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The Ascetic Works of Saint Basil: Author’s Preface and Introduction
W. K. L. Clarke
IV. Biblical Citations
In the following tables formal quotations alone have been reckoned. Besides them there are a great many references where the author seems not to intend a formal quotation. To draw the line between formal and informal quotations is not always easy. Some of the quotations are too short to be of value in settling textual problems. The older editions of the Fathers are notoriously unsatisfactory as regards biblical quotations and the labour involved in this section may seem misplaced. However:
(1) the results are put in tabular form in order to economise space, and the section can be easily omitted by a reader who doubts its value.
(ii) So large a part of the Ascetica consists of quotations that an editor is not justified in neglecting this part of his task.
(iii) Many years may elapse before a modern critical edition appears.
(iv) One gets the impression that the Benedictine edition of Basil followed the available MSS with great care; the textual notes show that as much care was bestowed on the biblical quotations as elsewhere. A critical edition of De Spiritu Sancto was published by C. F. H. Johnston (Oxford 1892). The variations from the Benedictine text are slight, approximately two per page, and but rarely is the sense affected. Out of 200 quotations from O. and N.T. all but five agree with the Benedictine text. One of these is given in Garnier’s notes as a variant. The other four are N.T. readings which are not found in Tischendorf’s or von Soden’s apparatus. If an editor of the text of the Ascetica reached similar conclusions to Mr. Johnston’s in editing De Spiritu Sancto, the margin of error in the following tables would be about 2 per cent.
A. op Testament
[Tables of Old Testament citations omitted here: see the printed edition, pp. 20–24.]
A. Where looseness of citation, common in the Fathers, is sufficient explanation.
The prominence of Proverbs, which is cited more often than any other book except Psalms, is illustrated by Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of St. Macrina, 962Dp. Basil’s sister was brought up largely on “such parts of inspired Scripture as you would think were incomprehensible to young children... in particular the Wisdom of Solomon [4.e. the Solomonic literature], and those parts of it especially which have an ethical bearing.” It is tempting to derive the misquotations in above from nursery misquotations.
All divergences from Swete’s text of the LXX are indicated in the notes. It has not been thought necessary to make an index of O.T. quotations.
“b. New Testament
N.T. quotations have been classified on the following plan. The Benedictine text was collated with Professor Souter’s Greek Testament, 7.e. the text underlying the Revised Version. The majority of the quotations agreed verbatim. The references only are given in the notes in these cases. The remainder were divided into four classes:
(1) Readings put by von Soden in his first or second class of important variations, which do not belong to his K family. These are recorded in the notes without distinguishing mark. They belong to von Soden’s H or I family, but I have not thought it necessary to add this information.
(if) Readings given by von Soden in his first or second class and styled K readings. These are recorded in the notes as K where they are “characteristic” K readings. Where they are not characteristic’ but are none the less found in representative K witnesses, they are marked K.
(iii) Readings recorded by von Soden in his third class of unimportant variations. They are designated by1 in the notes.
(iv) Readings not recorded in von Soden’s apparatus. Marked *2 in the notes.
An apology is due to the English reader for troubling him with a nomenclature very little known in England and not adopted in Germany. But no other system provided the rough and ready classification needed. The investigation was conducted with the strictly limited purpose of providing a criterion with which to test the authenticity of the suspected treatises.
The results are given below in tabular form. The numbers refer to whole verses or parts of verses. A verse containing one K reading but otherwise verbatim as Souter is classed as K. If, for example, a verse contains a K reading, a non-K reading not in Souter’s text but recorded by von Soden in his second class, and a von Soden third class reading (classes i, ii, iii above), it appears three times in these tables. If two K readings occur in one verse, which is otherwise verbatim, that verse is given once only under K. These explanations will show why the number of quotations given here is greater than in the index, where no attempt is made to classify quotations.
Only what appear to be formal quotations are reckoned here. Informal quotations are marked in the notes by q or the references are introduced by cf. or “see.” Quotations of less than five words are excluded from the calculation. They are designated by t in the notes.
von
Verbatim is von Not in
with K and K Soden’s von Totals
Souter Jean; oe d 3rd Class Soden
2nd Class3
Praevia Inst. Asc. 4 — 1 1 2 8
De Ren. 1 3 1 — 11 16
De Asc. Disc. 1 — — — — 1
De Iudicio. 23 9 4 — 3 39
De Fide. 18 3 3 0 4 28
Moralia.. 830 326 127 86 97 1466
Sermo Asc. I — — — — — 0
Sermo Asc. IT 2 — — — — 2
Reg. Fus. Tract.. 129 30 27 14 27 227
Reg. Brev. Tract. 364 76 43 36 42 561
1372 447 206 137 186 2348
No attempt has been made to show the affinities of Basil’s biblical text with that used by other Fathers or with any special MS., the purpose of the investigation having been merely to throw light on problems of authenticity. Of the five doubtful tracts—the evidence is too scanty to affect Praevia Institutio Ascetica; the method of quotation in De Renuntiatione is clearly un-Basilian; the practical absence of formal quotations from De Asc. Disc. and the Sermones Ascetict tells against their authenticity.
We note further that the percentage of verses which agree exactly with Souter is as follows: De Iudicio 59, De Fide 64, Moralia 56, Reg. Fus. Tract. 56, Reg. Brev. Tract. 64. Also that the percentage of verses with K readings works out thus: Moralia 22, Reg. Fus. Tract. 13, Reg. Brev. Tract. 18.4
Notes
- Where Souter’s reading is given in the notes of the Benedictine edition as a varia lectio, it is treated for this purpose as if it occurred in the text. Occasionally a quotation differs from Souter merely in a variation of the introductory word or words, to suit the context. Such differences have been tacitly ignored.
- Practically the Koine or “‘Syrian” text, to which quotations in a Cappadocian Father would be expected to conform.
- Occasionally in von Soden’s text where it differs from Souter’s.
- Had Westcott-Hort been taken as the standard, the proportion of K readings would have been higher.