TEXTUAL TRANSMISSION AND TRANSLATION
23. The Diatessaron of Romanos
304
Matt 13 : 25
HERMANN J. FREDE
b T+ KC&&W TO& cb+dmot)s = dormientibus hominibus ZE;
2 (e); 12 (h); A U ] cum dormirent homines V; CHRO ; cf. cum dormiunt homines I (k)
&& $aov 700 &ou = in t&cum ZE; 3 (a) ; 4 (b) ; 7 (gl) ; 8 ($*) ;
12 (h) ; NIC ; PEL] in medio tritici V; 2 (e) ; CHRO; cf. inter frumentum I (k)
Von Matt 13 : 12 abgesehen, wo Zenos Text mit illi eine afrikanische Lesart bewahrt hat, begleiten .ihn mit dem wohl in Verona gegen Ende des 5. Jahrhunderts entstandenen Purpurevangeliar 4 (b), dem etwa gleichzeitigen Claromontanus
I 2 (fz), dessen Ursprungsort noch ungeklart ist, Texte, die zur Kerntiberlieferung des fortschrittlichen italienischen Textes urn 350-380 zu rechnen sind, der mit Ambrosius und Ambrosiaster verwandt ist und bei der Herstellung der Vulgata als Grundlage diente.26 Es tiberrascht nicht, daB Zenos Lesarten beim Vergleich mit den Texten der altlateinischen Handschriften einen ahn- lichen Platz finden wie schon im Kreis der patristischen Zitate.
Im Rahmen seiner eigenen, mcht Cyprian oder anderen ent- lehnten Bibelanfiihrungen ist Zeno, wenn such in bescheidenem Umfang, ein wichtiger Zeuge fur den Entwicklungsstand des Textes seiner Zeit in Oberitalien (Verona).27 Er gehiirt trotz seiner wohl afrikanischen Herkunfi? zu den Vertretern einer von Italien ausstrahlenden Praevulgata, die die Vetus Latina- Ausgabe als Texttyp I bezeichnet.29 Vereinzelte afrikanischeso Lesarten in dem von ihm zitierten Text sind nicht anders zu beurteilen als bei diesen.
26 Vgl. die Darstellung der Evangelientiberlieferung bei B. Fischer, ‘Das Neue Testament in lateinischer Sprache’, Die alten Ubersetzungen &s fiuen Testaments, die Kirchenviiter~itate und Lektionare (ed. K. Aland; Arbeiten zur neutestamentlichen Textforschung 5; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1g72), 30-39.
27 Zu den Veroneser Bibelhandschriften siehe B. Fischer, Bibeltext und Bibel- reform unter Karl dem GrojIen (Karl der Grol3e II ; Dusseldorf, I g65), 2 14.
28 Fur diese Herkunft spricht lediglich die Passio S. Arcadii, deren Verfasser Zeno wohl ist, vgl. B. Lofstedt, CChL 22, 6*-7*; F. E. Vokes, ‘Zeno of Verona, Apuleius and Africa’, Studia Patristica 8/2 (TU 93; Berlin: Akademie, rg66), 130-34, will nicht einmal dieses Argument gelten lassen.
29 In meiner Paulus-Ausgabe sind die Zeno-Lesarten als diesem Typ zugehiirig behandelt.
30 Zu Herkunft und heutigem Gebrauchssinn des Begriffs ‘afrikanischer Text’
vgl. B. Fischer (Anm. 26), g-12; H. J. Frede, VetusLatina 25, 2. Lieferung(rg76),
‘46-47.
306 G I L L E S Q U I S P E L
Diatessaron. Therefore, this Old High German variant cannot be considered as sheer coincidence and be dismissed out of hand.4 We find the same reading in Ludolph of Saxony’s Lifk of Christ.
That is because Ludolph still knew and quoted the Latin version of Tatian that lies behind the Western vernacular harmonies.
The objection that Ludolph’s Vita Christi is a life of Jesus in verse that would have many variants sheerly for poetic variation is not valid for the simple reason that Ludolph wrote prose, not poetry.5
It is true that some of the Tatianisms in the Western Diatessa- rons can have many explanations other than dependence. But the problem is whether such alternative explanations can be plausible in view of the cumulative evidence which points in the opposite direction, especially if these variants also occur in texts written in the same language as the canonical Gospels, namely Greek.
And this is the case with the writings of Romanos.
The saintly Melodos, ‘the humble Romanos’, is the greatest and most famous poet of the Greek Orthodox Church. He was born of a Jewish family in Emesa, the present Horns, in Syria, and became a deacon of the Christian Church at Berytus (Beirut). It was during the reign of Anastasius I (491-5 18) that he went from there to Constantinople, where he joined the clergy of the Theotokos church. His ‘kontakia’ (essays) are elaborately constructed poetical sermons, among others about gospel themes, and were greatly influenced by the poetry of St.
Ephraem.6 This Syrian poet who wrote in Greek was familiar with a version of the Diatessaron of Tatian. A few typical examples will suffice to prove this new but obvious observation.
(I) He quotes Mary as having said : ‘I am (&,A) the handmaid of him that sent thee’ (9. I I ,8), whereas Luke I : 38 reads :
‘Lo, the handmaid of the Lord’. This is in agreement with the 4 G. Quispel, Z-utiun and the Gospel of Thomas (Leiden: Brill, rg75), I 14: ‘Macarius and the Diatessaron of Tatian’, A Tribute to Arthur V&jbus: Studies in Early Christian Literature and Its Environment, Primarily in the Syrian East (ed. R. H. Fischer; Chicago:
Lutheran School of Theology, rg77), 203-9, esp. p. 204.
5 See the review of Tatian and the Gosjel of Thomas by 0. C. Edwards, Jr.,
JBL 96 (w7), 464-k esp. P. 466.
6 J. Grosdidier de Matons, Romanos le M&ode et les origines de la poksie religieuse d By.wnce (Paris: Beauchesne, 1977); Bathja Bayer, ‘Romanos Melodos’, EncJud 14.238; P. Maas, C. A. Trypanis, Romanus Melodus, Cantica, Cantica genuina (Ox- ford: Clarendon, 1968) ; J. Grosdidier de Matons, Romanos le Mt!lode, Hymnes (SC gg, IIO, 114, 128; Paris: du Cerf, 1964-7).
The Diatessaron of Romanos 307 Persian Diatessaron (‘I am the handmaid of God’) and the Heliand (285)’ whereas Ephraem’s Commentary on the Diatessaron has somewhat adapted his text to the canonical version: ‘Lo, I am the maid of God’. It is possible of course that there are many other explanations to minimize the importance of the ‘I am’
in the Dutch Diatessaron variant (‘I am the handmaid of God’), but there is none to explain away the reading ‘of God’ instead of ‘of the Lord’.
,
(2) In the first hymn on the Resurrection 40. 3-5, Jesus says to Mary Magdalene : ‘ ccMaria”. And she, having recognised him, said immediately : “Truly, my good shepherd calls me” ‘.
John 20 : 16 only says that she turned to him and said ‘Rabbuni’, which is Hebrew for ‘My Master’. The variant ‘she recognised him’ is one of the most conspicuous Tatianisms known to date.
In the Rhymebible of Jacob of Maerlant (2681 I /3), based on the oldest version of the Dutch Diatessaron we know, it is said that Mary ‘then recognised him immediately from that word and said “Master” and approached and wanted to touch his feet’.’
The Liege Diatessaron (ch. 237) has only : ‘Then Mary recognised him and said : “Rabboni”, that is to say, “Master” ‘. The Stutt- gart MS adds: ‘She ran to him and wanted to touch him’. But the Heliand has more details and is nearer to Maerlant : And straightway she came closer, the wife, with good will, and recognised her savior himself. In her love she could not refrain, but with her hands she longed to hold him, the woman to touch the World-Lord.
(5929-32 ; Scott, 203)
This must go back to a common ancestor, a Latin Diatessaron, which contained the variants both have in common against the Vulgate.
Traces of the Latin text are preserved in the Vita beatae vir- ginis Mariae rhythmica 6 I 7314 :
Mox quod esset dominus ex hat uoce pia novit atque propius statim accedebat, se prosternens sues pedes tangere volebat.
Moreover the Meditationes Vitae Christi (89) of Ps-Bonaventura read :
Et cognoscens eum ad vocem.
7 R. van den Broek, ‘Jacob van Maerlant en het Nederlandse Diatessaron’, NedTTs 28 (tg74), 141-64.
310 GILLES QUISPEL The Diatessaron of Romanos 3 ” There are still more readings that Romanos has in common with the Jewish Christian gospel tradition. Moreover, there are some variants which this poet has in common with the Gospel of Thomas, probably through the intermediary of the Diates- saron. They deserve a special inquiry. These few remarks were made in order to show that the problems of the Diatessaron and of the possibly independent tradition it may contain deserve to be put in a much wider context than has been done by recent critics. There probably are still other authors besides Romanos who can adduce new light to this hotly debated issue. But from now on Romanos can no longer be ignored in studies on the free tradition. He is a Hellenic witness to Tatian’s Harmony and its Jewish Christian source.
well-known Jewish Christian tradition, contained in the Gospel according to the Ebionites (frg. 3 : ‘and straightway there shone about the place a great light’).
The same Jewish Christian tradition lies behind T. Levi 18 : 6-7 : ‘And the GZor_y of the Most High shall be uttered upon him, and the Spirit of understanding and sanctification shall rest upon him in the water’.
The words of Ephraem Syrus and other Syrian writers make it clear that Tatian integrated this Jewish Christian tradition into his harmony. As a matter of fact the Commentary on the Diates- saron says that the Spirit descended and rested upon One only (4.3) and that the splendour of the light appeared upon the water (4.4) l
These variants were preserved by the Latin version of Tatian’s writing.12
Petrus Come&or 34:
Inaestimabilis splendor factus est circa eum.
Ludolph of Saxony I .2 I. I I ;
Inaestimabilis splendor factus est circa Christum . . . (Spiritus) requieuit super eum.
Vita Rhythmica 3686 :
Lux magnaque refulsit in Jesum.
On this Latin text is based the Pepysian Harmony (ch. 7) : So corn the brightnesse of hevene and the Holy Gost and alighth withinne hym.
If traces of the same tradition are found in Justin Martyr (dial. 88.3)) Ps-Cyprian (rebapt. I 7)) and the OL codices a and g1 in Matt. 3 : 15, this only shows that at a very early date Jewish Christian traditions about the baptism of Jesus have influenced the gospel text of the congregation at Rome which, as Hermas showed, was not allergic to the adoptianism which was current among the Jewish Christians.
The opposite view, according to which the Western Diatessaron took these variants from the OL MSS, is no longer feasible, for then we would have to suppose that the Greek-writing Syrian, Romanos, in Constantinople also has been influenced by the OL MSS of Western Christendom, This is absurd.
12 Van den Broek, ‘A Latin Diatessaron’, 123.