Finally, most interesting evidence of the forgery is to be found in a fourth Syriac letter belonging to this same group. It is contained in both of the manuscripts, where it immediately follows the "Letter (or letters) of Simeon." I give, as before, the text of Add. 12154 with the variant readings of Add. 12150.
[Syriac text omitted] |272
"The letter which Alexander of Mabbog and Andreas of Samosata wrote to John of Antioch and Theodoret of Cyrrhus, about the holy Mar Simeon the Stylite and Mar Jacob of Kaphra Rhima.
To the Holy and Reverend, our spiritual Fathers.
As for the rest: When we received the saintly letters of your God-loving selves, we were filled with great joy, rejoicing especially because of the news of your good health. But those things distress us exceedingly which we learned from your letters concerning the things which Simeon and Jacob wrote to you. But this we urge upon your Holiness, inasmuch as they have dared to write these things contrary to the truth which we hold; that even if you see them raising the dead to life, you put no faith in them, but count them as the rest of the heretics."
It is at once clear that this curious epistle, sent "from Alexander of Hierapolis and Andreas of Samosata to John of Antioch and Theodoret of Cyrrhus, about Simeon the Stylite and Jacob of Kaphra Rhima"(!), was written to serve as a voucher for the genuineness of the other three. In particular, it is designed to show that Jacob of Kaphra Rhima, to whom Simeon's two-edged confession of faith was addressed, had been, as he still continued to be, a strong ally of Simeon's in opposition to these misguided leaders of the Syrian church. A still more important purpose of the document appears when it is brought into connection with the mysterious words of the letter to Jacob, where Simeon is made to say: "Moreover, a writing, signed by these calumniators, bears witness for me that I did not approve them." This is the "writing," beyond any question. The whole thing is very well managed. In view of the contents of our epistle number two, which, be it noted, is said to be only the reiteration of former utterances, there could be no doubt as to the nature of the |273 "things which Simeon and Jacob wrote" to John and Theodoret. Thus there is secured the written testimony of four of the foremost anti-Monophysites of this region that Simeon Stylites spurned their doctrines, and was in turn rejected from their fellowship.
We have, then, in these four Syriac letters, an interesting example of that forgery of documents which often played such an important part in the fierce controversies of the fifth and following centuries. The temptation to this misuse of Simeon's name was especially strong; though it was a thing that could not easily be done until after his generation had passed away. He had written no books (if, indeed, he could read and write at all), and therefore a forgery in his name would be the less easily exposed. His support was no small prize to be gained, for he was looked up to as an inspired man, gifted with superhuman knowledge and power. Even the most sober-minded and best educated of those who knew him personally---such as Theodoret, for example---believed him to be a constant worker of miracles. His fame continued unabated after his death; and it is not surprising that some time after, perhaps in the following century, when the bone and sinew of Christian Syria was already Monophysite, and the strife with "Synodites" was still incredibly bitter, some less scrupulous controversialist should have dared to invent these oracles of the great saint.
It is probable that we have the forged documents complete in manuscript A. They seem to be the work of a single writer, and it is hardly likely that the collection ever contained any others. The scribe of the manuscript B (or of one of its ancestors), as is evident, chose to save himself time and trouble by omitting the two longest of the letters; copying only the first, with its secondary superscription, and the fourth. |274
Appendix.
A few words regarding the principal manuscripts of the Syriac Life of Simeon may not be out of place, in view of the many conflicting statements which are current. The three best known manuscripts are the Codex Vaticanus clx., and two codices of the British Museum, namely Add. 12174, and Add. 14484. The colophon of the Vatican codex reads as follows (I copy the text from Bedjan, Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum, iv. p. 648 f.):
[Syriac text omitted]
These words have received various interpretations. Assemani, who, as is well known, believed the priest Cosmas, a contemporary of the Stylite, to have been the author of the Life, regarded the date here given ("521 of the Antiochian reckoning"=473 A.D.) as the date of the transcription of this manuscript; and supposed the two persons named, Simeon son of Apollonius and Bar Hattar son of Udan, to have been mentioned as those at whose request, or by whose aid, the biography was written. Wright, who of course rejected the (groundless) ascription of the work to Cosmas, agreed with Assemani as to the date of the manuscript ( Syriac Literature, 1894, p. 50); but says of the two Syrians ( l . c , note 3): "Assemani is mistaken .... These are merely the persons who paid for the writing of this portion of Cod. Vat. clx." But on both of these points Wright, as well as Assemani, is certainly in error. The two Syrians whose names are given were the authors of the biography, as Noldeke ( Orientalische Skizzen, p. 239, note) and Bedjan (op. cit., p. xiii.) insist. The verb [rbt], as the latter remarks, is frequently used in the |275 sense of "compose" (a book or other writing). He might have added that the word could hardly bear any other interpretation here, inasmuch as the colophon says, after giving the names of these two, "who took the pains to 'make' this book": "for they 'made' it by the labor of their hands and the sweat of their faces." It follows, that 473 A.D. was the date of the completion of the original work. The scribe of the Vatican manuscript simply reproduced, as usual, the colophon of an older codex; just when he made his copy, we do not know."
The three manuscripts named present somewhat differing recensions of the work, as is of course to be expected in the case of a popular book of this kind. No serious attempt has as yet been made to determine which of these recensions stands nearest to the original. It is generally taken for granted that the Vatican codex is the oldest, and that its version of the history, which is considerably shorter than either of the others, is to be preferred. So, for example, Noldeke, Syrische Grammatik, p. xiii.: "der Vaticaniscke Text ist ubrigens, wie es scheint, im Ganzen ursprunglicher als der des British Museum." But both of these current opinions deserve to be challenged; and in the case of the latter, it seems possible to prove to the contrary, in one important point at least. Bedjan, who printed the text of the London manuscript Add. 14484, dated by Wright in the sixth century, gives in his preface (p. xii. f.) a list of the numerous passages, some of them of considerable length, which are found in the London manuscript (or manuscripts), but are missing in the Vatican codex. An examination of these passages seems to make it plain that the longer recension, represented by the London codices, is to be preferred to the other. A single illustration will suffice. In Bedjan's text, p. 525 f., where the story of Simeon's first entrance into Telnesse is told, we have a smooth and consistent account, in the well-known style of this book. But no one can read the Vatican recension here, comparing it with the other, without seeing at once that it is the result of a mere mutilation of the original. A passage a dozen lines long has been cut out |276 bodily; regarding this fact there is no room for doubt. That is, the Roman codex contains a "clipped" version of the Life; in which the scribe has abridged from his original in the favorite way, by leaving out here and there passages of varying length.
It is likely that the oldest of our manuscripts stand at several removes from the original, and certain that the text of each has suffered from accidental corruption---aside from the alterations in matter and order. In view of the age of this biography, and the interest attaching to it, some further comparison of the several recensions might be worth while.
[Selected footnotes renumbered and moved to the bottom]
1. See Appendix, page 275.
2. Wright (Syriac Literature, p. 56, note 3) thought this might be a mistake for Uran (Uranius).
3. See the excellent sketch in Noldeke's Orientalische Skizzen, 1892, pp. 224-239.
4. So generally written. The form [Syriac] also occurs; and the old manuscript Brit. Mus. Add. 14484, edited by Bedjan, has everywhere Telnesil. In the letter to Jacob of Kaphra Rhima (below, p. 202), also from an old and excellent manuscript, the form is [Syriac].
5. According to our narrative, Simeon, in his righteous indignation, dispensed with the customary introductory formula: "To Theodosius, the Emperor," etc.
6. It is also told by the church historian Evagrius ( Eccl. Hist., i. 113), who made use of the Life.
7. Called in the Life Asclepiades.
8. l.c, p. 232.
9. So Assemani, Bibl. Orient., i. 245.
10. Codex Theodosianus, xvi. 8, 25 (ed. Haenel, 1837, col. 1604).