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APPENDIX A.

ON THE FORGED GREEK ENDING OF THE SHEPHERD
OF HERMAS.

THE first point to be noticed about this extraordinary document is that it gives us far too much Greek. The portion which corresponds to it in the Old Latin Version occupies 136 lines in Dressel's edition. Now taking the 136 lines of Latin immediately preceding this portion, we find that they represent 154 lines of the Greek original as printed in Hilgenfeld's latest edition. We should accordingly expect that this new ending would also take up about 154 lines. Instead of this it occupies 210 lines: that is to say, it presents us with one-third more Greek than our knowledge of the preceding passage would have led us to anticipate.

This excess however is easily explained when we observe the method which Simonides adopts. His loose and pompous paraphrase of the Old Latin Version recalls the 'liberal translation' of the New Testament with freedom, spirit and elegance', published by Harwood in 1768, in which the Parable of the Prodigal Son is made to commence with the words: 'a gentleman of splendid family and opulent fortune had two sons'.

The passage which I have selected for investigation offers special advantages, because in dealing with it we have not only the testimony of the two Latin Versions and the Aethiopic Version to guide us, but also an unacknowledged quotation of it in Greek in the Homilies of Antiochus, a monk of the seventh century. This passage is Sim. ix. 31. 4—6; and the parallel passage in Antiochus

1. Let us begin by setting the Versions side by side in the opening clause, that we may see what kind of Greek original is to be expected.

[vulg. de vobis :]

Vet. Lat. ut dominus pecorum gaudeat de his: gaudebit autem si omnia invenerit sana. [sin autem...

Pal.

Aeth.

ut si dominus pecorum venerit, gaudeat, si pecora sua integra invenerit. [si enim...

quando venerit dominus ovium, gaudebit de vobis et exsultabit, sed tantum si omnia sana invenerit, nec ullus e vobis interciderit. [vae vobis, pastores...

In comparing with this the Greek of Antiochus we must note that he has worked the quotation up to complete a sentence of his own, in which the shepherd' and 'the sheep' have been previously mentioned, though they have not been in the Hermas.

Antioch. ἵνα ὅταν ἔλθῃ ὁ κύριος τῶν προβάτων, χαρῇ ἐπ ̓ αὐτῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς προβάτοις εὐφρανθῇ· χαρήσεται δὲ ἐὰν πάντα ὑγιῆ εὑρεθῇ, καὶ μὴ διαπεπτωκότα τινὰ ἐξ αὐτῶν.

He continues thus: ἐὰν δὲ εὑρεθῇ τινὰ ἐξ αὐτῶν διαπεπτωκότα. Here the similarity of the two clauses, one of which ends with διαπεπτωκότα τινὰ ἐξ αὐτῶν, and the other with τινὰ ἐξ αὐτῶν διαπεπTwκÓTα, caused the former to be omitted in the two Latin Versions, and the latter in the Aethiopic Version.

The probable reading of the original seems to be χαρῇ ἐπ ̓ αὐτοῖς, rather than ἐφ' ὑμῖν. The second person was not unlikely to be introduced, as in fact the Aethiopic has introduced it in 'vae vobis, pastores.'

It is now time to compare with all this the Greek text of Simonides:

ἵνα καὶ ὁ ποιμὴν τούτων χαρίσηται ὑμῖν, εἰ ὑγιᾶ πάντα ταῦτα τὰ ἀπολωλότα δέξεται πρόβατα ἐν τῷ λιμῶνι τῆς ζωῆς νεμόμενα τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ τῆς ζωῆς τῆς αἰωνίου.

Here χαρίσηται ὑμῖν cannot be the equivalent of χαρῇ ἐφ' ὑμῖν : at least not in ancient Greek. 'The meadow of life' is a strange expression. viâ and λov are wrong forms. And it is obvious that the sentence in this amplified form can never have been the original of the Versions which we have considered. We are thus led to expect that xapíonraι vμîv is a mistranslation of the common reading of the Vet. Lat. 'gaudeat de vobis', and the rest of the sentence a loose paraphrase of this same Version.

2.

Our suspicion will be confirmed by what follows:

[vulg. pecus aliquod ex talibus invenerit dissipatum] Vet Lat. sin autem aliqua ex his dissipata invenerit, vae erit

Pal.

Aeth.

pastoribus.

si enim aut aliqua pecora a pastoribus dissipata, [aut ipsos pastores...

...nec ullus e vobis interciderit.] vae vobis, pastores...

Both the Palatine Latin and the Aethiopic Versions are inaccurate here, and the Greek is no doubt preserved by Antiochus in close correspondence with the true reading of the Old Latin : Antioch. ἐὰν δὲ εὑρεθῇ τινὰ ἐξ αὐτῶν διαπεπτωκότα, οὐαὶ τοῖς ποιμέσιν

ἔσται.

Now hear Simonides:

καὶ γὰρ εἰ πρόβατόν τι ἐκ τῆς ὅλης ποίμνης ἀποπλανηθῇ, λύπη ἔσεται τοῖς ποιμέσι μεγάλη.

The expression Tрóßaróv T èk recalls the 'pecus aliquod ex talibus' of the common reading of the Old Latin. Elsewhere (Sim. vi. 1. 6) Hermas uses Toiμvior, not оíμvη. So too in the very next clause, if Antiochus quotes him correctly: though Antiochus himself uses oíμm a little below when his quotation is finished. But as both words are found in the New Testament, not much stress can be laid on this divergence. More striking is the use of Aún μeɣáλn for ovaí, to which there is no parallel in the Shepherd. We may compare Rom. ix. 2, λύπη μοί ἐστιν μεγάλη. The form ἔσεται is also to be noted. A modern Greek, who never uses the future forms in conversation, might be the more easily guilty of this mistake.

Still further evidence is forthcoming as we proceed:

[vulg. om. reperti]

Vet. Lat. quodsi ipsi pastores dissipati reperti fuerint, quid re[vulg. om. his]

Pal.

Aeth.

spondebunt ei pro pecoribus his?

aut ipsos pastores corruptos invenerit dominus, quid ei respondebitur?

si autem ipsi pastores dicunt possessori gregis [ab ovibus se prostratos...

There is a quotation, as it appears, of the Vet. Lat. of this clause in the work de aleatoribus' ascribed to Cyprian: but the text of it

Antioch. ἐὰν δὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ οἱ ποιμένες εὑρεθῶσιν διαπεπτωκότες, τί ἐροῦσιν τῷ δεσπότῃ τοῦ ποιμνίου ;

He continues ὅτι ἀπὸ τῶν προβάτων διέπεσαν; which shews that the Aethiopic Translator must have read ei èpovou, and then have considerably modified the former part of the sentence.

Simonides reads:

εἰ δὲ καὶ οἱ ποιμένες αὐτοὶ διασπαρῶσι, τίνα λόγον δώσουσιν οὗτοι τῷ κυρίῳ ὑπὲρ τῶν προβάτων;

Now assuming for the moment that this is a translation from the Latin, we may note:

(1) that his representation of 'pro pecoribus', which has no support from the other Versions or Antiochus, points to the Vet. Lat, as the basis of his work.

(2) that he had not the full readings 'reperti' and 'his', the former of which is confirmed by Antiochus : and hence he must have used the editio vulgata of the Vet. Lat.

(3) that he had twice tried to translate 'dissipari', once by ἀποπλανᾶσθαι, and a second time by διασπαρῆναι; whereas Antiochus has diaπeσeîv, a rare but good word, which no translator would have guessed at, and which seems not to be in use in Modern Greek.

4. The clause which follows will do nothing to disturb our supposition.

Vet. Lat. numquid dicent a pecore se vexatos? non credetur illis. Pal. numquid pastores dicturi sunt a pecoribus se esse vexatos? quod non creditur illis.

Aeth.

Antioch.

si autem ipsi pastores dicent possessori gregis, ab ovibus se prostratos esse, non creditur.

ὅτι ἀπὸ τῶν προβάτων διέπεσαν; οὐ πιστευθήσονται.

The terseness of Antiochus commends itself as original: and his text alone could explain the misreading of the Aethiopic version. With it contrast the clumsy phrasing of Simonides :

ἐροῦσιν ἄρα ὡς ὑπὸ τῶν προβάτων ἀπεβλήθησαν; ἀλλ ̓ οὐδέποτε πιστ τευθήσονται οὗτοι ὑπὸ τοῦ κυρίου τῶν ἀνθρώπων.

He has failed again to find διαπεσεῖν, and the phrase ὁ κύριος τῶν aveρwwv is odd and incongruous.

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