Did Eusebius forge the Testimonium Flavianum?

Notoriously some years ago Ken Olson revived this allegation.  I have today found an article by Alice Whealy, who specialises in the historiography of the Testimonium Flavianum, reviewing Olson’s arguments and disagreeing fairly firmly.  It appears in a collection of articles, and there is a preview on Google books.  Does anyone have an electronic copy of the whole article?

Alice Whealey, Josephus, Eusebius of Caesarea, and the Testimonium Flavianum, in Josephus und das Neue Testament, Tübingen (2007), p.73 – 116, here.

 

Share

The religious debate at the court of the Sassanids

I was looking at the fragments of Philip of Side, and found myself examining a text of some 40 pages of Greek in E. Bratke, Das sogennante Religionsgesprach am Hof der Sassaniden (TU 19, 3) Leipzig 1899, 153-164 (PDF page 448 f.)  An earlier edition of the same text appears in A. Wirth, Aus orientalischen Chroniken, Frankfurt am Main, 1894.   Both are online, fortunately for us.

What is this text?  Hunting around the web, I find that it is a fictional narrative of a dispute between pagans, Christians and Jews before a fictitious Persian king.  The Jews are worsted and convert to Christianity.  The pagan leader and “arch-magus”, one Aphroditian or Aphroditianus, points out how the Christ was foretold in pagan books.  The latter relates to the presence of collections of sayings by the pagan philosophers (nearly all spurious) in manuscripts of gnomologia in Greek, Syriac and Arabic.

The work is referenced by Shlomo Pines, because it contains a reference to Josephus and the Testimonium Flavianum. I found an article which mentioned it by Alice Whealey, Josephus, Eusebius of Caesarea, and the Testimonium Flavianumin Josephus und das Neue Testament, Tübingen (2007), p.73 – 116, here.

It doesn’t sound that interesting a work; but I can find no indication that it has ever been translated into English.

 UPDATE: A correspondant writes that a modern edition with French translation exists in a recent dissertation: De gestis in Perside : Histoire du texte, édition critique et traduction / par Pauline Bringel ; sous la direction de Jean Gascou (2008).  There is information here with a PDF of information about the thesis and the text here.  I wonder if it is possible to get hold of a copy!

Share

Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum

Apparently I goofed yesterday in referring to the fragment of the lost history of Hesychius.  It’s not from the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, but probably from the Second Council of Constantinople (553 AD), or so a correspondant writes. 

Also Mansi is not the latest edition of the material from the councils.  This is now Schwartz’s Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum.  I knew of this series, but had not thought of it as a Mansi replacement.  There are no Acta from the first two councils, and the series starts with Ephesus in 433 AD.

I wish this existed in PDF form — what normal person can access it?   The editor, Eduard Schwartz, died in 1940.  EU copyright is life plus 70 years, which means that the volumes edited by him came out of copyright there in 2010.  I am less clear on the US copyright position, tho. Some of the volumes may have appeared before 1923, which would certainly be out of copyright in the US. 

The ACO contains a critical text of the documents included, which include literary texts by people like Cyril of Alexandria, for which it is the most recent edition.  I was able to find at Fourth Century a list of contents for some early volumes; in a couple of cases complete contents.

Share

Materials on Philip of Side

I need to look in Quasten for some references.  In the mean time I found this online at CCEL:

A number of his fragments have been edited by Carl de Boor (ZKG, vi. 478-494; TU, v. 165-184), and his history seems also to have influenced the “Religious Conference at the Sassanid Court ” (ed. Eduard Bratke, in TU, xix., part 3, 1899). A few other fragments of Philip’s writings are known to exist, and it is possible that he was also the author of the still unedited De tinctura aeris Persici et de tinctura aeris Indici.

At least some of the the ZKG and TU ought to be online.  I wonder what the last text is?

There is also material which was published by Dodwell, on the catechical school at Alexandria, as Lardner mentions here:

…there is a particular account given of him [Athenagoras] by Philip Sidetes (who flourished in the beginning of the fifth century,) in a fragment of his Christian History published by (e) Dodwell. Philip says, Athenagoras was at first a Heathen, and that he intended to write against the Christians : but when he was reading the scriptures, with a view of making his work the more complete, he was converted. He says, that Athenagoras flourished under Adrian and Antoninus the Pious, to whom his Apology was presented; and that he was the first president of the catechetical school of Alexandria, and master of Clement, who wrote the Stromata.

e. Append. ad Diss. Iren. p. 488

I am pretty sure I obtained a copy of this long ago, and it is longer than this excerpt.  Another version of the same is here:

The statements of Philip Sidetes are as follows : “Athenagoras was the first leader of the school at Alexandria, flourishing in the time of Adrian and Antoninus, to whom he also addressed his Apology for the Christians. He was a man who christianized in the cloak and was president of the academic school. He, before Celsus, having been eager to write against the Christians, studied the Divine Scriptures in order to contend more carefully, and was thus caught by the all-holy Spirit; so that, like the great Paul, he became a teacher instead of a persecutor of the faith which he persecuted. Philip says that Clemens the writer of the Stromata was his disciple, and Pantsenus was the disciple of Clemens.” This fragment was first published by Dodwell in an appendix to his Dissertations on Irenseus.

There is an interesting discussion of the manuscript which contains these fragments, the Barocci 142 in the Bodleian in Oxford here.  Apparently C. de Boor borrowed the ms. from the Bodleian in the 19th century and took it to Germany.  Those were the days!  De Boor published notes on the ms. in ZKG 6 (1884) 478-94.

UPDATE: It turns out that I have the ZKG 6 article in PDF.  I also have the H. Dodwell, Dissertationes in Irenaeum.  Accedit fragmentum Philippi Sideti hactenus inediti de catechistarum Alexandrinorum successione.  Oxford, 1689. 

Quasten lists as well: C. De Boor, Neue Fragmente des Papias, Hegesippus und Pierus in bisher unbekannten Exzerpten aus der Kirchengeschichte des Philippus Sidetes (TU 5, 2), Leipzig, 1888, 165-184.  A. Wirth, Aus orientalischen Chroniken, Frankfurt am Main, 1894, 208-210 (on Adam and Eve).  E. Bratke, Das sogennante Religionsgesprach am Hof der Sassaniden (TU 19, 3) Leipzig 1899, 153-164.

I wonder if there has been any additions since the 1950’s.

TU 5 is here, and de Boor is on p.322-341 of the PDF.  Apparently “TU 19” is “TU 4 (New series)”, and is here.  Bratke starts on p.448 of the PDF.  Something about Philip appears in the text he prints, on p.476 of the PDF.  Wirth is here, on p.208 of the PDF.

Share

Mansi and the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon

I’ve been looking at the volumes of Mansi on the Documenta Catholica Omnia site.  Volume 7 is really of quite poor quality, possibly too poor to use.  I went to look at p.187 to see what it had to say about Theodoret at the Council of Chalcedon, where he was met with suspicion as being a Nestorian and was forced, with great reluctance, to anathematize Nestorius.

The passage is on p.100 of the PDF.  It’s part of the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon; a record of the proceedings.  This is an ancient text about which I knew nothing before now — not even that it existed.  There seem to be Greek and Latin recensions. 

The Mansi volume 9 is even worse, in which I looked for the fragment of the history of Hesychius.  Both seem to derive from the French National Library site which has microfilms online.  We really need some quality copies of Mansi.

Returning to the Acts of Chalcedon, an English translation by Richard Price exists from Liverpool University Press, Translated Texts for Historians, so I suppose that there is no need for me to translate it.  A preview is here.

The dismal nature of the politics of the empire is revealed by this snippet from p.136 of the TTH text:

43. The most devout Egyptian bishops and those with them exclaimed: ‘Theodoret accused Cyril.  We exclude Cyril if we admit Theodoret.  The canons have expelled him.  He is rejected by God.’

44.  The most glorious officials and the exalted senate said: ‘These vulgar outbursts are not becoming to bishops nor useful to either party.  Allow everything to be read.’

45.  The Egyptian bishops and those with them exclaimed: ‘Expel that one man and we shall listen.  Our interjections are for the sake of piety.  We speak on behalf of the orthodox faith.’

46.  The most glorious officials and the exalted senate said: ‘Allow, rather, the hearing to be conducted according to God, and permit everything to be read in order.’

The whole process is followed with accusations of violence, and accusation and counter-accusation, and is of the highest interest as a witness to agora-style democracy under the colour of a church council.

The translators deserve a debt of gratitude for rendering this interesting document into English, dismal though the picture presented is.  The manner in which the florid eloquence of the period is presented to us is likewise very nice to see.

Share

Sorry about the outage

…I was just upgrading WordPress, and encountered a few difficulties.  Everything should be fine now.

Share

Possible short works to translate from the Greek Fathers

I’ve now finished reading all the way through the 3rd volume of Quasten’s Patrology, looking for shortish works that would be interesting to turn into English and post online.  Here’s a digest.  I haven’t yet looked at any of the refs given.

  • Acacius of Beroea.  The literary remains of this contemporary of Cyril of Alexandria comprise 6 letters in all; PG 77, 99-102; PG 84, 647-8 + 658-660; and PG 41, 156 f.  No translations of any sort were listed, but apparently one of the letters is addressed to Cyril, recommending peace.  There are also 5 Syriac hymns which praise Acacius.  A German translation of these was published in the BKV 2nd ed. vol. 6 (1912), p. 71-89.
  • Hesychius mostly wrote long commentaries, but a fragment of his church history exists, in a Latin version, which was printed by Mansi, vol. 9, p. 248f.  This I would definitely like to do.  Mansi seems to be online at the Documenta Catholica Omnia site.
  • A bunch of letters by Nestorius exist, listed on Quasten p.518, including one written towards the end of his life to the people of Constantinople which is described as “interesting”.
  • The fragments of the Church History of Philip of Side, a contemporary of Chrysostom, are very short and definitely deserve attention.
  • Another bit of Mansi, vol. 7, p.187, describes the trials of Theodoret at the time of Chalcedon.  This needs to be looked at.

When I get a chance, I’ll look into all these further.

Share

Links to Mark Ashton’s sermons

Further to my other posts about Mark Ashton, Vicar of St. Andrew the Great in Cambridge, I’ve created a page which links to all the MP3 files of his sermons.  It’s here.  The files are on the church website, although I have taken a copy should they disappear.

UPDATE: This post at the Vicar’s Wife blog links to a collection of responses from around the web to Mark’s death.  It’s a more extensive list than I was able to find myself by Google searching.

UPDATE: Mark’s booklet, On my way to heaven: Facing death with Christ is available for purchase from 10ofThose online here.  I’ve just ordered a copy, to sit on my shelves for when I need it.  A fund has been established to help his widow, Fiona, here.

Share

Still thinking about Mark Ashton

I still can’t really come to grips with the death of Mark Ashton, of St. Andrew the Great in Cambridge.  There’s quite a few of his sermons in MP3 form on the church website, and I have been downloading them. 

Somehow this is painful too; because it brings home to me that there won’t be any more; the set is complete, the collection final.  I’ve always been in the habit of treating one of his sermons as one in an endless stream, that I could go to hear whenever I wanted to, where I knew that God would speak. 

Now I can’t do that.  It’s Sunday tomorrow, and I could go.  But to what end?  Mark is gone, and with him has gone a world of spiritual wisdom and kindness. 

All that is left of that wonderful man is some bytes on a disk.  Maybe there is a hundred or so; each about 3Mb long; 300Mb or so in total.  That’s it.  He is now just a soon-fading memory in our minds, and some bytes.

It’s one thing for me to collect the words of the Fathers.  I never knew any of them.  But to do so for someone I knew?  How inadequate those few hundred megabytes are, in exchange for what has departed!

Share

Severian of Gabala, De Pace – translation is go!

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 English will be necessary.  The report from the reviewer was basically positive, tho.  My estimate at the moment is that it will cost $150 to do, plus whatever a corrector charges, which is quite a bit, but worth it.  I’ll put it in the public domain and post it online when it arrives.

UPDATE: 14/12/2011: The translator never completed any more and emails went unanswered.  Oh well.

Share