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Homily on the Nativity of our Lord by Severian, Bishop of Gabala

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

Bkitish Museum Ms., Oriental 8606, a Syriac codex of Melchite origin, written in the year A.D. 723, contains, besides a Syriac Corpus Athanasianum (the only Syriac Corpus of Athanasian writings so far discovered), a collection of Homilies on the Nativity by various authors. With one exception, a Homily by St. Ephraim, these are all translated from Greek originals. One of these discourses, a Homily by Severian, Bishop of Gabala in Syria, ” On the Nativity of our Lord and against Heretics ”, seems to be no longer extant in Greek, nor, so far as I can discover, has the Syriac version ever been published. This is somewhat surprising since the same discourse is to be found in Cod. Vat. Syr. 369, fol.15v–17v. As very few of Severian's sermons are preserved in the original Greek, it seemed to me that an edition of this piece might be of interest to scholars.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1948

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References

page 555 note 1 On this volume see Journal of Theological Studies, vol. 30 (1929), pp. 249–264; H. G. Opitz, “ Das syrische Corpus Athanasianuin ”, Zeitschrift f. die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, Bd. 33 (1934), pp. 18–31; and W. H.-P. Hatch, An Album of Dated Syriac MS8., Boston, Mass., 1946, plate 48.Google Scholar

page 555 note 2 Edited in the Roman edition of Ephraim's works, Op. Syr., 3, 604 ff.

page 555 note 3 See A. Mai, Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, Tom. 5 (1831), pars ii, p. 43. Unfortunately, the Cardinal does not give the incipits of the various treatises, so that one cannot tell whether the Syriac version of the Vatican codex is identical with that of the Museum MS.Google Scholar

page 556 note 1 It must be confessed that the reasoning by which the inclusion of Joseph in the genealogy is made to prove the miraculous character of Christ's birth seems to me far from convincing.

page 556 note 2 Sacra Paralela, Migne, PG., 96, 533.

page 556 note 3 Dialogue II, Migne, PG., 83, 209 ff.

page 556 note 4 Edit, by J. Lebon, GSCO. Scriptores Syri, ser. 4, torn. 4–6, Paris, Louvain, 1929–19

page 557 note 1 Florilegium Edessenum Anonymum, Miinchen, 1933

page 557 note 2 Cod. Vat. gr. 1431, eine anlichalkedonische Sammlung aus der Zeit Kaiser Zenos, München, 1927.

page 557 note 3 Severiani... Gabalorum episcopi Emesensis Homiliae nunc primum editae ex antiqua versione Armena in Latinum sermonem translatae per P. Jo. Baptistam Aucher, Venetiis, 1827.

page 557 note 4 This Horn, is extant in Greek, the first nine paragraphs having been edited by Ch. Martin in Musèon, t. 48 (1935), pp. 311–321, and the remainder by Zellinger, Stvdien zu Severian von Gabala, Minister, 1926, pp. 9–21

page 557 note 5 Cf. Zellinger, op. cit., p. 68.

page 557 note 6 Migne, PG., 51, col. 37–8.

page 558 note 1 PG., 59, col. 689: Hom. In Incarnationem. See also Zellinger, op. cit., p. 67

page 558 note 2 De viris illuttribus, Migne, PL., 58, coL 1073.

page 558 note 3 The underlined portion is written in red ink.

page 562 note 1 The underlined portion is written in red ink.

page 562 note 2 I Cor. i, 18 and 24.

page 562 note 3 Literally: And if our speech is too weak for the stories of Him

page 563 note 1 literally: too weak for the stories concerning him

page 563 note 2 2 Cor. xii, 2.

page 563 note 3 Literally: Little out of much. 1 Cor. xiii, 9.

page 563 note 4 Is. liii, 8.

page 563 note 5 Psalm cxxxii, 11.

page 563 note 6 Matt, i, 1.

page 563 note 7 Matt, i, 1

page 564 note 1 Gen. i, 26

page 564 note 2 Psalm viii, 7–9; cf. also Gen. i, 26.

page 564 note 3 I am indebted to Mr. E. W. Brooks for this rendering of an obscure passage, which involves readinginstead of

page 564 note 4 I.e. by making him offer sacrifices and libations to idols.

page 564 note 5 Rom. i, 25.

page 565 note 1 Psalm cvi, 37

page 565 note 2 I.e. so that thereby they might be corrected.

page 565 note 3 Cf. Luke xv, 13.

page 565 note 4 Cf. 2 Cor. v, 19.

page 565 note 5 Luke xxiii, 34

page 565 note 6 Exod. xxxiv, 30.

page 565 note 7 Exod.xxxiv, 33

page 565 note 8 Exod. xxxiii, 20.

page 565 note 9 Dan. viii, 17.

page 565 note 10 Cf. Romans v, 20

page 565 note 11 1 Cor. xv, 45

page 565 note 12 1 Cor. xv, 47

page 566 note 1 A reference to the Docetic heresy

page 566 note 2 The reading is doubtful, the words at the top of this column being almost illegible

page 566 note 3 I.e. use the expression

page 566 note 4 here

page 566 note 5 here.

page 566 note 6 I am indebted to Prof. J. Lebon, of Louvain, for help in elucidating some of the theological subtleties of this sermon.