J. F. Coakley, Amphilochius of Iconium: The
opening of his homily on ‘My Father who sent me is greater than I’. The
Syriac text edited and translated (Alexandria, Virginia: Jericho Press, 2021)
Mark
DelCogliano
University of St. Thomas, Minnesota
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James E. Walters
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2022
Volume 25.2
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https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv25n2prdelcogliano
Mark DelCogliano
J. F. Coakley, Amphilochius of Iconium: The
opening of his homily on ‘My Father who sent me is greater than I’. The
Syriac text edited and translated (Alexandria, Virginia: Jericho Press, 2021)
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol25/HV25N2PRDelcogliano.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute, 2022
vol 25
issue 2
pp 490-492
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal
dedicated to the study of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in
January and July) by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998,
Hugoye seeks to offer the best scholarship available in the field of Syriac
studies.
File created by James E. Walters
J. F. Coakley, Amphilochius of Iconium: The
opening of his homily on ‘My Father who sent me is greater than I’. The
Syriac text edited and translated (Alexandria, Virginia: Jericho Press, 2021). Pp.
iv + 10; $50.00.
Amphilochius of Iconium (340/345 to after 394) was an intimate
part of the circle around the Cappadocian Fathers, being a cousin of Gregory of
Nazianzus and a kind of disciple of Basil of Caesarea. With the latter he carried on
an extensive correspondence about all matters of concern to the church of their day.
Appointed bishop in 373, he acquired such a reputation in support of Basil’s
ecclesiastical and theological agenda that he was designated as one of the
guarantors of orthodoxy at the Council of Constantinople in 381
(Cod. Theod. 16.1.3). His surviving
corpus is not extensive, and much of it fragmentary, and yet enough remains to get a
sense of Amphilochius as a Christian bishop and theologian, even if the precise
contours of his genuine corpus remain debated. The best edition is
now Amphiloque d’Iconium: Homélies,
Tome I: Homélies 1–5, Tome II: Homélies 6–10; Fragments divers; Épître
synodale; Lettre à Séleucos, introduction, translation, notes, and
index by Michel Bonnet in collaboration with Sever J. Voicu, Sources
chrétiennes 552 and 553 (Paris: Cerf, 2012).
Several of his homilies are extant in their entirety in Greek,
but only a handful of Greek fragments from his homily on John 14:28 survive (really,
John 14:28 combined with wording from John 14:24). There are also a few excerpts in
Latin and Syriac. There is, however, a Syriac translation of the whole homily
preserved on folios 95r–101v of British Library, Oriental ms. 8606, though the
opening sections are missing. This Syriac text was edited and translated into
English by Cyril Moss in 1930 Cyril Moss, “S. Amphilochius of Iconium on John 14:28:
The Father who sent me is greater than I,” Le Muséon
43 (1930), 317–364. and re-edited and translated into French in
2012. Bonnet, Amphiloque d’Iconium: Homélies, Tome II,
192–225. The slim volume under review here presents the Syriac text
and an English translation of the formerly missing opening sections of the homily.
This Syriac text is taken from two leaves of a manuscript in the archives of
Westminster College, Cambridge (WGL 9/20), which once immediately preceded folios
95r–101v in the above-mentioned British Library manuscript. At long last, then, the
complete homily has been recovered in Syriac translation. In this homily
Amphilochius engages in polemics over the exegesis of John 14:28, which was disputed
in the Trinitarian and Christological debates of his era.
The title of the homily was previously known, even if its
beginning was missing. The fragments discussed in this paragraph are edited in
Bonnet, Amphiloque d’Iconium: Homélies,
Tome II, 226–241. Theodoret of Cyrrhus quoted this homily three
times in his Eranistes (see 1.56, 2.54, and 3.51), each time
stating that it was a discourse on John 14:28 (ὁ πατὴρ μείζων μού ἐστιν) rather than
on John 14:28 combined with John 14:24 as the newly edited Syriac text has it.
Timothy Aelurus quoted two excerpts from this homily, both of which overlap with the
newly edited Syriac text. The passages agree almost exactly; Coakley notes the few
textual differences in his translation. The title Timothy gives to the homily also
corresponds with the title in the newly edited Syriac text. The homily’s title was
also preserved in Latin by Facundus in his Pro defensione trium
capitulorum XI.3.2, as a sermon on the verse qui misit me
pater maior me est, which accurately reflects the Syriac title. Facundus
also preserved the opening words of the homily as laborare nos
fecit certamen haereticorum, which matches the Syriac ܐܠܐ̣ܝ ܠܢ ܐܓܘܢܐ ܕܠܘܬ ܗܪ̈ܛܝܩܘ
. Therefore, the newly edited Syriac text verifies
this report of Facundus.
Coakley’s very readable translation is preceded by a four-page
introduction which in brief compass describes the manuscript’s history,
Amphilochius’s life and writings, and the contents of the homily. The reader is
referred to the previous translations in English and French to see what follows the
beginning portion presented in this volume.
I consider myself quite lucky to be the recipient of a copy of
this exquisite volume for review, which was handcrafted at the private press of J.
F. Coakley. The Syriac type is Oxford’s pica large face estrangela, and the volume
consists of sixteen pages of Zerkall mould-made paper bound in chiyogami decorated
paper boards. In this age of shoddily made books from major publishers, crappy
print-on-demand copies, and the ubiquity of pdf scans, this volume has reminded me
of just how beautiful books can be as physical objects.