Tag: Patristics

Thinking about Sbath’s “twenty philosophical and theological treatises”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A few weeks ago I had a gentleman write to me offering his services to translate some Arabic stuff, for money.  His CV on the face of it seemed good, and I was wondering  what I could offer him to do. So I enquired in the North American Society for Arabic Christian Studies group whether anyone knew of any short but interesting Arabic Christian texts that might usefully be translated.

A reply popped up a couple of days ago, from Sasha Trieger, suggesting some of the treatises published by Paul Sbath in Cairo in 1929 as Vingt traités philosophiques et theologiques (Cairo, 1929). There is a French introduction and notes, but apparently few have been translated into any other language. 

Of course the first problem is simply to get hold of the book.  There are three copies in the UK, so I learn from COPAC.  One is in Cambridge.  Well, I could go there.  Unfortunately they have closed their car park next week for resurfacing, which makes it difficult; other car parks charge meanly high prices, out of an elitist anti-car ideology.  The book is 200 pages, which might take a bit of copying.  Still, maybe the car park will be open tomorrow.  A quick check reveals that it will, at least to 5pm.  It will cost me around $30 in petrol to get there, plus photocopying charges.  Hmm.

I can’t help noticing how inefficient this pre-internet way of publishing was!  Just to work on a text involves unnecessary awkwardness.  But back to the contents.

Dr. T. listed the contents, by author. Unfortunately I’m pretty ignorant of Arabic Christian authors.  So I thought it might be fun to expand the list.  I grabbed Graf’s majestic handbook, pulled down the index, and let’s see just what’s what.

  • Ibn Zur`a (Nos. 1-4).  Graf 2, pp. 252-254. 

This chap was born in 943 in Baghdad, died 16 April 1008.   He was a Jacobite.  Sbath pp. 6-19 is a letter to a Moslem friend on the attributes of God.   pp.19-52 is a letter to a Jew in 4 chapters.  pp. 52-68 is an apologetic treatise against Islam. pp. 68-75 is another apologetic work, “On the Trinity. 

Ibn Zur`a also wrote treatises in response to questions about biblical contradictions; another with 12 answers to further questions such as the historical existence of Christ; a treatise on the single nature of Christ; two more on monophysite theology; and finally one on why Christians can make use of logic and philosophy.  All the treatises are short, and many sound as if they could use attention. The only ones published are the first four, the rest being still in manuscript.

  • Elias of Nisibis (No. 5), Graf II 177-189.

Clearly an important chap, from the length of his entry!  So what does Dr. Graf have to say about him?  Born 975, died after 1049. He was a Nestorian monk, then bishop, in Mosul.  He wrote a big Chronicle in Syriac, which we have in his own hand, with a parallel Arabic translation, also in his own hand for the most part.  He composed a Syriac-Arabic dictionary.  He wrote lots, apparently.  Sbath pp.75-103 is a theological treatise on the creation and the trinity.

  • Sam’an ibn Kalil (No. 6),

 I couldn’t find this author in Graf.

  • Ibn `Assal (Nos. 7-8),

Nor this one.

  • `Abdallah ibn al-Fadl (No. 9), Graf II. 52-64.

This one was a Melchite, and sometime Metropolitan of Antioch, ca. 1052 AD.  He was also a translator from Greek, translating the commentary on the Six Days of Creation by Basil the Great, and sermons of Chrysostom.  Unfortunately Graf does not indicate which of his works is edited here by Sbath.

  • Daniyal ibn al-Khattab (No. 10), Graf II 281-284, as “Daniel ibn al-Hattab”.

Born 1327, died sometime after 1382.  A Jacobite from Mardin, but lived in Egypt.  Sbath pp. 148-151 contain five chapters of his “Dogmatic compendium”, which has also been translated into French by Sbath on Revue de l’Or. chret. 22 (1920-21), p. 203.  The first 14 chapters of the work are intended as a reply to Elias of Nisibis.

  • Ishoyab ibn Malkun (Nos.  11-14),

I can’t find him in Graf.

  • Yahya ibn `Adi (Nos. 15-17), Graf II 233-249.

Another Jacobite, born in 893 at Tikrit, went to Baghdad and studied in the philosophical school there.  Died 13 August 974.  A voluminous writer.  Sbath  pp. 168-171 contain a treatise on the truth of the Gospel, using syllogisms. p. 171f is another similar treatise;  p. 172-175 on the credal statement, “He became flesh by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary.”

  • Abu al-Khayr ibn al-Tayyib (No.  18), Graf II 344-348

A Copt, writing between 1204 and 1245.  Sbath p. 176-178 prints an extract only of his book “The medicine of understanding”, 24 chapters against the attacks of Moslem polemicists.

  • Abu al-Faraj ibn al-Tayyib (No. 19), Graf II 160-176.

An Iraqi Nestorian, philosopher, physician, monk and priest in the first half of the 11th century.  Another voluminous writer, including massive biblical commentaries on the Psalms and Gospels.  Sbath prints p.179f, a work on miracles and philosophy.

  • Hunayn ibn Ishaq, with a commentary by Yuhanna ibn Mina (No. 20).   Graf II p.122 f.
Of course we all know Hunain, as the translator of so many Greek scientific works at the court of the Abbassid caliphs, especially Galen.  Sbath p.181-185 includes a work, with commentary on 186-200, but with my dodgy German I can’t quite work out the subject!

So there we have it.  Does it make your blood tingle?  Because it certainly doesn’t mine!  Yes, we ought to have all this in English.  But I have to say that all this Trinitarian and Christological noodling seems dull to me.

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Eusebius, Eclogae Propheticae – Gaisford edition now online

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’m still going through piles of photocopies, turning them into PDF’s and throwing the paper copies out.  Occasionally I’m finding treasures.  I had forgotten that I paid the rare books room at Cambridge University Library 16.51 GBP — about $25 — to make a copy of the latest (1842!) edition of Eusebius of Caesarea’s Eclogae Propheticae. 

This curious work is three books of a now lost work, the General Elementary Introduction to Christianity, originally in 10 books.  The eclogae is books 6-9, found in a Vienna manuscript, and consisting mainly of extracts from the Septuagint Old Testament prophesying Christ, and for some reason always known as Eclogae Propheticae.  A few other scraps of the General Elementary Introduction exist; I suspect these will be fragments from catenas.

Gaisford’s edition is a little book, with a Latin introduction and no translation (drat the man).  I’ve created a PDF, and uploaded it to the web at Archive.org, here.  It’s about 28mb in size, although not searchable — I don’t have ancient Greek OCR capabilities! 

There has never been a translation of this work into English.  I am advised, tho, that such a translation would be very easy to make.  I know of at least one person working on Porphyry who has translated a large chunk of it for his own purposes, and may complete the work.  I seem to recall that someone else also has a projected translation.

If nothing emerges in a year or two, I may commission one.

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A couple more letters by Isidore of Pelusium

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Explanations of biblical passages form quite a portion of the letters.

1243 (IV.48) TO AMMONIUS

For fear of presumption,  a terrible ill from which one can escape with difficulty, lest we remain on earth and be deprived of the heavenly rewards, the Lord said:  “Now let us leave this place!” [John 14:31]  Indeed, having engaged His own power in the word which He spoke, He delivered his true disciples from tyrannical passions and made them pass into the celestial assembly.

The French editor, Pierre Evieux, tells is that the following letter is also preserved in the catenas on Romans found in two manuscripts, Vatican. gr. 762 (10th c.) and Vienna. Theol. gr. 166 (14th c.). 

In Romans 1:32, Paul condemns people who, not merely commit a sin, but even approve of those who do the same.  Theologios queries why it is wrong to consider those who encourage sin in others as worse than those who actually commit the sin themselves.  Isidore’s reply is interesting as showing that some were willing to suppose a corruption in the text here.

1244 (IV.60) TO THEOLOGIOS THE DEACON

Since you’ve provided us the occasion to return to the apostolic treasures — in fact you said:  ‘It says “Not only do they do this, but also they approve of those who do this” [Rom. 1:32] and you added:  If the approval is worse than the action itself, why did Paul adopt this order [of words] here?’ — call a little upon your good sense to work out the sense of the apostolic saying which is escaping you, and listen. 

There are some people who did not understand the quotation but which, being embarassed like yourself and supposing that the apostolic expressions are corrupt, have interpreted them this manner: “Not only are there  those who do this, but also those who approve those who do this.”  According to them, the primitive text was presented thus to make it understood that the action was the more serious and approval of it less serious.  For me, without saying that the apostolic books display an error in this passage, without siding either with those who did not understand — because perhaps, even if they are wrong on this passage, on others they are right, and they have caught the direction of passages that, for my part, I did not manage to understand — I will set out what I understood and will allow the judgement of the readers to decide if I am right. 

So, in my opinion, it is because to praise the culprits is much more wong and more serious from the point of view of the punishment that this sentence is relevant:   “Not only do they do this, but also they approve of those who do this.” Because he who condemns his sin after the misdeed will be able in time to repent one day, finding the judgment of the sin a very great help in changing his attitude;  while he who speaks in praise of the evil will deprive himself of the help which repentance procures.  So because this judgement concerns a corrupt conscience and a heart tainted with an incurable disease, he who speaks in praise of the fault of the culprit is rightly judged more culpable.  Because the one will very quickly be diverted from sin, the other not at all, according to whether the judgement relates to he who commits the misdeed or he  who approves it. 

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A bit more on the Zosimus affair

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Isidore of Pelusium writes to his friend Harpocras about the gang of corrupt clergy in Pelusium:

1285 (V.48) TO HARPOCRAS THE SOPHIST.

Undoubtedly it is to better endure insults in silence, like a philosopher, but your attitude is not without elegance either.  Indeed, as a victim of individuals known for their perversity, I mean Zosimus, Maron, Eustathios and Martinianos, you had found malicious to avenge yourself on them by bringing them to justice, but also reducing their supporters to silence:  then, you inflicted on these insolent men a verbal punishment, limiting it to sarcastic remarks which usually wound those at which they aim without being dangerous.  However, in my opinion, the initial reasoning which encouraged you to write is better than the text itself;  therefore I would advise you to add to it what is lacking, i.e. a noble attitude and language free from scandalmongering.  Because even if those people deserve to hear these sarcastic remarks and others even more severe, however it would be wrong for you to pronounce them, you whose language is a sanctuary of purity. 

Harpocras received 28 letters from Isidore, and was teaching in Pelusium.  He composed a monody against these clerics, which is mentioned several times in the correspondence (e.g. 1291, 1292).

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Another letter to Zosimus from Isidore of Pelusium

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Yesterday I gave translations of two letters from Isidore to the corrupt priest Zosimus.  Here is another, although the context is unclear.  But it seems that once again Isidore is attempting to reason away the excuses offered by a man who just doesn’t give a damn.  It would be nice to know just why Isidore is bothering.  Are these letters public letters, one wonders?

1241 (V.24)  TO ZOSIMUS, PRIEST

You seemed to have a good pretext for your last offence to forgive yourself as avenging your brother. But for your current offence, you have nothing of the sort to cover yourself, and you have even lost the benefit of the first forgiveness. Because if you were avenging earlier the wrongs done to your brother, how does it happen that you aren’t ashamed to do wrong today to him whose defence you claim to undertake, and to torment him by every means?  This last offence is enough evidence to show that you deliberately commited the first one as well, because he who would not rescue a brother, how could he have rescued a foreigner?

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A gay clergyman in Pelusium

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Some problems are always with us. It is always hard to believe that someone is a deliberate villain, even when all the evidence points that way. Isidore of Pelusium was neither the first nor the last to encounter one; nor the last spiritual counsellor to discover that he was dealing with a rogue.

1228 (V.12) TO ZOSIMUS, PRIEST

Many people — perhaps it would be too harsh to say “all people” – scoff at you, and do so extremely violently and bitterly. I wish they were wrong! But when he who is your own brother, groaning and deploring on your account, has submitted to us the same report, indeed a report more overpowering, by begging us to drag you out, if possible, from this abyss of vice where you have grown old in your misfortune, often rejecting those who were exhorting you not to go with those to whom you have entrusted yourself, then I address this letter to you.

I do so that you may become master of yourself and that you may blush at the shame at your immodesty, at the old age towards which you are being drawn, at the sacred priesthood which you have acquired I do not know how, at the misdeeds and actual scandals, and that you cease to wallow in vice, acting the young man “on the threshold of old age”.

Indeed how will you exhort the young people to temperance, if you don’t even exhort yourself at the time of old age? How can you not tremble to behave thus and yet approach the altar? How do you dare to touch the immaculate mysteries?

I warn you — even if this pains you, the truth must be said in all frankness — stop acting like this, or at least keep away from the venerable altar; fear to attract one day the fire of heaven on your own head [1], to provide the weak with good reasons to use the sort of language which they like.

[1] An allusion to the fire which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. This indicates the sort of scandalous vices that Zosimus was practising. In other letters Isidore is equally frank: n° 671, 795, 1326 (5.77), 1508 (5.220), 1754 (5.389), 1729 (5.373), cf. Is. de P., p. 217, and n. 138.

1229 (V.13) TO THE SAME

I learn that a wise man, detached from riches and a defender of virtue [1], has met you, that he did all that was necessary to correct you, but saw himself dismissed without having achieved anything, without having been able to help you; your disease appeared stronger than his medical art. Whereas you should have, charmed by the beauty of his ideas, full of admiration for his intelligence and respect for the nobility of his feelings, put a limit to your vice, you dismissed him, not only as a failure, but even with an insult.

What must be done then? If nobody can be of any help to you, if even advice is merely treated as mistaken, if the laughter of people doesn’t matter, if the public scandal appears negligible to you, if you are inaccessible to the fear of God, if the threat of judgement makes you laugh, it seems that without knowing it we have been dealing with a heart of stone.

[1] Perhaps the sophist Harpocras or the cornes Herminos.

To the selfish, the church is merely an opportunity for self-advancement or plunder, not something with whose reputation they are in any way concerned.  Parallels with men of similar vices in our own days are not far to seek.

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Look again at Google Books; you will find more than you did last time

Posted on by Roger Pearse

On this hot summer’s day, I was idly searching in Google books for “library of the fathers” review “cyril of alexandria”, as I have done before in the hope of finding the review which caused Phillip Pusey to abandon work on the translation of the Commentary on John after only publishing one volume.

To my surprise, this time there was far more material.  We tend to forget that Google books is not a static collection, but is being continually enriched with more books and journals.  And although I have not yet found the article in question, I did find several reviews of Phillip Pusey’s work.  The Church Quarterly Review 23, p.32 contains a review of the second volume, published posthumously, which explains how Pusey tended to translate:

THE first-named of these volumes, which will apparently close the series inaugurated in 1838 under the name of ‘The Library of the Fathers,’ enjoys the advantage of a preface by Dr. Liddon, explaining the circumstances which have caused its appearance. In 1874 Mr. P. E. Pusey published the first volume of a translation of this Commentary, which, extending to S. John ix. 1, ‘was reviewed,’ we are told, ‘by an English critic in terms which rendered its humble and too self-distrusting author unwilling to resume it.’ We fear that these words may produce an impression which would hardly do justice to the case; the reader might infer that the critic was captious and inequitable. Now, we never met with the review in question ; but we are constrained to say, as we said on a former occasion (Church Quarterly Review, xv. 287), when reviewing another volume of Mr. Pusey’s translations from S. Cyril, that ‘ translation was not his forte’, and that when he attempted it, he seldom rose above the baldest ‘ construing,” very often so strangely worded as to associate his author’s name with mere grotesqueness. The fact is undeniable, however we may account for it; our own supposition is, that Mr. Pusey was debarred from success in this line by the very narrow range of literary interest to which he perforce restricted himself, when ‘ in his uniform filial love,’ in obedience to his father’s wish, he ‘ took as the central work of his life to make the text of S. Cyril’s works as exact as it could be made.”

The dreadful English of the first volume is indeed fully as bad as this gentle description suggests.

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Knowledge of the fathers before the ANF series began

Posted on by Roger Pearse

In the US version of Google books, I have come across a review of one of the volumes of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, in its original form of the Ante-Nicene Christian Library here.  Claiming or allowing others to believe that one has learning one does not seems to be something of a vice among scholars.  So how did scholars manage, before most of the fathers were extant in English translation?

We are more and more convinced that this invaluable library is destined to work a revolution in the Christian world. Many educated ministers have hitherto been dependent on the mere statements of professed Biblical scholars. They could not find time amid the pressure of daily parish duties to study in the original, countless tomes of erudite Greek and Latin fathers. Our age, with all its superior advantages, was rendering the achievement constantly more difficult by its rush and intensity. Now the treasures of past ages are exposed to the gaze of any clergyman having ordinary attainments and leisure. Indeed, a learned acquaintance in the originals with the works composing the ante-Nicene Library was mostly a sham and an egoism. It presumed the undivided study of years. It presumed the possession of rare and expensive books. It presumed usually a chair in a Theological Faculty.
                   — The Church Review, vol. 23 (1871), p.148

I fear that the same might be said today in rather more cases than we might like to suppose.

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Review of James Hannam’s “God’s philosophers”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve now written a review of James Hannam’s book God’s philosophers: how the medieval world laid the foundations of modern science, and it’s available here. 

The book is very useful and should help to correct many misunderstandings.  I suspect it would film well, and wouldn’t be surprised if some form of TV programme comes out of this.

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