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327 Paul of Callinicum and His Place in Syriac PAUL OF CALLINICUM AND HIS PLACE IN SYRIAC LITERATURE 327 PAUL OF CALLINICUM AND HIS PLACE IN SYRIAC LITERATURE Recent years have seen a variety of studies of Syriac translations of Greek texts, both patristic and secular, within the wider context of the Hellenisation of Syriac culture in late antiquity. Dr Brock’s study of the translation technique of the Syriac version of pseudo-Nonnos1, together with his overview articles on the overall development of the Syriac translation programme2, has inspired others to look at other individual texts. On the patristic side, these have included the early translations of Basil of Caesarea3, the two versions of the Cathedral Homilies of Severus of Antioch4, the two versions of Proclus of Constantinople’s Tomus5, Gregory of Nyssa’s Commentary on the Song of Songs6, Titus of Bostra’s Contra Manichaeos7, various texts of Athanasius8, of Timo- thy Aeluros9, of Gregory Nazianzen in the ongoing Corpus Nazian- 1 S.P. BROCK (ed.), The Syriac version of the pseudo-Nonnos mythological scholia, Cambridge, 1971. 2 Ibid., Aspects of Translation Technique in Antiquity, in Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 20 (1979), p. 69-87. Reprinted, Syriac Perpectives on Late Antiquity, London, 1984, ch. III; ibid., Towards a History of Syriac translation technique, in R. LAVENANT (ed.), III Symposium Syriacum, Goslar 7-11 September 1980, Rome, 1983, p. 1-14. Re- printed, Studies in Syriac Christianity, 1992, ch. X (= BROCK, Towards a History). 3 D.G.K. TAYLOR (ed.), The Syriac versions of the De Spiritu Sancto of Basil of Caesarea (CSCO, 576 [Textus]; 577 [Versio]), Leuven, 1999. 4 C.J.A. LASH, Techniques of a translator: Work-notes on the methods of Jacob of Edessa in translating the homilies of Severus of Antioch, in F. PASCHKE (ed.), Über- lieferungsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen (Texte und Untersuchungen, 125), Berlin, 1981, p. 365-383. 5 L. VAN ROMPAY, Proclus of Constantinople's ‘Tomus ad Armenios' in the Post- Chalcedonian Tradition, in C. LAGA et al. (eds.), After Chalcedon: Studies in Theology and Church History offered to Professor Albert van Roey for his seventieth birthday (Orientalia Lovaniensa Analecta, 18), Leuven, 1985, p. 425-449. 6 C. VAN DEN EYNDE, La version syriaque du commentaire de Grégoire de Nysse sur le Cantique des cantiques: ses origines, ses témoins, son influence (Bibliothèque du Muséon, 10), Leuven, 1939. 7 P.H. POIRIER – C. SENSAL, Quelques réflexions sur la version syriaque du Contra Manichaeos de Titus de Bostra, in V Symposium Syriacum, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, 29-31 août 1988, Rome, 1990, p. 307-319. 8 R.Y. EBIED – L.R. WICKHAM, Athanasius' Ad Epictetum, in Journal of Theological Studies, 23 (1972), p. 144-154; and in the discussion in the edition of R. THOMSON (ed.), Athanasiana Syriaca (CSCO 257, 272, 324, 386 [Textus]; 258, 273, 325, 387 [Versio]), Leuven, 1965. 9 R.Y. EBIED – L.R. WICKHAM, A Collection of Unpublished Syriac Letters of Timothy Aelurus, in Journal of Theological Studies, 21 (1970), p. 321-369; ibid., Timothy Aelurus: Against Chalcedon, in C. LAGA et al. (eds.), After Chalcedon: Studies in Theol- ogy and Church History offered to Professor Albert van Roey for his seventieth birthday (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 18), Leuven, 1985, p. 115-166. Le Muséon 120 (3-4), 327-349. doi: 10.2143/MUS.120.3.2024679 - Tous droits réservés. © Le Muséon, 2007. 328 D. KING zenum10, as well as now of the Christological treatises of Cyril of Alex- andria11. The numerous publications of Prof. Hugonnard-Roche have provided a similar insight into the developments in the translations of secular philosophical texts12. The older translation of the aforementioned Cathedral Homilies of Severus has generally been ascribed to Paul of Callinicum, and it is with this individual that we shall be concerned in this paper. Paul as a translator Paul, bishop of Callinicum (ar-Raqqa), is one of the very few Syriac translators whom we can assign with certainty to the sixth century. Stu- dents of patristic theology have been grateful to Paul above all for pre- serving for posterity the works of Severus of Antioch, texts which were destroyed in areas under the immediate control of the Chalcedonian hier- archy and have survived (excepting a few minor fragments and quota- tions in Greek authors) only in their Syriac translations. But for those concerned with the progress and development of Syriac literature and language per se, Paul is also a writer of no small importance. Following in the wake of Philoxenus of Mabbug, he appears to have had been an instigator of those changes and developments in translation technique which reach their apogee in the well-known mirror versions of the sev- enth century13. This paper will set out to show that Paul’s approach to translating Greek into Syriac took its cue from the linguistic revisions introduced by Philoxenus to the text of the New Testament and the Creeds and also points the way forward to the style and method of the seventh century. The first part will take a few examples of Paul’s trans- lations of Severus’ Greek where these can be compared to the original Greek text and will attempt to give a sense of how his approach to Greek grammar and syntax was already far ahead of that achieved by his fifth- 10 Overview in C. DÉTIENNE, Grégoire de Nazianze dans la tradition syriaque, in B. COULIE (ed.), Studia Nazianzenica (CCSG 41; Corpus Nazianzenum, 8), Turnhout, 2000, p. 175-183. So far published are the Syriac versions of Orations 27, 28, 29 (ed. J.-C. HAELEWYCK, Corpus Nazianzenum, 53); Or. 13,41 (ed. A.B. SCHMIDT, Corpus Nazianzenum, 47); 40 (ed. J.-C. HAELEWYCK, Corpus Nazianzenum, 49). 11 D. KING, The Syriac Versions of the Writings of Cyril of Alexandria, A Study in Translation Technique, Leuven, forthcoming. 12 Especially, the collection of articles in H. HUGONNARD-ROCHE, La logique d'Aristote du grec au syriaque: études sur la transmission des textes de l'Organon et leur interprétation philosophique, Paris, 2004. 13 The best description of the process can readily found in S.P. BROCK, Towards a History. PAUL OF CALLINICUM AND HIS PLACE IN SYRIAC LITERATURE 329 century predecessors. In the second part, we shall analyse how Paul ap- proached translating the Biblical text within the Severan corpus and bring those citations together with possible reconstructions of the Philoxenian New Testament. In reading the Severan corpus in its Syriac translation, we are fortu- nate in that Severus so often quotes from ‘patristic’ literature. He is a devotee of Cyril of Alexandria and often quotes him at some length. In the cases of his Philalethes, of course, he is actually refuting the dyophysite interpretation placed upon Cyril’s writings in the so-called Florilegium Cyrillianum. As the latter florilegium is actually quoted in full at the start of the Philalethes, much of Paul of Callinicum’s Vorlage is actually available to us in its original Greek. To this we can add that many of the works of Cyril of Alexandria which were excerpted in the florilegium, or which Severus quotes else- where, were individually and separately translated into Syriac and are extant today. The net result of this fortuitous state of affairs is that we have two Syriac versions of a large number of passages. Our good fortune extends yet further, however, when we discover that, so long as we stick to a few select texts among the Cyrilline corpus, we can date with some precision, and on quite external grounds, both of these two versions. For there is a group of four letters of Cyril’s (Epp. 40,45,46,50) which are cited by Philoxenus in the florilegium appended to his treatise against Habib, also known as the Decem Dissertationes14. In this florilegium, the four aforementioned letters are quoted in the same translation as we can see them in their complete versions in the British Library manuscript Add. 14557, and which were published by Ebied and Wickham in the CSCO series15. Now, the treatise against Habib was proved by de Halleux to have been written before Philoxenus became a bishop, i.e. before 484. Since Cyril only wrote the letters in 432/3, this narrows down the date of translation to the fifty intervening years. Paul of Callinicum’s translation of the Severan texts can also be pinned down with some certainty. The basis for the attribution of the translation to Paul rests on the colophon of Vat. Syr.140, the manuscript which contains the dossier of works written by Severus and Julian of 14 M. BRIERE – F. GRAFFIN (eds.), Sancti Philoxeni episcopi Mabbugensis disserta- tiones decem de Uno e sancta Trinitate incorporato et passo V (Patrologia Orientalis, 41,1), Turnhout, 1982. 15 R.Y. EBIED – L.R. WICKHAM (eds.), A Collection of unpublished Syriac Letters of Cyril of Alexandria (CSCO 359 [Textus]; 360 [(Versio]), Leuven, 1975 (= EBIED – WICKHAM, Letters). 330 D. KING Halicarnassus16. This colophon (on f.145v) attributes the translation to Paul and dates his work to 528. The ms itself is of sixth century date and there is no reason to doubt its testimony in this matter. We thus have a secure attestation and date for this, at least, of the Severan texts. Can any of the other Syriac versions of Severus be ascribed to Paul? When Lebon first published the Liber Contra Impium Grammaticum in 1929, he ascribed the work again “ad eundem interpretem [sc. the trans- lator of the Anti-Julianist works] probabiliter, haud tamen certo, libri quoque contra impium grammaticum syriacam versionem auctores hodierni communiter referunt,” though he does not tell us who these ‘auctores hodierni’ are17. The ascription also of the translation of the Sergius correspondence to Paul of Callinicum rested with Baumstark and was similarly adopted by Lebon18.
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