In Pentateuchum Commentarii on the Red Sea Crossing: Content, Composition, and Coherence

Abstract

This article presents a case study analyzing the composition and content of the anonymous seventh- to eighth-century In Pentateuchum commentarii, specifically the β recension. This recension contains interpolated passages mostly not attributable to any identified sources. These are less polished than the core text shared by all the recensions, which draws heavily on Isidore and Origen-Rufinus. The interpolations in the texts analyzed here - commenting on Exodus 14 - constitute nonetheless a coherent section of the commentary that demonstrates knowledge of patristic sources and presents a range of interpretations complementary to the core text. I identify several connections between this recension and certain patristic and early medieval sources that help to locate it within the scholarly culture of the early medieval Latin West. These sources include the ps. Hilarian Tractatus in septem epistolas canonicas and the Frigulus Commentary on Matthew, reused in the anonymous Liber questionum in Euangeliis, as well as the Quaestiones in Heptateuchum of Augustine.