Cicero On Repairing His Damaged Books

Repairing a loose fragment of P.Oxy 3203 using small ‘tabs’ applied with tweezers.
Image from the British Museum Blog
Faith after the pharaohs: Egyptian papyri conservation - British Museum Blog

I have written elsewhere of the various circumstances that could shorten the useful life of ancient books (See Here). Not only could books be outright destroyed, ancient documents could be damaged by use and environment to such an extend as to be almost unusable (See Previous Post Here). Cicero (106 BCE-43 BCE), was sent into exile to Thessalonica by a law introduced by Publius Clodius Pulcher. In his absence, Cicero's library had been damaged, dispersed, and a portion of it possibly destroyed (Houston, 218). Upon his return from exile, he began to re-assemble and repair his library. In order to do this, Cicero aquired the services of the Greek Scholar Tyrannio of Amisus. Cicero also turned to his friend Atticus, asking him to send slaves that could repair damaged papyrus and parchment, and to attach titles to rolls.

"It will be delightful if you come to see us here. You will find that Tyrannio has made a wonderfully good arrangement of my books, the remains of which are better than I had expected. Still, I wish you would send me a couple of your library slaves for Tyrannio to employ as gluers, and in other subordinate work, and tell them to get some fine parchment to make title-pieces, which you Greeks, I think, call "sillybi." But all this is only if not inconvenient to you. In any case, be sure you come yourself, if you can halt for a while in such a place, and can persuade Pilia to accompany you. For that is only fair, and Tullia is anxious that she should come. My word! You have purchased a fine troop! Your gladiators, I am told, fight superbly. If you had chosen to let them out you would have cleared your expenses by the last two spectacles. But we will talk about this later on. Be sure to come, and, as you love me, see about the library slaves." (Att. 4.4b)

From this interchange it can be seen that the care of a library in antiquity took a considerable amount of work by scholars and slaves alike. It goes to show how precious and valuable it is that we have so many manuscripts that have survived (in various states of completion) from antiquity.

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English translation of Cicero's letter to Atticus by Evelyn Shuckburgh
Letters to Atticus/4.4b - Wikisource, the free online library

Houston, George W. Inside Roman Libraries: Book Collections and Their Management in Antiquity (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2014)

Greco-Roman Education and Textual Criticism

Raffaella Cribiore is Professor at New York University and specializes in ancient Greco-Roman education, papyrology, and Greek rhetoric among other specialties. She has written several books on these topics, several of which are "must-reads" for anyone interested in understanding the wider culture in which early Christian book culture arose, particularly her works related to Greco-Roman education more broadly. Two of these books are;

"Writing, Teachers, and Students in Graeco-Roman Egypt" (Atlanta: Scholar's Press, 1996).

"Gymnastics of the Mind: Greek Education in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt. Princeton" (NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005).

I have learned so much from Cribiore's work and was excited when I discovered that she had been interviewed on an episode of one of my favorite Podcasts, Ancient Greece Declassified. Here is the link to the interview.

Ancient Greece Declassified: 11 Caves and Classrooms w/ Raffaella Cribiore (libsyn.com)

There were many interesting insights that Cribiore gave, but one that really resonated with my own research was her emphasis on the broadly defined "universality" of Greco-Roman education across the Roman Empire. Along with this, I list out several other interesting insight from the interview below;

1) Education from Hellenistic to the late antique period was remarkably uniform. Someone from Syria, to Egypt, to Rome would have been educated in a similar manner and with a similar body of literature.

2) Much more people attended at least the first tier of education than is often realized by scholars more broadly. 

3) At least at the lowest levels, Education was available to girls as well as boys.

These details from the ancient world help to shine a light on early Christian reading and scribal culture. In an environment where a text was read out and copied within a social network, many Christians would be in a position to engage with these texts at various levels, and with some uniformity across the Empire. This would lead to a circumstance in which any "macrolevel" changes to a text in circulation would be noticed by the community engaging with these same texts. I make this argument in my JSNT article,

"Exposing Textual Corruption: Community as a Stabilizing Aspect in the Circulation of the New Testament writings during the Greco-Roman Era." JSNT 43.2 (December 2020): 266-298.

Upcoming Event, Text and Manuscript Conference: Pen, Print, and Pixels

The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts has launched a new biannual Text and Manuscript Conference. Executive Director Daniel Wallace announced,

"This conference will be held on even-numbered years as a North American reflection of the Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament, which is itself held on odd-numbered years in the United Kingdom."

The inaugural conference is slated for May 19th - 20th, 2022 and is themed Pen, Print, and Pixels. Follow the hyperlink, or go to the following link, https://conference.csntm.org/

There is a great line-up of main speakers.

Hugh Houghton

Kathleen Maxwell

Holger Strutwolf

Dirk Yongkind

Jan Krans

There is also a great selection of breakout session speakers.

Keith Elliot

Jeremiah Coogan

Juan Hernandez

Edgar Ebojo

Craig Evans

Georgi Parpulov

Christian Askeland

Timothy Mitchell

Peter Montro

Ryan Griffin

William Warren

Grant Edwards

James Prothro

I don't know what all of the session speakers will be presenting on, but my own presentation will be the following;

Exposing Textual Corruption in the Wider Circulation of the New Testament Writings During the Greco-Roman Era

Abstract:
In a recent publication I argued that the primary means by which books were circulated was through social networks. A natural consequence of this was that macro-level changes (to use the terminology of Michael W. Holmes) to a text within circulation would become known within that same community.
In this paper I will present further evidence that the avenues for exposing textual corruption were present even when a writing circulated more broadly. In the wider Greco-Roman culture, literature would often be circulated through booksellers allowing the work to be accessed by more extensive reading communities farther removed from the author(s) and their followers. References from Cicero, Pliny the Younger, and Galen will be explored.
In the case of the New Testament writings, evidence for those outside of the Christian community having contact with and reading scriptural books will be examined. Figures such as Justin Martyr, Tatian, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen and many others will be explored.
I will be arguing from this evidence that these wider pathways of book distribution also presented opportunities for exposing the macro-level corruption of texts in circulation, specifically with regard to the New Testament writings.

Interview on The Hardcore Humanities Podcast

Released today is an interview I did with Jamie Tibke host of The Hardcore Humanities Podcast.  The interview can be found on Spotify and Apple ITunes. Link to Spotify posted below.

The Hardcore Humanities Podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/2480jEi5oxaKZxaRMUsEXb

Aurelius of Carthage: The Illiterate Church Lector and Confessor

 

Add. 40165 A 
4th century fragments of Cyprians letters  
used as flyleaves for a 12th-century Latin manuscript

At around 250 CE Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, wrote to his Church to inform them of the appointment of a young man named Aurelius to the office of lector. That is someone who read out the scriptures to the congregation at the time they were gathering for worship.

"In the ordinations of clerics, dearly beloved Brethren, we are accustomed to consult you in advance and in common council to weigh the characters and merits of each one." (Ep. 38)

Cyprian goes on to share in the letter that Aurelius was "twice confessed and twice glorious in the victory of his confession" (Ep. 38). It was during this time that Christians were under extreme pressure to make sacrifices to the God's or face repercussions. This was due to an imperial edict given by Emperor Decius in order to gain favor from the God's towards the troubled Roman Empire (see posts here and here). Apparently Aurelius had suffered under this edict but had remained firm in the faith and had not recanted belief; a confessor. Cyprian greatly admired Aurelius for his courage and because of this wanted to go ahead and ordain him to the office before he had consulted with the other leaders as was the custom.

"Such a one was deserving of the higher steps of clerical ordination and a greater promotion, not so considered for his years, but for his merits. But, in the meantime, it seemed right for him to start with the office of reading since nothing was more becoming also to the voice which confessed God with glorious praise than to sound Him forth through the celebrating of the divine readings, after the sublime words which bespoke martyrdom for Christ: to read the Gospel of Christ whence martyrs are made, to come to the pulpit after the scaffold; . . . Know, therefore, dearly beloved that he has been ordained by me and by colleagues who were present. . . . And since joy is always hastening, and rejoicing cannot brook delays, in the meantime, he reads for us on Sunday, that is, he is auspicious for peace while he dedicates the reading." (Ep. 38)

It is obvious that Aurelius is capable of reading out a text (presumably in Latin) because Cyprian is fully expecting him to do so the next Sunday after he sent this letter. What is strange however is that in a letter to the Church in Rome, Cyprian mentions that a certain Lucian (another confessor) had written many petitions in behalf of others who were imprisoned.

"Many petitions, written in the handwriting of this same Lucian, have also been given in the name of Aurelius, a youth who suffered tortures, because the latter did not know how to write." (Ep. 27).

This same Aurelius, who was perfectly capable at reading, did not know his letters and had to have a certain Lucian write a petition on his behalf. This does seem strange to us in the twenty-first century, accustomed to learning to read and write together. This was not the case in the ancient world. These two skills were often acquired separately and with varying degrees of competency (Cribiore, 9-10). Cyprian presents this information normally and does not indicate that this circumstance is exceptional. This might also help explain the kinds of features that we see in our earliest copies of the New Testament writings. These often exhibit reading aids, spaces between words, and other kinds of limited punctuation (see here). These may have been present to assist those who had limit education, who could read at a basic level, but had not received schooling in the ability to write, just like we see in the case of Aurelius of Carthage.

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St. Cyprian, Letters 1-81, The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation (Sister Rose Bernard Donna, trans. New York: Catholic University of America Press, 1964).

Cribiore, Rafaella. Writing, Teachers, and Students in Graeco-Roman Egypt (Atlanta: Scholar's Press, 1996).

Sacred Words in the SBJT

 

In the latest issue of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology is a collection of articles that address various topics in the area of the text and canon of the scriptures. These articles are the printed versions of most of the lectures given at last year's "Sacred Words Conference" for the newly formed Text and Canon Institute of Phoenix Seminary. I was fortunate to be a presenter at the conference and my own presentation appears in this issues as well. Here is the table of contents.

Stephen J. Wellum
Editorial: Defending Biblical Authority on the Textual Front

John D. Meade 

Discipleship and the History of the Bible 

John D. Meade and Peter J. Gurry 

Some Missteps in Narrating the Bible’s History 

Stephen G. Dempster 

From a Smoking Canon to Burning Hearts: The Making of the Hebrew Bible 

Peter J. Gentry 

Chaos Theory and the Text of the Old Testament 

Timothy N. Mitchell 

Where Inspiration is Found: Putting the New Testament Autographs in Context 

Anthony M. Ferguson 

Listening to the Dead Sea Scrolls 

Darian R. Lockett 

What Do James, Peter, John, and Jude Have in Common? Arguing for the Canonical Collection of the Catholic Epistles

A Sacred Number in the Gospel of Mark?

The painstaking task of transcribing and collating Greek New Testament manuscripts will often bring to light many tantalizing features that have as of yet gone unnoticed. Mainly because so many of these manuscripts have not been studied in detail, or at all. Not only this, but also because transcription forces the scholar to slow down and compare the texts of the manuscripts being studied, highlighting any unique characteristics. Recently I came across an interesting feature in GA 989 which is a twelfth century Four Gospels minuscule manuscript with commentary bordering the biblical text. It has to do with the use of the numeral twelve. In Mark 6:7 Jesus commissions the twelve disciples to preach the gospel.

"And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits."

Mark 6:7 in GA 989 showing the number 12  Ι̅β̅ in Greek

A fascinating aspect is that in this verse the scribe chose to use the Greek numeral sign for the number twelve ( Ι̅β̅ ) rather than writing out the number in full (δωδεκα). Here also the word for "unclean" spirit is written in full (plene) rather than in the nomen sacrum form. No where else in the Gospel of Mark in GA 989 is the Greek numeral for twelve used. And there seems to be no differentiation in this manuscript in the use of nomen sacrum for the Holy Spirit or an unclean spirit. Thus it seems to be more than a coincidence that the scribe chose to use the abbreviated Greek numeral for twelve and unclean spirit is written out in full (πνευματων ακαθαρτων) in the context of this verse. It is certainly possible that there is nothing significant to this, a mere coincidence. It is also impossible to definitively know for certain. It could be, however, that the Greek numeral for twelve (Ι̅β̅ ) was used in a "sacred" sense like a nomen sacrum, preserved from an earlier tradition.

Zachary Cole recently published a monograph that discussed this topic.

Zachary Cole, Numerals in Early Greek New Testament Manuscripts
Text-Critical, Scribal, and Theological Studies. NTTSD 53 (Leiden: Brill, 2017).

In Chapter 7, pages 175-178, Cole discusses the possibility that the Greek number twelve ( Ι̅β̅ ) was used as a sacred number (numerus sacer) when referring to the twelve disciples in Codex Sinaiticus in the Gospel of Matthew.

Codex Sinaitcus Matt 10:5 [Q74-f.5v]
www.codexsinaiticus.org

There is not enough data to draw any hard conclusions in GA 989. These tantalizing remnants of scribal activity, however, may be all that remain of an early tradition of representing the "twelve" disciples in a sacred sense.