Barnabas' Isaiah Text and Melito's Pascal Homily by Robert A. Kraft (University of Pennsylvania). [Publication History: appeared first as a "Critical Note" in the

Journal of Biblical Literature 80 (1961) 371-373 when the author was an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Manchester (England); revised and expanded for electronic distribution in September 1993 (keyboarded by Ellen Shevitz).] In

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79 (1960), pp. 336-50, I tried to point out some of the peculiarities which are found in the quotations from Isaiah as used by the Epistle of Barnabas. Since the publication of that study, it has come to my attention that the recently recovered Homily on the Passion (PERI\ PA/SXA) attributed to Melito of Sardis\1/ contains three references to Isaiah which shed added light on the corresponding quotations in Barnabas. ----- \1/ There are two extensive MSS of the Greek text: (1) Chester Beatty-University of Michigan Papyrus 12, ed. by C. Bonner in

Texts and Documents

12 (1940), with photographic facsimiles published by F. G. Kenyon (1941); and (2) Papyrus Bodmer 13, ed. by M. Testuz (1960). Smaller fragments of the Homily exist also in Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Coptic; for the relevant literature, see the footnotes in Testuz. For the most part, obvious scribal errors and insignificant orthographic peculiarities in these MSS of the Homily have not been noted below. [[@@ need to update bibliography on editions and translations; e.g. Perler, Hawthorne, Hall]] ===== 1. Isa 3.10a, with no significant variation from LXX MSS, is found in Barn 6.7 = Peri Pascha 72 (a shorter quotation than in Barn). It is interesting that Barn = Peri Pascha = LXX MSS here read EI)PO/NTES DH/SWMEN TO\N DI/KAION... in contrast to the following variant forms of these words attested by some other patristic quotations: (1) LE/GONTES DH/SWMEN ... is found in the Dialogue of Papiscus and Philo (12; ed. McGiffert, p. 69),\2/ while its Latin equivalent ("dicentes alligemus ...") is given by Jerome as the LXX reading in his Commentary on Isaiah, ad loc. Possibly LE/GONTES also lies behind the reading of Barn\L/ 6.7 (see below, variant item 3), qui dicunt. ----- \2/ Compare the Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila (f. 85v; ed. Conybeare, p. 71) -- ... LE/GONTES DEU=TE KAI\ DH/SWMEN ..... Note also that the quotation from Jer 11.19 in Peri Pascha 63 has EI)PO/NTES where all other witnesses to the OG have LE/GONTES -- there may well be a reciprocal influence between Peri Pascha 63 and 72 with their similar (formulaic?) phraseology "reckoning evil upon me, they said...." ===== (2) EI)PO/NTES A)/RWMEN ... is attested by Justin Martyr (Dial. 136.2 and 137.3), and the A)/RWMEN also is found in Hegesippus (apud Eusebius, HE 2.23.15) and Clement of Alexandria (Strom. 5.108.2);\3/ the Latin equivalent to A)/RWMEN, "auferamus," occurs in Tertullian (Adv. Marcion 3.22) and in Rufinus' translation of Eusebius, ad loc. ----- \3/ Apparently Clement here is quoting from his hellenistic- Jewish School tradition, which goes back (at last) to Aristobulus. On this problem, and on early quotations of Isa 3.10 in general, see N. J. Hommes, Het Tesimoniaboek (1935), pp. 178 f. and 187-95. ===== (3) A further alternative form of this text in early Christianity rests on the use of Isa 3.10 by Wisd 2.12 -- E)NEDREU/SWMEN (DE\) TO\N DI/KAION... -- and is found in Hippolytus (Adv. Judaeos 9; ed. Lagarde, p. 67), while the Latin equivalent ("circumveniamus ...") is attested by the ancient latin version of Barn 6.7, by Cyprian (Test. 2.14), Lactantius (Div. Inst. 4.16 = Epitome 40[45], and Evagrius' Dialogue of Simon and Theophilus (2.4; ed. Bratke, p. 36). [[p.372]] Of special interest is the fact that Justin Martyr explicitly identifies A)/RWMEN as the reading of "the LXX," but claims that DH/SWMEN was preferred by the Jews whom Trypho represents (Dial. 137.3; Justin uses DH/SWMEN in Dial. 17.2 and 133.2). Nevertheless, no existing MS of the LXX reads A)/RWMEN! 2. Section 101 of the Homily contains a noncanonical hymnodic speech by the resurrected Christ which begins with an allusion to Isa 50.8 -- TI/S O( KRINO/MENOS PRO\S (E))ME/; A)NTISTH/TW MOI. As I noted in the previous article, p. 346, patristic references to Isa 50.8-9 are extremely rare, and the quotations of this passage in Barn = Irenaeus\4/ differ strikingly from all other known texts. Melito's allusion, brief though it is, provides a hitherto unattested variant in reading PRO\S (E()ME/\5/ instead of MOI (as in all other witnesses except LXX MS 36 and Iren., which lack MOI). In lacking A(/MA after A)NTISTH/TW MOI, however, Peri Pascha agrees with Barn = Irenaeus and the Syro-Palestinian version (Irenaeus and Cyril\lemma/ also lack MOI here). Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing whether the author of Peri Pascha also was familiar with the interesting variations which occur in the remainder of the quotations in Barn = Irenaeus. ----- \4/ For the texts, see

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, 79, p. 346. This and two other striking correspondences between quotations in Barn and Iren also are treated by L.-M. Froidevaux, "Sur trois textes cite/s par Saint Ire/ne/e,"

Recherches de Science Religieuse

44 (1956), pp. 408-21. \5/ Bonner's restoration of the lacuna here in the Chester Beatty text, [NOS PRO\S] E)ME/, has been proved correct by the Bodmer MS (PRO/S ME), and is, indeed, a normal LXX construction with KRI/NESQAI -- cf. Judg 21.22; Job 31.13; Jer 2.35 and 32.31; Sir 42.8. ===== 3. Most significant, however, is the minute variation of word order in Isa 53.7b which is attested by Peri Pascha 64, Barn 5.2, Acts of Philip 78, and Ps-Chrysostom's Peri Nesteias 6 (twice): Barn/Melito/Act Phil/Ps-Chrys LXX MSS of Isa 53.7b W(S PRO/BATON (same) E)PI\6/ SFAGH\N H)/XQH (same) KAI\ W(S A)MNO\S A)/FWNOS\7/ KAI\ W(S A)MNO\S E)NANTI/ON E)NANTI/(ON) TOU= KEI/RANTOS\8/ TOU= KEI/RONTOS\8/ AU)TO/N (AU)TO\N)\11/ A)/FWNOS [[p.373]] (OU)/TWS\9/ OU)K A)NOI/GEI (same) TO\ SO/MA AU)TOU=)\10/ (same) ----- \6/ Instead of E)PI\ SFAGH/N, the Chester Beatty MS has EISFAGHN, which Bonner corrected to EI) SFAGH/N. Since the initial EI (LXX E)PI/) could originate as well from the P dropping out of E)PI\ as from copying only one of two consecutive sigmas, there is no necessity to accept Bonner's correction. The Bodmer text has E)PI\ SFAGH\ [sic] H)/XQHN [sic]. Note, however, that the parallel material in Peri Pascha 4 (Bodmer) has EI)S SFAGH/N (Latin ad ...). \7/ The ancient Latin version of Barn has no equivalent for A(/FWNOS ("lt>sine voce" or "mutus" in the Latin fathers and versions), and the abridged Latin versions of the Homily (see H. Chadwick, "A Latin Epitome of Melito's Homily on the Pascha,"

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11 [1960], pp. 76-82) places "sine voce" in its usual LXX position. But the related passage in Peri Pascha 4 (see also above, n.6) seems to have the possibly formulaic A)MNO\S A)/FWNOS (see the similar forms in 44 and 71), which as a standard designation might well have influenced the order of the wording in the quotation -- see also this terminology in Gregory Nazianzenus Peri Huiou/Orat 29 (PG 20.20f). A similar conflating of the terminology of Jer 11.19 A)RNI/ON A)/KAKON with Isa 53.7 PRO/BATON ... A)MNO/S ... A)/FWNOS appears (in often homiletic contexts) in a number of Christian authors including Origen, Eusebius, and Ps-Ignatius (based on a search of the TLG electronic texts). \8/ Act Phil and Ps-Chrys, with many LXX witnesses, have KEI/RONTOS, and the second quote in Ps-Chrys has E)NWPI/ON for E)NANTI/ON -- a frequent variant pattern in the Old Greek materials. The reading of Barn/Peri Pascha also has extensive LXX and patristic support (see Ziegler's edition of Isaiah in the "Goettingen LXX" on this and other LXX variants mentioned). \9/ OU(=TOS in some LXX witnesses and also in the Bodmer MS of Melito. \10/ The Greek MSS of Barn [cp. Act Phil] end the quotation with AU)TO/N, but the ancient Latin version agrees with Peri Pascha in including the words "sic non operuit os suam." \11/ AU)TO/N is lacking in several LXX MSS and in the quotations in Clement of Rome (16.7); Justin M. (Dial. 114; but cf. Apol. 50); Tertullian (De Carn. Res. 20; but cf. Adv. Jud. 9 and 13); Cyprian (Test. 2, 15; but cf. Epistle 4.4 [to Rogatian]; Lactantius (Div. Inst. 4, 18\var/); Origen (Homily 10.1 in Jer.; but cf. Comm. on John 6.273 and 28.166), Eusebius (Dem. 1.10.15; 9.4.4; 10 [Proem.4]; 10.8.32); and Jerome (Comm. on Isa, ad loc.). ===== In Barn, this section forms the conclusion to a longer quotation which begins with phrases from Isa 53.5 (as in LXX); in Melito and Act Phil (ed. Lipsius and Bonnet II, 2, p. 30; cf. pp. 96f., where the material from Isa 53 is lacking), this begins a quotation which is completed by a phrase which comes from the middle of Isa 53.8 -- TH\N (DE\) GENEA\N AU)TOU= TI/S DIHGH/SETAI.\12/ ----- \12/ The abridged Latin version of Peri Pascha also includes the initial phrase of Isa 53.8. ===== The unique position in which A)/FWNOS is found in Barn/Melito/Act Phil adds strong support to the hypothesis that popular quotations ("testimonies") circulated among early Christian authors in various textual forms. It is not impossible that such "peculiar" variations ultimately may have been derived from Greek MSS of Jewish scriptures which now are lost to us; nevertheless, it is reasonably clear from the respective contexts that none of the writings in question took the quotation directly from a MS of Isaiah (notice the short, "proof text" quotations associated with Isa 53.7 in Peri Pascha and Act Phil). On the other hand, there is no reason to suggest that there was any direct, literary relationship between Barn, Melito, and Act. Phil. One thing is clear -- their agreement in such a detail cannot be coincidental, and serves to illustrate the complexity of the situation which is liable to be encounted in any examination of the use of Jewish scriptures in early Christian literature. //end//