The Teachings of Sylvanus by J. ZandeeReview by: R. McL. WilsonNovum Testamentum, Vol. 34, Fasc. 3 (Jul., 1992), pp. 309-311Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1561305 .

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BOOK REVIEWS BOOK REVIEWS 309 309

listing of every occurrence of the Syriac term. Where necessary the entries under a term are subdivided to indicate particular usage.

The work is a considerable undertaking, the more so as it is not a mechanical computer-generated listing, but an evaluative project discriminating semantic and stylistic matters. It therefore does justice to a version which is not a word by word undertaking, but one where sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph comparisons are needed. The strength of the work is the warning given to New Testament text critics who may too hastily reach conclusions on the presumed Greek exemplar without considering the constraints of the target language. But Brian Walton's introduction to the London Polyglot of 1655 warned against attempts which were like considering the movement of the sun to be regulated by the dial.

D. J. LANE

J. ZANDEE, The Teachings of Sylvanus (Nag Hammadi Codex VII, 4). Text, Translation and Commentary (Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten), Leiden 1991. 601 pp.

The death of Jan Zandee some months ago has deprived us of one of those quiet but careful and competent scholars who may never attain to the prominence enjoyed by some of their more flamboyant colleagues, but may prove in the long run to have made a more lasting and significant contribution to the advancement of learning. This last, very substantial, volume from his pen leaves one, regret- tably, with rather mixed feelings: in terms of content, it is excellent, a veritable mine of information, and provides a balanced assessment of the relation of this document to other more or less contemporary writings, in Platonism and Stoicism and in the works of Philo of Alexandria, Justin Martyr and Origen; but in various respects Zandee has not been well served by others.

For one thing, the name in the title of the document appears as "Sylvanus" on the cover and title page, but Zandee himself has "Silvanus" and uses the abbreviation "Silv.", in conformity with the usage in the manuscript. A footnote at the end expresses indebtedness "for the correction of the English", but the per- son concerned simply did not do the job properly: at p. 266, for example, we find a quotation from the Gospel of Truth. "For truly the Gnose (sic) of the Father had not yet appeared", which seems to derive ultimately from the editio princeps, where the English translation was sometimes "accommodated" to the French. The noun "advice" appears several times as "advise", on one occasion with the correct spelling later in the same line, and there are numerous other slips. They occur with some frequency in the source material quoted, for much of which there is no standard English translation; some of these passages would tax the capacity of a native English speaker!

Something may be due to the way in which the volume has been produced. Zandee evidently expected it to be printed in the normal way, when italics, spacing and other devices could have been used to highlight rubrics and in general make the structure clear. Errors might then have been picked up at proof stage. In fact the book is a photographic reproduction of a typescript-and correction of the errors mentioned would have entailed extensive re-typing. As a result, the lay-out is not always clear, and it is sometimes difficult to detect where a new section begins. Time spent with a marking pen to highlight the rubrics will prove well worth while.

listing of every occurrence of the Syriac term. Where necessary the entries under a term are subdivided to indicate particular usage.

The work is a considerable undertaking, the more so as it is not a mechanical computer-generated listing, but an evaluative project discriminating semantic and stylistic matters. It therefore does justice to a version which is not a word by word undertaking, but one where sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph comparisons are needed. The strength of the work is the warning given to New Testament text critics who may too hastily reach conclusions on the presumed Greek exemplar without considering the constraints of the target language. But Brian Walton's introduction to the London Polyglot of 1655 warned against attempts which were like considering the movement of the sun to be regulated by the dial.

D. J. LANE

J. ZANDEE, The Teachings of Sylvanus (Nag Hammadi Codex VII, 4). Text, Translation and Commentary (Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten), Leiden 1991. 601 pp.

The death of Jan Zandee some months ago has deprived us of one of those quiet but careful and competent scholars who may never attain to the prominence enjoyed by some of their more flamboyant colleagues, but may prove in the long run to have made a more lasting and significant contribution to the advancement of learning. This last, very substantial, volume from his pen leaves one, regret- tably, with rather mixed feelings: in terms of content, it is excellent, a veritable mine of information, and provides a balanced assessment of the relation of this document to other more or less contemporary writings, in Platonism and Stoicism and in the works of Philo of Alexandria, Justin Martyr and Origen; but in various respects Zandee has not been well served by others.

For one thing, the name in the title of the document appears as "Sylvanus" on the cover and title page, but Zandee himself has "Silvanus" and uses the abbreviation "Silv.", in conformity with the usage in the manuscript. A footnote at the end expresses indebtedness "for the correction of the English", but the per- son concerned simply did not do the job properly: at p. 266, for example, we find a quotation from the Gospel of Truth. "For truly the Gnose (sic) of the Father had not yet appeared", which seems to derive ultimately from the editio princeps, where the English translation was sometimes "accommodated" to the French. The noun "advice" appears several times as "advise", on one occasion with the correct spelling later in the same line, and there are numerous other slips. They occur with some frequency in the source material quoted, for much of which there is no standard English translation; some of these passages would tax the capacity of a native English speaker!

Something may be due to the way in which the volume has been produced. Zandee evidently expected it to be printed in the normal way, when italics, spacing and other devices could have been used to highlight rubrics and in general make the structure clear. Errors might then have been picked up at proof stage. In fact the book is a photographic reproduction of a typescript-and correction of the errors mentioned would have entailed extensive re-typing. As a result, the lay-out is not always clear, and it is sometimes difficult to detect where a new section begins. Time spent with a marking pen to highlight the rubrics will prove well worth while.

Novum Testamentum XXXIV, 3 (1992) Novum Testamentum XXXIV, 3 (1992)

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BOOK REVIEWS

Zandee had been working on this text for many years, initially in association with Malcolm Peel, with whom he collaborated in preparing the translation for The Nag Hammadi Library in English (3rd ed. 1988, pp. 379-395). He also published several independent studies (conveniently listed in Y. Janssens, Les Lefons de Silvanos [BCNH 'Textes' 13, Quebec 1983], pp. XI-XII; cf. also D. M. Scholer's annual 'Bibliographia Gnostica' in Novum Testamentum). In this volume he presents first a brief introduction, then the Coptic text with an English translation opposite, and at the end an index of Greek and Coptic words which may also serve as a vocabulary. The main part of the book (pp. 82-483) is devoted to the commentary, with a series of excursuses (Biblical material, Philo, Stoicism, Platonism, Gnosticism and Nag Hammadi Texts, and Patristic Texts) to provide summaries and draw the threads together (pp. 485-576).

Four hundred pages of commentary for a text of some thirty pages may appear excessive (Janssens has 46!), but that would be a superficial judgment and miss the point of what Zandee has done. This is not so much an exposition of the text as a collection of illustrative material which serves to set the document in perspec- tive, and will be of great value to students of Silvanus for years to come. The text is divided into sections and presented no longer line by line as in the translation facing the Coptic, but in paragraphs (a). This is followed (b) by an apparatus of Biblical references, not only for passages actually cited but also for terms and con- cepts occurring in the Scriptures. For reasons of space, only references are given, but the Biblical excursus (pp. 485-516) analyses and classifies the material under various heads. Then comes, as required, (c) the citation of relevant passages from the works of Philo, followed by texts from (d) Stoicism and (e) Platonism. The relevant excursuses show that while Silv. has much in common with both Stoicism and Platonism, and in particular with the Middle Platonism of Albinus, there are also differences which should not be overlooked and serve to set it apart. (f) is devoted to Gnosticism and to other documents from the Nag Hammadi library. Silv. is not itself gnostic, since several well-known gnostic themes are lacking, and indeed there are elements of anti-gnostic polemic, but the comparison is useful as illustrating the complexity of the problem. Zandee offers the judicious opinion that "in explaining the Christian message for men of their time, our author and Gnostic writers often used the same terminology and the same imagery, both being influenced by Hellenistic thought and contemporary philosophy" (p. 539). The fact that a term or concept occurs in some gnostic text does not necessarily mean that it is already "gnostic" in an earlier context: it may be Stoic or Platonic, or even Biblical, and only become gnostic when it is put into a gnostic context; moreover, this may entail some re-interpretation. Finally, (g) presents patristic texts, mainly from Justin Martyr and especially Origen (for Clement, Zandee refers to his earlier work "The Teachings of Silvanus" and Clement of Alexandria [Leiden 1977]).

The discussion is based mainly on primary sources, some of them as already noted not readily available in English, but there is occasional reference to the modern literature. At p. 359 one might have expected a fuller discussion of the theme of sobria ebrietas in Philo, with some reference to Lewy's Sobria Ebrietas (Giessen 1929). For the dating of the codex, Zandee refers to the Codex VII volume of the Facsimile Edition (1972), but neglects both Barns's "preliminary report" in the Labib Festschrift (NHS VI, 1975) and the volume on the carton- nage (NHS XVI, 1981; see p. 4 and Nos. 62-65, dated between A.D. 341 and 348). For some reason the treatise Allogenes is cited from the Facsimile Edition, although an English translation is available in NHLE (3rd ed., pp. 490-500); perhaps Zandee simply did not like it. The text, with translation and notes, is now available in Nag Hammadi Codices XI, XII, XIII, ed. C. W. Hedrick (NHS

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BOOK REVIEWS BOOK REVIEWS

XXVIII, 1990), pp. 173-267. At p. 194 Zandee refers to the Gospel of Philip, "where it is said that the child resembles the man who(m) the mother really loves", and then quotes the NHLE translation: "The children a woman bears resemble the man who loves her". Reference to the Coptic (pete tshime me mmof) is enough to show that NHLE is wrong here. Finally, Fossum's The Name of God and the Angel of the Lord is dated Utrecht 1982, which is the date of the original dissertation. It may be more readily accessible in its published form (WUNT 36, Tibingen 1985).

These criticisms in no way detract from the value of this book, which is com- prehensive in its coverage, balanced in its assessment, and a genuine contribution to the understanding of this document in the context of the author's period.

R. McL. WILSON

S.E. PORTER (ed.), The Language of the New Testament: Classic Essays (Sheffield: Academic Press, 1991) ( = Journal for the Study of the New Testament Sup- plement Series 60), 238 pp. ?27.50.

The language(s) spoken by Jesus and the character of New Testament Greek are questions that have held, and continue to hold, a tantalizing fascination for scholars, particularly since the discovery and publication of many non-literary Greek papyri about one hundred years ago. Not that the academic study of New Testament language began only then: there had been studies of the Semitic influ- ence on the New Testament published in the preceding two hundred years. But it was Deissmann's work at the turn of this century that gave an impetus to the study of Biblical Greek that shows no sign of abating. The arguments, the swings in fashion, and the general lack of scholarly consensus on the nature of the Greek known to Jesus and used by the New Testament authors have made the study of Biblical Greek a fascinating area of study. But it is a complex field requiring of its practitioners an ability not only in Hellenistic and Attic Greek, but also in Hebrew and Aramaic, and perhaps Latin too. The shifts in the arguments and the details of these often technical discussions are not always appreciated by, or even known to, non-experts.

And this is where this collection of essays comes in and proves its value. Stanley Porter has gathered together nine essays arranged chronologically from one originally published in 1899 to the latest one originally published in 1980. Two were originally in German and appear here for the first time in English. Occa- sionally the editor has silently corrected the originals, and has added to the foot- notes comments and bibliographical addenda.

Despite the sub-title not all the essays are classics in themselves, but it is proba- bly true to say that his choice allows classic expositions of the different viewpoints to be conveniently presented. Thus Matthew Black's arguments stressing the Aramaic influence on New Testament Greek (views that have proved themselves to be seminal) are represented by a somewhat obscure and relatively overlooked Festschrift article. But Porter's choice of Black, "Aramaic Studies and the Language of Jesus" from the Kahle memorial volume is a wise one, because it takes account of the on-going debate raised by his views. The other articles in the collection are: A. Deissmann, "Hellenistic Greek with Special Consideration of the Greek Bible": J.H. Moulton, "New Testament Greek in the Light of Modern Discovery"; C.C. Torrey, "The Aramaic of the Gospels"; J.A. Fitzmyer, "The Languages of Palestine in the First Century AD"; H.S. Gehman, "The Hebraic Character of Septuagint Greek"; Nigel Turner, "The Language of Jesus and his

XXVIII, 1990), pp. 173-267. At p. 194 Zandee refers to the Gospel of Philip, "where it is said that the child resembles the man who(m) the mother really loves", and then quotes the NHLE translation: "The children a woman bears resemble the man who loves her". Reference to the Coptic (pete tshime me mmof) is enough to show that NHLE is wrong here. Finally, Fossum's The Name of God and the Angel of the Lord is dated Utrecht 1982, which is the date of the original dissertation. It may be more readily accessible in its published form (WUNT 36, Tibingen 1985).

These criticisms in no way detract from the value of this book, which is com- prehensive in its coverage, balanced in its assessment, and a genuine contribution to the understanding of this document in the context of the author's period.

R. McL. WILSON

S.E. PORTER (ed.), The Language of the New Testament: Classic Essays (Sheffield: Academic Press, 1991) ( = Journal for the Study of the New Testament Sup- plement Series 60), 238 pp. ?27.50.

The language(s) spoken by Jesus and the character of New Testament Greek are questions that have held, and continue to hold, a tantalizing fascination for scholars, particularly since the discovery and publication of many non-literary Greek papyri about one hundred years ago. Not that the academic study of New Testament language began only then: there had been studies of the Semitic influ- ence on the New Testament published in the preceding two hundred years. But it was Deissmann's work at the turn of this century that gave an impetus to the study of Biblical Greek that shows no sign of abating. The arguments, the swings in fashion, and the general lack of scholarly consensus on the nature of the Greek known to Jesus and used by the New Testament authors have made the study of Biblical Greek a fascinating area of study. But it is a complex field requiring of its practitioners an ability not only in Hellenistic and Attic Greek, but also in Hebrew and Aramaic, and perhaps Latin too. The shifts in the arguments and the details of these often technical discussions are not always appreciated by, or even known to, non-experts.

And this is where this collection of essays comes in and proves its value. Stanley Porter has gathered together nine essays arranged chronologically from one originally published in 1899 to the latest one originally published in 1980. Two were originally in German and appear here for the first time in English. Occa- sionally the editor has silently corrected the originals, and has added to the foot- notes comments and bibliographical addenda.

Despite the sub-title not all the essays are classics in themselves, but it is proba- bly true to say that his choice allows classic expositions of the different viewpoints to be conveniently presented. Thus Matthew Black's arguments stressing the Aramaic influence on New Testament Greek (views that have proved themselves to be seminal) are represented by a somewhat obscure and relatively overlooked Festschrift article. But Porter's choice of Black, "Aramaic Studies and the Language of Jesus" from the Kahle memorial volume is a wise one, because it takes account of the on-going debate raised by his views. The other articles in the collection are: A. Deissmann, "Hellenistic Greek with Special Consideration of the Greek Bible": J.H. Moulton, "New Testament Greek in the Light of Modern Discovery"; C.C. Torrey, "The Aramaic of the Gospels"; J.A. Fitzmyer, "The Languages of Palestine in the First Century AD"; H.S. Gehman, "The Hebraic Character of Septuagint Greek"; Nigel Turner, "The Language of Jesus and his

Novum Testamentum XXXIV, 3 (1992) Novum Testamentum XXXIV, 3 (1992)

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