Remains of a Very Ancient Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac 9781463208349

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REMAINS OF A

VERY

ÀNTIENT

RECENSION

OF THE

FOUR GOSPELS IN SYRIAC

REMAINS OF A

VERY

ANTIENT

RECENSION

OF THE

FOUR GOSPELS IN SYRIAC, HITHERTO

UNKNOWN

IN

EUROPE;

DISCOVERED, EDITED, AND TRANSLATED BV

WILLIAM

CURETON,

D.D., F . R . 8 .

BOX. U.D. OF T U E C S I V E R 9 I T T OF HALLE ; HON. X I V . OF THE III ST'>RI CO-THEOLOGICAL SOCIETT OF L E I P S I C : COR. MEM. OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE (ACAD. DCS 1XSCRIP. ET BELL. LETT.) ; COS. MEM. OF THE OBI ENTAL SOCIETT OF G E R M A N Y ; MEMBER OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETT OF PARIS, &C. &C. &C. CHAPLAIN

I S O R D I N A R Y TO T H E Q U E E N ;

n E c T o i t O F ST. M A R G A R E T ' S ;

A N D C A N O N OF

0 0

W GORGIAS PRESS 2005

WESTMINSTER.

First Gorgias Press Edition, 2005. The special contents of this edition are copyright © 2005 by Gorgias Press LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States of America by Gorgias Press LLC, New Jersey. This edition is a facsimile reprint of the original edition published by John Murray, London, 1858.

ISBN 1-59333-245-9

& Ì G

GORGIAS PRESS

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Printed and bound in the United States of America.

TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS

THE

PRINCE

CONSORT,

K.G.,

&c. &c. &c. SIR,

IT affords me the highest gratification to be allowed to dedicate this Volume to your Royal Highness.

The position which your Royal Highness

occupies so near to the Throne makes this a peculiar distinction, while your Royal Highness' own personal qualities enhance the honour in a very eminent degree. It is a source of great satisfaction for me to know, that whatever may be the imperfections of this work, your Royal Highness can estimate the amount of labour and research which was requisite to undertake i t ; and I therefore feel assured, that by your Royal Highness at least it will be leniently and kindly judged. No defects on the part of the Editor can preclude these venerable Remains of Christian Antiquity, now for the first time brought to light, from taking their place in the ranks of Christian Literature; and on this account I have solicited the favour of being permitted to inscribe on this page a record both of my gratitude to your Royal Highness, and of my respect. I have the honour to be, SIR,

with the greatest respect, your Royal Highness' very obedient and grateful Servant, WILLIAM WESTMINSTER,

May 25, 18-58.

CURETON.

PREFACE.

THE manuscript from which the text of these Fragments of the Gospels contained in this volume has been printed was one of those obtained in the year 1842, by Archdeacon Tattam, from the Syrian monastery dedicated to St. Mary Deipara, or Mother of God, in the valley of the Natron Lakes. It consisted of portions of three antient copies, bound, together to form a volume of the Four Gospels, with a few leaves in .a more recent hand added to make up the deficiencies. The following note at the end of the book shews the time at which it was bound together in that condition: r d x ^ u r£»>aila K ^ a l o rdardi r ^ a o x . b\:iL &us.i K'T.-II n&iuk nllcu.1 Auxa ^•gciW ^nlaA ^AIO JLOSR^SO {LWCU ^SN «oCLsaas.1 ox>I.i >2ACUA rdu'IAQO.i K'CTAK' K ' i ^ p i rdiip^ ^ o c n l a i a ^ocrsl .scat «¿TCFIOMISAA ri'colri' pi'oaiT^ j&ooeu K'cnAri' K'.VUka « ^ O rtby \ -i .A^oiu.K'l »^CUcd «-¿ILT.IO ^OCN \

rtaiXrt

CFSAIO-L^A E_OEO*.,UI-XLO «^OCNA K'QBU

P^tNyt* rdl^J r£lco rv. I n the copy of the Cave of Treasures K ' v ^ à n j k S o fol. 27.a, this name is written r e d i . and 27.b, r ^ L t , with a note in the margin, «^ttsalo» CUOcp r A ^ s . . " Shela, that is, Salmon j" so that at fol. 36 we find Salmon in the genealogy. In the genealogy by St. Luke, iii. 35, the name is 2ia\a, which the Peshito represents by The word r d i X . is the same as Silas, Acts zv. 22, with which the Hebrew corresponds, see Numbers xxvi. 20, where the Peshito has rélx., as here, and the Septuagint : see Genesis xlvi. 12. The reading of Arphacshar and Ober arises from the confusion and interchange of i for -7, which is of very common occurrence. See what Kirsch has written on this head in the preface to his edition of the Syriac Pentateuch, p. x. * See Assemani Bibl. Orient. Clem. Vat. ii. p. 498, iii. p. 281. f See Assemani Bibl. Orient. Clem. Vat. ii. p. 156. j In his book entitled " A Clear and Learned Exposition of the History of our Blessed

PREFACE.

errors, that J have thought it better to supply another English version of my own. " But why did he omit Ahazia, and Joash, and Amuzia ? Some say that Africanus, bishop of Emmaus,* declares the reason that he omitted them to be because they were sinners and of the seed of Jezebel. To him we reply that they were not of the seed of Jezebel; for Jezebel was the wife of Ahab, but Joram took to wife Athalia» the daughter of Omri, the sister of Ahab, and of her he begat Ahazia. Nevertheless, in one place, according to the sense of the Septuagint, she is called the daughter of Ahab, on account of her wickedness being of the same kind, as St. Severus explains it. But the mother of Joash was named Zaubaf of Beersheba, and the mother of Amuzia was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. They were not, therefore, of the seed of Jezebel; neither were they greater sinners than Solomon, Ahaz, and Menasse, whose names are written in the genealogy. St. Severus saith that Joram, the son of Jehosaphat, married Athalia, the daughter of Ahab, and of her he begat Ahazia, Joash, and Amuzia; and Matthew omitted them because the Hebrews hated the idolatry of the house of Ahab, and therefore he made no mention of these, who were born of an idolatrous marriage, calling to mind the words, I punish the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me. To him some reply, that Athalia, the wife of Joram and mother of Ahazia, was not the daughter ofAhab.butOmri's daughter, and Ahab's sister; and if it were out of regard to the Hebrews that he abstained from making mention of those who were descended from Athalia, how comes it to pass that he has mentioned Uzia who was a leper, and more abominated by the Jews than these 1 Origen J says that he omitted them in order that the generations from Saviour Jesus Christ, taken out of above thirty Greek, Syriack, and other Oriental Authors, by way of Catena:

by DIONYSIUS SYRUS, who flourished most illustriously in the tenth and

eleventh centuries, and faithfully translated by DUDLEY LOFTUS.

4to., Dublin, 1695.

* Julius Africanus, being himself a Syrian, is cited also by other Syriac authors, as Barcephas, Barhebrseus, George, metropolitan of Arbela, &c. See Assemani, Bibl. Orient, ii. 158, 283, 310, iii. 520.

The passage alluded to here is probably taken from his Epistle to Aris-

tides on the supposed disagreement of Matthew and Luke in the genealogy of Christ. Eusebius Hist. Eccl. vi. 3 1 : or his Commentary on the Gospel.

See

See Assemani; ibid. iii. 14.

t p C s j O ^ as in the Peshito, Heb. 1T2D> Sept. 2a/3