{"id":14694,"date":"2015-06-09T21:03:15","date_gmt":"2015-06-09T20:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/?p=14694"},"modified":"2015-06-09T21:03:15","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T20:03:15","slug":"some-notes-on-origens-commentary-on-matthew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/2015\/06\/09\/some-notes-on-origens-commentary-on-matthew\/","title":{"rendered":"Some notes on Origen&#8217;s Commentary on Matthew"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The <em>Commentary on Matthew<\/em> written by Origen of Alexandria in 25 books has not come down to us complete.\u00a0 From SC162[ref]Edited by Girod, SC 162 was the first volume of the <em>Sources Chr\u00e9tiennes<\/em> edition, containing books 10-11; but no further volumes ever appeared[\/ref] I learn that the Greek text of books 10-17 has survived complete.\u00a0 This appears as GCS 40, which is online <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/GCS40OrigenesWerke10Matthauserklarung1DieGriechischErhaltenenTomoiPdf\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Two independent but closely related manuscripts have preserved the text:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Monacensis gr. 191, bombycin, 13th c.\u00a0 This also contains the <em>Commentary on John<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Cambridge, Trinity College, 194-B-8-10, paper, 14th c.\u00a0 Used for the <em>editio princeps<\/em> in 1668.\u00a0 Also known as the Holmiensis.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Other manuscripts exist.\u00a0 The Venice, Marcianus, 43, written in 1374, is a\u00a0copy of the Monacensis, useful for pages that have since disappeared.\u00a0 Other manuscripts are merely defective copies of the two main manuscripts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Migne edition (PG 13) reprints the 1759 edition of De la Rue.\u00a0 The text has been printed by Klostermann in the GCS 41.1, <em>Origenes Werke<\/em> X, which is online.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">An\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/tertullian.org\/fathers2\/ANF-10\/anf10-50.htm\"><span style=\"color: #5d8bb3;\">ANF English translation<\/span><\/a> exists of books 2 and 10-14.\u00a0 There seems to be\u00a0 no English translation of books 15-17; only a German one in <em>Origenes: Der Kommentar zum Evangelium nach Matt\u00e4us: Teil 2 Buch XIV-XVII<\/em> (Vogt 1990).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There are\u00a0also fragments of other books, preserved in the medieval catena-commentaries, which were collected by Lommatzsch.[ref]So the GCS preface.[\/ref]\u00a0 This, I find, <a href=\"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/2015\/05\/25\/his-blood-be-upon-us-the-use-of-mt-2725-and-acts-410-in-patristic-writers\/\">references Matthew 27:25<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In addition, an ancient\u00a0Latin translation exists, the <em>Vetus interpretatio<\/em>, known as the <em>Commentariorum in Matthaeum series<\/em>.\u00a0 It perhaps dates to the 6th century and the times of Cassiodorus.\u00a0 This begins at what we can see from the surviving Greek is book 12, chapter 9, and\u00a0ends only a little before the end of\u00a0Matthew&#8217;s gospel.\u00a0 Unfortunately it contains no indication of Origen&#8217;s division into books.\u00a0 Rather it is divided in the manuscripts into 145 sections, each beginning by quoting the Gospel text, and then giving a comment.[ref]John A. McGuckin, <em>The Westminster Handbook to Origen<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.co.uk\/books?id=riEdrWEDFq0C&amp;lpg=PA30&amp;ots=jVnlRURTH2&amp;dq=origen%20matthew%20vetus%20interpretatio&amp;pg=PA30#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\">p.30:<\/a> &#8220;Of the twenty-five books of the Matthew commentary, eight survive in Greek (books 10-17), which comment on Matthew 13:36-22:33. More of the work survived in an anonymous Latin translation of the late fifth (or early sixth century), which was passed\u00a0on through the tradition in the form of thirty-five homiletical narratives on Matthew (confusing many readers, since they were not originally homilies of Origen). The Latin version begins at the point of the Greek text that corresponds with Greek book 12,\u00a0 chapter 9 (relating to Matthew 16:13), but as it develops after that there is no way of\u00a0 telling where one is in terms of the original Greek volume structure. The Latin version\u00a0 carries on more or less to the end of Matthew (Matt. 27:66) omitting Matthew 28 altogether. It has been printed from modern times in a twofold way. The first section,\u00a0which corresponds to the Greek text (covering Matt. 16:13-22:33) is known as the Vetus\u00a0 Interpretatio. The other section, which has no corresponding Greek original (Matt. 22:24-27:66), is called the Commentariorum Series. It is divided into (and thus referenced as) 145 chapters, apparently based simply upon verse divisions.\u00a0 Further Reading: Bastit-Kalinowska (1995a, 1995b).&#8221;[\/ref]<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">For the GCS 38 edition of the <em>Commentariorum Series<\/em>\u00a0(1933) Klostermann used the following manuscripts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">G = Codex Rothomagensis (= Gemmeticensis) 423, 10th century.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">B = Codex Brugensis 58 (301), 12th c.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">R = the readings of a lost codex from Reims, given by the edition of De la Rue.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">L = Codex Londiniensis, British Library Additional 26761, 12th c.\u00a0 Witness to a younger family of the text.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Comparison of the portion where both survive indicates that the translator is rather independent of his original; so much so, that Harnack and Zahn considered that Origen had written two editions.\u00a0 Klostermann, the GCS editor[ref]GCS 38, <em>Origenes Werke<\/em> XI, p.259. Homily 124.\u00a0 This is accessible online.[\/ref], preferred to consider them as two witnesses to one text.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The work generally seems to have been neglected by translators.\u00a0 English readers are very fortunate that the Ante-Nicene Fathers series contains a translation of the Greek books.\u00a0 I have been unable to locate any translation of the <em>Commentariorum Series<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Commentary on Matthew written by Origen of Alexandria in 25 books has not come down to us complete.\u00a0 From SC162[ref]Edited by Girod, SC 162 was the first volume of the Sources Chr\u00e9tiennes edition, containing books 10-11; but no further volumes ever appeared[\/ref] I learn that the Greek text of books 10-17 has survived complete.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[465,1232],"class_list":["post-14694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-my-diary-announcements","tag-commentary-on-matthew","tag-origen"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}