Severus al-Ashmunein, Zoroaster and the “Book of the Councils”

Posted on by Roger Pearse at ToA

For some time I have been tracking down references in Arabic Christian texts to the idea that Zoroaster said something like “He who doesn’t eat my body and drink my blood will not know salvation”.  (The actual idea is fairly clearly bogus).

One of the possible witnesses is a passage in Severus ibn Mukaffa’, Book of the Councils.  Severus is one of the first Christian writers to write in Arabic, and he was bishop of Al-Ashmunein (formerly Hermopolis) in Egypt in the 9th century.  He is best known for starting the collection of biographies of patriarchs which forms the History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria.

Unfortunately the printed text was from a manuscript which doesn’t include this passage, but the passage can be found in a Cairo manuscript.  Georg Graf gives the following description:

“Severus ibn al-Muqaffa‘ of al-Ashmûnain (10th century) in his polemical “Book of the Councils” (= S) 2…[2] In Cairo 111 (1544 AD), ff. 268v-270v. This portion was not included in the printed edition in Patrologia Orientalis III, 2.” (Graf vol. 1. p-483-6)

A kind friend told me that Graf (almost always) refers to the Cairo MSS via the numeration of his own catalogue. This catalogue combines material from both the Coptic Patriarchate and the Coptic Museum.  Graf nr 111 is found in the Coptic Museum. Its shelf number there is Theol. 196. It is also described in Simaika’s catalogue under nr. 53. In the film collection at Brigham Young University , it is found in Roll A15-4.

I never have a lot of luck communicating with people in Egypt.  Even today the Coptic Museum isn’t on the internet!  So I tried emailing various people at BYU.

Gary Gillum of BYU has tracked down this microfilm, found someone who knows Arabic, located the relevant pages and emailed me jpgs of them, all without charge.  I am deeply grateful to him.  I think the world of scholarship owes more than we ever realise to all the people out there like Gary, who make it all possible. 

I’ve now commissioned someone to transcribe and translate the pages, which I will place online in the public domain.  Interestingly I am finding it easier to locate Arabists willing to translate than either Greek or Syriac translators.

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Eusebius translation: progress 4

Posted on by Roger Pearse at ToA

No more bits have arrived. I spent last week discussing issues with Mr. A, the translator of the Greek. He is a bit prone to switch the order of the clauses in a sentence without obvious need, and this needed to be addressed.

One interesting thing: in order that we could discuss chunk 6, he produced a very literal version with words in the same order as the Greek. This was very helpful, and a good technique to allow the editor to assess the translation level. We then went through it and discussed how the translation should be, with me generally pulling in the direction of greater literalness. It was interesting to see how one sentence had little meaning unless paraphrased. Another displayed signs of the epitomator at work; two ideas compressed into one sentence.

I’ve been paying Mr. A by cheque for each chunk, and collecting receipts. The joys of paperwork!

I’m beginning to worry about the lack of response from Mr. C, my Syriac translator. He did one chunk, one transcription, and I’ve heard no more. Dr E, to whom I sent these for review almost a fortnight ago, has not responded either. I shall have to nag them, and, if necessary, readvertise.

Just managing the project is quite wearying in some ways. You would think that if you drop money in, that a translation would pop out. ‘Tis not so…

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New Syriac mss finds in the Nitrian desert

Posted on by Roger Pearse at ToA

An article in the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog points up a find of another stray page from British Library Additional 12150, which dates from 411 AD.

The manuscript was bought from the Monastery of the Syrians (Deir al-Suryani) (St. Mary Deipara) in the Nitrian desert by Archdeacon Henry Tattam in the 1840’s, but his agent kept trying to cheat him. However this page was clearly a stray, and has been found in the monastery.

Details can be read at this link:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/found-at-last-the-worlds-oldest-missing-page-783378.html

and this:
http://www.forbes.com/2002/05/29/0529conn.html

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Eusebius translation: progress 3

Posted on by Roger Pearse at ToA

We’re now at Question 6 ad Stephanum, but an interesting question has arisen. What do we do about scripture quotations?

Where these are verbatim, we ought to use some recognised version. But which one? Worse, I have heard rumours that some copyright holders demand money to allow their version to be used; the RSV was mentioned, rightly or wrongly.

Suggestions please…

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Eusebius translation: progress 2

Posted on by Roger Pearse at ToA

The review by Dr. B of the first chunk of the translation of the Greek has arrived.  Generally it presses for greater literalness.  My own ‘soundings’ into the text and translation did rather suggest a need for this, so I agree.

Unfortunately Dr. B has found the job too time-consuming and withdrawn.  So I shall need another reviewer for the Greek text.  It’s about 26,000 words, so I was offering $520 for the job.  I’ll do some hunting next week, I think.   Just running the project is more tiring than one might think!

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Al-Majdalus, “Commentary on the Nicene Creed”; the Bibliotheque orientale in Beirut, etc

Posted on by Roger Pearse at ToA

I’ve mentioned before my investigation into Arabic witnesses to the idea that Zoroaster said “Whoever does not eat my body and drink my blood…”.  One of these may be the 9th century Melkite “Commentary on the Nicene creed” by the otherwise unknown Al-Majdalus. 

A little while ago, I experimented with getting a commercial translator in Beirut to have a go at this.  The text is unpublished, so I obtained monochrome images of the pages of two manuscripts from the Bibliotheque Orientale at Saint-Joseph’s University, and passed them to him.  Of course I asked for a sample, of the first page.  This has now arrived, and looks a bit inadequate.  But I’m passing it to a gentleman who has helped me in the past, and we’ll see.

The BO managed to put my images on a dodgy CDROM.  Two of the jpg files arrived being zero bytes long.  However there are other unpublished Arabic texts which might be relevant, so I’ve asked them for some of these.  This time they’ve invented some bureaucracy — a form full of talk about rights etc.  Quite how many people can read these mss, or care, I do not know — it seems to be a very small number! How they would enforce this does not seem to have occurred to them either.  I fear that this is merely officialdom protecting itself against criticism.  It’s a bit sad to see, really. 

But I’m looking forward to the images.  All I need now is someone who is competent in Christian Arabic of the medieval period, and willing to work for 10 cents a word.  There must be someone!  I can’t even find any email lists dedicated to scholars in this field; which is rather curious.

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Progress on the Eusebius translation

Posted on by Roger Pearse at ToA

I’ve been thinking about blogging on the progress of this work (I think I need a new category for the translation of Eusebius ‘Quaestiones’, actually). But I don’t want to use real names for the people involved, so I will identify them

The Greek translation is well under way, and the first four questions ‘To Stephanus’ have been translated by a gentleman whom I will call Mr. A. He is currently doing a ‘question’ a week, but he tells me that he will need a sweep-up phase to look up a few specialist terms. He’s working from Zamagni’s Greek text which I printed and sent to him. I don’t think he’s had a lot of luck getting the PDF’s from the website. I’m sending him money by cheque, as each question is done, and getting a receipt for each and logging the payments so I can claim them back when sales commence.

Dr B., the reviewer of the Greek text, has received question 1 (from me) but hasn’t been able to even find the page on the website. I shall be sending him a print-off and a CD. One frustrating aspect has been that he only checks his email once or twice a week.

The Syriac translator, Mr C, has sent me the first fragment from Beyer. I’ve also specified a transcription of the Syriac, in case I want to print it, but this has not yet arrived. I’ve asked for a chunk a week. On the positive side he’s on Paypal!

I have not yet got a Syriac reviewer. However I have sent chunk 1 to someone I know, Dr. E, who will check it over this weekend.

I’ve experimented with uploading a volume in PDF form to lulu.com and ordered a printed copy; it will be interesting to see what comes back.

Mr A has published translations from the Greek before, so has put me in contact with a major academic publisher. The question, however, is whether I can publish through them and still make the money side work.

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Greed that laughed not, nor with mouth smiled

Posted on by Roger Pearse at ToA

The Gospel problems and solutions of Eusebius Pamphili is extant only in fragments.  Not all of these have been edited.  A century ago Harnack noted a list of manuscripts which contained excerpts, but nothing has been done to collect these.  Since we are producing a translation, and perhaps an edition, I thought that I would make an effort and seek these out.

Most of the manuscripts are in the Bibliothéque Nationale Français in Paris.  Unfortunately they are spread over 8 manuscripts, a few pages in each.  The total number of pages adds up to 42.

The BNF want a staggering 10 euros ($12) each for a 1.8mb image (i.e. the output of a consumer digital camera).  This means the appalling sum of 420 euros or $500, for something that can be done in half an hour by any half-trained assistant by simply pressing a shutter 42 times.  Nor would the situation be better if I asked for a microfilm; they won’t sell these at less than 50 euros each, nor sell part of a manuscript, so the price is about the same.  It would actually be five times cheaper to fly my whole translation team to Paris for the day and hand-copy them!

It now becomes clear just why no-one has edited these.  It is entirely the fault of the BNF and their prohibitive charges.  I’ve written to ask for a formal quotation, and pleaded for mercy in it. 

Of course it could be worse.  Another fragment is on two pages in a manuscript in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, famous for locking away from everyone for half a century the books left to it by Bessarion.  (Bessarion, of course, had intended scholars to be able to access them, but the library staff thought otherwise). On their web site, they seem to require you to get permission first to have copies, and then want 50 euros per photograph.  They’ve subcontracted the job to some local firm; kickbacks all round, eh?

But change is happening.  On Wednesday I was at Cambridge University Library to collect an inch-thick wodge of A3 photocopies of the Quaestiones by Angelo Mai.  Naturally I wondered why I couldn’t just get the copies in PDF, so popped down to talk to Don Manning, the new manager in charge of imaging.  The previous manager had just left everything drift.  But Don had already got plans for this, and also to take orders for copies over the web. 

One problem that manuscript researchers have is that libraries mostly offer microfilms at a steep but possible price, or else colour photographs suitable for publication at $100 each; but nothing in between.  Manuscripts often have bits in red, which are invisible in the microfilms.  Often these bits are the headings, or nomina sacra, i.e. the most important bits!  So there is a real need for a cheap product in between.  What we need is for libraries to sell simple, non-publication digital colour images at $1 each, so that poor scholars can just get on with studying the text. 

 Any consumer digital camera will do for these.  You don’t need flash.  You may not even need a tripod!  These can be taken by any library assistant, and don’t need to have accurate colours.  They don’t need to have the pages aligned evenly, etc.  All they need is to convey the text sharply and in colour, and to do so at a price that is within the reach of everyone for a dozen or two images.

After all, it does no good for a business to offer the most wonderful service, if the price is so high that no-one ever buys any. What then happens is that discount rates for staff only tend to creep in.  But libraries need to serve their users, and they need to make money.  I hope more of them will start to offer this intermediate idea.

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Eusebius – the feeding frenzy

Posted on by Roger Pearse at ToA

You never know who is planning to translate something.  Scholars don’t talk as much as they might, either, which leads to silly situations, such as three English translations of Eusebius Onomasticon being released in a period of a couple of years (including the long forgotten Wolf translation which appears online).

I enquired a couple of weeks ago whether anyone fancied translating the Commentary on Isaiah for money.  I quickly found that one gentleman was already doing so, and had a publisher lined up.  Today I learn of another who has a proposal with another publisher to do the same.  Neither knows of the other, I think.

After I decided to commission the Quaestiones I quickly learned that a scholar was doing the Eclogae Propheticae.  His initial reply made it sound like a side-project, but it turns out otherwise.

I then enquired about the other obvious untranslated works, the Against Marcellus and Ecclesiastical Theology (which form a pair of works against Marcellus of Ancyra).  I’ve been told so far of two people who ‘might be doing these’, plus a reference to a book which also refers vaguely to ‘someone’.  One of these two is actually NOT doing so; I look forward to an email from the other.

I’ve not asked about the Commentary on the Psalms.  Not yet, anyway.

Apparently there is a conference in Brussells in March on Eusebius, about which I can find no details.  If anyone does know, I’d be interested to learn more.  I might even be able to go.

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Microsoft live books now blocked to UK readers

Posted on by Roger Pearse at ToA

I found today that I could not access books.live.com, despite having language=EN-US.  I presume this means that Microsoft have ramped up their decision to restrict content to US readers only. 

This is most annoying, since a lot of their content is supplied by UK libraries such as the Bodleian.  Indeed I was searching to see if Thomas Gaisford’s 1846 edition of Eusebius Eclogae propheticae was on there.

Don’t you hate the copyright industry?

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