Eine merkwürdige griechische Randnotiz Überlegungen zum koptischen Kodexblatt Paris BNCopte164 II fol. 16m recto

Kerstin Sänger-Böhm

doi:10.1515/apf-2019-0006

Eine merkwürdige griechische Randnotiz Überlegungen zum koptischen Kodexblatt Paris BNCopte164 II fol. 16m recto

Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete ◽

10.1515/apf-2019-0006 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 65 (1) ◽

pp. 117-123

Author(s):

Kerstin Sänger-Böhm

Keyword(s):

Gospel Of John ◽

Fifth Century ◽

Marginal Note

Abstract A papyrus codex which contained the Sahidic version of the Gospel of John exhibits a highly interesting “marginal note”. On the bottom margin of one page (Paris BNCopte164 II fol. 16m) one finds traces of the beginning of five lines written in Greek in a cursive hand usually used in documentary papyri. A closer look at the Greek cursive suggests that these lines originally belonged to the text of a fifth-century protokollon.

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THE POET AND THE EVANGELIST IN NONNUS’ PARAPHRASE OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN

The Cambridge Classical Journal ◽

10.1017/s1750270520000056 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 66 ◽

pp. 70-95

Author(s):

Fotini Hadjittofi

Keyword(s):

Gospel Of John ◽

Fifth Century ◽

Spiritual Exercise ◽

Literary Identity ◽

Authorial Voice

Christian poetry, and biblical epic in particular, is intensely self-conscious. Both Greek and Latin Christian poets begin or end their compositions, paraphrases and centos with poetological reflections on the value and objectives of their works. The fifth-century Paraphrase of the Gospel according to John is an anomaly in this tradition. While Nonnus’ mythological epic, the Dionysiaca, is heavily self-conscious in that it includes a strong authorial voice as well as an extensive prooemium and an interlude, the Christian Paraphrase has no prooemium, epilogue or interlude, and its narrator never identifies himself. This article examines two passages in the Paraphrase where subtle, implicit poetological reflections may be detected, and then explores the reasons why Nonnus may have chosen to deny the Paraphrase a clear (meta)literary identity. It argues that Nonnus’ poem presents itself as the Gospel of John, and that its narrator ‘becomes’ John the Evangelist in a spiritual exercise which is indebted to Origen's views on that Gospel.

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