Leontius: Presbyter of Constantinople, Fourteen Homilies.

238 Pages·2017·20.624 MB·English

by  Pauline Allen, Editor / Translator

Leontius: Presbyter of Constantinople
Byzantina Australiensia
Editorial Board
Ken Parry (Macquarie University)
Amelia Brown (University of Queensland)
Meaghan McEvoy (Macquarie University)
Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides (Monash University)
Danijel Dzino (Macquarie University)
Wendy Mayer (Australian Lutheran College | University of Divinity)
Roger Scott (University of Melbourne)
Volume 9
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/byza
Leontius:
Presbyter of Constantinople
Fourteen Homilies
Translation and Commentary by
Pauline Allen
with
Cornelis Datema
LEIDEN | BOSTON
This paperback was originally published as Volume 9 in the series Byzantina Australiensia,
Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Department of Modern Greek, University of Sydney
nsw 2006, Australia.
Cover illustration: Fol 98v of Cod. Laur. Plut. IX.28, containing the Christian Topography of
Cosmas Indicopleustes, is reproduced on the cover with the kind permission of the Biblioteca
Laurenziana, Florence.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017939791
issn 0725-3079
isbn 978-95-93-62681-1 (paperback, 2017)
isbn 978-90-04-34465-5 (e-book, 2017)
isbn 0 9593626 8 1 (paperback, 1991)
Copyright 2017 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff,
Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke
Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center,
222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
Εἰ δὲ καὶ περὶ τῶν ἀντιπόδων ἐπεξεργαστικώτερον θελήσειέ τις ζητῆσαι,
ῥᾳδίως τοὺς γραώδεις μύθους αὐτῶν ἀνακαλύψει.
Cosmas Indicopleustes, I,20.
⸪

CONTENTS
Preface vu
Abbreviations lX
1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Leontius and his homilies 1
Leontius and his congregation 3
Leonti us' thought world 8
Style and language 14
Liturgy of Constantinople 16
2 BIRTH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
Introduction 19
Homily I 24
3 PALM SUNDAY
Introduction 31
Homily II 40
Homily III 51
4 HOLY WEEK
Introduction 61
Homily IV 67
Homily V 75
Homily VI 81
Homily VII 87
5 EASTER
Introduction 95
Homily VIII 104
Homily IX 113
6 MID-PENTECOST
Introduction 117
Homily X 122
7 PENTECOST
Introduction 137
Homily XI 144
Homily XIII 158
vi Contents
8 BIRTH OF CHRIST
Introduction 167
Homily XII 172
9 TRANSFIGURATION
Introduction 177
Homily XIV 182
Biblical index 195
Patristic index 205
General index 215
PREFACE
In our edition of fourteen homilies of Leontius, presbyter of Constantinople, in the
Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca 17, 1987, we have presented the Greek texts of
a little known sixth-century preacher. Here it is our intention to introduce Leontius to
a wider audience by providing translations of his homilies with explanatory notes, at
the same time trying to place our homilist in his social and cultural context, and
assessing the liturgical background of the various homilies.
Although we have read widely in Greek homiletic literature in order to come to an
understanding of Leontius' place in the homiletic tradition, we do not pretend that our
reading of edited Greek homilies has been exhaustive. As far as the West is
concerned, we have left to others a systematic examination of the Latin homiletic
tradition. In presenting Leontius' homilies in translation we have not followed their
order in the liturgical cycle but rather that of our edition, where, after editing the
eleven homilies transmitted under the name of our presbyter, we argued also for the
authenticity of Homilies XII, XIIIa nd XIV, which are attributed in the manuscripts to
John Chrysostom.
As far as was practicable, in this volume we chose to give Greek proper names in
their Latin version, chiefly because of our previous publications on Leontius where we
followed this practice, but also from a desire to stay within the conventions of
Patristic discourse as much as possible. In translating the Greek text of the Septuagint
on which Leontius based his homilies we have generally inclined more to a literal
rendering, rather than conforming to a biblical translation from the Hebrew. While
this means that some well-known and well-loved expressions of English biblical
translation may not be found in our English versions of Leontius' homilies, we believe
that we shall have served the reader better in offering a translation which remains as
close as possible to the text that Leontius' congregation heard read out, and around
which the homilist constructed his sermons. Where Leontius is citing the Septuagint
verbatim, this is indicated by italics in the translation. Line numbers which appear at
the beginning of paragraphs in the translated homilies refer the reader to the Greek
text. By "course reading" we understand the continuous scriptural reading for a
particular liturgical period, also known as "Bahnlesung" or lectio continua.
The final presentation of this volume owes much to the meticulous research
assistance of Marie Matta, whose collaboration was partly financed by a grant from
the Australian Research Council, and to the advice and encouragement of Elii.abeth
Jeffreys.
Brisbane/Amsterdam, Pentecost 1991.