CHAPTER ONE

THE LUCIANIC RECENSION OF THE GREEK BIBLE 1

Among the several scholars of the ancient Church who occupied themselves with the textual criticism of the Bible, one of the most influential was Lucian of Antioch. Though not as learned or as productive in a literary way as either Origen or Jerome, Lucian's work on the text of the Greek Bible proved to be of significance both in his own day and, to an even greater extent, during the centuries following. In fact, his recension of the text of the New Testament, with only minor modifications, continued to be used widely down to the nineteenth century, and still lives on in the so-called Ecclesiastical text of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Little is known of the life of Lucian of Antioch. Born probably at Samosata in Syria about the middle of the third century, he was educated at Edessa under a certain Macarius, who, according to Suidas, was a learned expounder of holy Scripture. After a period when he may have studied at Caesarea, Lucian transferred to the famous theological school of Antioch, of which he and Chrysostom, Diodorus, Theodoret, and Theodore of Mopsuestia were to be some of the more distinguished alumni. Apparently Lucian was in sympathy with the theological views of his fellow townsman, Paul of Samosata, and when Paul was deposed for Christological heresy in A.D. 268 (or 270), he too with­ drew from the Church. During his later years Lucian seems to have become more orthodox, and under the episcopate of Cyril of Antioch (A.D. 283-304) he was restored to ecclesiastical fellowship. He died in the peace of the Church, suffering martyrdom for the faith at Nicomedia, Bithynia, probably on January 7, 312. Many are the historical and theological problems connected with the person and influence of Lucian of Antioch. The question has even been raised as to whether Lucian the excommunicated heretic was the same person as Lucian the martyr and Biblical scholar. 2

1 The substance of this chapter was presented as a lecture at the Sym­ posium on Antioch of Syria held during May, 1959, at the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. 2 This view, suggested earlier by Ceillier, Fleury, De Broglie, and Oikono­ mos, has been revived by D. S. Balanos in Ilp(Xx-nxcx -t'ij<; 'Ax(X37)µ((X<; 'A67)v&v, 2 THE LUCIANIC RECENSION OF THE GREEK BIBLE

There is no need, however, to suppose the existence of two Lucians, one orthodox and one heretical; the somewhat conflicting reports can be easily reconciled by the assumption that Lucian was a critical scholar whose views on the Trinity and on Christology differed from what was later defined at Nicea as the orthodox position, but that he wiped out all stains of doctrinal aberrations by his heroic confession and martyrdom.1 It is quite understandable that during his connection with the school at Antioch he exerted a pervasive influence upon the theological views of those who came to adopt Arian theology. Indeed, Arius himself, a former pupil of Lucian's, declared (in a letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia) that he was merely following Lucian's views regarding Christology. Along with Arius, other sympathizers of Lucian's point of view-such as Eusebius of Nicomedia, Maris of Chalcedon, Leontius of Antioch, Eudoxius, Theognis of Nicaea, Asterius-became a closely-knit group that were dubbed "Collucianists." It is, however, not the vicissitude of doctrinal disputes 2 that is our concern here, but the part that Lucian played in editing the text of the Greek Bible. Though not a little has been written on the subject, it is unfortunate that, with only a few exceptions,3 scholars have confined their attention either to problems relating to his recension of the Greek Old Testament or to those relating to the New Testament. Such restrictions of interest have worked to the disadvantage of both groups of scholars. Just as the grammarian and the lexicographer of the New Testament can learn much from an examination of the language of the Septuagint, so too the tex- vn (1932), 306-3II, and by Gustave Bardy, Recherches sur saint Lucien d'Antioche et son ecole (Paris, 1936). 1 So, for example, Albert Ehrhard, Die Kirche der Miirtyrer (Munich, 1932), pp. 304f., and Adhemar d'Ales, "Autour de Lucien d'Antioche," Melanges de l'universite Saint Joseph (Beyrouth), xx1 (1937), 185-199, who point out that it is extremely unlikely that two persons of the same name should have played important roles in Antioch at the same time without leaving in the sources a trace of their differentiation from each other. 2 For discussions of Lucian from a doctrinal point of view, reference may be made to E. Buonaiuti, "Luciano martire, la sua dottrina e la sua scuola," Rivista storico-critica delle scienze teologiche, 1908, pp. 830-836, 909-923; 1909, pp. 104-II8; Friedrich Loofs, Das Bekenntnis Lucians, des Miirtyrers ( = Sitzungsberichte der koniglich preussischen A kademie der W issenschajten, Berlin, 1915), pp. 576-603; Adolf von Harnack, Dogmengeschichte, 5te Aufl., II (Tiibingen, 1931), 187-190; and, especially, Bardy, op. cit. 3 E.g. M. Spanneut's recent study, "La Bible d'Eustathe d'Antioche - Contribution a l'histoire de la 'version lucianique,' " Studia Patristica, ed. F. L. Cross, 1v (TU, LXXIX [Berlin, 1961]), 171-190.