Foundations of Faith

More documents

Recommendations

Info

FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH IN JESUS M. M. NINAN ". Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate..." Christianos, from the Enrico Rostagno copy of folio 38 r of M.II (Leiden 1902), line 21.5 In this detail of the 11th century copy of Annals, we can see the gap between the 'i' and 's' in the word 'Christianos'. But instead of correcting this the scribe or Tacitus (we do not know who) added this in the margin. The marginal gloss Christiani next to the line in which the Christianos sentence is found. In 1902 Georg Andresen commented on the appearance of the first 'i' and subsequent gap in the earliest extant, 11th century, copy of the Annals in Florence, suggesting that the text had been altered, and an 'e' had originally been in the text, rather than this 'i'. "With ultra-violet examination" of the Second Medicean manuscript "the alteration was conclusively shown", even though it wasn't possible to say "who altered the letter e into an i". The examination was made by Dr. Ida Giovanna Rao of the Laurentian library in Florence, in 2008. The alteration is also visible in an ultra-violet photograph. Since the alteration became known it has given rise to debates among scholars as to whether Tacitus deliberately used the term Chrestians, or if a scribe made an error during the Middle Ages and susequently corrected it in the margin. It could well be an addendum by Tacitus. We should remember that this is not an original of Tacitus' draft. It is a copy several times removed from the original. If this copy was a draft of the scribe and was proof read, this is exactly how it will appear. I come from a family who practiced printing and publishing and this is exactly how we mark the correction in a proof. It appears that this practice of writing suggested corrections in the margin is an ancient scribal practice. We can see it in the Talmud also. Thus according to the well established proofing technique this is a correction on the margin 96
FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH IN JESUS M. M. NINAN by the scribe. In either case it really does not make any difference. It certainly was not an attempt of a forgerer even in the long shot. If it was, why should he leave the correction at the margin instead of correcting it there itself or even rewriting the whole page? In fact we can see several marginal scripts as corrections or explanations to the original text in the page. It was just the normal scribal practice of the period in order make sense of the manuscript to the readers. In fact both the terms Christians and Chrestians had at times been used by the general population in Rome to refer to early Christians. Many sources indicate that the term Chrestians was also used among the early followers of Jesus by the 2nd century. The term Christians appears only three times in the New Testament, the first usage (Acts 11:26) giving the origin of the term. In all three cases the uncorrected Codex Sinaiticus in Greek reads Chrestianoi. In Phrygia a number of funerary stone inscriptions use the term Chrestians, with one stone inscription using both terms together, reading: "Chrestians for Christians". But the term Chrestianoi went out of use and the predominant term used in the middle ages was Christians. Hence the need for a corrected version. Adolf von Harnack argued that Chrestians was the original wording, and that Tacitus deliberately used Christus immediately after it to show his own superior knowledge compared to the population at large. Robert Renehan has stated that it was natural for a Roman to mix the two words that sounded the same, that Chrestianos was the original word in the Annals and not an error by a scribe. Robert Van Voorst has stated that it was unlikely for Tacitus himself to refer to Christians as Chrestianos i.e. "useful ones" given that he also referred to them as "hated for their shameful acts". Paul Eddy sees no major impact on the authenticity of the passage or its meaning regardless of the use of either term by Tacitus. 97
Page 1 and 2:
FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH IN JESUS M. M.
Page 3 and 4:
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50: FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH IN JESUS M. M.
Page 83 and 84: ++++++++++++++++++++ FOUNDATIONS OF
Page 93 and 94: Titus was sent to subjugate Judaea
Page 99: FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH IN JESUS M. M.
Page 111 and 112: ++++++++++++++++++++ FOUNDATIONS OF
Page 127 and 128: the Pharisees during the (first) tw
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Prof. Madathilparampil Mammen Ninan
Page 199:
The Development Of Mariolatory Theo
show all

Foundations of Faith

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?