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Hesychius of Jerusalem, also spelt Hesychios and also known as Hesychius the Priest, was a Christian priest and exegete, active during the first half of the fifth century. Nothing certain is known as to the dates of his birth and death (450s?), or, indeed concerning the events of his life. Bearing as he does the title πρεσβύτερος "priest", he is not to be confused with Bishop Hesychius of Jerusalem, a contemporary of Gregory the Great.
The writings of Hesychius of Jerusalem have been in part lost, in part handed down and edited as the work of other authors, and some are still buried in libraries in manuscript. Whoever would collect and arrange the fragments of Hesychius which have come down to us must go back to the manuscripts; for in Migne's edition of the Church Fathers [1] the works of various writers named Hesychius are thrown together without regard for order under the heading "Hesychius, Presbyter of Jerusalem". About half of the matter under "Hesychius" must be discarded. However, the commentary on Leviticus [2] ) which is extant in its entirety only in Latin is authentic, although its biblical text has been aligned to the Vulgate text rather than the Septuagint. Its authenticity has been proved by the publication of a Greek fragment, which, moreover, shows that the Latin text is in poor condition. [3] The collection of ascetic maxims [4] is the work of Hesychius of Sinai, and not of his namesake of Jerusalem. A comprehensive critical edition of the homilies, both authentic and spurious, transmitted in Greek under Hesychius' name was published by Michel Aubineau. [5]
Judging from the extant fragments—scattered and translated into Armenian, Georgian, and Latin [6] —Hesychius must have been a very prolific writer on Biblical, particularly Old Testament, exegetics. The notice in the Greek Menology under 28 March, in which mention is made of the exposition of the entire Scriptures, can refer to none other than Hesychius of Jerusalem. In hermeneutics he adheres closely to the allegorico-mystical method of the Alexandrines; he finds in every sentence of the Bible a mystery of dogma, and reads into texts of the Old Testament the whole complexus of ideas in the New. He follows Origen of Alexandria in choosing for the enunciative form of exegesis the shortest possible marginal gloss (paratheseis).
His comment on Isaiah, xix, 1, "the Lord will ascend upon a swift cloud, and will enter into Egypt" is "Christ in the arms of the Virgin". Water represents always to him "the mystical water" (of baptism), and bread, "the mystical table" (of the Eucharist). It is this hyper-allegorical and glossarial method which constitutes the peculiar characteristic of his exegesis, and proves a valuable help to the literary critic in distinguishing authentic Hesychiana from the unauthentic.
The anti-Semitic tone of many scholia may find an explanation in local conditions; likewise geographical and topographical allusions to the holy places of Palestine would be expected of an exegete living at Jerusalem. The importance of Hesychius for textual criticism lies in the fact that many of his paraphrases echo the wording of his exemplar, and still more in his frequent citation of variants from other columns of the Hexapla or Tetrapla, particularly readings of Symmachus, whereby he has saved many rare variants.
He is likewise of importance in Biblical stichometry. His "Capitula" [7] and commentaries show the early Christian division into chapters of at least the Twelve Minor Prophets and Isaiah, which corresponds to the inner sequence of ideas of the respective books better than the modern division. In the case of certain separate books, Hesychius has inaugurated an original stichic division of the Sacred Text—for the "citizen of the Holy City" (hagiopolites) cited in the oldest manuscripts of catenae of the Psalms, and the Canticles, is none other than Hesychius of Jerusalem. It was discovered by Giovanni Mercati that in some manuscripts the initial letter of each division according to Hesychius is indicated in colour. Hesychius must have been generally known as an authority, for he is quoted simply as Hagiopolites, or, elsewhere, by the equally laconic expression "him of Jerusalem" (tou Hierosolymon).
It is certain that Hesychius was the author of consecutive commentaries on Leviticus, the Psalms, and Luke (Chapter i?), and of scholia on the Twelve Minor Prophets, Isaiah, and Ezekiel, [8] His name occurs in catenae in connection with an occasional scholium to texts from other books (Genesis, 1 and 2 Samuel, Daniel, [9] Matthew, John, Acts, the Catholic Epistles), which, however, apart from the question of their authenticity, are not necessarily taken from complete commentaries on the respective books. Likewise the citations from Hesychius in ascetic florilegia [10] are taken from exegetical works. The most perplexing problem is the connection of Hesychius with the three commentaries on the Psalms attributed to him. The numerous citations from Hesychius in catenae of the Psalms and the exegetical works on the Psalms handed down over his name, particularly in Oxford and Venice manuscripts, are so widely at variance with each other as to preclude any question of mere variations in different transcriptions of one original; either Hesychius was the author of several commentaries on the Psalms or the above-mentioned commentaries are to be attributed to several authors perhaps named Hesychius. As a matter of fact Spanish manuscripts clearly distinguish between Hesychius the Monk, author of commentaries on the Psalms and Canticles, and Hesychius the Priest. In 1900 the commentary on the Psalms included among the works of Saint Athanasius [11] was explained as the glossary of Hesychius issued over a pseudonym. This hypothesis has since been confirmed by further evidence. [12]
A complete commentary of Hesychius on the Canticles of the Old and New Testament, which are known to have constituted a distinct book in the early Christian Bible, is preserved in manuscript; any edition of this must be based on the Bodl. Miscell., 5, saec. 9. Another codex which would have been particularly valuable for this edition and for the solution of the Hesychius problem, the Turin manuscript B. VII. 30, saec. 8-9, has unfortunately been destroyed by fire. The Mechitarists of San Lazzaro have in their possession an Armenian commentary on Job over the name of Hesychius of Jerusalem, which was published with a French translation by Charles Mercier and Charles Renoux in 1983. [13] The scholia of Hesychius to the Twelve Minor Prophets, which are preserved in six manuscripts at Rome, Paris, and Moscow, have been published by Mats Eriksson. [14] His commentary on Isaiah was discovered in 1900 in the anonymous marginal notes to an eleventh-century Vatican manuscript (Vatic., 347) and published with a facsimile; [15] the authenticity of these 2860 scholia was later confirmed by a ninth-century Bodleian manuscript (Miscell., 5).
Scholia to the Magnificat, in the catenae of Canticles, and manuscripts at Paris and Mount Athos establish beyond doubt the fact that Hesychius left a commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, at least on the first chapter. For evidence as to the authenticity of the "Harmony of the Gospels" [16] the treatise on the Resurrection must first be examined. This is extant in two forms, a longer (under Gregory of Nyssa [17] and a shorter, the latter an abridgement of the former and as yet unpublished. In tenth-, eleventh-, and twelfth-century manuscripts of the former, to "Hesychius Presbyter of Jerusalem" is added the further title "the theologian". [18]
The Book of Joel is a Jewish prophetic text containing a series of "divine announcements". The first line attributes authorship to "Joel the son of Pethuel". It forms part of the Book of the twelve minor prophets or the Nevi'im ("Prophets") in the Hebrew Bible, and is a book in its own right in the Christian Old Testament. In the New Testament, his prophecy of the outpouring of God's Holy Spirit upon all people was notably quoted by Saint Peter in his Pentecost sermon.
Theodoret of Cyrus or Cyrrhus was an influential theologian of the School of Antioch, biblical commentator, and Christian bishop of Cyrrhus (423–457).
Ferdinand Hitzig was a German biblical critic.
The Twelve Minor Prophets, or the Book of the Twelve, is a collection of prophetic books, written between about the 8th and 4th centuries BCE, which are in both the Jewish Tanakh and Christian Old Testament.
Gennadius I was the Patriarch of Constantinople from 458 until his death. Gennadius is known to have been a learned writer who followed the Antiochene school of literal exegesis, although few writings have been left about him. He is commemorated in the Eastern Orthodox Church on 17 November, but is not listed in the Roman Martyrology.
Cosmas of Maiuma, also called Cosmas Hagiopolites, Cosmas of Jerusalem, Cosmas the Melodist, or Cosmas the Poet, was a bishop and an important hymnographer in the East. He is venerated as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church.
The Ascension of Isaiah is a pseudepigraphical Judeo-Christian text. Scholarly estimates regarding the date of the Ascension of Isaiah range from 70 AD to 175 AD. Many scholars believe it to be a compilation of several texts completed by an unknown Christian scribe who claimed to be the Prophet Isaiah, while an increasing number of scholars in recent years have argued that the work is a unity by a single author that may have utilized multiple sources.
The Patrologia Graeca is an edited collection of writings by the Church Fathers and various secular writers, in the Greek language. It consists of 161 volumes produced in 1857–1866 by J.P. Migne's Imprimerie Catholique, Paris.
Evagrius Ponticus, also called Evagrius the Solitary, was a Christian monk and ascetic from Heraclea, a city on the coast of Bithynia in Asia Minor. One of the most influential theologians in the late fourth-century church, he was well known as a thinker, polished speaker, and gifted writer. He left a promising ecclesiastical career in Constantinople and traveled to Jerusalem, where in 383 AD he became a monk at the monastery of Rufinus and Melania the Elder. He then went to Egypt and spent the remaining years of his life in Nitria and Kellia, marked by years of asceticism and writing. He was a disciple of several influential contemporary church leaders, including Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Macarius of Egypt. He was a teacher of others, including John Cassian and Palladius of Galatia.
Hesychius of Sinai was a hieromonk of Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai, and an ascetic author of the Byzantine period in literature.
Oecumenius is the name under which are transmitted several commentaries in Greek on the New Testament. It now appears that these were not all written by the same person nor in the same period.
Jewish printers were quick to take advantages of the printing press in publishing the Hebrew Bible. While for synagogue services written scrolls were used, the printing press was very soon called into service to provide copies of the Hebrew Bible for private use. All the editions published before the Complutensian Polyglot were edited by Jews; but afterwards, and because of the increased interest excited in the Bible by the Reformation, the work was taken up by Christian scholars and printers; and the editions published by Jews after this time were largely influenced by these Christian publications. It is not possible in the present article to enumerate all the editions, whole or partial, of the Hebrew text. This account is devoted mainly to the incunabula.
In Biblical studies, a gloss or glossa is an annotation written on margins or within the text of biblical manuscripts or printed editions of the scriptures. With regard to the Hebrew texts, the glosses chiefly contained explanations of purely verbal difficulties of the text; some of these glosses are of importance for the correct reading or understanding of the original Hebrew, while nearly all have contributed to its uniform transmission since the 11th century. Later on, Christian glosses also contained scriptural commentaries; St. Jerome extensively used glosses in the process of translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible.
A catena is a form of biblical commentary, verse by verse, made up entirely of excerpts from earlier Biblical commentators, each introduced with the name of the author, and with such minor adjustments of words to allow the whole to form a continuous commentary. John Henry Newman, in his preface to Thomas Aquinas' Catena Aurea, explains that a "Catena Patrum" is "a string or series of passages selected from the writings of various Fathers, and arranged for the elucidation of some portion of Scripture, as the Psalms or the Gospels".
Isaiah 33 is the thirty-third chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. The Jerusalem Bible groups chapters 28-35 together as a collection of "poems on Israel and Judah".
Isaiah 56 is the fifty-sixth chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. Chapter 56 is the first chapter of the final section of the Book of Isaiah, often referred to as Trito-Isaiah.
Ezekiel 26 is the twenty-sixth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet/priest Ezekiel, and is one of the Books of the Prophets.
Ezekiel 15 is the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet/priest Ezekiel, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter records a parable about the fate of the "useless" grapevine as a symbol of the nation of Israel at that time. In the New King James Version, this chapter is sub-titled "The Outcast Vine"; according to commentator Andrew Davidson, it records "the uselessness of the wood of the vine".
Jeremiah 48 is the forty-eighth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter is part of a series of "oracles against foreign nations", consisting of chapters 46 to 51. In particular, chapters 46-49 focus on Judah's neighbors. This chapter contains the poetic oracles against Moab.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Hesychius of Jerusalem". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.
