Introductory Notes

Section XXXII

Page 39 of 468

¹²¹⁸³ And when Jesus entered Jerusalem, he went up to the temple of God, and found² there oxen and sheep and doves.²¹⁸⁴ And when he beheld those that sold and those that bought, and the money-changers sitting,²¹⁸⁵ he made for himself a scourge of rope, and drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen, and the money-changers;²¹⁸⁶ and he threw down their money, and upset their tables, and the seats of³ them that sold the doves;²¹⁸⁷ and he was teaching, and saying unto them, Is it not written, My house is a house of prayer for all peoples? and ye have made it a den⁴ for robbers.²¹⁸⁸ And he said unto those that sold the doves, Take this hence, and⁵ make not my Father's house a house of merchandise.²¹⁸⁹ And he suffered not any⁶ one to carry vessels inside the temple.²¹⁹⁰ And his disciples remembered the scripture,⁷ The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up.²¹⁹¹ The Jews answered and said unto him,⁸ What sign hast thou shewn us, that thou doest this?²¹⁹² Jesus answered and said unto⁹ them, Destroy this temple, and I shall raise it in three days.²¹⁹³ The Jews said unto him, This temple was built in forty-six years, and wilt thou raise it in three days?¹⁰²¹⁹⁴ But he spake unto them of the temple of his body, that when²¹⁹⁵ they destroyed it, he¹¹ [Arabic, p. 122] would raise it in three days.²¹⁹⁶ When therefore he rose from among the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this; and they believed the scriptures, and the word that Jesus spake.

¹²²¹⁹⁷ And when Jesus sat down over against the treasury, he observed how the multitudes were casting their offerings into the treasury: and many rich men were [13, 14] throwing in much.²¹⁹⁸ And there came a poor widow, and cast in two mites.²¹⁹⁹ And Jesus called his disciples, and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, This poor¹⁵ widow cast into the treasury more than all the people:²²⁰⁰ and all of these cast into the place of the offering of God²²⁰¹ of the superfluity of their wealth; while this woman of her want threw in all that she possessed.

¹⁶²²⁰² And he spake unto them this parable, concerning people who trusted in themselves¹⁷ that they are righteous, and despised every man:²²⁰³ Two men went up to the¹⁸ temple to pray; one of them a Pharisee, and the other a publican.²²⁰⁴ And the Pharisee stood apart,²²⁰⁵ and prayed thus, O Lord, I thank thee, since I am not like the rest of men, the unjust, the profligate, the extortioners, or even like this publican;¹⁹²²⁰⁶ but I fast two days a week, and tithe all my possessions.²²⁰⁷²²⁰⁸ And the publican was²⁰ standing at a distance, and he would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but was²¹ beating upon his breast, and saying, O Lord, have mercy on me, me the sinner.²²⁰⁹ I say unto you, that this man went down justified to his house more than the Pharisee. Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and every one that abaseth himself shall be exalted.

²² [Arabic, p. 123]²²¹⁰ And when eventide was come, he left all the people, and went outside the²³ city to Bethany, he and his twelve, and he remained there.²²¹¹ And all the people, because they knew the place, came to him, and he received them; and them that²⁴ had need of healing he healed.²²¹² And on the morning of the next day, when he returned²⁵ to the city from Bethany, he hungered.²²¹³ And he saw a²²¹⁴ fig tree at a distance on the beaten highway, having on it leaves. And he came unto it, expecting to find something on it; and when he came, he found nothing on it but the leaves—it²²¹⁵ was not²⁶ the season of figs—²²¹⁶ and he said unto it, Henceforward for ever let no man eat fruit of thee. And his disciples heard.

²⁷²²¹⁷ And they came to Jerusalem. And there was there a man of the Pharisees,²⁸ named Nicodemus, ruler of the Jews.²²¹⁸ This man came unto Jesus by night, and said unto him, My Master, we know that thou hast been sent from God as a teacher; and no man can do these signs that thou doest, except him whom God is²⁹ with.²²¹⁹ Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, If a man³⁰ be not born a second time, he cannot see the kingdom of God.²²²⁰ Nicodemus said unto him, How can a man who is old be born? can he, think you, return again to³¹ his mother's womb a second time, to enter and be born?²²²¹ Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, If a man be not born of water and the Spirit,³² he cannot enter the kingdom of God.²²²² For he that is born of flesh is flesh; and he that³³ is born of Spirit is spirit.²²²³ Wonder not that I said unto thee that ye must be born a³⁴ [Arabic, p. 124] second time.²²²⁴ The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest its voice, but thou knowest not from what place it cometh, nor whither it goeth: so³⁵ is every man that is born of the Spirit.²²²⁵ Nicodemus answered and said unto him,³⁶ How can that be?²²²⁶ Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou teaching²²²⁷ Israel,³⁷ and yet knowest not these things?²²²⁸ Verily, verily, I say unto thee, What we know³⁸ we say, and what we have seen we witness: and ye receive not our witness.²²²⁹ If I said unto you what is on earth, and ye believed not, how then, if I say unto you³⁹ what is in heaven, will ye believe?²²³⁰ And no man hath ascended up into heaven, except him that descended from heaven, the Son of man, which is in heaven.⁴⁰²²³¹ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so is the Son of man to be⁴¹ lifted up;²²³² so that every man who may believe in him may not perish, but have⁴² eternal life.²²³³ God so loved the world, that²²³⁴ he should give his only Son; and so every one that believeth on him should not perish, but should have eternal life.⁴³²²³⁵ God sent not his Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world might⁴⁴ be saved by his hand.²²³⁶ He that believeth in him shall not be judged: but he that believeth not is condemned beforehand, because he hath not believed in the name⁴⁵ of the only Son, the Son of God.²²³⁷²²³⁸ This is the judgement, that the light came into the world, and men loved the darkness more than the light; because their deeds⁴⁶ were evil.²²³⁹ Whosoever doeth evil deeds hateth the light, and cometh not to the⁴⁷ light, lest his deeds be reproved.²²⁴⁰ But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be known, that they have been done in God.

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.
2183
a; a.
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).
2184
b.
2185
b.
2186
c.
3
Par[alem]phthenai is perhaps supported by paralabontes, .
2187
.
4
I know no other instance of stauriskein.
2188
.
5
cf. , where Syr. Pesch. reads: "They say, These bodies shall not remain on the cross, because the sabbath dawneth."
2189
.
6
The text here is corrupt: for epesanto I have provisionally read epesan te.
2190
.
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.)
2191
.
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.
2192
.
9
The form of the question in the Greek suggests a negative answer.
2193
.
10
[cf. John passim.]
2194
.
2195
Or, if.
11
[cf. .]
2196
.
12
[cf. ; .]
2197
.
2198
a.
2199
.
15
[cf. .]
2200
a.
2201
Lit. house of the offering of God, as in the ms. described by Gildemeister (at ); but it is simply a reproduction of the phrase used in the Peshitta at . The parallel passages are a good deal fused together.
16
[cf. .]
2202
.
17
For further explanation of the method followed see 20.
2203
.
18
See notes to § 7, 47, and § 52, 36, of the present translation.
2204
.
2205
Lit. between him and himself.
19
See below, 12, (2).
2206
.
2207
Or, gains.
2208
.
20
See also below, 6, and 20.
21
Bibl. Or., i., 619.
2209
.
22
Mai, Vet. script. nova. collect., iv., 14.
2210
a; .
23
cf. Zahn, Forschungen, i., 294 ff.
2211
.
24
See below, § 7, 47, note, and § 52, 36, note.
2212
.
25
See below, § 28, 43, note.
2213
.
2214
Lit. one (Syriac).
2215
Lit. and it.
26
See below, foot-notes, passim.
2216
.
27
The first leaf bears a more pretentious Latin inscription, quoted by Ciasca, p. vi.
2217
a; .
28
Can this be a misprint for 95?
2218
.
29
See below, 13.
2219
.
30
He does not state, in so many words, that the list is absolutely exhaustive.
2220
.
31
See, e.g., below, § 13, 42, note, and § 14, 43, note.
2221
.
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.
2222
.
33
cf.the foot-notes passim, e.g., § 13, 14, § 14, 24.
2223
.
34
See below, note to Subscription.
2224
.
35
See a glaring case in § 52, 11.
2225
.
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.
2226
.
2227
Or the teacher of.
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.
2228
.
38
The text is given below in full at its proper place.
2229
.
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.
2230
.
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).
2231
.
41
Prof. Harris promises an edition of this commentary.
2232
.
42
Harris, Fragments, p. 14, where the Syriac text is quoted.
2233
.
2234
The Arabic particle means in order that. Perhaps it is a clerical error for so that; or it may be meant to represent the Syriac.
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.)
2235
.
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.
2236
.
45
Migne, Patrol. græc., tom. lxxxiii., col. 369, 372.
2237
The translator has followed too closely the order of words in his Syriac original, which agrees with the Text. Rec.
2238
.
46
Published at Venice in 1836.
2239
.
47
The two Armenian mss. are dated a.d. 1195.
2240
.

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.