09-29-2003, 08:01 PM
*The Rich Young Man episode*
Shlama Akhay,
In the following study, we will examine the accounts of this incident in 4 different ancient sources, the Commentary of Aphrahat, the Old Syriac gospels, the Syriac Peshitta, and the standard canonical Greek gospels.
And, because this incident of the Rich Young Man is preserved for us in all 3 Synoptic gospels, the total number of the relevant witnesses here is up to 10, which would double if we also compare the originals in each case, as well as the translations!
Understandably, these sorts of comparisons between 20 or more different versions of the same verse are very complex and time consuming. Among the hundreds of thousands of biblical scholars in the world, only a very small handful are competent enough in this Diatessaronic area, and familiar enough with these ancient sources and languages, to do these sorts of comparisons.
As I said before, it is a common view among the specialists in this area that Aphrahat mostly used the Diatessaron in his gospel commentaries. This view has been established for a very long time among scholars, and you can be sure that, at the time, they supported it with much textual evidence. Although some of these studies might be very old, and difficult to get hold of.
Well, if someone now wished to oppose the view that Aphrahat used the Diatessaron, I don't think I'll really get into this discussion too deeply, beyond this particular study that I've done.
Myself, I'd rather move on to new areas of study, rather than rehash the work that various scholars had already done long ago, and that's already well accepted in the field. I can probably find quite a few other examples such as the one below, but, as I say, I'd rather move on to new areas, and do things that no one has done before.
Especially the Diatessaronic field is notoriously difficult and confusing, as I wrote recently in my Diatessaron FAQ article (the last part of which is still to come). Hardly anyone has been working in this field recently! Thus, especially in this area there's a crying need for more new and fresh research, as opposed to redoing the studies that had already been done by others.
And also, it wouldn't be all that difficult to find more cases where Mar Aphrahat is using the text that's closer to the Old Syriac gospels, compared to the Peshitta. But neither this would be anything new for the scholars in the field...
In any case, what this particular study demonstrates is that Aphrahat seems to be using the text that's very similar to what we find in the Old Syriac Mark, but he also adds some Matthean elements in his citation. So this indicates that he was using an Old Syriac Diatessaron when commenting upon gospel text.
First, let us look at the standard canonical versions. Here's what the young man replies to Yeshua after being told about the importance of the Commandments of the Law, what to do in order to be saved.
(Mt 19:20 RSV) All these have I observed; what do I still lack?
(Mk 10:20 RSV) Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth.
(Lk 18:21 RSV) All these I have observed from my youth.
As we can see, each of the Synoptics has a slightly different version here. Only Mark adds the word "teacher" to young man's reply. Otherwise, both Mark and Luke have an identical reply.
Also, only Mt adds a question at the end of the young man's reply.
And here's how this quote is found in Aphrahat, and in the Old Syriac Sinaitic manuscript of Mark, the only one to preserve the text of Mark here (almost nothing of the Curetonian MS survives for Mark). I'm using Burkitt's translations below.
(Aphrahat, 392) These -- I have done them, lo, from when I was a child. But what lack I?
(Mk 10:20 SyS) Teacher, these -- I have done them, lo, from when I was a child.
Thus, we can see that most of this quote from Aphrahat is exactly identical to what we see in the OS Mark. But, similarly to Matthew's version, Aphrahat also omits the word "teacher" at the beginning of young man's reply. And again, similarly to Matthew's version, Aphrahat adds a question at the end of young man's reply.
And this is what the Old Syriac Curetonian Matthew has in this passage (the Sinaitic Mt is a bit different here, but we don't need to deal with it here).
(Mt 19:20 SyC) These all -- I have kept them, lo, from when I was a child. What yet lack I?
And now, the Aramaic texts.
Aphrahat, 392:
hlyn -- (bdt )nyn, h), mn dTl) )n), )l) mn) xsyr )n)
[Pronounced: haleyn -- abadat anyn, haw, myn d'tlaya enay, elay mana khasiyr enay]
"These -- I have done them, lo, from when I was a child. But what lack I?"
Mk 10:20 SyS:
mlpn), hlyn (bdt )nyn, h), mn dTl) )n)
[Pronounced: Malpana, haleyn -- abadat anyn, haw, myn d'tlaya enay.]
"Teacher, these -- I have done them, lo, from when I was a child."
Mt 19:20 SyC:
hlyn klhyn -- nTrt )nyn, h), mn dTl) )n). mn) twb xsyrn)
[Pronounced: haleyn kolahyn -- nitrat anyn, haw, myn d'tlaya enay. mana tuwb khasiyrna?]
"These all -- I have kept them, lo, from when I was a child. What yet lack I?"
And now, let's look at what the Syriac Peshitta has here, according to Murdock's translation,
(Mt 19:20 Peshitta) All these have I kept from my childhood. What do I lack?
(Mk 10:20 Peshitta) Teacher, all these have I kept from my childhood.
(Lk 18:21 Peshitta) All these have I kept, from my childhood.
Thus, we can see that Mk 10:20 is very different here in the Peshitta version, as compared to the Old Syriac. Here's this comparison in Aramaic,
(Mk 10:20 Peshitta) Malpana, haleyn kolahyn nitrat anyn, myn tlywty.
(Mk 10:20 Sinaitic) Malpana, haleyn -- abadat anyn, haw, myn d'tlaya enay.
And below, we can confirm that the central part of Aphrahat's citation indeed reads exactly the same as the OS Mk.
(Aphrahat)
haleyn -- abadat anyn, haw, myn d'tlaya enay
(Mk 10:20 SyS)
haleyn -- abadat anyn, haw, myn d'tlaya enay
But Aphrahat reads very differently from the Peshitta Mark,
(Aphrahat)
haleyn -- abadat anyn, haw, myn d'tlaya enay
(Peshitta Mk 10:20)
haleyn kolahyn nitrat anyn, myn tlywty
Here are the English translations again,
(Aphrahat)
"These -- I have done them, lo, from when I was a child."
(Peshitta Mk 10:20)
"all these have I kept from my childhood."
Among the differences between Aphrahat and the Peshitta Mk, we can note the absence in the Aphrahat's citation of the word "all" = /kolahyn/, his use of the verb "done" instead of "kept" (abadat/nitrat), and his addition of the word "lo" = /haw/. All these differences are paralleled exactly in the OS Mark.
Actually, this passage was commented upon previously by Boismard, the famous French NT scholar, so my analysis is based in part on what he wrote in the following study,
M-E Boismard, LE DIATESSARON: DE TATIEN A JUSTIN, Gabalda, Paris, 1992 (pp. 117-118).
Boismard also notes that, in his own Commentary on the Diatessaron, Ephrem the Syrian also gives a reading that is quite similar to the Old Syriac Mark.
While I haven't yet checked the Syriac text of Ephrem (again, I couldn't find this verse in the CAL database), this is what he says according to McCarthy's translation of Ephrem's Commentary,
"These things have I done from my youth." (Book 11, Par. 16, p. 182)
We can note the use of the word "done" by both Ephrem and Aphrahat, instead of "kept" as in the Peshitta.
And, finally, here's the comparison for the concluding phrase, as used by Aphrahat,
(Aphrahat) elay mana khasiyr enay
"But what lack I?"
(Mt 19:20 Peshitta) mana khasiyr enay
"What do I lack?"
(Mt 19:20 SyC) mana tuwb khasiyrna?
"What yet lack I?"
We can note that, similarly to the OS Curetonian Matthew's use of the adverb /tuwb/ = "yet", Aphrahat uses the conjunction /elay/ = "but". (The Greek Mt uses the adverb /eti/ = "yet, still" here.) But the Peshitta's text is shorter in this passage.
CONCLUSION
When compared with various other versions of this passage, this citation from Mar Aphrahat seems to demonstrate a very close connection of the gospel text, as used by Mar Aphrahat, with the Old Syriac Mark, as preserved for us in the Sinaiticus palimpsest ("The Old Scratch"). On the other hand, the Peshitta reads very differently here.
Also, this study demonstrates that Mar Aphrahat probably based his Commentary on the Old Syriac Diatessaron, rather than on the separate Old Syriac gospels. This is the most economical way to explain why the Markan and the Matthean elements are combined so closely in this citation from Mar Aphrahat.
Shlama,
Yuri.
Shlama Akhay,
In the following study, we will examine the accounts of this incident in 4 different ancient sources, the Commentary of Aphrahat, the Old Syriac gospels, the Syriac Peshitta, and the standard canonical Greek gospels.
And, because this incident of the Rich Young Man is preserved for us in all 3 Synoptic gospels, the total number of the relevant witnesses here is up to 10, which would double if we also compare the originals in each case, as well as the translations!
Understandably, these sorts of comparisons between 20 or more different versions of the same verse are very complex and time consuming. Among the hundreds of thousands of biblical scholars in the world, only a very small handful are competent enough in this Diatessaronic area, and familiar enough with these ancient sources and languages, to do these sorts of comparisons.
As I said before, it is a common view among the specialists in this area that Aphrahat mostly used the Diatessaron in his gospel commentaries. This view has been established for a very long time among scholars, and you can be sure that, at the time, they supported it with much textual evidence. Although some of these studies might be very old, and difficult to get hold of.
Well, if someone now wished to oppose the view that Aphrahat used the Diatessaron, I don't think I'll really get into this discussion too deeply, beyond this particular study that I've done.
Myself, I'd rather move on to new areas of study, rather than rehash the work that various scholars had already done long ago, and that's already well accepted in the field. I can probably find quite a few other examples such as the one below, but, as I say, I'd rather move on to new areas, and do things that no one has done before.
Especially the Diatessaronic field is notoriously difficult and confusing, as I wrote recently in my Diatessaron FAQ article (the last part of which is still to come). Hardly anyone has been working in this field recently! Thus, especially in this area there's a crying need for more new and fresh research, as opposed to redoing the studies that had already been done by others.
And also, it wouldn't be all that difficult to find more cases where Mar Aphrahat is using the text that's closer to the Old Syriac gospels, compared to the Peshitta. But neither this would be anything new for the scholars in the field...
In any case, what this particular study demonstrates is that Aphrahat seems to be using the text that's very similar to what we find in the Old Syriac Mark, but he also adds some Matthean elements in his citation. So this indicates that he was using an Old Syriac Diatessaron when commenting upon gospel text.
First, let us look at the standard canonical versions. Here's what the young man replies to Yeshua after being told about the importance of the Commandments of the Law, what to do in order to be saved.
(Mt 19:20 RSV) All these have I observed; what do I still lack?
(Mk 10:20 RSV) Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth.
(Lk 18:21 RSV) All these I have observed from my youth.
As we can see, each of the Synoptics has a slightly different version here. Only Mark adds the word "teacher" to young man's reply. Otherwise, both Mark and Luke have an identical reply.
Also, only Mt adds a question at the end of the young man's reply.
And here's how this quote is found in Aphrahat, and in the Old Syriac Sinaitic manuscript of Mark, the only one to preserve the text of Mark here (almost nothing of the Curetonian MS survives for Mark). I'm using Burkitt's translations below.
(Aphrahat, 392) These -- I have done them, lo, from when I was a child. But what lack I?
(Mk 10:20 SyS) Teacher, these -- I have done them, lo, from when I was a child.
Thus, we can see that most of this quote from Aphrahat is exactly identical to what we see in the OS Mark. But, similarly to Matthew's version, Aphrahat also omits the word "teacher" at the beginning of young man's reply. And again, similarly to Matthew's version, Aphrahat adds a question at the end of young man's reply.
And this is what the Old Syriac Curetonian Matthew has in this passage (the Sinaitic Mt is a bit different here, but we don't need to deal with it here).
(Mt 19:20 SyC) These all -- I have kept them, lo, from when I was a child. What yet lack I?
And now, the Aramaic texts.
Aphrahat, 392:
hlyn -- (bdt )nyn, h), mn dTl) )n), )l) mn) xsyr )n)
[Pronounced: haleyn -- abadat anyn, haw, myn d'tlaya enay, elay mana khasiyr enay]
"These -- I have done them, lo, from when I was a child. But what lack I?"
Mk 10:20 SyS:
mlpn), hlyn (bdt )nyn, h), mn dTl) )n)
[Pronounced: Malpana, haleyn -- abadat anyn, haw, myn d'tlaya enay.]
"Teacher, these -- I have done them, lo, from when I was a child."
Mt 19:20 SyC:
hlyn klhyn -- nTrt )nyn, h), mn dTl) )n). mn) twb xsyrn)
[Pronounced: haleyn kolahyn -- nitrat anyn, haw, myn d'tlaya enay. mana tuwb khasiyrna?]
"These all -- I have kept them, lo, from when I was a child. What yet lack I?"
And now, let's look at what the Syriac Peshitta has here, according to Murdock's translation,
(Mt 19:20 Peshitta) All these have I kept from my childhood. What do I lack?
(Mk 10:20 Peshitta) Teacher, all these have I kept from my childhood.
(Lk 18:21 Peshitta) All these have I kept, from my childhood.
Thus, we can see that Mk 10:20 is very different here in the Peshitta version, as compared to the Old Syriac. Here's this comparison in Aramaic,
(Mk 10:20 Peshitta) Malpana, haleyn kolahyn nitrat anyn, myn tlywty.
(Mk 10:20 Sinaitic) Malpana, haleyn -- abadat anyn, haw, myn d'tlaya enay.
And below, we can confirm that the central part of Aphrahat's citation indeed reads exactly the same as the OS Mk.
(Aphrahat)
haleyn -- abadat anyn, haw, myn d'tlaya enay
(Mk 10:20 SyS)
haleyn -- abadat anyn, haw, myn d'tlaya enay
But Aphrahat reads very differently from the Peshitta Mark,
(Aphrahat)
haleyn -- abadat anyn, haw, myn d'tlaya enay
(Peshitta Mk 10:20)
haleyn kolahyn nitrat anyn, myn tlywty
Here are the English translations again,
(Aphrahat)
"These -- I have done them, lo, from when I was a child."
(Peshitta Mk 10:20)
"all these have I kept from my childhood."
Among the differences between Aphrahat and the Peshitta Mk, we can note the absence in the Aphrahat's citation of the word "all" = /kolahyn/, his use of the verb "done" instead of "kept" (abadat/nitrat), and his addition of the word "lo" = /haw/. All these differences are paralleled exactly in the OS Mark.
Actually, this passage was commented upon previously by Boismard, the famous French NT scholar, so my analysis is based in part on what he wrote in the following study,
M-E Boismard, LE DIATESSARON: DE TATIEN A JUSTIN, Gabalda, Paris, 1992 (pp. 117-118).
Boismard also notes that, in his own Commentary on the Diatessaron, Ephrem the Syrian also gives a reading that is quite similar to the Old Syriac Mark.
While I haven't yet checked the Syriac text of Ephrem (again, I couldn't find this verse in the CAL database), this is what he says according to McCarthy's translation of Ephrem's Commentary,
"These things have I done from my youth." (Book 11, Par. 16, p. 182)
We can note the use of the word "done" by both Ephrem and Aphrahat, instead of "kept" as in the Peshitta.
And, finally, here's the comparison for the concluding phrase, as used by Aphrahat,
(Aphrahat) elay mana khasiyr enay
"But what lack I?"
(Mt 19:20 Peshitta) mana khasiyr enay
"What do I lack?"
(Mt 19:20 SyC) mana tuwb khasiyrna?
"What yet lack I?"
We can note that, similarly to the OS Curetonian Matthew's use of the adverb /tuwb/ = "yet", Aphrahat uses the conjunction /elay/ = "but". (The Greek Mt uses the adverb /eti/ = "yet, still" here.) But the Peshitta's text is shorter in this passage.
CONCLUSION
When compared with various other versions of this passage, this citation from Mar Aphrahat seems to demonstrate a very close connection of the gospel text, as used by Mar Aphrahat, with the Old Syriac Mark, as preserved for us in the Sinaiticus palimpsest ("The Old Scratch"). On the other hand, the Peshitta reads very differently here.
Also, this study demonstrates that Mar Aphrahat probably based his Commentary on the Old Syriac Diatessaron, rather than on the separate Old Syriac gospels. This is the most economical way to explain why the Markan and the Matthean elements are combined so closely in this citation from Mar Aphrahat.
Shlama,
Yuri.
Yuri Kuchinsky | Toronto | <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.trends.ca/~yuku/bbl/bbl.htm">http://www.trends.ca/~yuku/bbl/bbl.htm</a><!-- m -->