Introductory Notes

Section XIII

Page 20 of 468

¹⁹⁵¹ I am sending you as lambs among wolves: be ye now wise as serpents, and² harmless⁹⁵² as doves.⁹⁵³ Beware of men: they shall deliver you to the councils of the³ magistrates, and scourge you in their synagogues;⁹⁵⁴ and shall bring you before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and against the nations.⁴⁹⁵⁵ And when they deliver you up, be not⁹⁵⁶ anxious, nor consider beforehand, what ye⁵ shall say; but ye shall be given⁹⁵⁷ in that hour what ye ought to speak.⁹⁵⁸ Ye do not⁶ speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaketh in you.⁹⁵⁹ The brother shall deliver up his brother to death, and the father his son; and the sons shall rise against their⁷ parents, and put them to death.⁹⁶⁰ And ye shall be hated of every man because of⁸ my name; but he that endureth unto the end of the matter shall be saved.⁹⁶¹⁹⁶² When they expel you from this city, flee to another. Verily I say unto you, Ye shall not finish all the cities of the people of Israel, until the Son of man come.

[9, 10]⁹⁶³ A disciple is not superior to his lord, nor a servant to his master.⁹⁶⁴ For it is enough then for the disciple that he be as his lord, and the servant as his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more the people¹¹ of his house!⁹⁶⁵ Fear them not therefore:⁹⁶⁶ for there is nothing covered, that shall¹² [Arabic, p. 51] not be revealed; nor hid, that shall not be disclosed and published.⁹⁶⁷ What I say unto you in the darkness, speak ye in the light; and what ye have told¹³ secretly in the ears in closets, let it be proclaimed on the housetops.⁹⁶⁸ I say unto you now, my beloved, Be not agitated at⁹⁶⁹ those who kill the body, but have no power to¹⁴ kill the soul. I will inform you whom ye shall fear: him⁹⁷⁰ which is able to destroy¹⁵ soul and body in hell.⁹⁷¹ Yea, I say unto you, Be afraid of him especially. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing in a bond?⁹⁷² and one of them shall not fall on the¹⁶ ground without your Father.⁹⁷³ But what concerns you: even the hair of your heads [17, 18] also is numbered.⁹⁷⁴ Fear not therefore; ye are better than many sparrows.⁹⁷⁵ Every man who confesseth me now before men, I also will confess him before my Father¹⁹ which is in heaven;⁹⁷⁶ but whosoever denieth me before men, I also will deny him before my Father which is in heaven.

²⁰⁹⁷⁷ Think ye that I am come to cast peace into the earth? I came not to cast peace,²¹ but to cast dissension.⁹⁷⁸ Henceforth there shall be five in one house, three of them²² disagreeing with two, and the two with the three.⁹⁷⁹ The father shall become hostile to his son, and the son to his father; and the mother to her daughter, and the daughter to her mother; and the mother in law to her daughter in law, and the daughter²³ in law to her mother in law:⁹⁸⁰ and a man's enemies shall be the people of his house.²⁴⁹⁸¹ Whosoever loveth father or mother better than me is not worthy of me; and whosoever [Arabic, p. 52] loveth son or daughter more than his love of me is not worthy of me.²⁵⁹⁸² And every one that doth not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of²⁶ me.⁹⁸³ Whosoever findeth his life⁹⁸⁴ shall lose it; and whosoever loseth his life⁹⁸⁵ for my sake shall find it.

²⁷⁹⁸⁶ And whosoever receiveth you receiveth me; and whosoever receiveth me receiveth²⁸ him that sent me.⁹⁸⁷ And whosoever receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall take⁹⁸⁸ a prophet's reward; and whosoever shall receive a righteous man²⁹ in the name of a righteous man shall take⁹⁸⁹ a righteous man's reward.⁹⁹⁰ And every one that shall give to drink to one of these least ones a drink of water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.

³⁰⁹⁹¹ And when Jesus finished charging his twelve disciples, he removed thence to³¹ teach and preach in their cities.⁹⁹² And while they were going in the way they entered into a certain village; and a woman named Martha entertained him in her house.³²⁹⁹³ And she had a sister named Mary, and she came and sat at the feet of our Lord,³³ and heard his sayings.⁹⁹⁴ But Martha was disquieted by much serving; and she came and said unto him, My Lord, givest thou no heed that my sister left me alone to³⁴ serve? speak to her that she help me.⁹⁹⁵ Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha,³⁵ Martha, thou art solicitous and impatient⁹⁹⁶ on account of many things:⁹⁹⁷ but what is sought is one thing. But Mary hath chosen for herself a good portion, and that which shall not be taken from her.

³⁶⁹⁹⁸ And the apostles went forth, and preached to the people that they might repent.³⁷⁹⁹⁹ And they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick with oil, and healed them. [38, 39]¹⁰⁰⁰ And the disciples of John told him¹⁰⁰¹ of all these things.¹⁰⁰² And when John heard in [Arabic, p. 53] the prison of the doings of the Messiah, he called two of his disciples, and sent them to Jesus, and said, Art thou he that cometh, or look we for⁴⁰ another?¹⁰⁰³ And they came to Jesus, and said unto him, John the Baptist hath sent⁴¹ us unto thee, and said, Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another?¹⁰⁰⁴ And in that hour he cured many of diseases, and of plagues of an evil spirit; and he gave sight⁴² to many blind.¹⁰⁰⁵ Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and tell John everything ye have seen and heard: the blind see, and the lame walk, and the lepers are cleansed, and the blind¹⁰⁰⁶ hear, and the dead rise, and the poor have the gospel preached to⁴³ them.¹⁰⁰⁷ And blessed is he who doubteth not in me.

⁴⁴¹⁰⁰⁸ And when John's disciples departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? a reed shaken with the⁴⁵ winds?¹⁰⁰⁹ And if not, then what went ye out to see? a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that are in magnificent garments and in voluptuousness are in the abode⁴⁶ of kings.¹⁰¹⁰ And if not, then what went ye out to see? a prophet? Yea, I say unto⁴⁷ you, and more than a prophet.¹⁰¹¹ This is he of whom it is written,

I am sending my messenger before thy face

To prepare the way before thee.

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.
951
.
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).
952
The word is occasionally used in this sense, but ordinarily means sound, unhurt.
953
.
3
Par[alem]phthenai is perhaps supported by paralabontes, .
954
.
4
I know no other instance of stauriskein.
955
.
956
From this point down to a, is assigned by Vat. ms. to Mark.
5
cf. , where Syr. Pesch. reads: "They say, These bodies shall not remain on the cross, because the sabbath dawneth."
957
Borg. ms. reads, but what ye are granted ye shall speak, and ye shall be given in, etc., and there seems to be a trace of this reading in Ciasca's text.
958
.
6
The text here is corrupt: for epesanto I have provisionally read epesan te.
959
.
7
For autos horas we must read autes horas (cf. Clem., Hom., xx., 16); aute is the equivalent in later Greek literature of ekeine, as in the modern tongue (cf. Lc. x. 7, 21, and xii. 12; || ekeine, Mt., Mc.)
960
.
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.
961
See note to § 1, 78.
962
.
963
.
964
.
11
[cf. .]
965
.
966
See note to § 9, 21.
12
[cf. ; .]
967
a; b.
13
[cf. .]
968
a; b.
969
Perhaps this Arabic word is a copyist's error for that used a few lines further down in , the Arabic words being very similar; but see note on § 1, 14.
14
[cf. ; .]
970
Syriac.
15
[cf. .]
971
; .
972
The Vat. ms., like the Brit. Mus. text of Ibn-at-Tayyib's Commentary, omits for a farthing, retaining in a bond. The two phrases are simply different explanations of the same Syriac consonants. These are really the naturalised Greek word rendered farthing in Eng. version; but they also form a Syriac word meaning bond.
16
[cf. .]
973
.
974
.
975
.
19
See below, 12, (2).
976
.
20
See also below, 6, and 20.
977
.
21
Bibl. Or., i., 619.
978
.
22
Mai, Vet. script. nova. collect., iv., 14.
979
.
23
cf. Zahn, Forschungen, i., 294 ff.
980
.
24
See below, § 7, 47, note, and § 52, 36, note.
981
.
25
See below, § 28, 43, note.
982
.
26
See below, foot-notes, passim.
983
.
984
Or, soul.
985
Or, soul.
27
The first leaf bears a more pretentious Latin inscription, quoted by Ciasca, p. vi.
986
.
28
Can this be a misprint for 95?
987
.
988
Or, receive.
29
See below, 13.
989
Or, receive.
990
a; b.
30
He does not state, in so many words, that the list is absolutely exhaustive.
991
.
31
See, e.g., below, § 13, 42, note, and § 14, 43, note.
992
.
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.
993
.
33
cf.the foot-notes passim, e.g., § 13, 14, § 14, 24.
994
.
34
See below, note to Subscription.
995
.
35
See a glaring case in § 52, 11.
996
Or, agitated.
997
.
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.
998
.
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.
999
.
1000
.
1001
Lit. And his disciples told John, as in the Greek, etc.
1002
a; .
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).
1003
.
41
Prof. Harris promises an edition of this commentary.
1004
.
42
Harris, Fragments, p. 14, where the Syriac text is quoted.
1005
.
1006
A different word from that used in the preceding verse. It is either an Arabic copyist's error for the word for deaf used in Ibn-at-Tayyib's Commentary, or a careless blunder.
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.)
1007
.
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.
1008
.
45
Migne, Patrol. græc., tom. lxxxiii., col. 369, 372.
1009
.
46
Published at Venice in 1836.
1010
.
47
The two Armenian mss. are dated a.d. 1195.
1011
.

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.