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Harmonistic Readings in the Old Syriac Gospels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

George Howard
George Howard
Affiliation:
University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602
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Extract

There are two extant copies of the Old Syriac gospels, the evangelion da-mepharreshe. One, the Curetonian Codex (=C), was discovered by William Cureton and edited by him in 1858. It dates to the middle or later part of the fifth century. The other, the Sinaitic Codex (=S), was discovered by Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis and her sister Mrs. Margaret Dunlop Gibson at St. Catherine's monastery on Mount Sinai. It dates to the later part of the fourth or beginning of the fifth century. Both MSS have a number of lacunae. In combination, however, they preserve most of the text of the four gospels. Although they are not identical their agreements are sufficient to show that they belong to the same translation. S is generally thought to preserve the original text better than C. C, however, sometimes preserves older readings than S.

Type
Articles
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 73 , Issue 3-4 , October 1980 , pp. 473 - 493
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1980

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References

1 Remains of a Very Ancient Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac, Hitherto Unknown in Europe (London, 1858)Google Scholar. The definitive edition of the text with introduction and notes is the two volume work: Burkitt, F. Crawford, Evangelion da-Mepharreshe (Cambridge, 1904).Google Scholar

2 It was first edited by Bensly, R. L., Harris, J. Rendel, and Burkitt, F. C., The Four Gospels in Syriac transcribed from the Sinaitic Palimpsest (Cambridge, 1894)Google Scholar. The definitive publication came later in: Lewis, Agnes Smith, The Old Syriac Gospels or Evangelion da-Mepharreshe … (London, 1910).Google Scholar

3 The original language of the Diatessaron has been the cause of endless debate. If Tatian made his composition after his departure from Rome (ca. 172) he probably made it in Syriac, although Kraeling argues that it was composed in Greek even if it was written in Mesopotamia. See Kraeling, Carl H., A Greek Fragment of Tatian's Diatessaron from Dura (London, 1935) 15–18Google Scholar. If Tatian wrote it while he was in Rome he could have made it in Greek, Syriac, or Latin. For the latter see Burkitt, F. C., “The Dura Fragment of Tatian,” JTS 36 (1935) 257–58Google Scholar. Many hold that it was written in Greek and was soon translated into Syriac. Among others see Harnack, Adolf von, “Tatian's Diatessaron und Marcion's Commentar zum Evangelium bei Ephraem Syrus,” ZKG 4 (1881) 494–95Google Scholar; Chronologie der altchristlichen Literatur (Leipzig, 1897) 1Google Scholar. 289; Vogels, H. J., Die Harmonistik von Evangelientext des Codex Cantabrigiensis (TU 36; Leipzig, 1910) 45–46Google Scholar; Lagrange, M.-J., “L'ancienne version Syriaque des Évangiles,” RB 29 (1920) 326Google Scholar; Jüticher, Adolf, “Der echte Tatian-text,” JBL 43 (1924) 166Google Scholar. Others think that the evidence points to a Syriac original. Notable among these are Baumstark, A., “Das griechische Diatessaronfragment von Dura Europos,” OrChr 32 (1935) 250Google Scholar; Vööbus, Arthur, Studies in the History of the Gospel Text in Syriac (Louvain, 1951) 12Google Scholar; Weir, G. A., Tatian's Diatessaron and the Old Syriac Gospels. The Evidence of MS Chester Beatty 709 (Ph.D. diss., University of Edinburgh, 1969) xiv–xv.Google Scholar

4 E.g., Burkitt, Ev. da-Meph. 209, 210; Vööbus, Studies, 16.

5 Most recently Weir, Tatian's Diatessaron and the Old Syriac Gospels, xxii–xxiii.

6 Vogels believed this to be the case. Upon his observation that C had more harmonistic readings than S and under the belief that C was older than S, he held that the history of the Old Syriac text was a process in which Tatianisms were eliminated. See Vogels, H. J., Die altsyrischen Evangelien in ihrem Verhältnis zu Tatians Diatessaron (BSt 16/5; Freiburg im Breisgau, 1911) 8.Google Scholar

7 Leloir, Louis, Saint Ephrem; Commentaire de l'Evangile Concordant; Texte Syriaque (Manuscrit Chester Beatty 709) (Dublin, 1963).Google Scholar

8 Leloir, , Saint Ephrem, Commentaire de l'Evangile Concordant, Version Arménienne (CSCO 137, Scriptores Armeniaci 1; Louvain, 1953; Latin trans. 145, Scriptores Armeniaci 2; Louvain, 1964).Google Scholar

9 For a recent review of the witnesses see Metzger, Bruce M., The Early Versions of the New Testament, Their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations (Oxford, 1977) 10–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 See especially chap. 3 in Vööbus, Studies, 25–45. The great collection of quotations of early Syriac fathers and the attempted reconstruction of the Diatessaron by Urbina must be viewed with caution since it uses early Syriac sources without sufficient discrimination. Ignatius Ortiz de Urbina, Vetus Evangelium Syrorum, et exinde excerptum Diatessaron Tatiani (Biblia Polyglotta Matritensia. Series VI; Madrid, 1967)Google Scholar. Cf. the critical review of this work by Murray, Robert, “Reconstructing the Diatessaron,” HeyJ 10 (1969) 43–49.Google Scholar

11 It is possible that Ephraem has abbreviated the quotation at this point, as he occasionally does. See Hill, Hamlyn, A Dissertation on the Gospel Commentary of S. Ephraem the Syrian (Edinburgh, 1896) 19. His inclusion of other details (i.e., “they embarked in the boat”), however, suggests that Ephraem is quoting the full text.Google Scholar

12 Weir suggests that the inclusion of τν σπόρον αὺτουᵔ (zr' h) in the Diatessaron was possibly “due to the movement of the Syriac gospel text toward P, i.e., does not go back to Tatian.” Tatian's Diatessaron and the Old Syriac Gospels, 319.

13 See Vogels, Die altsyrischen Evangelien, 71–140.

14 Burkitt, Ev. da-Meph., 194–95.

15 The C text of John reads: l‘br’ dymt' and thus agrees with S Matthew. But this is certainly a revision to the Greek against the original preserved in S.

16 There are of course many older studies into this problem as well. See Sanday, William, The Gospels in the Second Century (London, 1876) 90–106Google Scholar, 136–37, 185–87; Engelhardt, Moritz von, Das Christenthum Justins des Märtyrers (Erlangen, 1878) 335–45.Google Scholar

17 Köster, Helmut, Synoptische Überlieferung bei den apostolischen Vätern (Berlin, 1957)Google Scholar; Bellinzoni, A. J., The Sayings of Jesus in the Writings of Justin Martyr (Leiden, 1967)Google Scholar; Kline, Leslie L., The Sayings of Jesus in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies (SBLDS 14; Missoula, 1975)Google Scholar. Kline is mainly interested in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies, but cites harmonizations from earlier writings as well.

18 Köster, Synoptische Überlieferung, 74; Bellinzoni, Sayings of Jesus, 89–90.

19 Köster, Synoptische Überlieferung, 17–19.

20 For περίκειται in Mark, S uses rmy'.

21 Köster, Synoptische Überlieferung, 77–79.

22 Ibid., 95–99; Bellinzoni, Sayings of Jesus, 108ff.; Kline, The Sayings of Jesus in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies, 27–33.

21 Köster, Synoptische Überlieferung, 80ff.; Bellinzoni, Sayings of Jesus, 22–25.

24 Bellinzoni cites this same basic harmonization in Origen (Contra Celsum 2.49 (Koetschau, 1; GCS, 171]; In Evangelium Joannis 32.11 [Preuschen, 4; GCS, 443), and Pamphilius (Apologia pro Origene 5 [PG 17. 572f.]). See Bellinzoni, Sayings of Jesus, 24.

25 Bellinzoni, Sayings of Jesus, 80–82.

26 For the fate of Tatian's text before Ephraem's work, see Baumstark, A., “Zur Geschichte des Tatiantextes vor Aphrem,” Or Chr 8 (1933) 1–12.Google Scholar

27 Bellinzoni, Sayings of Jesus, 141.

28 Ibid., 141–42.

29 Westcott, B. F. and Hort, F. J. A., The New Testament in the Original Greek. Introduction and Appendix (New York, 1882) 124–25Google Scholar. Vogels, who investigated the harmonistic element in Codex Bezae, found it so harmonistic that he concluded that a harmony stood behind it. Vogels, Die Harmonistik, above, n. 3.

30 Weir, Tatian's Diatessaron and the Old Syriac Gospels, 365.