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‘Why don't you sing, Thomas?’ The manuscript tradition omitting the Hymn of the Bride in Acta Thomae
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 August 2023
Abstract
The so-called Hymn of the Bride is found in Chapters 6–7 in the first Act of the apocryphal Acts of Thomas. The manuscripts containing it show a particular history of the text which does not always coincide with that of the rest of the Act. For instance, family gamma (Γ) often presents a summarized version of the first two Acts, thus heavily shortening the Hymn.
A study of the text is essential to establish a new edition with translation, which is the aim of the project in which this study is embedded. However, analysis of the manuscripts omitting or summarizing the Hymn is also relevant for other goals, such as a proper understanding of the interrelationships between the different manuscripts and of the interest in the text, and its use by early Christian communities and by later readers.
Consequently, in this paper, I will analyse the particularities of such a textual tradition and offer a few conclusions that will, in turn, contribute to the broader analysis of the Acts of Thomas.
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References
1 L. Lesage Gárriga, ‘El Himno de la Novia en Acta Thomae. Un nuevo acercamiento al texto griego’ (in press).
2 Bonnet, M., Acta Philippi et Acta Thomae (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1903 (1959 2))Google Scholar.
3 Muñoz Gallarte, I. & Narro, A., ‘The Abridged Version(s) of the So-Called Family Γ of the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas’, The Apostles Peter, Paul, John, Thomas and Philip with their Companions in Late Antiquity (ed. Nicklas, T., Spittler, J.E., Bremmer, J.N.; Leuven: Peeters, 2021) 254–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar; I. Muñoz Gallarte, ‘New Textual Witnesses for the Greek Apocryphal Acts of Thomas’, L. Roig Lanzillotta & I. Muñoz Gallarte (eds.), New Trends in the Study of the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas. Revisiting the Scholarly Discourse Twenty Years Later (in press).
4 For a detailed palaeographic analysis of U (Vallicellianus B 35), see L. Roig Lanzillotta, L., ‘Codex Vallicellianus B 35: An Assessment of the only Extant Greek Manuscript of Acta Thomae, Including the “Hymn of the Pearl”,’ in L. Roig Lanzillotta & I. Muñoz Gallarte (eds.), New Trends in the Study of the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas. Revisiting the Scholarly Discourse Twenty Years Later (in press).
5 Bonnet, Acta, XIX.
6 Bonnet, in the preface of Acta, xvii.
7 See Cosgrove, C.H., ‘Singing Thomas: Anatomy of a Sympotic Scene in Acts of Thomas’, Vigiliae Christianae 69 (2015) 256–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Marcovich, M., ‘The Wedding Hymn in Acta Thomae’, Illinois Classical Studies 6 (1981) 367–85Google Scholar, for two literary studies of the Hymn.
8 This is the name of the city as read in most mss.; some of them provide variants, such as Enadroch. On this tradition, see I. Muñoz Gallarte & A. Narro, ‘Some Notes on Andrápolis, the Royal City: Apocryphal Acts of Thomas 3’, Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 18 (2021) 225–35.
9 For ὧραν, see G.W.H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961) s.v. ὧρα 1, as hours of prayer, and in combination with ψάλλω, definition 2.
10 I have added numbers in parentheses to clarify the passage; these, obviously, are not included in the manuscript.
11 Muñoz Gallarte & A. Narro, ‘The Abridged Version(s)’, 259.
12 For a clear overview of this family, see Table 1.
13 For the dating of these manuscripts we have relied on the online catalogues of the Bodleian Library and Pinakes: https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/manuscript_6881 and https://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/cote/48290/ for 12; https://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/cote/4536/ for B; https://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/cote/67497/ for 7; https://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/cote/47467/ for 11; https://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/cote/42187/ for 36 (Consulted on 05/11/2022).
14 For the dating, see the catalogue Pinakes: https://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/cote/4536/ for B; and https://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/cote/67821/ for V (Consulted on 05/11/2022).
15 To mention a couple of examples: Attridge, H.W., ‘Intertextuality in the Acts of Thomas’, The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles in Intertextual Perspectives (Semeia 80; 1997) 88Google Scholar; and Klauck, H.J., The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. An Introduction (transl. by McNeil, Brian; Waco: Baylor University Press, 2008) 142Google Scholar.
16 See s.v. ψάλλω, definition B, especially B.6, in Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon.
17 For indicative counting I have looked into reporting verbs such as say, speak, utter, sing, pray, and preach in the English translation by Elliott, J.K., The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993) 447–510CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Once the occurrences within direct speech (e.g. in 51, ‘the God whom I preach’) and those introducing the speech of another character were eliminated, there remain 143 occurrences either alone or in combination with each other. The one case where the verb does not introduce direct speech is when the story recounts his deeds and the message of Christ in 59: ‘He himself did not cease to preach and to speak to them and to show that this Jesus is the Messiah of whom the Scriptures have spoken that he should be crucified and be raised after three days from the dead.’ See also Attridge, ‘Intertextuality’, 85–124.