Early in 1646, an intriguing little book came forth from Giles Calvert's press. Free-Grace, or, The Flowings of Christ's Blood Freely to Sinners by John Saltmarsh—at that time rector of Brasted in Kent and shortly to assume a chaplaincy at headquarters of the New Model Army—evoked caustic rebuttals from divines of high caliber and prominent profile, each sporting a nose for troublemakers and a willingness to controvert and condemn. This, prima facie, is mildly perplexing. For the demeanor of Saltmarsh's book is not obviously contentious. Rather, Free-Grace is studied in its disinclination to engage argumentatively with specific protagonists; it is neither thunderous nor acidulous, and makes scant effort to situate itself in the to-and-fro of the paper wars conducted in the mangled mid-century terrain of English practical divinity.

In his influential 1954 study, Johannes Munck proposed that one of Paul's self-perceived purposes as a missionary was to hasten the parousia of Christ by bringing in the “full number of the nations” (Rom 11:25).1 Outside of this theory there have been few attempts to investigate what Paul understood his mission to be.2 Perhaps this is because it is notoriously difficult to study an author's intentions. Or, more probably, since the difficulty of interpreting authorial intentions has not deterred Munck or other Pauline critics, perhaps this is because some texts in the Pauline corpus seem to offer a very clear answer to the problem. These passages play a central role in scholarship on the “purpose problem.”3 One of them is Gal 1:16, wherein Paul reveals that he became an apostle in order to preach about Jesus τοῖϛ ἔθνεσιν (to the nations). This statement seems straightforward enough.4 Another text is 1 Cor 9:19–22, wherein Paul admits that his missionary tactics serve his (apparent) overall goal of “winning” (κερδήσω) individuals. These verses, and a few others like them, have been sufficient for L. J. Lietaert Peerbolte and John Knox to conclude that the apostle understood his task to be primarily one of preaching. Lietaert Peerbolte offers an abridged version of his position when he states, “for Paul the character of his work can be summarised as ‘preaching the gospel.’”5

The author of the Pentateuch is famously unknown. There are various ancient speculations about the relative roles of God and Moses in the production of the text,1 and there is a plethora of modern investigations into the Bible's constituent documents and the authors responsible for them, but the biblical text itself is silent. The biblical narrator never identifies himself or herself2 and never narrates in the first person; rather he or she speaks “out of the void, in an authoritative voice that masks any authorial presence.”3

Charles Thomson (1729–1824) is best known as the first translator of the Septuagint, or Greek Old Testament, into English—or for that matter into any modern language. He is less well known as the first American translator of the New Testament, for his four volumes included the New Testament as well as the Old.1 His achievements are remarkable, for he was no professional scholar but a layman—early American patriot, Secretary to the Continental Congress, and friend of Thomas Jefferson—who taught himself Greek in order to carry out the task. Born in Ireland in 1729, he arrived in America as an orphan at the age of ten, learned Latin, went into business, and became an activist in resisting the repressive measures of the British government, particularly the Stamp Act.

The present study constitutes the seventh member of a series of articles1 in which I publish Armenian lists of biblical books. This article contains, principally, the poetic list attributed to Aṙak‘el of Siwnik‘, a well-known medieval Armenian poet, savant, and scholar who lived from the mid-fourteenth century until 1409. Aṙak‘el was the nephew of the famed theologian and systematician Grigor Tat‘ewac‘i (1344?–1409), whose own canon list was published earlier in this series.2 I am basing my text of Aṙak‘el's list on that published in the work of Ter-Movsesian on the Armenian Bible, which I present in a somewhat emended form and with an English translation below. Ter-Movsesian apparently published Aṙak‘el's text from a manuscript that in his day was in the possession of the distinguished scholar Grigor Xalat‘eanc‘.3 The fate of this manuscript is unknown; it is not to be identified with any of the copies published here. Ter-Movsesian was also aware of another copy then in Eǰmiacin bearing the number 599. This Miscellany, copied in 1660 in an unknown place, is now preserved as number 702 in the Maštoc‘ Matenadaran in Erevan. The text appears on 186r–189v.4

This single, mutilated leaf from a papyrus codex consists of twelve lines of text written in a nearly upright biblical uncial. The practiced scribal hand has consistent spacing of letters and serifs adorning τ, χ, κ, and η. A dieresis is written above iota in line 4, and an apostrophe marks the end of Iωακειμ (line 7), which may indicate that the name lacked an ordinary Greek declension. Joseph van Haelst originally dated the hand to the beginning of the fourth century, and its similarities to P.Oxy. 1250 and 4804 confirm a fourth century dating.1