Theophylact, "On Predestination": the Beginning Found Garton, Charles Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Spring 1976; 17, 1; ProQuest pg. 71 Theophylact, On Predestination: the Beginning Found Charles Garton I N SPRING 1973 I published in this journall an English translation­ the first such to be made-of a short Greek treatise by the Byzan­ tine writer Theophylactus Simocates, dealing with the question whether there are predestined ends for human lives. The treatise is in the form of two controversial speeches followed by a moderatorial. The Greek text, taken from a Jerusalem manuscript, was first pub­ lished in St Petersburg (Leningrad) in 1910. My version was made from the more recent edition by Dr L. G. Westerink, which was based on the same manuscript and published in 1971.2 The manuscript lacks the beginning of Theophylact's treatise, and I was accordingly unable to include it in the translation. By a coincidence, however, the begin­ ning of the Greek text has since been discovered. The credit for the discovery goes to Dr Paul Moraux, who located the missing passage in two other MSS, namely D (Paris.gr. 1302, ff.265 sqq.) and P (Patm. 378, ff.136 sqq.) and has now published it together with other material bearing on the text of the treatise.3 For the sake of completeness it seems appropriate that I should offer readers of this journal an English version of the newly discovered passage, that is, the title and opening of the first speech. It has been made from proof pages of Dr Moraux' article, which he very kindly supplied to me from Berlin. The version runs as follows: lCharies Garton, "Theophylact, On Predestination: a First Translation," GRBS 14 (1973 83-102. 2 L. G. Westerink, "Theophylactus Simocates, On Predestination," in F. Cupaiolo et aI., edd., Studi in onore di Vittorio De Falco (Naples 1971) 535-51. 3 Paul Moraux, "Le debut inedit de l'ouvrage de Theophylacte Simocates sur la pre­ destination," Le monde grec Hommages a Claire Preaux (Brussels 1975) 234-44. 71 72 THEOPHYLACT, ON PREDESTINATION: THE BEGINNING I Inquiry of Theophylactus Simocates, ex-prefect, dramati~ation of case that there are predestined ends allotted for human lives. THBOGNOSTUS AGAINST THBOPHRASTUS THEOPHRASTUS should have come attired in a circum­ spection appropriate to sacred matters,' having a garb of right conduct about him, and dressed in the modesty of grave and downcast looks. So clad, he should have been guarding his tongue, to keep it within the proper limits, should have been riding in harbor by means of the anchors of accepted doctrines, and running his race within the boundary of the course. He should not have been shooting wide of the target, nor concerting discordances, nor barking with the harshest din, nor describing his circle without regard to its center or fabricating his absurdities outside of a ruled line. All this he should avoid so as not to legislate what is contrary to the church's usage, to perpetrate a mighty and indeed al­ mighty dissonance, and because of the outpouring of his enterprise to get himself excommunicated5 from the greatest of sacral organizations. But in fact he is set upon . refusing to recognize the public and royal highroads and consequently swoops down towards the less recognized among the paths, where the thistle is lush, where there is no bar to the self-expression of the bramble, where a thicket has grown, where a barrier of thorns6 has been laid down and there is no smooth7 or straight proceeding. I shall therefore set about beating him with the rod of this speech and drive • If Theophrastlls were to be taken as a monk or in holy orders the word i€po7TP€7rij might rather be translated as 'appropriate to sacred office'. 5 a7TocvvayW'Y0c, cf.John 9.22,al. The word is adapted in patristic Greek to mean 'excom­ municated' or 'unchurched'. e alp.awl Vrrf.C7'6fY11Tat. Of the two accepted meanings of alp.acta, 'wall of dry stones' and 'hedge of thorns', the latter seems to fit the preceding imagery better, but the verb does not sit very well with either meaning. 7 I translate Af.wv, suggested by Westerink. The MSS and Moraux give '\1/'ov which', in its ordinary acceptation 'standing crop, cornfield', disturbs the syntax. Perhaps copyists assimilated it in meaning to '\f.WV or thought of it as a variant spelling. CHARLES GARTON him like a bad money-changers out of the sacred precincts, using a whip I have gotten for myself out of the gospels. to stop him from doing a base trade with his argument and pro­ faning the sacred precinct of the church. But please do not on this account, members of the court and guardians of the law, pronounce censure upon me for having used the sharp rod of my verbal expressions to measure the heights reached by his audacity. There is a great deal at stake in the contest I enter. I chose today to come before an umpire's place of tribunal directly. For my temperament is not given to litigation or to the ways of Athenians, but rather is devoted to the gospel, avoids sub­ tilizing, and has no liking for courts, inasmuch as it recom­ mends not only not opposing wrongdoers in violence, but actually being compliant-natured to persons who smack us on the face. 9 For I think, if it were not for the fact that I under­ took my truly Pharaoh-like stubbornness1o in opposing with an eye to the boon it would confer-scurvy to satisfy as is the summons which occasions it-I should not have entered this contest nor got myself involved in the dust of the ring .... 73 Thus we now have an authentic title for the work, to substitute for the provisional one supplied earlier by Dr Westerink. We can see also that not very much is missing from the Jerusalem manuscript, and the idea that there might possibly have been a protheoria preceding the debate speeches proper is not substantiated. Or rather, Theoph­ ylact does imply some previous consideration of the topic by his speakers, but deliberately leaves it to our imagination. He is working dramatically, and plunges in medias res. The beginning is in tune with the rest of the discussion except that the Greek is, if anything, even more affected and difficult, so that in one or two places the meaning is open to dispute. I have benefited by discussing it with Dr Westerink, to whom I am also indebted, as the footnotes indicate, for two possible improvements of the text. One addendum lexicis may be noted, namely, the feminine adjective cpapaWVt'TLc, 'Pharaonian, Pharaoh-like'. New usages are the middle of 8 KO>.AVPLCT7JV coni. Westerink; KOAVPLC~V D; see Matt. 21.12, Mark 11.15, John 2.15, cf Luke 19.45. P, the other MS, reads KOAvflI3Lc~v, which Moraux surprisingly accepts. t Cf. Matt. 5.39 (Moraux). 10 Exodus 7-15. 74 THEOPHYLACT, ON PREDESTINATION: THE BEGINNING £AA£fL£vl,w,