In addition to manuscripts of the Gospels in which one book
follows another, textual critics also consult Evangelistiaries, or
Gospel
lectionaries – books in which selections of the Gospels are arranged in
the order in which they were read in the church-services annually. This simplified the job of the lectors, or
public readers, who read for the congregations.
Passages read during Holy-Week were conveniently collected together at
the beginning of the cycle of lections, or readings, starting the liturgical
year on Easter Sunday (the reading for which began at John 1:1). Other selections were to be read a specific
number of days and weeks after Easter; thus, while major feast-days had names
assigned to them, most readings were identified in terms of how long after
Easter they were to be read – for example, “for the fifth day of the sixth
week” after Easter. Because the date of
Easter changed from year to year, all the other days changed with it (though
retaining their sequence); for this reason, these days are called the “movable
feasts” and a lectionary containing the lections for the movable feasts is
called a
Synaxarion.
In many lectionary-manuscripts, the Synaxarion is
accompanied by the Menologion – the month-by-month collection of
Scripture-readings assigned to specific calendar-days set aside to honor
specific saints and specific events.
These feasts were generally observed on the same day of the year, and
for this reason they are called the “fixed feasts” or “immovable feasts,”
running in sequence from year to year (beginning on September 1). (The term “Menologion” has also come to
refer to collections of the stories of saints’ lives which were told on their
feast-days, but this does not pertain directly to today’s subject.) In manuscripts containing both the Synaxarion
and Menologion, it is not uncommon, when a passage occurs in both, to find that
in the Menologion there is only a reference to where the passage can be found
in the Synaxarion, rather than a repetition of the passage itself.
In most Gospel-lectionaries, each segment is introduced by a
title (such as “Taken from Matthew” or “Taken from Mark,” etc.) and usually its text begins with a brief
introductory phrase, or “incipit,” introducing the narrative, such as, “And the
Lord said,” or, “And at that time.”
With all that in mind, we come to today’s subject: a specific set of lections called the Heothina: a series of eleven readings about Christ’s
resurrection. (Their full name is εὐαγγέλια
ἑωθινὰ ἀναστάσιμα.) Every Sunday
at dawn, one of these lections was to be read. These eleven readings
are often provided separately in lectionaries:
(1) Matthew 26:16-20 (The Great Commission)
(2) Mark 16:1-8
(The Myrrh-bearing Women at the Tomb)
(3) Mark 16:9-20
(Jesus’ Post-resurrection Appearances and Ascension)
(4) Luke 24:1-12
(The Women’s Visit to the Tomb)
(5) Luke 24:12-35
(The Appearance on the Road to Emmaus)
(6) Luke 24:36-53
(The Appearance to the Disciples)
(7) John 20:1-11
(Mary Magdalene at the Tomb)
(8) John 20:11-18 (The Appearance to Mary Magdalene)
(9) John 20:19-31
(The Appearances to the Ten Disciples, and to Thomas)
(10) John 21:1-14
(The Appearance at the Sea of Tiberias)
(11) John 21:15-25
(Jesus’ Instructions to Simon Peter)
Let’s see if we can tell how far back this series of
lections was used. It is not uncommon at
all to find, in medieval manuscripts of the Gospels, annotations in the margins
that locate the beginnings and ends of lections, and often the names of the
lections (i.e., a note stating upon which day of which week after Easter the
passage is to be read). One of the many manuscripts with this “lectionary apparatus”
is minuscule 2411, from the 1100’s. This manuscript – also known as the
Tetragram Gospels – has
the symbol αρχη (“start”) written at the beginning of Matthew 28:16. In the margin, an abbreviated note (boxed in green) identifies
this as the first Gospels-lection in the Heothina-series. In minuscule 2411,
as in most manuscripts with the lectionary apparatus, these annotations were
written in red to ensure that readers would easily tell the difference between
them and the text itself.
But we can go back earlier.
Minuscule 2474, produced in the 900’s, also has the lectionary
apparatus. Shown here, this manuscript –
also known as the
Elfleda Bond Goodspeed Gospels – has the symbol αρχη (
“start”) in the margin beside the
beginning of Mark 16:1, accompanied by an abbreviated note identifying this as
the second lection in the series. In the
right margin, the symbol τελος (
“stop” or
“end”) can also be seen; it signified
the end of the previous lection in Mark (which was not one of the
Heothina).
But we can go back
earlier.
Let’s turn to the important uncial
Codex Cyprius (K, 017), produced in the 800’s. Among the
lectionary-related material that precedes the Gospels-text, a list of the locations
of the eleven Heothina is provided. The
list displays the Eusebian Section-number where each lection is found, each
lection’s opening phrase, and each lection’s closing words.
But perhaps we can go back yet
earlier.
In about the year 350 – around the time when Codex Sinaiticus was
produced, or slightly earlier – Cyril of Jerusalem undertook a series of
Catechetical Lectures, the contents of which remain extant to this day. In his
Lecture #14, paragraph 24, Cyril made
the following remarks:
“The course of instruction in the faith would lead me to speak of the Ascension also, but the grace of God so ordered it, that you heard most fully concerning it, as far as our weakness allowed, yesterday, on the Lord’s day; since, by the providence of divine grace, the course of the Lessons in Church included the account of our Savior’s going up into the heavens. And what was then said was spoken principally for the sake of all, and for the assembled body of the faithful – yet especially for thy sake. But the question is, did you attend to what was said? . . . . I suppose then that you do indeed remember the exposition; yet I will now again briefly remind you of what was then said.”
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| Cyril of Jerusalem |
Here Cyril explains why he is not going to go into detail
about the ascension of Christ in his lecture: the
subject was already covered the previous day, which was a
Sunday, the Lord’s
Day. In the typical Byzantine
lection-series, Luke 24’s narrative about Christ’s ascension is assigned to
Ascension-Day, the sixth
Thursday after Easter.
It thus appears that Cyril was referring to one of the
Heothinon-lections: either Mark 16:9-20
(the second Heothinon) or Luke 24:36-53 (the sixth Heothinon).
It seems safe to say more.
The Heothina series in the Byzantine lectionary probably developed from
an earlier lection-cycle that was used in Jerusalem. In the Byzantine lectionary, the
resurrection-narratives are divided into 11 readings; in the Jerusalem
lection-cycle, there are eight (at least, eight identifiable) lections. Cyril was probably referring to a lection in
this eight-part lection-cycle that was used at Jerusalem,
where he taught and preached.
This is consistent with an observation recently made by
Daniel Galadza (a professor at the University of Vienna) in a 2014 article,
The Jerusalem Lectionary and the Byzantine
Rite, which was published on pages 181-199 of
Rites
and Rituals of the Christian East, ed. B. Groen, D. Galadza, N. Glibetic,
and G. Radle (Eastern Christian Studies 22, Leuven: Peeters, 2014) and is available at the
Academia website: before
the Heothinon-series was adapted and adopted into the Byzantine lectionary, most of its
components existed as readings for Bright Week (the week immediately
following Easter) among the lection-cycles used in Jerusalem.
This idea receives confirmation via Galadza’s 2012
investigation of the contents of the eighth-century Greek lectionary Sin. Gr. 212, which contains 30
lections, mainly from the Gospels. (For
details see Galadza’s article Two Greek,
Ninth-Century Sources of the Jerusalem Lectionary: Sin. Gr. 212 and
Sinai Gr. N.E. ΜΓ 11 on pages 79-111 of Bollettino
della Badia Greca di Grottaferrata, series 3, Vol. 11 (2014). In Sin. Gr. 212, which is written in Greek
uncials, rubrics in the manuscript (with Arabic supplements) identify each
lection, written in Greek. The first
eight lections correspond fairly closely to the contours of Heothina
#1,2,3,4,5,7-8, and 10:
Resurrection-series in
the Jerusalem Lectionary Parallel
Lection in the Heothina
First reading: Matthew 28:1-9 (Mt. 28:
16-20 = Heothinon 1)
Second reading: Mark
16:2-8 (Mk.
16:1-8 = Heothinon 2)
Third reading: Luke
24:1-12 (Heothinon
4)
Fourth reading: John
20:1-18 (Heothina
7 and 8)
Fifth reading:
Matthew 28:9b-20 (Mt.
28:16-20 = Heothinon 1)
Sixth reading: Mark
16:9-20 (Mk.
16:9-20 = Heothinon 3)
Seventh reading: Luke
24:13-35 (Lk.
24:12-35 = Heothinon 5)
Eighth reading: John
21:1-14 (Heothinon
10)
Galadza mentions the finding of another researcher, Sebastià
Janeras. Janeras has found that the same
eight-part series is attested in four other manuscripts at, or from, from Saint
Catherine’s: one in Greek (Sinai Gr.
210, made in 861), one in Arabic (Sinai Ar. 116, made in 995), and two in
Georgian (Sinai Geo. O. 38, made in 979, and Schøyen Collection MS 035 – also
known as
Codex Sinaiticus Zosimi Rescriptus – also made in 979).
It thus appears that eight of the components of the Heothina
lection-series were known to
Cyril of Jerusalem (not only as parts of
Scripture, but as lections in a specific sequence), and thus that the
churches in
Jerusalem in the
mid-300’s were using these eight lections.
Other than Cyril’s remark, I have found no evidence that the lections in
the Jerusalem Lectionary for Bright Week were also read consecutively in the mid-300’s, but from
that remark, it seems that this was the case.
(If anyone has a better explanation I would be glad to hear it.)
What can we deduce from this evidence?
● First, this data justifies the idea that if we possess a manuscript of Matthew
28, or Mark 16, or Luke 24, or John 20-21, and its marginalia contains the Byzantine
lectionary apparatus, including notes that identify at least one Heothinon-reading,
then even if the manuscript is fragmentary and none of the other chapters have
survived, we may fairly deduce that when such a manuscript was in pristine
condition, it contained all five of these chapters with those portions intact,
inasmuch as one of the series would not be used without the others.
● Second, we may tentatively consider Cyril of Jerusalem’s remark
in
Catechetical Lecture #14 to refer to Mark’s account of Christ’s resurrection
(in Mark 16:19) rather than to the account in Luke 24:51. The reason for this is that the eight-part
cycle of lections in the early
Jerusalem Lectionary (as represented in
Sin. Gr. 212 and other manuscripts)
includes Mark 16:9-19 as a lection, but no text from Luke 24 beyond verse 35 is
part of the eight-part series of resurrection-related lections, possibly
because Luke 24:41-53 was assigned to Ascension-Day.
