Author: Roger Pearse

Wikipediocracy: a Wikipedia-watch site

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Incoming links revealed to me the existence of the Wikipediocracy site this weekend.

Our Mission: We exist to shine the light of scrutiny into the dark crevices of Wikipedia and its related projects; to examine the corruption there, along with the structural flaws; and to inoculate the unsuspecting public against the torrent of misinformation, defamation, and general nonsense that issues forth from one of the world’s most frequently visited websites, the “encyclopedia that anyone can edit.”

I wish them well.  Wikipedia presents itself as the encyclopedia that anyone can edit.  But a very large number of people have found themselves drawn into disputes with anonymous trolls there, and then found that Wikipedia’s processes are opaque, arbitary, unfair, administered by children and more trolls, and most of these ordinary people have been forced out or been left bruised and upset.  It’s not a safe place.  And it’s very hard to get past the puff to the reality, not least because Wikipedia policy is to hide information critical of Wikipedia. 

Inevitably the forum contains a certain amount of complaining.  People are likely to arrive here bleeding, after all.  But I have already learned of various meta- and para-wikipedia organisations, chapters, mailing lists and so forth, the existence of which is probably known to a tiny handful.  Most of those who contribute to Wikipedia will not realise that their fate will be decided, not openly, but by one of these backstairs methods.

Recommended.

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’m still thinking about the sermons of the late 4th century church father John Chrysostom, the most important of the Greek fathers.  In particular I’m thinking about the one only extant in a short latin version, De recipiendo Serveriano, That Severian must be received, preached after his (temporary) reconciliation with Severian of Gabala.

I mentioned that his sermon De regressu, On his return from exile, existed in a short latin version, but that the full Greek text was retrieved by Wenger, who also printed a full ancient Latin version.  The latter came from a homiliary, a genre of text about which I know nothing, and about which a Google search at first sight tells me  nothing.

In the process, tho, I have come across a 9th century manuscript of the collection of 38 latin homilies!  It’s at St. Gall, Cod. 113.  The description is here:

  • S. 3–363 Johannes Chrisostomus: 37 ächte oder untergeschobene Reden >Incipit liber omeliarum Johannis Chrisostomi< dazwischen S. 251 eine mit der Ueberschrift: Incipit Severiani epi. sermo de pace, gedr. in Petrus Chrysologus Venet. 1742 F. p. 178.
    • cf. Severiani Homiliae nunc primum editae Venet. 1827.
  • S. 363–399 >Incipit de eo quod non laeditur homo nisi a semetipso.< Scio quod a crassioribus
  • S. 399–460 >Incipit eiusdem s. Joannis de cordis compunctione liber primus< und liber secundus pag. 436. Anfang: Cum tantum intueor b. Demetri
  • S. 460–530 >Inc. eiusdem de reparatione lapsi<

OK, so this is all Chrysostom material.  On folios 3-363 is the medieval collection.  On folio 251 there is the start of Severian’s reply On Peace, again in an abbreviated form.  On folio 248 is the start of De recipiendo Severiano.

These are the items printed by Migne.  So it is nice to see a medieval manuscript version of them, as Migne’s text is not necessarily that reliable!

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The selfish generation get a bit more payback

Posted on by Roger Pearse

There has been hardly any reporting of this story, so obviously there is no need for anyone to, like, pay much attention.

The list of effective antibiotics has been dwindling as the bacteria became resistant, and now it’s down to one.

So, yes, getting gonorrhea now means that you have to go in and get antibiotics through a needle. And then everyone with whom you’ve had sex in the last 60 days has to get tested, too.

Once gonorrhea becomes resistant to the last of our cephalosporin antibiotics — “it’s only a matter of time,” according to Dr. Gail Bolan, Director of STD Prevention at the CDC in today’s announcement — we will have no treatment. Then when it gets into your bloodstream, it will be lethal.

There is no necessity to learn morality from Moses.  You can always learn it from microbes instead.

Meanwhile:

Thousands march to change outdated attitudes on sexuality.  SlutWalk was formed after a Canadian policeman made ill-considered remarks about rape and women’s appearance

As the man said:

20. The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk.  21. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

But those who decide what is ‘normal’ in any society care very little for the misery they cause in the lives of the less powerful.  Which is one reason why we should pay very little attention to their demands of us.

Of course you don’t have to be a Christian to be moral.  We are told that every day.  But, funnily enough, only the Christians point out these simple, obvious moral lessons.

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The overwhelming quantity of John Chrysostom

Posted on by Roger Pearse

It can be a shock, sometimes, to remember that not every writer is extant in a single manuscript.  That shock just hit me, when I decided, in a weak moment, that I would “just” have a quick search in the British Library Manuscripts catalogue for works by Chrysostom.

I’m looking for copies of the ancient Latin translation of De Severiano recipiendo, in truth.  But since I wasn’t specific, I got the lot.

Boy did I get a lot!  103 hits, to be precise.  Mostly homilies on scripture.

Mind you, the quality was rather low.  Arundel. 542 has a catalogue description which is plainly the result of uncorrected OCR.  I don’t mind; but I’d like to see the raw image!  On the other hand, someone has indexed the authors out of this mess with some skill and effort — well done!  The ms. also contains some homilies of Severian of Gabala at the end, it seems.

I drew blank, but it’s a reminder that finding stuff by Chrysostom in all this mass will not be easy.

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

It’s far, far too hot to do ANYTHING!!!

Turn off your computers, disconnect your wifi, and go out of your houses and frolic on the grass.

That should produce rain, and then we can all get back to work again.

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Chrysostom homilies which I just can’t access

Posted on by Roger Pearse

There are a couple of homilies by Chrysostom in the Patrologia Graeca which do not seem to exist in English, and which ought to be interesting.  They were delivered after he returned from his first exile, and attempted a reconciliation with his enemy, Severian of Gabala, who had been needlessly alienated by the arrogance of John’s staff.

Back in 2010 I found that in Migne there were three sermons; De Regressu Sancti Joannis (PG52, col. 421-424), De Recipiendo Severiano (col. 423-426), and Severian’s reply De Pace (col. 425).  All three are given in Latin, and all seemed far too short to be full versions.  Some time ago I learned that the Greek of the Severian existed, in a much longer version.  It needs to be translated into English, but that project went nowhere.

At the time I asked a scholar specialising in Chrysostom whether Greek texts existed for the Chrysostom homilies.  I got the less than precise reply, “look in the CPG vol. 2, after #4438, and also its supplement.”

This evening, two years on, I have finally managed to do it!  And … well … it’s not #4438.  De Regressu is CPG 2, 4394, and De recipiendo Severiano is 4395.  4396-4401 are further sermons concerned with his various exiles, 4401 being his last sermon.

The complete Greek text of De Regressu does exist.  It was published by A. Wenger, L’Homelie de saint Jean Chrysostome “a son retour d’Asie”, in Revue des Etudes Byzantines 19 (Melanges R. Janin), 1961, p.110-123.  This doesn’t seem to be online.  The Latin text printed by Migne is assigned doubtfully to Annianus of Celeda.

The Greek text of De recipiendo Severiano is lost.  All we have is Migne’s Latin, again doubtfully assigned to Annianus of Celeda.

Apparently Andre Wilmart, La collection des 38 homilies latines de saint Jean Chrysostome, JTS 18, 1918, 305-327; p.324 n. 36 talks about the former, and in n.24 about the latter.  But this too I have been unable to access.

And the supplement to the CPG indicates that there is discussion of the mss and editions of the Latin version in W. Wenk, Zur Sammlung der 38 Homilien.[1]  And that is offline too.

Hmm.

UPDATE: But I spoke too soon!  Wenger’s text of De Regressu is at Persee.fr, here!  I did search Persee.  But only Google picked up the match.  Evidently the search engine at Persee is useless!

UPDATE2: I discover that De Regressu has been translated into English as part of Pauline Allen’s John Chrysostom (1999).  There is a Google books preview here.  Apparently the Sources Chretiennes were bringing out an edition of Chrysostom’s letters at that point.

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  1. [1]Wolfgang Wenk, Zur Sammlung der 38 Homilien des Chrysostomus Latinus : mit Edition der Nr. 6, 8, 27, 32 und 33, Wiener Studien, Beiheft 10, Wien, 1988.↩

A text describing different religions by Abu Qurra

Posted on by Roger Pearse

One of the Syriac Christian writers who mention Persia is the 8th century writer Theodore Abu Qurra.  Quite by accident I have stumbled across a French translation of an interesting text by him on the different religions of his time.[1]  The abstract indicates its contents:

The Syriac Theodore Abū Qurra (c.750-c. 825), Melkite bishop of Harrân, has left many works. Among them, the Treatise (Mîmar) on the Existence of the Creator and the True Religion, in Arabic contains two outstanding chapters, translated and commented here.

First, a carefully organized account of religious in his time : Pagans (who will be called « Sabaens » later), Mazdaeans (of Zurvanite conviction), Samaritans, Jews, Christians, Manichaeans (who were practising specific interpretation of the canonical Gospels), Marcionites, Bardesanites, Muslims.

Second, a lenghty allegory which presents common points with the Hymn of the Pearl. Its expounding by the author aims at giving a definite clue to the discernment of the only true religion : God resembles man, and its up to human reason to judge in the matter.

The work is of course in Christian Arabic. 

The first part is really rather interesting.  Were there really still Marcionites and followers of Bardaisan in Syria ca. 800 AD, in the Abbassid period?

The work is preserved in a unique manuscript of the 17th century which is missing its opening section, ms. 373 of the monastery of the basilian monks at Deir al-Shir, wherever that is.  The manuscript contains five works by Abu Qurra, and our text is on folios 2-59.  The work was probably written around 780 AD, and has been edited Louis Cheikho in 1912, and again by Ignace Dick in 1982.

I grew up in the mountains, where I did not know what men there are.  But one day, prompted by a business matter concerning myself, I went down to the towns where men gather, and I saw them divided into different religions.

1.  One group, who follow the religion of the ancient pagans, called me to come among them.  They say that we should worship the seven stars, [i.e.] the sun, the moon, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury and Venus, and the twelve signs of the zodiac, because these are the ones that create and govern all creatures and which give good fortune and happiness, or bad luck and distress, in this world.  Their prophet on this matter is the wise Hermes.

2.  I left these people and the Mazdaeans approached me, saying “Leave them, they talk wind.  Come to us, for our teaching is solid.”

They explained that their great god is called Zurvan, and Zurvan is Destiny.  Before the world was created, he sacrificed for a thousand years so that a child should be born to him, and his wife conceived a son called Ormazd.   After he had been conceived for 900 years, his father Zurvan doubted whether he had indeed been conceived, and that doubt engendered in the womb of his wife another child, i.e. the devil.  Zurvan learned this and said, “Whichever of children comes before me first, I shall give him the kingship.”  Ormazd, in his mother’s womb, had knowledge of this word and shared it with the devil.  The latter, when he knew this, pierced the womb of his mother, came out by his own effort, and presented himself to his father.  He was dark, black of face, and hideous.  His father asked him, “Who are you?”  He replied, “I am your son, the devil, born of your doubt.  Give me then the royalty that you promised.  Zurvan was sad, but as he did not want to go back on his word, he gave him royalty over the world for nine thousand years.

As for Ormazd, his mother gave birth to him at the end of a thousand years.  He seemed like a completely beautiful light.  He created the heaven and the earth and the different intermediary natures, in the beauty and brilliance in which this world is seen.  All the same, the latter was in darkness, without light.  Ormazd was sad, and sought counsel from the devil.  He advised him to marry his mother.  He did so and had relations with her.  [His mother] conceived and bore the sun, for light by day.  [The devil advised him] to marry his sister.  He did so, and had relations with her.  [His sister] conceived and gave birth; the moon, to illuminate the night.  Likewise the Mazdaeans, like their god Ormazd, marry their mothers, their sisters and their daughters, so that they shall have children like the sun and the moon.

Such are their gods.  In imitation of Ormazd, Madaeans are allowed to enjoy all the pleasures of the world, because that is why [Ormazd] created them.

Their prophet who, they say, brought this truth to them, is Zoroaster.

I wish I had time to do more of this text.  It is really rather interesting.  But … did Theodore Abu Qurra really meet all these groups; or is this a literary way to describe the contents of his reading?

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  1. [1]Guy Monnot, Abu Qurra et la pluralite de religions, Revue de l’histoire des religions 208 (1991), 49-71, online here at Persee.fr.  A PDF is here.↩

“Mopetan Mopet” or “Mobedan Mobed” or “Moabedan Mobed”?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

In the Life of Mar Aba, the German translation refers to the high priest as the “Mopetan Mopet”.  But when I search the web, I find almost nothing.

Now a google search reveals almost nothing under that spelling.  I know that a “Mopet” is usually given as “Mobed”, meaning “priest”, in our literature.  So I quickly find references to “Mobedan Mobed” and “Moabedan Mobed”, and even “Mobedan-e-Mobed”.  In fact the latter seems contemporary; a certain Rostam Dinyar Shahzadi held the title as recently as 2000.

There is no purpose in using an unusual transcription; it will merely cause interested persons to miss the material.  So I think we had better use “Mobedan Mobed”.

Likewise how should we render “rad”, clearly a title?  And … what is a “rad”?

In the Encyclopedia Iranica online on Syriac writings in pre-islamic Iran[1], there is some very useful information on titles as they appear in Syriac acts, including the Life of Mar Aba:

Modern translators and commentators have not always been able to recognize the titles of civil or religious officials under the disguise of Syriac writing, or have supplied fanciful transcriptions far removed from the authentic form of Middle Persian.

Among civil functions, we must mention the āmārgar (Syr. hmrgrd) “accountant” or, better, “treasurer” of the different administrative divisions of the empire, as we learn from the administrative seals. In the history of the patriarch Mār Abā, this treasurer is in touch with a harzbed < OIr. *harcī-pati- (Syr. ʾrzbd), which has been considered as a corruption of the term argbed “chief tax collector or taxation manager” (EIr. II/4, 1986, p. 400), an important function belonging to the royal family which is attested in the Paikuli inscription (Humbach and Skjaervo, 3.2, pp. 39-44). But Tafazzoli (1990) has shown that the Syriac word, spelled in the same way, is attested in the martyrdom of Guhišt-āzād, where this man is described as “chief of the royal eunuchs and fosterer of the king” (Šāpūr II). Hence this title of “chief of the eunuchs” can no longer be confused with the argbed “tax-collector.” …

The title of ēwēnbed (EIr. IX/1, 1998, pp. 87-88) “master of manners” is puzzling, for it looks like an administrative function, that of an archivist, or perhaps a financial role. But the Syriac sources indicate a religious function: in the history of Mār Pethion, the ainbed (Syr. ʿynbd/ʾynwd) is surrounded with a guard of horsemen, but in the martyrdom of Mār Abā, an ēwēnbed called Kardag is also a magus and judge of the empire (šahr dādwar), as was the great magus Kerdir in the 3rd century.

The Syriac sources also inform us of religious titles: the mowbeds (Syr. mwhpṭʾ), of whom there are three categories (Gignoux, 1984, pp. 197-98). At the highest level stood the Mobedān mobed (Syr. mwbdnmwb(y)d), who is also called in Syriac ršʾ d-mgwšʾ “chief of the magi”; the Great Mobed (Syr. mwhpṭʾ ḥd rbʾ); and the provincial Mobeds, who are in charge of specific regions. According to the situation, the Grand Mobed had to stay at court, but could also travel to the provinces, no doubt as representative of the Mobadān Mobad. The latter title seems to have appeared from the 6th century on.

The different categories of judges are well documented: the rads and the dādvars, as well as the dastvars. The Rad is apparently the highest of religious judges and may, at the same time, be the Mobed (Gignoux, 1984, p. 201). The legal treatise Mādayān ī hazār dādestān indicates that, in the procedure of the ordeal, judgment cannot be pronounced in the absence of the rad. He is attached to a province, and he is distinct from the ēwēnbed. …

The article continues with a vivid description of the distinctly oriental processes of examination and justice, well worth reading, and then a bibliography.

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  1. [1]Philippe Gignoux, “Syriac Language ii. Syriac writings on pre-islamic Iran,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, 20 July 2009, available at www.iranicaonline.org/articles/syriac-language-ii-syriac-writings-on-pre-islamic-iran.↩

Life of Mar Aba – chapter 21

Posted on by Roger Pearse

21.  When the holy one heard this, he praised God: “I praise you, Lord Christ, Lord of all kings and King of all lords, that you have done me, a weakling, this great honour, that I am persecuted and reviled, because I confess you in truth as God, your Father and the holy, life-giving Spirit, and that I, for the sake of your great and terrible name, have been handed over by your persecutors to prison and imprisonment.  Show your mercy, O Lord,  to me and to all your holy church, which is useful and profitable for the glory and increase of your holy name.”

Then he said to the Mopetan Mopet, “The earth in all its fullness, the world and all its inhabitants, belong to the Lord.”[1]  Boldly he took the Rad of Azerbaijan by the hand and said, “Come, take me wherever you have been ordered to take me; see, I am happy with you.”  The vigorous fighter  (ἀγωνιστής) went to the field of combat in the strong power of Christ, and after his struggle had lasted seventy days, by the power of Christ he had not been overcome by the magians, but was strengthened by the struggle.  The lamb of Christ emerged victorious, so that he might go and battle with the young lions.

After the Rad handed him over to the captain (aïnbed) and the gendarmes of the province, the Christians at the court of the King of Kings arose; they went with the blessed one and accompanied their spiritual father, who was being sent by his enemies to prison.  They remembered the spiritual milk, which they had drawn constantly from his teaching, and the good shepherd, who taught and pastured them on the meadow of his spiritual words, and of which they were deprived.  Some wept and sobbed, others tore their clothes and hair, others kissed his tortured feet and took grace from his footsteps. 

The blessed one was very sad, and worried about what he saw his flock do, more than a wet-nurse, and they wept more than children if their mother is taken into captivity.   Lastly he prayed in great pain, blessed them, and handed them over to God and the words of his grace, and so they parted.

I had not realised that the preceding chapters were all still taking place at court.  I must go and look back at what I wrote.

Clearly the Rad of Azerbaijan is worried about being involved in such high politics, where he stands to gain nothing, and where, if anything happens to Mar Aba, he might fall foul of the king’s displeasure; for clearly the King of Kings is allowing all this rather than ordering it.  Mar Aba sees the chance to conciliate him and seizes it.

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  1. [1]I.e. that wherever he is, God is with him.↩

Life of Mar Aba – chapter 20

Posted on by Roger Pearse

20.  But since the Christians at court clamoured violently and shouted because of the blessed one, the King of Kings ordered that he should not be thrown into prison.  He was handed over to the Rad of Azerbaijan, named Dad(d)en, a man evil and hardened against everyone, but who through God’s grace was gentle, friendly and peaceful to the blessed and his disciples. 

On the advice of the devil, the enemy of truth, the Mopetan Mopet and the noble magians secretly arranged to send down the holy one into his custody in the province of Azerbaijan, which is eclipsed by error[1], in a district (rûstâkâ) darked by paganism named PRHRWR, in a village named SRSCH by the magians, which is the birthplace of magianism. 

There the magians of the whole Persian realm gather together in order to learn the foolish mutterings of Zardusht bar Spidtahman[2],  people who are the enemies of all truth.  They wander about in droves and bands, follow their masters, talk and argue in the nonsense of their errors, stuttering and yelling and gnashing their teeth like wild pigs.  The blessed one would have to endure the sights and sounds of the wildness and pugnacity of the people, who had never heard the name of Christian, faced with his his greeting and attempt to talk rationally to them.[3]. 

They placed a watch on him.  And because of Satan’s influence, they did not allow him the slightest relief from his pains, which they made him endure so that he would quickly depart from this life.

The description of the conditions sounds rather hagiographical, but the order for banishment to a remote magian stronghold seems likely enough.

UPDATE: Revised after reading chapter 21, as Mar Aba is still at court; but I am not confident still about parts of this.

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  1. [1]“die durch den Irrtum verfinstert ist” — I am not sure that I have rendered this correctly.↩
  2. [2]Zoroaster.↩
  3. [3]Not sure about this sentence at all: “Welchen Anblick und welches Anhören der Wildheit und Streitsucht von Leuten, die nicht einmal den Christennamen hören, seinen Gruß annehmen und mit ihm wie Menschen reden mochten, vermochte der Selige auszuhalten.”↩