Tag: Severian of Gabala

Henry Savile and his edition of the works of Chrysostom

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Looking at the Clavis Patrum Graecorum — a text that should certainly be online — we find that the works of Severian of Gabala appear in two main editions, under the name of Chrysostom.  There is the 1718-38 century edition of the works of Chrysostom by Montfaucon, the Benedictine editor in France.  This is what Migne reprinted.

But there is also an edition by Henry Savile, published at Eton, of all places, in 1612.  A couple of Severian’s sermons only appear in this edition.

I am impressed by the CPG, by the way.  It neatly clears up what exists for Severian, and where it may be found; in Greek, Latin, Syriac, Armenian.

Philip Schaff’s introduction to the works of Chrysostom in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers edition is useful.  After discussing the marvellous labours of Montfaucon, he adds:

The edition of Sir Henry Savile (Provost of Eton), Etonae, 1612, in 8 vols. for., is less complete than the Benedictine edition, but gives a more correct Greek text (as was shown by F. Dübner from a collation of manuscripts) and valuable notes. Savile personally examined the libraries of Europe and spent £8,000 on his edition. His wife was so jealous of his devotion to Chrysostom that she threatened to burn his manuscripts.

Lady Savile was not the first wife to threaten her husband’s books, out of jealousy, as Reynolds and Wilson, Scribes and Scholars records.

But is the edition accessible?  Is it online?  It is, after all, a very old book, and the USA did not exist when it was published.  It is US libraries, after all, who have made Google Books and Archive.org what they are.

A search suggests that it might form part of “Early English Books Online”, a project which is not freely available.  UK taxpayers funded it, so naturally it has been placed under the control of a commercial company and only rich institutions are allowed to use it.  (It is depressing, sometimes, to see the combination of waste and greed and littleness of mind characteristic of British higher education).  You can’t even see if it is in there.

Does anyone have access to EEBO, and can check whether it is there?

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Severian of Gabala, Homily 3 on Genesis, chapter 5

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve translated roughly a little more of the French translation of Bareille of these sermons, which I increasingly find interesting.  I’m getting an idea of why Severian was such a popular preacher.  I really think that I will commission a translation of the homilies on Genesis by Severian (although I think I would use the best translator I know on them).

5. Let us now ask where the sun goes down, and where, during the night, it purses its course?  According to our adversaries, under the land; and we who look at the sky as a tent, what is our feeling on this?  Look and see, I beg you, whether we are in error, or whether the truth of our opinion appears clearly, and whether reality is in agreement with our hypothesis. 

Imagine that above your head a pavilion has been set up.  East would be there, north here, south there and west there.  When the sun has left the East and starts to set, it will not set under the land; but crossing the limits of the sky, it traverses the northern areas where it is hidden by a kind of wall from our gaze, the upper waters concealing his journey from us; and, after having traversed these areas, it returns to the East. 

And where is the proof of this assertion?  In Ecclesiastes, an authentic and not interpolated work of Solomon: “The sun rises and the sun sets,” it is written there;  “while rising, it moves towards its setting, then it turns to the north;  it turns, it turns, and it rises again in its place.”  Eccl., i, 5.  Otherwise it is during the winter that you will note this southward journey of the sun, and its movement in the direction of the north; then, it does not rise in the centre of the East, it inclines towards the south, and, following a shorter route, it makes the day shorter; once it has set, it continues its circular direction, and the nights then are longer. 

We all know, my brothers, that the sun always does not start at the same point.  How then do the days become shorter?  Because the sun, to rise, moves from the south; then, from where it rises, it follows an oblique path, and from this comes the brevity of the days.   As it sets in the extremity of the west, it must necessarily traverse during the night the west, north, all of the east, to arrive on the edge of the south; from which inevitably follows the length of the night.  When the distance traversed and the speed of travel are the same, the nights then are equal to the days.  After that, it moves northwards as during the winter it had moved south; it rises in the northern heights and makes the day longer;  on the other hand the curve which it must follow during the night being shorter, the nights also become shorter. 

This is not what the Greeks have taught us:  they do not want these teachings, and they claim that the sun and the stars continue their course beneath the land.  But no, the Scripture, this divine mistress, the Scripture leads us and dispenses her light to us. 

Thus the Lord has made the sun, a torch which never weakens; he made the moon, whose glory shines and fades alternately.  The work reveals the workman.  The workman never knows failure, the work is also eternal.  The moon does not lose its light, it is concealed only to our eyes, a faithful image of mortal men. 

Think of the centuries that have passed since its appearance!  And yet, when the moon is new, we say:  The moon is born today.  Why this language?  Because we see a figure of our corporeal life there.  The moon is born, grows, reaches its apogee, only to then decrease, diminish and disappear:  and we also, we are born, we grow, we arrive at our apogee; then we fade, we decline, we age and we disappear in death.  But, just as the moon reappears then, we also will come back to life and another life is reserved for us.  This is why the Saviour, to teach us that, following the example of our birth on earth, a new birth awaits us beyond the tomb, expresses himself in these terms:  “When the Son of man comes at the time of the new Genesis.”  Matth. xix, 28. 

So the moon guarantees the resurrection to us.  What! she says to us, you see me disappearing to reappear, and you lose all hope?  Wasn’t the sun itself created for us, as well as the moon, and all creatures?  What does not promise us our resurrection?  Isn’t the night the image of death?  When darkness covers our bodies, you recognize nobody any more.  Often it happens that you touch with your hand the face of someone sleeping, and you do not know whose face this is, whose is that one; and you ask, so that the voice allows you to recognize those whom the darkness conceals from you.  So in the same way as the night hides the features of everyone, and as we do not recognize one another any more, when we are all together; in the same way death destroyed the human form and prevents us recognizing them any more. 

Walk through the tombs, look at the skulls which they contain; do you recognize to which people they belonged?  He knows who formed them; He who delivered these bodies to dissolution knows from where they came.  And you do not admire the creative power of the Lord?  There is a multitude of men, and none is exactly the same as any other.  You could traverse the ends of the universe in vain, you would not find two men who resembled each other exactly; and, when you believe you have found such, there would be presented in the eyes or the nose a difference which would justify this astonishing truth. Two children come out of the same place at the same time, and their resemblance is imperfect.  

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Severian of Gabala on Genesis, sermon 2, chapter 3

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I was browsing the Bareille French translation of Severian’s homilies, and came across this interesting passage.  But I can’t work out which bits of the bible he is quoting — not even when a ‘reference’ is given!

3.  “But, the land was invisible.”  What does it mean, invisible?  I have heard several of our holy fathers saying:  The land was invisible, because it was hidden under water. Many opinions can be extremely religious without being true for all that.  The three friends of Job, for example, seeing him surrounded with trials, condemned this holy man:  in their opinion, he had deserved his unhappy fate.  If you had not oppressed widows, they said to him, if you had not fleeced orphans, the Lord would not have treated you in this manner. Being unaware of the intentions of God, they condemned Job and said that his sufferings were deserved, not wanting to show God acting wrongfully.  Well!  although they were supporting the cause of God, God still blamed them and said to them:  “Why didn’t you speak justly about my servant?”  Job, XLII, 7. Their sentiment was inspired by piety; but nevertheless it was not right.  What now does the text before us mean:  “The earth was invisible and without beauty?” The interpreters have given a clear explanation of it.  The earth, they say, is called invisible, not because it was not seen, but because it was stripped of any ornament.  It had as yet neither the glory of its flowers, nor the crown of its fruits, nor the variety of its ornaments, nor its belt of rivers and fountains; it was invisible, not having been endowed yet with its marvellous fruitfulness.  The Scripture has said of one of its heroes:  “Isn’t this he who struck the visible Egyptian?”  II Reg., XXIII, 21. So are there invisible men?  No; but that was useful to direct our attention:  it is in an analogous sense that the earth is said to be invisible.

Interesting attitude to the Fathers: “it may be pious, but that does not mean it is right”!

“The land was invisible” is merely a different version of Genesis 1:1, The earth was without form and void; Augustine quotes Terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita et tenebrae erant super abyssum, as does Tertullian in De Baptismo 3.

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Armenian sermons of Severian of Gabala … or Eusebius of Emesa?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

In a post a few days ago I mentioned that I had discovered an English translation of a sermon by Severian of Gabala on the sufferings and death of our Lord, and placed it online.  The sermon was translated from an 1827 publication of sermons in Armenian — probably from the parallel Latin text, rather than the Armenian, I fancy! — and I have since discovered the book online here.  I also noted that the sermon was not listed among the works of Severian in the Clavis Patrum Graecorum.

While I was scanning the text, I came across  various examples of allegorical interpretation.  This is not quite what I associate with Severian.  Looking at the table of contents in the Armenian, at the end around p. 449, I am struck by the vagueness of the titles.  Severian is called bishop of Emesa, for instance.  15 sermons are edited.  Here are the last three:

  • XIII.  B. Severiani Episcopi in Ficulneam arefactam. – 415
  • XIV.  B. Emesensis Episcopi in Passionem Christi – 429
  • XV. B. Eusebii (lege, Seberiani) Episcopi in idem mysterium (de Juda traditore) – 443

The last entry is the most interesting: “Of the blessed Bishop Eusebius (read: Severian) on the same mystery (of Judas the traitor)”.  The lege is added by the modern editor, of course.  But should we agree?  Or do the last two sermons both truly belong to Eusebius of Emesa (d. 359)?

Eusebius of Emesa is listed in CPG 2, nos 3525-3543.  #3525 is a list of sermons extant in Latin translation and discovered in the Codex Trecensis which also preserves works of Tertullian and was unknown until a century ago.  Among these is De arbore fici; we might wonder whether ‘Severian’ XIII is the same work.

Listed in #3531 is “Armenian sermons”.  These have been edited by N. Akinian, Die Reden des Bischofs Eusebius von Emesa, in Handes Amsorya 70 (1956), 71 (1957) and 72 (1958).  This is a collection of homilies under the name of Eusebius of Emesa.  The first eight are by Eusebius; the other five are by Severian of Gabala (CPG 4185, 4202, 4210, 4246, 4248)!  Sermon 2 is De passione Christi (Akinian, l.c. 70, pp.385-416) — is this our baby?  Well, no.

Because sermon 5 De passione, ed. vol. 71, p.357-80, is listed in the CPG as being the same as the sermon XIV of Aucher, starting on p.428, and continuing as Aucher’s sermon XV.  And fragments of it are indeed found in the Butyaert Latin text.

I will therefore update the page I uploaded with the necessary details.

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Why Severian of Gabala is famous

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Apparently he was a flat-earther.  Wikipedia has no article on him in English (which I may rectify tomorrow).  But there is a French article, and a German one, as well as a rather dense BBKL article.

The Wikipedia flat-earth article quotes Severian thus:

The earth is flat and the sun does not pass under it in the night, but travels through the northern parts as if hidden by a wall.

A reference is given of “J.L.E. Dreyer, A History of Planetary Systems’, (1906)” which needs to be verified.  A limited preview of it is here, and Severian is on p.211-2.  (Update: the whole book is here). Here is what is said:

A contemporary of Basil, Cyril of Jerusalem, lays great stress on the necessity of accepting as real the supercelestial waters 1, while a younger contemporary of Basil, Severianus, Bishop of Gabala, speaks out even more strongly and in more detail in his Six Orations on the Creation of the World,2, in which the cosmical system sketched in the first chapter of Genesis is explained. On the first day God made the heaven, not the one we see, but the one above that, the whole forming a house of two storeys with a roof in the middle and the waters above that. As an angel is spirit without body, so the upper heaven is fire without matter, while the lower one is fire with matter, and only by the special arrangement of providence sends its light and heat down to us, instead of upwards as other fires do3. The lower heaven was made on the second day; it is crystalline, congealed water, intended to be able to resist the flame of sun and moon and the infinite number of stars, to be full of fire and yet not dissolve nor burn, for which reason there is water on the outside. This water will also come in handy on the last day, when it will be used for putting out the fire of the sun, moon and stars4. The heaven is not a sphere, but a tent or taber­nacle; “it is He…that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in5“; the Scripture says that it has a top, which a sphere has not, and it is also written: “The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot came unto Zoar6.” The earth is flat and the sun does not pass under it in the night, but travels through the northern parts “as if hidden by a wall,” and he quotes: “The sun goeth down and hasteth to his place where he ariseth7.” When the sun goes more to the south, the days are shorter and we have winter, as the sun takes all the longer to perform his nightly journey1.

1 Catechesis, ix., Opera, Oxford, 1703, p. 116.
2 Joh. Chrysostomi Opera, ed. Montfaucon, t. vii. (Paris, 1724), p. 436 sqq. Compare also the extracts given by Kosmas, pp. 320-325.
3 I. 4.
4 II. 3-4.
5 Isaiah xl. 22.
6 Gen. xix. 23. The above is from the Revised Version, but Severianus (III. 4) has: “Sol egressus est super terram, et Lot ingressus est in Segor. Quare liquet, Scriptura teste, egressum esse Solem, non ascendisse.”
7 Eccles. i. 5.
1 III. 5.

Few of those familiar with Wikipedia will be surprised, then, to discover that the “quote” is in fact the words of Dreyer, not of Severian.  Amusingly the “quote” has made its way, sans reference, into the French and German articles.

But the exciting part is that Dreyer clearly has read Severian, albeit in the Latin version, and so it should be possible to identify the material properly.

The French article tells us that a French translation exists of Severian’s six sermons on Genesis, plus one more.  These are from Bareille’s 19th century translation of Chrysostom, and that in turn suggests that Bareille may have translated all of Chrysostom, if he was getting into the spuria as well.

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‘Severian of Gabala’ on the sufferings and death of our Lord

Posted on by Roger Pearse

In 1827 J.B.Aucher published a set of sermons from Armenian at the press of the Mechitarist Fathers in Venice, Severiani sive Seberiani Gabalorum episcopi Emesensis homiliae nunc primum ex antiqua versione armena in latinum sermonem translatae, Venetiis, 1827.  A homily on the sufferings and death of our Lord appears on p.428 of that edition.  Unfortunately it is not listed among the sermons of Severian of Gabala in the Clavis Patrum Graecorum 2, so is perhaps pseudonymous [but see below].

A reader of these posts has discovered an English translation of this obscure text in S.C.Malan, Meditations on every Wednesday and Friday in Lent (1859).  The book itself is a curiosity, printed using the long-s (which looks like ‘f’ without part of the cross-stroke) which had then ceased to be in use for more than a century.  It is dedicated to Charles Marriot, the editor of the Oxford Movement Library of the Fathers translations.

This is Holy Week.  I admit my own thoughts have been far from the sufferings of the Lord.  But as I scanned this translation, I found myself moved by the words of this ancient writer.  The sermon is a little long to post here, and I have left the English archaic as it was.  If anyone has difficulty with this, I would like to know. 

But here it is.

UPDATE (1/4/10).  The Aucher publication is online here!  It’s remarkable, really, what Google books now contains.  After looking at the index of sermons, I must ask whether this sermon is really by Eusebius of Emesa, like the one that follows it?  A look at the CPG reveals that, indeed, both are by Eusebius of Emesa.

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Notes on Severian of Gabala

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Who was Severian of Gabala?  And do we care?

In Gennadius’ continuation of Jerome’s On Famous Men, c. 31, we read:

Severianus, bishop of the church of Gabala, was learned in the Holy Scriptures and a wonderful preacher of homilies. On this account he was frequently summoned by the bishop John [Chrysostom] and the emperor Arcadius to preach a sermon at Constantinople. I have read his Exposition of the epistle to the Galatians and a most attractive little work On baptism and the feast of Epiphany. He died in the reign of Theodosius, his son by baptism.

As we learn from Socrates (book 6, c.11-16) Severian was from Syria, and spoke in a definite but pleasant Syrian accent.  His abilities as a preacher made him welcome in Constantinople at the end of the 4th century AD, when John Chrysostom was Bishop.  Among his friends was the empress Eudoxia.  Unfortunately he fell out with one of Chrysostom’s subordinates, the administrator Serapion, a man who could make enemies with a blink of an eye.  Even the pro-Chrysostom Socrates writes:

But Serapion’s arrogance no one could bear; for thus having won John’s unbounded confidence and regard, he was so puffed up by it that he treated every one with contempt.  And on this account also animosity was inflamed the more against the bishop.

On one occasion when Severian passed by him, Serapion neglected to pay him the homage due to a bishop, but continued seated [instead of rising], indicating plainly how little he cared for his presence. Severian, unable to endure patiently this [supposed] rudeness and contempt, said with a loud voice to those present, `If Serapion should die a Christian, Christ has not become incarnate.’

Serapion, taking occasion from this remark, publicly incited Chrysostom to enmity against Severian: for suppressing the conditional clause of the sentence, `If Serapion die a Christian,’ and saying that he had made the assertion that `Christ has not become incarnate,’ he brought several witnesses of his own party to sustain this charge. But on being informed of this the Empress Eudoxia severely reprimanded John, and ordered that Severian should be immediately recalled from Chalcedon in Bithynia.

He returned forthwith; but John would hold no intercourse whatever with him, nor did he listen to any one urging him to do so, until at length the Empress Eudoxia herself, in the church called The Apostles, placed her son Theodosius, who now so happily reigns, but was then quite an infant, before John’s knees, and adjuring him repeatedly by the young prince her son, with difficulty prevailed upon him to be reconciled to Severian. In this manner then these men were outwardly reconciled; but they nevertheless continued cherishing a rancorous feeling toward each other. Such was the origin of the animosity [of John] against Severian.

From this we learn that Severian was the victim of an intrigue in which he was banished by Chrysostom, and restored by the efforts of the empress.  Severian became an enemy of Chrysostom, which led him into bad company.  He took part in the Synod of the Oak, organised by the evil Theophilus of Alexandria, which deposed and exiled Chrysostom in 403 AD.  He died some time after 408.

Some of Severian’s works have reached us, although it is not quite clear what.  It seems that some work is needed in this area!  The commentary on Galatians is lost, unless some fragments are preserved in catenas.  Quasten states that around 30 sermons are extant.  The Clavis Patrum Graecorum vol. 2 assigns CPG 4185-4295 to Severian.

Most of the works were preserved, ironically, under Chrysostom’s name.  There are at least 15 homilies in Greek, and probably the same again in Armenian, not all genuine.

The most important of his works now extant are the 6 sermons On the Six days of Creation.  According to Quasten these take a very literal approach, to the point of absurdity.  They are printed in PG 56, 429-500, and also in Savile’s edition of Chrysostom, in vol. 7, p. 587-640.  Fragments also exist in later writers, including Cosmas Indicopleustes, who tells us that the author was Severian, not Chrysostom.  A Coptic version of Sermon 6 exists; fragments also exist in Armenian; and 7 sermons (not 6!) in Christian Arabic.  CPG 4217 is the remains of a further sermon on the same subject, and it seems that the Arabic seventh sermon is a translation of the full text of this.

The CPG list seems the most comprehensive.  It also lists three unpublished sermons.  There’s also a Syriac sermon on the Nativity of Our Lord, which might be interesting for the history of Christmas considering its early date.

There was interest in producing a critical edition of his works.  The article to read is apparently C. Datema: “Towards a critical edition  of the Greek Homilies of Severian of Gabala“, Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica 19, 1988, 107-115.  I’ve not seen this, tho, and it does not seem to be in JSTOR.  The project was to be continued by Karl-Heinz Uthemann, and published by GCS.  Holger Villadsen in Denmark was to do the homilies on Genesis, and did collect 11 manuscripts in microfilm, but had to pull out.

A christological treatise was edited by Michel Aubineau in Cahiers d’orientalisme n° 5 (1983).  The BBKL bibliography is probably fairly up-to-date, although I always find their articles hard to read!

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Severian of Gabala

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I had an email today enquiring about editions of the works of Severian of Gabala.  This chap was a bishop from Syria who became well-known as a preacher in Constantinople at the end of the 4th century AD, despite a heavy Syrian accent.  Unfortunately he fell out with John Chrysostom, and became involved in the evil proceedings that led up to the deposition of the latter.  He belonged to the Antiochene school of biblical exegesis, and took a  very literal approach to everything, sometimes to the point of absurdity.

A bunch of his sermons are extant, mostly in Greek, but some in Armenian, Syriac and Coptic.  In addition fragments of his work appear in the catenas.  Writers who treat the text literally inevitably tend to be useful to people compiling catenas and other forms of commentary.

I have been unable to discover any edition of his works more recent than Migne in the Patrologia Graeca 66.  This itself is a reprint of an edition by the 18th century French Benedictine editor Montfaucon, the man who invented Greek paleography.  It looks as if there is an edition by a certain Savile which is also around, but again elderly and not mentioned by Quasten (although it is noted by the Clavis Patrum Graecorum — and why is that essential list of patristic texts not online?).  I’ll also ask in LT-ANTIQ whether anyone is working on an edition.

The query related to a possible interesting quotation from Mark in the homily de sigillis librorum.  A while ago someone wrote to me offering their services for translation, and I declined, being fully busy right now!  But I see that the homily is only 15 columns of Migne — 531-544 — or rather 7-8 once we ignore the parallel Latin translation.  So I have offered a commission on it to her, and we’ll see if (a) she accepts and (b) can deliver a good translation.  Why not?  I’ll give it away free online, of course. 

It will be the first translation of any of the Migne collection of sermons.  The Migne covers cols. 411-590 or around 200 columns; 100 columns of Greek, or about $2,000 at  my usual rate for such things.  How little money that is, to any institution!  But it’s more than I have kicking around at the moment!

UPDATE: An email has pointed out that ‘Savile’ must be the 17th century editor of the 8-volume complete works of Chrysostom, Henry Savile.  A meeting room at Merton College Oxford commemorates his name even now, although when I was there I certainly didn’t associate “the Savile Room” with 17th century editors!

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