Letters of Antony

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The letters of Antonius are understood to be twenty writings that are ascribed to the desert father Antonius . All of these scriptures are not letters in the strict sense of the word, but rather instructional letters .

author

Seven of these letters are very similar in content and style and differ from the other thirteen writings. The authorship of Antony is explicitly mentioned in five letters (1, 2, 4, 5, 6), in the first letter with the addition "the lonely and ruler of the lonely". Seven letters are attributed to Antonius by the church father Hieronymus in his work De viris illustribus (chap. 88), with the note that they were written in the Coptic language and translated into Greek. It is worth noting that they were sent to various monasteries, including a main monastery in Arsinoë, and that they were of an orthodox apostolic nature. These statements make an identification with the letters we received clear (see below). The Vita Antonii, on the other hand, knows nothing of the existence of such letters, which, however, should not be overstated, as it has a strongly legendary character.

Addressees

The addressees are named in the sixth letter "brothers who are in Arsinoe and in its neighborhood" (v. 1), in the first letter more general "brothers who live everywhere" (v. 1). Most often they are addressed as "children" (20 times), four of them as "holy Israelite children" (6th letter, v. 12-14; 7th letter, v. 1. 8). Nobody is mentioned by name, which is justified in the fifth letter as follows: "There is no need to mention your physical names that will pass, for you are children of Israel" (v. 1)

Emergence

The seven letters were originally written in Coptic, later translated into Greek, Syrian, Georgian, Arabic and Latin, the Greek versions having been completely lost and only fragments of the Coptic versions preserved. Since the letters are mentioned in De viris illustribus , they must have been written in Egypt before 392/3 AD.

Contents of the seven "real" Antonius letters

In the first letter the three types of calling are dealt with first (vv. 2–21): The first call is voluntary through the law of love, as was the case with Abraham (vv. 2–8). The second calling is through the written law given to Moses (vv. 9-14). The third calling is through painful chastisement (vv. 15-16). In the second part (vv. 22-78) the cleansing of the body (eyes, ears, mouth, hands, stomach, sex and feet) and the soul (thoughts and affects) by the Spirit of God is described. Humans should also become active here by weakening the body through fasting, night watch and hard work, through abstinence and prayer.

In the second to seventh letters , God's plan of salvation is repeated, bringing people back to their original good condition: First he sent Moses, who founded the house of truth. The prophets continued to build on its foundation. When their strength waned, he sent his onlyborn, who was able to heal the great wound. Up to completion it is the task of the human being to recognize himself in his good originality in order to arrive in this way to the knowledge of God. Physical desires are to be given up in order to strengthen the mind.

The seven real Antonius letters were not influenced by the much better known Vita Antonii. If Antonius is seen there as a miracle worker who had argued with demons and learned heretics and is even said to have been in correspondence with the emperor Constantine , he reveals himself in the letters as a simple man of God (theios aner) who, in contrast to the representation of the Vita Antonii of Athanasios of Gnosis and the theologian Origen, who was later suspected as a heretic , was close. Essentially, however, Antony proves himself to be an orthodox scriptural theologian who quotes exclusively from the biblical writings recognized by the official church and who is firmly rooted in the Pauline tradition .

Impact history

In addition to being mentioned in De viris illustribus, there are quotations and allusions to the Antonius letters in the “Coptic monastic literature of the fifth century”. In the Apophthegmata Patrum (5th century), in Antonius Logion 22, there is a parallel to the doctrine of the three types of physical movement, as presented in the first letter of Antonius.

Research history

Until the early 20th century, the letters were not the subject of scientific research. The first critical edition of the Syrian version was published in 1909 by Friedrich Nau . In 1955 Gérard Garitte published a critical edition of the Georgian version including Coptic fragments with a translation into Latin. He was also responsible for the division of the letters. In 1975 there was a translation into English by Derwas J. Chitty and in 1981 into Dutch by Christofoor Wagenaar .

Otto Bardenhewer , who was the first to deal with the contents of the letters, did not want to attach any particular value to them, because they were "too long, too theoretical, too lacking in juice and power", which is why he considered it unlikely that the desert father Antonius would be responsible for them . Franz Klejna comes to the opposite conclusion : Although "the simplicity of thought and language" is characteristic of the letters, it is only because Antonius has to strengthen "the simple peasant belief of his Fellach ascetics" and not that of intellectuals. In the study "The Letters of St. Antony", Samuel Rubenson comes to the conclusion that Antonius had "a fairly good knowledge of the Greek [is] philos [ophic] and theol [ogic] tradition". They reveal someone who can think carefully and logically. Wincenty Myszor also assumes that Antony was also influenced by the Gnosis . A relationship between the Gnostic Nag Hammadi texts and the Antonius letters suggests this.

swell

  • Gérard Garitte: Lettres de S. Antoine (Version Géorgienne et fragments Coptes) , in: Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium Vol. 148, Louvain 1955.
  • Gérard Garitte: Lettres de S. Antoine (Traduction) , in: Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium Bd. 149, Louvain 1955.
  • Jacques-Paul Migne : Epistulae VII , PG 40, Paris 1858, 977-1000.
  • Friedrich Nau: La Premiere Lettre de Saint Antoine , in: Revue de l'Orient Chrétien Vol. 14,? 1909, 284-297.

Translations

  • Derwas J. Chitty: The Letters of St. Antony the Great . SLG Press, Oxford 1975 (Fairacre Publications 50). ISBN 0-7283-0052-4
  • Samuel Rubenson: The Letters of St. Antony ... (This monograph , listed under the Secondary Literature section , contains a new translation of the letters.)
  • Christofoor Wagenaar: Leven, done, brieven van de Heilige Antonius abt . Bethlehem Abbey, Bonheiden 1981.

Secondary literature

  • Karl Suso Frank : Antonius of Egypt and his letters . In: Margot Schmidt u. a. (Ed.): From the search for God. Helmut Riedinger on his 75th birthday . Frommann-Holzboog, Bad Cannstatt 1998. ISBN 3-7728-1922-2 , pp. 65-82.
  • Wincenty Myszor: Antonius Briefe and Nag Hammadi texts , in: JbAC 32 (1989) , pp. 72-88.
  • Samuel Rubenson: About the authenticity of the 4th letter of Anthony , in: CSCO 1989 .
  • Samuel Rubenson: The Letters of St. Antony. Monasticism and the making of a saint . Fortress Press, Minneapolis, Minn. 1997. ISBN 0-8006-2910-8 (The dissertation, University of Lund 1990, does not contain a new translation of the letters).

Web links

Commons : Syrian version of the first letter of Anthony  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Karl Suso Frank: Antony of Egypt and his letters , p. 66.
  2. ↑ only in the Syrian version
  3. ↑ V. 1 in the Syrian manuscript B (= Manuscrit de Berlin 27, fol. 11 v -13 v ).
  4. ↑ Larger fragments have been preserved from the fourth and seventh letters, two smaller fragments from the fifth and sixth letters.
  5. ^ 1. Letter, v. 23ff .: “First the body is cleansed through much fasting, through prayers, through many night watches and through work which is to afflict the human body [24] and which is to sever it from all will of the flesh. [25] And the spirit of repentance helps him in these [works]. And he tries him through these [works], because the enemy should not turn him around. "
  6. ↑ 1st letter, v. 77f .: “But if she [ie the soul] perseveres and obeys the spirit that urges her to repent, then the Creator will soon be merciful with her powerless repentance, and when he sees the torment that demanded it from her body - through much prayer, fasting, supplication and learning the words of God, in the retreat from all people, [and all that] in humility, with tears and in constant mourning - [78] then the gracious one is God, who sees her plague and submission, has mercy on her and saves her. "
  7. ↑ 2nd letter, vv. 2–23; 3rd letter, vv. 7-25; 5th letter, vv. 15–31; 6th letter, vv. 4-14, 88-90; 7th letter, vv. 23–29, 39–45, 58f – k.
  8. ↑ Third Letter, v. 39: “Truly, my beloved in the Lord, I write to you as people who are understandable and able to know themselves; you know that he who knows himself knows God. "
  9. ↑ 6th letter, v. 66f .: “Therefore, as long as we are clad in this lazy body, let us awaken God in ourselves by encouraging one another [67] and surrendering ourselves to death for our souls and for one another sake. "
  10. ↑ 6th letter, v. 70f .: “Our spiritual nature is hidden in this perishable body, which was not originally attached to it. The spirit should therefore be freed from it. "
  11. ↑ 3rd letter, v. 5f .: “There is no need to address yourself by your physical name, because they are ephemeral. If one knows his real name, he will also know the name of truth. For this reason, as long as he fought with the angel in the night, Jacob was still called Jacob. But when morning came, his name was called Israel, which means something like “understanding that sees God”. "
  12. ^ Frank: Anthony of Egypt and his letters , p. 66
  13. ↑ Otto Bardenhewer: Geschichte der Altkirchlichen Literatur 3, 1912, p. 81.
  14. ↑ Franz Klejna: Antony and Ammonas in: ZKTh 62 (1938) , S. 340th
  15. ↑ F. Klejna, S. 338th
  16. ^ Samuel Rubenson: Antonius in: RGG4 (vol. 1) , Tübingen 1998, col. 578.
  17. ^ Samuel Rubenson: The Letters of St. Antony , Lund 1990, p. 51.