nail / Album Download:”  The album was originally released on Vinyl, and a CD was produced, but it has been unavailable for decades.

Looking at this took me back to days long ago, days even before I was a Christian.  In 1977 I had started to attend a church youth group, although I knew nothing about the gospel, drawn by the presence of a young lady whom I knew from the sixth form at school.  I heard the album played there.  So I decided to buy a copy.  I walked down to the Christian bookshop in Stafford, the Beacon, which I had never entered, although I knew where it was.  I went in, very shyly.  Conversations stopped and all eyes turned on the stranger.  I walked to the music section, and found the album, and bought it, and escaped.  It was the first Christian music that I ever owned.

I remember taking it with me to Oxford when I went up a somewhat later.  I remember setting up my hi-fi in an attic room – the “worst in the college”, according to the bursar – and playing this album there to help me settle in.  In fact each time I moved room, and then moved house, I played it, starting with the first track, “Beautiful Night”.  A little custom that I have observed all my life.

The album has been part of the soundtrack of my life all these years.  I still have the original vinyl copy.  It is good to have it on my phone now.  I wish his other early albums were available.  Some of these have memories attached to them also, although none so deeply.

If it means anything to you, as it does to me, you can now hear it again for a small sum.  Well worthwhile, I think.

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From my diary – Philo of Carpasia and his “Letter to Eucarpios” – Part 1

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Last week I heard the name of Philo of Carpasia for the first time.  This Philo was ordained bishop of Carpasia in Cyprus by our old friend Epiphanius of Salamis, in the late 4th century.  He is the author of a Commentary on the Song of Songs, CPG 3810.  This is preserved in 10 Greek manuscripts, the earliest 12th and 13th centiry, and half of them 17th century.  There is also an ancient Latin translation of it, made at the order of Cassiodorus in the 6th century, and preserved in a single Vatican manuscript (Vat. lat. 5704) also of the 6th century.  Comparison of the two reveals that the surviving Greek text has been abbreviated a bit.  There’s a text in PG40, 27-154.  The ancient Latin version of this Commentary on the Song of Songs has been edited critically with an Italian translation.

A second work attributed to Philo of Carpasia exists… somewhere.  It’s a Letter to Eucarpios.  It’s not listed in the CPG.  But both the Commentary and the Letter to Eucarpios have been printed with a modern Greek translation in a set of volumes produced in Cyprus: K. Hadjioannos Ἡ ἀρχαία Κύπρος εἰς τὰς Ἑλληνικὰς πήγας / Hē archaia Kypros eis tas Hellēnikas pēgas, vol. 3, Leucosia: Ekd. Hieras Archiepiskopēs Kyprou (1975), where they form an appendix.  The Letter is p..534-545.  The Commentary is just the PG text, I believe.  Update 24/09/24: This is also Letter 42 of Basil. See here.

Fortunately a well-stocked research library lies relatively near.  I spent some of yesterday renewing a reader’s card, and this morning I drove up there to collect it, and to look at the Philo of Carpasia material.  But disaster – the library has a super-duper photocopying/scanning system, all run from a central server, and this was out of action.  The server itself was inaccessible, and although the machines made scanning/copying noises, nothing came out.  Apparently a security fix had been deployed hastily a few months ago, and had caused continual problems over the summer.

This configuration is not at all uncommon in libraries today.  In the IT world we would call it “single point of failure” – one thing going down takes down everything.  I began to wish that the library still had its coin-operated photocopiers!  Less high-tech, but infinitely more resilient.  Sadly the trend in modern society is to introduce ever more technology, whether necessary or not, and in the process make everything very brittle.

What made things worse was that the library staff, although very helpful, thought that things were working, or might be working.   But I think that in reality they knew that they were not working, purely because they were getting a steady stream of people asking for assistance.  It took me quite some time and frustration before I realised that my plans for the day were well and truly frustrated.  Had they been upfront about the problems, then I might have deferred my visit!

Of course I had my smartphone with me.  So, despite all the problems, I could still take photographs.  It wasn’t ideal, because the pages come out curved.  You need to place the book face-down on a plate.  But still I was, with some labour, able to photograph the pages of the Letter to Eucarpios.  But I abandoned any hope of doing more.  Plainly the Fates had taken my thread of life in their fingers and introduced a knot!

Tomorrow I shall look at these photographs and see what can be made out of them.  I sat in the canteen and stared at the proemium, and it looks as if Hadjioannos was reprinting from somewhere else, which he unhelpfully alluded to only vaguely.  We shall see.

Thankfully he prefaced these Greek-only volumes with a page in English:

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A sudden rush of emails has arrived.  I can only conclude that the summer is over, people are returning to their bulging email inboxes, and dropping emails to me.  Apologies to anyone that I have not yet replied to!

One of the most interesting came from a mathematical gentleman interested in the calculation of the date of Easter.  He had found a 2006 page with an English translation of material by Dionysius Exiguus, and emailed me some interesting and difficult questions. Part of the difficulty was that I didn’t actually remember anything about that page, after almost twenty years!  I ended up hunting through old emails, and writing a preface explaining what it is, which I placed here.  I also tracked down the Latin text used, that of Rodolphe Audette of Laval University, Canada, uploaded some time before 2000, and long since gone.  I placed a copy here.  I did expand the æ and œ ligatures, however.  I really ought to revise the preface, which I started to translate and then gave up!

The research materials for a post on a certain Philo of Carpasia are gathered, and all I have to do is write it.  I’d never heard of the chap.  But it seems that he was a bishop in Cyprus, appointed by Epiphanius of Salamis, and the author of an extant allegorical commentary on the Song of Songs.  The commentary is real; the information about his biography is frankly sketchy.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their summer.  It is now time to start booking for winter breaks!

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A Voyage to the Levant in 1698

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve been dipping into a 1698 travelogue of the Near East.  It was written by a Dutchman, Cornelis de Bruyn, and thankfully translated more or less immediately into French, and then into English in 1702.  The author was a draughtsman, and made numerous drawings of everything he saw.

I’ve been looking at the chapters on Egypt.  The author seems to have gone no further than Cairo.  His travels in the region were all under armed guard, as bandits were everywhere, and the country was unsafe.  Nor were the guards always to be relied on.

Unfortunately the volume is larded with extracts from books that he read, and has otherwise limited interest.

Here are a couple of extracts.  Page 152:

Next to Khalits, which is the longest street in the city, is the Bazar Street. where market is kept every Monday and Thursday, and where one meets with so many People, especially on market-days, that one has much ado to get through the crowd. ’Tis a fine street, very long and broad; at one end of which is a Bezistan, or Market-Hall, which is full of as fine shops as are at Constantinople; and at the other end is the market for slaves, viz. white slaves, of whom they sell of all sorts, men, women , and children, &c. There is likewise another market where they sell black slaves of both sexes.

As to the number of its inhabitants, I never saw a city so populous; and a man has much ado in the markets and other places of concourse to thrust through the crowd, besides he must take care of his pocket, for the Arabians are the greatest filchers in the world, and have a good knack at it.

The rest of the inhabitants, as in almost all parts of Egypt, consist of Turks, Moors (some of which are very black) ,Jews and Christians, viz. Coptes and Greeks: As for Europeans there are but few of them, and those that I saw there in my time were most of them French, who had their consul. As for the English and Dutch, I did not meet with one of them. This multitude of people is the cause that in the time of the Plague a prodigious number of them die, a thousand or fifteen hundred in a day is very common; and tho’ during the whole course of the contagion two hundred thousand have been swept away, yet there is hardly any miss of them. At some times six or seven hundred thousand have died of the Plague. Add to this, that there are no women, or at least but very few, to be seen in the streets, because in the Levant they have not the same liberty as elsewhere.

After leaving Cairo he returned to Alexandria.  (chapter 43, p.171):

De Bruyn, Alexandria. (plate no. 97)

A day or two after I took the draught of a prospect within the city, which represents an avenue that leads into Alexandria on one side through a breach in the wall with some towers that are fallen down, as is to be seen N. 97. From thence is to be seen the open sea with the two castles, that guard the passage one on the right, the other on the left hand, as they are marked with the letters A B. These two castles are placed so exactly opposite to one another, that, as they told me, when they fire off together, the bullets sometimes meet and dash one another to pieces.

On this side is likewise to be seen the remains of Cleopatra’s Palace which was on the sea-shore. By the stately chambers and apartments, the ruins of which still remain, ’tis but reasonable to suppose that it was a very proud and magnificent Building, ’tis marked at the letter C.

Zooming in a bit:

Hard by this Palace there is an obelisk full of hieroglyphic characters; ’tis to be seen N. 98. on that side which I took the pains to design with all its figures, just as they appeared upon the obelisk. There are but only two or three of them which are not well done, doubtless it is because they are worn by the long process of time. Let this be as it will, I have represented them just as I found them. For not understanding what those Characters meant, I was not willing to alter any thing in this, no more than in any of the rest, and I have left the explication to those who understand it, provided they will admit of any explication. …

Plate 99 is another and larger view of the ruins of “Cleopatra’s Palace”, much of which he says is fallen into the sea.  Adjacent to this building, although not depicted, was a round tower of the 9th century, part of the Tulunid walls, and known as the “Tower of the Romans” and this survived to the beginning of the 20th century.  Photographs from 1870 exist.

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Back into the time machine – Greek words embedded in the Syriac of the “Life of Mar Aba”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Back in 2013 I translated the “Life of Mar Aba” from the German translation into English, with an introduction.  Unless I am mistaken, this remains the only English translation of this very interesting text.  It captures the period in the 6th century when Christianity began to become acceptable in the Sassanid Persian empire.  At the start of his episcopate, Christianity was an illegal religion, practised only by the lower classes.  By the end of it, when Mar Aba died, the King of Kings promptly appointed a trusted friend as patriarch.

The process of change is visible within the “Life”.  Mar Aba himself was a Persian nobleman, and could deal with the nobles as equals.  What we see in the “Life” is the gradual realisation, by the Sassanid monarch, that the presence of the Christians might be a solution to a perpetual problem for these monarchs, namely the power of the Zoroastrian clergy.  The Sassanids were always threatened by these fire priests, who even deposed one king and ruled directly themselves for a few years.  But priests distracted by a religious problem are much less of a threat to the secular power.  Again and again we see demands for the execution of Mar Aba.  And every time the king loudly agrees with the priests, expresses his outrage, and … does not execute him.  The king becomes more powerful, and the fire priests have to come to him with their problem.  By the time of the Muslim conquest, there were Christians everywhere, and the Sassanids openly used them as a counter-balance to the Zoroastrian clergy.

Today I received an enquiry about my translation, asking why it has Greek words embedded in it.

The short answer is that they were present in the old German translation in the BKV series that I used (online as electronic text here, and in PDF here).

The longer answer is that I do not know.  The introduction told me that the Syriac was printed by Paul Bedjan in 1895, and happily I found the volume here.  The Life of Mar Aba is section 20, and begins on page 206.

The Archive.org scan is not the best in the world, as you can see.  Unfortunately the days when I could read any Syriac are now behind me.

But I suspect that the words given in Greek in the German translation are what the Syriac uses – Greek words transliterated into Syriac characters and used in the absence of a native Syriac word for the item.

Interesting anyway!

UPDATE (22 August 2024): Grigory Kessel has kindly answered the question, in the comments:

Those are Greek loanwords. Many of such loanwords have a long history and were naturalised rather early.

By the way, there is now a new edition of the life of Mar Aba with a French translation:

F. Jullien (ed.), Histoire de Mar Abba, Catholicos de l’Orient; Martyres de Mar Grigor, général en chef du roi Khusro Ier et de Mar Yazd-Panah, juge et gouverneur (CSCO 658/659; Scriptores Syri 254/255), Louvain: Peeters, 2015.

Thank you!

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English translation of letters on the Acacian schism in the early 5th century

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve just come across this rather marvellous blog post, “The Libellus of Hormisdas and the Failure of Policy”. This is at the Ubi Petrus Ibi Ecclesia blog, previously unknown to me.

The following are translations of key letters in the Acacian Schism and will be added to over time.

A fairly niche subject, but wonderful to have these texts!

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