The "Matthew-Luke Commentary" of Philoxenus: Text, Translation and Critical Analysis (SBL Dissertation Series 43)

In 1847, the British Museum acquired a large collection of Syriac manuscripts from the Monastery of St. Mary Deipara in the Nitrian Desert of Egypt. Among these are fourteen fragments bound together in one volume and designated British Museum Manuscript Add. 17,126. In his "Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum Acquired since the Year 1838," William Wright described this manuscript as containing "Fragments of the Commentaries of Philoxenus of Mabbug on the Gospels of S. Matthew and S. Luke." In the last century, scholars have recognized the importance of the fragmentary work, but until now it has not been published. In our examination here of the so-called "Commentary" on Matthew and Luke, we shall seek to discover the sense in which that term is used in the colophon, and whether it can properly be applied to all fourteen fragments. [From the Author's Introduction]

Text: English (translation)