Tag: Patristics

Hunain ibn Ishaq, on text criticism

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Hunain ibn Ishaq was a Nestorian Christian who was responsible for much of the translation of Greek works into Arabic, usually via a Syriac intermediate translation.   I find that a long letter of his, on the subject of the works of Galen and how he went about his task, exists.  It was published by G. Bergstrasser, Hunain ibn Ishaq. Uber der syrischen und arabischen Galen-Übersetzungen (1925), and is about 40 pages long.  I’m considering having it translated into English, if I can get hold of a copy.  The only copy for sale online is £67, which is rather a lot!  Anyone got any ideas on how to find a copy?

Interestingly it seems that Dimitri Gutas has published a book about the whole “Translation movement” of turning Greek literature into Arabic.  It’s here.  But apparently it’s big on “why” rather than “what” – the social reasons why translation was a good idea, rather than what was translated.  Drat.

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Online journals for non-subscribers

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Here’s a German site with some free-access older articles, especially from Hermes.

http://www.digizeitschriften.de/no_cache/en/home/open-access/nach-zeitschriftentiteln/

It seems to be mainly intended as a rival for JSTOR, but does have some free content.  A similar French site is here, supposedly but I couldn’t get it to display:

http://www.persee.fr/web/guest/home/

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Ignoring the credit crunch and why I can’t

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The credit crunch has just affected one of my projects seriously.  Usually I try to pay for translations that I commission as we go along, at 10 cents a word.  That way I get a chunk of translation every week or two, and a small bill which I pay immediately, by cheque or Paypal.  At the end we have a ‘sweep-up’ process, and I pay for that at some hourly rate related to the per-word rate.  This works well, because it means I can see progress, and nothing nasty happens financially.  It’s not much different to buying a CD or two every couple of weeks.

However with the translation of the Commentary on the Nicene Creed of al-Majdalus which I commissioned last year, I agreed to a final bill system.  But… a year ago, $2 = 1 GBP.  Now $1.40 = 1 GBP; a fall of 30%!  Effectively that adds hundreds of dollars to the price, without benefitting anyone!   The word in the UK is that the pound will fall further, because the UK government is printing money like fury.  No-one in mid-2008 could have foreseen a fall of that size.

Just a thought, if you have some kind of commitment in a foreign currency.  Have a plan to handle this kind of situation, agreed with the translator.

I’m going to keep commissioning translations, but cautiously!

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Agapius and the Syriac Old Testament

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’m still translating Agapius.  In part 1.1, while discussing the length of the lives of the Patriarchs, he performs a calculation based on the Septuagint.  He then gives the values from the Jewish Torah, commenting on how the Jews changed the text after Christianity came long.  He then says:

The Syriac Torah depends on the Torah (of the Jews), because it was translated from Hebrew after Christianity and the deterioration (of the text).

I’m not sure whether modern scholars are certain of when the Old Testament was translated into Syriac, which makes this testimony interesting.

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Isidore of Pelusium – how to number the letters

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A cross-reference table of the letter numbers in the manuscripts (used in the Sources Chretiennes edition of the second half) and the letter numbers as found in Migne is now online here.

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Evidence for Allectus

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The ever-interesting Adrian Murdoch draws attention to the PLRE life of the Usurper Emperor-of-Britain Allectus, which he gives as follows:

Allectus: Augustus (in Britain) 293-296. Rationalis summae rei of Carausius 293: qui (Allectus) cum eius (Carausii) permissu summae rei praeesset Aur. Vict. Caes. 39.41. After Carausius had ruled for seven years Allectus murdered him and took his place, but three years later was defeated and killed by the PPO Asclepiodotus 3 serving under Constantius Aur. Vict. Caes. 39-40-2, Eutrop. IX22, Oros. VIII 25.6, cf Pan. Lat IV 12.15-16.

The list of authorities for our knowledge of a man who ruled part of the Roman Empire for 3 years, between 293-296 AD caught my eye.  We have:

  • Aurelius Victor
  • Eutropius
  • Orosius

and maybe a reference in the Panegryrici Latini.  That’s it; three references, a century later, and all probably based on a single now lost source.  There are coins as well, of course.

I have remarked before on the readiness with which the naive tend to expect contemporary evidence for ancient events.  This is an example of what we really can expect.

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More manuscripts at Deir al-Suryani in the Nitrian desert

Posted on by Roger Pearse

This is an old news story (2006), but I must have missed it.  Apparently there are still some 40 manuscripts at the monastery of the Syrians in the Nitrian desert in Egypt.  They are, of course, in poor condition.  Texts mentioned include Jacob of Serug and the Book of Holy Hierotheos by Stephen bar Sudaili.

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Agapius 1.1 online at Archive.org

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Archive.org has several volumes of the Patrologia Orientalis, but not PO5 which contains the first part (of 4) of Agapius.  Today I uploaded the relevant fascicle of PO5 – the only bit I possess – to Archive.org.  It’s here.

I hadn’t realised that we could contribute scanned books.  I think that I will start doing so.

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Isidore of Pelusium: some newly translated letters

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Here are the draft translations that I commissioned of four letters.  I don’t know whether any have been translated into English before.  Now that I have paid for them, I can share them with you!

After reading the Turner article, it is clear that the letters are numbered 1-2000 in the manuscripts, and the Migne “books” are imaginary.  So I’ve given the number in the collection as found in the mss, followed by the Migne book/letter reference. Anyone wanting to look at the Migne Greek can find it here.

35 (1.35) TO THE EMPEROR THEODOSIUS

If you are trying to gain the kingdom of Christ — may persistence unworn away crown this –, and the prize of immortality that God gives to those who administer it honestly, blend authority with mildness and lighten yourself of the weight of wealth by the necessary dispersion of it, for a king is not saved through ample power, nor does he escape the impiety of idolatry by keeping for himself abundant wealth.

310 (1.310) TO CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

Liking cannot see far ahead, while dislike cannot see clearly. So if you wish to remedy both of these sight problems, do not spout out such vehement statements, instead be more fair in your accusations. Even God All Knowing, before his birth, thought it best out of his love for man to come down and see the boisterousness [1] of the Sodomites, teaching us a lesson in fully inquiring. Many of the people who have come to Ephesus (are) ridiculing you for acting out of personal enmity and not for the doctrine of Jesus Christ. “Here’s this nephew of Theophilus, they say, imitating his way of thinking. Like him, he falls into a rage against the God-loving John, inspired by God, and he desires ever so much to lecture, even though there is a great difference between the people (who are) deciding.”

[1] There should be a better word for this.

1106 (3.306) TO THE BISHOP CYRIL.

Just as the emperor is subject to the laws, the law having a life of its own, so a priest is subject to the laws of the Lord, the canon being untouchable. [1]

[1] The Greek actually says the canon is “apthoggos” meaning that you can’t utter any words of protest against it.

1582 (5.268) TO THE BISHOP CYRIL.

Once the hierarchy used to correct and temper the office of emperor when it stumbled and fell, but now it has fallen beneath it, losing not its own rank, instead possessing ordained men unlike those in our ancestors’ time.[1] Previously when those crowned with a holy office lived the evangelic and apostolic life, naturally the office of emperor stood in awe of the hierarchy, but now it is the hierarchy of the office of emperor. In my opinion, the office of emperor is following its natural course, since it has not intentionally meant to assault the hierarchy, which it reveres like a god, but avenge it of the assaults on it and temper the people not conducting themselves as they should toward it.

[1] Note the euphemism for the not so perfect bishops.

Comments and corrections are welcome!

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Have’s and have-not’s – online dissertations

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Today I went looking for a dissertation, Beth Dunlop’s PhD thesis on 4th century sermons on the Nativity.  It does exist online.  If you are a ‘have’, it’s free to download.  If you are a ‘have-not’, it will cost you $40. 

I am an ordinary professional man, earning a living in an office, and paying huge basic-rate taxes.  I am, in short,  a have-not.  Probably most of the readers of this blog are have-nots. 

Of course the ‘have not’ has funded the access for the ‘have’.  That is what is the really bitter part of it all.  I am forced to spend my days in the office, writing software for insurance companies in order to pay my taxes; in order, in short, to provide access to scholarship for others to enjoy.  If *I* want access, I must pay again.  Not that anyone ever does, I am sure – the purpose of the charge is to deny access.

Examples of online state-funded scholarship which is inaccessible could be multiplied.  More and more, scholarship depends on databases of references; databases built with state grants, and access restricted to those in full-time education.  An ordinary man can’t even get an ATHENS userid.   We can’t get access to JSTOR.  Well, dammit man… what about the poor b****y public who pay for it all?!?!

We really need a revolution here.  Just why should the ordinary man be obliged to fund the leafy paths of scholarship, and then prevented from accessing the result, exploited if he shows interest?

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