Novum Testamentum Patristicum - Commentaries

The project "Novum Testamentum Patristicum" has at its aim to create a compilation, translation, and explanation of important texts of the Church Fathers on the respective texts of the NT, in order to give aid to specialists, students, and practicians for a better understanding of the NT in view of its effects in history ("Wirkungsgeschichte"), analogous to the "Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch" by H.L. Strack and P. Billerbeck, for instance. Such a kind of work can only be done in co-operation with many specialists. On the suggestion of Prof. Dr. K. Niederwimmer and under the. supervision of Prof. Dr. J. Kremer, Dr. A. Friedl, a student of the latter, has already made out a first valuable proposition which still has to be completed in some respects (e.g. consideration of the individual Church Father`s theology), by investigating, for the time being, commentaries of Greek Church Fathers on St. Paul`s letter to the Philippians (thanks to FWF P10501-HIS, 1995/1996). This preliminary study was appreciated at a meeting of the collaborators that meanwhile had been won to work on this project as well. But Dr. Friedl`s work gave also reason for suggestions for improvement. Dr. Friedl has continued this work during his stay at the University of Pretoria, which has granted him a research fellowship for one year (from October 3, 1997), by translating the commentary of Ephrem the Syrian into German (and English) for the first time. He also worked out a thorough introduction into Ephrem`s exegesis that sometimes appears very strange to modern Europeans, and explained the first two chapters in the form of a catena. At the moment he revises his work in view of its usefulness for the NTP in consideration of the criticism of the professors at Pretoria. He thinks to elaborate soon the explanation of chapters 3 and 4 as well. After his return to Vienna he intends to conclude these works on Ephrem and to publish it, possibly, as a preliminary work to the project NTP. By arrangement of the editors and those scholars who work on the project in the meantime, the first volume of the NTP shall be ready in about three years. Dr. Friedl only will be able to achieve this work with the help of the sponsorship of the FWF for three years.

Both protestant and catholic biblical scolars have long called for the consideration of the history of influence of New Testament texts in the exegetical process, in order to expose their inherent dynamics as well as the historical embedment of their interpretation. The current project, financed by the FWF, was intended as an adapted continuation of the project P10501-HIS, also financed by the FWF and covering a two-year period. On completion of a preparatory stage, the latter provided for the translation of exemplary commentaries of Greek and Latin Church Fathers on Phil 1-2, upon which they were interpreted in the style of a Catena. It became clear that the project needed further preparatory work, since an appropriate understanding of these texts by modern readers requires more than a literal translation of these commentaries, stemming from a different temporal and cultural context. The editor of these texts would need to guide the reader towards a critical understanding in the light of the total uvre of each of the individual commentators, e.g. by supplementing their remarks through references to their overall theology. In order to meet these requirements, the research was focused on the history of interpretation within the New Testament biblical science and on the exemplary work on the letter to the Philippians by Ephrem the Syrian. Apart from the manuscript which has survived in Armenian, until now this text was only available in a Latin translation from the 19th century. (1) On the question of the justification of treating the history of interpretation within the New Testament science in general and the works of the Church Fathers in particular, the most recent secondary literature was sifted through and evaluated. (2) On the spiritual, historical and literary environment of Ephrem, secondary literature was applied in order to understand him and his uvre in the modern context. (3) Primary and secondary literature on the person and work of Ephrem the Syrian was collected and evaluated in order to rank his Pauline commentary within his uvre and, in the light of a degree of doubt around the certainty of his authorship, to find systematical and theological points of reference witnessing for or against the authenticity of his commentary. (4) The systematical illumination of and commentary on the literary and conceptual world of the Syrian within the commentary on the letter to the Philippians were continued. (5) The colophons of the different owners of the manuscript were translated from Armenian into another language (German) for the first time, in order to illuminate the history of the manuscript and to reach insights into the activities of copyists and translators, which have also influenced its content. (6) Editorial work on an Armenian manuscript that has been unknown until now and that also contains the text of the commentary on the letter to the Philippians, was started on.