Peter Lorenz | University of Münster (original) (raw)

Books by Peter Lorenz

A History of Codex Bezae’s Text in the Gospel of Mark, 2022

As the principal Greek witness of the so-called "Western" tradition of the gospels and Acts, Code... more As the principal Greek witness of the so-called "Western" tradition of the gospels and Acts, Codex Bezae’s enigmatic text in parallel Greek and Latin columns presents a persistent problem of New Testament textual criticism. The present study challenges the traditional view that this text represents a vivid retelling of the canonical narratives cited by ancient writers from Justin Martyr to Marcion and translated early into Syriac and Latin. Published in Arbeitenzur Neutestamentlichen Textforschung 53. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110746860/html

Essays by Peter Lorenz

Novum Testamentum Graecum EditioCritica Maior I Synoptic Gospels: The Gospel of Mark, Vol. 3: Studien, 2021

Readings in the Latin gospels are often approached as translations of a Greek “Western” text, a c... more Readings in the Latin gospels are often approached as translations of a Greek “Western” text, a construct devised in the eighteenth century to explain parallels between Codex Bezae and the Latin version as native Greek readings and later adopted by nineteenth-century source critics as a way to access early Christian traditions. One limitation of this approach is a tendency to overlook the version itself as a tradition by deflecting the complexities of translation and inner-versional transmission onto putative Greek sources, while reducing the translation event to the mechanical replication of these sources in Latin. This essay takes a different approach, focusing first on the versional context in which these readings appear and the capacity of translators, editors, and copyists within the version to generate new readings without the aid of a Greek model. When we examine the habits of the translators, it is apparent that they frequently produced the same kinds of variation in their singular readings that we find in their parallels with so-called “Western” texts, raising the possibility that these readings arose in Latin rather than in Greek and, hence, that the theory of a “Western” text is superfluous in accounting for the development of the version.

At eighty words, Codex Bezae's variant text of the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3:23-31 presents on... more At eighty words, Codex Bezae's variant text of the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3:23-31 presents one of the longest variations in the gospels. Yet the resulting genealogy, while essentially harmonized to Matthew's names, is no mere assimilation to Matthew, but reflects in several respects the editor's touch, for example, including Old Testament kings lacking in Matthew's list, adapting Matthew's list to Luke's phraseology, and rearranging the names to follow Luke's Christ-to-Adam sequence. The end result is a text that betrays little apparent interest in reproducing a putative "original," but rather reveals a process of development within the community or communities that superintended its growth.

Journal Articles by Peter Lorenz

Conversations with the Biblical World, 2019

In his Praefatio in evangelio, Jerome claims to have consulted only old Greek manuscripts in prod... more In his Praefatio in evangelio, Jerome claims to have consulted only old Greek manuscripts in producing his Vulgate revision of the Old Latin gospels. If this is true, it is surprising that he included the story of Jesus and the adulteress after John 7:52 in his revision, given that our oldest surviving Greek manuscripts consistently lack this story. At the same time, the manuscript tradition o f the Vulgate is unanimous in including the story, suggesting that it was present in this version from the beginning due to Jerome's own editorial decision to include it. In this paper, I examine points of contact between the story in its Vulgate form and the circumstances o f Jerome's bitter departure from Rome in 385, concluding that Jerome may have had personal motives to include the story even if it were not present in the old copies he presumably consulted.

Codex Bezae’s distinctive text form has typically been viewed against the backdrop of the second ... more Codex Bezae’s distinctive text form has typically been viewed against the backdrop of the second century, with little attention given to its place in the late fourth-century context that gave rise to the manuscript’s production (circa 400). But given the remarkably close corroboration of at least three well-known Bezan characteristics with late fourth-century sources, this article suggests that period sources cannot be overlooked in reconstructions of Bezae’s context. As a case study, I examine Ambrosiaster’s remarks on the Old Latin version in his Commentary on Romans (5:14), noting how Ambrosiaster’s three “criteria” of the true text — reason, history, and authority — anticipate specific features of Bezae’s bilingual tradition. Since Ambrosiaster’s remarks in various ways prefigure Bezae’s own apparent outlook towards the Old Latin version, it is suggested that Bezae like Ambrosiaster might be viewed in a context that accords at least equal authority to the Old Latin version as to the Greek tradition.

A survey of recent literature on the remarkable reading in Mark 1:41, depicting Jesus's anger at ... more A survey of recent literature on the remarkable reading in Mark 1:41, depicting Jesus's anger at a leper who approaches him to be healed — supported by just Codex Bezae, a segment of the Old Latin version, and perhaps the Syriac Commentary on the Diatessaron, attributed to Ephrem — reveals a tendency to ascribe the acceptance of the alternative reading depicting Jesus's compassion to the overwhelming preponderance of its support. It is clear though that the UBS 3 and UBS 4 committee preferred this reading on the basis of the 'diversity and character' of its evidence 1. The present article examines the implications of the predominantly Latin support for the reading that depicts Jesus's anger in light of the question of textual diversity, considering palaeographical, codicological, and textual evidence of a northern-Italian provenance for its manuscripts and text forms, while arguing that the insular character of the tradition raises serious doubts regarding the independence of its testimony when it differs distinctively in relation to the Greek tradition.

Conference Papers by Peter Lorenz

Profile-based classification — in which manuscripts are related by common profiles of distinctive... more Profile-based classification — in which manuscripts are related by common profiles of distinctive readings — supplies a practical approach to grouping manuscripts that avoids the most obvious pitfalls of classification by text types. Classification based on shared profiles is particularly suitable in cases, such as Families 1 and 13, where core members consistently attest the same readings. But how do we classify a manuscript such as Codex Bezae, in which we find in Mark (according to the Hauptliste, TuT 4.1.2, 438-41), one group of readings that agrees distinctively with 03 and relatives and, at the same time, another that agrees distinctively with 038 and 565, yet considered as a whole the manuscript appears as isolated within the tradition, with no closely-related witnesses (according to the Gruppierung table, TuT 4.1.1, §2.6)? It is clear that, in such cases, a profiling approach that only considers the whole text as a unit is inadequate to identify potential relationships. In this paper, I suggest a granular approach to profile-based classification that allows us to address composite profiles by splitting the total profile into smaller sub-profiles, each with a specific alignment within the tradition and hence different relationships. When considered individually, these sub-profiles reveal relationships that are not captured when all readings are considered simultaneously in a single profile. Pointing to the example of Codex Bezae’s composite text form, I argue that such an approach can reveal much about its development and place in the larger tradition that is not possible by examining the total profile as a monolithic whole.

The “Western” text of Acts is often cited for a tendency to diminish the visibility and prominenc... more The “Western” text of Acts is often cited for a tendency to diminish the visibility and prominence of women, sometimes thought to reflect a second-century context (Schüssler Fiorenza, 1983; Witherington, 1984). But Holmes (2003) observes that at least half of the cited readings are attested only by Codex Bezae, which suggests that they may belong to a narrower layer of variants deriving from a time closer to Bezae’s production in ca. 400 C.E. In this paper, I will argue that specific concerns apparent in these readings are anticipated by critics of the privileged status of sexual asceticism in the Latin West in the final decades of the fourth century, including Helvidius, Jovinian, Filastrius, Vigilantius, and especially Ambrosiaster, whose ostensibly spiritual objections (e.g. charges of Manichaeism) were in part animated by a contest for authority over female lay ascetics of the Roman aristocracy, whose perceived independence was seen as a challenge not merely to the integrity of the household but also to the prerogatives of the male ecclesiastical hierarchy (Clark, 1981; Hunter, 1989). On the one hand, Bezae enhances precedents favorable to arguments against the special prestige of sexual renunciation, such as the apostolic example of marriage and procreation (a point argued by Ambrosiaster and Jovinian), evident in Bezae’s mention of wives and children in the upper room (Acts 1:14) and reinforced by the enlargement of the married Peter’s role over that of the celibate Paul in Bezae’s tradition (Brock, 2003). On the other hand, Bezae’s obfuscation of the conversion accounts of women who are depicted in Acts as making spiritual choices outside the authority structure of the household, such as the public profession of Damaris, apparently unaccompanied by a husband, who chooses to follow Paul, a man who is not her husband (Acts 17:34), accords well with Ambrosiaster’s contention that women possessed the imago Dei only through a male head (Hunter, 1992). These and other parallels suggest that the decades prior to Bezae’s production warrant closer attention as a potential context for its “anti-feminist” readings.

It has been suggested that Codex Bezae’s Greek column (D) attests a stratified text, consisting o... more It has been suggested that Codex Bezae’s Greek column (D) attests a stratified text, consisting of distinct layers of readings that reflect its historical contact with different traditions (Haenchen 1971; Aland 1986; Holmes 1996). Using John 4:1-42 as a case study, this paper compares three methods of partitioning D’s readings by layer: first, Holmes’ (1996) method based on patterns of agreement; second, a proposed method based on the levels of D’s readings in local genealogies; and, third, a proposed method based on multivariate clustering.

The so-called “Western” character of Justin’s synoptic gospel sources is often taken for granted ... more The so-called “Western” character of Justin’s synoptic gospel sources is often taken for granted in discussions of the second-century text, where it is commonly assumed that Justin’s parallels with “Western” witnesses imply his use of an early “Western” text. It is seldom considered, though, that Justin himself may have influenced the “Western” text. In this paper, I examine three parallels in which Justin’s testimony appears to reflect a more primitive state of text than a similar reading preserved in surviving “Western” witnesses, a result that seems to undermine any assumptions regarding the necessary priority of the manuscript evidence with respect to Justin.

A History of Codex Bezae’s Text in the Gospel of Mark, 2022

Novum Testamentum Graecum EditioCritica Maior I Synoptic Gospels: The Gospel of Mark, Vol. 3: Studien, 2021

Conversations with the Biblical World, 2019