H.F. van Rooy, «The Headings of the Psalms in the East Syriac Tradition Reconsidered», Vol. 89 (2008) 505-525
In the first half of the previous century the headings of the Psalms in the East Syriac tradition received a lot of attention, with important contributions by scholars such as Devreesse and Vosté. In 1960 Bloemendaal published an edition of these headings. Since 1960 a number of important new manuscripts became available, as well as a translation of the commentary of Theodore and a translation of the commentary of Diodore on the first fifty Psalms. This paper deals with the light shed on the history of the East Syrian headings particularly by two manuscripts not available to Bloemendaal. The examples discussed lead one to the conclusion that 6t1, used by Bloemendaal, must not be regarded as the paradigmatic witness in all instances.
512 H.F. van Rooy
II. The manuscripts
In this paper three manuscripts are used in particular, and they
are described below.
• Manuscript 6t1: London, British Library Additional Manuscript
17,110
This manuscript dates from not later than AD 600. The
manuscript is almost complete, lacking Psalm 95, inscription, to
97:11 and 119:88-132 (47). This manuscript was used as the basic text
for Bloemendaal’s diplomatic edition of the headings (48).
• Manuscript 18<8dt1: Manchester: John Rylands Library, Rylands
Syriac Manuscript 4
This manuscript dates from AD 1727, and was copied from an
earlier manuscript, now lost (49). It was given the number 18<13dt1 in
the original list at Leiden (50), but that has now been changed to
18<8dt1, meaning that the original manuscript copied was from the
Eighth Century, and not the Thirteenth Century, as earlier thought (51).
A complete description of this manuscript is given by Coakley (52).
• Manuscript 12t4: Baghdad, Library of the Chaldean Patriarchate,
Manuscript 1113, folios 11a-118b (formerly Mossoul, Library of
the Chaldean Patriarchate, Manuscript 1113)
This manuscript dates from the Twelfth Century. This is the most
important Eastern text used for the critical edition of the Psalms (53).
This manuscript has been discussed in detail before (54). The first
description of this manuscript was published by Scher in 1908 (55).
(47) Cf. D.M. WALTER, The Book of Psalms (The Old Testament in Syriac II
3; Leiden 1980) VIII.
(48) Cf. BLOEMENDAAL, Headings, 13.
(49) Cf. Peshitta Institute, List, 27.
(50) Cf. WALTER, Psalms, XXIX.
(51) Cf. J.F. COAKLEY, “A Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in the John
Rylands Libraryâ€, BJRL 75 (1993) 122, n. 39.
(52) COAKLEY, “Catalogueâ€, 120-123.
(53) Cf. WALTER, Psalms, XXVII.
(54) Cf. H.F. VAN ROOY, Studies on the Syriac Apocryphal Psalms (Journal
of Semitic Studies Supplement 7; Oxford 1999) 11-26.
(55) A. SCHER, “Notice sur les manuscrits Syriaques et arabica conservés Ã
l’archevêché Chaldéen de Diarbékir†Journal Asiatique X/X (1907) 331-
362.385-431.
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