Divining Gospel: Oracles of Interpretation in a Syriac Manuscript of John

242 Pages·2020·3.699 MB·English

by  Jeff W. Childers

Jeff W. Childers
Divining Gospel
Manuscripta Biblica
Edited by
Martin Wallraff and Patrick Andrist
Volume 4
Jeff W. Childers
Divining Gospel
Oracles of Interpretation in a Syriac Manuscript of John
ISBN 978-3-11-061721-4
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-064349-7
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-064355-8
ISSN 2626-3955
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019955444
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Cover image: British Library Additional 17,119, f. 35v-36r, 83v. ©The British Library Board
(Add. 17,119 Syriac). Image used by permission.
Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
Dedicated to my wife,
my very good fortune,
Linda D. Childers with love.

Preface and Acknowledgements
I fell into this project quite by accident. While consulting a their own work but by their collegial investment in others’
Syriac manuscript of John’s Gospel in the British Library for success.
reasons that had nothing to do with divination, I encoun- My colleagues in the Graduate School of Theology
tered the strange statements that are the subject of this and at Abilene Christian University have also been models
book. They fascinated but puzzled me, and once it became of support and encouragement. I am appreciative of the
obvious they had nothing to do with what I was working on time I was granted by the university to finish this project
at the time, I took a few notes and promptly filed the notes and all the conversations with colleagues in Abilene that
away. I knew next to nothing about hermêneiai, save what have enriched the quality of this work. Several of my stu-
I had gleaned from sparing references in some manuals on dents have assisted me in various ways – running down
New Testament textual criticism. I did not recognize the sources in the library, posing constructive questions, and
true nature of the manuscript on first look. offering helpful insights about the ancient texts. I am
Some years later I was editing a volume of collected especially grateful to Jamey Walters, James Prather, Laura
essays that included an article on Greek hermêneia manu- Locke Estes, Ethan Laster, and Ryne Parrish. My colleague
scripts of John. That article was concerned solely with the Dwayne Towell offered a number of helpful suggestions
New Testament text, not oracular statements or lot divi- on an early draft of the book.
nation. But while editing the article something prompted I would like to thank those who funded various ele-
a recollection of the Syriac material I had seen a few years ments of this research, especially the Center for the Study
before. It occurred to me to pull out my old notes on the of Ancient Religious Texts at Abilene Christian University
manuscript (London, British Library, Add. 17,119) so that that helped me acquire necessary materials, such as digital
I could compare what I had seen in it with the assorted images of many manuscripts; the Franklin Research Grant
Greek and Greco-Coptic fragments that had been pub- of the American Philosophical Society that funded my
lished in scattered journals. What I found drew me to travel to European libraries in the summer of 2017; and
study the manuscript and other lot divination texts more the Carmichael-Walling research funds at Abilene Chris-
closely. This book, like many works of scholarship, is the tian University that have funded my travel to conferences,
outgrowth of a series of tangential journeys, reporting where I presented portions of this material for scholarly
what I have found while looking for something else. engagement and improvement.
Preliminary versions of portions of this material Like every scholar working on ancient manuscripts,
have been presented in different conferences and sympo- I am indebted to the libraries that preserve them and to
sia. I am appreciative of the valuable conversations and their staffs who so ably support the work of those who
helpful feedback those opportunities occasioned as I was research them. The various libraries that have hermêneia
developing aspects of this research. Some of those essays manuscripts used in this study are credited in Chapter
have appeared in print and are cited in the notes and the Three and elsewhere in the book, accordingly. I appre-
bibliography. ciate the assistance those libraries have rendered me, in
I am very grateful to Sebastian Brock (Oxford) for his answering queries, supplying digital images, and grant-
assistance with difficult aspects of the Syriac text. My ing permission to publish the materials. In particular,
indebtedness to his astute and patient tutelage remains I am grateful to the British Library in London and the
enormous. Liv Ingeborg Lied (Oslo) has been a constant Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, where I spent
source of encouragement in my study of the Syriac man- very pleasant days examining some of the key manu-
uscript, supplying helpful insights from the standpoint of scripts directly. I have appreciated their continued assis-
New or Material Philology. The “Bible as Notepad” con- tance and the permission they granted to publish images
ference that she convened at the MF Norwegian School and other material from the manuscripts in this book.
of Theology, Religion and Society in Oslo, Norway (2014), It has been a great pleasure working with the editors
and the “Snapshots of Evolving Traditions” project that and staff at de Gruyter. In particular, Albrecht Doehnert
she led were crucial to the progress of this work. Erich provided many helpful suggestions that have improved
Renhart (Graz, Austria) made an extremely valuable con- the work and Aaron Sanborn-Overby has labored dili-
tribution by sharing with me his research on the Arme- gently and affably to make it ready for publication. As
nian palimpsest prior to its publication and permitting me series editor of Manuscripta Biblica, Martin Wallraff has
to employ his work in this study. These three colleagues offered every encouragement and valued assistance in fin-
exemplify high scholarly virtues, not only by the quality of ishing the project.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110643497-202
VIII   Preface and Acknowledgements
More than anyone I thank the person to whom this part she has played in it. In our years of life together, I have
work is dedicated, my wife, Linda D. Childers, who has been been glad to welcome the promise offered by Puššāqā 228:
unwavering in her support of the pursuit and completion of “This matter will turn out happily.”
this project. My life is immeasurably richer because of the
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements   VII
1 Opening the Gospel   1
1.1 Inscribing a Divining Gospel   1
1.2 Christians and Their Books   3
1.2.1 A Bookish Religion   3
1.2.2 Books Dynamic in Form and Impact   4
1.3 Books as Objects   6
1.3.1 Materiality and Meaning   6
1.3.2 A Case Study: Gewargis’ Complex Book   7
1.4 Sacred Books as Objects of Power   8
1.4.1 Inscribing Amulets with Scriptural Potency   9
1.4.2 Magic or Christian Ritual?   10
1.4.3 Ambivalent Attitudes Towards Popular Religious Practices Involving Scriptural Artifacts   11
1.5 Elf-Charms, Incubi, and Codex-Relics: John’s Gospel in Popular Imagination and Ritual Use   14
1.6 Divining Gospel: An Overview   17
1.6.1 The Unique Character of the Syriac Version   17
1.6.2 The Plan of the Present Study   18
2 Divination in Late Antique Christian Practice   21
2.1 Tollo, Lege: A Famous Instance of Christian Sortilege   21
2.2 Dealing with Uncertainty: Patterns of Ancient Divination   22
2.2.1 Reading the Signs for Direction   22
2.2.2 The Technologies of Text-Based Divination   25
2.2.3 Scribes and Seers: Oracles as Literary Tradition and Manteis as Interpreters   27
2.2.4 Christian Appropriation of Text-Based Divination   30
2.3 Christian Divination and Sortilege   31
2.3.1 Knowledge from God, Knowledge for God   31
2.3.2 Sortes Biblicae   32
2.3.3 Christian Ticket Oracles and Shrines   33
2.3.4 Christianized “Books of Fate”   33
2.3.5 Lot Divination Texts with General Answers   35
2.3.6 Lot Divination Texts with Hermêneiai   38
2.4 Proscribing Text-Based Divination   43
2.5 Contested Practice, Marginal Books   48
3 Divining Gospels: A Suppressed and Neglected Genre   51
3.1 Using the Christian Gospels for Divination   51
3.2 “Silly Apophthegms:” Hermêneiai and the Divining Gospel in Modern Scholarship   52
3.3 Erased and Broken: The Fragmentary Evidence for Ancient Divining Gospels   57
3.3.1 Overview of Manuscripts   58
3.3.2 Manuscripts with Original Sortilege Material and Segmented Layout    60
3.3.3 Manuscript with Original Hermêneiai and Integrated Layout   69
3.3.4 Manuscripts with Secondary Hermêneiai   69
3.3.5 Manuscripts with Uncertain Connection to the Divining Gospel Tradition   76
3.4 A Shared Tradition   78
3.5 Books Exceptional in Form, Content, and Function   83
X   Contents
4 “Fearsome and Terrible Word of God:” A Closer Look at the Form and History of The Syriac Codex   85
4.1 Listening in on the Story of an Old Book   85
4.2 Origins of a Divining Gospel   87
4.2.1 Basic Characteristics of London, BL, Add. 17,119   87
4.2.2 Vague Clues: The Manuscript’s Concluding Notes   90
4.3 Correction, Repair, and Loss   91
4.3.1 Ownership and Early Annotation   91
4.3.2 Guardians of the Gospel   92
4.3.3 Missing Leaves and Mixed Priorities   93
4.3.4 Into the Modern Era   95
4.4 Interpreting the Codex as Material Object within a Living Tradition   95
5 “You Will Find What You Seek:” The Divinatory Material of the Syriac Codex   97
5.1 Presenting the Syriac Text   97
5.2 The Translation   97
5.3 Parallel Non-Syriac Sources   99
5.4 Puššāqē of a Syriac Divining Gospel (London, BL, Add. 17,119)    101
6 Interpreting Hermeneia: The Use and Function of the Divining Gospel   155
6.1 The Character of the Puššāqē   155
6.1.1 Basic Features of the Syriac Oracles   155
6.1.2 Divinatory Function of the Hermêneiai   156
6.1.3 Divination and Liturgy   158
6.2 Themes and Topics   161
6.3 Origins of the Apparatus   163
6.4 The Divining Gospel in Practice   165
6.4.1 Mechanisms of Sortilege in Late Antiquity and the Hermêneiai   165
6.4.2 The Wheel of Codex Sangermanensis   168
6.4.3 Flawed but Functional Tools   172
6.5 Picturing the Use of a Divining Gospel   173
7 Oracles of Biblical Interpretation: Examining the Relationship between Divination, John’s Gospel,
and the User   177
7.1 Puššāqā as Interpretation   177
7.1.1 The Vocabulary of Lot Divination   177
7.1.2 Divining as Interpretation   178
7.2 Interpreting the Gospel of John   180
7.2.1 Thematic Resonances with the Gospel of John   181
7.2.2 Direct Quotation from John’s Gospel   183
7.2.3 Oracles at Home in John’s Gospel   186
7.2.4 Displaced Oracles: A Tense Hermeneutic   190
7.2.5 Synthesizing Oracles and Scripture   191
7.3 Finding Meaning in the Text: An Enhanced Picture of Use   193
7.4 Practitioners and Patrons: Picturing the Users of a Divining Gospel   197
7.5 Interpretive Tools of Pastoral Care   200
8 The Demise of the Divining Gospel   203
8.1 Oracles Overwritten   203
8.2 Forbidden Oracles, New Editions: The Demise of the Divining Gospel   204
8.3 Relics of a Distinct Hermeneutic   208