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Bible Text or Liturgy?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2011

Marbury B. Ogle
Marbury B. Ogle
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
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Extract

In various mediaeval authors, writing in different localities and at different periods, there are a goodly number of quotations which obviously derive ultimately from a biblical text. These quotations, however, either are not found in exactly the form, in which they are quoted, in MSS. of the Bible, whether of Old Latin or of Vulgate versions, or, if they do occur in MSS., these are of a later date than the earliest author who uses the quotation. Since these quotations do appear in the liturgy of the Church, or in other texts which were used in worship, such as sermons, homilies, Saints' Lives, it is not illogical to suppose that their source is to be found, not in any special type of Bible text, but in the liturgy. As an illustration of this possibility I presented in this Review (XXXI, 1938, 41–51) a study of one of these quotations, the phrase viam universae carnis ingressurus, which occurs frequently in documents from the 11th century on. It does not occur in precisely this form in any biblical MS., although the substitution of carnis for terrae of the early MSS. is found in a MS. of the 13th century, but does occur in at least one liturgical text of the 11th century and in another which dates from the 13th century, if not earlier. The conclusion is certainly justified therefore that authors were indebted to the liturgy for this phrase and that the liturgical form influenced the reading in later biblical MSS.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , July 1940 , pp. 191 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1940

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References

1 My friend, Mr. Bernard Peebles, of Harvard University, to whose helpful criticism I am again deeply indebted, has called my attention to another example in a MS. in the Congressional Library, Ac. 1241. 4 (De Ricci-Wilson, Census, no. 32), saec. xiii, where in Josh. 23, fol. 78 r, the reading is viam universae carnis terre, with carnis pointed for deletion.

2 Edited by James, M. R., Anecdota Oxoniensia, Mediaeval and Modern Ser., Pt. XIV, Oxford, 1914Google Scholar. My references are to the page and line of this edition. For details of the life of Map, cf. the Introduction of the translation of the De Nugis, by Tupper, F. and Ogle, M. B., London, 1924.Google Scholar

2a For the Vulgate text of the Old Testament I use the edition, now in progress of publication by the Benedictines of Girolamo, San, Rome, and that of Tischendorf, Leipzig, 1873Google Scholar; for the New Testament the edition of Wordsworth-White, Oxford, 1879Google Scholar on, as far as that has been completed, otherwise the Editio Minor of the same editors, Oxford, 1911. Whenever there are important variants in the various texts, I note this fact.Google Scholar

3 The directions for the biblical readings in the Church of Rome and other ritual practices are contained in the Ordines Romani, published by Mabillon in his Museum Italicum II and reprinted in Migne, P. L. 78, 938 ff. A Roman-Benedictine Ordo is reprinted in P. L. 66, 997 from Martene and Durand, Thes. Nov. Anecd. V, 103, and an early 9th century version from the manuscript of St. Amand is published by Mgr. Duchesne, L., Origines du Culte Chrétien, 2nd English edition, London, 1904Google Scholar, App. 454 ff. For the relation between the lessons in the English Breviaries and those prescribed in the Ordines, cf. the Introduction to v. III of The Hereford Breviary, ed. Frere, W. H. and Brown, L. E. G. (Henry Bradshaw Society, XLVI, London, 1915), pp. ixGoogle Scholar and 146. Convenient discussions of this whole matter are given by Duchesne, pp. 146 ff.; Mgr. Battiffol, B., History of the Roman Breviary, tr. by A. W. Y. Baylay from the 3rd French ed., London, 1912, pp. 62 ff.Google Scholar

4 This began early (cf. Reg. S. Ben. cap. ix) and by the 9th century lessons from the Lives were read in the night office in place of those from the Bible; cf. Horstmann, G., Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, Heilbroun, 1881, pp. xii–xvii; The Hereford Breviary, ed. cit., III, pp. xxxv ff.Google Scholar

5 Map's use of the phrase “the way of all flesh” could hardly have been due to a text of Joshua, since no Bible MS., as far as I can discover, of a period earlier than Map's, contained this phrase in Joshua. It came, as I pointed out in the paper referred to above, from the liturgy.

6 They are: IV Kings 4, 34 (Map, p. 39, 15), var. in Hilar. Tr. in Ps. 118, 1; Job 17, 13 (Map, p. 161, 11), var. in August. Adn. in Iob, I, 17; Prov. 6, 11 (Map, p. 44, 27), var. in Spec. 86; Prov. 25, 20 (Map, pp. 104, 19 and 106, 1), var. in Cod. Amiatinus and in Greg. in Ezek. I, 9, 32; Mt. 6, 12 (Map, p. 43, 16), var. in MSS.; Mt. 18, 7 (Map, p. 145, 18), var. in Old Latin; Mk. 1, 7 (Map, p. 44, 3), var. in some Old Latin and Vulgate MSS.; Jn. 11, 43 (Map, p. 39, 28), var. in Sedulius and some Old Latin MSS.; Act. 5, 41 (Map, p. 44, 5), var. in Old Latin, cf. text above; I John 4, 18 (Map, p. 63, 16), var. in Old Latin.

7 For quotations from the Gospels in Tertullian, cf. Alders, J. D., Tertullianus' Citaten uit de Evangelien en de oud-Latijnsche Bijbelvertalingen, Amsterdam, 1932Google Scholar; for those in Augustine, cf. Milne, C. H., A Reconstruction of the Old-Latin Text or Texts of the Gospels used by St. Augustine, Cambridge, 1926Google Scholar. For evidence for Old Latin readings I depend upon Sabatier, Bibliorum sacrorum Latinae versiones antiquae, Reims, 1749; Vercellone, , Variae Lectiones Vulgatae, Rome, 1860Google Scholar; Billen, , Old Latin Versions of the Heptateuch, Cambridge, 1927Google Scholar; H. J. Vogels, Vulgatastudien (Neue Testamentliche Abhandlungen, Bd. XIV, Heft. 2–3), Münster in W., 1928; Hoskier, , Concerning the Genesis of the Versions of the New Testament, London, 1910Google Scholar; upon various editions of the Bible and critical studies, and upon my own reading, assisted by the Indices in the Vienna Corpus. References to authors are made, whenever possible, to the editions in this Corpus (C. S. E. L.), otherwise to those in Migne, Patrologia Latina (P. L.). Additional references are given in the footnotes.

8 On liturgical books in general, cf. Mgr. L. Duchesne, op. cit., pp. 106–118, and for the different types, id. 120 ff.; Cabrol, in Dictionnaire d'Archéologie Chrétienne et de la Liturgie, s.v. Epitres, V, Pt. I, 262 ff. In my attempt to study the place of these quotations in the liturgy, I have had to confine myself to the printed editions of the various books. Although I have been able to refer to the most important representatives of the various types, still much of importance has, I am sure, escaped me. Even so, there is enough, I trust, to make the course of tradition reasonably clear, but only the experienced liturgiologist is in a position to answer the many questions to which almost every quotation gives rise. A list of the liturgical texts I have used is added at the end of this paper.

9 Cf. Clark, A. C., The Acts of the Apostles, Oxford, 1933, p. 34. He notes the appearance of τὸν χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν in some MSS. and in Stephanus.Google Scholar

10 These include John of Salisbury, whose biblical quotations are listed by Webb in vol. II of his edition (Oxford, 1909), William of Malmesbury, Giraldus Cambrensis, Gervais of Tilsbury, Asser, Aldhelm, Bede (in part), Gildas, and such Chronicles as those of Abingdon, Florence of Worcester, Simeon of Durham.Google Scholar

11 So in Super Par. Sol. i, 1; elsewhere the Vulgate, as in Marc. iv, 14; in Ioan. 14, as also in Gregory, Mor. xi, 40; Reg. Past. iii, 13; Alcuin, de Vir. et Vit. (P. L. 101, 624); Simeon of Durham (Rolls Ser.), p. 261; Ioan. Sar. Policr. v, 9 (Webb, I, 220). On the Old Latin readings, cf. Burkitt, Tyconius, in Texts and Studies, III, p. lxviii.

12 Cf. Chapman, Dom, The Early History of the Vulgate in England, Cambridge, 1933, pp. 73 ff.Google Scholar; Glunz, , The Vulgate in England, Cambridge, 1933, pp. 63 ff., 73 ff.Google Scholar

13 I omit the Psalms from this discussion since their use in the Liturgy needs no illustration and since they present certain problems of interest which deserve separate treatment.

14 In addition to Anglo-Latin writers, I have consulted also Old English and Middle English writers, whose quotations from the Bible are collected by Cook, A. S., Biblical Quotations in Old English Prose Writers, Ser. I (Macmillan, N. Y., 1898)Google Scholar; Ser. II (Yale Bicentennial Publ., Scribners, 1903); Mary W. Smyth, Biblical Quotations in Middle English Literature before 1350 (Yale Studies in Engl., XLI).Google Scholar

15 Since many of these quotations appear, as I have noted, as versicles for the various services, I have found very helpful the book of Marbach, C., Carmina Scripturarum, Argentorati, 1913, who has collected them from the modern Roman Use; they may or may not correspond with the older forms.Google Scholar

16 This Hom., on John 20, 19–31, appears in an abbreviated form in the English Breviary for use on the Octave of Easter, with this verse omitted; cf. Brev. Sar. I, dccclx; Hyde Abbey, II, f. 106 v.

17 Ed. Pitra, Dom J. B., in Spicilegium Solesmense IV, Paris, 1858. The verification of references to this book and to others not accessible to me, I owe to the generous help, for which I wish to express my thanks, of Dom O. L. Kapsner, Librarian of St. John's University, Minnesota, Father James A. Kleist of St. Louis University, and Dr. Frank Copley, of the University of Michigan.Google Scholar

18 Cf. Reg. Monast., ed. Linderbauer, B., Florilegium Patristicum, Fasc. XVII, Bonn, 1928, p. 35.Google Scholar

19 On this subject, cf. Cabrol, Dom, Le Livre de la Prière antique, Tours, 1929, pp. 26 ff.Google Scholar; Dict. d'Archéologie Chrét., s.v. Cantiques, II, 2, 1975 ff.Google Scholar; Marbach, Carm. Script., Einleitung, 23 ff. and text, p. 553; Schneider, H., Die altlateinischen Biblischen Cantica, Texte u. Arbeiten, herausgeg.durch die Erzabtei Beuron, 29/30, Beuron, 1938.Google Scholar

20 This canticle is not included among those given in Brev. Goth., P. L. 86, 846 ff., and was apparently among the group (X–XVII) which is missing from the MS. of the Psalt. Mozarab. ed. by J. B. Gilson for the H. B. Soc., XXX, 1905.

21 Ed. F. E. Warren, H. B. Soc., X, 1895, who supplies -que (but note the omission of -que in the Ps. ed. by Michel, p. 274, cited below, p. 205); cf. Warren's note, II, 35 for the extension of this canticle in the liturgy. I may note that knowledge of it is shown by S. Sechnall in his Hymn in honor of Patrick, S., Irish Liber Hymn. I, 6 (ed. J. H. Bernard and R. Atkinson, H. B. Soc., XIII, 1896) and by Aelfric, who quotes verse 43 in his Hom. on the Maccabees, Skeat, II, 74.Google Scholar

22 The following editions of these Psalters were consulted: Lambeth, ed. Lindelöf, U., Helsingfors, 1909, II, 244 (Acta Soc. Scientiarum Fenniae, XXXV, 1); Arundel: ed. Dess, Anglistische Forschungen, Heft 30, p. 241; Cambridge, ed. K. Wildhagen, Bibl. d. Angelsächsich. Prosa, VII, 1910, 386; Vespasian, ed. Sweet, E. E. T. S. 83, 1885, p. 410; Canterbury, ed. F. Harsley, E. E. T. S. 92, 1889, II, 252; Regius, ed. F. Roeder, Stud. zur Engl. Phil., Heft 18, 1904, p. 281.Google Scholar

23 In the Lect. of Luxeuil, P. L. 72, 202, Tob. is assigned for the Rogation Days; in the Man. Ambros. (cf. Magistretti, II, 56) for several Feriae during Holy Week, but in neither case is the verse printed in the editions accessible to me.

24 Note also Is. 5, 22–3; vae… qui iustificat impium, which is thus quoted by Gildas, de Exc. Brit. 43 and by Matt. Par. Chron. M. (Rolls Ser.) II, 520 and which occurs in the lesson in Brev. Sar. I, xci for Fer. ii post Dom. II Adv.

25 Cf. the notes of Williams, H. in his edition of Gildas, Printed for the Society of Cymmrodorion, London, 1899, pp. 230 ff.Google Scholar; Burkitt, F. C., “The Bible of Gildas,” Rev. Benedictine, XLVI, 1934, 206–215.Google Scholar

26 In the early English Homilies the verse is quoted in the Vulgate form; cf. Cook, Biblical Quotations, I, p. 118, II, p. 50; so too in Robt. Grossetete, Ep. 11; 71, and in the 14th century Pricke of Conscience, 45, 1614–5, cited by Smyth, Mary W., Bibl. Quotations in Middle Engl. Lit., p. 194. The phrase with Map's order turns up again in Vices and Virtues, E. E. T. S. LXXXIX, 1888, p. 79.Google Scholar

27 Cf. Acta Sanct. Mar. 10, VIII, 24. This was a translation of the Greek Life by Evadius, Bishop of Caesarea; cf. Manitius, Gesch. d. Lat. Lit. d. M-A, I, 711.

28 This festival does not appear in 13th century English books, but has a place in most of the calendars before 1100; cf. Wormald, F., English Calendars before 1100, H. B. Soc. LXXII, 1934, pp. 18, 46, 74, 242. Aelfric's version is: Ne yrsa ðu drihten us on ðysum deopum flodum/ne þin hat-heortnys on þyssere es ne sy.Google Scholar

29 In Miss. Mozarab. P. L. 85, 455, the lesson for the Blessing of the Candles is a condensed version of Hab. 1, 1 to 3, 4.

30 This important text from the 5/6 centuries has been edited by P. Alban Dold, Das älteste Liturgiebuch der lateinischen Kirche. Ein altgallikanisches Lectionar des 5/6 Jhr.; Texte u. Arbeiten, herausgeg. durch die Erzabtei Beuron, Heft. 26–28, Beuron, 1936; cf. his remarks regarding the text of this verse, p. xxix.

31 I have been unable to consult Capelle, Le Texte du Psautier Latine en Afrique, Collectanea Biblica Latina, IV, Rome, 1913, 221–225Google Scholar. No light is thrown on these variants in the Canticle by Wildhagen, in his articles on the Anglo-Saxon Psalters, Studien zur Englishchen Philologie, XIII, 1905Google Scholar and L, 1913 nor by Ramsey, , “Latin Text of the Paris Psalter,” Am. Jour. of Philology, XLI, 1920, where he remarks on the presence of these Canticles in early English books.Google Scholar

32 In Documents Inédits sur l'Histoire de France, LXXVIII, 1876, p. 271, from the MS. in Trinity College, Cambridge, with variants from MS. Lat. 8846 of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.Google Scholar

33 Convenient lists of the Lessons for the Roman Use from 700 A.D. on are contained in W. H. Frere, Studies in the Early Roman Liturgy, 2 vols., Alcuin Club Collections, XXX and XXXII, Oxford Univ. Press, 1934Google Scholar; cf. also Theod. Klauser, , Roemische capitulare evangeliorum I, Literaturgesch. Quellen u. Forsehungen XXVIII, 1935 (Münster in Weste), pp. 27; 114.Google Scholar

34 So it is omitted in some Gr. MSS., notably the Cod. Regius Parisiensis, and in the Washington Codex, cf. Sanders, , Univ. of Michigan Stud., Humanistic Ser. IX, 1912, p. 246.Google Scholar

35 In Vulgate MSS. the words illis Iesus are found only in the 13th century cor. vat.; cf. Wordsworth-White, Praef. xxviii, an addition due, I would suggest, to the influence of the liturgy.

36 These and the following abbreviations are to be understood as follows: B, Cod. Burgensis, s.x; M, cod. Maudramni, s. viii; T, cod. Martinianus, s. viii; A, cod. Amiatinus, s. vii/viii; G, cod. Turonensis S. Gatiani, s. vi/vii.

37 Cf. also Vercellone, Variae Lectiones vulgatae, I, 3, who supports mutabilem by citations from Ps.-Bede, Bede himself (Hex. I, P. L. 91, 26), Remigius, Hrabanus Maurus, and Walafrid Strabo.

38 Gregory is commenting on Iob 4, 16: vocem quasi aurae lenis audivi, and uses the adj. lenis several times, but not levis. Is it possible that the levis of Map rests upon a scribal error? It may be too that the vox of the Latin Irenaeus is due to confusion with this verse in Iob.

39 Cf. Burkitt, op. cit. supra p. 202. Gildas does, to be sure, quote I Kings 2, 17–34 in a form different from the Vulgate text but, as Burkitt points out, Gildas drew this entire quotation from Lucifer, C. S. E. L. p. 82.

40 Cf. Field, , Origines Hexaplorum quae supersunt, Oxford, 1875.Google Scholar

41 This is the reading also in the Cod. Amiatinus, Tischendorf, p. 761.

42 Cf. Ordines Rom. P. L. 78, 1014; Sacr. Gelas. i, 43; Frere, op. cit. III, 52–3.

43 Cf. Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus, I, 160. For the varianta, cf. Leo's critical notes in his ed. of Fortunatus, M. G. H. IV, p. 34.

44 Cf. the ref. cited in my earlier paper (cf. above, p. 191), p. 46, n. 26.

45 Cf. Dombart, , Berl. Phil. Wochenschr. VIII, 1888, 178.Google Scholar

46 For other references and a discussion of these formulae, cf. Bishop, “Liturgical Note,” in The Prayer Book of Aedeluald the Bishop, Commonly Called the Book of Cerne, ed. Dom A. B. Kuypers, Cambridge Univ. Press, pp. 234 ff.

47 That is: f, Cod. Brixianus (6th century); h, Cod. Claromontanus (4/5 centuries); k, Cod. Bobiensis (4/5 centuries); g, Cod. Sangermensis (9th century); cf. Vogels, Vulgatastud., p. 95; Hoskier, II, 210.

48 For this verse in the writings of August., cf. Milne, A Reconstruction of the Old Latin Text or Texts Used by Augustine (above, p. 195, n. 7), p. 20.

49 This phrase appears also in Paul. Nol. Ep. v, 6; cf. Weyman, Rh. M. LIII, 1898, 317.

50 Cf. Laistner, , Harv. Theol. Rev. XX, 1927, 129 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

51 This Homily was read on St. Felix's Day according to Brev. Sar. II, 437, but this, passage is omitted in the printed editions.

52 In the 1569 edition of the Book of Common Prayer, verse 34 is included in the lesson, with the reading, “Take no thought for the morrow,” as in the King James' version.

53 Evidently also in the Ambrosian books, since the Response for this service is drawn from Sulpicius' Life of the Saint; cf. Man. Ambros. III, 3.

54 Cf. on this matter Gerould, G. H., Jour. Eng. and Germ. Philol. XXIV, 1925, 206–10, a reference which I owe to the kindness of Mr. Peebles.Google Scholar

55 This appears in several of the early English Charters, cf. Thorpe, Diplomatarium Anglicum, pp. 193, 260, borrowed no doubt from some Glossary or from some one of the earlier authors quoted in my text.

56 On this ceremony, cf. Duchesne, Christian Worship, 250–257; Cabrol, Le Livre de la Prière Antique, 348–353; for the liturgical uses in connection with it, cf. the notes of Leslie to his edition of the Miss. Mozarab., printed in P. L. 85, 445–6; and for the variant readings in the various books in which this prayer occurs, cf. Bannister's notes to his edition of the Miss. Goth. II, 51–5.

57 Cf. Field, Origenis Hexapla, II, 488, for the different Greek versions.

58 Cf. Funk, , Didascalia et Constitutiones Apostolorum, Paderborn, 1906Google Scholar; for an English trans., Connolly, R. Hugh, Didascalia Apostolorum, Oxford, 1929, p. 42.Google Scholar

59 This prayer is found also in Martene, de Antiquis Ecclesiae Ritibus, libri quattuor; Rotomagi, 1700–2, Ordo XIV, p. 87, but this part of the prayer reads: in quacumque die peccator conversus fuerit et penitentiam egerit, omnia peccata, etc. With the beginning of this prayer we may compare the beginning of the Benedictus in the Missa Catechumenorum in Constitutiones Apost. viii, 9, 7: παντοκράτορ, θεὲ αἰώνις δέσποτα τῶν ὅλων κτίστα καὶ πρύτανι τῶν πάντων.

60 Cf. Meredith-Jones, C., Historia Caroli Magni et Rotholandi ou Chronique du Ps.-Turpin, Paris, 1936, p. 197.Google Scholar

61 Ed. Lambot, D., H. B. Soc., 1931.Google Scholar