Introductory Notes

Section XLVIII

Page 55 of 468

¹³³⁰⁹ This said Jesus, and went forth with his disciples to a place which was called Gethsemane,³³¹⁰ on³³¹¹ the side that is in the plain³³¹² of Kidron, the mountain,³³¹³ the place² in which was a garden; and he entered thither, he and his disciples.³³¹⁴ And Judas the³ betrayer knew that place: for Jesus oft-times met with his disciples there.³³¹⁵ And when Jesus came to the place, he said to his disciples, Sit ye here, so that I may go and pray; [4, 5] [Arabic, p. 181] and pray ye, that ye enter not into temptations.³³¹⁶ And he took with him Cephas and the sons of Zebedee together, James and John; and he began to⁶ look sorrowful, and to be anxious.³³¹⁷ And he said unto them, My soul is distressed unto⁷ death: abide ye here, and watch with me.³³¹⁸ And he withdrew from them a little,⁸ the space of a stone's throw;³³¹⁹ and he kneeled,³³²⁰ and fell on his face, and prayed, so⁹ that, if it were possible, this hour might pass³³²¹ him.³³²² And he said, Father, thou art able for all things; if thou wilt, let this cup pass me:³³²³ but let not my will be done,¹⁰ but let thy will be done.³³²⁴ And he came to his disciples, and found them sleeping;¹¹ and he said unto Cephas, Simon, didst thou sleep?³³²⁵ Could ye thus not for one hour¹² watch with me?³³²⁶ Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptations: the spirit is¹³ willing and ready, but the body is weak.³³²⁷³³²⁸ And he went again a second time, and prayed, and said, My Father, if it is not possible with regard to³³²⁹ this cup that it pass,¹⁴ except I drink it, thy will be done.³³³⁰ And he returned again, and found his disciples sleeping, for their eyes were heavy from their grief and anxiety; and they knew not¹⁵ what to say to him.³³³¹ And he left them, and went away again, and prayed a third¹⁶ time, and said the very same word.³³³² And there appeared unto him an angel from¹⁷ heaven, encouraging him.³³³³ And being afraid³³³⁴ he prayed continuously:³³³⁵ and his sweat³³³⁶¹⁸ [Arabic, p. 182] became like a stream of blood, and fell on the ground.³³³⁷ Then he rose from¹⁹ his prayer, and came to his disciples, and found them sleeping.³³³⁸ And he²⁰ said unto them, Sleep now, and rest:³³³⁹ the end hath arrived,³³⁴⁰ and the hour hath come;²¹ and behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.³³⁴¹ Arise, let us go:³³⁴² for he hath come that betrayeth me.

²²³³⁴³ And while he was still speaking, came Judas the betrayer, one of the twelve, and with him a great multitude carrying lanterns and torches³³⁴⁴ and swords and staves, from the chief priests and scribes and elders of the people, and with him the footsoldiers²³ of the Romans.³³⁴⁵³³⁴⁶ And Judas the betrayer gave them a sign, and said, He whom I shall kiss, he is he: take him with care,³³⁴⁷ and lead him away.³³⁴⁸

²⁴³³⁴⁹ And Jesus, because he knew everything that should come upon him, went forth²⁵ unto them.³³⁵⁰ And immediately Judas the betrayer came to Jesus, and said, Peace,²⁶ my Master; and kissed him.³³⁵¹ And Jesus said unto him, Judas, with a kiss betrayest²⁷ thou the Son of man?³³⁵² Was it for that thou camest, my friend? And Jesus said²⁸ to those that came unto him, Whom seek ye?³³⁵³ They said unto him, Jesus the Nazarene. Jesus said unto them, I am he. And Judas the betrayer also was standing²⁹ with them.³³⁵⁴ And when Jesus said unto them, I am he, they retreated backward, and³⁰ fell to the ground.³³⁵⁵ And Jesus asked them again, Whom seek ye? They answered,³¹ Jesus the Nazarene.³³⁵⁶ Jesus said unto them, I told you that I am he: and if ye seek³² me, let these go away: that the word might be fulfilled which he spake,³³⁵⁷ Of those³³ [Arabic, p. 183] whom thou hast given me I lost not even one.³³⁵⁸ Then came those that were with Judas, and seized Jesus, and took him.

³⁴³³⁵⁹ And when his disciples saw what happened, they said, Our Lord, shall we smite³⁵ them with swords?³³⁶⁰ And Simon Cephas had a sword, and he drew it, and struck the servant of the chief priest, and cut off his right ear. And the name of that servant³⁶ was Malchus.³³⁶¹ Jesus said unto Cephas, The cup which my Father hath given³⁷ me, shall I not drink it?³³⁶² Put the sword into its sheath: for all that take with³³⁶³ the³⁸ sword shall die by the sword.³³⁶⁴ Thinkest³³⁶⁵ thou that I am not able to ask of my³⁹ Father, and he shall now raise up for me more than³³⁶⁶ twelve tribes of angels?³³⁶⁷ Then⁴⁰ how should the scriptures which were spoken be fulfilled, that thus it must be?³³⁶⁸ Your⁴¹ leave in this.³³⁶⁹³³⁷⁰ And he touched the ear of him that was struck, and healed it. And in that hour Jesus said to the multitudes, As they come out against a thief are ye come out against me with swords and staves to take me? Daily was I with you in⁴² the temple sitting teaching, and ye took me not:³³⁷¹ but this is your hour, and the power⁴³ of darkness.³³⁷² And that was, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.

⁴⁴³³⁷³ Then the disciples all left him, and fled. And the footsoldiers and the officers⁴⁵ and the soldiers³³⁷⁴ of the Jews seized Jesus, and came.³³⁷⁵ And a certain³³⁷⁶ young man⁴⁶ followed him, and he was wrapped in a towel, naked:³³⁷⁷ and they seized him; so he⁴⁷ [Arabic, p. 184] left the towel, and fled naked.³³⁷⁸ Then they took Jesus, and bound him, and brought him to Annas first; because he was the father in law of Caiaphas,⁴⁸ who was chief priest that year.³³⁷⁹ And Caiaphas was he that counselled the Jews, that it was necessary that one man should die instead of the people.

⁴⁹³³⁸⁰ And Simon Cephas and one of the other disciples followed Jesus. And the chief⁵⁰ priest knew that disciple, and he entered with Jesus into the court;³³⁸¹ but Simon was standing without at the door. And that other disciple, whom the chief priest knew,⁵¹ went out and spake unto her that kept the door, and she brought Simon in.³³⁸² And when the maid that kept the door saw Simon, she looked stedfastly at him, and said unto him, Art not thou also one of the disciples of this man, I mean Jesus the⁵² Nazarene?³³⁸³ But he denied, and said, Woman, I know him not, neither know I even⁵³ what thou sayest.³³⁸⁴ And the servants and the soldiers rose, and made a fire in the⁵⁴ middle of the court, that they might warm themselves; for it was cold.³³⁸⁵ And when⁵⁵ the fire burned up, they sat down around it.³³⁸⁶ And Simon also came, and sat down with them to warm himself, that he might see the end of what should happen.

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.
3309
.
3310
.
3311
Vat. ms. has and on.
3312
The word rendered plain (cf. Dozy, Supplement, sub voc.), which occurs also in the text of Ibn-at-Tayyib (loc. cit., f. 362b), properly means lake. The word in the Jerusalem Lectionary means valley as well as stream. For the whole clause cf. the text of in Die vier Evangelien, arabisch, aus der Wiener Handschrift, edited by P. de Lagarde, 1864.
3313
cf. Sinaitic Syriac and .
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).
3314
.
3
Par[alem]phthenai is perhaps supported by paralabontes, .
3315
a; b.
3316
b; .
6
The text here is corrupt: for epesanto I have provisionally read epesan te.
3317
.
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.)
3318
a.
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.
3319
b.
3320
Lit. fell on his knees.
9
The form of the question in the Greek suggests a negative answer.
3321
Lit. let this hour pass. The Borg. ms. omits him.
3322
a.
3323
b.
10
[cf. John passim.]
3324
a; b.
11
[cf. .]
3325
b.
12
[cf. ; .]
3326
a; Matt. xiv. 38b.
13
[cf. .]
3327
Lit. diseased. The Arabic word is rare in the sense required by the context (cf. Pesh.).
3328
.
3329
This reading would perhaps more easily arise out of the Sinaitic than out of the Peshitta.
14
[cf. ; .]
3330
.
15
[cf. .]
3331
.
16
[cf. .]
3332
.
17
For further explanation of the method followed see 20.
3333
.
3334
cf. Peshitta. Or, And although he was afraid.
3335
The Peshitta (hardly Cur.) is capable of this interpretation.
3336
cf. Syr., especially Peshitta.
18
See notes to § 7, 47, and § 52, 36, of the present translation.
3337
a.
19
See below, 12, (2).
3338
; b.
20
See also below, 6, and 20.
3339
b.
3340
cf. Syr., especially Peshitta.
21
Bibl. Or., i., 619.
3341
a; b.
3342
cf. § 4, 20, note.
22
Mai, Vet. script. nova. collect., iv., 14.
3343
.
3344
.
23
cf. Zahn, Forschungen, i., 294 ff.
3345
cf. (Jerusalem Lectionary). In Syriac Romans means soldiers. The Arabic footsoldiers might be man (singular).
3346
; b.
3347
cf. Syriac versions. Obviously we must supply a diacritical point over the last radical, or read the middle one as dhal.
3348
Lit. him to—. Borg. ms. probably means bear him away.
24
See below, § 7, 47, note, and § 52, 36, note.
3349
a.
25
See below, § 28, 43, note.
3350
; a.
26
See below, foot-notes, passim.
3351
b.
27
The first leaf bears a more pretentious Latin inscription, quoted by Ciasca, p. vi.
3352
b; a, c.
28
Can this be a misprint for 95?
3353
b; .
29
See below, 13.
3354
.
30
He does not state, in so many words, that the list is absolutely exhaustive.
3355
.
31
See, e.g., below, § 13, 42, note, and § 14, 43, note.
3356
.
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.
3357
.
33
cf.the foot-notes passim, e.g., § 13, 14, § 14, 24.
3358
c.
34
See below, note to Subscription.
3359
.
35
See a glaring case in § 52, 11.
3360
.
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.
3361
a.
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.
3362
c; b.
3363
Withis doubtless an accidental repetition of by (the same Arabic particle) in the next clause.
38
The text is given below in full at its proper place.
3364
.
3365
The introductory interrogative particle may represent an original Or.
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.
3366
Vat. ms. omits than, and has more only in the margin by another hand.
3367
.
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).
3368
b.
41
Prof. Harris promises an edition of this commentary.
3369
The phrase is awkward. The rendering is different in the text (f. 292a, cf. Lagarde, Die vier Evv.), and yet again in the comment (f. 293a) of Ibn-at-Tayyib's Commentary.
3370
.
42
Harris, Fragments, p. 14, where the Syriac text is quoted.
3371
b.
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.)
3372
.
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.
3373
a.
45
Migne, Patrol. græc., tom. lxxxiii., col. 369, 372.
3374
cf. § 11, 11.
3375
.
3376
Lit. one.
46
Published at Venice in 1836.
3377
.
47
The two Armenian mss. are dated a.d. 1195.
3378
b; .
48
Evangelii Concordantis Expositio, facta a S. Ephraemo (Ven., 1876).
3379
.
49
Forschungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, I. Theil.
3380
.
50
Edited by Ernestus Ranke, Marb. and Lips., 1868.
3381
.
51
For other forms of the Diatessaron, of no critical importance, see S. Hemphill, The Diatessaron of Tatian (London, 1888), Appendix D and the refs. there.
3382
a.
52
Further references, chiefly repetitions in one form or another of the statements we have quoted, may be found in a convenient form in Harnack, Gesch. d. altchrist. Lit. bis. Euseb., 493-496; cf. also the works mentioned by Hill (op. cit.) p. 378 f.
3383
; b.
53
cf. the words of Aphraates, senior contemporary of Ephraem: "As it is written in the beginning of the Gospel of our Vivifier: In the beginning was the Word." (Patrol. Syr., pars i., tom. i., 21, lines 17-19).
3384
a.
54
Nachrichten von der Königl. Gesellsch. der Wiss., etc., March 17, 1886, No. 4, p. 151 ff.
3385
a.
55
See notes to § 1, 81, and § 4, 29.
3386
c; b.

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.