The Bible used in the Syrian Church has long and deservedly borne the honourable appellation of “the Queen of the Versions.” It was first published in 1555 at the expense of the Emperor Ferdinand I. by J. Albert Widmanstadt with the assistance of a Syrian Jacobite called Moses, who came from Mardin as legate to Pope Julius III. The type for this edition was beautifully cut by Caspar Kraft of Ellwangen. All the branches into which the Syrian church was divided in the fifth century have used the same translation of the Scriptures. To this day the Syriac New Testament wants the five so-called Antilegomena—viz. 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and the Apocalypse—a sufficient proof that it goes back to a time and a region in which these books were not yet reckoned in the Canon of the New Testament. In place of these it contained in early times an alleged Third Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, and an Epistle of the Corinthians to Paul (cf. below, p. 142). To distinguish it from other Syriac translations, this Version has been called by Syriac scholars, since the tenth century, the Peshiṭto—i.e. the “Simple” or perhaps the “Common,” which is sometimes pronounced Peshiṭtå (פְשִׁיטתָא) and spelt simply Peshitto.
When and where was this translation made? An ancient Syrian tradition asserts that it was done by the Apostle Thaddaeus, who came on a mission to Abgar Uchama—i.e. Abgar the Black—King of Edessa, after the death of Jesus, which mission, they say, arose out of a correspondence that Abgar had previously had with Jesus. Another tradition ascribes it to Aggaeus (Aggai), the disciple of Thaddaeus, and it is even attributed to Mark the Evangelist. It is also said that Luke was by birth a Syrian of Antioch, a tradition which may preserve an element of truth.
The earliest notice of a Syriac Gospel is found in Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History, iv. 22. That historian mentions that Hegesippus (c. 160-180) quotes certain things from the Gospel of the Hebrews—i.e. of the Palestinian (?) Jewish Christians, and from the Syriac (sc. Gospel), and particularly from the Hebrew dialect, showing that he himself was a convert from the Hebrews (ἔκ τε τοῦ καθ’ Ἑβραίους εὐαγγελίου καὶ τοῦ Συριακοῦ καὶ ἰδίως ἐκ τῆς Ἑβραΐδος διαλέκτου τινὰ τίθησιν, ἐμφαίνων ἐξ Ἑβραίων ἑαυτὸν πεπιστευκέναι). This can hardly be understood otherwise than as implying that a Syriac version was already in existence. Whether it contained all the four Gospels or only one of them, or Tatian’s Harmony of the Gospels, as Michaelis supposed and as Zahn has recently shown some ground for believing, or whether it contained a primitive Gospel, now perished, cannot be established with certainty.
From the middle of the present century manuscripts of this version have found their way into European libraries in great numbers. Some of these are inestimable. At least ten date from the fifth, and thirty from the sixth century. This is somewhat remarkable when we remember how small a remnant of the Greek manuscripts has been preserved. G. H. Gwilliam is at present engaged on an edition of the Syriac Tetraevangelium for the University of Oxford on the basis of forty manuscripts. The task might seem to be an easy one, considering that these Syriac manuscripts display a far greater unanimity in their text than is found in any written in Greek. The difficulty in their case lies in another direction.
In the year 1842 a Syriac manuscript containing considerable portions of the Gospels was brought from Egypt and deposited in the British Museum. It was afterwards published by Dr. Cureton in 1858 with the title “Remains of a very antient recension of the four Gospels in Syriac hitherto unknown in Europe.” Cureton himself thought he had discovered the original of St. Matthew’s Gospel in this version. While this was easily shown to be a mistake, the question as to the relationship between the Curetonian Syriac and the Peshitto, whether the two texts are independent of each other, or if not, which is the earlier and which the recension, is not yet decided.
It seemed as if the solution of the problem was in sight when fragments of a Syriac palimpsest were discovered on Mount Sinai in February 1892 by Mrs. Lewis and her sister, Mrs. Gibson. These they perceived to be part of a very old manuscript of the Gospels, and Professor Bensly of Cambridge recognised that their text was closely related to that of the Curetonian. (See Plate V.) A second expedition was made to Sinai in the spring of 1893, when the fragments were transcribed by Professor Bensly, F. C. Burkitt, and J. R. Harris. As Bensly died three days after their return, the manuscript was published by the others in 1894, with an introduction by Mrs. Lewis. On a third visit to Sinai this lady completed the work of the triumvirate, and also published an English translation of the whole. How, then, is this Sinai-Syriac or Lewis-Syriac, as it is called, related to the Curetonian and to the Peshitto? The problem becomes more complicated still by the introduction of a fourth factor, the most important of them all.
From early sources it was known that Tatian,[82] a Syrian and a pupil of Justin Martyr, composed a harmony of the Gospels called the Diatessaron—i.e. τὸ διὰ τεσσάρων εὐαγγέλιον, an expression which may be taken either as referring to the four Gospels or as a musical term equivalent to harmony or chord. This Harmony was in use among the Syrians till the fifth century. Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, informs us that he destroyed 200 copies of it in his semi-Syriac, semi-Greek diocese.[83] About the same time Bishop Rabbulas of Edessa (407-435) instructed his presbyters and deacons to see that all the churches possessed and read a copy of the Distinct Gospel—i.e. not mixed or harmonised. The Lewis-Syriac bears this very title, Gospel of the Distinct or Divided, which is found also as the title of Matthew’s Gospel in the Curetonian version. Tatian’s Harmony has not yet been discovered in Syriac, but a Latin Harmony of the Gospels derived from it has long been known, and in 1883 a Harmony in Arabic was published by Ciasca which proves to be a translation from the Syriac made by Ibn et-Tabib (d. 1043) or a recension of it. Again, in 1836 the Armenian version of a Syriac Commentary by Ephraem of Edessa (d. 373) was printed, and translated into Latin in 1876. [Evangelii concordantis expositio facta a S. Ephraemo doctore Syro. In Latinum translata a J. B. Aucher, ed. G. Moesinger. Venetiis.] Finally Theodor Zahn discovered in the works of the Syriac writer Aphraates, who wrote between 337 and 345, quotations which must be derived from this Harmony of Tatian; and isolated quotations from Tatian are also found in later Syriac authors. And so the materials are provided for deciding the question whether or not Tatian made use of an earlier Syriac version in the preparation of his Harmony, and how T(atian), Syrcu(reton), Syrsin and Syrsch(aaf)[84] are related to each other. The most probable view perhaps is that T is the earliest form in which the Gospel came to Syria, that in Syrcu and Syrsin we have two attempts to exhibit T in the form of a version of the separate Gospels which were not generally accepted, while Syrsch actually succeeded and passed into general use.
The interest attaching to this question may be learned from the form in which the text of Matthew i. 16 is given in these witnesses. Syrsch agrees exactly with our present Greek text, but Syrcu presents a form which, when translated into Latin, reads, Joseph cui desponsata virgo Maria genuit Jesum Christum. Now, the only Greek manuscripts that present a form corresponding to this are four minuscules, 346, 556, 624 and 626, which differ in this respect even from the other members of the Ferrar Group to which they belong. In these four manuscripts the verse reads, Ἰωσὴφ ᾧ μνηστευθῆσα (sic) παρθένος Μαριὰμ ἐγέννησεν Ἰησοῦν τὸν λεγόμενον Χριστόν. In the Latin, however, this text is represented by a number of the oldest manuscripts, seven at least, one of which omits the word virgo, while two have peperit instead of genuit, and τὸν λεγόμενον is omitted. But in Syrsin we find: Joseph: Joseph autem cui desponsata (erat) virgo Maria genuit Jesum Christum. The passage is similarly cited in the recently published Dialogue of Timotheus and Aquila,[85] along with two other forms, thus:—Ἰακὼβ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰωσὴφ τὸν ἄνδρα Μαρίας, ἐξ ἧς ἐγεννήθη Ἰησοῦς ὁ λεγόμενος Χριστὸς, καὶ Ἰωσὴφ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰησοῦν τὸν λεγόμενον Χριστόν.
The exact wording of Tatian can no longer be determined, but it is evident that of these three forms in which the verse is found, only one or none can be the original. If we had no more than our oldest uncials or the great body of our minuscules to go by, no one could have the slightest suspicion that in our Greek text all is not in perfect order. But here, in an old Syriac fragment from the far East, there suddenly appears a reading which is also found in Latin witnesses from the far West, and which is confirmed by four solitary Greek manuscripts, written probably in Calabria at the close of the Middle Ages. How are these facts connected, and how do they stand to the other two readings, that of the common Greek text, and that of the Lewis-Syriac? The history of the text of the New Testament presents many such problems.
But Syrian scholars were not satisfied with those forms of the New Testament already mentioned. In the year of Alexander 819 (A.D. 508),[86] a new and much more literal version was made from the Greek at the desire of Xenaia (Philoxenus), Bishop of Mabug[87] (488-518), by his rural Bishop Polycarp. Part of this version was published in England by Pococke in 1630—viz. the four Epistles in the Antilegomena not included in the Peshitto, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. Unfortunately this edition was prepared from a somewhat inaccurate manuscript, which is now in the Bodleian Library. The later European editions of the Syriac New Testament took the text of these Epistles from Pococke’s edition, which was also the one used for critical editions of the Greek text. In 1886 Isaac H. Hall published a phototype edition of another manuscript of this version (the Williams MS.), the property of a private gentleman in America, and corrected from it the text of the Syriac New Testament issued by the American Bible Society. The other parts of this version have not yet been found, but the same American scholar thought he discovered the Gospels in a ninth century manuscript belonging to the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut, and deposited in the Library of the Union Theological Seminary in New York.[88] Bernstein thought he made the same discovery in 1853 in a manuscript belonging to the Angelica Library in Florence.
On the basis of four manuscripts sent from Diarbeker in 1736 to Dr. Gloucester Ridley, Joseph White published, between 1778 and 1803,[89] a version which he designated by the name of Versio Philoxenia, and which still passes under this title. But this so-called Philoxenian version is not the identical version made for Philoxenus by Polycarp, but a revision undertaken by Thomas of Heraclea (Charkel), in the year 616-7. This revision was made at Alexandria with the object of making the Syriac text represent the Greek as closely as possible, even to the order of the words and the insertion of the article. The critical symbols used by Homeric commentators, the asterisk and the obelus, as well as numerous marginal notes, were employed to indicate the various readings found in the manuscripts. And it is very remarkable to observe that there were manuscripts in Alexandria at the beginning of the seventh century which were regarded by Thomas of Harkel as particularly well authenticated, but which deviate in a marked degree from the bulk of our present manuscripts, and which, especially in the Acts, agree almost entirely with Codex D, which occupies so singular a position among Greek manuscripts. A new edition of the Syriac text is necessary before any further use can be made of it in the criticism of the New Testament. Mr. Deane set himself to this task, going on the basis of sixteen manuscripts in England alone, but unfortunately he was unable to bring it to a conclusion.
The Apocalypse was first edited in 1627 by de Dieu at Leyden, from a manuscript that had been in the possession of Scaliger. It is found in a few other manuscripts, in one, e.g., that was transcribed about this same time for Archbishop Ussher from a Maronite manuscript at Kenobin on Mount Lebanon. It is not found in the Syriac New Testament, but the later editions insert it from de Dieu. In Apoc. viii. 13, instead of “an eagle in the midst of heaven” (ἐν μεσουρανήματι), the Syriac translator took it as “in the midst with a bloody tail” (μεσος, ουρα, αιμα). Another Syriac version, in which this error is avoided, was discovered in 1892 by J. Gwynn in a Codex belonging to Lord Crawford, and published by him as the first book printed in Syriac at the Dublin University Press. Still more interesting is it to know that in a manuscript, once the property of Julius Mohl, and now in Cambridge, both the so-called Epistles of Clement are found after the Catholic Epistles. This manuscript, part of which was published by Bensly in 1889 (see above, p. 79), contains a note at the end to the effect that it was derived, so far as the Pauline Epistles are concerned, from the copy of Pamphilus.[90]
About the same time and in the same region, Paul of Tella translated one of the best Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament into Syriac almost as literally as Thomas of Harkel, thereby doing immense service in the construction of the Syriac Hexapla, a work of inestimable value for the textual criticism of the Old Testament.
Mention may be made here of another Syriac version of the New Testament, the so-called Jerusalem or Palestinian Syriac (Syrhr or Syrhier). This version, hitherto known almost solely from an Evangeliarium in the Vatican of the year 1030, was edited by Count Miniscalchi Erizzo at Verona in 1861-4, and an excellent edition was published in 1892 in Bibliothecae Syriacae a Paulo de Lagarde collectae quae ad philologiam sacram pertinent. And now not only have two fresh manuscripts of this Evangeliarium been discovered on Mount Sinai by J. R. Harris and Mrs. Lewis, and edited by Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson, but fragments of the Acts and Pauline Epistles have also been found and published, as well as portions of the Old Testament and other Church literature.[91] The dialect in which these fragments are written is quite different from ordinary Syriac, and may, perhaps, bear a close resemblance to that in which Jesus spoke to His disciples. At what time and in what region this entire literature took its rise is not yet determined with certainty. The Greek text on which the Evangeliarium is based has many peculiarities. In Matthew xxvii. 17, e.g., the robber is called Jesus Barabbas, or, rather, Jesus Barrabbas, a fact known to Origen, but now recorded only in a few Greek minuscules by the first or second hand.
What used to be called the Versio Karkaphensis or Montana is not really a version, but merely the Massoretic work of a monastery school intended to preserve the proper spelling and pronunciation of the text of the Bible.
No other branch of the Church has taken such pains as the Syrian, faithfully to transmit and to circulate the Gospel. From the mountains of Lebanon and Kurdistan, from the plains of Mesopotamia and the coast of Malabar, and even from distant China there have come into the libraries of Europe Syriac manuscripts of the utmost value for the textual criticism of the New Testament.
Literature on the Syriac Versions:—
J. G. Christian Adler, Novi Testamenti Versiones Syriacae, Simplex, Philoxeniana, et Hierosolymitana. Denuo examinatae et ad fidem codicum manu scriptorum ... novis observationibus atque tabulis aere incisis illustratae. Hafniae, pp. viii. 206. With eight Plates. 1789, 4to. For the complete list of editions up to 1888, see my Litteratura Syriaca (Syr. Gr., 2nd edition, pp. 20 ff.). Appendix thereto in Urt., 227 ff.; R. Duval, La Littérature Syriaque. Paris, 1899, pp. 42-67; TiGr., 813-822; Scrivener, fourth edition, ii. 6-40, with the help of Gwilliam and Deane; The Printed Editions of the Syriac New Testament, in the Church Quarterly Review, 1888, July, 257-297; G. H. Gwilliam, in the Studia Biblica et Ecclesiastica (Oxford), ii. 1890, iii. 1891; F. C. Conybeare, The growth of the Peshitta Version of the New Testament, in the American Journal of Theology, 1897, iv. 883-912; Burkitt, in the Journal of Theological Studies, i. (July 1900), 569 ff., referring to his forthcoming edition of the Evangelion da-Mepharreshe, says that he has had to go over the Gospel quotations of St. Ephraem, and closes by saying, “I confess that I am unconvinced that what we call the New Testament Peshitta was in existence in St. Ephraem’s day, and I believe that we owe both its production and victorious reception to the organizing energy of the Great Rabbula, Bishop of Edessa from 411 to 435 A.D.”
1. Till Gwilliam’s edition of the Gospels appears, which has been promised since 1891, the best edition will be the Editio Princeps of Widmanstadt, 1555; then that of Leusden and Schaaf, Novum Domini nostri Jesu Christi Testamentum Syriacum cum versione latina cura et studio J. Leusden et C. Schaaf editum. Ad omnes editiones diligenter recensitum et variis lectionibus magno labore collectis adornatum. Lugd. Bat., 1709, 4to. Acc. Schaaf, Lexicon Syriacum concordantiale. The text reprinted by Jones at Oxford, 1805; the editions of the London Bible Society, 1816 and 1826, and better still, the Syriac and New-Syriac editions of the American Mission in Urmia, 1846, and of the American Bible Society of New York, 1868, 1874, and frequently (with the Nestorian vocalisation). An edition is promised from the Jesuit Press at Beyruth, Nouveau Testament Syriaque en petits caractères, d’après plusieurs manuscrits anciens, éd. par le P. L. Cheikho.
The New Testament part of the Peshitto has been very much neglected in the present century. On the O.T., investigations, chiefly in the form of dissertations on most of the books, have been published, establishing the relation of the Syriac to the Massoretic text, the Septuagint, and the Targum. But almost nothing of this sort has been done for the N.T., at least in Germany, since the time of Michaelis and Löhlein. The question has never once been taken up how many translators’ hands can be distinguished in the N.T.
J. D. Michaelis, Curae in Versionem Syriacam Act. Apost. cum consectariis criticis de indole, cognationibus et usu versionis Syriacae tabularum Novi Foederis. Göttingen, 1755. C. L. E. Löhlein, Syrus Epistolae ad Ephesios interpres in causa critica denuo examinatus, Erlangen, 1835.
2. Cureton’s Remains (1858) is now out of print. Till Burkitt’s new edition appears its place will be taken by Baethgen’s Retranslation into Greek (Evangelienfragmente. Der griechische Text des Curetonschen Syrers wiederhergestellt, Leipzig, 1885); and more especially by Albert Bonus’s Collatio codicis Lewisiani rescripti evangeliorum Syriacorum cum codice Curetoniano, Oxford, 1896; and by Carl Holzhey’s Der neuentdeckte Codex Sinaiticus untersucht. Mit einem vollständigen Verzeichnis der Varianten des Codex Sinaiticus und Codex Curetonianus, Munich, 1896. See A. Bonus, The Sinaitic Palimpsest and the Curetonian Syriac, in the Expository Times, May 1895, p. 380 ff. The publications of T. R. Crowfoot, Fragmenta Evangelica, Pars I., II., 1870, 1872, and Observations on the Collations in Greek of Cureton’s Syriac Fragments, 1872, contain useful material, but there are a good many mistakes.
3. The Editio Princeps of the Lewis text is, of course, that of Bensly, Harris, and Burkitt, The Four Gospels in Syriac, transcribed from the Sinaitic Palimpsest ... Cambridge, 1894. To this must be added its complement by Mrs. Lewis, Some Pages of the Four Gospels retranscribed (with or without an English translation), London, 1896; further, Last Gleanings from the Sinai Palimpsest, Expositor, Aug. 1897, pp. 111-119; also, An Omission from the Text of the Sinai Palimpsest, Expositor, Dec. 1897, p. 472. On the discovery of the manuscript, see Mrs. Gibson, How the Codex was found, ... Cambridge, 1893, and Mrs. Lewis, In the shadow of Sinai, ... Cambridge, 1898; also Mrs. Bensly, Our Journey to Sinai, ... With a chapter on the Sinai Palimpsest. London, 1896. See also Mrs. Lewis, The Earlier Home of the Sinaitic Palimpsest, Expositor, June 1900, pp. 415-421. The text has been translated into German by Adalbert Merx, who has added a brief but valuable critical discussion. Berlin (Reimer), 1897. The second part, comprising the commentary, has not yet appeared. See also Gwilliam’s notice of the editio princeps in the Expository Times, Jan. 1895, p. 157 ff.
4. On Tatian, the latest and best is Zahn, Evangelienharmonie, PRE3, v. (1898), 653 ff.; also his Forschungen, i. (1881), Tatian’s Diatessaron, ii. p. 286 ff. (1883), iv. (1891); Gesch. des Kanons, i. 387-414, ii. 530-556. J. H. Hill, The earliest Life of Christ ever compiled from the Four Gospels, being the Diatessaron of Tatian (c. A.D. 160), literally translated from the Arabic Version. Edinburgh, 1893. J. R. Harris, The Diatessaron of Tatian, a Preliminary Study. Cambridge, 1890. The Diatessaron, a Reply, in the Contemporary Review, Aug. 1895, in answer to W. R. Cassels, in the Nineteenth Century, April 1895; also by the same writer, Fragments of the Commentary of Ephrem Syrus upon the Diatessaron. London, 1895.... J. H. Hill, A Dissertation on the Gospel Commentary of S. Ephrem the Syrian ... Edinburgh, 1896. J. A. Robinson, Tatian’s Diatessaron and a Dutch Harmony, in the Academy, 24th March 1894. Hope W. Hogg, The Diatessaron of Tatian, with introduction and translation, in the Ante-Nicene Library. Additional Volume ... edited by Allan Menzies. Edinburgh, 1897, pp. 33-138. W. Elliott, Tatian’s Diatessaron and the Modern Critics. Plymouth, 1888. I. H. Hall, A Pair of Citations from the Diatessaron, in the Journal of Biblical Literature, x. 2 (1891), 153-155. J. Goussen, Pauca Fragmenta genuina Diatessaroniana, appended to the Apocalypsis S. Joannis Versio Sahidica, 1895. See also Bäumer in the Literarischer Handweiser, 1890, 153-169; the article Tatian in the Encyclopædia Britannica, and Hastings’ Bible Dictionary, vol. ii. p. 697 f.
5. On the later Syriac versions, see Urt., 228, 236 f.; Gwynn, The older Syriac Version of the four Minor Catholic Epistles, Hermathena, No. xvi. (vol. vii.), 1890, 281-314. Merx, Die in der Peschito fehlenden Briefe des Neuen Testamentes in arabischer der Philoxeniana entstammender Uebersetzung ... Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, xii. 240 ff., 348 ff., xiii. 1-28. Bensly, The Harklean Version of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ... Cambridge, 1889. In this edition will be found the subscription mentioned above, connecting the manuscript with that of Pamphilus. See Addenda, p. xv.
6. On the Jerusalem Evangeliarium, see Urt., 228, 237. Zahn, Forschungen, i. 329 ff. Lagarde, Mitteilungen, i. 111, iv. 328, 340. A. de Lagarde, Erinnerungen an P. de Lagarde, p. 112 ff. Lewis and Gibson, The Palestinian Syriac Lectionary of the Gospels re-edited from two Sinai MSS. and from P. de Lagarde’s edition of the Evangeliarium Hierosolymitanum, London, 1899. The Lectionary published in the Studia Sinaitica, vi., contains, in the N.T., passages from Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Cor., Gal., Ephes., Philip., Col., 1 Thess., 1 and 2 Tim., Heb., James. See notice in the Expository Times, Jan. 1898, p. 190 ff. The Liturgy of the Nile, published by G. Margoliouth, 1896 (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Oct. 1896, 677-731, and also published separately), contains Acts xvi. 16-34. See also Woods, The New Syriac Fragments in the Expository Times, Nov. 1893.
The name most closely associated with the Latin Versions of the New Testament is that of Jerome (Hieronymus). This scholar was born at Stridon, on the borders of Dalmatia,[92] about the year 345, and educated at Rome. After leading for some time a hermit life in Palestine, Jerome returned to Rome, and it was during his residence there, in the year 382, that he was urged by Pope Damasus to undertake a revision of the Latin version of the New Testament then in use. This he did, and in 383 sent the Pope, who died in the following year, the first instalment of the work, the Four Gospels, accompanied with a letter beginning thus:—“Thou compellest me to make a new work out of an old; after so many copies of the Scriptures have been dispersed throughout the whole world, I am now to occupy the seat of the arbiter, as it were, and seeing they disagree, to decide which of them accords with the truth of the Greek; a pious task, verily, yet a perilous presumption, to pass judgment on others and oneself to be judged by all.” He anticipates that everyone, no matter who, learned or ignorant, that takes up a Bible and finds a discrepancy between it and the usual text will straightway condemn him as an impious falsifier who presumed to add to or alter or correct the ancient Scriptures. But he comforts himself with the reflection that it is the High Pontiff himself that has laid this task upon him, and that the testimony of his jealous opponents themselves proves that discrepancies are an indication of error (verum non esse quod variat, etiam maledicorum testimonio comprobatur); for if they tell us we are to rest our faith on the Latin exemplars, they must first say which, because there are almost as many versions as manuscripts (tot enim sunt exemplaria paene quot codices); if it is to be the majority of these, why not rather go back to the Greek original which has been badly rendered by incompetent translators (a vitiosis interpretibus male edita), made worse instead of better by the presumption of unskilful correctors (a praesumptoribus imperitis emendata perversius), and added to or altered by sleepy scribes (a librariis dormitantibus aut addita sunt aut mutata). In a letter to his learned friend Marcella, written in the year 384, he gives instances of what he complains of, citing, e.g., Romans xii. 11, where tempori servientes had hitherto been read instead of domino servientes (καιρῷ instead of κυρίῳ), and 1 Tim. v. 19, “against an elder receive not an accusation,” where the qualifying clause, “except before two or three witnesses,” was dropped, and also 1 Tim. i. 15, iii. 1, where humanus sermo was given in place of fidelis. In all three instances, our most recent critical editions decide in favour of Jerome, against the Old Latin Version. In the last instance cited, we know of only one Latin-Greek manuscript that has ἀνθρώπινος instead of πιστός, and that only in c. iii. 1, viz. D*. Jerome accordingly issued an improved version of the New Testament, beginning with the Gospels. For this purpose he made a careful comparison of old Greek manuscripts (codicum Graecorum emendata conlatione sed veterum). In his version he was also careful only to make an alteration when a real change of meaning was necessary, retaining in all other cases the familiar Latin wording. The Gospels were in the order which has been the prevailing one since his day—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
We learn from the great Church Teacher Augustine, who lived in Africa about the same time (354-430), that there was an endless variety and multitude of translators (latinorum interpretum infinita varietas, interpretum numerositas). He tells us that while it was possible to count the number of those who had translated the Bible—i.e. the Old Testament—from Hebrew into Greek, the Latin translators were innumerable; that in the early age of the Christian faith (primis fidei temporibus), no sooner did anyone gain possession of a Greek Codex, and believe himself to have any knowledge of both languages, than he made bold to translate it (ausus est interpretari). |Itala.| The advice he himself gives is to prefer the Italic version to the others, as being the most faithful and intelligible (in ipsis autem interpretationibus Itala praeferatur; nam est verborum tenacior cum perspicuitate sententiae. De Doctrina Christiana, ii. 14, 15). |Vulgate.| On the ground of this passage, the pre-Jeromic versions have been comprehended under the title of the Itala, as distinguished from Jerome’s own work, which is called the Vulgate, seeing that it became the prevailing text in the Church of the Middle Ages. By the Itala, Augustine himself, however, must have referred to a particular version, and, according to the usage of that time, the word cannot mean anything else than a version originating in or prevalent in Italy—i.e. the North of Italy, what is called Lombardy. It is not difficult to understand how it came to pass that Augustine used such a version in Africa, seeing that he was a pupil of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. In recent times Burkitt has revived the opinion that by Itala Augustine means neither more nor less than Jerome’s Revision of the Gospels. He demonstrates that Augustine’s De Consensu, written about the year 400, is based on Jerome’s revised text. In this, Zahn[93] agrees with him on grounds that admit of no question so far as this point is concerned. But Wordsworth-White[94] will not admit the inference that Augustine must have meant this Revision when he spoke of Itala in the year 397, seeing that in his letter to Jerome,[95] written in 403, he thanks God for the interpretation of the Gospel, “quasi de opere recenter cognito,” while in his earlier letters to Jerome[96] he makes no mention of it: “quod mirandum esset si in opere ante sex annos publici iuris facto eam collaudasset.”[97]
(1.) Latin Versions before Jerome.
Where, when, and by whom was the New Testament, or at least were parts of it, first translated into Latin? From the passage in Augustine quoted above, we learn that it was done by all and sundry in the very earliest times of the Christian faith. Rome used to be regarded as the place where the Latin versions took their rise. But it was observed that Greek was very commonly employed as the written language at Rome, especially among Christians. The first Bishops of Rome have pure Greek names, and even the first representative of the Roman Church with a Latin name, the Clement that wrote the Epistle to the Corinthians about the year 95, even he wrote in Greek. Moreover, when the relics of the Old Latin Bibles began to be examined, it was observed that their language, both in vocabulary and grammar, entirely agreed with that found in African writers of that age, and in some things agreed with these alone. |African Latin.| It is, of course, a fact that the majority of the writers of that age known to us are African. Till quite recently, therefore, it was held to be tolerably well made out that the birthplace of the Latin Bible is to be found in Africa. It was regarded by many as equally certain, that in spite of the statements of Jerome and Augustine, and in spite too of the various forms in which the Old Latin Bible now exists, these all proceed from a common origin, or at most from two sources, so that it was not quite correct to speak of a “multitude of translators” in the very earliest times. The settlement of this question is rendered more difficult by the fact that, while the extant copies of the pre-Jeromic Bible are undoubtedly very early, they are few in number, and for the most part mutilated. The reason of this is not far to seek. For, as time went on and Jerome’s new version came to be more and more exclusively used, manuscripts of the earlier version lost their value, and were the more frequently used for palimpsests and book covers. One has also to take into account how liable the text of both was to be corrupted, either by the copyist of an Old Latin Bible inserting in the margin, or even interpolating in the text, various passages from Jerome’s translation that seemed to him to be a decided improvement, or conversely, by the scribe who should have written the new rendering involuntarily permitting familiar expressions to creep in from the old. It is estimated that we have about 8000 manuscripts of Jerome’s recension, of which 2228 have been catalogued by Gregory. Samuel Berger, the most thorough investigator in this field, examined 800 manuscripts in Paris alone. But on the other hand, only 38 manuscripts of the Old Latin Version of the New Testament are known to exist. The credit of collecting the relics of these pre-Jeromic versions of the Old and New Testament, so far as they were accessible at that time, belongs to Peter Sabatier the Maurist (Rheims, 1743, 3 vols. folio).
In critical editions of the New Testament the manuscripts of the pre-Jeromic versions are indicated by the small letters of the Roman alphabet. They are the following:—
1. Gospels.
a. Vercellensis: according to a tradition recorded in a document of the eighth century this manuscript was written by Eusebius, Bishop of Vercelli, who died in the year 370 or 371. Recent scholars, however, date it somewhat later. It is written on purple with silver letters. The order of the Gospels is that found in most of these Old Latin MSS.—viz. Matthew, John, Luke, Mark. The manuscript is defective in several places.
The codex was edited by Irico in 1748, and by Bianchini in 1749 along with some of the others in his Evangeliarium Quadruplex. This latter edition was reprinted, with some inaccuracies, in Migne’s Patrologia Latina, vol. xii. The manuscript was again edited by Belsheim; Codex Vercellensis. Quatuor Evangelia ante Hieronymum latine translata ex reliquiis Codicis Vercellensis, saeculo ut videtur quarto scripti, et ex Editione Iriciana principe denuo ededit (sic) Jo. Belsheim. Christiania, 1894.
b. Veronensis: of the fourth or fifth century, also written with silver on purple. In this Codex, John vii. 44-viii. 12 has been erased. The manuscript is defective.
Edited by Bianchini (see above). A Spagnolo, L’Evangeliario Purpureo Veronese. Nota (Torino, 1899. Estratta dagli Atti dell’ Accademia Reale delle Scienze di Torino).
c. Colbertinus: in Paris, written in the twelfth century, but still containing the Old Latin text in the Gospels, though exhibiting Jerome’s version in other parts.
Edited by Sabatier, and again by Belsheim; Codex Colbertinus Parisiensis. Quatuor Evangelia ante Hieronymum latine translata post editionem Petri Sabatier cum ipso codice collatam denuo edidit Jo. Belsheim. Christiania, 1888.
d. The Latin part of Codex D; see p. 64 ff.
e. Palatinus: of the fourth or fifth century, written like a b f i j on purple with gold and silver letters: now in Vienna, with one leaf in Dublin.
Two other fragments were published in 1893 by Hugo Linke from a transcript made for Bianchini in 1762. The entire codex was edited by Belsheim, Christiania, 1896. See von Dobschütz in the LCbl., 1896, 28.
f. Brixianus, of the sixth century, in Brescia. In their new edition of the Vulgate, Wordsworth and White printed the text of this manuscript underneath that of Jerome for comparison’s sake as probably containing the text most nearly resembling that on which Jerome based his recension. But see Burkitt’s Note in the Journal of Theological Studies, I. i. (Oct. 1899), 129-134, and the note to p. 139 in Addenda.
ff1. Corbeiensis I., contains the Gospel according to Matthew alone. The manuscript formerly belonged to the Monastery of Corbey, near Amiens, and with others was transferred to St. Petersburg during the French Revolution.
ff2. Corbeiensis II., written in the sixth century and now in Paris: contains the Gospels with several lacunæ.
On Belsheim’s editions of ff1 and ff2 (1881 and 1887), see E. Ranke in the ThLz., 1887, col. 566, and S. Berger, Bull. Crit., 1891, 302 f.
g1. Sangermanensis I., of the ninth century, in Paris, exhibits a mixed text. The manuscript was used by Stephen for his Latin Bible of 1538.
g2. Sangermanensis II., written in an Irish hand of the tenth century, has a mixed text: in Paris (Lat. 13069).
h. Claromontanus, of the fourth or fifth century, now in the Vatican: has the Old Latin text in Matthew only. The manuscript is defective at the beginning down to Matt. iii. 15 and also from Matt. xiv. 33-xviii. 12.
Edited by Mai in his Scriptorum Veterum Nova Collectio, iii. 257-288, and by Belsheim, Christiania, 1892.
i. Vindobonensis, of the seventh century, contains fragments of Luke and Mark written on purple with silver and gold.
Edited by Belsheim, Codex Vindobonensis membranaceus purpureus ... antiquissimae evangeliorum Lucae et Marci translationis Latinae fragmenta edidit Jo. Belsheim. Lipsiae, 1885 (cum tabula).
j (z in TiGr.). Saretianus or Sarzannensis, of the fifth century, contains 292 verses from John written on purple. The manuscript was discovered in 1872 in the Church of Sarezzano, near Tortona, and is not yet completely edited.
Compare G. Amelli, Un antichissimo codice biblico Latino purpureo conservato nella chiesa di Sarezzano presso Tortona. Milan, 1872.
k. Bobiensis, of the fifth century, is perhaps the most important of the Old Latin manuscripts, but unfortunately contains only fragments of Matthew and Mark. It is said to have belonged to St. Columban, the founder of the monastery of Bobbio, who died in the year 615. It is now preserved at Turin. See Burkitt on Mark xv. 34 in Codex Bobiensis in the Journal of Theological Studies, i. 2 (Jan. 1900), p. 278 f.
l. Rehdigeranus, in Breslau, purchased in Venice by Thomas von Rehdiger in 1569. Matthew i. 1-ii. 15 and a good deal of John wanting.
Edited by H. Fr. Haase, Breslau, 1865, 1866: Evangeliorum quattuor vetus latina interpretatio ex codice Rehdigerano nunc primum edita.
m. Does not represent any particular manuscript and should properly be omitted here. It indicates the Liber de divinis scripturis sive Speculum, a work mistakenly ascribed to Augustine, consisting of a collection of proof-passages (testimonia) from the Old and New Testaments. All the books of the latter are made use of except Philemon, Hebrews, and 3 John, but the Epistle to the Laodicæans is cited among the number.
Fragmenta Novi Testamenti in translatione latina antehieronymiana ex libro qui vocatur Speculum eruit et ordine librorum Novi Testamenti exposuit J. Belsheim. Christiania, 1899.
n o p. Are fragments at St. Gall: published in the Old Latin Biblical Texts, see below, p. 131 f.
n. Written in the fifth or sixth century, has probably been in the Library at St. Gall since its foundation. It contains portions of Matthew and Mark, with John xix. 13-42.
o. Written in the seventh century, possibly to take the place of the last leaf of n, which is wanting, contains Mark xvi. 14-20.
p. Two leaves of an Irish missal written in the seventh or eighth century.
a2. Is part of the same manuscript as n. It consists of a leaf containing Luke xi. 11-29 and xiii. 16-34. It was found in the Episcopal archives at Chur, and is preserved in the Rhætisches Museum there.
q. Monacensis, written in the sixth or seventh century, came originally from Freising. Published in the Old Latin Biblical Texts.
r or r1 and r2. Usserianus I. and II., are both in Dublin. The former is written in an Irish hand of the seventh century, and has several lacunæ. r2 belongs to the ninth or tenth century and has an Old Latin text in Matthew resembling that of r1. It shows affinity with Jerome’s text in Mark, Luke, and John, of which, however, only five leaves remain.
Edited by T. K. Abbott, Evangeliorum versio antehieronymiana ex codice Usseriano (Dublinensi), adjecta collatione codicis Usseriani alterius. Accedit versio Vulgata.... Dublin, 1884, 2 Parts.
s. Four leaves with portions of Luke, written in the sixth century. The fragments came originally from Bobbio, and are now in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. Published in the Old Latin Biblical Texts.
t. A palimpsest very difficult to decipher, containing portions of the first three chapters of Mark, written in the fifth century, and now at Berne. Published in the Old Latin Biblical Texts.
v. Bound in the cover of a volume at Vienna entitled, Pactus Legis Ripuariæ: exhibits John xix. 27-xx. 11. Published in the Old Latin Biblical Texts.
aur. Aureus or Holmiensis, written in the seventh or eighth century, exhibits the Gospels entire, with the exception of Luke xxi. 8-30. An inscription in old English states that the manuscript was purchased from the heathen (the Danes?) by Alfred the Alderman for Christ Church, Canterbury, when Alfred was King and Ethelred Archbishop (871-889). It was afterwards in Madrid, and is now at Stockholm. It is really a Vulgate text with an admixture of Old Latin readings. Published by Belsheim in 1878.
δ. Is the interlinear Latin version of Δ (see p. 72), and is interesting on account of its alternative readings given in almost every verse—e.g. uxorem vel conjugem for γυναῖκα, Matt. i. 20. Compare Harris, The Codex Sangallensis, Cambridge, 1891.
On the Prolegomena found in many Old Latin and Vulgate manuscripts of the Gospels, see Peter Corssen, Monarchianische Prologe zu den vier Evangelien. Leipzig, 1896 (TU., xv. 1). This has been supplemented by von Dobschütz’s Prolog zur Apostelgeschichte. See also Jülicher in the GGA., 1896, xi. 841-851. J. S. in the Revue Critique, 1897, vii. 135 f. H. Holtzmann in the Th. Lz., 1897, xii. col. 231 ff. A. Hilgenfeld, Altchristliche Prolegomena zu den Evangelien in the ZfwTh., 1897, iii. 432-444.
2. Acts.
d m As for the Gospels.
e. The Latin text of E. See above, p. 75.
g. Gigas Holmiensis, the immense manuscript of the entire Latin Bible preserved at Stockholm. The text is Old Latin only in the Acts and Apocalypse, the rest of the New Testament exhibiting Jerome’s version. The manuscript was brought to Sweden from Prague as a prize of war in 1648, along with the Codex Argenteus.
The Acts and Apocalypse were edited by Belsheim, Christiania, 1879. On this see O. v. Gebhardt in the ThLz., 1880, col. 185. A new collation of this manuscript was made for W.-W. by H. Karlsson in 1891.
g2. In Milan, is part of a Lectionary written in the tenth or eleventh century, and contains the pericope for St. Stephen’s day, Acts vi. 8-vii. 2, vii. 51-viii. 4.
Published by Ceriani in his Monumenta Sacra et Profana, i. 2, pp. 127, 128. Milan, 1866.
h. Floriacensis, a palimpsest formerly belonging to the Abbey of Fleury on the Loire, and now in Paris, written probably in the seventh century. It contains fragments of the Apocalypse, Acts, 1 and 2 Peter, and 1 John, in this order. (Tischendorf’s reg.: Blass’s f.)
The latest and best edition is that of S. Berger: Le Palimpseste de Fleury. Paris, 1889.
p2, written in the thirteenth century, exhibits a text with an admixture of Old Latin readings in the Acts only. The manuscript came originally from Perpignan, and is now in Paris, No. 321. It was used by Blass.
Published by Berger: Un ancien texte latin des Actes des Apôtres, etc. Paris, 1895. See von Dobschütz in the ThLz., 1896, 4; Haussleiter in the Th. Lbl., no. 9; Schmiedel in the L. Cbl., no. 33; E. Beurlier, Bull. Crit., 1896, 32, p. 623.
s2. Bobiensis, a palimpsest of the fifth or sixth century at Vienna, containing fragments of Acts xxiii., xxv.-xxviii., and of James and 1 Peter.
x1. Written in the seventh or eighth century, contains the Acts with the exception of xiv. 26-xv. 32. The manuscript is preserved at Oxford and is not completely published.
w. Is the symbol given by Blass to a paper manuscript of the New Testament written, it seems, in Bohemia in the fifteenth century, and now at Wernigerode. In the main it exhibits Jerome’s text even to a greater extent than p, but preserves elements of the Old Latin, particularly in the latter half of the Acts. The mixture is similar to that observed in the Provençal New Testament,[98] which is derived from a Latin manuscript of this nature, and to that in the pre-Lutheran German Bible. (See Urt., p. 127 f.)
On Acts, see especially P. Corssen, Der Cyprianische Text der Acta Apostolorum. Berlin, 1892.
3. Catholic Epistles.
h m s. As above.
ff. Corbeiensis, at St. Petersburg, of the tenth century, contains the Epistle of James.
Edited by Belsheim in the Theologisk Tidsskrift for den evangelisk-lutherske Kirke i Norge (N.S. Vol. ix. Part 2); also by J. Wordsworth, The Corbey St. James, etc., in Studia Biblica, i. pp. 113-150. Oxford, 1885.
q. Written in the seventh century, and preserved at Munich, contains fragments of 1 John, and of 1 and 2 Peter. The text exhibits the passage of the Three Heavenly Witnesses in 1 John v., but verse 7 follows verse 8.
Published by Ziegler in 1877, Bruchstücke einer vorhieronymianischen Uebersetzung der Petrusbriefe.
4. Pauline Epistles.
m. As for the Gospels.
d e f g. The Latin versions of the Greek Codices D E F G.
gue. Guelferbytanus, of the sixth century, contains fragments of Romans cc. xi.-xv., found in the Gothic palimpsest at Wolfenbüttel. See p. 69.
Published by Tischendorf in his Anecdota Sacra et Profana, 1855, pp. 153-158. See Burkitt, in the Journal of Theological Studies, i. 1 (Oct. 1899), p. 134, and compare the note to p. 139 in the Addenda, p. xv.
r. Written in the fifth or sixth century, came originally from Freising, and is now at Munich: contains portions of Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 Timothy, and Hebrews.
Ziegler, Italafragmente der paulinischen Briefe. Marburg, 1876. Wölfflin, Neue Bruchstücke der Freisinger Itala (Münchener Sitzungsberichte, 1893, ii. 253-280).
r2. Also at Munich, a single leaf, with part of Phil. iv. and of 1 Thess. i.
r3. In the Benedictine Abbey of Göttweih on the Danube: fragments of Romans v. and vi. and of Galatians iv. and v., written on leaves used as a book cover.
Published by Rönsch in the ZfwTh., xxii. (1879), pp. 234-238.
x2. At Oxford, of the ninth century, contains the Pauline Epistles: defective from Heb. xi. 34-xiii. 25.
See also Fr. Zimmer, Der Galaterbrief im altlateinischen Text, als Grundlage für einen textkritischen Apparat der Vetus Latina in the Theologische Studien und Skizzen aus Ostpreussen. Königsberg, i. (1887), pp. 1-81.
5. Apocalypse.
The only manuscripts are m as for the Gospels, and g and h as for the Acts, h exhibits only fragments of cc. i. and ii., viii. and ix., xi. and xii., and xiv.-xvi.
For the Old Latin Biblical Texts edited by Wordsworth and White, see below, p. 131.