The Birth [Gestation] of the Canon: from
Scriptures to 'THE Scripture'
in early Judaism and early Christianity *
[more
popular talk for Toronto visit, at 8
pm on Thursday, 12
April 2007]
[updated to 30ap07]
[uses Toronto#2.ppt as well as the jpg files linked in html]
[materials added after 12ap2007 in
green]
Introduction:
We are accustomed to
speak about
"the bible" or perhaps "the scriptures" as a single work
which we can hold in one hand [[Slide01]],
and/or do it!]. Technological
developments since about the 4th
century of the common era have made this possible, and most of us
simply take
it for
granted. For us, a "book" is a codex, with pages bound together on one
side at the
spine. But in earlier times, "book" normally meant a scroll, to be
unrolled and hopefully rerolled after use.[[Slide02]]
This ambiguity can
even blur our use of language. In reading the late 2nd
century CE author Lucian's satirical
essay on the addressee's
profligate purchase of
"books," I came across this translation by the Fowlers, published in
1905:
[[Slide03]]
"It is
difficult
to imagine that mind of yours bent upon literary
studies, and those hands turning over the pages." This was somewhat
jarring to me, since we would expect Lucian to be referring to scrolls
(as he does
elsewhere in that essay), in which it is impossible to "turn pages."
A quick check of the Greek, however, shows that Lucian actually wrote
"unrolling (the scroll)" not "turning pages." It was the
choice of the translators to call up a more modern image that would
easily convey the meaning of deliberate reading to
the early 20th century audience, despite what should have
been to them an
obvious technological
mismatch.
Something similar
occurs in the
early Christian gospel of Luke. [[Slide04]]
Jesus is depicted as presenting the
synagogue
reading from the prophet Isaiah, presumably in the form of a scroll. But the Greek
texts of Luke 4.16-20 present two possible readings in describing what
Jesus did with
Isaiah's "book" -- did he "unroll" it, as we would expect
in that presumably pre-codex era, or did he "open" it, and later
"close" it, as later readers and copyists might have assumed with
codices as their models? In most English versions (including RSV),
Jesus "opens" and "closes" the "book," although in the NIV (and the
Message, Holman, ESV, New Living) he "unrolls" and "rolls up" the
"scroll" (in the Darby translation he "unrolls" and "rolls up" the
"book"; in Young he "unfolds" and "folds" the "roll"; the Amplified
version gives
various alternatives).
Artists were not immune to
this
technological confusion. Numerous depictions of the authors
associated with biblical writings from around the 5th century
onward have them producing codices: on the doorstep of the modern
world, [[Slide05]]
Caravaggio's
1602 Inspriation
of Matthew, or [[Slide06]] Masaccio's
St.
Paul from 1426 are typical; interestingly -- if not quite uniquely
-- in a late
13th century depiction [[Slide07]] in the Cappella Tega
at Spello
(= Hispellum), in East-central Umbria (about 8 km = 5 miles
South of Assisi) Matthew
holds a rotulus (a scroll inscribed vertically, like some legal
documents) as does Mark in the late 8th century Coronation
Gospels (Krönungsevangeliar; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Weltliche Schatzkammer, SchK XIII. 8 [originally from Aachen]; http://tinyurl.com/yuejtf ), while in the same book, Matthew is shown with a codex (http://tinyurl.com/yr7rew) as are the other evangelists
in the Spello manuscript;\n/
more
normally for the period, and much earlier, we find codices depicted [[Slide08]] in the
codex Aureus (Lorsch) [Matthew,
Mark,
Luke,
John]
from the end of the 8th century (ca 800); [[Slide09]] the
Godescalc
Gospel
Lectionary [Mark,
all]
from the end of the 7th. [[Slide10]] The famous
Christ the
Pantocrator Icon, Mount Sinai, from the 6th or 7th century,
shows Jesus clutching a decorated codex, similar to some
coins from a
couple of centuries later. [[Slide11]] The
Ravenna "Arian baptistry" mosaics (from the early 6th century) bring us
closer
to reality in this
depiction of Paul,
scroll in hand, although in another
Ravenna mosaic (chapel
of San Andrea), Jesus
holds a codex of John's gospel; [[Slide12]] at the San
Vitale basilica in Ravenna (about 540 CE), Moses
also receives the law on a scroll, and
both Matthew and Luke
hold codices but have capsa full of rolls at their feet while Mark
holds his own codex gospel -- a
noteworthy early exception is the depiction of Mark writing "son of
God" (in Greek; see Mark 1.1)
on what appears to be an unrealistically
wide scroll [possibly modeled on a rotulus? Rossano Gospels (Byzantine;
sixth-century; also known as the Codex Purpureus of Rossano), Rossano
(CS), diocesan museum (this is said to be the oldest surviving portrait of an evangelist in
the history of manuscript illumination) http://tinyurl.com/3yd86d]. Mark is
depicted with the more usual codex in the following (thanks to John Dillon and other
members of the Medieval-Religion electronic discussion group for the
image
URLs and related information):
- Lindisfarne
Gospels (Northumbria, late seventh- or early eighth-century),
London, BL, Cotton MS Nero D. IV: http://tinyurl.com/2cefdk;
- Lichfield
Gospels (Gospels of St Chad; eighth-century), Lichfield, cathedral library: http://tinyurl.com/2npljz;
- Soissons
Gospels (early ninth-century), Paris, BN, ms. lat. 8850: http://tinyurl.com/265r8s and http://tinyurl.com/2s4nqp;
- Landévennec
Gospels -- an unusual depiction! -- (Brittany; ninth-century),
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. D. 2. 16: http://tinyurl.com/3bqpjo;
- Greek
Gospels (earlier
eleventh-century), Athens, National Library of Greece, MS 2552 (this
leaf at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore): http://tinyurl.com/2qb3mc;
- other Greek
Gospels -- with images of the other evangilists, including John holding a rolled-up scroll while he
dictates to his amanuensis writing a codex -- (Sicily or mainland
southern Italy; twelfth-century), Glasgow University Library, Ms.
Hunter 475 (V.7.2): http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/apr2006.html
- see also these Carolingian
Breton images (brought to my attention by Jean Luc Deuffic);
- as well as Donatello's statue of
Mark (1411-1413) for the church of Orsanmichele in Florence:
http://tinyurl.com/26p2ub
[[Slide13]]
In
the San
Apollinare in Classe basilica, a
decade or so later, Jesus
cradles a codex [in the wrong
(right) hand; the picture is reversed] as does the Lukan Ox
and the Johannine
Eagle. [[Slide14]]
The lunette
mosaic depicting the
Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
in Ravenna (c. 425-26) shows the saint with codex in hand on the
right, and [[Slide15]]
a book
cabinet filled with separate gospel codices on the left
\n/
Depictions of scrolls in rotulus format deserve further attention. The
rotulus would have been familiar from its continued use for certain
genres such as some legal and liturgical materials. For the Matthew
image, James Bugslag suggests that perhaps the artist was reminded
of the rotulus because of the genealogy at the start of that gospel --
"In the later Middle Ages genealogies were one of the few literary
forms that were still produced in a rotulus format" (Medieval Religion
electronic discussion list, 27 April 2007). But unfortunately,
that explanation would not apply to Mark
(except perhaps by imitation). Christopher Crockett observes that in
"all the 'Tree of Jesse' depictions --those guys are always holding
rolls/scrolls, never books" [i.e. codices]. For some images of children
reading books in various formats from ancient to modern times, see http://www.americanreadingforum.org/02_yearbook/html/06_Dowhower_final.htm,
especially the 5th century BCE vase painting, a wax tablet from the same period, the Pompeii
fresco of a boy reading from a scroll. For Michaelangelo's use of the
rotulus format in some of his paintings, see http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sistine/14-Prophets.html -- of the prophets, only Joel holds a
proper scroll (twisted in his right hand) while Ezekiel seems to have a
lengthy rotulus and others have codices (Isaiah, Jeremiah [?],
Zechariah, Daniel); similarly of the Sibyls, only the Delphic has a
scroll (possibly rotulus format -- and very long!) while others have
codices (Persian, Erythrean, Cumaean, Libian). The series on the
ancestors of Jesus also uses framed wall plaques similar to rotuli to
list the names.
Famous medieval vertical rotuli
include:
Lorsch,
third quarter of the ninth century, and Frankfurt, early eleventh
century [also
here]
"Exultet Rolls"
(e.g. Salerno [late 12th century], Barbarini [ca 1087, which also
depicts a horizontally
inscribed scroll], Monte Cassino [11th c.])
"The roll survived, however, throughout the Middle Ages, fulfilling
certain specialized functions - although it was now ... read vertically. Such forms were
useful for storing lengthy records and thus were frequently used for
administrative purposes (such as Exchequer Rolls). Rolls also carried
genealogies and pedigrees, and some of these manuscripts were finely
illuminated. Roll CHRONICLES
often accompanied royal genealogies. Illuminated Exultet rolls, with
texts for the blessing of the Easter candle, were designed for public
viewing, with the text facing the reader and the image placed upside
down in relation to the text, to face the congregation over the
lectern. Prayer rolls also survive; they may have been carried as
amulets"
(http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/GlossR.asp).
Further Rochelle Altman (private communication, 01my2007): "The English
Pipe rolls = rotuli = parlimentary rolls, exchequer accounts,
royal estate accounts, sheriff's real property records. Exchequer rolls
from 12th-century - 16th; book form through 19th. Parlimentary rolls
still in use in 16th century England. English legal rolls were
14" in width, written across the width, length as necessary. French
rotuli records of supplications to the Pope, 14th, ditto width and
direction of writing. The thirteenth-century rotuli of Koln were of
parchment and used for the scripture, again, 14" by necessary length,
written across the width."
According to E.G.Turner, this
vertical roll format occurs only in documents in the Greco-Roman
period, not unlike "transversa charta" where the normal letter format
for a page is rotated 90 degrees with the writing parallel to the short
side (
The Terms Recto and Verso, the Anatomy of the Papyrus Roll (Actes du
XVe congr?s internationale de papyrologie, edd. J. Bingen, G. Nachtergael, 1e
partie,
Papyrologica Bruxellensia 16,
1978).
For details on the use of wood for
documents (including wax on wood, inscribed with a stylus ["stylus
type"], and ink on wood ["leaf type"]) see Alan Bowman and David
Thomas, Vindolanda: the
Latin writing tablets London:
Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1983, pp. 35-45, and The Vindolanda Writing Tablets (Tabulae Vindolandenses II), London: British Museum Press, 1994, pp. 40-46.
If this were an art lecture, I might go on to show [[Slide16]]
King David
and his codex book [second quarter of 12th c St. Alban's Psalter], or
King Herod
with a codex book, or the apostles
with codex books as they hear of the resurrection. The codex book has
captured the imaginations of most artists from late antiquity onward,
undoubtedly both reflecting and fortifying the understanding of their
contemporaries.
As we move slightly earlier than the 5th-6th century Ravenna mosaics,
into the
catacombs of Rome, [[Slide17]]
we find a 4th century Paul
with scroll in hand and capsa (scroll box) beside his left foot, very
similar to earlier Roman funerary
statuary in memory of presumably proudly literate departed ones (see also here
and here,
from the Vatican Museum); [[Slide18]]
the
catacomb of Domitilla depiction of Veneranda escorted by St
Petronilla, including both a scroll
filled capsa and a "flying" codex (probably
also mid 4th century -- "after 356"); [[Slide19]]
the earliest known image
of a codex
comes from the 3rd century CE catacomb of SS. Peter and
Marcellinus, unless a wall painting from Pompeii (before 79 CE) shows a
codex rather than wax tablets.
From about the same time, [[Slide20]]
a third century sarcophagus now
in the church
of St. Maria Antiqua depicts a seated
man reading a scroll. This is the third century world of
transition, with Christians moving more quickly to the new technology
than did the surrounding world at large. Interestingly, [[Slide21]]
a 5th
century illustrated copy of Vergil (Latin) shows
him sitting between a closed scroll capsa and a lectern (used also
for
writing?) -- Vergilius
Romanus, Vatican, Vatican Library, Cod. Vat. lat. 3867. folio
14 recto, while [[Slide22]]
a 6th century medical codex depicts the author
awkwardly holding
a codex -- Vienna Dioscurides, Vienna,
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, cod. med. gr. 1, folio 5 verso (see
also the "donor
portrait" in the same manuscript, folio 6 verso).
\n/
Knowledge of the horizontally rolled scroll might have survived through
awareness that classical Jewish liturgy preserved such scrolls (codices
were used for study purposes in the same Jewish circles). Perhaps early
depictions contrasting Church and Synagogue would show such a contrast,
or points of contention in the numerous "Dialogues" between Christians
and Jews. The evidence I've seen so far is not promising: Frans
van Liere calls my attention to a 12th century image in which Synagogue
seems to hold a codex (Herrad of
Hohenbourg's Hortus deliciarum [19th c.copy of a now lost 12th c. codex]),
if the copyist has been faithful to the original; also a 15th
century confrontational scene, where both
Christians and Jews read from codices.
Scriptures
before the mega-codex
Bibles
It was in the mid
fourth century that we witness the appearance [[Slide23]]
of the "mega-codex,"
capable of holding the entirety of what we know as Jewish and Christian
Greek
scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, more or less, and
sometimes beyond -- [[Slide24]]
Sinaiticus includes Barnabas
and Shepherd of Hermas
while Alexandrinus has 1-2 Clement.
The oldest surviving examples of
mega-codices are
Sinaiticus
[page of Jer - Lam] and [[Slide25]]
Vaticanus
[details
here] (each with missing portions) from the 4th century, [[Slide26]]
followed
by Alexandrinus
(5th century) and several others. Probably a
major catalyst to this development was the patronage of the emperor
Constantine and his mother Helena. [[Slide27]]
In a letter to Eusebius prior to
Constantine's death in 337, the emperor requested that 50 parchment
copies of the
"holy scriptures" be made for use in the newly built churches in and
around his new capitol city of Constantinople. [add ref to Skeat,
Williams-Grafton]
This is not to deny
that codex technology had been applied to traditional Jewish and
Christian scriptures in earlier times. But the preserved evidence
suggests that the earlier examples were "mini-codices," containing
single books or small groups of books, [[Slide28]] often
limited to
the
amount of
text that a scroll
could hold. This situation continued even after the 4th century
"breakthrough," since creating complete bibles of the scope of a
Vaticanus was both expensive and time consuming, not to mention
inconvenient in terms of portability and thus access. While the use of
traditional scrolls declined, the mini-codex
continued to flourish alongside the technically innovative mega-codex.
But the
concept of "bible" as a
single physical entity became firmly established, at least in the areas
affected by these developments (Constantinople, Caesarea, probably
Alexandria). And as some of the pictures show, [[Slide29]] "scroll"
came
to be associated with the surviving vertical "rotulus"
format, still
used in legal and some other contexts (here, liturgical), rather than
with the
horizontally laid out scrolls of antiquity.
Our first unambiguous
reference to the use of codex technology in the production of literary
works comes from the Roman poet Martial, in the final quarter of the
first century CE, [[Slide30]] who
even names and gives directions to the bookseller
in Rome who has issued some of Martial's work in convenient parchment
codex format. Martial also refers to other known authors whose works
are available in the new form. How widespread this development was in
the late first century Greco-Roman worlds is impossible to judge from
the surviving evidence. [[Slide31]]
Rudimentary codices were in use as ledgers and
notebooks well before Martial, so we are dealing more with
technological refinement than with original invention. Still, it is
with Christians that the technology was appropriated and developed most
effectively and obviously, at least in Egypt. From the hundreds of
"literary" papyri recovered in Egypt from the period before
Constantine, there is a
gradually increasing trickle of codex fragments that
have no special relationship to Christianity [[Slide32]] (relative
to
scrolls,
about 02% by 200
CE, perhaps 10% by 300), and a relative flood of codex materials
with
Jewish and/or Christian connections. By the sixth century, the codex
was virtually ubiquitous in all circles..
[http://www.bible.ca/b-canon-codex-printing-press.htm --
from
Roberts-Skeat, statistics]
Evidence
of "the canonical
process" with the old scroll and mini codex technology
Later Christian
vocabulary and usage reflects the conceptual changes
that were taking place.
[[Slide33]]
"The books" (plural -- ta biblia) of the
collective
"scriptures" (ta grammata, ais grafais) ultimately become "the bible"
(singular) and "scripture," much as the designation associated with the
ancient divine council (Elohim = gods, powers) became the way of
referring to the strictly monotheistic God of Israel (Elohim). But even
before the advent of the physically unified "bible" in the 4th century
mega codices, some Christian thinkers were imagining a unity of what
they considered to be the scriptures. [[Slide34]] Origen
(ca 225 CE),
in good
Platonic fashion, holds the idea of scriptural oneship to overcome
scriptural plurality ...
On the Latin side, Jerome (ca 400 CE) is in a position even to produce
a
mega-codex containing his new translation/revision, [[Slide35]] although
the oldest
preserved Latin pandect is from a couple of centuries later --
Amiatinus. [[check out Tertullian evidence; does he use the word
"canon," etc.?]]
Lists
and their contexts
We rely in large part
on preserved lists to get back to the earlier developments of canonical
mentality, prior to the 4th century codex revolution. [[Slide36]]
For the Jewish
scriptures, we look especially to the translator of Sirach (ca 125
BCE in Alexandria), who mentions law, prophets, others; and to Josephus
(ca 100 CE, from Jerusalem), who lists 22 books; and alongside them,
early Christian
materials such as in the Jesus tradition in Luke 24.44, which mentions
law, prophets, psalms. Moving beyond the listing of general categories
such as law, prophets, psalms, etc., we have Melito [[Slide37]] (ca
180 CE in Asia Minor [Sardis]; HE
4.26.13-14), who apparently did not know exactly what to include, how
many books or in what order, until he travelled to "the east" (the
order of his list is Octateuch, Kgs 1-4, Paral. 1-2, David's Pss,
Solomon [Prv = Wisd, Eccl, Song], Job, Prophets [Isa, Jer, 12, Dan,
Ezek], Esdras),
and Origen [[Slide38]]
(225
CE; in Eusebius, HE
6.25.20), who speaks of 22 books in an order similar to Melito, but 1-2
Esdras [one book] after Paraleip, with Job and Esther at the end (no
mention of the 12). Of course, lists can also have lives of
their own, and indeed, some of the early listings are known only from
later quotations (e.g. in Eusebius, ca 300 CE).
Whether and when and by whom a specific overall order was prescribed
(an explicit concern for Melito!) is unknown and probably varied
in details from list to list before the emergence of the mega-codices. [[Slide39]] The
emerging
Jewish rabbinic tradition had somewhat different ideas regarding order
as well as exactly what to include. How many people were
actually in a
position to consult all of the listed works cannot now be known (Melito
makes excerpts to help address this problem). Probably
those who lived in places known to have libraries (Alexandria,
Caesarea, Jerusalem) were more likely to be able to convert a list into
actual writings if they wished to do so, or for that matter, to
turn available writings into a list. [[Slide40]]
In the 4th century and afterwards,
lists often accompanied codices, as tables of content [see
Alexandrinus, Amiatinus]. The famous list
in Athanasius'
Paschal (Easter) letter of 367 also plays a major role
in discussions of Christian canon. [[Slide41]]
Lists, such as are
found in Eusebius' Church History,
can also enlighten us in another
way. We can determine to some extent how much has been lost with the
passage of time and the selectivity of scribal reproduction. Goodspeed
and Grant compiled a partial list for us in their History of Early
Christian Literature. [[Slide42]]
It
runs to almost 200 items, mostly Greek,
although for some of them we do have translations into Latin and other
languages. But Eusebius helps us in another way, by occasionally
commenting on items that he presumably knows from lists and/or oral
reports, [[Slide43]]
but that he
admits are no longer extant or available to him:
- Tatian wrote several works, but Eusebius has no precise
knowledge of the Diatessaron, and notes that it is mainly Tatian's
Address to the Greeks that is "remembered by many" (HE 4.29.7)
- Irenaeus promised to write against Marcion, but apparently such
a work has not reached Eusebius (HE
5.8.9)
- Pantaenus wrote treatises, but Eusebius apparently doesn't know
any titles (HE 5.10.4)
- Eusebius is aware of the existence of many "memoirs" that are
"still preserved by many" along with other unattributed
writings (HE 5.27)
- Eusebius mentions that Potamiaena was "celebrated in song,"
apparently now lost (HE 6.5.5)
- Other works by Serapion of Antioch probably "are preserved by
other persons, but have [not] come down to us" (HE 6.12.1)
- Works of Ammonius, teacher of Origen, are famous and
influential, but Eusebius cites only one title and refers to "all the
other works that are to be found in the possession of lovers of
literature" (HE 6.19.10)
- Of the works of Hippolytus, "very many others [beyond the 8
mentioned by name] also might be found preserved by many people" (HE 6.22)
- Apparently Eusebius does not even have a complete copy of
Origen's commentaries on Isaiah, not to mention other works (HE 6.32)
Indeed, Eusebius co-authored with Pamphilus an Apologia for Origen
(HE 6.23.4, 6.33.4, 6.36.4)
which has not survived. And in collecting Origen's letters, Eusebius
arranged for "separate roll-cases, so that they might no longer be
dispersed" (HE 6.36.3) -- an
important, if ultimately unsuccessful, precaution in that transitional
period. It might have been better to copy them all into a codex.
Physical
collections (libraries)
and the concern for textual integrity
With regard to the
question of textual consistency in the pre mega-codex worlds, other
concerns
were sometimes expressed. It would be easy for a scroll or mini-codex
that had received revisional attention to be juxtaposed with other
materials that represented a different sort of textual history, as
clearly happened in some situations (the Greek of Samuel-Kings [[Slide44]] is
an
excellent example, where obvious changes in translational procedures
occur from place to place in various MS families). When such
materials ultimately found their way into codices such as Vaticanus,
textual
confusion became standardized, to the frustration of modern textual
critics. A more obvious example, perhaps, is the presence of the
"Theodotionic" text of Daniel (and not the "Old Greek") in almost all
extant codices side by side with
non-Theodotionic (i.e. "Old Greek") neighboring books. The process of
transmission in such
an unregulatable world of individual small units created problems
that usually must have gone unnoticed, except by very textually aware
scholars such as Origen. The production of Origen's famous "hexapla"
was in part fueled
by such issues.
Probably
this is the significance [[Slide45]]
of the claim by Josephus Ant
12.114 (see Aristeas) that
the king ordered that the LXX books
be taken close care of so that they might remain intact
(Loeb)/uncorrupted
(Whiston) (or "pure, uncontaminated" -- καθαρῶς). [[Slide46]]
Exhortations to careful and accurate copying are attested, as at
the end of the NT book of Revelation,
or with Irenaeus On the Ogdoad (HE 5.20.2). Similarly, claims that
Jews and "heretics" were corrupting the scriptures were not unknown --
see
already Justin the martyr on Isa 7.14 and some other passages (Dial 71-73), and [[Slide47]] the
accusation
recorded by Eusebius from an unknown anti-heretical writer that certain
heretics "have tampered with the divine scriptures without fear ...
saying that they have corrected them, ... [while] some of them
disdained even to falsify them, and absolutely denied the [authority of
the] law and the prophets" (HE
5.28.13-19)
[[check for similar
references in TLG (Homer text work?) ]]
With regard to physical collections of various writings, in addition to
state-sponsored systematic collections such as represented by the
Alexandrian library, of which an extensive catalogue was drawn up as
early as the late 3rd century BCE (Callimachus' Pinakes or
"Tables"), we have some evidence for book exchanges at a less
formal level. [[Slide48]] On
a second century CE Oxyrhynchos papyrus (18.2192)
the unknown author requests that the recipient
Make copies of books 6 and 7 of
Hypsicrates' Characters in Comedy
and send them to me. For Harpocration says that they are among Polion's
books. But it is likely that others also have acquired them. He also
has prose epitomes of Thersagoras' work On Myths of Tragedy. According to
Harpocration, Demetrius the bookseller has them. I have instructed
Apollonides to send me certain books of my own which you will hear of,
in good time, from Seleucus himself. If you find any, apart from those
I have acquired, make copies and send them to me. Diodorus and his
friends also have some which I have not acquired. [See further, chapter
4 of Kim Haines-Eitzen, Guardians of
Letters (Oxford 2000)]
More pertinent to Jewish and Christian interests is [[Slide49]] the
very fragmentary book list on an early 4th century Oxyrhynchos papyrus,
which mentions parchment copies of Exodus, Leviticus, Job, and
Canticles along with the Gospels (probably) and Acts, Hermas, Origen,
and various other unknown or unidentified items (total of 15).
[C.H.Roberts, ZNTW 37 (1938)
186f.]. [[Slide50]]
Eusebius mentions libraries in Rome (where he claims that
Philo's On Virtues was
deposited [HE 2.18.8], as well
as the works of Josephus [HE
3.9.2]), and claims to have made much use of the Jerusalem Church
Library founded by Alexander (212-250) (HE 6.20). Of course, Eusebius' main
connection is with the seacoast city of Caesarea, where Pamphilus had
established a library specializing especially in the works of Origen,
which Eusebius apparently also expanded (HE 6.32.3,
7.26). Indeed, Eusebius notes that Origen wrote many letters to various
persons; "As many of these as we have been able to bring together,
preserved as they were here and there by various persons, we arranged
in separate roll-cases so that they might no longer be dispersed. These
letters number more than 100" (HE 6.36.3).
Of course, books can wear out, both from use and from age, and also may
need to be transferred from older technologies to the newer. The
activities in Caesarea after Eusebius [[Slide51]] included
copying some of Philo's works onto parchment, carried out under bishop
Euzoius around 367, as noted in one surviving manuscript. This might
also have involved a move from papyrus rolls to parchment codices,
although that is simply conjecture based on what we know about the
period.
The Significance of Quotations,
Allusions,
and
Explicit Mentions
The Jewish and
Christian writings from before Constantine are often full of various
sorts of evidence regarding previous literature and its uses. In what
follows, I've added numbers to identify elements that ideally are
present in explicit quotations -- (1) some formula or other indication
of the
intention to quote, (2)
an identification of the source of the quoted material, (3) the
quotation itself, with its own textual particularities (if any), and
sometimes
(4) the significance attached by
the quoting author to the quoted material in this particular
context. Here are some examples:
Philo, On Creation
25-26 [[Slide52]]
[1] this is the
doctrine of Moses, not mine. Accordingly ... [2] Moses says also; [3]
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth:" [4] taking the
beginning to be, not as some men think, that which is according to
time; for before the world time had no existence, but was created
either simultaneously with it, or after it; for since time is the
interval of the motion of the heavens, there could not have been any
such thing as motion before there was anything which could be moved;
but it follows of necessity that it received existence subsequently or
simultaneously
Or again, in section
129 [[Slide53]
(129) So [1] Moses,
summing up [2] his account of the creation of the world, says in a
brief style, [3] "This is the book of the creation of the heaven and of
the earth, when it took place, in the day on which God made the heaven
and the earth, and every green herb before it appeared upon the earth,
and all the grass of the field before it sprang up." [4] Does he not
here manifestly set before us incorporeal ideas perceptible only by the
intellect, which have been appointed to be as seals of the perfected
works, perceptible by the outward senses?
Unfortunately, our
ancient sources are not usually so complete or explicit in their
quotations. Formulas can be quite simple -- "he or it says" -- without
reference to who or where. Quoted material, even with clear
formulas, does not always present wording that we find in the
preserved texts. And when a context of interpretation is provided, it
may not be of much help in clarifying the situation. A notorious
example comes from the story of Jesus' infancy in the Matthean gospel
(2.23): [[Slide54]]
And [4] he went and
lived in a city called Nazareth, that [1] what was spoken [2] by the
prophets might be fulfilled: [3] "He shall be called a Nazarene."
"Allusions" can be
much more troublesome, since by definition they lack the formulaic
elements and are often textually diffuse, relative to the presumed
source text. Sometimes they have become
part of the available language, with the user unconscious of their
ultimate origin. [[Slide55]] How
often have you heard a sports commentator exuding
about how the individual or team "pulled that one out of the fire,"
without any awareness that this language comes into Christian
vocabulary from Jude 23 ("save
others by snatching them out of the fire" οὓς δὲ σῴζετε ἐκ πυρὸς ἁρπάζοντες)? We live
in a linguistic world of allusions, which usually tell us nothing
specific about
the reading habits or attitudes to literature of the users -- "meek as
Moses," "patience of Job," "feel the spirit," "see the light," "go the
second mile," and the like. Whether similar things are true of the
ancient sources we interrogate is usually an open question. We cannot
always tell whether what we see as an allusion to a scriptural passage
was understood and intended as such by the presenter.
Of course, there are
more revealing allusions to be found. At least two types can be
distinguished: (1) verbal echoes, which call a particular passage or
context to mind, and (2) specific references to
people, events, etc., that may be of a more general nature (e.g.
Philo's constant references to Moses as the "lawgiver"). Sometimes this
type of distinction is blurred, where the person or event is linked to
a particular passage with characteristic wording.
[Philo,
On Giants 17]
[[Slide56] "...
he sent evil
angels among them" {Ps 77.49}. These are the wicked who, assuming the
name of
angels,
not being acquainted with the
daughters of
right reason, that is with the sciences and the virtues, but which
pursue the
mortal
descendants of mortal men, that is the pleasures ...[alluding
back to Gen 6.1-4, "
daughters
of men," on which the tractate is based]
[Luke 11.30]
[[Slide57]] For
even as
Jonah became a sign to the
Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.
The latter (references to people and events) are
probably more useful than the
former, for understanding intention, unless other supporting evidence
is present. When Philo is
commenting on a passage that he has formally quoted, and in the ensuing
discussion uses words or phrases found in that passage (as above), we
have a clear
verbal allusion that depends on and extends the quotation. It's pretty
clear what is happening from the larger context. But without such a
context, establishing an intentional connection between incidental
wording and prior texts that contain such wording can be problematic.
Even explicit
formulaic passages can present serious problems. Matthew's gospel
(2.23) on the unidentified Nazarene quotation has already been noted;
also well known is the "agraphon" found in Acts 20.35
[[Slide58]]
on Paul
quoting
Jesus ("remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he
himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'"),
Paul in Romans 3.10-18 on what seems to be a pastiche from the Psalms
and Isaiah introduced as a single quotation [[Slide59]] ("as
it is written"
Ps
13/14.1-3 [cf + 52/53.1-2] + 5.9/10 + 139/140.3/4 + 9.28/10.5 + Isa
59.7-8 + Ps 35/36.1/2), although something similar is found in many OG
manuscripts of Ps 13/14; Barnabas 4.3 on Enoch [[Slide60]] (so
the Greek
witnesses) or Daniel (so the Latin translation). Often such
problems have been solved by appeal to faulty memory on the part of the
author, or to intentional
blending, or to the use of excerpts -- as well as to lost sources
(often as a
last resort?).
The bottom line here
is that an exploration of this sort of evidence shows that these
early authors considered
worthy of citation a wider body of respected materials than what
we have inherited as "bible." This impression has been greatly
strengthened by the Dead Sea Scroll discoveries, in which not only do
we have fragments of other scriptural sounding texts preserved,
sometimes in impressive quantity (e.g. Jubilees), but occasionally even
find similarly mysterious quotations and/or allusions:
CD page 16 [[Slide61]]
refers
not only to "the law of Moses" but in the same breath to "the book of
the divisions of the periods according to their jubilees and their
weeks"; and page 10 calls for ten men in the central governance
of the community who are "learned in the book of HAGY and in the
principles of the covenant," whatever that may mean. That this is not
likely to be a misprint is apparent from the similar reference on p.
13, where "a priest learned in the book of HAGY should not be lacking"
from the leadershp group. And a separate instructional text, the "Rule
of the Congregation," states that young people also should
be instructed in "the book of
HAGY" and "in the precepts of the covenant." Whatever this book
consisted of, it seems to have been very important to them.
Even if HAGY is
understood to be another name for a scriptural work that we already
know -- which seems to me unlikely -- we have firmer evidence for
scriptural plurality within the category of "psalms" among whomever is
responsible for the psalm scroll from cave 11: [[Slide62]] col
27 attributes to wise and enlightened David 3,600 psalms, 364
special daily "songs," 52 sabbath "songs," and 30 other "songs" for
other special occasions, plus 4 exorcism "songs" -- a grand total of
4,050! And among the psalms included in the preserved fragments of that
roll, as well as in other Qumran fragments, are several psalms that are
not found in any collections that became canonical. The popularity of
hymnody among the scroll depositors is underlined by other manuscripts
that do not contain what came to be biblical psalms, but other similar
poetic compositions, the authorship of which is not disclosed by the
extant pieces. This is all reminiscent of Philo's glowing description
of the "Therapeutae" on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, who are said
to compose and sing all sorts of harmonious compositions in their
isolated cells and communal meetings.
One further example in this quick sweep through this material. Qumran
cave 4 produced an apparently independent sheet (not a scroll) on which
four related
quotations are found. [[Slide63]]
It
has been dubbed "4Q Testimonia"
(1) "And **** spoke to Moses saying
[Deut 5.28-29 plus 18.18-19, if the
people remain faithful God will raise up a prophet like Moses, to whom
the people should listen]";
(2) "And he uttered his poem and said : [ Num 24.15-17, the promised
"star" and "scepter"]";
(3) "And about Levi he says: [Deut 33.8-11, an authoritative victor]
(4) "At the moment when Joshua finished praising and giving thanks with
his psalms, he said: [material that starts out similar to Josh 6.26 but
continues the curse with reference to problems to be caused by a man
"of Belial" and associates who instigate violence and
devastation]
Strikingly, the final quotation, from the "Psalms of Joshua," is found
elsewhere in the scrolls from cave 4, in one of the fragments of a work
that is being called Psalms or
Apocryphon of Joshua (4Q379, p.283), probably the
source of the quotation in 4Q Testimonia, but even if not, this
coincidence of Joshua materials is another piece of evidence for
scriptural plurality among the scroll producers and readers.
Conclusion
Much more could be
said on this subject, but it is time to draw this excursion to a close.
My contention is that we do an injustice to the Jewish and Christian
heritage if we import our concept of "Bible," with its fixed and
exclusive canon, back into the period when the respected literatures
known as "scriptures" were transmitted piecemeal, on scrolls or
mini-codices, and held together, if so desired, through lists or
physical collections or conceptual abstractions which often were more
open ended (or less closely defined) than became possible and actual
with the development of the mega-codex in the 4th century CE. What I
have called elsewhere
"the tyranny of canonical assumptions" can
restrict our understanding and appreciation of the sorts of scriptural
worlds in which the subjects of our studies lived, for those of us who
specialize in the pre-Constantinian worlds. There are, of course, many
other aspects to the story beyond the physical development of the
"Bible"
book, and many nuances that need to be recognized, but I'm sure the
picture is no simpler as we move back in time, and that by recognizing
potential as well as actual pluralism in what "scriptures" signified to
our subjects, we can continue to make progress in historical
understanding.
//end//
--- [see also] ---
[*
Original title: "Scriptures
before 'The Scripture': Pre-Canonical Libraries, Lists and Locutions"]
Kim Haines-Eitzen.
Guardians of Letters: Literacy, Power, and the Transmitters of Early
Christian Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp.
x + 212. ISBN 0-19-513564-4. US $52.00.
James J. O'Donnell,
"The
Virtual Library: An Idea Whose
Time Has Passed" [web]
[Deals with the late antique Latin library situation in relation to
modern computer hopes]
L. Canfora, The
Vanished Library: A
Wonder of the Ancient World (Berkeley, 1989), is both a
readable history of the Alexandrian library and at the same time
an exemplification of its curious totemic hold on our culture's
imagination. More accessible, perhaps is this general
treatment of the Alexandrian library by Ellen Brudige of Tufts
University.