A mistranslation of Eusebius?

Peter Kirby kirby at earthlink.net
Fri Sep 6 02:54:44 EDT 2002


Greetings.  I noticed that mention of the Shepherd of Hermas was made
recently, so I hope that a discussion of the Greek text of the church father
Eusebius is not out of bounds for this group.  (I hope so because this is
the most appropriate group of which I know to ask.)

The Ante-Nicene Fathers of Roberts-Donaldson gives this translation of the
Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius, 6.22.1:

6.22.1 At that time Hippolytus,183 besides many other treatises, wrote a
work on the passover.184 He gives in this a chronological table, and
presents a certain paschal canon of sixteen years, bringing the time down to
the first year of the Emperor Alexander.

I noticed this as a possible mistranslation for factual reasons.

Look here to see that Severus Alexander ascended in 222:

http://www.roman-emperors.org/impindex.htm

Now look here:

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-05/anf05-04.htm

"The chair has carved upon it, no doubt for use in the Church, a calendar
indicating the Paschal full moons for seven cycles of sixteen years each;
answering, according to the science of the period, to similar tables in the
Anglican Book of Common Prayer. It indicates the days on which Easter must
fall, from a.d. 222 to a.d. 333. On the back of the chair is a list of the
author's works."

Thus, based on this background information, it seems likeliest that the
sense of this passage is that the period started with the reign of Alexander
in 222, not that it ended in the first year of his sovereignty.  Of course,
Eusebius may have made a slip of the pen, but I suspect that the translation
is in error, and I would be interested in any confirmation or
disconfirmation of that suspicion from those more comfortable in their
command of Greek.

J.E.L. Oulton in the Loeb edition gives this translation, which I think
comes closer to the sense but also misses the mark grammatically: "At that
very time also Hippolytus, besides very many other memoirs, composed the
treatise On the Pascha, in which he sets forth a register of the times and
puts forward a certain canon of a sixteen-year cycle for the Pasca, using
the first year of the Emperor Alexander as a terminus in measuring his
dates."

The transliterated Greek in the Loeb edition is: "TOTE DHTA KAI hIPPOLUTOS
SUNTATTWN META PLEISTWN ALLWN hUPOMNHMATWN KAI TO PERI TOU PASCA PEPOIHTAI
SUGGRAMMA, EN hWi TWN CRONWN ANAGRAFHN EKQEMENOS KAI TINA KANONA
hEKKAIDEKAETHRIDOS PERI TOU PASCA PROQEIS, EPI TO PRWTON ETOS AUTOKRATOROS
ALEXANDROU TOUS CRONOUS PERIGRAFEI."

Here is some parsing of the Greek words.

KAI - and

TINA - a certain

KANONA - Noun: Masculine Singular Accusative - canon

hEKKAIDEKA... - sixteen

...ETHRIDOS - year cycle (? not in my dictionary)

PERI TOU PASCA - "On the Passover"

PROQEIS - Verb: Aorist Active Participle Masculine Singular Nominative - to
put; to inter; to ordain; to reckon; to estimate; to suppose; to make.

EPI - Preposition (+ accusative) - my dictionary states, "with _acc._
extending over, towards, up to; against; (with numbers) about, nearly,
during; in quest of."

PRWTON - Adjective: Neuter Singular Accusative - first

ETOS - Noun: Neuter Singular Accusative - year

AUTOKRATOROS - Noun: Masculine Singular Nominative - sovereignty (from the
adjective AUTOKRATWR "sovereign, independent; authorized")

ALEXANDROU - "of Alexander"

CRONOUS - Noun: Masculine Plural Accusative - "time, duration; period; term"

PERIGRAFEI - Verb: Present Active Indicative 3rd Singular - to circumscribe;
to define, determine

I would attempt this plodding translation: ". . . And [Hippolytus] having
reckoned a certain sixteen year cycle canon _On the Passover_, the reign of
Alexander about (or: during) the first year defines (or: determines) the
period (or: duration) [of the canon]."

Unlike the ANF or Loeb translations, this one does justice to the apparent
facts that AUTOKRATOROS appears in the nominative and thus should be taken
as the subject and that PERIGRAFEI is a verb indicating a separate clause,
if not a new sentence.  Yes, the first clause ("And having estimated") is a
dangling participle in my translation.  The Loeb is closer to the sense than
the ANF, but this translation seems closer to both sense and grammar.

What do you think, sirs?

best,
Peter Kirby

Early Christian Writings - 30 to 200
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/




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