On Citing the Sahidic Version of Hebrews: Theoretical Reflections and Examples from Textual Practice

The Sahidic Coptic is one of the earliest and most important versions of the New Testament. Thus, it is essential that its witness be related to the Greek tradition with adequate methodological precision. This article attempts to pave the way for such an undertaking in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a New Testament book which, currently, lacks a major critical edition of its Greek text or an edition of its Sahidic version. Firstly, the present study offers methodological reflections on citing the Sahidic version, with a particular focus on transmissional, editorial, linguistic and translation-technical issues. And secondly, a selection of the most significant variant units in Hebrews is examined with a view to relating the Sahidic evidence to the Greek variant spectrum at each point.

The Text of Philippians 3.12 in the Gothic Translation: Paul Not Already Deemed Righteous?

The Gothic translation of Paul’s Letter to the Philippians contains a reading in which Paul claims he is not already deemed righteous (ni . . . ju garaihts gadomiþs sijau, Phil 3.12). In light of this, the Gothic version has been included as a textual witness to the so-called justification clause, a variant reading scholars have labeled “intriguing,” “very interesting,” “striking,” and “astounding.” However, no scholarly attention has been devoted specifically to the Gothic version of the justification clause of Phil 3.12. This article fills that gap. The author gives attention to this text as it appears in the surviving Gothic manuscripts and discusses two of its noteworthy features. Both features contribute to the wisdom of exercising caution before dismissing the reading as a representative of a secondary insertion into the earliest Greek text of the Pauline Letters.

The Newer Greek Text of the New Testament (NA28 and UBS5) and Its Implications for Translation

Compared to the previous editions of the Greek New Testament, Nestle–Aland27 and UBS4, the newer editions (NA28 and UBS5) present some thirty-four changes, specifically in the Catholic Epistles. To what extent will this impact the translation of the New Testament? This paper will show that in half of those instances there will be some implication for translators and revisers of the New Testament.

Bibliographical Scrupulousness and Philological Zeal: Conrad Gessner Working on the editio princeps of ‘Ad se ipsum’

The article concerns the history of the first edition of Greek text of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations (1559), printed together with its Latin translation and commentary by Wilhelm Xylander. The Zurich philologist and naturalist Conrad Gessner documented it meticulously from its earliest steps in his Neo-Latin bibliographic handbooks, as well as other printed works and letters, meanwhile contributing somehow to its realization. The controversial issue of Gessner’s and Xylander’s role in the establishing of the text of editio princeps, and thus its attribution, is discussed in detail. The other question under consideration is how Gessner imagined the interaction of humanist philology and bibliography, which had to direct literary history in the age of printed word. Taking into account this particular case of Gessner’s bibliographic and philological inquiry, the author attempts to consider his Bibliotheca universalis not only as seminal compilative and critical work, but also as important means of communication and (self-)stimulation.

Five Views of definienda in Alexander’s Quaestiones 1.3 and 2.14

In Quaestiones 1.3 and 2.14, Alexander presents a distinctly realist or essentialist view of the objects of definition, distinguished, on the one hand, from two types of realism rejected by Aristotle (definienda as separate forms and as particulars), and, on the other, from two types of conceptualism (non-essentialist and essentialist abstractivism) that probably belong within the Peripatetic tradition. The difference between Alexander’s view and essentialist abstractivism lies in his understanding of definienda not as the common concepts of things existing in the particulars, but as the common things conceived of as existing in the particulars. This paper offers a close reading of Quaest. 1.3, whose aim is to flesh out Alexander’s position vis-à-vis the objects of definition against the backdrop of the four rejected alternatives. The distinction between Alexander’s essentialism and the essentialist abstractivist notion of definienda is further explained in light of Quaest. 2.14. The amended Greek text of Quaest. 1.3 is appended with an English translation.

The Filatterio Capitolino, The Greek-Jewish foil preserved in The Musei Capitolini: A new contribution concerning its discovery site

This paper is focused on the context of an excavation where the Capitoline Philactery was found. It is a silver-inscribed foil, in the upper part we read a short Greek text, while in the lower one the text is written in Hebraic. The foil could protect from malaria. It was found in Rome in the Esquilino quarter in 1874 inside a Mithraeum, that took place in the 3th–4th century within an area of Imperial property. To the same place converged the cult of salutary divinities as well and in the 4th–5th century some sacred artifacts were buried together before the abandonment of the Mithraeum itself, between them there was the Capitoline Philactery.