Ever-New Tongue

In tenga bithnúa

Standard abbreviation: TB

Other titles: none

Clavis numbers: ECCA 209

VIAF: 183777791

Category: Revelation Dialogues

Related literature: Acts of Philip, Acts of Philip (Latin), Genealogy and Manner of Death of the Apostles

Compiled by Tony Burke, York University

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Ever-New Tongue.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/ever-new-tongue/.

Created December 2022. Current as of January 2024.

1. SUMMARY

The text opens with an assembly of bishops, priests, and kings at Mount Zion. The timing of this assembly is never revealed, though such a gathering could only take place in a post-Toleration era (313 CE). After this introduction, however, the group is called “wise men of the Jews.” They spend a year and four months (Rec. 2: three years and three months) praising God. On the night before Easter, Philip the apostle appears in a thunder clap and a blinding light. He speaks to them in an angelic language (though it is gibberish), telling them that he was sent to preach to gentiles. Nine times his tongue was cut off and restored; in heaven, he is named the Ever-New Tongue. He has come to explain the making of heaven and hell.

Philip’s revelations follow the order of Genesis 1 (with passages delivered first in angelic and then given, by the narrator, in the Latin of the Vulgate) but further details are provided in responses to questions from his audience. For example, on the first day came light and darkness, as well as angels and matter in the form of sphere. On the second came the seven heavens, and Philip explains the constitution of each. After the discourse on the third day, the people express disbelief. One of their number, a certain Maccabeus, grandson of Judas Iscariot (Rec. 2: Judas Maccabeus, son of Gomer, son of Sale, son of Arphaxad, from the regions of Coriath), speaks out against the description of a miraculous tree; as a result, he is shown a vision of the tree, causing his eyes to burst. He repents of his lack of faith and then dies.

Later portions of the text focus on the various exotic races of people, the horrors of hell, the destruction of Judgment Day, and wondrous characteristics of Jesus. The text concludes with a description of heaven and a brief prayer that all may one day dwell in it.

Named historical figures and characters: Adam (patriarch), Arphaxad, Cain, devil, Eve (matriarch), Gomer, Jesus Christ, Judas Iscariot, Maccabeus, Mary (Virgin), Philip (apostle), Sale.

Geographical locations: Abuaidi (islands of), Africa, Armenia, Asia (spring of), Assyria, Aulol, Cephas (sea), Coriath, Dan (river), Darath, Dead Sea, Ebion/Ebian/Abian, Egypt, Hell, India, Ior (river), Ithier, Jerusalem, Libya,  Mount Zion, Nabuan (mountains of), Odaib (islands of), Oliua (stream of), Paradise, Presens (spring of), Red Sea, Sab/Sabairnd/Sabes, Teibe (islands of).

2. RESOURCES

2.1 Web Sites and Other Online Resources

“In tenga bithnua: the ever-new tongue.” Codecs: Online database and e-resources for Celtic studies. Administered by Dennis Groenewegen.

“An teanga bithnua (modern recension).” Codecs: Online database and e-resources for Celtic studies. Administered by Dennis Groenewegen.

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Manuscripts and Editions

3.1.1 Middle Irish

3.1.1.1 Recension 1

L  Chatsworth (Derbyshire), Book of Lismore (Leabhar Leasa Móir), fols. 88r–94v (15th/16th cent.) ~ Codecs

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 24 C 6 (261) (1844–1845) ~ copy of L

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 H (478) (1868) ~ copy of L

3.1.1.2 Recension 2

M  Rennes, Bibliothèque de Rennes Métropole, 598 (15489), fols. 70r–74r (16th cent.) ~ Codecs

O  Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 O 48a–b (Liber Flavus Fergusiorum), fols. 35r–37r (ca. 1435–1440) ~ Codecs

Q  Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Celtique et Basque, fols. 24r–27v (ca. 1473) ~ Codecs; Gallica

Y  Dublin, Trinity College, H.2.16 (1318) (Yellow Book of Lecan), pp. 81r–86v (14th cent.) ~ Codecs

3.1.1.3 Short Recension (contains pars. 55–57, 49–53, 35–37, 39–47, 106 of the second recension)

Dublin, National Library of Ireland, G 9, fols. 7r–8r (15th cent.) ~ Codecs

Dublin, National Library of Ireland, G 36, pp. 113 ff. (19th cent.) ~ copy of G 9

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 24 P 25 (475) (Leabhar Chlainne Suibhne), fols. 65r–65v (1513–1514) ~ Codecs

London, British Library, Egerton 136, fols. 53–56 (1630) ~ Codecs

Maynooth, Russell Library, 73, pp. 213 ff. (18th cent.) ~ Codecs

Dublin, National Library of Ireland, MS G 36, pp. 113–121 ~ Codecs

Carey, John, ed. and trans. Apocrypha Hiberniae 2, Apocalyptica 1. In tenga bithnua: The Ever-New Tongue. CCSA 16. Turnhout: Brepols, 2009 (parallel texts and English translations of recensions 1 and 2, pp. 100–231).

Cataldi, Melita, trans. La lingua semprenuova – In tenga bithnua. Turin: Tirrenia Stampatori, 1999 (Irish text and Italian translation).

Dottin, Georges, ed. and trans. “Le Teanga bithnua du manuscrit de Rennes.” Revue Celtique 24 (1903): 365–403 (Irish text of M, pp. 369–84; French translation, pp. 385–403).

Nic Énri, Úna, and Gearóid Mac Niocaill, eds. “The second recension of the Evernew Tongue.” Celtica 9 (1971): 1–60 (editio princeps of recension 2; edition of the short recension, pp. 54–59).

Stokes, Whitley, ed. and trans. “The Evernew Tongue.” Ériu 2 (1905): 96–162 (editio princeps of recension 1).

__________. “Notes on the Evernew tongue.” Ériu 3 (1907): 34–35.

3.1.1.4 Recension 3 (Early Modern Irish)

Cork, University College, Murphy 26 (19th cent.)

Dublin, National Library of Ireland, G 32 (18th cent.)

Dublin, National Library of Ireland, G 365 (19th cent.)

Dublin, National Library of Ireland, G 432 (19th cent.)

Dublin, National Library of Ireland, G 501 (18th cent.)

Dublin, National Library of Ireland, G 656 (19th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 3 C 15 (1021) (18th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 12 F 7 (235) (18th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 B 1 (225) (19th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 B 2 (1002) (19th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 D 8 (503) (18th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 I 25 (412) (18th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 I 44 (19th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 L 6 (19th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 L 24 (29) (18th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 L 29 (109) (18th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 L 35 (18th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 M 1 (329) (19th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 N 18 (981) (18th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 N 23 (19th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 24 A 20 (19th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 24 A 22 (19th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 24 B 29 (18th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 24 C 16 (19th cent.)

Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 24 L 20 (19th cent.)

Dublin, Trinity College, 1287 (H 1. 13) (18th cent.)

Dublin, Trinity College, 1413 (H 6. 9) (1777–1781)

Dublin, Trinity College, 1414 (H 6. 10) (18th cent.)

Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Adv. 72.1.47 (15th cent.) ~ Codecs; two leaves, mostly illegible

Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Adv. 72.2.5 (18th cent.)

London, British Library, Add. 18945 (19th cent.)

London, British Library, Egerton 171 (18th cent.)

London, British Library, Egerton 174 (18th cent.)

Maynooth, Russell Library, B 2 (19th cent.)

Maynooth, Russell Library, M 39 (19th cent.)

Maynooth, Russell Library, M 52 (18th cent.)

Maynooth, Russell Library, M 73 (1824)

Maynooth, Russell Library, M 95 (18th cent.)

Dottin, Georges, ed. and trans. “Une rédaction moderne du Teanga Bithnua.” Revue Celtique 28 (1907): 277–307 (text and parallel French translation from an unidentified manuscript, pp. 380–307).

3.2 Modern Translations

3.2.1 English

Carey, John, trans. The Ever-New Tongue – In Tenga Bithnua: The Text in the Book of Lismore. Apocryphes 15. Turnhout: Brepols, 2018.

__________, ed. and trans. Apocrypha Hiberniae 2, Apocalyptica 1. In tenga bithnua: The Ever-New Tongue. CCSA 16. Turnhout: Brepols, 2009 (parallel texts and English translations of recensions 1 and 2, pp. 100–231).

Herbert, Máire and Martin McNamara. Irish Biblical Apocrypha. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1989 (English translation of selections from L, pp. 109–18).

Stokes, Whitley, ed. and trans. “The Evernew Tongue.” Ériu 2 (1905): 96–162.

3.2.2 French

Dottin, Georges, ed. and trans. “Le Teanga bithnua du manuscrit de Rennes.” Revue Celtique 24 (1903): 365–403 (Irish text of M, pp. 369–84; French translation, pp. 385–403).

__________, ed. and trans. “Une rédaction moderne du Teanga Bithnua.” Revue Celtique 28 (1907): 277–307 (text and parallel French translation, pp. 380–307).

3.2.3 Italian

Cataldi, Melita. La lingua semprenuova – In tenga bithnua. Turin: Tirrenia Stampatori, 1999 (Irish text and Italian translation).

3.2.4 Japanese

Matsuoka, Toshio, trans. Celtic Biblical Stories. Tokyo, 1999 (pp. 3–32).

3.3 General Works

Carey, John. “In tenga bithnua and the days of Creation.” Apocrypha 18 (2007): 231–46.

__________. King of Mysteries: Early Irish Religious Writings. 2nd ed. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000.

__________. “In tenga bithnua: FromApocalypse to Homily?” Pages 51–68 in  The Scriptures and Early Medieval Ireland: Proceedings of the 1993 Conference of the Society for Hiberno-Latin Studies on Early Irish Exegesis and Homilectics, 31. Edited by Thomas OʼLoughlin. Turnhout: Brepols, 1999.

Dottin, Georges, ed. “Un traité irlandais du moyen âge. La langue toujours nouvelle.” Annales de Bretagne 34 (1920): 190–207, 278–98.

Ivanov, Sergey. “Three Colours of the Tree.” Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 59 (2012): 119–28.

James, M. R. “Irish Apocrypha.” JTS 20 (1918–1919): 9–16.

McNamara, Martin. “The bird hiruath of the Ever-New Tongue and hirodius of gloss on Ps. 103:17 in Vatican Codex Pal. Lat. 68.” Ériu 39 (1988): 87–97.

Nic Cárthaigh, Emma, “The Seven Heavens in the modern recension of In tenga bithnua.” Pages 211–83 in The End and Beyond: Medieval Irish Eschatology. Vol. 1, 17.1. Edited by John Carey, Emma Nic Cárthaigh, and Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh. Aberystwyth: Celtic Studies Publications, 2014.

Ó Corráin, Donnchadh. Clavis litterarum Hibernensium: medieval Irish books & texts (c. 400–c. 1600). 3 vols. Corpus Christianorum. Turnhout: Brepols, 2017 (vol. 1, pp. 190–92).