Introductory Notes

Section IX

Page 16 of 468

¹⁶⁸⁶ Ye have heard also that it was said unto the ancients, Lie not, but perform unto² God in thy oaths:⁶⁸⁷ but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven, for it³ is God's throne;⁶⁸⁸ nor by the earth, for it is a footstool under his feet; nor yet by⁴ Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great⁶⁸⁹ King.⁶⁹⁰ Neither shalt thou swear by thy⁵ head, for thou canst not make in it one lock of hair black or white.⁶⁹¹ But your word shall be either Yea or Nay, and what is in excess of this is of the evil one.

[6, 7]⁶⁹² Ye have heard that it was said, Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth:⁶⁹³ but I say unto you, Stand not in opposition to the evil;⁶⁹⁴ but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right⁸ cheek,⁶⁹⁵ turn to him also the other.⁶⁹⁶ And he that would sue thee, and take thy tunic,⁹ leave to him also thy wrapper.⁶⁹⁷ And whosoever compelleth thee one mile, go with¹⁰ [Arabic, p. 35] him twain.⁶⁹⁸ And he that asketh thee, give unto him:⁶⁹⁹ and he that would borrow of thee, prevent him not. And prosecute⁷⁰⁰ not him that taketh thy¹¹ substance.⁷⁰¹ And as ye desire that men should do to you, so do ye also to them.

[12, 13]⁷⁰² Ye have heard that it was said, Love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy:⁷⁰³ but I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for those that curse you, and deal well with those that hate you, and pray for those who take you with violence and persecute you;¹⁴⁷⁰⁴ that ye may be sons of your heavenly Father, who maketh his sun to rise on the good and the evil, and sendeth down his rain on the righteous and the¹⁵ unrighteous.⁷⁰⁵ If ye love them that love you, what reward shall ye have?⁷⁰⁶ for the publicans¹⁶ and sinners also love those that love them.⁷⁰⁷ And if ye do a kindness to those¹⁷ who treat you well, where is your superiority? for sinners also do likewise.⁷⁰⁸ And if ye lend to him of whom ye hope for a reward,⁷⁰⁹ where is your superiority? for the¹⁸ sinners also lend to sinners, seeking recompense from⁷¹⁰ them.⁷¹¹ But love your enemies, and do good to them, and lend, and cut not off the hope of any man; that your reward may be great, and ye may be the children of the Highest: for he is lenient¹⁹ towards the wicked and the ungrateful.⁷¹² Be ye merciful, even as your Father also is²⁰ merciful.⁷¹³ And if ye inquire for the good of your brethren only, what more have²¹ ye done than others? is not this the conduct of the publicans also?⁷¹⁴ Be ye now⁷¹⁵ perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

²²⁷¹⁶ Consider your alms; do them not before men to let them see you: and if it be not²³ so,⁷¹⁷ ye have no reward before your Father which is in the heavens.⁷¹⁸ When then thou givest an alms now, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as do the people of hypocrisy, [Arabic, p. 36] in the synagogues and the marketplaces, that men may praise them. And²⁴ verily say I unto you, They have received their reward.⁷¹⁹ But thou, when²⁵ thou doest alms, let thy left hand not know what thy right hand doeth;⁷²⁰ that thine alms may be concealed: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

²⁶⁷²¹ And whenever thou prayest, be not as the hypocrites, who love to stand in the synagogues and in the corners of the marketplaces for prayers, that men may behold²⁷ them.⁷²² And verily say I unto you, They have received their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and fasten thy door, and pray to thy Father in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.²⁸⁷²³ And whenever ye pray, be not babblers, as the heathen; for they think that by the²⁹ abundance of their words they shall be heard.⁷²⁴ Then be not ye now like unto them:³⁰ for your Father knoweth your request before ye ask him.⁷²⁵ One of his disciples said³¹ unto him, Our Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.⁷²⁶ Jesus said unto³² them, Thus now pray ye now:⁷²⁷⁷²⁸ Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy [33, 34] name.⁷²⁹ Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done,⁷³⁰ as in heaven, so on earth.⁷³¹ Give us the³⁵ food of to-day.⁷³² And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgave those that trespassed³⁶ against us.⁷³³ And bring us not into temptations, but deliver us from the evil one. For³⁷ thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.⁷³⁴⁷³⁵ If ye forgive [Arabic, p. 37] men their wrong-doing,⁷³⁶ your Father which is in heaven will forgive you.³⁸⁷³⁷ But if ye forgive not men, neither will your Father pardon your wrong-doing.

³⁹⁷³⁸ When ye fast, do not frown, as the hypocrites; for they make their faces austere, that they may be seen of⁷³⁹ men that they are fasting. Verily I say unto you, They⁴⁰ have received their reward.⁷⁴⁰ But when thou fastest, wash thy face and anoint thy⁴¹ head;⁷⁴¹ that thou make not an appearance to men of fasting, but to thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee.

⁴²⁷⁴² Be not agitated, little flock; for your Father hath delighted to give you the kingdom.⁴³⁷⁴³ Sell your possessions, and give in alms; take to yourselves purses that wax⁴⁴ not old.⁷⁴⁴ Lay not up treasure on earth, where moth and worm corrupt, and where⁴⁵ thieves break through and steal:⁷⁴⁵ but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where⁴⁶ moth and worm do not corrupt, nor thieves break through nor steal:⁷⁴⁶ for where your⁴⁷ treasure is, there also will your heart be.⁷⁴⁷ The lamp of the body is the eye: if then⁷⁴⁸⁴⁸ thine eye now be sound, thy whole body also shall be light.⁷⁴⁹ But if thine eye be evil, all thy body shall be dark. And if the light which is in thee is darkness, how⁴⁹ great is⁷⁵⁰ thy darkness!⁷⁵¹ Be watchful that the light which is in thee be not darkness.⁵⁰⁷⁵² Because that, if thy whole body is light, and have no part dark, it shall all be light, as the lamp giveth light to thee with its flame.

Notes

1
Parechein mikropsuchian, perhaps "causes you ill-feeling." The translation of Serapion's letter with this note is taken from Mr. Armitage Robinson's edition of the gospel.
686
.
2
This translation is based on that which I published in The Gospel and Apocalypse of Peter: Two Lectures, etc. (Camb., 1892). It is now carefully revised in accordance with the photographic facsimile. A corrected Greek text will be found in Dr. Swete's edition (1893).
687
.
3
Par[alem]phthenai is perhaps supported by paralabontes, .
688
.
4
I know no other instance of stauriskein.
689
The adj. is in the superlative.
690
.
5
cf. , where Syr. Pesch. reads: "They say, These bodies shall not remain on the cross, because the sabbath dawneth."
691
.
692
.
693
.
694
A literal reproduction of the Greek, like that in Syr. versions.
8
I have ventured to substitute meta, "together with" (cf. ), for kata, "down upon." Dr. Swete, however, keeps kata, and interprets it as "against," i.e., to guard the sepulchre against.
695
Lit. jaw.
696
.
9
The form of the question in the Greek suggests a negative answer.
697
.
10
[cf. John passim.]
698
.
699
b.
700
Or, punish.
11
[cf. .]
701
.
702
.
703
.
14
[cf. ; .]
704
.
15
[cf. .]
705
.
706
b.
16
[cf. .]
707
.
17
For further explanation of the method followed see 20.
708
.
709
Or, return.
18
See notes to § 7, 47, and § 52, 36, of the present translation.
710
Or, to be given back as much by.
711
.
19
See below, 12, (2).
712
.
20
See also below, 6, and 20.
713
.
21
Bibl. Or., i., 619.
714
.
715
Our translator is continually using this word (cf. § 9, 23) where the context and the originals require then or therefore. We shall only occasionally reproduce the peculiarity.
22
Mai, Vet. script. nova. collect., iv., 14.
716
.
23
cf. Zahn, Forschungen, i., 294 ff.
717
A clumsy phrase.
718
.
24
See below, § 7, 47, note, and § 52, 36, note.
719
.
25
See below, § 28, 43, note.
720
.
26
See below, foot-notes, passim.
721
.
27
The first leaf bears a more pretentious Latin inscription, quoted by Ciasca, p. vi.
722
.
28
Can this be a misprint for 95?
723
.
29
See below, 13.
724
.
30
He does not state, in so many words, that the list is absolutely exhaustive.
725
b.
31
See, e.g., below, § 13, 42, note, and § 14, 43, note.
726
a.
32
See the valuable article of Guidi, "Le traduzioni degli Evangelii in arabo e in etiopico" (Atti della R. Accademia dei Lincei; Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e filologiche. Serie Quarta, 1888, Parte Prima—Memorie, pp. 5-38). Some of his results are briefly stated in Scrivener, A Plain Introd. to the Crit. of the N.T., 4th ed., ii., 162.
727
The Arabic text makes Matthew begin here.
728
.
729
.
730
The text as printed reads, That thy will may be (done); but it is to be explained as a (very common grammatical) transcriptional error. The Cur., however, has and.
731
.
35
See a glaring case in § 52, 11.
732
.
36
The references to the readings of the Diatessaron in Ibn-at-Tayyib's own commentary on the gospels (see next note) are remarkably impersonal for one who had made or was to make a translation of it.
733
.
37
A specially important part of the general question is this, What are the mutual relations of the following: (1) a supposed version of at least Matthew and John made from the Syriac by Ibn-at-Tayyib, mentioned by Ibn-al-Assal in the Preface to his scholarly recension of the gospels (ms. numbered Or. 3382 in Brit. Mus., folio 384b) and used by him in determining his text; (2) the gospel text interwoven with the commentary of Ibn-at-Tayyib on the gospels, a commentary which De Slane says the author wrote in Syriac and then translated into Arabic; (3) our present work. Of mss. testifying to No. 1 we have some dating from the time of Ibn-al-Assal himself; of No. 2 we have, in addition to others, an eleventh-century ms. in Paris, described by De Slane (catalogue No. 85) as being "un volume dépareillé du ms. original de l'ouvrage"; of No. 3 we have of course the Vatican and Borgian mss. What is the mutual relation of these texts; were any two of them identical? The Brit. Mus. ms. of the second has many points of contact with the third, but is dated 1805 a.d. Does the older Paris ms. stand more or less closely related? Did Ibn-at-Tayyib himself really translate any or all of these texts, or did he simply select or edit them? Space does not permit us to point out, far less to discuss, the various possibilities.
734
Lit. unto the age of the ages.
735
.
736
Or, folly; and so in following verse.
38
The text is given below in full at its proper place.
737
.
39
Prof. Gottheil, indeed, announced in 1892 in the Journal of Biblical Literature (vol. xi., pt. i., p. 71) that he had been privately informed of the existence of a complete copy of the Syriac Diatessaron. Unfortunately, however, as he has kindly informed me, he has reluctantly come to the conclusion that the ms. in question, which is not yet accessible, is "nothing more than the commentary of Ishodad" mentioned in the text. A similar rumor lately circulated probably originated simply in the pamphlet of Goussen mentioned in the next note. S. Bäumer, on the other hand, in his article, "Tatians Diatessaron, seine bisher. Lit. u. die Reconstruction des Textes nach einer neuentdeckten Handschrift" (Literarischer Handweiser, 1890, 153-169) which the present writer has not been able to see, perhaps refers simply to the Borgian ms.
738
.
739
Or, shew to.
40
Attention was called to these by Profs. Isaac H. Hall and R. J. H. Gottheil (Journ. of Bibl. Lit., x., 153 ff.; xi., 68 ff.); then by Prof. J. R. Harris (Contemp. Rev., Aug., 1895, p. 271 ff., and, more fully, Fragments of the Com. of Ephr. Syr. on the Diatess., London, 1895) and by Goussen (Studia Theologica, fasc. i., Lips., 1895).
740
.
41
Prof. Harris promises an edition of this commentary.
741
.
42
Harris, Fragments, p. 14, where the Syriac text is quoted.
742
.
43
Bib. Or., ii., 159 f. Most of them are repeated again by Bar Hebræus (d. 1286), although some confusion is produced by his interweaving some phrases from Eusebius of Cæsarea. (Bib. Or., i., 57 f., and a longer quotation in English in Contemp. Rev., Aug., 1895, p. 274 f.)
743
a.
44
Lagarde's statement (Nachrichten von der Königl. Gesellsch. der Wiss., etc., zu Göttingen, 1891, No. 4, p. 153) that a ms. had been discovered, appears to have been unfounded. Prof. Rahlfs of Göttingen kindly tells me that he believes this is so.
744
.
45
Migne, Patrol. græc., tom. lxxxiii., col. 369, 372.
745
.
46
Published at Venice in 1836.
746
.
47
The two Armenian mss. are dated a.d. 1195.
747
.
748
Or, for if.
48
Evangelii Concordantis Expositio, facta a S. Ephraemo (Ven., 1876).
749
.
49
Forschungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, I. Theil.
750
Or, will be.
751
.
50
Edited by Ernestus Ranke, Marb. and Lips., 1868.
752
.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleveland Coxe (1885–96). Public domain. Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.