Syriac Fragments on Ezekiel and the Passover (complete)
Authorship disputed: Syriac fragments of Hippolytus (a comment on Ezekiel 1 and fragments of the work On the Holy Passover) as translated into German by H. Achelis (1897); the Greek is lost. Further Syriac and other pieces of the same collections are in hippolytus-fragmenta-orientalia and -2.
Source: Achelis 1897 (German translation by H. Achelis (1897); OCR from the Internet Archive).English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0). Route 3: the Greek original is lost and survives only in Syriac and Arabic; neither is a site language, so the source in hand is Achelis's German translation (1897), translated by Claude with a note; the German is never shown.
Chapter 1
1Achelis 1897 1.2:183
Translated by Claude from H. Achelis's German translation (1897) of the Syriac; neither is shown
From the holy Hippolytus, from the commentary on the prophet Ezekiel. So too Ezekiel showed those living creatures that praise God, drawing attention, in the four forms of the four evangelists, to their working, by which all four quarters of the world were filled, to show forth the glory of the Father. “The one living creature,” he says, “had four forms”; because each form is a Gospel, it appears in a fourfold way. The first form, he says, which was like an ox, signifies the priestly glory of Jesus, which Luke describes. The second, which was like a lion, signifies the leadership and kingly dignity of that lion “who comes from the tribe of Judah”; this Matthew has set forth. The third was like a man and signifies the Son's capacity to suffer and the lowly nature of human beings; this Mark has described. But the fourth, that of the eagle, teaches the spiritual mystery of his power and might, which flies in the heaven of the Word; this John proclaims.
Ezek 1:5–10 (allusion, high confidence) · Rev 5:5 (quotation, high confidence) · Gen 49:9 (allusion, medium confidence) · Rev 4:6–7 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Hippolytus reads the four faces of Ezekiel's living creatures as the four Gospels: ox for Luke, lion for Matthew, man for Mark, eagle for John.
- Route 3: a Syriac fragment of Hippolytus's lost commentary on Ezekiel, translated from the German of H. Achelis (Hippolytus, GCS 1.2, 1897); the German is not shown. The heading is the Syriac compiler's. Ezek 1:5–10 is alluded to; “the lion from the tribe of Judah”: Rev 5:5 (Gen 49:9). Hippolytus's assignment of the lion to Matthew and the man to Mark differs from the later usual one.
Topics: Scripture and canon, Canon of Scripture
Cite (SBL): Hippolytus, Frag. orient. 3 1 (Achelis 1897 1.2:183; trans. Sophia Scriptura from the German of H. Achelis, 1897, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/hippolytus-fragmenta-orientalia-3/1). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/hippolytus-fragmenta-orientalia-3/1
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Translation: Route 3: translated by Claude from H. Achelis's German translation of the Syriac fragments (GCS 1, 1897); the German is not shown. No public-domain English exists; re-read against the German.
Chapter 2
2Achelis 1897 1.2:269
Translated by Claude from H. Achelis's German translation (1897) of the Syriac; neither is shown
From the same (that is, from Bishop Hippolytus). And the virgin gave birth, the Living One lay at his mother's breast, the Light received baptism, the Lord was tempted, the Judge was judged; the one incapable of suffering suffered in the flesh, and the Immortal died; the Heavenly One was buried and rose from the dead. Are these not new things? That the one incapable of suffering suffered, and yet remained incapable of suffering, is that nothing new? That he who was buried should rise from the dead, is this nothing new? Yes indeed: what has never belonged to ordinary events is something new. Or can you claim to me, man, that such a thing happened before Christ came? You cannot. But if such things happened first in Christ, then by that very fact it is a new mystery: new because of the New Testament, because of the new church, because of the new salvation, because of the new kingdom, because of you, who are saved in a new way. For your salvation is new, since you are saved in a new way, through the cross and the nails of God.
Isa 43:19 (echo, low confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The paradoxes of the incarnation and passion are “new things,” a new mystery of salvation through the cross.
- Route 3: a Syriac fragment (British Museum, Add. 12156) ascribed to Hippolytus's work on the Pascha, translated from the German of H. Achelis (GCS 1.2, 1897); the German is not shown. The heading is the Syriac compiler's. The paradoxes of the impassible one suffering are translated exactly as the German gives them. “The nails of God” is as the German has it.
Topics: Christology, Passion and death of Christ
Cite (SBL): Hippolytus, Frag. orient. 3 2 (Achelis 1897 1.2:269; trans. Sophia Scriptura from the German of H. Achelis, 1897, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/hippolytus-fragmenta-orientalia-3/2). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/hippolytus-fragmenta-orientalia-3/2
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Translation: Route 3: translated by Claude from H. Achelis's German translation of the Syriac fragments (GCS 1, 1897); the German is not shown. No public-domain English exists; re-read against the German.
Chapter 3
3Achelis 1897 1.2:270
Translated by Claude from H. Achelis's German translation (1897) of the Syriac; neither is shown
Dionysius Bar Salibi, Commentary on the Gospels: From the holy Hippolytus of Rome and Mar Isaac. Our Lord did not eat the Passover of the law on that evening; rather, that was a Passover for his disciples, inasmuch as from his baptism onward he never again ate the Passover. Bar Hebraeus, Storehouse of Mysteries: The holy Hippolytus of Rome says: The Lord did not eat the Passover on that day, for it was to be eaten at the dawn of the day; rather, he only handed on the sacrament.
Matt 26:17–29 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Two Syriac writers report Hippolytus's view that Jesus did not eat the legal Passover at the Last Supper but gave the sacrament.
- Route 3: two later Syriac reports (Dionysius Bar Salibi, 12th century; Bar Hebraeus, 13th century) of one opinion of Hippolytus, translated from the German of H. Achelis (GCS 1.2, 1897); the German is not shown. These are reports in the writers' own words, not Hippolytus's text. Compare Hippolytus's Greek Paschal fragments, which date the crucifixion to the day of the Passover.
Topics: Eucharist, Easter and the church year
Cite (SBL): Hippolytus, Frag. orient. 3 3 (Achelis 1897 1.2:270; trans. Sophia Scriptura from the German of H. Achelis, 1897, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/hippolytus-fragmenta-orientalia-3/3). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/hippolytus-fragmenta-orientalia-3/3
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Translation: Route 3: translated by Claude from H. Achelis's German translation of the Syriac fragments (GCS 1, 1897); the German is not shown. No public-domain English exists; re-read against the German.