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A New Greek Fragment from Ariston of Pella's Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2012

François Bovon  and
John M. Duffy
François Bovon
Affiliation:
The Divinity School, Department of the Classics
John M. Duffy
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Harvard University
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Abstract

The surprise find of a portion of the lost Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus, to be presented below, was made inside another text discovery. In the course of searching for manuscripts containing works by Sophronius, the seventh-century patriarch of Jerusalem, one of the authors (JD) came across, in the collection of St. Catherine's monastery at Mt. Sinai, a book that consists exclusively of extracts from a variety of patristic, chronographic, and heresiological sources. The original purpose of this codex was, among other things, to gather evidence for the time and dating of important Christian events.1 For example, the first extract discusses a method for calculating the date of Easter, and the second is concerned with identifying the years and days of the week on which Christ's birth, baptism, and passion occurred. Other extracts are focused on an assortment of different topics ranging from the nature of God to the origin and meaning of certain philosophical or theological concepts, such as “beginning” (ajrchv) and “eternity” (aijwvn).

Type
ARTICLES
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 105 , Issue 4 , 09 November 2012 , pp. 457 - 465
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 2012

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References

1 The book in question is Sinaiticus graecus 1807, datable to the 16th century. It is described in the old catalogue of Vladimir Benešević, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Graecorum qui in monasterio Sanctae Catharinae in Monte Sina asservantur (vols. 1, 3.1; 1917; repr., Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1965) 3.1: 212–14.Google Scholar

2 For an edition of the homily on the Nativity, see Hermann, Usener “Weihnachtspredigt des Sophronios,” Rheinisches Museum für Philologie n.F. 41 (1886) 500–516Google Scholar (and reissued in his Kleine Schriften [4 vols.; Leipzig: Teubner, 1912–1913] 4:162–77).

3 Duffy, John, “New Fragments of Sophronius of Jerusalem and Aristo of Pella?” in Bibel, Byzanz und Christlicher Orient. Festschrift für Stephen Gerö zum 65. Geburtstag (ed. Bumazhnov, Dmitrij et al.; OLA 187; Leuven: Peeters, 2011)15–28.Google Scholar

4 See Origen, Contra Celsum 4.52–53.Google Scholar

5 The Scholia on Dionysius Areopagitus, De mystica theologia 1 (PG 4:421–22).Google Scholar

6 See Rorem, Paul and Lamoreaux, John C., John of Scythopolis and the Dionysian Corpus: Annotating the Areopagite (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998) 36–39, 57, 244–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 “Illud praeclarum atque memorabile gloriosumque Iasonis Hebraei Christiani et Papisci Alexandrini Iudaei disceptationis occurrit” (“Ad Vigilium episcopum de Judaica incredulitate,” in Cyprian, Opera omnia [ed. Hartel, Wilhelm; 3 vols.; CSEL 3; Vienna: apud C. Geroldi filium, 1868–1871] 3:128).Google Scholar

8 Hebraicae quaestiones in libro Geneseos (CCSL 72; S. Hieronymi Presbyteri opera 1.1; Turnhout: Brepols, 1959) 3Google Scholar, and Commentarii in Epistulam Pauli ad Galatas (ed. Raspanti, Giacomo; CCSL 77a; S. Hieronymi Presbyteri opera 1.6/9; Turnhout: Brepols, 2006) 89–90.Google Scholar

9 See above, n. 5. Pella, the place associated with Ariston, is one of the cities of the Decapolis, east of the river Jordan.Google Scholar

10 Eusebius of Caesarea, Historia ecclesiastica 4.6.3.Google Scholar

11 Chronicon Paschale (ed. Dindorf, Ludwig; 2 vols.; CSHB 15–16, 16–17; Bonn: Weber, 1832) 1:477.Google Scholar

12 See Thomson, Robert W., Moses Khorenats'i: History of the Armenians (New York: Caravan, 1981) 201Google Scholar. The time of Moses of Chorene's activities is disputed—some place him as early as the fifth century, while others date him between the 7th and 9th cent.

13 Another potential reference to the Dialogue is found in the writings of Anastasius of Sinai (fl. 640–700). See Anastasii Sinaitae Viae dux, (ed. Uthemann, Karl-Heinz; CCSG 8; Anastasii Sinaitae opera; Leuven: Brepols, 1981) XIIIGoogle Scholar, 10, 19ff., as well as Bruns, J. Edgar, “Altercatio Jasonis et Papisci, Philo, and Anastasius the Sinaite,” TS 34 (1973) 287–94.Google Scholar

14 See Patrick, Andrist “Les Testimonia de l’Ad Quirinum de Cyprien et leur influence sur la polémique antijudaïque latine postérieure. Proposition de méthode autour de Dt 28,66 et Nm 23,19,” in Cristianesimi nell Antichità: Fonti, istituzioni, ideologie a confronto (ed. D’Anna, Alberto et al.; Spudasmata 117; Hildesheim: Olms, 2007) 175–98.Google Scholar

15 See Williams, Lukyn A., Adversus Judaeos (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1935) 28–30.Google Scholar

16 See McGiffert, Arthur C., Dialogue Between a Christian and a Jew (New York: Christian Literature Co., 1889).Google Scholar

17 Justin, Dial. 10.3; 24.1; 27.5; 138.1.Google Scholar

18 Ibid. 43.3.

19 Ibid. 44.1, 4; 53.1.

20 Ibid. 65.5.

21 Tolley, Harry B. Jr. “Ariston of Pella: An Investigation of His Works, Name and Toponym,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2009)Google Scholar presents an extensive review of the scholarship on Ariston and on the Dialogue. However, since no new textual evidence has been available until now, recent studies inevitably contain many repetitions.

22 See von Otto, Johann Karl Theodor, Corpus Apologetarum Christianorum Saeculi Secundi (9 vols.; Wiesbaden: Sändig, 1861) 9:349–63Google Scholar; von Harnack, Adolf, “Das dem Aristo von Pella beigelegte Werk: Jason's und Papiskus’ Disputation über Christus,” in Die Überlieferung der griechischen Apologeten des zweiten Jahrhunderts in der alten Kirche und im Mittelalter (TUGAL 1.1–2; Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1883) 115–130Google Scholar; , Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur bis Eusebius (2 vols.; Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1893–1904) 2:268–69Google Scholar; and Külzer, Andreas, Disputationes Graecae contra Iudaeos. Untersuchungen zur byzantinischen antijüdischen Dialogliteratur und ihrem Judenbild (Byzantinisches Archiv 18; Stuttgart: Teubner, 1999) 95–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 See Willy, Rordorf, Der Sonntag. Geschichte des Ruhe- und Gottesdiensttages im ältesten Christentum (ATANT 43; Zürich: Zwingli, 1962).Google Scholar

24 Barnabas 6.13: “And the Lord says, ‘See! I am making the final things like the first’” (The Apostolic Fathers [trans. Bart D. Ehrman; 2 vols.; Loeb Classical Library 24–25; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003] 2:35)Google Scholar. Kraft and Prigent comment on this verse as follows: “On retrouve cet agraphon dans la Didascalie syriaque (VI, 18, 15 sous une forme développée : « Je fais les choses premières comme les dernières, et les dernières comme les premières ») dans un contexte qui n'invite guère à supposer un emprunt à Barnabé. (Cf. encore Hippolyte, Commentaire sur Daniel 4, 37 : « Car les choses dernières seront comme le premières. »). L'origine de l’agraphon reste mystérieuse. A. Resch (Agrapha, Aussercanonische Schriftfragmente, TU, NF, 15, 3–4, 1906, p. 167 s.), qui y voyait le souvenir d'un logion de Jésus, n'a pas fait école (cf. Helmut Koester, Synoptische Überlieferung bei den Apostolischen Vätern, TU 65, p. 127). La solution avancée par H. Windisch (p. 337): dérivation d’Is. 43, 18 s.; 46, 10, n'est guère satisfaisante. On se contentera donc de remarquer que cet agraphon, qui annonce une genèse nouvelle et eschatologique, s'adapte particulièrement bien au contexte. Barnabé l'a certainment reçu au sein même du midrasch baptismal qu'il utilise ici” (Robert A. Kraft and Pierre Prigent, Épître de Barnabe´ [SC 172; Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1972] 125).

25 The fragment uses the terms

26 See Oscar, Cullmann, La Nativité et l'arbre de Noël (Nouv. éd.; Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1993) 43–52.Google Scholar

27 See Heb 1:6:

28 Attributing different events of the history of salvation to identical periods of time was not a Christian invention. Jewish tradition had previously established this precedent. Take, for example, the Jewish poem of the Four Nights, wherein the creation, the divine manifestation to Abraham, the Exodus, and the eschatological end of the world, all take place at night. See Le Déaut, Roger, La Nuit Pascale. Essai sur la signification de la Pâque juive à partir du Targum d’Exode XII 42 (AnBib 22; Rome: Biblical Institute, 1963).Google Scholar

29 As one still says in French, that an event “tombe” on such-and-such a day.Google Scholar

30 See Otfried, Hofius, Katapausis : Die Vorstellung vom endzeitlichen Ruheort im Hebräerbrief (WUNT 11; Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1970).Google Scholar

31 See Matt 7:11: