The Passion Narrative in the Sibylline Oracles
Yüklə 246,16 Kb. Pdf görüntüsü
|
|
better known Latin Tiburtine Sibyl, but an amplified version, dating back to the begin- ning of the sixth century, of the original Greek version of the latter which is to be dated to the fourth century. There are also versions of the Tiburtine Sibyl in Arabic and Ethio- pic; on this, see J. Schleifer, “Die Erzählung der Sibylle: ein Apokryph. Nach den kar- schunischen, arabischen und äthiopischen Handschriften zu London, Oxford, Paris und Rom,” Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-his-
Version of the Arabic Sibylline Prophecy,” OrChr 60 (1976), 83–94; id., “An Unre- corded Arabic Version of a Sibylline Prophecy,” OrChrP 43 (1977), 279–307; as well as translations into old French; on this, see J. Haffen, Contribution à l’étude de la Sibylle médiévale. Étude et édition du MS. B.N., F. FR. 25407 fol. 160v–172v : Le livre de Sibille (Annales littéraires de l’Université de Besançon 296; Paris 1984); J. Baroin and J. Haffen, La Prophétie de la Sibylle Tiburtine. Édition des MSS B.N. FR. 375 et Rennes B.M. FR. 593 (Annales littéraires de l’Université de Besançon 355; Paris 1987). In all of these versions only one side of Jesus is pierced, while the Acts of John remain silent on this point. 33 Both texts are mentioned by Lightfoot, The Sibylline Oracles (n. 1), 437. Jean-Michel Roessli 316
have a totally different meaning. It could express Jesus’ or God’s lordship over the universe. In the Oracles it is also a barely veiled allusion to Jesus’ crucifixion (vv. 372–373): “But when he will stretch out his hands and
The same idea can also be found in Book 8 (v. 302): “He will stretch out his hands and measure the entire world.” It comes later, after the crown of thorns, and it forms an independent sentence. It could have, even more than in Book 1, a totally different meaning if isolated from its con- text.
34
In both cases, of course, the context alludes to, as well as interprets, the Crucifixion. By this very positive reading of the Crucifixion, the Sibyl re- inforces the link she wants to draw between the Passion and Salvation, as Lactantius also understands it, when he inserts a Latin version of this line in the fourth Book of his Divine Institutes: “Therefore in His suffering He stretched forth His hands and measured out the world, that even then He
35 Many other patristic and apocryphal texts confirm this interpreta- tion of the Crucifixion, in which the Crucified takes the whole world under his protection. 36
34 Ch. Alexandre (Oracula Sibyllina [Paris 1841], 281, note to 302; Oracula Sibyllina [Paris 1869], 237, note to 302ff.) proposed to move this verse after 298. It must be noted that in most of the manuscripts of the Sibylline Oracles the order of the verses in Book 8 is very chaotic. That is the reason why I personally would not give so much weight and credit as Nicklas, “Apokryphe Passionstraditionen” (n. 3) does to the literary context – narrower or broader – of the passion narrative in the Sibylline Oracles. Nobody has fol- lowed Alexandre on this point. In my opinion, verse 302 is in its right position after the announcement of the abrogation of the Law by Jesus in the preceding verses (vv. 299– 301); see below. 35 Lactantius, Div. Inst., 4:26:36: “Extendit ergo in passione manus suas orbemque dimensus est, ut iam tunc ostenderet ab ortu solis usque ad occasum magnum populum ex omnibus linguis et tribubus congregatum sub alas suas esse uenturum signumque illud maximum atque sublime frontibus suis suscepturum.” Translated by Fletcher, Ante-
36 Irenaeus of Lyon, haer., 5 Frg. gr. 16:10 ff.: “Through the extension of the hands of a divine person, gathering together the two peoples to one God…” [= 5:17:4 (inspired by Eph 3:18): “This word, then, what was hidden from us, did the dispensation of the tree make manifest, as I have already remarked. For as we lost it by means of a tree, by means of a tree again was it made manifest to all, showing the height, the length, the breadth, the depth in itself; and, as a certain man among our predecessors observed, through the extension of the hands of a divine person, gathering together the two peoples to one God. For these were two hands, because there were two peoples scattered to the ends of the earth; but there was one head in the middle, as there is but one God, who is above all, and through all, and in us all.” (Translated by A. Roberts and W. Rambaut, The Passion Narrative in the Sibylline Oracles 317
Sib Or 8:299–301 and Sib Or 1:332 But before this evocation of the crucifixion (v. 302), the Sibyl of Book 8 prophesies the dissolution of the Law by Jesus (vv. 299–301): “But when
influenced by the Paul of Galatians and, in a certain way, of Romans. The same idea, even more explicit and polemical, is found in the already men- tioned Oracle of Baalbek, lines 41–42, where Jesus is said to dissolve the Law of the Hebrews in order to establish and impose his own law: “He will
37 In Book 8 the reference to the Law of the Hebrews is alluded to indirectly by the mention of “a disobedient people” (dia. lao.n avpeiqh/) 38 . Paul J. Alexander, the editor of the Oracle of Baalbek, correlated the Sibyl’s prophecy that Jesus will destroy the Jewish Law with Marcion’s “doctrine of the fundamental opposition of Law and Gospel.” 39 We know that “in his Antitheses Marcion deleted Jesus’ saying (Matt 5:17) that he had not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets and inserted into his ver-
Buffalo, N.Y. 1885]); Hippolytus, The Antichrist, 61: “… Jesus Christ, who, in stretching forth His holy hands on the holy tree, unfolded two wings, the right and the left, and called to Him all who believed upon Him, and covered them as a hen her chickens.” (Translated by Ph. Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers [ed. by A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe; vol. 5; Buffalo, N.Y. 1885]); Lactantius, Div. Inst., 4:26:21, quoted above in n. 27 in relation to Sib Or 8:295–296. See also the Ode of Solomon 27:2–3 (M. Lattke, Oden Salomos. Text, Übersetzung, Kommentar. Teil 2. Oden 15–28 [NTOA 41/2; Fribourg and Göttingen 2001], 253–256); Ode of Solomon 42:1–2 (id., Oden Salomos. Text, Übersetzung, Kommentar. Teil 3. Oden 29–42 [NTOA 41/3; Fribourg and Göttin- gen 2005], 249–252; English translation: The Odes of Solomon: A Commentary, Minnea- polis 2009); Sib Or 5:257 and 8:251 (about Moses). 37 Alexander, Oracle of Baalbek (n. 32), 12: lu,sei to.n no,mon tw/n `Ebrai,wn kai. i;dion no,mon sth,sei( kai. basileu,sei o` no,moj auvtou/)
38 I do not follow Nicklas, “Apokryphe Passionstraditionen” (n. 3), 273, n. 47, for whom what is meant by “every law” (or also, and maybe better, by “the whole law,” pa/j no,moj ) is unclear and may not be related to the Jewish Law, because of this allusion to “a disobedient people”. This expression is also found in Sib Or 1:204; 3:668; and 6:11 (after correction), where it obviously refers to the Jewish people. But above all, I do not think it could relate to any other law than to the Law of the Hebrews, as is confirmed by the Ora-
Definition in the Christian Additions to the Apocryphal Writings,” in: E.P. Sanders [ed.], Jewish and Christian Self-Definition [vol. 2; London 1980], 27–55 and 310–315, here 53). See, however, Nicklas, “Apokryphe Passionstraditionen” (n. 3), 275, where he iden- tifies the law of Sib Or 8:307 with the Jewish Torah. Curiously, Nicklas does not seem to link Sib Or 8:299–301 to Sib Or 8:307–309; see below. 39 Alexander, Oracle of Baalbek (n. 32), 72. Jean-Michel Roessli 318
sion of the Gospel of Luke a Jewish charge before Pilate that Jesus ‛was destroying the Law and the Prophets.’ 40 Later Marcionists then incorpo- rated into their gospel the words of Jesus himself which said the very op- posite of Matt 5:17: ‛Do you believe that I have come to fulfil the Law or the Prophets? I have come to destroy, but not to fulfil.’” 41
Sib Or 1:332
auvto.j plhrw,sei de qeou/ no,mon( ouv kata& lu,sei He will fulfil the Law of God – he will not destroy it –
avll v o[te tau/ta, ge pa,nta teleiwqh/| a[per ei=pon( But when all these things of which I have spoken are fulfilled, eivj auvto.n to,te pa/j lu,etai nomoj( o[stij avpV avrch/j then for him every law will be dissolved which from the beginning do,gmasin avnqrw,poij evdo,qh dia. lao.n avpeiqh/) was given in decrees to men, on account of a disobedient people. The exegesis of Book 8 strongly contrasts with the assertion of Book 1 of the Sibylline Oracles (v. 332): “He will fulfil the Law of God – he will not
42 except that the Sibyl speaks more precisely of the “Law of God,” 43
omits the prophets, and predicts this right at the beginning of her “Gospel epitome” in Book 1. The Tiburtine Sibyl, as well as the medieval transla- tions of this text in old French, will say almost the same thing: “He will fulfil the Law of the Hebrews and make additions to it,” 44 with the substitu- 40 Ibid., n. 27. 41 Ibid., 72. Alexander quotes Isidore of Pelusa, Ep. I.371, and refers, of course, to A. von Harnack, Marcion: Das Evangelium vom fremden Gott (TU 15; Berlin ²1924), 80 and 261; 173 and 235; 369ff. See also Nicklas, “Apokryphe Passionstraditionen” (n. 3), 278. 42 See Lightfoot, The Sibylline Oracles (n. 1), 427, who refers to D.A. Hagner, Mat- thew 1–13 (WBC 33A; Columbia 1993), 105–106, for the meaning of the verb plhrw/sai. The same explanation can be read in a note to Matt 5:17 in the ecumenical French trans- lation of the New Testament (TOB), Paris ³1989. For Jesus and the Law, Lightfoot also refers to R.S. McConnell, Law and Prophecy in Matthew’s Gospel: The Authority and Use of the Old Testament in the Gospel of St. Matthew (Dissertation; Basel 1969), 6–100. 43 As in Sib Or 3:256, 276, 284, 580, 600, 686, 719, 757, 768; 7:128 and 11:37; on this, see R. Buitenwerf, Book III of the Sibylline Oracles and its Social Setting, With an Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (SVTP 17; Leiden and Boston 2003), 339– 342.
44 E. Sackur, Sibyllinische Texte und Untersuchungen. Pseudo-Methodius, Adso und die tiburtinische Sibylle (Halle 1898; reprint Turin 1963), 179, line 28. For a French translation of this text, see R. Basset, Les apocryphes éthiopiens. X. La sagesse de Sibylle (Paris 1900). In the manuscripts edited by J. Haffen, Contribution (n. 32), 116, one reads:
The Passion Narrative in the Sibylline Oracles 319
tion of the “Law of God” with the “Law of the Hebrews,” and the idea that Jesus will add something to it. Sib Or 1:367–368a and Sib Or 8:303–304 How do the two Sibylline Books (Sib Or 1:367–368a and Sib Or 8:303– 304) present the episode of the Passion regarding the drink given to Jesus, in comparison with the canonical Gospels? Or Sib 1, 367[–371] eivj de. to. brw,ma colh.n kai. eivj poto.n o;xoj a;kraton For food they will give him gall and for drink dussebe,wj dw,sousi kakw//| bebolhme,noi oi;strw| unmixed vinegar, impiously, smitten in breast sth,qea kai. kradi,hn( avta.r o;mmasin ouvk evsorw/ntej and heart with an evil craze, not seeing with their eyes tuflo,teroi spala,kwn( foberw,teroi e`rpusth,rwn more blind than blind rats, more terrible than poisonous qhrw/n ivobo,lwn( bare,i pepedhme,noi u[pnw| Creeping beasts, shackled with heavy sleep.
Or Sib 8, 303–304 eivj de. to. brw,ma colh.n kai. piei/n o;xoj e;dwkan\ They gave him gall for food and vinegar to drink. th/j avfiloxeni,hj tau,thn dei,xousi tra,pezan) They will show forth this table of inhospitality. Each of the canonical Gospels narrates how Jesus “was given drink” at the Crucifixion (Matt 27:34,48; Mark 15:36; Luke 23:26, and John 19:29) and all of them mention the vinegar, but only Matt 27:34 speaks of “gall,” without saying that this is given “as a meal” and without associating it with vinegar. According to Matthew it is mingled with wine. The most relevant parallel for the Sibylline verses is found in Ps 68:22 LXX, “They
“La Lei aemplira / E la soie ajoindra” (vv. 249–250), and by Barouin and Haffen, La
chose” (27c, ll. 91–92). According to the abstracts of two other old French versions of the Tiburtine Sibyl (M. Le Merrer, “Des sibylles à la sapience dans la tradition médiévale,” Mélanges de l’École française de Rome. Moyen Âge 98 [1986], 13–33, here 24: “Il déposera la loi judaïque et suscitera une nouvelle loi,” and Ph. Verdier, “La nais- sance à Rome de la vision de l’Ara Coeli. Un aspect de l’utopie de la paix perpétuelle à travers un thème iconographique,” Mélanges de l’École française de Rome. Moyen Âge 94 [1982], 85–119, here 94: “Il remplacera l’ancienne loi par la loi nouvelle,”) it is not impossible that some medieval translations of the Tiburtine Sibyl have kept the memory of the doubts or controversies concerning Jesus’ attitude towards the Law. Jean-Michel Roessli 320
drink,” 45 as Lactantius also writes in his Divine Institutes (4:18:18). 46 Al-
most every word used by the Sibyl is found in the biblical text: eivj to. brw,ma( colh,n( o;xoj ; only the verb pi,nw of Sib Or 8:303 is somewhat dif- ferent, but its meaning is not far from poti,zw (“to give to drink”), of which we have the substantive in Sib Or 1:367. In the case of Sib Or 8:303, the kinship goes even further, since we find the same form, e;dwkan, which is an aorist in a context where a future tense would be expected, as in the following and preceding verses. It can legitimately be asked if the Sibyl of Book 8 had merely copied from the Septuagint without adapting it to the temporal framework of the oracular discourse, which requires a future tense. It is still more probable that this is the case since the following verse (v. 304) alludes to a table, tra,peza, of inhospitality, the source of which is certainly found in the next verse of the same Psalm 68:23 LXX. 47 The Sibyl ironically and sarcastically summarizes, with this laconic clause: “they will show forth this table of inhospitality,” what Jesus’ meal will be during the Passion. Taken as a whole, the sequence of verses 288–304 shows that Book 8 of the Sibylline Oracles tries to connect the sufferings of the Incarnate Word both with the suffering Servant in Isaiah and the Just in Psalm 68 LXX. Book 1 completes its oracle with a further development of Isa 6:9–10 quoted above in relation to Sib Or 1:360–361. These lines (vv. 369–371) are intended to heighten the accusation against Israel: “Im- piously, smitten in breast / and heart with an evil craze, not seeing with their eyes / more blind than blind rats, more terrible than poisonous / creeping beasts, shackled with heavy sleep. 48
Clearly, verse 22 of Psalm 68 LXX also inspired the evangelists, even if John alone alludes to it without quoting it explicitly (John 19:28–29, “in
45 Ps 68:22 LXX: kai. e;dwkan eivj to. brw/ma, mou colh.n kai. eivj th.n di,yan mou evpo,ti& se,n me o;xoj . 46 Lactantius, Div. Inst., 4:18:18–19: “But respecting the food and the drink which they offered to Him before they fastened Him to the cross, David thus speaks in the sixty- eighth Psalm: ‛And they gave me gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vine- gar to drink.’ The Sibyl foretold that this also would happen: ‛They gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst vinegar; this inhospitable table they will show.’ [Sib Or 8:303– 304]” (Translated by Fletcher, Ante-Nicene Fathers [n. 27], 120–121). Nicklas, “Apokry- phe Passionstraditionen” (n. 3), 274, n. 51, notes that the link between Jesus’ meal on the Cross and Ps 68:22 LXX was already drawn by Origen, Commentary on Matthew, ser. 137 to Mt 27:47–49. 47 Also mentioned by Nicklas, “Apokryphe Passionstraditionen” (n. 3), 273, and Lightfoot, The Sibylline Oracles (n. 1), 436, who rightly points out that the Sibyl does not mention Jesus’ clothes, as does Matt 27:35, a detail inspired by Ps 21:19 (20:18 LXX). 48
blindness of blind rats, see W. Schrage, tuflo,j( tuflo,w( ThWNT 8 (1969), 270–294, here 275–77.
The Passion Narrative in the Sibylline Oracles 321
order to fulfil the Scripture.”) It is almost certain that Matthew was in- spired by it, since he replaces the myrrh mingled with wine with the gall, when Jesus arrives on Golgotha. 49 Thus, Matthew changes the wine mixed with myrrh into a disgusting and humiliating drink and, in so doing, he changes an act of compassion into an act of nasty mockery. The Gospel of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas, and Melito of Sardis’ On Pascha 50 come still closer to the spirit of Psalm 68:22 LXX than Matthew, but the Sibyl is the most strongly inspired by this verse, since she never speaks of wine, or vinegar, mingled with gall, but of gall alone which, furthermore, is not called a drink but is presented as food, as in Psalm 68:22 LXX. From Mat- thew to the Sibylline Oracles, we can see an increase in nastiness, and in order to realize it, the latter draw directly from the text of the LXX. 51
tion, the entire Passion of Jesus – the “Son of the Immortal” in this Book – is epitomized by these two items: the crown of thorns and the drink mixed with gall. The Passion is expressed here with a remarkable economy (21– 25): “For you alone, land of Sodom, is destined calamity. / For you were malicious, and did not recognize your own God / When he came with mor- tal eyes. But you crowned him / with acanthus, and terrible gall you mixed / for insult and drink. That will cause you calamity.” 52 Lines 22–24 are quoted in the same passage of the Divine Institutes mentioned above (4:18:19), 53 in relation to Psalm 68:22 LXX. The same anti-Judaism, which 49 The Antiochian recension of Matthew also replaces the wine by vinegar, which is a Yüklə 246,16 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
|