The Epistle of Eusebius To Carpianus Textual Tradition and Translation

Abstract

The early Christian desire to create a harmony of the diverse elements presented in the four canonical gospels reached a degree of success in the labors of Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine (b. A.D. 26o-d. A.D. 340). The Eusebian system which had the feature of maintaining the gospels intact was composed of several complementary elements: first, an epistle written to a certain Carpianus with the express purpose of explaining the complex arrangement; secondly, a marginal system of pairs of numbers, one indicating the paragraph number in that particular gospel and another indicating the canon table to be consulted for determining parallel paragraphs from other gospels; and thirdly, a prefixed set of canon tables 1). This harmony system became standard paraphenalia in Byzantine New Testament manuscripts and has appeared in many editions of the Greek New Testament beginning with the second edition of Erasmus in I5I9. The popular edition of the Nestles has aided the student by including the Eusebian harmony system in its entirety 2). While it is an inadequate critical tool when compared with modern synopses of the gospels, the Eusebian arrangement is no historical curio to be known only by the antiquarian; it has practical value for the user who will have his Greek New Testament in hand far more often than his Gospel Parallels. While NESTLE provides an explanation of the use of the system, the student may wish to know what Eusebius says about it himself. Since no full translation of this epistle into English has