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Introductory Notes

Section XXXVIII

Page 45 of 468

[1, 2]2596 And Jesus came to Bethany, and found him already four days in the grave.2597 And Bethany was beside Jerusalem, and its distance from it was a sum of fifteen furlongs;259832599 and many of the Jews came unto Mary and Martha, to comfort their heart4 because of their brother.2600 And Martha, when she heard that Jesus had come, went5 out to meet him: but Mary was sitting in the house.2601 Martha then said unto Jesus,6 My Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.2602 But I know now that,7 whatever thou shalt ask of God, he will give thee.2603 Jesus said unto her, Thy brother shall8 rise.2604 Martha said unto him, I know that he shall rise in the resurrection at the last day.92605 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: whosoever believeth in10 [Arabic, p. 144] me, even though he die, he shall live:2606 and every living one that believeth11 in me shall never die. Believest thou this?2607 She said unto him, Yea, my Lord: I believe that thou art the Messiah, the Son of God, that cometh into the12 world.2608 And when she had said that, she went and called Mary her sister secretly,13 and said unto her, Our Master hath come, and summoneth thee.2609 And Mary, when14 she heard, rose in haste, and came unto him.2610 (And Jesus then had not come into15 the village, but was in the place where Martha met him.)2611 And the Jews also that were with her in the house, to comfort her, when they saw that Mary rose up and went out in haste, went after her, because they supposed that she was going to the16 tomb to weep.2612 And Mary, when she came to where Jesus was, and saw him, fell at his feet, and said unto him, If thou hadst been here, my Lord, my brother had17 not died.2613 And Jesus came; and when he saw her weeping, and the Jews that were18 with her weeping, he was troubled2614 in himself, and sighed; and he said,2615 In what19 place have ye laid him? And they said unto him, Our Lord, come and see.2616 And20 the tears of Jesus came.26172618 The Jews therefore said, See the greatness of his love for21 him!2619 But some of them said, Could not this man, who opened the eyes of that22 blind man, have caused that this man also should not die?2620 And Jesus came to the place of burial, being troubled within himself. And the place of burial was a cave,23 and a stone was placed at its door.2621 Jesus therefore said, Take these stones away. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said unto him, My Lord, he hath come to24 stink for some time: he hath been2622 four days dead.2623 Jesus said unto her, Did not I say25 [Arabic, p. 145] unto thee, If thou believest, thou shalt see the glory of God?2624 And they removed those stones. And Jesus lifted his eyes on high, and said, My Father,26 I thank thee since thou didst hear me.2625 And I know that thou at all times hearest me: but I say this unto thee because of this multitude that is standing, that they27 may believe that thou didst send me.2626 And when he had said that, he cried with a28 loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.2627 And that dead man came out, having his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped in a scarf. Jesus said unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

292628 And many of the Jews which came unto Mary, when they saw the deed of Jesus,30 believed in him.2629 But some of them went to the Pharisees, and informed them of all that Jesus did.

312630 And the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered, and said, What shall we do?32 for lo, this man doeth many signs.2631 And if we leave him thus, all men will believe33 in him: and the Romans will come and take our country and people.2632 And one of them, who was called Caiaphas, the chief priest he was in that year, said unto them,342633 Ye know not anything, nor consider that it is more advantageous for us that one35 man should die instead of the people, and not that the whole people perish.2634 And this he said not of himself: but because he was the chief priest of2635 that year, he36 prophesied that Jesus was to die instead of the people;2636 and not instead of the people alone, but that he might gather the scattered children of God together.372637 And from that day they considered how to kill him.

38 [Arabic, p. 146]2638 And Jesus did not walk openly amongst the Jews, but departed thence to a place near the wilderness, to a town2639 called Ephraim; and he was there, going39 about with his disciples.2640 And the passover of the Jews was near: and many went40 up from the villages unto Jerusalem before the feast, to purify themselves.2641 And they sought for Jesus, and said one to another in the temple, What think ye of his41 holding back from the feast?2642 And the chief priests and the Pharisees had given commandment, that, if any man knew in what place he was, he should reveal it to them, that they might take him.

422643 And when the days of his going up were accomplished, he prepared himself that43 he might go2644 to Jerusalem.2645 And he sent messengers before him, and departed,2646 and44 entered into a village2647 of Samaria, that they might make ready for him.2648 And they45 received him not, because he2649 was prepared for going to Jerusalem.2650 And when James and John his disciples saw it, they said unto him, Our Lord, wilt thou that we speak, and fire come down from heaven, to extirpate them, as did Elijah also?462651 And Jesus turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not of what spirit ye are.472652 Verily the Son of man did not come to destroy lives, but to give life. And they went to another village.

Notes

  1. 2596

    .

  2. 2597

    .

  3. 2598

    Arabic mil, a somewhat indefinite distance.

  4. 3

    Par[alem]phthenai is perhaps supported by paralabontes, .

  5. 2599

    .

  6. 4

    I know no other instance of stauriskein.

  7. 2600

    .

  8. 5

    cf. , where Syr. Pesch. reads: "They say, These bodies shall not remain on the cross, because the sabbath dawneth."

  9. 2601

    .

  10. 6

    The text here is corrupt: for epesanto I have provisionally read epesan te.

  11. 2602

    .

  12. 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.)

  13. 2603

    .

  14. 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.

  15. 2604

    .

  16. 9

    The form of the question in the Greek suggests a negative answer.

  17. 2605

    .

  18. 10

    [cf. John passim.]

  19. 2606

    .

  20. 11

    [cf. .]

  21. 2607

    .

  22. 12

    [cf. ; .]

  23. 2608

    .

  24. 13

    [cf. .]

  25. 2609

    .

  26. 14

    [cf. ; .]

  27. 2610

    .

  28. 15

    [cf. .]

  29. 2611

    .

  30. 16

    [cf. .]

  31. 2612

    .

  32. 17

    For further explanation of the method followed see 20.

  33. 2613

    .

  34. 18

    See notes to § 7, 47, and § 52, 36, of the present translation.

  35. 2614

    This is the Syriac word (cf. the versions, and below, § 44, 44; see also Ibn-at-Tayyib's Commentary, ad loc).

  36. 2615

    .

  37. 19

    See below, 12, (2).

  38. 2616

    .

  39. 20

    See also below, 6, and 20.

  40. 2617

    So in Syriac versions.

  41. 2618

    .

  42. 21

    Bibl. Or., i., 619.

  43. 2619

    .

  44. 22

    Mai, Vet. script. nova. collect., iv., 14.

  45. 2620

    .

  46. 23

    cf. Zahn, Forschungen, i., 294 ff.

  47. 2621

    .

  48. 24

    See below, § 7, 47, note, and § 52, 36, note.

  49. 2622

    Borg. ms. omits some time: he hath been.

  50. 2623

    .

  51. 25

    See below, § 28, 43, note.

  52. 2624

    .

  53. 26

    See below, foot-notes, passim.

  54. 2625

    .

  55. 27

    The first leaf bears a more pretentious Latin inscription, quoted by Ciasca, p. vi.

  56. 2626

    .

  57. 28

    Can this be a misprint for 95?

  58. 2627

    .

  59. 29

    See below, 13.

  60. 2628

    .

  61. 30

    He does not state, in so many words, that the list is absolutely exhaustive.

  62. 2629

    .

  63. 31

    See, e.g., below, § 13, 42, note, and § 14, 43, note.

  64. 2630

    .

  65. 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.

  66. 2631

    .

  67. 33

    cf.the foot-notes passim, e.g., § 13, 14, § 14, 24.

  68. 2632

    .

  69. 34

    See below, note to Subscription.

  70. 2633

    .

  71. 35

    See a glaring case in § 52, 11.

  72. 2634

    .

  73. 2635

    So both mss.; but the Vat. ms. had originally a reading equivalent to the text above with of omitted.

  74. 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.

  75. 2636

    .

  76. 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.

  77. 2637

    .

  78. 38

    The text is given below in full at its proper place.

  79. 2638

    .

  80. 2639

    The Arabic word as printed (following Vat. ms.) means a place for monks to live in, but we should certainly restore a diacritical point over the last letter, and thus obtain another Syriac loan-word (that used here in the Peshitta), meaning town. See also Ibn-at-Tayyib's Commentary, ad loc.

  81. 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.

  82. 2640

    .

  83. 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).

  84. 2641

    .

  85. 41

    Prof. Harris promises an edition of this commentary.

  86. 2642

    .

  87. 42

    Harris, Fragments, p. 14, where the Syriac text is quoted.

  88. 2643

    .

  89. 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.)

  90. 2644

    The present Arabic reading in going could pretty easily arise from that assumed in the translation above.

  91. 2645

    .

  92. 2646

    This and the following verb are singular in the printed Arabic (against the versions), although Ciasca renders them plural. A copyist using a carelessly written Arabic exemplar might conceivably overlook the plural terminations. Besides, they are often omitted in Syriac mss.

  93. 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.

  94. 2647

    cf. note, § 1, 40.

  95. 2648

    .

  96. 45

    Migne, Patrol. græc., tom. lxxxiii., col. 369, 372.

  97. 2649

    Lit. his body.

  98. 2650

    .

  99. 46

    Published at Venice in 1836.

  100. 2651

    .

  101. 47

    The two Armenian mss. are dated a.d. 1195.

  102. 2652

    .

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.