BY
BRUCE M. METZGER
CLARENDON PRESS Oxford
This book has been printed digitally and produced in a standard design in order to ensure its continuing availability
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Great Clarendon Street. Oxford OX2 6np Oxfurd University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research. scholarship. and education by publi'ihing worldwide in
Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Cape Town
Chennai Dares Salaam Delhi Plorenc(' HongKong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai
Nairobi Paris Sao Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw with associated companies in Berlin Ibadan
Oxford is a registered trade mark ofOxfurd University Press in the UK and certain other countries
Pub1ished in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc.. New York
(1) Oxford Univprsity Press 1977
The moral rights ofthe author have been aSS(,lted Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
Reprinted 2001
All rights reserved. No palt of this publication may be reproduced. stored in a ret rieval system. or transmitted. in any form or by any means.
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. or as expressly permitted by law. or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reprodultion outside the scope ofthe above should be sent to the Rights Department.
Oxford University Press. at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer
ISBN 0-19-826170-5
IN WESTPHALIA
THE HONORARY DEGREE OF
Preface
T HE importance of the early versions of the New Testament is hard to overestimate. The Church historian, for example, can learn not a little from them concerning the spread of
Christianity in the ancient world, and by identifying the parent text-type from which a given version was made it is possible to ascertain the headquarters and direction of missionary activity. Furthermore, since every translation is in some measure a com­ mentary, one can trace the history of the exegesis of disputed passages as disclosed in successive modifications of a given version. Moreover, the additions and omissions in the trans­ mitted text can tell us something about the doctrinal, liturgical, or ascetical interests of those who made and used such trans­ lations.
The philologist also is grateful for what are often the chief (or sometimes the only) remains of an ancient literature. A notable example is the codex Argenteus of the Gospels, which is the principal extant witness of the Gothic language, once spoken throughout nearly a third of Europe but preserved today in only a handful of documents. As recently as 1970 another chapter was added to the romantic fortunes of this famous codex when there was found in a chest of relics in the Cathedral of Speyer what turned out to be the final leaf of the manuscript-a manuscript which in 1648 was taken from Prague to Sweden as booty at the end of the Thirty Years War, was subsequently lost for a short time in a shipwreck on the Zuider Zee, and later was mutilated when ten leaves were stolen-but eventually returned by the repentant thief on his death-bed!
It is the textual critic, however, for whom the early versions of the New Testament are of prime importance. Earlier in the twentieth century F. C. Burkitt went so far as to argue that a reading supported by the Old Latin k and the Sinaitic Syriac deserved as much respect as one witnessed by Band N. Although the subsequent discovery of early Greek papyri (such as p66 and p75, which antedate Band N by more than a century) has required a reassessment of Burkitt's views, the textual critic must still give
viii Preface
serious attention to readings that are supported by a combination of unrelated versional witnesses. How far such coincidence of reading should be taken as proof of the existence of early bilingual or even trilingual manuscripts (as H. C. Hoskier, H. A. Sanders, and A. C. Clark supposed) will be estimated differently by dif­ ferent scholars. In any case, however, the versions of the New Testament, along with scriptural quotations made by patristic writers, provide diversified evidence concerning the geographical spread of individual readings as well as the boundaries of textual families.
The scope of the present volume is somewhat broader than might perhaps have been expected from the title. By 'early' versions of the New Testament is meant all the versions, whether surviving or not, that were made before about A.D. 1000. An account is given also concerning the Persian version, though the date of this version is not precisely known and may well be con­ siderably after the year 1000. In the sub-title the word 'origin' refers, of course, to the historical circumstances during the ex­ pansion of Christianity which resulted in the translation of part or all of the New Testament into a local vernacular. Sometimes the identity of the translator is known; more often it is not. 'Under the rubric 'transmission' are included such items as a list of the earliest surviving manuscripts of a given version, note­ worthy printed editions, and an account of the history of schol­ arly investigation and textual analysis of the version. In this connection an attempt has been made to report all significant bibliographical data relating to the progress of research on each version. The section on the 'limitations' of a version is devoted not so much to personal and theological idiosyncrasies of the translator as to features of the language of the version that prevent a literal rendering of the Greek text into that language. Here the author was assisted by specialists in the several lan­ guages: for Armenian, Dr. Erroll F. Rhodes of the Library Research Staff, American Bible Society, New York City; for Coptic, 1. Martin Plumley, Herbert Thompson Professor of Egyptology, University of Cambridge; for Ethiopic, the Revd. Dr. Josef Hofmann, Hofendorf: Niederbayern, Germany; for Georgian, the late Canon Maurice Briere, honorary professor at l'Institut catholique de Paris; for Gothic, Dr. George W. S. Friedrichsen, Washington, D.C.; for Latin, Fr. Bonifatius
Preface ix
Fischer, O.S.B., formerly at the Monastery ofBeuron and now at Mariendonk, Kempen, Germany; for Old Church Slavonic, Horace G. Lunt, Samuel Hazzard Cross Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University; and for Syriac, Dr. Sebastian P. Brock, Lecturer in Aramaic and Syriac, Wolfson College, Oxford. It was suggested to each that he might consider the subject of limitations under the headings of phonetics, morphology, and syntax, but in every case freedom was granted to organize and to develop the section as seemed best. The users of the volume willjoin the author in expressing gratitude to these collaborators for dealing with important aspects of the early versions that have seldom been given sustained attention.
Thanks are due also to John A. Lygre for translating into English the contributions of Briere, Fischer, and Hofmann, and to Helmuth Egelkraut for going over the translation of Fischer's material. The author is grateful to the following scholars, each of whom kindly read a section and made a variety of suggestions and corrections: Dr. J. Neville Birdsall (the Georgian version), Dr. Donald Davies (the Ethiopic version), Dr. Ernst Ebbinghaus (the Gothic version), Professor Richard A. Frye (the Sogdian, Persian, and Caucasian Albanian versions), Dr. John A. Thomp­ son (the Arabic versions), and Professor Horace G. Lunt and Dr. Marshall Winokur (the Old Church Slavonic version). The last­ named scholar also checked and standardized the transliteration of the titles of Russian and other Slavic bibliography, following the system used in The American Bibliography oj Slavic and East European Studies. The indexes were compiled by Lincoln D. Hurst and Charles D. Myers, Jr.
The work of collecting material for the present volume ex­ tended over many years; the writing of a major part of it was finished during the author's sabbatical leave during the first half of 1974, while he was a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and subsequently while a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall in the University of Cambridge. In addition to drawing upon the extensive resources of the several libraries in Princeton, the author has consulted monographs and manu­ scripts in the Widener Library at Harvard University, in the Bodleian, in the British Museum, and in the libraries of Cambridge University and of the Papal Biblical Institute in Rome.
Finally, I should like to express my gratitude to the Delegates
x Preface
of the Oxford University Press for their acceptance of my book for publication. I am also indebted to the readers of the Press for their customary care and painstaking vigilance in correcting the proofs.
Princeton, New Jersey February 1975
BRUCE M. METZGER
TIlE INTRODllCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO SYRIA
AND TilE TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAME~T 4
II TIlE DI!\TFSS'\RON OF T:\TlA:S 10
(I) \Vitncsses to Tatian's Diatessaron, pp. 10-25; (2) Diatessaric Problems and Rcsearch, pp. 25-36
III. THE OLD SYRIAC VERSIO~ 36 (I) \Vitnesses to the Old Syriac Version, pp. 36-9; (2) Charactcristics of the Old Syriac Version, pp. 39-44; ('3) Problems relating to the Old Syriac Vel"Sion, pp.
4-5-8 IV. THE PESHITTA SYRIAC VERSION _}8
(I) Noteworthy l'vlanuscripts of the Peshitta ~ew Testa­ ment, pp. 4-8-51; (2) Noteworthy Printed Editions of the Peshitta New Testament, pp. 52-6; (3) Problems con­ cerning the Date and Textual Affinities of the Peshitta New Testament, pp. 56-63
V. THE PHILOXENIAN AND/OR IlARCLEA:-'< SYRIAC
VERSION(S) fi3 (I) The Nature of the Problem, pp. G3-5; (2) The Philoxenian Version, PI>. fiS-B; (3) The Harclean Ver- sion, pp. 68-74; (4) Harclean Passion tide Harmonies, pr· 74-5
VI. TilE P A LESTIN IA:-; SY RIA C VE RSIO N 75 (I) The Origin of the Version, pp. 75-7; (2) l':oteworthy ~vlanuscripts and Editions of the Palestinian Syriac Ver- sion, pp. 78-8; (3) Characteristics of the Palestinian Syriac Version, pp. 80-2
VII. LIMITATIO="S OF SYRIAC IN REPRESENTING GREEK
(by Sebacltia71 P. Brock)
I. THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO EGYPT
AND THE TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 99
II. EARLY MANUSCRIPTS OF THE COPTIC VERSIONS 108 (I) The Sahidic Version, pp. 109-14; (2) The Achmimic Version, pp. I 14-15; (3) The Sub-Achmimic Version, pp. 115-17; (4) The Middle-Egyptian Version, pp. II7-19; (5) The Fayyumic Version, pp. 120-1; (6) The Bohairic Version, pp. 121-5
III. THE DATE AND MUTUAL RELATIONSHIP OF THE
COPTIC VERSIONS 125
V. LIMITATIONS OF COPTIC (SAHIDIC) IN REPRESENT-
ING GREEK (by J. Martin Plumley) 141
I I I. The Armenian Version 153
I. THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO AR­
MENIA AND THE TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTA-
MENT 153
III. NOTEWORTHY FEATURES OF THE ARMENIAN VER-
SION 161
VI. LIMITATIONS OF ARMENIAN IN REPRESENTING
GREEK (by Erroll F. Rhodes) 171
I v. The Georgian Version I. THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO
GEORGIA AND THE TRANSLATION OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT 182
V. THE REVISED GEORGIAN VERSION 196
VI. LIMITATIONS OF GEORGIAN IN REPRESENTING
GREEK (by the late Canon Maurice Briere) 199
Contents
v. The Ethiopic Version I. THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO ETHIO­
PIA AND THE TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTA-
xiii
III. PRINTED EDITIONS OF THE ETHIOPIC NEW TESTA-
MENT 228
IV. TEXTUAL AFFINITIES OF THE ETHIOPIC VERSIO:-; 232 (I) The Gospels, pp. 232-4; (2) The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 234-5; (3) The Pauline Epistles, p. 236 ; (4) The Catholic Epistles, pp. 236; (5) The Book of Revela- tion, pp. 236-8; (6) The Question of Syriac Influence, PP·238-4°
V. LIMITATIONS OF ETHIOPIC IN REPRESENTING GREEK
(by Josef Hofmann) 240
VI. rvlinor Eastern \T ersions 257
1. THE ARABIC VERSIONS 257 (I) The Origin of the Arabic Versions, pp. '2.17-9; (2) The Variety of Arabic Versions, pp. 26o~I; (3) Early f\lanuscripts of the Arabic Versions, pp. 261--5; (4) Early Printed Editions of the Arabic Versions, pr. 26 5~7 ; (s) Textual Affinities of Early Arabic !vlanuscripts, pp. 267--8
I I. THE NUBIAN VERSION 268
III. THE PERSIA~ VERSION 274.
IV. THE SOGDIAN VERSION 279
v. THE CAUCASIA~ Al.BANIAN VERSION 282
PART T\VO
OF THE NE\·V TESTAMENT
VII. The Latin Versions 285
I. THE OLD LATIN VERSIONS 285 (I) The Origin of the Old Latin Versions, pp. 28S-Q1 ~
(2) ~vlanuscripts of the Old Latin Versions) pp. 2q3~'319; (3) Editions of the Old Latin Versions, pp. 3 I 9~22; (4) Linguistic and Textual Characteristics of the Old Latin Versions, pp. 322-30
XIV Contents
II. THE VULGATE 330 (I) Jerome's Early Training and Commission by Pope Damasus, pp. 330-4; (2) Noteworthy Manuscripts of the Vulgate, pp. 334-48; (3) Noteworthy Printed Editions of the Vulgate, pp. 348-52; (4) Problems concerning Jerome's Work as Reviser, pp. 352-62
III. LIMITATIONS OF LATIN IN REPRESENTING GREEK
(by Bonifatius Fischer) 362
I. THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE
GOTHS AND THE TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTA-
MENT 375
MENT 376
IV. TEXTUAL AFFINITIES OF THE GOTHIC VERSION 384
V. LIMITATIONS OF GOTHIC IN REPRESENTING GREEK
(by G. W. S. Friedrichsen) 388
IX. The Old Church Slavonic Version 394
I. THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE
SLAVS AND THE TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTA­
MENT
SION
394
CHURCH SLAVONIC VERSION 426
SENTING GREEK (by Horace C. Lunt) 431
x. Minor Western Versions 443
I. THE ANGLO-SAXON VERSION 443 (I) The Introduction of Christianity into Britain and the Translation of the New Testament, pp. 443--8; (2) Anglo­ Saxon Manuscripts of the Gospels, pp. 448-52; (3) Note­ worthy Editions of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels, pp. 452-3; (4) Characteristics and Textual Affinities of the Anglo­ Saxon Version, pp. 453-5
Contents xv
II. THE OLD HIGH GERMAN VERSIONS 455 (I) The Monsec Fragments, pp. 456-7; (2) The German Tatian, pp. 457-8; (3) Otfrid's Liber Evangeliorum,
PP·458-9 III. THE 01.0 SAXON (OLD LOW GERMAN) VERSION 459
APPENDIX
Addenda to the Check-list of Old Latin ~IanusClipts of the ~ew Testament
INDEXES
AB AbhBer
AbhHeid
AbhMainz
AbhMn
AJA AJP AJSL AJT AO ASP ATR BASP BBC BedK Bib BibT
BJRL BSOAS Byslav By;:,
Abbreviations
xviii
NZMRW
OC OCP OS PG PL PO PS RB RBbz REA RES RHE
RHR
ROC
Abbreviations Expositor (London). Expository Times (Edinburgh). Gregorianum (Rome). Handes Amsorya (Vienna). Harvard Slavic Studies (Cambridge, Mass.). Harvard Theological Review (Cambridge, Mass.). Journal asiatique (Paris). Journal of the American Oriental Society (Baltimore). Journal of Biblical Literature (Missoula, Mont.).
Journal of Egyptian Archaeology (London). Journal of English and Germanic Philology (Urbana). Journal of Ethiopian Studies (Addis Ababa). Journal of Near Eastern Studies (Chicago). Journal of Religion (Chicago). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (London). Journal of Roman Studies (London). Journal of Sacred Literature (London). Journal of Semitic Studies (Manchester).
Journal of Theological Studies (Oxford). Khristianskij Vostok (St. Petersburg). Muston (Louvain). Novum Testamentum (Leiden). New Testament Studies (Cambridge). Neue Zeitschriftfor Missions- und Religionswissenschaft (Schoneck­ Beckenried) . Oriens Christ janus (Wiesbaden). Orientalia christiana periodica (Rome). L' Orient syrien (Paris). Patrologia Graeca (Paris). Patrologia Latina (Paris). Patr%gia Orientalis (Paris). Palestinskij shornik (Leningrad). Revue biblique (Paris). Revue Benedictine (Abbaye de Maredsous). Revue des etudes armlniennes (Paris). Revue des etudes slaves (Paris).
Revue d'histoire eccUsiastique (Louvain).
Revue de l'Orient chretien (Paris).
RQH
TLZ TQ TSK TV
Abbreviations Revue des questions historiques (Paris).
Rassegna di studi etiopici (Rome). Rivista degli studi orientali (Rome).
Recherches de science religieuse (Paris).
xix
PART ONE
I
The Syriac Versions
O F all the early versions of the New Testament, those in Syriac have raised more problems and provoked more controversies among modern scholars than any of the
others. The reasons lie partly in the multiplicity of translations and revisions of the Syriac Scriptures, and partly in the ambiguity of evidence concerning their mutual relationship. At the same time, that five or six separate versions in Syriac were produced during the first six centuries of the Christian era is noteworthy testimony to the vitality and scholarship of Syrian churchmen. In fact, as Eberhard Nestle has reminded us, 'No branch of the Early Church has done more for the translation of the Bible into their vernacular than the. Syriac-speaking. In our European lib­ raries we have Syriac Bible MSS from Lebanon, Egypt, Sinai, Mesopotamia, Armenia, India (Malabar), even from China.' 1
The several Syriac versions that fall to be considered in the present chapter begin with the earliest translation of the Gospels. Whether this was Tatian's Diatessaron, a harmony of the four Gospels prepared about A.D. 170, or the Old Syriac version of the separate Gospels, is a question that scholars have debated for many years without reaching any generally accepted solution. How much of the rest of the New Testament was included in the Old Syriac version is difficult to ascertain. In any case, toward the close of the fourth or at the beginning of the fifth century a version oftwenty~two books of the New Testament was available in a translation which came to be called at a later date the Peshitta2 Syriac version. This translation, like jerome's pro~ duction of the Latin Vulgate text amid competing Old Latin translations, was intended to supply a standardized version and to bring to an end the confusion and variety of readings in earlier Syriac texts. The Peshitta, however, was unable to satisfy Syrian scholars who desired a more literal rendering than those already
I 'Syriac Versions', Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible, iv (1902), 645. 2 For definitions of the term 'Peshitta' see p. 4B below.
4 The Syriac Versions
available, and at the beginning of the sixth century PhiJoxenus, bishop of the Jacobite (or Monophysite) branch of the Syrian church, commissioned his rural bishop, Polycarp, to make an­ other version. A century later the Philoxenian version, in turn, seems to have formed the basis for yet another revision made by one who designated himself as 'Thomas, a poor sinner', and who is no doubt correctly identified by an unknown Syriac writer as Thomas of Heraclea (Harkel). Finally, in addition to these several versions, I all of which are in the 'classical' Syriac dialect of Aramaic used at Edessa and generally throughout Syrian communities, there is also the so-called Palestinian Syriac version, which makes use of a form of western Aramaic similar to that used by Galilean Jews in the Old Testament Targums.
I. THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO SYRIA
AND THE TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
It was at Antioch of Syria, the third-largest city of the Roman Empire, that the followers of Jesus were first called Christians (Acts xi. 26). Situated on the Orontes River, north of the Leba­ non range, the city was a melting-pot where persons of many races met and mingled. 2 The leading classes were of Hellenic background and, along with some of the indigenous populace, spoke Greek. At the beginning of the second century Ignatius of Antioch,3 while en route to Rome, wrote several letters in Greek.
I It is no longer customary to reckon among the Syriac versions the Karka­ phensian materials, which are a kind of Syriac Massorah whose authors attempted to preserve what was regarded as the best traditions of the orthography and pro­ nunciation of the more important and difficult words of the Syriac Bible. This Massorah was extant in two forms, corresponding to the two main branches of the Syrian Church. The Jacobite manuscripts greatly predominate in quantity over the Nestorian manuscripts. See J. P. P. Martin, Tradition karko.phienne ou la Massore chez les Syriens (Paris, 1870; Eng. tr. in HebTaica, ii (1885-6), 13-23); G. H. Gwilliam, 'The Materials for the Criticism of the New Testament, with Specimens of the Syriac Massorah', Studia biblica et eccleswtica, iii (Oxford, 1891),56-65 and 93-100; William Wright, A Short History of Syriac Literature (London, 1894; repro from Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th edn., vol. xxii, 1887), pp. 20-4; and F. H. A. Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the…