Instructionum libri duo

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Instructionum libri duo and Liber formularum spiritualis intellegentiae are two writings on biblical exegesis that Eucherius of Lyon wrote in Latin for his sons between 428 and 434 . The scriptures are intended to introduce the understanding of the biblical books and combine a deep understanding of the scriptures with a factual explanation of realities and concepts.

Sources and content

In these writings, Eucherius uses church fathers who worked a little earlier as sources , mainly Hieronymus , but also Johannes Cassianus and to a lesser extent Augustine of Hippo . Jerome also wrote the Vulgate , the translation of the Bible into Latin that was widely used from the end of the 4th century onwards. The receding of ancient education is striking . Although the author, due to his origins from the Roman leadership in Gaul , must have experienced an ancient upbringing and education system and was probably even familiar with some works of Greek literature, there are no poetics quotations outside of the Bible and also for factual topics such as geographical or botanical terms, little further ancient knowledge is used.

Instructionum libri duo - Book I.

This book is in the form of questions and answers about difficult passages in Scripture from Genesis to the Apocalypse . The questions are not related to each other and have very different weights. They range from a naive “where is paradise located” (In Genesi, VII) to the basic question “Cum omnia bona fecerit deus nihilque non ab illo factum sit, unde malum?” (In Genesi, XI, “Wenn Gott has created all good and nothing was not created by that from whence the evil? ")

Instructionum libri duo - Book II

Book II is devoted to factual issues. Words from non-Latin languages ​​are translated, terms clarified, but also lists of quickly retrievable knowledge are made available to the reader. The book contains u. a. these chapters:

  • De nominibs Hebraicis - mainly Hebrew names of people and places are explained etymologically . It is largely an adaptation of Hieronymus' Liber interpretationis hebraicorum nominum .
  • De variis vocabulis - various terms that are used in the Vulgate and have been at home in the Latin language for a long time, mainly Greek loan words, such as mandragora (plant), framea (weapon), byssus (linen), are explained.
  • De gentibus - for some of the tribes mentioned in the Bible, such as Gog and Magog , Philistini , Thogorma, etymological derivations and equations with known peoples are given, which are not always convincing. The term Africa, which was long established in antiquity (see , inter alia, Pliny the Elder : Naturalis historia , V, 23ff) is explained as Africa, according to Afer, a descendant of Abraham of Cetthura (Vulgate, Gn. 25: 1-4: Abraham .. . et Opher ... filii Chetthurae ). The equation Saba (Vulgate, Rg.10,1: Regina Saba ) with Arabia fits better .
  • De mensibus - Eucherius combines the seven Hebrew month names mentioned in the Bible with those familiar to him ( qui apud nos mensis vocatur , as it is called in our country ) of the Roman calendar , sometimes with an indication of the biblical passage. He also mentions four other Hebrew month names.
  • De ponderibus - about weights. Of the seven weights mentioned in the Old Testament ( Kikkar (in the Vulgate Talent ), Sekel , Gera (in the Vulgate Ez. 45,12 Obolus ), Mina, Beka, Pim and Kesitta), Eucherius only knows talent, Mina, Sekel and Obolos and also gives some relationships, for example: siculus autem XX Obolus habet ( Sekel = 20 obolus according to Vulgate Ez. 45,12). However, he also cites some units not used in the Bible such as dragma ( drachma ) and scripula and cites the ratio that was valid in antiquity: 1 drachm = 3 scripula.

Liber formularum spiritualis intellegentiae

This book contains samples of profound Bible exegesis. As Eucherius writes in the praefatio , he interprets the Holy Scriptures in four ways : according to the historia , the tropologia and the anagoge or analogia , i.e. literally, but also figuratively and symbolically. With this he follows the thoughts of Johannes Cassianus (especially Collationes XIV, 8).

In the last chapter De numeris , however, mainly simple numbers are used, such as 5 books of Moses , 4 Gospels , 30 times the income ( The parable of the sower , Gospel according to Matthew , 13). There are even a few memories of Greek arithmetic of the ancient world when the number 7 is defined as the sum of the smallest even and odd numbers .

Isidore of Seville later used this numerical framework in his more comprehensive work Liber numerorum .

Significance, aftermath and tradition

The two books are intended as an aid to a deeper understanding of the Bible, conveying basic exegetical knowledge and general Bible-related basic knowledge in the form of a real lexicon and foreign dictionary. Although there was no established school in Lérins when it was first written, the texts evidently became a widely used means of teaching understanding of the Bible in later times. This is also supported by the widespread use of the manuscripts. The oldest complete edition of the works of Eucherius was published by JA Brassicanus in 1531. In 1894 Karl Wotke edited an edition with little commentary.

Text output

literature

  • Otto Bardenhewer : History of early church literature - fourth volume, Darmstadt 1962.
  • Clemens M. Kasper; Theology and Asceticism - The Spirituality of the Lérins Island Monk in the 5th Century , Aschendorff Münster 1989.
  • Carsten Scherlaß: Literature and conversio - literary forms in the monastic area of ​​the monastery of Lérins , Frankfurt a. Main / Berlin / Bern / Bruxelles / New York / Oxford / Vienna, 2000.
  • Lionel R. Wickham: Eucherius von Lyon in Theologische Realenzyklopädie Volume XXV, Berlin / New York 1995.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carsten Scherlaß: Literature and conversio , p. 65
  2. ↑ Clemens M. Kasper; Theology and Asceticism , p. 385ff
  3. ^ Friedrich Prinz : Early Monasticism in France , Munich 1988, p. 452
  4. ↑ Clemens M. Kasper; Theology and Asceticism , p. 174
  5. ^ Ilona Opelt : Source studies on Eucherius in Kleine Schriften , Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Bern / New York / Paris / Vienna 1997
  6. ^ Heinrich Georges : Comprehensive Latin-German concise dictionary
  7. ↑ Gaalyahu Cornfeld, Johannes Botterweck (ed.): The Bible and their world. An encyclopedia on Holy Scripture in two volumes , Bergisch Gladbach 1969. p. 869
  8. ↑ Gaalyahu Cornfeld, Johannes Botterweck (ed.): The Bible and their world. An encyclopedia on Holy Scripture in two volumes , Bergisch Gladbach 1969, p. 597
  9. ↑ Carmen de ponderibus et mensuris , 17th ed. Klaus Geus , Oberhaid 2007
  10. ^ Otto Bardenhewer: History of early church literature - fourth volume, p. 568
  11. ↑ Clemens M. Kasper; Theology and Asceticism , p. 183
  12. ^ Lionel R. Wickham: Eucherius von Lyon in Theologische Realenzyklopädie Volume XXV, p. 524
  13. ↑ Otto Bardenhewer: History of early church literature - fourth volume, p. 569
  14. ↑ Karl Wotke: S. EVCHERII LVGDVNENSIS opera omnia Praefatio S. VII-XXIII
  15. ↑ Otto Bardenhewer: History of early church literature - fourth volume, p. 569