Irenaeus on Hyperbaton: Public Reading as a Source for Textual Variation

A previous post discussed the importance of reading out a text in the proper manner in elite literate circles of Greco-Roman society. It was crucial for the reader to pay close attention to breathing, inflection, and reading performance so as to properly bring out the meaning of the text for the listeners.
Irenaeus also emphasized the importance of properly reading-out the text of scripture during the Christian worship gathering. Irenaeus wrote:

"If, then, one does not attend to the [proper] reading [of the passage], and if he does not exhibit the intervals of breathing as they occur, there shall be not only incongruities, but also, when reading, he will utter blasphemy, as if the advent of the Lord could take place according to the working of Satan. So therefore, in such passages, the hyperbaton must be exhibited by the reading, and the apostle’s meaning following on, preserved. (ANF 1:42-421, Haer. 3.7.2, emphasis mine)"

It was Irenaeus's mention of the proper "breathing" that originally brought my attention to this passage but a commenter pointed out the curious mention of "hyperbaton" by Irenaeus. So what did Irenaues mean by hyperbaton?
Herbert Weir Smyth in A Greek Grammar for Colleges, defined hyperbaton as,

"Hyperbaton (ὑπέρβατον transposition) is the separation of words naturally belonging together. Such displacement usually gives prominence to the first of two words thus separated, but sometimes to the second also. In prose hyperbaton is less common than in poetry, but even in prose it is frequent, especially when it secures emphasis on an important idea by placing it at the beginning or end of a sentence. At times hyperbaton may mark passionate excitement. Sometimes it was adopted to gain rhythmical effect. Thus: “Such resting found the sole of unblest feet”: Milton."

In the immediate context of the passage in "Against Heresies" Irenaeus was defending Paul's alleged placement of words which were not in their proper grammatical sequence. In other words, Irenaeus believed Paul used hyperbaton in his style of writing. Earlier in the same passage as quoted above, Irenaeus highlighted a passage in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that apparently was being used by some Gnostics as a "proof-text" for their belief in a lower "God of this world" and a higher "God who is beyond all principality (Haer. 3.7.1). 2 Corinthians 4:4 reads;

"In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (ESV)"

In order to combat this interpretation Irenaeus argued that Paul used the "transposition of words" in this verse and that one should actually read "'in whom God,' then pointing it off, and making a slight interval, and at the same time read also the rest [of the sentence] in one [clause], 'hath blinded the minds of them of this world that believe not'" (Haer. 3.7.1). Irenaeus believed that the phrase "of this world" was actually referring to those who "believed not" and that the lector should read the phrase as, "God hath blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this world" (Haer. 3.7.1).
Irenaeus continued with an example from Galatians in 3.7.2 and then moved on to an example from 2 Thessalonians 2:8. Here too Paul is allegedly using hyperbaton and it is the job of the lector to properly read out the text with its intended meaning for the audience. 

"And again, in the Second to the Thessalonians, speaking of Antichrist, he says, “And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus Christ shall slay with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy him with the presence of his coming; [even him] whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders.”Now in these [sentences] the order of the words is this: “And then shall be revealed that wicked, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the presence of His coming.” For he does not mean that the coming of the Lord is after the working of Satan; but the coming of the wicked one, whom we also call Antichrist. (ANF 1:42-421, Haer. 3.7.2)"

In order to better explain this passage Irenaeus instructed the reader to take a portion from verse 9, "whose coming is after the working of Satan" and place it along side of verse 8 in order to better explain to the listeners that it is the "lawless one" who is after the working of Satan and not the "Lord Jesus Christ." These examples Irenaeus used to illustrate the importance of properly reading-out a text.

Public Reading as a Source for Textual Variation

Now one must consider if this practice of altering the positions of phrases, words, and even whole sentences was a wide-spread, or common practice in the early Church. If it was, then this might be the source of some of the variations that we see in the textual tradition. I will use only one example from Romans 8:1.

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (ESV)."

The text in the earliest Greek manuscripts stand as it reads in the ESV. But there are two readings that appear to have been added in stages. An early group of Greek manuscripts added "who do not walk according to the flesh" and even later group of Greek manuscripts added the phrase "but according to the spirit." Romans 8:1 in the KJV reads,

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

 It is apparent that some scribes felt that Romans 8:1 gave too much liberty to the sinning Christian, that there IS condemnation for those who DO walk "after the flesh." It looks like this phrase was taken from Romans 8:4 in various stages. But is it possible that scribes were merely copying down what was being read during worship gatherings? Of course, this example is not hyperbaton in the sense that Irenaeus understood it. However, it is possible that the reader took interpretive liberties with the text at Romans 8:1 and simply "added" these words from verse 4 because that was the "sense" of the text as it was understood.
Is it possible that some textual readings ended up in later manuscript copies only because they were being read during worship gatherings in that way?

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Bibliography

Gamble, Harry Y., Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

Johnson, William A. “The Ancient Book.” in The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology. ed. Roger S. Bagnall, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Virginius Rufus Killed by a Large Bookroll

My Dad pointed me to a reference in a letter of Pliny the Younger to a Virginius Rufus who had been killed by a large bookroll. It was too interesting not to pass it on.
Pliny wrote to his friend Voconius Romanus informing him about a cultured Roman dignitary, Virginius Rufus, who had lived a long and fruitful life to the age of 84 years. Virginius was such a revered man that Cornelius Tacitus gave the funeral oration. Pliny praised the virtues of Virginius's disciplined life to such a degree that even the circumstances surrounding his death were an occasion for admiration.
Pliny wrote:

"As he was rehearsing his speech of thanks to the Emperor, who had raised him to the consulship, a volume, which chanced to be inconveniently large for him to hold, escaped by its sheer weight the grasp that age and his upright posture doubly enfeebled. In hastily endeavoring to recover it, he missed his footing on the smooth slippery pavement; fell down, and broke his hip-bone; which fracture, as it was unskillfuly set at first, and having besides the infirmities of age to contend with, could never be brought to unite again. (Ep. 2.1)"

Apparently, the complications from this nasty fall contributed to Virginius's death. What is striking about Pliny's account is that some bookrolls were so large and cumbersome that they could not be easily handled by an aged man. This contrasts Martial's references to the codex made just a few decades before:

"You, who wish my poems should be everywhere with you, and look to have them as companions on a long journey, buy these which the parchment [codex] confines in small pages. Assign your book boxes to the great; this copy of me one hand can grasp. (Martial Epigr. 1.2)"

Of course, not all bookrolls were this large and later codices became quite large and bulky (i.e. Codex Sinaiticus), but this account illustrates the impracticality of the bookroll when compared to the codex (see previous discussion on the practicality of the codex, here and here).

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Martial Epigrams, translated by C. A. Ker, (2 vols. Loeb Classical Library. New York: Putnam’s Sons, 1919), 1:30-31.

Pliny the Younger, Letters, Books 1-10, translated by William Melmoth, and W. M. L. Hutchinson (2 vols. Loeb Classical Library; London: W. Heinemann, 1915), 1:91-93.

The Gospel of John and Readers of Mark

I have been reading through Richard Bauckham, ed. The Gospel for All Christians: Rethinking the Gospel Audiences (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998). In chapter five, "John for Reader's of Mark," Bauckham argued that John wrote his gospel with the understanding that the Gospel of Mark had been widely disseminated and read throughout the larger Christian community (p. 148). Therefore the Gospel of John was written in order to complement the stories and the chronology of Mark (p 170-171). John must have had the Gospel of Mark in view and not just oral traditions as these oral traditions might vary from place to place in their specifics and chronology (p. 164). This dependance can be seen particularly in two parenthetical glosses found at 3:24 and 11:2 (p. 151).

Eusebius on John's Gospel
Bauckham's theory aligns well with Eusebius' explanations concerning Mark;

"Mark, having become Peter’s interpreter, wrote down accurately everything he remembered, though not in order, of the things either said or done by Christ. . . . [Mark] had no intention of giving and an ordered account of the Lord’s sayings." (Hist. eccl. 3.39.15)

A little earlier Eusebius had given the motivation for John to write his gospel;

“And after Mark and Luke had already made the publication of the Gospels according to them, John, they say, used all the time, a proclamation that was not written down, and at last came to writing for the following cause. After the three Gospels which had been previously written had already been distributed to all, and even to himself, they say that he welcomed them and testified to their truth, but that there was therefore only lacking to the Scripture the account concerning things which had been done by Christ at first and at the beginning of the proclamation. . . . Now they say that on account of these things, the apostle John was exhorted to hand down in the Gospel according to himself the time passed over in silence by the first evangelists and the things which had been done by the Savior at this time.” (Hist. eccl. 3.24.7-11)

According to Bauckham, several of John's parenthetical glosses (i.e. 2:14-22; 3:24) can be explained as chronological correctives or explanations for readers of Mark who might be confused by the differences between the events as they occur in John and those in Mark (p. 153, 159). Bauckham's theory aligns well with Eusebius' understanding of the writing of Mark and John. Mark and Luke had apparently already circulated widely when John decided that he would write his gospel account. If Mark wrote down Peter's preaching without regard to chronology, it would have been necessary for John to correct or explain the chronology at points of variance.

Mark: Macro Level Stability
Reading this got me thinking about the textual veracity of the Gospel of Mark. Bauckham's theory in "John for Readers of Mark" would only work if the overall structure and content of the Gospel of Mark has remained preserved over the centuries. Let me explain.
There has been significant scholarly interchange over the last few years concerning the usefulness of the term "original-text" (see Epp, “The Multivalence of the Term ‘Original Text’). Some scholars are more skeptical than others, but there is an overall hesitation to assume that the Gospel texts that we have preserved today (in critical editions) are the same as when these Gospels were penned in the first century. If Bauckham's theory is correct, then the parenthetical glosses in John (if original, and Bauckham makes a convincing case that they are) indicate that the overall structure of Mark preserved today is very similar to that which circulated in John's day in the late first century. This confirms Holmes' reflections on the preservation of the Gospels;

"In short, a very high percentage of the variation evident in the text of the Four gospels and Acts affects a verse or less of the text. On this level, the fluidity of wording within a verse, sentence, or paragraph is sometimes remarkable. At the same time, however, in terms of overall structure, arrangement, and content, these five documents are remarkably stable. They display simultaneously, in other words, what one may term microlevel fluidity and macrolevel stability."
(Holmes, From Original Text to Initial Text, 674)

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Bibliography 

Epp, Eldon Jay. “The Multivalence of the Term ‘Original Text’ in New Testament Textual Criticism.” Harvard Theological Review. 92.3 (1999): 245–281.

Holmes, Michael W. “From ‘Original Text’ to ‘Initial Text’: The Traditional Goal of New Testament Textual Criticism in Contemporary Discussion.” Pages 637-681 in The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis. Second Edition. Edited by Bart D. Ehrman and Michael W. Holmes. New Testament, Tools, Studies and Documents 42. Leiden: Brill, 2013.
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More on the Subject of New Testament Textual Corruption

Eusebius and New Testament Textual Corruption: Part 1

Eusebius and New Testament Textual Corruption: Part 2

Eusebius and New Testament Textual Corruption: Part 3

Asclepiodotus and Theodotus, the Banker: 'Corruptors' of Scripture  

A Riot in the North African Church! Augustine on Jerome's Translation of the Bible 
 

From Scroll to Codex: Early Christian Book Technology

The following excerpt originally appeared in The Appalachian Theology Review, (an email periodical) on June 15, 2015.

      The Roman book was usually made from a papyrus plant that grew along the Nile River in Egypt. The papyrus plant was used throughout the Mediterranean to make sheets of writing material not unlike our modern paper. These sheets were then pasted together into long lengths of paper. A scribe would then write a work of literature in successive vertical columns from left to right. Then, the scribe would roll up the long length of paper with the writing on the inside. Today, this type of book is often referred to as a “scroll” and was the primary format by which cultured Romans wrote down their great works of literature.

The Roman Bookroll (Scroll)

     The style of script used by an ancient scribe was also formatted very differently than modern writing conventions. The letters were in all capitals and there were no spaces between words and there was no punctuation. In English, ITWOULDLOOKSOMETHINGLIKETHIS. Of course, this writing style was very difficult for a reader to comprehend and it took years of study for a Roman gentleman or lady to comprehend the text with ease. The use of this continuous script was not due to ignorance or lack of technological advancement. Ancient Roman tutors employed spacing and punctuation in their school texts in order to teach the more difficult continuous script used in their literary scrolls. Scribes also tended to use spacing between words and punctuation in documentary texts such as correspondence, receipts, contracts, and other non-literature documents.
     Romans also knew of an easier and more efficient way than the scroll to format their books. After long lengths of papyrus paper was manufactured, a scribe would cut out sheets and stack them on top of one another. This stack of papyrus sheets was then folded down the center and then stitched at the folded edge. The scribe could then write on both the outside and the inside faces of each page. This type of book is referred to as a “codex.” If the codex sounds familiar it is because it is the ancient precursor to our modern book.
     An elite Roman did not use the codex for works of literature, rather, they used the codex for informal writing. Taking notes, keeping records, manuals for instruction, school texts, and storing copies of correspondence were some of the uses of the codex.

The codex notebook

     In Roman society, there was a significant amount of cultural baggage that went along with the scroll and its lack of reading aids. The scroll was seen as an emblem of sophistication, education, and culture. Any use of punctuation or spacing between words in their great works of literature would have been viewed as an insult by a refined Roman gentleman or lady. Coupled with this, only a small percentage of Roman society could read at all.

An educated Roman couple

     A modern comparison could be made with the Opera. Its length of performance, the foreign language, and expense of attending make it difficult for the average American to access the Opera. But the difficulty of accessing the Opera adds to the sense of elitism and refinement that it provides. 
     The same was true of the Roman scroll. With its lack of punctuation and spacing, the scroll would have taken years to master and would have been difficult for the average Roman to access. This difficulty was, of course, the point and added to the sense of elitism, education, sophistication, and privilege. Wealthy Roman Villas often displayed paintings of the Lord and Lady of the house holding scrolls and writing implements. Similar images can be found on tombstones and sarcophagi. These images would have given the message that the Lord and Lady were educated and members of the elite strata of Roman society.
     At the turn of the 19th to the 20th century two British scholars, Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt, over a period of several years, discovered the remains of thousands of ancient papyrus documents that were dumped in huge trash mounds outside of the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. Among these many documents were found the remains of the oldest copies of New Testament books.
   
  Scholars soon noticed that these copies of New Testament books had several distinguishing features that set them apart from contemporary Roman literature. First, it was discovered that every single copy of a New Testament book was bound in the codex format. And second, the scribes who copied the text often used spacing between words, implemented crude forms of punctuation, and employed reading aids. Therefore, in contrast to the elitist Roman scroll, the earliest copies of the New Testament were much more accessible to a broad array of less educated readers.

An early Christian gospel codex

     Because only a small percentage of the Roman population could read, we often see commands in the New Testament to publicly read the scriptures before a Christian congregation. The apostle Paul gave Timothy the command to “devote” himself “to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (1 Tim 4:13, ESV). Paul instructed the Christians at Colossae; “And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea” (Col 4:16, ESV). When John wrote Revelation, he understood that his prophecy would be read by one person standing before a congregation and so he gave a blessing to "the one who reads ... and those who hear" (1:3, ESV). In Rome at around 140 AD a Christian apologist named Justin Martyr described a Sunday morning Church service;

And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. (1 Apol. 67, ANF 1:186)

     The earliest Christians were primarily concerned with the dissemination of the scriptures, teaching, and discipleship. Therefore, at a very early point they adopted certain aspects of Roman book technology, that is, the codex format and reading aids, in order to better facilitate public reading and ease of access for those who had less education and reading ability. An elitist Roman from the upper crust of society would have viewed these early copies of the New Testament with scorn and not as sophisticated works of literature.
     What can we learn from these early Christians and their use of Roman book technology? Even though cultured Romans used books and literature as a way to marginalize a broad section of uneducated society, Christians used certain aspects of Roman book technology to do just the opposite. By using the codex format, spacing, punctuation, and reading aids, the Christians were able to bring the scriptures to the uneducated and marginalized segments of Roman society.

For a more detailed treatment of the bookroll and Christian codex see;

Timothy N. Mitchell, "Christian Papyri and the Ancient Church." Bibliotheca Sacra 173 (April–June 2016): 182–202.

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Bibliography:

Gamble, Harry Y. Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

______________. “Literacy, Liturgy, and the Shaping of the New Testament Canon.” Pages 27-39 in The Earliest Gospels: The Origins and Transmission of the Earliest Christian Gospels - The Contribution of the Chester Beatty Gospel Codex P45. Edited by Charles Horton. Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series 258. Edited by Mark Goodacre. New York: T & T Clark, 2004.

Haines-Eitzen, Kim. Guardians of Letters: Literacy, Power and the Transmitters of Early Christian Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Harris, William V. Ancient Literacy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.

Hurtado, Larry W. The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006.

______________. “The Sociology of Early Christian Reading.” Pages 49-62 in The Early Text of the New Testament. Edited by Charles E. Hill and Michael J. Kruger. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Johnson, William A. “The Ancient Book.” Pages 256-281 in The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

________________. Readers and Reading Culture in the High Roman Empire: A Study of Elite Communities. Edited by Joseph Farrell and Robin Osborne. Classic Culture and Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Turner, E. G. The Typology of the Early Codex. 1977. Reprint, Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2011.