Epistula ad Carpianum

The Epistula ad Carpianum (Letter to Carpian ) is the traditional name of a letter, Eusebius wrote to a Christian named Carpianus and sometimes appears in the canon of the Gospels.

In this text, Eusebius explains his elaborate system of harmony ( Eusebischer canon ) and describes the goals of his ten canonical tables. According to this letter the Ammonischen sections of Ammonius of Alexandria (Matthew 355, Mark 236, Luke 342, John 232 - 1165 sections together ) were created. Under each of the 1165 Ammonischen sections at their appropriate places in the manuscript there is a note with colored ink on the number of Eusebischen canons, to which it refers.

Text

The original Greek text reads:

" Ευσέβιος Καρπιανᾣ ἀγαπητᾣ ἀδελφᾣ ἐν κυρίῳ χαἳρειν.

Αμμώνιος μὲν ὁ Αλεξανδρεὺς πολλὴν ὡς εἰκὸς φιλοπονίαν καὶ σπουδὴν εἰσαγηοχὼς τὸ διὰ τεσσάρων ἡμῖν καταλέλοιπεν εὐαγγέλιον, τᾣ κατὰ Ματθαῖον τὰς ὁμοφώνους τῶν λοιπῶν εὐαγγελιστῶν περικοπὰς παραθείς, ὡς ἐξ ἀνάγκης συμβῆναι τὸν τῆς ἀκολουθίας εἱρμὸν τῶν τριῶν διαφθαρῆναι ὅσον ἐπὶ τᾣ ὕφει τῆς ἀναγνώσεως · ἵνα δὲ σωζομένου καὶ τοῦ τῶν λοιπῶν δι ' ὅλου σώματός τε καὶ εἱρμοῦ εἰδέναι ἔχοις τοὺς οἰκείους ἑκάστου εὐαγγελιστοῦ τόπους, ἐν οἷς κατὰ τῶν αὐτῶν ἠνέχθησαν φιλαλήθως εἰπεῖν, ἐκ τοῦ πονήματος τοῦ προειρημένου ἀνδρὸς εἰληφὼς ἀφορμὰς καθ ' ἑτέραν μέθοδον κανόνας δέκα τὸν ἀριθμὸν διεχάραξά σοι τοὺς ὑποτεταγμένους. ὧν ὁ μὲν πρῶτος περιέχει ἀριθμοὺς ἐν οἷς τὰ παραπλήσια εἰρήκασιν οἱ τέσσαρες, Ματθαῖος Μάρκος Λοῦκας Ιωάννης · ὁ δεύτερος, ἐν ᾧ οἱ τρεῖς, Ματθαῖος Μάρκος Λουκᾶς · ὁ τρίτος, ἐν ᾧ οἱ τρεῖς, Ματθαῖος Λουκᾶς Ιωάννες · ὁ τέταρτος, ἐν ᾧ οἱ τρεῖς, Ματθαῖος Μάρκος Ιωάννης · ὁ πέμπτος, ἐν ᾧ οἱ δύο, Ματθαῖος Λουκᾶς · ὁ ἕκτος, ἐν ᾧ οἱ δύο, Ματθαῖος Μάρκος · ὁ ἕβδομος, ἐν ᾧ οἱ δύο, Ματθαῖος Ιωάννης · ὁ ὄγδοος, ἐν ᾧ οἱ δύο, Λοuκᾶς Μάρκος · ὁ ἕνατος, ἐν ᾧ οἱ δύο, Λουκᾶς Ιωάννης · ὁ δέκατος, ἐν ᾧ ἕκαστος αὐτῶν περί τινων ἰδίως ἀνέγραψεν. αὕτη μὲν οὖν ἡ τῶν ὑποτεταγμένων κανόνων ὑπόθεσις, ἡ δὲ σαφὴς αὑτῶν διήγησίς ἐστιν ἥδε. ἐφ ' ἑκάστῳ τῶν τεσσάρων εὐαγγελίων ἀριθμός τις πρόκειται, κατὰ μέρος ἀρχόμενος ἀπὸ τοῦ πρώτου, εἶτα δευτέρου καὶ τρίτου, καὶ καθεξῆς προϊὼν δι ' ὅλου μέχρι τοῦ τέλους τῶν βιβλίων. καθ ' ἕκαστον δὲ ἀριθμὸν ὑποσημείωσις πρόκειται διὰ κινναβάρεως, δηλοῦσα ἐν ποίῳ τῶν δέκα κανόνων κείμενος ὁ ἀριθμὸς τυγχάνει. οἷον εἰ μὲν α, δῆλον ὡς ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ · εἰ δὲ β, ἐν τῷ δευτέρῳ · καὶ οὕτως μέχρι τῶν δέκα. εἰ οὖν ἀναπτύξας ἔν τι τῶν τεσσάρων εὐαγγελίων ὁποιονδήποτε βουληθείης ἐπιστῆσαί τινι ᾧ βούλει κεφαλαίῳ, καὶ γνῶναι τίνες τὰ παραπλήσια εἰρήκασιν, καὶ τοὺς οἰκείους ἐν ἑκάστῳ τόπους εὑρεῖν, ἐν οἷς κατὰ τῶν αὐτῶν ἠνέχθησαν, ἧς ἐπέχεις περικοπῆς ἀναλαβὼν τὸν προκείμενον ἀριθμόν, ἐπιζητήσας τε αὐτὸν ἔνδον ἐν τῷ κανόνι ὃν ἡ διὰ τοῦ κινναβάρεως ὑποσημείωσις ὑποβέβληκεν, εἴσῃ μὲν εὐθὺς ἐκ τῶν ἐπὶ μετώπου τοῦ κανόνος προγραφῶν ὁπόσοι τε καὶ τίνες περὶ οὗ ζητεῖς εἰρήκασιν · ἐπιστήσας δὲ καὶ τοῖς τῶν λοιπῶν εὐαγγελίων ἀριθμοῖς τοῖς ἐν τῷ κανόνι ᾧ ἐπέχεις ἀριθμῷ παρακειμένοις, ἐπιζητήσας τε αὐτοὺς ἔνδον ἐν τοῖς οἰκείοις ἑκάστου εὐαγγελίου τόποις, τὰ παραπλήσια λέγοντας αὐτοὺς εὑρήσεις. "

Ins transferred German it resembles the following:

" Eusebius Carpianus, his beloved brother in the Lord: Greetings! Ammonius of Alexandria has left us a harmonized report of the four Gospels, though he ran a lot more energy and effort than was necessary. Apart from the gospel of Matthew he arranged the corresponding portions of the other Gospels. But the inevitable result was that he ruined the order of the other three Gospels, so far as it relates to the continuous reading of the text. I created instead 10 tables to another system on the raw material of the above-mentioned man who let both the body and the sequence of the other Gospels completely intact so that you can see which Evangelist wrote which passage to which they of love were pushed to the truth, to write about the same things. The tables are listed here for you.

The first lists the reference number of similar things, which are reported in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The second contains similar things of the three, Matthew, Mark and Luke; the third of the three Matthew, Luke and John; the fourth of the three, Matthew, Mark and John; the fifth of the two Matthew and Luke, the sixth, the two Matthew and Mark; the seventh, the two Matthew and John, the eighth, the two Mark and Luke; the ninth the two Luke and John; the tenth is for one-off things that are recorded in each Gospel.

Now that I have you now outlined the structure of the tables, I want to explain how to use them. In each of the four Gospels consecutive reference numbers are assigned to each section, starting with the first, then with the zweitn, and the third, and so on continuously through the whole gospel to the end of the book. Each reference has a red marking that indicates in which of the ten tables, the reference is. If the red label is an I, the reference is clearly in the first table, and if it is, a II in the second, and so on until number ten.

Suppose, then, you open one of the four Gospels at one point, and want to go to a specific chapter to learn that Gospel reported similar things and find in each gospel, the relative participating passage, on which the evangelist was run by love, about the same things to report. By clicking in the table nachschlägst the reference number that you assigned to the portion of interest, which is indicated by the red marker, you'll immediately on the heading at the top of the table to know how many and which gospels similar things. By clicking on the reference numbers of the other Gospels in the same line as the reference number that you have looked up, and they 're going nachschlägst, you can find the related passages of each Gospel and similar things mentioned. "

Copies of this letter with the canonical tables will appear on the first pages of many Gospels manuscripts (eg 65, 112, 113, 114, 117, etc.). The letter is included in modern editions of the New Testament.