This article presents diplomatic editions and analysis of three additional manuscript witnesses to the Armenian work Questions of St. Gregory, supplementing previously published editions of Recensions I and II. The study examines manuscripts M (Matenadaran 2546, 14th century), JM (Jeselsohn Collection 34, 1353), and W (Vienna Mekhitarist 170, 1500-1524), which represent some of the earliest preserved copies of this question-and-answer text dealing with eschatological themes and biblical interpretation. Manuscript M provides an additional witness to Recension I and preserves a complete leaf of material lost from the previously published Jerusalem manuscript, while JM34, dating to 1353, represents the earliest known copy and belongs to Recension II. The Vienna manuscript W170 contains yet another variant form of Recension II. Through diplomatic transcription, translation, and comparative analysis, the article demonstrates the complex transmission history of this popular Armenian theological work, which found widespread resonance among Armenians from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The study contributes to understanding Armenian scriptorial practices, textual variations, and the adaptation of biblical and parabiblical traditions for local ecclesiastical contexts, while laying groundwork for future comprehensive editions of this significant text.
In this article, further examples for nautic metaphors in the Coptic-Manichaean Psalm Book are presented. The list given by Nagel some thirty years ago is thus completed.
This contribution outlines an ongoing research project that aims to fill in part of the gap left by the absence of a critical edition and a dedicated critical study of the text of Agapius of Manbij. By exploring the textual witnesses of this work, preliminary remarks and new findings are brought to attention that contextualise our Syro-Arabic work within the milieu of Syriac studies. These findings are further pursued to shed new light on the enigmatic Eastern Common Source and argue for the survival of the presumed lost Chronicle of Theophilus of Edessa.
We propose the reading of a short fragmentary hymn in Greek, found on a papyrus belonging to the Manichaean community of the Roman site of Kellis, and we try to place it in its complex cultural and historical-religious context. The attribution of the text is due to the place of discovery, common to other texts certainly Manichaean, and to extratextual elements (miniature writing) that characterize its production in that area. The text presents itself as a hymn of praise to the figure of the Father, celebrated in his attributes of greatness and transcendence with respect to the faithful who supplicate him, and insists on his uniqueness in the role of organizer of the cosmos. Although it does not use a technical vocabulary, the analysis of the text attentive to doctrinal questions, and the discovery of parallels with Coptic and Iranian poetic texts have contributed to shedding light on the theological meaning of the text and the historical-religious categories underlying it. Furthermore, the material condition in which the text was transmitted, as well as the cultural context of Kellis, have proven to be essential elements of analysis for understanding the text.
The final part of the Sermo de poenitentia by Ioannes Ieiunator Nu eta sigma tau epsilon upsilon tau eta sigma) overwritten by the Palestinian Talmud tractate Horayoth can be found under two palimpsest fragments from the Cairo Genizah discovered at the end of the nineteenth century and then bought from an antiquities dealer by Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson. Since the early Greek version is missing, this Christian Palestinian Aramaic witness is a welcome addition as the earliest representative of this text (ca. 7th century CE).
