28 February 2008

Glossa Ordinaria

Does anyone know if there is a critical edition of the Glossa Ordinaria that has chased down the origins of the citations therein? I ask because a friend reminded me the other day of a nagging problem I've been wanting to solve, and that was actually WHO originated this citation which the GO assigned to St. John Chrysostom, but which is not found in any modern collection of his work:

When you shall see the wicked heresy, which is the army of the Antichrist, standing in the holy places of the church, then let those who are in Judea head for the mountains, that is, those who are Christians should head for the Scriptures. For the true Judea is Christendom, and the mountains are the Scriptures of the prophets and apostles, as it is written, 'Her foundations are in the holy mountains.' But why should all Christians at this time head for the Scriptures? Because in this period in which heresy has taken possession of the churches there can be no proof of true Christianity nor any other refuge for Christians who want to the truth of the faith except the divine Scriptures. Earlier we showed in many ways which is the church of Christ, and which heathenism. But now there is for those who want to know which is the true church of Christ no way to know it except only through the Scriptures. Why? Because heresy has everything just like the church. How, then, will any who wants to know which is the true church of CHrist know it in the midst of this great confusion resulting from this similarity, except only through the Scriptures?

So anyone know if the Glossa exists in critical edition?

10 comments:

Rev. Dr. Benjamin T. G. Mayes said...

I don't know about critical, but the GO is in Migne's Patrologia Latina, vols. 113-114.

William Weedon said...

Thanks, Ben. That's a start in any case.

mlorfeld said...

Lacking extensive knowledge in what you are looking for... are either of these on track:

http://www.diva-portal.org/su/abstract.xsql?dbid=531

http://www.uwp.co.uk/book_desc/1823.html

123 said...

When you brought this up one time before I remember reading that it was simply attributed, wrongly, to Chrysostom, but with no corrected source available.

William Weedon said...

Pastor Mayes helped me track down the Glossa that's in the PL, but it's not there (but that was only the first edition of the same, and apparently the thing kept growing). Then we thought Lyra might have had it, but from what I can tell from his commentary (gosh, I love the internet!), he's taking the passage more like I'd have expected St. John to - more focused on the literal meaning. I mentioned to Pastor Mayes that with talk of "Christendom" and the great uncertainty it evinces concerning the Church, I wouldn't be surprised if it arose in those years when we had three popes fighting each other and every Western Christian knew that you had to be in fellowship with the RIGHT one for eternal salvation, and no one knew who that one was! Doesn't it's tenor seem to fit those times?

William Weedon said...

ITS not it's. Grr!

123 said...

From what I remember, it was definitely a medieval interpolation, so it very well could have arisen during one the anti-papcies.

Anonymous said...

Hi, just flying through looking for something attributed to Chrysostom myself and thought this might help.

I have had a similar problem tracking down quotes by Chrysostom (the short version is that the 16th c. Protestant attributes it to Chrysostom). A helpful starting point in my search was trying to track down the Latin text. I found quite a bit in Thomas Aquinas' "Catena Aurea" (on Matthew though) which exposits the Glossa Ordinaria. From there I was able to find quite a bit in Homilies found in the "Opus Imperfectum" of Chrysostom in the Patrologia Graeca vol 56 (Greek/Latin text mostly available on Google Books).

Hope that helps

Anonymous said...

The Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF) shows the item below; however, a quick glance at Brepols' list of its published and forthcoming critical editions in the Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio mediaevalis series doesn't list it.

Migne's Patrologia latina is definitely not a "critical" edition and it still attributes the Glossa Ordinaria to Walafrid Strabo, an attribution that was already out of date when Father Spicq published his Esquisse d'une histoire de l'exegese latine au moyen age in 1944. Generally, the GO is attributed to the school of Anselm of Laon, but not to Anselm personally, as suggested by the BnF listing.

Can't help with Chrysostom or your quote.

Type : texte imprimé, monographie
Titre(s) : Glossa ordinaria [Texte imprimé] / [Anselmus Laudunensis]
Publication : Turnholti : Typographi Brepols editores pontificii, 1997-
Description matérielle : 26 cm
Collection : Corpus christianorum. Continuatio mediaevalis
Lien à la collection : Corpus christianorum. Continuatio mediaevalis

Note(s) : Notice réd. d'après le vol. 22 publ. en 1997

Autre(s) auteur(s) : Anselme de Laon (1050?-1117)

Notice n° : FRBNF37349366
http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37349366m/PUBLIC

William Weedon said...

https://weedon.blogspot.com/2018/12/when-youve-hunted-for-years-and-years.html