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Ambrosiaster's Three Criteria of the True Text And Ambrosiaster’s Three Criteria of the True Text and a Possible Fourth- Century Background for Codex Bezae’s Bilingual Tradition PETER E. LORENZ Codex Bezae’s distinctive text form has typically been viewed against the backdrop of the second century, with little attention given to its place in the late fourth-century context that gave rise to the manuscript’s production (circa 400). But given the remarkably close corroboration of at least three well-known Bezan characteristics with late fourth-century sources, this article suggests that period sources cannot be overlooked in reconstructions of Bezae’s context. As a case study, I examine Ambrosiaster’s remarks on the Old Latin version in his Commentary on Romans (5:14), noting how Ambrosiaster’s three “criteria” of the true text — reason, history, and authority — anticipate specific features of Bezae’s bilingual tradition. Since Ambrosiaster’s remarks in various ways prefigure Bezae’s own apparent outlook towards the Old Latin version, it is suggested that Bezae like Ambrosiaster might be viewed in a context that accords at least equal authority to the Old Latin version as to the Greek tradition. Since the nineteenth century, research on Codex Bezae has generally vi ewed its distincti ve bilingual Greek and Latin text of the gospels and Acts primarily as a product of the second century, whether on the basis of the free character of its text or certain parallels with second-century writers. In his notes on J. D. Michaelis’ Introduction to the New Testament, H. Marsh argues that 126 LORENZ AMBROSIASTER’S THREE CRITERIA OF THE TRUE TEXT... 127 Bezae “has a very ancient text,” much older than the manuscript itself.1 Others, such as Friedrich Blass and A. C. Clark, have argued that Bezae attests the earliest text form of the gospels and Acts.2 As Clark writes, “we are brought back to an archetype of the four Gospels in book-form, which cannot be later than the middle of the second century.”3 Even F. J. A. Hort described Bezae’s text as “substantially a Western text of Cent. II.”4 It is understandable then that researchers have first turned to the second century in attempts to illuminate Bezae’s tendentious readings. Thus, B. D. Ehrman looks to Tatian’s Diatessaron to explain “anti-Judaic tendencies” in Bezae’s text. 5 J. Crehan similarly writes of Bezae’s enhancement of Peter that “[o]ne must look to a time between the compiling of the original version of Acts and the middle of the second century. There was ... at that time someone ... intent on making the position of Peter much more striking than the existing record made it.”6 Crehan assumes that “[t]he Western text [of Bezae] was in existence long before the time 1 J. D. Michaelis, Introduction to the New Testament, vol. 2, part 2, 2d ed. (London, 1802), 713. 2 Friedrich Blass, Philology of the Gospels (London, 1898), 96-110, 145-147; A. C. Clark, The Primitive Text of the Gospels and Acts (Oxford, 1914). 3 Clark, Primitive Text, vi. 4 B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort, The New Testament in the Original Greek. Introduction and Appendix. (New York, 1882), 148. 5 B. D. Ehrman, “The Text as Window: New Testament Manuscripts and the Social History of Early Christianity,” in The Text o f the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis, ed. B. D. Ehrman and M. W. Holmes, 2d ed., New Testament Tools, Studies and Documents 42 (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 803-830 at 810. Bezae’s anti-Judaic tendency is documented by E. J. Epp, The Theological Tendency of Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis in Acts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966). 6 J. Crehan, “Peter according to the D-Text of Acts,” Theological Studies 18 (1957), 596-603 at 601. 128 CONVERSATIONS WITH THE BIBLICAL WORLD Vol. XXXVI (2016) of Irenaeus (who made use of it).”7 B. Witherington likewise looks to the second century to contextualize Bezae’s so-called “anti- feminist” readings, proposing the rise of “a concerted effort by some part of the Church, perhaps as early as the late first century or beginning of the second, to tone down texts in Luke’s second volume that indicated that women played an important and prominent part in the early days of the Christian community.”8 In fact, Bezae attests a number of documented tendencies, from favorable portrayal of Roman soldiers and officials to negative portrayal of Judaism to expanded references to Peter and the Holy Spirit to limitations imposed on the ministry of Paul.9 Such a variety of proposed tendencies, unheard of in any other manuscript tradition, should offer sufficient clues to lead us to a plausible historical context. Yet we struggle to find any such context in the second century. THE LATE FOURTH CENTURY AS A SETTING FOR BEZAE’S DISTINCTIVE TEXT Meanwhile, it has scarcely been noticed that Bezae’s tendencies have compelling explanations in the two decades immediately preceding Bezae’s paleographically-assigned date circa 400. Concerning Bezae’s anti-Judaic tendency, we know that the legal status of the Jews was deteriorating throughout the fourth 7 Crehan, “Peter,” 601. 8 B. Witherington, “The Anti-Feminist Tendencies of the ‘Western’ Text in Acts,” Journal of Biblical Literature 103 (1984), 82–84 at 83. 9 A. G. Brock, “Appeasement, Authority, and the Role of Women in the D-Text of Acts,” in The Book of Acts as Church History: Text, Textual Traditions and Ancient Interpretations, ed. T. Nicklas and M. Tilly, Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 120, (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2003), 205–224. LORENZ AMBROSIASTER’S THREE CRITERIA OF THE TRUE TEXT... 129 century under the influence of Christian polemicists and Christian emperors.10 Opposition to what was called “Judaizing” — namely, any Christian observance of Jewish practices, such as Sabbath observance — is palpable in the works of fourth-century Christian polemicists such as Ephrem, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and the anonymous redactor of the epistles of Ignatius of Antioch. The Council of Laodicea (ca 363) singles out Christians who prioritize Sabbath observance over observance of the Lord’s day, condemning Christians who rest on the Sabbath as “Judaizers … accursed from Christ.” 11 Hostility towards the Jews is palpable in Ambrose’s successful petition to the emperor Theodosius to exonerate Christians accused of burning down a synagogue, under the pretext that “[after all] a synagogue has been burned, an abode of unbelief, a house of impiety, a shelter of madness under the damnation of God Himself.”12 Concerning Bezae’s expansion of Peter’s role, we can point to Damasus’s efforts to promote the cult of Peter, documented in his epigrams: “Not by human power or art, … but with the help of Peter, pre-eminent, to whom was handed over the very door of heaven, I, Damasus, Bishop of Christ, built this. There is one chair of Peter and one true baptism that no chain can bind.” 13 This interest in Peter is 10 J. Neusner, Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine History, Messiah, Israel, and the Initial Confrontation, Chicago Studies in the History of Judaism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 17, 61–65; R. L. Wilken, "Judaism in Roman and Christian Society," The Journal of Religion 47 (1967), 313–30 at 324. 11 ἀνάθεµα παρά Χριστῷ. C. J. Hefele, ed., Histoire des conciles, 1/2.1015. 12 “Non est ergo cause tantae commotioni idonea … quia synagoga incensa est, perfidiae locus, impietatis domus, amentiae receptaculum, quod deus damnavit ipse.” Saint Ambrose, Letters, trans. M. M. Beyenka, Fathers of the Church 26 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1954), 12; Ambrose Epistle 74.14 Clementissimo principi ac beatissimo Imperatori Theodosio, ed. M. Zelzer (CSEL 82.4:62). 13 “Non haec humanis opibus, non arte magistra … sed praestante Petro, 130 CONVERSATIONS WITH THE BIBLICAL WORLD Vol. XXXVI (2016) consistent with Rome’s growing assertiveness for a place of primacy among the ancient sees, especially in its rivalry with the new see of Constantinople.14 But when we consider that Peter’s enhancement in Acts also comes at the expense of Paul, we find that the aggrandizement of Peter over Paul is perhaps better explained in light of the late fourth-century anti-ascetic movement.15 Meanwhile, those who objected to privileging virginity over marriage naturally looked to Peter’s precedent as married apostle.16 Concerning Bezae’s so-called “anti-feminist” readings, we can draw parallels to critics of radical asceticism in the Latin West in the final decades of the fourth century, such as Helvidius, Jovinian, and Ambrosiaster.17 By placing women and children in the upper room with the apostles (Acts 1:14), Bezae’s text can be seen as an appeal to the apostolic precedent of marriage and procreation, contending with radical ascetics who promoted virginity as a more meritorious way of life.18 Meanwhile, Bezae’s cui tradita ianua caeli est, antistes Christi conposuit Damasus. una Petri sedes, unum uerumque lauacrum, uincula nulla tenent.” M. Ihm, ed., Damasi Epigrammata (Anthologiae Latinae Supplementa; vol. 1; Leipzig, 1895), 9– 10, translation mine. See also, U. Reutter, Damasus, Bischof von Rom (366– 384): Leben und Werk, Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 55 (Tübinen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), 150–151, 473–474; J. R. Curran, Pagan City and Christian Capital: Rome in the Fourth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 152–153. 14 On the rivalry between Rome and Constantinople, see C. Ando, “The Palladium and the Pentateuch: Towards a Sacred Topography of the Later Roman Empire,” Phoenix 55 (2001), 369–410 at 374.
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