What is a Catena Manuscript and Why should we Care?

In the course of my research on the hexaplaric fragments of Job, I became immersed in its catena tradition. I also became aware that most handbooks and introductions to the Septuagint that mention these MSS did not describe them well, and they usually assumed too much knowledge on the part of the reader, especially the beginner, or worse, the specialist did not understand catena MSS either. A picture is worth a thousand words, and a visual of these MSS allows one to understand commentary on them and what the “C“ symbolizes in a critical text’s apparatus. Knowledge of their material layout aids in understanding their contents.

“Catena” is the Latin word for “chain,” and it will become evident below why these MSS were named as such. The details of the textual tradition of the Job catena need not detain us here. See my article on this topic for details, but one does not need to wade through it to appreciate the content of this post. There are two types of catenae MSS: Marginal and Text.

Marginal Catena

The layout of the marginal catena MS is probably how the name “catena” obtained. The comments of church fathers are chained around the bible text.

Tyrnavos 25 (10th)

A 10th century MS, Tyrnavos 25 represents the earliest text tradition of the catena of Job. This may not mean that it represents the earliest material layout. Our earliest MS artifacts of the Job catena are from the eighth century. They have a similar layout but their text has already been revised and updated. This MS has some of the features of their layout but an earlier text.

Part of Job 2

Prominently displayed in the center of the folio is part of the bible text of Job 2. One can then see how various notes and comments are chained around this text. There is an intricate system of notation next to the left of the bible text with corresponding notation to the notes and comments on that part of the text in the margins. The larger comments at the top, left, and bottom are usually from church fathers (Olympiodorus, Chrysostom, Didymus the Blind etc.). In the right margin, there is a hexaplaric note (unattributed) to Symmachus as well as other exegetical notes (many times anonymous though there is a note to Iulian [the Arian] in the right margin of this folio). In this catena MS, these four elements are usually found: (1) bible text, (2) catena/patristic comments on the text, (3) hexaplaric notes (places where one or more of the Three’s readings contrasted interestingly with the bible text of the Seventy), and (4) anonymous exegetical scholia on the text.

Kopenhagen, Kgl. Bibl., Gamle Kgl. Saml. 6 (10th –11th)

The layout of a marginal catena MS could become quite elaborate as this example shows. 

Part of Job 28

A similar system of notation is used here to indicate on which part of the text is being commented. There are far fewer marginal notes in this MS, though the readings of the Three Jewish revisers were either omitted or sometimes included in the commentary of church fathers (accidentally) or simply included anonymously within the chain.

Text Catena

Although these manuscripts that included bible text with commentary are all usually referred to as catena MSS, it would be a mistake to think they all had the same layout. Many of these MSS had a continuous, linear layout with bible text written first and then immediately below the relevant text the comments were added. Genua, Durazzo-Giustiniani A I 10 (9th–10th) is a good example:

Same part of Job 2 as in Tyrnavos 25 above

The bible text is indented slightly and marked with a straight obelos (at χρονου 10 lines from the top) or lance like index near the middle of the column of text in this folio. There are two lines marked with an ÷. These lines are the beginning of Job’s wife’s extended soliloquy in the Greek tradition, an addition to the Hebrew text probably first noted by Origen. In the right margin is the same anonymous hexaplaric note we observed above that probably should be attributed to Symmachus. In the left margin just below the bible text is ολυμ marking an excerpt from Olympiodorus of Alexandria, who wrote a full length commentary on Job sometime in the first half of the sixth century or late fifth.

Conclusion

So what is a catena MS and why does it matter? Short, marginal notes were added to bible MSS early on, and probably, from the early sixth century (at least for Job), more substantive excerpts of commentaries were added at the relevant places in these MSS. That is, the catenist probably used an existing MS, which already contained the bible text and the shorter scholia, and added the comments from church fathers. Thus these MSS contain (1) a valuable witness to the biblical text in Greek, (2) a fragmentary record of other Greek versions such Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, (3) early exegetical scholia on the text, and (4) excerpts from the more widely read commentaries on a given book. What layer of redaction each of these elements belongs is an interesting and open question.

Alongside the biblical text, they preserve a very important part of its history of interpretation. I have tried to give a basic, elementary description of these important MSS here. I hope the images of them help orient one to their material layout so that one might be able to imagine them when one encounters commentary on them or when the “C“ is spotted in a critical apparatus. For text criticism it is important to realize that catena MSS are very ‘’busy,” and therefore, scribal mistakes between text and margin occurred and often times different readings between commentary and text were preserved side by side as it were.

Credits: The first image was sent to me by Zisis Melissakis, who prepared the digital images of the MS at Tyrnavos. The second and third images were shared with me by Dieter Hagedorn.