Enarrationes in Psalmos 61–70

368 Pages·2020·3.607 MB·Latin

by  Augustinus

Augustinus
Enarrationes in Psalmos 61 – 70
Corpus Scriptorum
Ecclesiasticorum
Latinorum (CSEL)
Herausgegeben von der Arbeitsgruppe CSEL
an der Universität Salzburg
Band 94/2
Augustinus
Enarrationes in
Psalmos 61 – 70
Edited by
Hildegund Müller
International Advisory Board:
François Dolbeau, Roger Green, Rainer Jakobi, Robert Kaster, Ernst A. Schmidt, Danuta Shanzer,
Kurt Smolak, Francesco Stella, Michael Winterbottom
This edition was created by using the program CLASSICAL TEXT EDITOR.
ISBN 978-3-11-067159-9
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-067467-5
ISSN 1816-3882
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020937741
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
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
Acknowledgements
This volume has taken a long time. It carries a lot of history, both personal and insti-
tutional, in its DNA. Some of the memories are painful (magnum opus et arduum, as
Augustine knew), others are filled with sweetness and gratitude.
When I started working on this project, I was employed by what was then the
“Kommission zur Herausgabe des Corpus der lateinischen Kirchenväter (CSEL)” of
the Austrian Academy of Sciences and now is called simply “CSEL” and forms part
of the University of Salzburg. I owe a large debt of gratitude to the directors of this
incomparable institute: Dorothea Weber, Kurt Smolak and, most importantly, my
late teacher Adolf Primmer, who introduced me to the nuances of Augustine’s homi-
letic style and taught me all I know about close reading. I owe an even greater debt
to the scholars working at CSEL, who took care of the manuscript all the way to its
completion. They prepared the layout, proofread it, critiqued it, made countless
suggestions on the text and apparatus and saved me from embarrassing errors; and
incredibly, they did this without ever losing their good cheer and their patience with
me. They are without a doubt the finest group of patristic philologists anywhere in
the world. I could not begin to express my feelings of admiration and awe for their
depth of knowledge and their linguistic precision and sensitivity. Victoria Zimmerl-
Panagl, Clemens Weidmann, Lukas Dorfbauer: thank you a thousand times for your
cooperation, your support and your friendship! Even as I breathe a sigh of relief to
see this project finished, I know that I will miss working with you.
Next, it is my great pleasure to express my thanks to the University of Notre
Dame and the colleagues and friends I have found here. The University has provided
me with an institutional home and a working environment second to none; and the
chairpersons of the Department of Classics have given me their unwavering support.
Thank you, Liz Mazurek, Brian Krostenko and Luca Grillo, and thank you, all of my
friends and colleagues and students at this wonderful place! Ubi bene, ibi patria: I
have certainly found a home here.
When I got first involved with the Enarrationes project, I was a student myself,
and my work and the work of many others is embedded in this book. Among those
students who worked for me at Notre Dame I have to mention Cara Polk and Samuel
Mullins.
Among the scholars whose names show up in these pages, I want to thank
Bengt Alexanderson, who provided the CSEL with an unpublished manuscript. I
have entered faithfully all his interesting textual suggestions. I also owe a debt of
gratitude to my reviewers, who suggested important changes – even if I could not
follow all of them (such as the reduction of the apparatus criticus, which would not
have been in accordance with the other parts of the series, nor provided the neces-
sary material for a global view of the textual transmission), they certainly made me
Acknowledgements | VI

think. Textual criticism is a subtle art, and we all constantly have to learn from each
other and rethink our basic assumptions.
I have been blessed with many good friends on both side of the Atlantic, who
suffered along with me and cheered me on during this project. To name those that
are at the forefront of my mind: Christine Harrauer, Christine Ratkowitsch, Sonja
Reisner, Herbert Bannert, Stefan Hagel and Danuta Shanzer in Vienna, Gottfried
Kreuz in Salzburg, Jana Grusková, Marcela Andoková and Robert Horka in Brati-
slava, don Federico Gallo in Milan, Renate Thumb and Ursula Wittner († 2019);
Madge McLaughlin (thank you for supplying me with food and G&T’s!), Katy Schle-
gel, Sarah McKibben (thank you for being a strict time-keeper!): Thank you all! You
are in my heart forever!
(And – dare I mention Alexi, Peachie and Molly? who always knew when to
interrupt by jumping on the keyboard and meowing for food? Thank you too!)
Last of all, my family: my father Michael († 2006), my mother Gudrun († 2019)
and my sister Roswitha († 2015): for a long time, you were with me every step of the
way. I am deeply saddened that you will not see the finished book. Everything I ever
write will be dedicated to you. And, more cheerfully, thanks to Harald, Astrid,
Lukas, Katrin and Benjamin: I love you all!

Datum a. MMXX, in diebus pestilentiae.

Hildegund Müller
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements | V
Introduction
1 General Remarks on Enarrationes in Psalmos 61–70 | 1
2 The Transmission of the Text | 5
2.1 General Remarks | 5
2.2 List of Collated Manuscripts | 8
2.3 The Macrostructure: Major Variations within the Textual
Transmission | 9
2.4 The Oldest Text Types: e M S P | 12
1 15
2.5 Family α and its Old Relatives | 15
2.6 Family β and its Predecessors (P , O ) | 17
2 9
2.7 Family γ | 20
2.8 Families δ and ε | 22
2.9 Family ζ | 24
2.10 Variant Traditions: Sermon Collections and Excerpt
Commentaries | 24
2.11 Editions | 26
3 Editorial Principles | 27

3.1 Principles of Text Constitution | 27
3.2 Conjectures | 30
3.3 Biblical Text | 32
3.4 Other Readings; Liturgical Considerations | 34
3.5 Non-Biblical Sources: Patristic Scholarship and Classical
Allusions | 34
Bibliography | 36
Conspectus Siglorum | 40
Textus | 43
in psalm. 61 | 43
in psalm. 62 | 77
in psalm. 63 | 101
in psalm. 64 | 123
in psalm. 65 | 149
Table of Contents | VIII

in psalm. 66 | 181
in psalm. 67 | 203
in psalm. 68 | 249
in psalm. 69 | 295
in psalm. 70 | 311
Introduction

1 General Remarks on Enarrationes in Psalmos
61–701
Augustine’s Psalm commentary spans roughly thirty years of his life and is his most
prolific book.2 The work, which originally had no specific title (since it could be
considered a collection rather than a work) is nowadays known by its early modern
title, Enarrationes in Psalmos.3 It consists mostly of sermons, as well as dictated
parts in various shapes and sizes, that seem to have come together according to a
master plan that demanded completeness, but not generic consistency or a specific
chronological order of production. Between the early commentaries that Augustine
dictated in the 390s, the sermons that represent the majority of the corpus and the
dictated exegetical treatises that supplement the final missing pieces, there are
differences not only in length, but also in the treatment of the text. Preached Enarra-
tiones show clear indications of the liturgical situation; the listeners are addressed;
there are allusions to biblical readings and the celebration of martyrs’ feast days, as
well as (rarely) to current events and specific locations. On the other hand, in
dictated Enarrationes, Augustine puts his scholarly interests on display by
discussing variants of the Latin and Greek Psalm texts. Augustine, and his
secretarial staff, seem to have made no effort to smooth over the cracks and wrinkles
in the collection, let alone unify it to a seamless book commentary. This may be due
to the time problems that were a constant companion of the productive and sought-
after writer and preacher, as well as a conscious decision. Augustine believed in the
spontaneity of preaching, in the momentary and inspired connection between
speaker, listeners and biblical text.4 Perhaps it was his intention to keep the traces
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1 Since this introduction is the first in the CSEL edition of Enarrationes in Psalmos to be written in
English and thus easily accessible to English-speaking scholars and students, it is somewhat
broader than typical CSEL introductions. The following remarks are intended to provide some back-
ground on my understanding of the text and its specific qualities and problems, as well as the man-
uscript tradition and editorial principles.
2 For a general description of the work see MÜLLER – FIEDROWICZ, Art. Enarrationes; CAMERON,
Enarrationes, both with additional literature.
3 The name “Enarrationes in Psalmos” was invented by Erasmus and has no historical value
(WILMART, La tradition, 295, with n. 3). In the following text, I use the traditional title for conven-
ience. The ten texts of the decade edited here cannot be uniformly called “sermon”, since one of
them (in psalm. 67) was never preached and two others (in psalm. 68 and 70) consist of pairs of
sermons, preached on consecutive days.
4 See e.g. doctr. christ. 4,15: ipsa hora iam ut dicat accedens, priusquam exerat proferentem linguam,
ad deum levet animam sitientem, ut ructet quod biberit, vel quod impleverit fundat. Cum enim de
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674675-001
2 | S. Augustini Enarrationes in psalmos 61–70

of the production process visible. However, as we shall see, this also created a
problem for later readers. Medieval monks and scholars were looking for a user-
friendly handbook on the Psalms, rather than the highly rhetorical sermons, which
owe their structure to their oral and improvised nature and provide little guidance to
the reader looking for the interpretation of a specific verse.5
In spite of this element of randomness, the exegetical principles of Enarrationes
are remarkably stable.6 Augustine’s exegesis is aimed at bringing the community
and the text together in spirit, after they had already been united by the liturgical
act of responsorial singing. Other than Gospel and Epistle readings, the Psalms
include the congregation not just as listeners, but as participants in a communal
sung prayer.7 This unity of biblical psalmist and current-day congregation posed a
specific rhetorical challenge for the preacher. He needed to make it a practical
reality in the hearts and minds of his listeners, make them understand that the
words of the Psalm were really their own words, thus creating an amalgamation of
text and audience over distance in time, space and, most importantly, textual un-
derstanding of a strange, mistranslated and sometimes widely varying text.
Complicating the matter even further, as well as providing additional potential
for finding meaning, the history of exegesis had produced various paradigms for
reading the Psalms, which are today commonly referred to as prosopological exege-
sis.8 Following specific pointers in the text, exegetes would identify the speaker of
the Psalm as the Psalmist, usually identified as David, the Hebrew people, a single
individual praying to God, or Christ Himself. This speaker could vary not only from
Psalm to Psalm, but also from verse to verse. It is in answer to this exegetical
history, as well as the liturgical situation outlined above, that Augustine develops
his famous principle of Totus Christus, which is present throughout Enarrationes in
||
unaquaque re, quae secundum fidem dilectionemque tractanda sunt, multa sint, quae dicantur, et
multi modi, quibus dicantur ab eis, qui haec sciunt, quis novit, quid ad praesens tempus vel nobis
dicere vel per nos expediat audiri, nisi qui corda omnium videt? Et quis facit ut, quod oportet et quem-
admodum oportet, dicatur a nobis, nisi in cuius manu sunt et nos et sermones nostri? Ac per hoc discat
quidem omnia, quae docenda sunt, qui et nosse vult et docere, facultatemque dicendi, ut decet virum
ecclesiasticum, comparet; ad horam vero ipsius dictionis, illud potius bonae menti cogitet convenire,
quod dominus ait: ‘Nolite cogitare, quomodo aut quid loquamini; dabitur enim vobis in illa hora, quid
loquamini; non enim vos estis, qui loquimini, sed spiritus patris vestri, qui loquitur in vobis.’ Si ergo
loquitur in eis spiritus sanctus, qui persequentibus traduntur pro Christo, cur non et in eis, qui tradunt
discentibus Christum?
5 For an early instance of criticism of Enarrationes, see Cassiodorus (cited in n. 26).
6 On Augustine’s Psalm exegesis see FIEDROWICZ, Psalmus Vox Totius Christi; CAMERON, Christ
Meets Me Everywhere; CAMERON, The Emergence of Totus Christus; MCCARTHY, An Ecclesiology of
Groaning.
7 See e.g. in psalm. 61,1,5sq.: loquamur … de isto psalmo quem modo cantavimus; 64,2,38sq.: iam
ergo audiamus, fratres, audiamus et cantemus et desideremus unde cives sumus!
8 On the term see RONDEAU, Les commentaires, vol. 2, 21–89.