Tuesday, August 29, 2017

News reports about allegorical interpretation notwithstanding, the importance of Fortunatianus of Aquileia's commentary lies elsewhere

Fortunatianus' formerly lost commentary on the Gospels, discussed here by a translator in the project, will be important not primarily for its contributions to allegorical interpretation, but more for its witness to the so-called Western text of the Gospels.

The allegorical stuff is just all headline BS, designed to raise the profile for an audience no longer educated enough to appreciate the real significance.

The so-called "Vetus Latina" represents the Latin of the New Testament before Jerome got a hold of it, and Fortunatianus' commentary's "Old Latin" readings, as distinct from other text types which have been associated with Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria, should do much to improve our understanding of the Western text heretofore typically associated with the Greek and Latin Codex Bezae.