{"id":14746,"date":"2015-06-13T19:08:51","date_gmt":"2015-06-13T18:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/?p=14746"},"modified":"2015-06-13T19:08:51","modified_gmt":"2015-06-13T18:08:51","slug":"procopius-of-gaza-and-matthew-2725-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/2015\/06\/13\/procopius-of-gaza-and-matthew-2725-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Procopius of Gaza and Matthew 27:25 (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Let&#8217;s continue looking at the <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 to Matthew 27:25 <\/a>&#8211; &#8220;His blood be upon us, and upon our children&#8221; in the 6th century writer Procopius of Gaza.\u00a0 Earlier I translated a number of passages <a href=\"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/2015\/06\/11\/procopius-of-gaza-and-matthew-2725\/\">here<\/a>.\u00a0 We&#8217;re looking at this reference in BiblIndex:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Procopius of Gaza, <em>Commentarii in Octateuchum<\/em>, PG 87.1, 21-1220. (p.252); (p.491, l.46); (p.919); (p.923); \u00a7 1 (p.41)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The &#8220;pages&#8221; are actually column numbers.\u00a0 We dealt with col. 252 in the last post.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Col.491 is next.\u00a0 This is from the commentary on Genesis, dealing with chapter 49, verses 1-2, but the\u00a0commentary seems to have little or nothing to do with the passage.\u00a0\u00a0This quickly turns into a list of the crimes of Israel.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On looking at the text of &#8220;column 491&#8221; in the PG, I find pages of <em>Latin<\/em>, for some unknown reason.\u00a0 Migne is reprinting an old edition, as usual.\u00a0 Most Greek texts were printed first in a Latin translation, and the Greek text was printed later.\u00a0 So I hypothesise that the Greek text of the <em>Commentary on the Octateuch<\/em> was not printed in its entirety, forcing Migne to print the full Latin version, and whatever Greek he could find.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The text reads as follows:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Nor was it held back by its weakest part.\u00a0 While the Jews were fleeing the limits of their homeland and were dispersed in Israel, God was\u00a0sifting the gentiles who lacked his enlightenment.\u00a0 In fact we can say this about those who assailed the knees of the bull [=Christ], not about all of them.\u00a0 For we can say about\u00a0them, that they didn&#8217;t make themselves\u00a0companions in this most awful but necessary murder, as it is read in Deuteronomy, &#8220;Our hands are not covered with this blood, nor did our eyes see it.&#8221;\u00a0 God orders that those who have not committed murder must say these words, washing their hands in the valley above a slaughtered cow: i.e.\u00a0those who are near the town within whose boundaries the murder was committed\u00a0and near where the body was found.\u00a0 The others [commentators] suppose that this cow is a type of Christ.\u00a0 To this statement the Jews emit a contrary statement, clamouring, &#8220;His blood be upon us and upon our children.&#8221;\u00a0 But Moses withdrew the curse from the Levites, when they took up arms\u00a0with the Rephidim on account of the dereliction of the people and the making of the [golden] calf, and did not spare brothers or sons.\u00a0 This curse, which they needed to be dispersed, was converted into a blessing, and the Levites accepted offerings from the other tribes of the city: in which they lived as strangers and pilgrims.\u00a0 Not otherwise do perfect Christians and true worshippers of the divinity abide in this world.[ref]Nec tamen a molle est retentus. At Judaei patriae fugerunt fines, et dispersi sunt in Israel, gentibus cernentibus Deum, cujus alma luce ipsi carent. Hoc vero dicitur de iis, qui poplites tauri inciderunt, nec de omnibus. Possumus enim de his dicere, qui non se dedere socios ad hanc iniquissimam caedem perpetrandam, quod legitur in Deuteronomio : &#8220;Manus nostrae non fuderunt sanguinem hunc, nec oculi nostri viderunt&#8221;. Haec verba jussit Deus dicere illos, qui non caedem commisissem, in valle lavantes manus super mactata juvenca : nempe illos, qui proximi essent oppido, in cujus finibus homicidium esset perpetratum, et cui proximum jaceret cadaver. Caeterum juvenca illa quoque Christi typus censetur. Judaei huic voci emisere vocem contrariam, clamitantes : &#8220;Sanguis ejus super nos, et super liberos nostros&#8221;. Verum Moses ademit Levitis maledictionem, cum in Raphidim ob derectionem populi et formationem vituli ceperunt arma, et nec fratribus nec filiis pepercerunt. Hinc maledictio, qua dispergendi erant, conversa est in benedictionem, accipiuntque Levitae ab aliis tribubus urbium primitias : quas inhabitabant ceu hospites et peregrini, non secus ac in hoc mundo commorantur perfecti Christiani et veri adoratores Numinis.[\/ref]<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This seems to be suggesting that it is wrong to hold all the Jews blameworthy for the murder of Christ, even though the Jews said, &#8220;His blood be upon us and\u00a0our children&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Next up is column 919.\u00a0 This is commenting on Deuteronomy 18:11.\u00a0 Interestingly Migne does not\u00a0signal the reference to Matt.27:25:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">And\u00a0as\u00a0God illustrated the dignity of the laws of this prophet, he says, &#8220;Whoever will not hear what was said in my name by the prophet, I shall lay a\u00a0penalty on him,&#8221; in the same way a penalty was taken from this people on account of the blood which was shed from Abel to Zachariah, and last of all, of Christ himself, whose blood they had blamed on their heads and those of their children, and still they receive the penalty of that impiety.[ref]Atque ut dignitatem legum prophetae hujus Deus illustret, inquit : &#8220;Quicunque non audierit omnia quacunque locutus fuerit propheta in nomine meo, ab eo poenam exigam,&#8221; quemadmodum poena de hoc populo sumpta est propter sanguinem qui ab Abel effusus est usque ad Zachariam, et postremo omnium ipsum Christum, cujus sanguinem cum in caput suum liberorumque devovissent, etiamnum impietatis illius poenam sustinent.[\/ref]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Next col. 923, on Deut.21:1.\u00a0 This is about Jewish conversions to Christianity.\u00a0 I apologise for the poor translation &#8211; the general sense is obvious but I could not follow the syntax very well.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Indeed far away they recede from the impiety of the Jews,\u00a0in that city in which He was wounded and tortured,\u00a0found far away by a strong order, they submit\u00a0however first in a rustic church, and at that instant wash their hands\u00a0in Christ himself, stained with his blood.\u00a0 And they certainly receive remission of sins, hiding themselves no part of the impiety of the Jews who said, &#8220;His blood be upon us and upon our children&#8221;.\u00a0 Thereafter, purged by baptism, they say, &#8220;Our hands have not shed hus blood.&#8221;\u00a0 And although they were from the Jews, they have renounced however all community with them.[ref]Quotquot vero procul a Judaeorum impietate recesserint, urbe ea in qua vulneratus est, et excruciatus est inventus procul valere jussa, concedunt quidem in Ecclesiam prius incultam, ibidem manus in ipso Christo in mortem ejus tincti, abluunt. Ac reportant certe peccatorum remissionem, se latentes nullam parte in habere cum impietate Judaeorum qui dixerunt: &#8220;Sanguis ejus super nos, et super liberos nostros&#8221;. Caeterum baptismo repurgati, aiunt : Manus nostrae sanguinem hunc non effuderunt. Ac etsi ex Judaeis fuerint, omni communitati eorum tamen renuntiaverunt. Quod sane discipuli, et qui ipsis crediderunt, fecerunt.[\/ref]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The final reference &#8220;\u00a7 1 (p.41)&#8221; unfortunately doesn&#8217;t seem to mean anything.\u00a0 There is certainly nothing in col. 41.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I don&#8217;t know that we learned a lot from Procopius, did we?\u00a0 He expresses the same views as earlier writers.\u00a0 The main point of interest is the reference to legal restrictions on Jews, which may be lifted by baptism.\u00a0 This is probably a Byzantine thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s continue looking at the references to Matthew 27:25 &#8211; &#8220;His blood be upon us, and upon our children&#8221; in the 6th century writer Procopius of Gaza.\u00a0 Earlier I translated a number of passages here.\u00a0 We&#8217;re looking at this reference in BiblIndex: Procopius of Gaza, Commentarii in Octateuchum, PG 87.1, 21-1220. (p.252); (p.491, l.46); (p.919); [&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":false,"_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":[930,1107,1384],"class_list":["post-14746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-my-diary-announcements","tag-jews","tag-matthew-2725","tag-procopius-of-g"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14746","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=14746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}