Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, freedom of speech, information access, and more
Severian of Gabala, the enemy of John Chrysostom, has left around 60 homilies to us, some in Greek, preserved under his enemy’s name, and others in Armenian or other languages. Much of this material is unpublished, and nearly all of it is untranslated. Being rather obscure, it can be hard to get a handle on [...]
I’m having some fun using Google translate to allow me to browse the online Slavonic manuscripts of the Russian State Library. Occasionally the results are comic: “Number 140. The Psalter of St. sensible” made me smile, although it is combined with a text by Athanasius. The manuscripts are those of the Moscow Theological Seminary, the [...]
An email reached me today offering the chance to commission a translation of something from ancient or patristic Greek. My mind was rather a blank — or I might have suggested letters of Isidore of Pelusium, or perhaps of John Chrysostom — and all I could think of was the sermon preached by Severian of Gabala after his [...]
It seems that I am not the only person interested in Severian of Gabala. I have come across a series of publications by Remco F. Regtuit, who is assistant professor of Greek at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. So far I have seen none of his works, but articles on “The Charm of Severian of Gabala” — [...]
While surfing this evening I came across a reference to a Discourse on the Seals by our old friend Severian of Gabala, the bishop who preached with a pleasant Syrian burr and was a rival of John Chrysostom’s. It was in an 1815 book by Nathaniel Lardner, on p.620 of vol. 2 of his works, [...]
An email reached me today from a chap volunteering to take on a commission for some Greek and Syriac (and Armenian for that matter, although I have none in mind at the moment). I’ve written back and asked for some details. It might be nice to get him to do a few of the letters [...]
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 [...]
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 Six have reached us in Greek; there are rumours of a Seventh in Arabic, although this is unpublished.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 [...]