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| Edgar J. Goodspeed History of early christian literature IntraText CT - Text |
With the conversion of Constantine and the adoption of Christianity by the empire, the church entered upon a period of increasingly rigorous definition of both doctrine and discipline. It was a century of great churches, great Bibles, great councils, and great names-Basil, the Gregories, Theodore, Theodoret, Athanasius, and Chrysostom in the East; and in the West, Ambrose, Rufinus, Jerome, and Augustine. It was ushered in by the Council of Nicaea and the figure of Eusebius, and it was a time of great scholars and great theologians; but the pristine radiance of the movement and the literature, the heroic period, which we have been surveying, was gone.
Although book production in the first Christian centuries had reached a high degree of proficiency, the necessity of writing every book by hand being largely offset by the abundance of slave labor, the barbarians ended all that, and the methods of book-copying in the Middle Ages were quite unequal to preserving either pagan or Christian literature, both of which suffered great losses. The wonder is that so much of either was preserv at all after the highly efficient ancient methods of publication disappeared with the old Greco-Roman civilization.
It is, of course, a melancholy business, reporting the tragic losses early Christian literature has sustained. But let us emulate our scientific friends who sometimes conclude a subject with a list of problems awaiting solution, for it is reasonable to think that we are more likely to go on finding these lost books if we have a clear idea of what we are to look for. The lost writings found in whole or in part in the last fifty years are a goodly company: the Revelation of Peter, the Apology of Aristides, Melito's Paschal Homily, the Epistle of the Apostles, the Acts of Paul, Irenaeus' Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, the Odes of Solomon, the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus, and numbers of others. And it may help in the identification of others to assemble a list of books that are now little more than names to us but that might, and in some cases certainly would, throw much needed light upon this history.
In the list “no text” is to be understood as meaning “no extended body of text.” I have not taken account of scattered fragments.
The Letter of Polycarp to the Philippians; no complete Greek text
The Epistle of the Apostles; no Greek text
The Letter ofthe Gallican Churches; no complete text
The Shepherd of Hermas; no complete Greek text
The Revelation of Peter; no complete Greek text
The Sibylline Books, Books ix, x, and xv; no text
The Pistis Sophia; no Greek text
The Gospel ofthe Egyptians; no complete text
The Gospel ofthe Hebrews; no complete text
The Gospel of Peter; no complete text
The British Museum Gospel; no complete text
The Gospel of Thomas; no complete Greek text
The Traditions of Matthias; no text
The Secret Sayings of Matthias; no text
The Gospel of Matthias(?); no text
The Gospel of Ebionites; no text
The Gospel of Basilides; no text
The Gospel of Judas(?); no text
The Gospel of Truth; no Greek text
The Gospel of Philip; no Greek text
The Gospel of Bartholomew(?); no text
The Gospel of Barnabas(?); no text
The Gospel of Apelles(?); no text
The Gospel of Cerinthus(?); no text
The Gospel of Perfection(?); no text
The Acts of Paul; no complete text
The Acts of John; no complete text
The Acts of Peter; no complete text
The Acts of Andrew; no complete text
The Clementine Recognitions; no complete Greek text
The Preaching of Peter; no text
The Apology of Quadratus; no text
Aristo, Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus; no text
The Apology of Aristides; no complete Greek text
Justin, Dialogue with Trypho; no complete text
Against All Heresies (the Refutation?); no text
On the Sovereignty of God; no text
The Letter to Diognetus; no complete text
Tatian, The Diatessaron; no Greek or Syriac text
On Perfection according to the Saviour; no Greek text
Against the Heresy ofMarcion; no text
On the Six Days' Work of Creation; no text
Marcion, The Contradictions; no text
The Teaching of the Apostles, short form; no Greek text
Papias, Interpretations of Sayings ofthe Lord; no text
The Odes of Solomon; no complete Greek text
Hegesippus, Memoirs; no text
Melito, On the Conduct of Life and the Prophets; no text
On the Obedience of Faith; no text
On the Creation and Generation of Christ; no text
On Hospitality; no text
A Key [to the Scriptures]; no text
On the Devil and the Revelation of John; no text
Selections from the Old Testament; no text
Theophlius of Antioch, Against the Heresy ofHermogenes; no text
Irenaeus, Refutation of Gnosticism; no Greek text
Demonstration ofthe Apostolic Preaching; no Greek text
On Sovereignty; no text
Clement of Alexandria, The Outlines [of Scripture]; no text
On Evil-speaking; no text
On Providence; no text
On the Prophet Amos(?); no text
Tertullian, On Baptism; no Greek text
On the Hope ofthe Faithful; no text
Against the Followers of Apelles; no text
On the Origin ofthe Soul; no text
The Garments of Aaron; no text
To a Philosophic Friend; no text
On Submission of Soul; no text
The Superstition ofthe World; no text
On the Veiling of Virgins; no Greek text
On Clean and Unclean Animals(?); no text
On Circumcision(?); no text
Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies; no complete Greek text
On Daniel; no complete Greek text
On the Song of Songs; no Greek text
On the Blessing ofMoses; no Greek text
On the Story of David and Goliath; no Greek text
The Six Days of Creation; no text
What Followed the Six Days; no text
The Blessing of Jacob; no text
The Blessing of Balaam; no text
On Ecclesiastes; no text
The Parable ofthe Talents; no text
On the Revelation; no text
Against Artemon, the Little Labyrinth; no text
Against Thirty-two Heresies; no text
Heads against Gaius (?) ; no text
In Defense ofthe Gospel and Revelation of John; no text
On the Resurrection; no text
On the Universe-against the Greeks and Plato; no text
On Good and the Source of Evil; no text
Determination ofthe Date of Easter; no text
The Apostolic Tradition; no Greek text
Gaius, Dialogue with Proclus; no text
Origen, The Hexapla; no text (a Syriac version of the Septuagit column)
Homilies; 554 out of 574 lost in Greek; 388 not even in th
Commentaries; 275 out of 291 lost in Greek; very little pry served in Latin
On First Principles; no complete Greek text
Letters; Eusebius' collection of ioo lost, except for 2
Miscellanies, ro books; no text
Julius Africanus, Chronography; no text
Dionysius of Alexandria, On Nature; no complete text
The Refutation and Apology; no text
Exposition of Ecclesiastes (partial); no text
on Temptations; no text
Fifty Letters, most of them; no text
Nepos of Arsinoe, Refutation ofthe Allegorists; no text
Novatian, On the Passover; no text
on Circumcision; no text on the Priesthood; no text
Pamphilus, Defense of Origen; no Greek text; only
Lactantius, The Banquet (Symposium); no text
Letters to Probus, four books; no text
Letters to Severus, two books; no text
Letters to Demetrianus, two books; no text
Victorinus, Against All Heresies; no certain text
Commentaries on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Matthew; no text
There were, of course, a host of minor writers whom I have not enumerated, some of whose writings might prove of unexpected significance, and the above list is not complete even for all the authors named. But the progress of excavation and research may well bring us in the next half-century not a few of the books listed above as lost.
[1] For the letters of Valentinus and Ptolemaeus see R. M. Grant, Gnosticism (London, New York, ig6i), i43-q4, I84-90.
[2] J. E. Powell, The Rendel Harris Papyri (Cambridge, 1936), No. 107.
[3] For “Father of truth” see not only Gnostics but also II Clement 3:1, 20:5, and Origen First Principles II. 6. 1; for “soul-body-spirit” see F. E. Brightman in Journal of Theological Studies, II (1900-19010, 273-74).
[4] For instance, recent editors of the Shepherd of Hernias report finding only one line reminiscent of the Revelation-Vis. iv. 2. 1-whereas the Revelation, less than half the length of the Shepherd, is credited with at least seventy reminiscences of Daniel alone. On the other hand, there are a good many echoes of 11 Esdras (IV Ezra) in Hermas.
[5] S. Giet, Herman et les Pasteurs (Paris, 1963) ; see also my review in Gnomon (1964), 357-59.
[6] See also the sixteenth chapter of the Didache which reflects the language and thought of Matthew 24.
[7] The Books of Clement, extant also in Arabic, contain a series of revelations supposed to have been communicated to Clement by Peter.
[8] JesousnChreistos theou byios soter. The initials of these words, ichtbys, spelled the Greek word for “fish” and led to the use of the fish a Christian symbol.
[9] W. C. Till, Die gnostischen Schriften des koptischen papyrus Berolinensis 8502 (Texte and Untersuchungen, LX, 1955).
[10] M. Krause and P. Labib, Die dref Version,, des Apokryphon des Johannes (Wiesbaden, 1962) ; also S. Giversen, Apocryphon Johatznis (Copenhagen, I963).
[12] These descriptions are derived from the edition of A. Bohlin and P. Labib.
[13] This goes back to a different translation of the Hebrew of Ps. aa: i, which is quoted in Matthew (27:46) and Mark (15:34) in the Aramaic, the spoken language of Jesus' day. The Aramaic Eloi means “my God,” but the Hebrew Eli was sometimes understood, as in the version of Aquila, to mean “my power.”
[15] Irenaeus Against Heresies 1. 26. 1; Hippolytus Refutation vii. 33.
[16] Epiphanius Heresies, xxviii.
[17] In this it resembles the Gospel of Peter, in which the apostles speak in the first person plural (“We the twelve disciples of the Lord wept and grieved”), and Peter speaks in the first person singular (“I, Simon Peter, and Andrew my brother took our nets and went away to the sea”).
[18] Philip, Bartholomew, James the son of Alpheus, and Thomas seem to be omitted; perhaps their call had been related earlier in the story.
[19] Eusebius Church History vi. 17; Palladius Lausiac History 147.
[20] M. Testuz, Papyrus Bodmar V: Nativite de Marie (Geneva 1958).
[21] The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics (London, New York, 1960).
[22] “Les nouveaux ecrits gnostiques decouverts en Haute-Egypte,” Coptic Studies in Honour of Walter Ewing Crum (Boston, 1950), 91-154.
[23] R. M. Wilson (trans.), The Gospel According to Philip (London, New York 1963).
[24] Die gnostischen Schriften des kopischen Pepyrus Berolinensis 8502 (texte un Untersuchungen, LX Berlin 1955).
[25] Carl Schmidt and Wilhelm Schubart, Praxeir Paulou: Acta Pauli (Hamburg, 1936).
[26] Nicephorurs Callisti Church History ii. 25.
[27] On Illustrious Men 7, The story is obviously based on Androcles and the lion.
[28] This short martyrdom, which Goodspeed discovered in an Ethiopian manuscript in the British Meseum “The Epistle of Pelagia,” offered the first explanation of the baptized and talking lion.
[29] Goodspeed, Ethiopic Martyrdom, pp. 100-102.
[30] Against Adimantus xvii. 5.
[31] According to the Preaching of Peter.
[32] M. Testuz, Papyrus Bodmer X-X11 (Geneva, 1959); O. Perler, Ein Hym-
nus zur Ostervigil von Meliton? (Pasadosis XV, 1960).
[33] There is also a somewhat dubious reference to it in the Targum of Johathan, on Num. 11:26-27. The Stichometry gives its length as 400 stichoi, or about that of Galatians.
[34] Although Clement of Alexandria accepted the Preaching and the Revelation of Peter as genuine and quoted from both.
[35] Vigiliae Christianae I, 1947, 129-36
[36] Journal of Theological Stadies, 1923, 73-77
[37] In the Syriac the groups are barbarians, Greeks, Jews, and Christians.
[38] E.g. the Dialogue of Simon the Jew and Theophilus the Christian, a fifth century work, by the monk Evagrius.
[39] These chapters are also preserved in two Latin manuscripts of the sixteenth century.
[40] Address to the Greeks 18:2; 19:1.
[41] The older of the two Justin manuscripts, Paris. 450, was a corpus of twelve works ascribed to Justin and included such pieces as the Letter to Zenas and Serenus and the Exhortation to the Greeks, ending with a work On the Resurrection, really written by Athenagoras, but here evidently regarded as a work of Justin.
[42] K. Hool in Texte und Untersuchungen XX, 2, Laipzig, 1899, nos. 107-10. On the fragments in general see R.M. Grant in Biblical and Patristic Studies in Memory of R.P. Casey.
[43] Justin et l’Ancien Testament, Paris, 1964, 50-68.
[44] Rhodo, converted to Christianity by Titian, wrote Against the Heresy of Marcion and a commentary On the Six Days’ Work of Creation; he considered writing a book of Solutions of Tatian’s Problems (Eusebious, Church History iv 13).
[45] Cf. L. Leloir in Biblica XL, 1959, 959-70.
[46] From a Syriac and Armenian “Exposition of the Gospel,” especially the Parables, published by J. Schaefer 1917); as revised by Hatnack, Marcian: Das Evangelium vom fremden Gott (2d ed., Leipzig, 1924), p. 256, and Burkitt, Journal of Theological Studies, XXX (1929), 279-80.
[47] The so-called Apology of Melito current in Syriac is now recognized as a
Syriac composition, having no connection with Melito.
[48] Campbell Bonner, Homily on the Passion by Melito, Bishop of Sardis (Studies and Documents, Vol. XII [London, 1940]).
[49] M. Testuz, Papyrus Bodmer XIII: Meliton de Sardes: Homelie sur la Paque (Geneva, 1960); H. Chadwick in Journal of Theological Studies XI (1960), 76-82. On the fragments of Melito see R. M. Grant m Biblical and Patristic Studies in Memory of R. P. Casey (ed. J. N. Birdcall and R. W. Thomson, Freiburg, 1963), 192-201.
[50] E. Norden, Die antike Kunstprosa (Leipzig, 1898), II, 547; cf. Bonner's ed., p. 20.
[51] Printed as No. viii among the remains of Melito in Goodspeed. Die aeltesten Apologeten, Gottinberg 1914, pp. 310-11.
[52] Melenges Franz Cumont, Brussels 1936, pp. 321-63.
[54] The heresy of Hermogenes was that God created the world not out of nothing but out of metter eternally existent like himself, so Tertullian and Hippolytus described it.
[56] Texte und Untersuchungen XXXV, 2, 1910.
[57] Oxyrhynchus Papyri iii, 405, iv, p. 264.
[58] Texte und Untersuchungen XXXI, 1.
[59] See Harnack, Texte und Untersuchungen, XX, 3, 1900, I ff.
[60] Philip said that Hegesippus gave the names of Jesus’ relatives called before Domitian as Zoker and Jacob.
[61] Cf. also N. Hyldahl, “Hegesipps Hypomnemata,” Studia Theologica, XIV, 1960, 70-113.
[62] J.B. Lightfoot and J.R. Harmer, The Apostolic Fathers, 2nd ed., London and New York 1893, pp. 488-89.
[64] Oxyrhynchus Papyri xi. 1380.
[65] Cf. H. Jordan, Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, Leipzig 1911, pp. 458-59.
[66] Edited with commentaries by R.P.Casey, Escerpta ex Theodoto of Clement of Alexandria, Studies and Documents, vol I, London 1934.
[67] A.C. McGiffert, Eusebius, New York, 1890, p. 259.
[69] On his Bible see R.M. Grant, The Formation of the New Testament, London and New York, 1965, pp. 164-69.
[70] A. Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur, 3 vols.; Leipzig, 1893-1904, I, 328-29.
[71] Theodotion’s work was really for the most part a revision of the Septuagint version.
[72] Eusebius Church History vi 16. 1-4; Jerome On Illustrious Men 75.
[73] A.D. Nock in American Journal of Archeology, LV 1951, 283.
[74] J. Scherer, Enretien d’Origene avec Heraclide et les eveques ses collegues sur le Pere, le Fils, et l’ame, Cairo 1949.
[75] O. Gueraud in Revue de l’histoire des religions, CXXXI 1946, 85-108.
[76] J. Scherer, Extraits des Livres I et II du Contre Celse d’Origene, Cairo 1956.
[77] J. Scherer, Le commentaire d’Origene sur Rom. III. 5-V. 7, Cairo 1957.
[78] H. Chadwick in Journal of Theological Studies, X 1959, 10-42.
[79] The list on the chair may have purposely omitted works which would have been offensive to the rival faction in the Roman church.
[80] There are several Syriac fragments of this work in Bar-Salibi’s commentary on the Revelation, written in the twelfth century.
[81] A Greek fragment of the Dialogue is found in Eusebious Church History ii, 25. 7.
[82] A work Against Montanism written in Rome in the time of Hippolytus has been conjectured from its apparent use in Epiphanius Against Heresies 48:2-13. It seems to have made use of Tertullian's work On Ecstasy, written in A.D. 202-3 to 204-5, and to have been in turn attacked by him in his work On Monogamy. But it can hardly have been the work of Hippolytus.
[83] The So-called Egyptian Church Order and Derived Documents, Cambridge 1916.
[84] So B.S. Easton, The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus, Cambridge 1934.
[85] Hippolytus, Achelis ed. P. 231, I. 10.
[86] It was Psalm 90 that said a thousand years were in God's sight like yesterday when it was past; the Letter of Barnabas said a day was a thousand years. II Peter says both (3:8). The two statements, while mathematically the same are rhetorically opposites. On the whole, Barnabas seems to have influenced Africanus.
[87] Oxychynchus Papyri iii. 412.
[89] Praeparation Evangelica vii 22. On both passages see H. Musurillo, St. Methodius: the Symbosium, London 1958, 3-4, 169-70.
[90] F. J. A. Hort, Six Lectures on the Ante-Nicene Fathers, London 1895, p. 103.
[92] Another work preserved under Cyprian's name, the treatise That Idols Are Not Gods, also shows the influence of the Octavius, and it, too, may be a work of Novatian.
[93] The numbers are those of Hartel’s edition in the Vienna series of Latin fathers, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum, 1868-71.
[94] Collection of scripture passages bearing on particular points of Christian belief arose very early and were anticipated among the Qumran sectarians.
[95] The dualistic additions to the Institutes also seem most naturally explained as introduced by Lactantius himself into a revised edition of the work, produced after his removal to Treves, though why he should then fall a victim to Manichean tendencies is a difficult question; 2:20 and the extended passage at the end of 7:5 are leading examples. These dualistic additions and the occasional apostrophes of Constantine seem clearly by the same hand, which is probably that of Lactantius himself.
[96] Henry A. Sanders, Beati in Apocalipsin libri duodecim, Rome: American Academy, 1930. Primasius in the sixth century also used it.
[97] I.e. on the myths used by Greek tragic poets.
[98] C.H. Roberts in Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, XXXVII 1938, 186-87.
[99] See A. Ehrhardt, “Die griechische Patriachal-Bibliothek von Jerusalem,” Romische Quartalschrift, V 1891, 217-65; VI 1892, 339-65.
[100] Church History vi 32. 3; vii 28. 1.
[101] Eusebiana, Oxford 1912, 136-78.
[102] See Quintilian, Inst. Orat. X. i. 57.
[103] His “life of Origen” is not exactly a biography, see M. Hornschuh in Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, LXXI 1960, I-23, 193-214.
[104] Cf. H. de Riedmatten, Les actes du proces de Paul de Samosate, Paradosis, Freiburg 1952, 15-23.
[105] Harvard Theological Review, LIII 1960, 143-53.
[106] We know something of this curriculum from Porphyry as quoted by Eusebius, Church History vi. 19. 8, and in his own Life of Plotinus, 72.