Tuesday, February 26, 2013

PG001(col. 241-244): First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians: Chapter 17.


(From the 1765 Venice edition of  André Galland's "Library of the Ancient Fathers", Tome 1, folio-size, p. 9)
Author:  André Galland
Googlebooks PDF: PG001

Chapter 17

[[92b]]Let us become imitators even of those who "in skins[[18]] of goat and of sheep walked around[[93b]]," heralding the coming of Christ; and we speak <of> Elijah and Elisha and even still <of> Ezekiel the prophets, in addition to whom also <of> <those who have given testimony>.  Abraham greatly gave testimony, and was addressed <as> "friend of God"[[94b]]; and he says, <gazing intently> toward God's glory, being humble[[19]]: "But I am earth and ashes"[[95b]].  And even still about Job thus <it> has been written: "Job was just and blameless, truthful, god-fearing, abstaining of all evil"[[96b]];  but he accu{sing} himself said[[20]]: "No one <is> clean of fi{lth, if even[[21]]} of one day <be> hi{s} life"[[97b]].  Moses was called faithful in his entire {household}[[98b]], and through his {leader}ship God decided to l{iberate Israel} through[[22]] their blows and {tor}tures; but even h{e}, being greatly distinguished, did not sp{eak boastfully}[[A]], but he said, fr{om the} bush an oracle having been gi{v}en[[23]]: "Who am I, that {you} send me?  But I am weak-voiced and sl{o}w-tongued"[[99b]].  And again he says: "But I am vapor from a pot[[24]]."


Citations
92b. Clement of Alexandria, "Miscellanies" <book> 4, page 516 praises these.

93b. Hebrews 11:37

94b. 2 Chronicles 20:7 ; Isaiah 41:8 ; James 2:23

95b. Genesis 18:27

96b. Job 1:1

97b. Job 14:4 according to the Septuagint

98b. Numbers 12:7 ; Hebrews 3:2-5

99b. Exodus 3:11 ; 4:10


Notes
18. "who in skins, etc.": Clement of Alexandria, "Miscellanies", book 4, chapter 17, from chapter 12 of this epistle passes over to the present chapter 17 excerpting from here several <things>.--Gallandi

     ""who in skins": This passage is taken from <chapter> 11 <of the epistle> to the Hebrews, accordingly as all this <is> a narration about the faith and obedience of the patriarchs: the similarity of thoughts and words, which the Fathers said was between the Epistle to the Hebrews and this <epistle> of Clement's, from this passage and others the diligent and attentive reader can easily apprehend.  Clement of Alexandria, <in> book 4 <of> "Miscellanies" adds, "and plaits of camel hair."--Young

19. "being humble":[[B]] The manuscript displays, "being homblele": whence I consider the latter "wn" to be redundant; such that "humble" should be read: which more suitably agrees with the analogy[[C]] and syntax of the Greek tongue, in which two participles quite rarely <occur together> without a conjunction.  Thus later immediately after the beginning of chapter 19, by a similar error is read in the manuscript, "humblele", for "humble". <Wotton's note>--Gallandi 

20.  "Said": Thus <reads> the manuscript codex.  But Young with the editions, except for the London, exhibits "says" with red letters or enclosed with brackets; just as if nothing existed here in the manuscript.--The same <sc. Gallandi>

21. "If even":[[D]] Thus Wotton fills out the gap instead of what Young <prints> with the editions, "not if".  Mill <prints>, "If even".  Cotelier <prints> either "not <if>" or "if even" or "even if".  <Pierre> Sabatier in "Ancient Latin Translations of the Holy Bible", tome 1, page 856, observes many things worthy of reading on this passage of Job.--The same <sc. Gallandi>

     --"Not if of one day <be> his life", or "not <if>" or "if even" or "even if": The first <wording> you will find in Clement of Alexandria, "Miscellanies", <books> 3 and 4, page 468, 516, and <in> Origen, homily 5 "On Jeremiah", and <in> tome 15 "On Matthew", at chapter 19, verse 29.  The second <wording> in the "Apostolic Constitutions", book 2, chapter 18; <in> Epiphanius <at> heresy 59, chapter 1; <in> Chrysostom <in> "Sermon on the Forerunner of the Lord", tome 6, and <in> Gregory of Nyssa <in> "Oration on Penitence", tome 2.  The third <wording> in [published] codices.  The final <wording> <in> Philo the Jew <in> the book "On the Change of Names": many have "of one day", others have "one day"; But the Catena on Job, codex 495, of the Regal library, <has> "one day"[[E]].--Cotelier

22. "to liberate Israel through": Young with the editions <prints>, "to defend Israel from": against the reliability of the manuscript codex, which Mill in <the writings of> <Richard> Russell testifies, at the beginning of the gap exhibits the letter l, not r[[F]], and the preposition "through", not "from", and that the gap does not admit but eleven letters.  And so he reads: "{his} p{eople Is<rae>l} through"[[G]], Others <emend> otherwise.  But I reckon that gap thus should be restored: "God decided TO LIBERATE IS<rae>L through blows".  Such that the meaning is: that God decided to draw forth from Egyptian captivity Israel, when it was rather sharply oppressed with blows and insults.  For <in this passage> the preposition "through" seems to me to operate with the same force, by which <it does in> 1 Peter 3:20.  "Few <...> souls were saved through water": [[Lat. Trans. Om.]] That is, <in the middle of the waters> God preserved Noah and his family unharmed.--Gallandi

23. "having been given": Thus <reads> the manuscript <according to> Wotton.  But the [imperial codices] <read> "being given".--The same <sc. Gallandi>

24.  "But I am": Learned men <have said> many things on this passage.  The opinion of <Jeremias> Fabricius in "Pseudepigraphic Codices of the Old Testament", tome 1, page 848, rather makes me laugh.  In particular, he thinks that this saying was indeed taken either from Psalm 118:83, or from Hosea 13:3, but should not be ascribed to Moses.  For, he says, since St. Clement after the words of Moses from Exodus 3:11 and 4:10 adds: "And again he says", indeed not <to> Moses, but to another holy writer he looks back: for <it was> thus customary among Christian writers to conjoin cited passages from diverse codices of sacred Scripture.--The same <sc. Gallandi>

     --"But I am vapor from a pot": Rightly observed by Henry Casaubon[[H]] writing about the Hebrew tongue, page 112, that the learned man Jean Chifflet too much indulged his genius, when in <his> apologetic Exhortation to the holy tongue, number 60, so that he might accommodate the words of Moses of Exodus 6:12 to these Clementine <words>, he disturbs the hebraic truth, by transferring, "But I <am> uncircumcised of> lips", into, "But I <am> <???> to lips", which are of no <meaning>[[I]].  Casaubon adds that from the corruption of the same Greek passage, "But I am uncircumcised in the lips", seems to have been made, "But I am like vapor from a pot": nor does the <educated> man consider that, besides other things, that <Greek phrase>, "uncircumcised in the lips", is taken from the edition of Theodotion, who lived long after Clement.  <It> remains that the text was received from a certain apocryphal <book>, perhaps one of those which bore the name of Moses.  But the testimonies have several similariti<es>, <the book> of Job 41:11 : "From his nostrils comes forth smoke, like of a pot kindled beneath and boiling"; Psalm 101:4 : "My days have disappeared like smoke"; Psalm 118:83, according to a certain translator: "I have become like a wineskin in smoke", and <the epistle> of James 4:14 : [[Lat. Trans. Om.]] "For what sort is your life?  <It> is vapor appearing <for a short time>, and then made unseen."--The same <sc. Gallandi>

     --"But I am vapor from a pot":  Regarding this passage, since it is never found in the Pentateuch, let respond for me Chrysostom, homily 7, on the <first epistle> to the Corinthians: "And where have these things been written?  For <things> are said to have been written, even whenever not through words, but through events themselves set down, as in the histories, or whenever the same thought, on the one hand, is set down, but not, on the other hand, in the same words, as here": and a little later : "Or <it is likely> both that <they> have been written in books and that the books have disappeared; and in fact many books were destroyed, and few were preserved, even in the first captivities, and this is clear in the the <ones remaining>," etc., see the passage also <in> homily 9 on Matthew, where the same things are had in almost the same words.  Also Joseph <the Christian>[[J]] in the "Memorandum", and response to question 120 reckons, "The books mentioned in the Scriptures as existing, but not being found."  But we, hurrying to the end, are compelled to move on to other things.--Young

     --<There> is no need of such defenses, when <it> is most ascertained that not all things which holy men had said are handed over to the writings of the Old Testament, more than <the things> which our Lord did and said, about which says John <in> the last chapter, "If <they> should be written <individually>," etc.  Indeed even the author at Hebrews, chapter 12, <verse> 21, attributed to this Moses himself words which no more than these appear in the Pentateuch.  For nowhere do we hear one saying, "I am terrified and trembling."  Meanwhile, though, howsoever <they> be lacking elsewhere, at least they seem to occur <in> Psalm 119:83, "I have become like a wineskin in smoke", [[Lat. Trans. Om.]], although the version of the 70 translators professes something else; whence although they cannot justly be attributed to Moses, perhaps to David, of whom mention is immediately made, <they> may easily be restored.  To one seriously weighing the matter a not light doubt arises that this passage was dislocated by the wrongdoing of a librarian, <and that it> thus can be restored: "But what shall I say about David who has witnessed, to whom God said, 'I found a man according to my heart, David the <son> of Jesse, in eternal oil I anointed him.' But also he says to God, 'But I am vapor from a pot.'  And again he says, '<Have mercy on> me, God,'" etc.  Indeed it should be said that this <connected passage> is had not otherwise in <the writings of> Clement of Alexandria than here.  But <he> who might recall what was earlier observed about the interpolated names of the Danaids and Dirces, and also has clearly seen what license Clement of Alexandria uses in praising this our <Clement>; surely, as if from [a privilege of name he everywhere acted by his own <rules>]; will not so much cite him <as> as witness of genuine reading<s>, as judge <him> rather to be suspected of corrupt <readings>.  Moreover, it will be permitted to indicate that these words are found <in> Hosea 13:3, for although <at the present time> is read, "like vapor from tears", or, as <read> other exemplars, "<from> locusts"[[K]], as if from the <Hebrew> word "sky-sluice", although Theodotion and the Alexandrian manuscipt render "from <the> chimney", and blessed Jerome <renders> "from the smokechamber"; certainly here with no meaning is read either "of locusts" or "of tears", and <it is> apparently true that <it> is now had in place of "of a pot" by the error of a librarian.  Also,agrees the Hebrew word "sky-sluice", which not only is set forth <as> "hole" and "window", but also in <the writings of the> Rabbis <as> "small vessel".  Also, the Arabs say <???>[[L]], except that by it they wish <to say> a wide way.  The Targum acknowledges this translation, in the passage of Hosea cited above <it reads>, "like smoke from burning of fire".--Fell


My Notes
A. Migne's text does not insert a closing bracket for this word.  Given that it ends the line, and that the next line contains a new opening bracket, I've placed this closing bracket at the line end.

B.  The issues here can't be rendered into English well.  There is a slight spelling difference between the adjective "humble" and the verb "to be humble".  The adjective is formed with an omicron in the stem, which normally lengthens into an omega in the nominative, whereas the verb maintains the omicron throughout.  The manuscript, however, gives the ungrammatical form with an omega in the stem along with an omega-nu ending, which can be interpreted as either a redundancy of the "wn" for the nominative adjective, or as a misspelling of the nominative m.sg. participle.

C.  The word "analogy" has a technical meaning in linguistics, i.e., the regularization of word forms according to an accepted rule-based model.  

D.  The proposed emendations in this section are all variations of conditional conjunctions, not all of which easily translate directly into English, and not all of which are unambiguously indicated in the Hebrew from which this passage originally comes.  

E.  The various versions of "one day" are all in different cases, but they all convey the basic meaning of the extent of life being one day's length.

F.  Rho is the first Greek letter in the word I've translated as "defend".

G.  The angled brackets in "Israel" indicate the the expansion of the normal abbreviation: ISL.

H. I'm not quite sure who this is supposed to be.  The famous scholar Casaubon is named Isaac, and there doesn't seem to be a "Henry" Casaubon.  But Isaac's dates seem too early for him to have commented on Chifflet (assuming I have the right Jean Chifflet).  So perhaps the Casaubon to whom Fell is referring is Isaac's son, Méric.  The name "Henry" may be due to confusion with Henri Estienne, Isaac's father-in-law, with whom Méric shares the name Estienne.

I.  The issue here is that Chifflet has divided the letters into different words in order to get his translation of, "I am vapor from a pot".  Translating "lips" as "pot" does make sense, since the Hebrew word for "lip" is also used for "edge/rim".  But the two letters he is left with for "vapor" do not seem to work at all, and the other possibilities seem to stretch credibility (e.g., "I am an adversary to lips").  It seems that he was just mistaken.

J.  This author is known as Joseph the Christian (not to be confused with the well-known Jewish author Flavius Josephus), and his work is known under the transliterated general document title, "Hypomnesticon", which is usually cited in the ablative case as, "Hypomnestico".  This work may be found in Migne, PG106, where he is also known as "Joseppus"[sic].

K.  Fell seems to be mistaking the Greek "akridwn" for "akriwn", i.e., "high-places" or "mountain-tops".  This does not quite match the Hebrew, but it certainly makes more sense for his interpretation than "locusts".  But the current New English Translation of the Septuagint retains the insects and renders, "like a haze of grasshoppers".

L.  This word is printed in Hebrew letters, not in Arabic.  I haven't been able to find it under the Arabic root Alif-R-B, so I'm not sure what to make of it.

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