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The Gates or the Bars of Hades? A Note on Matthew 16. 18

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Stephen Gero
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Extract

Part of the Syriac textual tradition of Matthew 16. 18c attests the reading mukleē, ‘bars’, instead of πúλαι.1 The word mukleē is transparently loaned from Greek (μοχλóς). What is the exact significance of this interesting textual variant, which surely represents the wording of Tatian's Diatessaron and which may well be even older? One interpretation is that the mukleē are the bars which are part of, or stand for the sluice gates restraining the waters of the deep2.

Type
Short Studies
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , April 1981 , pp. 411 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

[1] See S. Euringer, ‘Der locus classicus des Primates (Mt. 16, 18) und der Diatessarontext des hl. Ephräam’, in Koeniger, A. M. (ed.), Beiträge zur Geschichte des christilichen Altertums und der Byzantinischen Literatur: Festgabe Albert Ehrhard zum 60. Geburtstag (Bonn and Leipzig, 1922), p. 175;Google Scholar add the subsequently discovered Syriac original of Ephrem's commentary on the Diatessaron (ed. Leloir, L., Saint, Ephrem, Comentaire de l'évangile concordant. Texte syriaque (manuscrit Chester Beatty 709), Dublin, (1963), p. 114, lines 2–3).Google Scholar

[2] Euringer, , op. cit., p. 150.Google Scholar This would in fact be a quite unaccustomed use of muklā in one text which joins muklē and sluices, the mulkē are installed to prevent the opening of the sluice gates Wright, W. (ed.), The Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite (Cambridge, 1882), ch. 52, (p. 49; line 6 (text); p. 41, (trans.)).Google Scholar

[3] Murray, R., Symbols of Church and Kingdom (Cambridge, 1975), pp. 228–36,Google Scholar elaborating the observation of Köbert, R., ‘Zwei Fassungen von Mt. 16, 18 bei den Syrern’ Biblica 40 (1959), pp. 1018–20.Google Scholar

[4] Euringer, , op. cit., p. 150; Murry, , op. cit., p. 231;Google ScholarJeremias, J., art. πύλη, in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament vol. VI (Grand Rapids, 1968), p. 925, note 45.Google Scholar

[5] Liddell, H. G., Scott, R., Jones, H. S., A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford, 1968), p. 1149b,Google Scholar s.v. mgr;οχλός (Homer, Euripides, Aritsophanes, Aristotle (Mechanica)); μοχλός in the sense of ‘lever’ is also attested in a papyrus of the Christian era (see Preisigke, F., Wörterbuch der griechischen Papyrusurkunden…II. Band (Berlin, 1927),Google Scholarcol., 121).Google Scholar

[6] op. cit., p. 1149 s.v. μοχλεύω. In one 9th-century Byzantine text μόχενοσις tout court is used for the forceful opening of doors (Theophanis Chronographia, ed. de Boor, C., vol. 1 (Leipzig, 1883), p. 501, lines 15–16).Google Scholar

]7] πέτρους μοχλεύειν (Euripides, Cyclops, ed. G. Murray, line 240); μοχλεύω τάς πέτρας (Plato Comicus, fragment 67, ed. Edmonds, J. M., The Fragments of Attic comedy, vol. I (Leiden, 1957), p. 510).Google Scholar

[8] Brockelmann, , Lexicon syriacum 2nd ed. (Halle, 1928), p. 385a,Google Scholar s.v. muklā, distinguishes the plural meaning vectes from sera; but the one entry adduced for vectes, from Ephrem, refers to the poles of the Tabernacle; thus Costaz, L.' dictionary, based on Brockelmann, which gives ‘lever’ as a separate meaning for muklā (Dictionnaire syriaque-français (Beyrouth, 1963), p. 178b)Google Scholar is not entirely faithful to the evidence. In any case the meanings of ‘bar’ as part of structure (especially in the description of the Tebernacle in Exodus) and ‘door-bolt’ were clearly more common (see Smith, R. Payne, Thesaurus Syriacus, vol. 2 (Oxford, 1901),Google Scholarcol., 2035Google Scholar s.v. miklā) I have not been able to verify from the standard sources Bauer's, W. statement that μοχλός is used as a loanword in rabbinical literature (Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch… 5th ed. (Berlin-New York, 1971),Google Scholarcol., 1046).Google Scholar

[9] So Euringer, , op. cit., p. 175. Murray by contrast, leaves the question open (op. cit., p. 229).Google Scholar

[10] Jeremias, , op. cit., pp. 924–5.Google Scholar

[11] See Brown, R. E. et al. (eds.). Peter in the New Testament (Minneapolis-New York, 1973), p. 90, note 208.Google Scholar

[12] I do not think that the phrase is an echo of the isolated (ℸℵω ‵ℸℶ)ℵШ ∑ℸℶ of Job 17. 16. In any case the word ‘bars’ is not found in the LXX version, which simply speaks of descent είς άδην; a like short reading is attested both in the Peshitta O.T. and in the Qumran Job Targum (ed. van der Ploeg, J. P. M. and van der Woude, A. S., Le Tarum de Job de la grotte XI de Qumrân, (Leiden, 1971), p. 12, line 2).Google Scholar

[13] Thus, pace Murray, (op. cit., pp. 324 ff.),Google Scholar I do not think that the employment muklē is to be traced back to O.T. texts such s Psalm 107. 16 and Isaiah 45. 2 (the destruction of bronze doors and iron bars), though clearly these later influenced the descriptions of the Descensus. It is note worthy that Descensus accounts which mention ‘bars of Sheol’, do not do so alone but always in conjunction with ‘gates’ (see Murray, , op. cit., pp. 234–6, 324–9).Google Scholar

[14] The problem of the authenticity of 18c has been left untouched here; but - speculating on a possible Aramic Vorlage for 18c - perhaps one can point to ℵ, which has the meaning of ‘lever’ or ‘pole’, as possibly underlying μοΧλός. the resulting word play (kiphā-qōphā) may lend some support to this suggestion.