Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, information access, and more
After collecting a set of links to all the volumes of the PL online, Rod Letchford has done the same for the volumes of the Patrologia Graeca which are online:
http://cyprianproject.info/PG.htm
This again is fantastically useful, considering how awkward it can be to find particular volumes. Thanks Rod!
In the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris is an early fourth century papyrus codex (ms. supplement grec 574) which contains a variety of texts, spells, hymns, etc. It is 36 folios in length – large for a papyrus, and contains 3274 lines.
The manuscript was acquired in Egypt by the collector Giovanni Anastasi (# 1073 in his collection) and bought at auction in Paris by the BNF in 1857. It probably comes from Thebes (=Luxor). Apparently Anastasi was told that his papyri were found in a grave there, perhaps sometime around 1825, although we cannot be sure of this. Anastasi certainly sold a larger collection of papyri to the Dutch archaeologist C. J. C. Reuvens, the founder and first director of the Oudheidkundig Museum in Leiden, sometime after 1825.1
The codex seems to be the working handbook for an Egyptian magician, compiled from many sources. It contains more than 50 documents, doubtless acquired from various sources, and is the single most comprehensive handbook of magic known from the ancient world. The documents contained in it must all be 4th century or earlier — possibly much earlier — and each document has its own history prior to being copied into the codex.
The text was printed by Karl Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae, vol. 1, Leipzig, 1928, rev. 1973, as item IV (hence PGM IV). Various online versions of this seem to exist. An English translation was made by H.-D.Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in translation, 1986. There is an enormous secondary literature.
The best known of these texts is on lines 475- 834, the so-called Mithras liturgy, a series of prayers which begins by invoking Sol Mithras and may — or may not — have some connection to the mysteries of Mithras.
Other parts show Jewish influence, and one spell, an exorcism ending with the words — Come out of NN — on line 3019, contains the words:
I adjure you by the God of the Hebrews, Jesus, Jaba, Jae, Abraoth, Aia, Thoth, Ele, …. 2
and ends with Ptah, which shows how magicians were willing to tap into supposed names of power in just the way recorded in Acts. It also contains a string of the seven vowels of the Greek alphabet (a, e, h, i, o, u, w) which Eusebius tells us in the Praeparatio Evangelica 11.6.36 was treated by the pagans as a name of power equivalent to the Hebrew Tetragrammaton. Its presence in the spell shows that he was right. The same series are also used in the Mithras liturgy.
1 Pieter Willem van der Horst, Jews and Christians in their Graeco-Roman context, p. 269. Here.
2. A. Deismann, Light from the ancient East, pp.258-260 prints the full text of a two leaf spell with English translation, online here.
Rod Letchford has written to say that he has compiled a list of links to all the volumes of the Patrologia Latina available online. It’s here:
http://cyprianproject.info/PL.htm
Apparently they all work from where he is, in Australia.
I’ve had an email directing me to a webpage supposedly containing an article by Mohammad Moqadam (Moghdam), with the subtitle “The Second International Congress of Mithraic Studies, Tehran 1975″. This makes the claim:
The Saviour was born in the middle of the night between Saturday and Sunday, 24th and 25th of December, 272 BCE, and according to those who believed in Him from an Immaculate (Anahid) Virgin (Xosidhag) somewhere not far from lake Hamin, Sistan, Lived for 64 years among men, and ascended to His Father Ahura Mazda in 208 BCE.
and is widely quoted by a certain sort of writer.
This article does not seem to be scholarly. There are no real references in it to the texts being quoted, edition, etc. Many of these texts are unfamiliar to me, although I know of al-Tabari. But it sounds as if he is quoting this from an unspecified edition, in translation… what translation?
His quotes, if genuine — just imagine whether we could check these; it would be very difficult — suggest that by the Islamic period some of the Persians believed that the events of the life of Jesus took place during the Arsacid period. No doubt such a confusion is possible. But I don’t see the point of it, unless I am missing something.
The vague reference to Elise Vardapet, that the lord Mihr had a human mother…. this is really not much good. The real reference is the Elisaeus Vardapet, “History of Vartan”, in a speech given by Christian bishops to the Sassanid governor trying to fend off a persecution.
https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=2648
Some of the claims made seem rather odd to me. But … I don’t actually see, in any of this, evidence for the claim he makes about a virgin birth of Mitra. Is it actually there, anywhere?
A frustrating, infuriating article, I think. It ends with another such example:
It is written in the Bayan al- Adyan, that “the Manicheans say that Jesus called men to Zoroaster.
Is it? What is this text? Where do we find it? And so on.
I think we can stick this article down the toilet, I’m sorry to say. Whether the claim made is true or not, the article does not substantiate it.
My queries about the Chronicle of Zuqnin led me to read the translation of the Third Part of the Chronicle by Witold Witakowski. This covers the period from the reign of Anastasius (ca. 500) to the end of the century.
In the Byzantine empire no political dissent was permitted. The emperor was absolute, and he made all the decisions. Dissent was a capital offence. But a certain amount of religious disagreement was permitted. Human nature being what it is, this ensured that all the political disagreements of the empire expressed themselves in theological language and debased theology to the service of personal ambition. Those doing this were mostly Greeks, and they did it in the language of Aristotle. They also discovered that, while agora-democracy was illegal, they were allowed to get together in church councils and vote each other into exile, much as they had ostracised each other a millenium earlier.
The long disagreements between Alexandria and the rest of the empire came to a head at Chalcedon in 451. But this merely served to ensure half a century of violent disagreements. The emperor Zeno had tacitly abandoned the council in his Henotikon, and Anastasius followed him in a policy of supporting the status quo — no Chalcedonians disturbing the peace in monophysite regions, no monophysites doing the same in Chalcedonian regions. The position was weakened by the fact that Constantinople was Chalcedonian, while the emperor was clearly not.
The succession of Justin, a Chalcedonian, led immediately to persecution of the monophysites, and this continued under Justinian, although the latter’s wife Theodora was a monophysite and protected them to some extent. The Chronicle of Zuqnin quotes verbatim from the lost Second Part of the Ecclesiastical History of John of Ephesus, who witnessed what went on. The story starts in 527 AD, when the Patriarch Ephrem appointed a man named Abraham bar Kaili as bishop of Amida, in the monophysite area.
In Amid a man by the name of Abraham, a cleric of that church, became bishop. He was called Bar Kaili and (although) his family came from Tella he arrived in (Amid) from Antioch. Then Satan possessed him totally, and he devoted himself to violent persecution without mercy, to pillage and the destruction of people’s souls more than his earlier and more recent predecessors. This villain used (all means) including the killing, crucifixion and burning of believers in a barbarous and cruel way, without mercy. Impudently he plotted by every means foul ruses for the destruction of people—tortures, cruel scourging and pernicious confinement in prison, both in the tribunal building and in the deepest pit which was in the prison, into which murderers and others sentenced to death were thrown and where they were executed, after which their bodies were secretly removed and cast in desolate graves, like those of dumb animals.
In order to deceive the Amidenes’ keen ardour for the true faith he pretended to them that he would not preach (the doctrine of) the Council. But during the time of the dux Thomas, a Goth who was the dux at that time, he gave orders to bring and crucify four persons at every single gate. They hung on their crosses till the evening. As next day the commemoration of the blessed Mother of God was to be celebrated outside the northern gate of Amid, the wicked bishop rode out to celebrate it. When he saw the bodies hanging on the crosses he forbade them to be taken down until it was necessary because of the smell of corruption. (Only) then would he let them to be taken down and buried.
Also when he learned that there was an uprising (and the people) were shouting these words, “Behold! the new martyrs by the hand of the Christians have appeared! So why do the Christians blame any longer the pagan judges who did that, when now they themselves, like those, do (the same)”, he tormented men and women because they had stood up against him when he demanded that they should accept the Council of Chalcedon.
And all these things (happened) in our presence and we saw it with our (own) eyes.
First he expelled and ousted (the monks from) all the holy monasteries in the vicinity of the city, and then from the whole country around it. Also he made a list of the quarters, mansions and houses of the city, of men and women, each one by his name. He demanded that they be entered on to the church register and that they receive communion, even babes, and not only those which had been born but also those which had not yet been born. He demanded that the women should be registered so that when they had given birth, they should bring the (babes) to be baptized. If it happened that a new-born child died or (that a babe) was miscarried, unless clergy came to see it, the family of the dead babe which had not been brought to be baptized was in danger. And these evil deeds, that is pillaging and destruction, were done not only in this city but in all the country around it and in the (whole) diocese of Amid.
On the holy martyr Cyrus.
Here is (something) most terrible, grievous and cruel: (the story of) a priest whose name was Cyrus, from the village of Ligin, who was seized and required to receive communion. When he refused, he was brought to the city before the bishop. He violently shouted at him in indignation saying:
“Why do you not receive communion?”
And he answered:
“You make your communion repugnant to me and I cannot partake of it, for communion given by force is not a communion.”
Then (the bishop) swore:
“You will not leave here, but you will take communion.”
(Cyrus also) swore:
“I will never accept the forced communion from you.”
Then the bishop had the Eucharist brought and gave orders to hold the priest, to fill a spoon (with the Eucharist) and to put it into his mouth. (But) as he shut his mouth they could not insert the spoon into it. Then the bishop gave orders to bring a whip, to stick its handle into (the priest’s) mouth and in this way to get the spoon (also) into his mouth. They held his teeth apart (so forcefully) that they were nearly pulled out. With the handle (of the whip) inserted in his mouth he mumbled, not being able to move his tongue nor to speak normally to them. He swore saying:
“By Christ’s truth, if you put the Eucharist into my mouth, I will spit it out upon your faces.”
Thus in bitter wrath and threatening (him) with death they inserted the spoon to one side of the whip and poured the Eucharist into his mouth. But he blew and ejected it from his mouth. Accordingly they called him “the Spitter”.
When Bar Kaili saw what that priest did, he used it as a pretext to kill him which had been his intention (in the first place). As the others perished by his hand so he would cause also (the priest) to perish. Intoxicated with the ferocity and cruelty of Satan, who “was a murderer from the beginning”, he promptly gave orders to carry wood and fire to the tetrapylon (187) in the city and (there) to burn the priest. It was the Wednesday of fasting in Holy Week. So he had the priest put in [the tetrapylon] and wood gathered there from the vicinity. They set him on fire and burned him. (The people of) the city wailed and wept at this horrible and heart-rending sight, as they watched a man burning and dense smoke rising as from dumb and irrational beasts (being burnt). This was a hideous and inhuman deed, which, with all its ferocity, stupidity and obduracy of heart, (only) dumb beasts can inflict on each other. All (the people of) the city were so agitated and shocked at the evil deed of burning that priest in (such) iniquity and wickedness that they thought to burn Bar Kaili, doing to him the same thing that he had displayed by burning that priest. There were (however) some nobles of the city (who) out of fear of the emperor restrained them from doing so. Many people however separated themselves from (Bar Kaili) regarding him as a murderer and a Jew, and they ceased (to receive) communion from him.
(Bar Kaili) being afraid lest the matter become known to the emperor and lest he sentence him to be burnt as he himself had burned (a man), in anticipation he wrote falsely and informed (the emperor) that a certain priest had trampled the Eucharist with his feet, and because of this had been burned. Thus he managed to deceive (the emperor) and to cause the murder to pass (without consequences).
That we have not deviated from the truth, nor misrepresented it in what we have described, the Lord is our witness and all the contemporaries of that wicked and ferocious deed. This evil became known all over the East and West, and everybody was horrified by what was done by people wearing the robes of priesthood but far removed from its virtues.
(187) A monumental gate-like construction with four entrances built in Roman cities on the cross of the main streets. The best example in the East is the Great Tetrapylon in Palmyra (3rd c. A.D.).
Bar Kaili had, of course, no more religion in him than a plank of wood. He was a hatchet-man, chosen precisely for his lack of conscience and in the knowledge that his violence would be exercised on the dissenting population, in order to force them to conform.
The wicked bishop is a constant figure down the centuries. James of Edessa describes such folk very accurately in his damaged Chronicle:
But the bishops who had swerved from [the faith, since] they were [not accepted] by the churches, and they would not endure their [communion], not considering their folly, — — — — — — — — — [out of] desire of power made use of worldly authorities and [the sword of tyranny — — — — ] to get possession of churches and sees [and the flock — — — — which] was purchased with the blood of Christ.
It might be supposed that such actions would not happen today. A look at the accounts of the behaviour of bishops in the Episcopal Church of the USA on VirtueOnline reveals precisely the same behaviour. In the USA they cannot murder and torture. But the law allows them to seize churches which they did not build from those who did, expell the congregations, and sell the property for their own profit; and they are doing this all over the USA. The church is pursuing just such a policy against dissenters now.
Perhaps it is something about episcopacy as an institution. It is depressing to see, nevertheless.
A couple of days ago I wrote a post on this 8th century Syriac world chronicle. Someone was suggesting that it is one of the earlier Christian referrences to Mohammed, although this looks doubtful.
Part IV, which starts just before the Moslem period, is online with French translation here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=s5UWAAAAIAAJ
although unless you’re in the US, Google show you only the snippet view. p.4-5 of the French mention Mohammed, although this can hardly be an early mention. (p. 51 of the PDF). Here’s the opening section of part IV of the Chronicle of Zuqnin, from the French of Chabot. The dates are in Years of the Greeks (Anno Graecorum), but Chabot has added AD to them.
This chronicle begins with the origin of the world and runs until the birth of Abraham and the kingdom of Ninus who founded Nineveh and reigned fifty-two years. But the patriarch Abraham was born in the forty-second year of the reign of Ninus, according to the testimony of Eusebius from whom we have borrowed the materials of this history until the times of the faithful Emperor Constantine.
From that time, until Theodosius the Younger, we followed the Novatian Socrates.
From the Emperor Theodosius to Justinian, that is to say until the year 885 of the Greeks, we have been guided by John, bishop of Asia.
From that time until the year in which we are now, that is to say the year 1086 of Alexander, 158 of the Hegira, we have found no-one who, like the ancient writers, has carefully described the history and the cruel disasters that occurred in the time of our fathers or our own, including the storm of tribulation that we have suffered because of our sins when we were delivered into the hands of the Assyrians and Barbarians.
However, to preserve the memory of those calamitous times and the cruel affliction that the earth has suffered today from the Assyrians – whom the prophet means when he says: “Assyria is the rod of my fury, the stick of my indignation is in their hands, I will send them to a deceiving nation and give them orders affecting the people of my vengeance,”– we have made known the rod, the stick of the Lord, which he has delivered to Assur to punish the earth, and which has even appeared in the sky for several days. Perhaps those who come after us will tremble, will fear the Lord, and walk before him in justice, lest they themselves come as we are into the hands of this rapacious wolf.
It is written: “Tell your son,” and again: “Ask your father and he shall teach you; ask your ancestors and they will tell you.” Now, after we travelled through many countries and did not find an accurate history of events but only the annotation of some particular facts, we formed the plan to unite in order in one book the things we have learned from elderly eyewitnesses or which we have seen ourselves. Whoever finds [this book] and looks with contempt should know that these so various events did not take place in one place or in one kingdom, nor in a single region. If then he meets another chronicle that does not agree with this, let him remember that earlier writers themselves do not agree among themselves, but one minimises, another exaggerates, one writing on ecclesiastical history, another on other topics.
It matters little to wise and God-fearing men [to know] whether an event happened a year or two earlier or later, but it suffices to know the punishments of past generations so as to distance themselves from inequity for fear of attracting the same troubles.
Take care of yourself and fear the Lord your God, lest he send these afflictions on you.
We will begin in the year 898.
Year 898, the emperor Justinian died and Justinian IV reigned with Tiberius Caesar.
Year 901 (589-590), Justinian died and Tiberius reigned alone.
Year 902 (590-591), the holy patriarch of Antioch, Peter, died.
Year 905 (593-594), Tiberius died. He had for successor Maurice, who reigned eight years.
Year 912 (600-601), in the middle of the day there was great darkness: the stars rose and appeared as during the night. They remained around three hours, after which the darkness disappeared and the day shone as before. – This year Maurice died. Another Maurice and Theodosius reigned for twelve years.
Year 914 (602-003), Narses, the general of the Persians, captured Edessa. After entering the city, he had the bishop Severus seized and stoned, who died in his surplice.
Year 915(603-604), holy Athanasius was made patriarch of Antioch.
Year 916 (604•605), Edessa was taken.
Year 923 (611-612), Maurice was put to death with Theodosius, his son, and Phocas reigned eight years.
Year 928 (616-617). The emperor Phocas ordered that all the Jews living under his dominion should receive baptism. He sent the prefect George to Jerusalem and into all of Palestine to constrain them to receive baptism. The latter came down [into the country] and gathered all the Jews of Jerusalem and its environs. The principals among them came into his presence. He challenged them, “Are you the servants of the emperor?” – “Yes”, they replied. He responded, “The lord of the earth has ordered that you should be baptised.” – They kept silent and didn’t reply a word. The prefect demanded of them, “Why don’t you say anything ?” One of the principals among them, named Jonas, replied, “We will consent to do everything that the lord of the earth has ordered ; but the present thing we cannot do, because the time of holy baptism has still not come.” The prefect, hearing these words, went into a violent rage; he got up, struck Jonas in the face, and said to him, “If you are servants, why don’t you obey your master?” Then he ordered them to be baptised and forced them all, willing or not, to receive baptism.
At that time James the Jew, Athanasius, patriarch of Antioch, John, bishop of the Arabs, Simeon, [bishop] of Harran, and Cyriacus [bishop] of Amida, were famous.
Year 932(620-621) The Arabs captured Palestine and [the whole region] as far as the great river Euphrates. The Romans retreated and passed into the eastern region of the Euphrates, of which the Arabs also made themselves masters.
These had as their first king one of them named Mohammed, whom they called the Prophet, because he had diverted them from various religions, had taught the existence of one God, Creator of the Universe and given them laws, when they were addicted to the worship of demons and the worship of idols, especially trees. Because he taught them the unity of God, under his leadership they triumphed over the Romans, and as he gave them laws according to their desires, they called him Prophet and Messenger of God also. The people were very sensual and carnal. They despised and rejected any legislation that did not aim at the satisfaction of their desires, that they had been given by either Mohammad or any other God-fearing man, but they received ones that were to the satisfaction of their will and their desires, even when it was imposed upon them by the vilest of them. They said: “It has been established by the Prophet and Messenger of God,” and even “So God commanded him. ”
Mohammed governed them for seven years.
Year 933 (621-622), the emperor of the Romans, Phocas, died, and Heraclius reigned in his place for thirty-one years.
Year 934 (622-623), Mar Cyriacus, bishop of Amida, died, he had Mar Thomas for successor.
Year 937 (625-626), the stars of the sky spun about and headed northwards, like ????. They gave the Romans a terrible omen of defeat and the invasion of their lands by the Arabs, which in fact came about very shortly afterwards, and without delay.
Year 938 (626-627), the king of the Arabs died, i.e. their prophet, Mohammed, and Abubekr reigned over them for five years.
Year 940 (628), the emperor of the Romans, Heraclius, began to construct the great church of Amida.
I now have the final version of the translation of the Greek, and also of the Syriac fragments, of Eusebius of Caesarea’s Gospel questions and solutions. Unfortunately the Greek material will now need editing and sorting out. I hope to get into this in the next week or so.
In the mean time I’m only doing odd bits of stuff here and there — the pressures of ordinary life have precluded anything else! — which aren’t too much hard work. I tend to find this period of the year, coming up to Christmas, hard to bear. It’s dark and I feel semi-jet-lagged all the time as the days get shorter and the ‘rush’ to Christmas begins.
So I’ve restarted translating Firmicus Maternus, and was doing some stuff on Serapis last night. Did you know that Serapis is really Joseph, son of Jacob, the patriarch? And means “son of Sarah”? No? Well, neither did I; but that’s Firmicus’ rather improbable explanation.
I’ve also obtained a copy of Manfred Clauss’ book The Roman cult of Mithras which I need to make use of to update the Wikipedia Mithraism (sic) article. No-one seems to have interfered with this much since I rewrote it, which is quite a blessing. Again, I’ll get to this when I can.
The Turkish press reports that farmers ploughing a field at Urfa in South-East Turkey struck a hard object, which turned out to be a tablet inscribed with Syriac, using the Estrangelo alphabet.
It was found about eighteen inches below the ground, and weighs about 100 pounds. It seems to be about 30 x 60 (either inches or centimeters — I couldn’t work out).
No word on what it says. Apparently people at Harran university are going to take a look at it, but it will be placed in the museum at Urfa.
Urfa is the site of Edessa, the city whose Aramaic dialect became what we now call Syriac during the period after the conquests of Alexander. The city was always central to Syriac culture, but was destroyed by the Moslems during the crusader period.
UPDATE: I have had an email which tells us a little more:
“I am the founder of the www.suryaniler.com platform from Istanbul/TURKEY. I sent this news to George in order to find out what was the tablet about. Now, I am in contact with the museum archeologists of Urfa. They told me that the tablet is still preserved in the area it is found. When it is taken to the museum may be we can get wider size photo of the tablet.
I talked today to the Urfa Museum. They said; it will come to the museum few days later so that we can maybe get a bigger image. When there is an improvement I will inform you.”
Kristian Heal at BYU has been busy, and is doing some excellent work in making resources available. The following announcement appeared in Hugoye and in Nascas.
I am pleased to bring to your attention some additional resources now available on our website.
1. Manuscript catalogues
Almost 20 years ago, Professor Kent Brown from Brigham Young University coordinated an NEH funded project to microfilm and catalogue manuscripts from Cairo and Jerusalem. Our Center is working on a project to improve access to this important collection of manuscripts on microfilm. As a first step to improving access we have digitized the preliminary catalogues of the whole collection that were prepared by the late Dr. William Macomber.
The catalogues are now available for download here: http://cpart.byu.edu/?page=121&sidebar
Over the coming months we will be donating copies of the microfilms to 10 research centers in Europe and the United states in an effort to enable scholars to better work with this important collection.
2. Syriac and Garshuni Manuscripts from St. Mark’s Convent, Jerusalem
As part of our effort to improve access to Syriac resources in particular, we have prepared PDF copies of the manuscripts filmed at St. Mark’s Convent, Jerusalem. One of the conditions of usage is that a copy of any publications based on these manuscripts be sent to St. Mark’s convent.
The manuscripts can be freely downloaded here: http://cpart.byu.edu/?page=126&sidebar
The online manuscripts are a wonderful idea, no hesitation.
I have more hesitation about the copies of the microfilms. Now I have found it very difficult to get copies of material from BYU, so possible alternatives must be a good thing. But … the libraries that will hold them are bound to be places like the Bodleian, who will certainly see this merely as a chance for profit, and will charge incredible sums if they are allowed to get away with it. I can’t get material that I need from the Bodleian now.
I imagine that KH was unable to get clearance to simply digitise the collection and place it online. But it is a pity that his benevolence will probably be rendered useless by the greed of European library staff.
As a boy I read all sorts of childrens’ fiction. Many of these books left lasting impressions on me, and I recall them faintly even 30 years later. But of course children don’t notice the name of the author, or the title of the book; and some of these books I would dearly love to read again, but cannot because I don’t know which they are.
Down the years I have stumbled across some of them again. I remember seeing one in my local town library — enough to note the details, before it was stolen. Later I ordered it. On abebooks.com they used to have a feature where you could recount whatever you could remember, and others would try to tell you what it was. I recovered another one that way.
But one eluded me. All I could recall that was unique was the name of the villains; “baugrens”. For years I have searched the web in vain, in case it should appear. But it never did.
This evening I tried again; and got a result. A bookseller posted an advertisement, and transcribed the blurb, and so it came up. And it is the right book. It turns out to be by a certain Tom Ingram, and the title is “Garranane”:
The cloud appeared quite suddenly over the kingdom of Garranane. At first nothing seemed amiss to Kai and Flor, a brother and sister whose royal parents were visiting a distant land. But the cloud stayed, blackening the sky. Then Lotha came to Scortallin Castle with his troupe of performing dogs, and Fenrir, a beautiful lady who drew terrifyingly accurate pictures from life. And after Fenrir and Lotha, the baugrens arrived in Garranane, creatures of evil who cast no shadows. Almost too late Flor and Kai understood the meaning of the cloud.
Five minutes later I had a copy on order! I shall be eager to see it again. Isn’t google wonderful? But in case this information should vanish, and there is someone else out there looking, I thought I’d repost it here.
UPDATE: 21 October 2017. Here’s a picture of the cover:
