Category: Eusebius

Earlier this year I commissioned two translators to produce an English translation of a previously untranslated work.  The work is the Quaestiones of Eusebius of Caesarea.  It’s an FAQ on differences between the gospels. 

The work itself is lost, but a long epitome of 16 questions was discovered by Angelo Mai in a Vatican manuscript.  In addition bits of the full text exist in medieval Greek commentaries made up of chains of quotations (catenas).  The commentary on Luke by Nicetas has quite a number.  So far I have 40 Greek fragments.  In addition the work was translated into Syriac, and fragments from Syriac catenas also exist.

At the moment the Greek translator is on Summer recess.  The Syriac grinds slowly forward; of the 12 fragments, 1-5 and 12 are done.  But I have discovered that quotations also exist in Coptic gospel catenas.  I have a copy of one, published by de Lagarde, and this definitely contains quotations from Eusebius.

I’ve advertised for someone with knowledge of Coptic to translate these passages also.

I’ve also begun to think about the physical manufacture of the book, design, layout etc.  I wish I knew more about these things.

I have accidentally found this volume online at Google books from a search on “cramer catena”.  It is here.  I could wish that I had known this before seeking out physical copies and paying for photocopies.  The authors used in the catena are listed at the back, with page references.  It contains a number of passages from the “Quaestiones ad Marinum”.

The other catenae published by John Cramer are listed at Google books, but with no content.  Let’s hope that they come online too.

PS: I have just found the catena on 1 Corinthians online too here.  Also his Anecdota Graeca from various manuscript collections.  As ever, a list of authors quoted and page numbers is at the back.

I’ve been gathering more materials.   The medieval Greek commentaries on the bible (catenae) are made up solely of chunks of quotations from earlier authors.  The catena published by John Cramer is particularly good for material by Eusebius, and has a nice index at the back of which pages to look at,  unlike another catena by Possinius that I had to leaf through.  I obtained photocopies of the Eusebius pages of the volume on Luke/John.  Using the TLG, I found that many of these quotations do indeed turn out to be from the “Quaestiones”; some look as if they might be new fragments.

It’s interesting that so many catenae do exist in publication, and all in very old editions.  Cramer, being 19th century, is the most modern of them.  I can’t help feeling that someone should translate Cramer.  It could not fail to be interesting.

The excellent and industrious Andrew Smith has completed a translation into English of the Latin translation of the Chronicon of Eusebius of Caesarea!  He has also made this available as a public domain text, which is how it should be, of course.  It’s here.

Note that information on the manuscripts should be checked against a recent article by Dr. Drost-Abgarjan, here.

The revision of the ‘ecloge’ (the collection of selected extracts) of the work is in progress, and it sounds as if it’s thoroughly worthwhile.  I’ve also compared the fragments of the full text found in catenae which Angelo Mai published in his first edition to that which he printed in the second.  The main difference is that he added a load of material from a Vatican ms. (Vat. gr. 1611) of the catena of Nicetas (a still unpublished text, as far as I know).  But he also omitted fragments published in the first edition.  I’ve compiled a concordance of the two and sent it to Mr. A.  I’ve also found some fragments in Cramer’s catena on Matthew/Mark.

I’ve been looking for a text by Francois Combefis, which seems to contain more fragments.  A trip to the Bodleian one Saturday was in vain; apparently they don’t bother to fetch books from the stacks on Saturdays!  I also need to try to track down the letter of Latino Latini in which he refers to the full text existing in Sicily; increasingly I get the impression that no-one has consulted this in centuries, and everyone has just reprinted Fabricius via Migne.

Meanwhile I’ve finally fired Mr. C, the Syriac translator.  He’s ignored all my emails for two months now.  I received no reply to my email of enquiry, so I really had little choice. It’s a little hard to understand why anyone would just fall silent and leave someone hanging.  Couldn’t he imagine that it might be very inconvenient for someone to have no idea if he ever intended to do more?  Still, he did two fragments which is more than anyone else has done. 

Fortunately Dr. E. has agreed to translate more of the Syriac for me.  Fragment 3 has arrived today, and is very literal and very good.  She hopes to do a fragment a week, which would be ideal.  It is curious how difficult I have found it to find Syriac translators. 

Regular readers will know that I have commissioned a gentleman whom I refer to as Mr. A to translate all the remains of Eusebius of Caesarea’s Quaestiones ad Stephanum et Marinum.  This work contains a series of ‘problems’ — differences between the gospels — and Eusebius’ ‘solutions’ to them.  The problems ‘for Stephanus’ all come from either the start of the gospels, and usually deal with the geneaologies of Jesus.  The remainder deal with differences between the endings of the gospels, including the multiple endings of Mark, found even then in the manuscripts.  The work is lost, but an epitome survives, plus lots of fragments in Greek and Syriac catena-commentaries.

Today is a great day.  Mr. A has today completed the first translation of the entire epitome into English, and intends to revise it all by the end of this week.  After this, we start in on the fragments of the catenae.  This week I went to Cambridge and found yet more fragments in various 17th century printed extracts, themselves taken from catenae. 

So far the cost of translation has reached $1,800, which is quite a sum to pay out of my own pocket!  But I hope that if I make the text available in a print-on-demand version online, that enough copies can be sold to recover this.  I also invite donations; after all, the subject of the work should be of interest to an awful lot of people, whether Christian, atheist, or whatever.

Mr. A, who is translating this work of Eusebius on the differences between the gospels and their solutions, writes to tell me that the 16th and final question to Stephanus is now done.  This is gratifying news; the first complete translation into English is progressing nicely.  We’re now trying to decide whether to press on into the four questions to Marinus; or pause and do a revision process on all of Stephanus.

I’ve also been trying to determine whether a critical edition exists of the Catena on Luke of Nicetas, which contains fragments of this work.  No luck so far.

Over the last couple of weeks translations of the Greek text of Q12 and Q13 have arrived from Mr. A.  In the process he points out that the first edition by Mai of Q13 contains rather less text than the second edition, and queries whether we need a proper text.  Of course we do.

I’ve heard nothing from Mr. C (the Syriac translator) for ages, and have started enquiring again about someone else to help out.  It is curious how difficult it is to find people to translate from Syriac.  It is a simple language, when all is said and done.

PS: 10th April.  Mr. A. has now completed QSt14 as well.  Only two more ‘questions’ to Stephanus to do; then it’s onto the 4 questions to Marinus, and then the fragments of the complete text from catenae.

PS: 15th April.  Mr. A. has now completed QSt15, a goodly chunk.  In addition I wrote to Dr. E, my Syriac checker, and it looks as if I’ll get another Syriac translator, with E. checking their work.  So good news.

The 9th, 10th and 11th gospel ‘difficulties’ have now arrived from Mr. A, which is most encouraging.

The 8th question and answer to Stephanus (of 14) has now arrived from Mr. A, which is encouraging. Someone else has enquired about doing some of the Syriac. Still nothing from Mr. C.

Postscript. 13th March Mr. A. has now sent me the 9th question and answer also. I’ve today prompted Mr. C. as to why I have now received nothing for nearly two months.

Postscript. 14th March Mr. C. replied by sending me a translation of the second Syriac fragment. He didn’t really explain the long delays, except that he thought he needed to revise it. I’ve now contacted a second possible translator to do a chunk of Syriac, who tells me that fragment 10 is ‘really easy’ but won’t be able to start for a month.