Tuesday, July 21, 2009

[TC-Alternate-list] Eusebius To Marinus and Jerome To Hedibia

By comparing the English translation of Jerome's Epistle 120 to translations of excerpts of the French translation of the Greek text of Eusebius' Ad Marinum (published online by Zamagni, pp. 56-64), a picture of Jerome's dependence upon Eusebius' composition can be obtained.
In Ad Marinum, Eusebius presents and answers four questions. Jerome utilized Eusebius' first three Q-and-A. The gist of these three questions are as follows:
(1) How, according to Matthew, does the Savior appear early on the evening of the Sabbath, but in Mark, in the morning of the first day of the week?
Picture the scene: Jerome faces a generalized question from Hedibia: "Why do the evangelists speak differently about the resurrection of our Lord, and how He appeared to His apostles?" Jerome thinks a moment and says to himself, "This can be settled by using Eusebius' Q-and-A to Marinus." So he opens his copy of Ad Marinum, and as he begins to answer Hedibia's generalized question, he presents Eusebius' first question (which, in Ad Hedibiam, is at the beginning of Q-and-A #3.)
That's right: the parallels are far too precise and sustained to be the result of on-the-spot recollection. Jerome had to have been consulting Ad Marinum as he dictated his letter to Hedibia.
(2) How is it that the Magdalene who contemplates the resurrection [French?? observes the risen Lord?] on the evening of the Sabbath, according to Matthew, is the same individual who wept while standing at the tomb on the first day of the week, according to John?
(3) How is it that the Magdalene, according to Matthew, with the other Mary, who touched the feet of the Savior on the evening of the Sabbath, is the same individual who is told, in John, "Touch Me not," on the morning of the first day of the week?
These three questions are asked, and are asked in the same order, in both Eusebius-to-Marinus and in Jerome-to-Hedibia. Furthermore, although I have not taken the time to translate all of the French text of Ad Marinum into English, a thorough look through the French text shows that Jerome's answers follow those of Eusebius very closely. I daresay that if someone found only the parts of Ad Hedibiam which parallel Ad Marinum, the discoverer would conclude that he had found a loose Latin translation of most of Ad Marinum.
Yours in Christ,
James Snapp, Jr.

------------------------------------
The informal cafe for TC chatYahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TC-Alternate-list/

No comments:

Post a Comment