Bible Text or Liturgy?

Abstract

In various mediaeval authors, writing in different localities and at different periods, there are a goodly number of quotations which obviously derive ultimately from a biblical text. These quotations, however, either are not found in exactly the form, in which they are quoted, in MSS. of the Bible, whether of Old Latin or of Vulgate versions, or, if they do occur in MSS., these are of a later date than the earliest author who uses the quotation. Since these quotations do appear in the liturgy of the Church, or in other texts which were used in worship, such as sermons, homilies, Saints' Lives, it is not illogical to suppose that their source is to be found, not in any special type of Bible text, but in the liturgy. As an illustration of this possibility I presented in this Review (XXXI, 1938, 41–51) a study of one of these quotations, the phrase viam universae carnis ingressurus, which occurs frequently in documents from the 11th century on. It does not occur in precisely this form in any biblical MS., although the substitution of carnis for terrae of the early MSS. is found in a MS. of the 13th century, but does occur in at least one liturgical text of the 11th century and in another which dates from the 13th century, if not earlier. The conclusion is certainly justified therefore that authors were indebted to the liturgy for this phrase and that the liturgical form influenced the reading in later biblical MSS.