Roger Pearse

I’ve been making a bit of progress on Methodius today.  I learned from an academic that no published text of most of the Slavonic Methodius exists.  The manuscripts are 15th century or later, as we already knew; and I suspect that the Russian volumes (from 1877 on) are simply updated versions of these.   A couple of other interesting details when I get permission to post them.

I’ve also been looking at the 1930 edition and translation of On freewill by A. Vaillant in the Patrologia Orientalis 22.  Vaillant tells us that the Slavonic is so literal that you can see the Greek behind it; and indeed even the marginal corrections in the exemplar!  As a result, his edition is a little confusing: he prints the Slavonic; opposite it he prints a Greek text, his own reverse translation from the Slavonic; and underneath a French translation made from what he believes the Greek was.  He checks the Greek against the surviving Greek fragments.

If there is no published Slavonic text, we might have to make do with translating some Russian versions into English.  But I would hesitate to spend money on translating a translation — it doesn’t make sense.  It would be better, surely, to obtain a manuscript reproduction and translate from that.

The comments to my article yesterday on the Works of Methodius are very useful.  Commenter “Maureen” has tracked down what look very like publications in Russian of some of the smaller works — precisely the ones that I want to get hold of.

I’ve never tried to get hold of material in Russian, and of course I don’t speak it.  I wonder how best to do so.   A few PDF’s seem definitely called for!

Today I have to go on a journey, so I can’t do more right now, but I shall think about this.

UPDATE: I have now identified an anglicised name for the journal in which the text appears, and a location where I can get copies.  See the comments to the Works of Methodius post for details.

I realise that all this may seem a little dry.  But the details of how I worked out, from a string of Cyrillic characters, where to find a journal in a language I don’t read, might be of general utility.  And having the details online may save me some trouble when I get confused looking for it in the stacks in a week or two!

Methodius of Olympus is one of those patristic authors who tends to be rather forgotten.  He died in 313 as a martyr, and wrote a reply to Porphyry’s Against the Christians.  There is one recent English study of his works,^[1] but even the bibliography in this shows that Methodius has been neglected.

One reason for this is that only one of his works survives complete in Greek, his Symposium.  A substantial proportion of a second, On Free Will, also exists; and fragments of the other works.  However On Free Will exists complete in Old Slavonic, as do four more short works.

I think it would be best to start with a bibliography of editions and translations.

• J.-P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca 18.  This reprints a pre-critical edition with an incomplete collection of the Greek fragments, and a Latin translation.
• A. Jahn, S. Methodii Opera et Methodius Platonizans, 1865.  Online here.  This is a more complete collection of the Greek, and was used as the basis for the 1905 Lovyagin translation into Russian.
• E. Lovyagin, 2nd Edition (1905).  Online here.  Russian translation of Greek material in Jahn edition.  Discussion of contents here and here (with modernised OCR of preface).
• G. Bonwetsch, “Methodius”, in: Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller 27 (1917).  Online here.  This gives the Slavonic material in German translation (only) interspersed with the Greek fragments.
• J. Farges, Méthode d’Olympe. Du libre arbitre. Traduction précédée d’une Introduction sur les questions de l’origine du monde, du libre arbitre et du problème du mal dans la pensée grecque, judaïque et chrétienne avant Méthode.  Paris: Beauchesne (1929).  French translation of On Free Will.
• A. Vaillant, “Le ‘De autexusio’ de Méthode d’Olympe, version slave et texte grec édités et traduits en français, 246 p.”, in: Patrologia Orientalis 22, 5 (1930), p.631-877.  This contains On Free Will, edited from both Slavonic and Greek.  Online here.
• M. Chub, in: Богословский труды (=Bogoslovski Trudy) 2 (1961) and 3 (1964).  Online here.  #2 contains Russian translations from Slavonic of 4 works; #3 contains the passages of On Free Will which only exist in Slavonic translated into Russian, with notes as to how they fit into the Loyagin text. English translation of his useful preface here, with links to two online manuscripts.
• M. Richard, Opera minora 1 (1976). A reprint of M. Richard, “Quelques nouveaux fragments des Pères anténicéens et nicéens”, in: Symbolae Osloenses 38 (1963), 81.  This gives a new fragment of De resurrectione.
• B. Zorzi & M. Mejzner, Metodio di Olimpo: La risurrezione, Roma: Città nuova editrice, 2010. Series: Collana di testi patristici 216.  Complete Italian translation by Mirosław Mejzner (Old Slavonic part) and M. Benedetta Zorzi (Greek part).
•  R. Franchi, Metodio di Olimpo: Il libero arbitrio, Paoline Editoriale Libri, 2015.  448p. Series: Letture cristiane del primo millennio.  ISBN 9788831546690.
•  N. Antoniono, Metodio di Olimpo: La verginità, Città Nuova, 2000.  200p.  Series:  Testi patristici.  ISBN 9788831131520. €20.  (Google Books preview here).

The works that have reached us are as follows.

1. The Banquet or Symposium (Συμπόσιον ἢ περὶ ἁγνείας), Convivium decem virginum, in praise of virginity. (CPG 1810)   Edited by Bonwetsch, p.1-141, and translated into English as part of the Ante-Nicene Fathers here.  This is the only work for which we possess the complete Greek text.  A modern edition with French translation exists in Sources Chretiennes 95 (1963), ed. H. Musurillo; and an Italian translation by N. Antoniono.

The remaining works are extant in an Old Slavonic translation, with sometimes substantial fragments of the Greek.

2. On free-will (Περὶ τοῦ αὐτεξουσίου), De libero arbitrio. (CPG 1811) The work seems to be directed against the Valentinians and other gnostics.  Edited Bonwetsch, p.146-206, and by Vaillant, Le ‘De autextusio’ de Methode d’Olympe, version slave et texte grec ed. et trad. en franc. p.631-889.  A short chunk — probably from Greek — is translated into English in the ANF here, and there are two French translations, one by l’Abbe Farges, the other by Vaillant.  There is also an Italian translation by Franchi.  The work is extensively quoted by Eznik of Kolb in his 5th century Armenian work On God.

3.  Aglaophon or On the resurrection (Ἀγλαοφῶν ἢ περὶ ἀναστάσεως), De resurrectione, in three books.  (CPG 1812) It refutes the idea of a purely spiritual resurrection.  The Greek is extant in fragments, including a long quotation from book 1 by Epiphanius in the Panarion.  The Old Slavonic version includes all three books, but abbreviates book 3.  Ed. Bonwetsch, 217-424, giving a German translation of the Old Slavonic.  A small piece is translated in the ANF here.  The Greek can be found in PG18, 265-329, and Richard’s Opera Minora.  UPDATE: There is now a complete Italian translation by Zorza and Mejzner.

4.  On life and reasonable actions, De vita et actibus rationi consentaneis.  (CPG 1813) This encourages us to be satisfied with what God has given us in this life and to place our hope on the world to come.  Quasten says that this appears in the Old Slavonic version between On free will and On the resurrection, but none of the Greek survives. Bonwetsch gives a German translation of the Old Slavonic on p.207-216; the text does not seem to have been edited, nor translated into English.  Mikhail Chub gave a Russian translation from manuscript in Bogoslovskie Trudy 2 (1961).  Update: English translation here.

5.  De cibis (CPG 1814) or On the distinction  between foods and the young cow mentioned in Leviticus. (actually Numbers 19).  This follows On the resurrection in the Old Slavonic and is exegetical in nature.  It is addressed to two women, Frenope and Kilonia, and gives an allegorical interpretation of the food laws.  Bonwetsch gives a German translation of the Old Slavonic on p.425-447.  Again this was translated by Mikhail Chub into modern Russian. Update: English translation here.

6. De lepra or To Sistelius on leprosy. (CPG 1815)  On the allegorical sense of Lev. 13.  Bonwetsch, German translation on p.449-474.  But there are some Greek fragments of this work, in addition to the Old Slavonic.  Chub translated it into Russian.  Update: English translation here.

7. A third treatise, De sanguisuga, (CPG 1816) allegorises the leech, described in Proverbs 30, 15f. (De sanguisuga: p.475-489) and Ps. 18:2 ‘The heavens show forth the glory of God’ (De creatis: p.491-500).  Bonwetsch gives a German version of the Old Slavonic.  Chub gives a Russian translation. Update: English translation here.

8.  On the creatures, or De creatis (CPG 1817). PG 18, 332-344.  Bonwetsch p.493-500.  There are also fragments in Photius, codex 235.

9.  Against Porphyry, or Adversus Prophyrium (CPG 1818).  Jerome tells is that Methodius wrote a well-received refutation of Porphyry (De vir. ill. 83; Epist. 48:13; Epist. 70:3), but it is entirely lost.  Bonwetsch edits some Greek fragments on p.501-507.

10.  On Job, or Fragmenta in Iob.  Bonwetsch edits some fragments on this subject from catenas, on p.519.

10. On the martyrs, or De martyribus (CPG 1820).  Bonwetsch edits a fragment under this title (otherwise unknown) on p.520.

11.  On Genesis, or In Genesim (CPG 1821).  See Studi e Testi 201, p. 54, “Les anciens commentateurs grecs de l’Octateuque et des Rois”, 1959.

There are also a number of spuria, with which we are not concerned here.  The most important of these is an Apocalypse of pseudo-Methodius (CPG 1830), from the 7th century.  A Sermo de Simeone et Anna (CPG 1827; BHG 1961) is probably 5-6th century.  A couple more sermons and fragments are listed in the CPG, none genuine.

Bonwetsch’s study on the theology of Methodius is online here.  In 1891 Bonwetsch did a Methodius von Olympus. 1. Schriften volume, which contains much the same material as the GCS edition.  This may be found here or here.  The latter copy is better quality, I think.

I can find no trace that the Old Slavonic text has been published at all, which seems remarkable to me, as this alone preserves much of his work.  This consists of a Corpus Methodianum of the 11th century, evidently translated from Greek but no longer extant in that language.  The existence of the Old Slavonic first became known via Cardinal Pitra in 1883.^[2]  However two manuscripts are online now, and Mikhail Chub published translations of a few.  The preface to his translation I have made into English here, and it includes links to the manuscripts.

UPDATED June 2015 with Slavonic material info.  July 2015 with material from the SC site.  June 2017 with the Italian translation of De resurrectione.  July 2023 with Latin titles for those works without, and a note on the spuria.

1. ^[1]Patterson, L. G., Methodius of Olympus : Divine Sovereignty, Human Freedom, and Life in Christ, CUA 1997↩
2. ^[2]Analecta sacra spicilegio Solesmensi parata.  t. III.  Patres antenicaeni.  Venice, 1883, p.612 ff. (Bonwetsch Schriften p.vii and n.5.)↩