Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, and more
A little while back I started translating the six sermons of Severian of Gabala on Genesis from the French version of Bareille. Not that this process has any scholarly value, but it should help to get Severian better known. Unfortunately I had to stop after the first sermon for pressure of other things.
I found the [...]
Severian of Gabala ca. 400 preached at least six sermons on the six days of Creation. Six have reached us in Greek; there are rumours of a Seventh in Arabic, although this is unpublished. The sermons are notorious as advocating a flat-earth cosmology, although I suspect this projects back quite a few ideas not present [...]
I’ve been negotiating to get a translation of the full Greek text of Severian of Gabala’s sermon On Peace made. The translator has accepted, and it should be ready by the middle of May, or — more likely — end of June. The translator is not a Yank or a Brit, so some correction of [...]
The carmen adversus paganos is a late 4th century poem which is one of only four texts that record the Taurobolium. This ritual was when a bull was slaughtered over a grill, with people standing underneath to get bathed in the bull’s blood. So I asked someone to do a translation. Unfortunately it looks as [...]
John Chrysostom made a lot of enemies very quickly in Constantinople after he became patriarch, especially among the more corrupt clergy and court officials who objected to his campaign for higher standards of behaviour. They quickly arranged for him to be deposed and exiled. But when the Constantinople mob found out, a riot was threatened [...]
Severian is famous — or infamous — because he compared the sky to a ”tent” and then to a “pavilion” in his sermons on Genesis, e.g. in homily 1, 3:5. I’ve been thinking about this. A tent to us is a square thing, and the idea is outlandish. But what did the word mean to Severian? What [...]
Some materials by the 4th century bishop made their way into Arabic. Here is what Georg Graf says. German is not a language I find easy, but I have attempted a translation and placed it below.
92. Severianus, Bischof von Gabala (gest. nach 408).
1. Von seinem reichen Homilien schätz ist nichts vollständig in arabischer Uebertragung vererbt [...]
What happened to my evening?! It sort of disappeared!
First I had to deinstall Office XP from my PC, then install Office 2007. Then Microsoft wanted to download some updates — about 1Gb of them! I did some, and waited and waited, and then decided the rest could wait.
Then I had to scan a few pages [...]
John Chrysostom was exiled from Constantinople at the instigation of the empress Eudoxia, assisted by Severian of Gabala. But the people rioted before he had gone far, and Chrysostom was recalled. An armistice was patched up between the two men.
In Migne there is a little group of three sermons, only in Latin, all headed De [...]
Looking at the Clavis Patrum Graecorum — a text that should certainly be online — we find that the works of Severian of Gabala appear in two main editions, under the name of Chrysostom. There is the 1718-38 century edition of the works of Chrysostom by Montfaucon, the Benedictine editor in France. This is what [...]