Jeremiah T Coogan
University of Notre Dame, Theology, Graduate Student
- Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Evangelisch-theologische Fakultät, Graduate StudentUniversity of Oxford, Faculty of Theology and Religion, Graduate Studentadd
- Septuagint, New Testament Textual Criticism, New Testament and Christian Origins, Second Temple Judaism, Greek Papyrology, Syriac Christianity, and 54 moreSeptuagint Odes, Biblical Odes, Peshitta, New Testament, Early Christianity, Syriac Studies, Rabbinic Literature, Papyrology, Syriac literature, Origen, Apocrypha/Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, Canon Formation, Qumran, Book of Psalms, Diatessaron, Ancient Judaism, Early Christian Apocryphal Literature, Philo of Alexandria, Eusebian Canons, Ammonian Sections, Paratexts, Gospel Writing, Tatian, Catena, Eusebius of Casaraea, Book Culture, Practices of Reading, Ephrem the Syrian, Nonnus of Panopolis, Late Antiquity, Eusebian Apparatus, Ammonius of Alexandria, New Philology, Origen of Alexandria, Apocryphal Gospels, Reception Theory, Book of Jubilees, 3 Corinthians, Gospels, Literary Theory, Michel de Certeau, Codex, eusebius of Caesarea, Fourfold Gospel, Eusebian Canon Tables, Letter to Carpianus, Gospel Synopsis, Gospel Harmony, Claudius Ptolemy, Palestinian Talmud, Optatian, Caesarea Maritima, and Longer Ending of Markedit
- I study the New Testament and early Christianity, focusing on early Christian reading of gospel literature. My resear... moreI study the New Testament and early Christianity, focusing on early Christian reading of gospel literature.
My research brings together biblical interpretation, ancient book culture, and literary theory. I focus on late ancient practices of anthologizing, excerpting, and paratextual reconfiguration, and especially how these both shape and reflect early Christian reading.edit
The rhetorical significance of sacred books in the North African controversy between Caecilianists and Donatists remains underexplained. In this article I situate the act of traditio in its historical context by employing insights from... more
The rhetorical significance of sacred books in the North African controversy between Caecilianists and Donatists remains underexplained. In this article I situate the act of traditio in its historical context by employing insights from the study of material texts. The Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs, the arguments of Augustine and Optatus, and even apotropaic practices reveal a social logic in which the physical book does more than transmit text. I argue that this theology of the book provides a richer account of traditio than the economic and sociological explanations in current scholarship on the North African controversy. The sacred book functions as a metonym for Christian confession, an avatar of divine presence, and a powerful agent of healing. To hand over the sacred books for destruction was thus to destroy objects which embodied divine truth, presence, and power.
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Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 260–339 CE) invented a paratextual apparatus for reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as a fourfold unity. Yet despite Eusebius's creativity and the long afterlife of his invention, the apparatus remains... more
Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 260–339 CE) invented a paratextual apparatus for reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as a fourfold unity. Yet despite Eusebius's creativity and the long afterlife of his invention, the apparatus remains underappreciated and widely misunderstood. This article argues that Michel de Certeau's distinction between itineraries and maps illuminates the innovative function of the Eusebian apparatus, which contrasts with earlier attempts at gospel harmony and synopsis. Instead of disrupting the narrative integrity of the four canonical gospels, Eusebius's map creates a canonical space that preserves gospel narrative and facilitates exegetical and liturgical appropriation.
Research Interests: New Testament, Book History, Early Christianity, Manuscript Studies, Gospels, and 22 moreLiterary Theory, Late Antiquity, New Testament and Christian Origins, Michel de Certeau, Paratexts, Ephrem the Syrian, Book studies, Codex, Diatessaron, eusebius of Caesarea, Fourfold Gospel, Tatian, Eusebian Canons, London Tube Map, Ammonius of Alexandria, Gospel Harmony, Eusebian Canon Tables, Eusebian Apparatus, Letter to Carpianus, Gospel Synopsis, Textual Geography, and Canon Tables
Jeremiah Coogan. “Byzantine Manuscript Colophons and the Prosopography of Scribal Activity.” Pages 301–316 in From Constantinople to the Frontier: The City and the Cities, ed. Nicholas S.M. Matheou, Theofili Kampianaki, and Lorenzo M.... more
Jeremiah Coogan. “Byzantine Manuscript Colophons and the Prosopography of Scribal Activity.” Pages 301–316 in From Constantinople to the Frontier: The City and the Cities, ed. Nicholas S.M. Matheou, Theofili Kampianaki, and Lorenzo M. Bondioli; Medieval Mediterranean 106; Leiden: Brill, 2016.
Please contact the author for an electronic copy.
Please contact the author for an electronic copy.
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This working group, sponsored by the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame, seeks to develop an ongoing conversation about the intersections between material texts and reading practices in Judaism and Christianity of the... more
This working group, sponsored by the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame, seeks to develop an ongoing conversation about the intersections between material texts and reading practices in Judaism and Christianity of the first millennium CE. As recent scholarship has emphasized, books do more than contain texts. Books are objects, always implicated in economic, ritual, and readerly matrices of production, collection, and use. One never encounters a disembodied text, apart from the material constraints and paratextual interventions that enable its physical existence. Nor do books read themselves; they are manipulated by reading communities with specific reading practices. The burgeoning discipline of book history creates and applies knowledge of the material, cultural, and theoretical aspects of the book. Associated practices of authorship, editing, reading, and collecting-ancient and modern-as well as the material culture and reading practices associated with non-book texts likewise fall within its scope. Christian and Jewish communities have often oriented themselves around books and reading and the insights of book history enrich the study of Judaism, Christianity, and their interactions with one another. This working group will thus focus on the material reception and interaction of Jewish and Christian texts from Late Antiquity into the early modern period; the Middle Ages are both chronologically and conceptually central to this conversation.
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The abstract submission deadline is now 4 December 2017. For more information, see http://patristics.org/annual-meeting/call-for-papers.
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This conference explores the intellectual cultures of Syriac-language literary and scholarly communities of the late antique (c. 3rd-9th century) Near and Middle East. It will also provide an opportunity for postgraduate and emerging... more
This conference explores the intellectual cultures of Syriac-language literary and scholarly communities of the late antique (c. 3rd-9th century) Near and Middle East. It will also provide an opportunity for postgraduate and emerging scholars in the fields of biblical studies, theology and religion, late antique and Byzantine studies, near eastern studies, and rabbinics to present their work on Syriac literature within the University of Oxford’s vibrant late antique studies community.
Research Interests: Late Antiquity, Syriac Studies, Syriac Christianity, Syriac literature, Isaac of Nineveh, and 16 moreEast Syriac Scholasticism, Syriac, Eusebius, Nisibis, Diatessaron, Joseph and Aseneth, Syrohexapla, Macarius, Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel, Syriac Intellectual Culture, Mar Aba I, Syriac Odes, Ephrem, Theodotus of Ancyra, Harclean Syriac, and Coherence-Based Genealogical Method
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Introduction to special issue of Aramaic Studies.
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See published paper. Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 260–339 C.E.) invented a paratextual apparatus for reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as a fourfold unity. The project was so successful that Eusebius’s canon tables and the associated... more
See published paper.
Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 260–339 C.E.) invented a paratextual apparatus for reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as a fourfold unity. The project was so successful that Eusebius’s canon tables and the associated section numbers became a standard paratextual feature of gospel manuscripts. Yet a history of scholarship focused on Eusebius as a historian has left other parts of his oeuvre comparatively neglected. Despite Eusebius’s creativity and the long afterlife of his invention, the apparatus remains under-appreciated and widely misunderstood by scholars.
This paper brings long-overdue theoretical engagement to bear upon Eusebius’s apparatus, focusing on the Epistula ad Carpianum and the intricate system of canon tables and marginal reference numbers. I argue that Michel de Certeau’s distinction between itineraries and maps illuminates the innovative function of the Eusebian apparatus. By preserving the integrity of individual gospel narratives, Eusebius’s approach contrasts with earlier attempts at gospel harmony and synopsis, such as those offered by Tatian and Ammonius of Alexandria, which disrupt the narrative integrity of the four canonical gospel narratives. Eusebius’s canonical mapping instead creates a fourfold canonical space that both preserves gospel narrative and facilities creative exegetical and liturgical appropriation.
Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 260–339 C.E.) invented a paratextual apparatus for reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as a fourfold unity. The project was so successful that Eusebius’s canon tables and the associated section numbers became a standard paratextual feature of gospel manuscripts. Yet a history of scholarship focused on Eusebius as a historian has left other parts of his oeuvre comparatively neglected. Despite Eusebius’s creativity and the long afterlife of his invention, the apparatus remains under-appreciated and widely misunderstood by scholars.
This paper brings long-overdue theoretical engagement to bear upon Eusebius’s apparatus, focusing on the Epistula ad Carpianum and the intricate system of canon tables and marginal reference numbers. I argue that Michel de Certeau’s distinction between itineraries and maps illuminates the innovative function of the Eusebian apparatus. By preserving the integrity of individual gospel narratives, Eusebius’s approach contrasts with earlier attempts at gospel harmony and synopsis, such as those offered by Tatian and Ammonius of Alexandria, which disrupt the narrative integrity of the four canonical gospel narratives. Eusebius’s canonical mapping instead creates a fourfold canonical space that both preserves gospel narrative and facilities creative exegetical and liturgical appropriation.
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A number of catena manuscripts preserve material from Jubilees, offering invaluable witness to the largely lost Greek version of the book. Yet how did material from a Second Temple pseudepigraphon enter a Late Antique Christian anthology?... more
A number of catena manuscripts preserve material from Jubilees, offering invaluable witness to the largely lost Greek version of the book. Yet how did material from a Second Temple pseudepigraphon enter a Late Antique Christian anthology? This article interrogates the transmission of Jubilees material preserved in a Greek catena to Genesis. I argue that the catenist did not draw directly from a text of Jubilees; rather, the material available to the catenist had already been appropriated and restructured before the catenist selected and reorganized it around the textual frame of Greek Genesis. Two main conduits account for the availability of such material. (1) the use of Jubilees among Late Antique and Byzantine chronographers and (2) a popular genealogical tradition, derived from Jubilees, that names the wives of the biblical patriarchs. These observations have wider implications for the reception of Jubilees in Late Antiquity, when the book often circulated not as a unified composition but as individual units which were then assimilated into other structuring frameworks—whether the schemata of chronographers or the (margins of) the Greek Bible itself. In this sense, the Late Antique reception of Jubilees foreshadows the atomism of its modern reappropriations. The conclusions of this article invite similar exploration for other Second Temple texts attested in catenae.
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From the Byzantine period onward, Greek catena manuscripts provided the primary mode of engagement with earlier biblical commentary for many Christian readers. Formally structured around a continuous biblical text, exegetical material... more
From the Byzantine period onward, Greek catena manuscripts provided the primary mode of engagement with earlier biblical commentary for many Christian readers. Formally structured around a continuous biblical text, exegetical material assembled from diverse sources was woven into a commentary that both reflects the insights of the catenist and invokes the authority of previous interpreters. Most typically, catena is preserved as a paratextual feature of biblical manuscripts, where it provided a handy exegetical apparatus for the reader.
Yet scholarly discussions about the origins of catena have omitted consideration of the Late Antique biblical manuscript tradition. Moreover, K. McNamee’s pioneering catalogue of ancient marginalia explicitly excludes Christian and Jewish manuscripts. As a result, discussions about Late Antique and Byzantine scholiastic corpora have been extrapolated into the study of catena without fully evaluating this key body of evidence. To address this lacuna, the proposed paper analyses a preliminary catalogue of marginalia to Late Antique (C1–C7 CE) Septuagint papyri, focusing on continuities and discontinuities with the development of paratextual catena while also contextualizing both with other contemporary paratextual technologies.
Based on a careful examination of the manuscript data, this paper suggests that catenation does not develop out of a well-established practice of excerpting into the margins of biblical manuscripts or even of writing exegetical notes in the margins of manuscripts.
Yet scholarly discussions about the origins of catena have omitted consideration of the Late Antique biblical manuscript tradition. Moreover, K. McNamee’s pioneering catalogue of ancient marginalia explicitly excludes Christian and Jewish manuscripts. As a result, discussions about Late Antique and Byzantine scholiastic corpora have been extrapolated into the study of catena without fully evaluating this key body of evidence. To address this lacuna, the proposed paper analyses a preliminary catalogue of marginalia to Late Antique (C1–C7 CE) Septuagint papyri, focusing on continuities and discontinuities with the development of paratextual catena while also contextualizing both with other contemporary paratextual technologies.
Based on a careful examination of the manuscript data, this paper suggests that catenation does not develop out of a well-established practice of excerpting into the margins of biblical manuscripts or even of writing exegetical notes in the margins of manuscripts.
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This study interrogates the liminal status of biblical paratexts by examining a handful of case studies in which descriptive pericope headings destabilize the canonical boundaries of the biblical text. For example, in the Hebrew biblical... more
This study interrogates the liminal status of biblical paratexts by examining a handful of case studies in which descriptive pericope headings destabilize the canonical boundaries of the biblical text. For example, in the Hebrew biblical text Habakkuk 3:1 is a redactional element which introduces the prayer of Habakkuk proper (3:2-19)—perhaps supplied when the prayer was first included in the book, or as a secondary addition. Much like the Hebrew psalm-headings, the verse becomes part of the canonical text. In Syriac biblical manuscripts, the Habakkuk 3:1 reverts to its original paratextual status and displays the same patterns of variation as descriptive headings attached to other biblical “odes.” Lacking the protection of canonical status, the verse disappears altogether from many manuscripts. Text that was once canonical becomes paratextual, non-canonical, and finally non-existent. This study also questions editorial convention. The Leiden Peshitta prints “extra-biblical” paratextual headings in one way, but the identically-presented “biblical” material in another. Yet both exhibit similar textual fluctuations and are less stable than the "main" running text.
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Over the course of the first millennium CE, the collection of biblical and parabiblical texts known as ‘the odes’ had become a distinct unit within the Greek Bible. Functioning as a separate biblical book, with a textual tradition... more
Over the course of the first millennium CE, the collection of biblical and parabiblical texts known as ‘the odes’ had become a distinct unit within the Greek Bible. Functioning as a separate biblical book, with a textual tradition distinct from their reference texts, the odes accumulated their own commentaries, homilies, and catenae. Reflecting liturgical praxis, the odes most often appear in manuscripts of the Psalter. Yet the odes remain a liminal phenomenon, part of the extensive paratextual apparatus that made the Psalms into the Christian Psalter. Examination of the Greek manuscript tradition for the biblical odes illuminates the porous and unstable boundaries of the collection within the larger complex of texts and paratexts associated with the Greek Psalter. Numerous metatexts explicitly or implicitly attribute scriptural status to ‘the odes’, yet the exact sequence and contents of the collection nonetheless remain fluid. The unstable boundaries of the odes thus mirror the uncertain status of the collection itself, which alternately functions as a biblical text conducive to holistic reading and as a liturgical epitext on the fringes of the canonical Psalter.
In context of this broader odes tradition, the present paper considers the bivalent status of the odes in Psalter Vaticanus graecus 752 (=Rahlfs 1173). They reflect the continuing instability of the odes qua paratext, yet they also attract their own particularly rich paratextual apparatus. The present paper interrogates the relationship between these two functions. This paper seeks to demonstrate how paratextual features demarcate the odes as both part of the Psalter and yet also distinct from it.
In context of this broader odes tradition, the present paper considers the bivalent status of the odes in Psalter Vaticanus graecus 752 (=Rahlfs 1173). They reflect the continuing instability of the odes qua paratext, yet they also attract their own particularly rich paratextual apparatus. The present paper interrogates the relationship between these two functions. This paper seeks to demonstrate how paratextual features demarcate the odes as both part of the Psalter and yet also distinct from it.
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Through a close reading of the earliest attestations for the odes of the Greek Bible, this paper reconsiders the origins of the collection and challenges the consensus that the tradition originated in Christian liturgical practice... more
Through a close reading of the earliest attestations for the odes of the Greek Bible, this paper reconsiders the origins of the collection and challenges the consensus that the tradition originated in Christian liturgical practice (Schneider 1949) or in traditions of prayer (Harl 2014). Drawing on observations from scholars who have noted significant parallels in content between the first Christian attestation of the odes in the oeuvre of Origen and the tannaitic ten songs midrash, the paper notes the way in which the early sources, both Christian and rabbinic, read the odes as a cohesive and unified narrative. Rather than being a liturgical anthology of independent hymns and prayers, the biblical odes re-narrate biblical history in scripture’s own words.
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Research Interests: Patristics, Second Temple Judaism, Septuagint, Midrash, Rabbinic Literature, and 18 moreOrigen, Book of Psalms, Biblical Interpretation, Tannaitic Literature, Qumran, Ben Sira, Psalms, Sirach, Hodayot, Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity, Jewish Bible Interpretation, 11QPsa, Septuagint Odes, Mekhilta d'R. Ishmael, Ten Songs Midrash, Biblical Odes, 4QNon-Canonical Psalms, and Cave 11 Psalms Scroll
Both the three-ode collection preserved in the East Syrian (diaphysite) liturgy and the early odes tradition found in the paratextual headings of Syriac biblical manuscripts provide valuable and hitherto overlooked witnesses to the early... more
Both the three-ode collection preserved in the East Syrian (diaphysite) liturgy and the early odes tradition found in the paratextual headings of Syriac biblical manuscripts provide valuable and hitherto overlooked witnesses to the early Christian odes tradition. Not only do they preserve an older tradition than the sixth-century Byzantine nine-ode sequence that was eventually absorbed into the West Syrian (miaphysite) and Rûm Orthodox traditions, but they seem have been present in the Syriac milieu prior to the ecclesiastical divisions of the fifth century. These early Syriac odes traditions reflect the tannaitic ten songs midrash in ways otherwise unattested in the Christian tradition, but nonetheless remain clearly dependent on an early Greek odes tradition similar to that attested by Origen.
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A revised version of this conference paper has now been published and is listed on my academia.edu page. Abstract: Based on the colophons of Byzantine manuscripts, this prosopographical analysis concludes that scribal copying centred on... more
A revised version of this conference paper has now been published and is listed on my academia.edu page.
Abstract:
Based on the colophons of Byzantine manuscripts, this prosopographical analysis concludes that scribal copying centred on two distinct loci. While monasteries provided the most common setting for manuscript transmission, the urban settings of episcopal and imperial administration formed a second, significant focal point. While individual scribes occupied one sphere or the other, with remarkably little overlap, the monastic and administrative spheres shared a common ecclesiastical context, which may be the reason that the bifurcation of scribal contexts did not result in a significant bifurcation of the textual field itself. With few exceptions, both settings for scribal activity transmitted the same sorts of texts and employed the same conventions. While the limitations of evidence and the serendipity of manuscript preservation require methodological caution, these conclusions run contrary to established wisdom and demand further scholarly attention to the social settings of textual transmission in the Byzantine world.
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Based on the colophons of Byzantine manuscripts, this prosopographical analysis concludes that scribal copying centred on two distinct loci. While monasteries provided the most common setting for manuscript transmission, the urban settings of episcopal and imperial administration formed a second, significant focal point. While individual scribes occupied one sphere or the other, with remarkably little overlap, the monastic and administrative spheres shared a common ecclesiastical context, which may be the reason that the bifurcation of scribal contexts did not result in a significant bifurcation of the textual field itself. With few exceptions, both settings for scribal activity transmitted the same sorts of texts and employed the same conventions. While the limitations of evidence and the serendipity of manuscript preservation require methodological caution, these conclusions run contrary to established wisdom and demand further scholarly attention to the social settings of textual transmission in the Byzantine world.
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The construction γράφω διὰ τινὸς has a broader semantic range than commonly recognized. Governed by contextual and co-textual markers the rare idiom can refer either to the bearer of a message or to a secretary in the process of... more
The construction γράφω διὰ τινὸς has a broader semantic range than commonly recognized. Governed by contextual and co-textual markers the rare idiom can refer either to the bearer of a message or to a secretary in the process of composition and transcription. In a 2000 JETS article, E. Randolph Richards argued that the phrase διὰ Σιλουανοῦ… ἔγραψα in 1 Peter 5:12 could only refer to Silvanus as a courier. Richards’ argument samples five κοίνη papyri and the letters of Ignatius to support his thesis, demonstrating that in some circumstances, the speech-act indicates a courier. He does not, however, prove that the construction itself definitively refers only to a courier and overstates in his favor uncertain examples (BGU I 33; PFay 123). Further exploration uncovers evidence (Rom 16.27, uncial 337; Eusebius H.E. 4.23.11) in which the construction could only be referring to the role of a secretary. Both Acts 15:23 and 1 Peter 5:12 employ flavoring particles to set the primary construction in a context of composition, not of message delivery.