Recherche – Detailansicht

Ausgabe:

Januar/2021

Spalte:

37–39

Kategorie:

Altes Testament

Autor/Hrsg.:

Albrektson, B., Dedering, D., Walter, D. M., Jenner, K. D., and J. G. Veldman [Eds.]

Titel/Untertitel:

The Old Testament in Syriac according to the Peshiṭta Version, Part III Fasc. 2. Jeremiah – Lamentations – Epistle of Jeremiah – Epistle of Baruch – Baruch. Ed. on the Behalf of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament by the Peshiṭta Institute, Amsterdam.

Verlag:

Leiden u. a.: Brill 2019. XXXVI, 330 S. = Peshiṭta. The Old Testament in Syriac. Geb. EUR 127,00. ISBN 9789004321458.

Rezensent:

Ignacio Carbajosa

We are in front of a long-awaited volume. This is the »critical« edition of the Syriac text of the Peshiṭta of the books of Jeremiah, Lamentations, the Epistle of Jeremiah, the Epistle of Baruch, and Baruch. It was the preparation of the book of Jeremiah that delayed the appearance of the volume, given that the edition of the rest of the books was ready for many years. The circumstances of The Pe-shiṭta Institute, which had to change its location, passing from Leiden University to the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, also contributed to this delay. In fact, this is the first volume of the Vetus Testamentum Syriace (VTS) published in the new stage of the Institute. In the complete collection this is volume 15. Now there only remains for publication the Book of Women (Ruth, Susanna, Es­ther, and Judith), Ben Sira and 3–4 Maccabees.
The grouping of these five books in one volume might seem strange or random to whoever is accustomed to the order of the books of the Hebrew Bible, but not to those who know the textual tradition of the Peshiṭta. In this tradition, the book of Lamentations is attributed to the prophet Jeremiah under the title The Lamentations of Jeremiah, and in the manuscripts it follows the book of the prophet, on some occasions (as in ms 7a1) without a solution for continuity. On the other hand, the Epistle of Jeremiah, the Epistle of Baruch, and Baruch are found together, with either this or an-other order, in the majority of the manuscripts. We could speak, therefore, of the corpus of Jeremiah and the corpus of Baruch which, in turn, can be united for evident reasons of »kinship« (Ba­ruch was the secretary of the prophet Jeremiah).
The volume opens with an editorial preface that presents, in generic form, the manuscripts upon which this edition is based, its texts and its critical apparatus. The manuscripts are grouped in four categories: Old Manuscripts, family of ms 9a1, Eastern tradi-tion and Western tradition. The base text, following the criteria of the whole series, follows ms 7a1 or Codex Ambrosianus, which is corrected only when it is not supported by at least two old, pre-11th century manuscripts (obvious errors included). The edition includes two Apparatus. The first appears only when the base text has been amended. In that case, the reading finally adopted as well as the original reading of the basic text is indicated. The Second Apparatus includes variant readings of manuscripts up to and including the 12th century. Between the two apparatuses, the manuscripts that contain the reference text on that page are indicated.
The editorial preface is followed by an introduction to the lectionaries, which is a novelty with respect to previous volumes. In effect, after presenting the lectionaries that contain pericopes of both corpora (Jeremiah and Baruch), the edition has listed »the relevant pericopes, provided the name of the order (taksa) in which each pericope has its liturgical place, and given the pericopes directly preceding and following each particular pericope.« (XVII) This is invaluable information for understanding which pericopes of the different corpora were read and in which contexts within the liturgy of the four rites, West Syriac, Melkite, Maronite, and East Syriac.
Then it is followed by the editions of the different books with their respective introductions. The text of Jeremiah was prepared by D. M. Walter, Lamentations by B. Albrektson, and the Epistle of Jeremiah, Epistle of Baruch, and Baruch by S. Dedering. K. D. Jenner and J. G. Veldman collaborated on the revision and editing of the entire edition.
The wait for the text of Jeremiah was worth the trouble, since the edition has a very detailed study of the different manuscripts, which results in a richer and more rigorous critical apparatus. A paradigmatic example is the presentation that is made of ms 8a1, one of the most important Old Manuscripts, which occupies 9 pag-es of the introduction. In this manuscript they have come to identify the different hands that corrected it from the 8th through the 16th centuries. The editor indicates the places of these corrections, which then will appear in the critical apparatus as 8a1c, additionally pointing out the original reading as 8a1*. By this is meant the insistence of the editorial preface that »the reader is supposed to consult the Introductions together with the text and the apparat-uses« (XV).
The presentation of ms 9a1 and the manuscripts of its family is also worthy of note. The editor has identified ca. 603 distinctive readings in 9a1 that make of this manuscript a unique case within the textual tradition of the Peshiṭta. As equally happens in other books, this manuscript presents »more old readings that other manuscripts« (25), many of them agreeing with the Masoretic text in opposition to the rest of the Syriac tradition. An ample number of scholars (including myself with regard to the Psalms) consider that the original readings of 9a1 (especially those that coincide with the Masoretic Text) represent a primitive stage of the Syriac text before it was stabilized.
Regarding the Book of Lamentations, it is the first time that an edition of the VTS series is being published after the Hebrew text of the Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ). It is worth noting that one advantage of the BHQ was to count on the readings of the Peshiṭta according to the VTS critical edition within its critical apparatus, and not on the old editions of Paris, London, Urmia or Mosul. This is not the case, although the Syriac translation of Lamentations in the Apparatus of the BHQ is cited according to the Critical Edition published by Albrektson in 1963, which disagrees with ms 7a1 in only very few passages. In fact, the editor of the VTS (the same Albrektson) underscores only two readings, 2:7 and 3:26, in which it differs from the Syriac reading that offers the critical apparatus of BHQ (cf. 184).
With regard to the corpus of Baruch, it is important to clarify the terminology in order to avoid misunderstandings, since the books included within it receive different names. »The Epistle of Baruch is also known as the First Epistle of Baruch, or 2 Baruch 78:1–87:1, as part of the Apocalypse of Baruch, which is also known as 2 Baruch, or 2 (Syriac Baruch). The Book of Baruch is also known as 1 Baruch or the Second Epistle of Baruch« (226). The Epistle of Jeremiah is also known as chapter 6 of the book of Baruch in the Catholic Bibles. Apocalypse of Baruch was already published in VTS IV.3.
The Epistle of Baruch appears in two versions in 7a1. The first version appears as Epistle of Baruch while the second forms part of the Apocalypse of Baruch. The editor considers that this second version »shows a text tradition which was not adopted as such by later manuscripts, even though some of its readings are shared by other manuscripts« (231). Consequently, this second version is not used in VTS, but »the more important proposal for emendation suggested by previous scholars for the second version of the Epistle of Baruch […] are noted in the appended Conspectus emendationum« (228).
The Introduction of the Baruch Corpus closes with a very valuable indexes (264–293) that includes a list of errors of the different manuscripts, another list of omissions, a table with the division in sections of the different books according to manuscripts, an index of names, a spelling index, the aforementioned Conspectus Emendationum, and, finally, a list with differences between the second version of the Epistle of Baruch in 7a1 and the text of the same that appears in the edition of A. F. J. Klijn (within the work The Arabic Text of the Apocalypse of Baruch).
We have to congratulate the editors for this very well-curated edition. This reviewer has not identified errata in the Syriac text and apparatuses. There is only a typo on p. 229: »In very manuscript« should be »In every manuscript.«