The Genesis and Exodus Citations of Aphrahat the Persian SageSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/DMDTGKRP/tei
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.Robert JessenOwensThe Genesis and Exodus Citations of Aphrahat the Persian Sagehttp://syriaca.org/cbss/DMDTGKRPhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/DMDTGKRPhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/DMDTGKRP1982This study investigates the quotations of the biblical books of Genesis and Exodus that occur in the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage, a collection of twenty-three essays written in Syriac between A.D. 337 and 345. After a discussion of those features of the Demonstrations which encourage study of the bible quotations, previous scholarship is surveyed and detailed analysis is presented of past assessments of the Pentateuch quotations in the work of John Pinkerton, Anton Baumstark, and Arthur Voobus. The main body of the study reproduces the text of all the citations and allusions in the Demonstrations (a total of 221) that may provide evidence of the text of Genesis and Exodus known to Aphrahat. This is based on a fresh collation of the Syriac manuscripts of the Demonstrations. Each citation is analyzed and its value as a textual witness discussed. For each biblical verse that is attested, its affinities with and differences from the principal ancient bible versions are shown. The conclusion of the study is that, while Aphrahat's citations of Genesis and Exodus are not worthless as textual witnesses, caution must be exercised in using them, because Aphrahat often seems to quote inexactly. The evidence suggests a general habit of memoriter rather than transcriptional quotation. The most drastic departures from the Peshitta appear usually to result from casualness, intentional paraphrase, or error on Aphrahat's part rather than from a deviant scripture text. In those citations that appear to be literal, a somewhat ambiguous body of textual evidence is found. The vast majority of the citations agree with most or all of the Peshitta manuscripts and demonstrate that already in the fourth century Aphrahat knew a text of Genesis and Exodus that was essentially a Peshitta text. A small number of the citations, however, show affinities with one or more of the targums, the Septuagint, or the Vulgate. While these do not substantiate the theory of a wildly deviant, primitive Syriac text, they also fail to validate the view that Aphrahat knew a text that was much more literal to the Hebrew than the later Peshitta.
Owens, Robert Jessen. “The Genesis and Exodus Citations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage.” Ph.D. dissertation, The Johns Hopkins University, 1982.
Robert Jessen Owens, The Genesis and Exodus Citations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage (Ph.D. dissertation, The Johns Hopkins University, 1982).AphrahatExodusGenesisIV CEOld TestamentPeshitta OTquotations