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Vol. 93, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1973), pp. 354355 Published by: American Oriental Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/599471 Accessed: 17/05/2009 09:00
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354
Journal
of the American
Oriental
Society
93.3 (1973)
ques et sabeens (mandaites) de la Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris, 1874), p. 10ff. 7 Veteris Testamenti ab Origine recensiti fragmenta apud Syros servata quinque, ed. P. de Lagarde (Gottingae, 1880); Bibliothecae Syriacae a Paulo de Lagarde collectae. 8 W. Wright, Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum I (London, 1970), 28ff. 9 See also Introduction, p. IIIff. 10 Codex Syro-Hexaplaris Ambrosianus; Pentateuchi Syro-Hexaplaris quae supersunt cum notis (Mediolani, 1863) = Monumenta Sacra et Profana II, 1-4. 11 Cf. A. Voobus, The Department of Theology at the University of Tartu: Its Life and Work, Martyrdom and Annihilation (Stockholm, 1963), 62f.
VOOBUS: Discovery of the Pentateuch roads examining the manuscript collections in Europe, leading me to the pathways in the Orient. The search in heat, thirst and fatigue has been animated by the goal. However, I have been modest in my expectations, sobered by the very great rarity of these texts. I believed I would be extraordinarily fortunate if fragments of the Syro-Hexapla could be unearthed. I could not really hope for more. However, my endeavors in a systematic search were more rewarded the deeper I extended my search into the Syrian Orient. Very precious documents -among them also a manuscript with the Book of Isaiah -began to emerge.l2 Travelling from village to village, church to church, and from monastery to monastery, the search gradually moved towards13 Tur 'Abdin, a region which has played a special role in the history of the spiritual life of the Syrian Christianity. This is the region where I would find the greatest reward-a gem among all the finds in the area of the biblical texts that I was privileged to make. I discovered the codex in Midyat.14 My first acquaintance with this codex was in an unaccustomed manner. With an unusual feeling I took up this volume of extraordinary size and appearance. I felt a strange awe before opening it. When I opened it at once it became clear what I held in my hands-a great treasure which no modern scholar has seen. A detailed study of the wealth of the textual material with which this discovery showers us must remain a task for the future. The edition of this document is in preparation which will make it available to detailed inHowever, before this takes place it is vestigations. necessary to say something about the new codex and the physiognomy of the text. The manuscript is a heavy and impressive volume bound in black leather. It contains 182 folio leaves of Oriental paper. The text was written very carefully and neatly in a script which is attractive and clear. Indeed, in every respect the text is executed with great care. The codex has not survived without some wounds. Its beginning is lost, so that at present the text begins with Genesis 32,9. Fortunately, only a few leaves have fallen out in the body of the codex and at the end of it.
12 See A. Voobus, Discoveries of Very Important Manu-
355
With the loss of the end of the book of Deuteronomy, the colophon of the codex at the end has disappeared. Thus we cannot learn about the circumstances relative to the copying and the data about the time and place of origin of this manuscript. Among the published samples15 and facsimile plates16 of the dated manuscripts there is no such specimen available which helps to settle the chronological question of this ductus commensurate to this rare and extraordinary literary record for which it was used. However, it is clear that the script seems to be related to the early period of the Serto, namely the close of it or to the proximity of it,17 allowing us to reckon with the possibility that this Serto script may come from the 11th if not from the 10th century. With regard to the textual profile of this manuscript, it nust be said that the new source offers a very precious body of evidence. The text of this codex is supplemented with a textual critical apparatus. It is furnished with the Hexaplaric sigla, and the readings from Aquila, Symnmachus, Theodotion, and the Samaritan Pentateuch and other textual critical notes placed on the margin of the codex. Sometimes additional textual and exegetical notes have been added to the textual criticus apparatus. The text of the Syro-Hexapla of the Pentateuch is also furnished with colophons. They have a particular value since they contain data on the question pertaining to the Vorlage on the basis of which the Syro-Hexapla translation of the Pentateuch was made. Thus, finally, information comes into our possession which throws light on the much discussed question of the archetype pertaining to the books of the Pentateuch. When for a century scholarship had to be content with only some very tiny scraps and fragments which have emerged,18 the discovery of the Pentateuch is, indeed, unbelievable. The present report marks a real event in the entire history of disclosure of the Syro-Hexapla. Through immense fortune my labors now have a part in the very slowly ongoing process in unearthing texts which have left us waiting for a to century-according the remarkable timetable which spans centuries. ARTHUR VOOBUS LUTHERAN SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
AT CHICAGO
script Sources for the Syro-Hexapla: Contributions to the Research on the Septuagint (Stockholm 1970). 13 About other important manuscript discoveries in this area, see A. Voobus, Handschriftliche Oberlieferung der Memre-Dichtung von Ja'qob von Sertig. Sammlungen, I-II (Louvain, 1972) = Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. Id., New Important Manuscript Discoveries for the History of Syriac Literature (in press). 14 Namely in the Church of Mart Smfni.
15 E. Tisserant, Specimina codicum orientalium (Bonnae, 1914), plate 25ff. 16 W. H. P. Hatch, An Album of Dated Syriac Manuscripts (Boston, 1946), plates CXV, CXVI, CXVIII; cf. CXXV. 17 Cf. A. Voobus, The Hexapla and the Syro-Hexapla: Very Important Discoveries for Septuagint Research (Stockholm, 1971). 18 Cf. A. V66bus, History of Syriac Literature I (in press).