Parpulov, Georgi

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  University of BirminghamSome new patristic scholia on the Gospel ofMatthewParpulov, GeorgiLicense:None: All rights reservedDocument VersionPeer reviewed versionCitation for published version (Harvard):Parpulov, G 2021, 'Some new patristic scholia on the Gospel of Matthew', Adamantius. Annuario di LetteraturaCristiana Antica e di Studi Giudeoellenistici.Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portalGeneral rightsUnless a licence is specified above, all rights (including copyright and moral rights) in this document are retained by the authors and/or thecopyright holders. 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Jun. 2022 1 Some New Patristic Scholia on the Gospel of Matthew* by  Georgi Parpulov  Composite commentaries (catenae) on the Bible are often sifted for bits and pieces from lost works of patristic exegesis, so it is odd that a rare specimen got no further attention after Jean-Marie Olivier and Marie-Aude Monégier du Sorbier discovered it some forty years ago1. Its nameless compiler mixed a pre-existing catena on Matthew (CPG C111)2 with extracts from John Chrysostom’s homilies (CPG 4424)3, and threw in some forty scholia ascribed to Origen, Apollinarius of Laodicea, Theodore of Heraclea, et al.4 These additions cannot have been borrowed from any other known catena, because a handful of them (printed and translated below) are unattested elsewhere5. Uncommon passages of this kind were either excerpted, in each case, straight from the respective author’s commentary on the first Gospel, or culled from a catena that is now lost. I cannot date the compiler’s work as such. His youngest source was Severus of Antioch († 538). Olivier’s and Monégier du Sorbier’s manuscript is written in bouletée minuscule from the first half of the tenth century6. Another, newly-identified7 witness is in eleventh-century Perlschrift (Fig. 1)8.   Mt 23:5b Ὠρ(ι)γ(ένους)· Φυλακτήρια εἶχον οἱ Φαρισαῖοι οἱ τὰς ἐντολὰς βιβλιδαρίῳ κρεμνοῦντες ἐν τῷ τραχήλῳ ἢ ἐπὶ χεῖρα (codd. ἐπιχείρα) φέροντες κενοδοξίας χάριν δῆθεν τοῦ εἰλικρινῶς φυλάσσειν τὸν νόμον, ὡς φησὶν «ἔσται ἀσάλευτα πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν σου». Κράσπεδόν ἐστιν τὰ κατὰ τὸν νόμον ἐντεταλμένα εἰς ἀνάμνησιν τῶν ἐντολῶν, ὅπερ ἦν κλῶσμα ὑακίνθινον ἐπὶ τῶν ἱματίων περὶ τὴν ᾤαν τὴν περὶ τοὺς πόδας ἀπορράπτοντες9.  Mt 23:15 Θεοδώρου Ἡρακλείας· Ἐπειδὴ οἱ μαθηταὶ σπουδάζουσιν ἀεὶ τοὺς διδασκάλους μιμεῖσθαι· ἐὰν πεισθῇ τις ὑμῖν καὶ τὸν ὑμέτερον (codd. ἡμέτερον) ζηλῶσῃ βίον, εἰς κόλασιν παραπέμπεται10.   Mt 24:15 Ἀπολιναρίου· Παῦλος ἡμᾶς διδάσκει ὅτι ὁ ἀντίχριστός ἐστιν ἐπὶ ἐρημώσει τοῦ κόσμου ἐλθὼν καὶ καθίσας εἰς τὸν ναὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀποδεικνύων ἑαυτὸν Θεόν, ὑπεραιρόμενος (codd. ὑπεραιρόμενον) ἐπὶ πάντα θεὸν ἢ σέβασμα τῷ τὰ εἴδωλα καθελεῖν11. Mt 25:1 Σευήρου Ἀντιοχείας· Ἀναλογησώμεθα τοίνυν τὰς δέκα παρθένους ἃς εἰσάγει τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ἀπαντῆσαι τῷ νυμφίῳ παρεσκευασμένας καὶ τὰς μὲν πέντε τὰς φρονίμους μιμησώμεθα, τῶν ἑτέρων δὲ πέντε τῶν σκαιῶν καὶ ἀνοήτων φύγωμεν τὸ παράδειγμα. Κἂν ταῖς ἁγίαις ταῦταις ἡμέραις τῶν νηστειῶν λαμπάδας ἡμῶν εὐτρεπίσωμεν· παρθένος μὲν γάρ ἐστιν ἡ τῶν πιστῶν ἑκάστου ψυχή, νυμφίον ἕνα καὶ ἄνδρα γινώσκουσα τὸν Χριστόν, καθὼς Παῦλος Κορινθίοις φησιν «ἡρμοσάμην γὰρ ὑμᾶς ἑνὶ ἀνδρὶ παρθένον ἁγνὴν παραστῆσαι τῷ Χριστῷ»12. Mt 25:25 Ἀπολιναρίου· Ὧι μᾶλλον ἐφοβοῦ, φησιν, μᾶλλον δὲ ἔδει σπουδάσαι καὶ τὰς αὐτοῦ πληρῶσαι· οὐ γὰρ τῆς ἐκείνων ἀνηκουστίας ὑπέχειν ἤμελλες τὸν λόγον ἀυτός, ἀλλ’ ἐκείνοι οἱ ἀπαιτούμενοι ἔλαβον καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ τούτῳ πρᾶξιν. Τὸ δὲ τῆς διχοτομήσεως ἐνταῦθα σαφέστερον εἴρηται ἀφαίρεσις ὂν τοῦ δοθέντος πνεύματος13.  * This note was written as part of the CATENA project, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement no. 770816). I thank Lorenzo Perrone, Hugh Houghton, Panagiotis Manafis, and the two anonymous reviewers for their extremely helpful comments on its text. 1 J.-M. OLIVIER – M.-A. MONÉGIER DU SORBIER, Catalogue des manuscrits grecs de Tchécoslovaquie, CNRS, Paris 1983, 75-76. This catena has now been assigned the CPG number C119.1. 2 Des Petrus von Laodicea Erklärung des Matthäusevangeliums, hrsg. von C. F. G. HEINRICI, Dürr, Leipzig 1908. On this catena see J. REUSS, Matthäus-, Markus- und Johannes-Katenen nach den handschriftlichen Quellen untersucht, Aschendorff, Münster 1941, 52-78 and M. A. BARBÀRA – C. CURTI, Greek Exegetical Catenae, in Patrology: The Eastern Fathers from the Council of Chalcedon (451) to John of Damascus († 750), ed. A. DI BERARDINO, tr. A. WALFORD, James Clarke & Co., Cambridge 2006, 605-654 at 645 and 648. 3 PG 57, 13-470; PG 58, 471-794. 4 See the list in OLIVIER – MONÉGIER DU SORBIER, Catalogue, cit., 75.  5 Cf. Origenes Matthäuserklärung, III, hrsg. von E. KLOSTERMANN (GCS 41.1), Hinrichs, Leipzig 1941, 11-235; Matthäus-Kommentare aus der griechischen Kirche aus Katenenhandschriften gesammelt, hrsg. von J. REUSS (TU 61), Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1957. The passages cannot be found in the on-line Thesaurus Linguae Graecae or in any other catena manuscript beside the two cited below.  6 Diktyon 55549, GA 1422, Prague, Národní Knihovna České republiky, XXV B 7, ff. 14r-114bisr. The biblical text, which sits in the middle of the page, is written in minuscule bouletée; the commentary, placed in the upper, outer, and lower margins, is written in majuscule. – The Luke catena in this manuscript is being studied by Dr Panagiotis Manafis.  7 H. A. G. HOUGHTON – M. MONIER, Greek Manuscripts in Alexandria, JThS 71 (2020) 119-133 at 126-129. 8 Diktyon 33009, GA 2937, Alexandria, Patriarchal Library, 122, ff. 1r-42r. Many leaves are lost at the beginning. The biblical text, which is abridged, is written in majuscule and alternates with the commentary, which occupies the full width of the page and is written in Perlschrift minuscule. – The Mark catena in this manuscript is being studied by Dr Mina Monier. 9 GA 1422, f. 88v. – GA 2937, f. 8r. Here and further below, I have silently corrected the trivial spelling errors found in these two manuscripts. 10 GA 1422, f. 89r – GA 2937, f. 9r. 11 GA 1422, f. 93r – GA 2937, f. 13v. 12 GA 1422, f. 96r – GA 2937, ff. 17v-18r. 13 GA 1422, f. 98r – GA 2937, f. 20v.  2 Mt 26:3 Ὠρ(ι)γ(ένους)· Ἐλύθη τῆς ἀρχιερωσύνης ὁ θεσμὸς παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις, ὡς δηλοῖ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον· ἐνιαυτὸν γὰρ καθίσταντο μόνον. Τοῦτο δὲ Ἡρώδης ἐποίησεν διὰ τὴν ἀκαταστασίαν αὐτῶν, ὡς ἱστορεῖ Ἰώσηππος, ᾧ καλὸν χρήσασθαι· πάνυ γὰρ συμφωνεῖ τῇ ἱστορίᾳ τῆς Νέας14.  Origen on Mt 23:5b: Pharisees wore phylacteries out of vanity, having the Commandments, as a demonstration of sorts that they sincerely observe the Law, in a booklet hung on their neck or attached to their arm, as in: [“And you shall put these words in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your arm, and] they shall be things unshakeable before your eyes” (Deut 11:18). The Law required, as a reminder of the Commandments, fringes, that is, blue thread (Num 15:38) which they stitched onto that hem of their garments which hung round their feet. Origen makes a similar point, but with different words, in his large commentary on Matthew (CPG 1450.2)15. The above scholion must have been known to John Chrysostom, who repeats part of it16 in a sermon (CPG 4424.72) and adds the curious detail that in his day Christian women would likewise hang miniature Gospel books on their necks17. The Pharisees’ phylacteries (tefillin) are paralleled by a silver armband, now at the Israel Museum, datable to the sixth or seventh century AD and inscribed with several verses from the Septuagint, including Deut 11:1818.     Theodore of Heraclea on Mt 23:15: Since disciples are always eager to imitate their teachers, if someone listens to you [Pharisees] and strives after your way of life, he is sent to hell.  Apollinarius on Mt 24:15: Paul teaches us (2 Thess 2:4) that the antichrist is he who, having come at the desolation of the world, takes his seat in the temple of God, declares himself to be God, exalts himself above every god or objects of worship by taking down the idols. Severus of Antioch on Mt 25:1-13: Let us therefore consider the ten virgins whom the Gospel describes prepared to meet the bridegroom, let us imitate the five wise ones, let us shun the example of the five clumsy and foolish ones. And may we, in these holy days of fasting, get our lamps ready. Because every believer’s soul is a virgin who knows but one bridegroom and one husband, Christ, just as Paul tells the Corinthians: “for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (ΙΙ Cor 11:2).   This is an excerpt from one of Severus’s cathedral sermons (CPG 7035.121), the full text of which survives only in Syriac translation19. Apollinarius on Mt 25:25-30: Whom you feared more, it says, him you should have served more zealously and fulfilled his [commands]. You were not to be held accountable yourself for those [other servants’] wilfulness, yet at the reckoning they also took an extra share. This clarifies that “cutting up” (Mt 24:51) stands for being deprived of the spirit that [one] was given.    Origen on Mt 26:3: The Jews, as the Gospel makes it clear, dissolved the established order of high priesthood, since [high priests] would hold office just for a year. Josephus – whom it is good to use, as he is in full agreement with New Testament history – reports that Herod did this because of their disorderliness. Origen probably glosses the plural ἀρχιερεῖς (high priests) in the Gospel text. In fact the Jews had nothing to do with that: it was not Herod but the Roman procurator Valerius Gratus who would erratically appoint high priests and remove them (Jewish Antiquities XVIII.2). In the following section (XVIII.3) Josephus does mention Herod the Tetrarch, so this may be an honest mistake.   It must be said that the two codices do not always give accurate indications of authorship: a passage that they both ascribe to Isidore of Pelusium (Πηλουσιώτου)20 is actually by John Chrysostom21, while one marked in them with Σευήρου22 appears elsewhere under Apollinarius’s name23. On the other hand, a further Σευήρου Ἀντιοχείας24 finds confirmation in other catenae25 and the Severus scholion printed above is undoubtedly his26.  14 GA 1422, f. 100v – GA 2937, f. 23r. 15 Origenes Matthäuserklärung, II, hrsg. von E. KLOSTERMANN unter Mitwirkung von E. BENZ (GCS 38), Hinrichs, Leipzig 1933, 21-22.  16 Cf. esp. Chrysostom’s κλῶσμα ὑακίνθινον ἐπὶ τῶν ἱματίων περὶ τὴν ᾤαν τὴν περὶ τοὺς πόδας ἀπορράπτεσθαι. 17 PG 58, 669 (Homily 72); tr. G. PREVOST in NPNF, I.10, 437.  18 N. BENOVITZ, Psalm 91:1 and the Rabbinic Shemaʿ in Greek on a Byzantine Amuletic Armband, Textus 26 (2016) 143-171. 19 Les Homiliae cathedrales de Sévère d'Antioche: Traduction syriaque de Jacques d’Édesse, éd. et tr. M. BRIÈRE (PO 138), Firmin-Didot, Paris 1960, 96-97 (Homily 121). 20 GA 1422, f. 99v – GA 2937, f. 22r. 21 PG 58, 718. 22 GA 1422, f. 114v – GA 2937, f. 41r. 23 Matthäus-Kommentare, hrsg. REUSS, cit. (n. 5), 53 (no. 151). 24 GA 1422, f. 113r – GA 2937, f. 39r-v. 25 Catenae Graecorum patrum in Novum Testamentum, ed. J. A. CRAMER, I, Typographeum Academicum, Oxford 1840, 243 (ll. 19-21). 26 See note 19.  3 In any case, my small collection of inedita illustrates three different modes of Gospel commentary which might be called elucidatory (Theodore, Apollinarius), hortatory (Severus), and scholarly (Origen). The first clarifies the evangelists’ words through paraphrase or parallels with other biblical passages. The second uses Scripture for moral instruction. The third explains the Gospels’ historical setting.  Georgi Parpulov  Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing Department of Theology and Religion University of Birmingham g.r.parpulov@bham.ac.uk  Abstract: This is an edition and translation of six previously unknown Greek scholia on Matthew’s Gospel. Their authors are Origen of Alexandria, Apollinarius of Laodicea, Theodore of Heraclea, and Severus of Antioch.   Keywords: Greek New Testament; catenae; patristic exegesis                                    Fig. 1. Alexandria, Patriarchal Library, MS 122, fol. 9v (photographed by Hugh Houghton, published by permission of the Patriarchate of Alexandria)  This page shows the make-up of the catena. Part of CPG C111 (ed. HEINRICI, Petrus, cit., 262) is marked simply with α, without naming the source. It is followed by excerpts attributed to Theodore of Heraclea (ed. REUSS, Matthäus-Kommentare, cit., 89),  4 Apollinarius (ibid. 39-40), and Chrysostom (PG 58, 674). The letters σλδ under Chrysostom’s monogram signal a new section (§ 234) in the Gospel text.  

Some new patristic scholia on the Gospel of Matthew

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Some new patristic scholia on the Gospel of Matthew

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