An Arabic Version of the Epistle of Dionysius the Areopagite to Timothy 9781463232399

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An Arabic Version of the Epistle of Dionysius the Areopagite to Timothy

Analecta Gorgiana

919 Series Editor George Anton Kiraz

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An Arabic Version of the Epistle of Dionysius the Areopagite to Timothy

W. Scott Watson

Y W 2013

Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com G&C Kiraz is an imprint of Gorgias Press LLC Copyright © 2013 by Gorgias Press LLC Originally published in 1900 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. 2013

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ISBN 978-1-61143-530-6

Y W

ISSN 1935-6854

Extract from The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 16 (1900)

Printed in the United States of America

AN ARABIC VERSION OF THE EPISTLE OF DIONYSIUS TIIE AREOPAGITE TO TIMOTIIY. BY REV.W. SCOTT WATSONS A.M., West New York, N. J.

The writingthat purportsto be a letter addressedby Dionysius the Areopagiteto the Timothyof the New Testamenton the occasionof the martyrdom of the apostlesPeterandPaulin Rome, is not includedamong the epistles usually associatedwith IIsps s oupaviaslepap%ias and the otherworksthat bearthe nameof the samepersonas author,and its history must be investigated independentlyof theirs. Composedoriginally in G[reek,it no longer exists in that language,unless it lies hidden in some unpublishedmanuscript,1 but it is known through ancient versions, an extantcopy of one being as old as the seventh century. A Latin translationhas been printed several times, appearing appendedto the 1478 editionof Nicolausde Gorran'sPostilla super Epistolas Pauli as the earliestdated,if not absolutelythe first,Dionysian productionof the press. Armenianand Syriac texts werepublishedby Martinin Pitra'sAnalecta Sacra (Tom. IV, Paris, 1883), and an English renderingof an Ethiopic one was given by Malan in connectionwith his versionof Abdias' The Conflictsof the Holy Apostles (London,1871). To the materialfor the critical study of this epistle I now add a hitherto unprintedArabic translationthat appearsnof only to have been madedirectlyfrom the lost original,although alreadyinterpolated,Glreektext, but also to show that an Arabic formlies backof three,if not of all, of the otherversions.2 It is froma manuscriptobtainedby me in Syria that, though without a date, is probablyof the seventeenthcentury.3 The document 1 The reported esistence of Greek manuscripts of this epistle in Vienna and Florence is probably incorrect. 2 I will not now go into details, but expect at some future time to prepare a paper on this subject. I will say, however, that I think that in its original form this epistle was very dif3Serentfrom what it is at present, containing, for example, no mention of Peter or of an apparition of Paul. 3 The manuscript consists of twelve leaves of paper 7YsX 5 inches in size. Pp. 2422 are occupied by the present text, the other three pages being blank except that p. 28 bears the 225

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