The Harklean 'Currency Annotations'1 Peter A.L. Hill

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The Harklean 'Currency Annotations'1 Peter A.L. Hill THE HARKLEAN ‘CURRENCY ANNOTATIONS' THE HARKLEAN ‘CURRENCY ANNOTATIONS’1 PETER A.L. HILL One of the better-known features of the Îarklean (H) New Testament2 (completed A.D. 615/16) is that, like its Old Testament counterpart, the Syrohexapla, it exhibits an array of critical accoutrements. In particular, the margin incorporates a large selection of variant readings in Syriac, together with a number of philological and exegetical scholia and a range of Greek glosses while, in the textline, asterisks and obeli are used to denote the criti- cal status of the registered readings with reference to Thomas’ Greek stand- ard. These features reflect the circumstance that H comprises both a philo- logical and a textual revision of the Philoxenian (Phil) version.3 In this 1 The following sigla are used for the Syriac versions: C = Syrus Curetonianus. H = Îarklean version, citing text as collated from Mss. witnesses. HW = Îarklean version, ed. J. White (Gospels, 1778). P = Peshitta. Phil = Philoxenian; S = Syrus Sinaiticus. Note that Philex = Thomas of Îarkel’s Philoxenian exemplar; and that H* = a reading in the Harklean textline sub asterisco (not to be confused with the use of the asterisk (*) to denote uncorrected readings in the citation of N.T. witnesses). Greek witnesses and other authorities (except Diat. = Diatessaron) are cited after Nestle- Aland: Novum Testamentum Graece, Twenty-seventh edition, eds. B. & K. Aland et. al. (Stuttgart, 1993) = NA27. 2 The standard edition of H has been the editio princeps by Joseph White, Sacorum Evan- geliorum versio Syriaca Philoxeniana etc., 2 vols. (Oxonii, 1778); and Actuum Apostolorum et epistolarum tam catholicarum quam Paulinarum, etc., 2 vols. (Oxonii, 1799, 1803). Un- fortunately HW was based on a recensional text substantially removed from the H arche- type. For the Gospels much to be preferred is the text (based on Vat. Syr. Ms. 268) in G.A. Kiraz, Comparative Edition of the Syriac Gospels. Aligning the Sinaiticus, Curetonianus, Peshitta and Îarklean Versions, N.T. Tools & Studies, 21/1-4 (Leiden, 1996). Dr. Andreas Juckel is currently preparing a new critical edition of the Gospels; see his ‘Towards a Criti- cal Edition of the Harklean Gospels’, Parole de l’Orient, 23 (1998), pp. 209-215. For gen- eral introduction see A. Juckel, ‘Introduction to the Îarklean Text’, in Kiraz, Comparative Edition, 21/1, pp. xxxi-lxxxii; and B.M. Metzger, The Early Versions of the New Testament: Their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations (Oxford, 1977), pp. 65-75. 3 I.e., the version commissioned by Philoxenus of Mabbug and completed in A.D 507/8 by his chorepiscopus, Polycarp. With the possible exception of the Minor Catholic Epis- tles, no copy of Phil is known to exist. On H as a philological revision of Phil see espe- cially S. P. Brock, ‘The Resolution of the Philoxenian / Harclean Problem’, in New Testa- ment Textual Criticism. Its Significance in Exegesis: Essays in Honour of Bruce M. Metzger, eds. E.J. Epp & G.D. Fee (Oxford, 1981), pp. 324-343. On Thomas’ textual revision of 106 PETER A.L. HILL connection, then, it is of special interest that the H margin also contains a number of Syriac glosses, which serve to advise either the non-attestation or, less frequently, the attestation of the registered readings by various Greek and Syriac authorities. There are nineteen such glosses in the margin of the Synoptic Gospels, which, on the basis of the external evidence, can be at- tributed confidently to the H archetype.4 I will refer to these glosses as ‘cur- rency annotations’. Eleven register readings sub asterisco (H*) in the textline (Mt 25,1mg; 28,5mg; Mk. 8,17mg; 11,10mg; 12,14mg; Lk 8,24mg; 8,52mg; 923mg; 9,50mg; 1938mg; 19,45mg); four register other readings in the textline (Mt 20,4mg; 27,35mg; Lk 6,1mg; 14,8mg); and four make reference to read- ings exhibited in the margin (Mt 20,28mg; Mk 10,47mg, 16,8mg; Lk 20,34mg). Although it may appear that the currency annotations simply serve to give an account of certain textual differences between Thomas’ collated Phil see my unpublished PhD dissertation, The Harklean Version of St. Luke 1-11: A Criti- cal Edition and Introduction (University of Melbourne, 2002), pp. 59*-88* et passim; com- pare also Günther Zuntz, The Ancestry of the Harklean New Testament, British Academy Supplemental Papers, VII (London, 1945). 4 This estimate derives from my observations in the course of collating of Luke 1-11 with twenty-five Mss. for the edition in my Harklean Luke (see n. 3), pp. 1-59, cf. pp. 9*-26*; as well as the collation of the currency annotations with the following Mss. (where ex- tant): Laurentian Plut. I.40 (A.D. 757 – Mk 10,47mg; Lk 6,1mg, both secunda manu); Vatican Syr. Ms. 267 (8th cent. – Mt 20,4mg; 25,1mg; 25,28mg, 27,35mg; 28,5mg; Mk 8,17mg; 10,47mg; 11,10mg; 2,14mg; Lk 6,1mg; 8,24mg; 8,52mg; 9,23mg; 9,50mg,; 14,8mg; 19,38mg; 19,45mg; 20,34mg); Vatican Syr. Ms. 268 (8th/9th cent. – Mt 20,4mg; 25,1mg; 25,28mg; 27,35mg; 28,5mg; Mk 8,17mg; 10,47mg; 11,10mg; 12,14mg; 16,8mg; Lk 6,1mg; 8,24mg; 8,52mg; 9,23mg; 9,50mg; 19,38mg; 19,45mg; 20,34mg(?)); Oxford, New College Ms. 333 (11th/12th cent. – Mt 25,1mg; 27,5mg; 28,5mg; Mk 8,17mg; 10,47mg; 11,10mg; 12,14mg; 16,8mg; Lk 6,1mg; 8,24mg; 8,52mg; 9,23mg; 9,50mg; 19, 38mg; 19,45mg; 20,34mg); Dublin, Chester Beatty Ms. 703 (12th cent. – Lk 6,1mg), only partially collated; Damascus Patriarchate Ms. 12/7 (12th cent.- Lk 9,23mg(?)), only partially collated; Oxford, New Col- lege Ms. 334 (13th cent.- Lk 9,23mg; 19,38mg; 19,45mg); British Library Ms. Add. 17,124 (A.D. 1234 – Mt 27,35mg; Lk 6,1mg; 8,24mg; 8,52mg; 9,23mg; 9,50mg; 19,38mg; 20,34mg), only partially collated; Birmingham, Mingana Ms. 497 (13th cent. – Mt 20,28mg); Cam- bridge Ms. Add. 1903 (mid-19th cent. – Mt 20,28mg; 25,1mg; 28,5mg; Mk 8,17mg; 10,47mg; 11,10mg; Lk, 6,1mg; 8,24mg; 8,52mg; 9,23mg; 9,50mg; 19,38mg; 19,45mg; 20,34mg). Three instances (Mt 20,4mg; 20,28mg; Lk 14,8mg) do not occur in HW, while two in- stances, one found in HW (Mt 2,7 mg), and another which occurs in some later Mss. (Lk 6,8mg), have been excluded from consideration. In HW currency annotations also appear at Acts 4,30mg; 9,4mg; Jude 12mg; Phil 3,18mg; Col 2,1mg; see further J.H. Ropes, ‘The Text of Acts: Versions §4. Syriac’, in F.J. Foakes Jackson and K. Lake, The Beginnings of Chris- tianity, Part 1 (London, 1922-33), III, pp. clxiii-xiv. THE HARKLEAN ‘CURRENCY ANNOTATIONS' 107 Greek witnesses,5 on closer examination they prove to be a complex phe- nomenon. For one thing, why is it that only some variant readings were supplied with currency annotations? In light of the textual diversity of both the H textline and the array of marginal readings it is hardly credible to as- sume that the currency annotations denote the only places where the testi- mony of Thomas’ Greek witnesses was divided. Moreover, there is nothing regular about the distribution of these glosses, and why is it that they occur in the Synoptic Gospels but never in St. John? Further, there is the consid- eration that Thomas’ method was to revise Phil by collating it with Greek testimony.6 How then is it that a number of the currency annotations cite the witness of certain Syriac authorities? Merely to ask these questions suf- fices to demonstrate that it cannot be assumed uncritically that the currency annotations necessarily reflect Thomas’ collation of witnesses. Accordingly, in this paper, we will examine the currency annotations in order to make some determination about their probable origins and to consider their im- plications with respect to Thomas' methodology. ANNOTATIONS WHICH REGISTER MARGINAL READINGS Mt 20,28mg7 5 According to the subscription to the H Gospels, Thomas states that he collated three Greek copies, although some witnesses read “two” copies: for text see Hill, Harklean Luke, Appendix II: ‘The Harklean Subscriptions’, pp. 237*-239*, at p. 238* (l.16): hereafter cited as ‘Subscription to the Gospels’. The subscription is printed also in Kiraz, vol. 4 (see n. 2), p. 369. 6 ‘Subscription to the Gospels’, ll. 13 ff. 7 The text is subject to a number of variations, see Hill, Harklean Luke, pp. 90*-92*. 108 PETER A.L. HILL ‘But you seek from smallness to be great, and from the greater to become diminished. And when you go in and recline to dine, you must not re- cline at the places of eminence, lest one more illustrious than you comes in afterwards, and the one who invited (you) to dinner will come over and will say to you, “Go even lower down,” and you will be disgraced. But if you recline in the lesser place, and one who is lesser than you come in afterwards, he who invited (you) to dinner will say, “Now come up higher,” and this will be most profitable to you. These (words) occur in the ancient copies, but in Luke, being set out in qephali{ fifty-three; but they are found here in the Greek copies, therefore we have placed them here'. The annotation combines a glossed logion (ll.1-7) and a comment as to its currency (ll. 8-9).
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