The Harp of Prophecy

Early Christian Interpretation of the Psalms

Brian E. Daley, S.J., Paul R. Kolbet, Brian E. Daley, S.J., Paul R. Kolbet

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780268026196
• eBook ISBN: 9780268158316
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

The Psalms generated more biblical commentary from early Christians than any other book of the Hebrew and Christian canon. While advances have been made in our understanding of the early Christian preoccupation with this book and the traditions employed to interpret it, no study on the Psalms traditions exists that can serve as a solid academic point of entry into the field. This collection of essays by distinguished patristic and biblical scholars fills this lacuna. It not only introduces readers to the main primary sources but also addresses the unavoidable interpretive issues present in the secondary literature.

The essays in The Harp of Prophecy represent some of the very best scholarly approaches to the study of early Christian exegesis, bringing new interpretations to bear on the work of influential early Christian authorities such as Athanasius, Augustine, and Basil of Caesarea. Subjects that receive detailed study include the dynamics of early Christian political power, gender expressions, and the ancient conversation between Christian, Jewish, and Greek philosophical traditions. The essays and bibliographic materials enable readers to locate and read the early Christian sources for themselves and also serve to introduce the various interdisciplinary methods and perspectives that are currently brought to bear on early Christian psalm exegesis. Students and scholars of theology and biblical studies will be led in new directions of thought and interpretation by these innovative studies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

EARLY CHRISTIAN PSALM COMMENTARIES AND AVAILABLE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS

Ambrose of Milan

Explanatio super Psalmos XII. Edited by M. Petschenig, CSEL 64. Edited by Luigi Franco Pizzolato, Sancti Ambrosii Episcopi Mediolanensis Opera 7 (Milan: Biblioteca Ambrosiana; Rome: Città Nuova, 1980). Translated by Íde Ní Riain, Commentary on Twelve Psalms (Dublin: Halcyon Press, 2000).

Expositio de Psalmo cxviii. Edited by M. Petschenig, CSEL 62: 53–510. Edited by Luigi Franco Pizzolato, Sancti Ambrosii Episcopi Mediolanensis Opera 9–10 (Milan: Biblioteca Ambrosiana; Rome: Città Nuova, 1987). Translated by Íde Ní Riain, Homilies of Saint Ambrose on Psalm 118 (119) (Dublin: Halcyon Press, 1998).

Ambrosiaster

Quaestiones veteris et novis testamenti 110–12 [on Psalms 1, 23, 50]. Edited by Alexander Souter, CSEL 50: 268–98.

Ammonius of Alexandria

Fragmenta in Psalmos. PG 85: 1361–64.

Apollinaris of Laodicea

Fragmenta in Psalmos. In Robert Devreesse, Les anciens commentateurs grecs des Psaumes, Studi e testi 141 (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica, 1970), 211–23. Also in Ekkehard Mühlenberg, Psalmenkommentare aus der Katenenüberlieferung, PTS 15: 1–118.

Apollinaris, Pseudo-

Metaphrasis Psalmorum. Edited by A. Ludwich, Apolinarii metaphrasis psalmorum, Bibliotheca Teubneriana (Leipzig: Teubner, 1912).

Arnobius, the Younger

Commentarii in Psalmos. Edited by Klaus D. Daur, CSEL 25.

Asterius

Homiliae in Psalmos. Edited by Marcel Richard in Asterii Sophistae commentariorum in Psalmos quae supersunt: Accedunt aliquot homiliae anonymae (Oslo: Brogger, 1956).

Athanasius of Alexandria

Epistula ad Marcellinum. PG 27: 12–45. Translated by Pamela Bright in Early Christian Spirituality, edited by Charles Kannengiesser (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), 56–77. Translated by Everett Ferguson, “Athanasius, Epistle to Marcellinus,” Ekklesiastikos Pharos 60 (1978): 378–403. Translated by Robert C. Gregg in Athanasius: The Life of Antony and the Letter to Marcellinus, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1980), 101–29.

Athanasius, Pseudo-

Argumentum in Psalmos. PG 27: 56–60.

Expositiones in Psalmos. PG 27: 60–545.

Augustine of Hippo

Enarrationes in Psalmos. Edited by D.E. Dekkers and I. Fraipont, CCSL 38–40. Translated by Maria Boulding, Expositions of the Psalms, WSA III.15–20.

Basil of Caesarea

Homiliae super Psalmos. PG 29: 209–494. Translated by Agnes Clare Way, Saint Basil: Exegetic Homilies, FC 46. Translated by Mark DelCogliano, St. Basil the Great: On Christian Doctrine and Practice (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2012), 92–101, 218–26.

Cassiodorus

Expositio Psalmorum. Edited by M. Adriaen, CCSL 97–98. Translated by P. G. Walsh, Cassiodorus: Explanation of the Psalms, ACW 51–53.

Cyril of Alexandria

Expositio in Psalmos. PG 69: 717–1274.

Daniel of Salah

Magna expositio super Psalmos; The Great Psalter Commentary of Daniel of Salah. Edited by David G. K. Taylor, 6 vols., CSCO, forthcoming.

Didymus of Alexandria

Commentarii in Psalmos. Edited by L. Doutreleau, A. Gesché, and M. Gronewald, Didymos der Blinde, psalmenkommentar (Tura-Papyrus), 5 vols., Papyrologische Texte und Abhandlungen 4, 6, 7, 8, 12 (Bonn: Habelt, 1968–70). Translated (only Psalm 24) by Albert-Kees Geljon, “Didymus the Blind: Commentary on Psalm 24 (23 LXX): Introduction, Translation and Commentary,” Vigiliae Christianae 65 (2011): 50–73.

Fragmenta in Psalmos. Edited by Ekkehard Mühlenberg, Psalmenkommentare aus der Katenenüberlieferung, PTS 15 (1975): 121–375; 16: 3–365 (1977); PG 39: 1156–1616, 1617–22.

Diodore of Tarsus

Commentarii in Psalmos. Edited by J. M. Olivier, CCSG 6. Translated by Robert C. Hill, Diodore of Tarsus: Commentary on Psalms 1–51 (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005).

Eusebius of Caesarea

Commentarii in Psalmos. PG 23: 71–1396; 24: 9–78; 30: 81–104.

Evagrius of Pontus

Scholia in Psalmos. May be extracted from printed sources by means of a key in M.-J. Rondeau, “Le commentaire sur les Psaumes d’Évagre le Pontique,” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 26 (1960): 307–48. Required sources include PG 12: 1054–1686; PG 27: 60–545; and Origenes in Psalmos, edited by J. B. Pitra, AS 2: 444–83 and 3: 1–364.

Gennadius of Constantinople

Fragmenta in Psalmos. PG 85: 1665–68.

Gregory of Nyssa

In inscriptiones Psalmorum and In sextum Psalmum. Edited by J. McDonough, GNO 5: 24–175. Translated by Ronald E. Heine, Gregory of Nyssa’s Treatise on the Inscriptions of the Psalms (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995).

In sextum Psalmum. Edited by J. McDonough, GNO 5: 187–93. Translated by Brian E. Daley in “Training for ‘the Good Ascent’: Gregory of Nyssa’s Homily on the Sixth Psalm,” in In Dominico Eloquio–In Lordly Eloquence: Essays on Patristic Exegesis in Honor of Robert Louis Wilken, edited by Paul M. Blowers, Angela R. Christman, and David G. Hunter (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 211–17.

Hesychius of Jerusalem

Fragmenta in Psalmos ex Catena Graecorum Patrum in Psalmos. PG 93: 1179–1340; as Athanasius, De titulis Psalmorum, PG 27: 649–1344; and as John Chrysostom, Commentarius in Psalmos 77–99, PG 55: 711–84.

Hilary of Poitiers

Tractatus super Psalmos. Edited by A. Zingerle, CSEL 22. Edited by J. Doignon and R. Demeulenaere, CCSL 61, 61A, 61B. Translated (only Psalms 1, 54, 130) by W. Sanday, Homilies on Psalms, NPNF, 2nd ser., 9: 236–48. [Instructio Psalmorum refers to the preliminary twenty-four paragraphs of the Tractatus super Psalmos].

Hippolytus

In Psalmos (fragments). Edited by Hans Achelis, GCS 1.2: 146–47, 153. Translation ANF 5: 170–72.

Jerome

Commentarioli in Psalmos. Edited by G. Morin, CCSL 72: 177–245.

Tractatus LIX in Psalmos. Edited by G. Morin, CCSL 78: 3–352. Translated by M. L. Ewald, Homilies on the Psalms, FC 48.

Tractatus in Psalmos series altera. Edited by G. Morin, CCSL 78: 353–447. Translated by M. L. Ewald, Homilies on the Psalms, FC 57.

John Chrysostom

Expositiones in Psalmos. PG 55: 39–528. Translated by Robert C. Hill, St. John Chrysostom Commentary on the Psalms, 2 vols. (Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1998).

Maximus the Confessor

Expositio in Psalmum 59. CCSG 23: 3–22. Translated by Paul Blowers in this volume.

Origen of Alexandria

Commentarii in Psalmos 1 and 4 = Philocalia 2–3, 26. Edited and translated by Marguerite Harl, Sur les écritures: Philocalie, 1–20, SC 226. Edited and translated by Éric Junod, Sur les libre arbitre, SC 302. Translated by George Lewis, The Philocalia of Origen (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1911), 30–34, 214–24.

Excerpta in Psalmum I. PG 12: 1076–84, 1092–96.

Excerpta in Psalmum VI, XV, XVIII. PG 17: 1076–84, 1092–96.

Homiliae de Psalmis. PG 12: 1319–1410. Homélies sur les Psaumes 36 á 38, edited by E. Prinzivalli, SC 411. Translated in M. Heintz, “The Pedagogy of the Soul: Origen’s Homilies on the Psalms,” PhD diss., (University of Notre Dame, 2008), 88–311.

Libri in Psalmos (Praefatio). PG 12: 1053–1076.

Libri in Psalmos (Fragmenta in diuersos Psalmos in catenis). PG 12: 1085–1320, 1409–1686; PG 17: 105–49.

Prosper of Aquitaine

Expositio Psalmorum. Edited by P. Callens, CCSL 68A.

Theodore of Mopsuestia

Expositionis in Psalmos. Edited by L. De Coninck and M. J. D’Hont, CCSL 88A. Translated by Robert C. Hill, Theodore of Mopsuestia: Commentary on Psalms 1–81 (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2006).

Fragments syriaques du Commentaire des Psaumes: Fragments syriaques du Commentaire des Psaumes (Psaume 118 et Psaumes 138–148). Edited by L. Van Rompay, CSCO 435–36.

Theodoret of Cyrus

Interpretatio in Psalmos. PG 80: 857–1997. Translated by Robert C. Hill, Theodoret of Cyrus: Commentary on the Psalms, FC 101–2.

OTHER SOURCES

Achelis, Hans. ed. Hippolytus Werke. GCS 1.2. Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1897.

Agnon, Shmuel. All the Stories of Shmuel Yosef Agnon: Ad Hennah. Vol. 7. Jerusalem: Shocken, 1978.

Ammonius. In Porphyrii Isagogen sive V voces. Edited by A. Busse. Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca 4.3. Berlin: George Reimer, 1891.

Anatolios, Khaled. Athanasius: The Coherence of His Thought. New York: Routledge, 1998.

Andreopoulos, Andreas, Augustine Casiday, and Carol Harrison, eds. Meditations of the Heart: The Psalms in Early Christian Thought and Practice. Studia traditionis theologiae 8. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011.

Aspegren, Kerstin. The Male Woman: A Feminine Ideal in the Early Church. Edited by René Kieffer. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity Series (CJAS)
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• One: Finding the Right Key: The Aims and Strategies of Early Christian Interpretation of the Psalms
• Two: King David and the Psalms of Imprecation
• Three: Restringing Origen’s Broken Harp: Some Suggestions Concerning the Prologue to the Caesarean Commentary on the Psalms
• Four: Athanasius, the Psalms, and the Reformation of the Self
• Five: Evagrius Ponticus: The Psalter as a Handbook for the Christian Contemplative
• Six: Gender Allegories in Basil of Caesarea’s Homily on Psalm 45
• Seven: The Virgin, the Bride, and the Church: Reading Psalm 45 in Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine
• Eight: A Sharp Pen versus Fragrant Myrrh: Comparing the Commentaries of Cyril of Alexandria and Theodore of Mopsuestia on Psalm 45
• Nine: Theodoret’s Unique Contribution to the Antiochene Exegetical Tradition: Questioning Traditional Scholarly Categories
• Ten: The Emergence of Totus Christus as Hermeneutical Center in Augustine’s Enarrationes in Psalmos
• Eleven: An Ecclesiology of Groaning: Augustine, the Psalms, and the Making of Church
• Twelve: A Psalm “Unto the End”: Eschatology and Anthropology in Maximus the Confessor’s Commentary on Psalm 59
• Aid to Numbering Psalms in Early Christian Sources
• Bibliography
• List of Contributors
• Scripture Index
• General Index