Homily on the Passion and Resurrection by Evodius of Rome

Standard abbreviation: Hom. Pass. Res.

Other titles: On the Passion 1

Clavis numbers: ECCA 430; CPC 0149

Category: Pseudo-Apostolic Memoirs

Related literature: Homily on the Dormition of the Virgin, by Evodius of Rome; Homily on the Life of Jesus and His Love for the Apostles

Compiled by Dylan Burns, Freie Universität Berlin ([email protected]).

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burns, Dylan M. “Homily on the Passion and Resurrection by Evodius of Rome.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/homily-on-the-passion-and-resurrection-by-evodius-of-rome/.

Created February 2020. Current as of August 2022.

1. SUMMARY

On the Passion and the Resurrection takes the frame-narrative of a sermon delivered by Evodius, “Archbishop of Rome” (successor to Peter in Coptic tradition), celebrating Easter and the baptism of a Jew named Didymus. The context seems to be Claudius’s expulsion of the Jews from Rome (somewhere between 41 and 53 CE). The author stresses at the outset that his primary topics are the innocence of the Romans and the reality of the resurrection. The first of many digressions concerned with the impiety the Jews follows, before the author is brought to the birth, life, and arrest of Jesus Christ. While the Sanhedrin beat Jesus, Pilate interrogates him in a respectful way, is impressed by him, and tries to release him. The Sanhedrin refuse to crucify the thief Barabbas in Jesus’ stead, and the trial continues. Ps.-Evodius begins another digression where he defends the composition of apocrypha, a remarkable ‘drop of character’ in a pseudepigraphon that is without parallel in other apocryphal literature. Resuming the narrative, the author relates how Pilate finally sentences Christ to be crucified. The entire ‘courtroom drama’ recalls scenes from the Acts of Pilate, and may be dependent on that work.

In telling the story of the crucifixion, Ps.-Evodius is careful to highlight the different times of day of the various stages of Jesus’ suffering and death. The crucifixion is also explained with reference to biblical typologies, such as the Fall of Humanity, the Flood, and various prophecies. He also explains the backstory of the thieves crucified with Jesus, Demas and Kestes. The narrative here is similar but not identical to parallel descriptions of the thieves in the Coptic Acts of Pilate or Pseudo-Theophilus’s On the Cross. Jesus’ death is witnessed by the Centurion, who is identified as a soldier of “Isauria” who converts on the spot and eventually is martyred in Cappadocia.

Joseph of Arimathea receives the body of Christ from Pilate and buries it in his own tomb. The narrative briefly shifts from the first-person to the third-person, as an eyewitness of Evodius’s sermon describes how the Archbishop has beaten the crowd of Roman Christians into a frenzy. They are ready to start a pogrom, but he reminds them that the climax of the story, the resurrection of Jesus, has not yet been told, and the crowd beseeches him to relate it. The narrative shifts back to the first-person of Ps.-Evodius’s sermon. Three days and three nights have passed between Jesus’ death and Sunday morning, when Mary Magdalene and other women go to the tomb. The soldiers assigned to guard Jesus’ tomb are sleeping, and an archangel appears, explaining that Jesus has risen and left. Mary and her company go and tell the disciples. Jesus first appears to Mary his mother (a topos of Coptic apocrypha) before meeting with Ps.-Evodius himself and his brother Cleopas, and then the other disciples. The sermon ends with calls for compassion and bodily discipline.

Named historical figures and characters: Abydenus, Alexander (the Great), Antiochus (emperor), Astarte, Augustus (emperor), Baal, Barabbas, Boaz, Caiaphas, Claudius (emperor), Cleopas, Darius, David (king), Demas (Good Thief), Demetrius (emperor), Didymus (of Rome), Dracon, Eve (matriarch), Evodius (of Rome), Herod Antipas, Herod (the Great), Holy Spirit, Isaiah (prophet), Jeremiah (prophet), Jesus Christ, John (son of Zebedee), Joshua (patriarch), Joseph of Arimathea, Kestes (Bad Thief), Mark (evangelist), Mary Magdalene, Mary (mother of Jesus), Matthew (apostle), Moses (patriarch), Nebuchadnezzar, Paul (apostle), Peter (apostle), Philippus, Pontius Pilate, Ptolemaeus (emperor), Ruth (matriarch), Saba (queen), Samson (judge), Satan, Seleucius (emperor), serpent, Sibyl, Solomon (king), Solon, Tammuz, Tiberius (emperor), Zeus.

Geographical locations: Babylon, Cappadocia, Crete, Emmaus, Ethiopia, Gehenna, Golgotha, Jerusalem, Palestine, paradise, Persia, Rome.

2. RESOURCES

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Manuscripts and Editions

3.1.1 Coptic (PAThs entry)

Manuscript A (Sahidic):

New York, Morgan Library and Museum, M595 (=MICH.BR), fols. 28^r–51^r (855)

Manuscript B (GIOV.AM; PAThs entry; Trismegistos) ~ Sahidic

Turin, Museo Egizio, 63000.XII, fols. 1–36, 37^r (7th/8th cent.)

Manuscript C (Sahidic):

MONB.OI, pp. 57–106 (10th cent.)

Manuscript D (MONB.LY; PAThs entry):

pp. 21–22: Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, 1699.M1

pp. 27–28: Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, 1699.M2

pp. 29–30: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Copte 131³, fol. 1

pp. 31–32: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Copte 131¹, fol. 66

pp. 69–70: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Clarend. B26.1

pp. 75–76: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Clarend. B26.2

pp. 83–84: Cairo, IFAO, Copte 51

pp. 95–96: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Copte 129¹³, fol. 43

pp. 101–102: London, British Library, 3581A, fols. 29–30

pp. 103–104: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Copte 129¹³, fol. 44

pp. 105–106: Paris, Musée du Louvre, E10024

pp. 113–114: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Copte 132², fol. 87

pp. 127–128: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Copte 129¹⁶, fol. 43

pp. 155–158: Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittotio Emanuele III, IB 15, fols. 32–33

pp. 161–162: Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek–Papyrussamlung, K9646

pp. [189]–[190]: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Copte 131⁴, fol. 144

unplaced: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Copte 131⁵, fol. 85

Manuscript E:

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Copte 132¹, fol. 11 (8th cent.)

Manuscript F:

Manchester, John Rylands Library, MS Coptic 76

Manuscript G:

Leiden, National Museum of Antiquities, F 1976/4.31 (numbered pp. 103–106)

Burns, Dylan M. “More Greek Philosophers Among the Copts: The Notes of Some Philosophers (MONB.BE) and the ‘Wisdom from Outside’ in Pseudo-Evodius of Rome’s Homily on the Passion and Resurrection.” Pages 31–50 in Parabiblica Coptica. Edited by Ivan Miroshnikov. Parabiblica 3. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023.

Chapman, Paul, ed. “Homily on the Passion and Resurrection Attributed to Evodius of Rome.” Pages x–xiv (“Appendix I”) and 79–106 in Homiletica From the Pierpont Morgan Library. Edited by Leo Depuydt. CSCO 524. Louvain: Peeters, 1993 (editio princeps of the text from PM M595).

Kosack, Wolfgang. Basilios, De archangelo Michael, sahidice; Pseudo-Euhodios, De resurrection, sahidice; Pseudo-Euhodios, De dormitione Mariae virginis, sahidice & bohairice: <Papyruskodex Turin, Mus. Egizio Cat. 63000 XI> nebst Varianten und Fragmente. Berlin: Christoph Brunner, 2014 (parallel editions of M595 and Rossi’s edition of GIOV.AM, pp. 52–114; German trans., pp. 115–41).

Lucchesi, Enzo. “‘Martyre’ de Zacharie et protévangile de Jacques.” Le Muséon 101(1988): 65–76 (collection of Rossi’s leaves of GIOV.AM against PM M595.)

Rossi, Francesco. “Transcrizione con traduzione italiana dal testo copto di un sermone sulla Passione del nostro Signore Gesù Cristo con vari altri frammenti copti del Museo Egizio di Torino.” Memorie della Reale Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, 2nd ser., 42 (1892): 107–43, 205–17 (edition and Italian translation of the text from GIOV.AM).

———. I papiri copti del Museo Egizio di Torino. II, 4. Turin, 1892 (edition of GIOV.AM, pp. 7–39; Italian translation, pp. 101–13).

Suciu, Alin. “A Ledien Manuscript Containing the Apocryphal Names of the Two Thieves.” Alin Suciu. Posted 17 June 2011. https://alinsuciu.com/2011/06/17/a-leiden-manuscript-containing-the-apocryphal-names-of-the-two-thieves/ (discussion of manuscript C).

3.2 Modern Translations

3.2.1 English

Burns, Dylan M. “Homily on the Passion and Resurrection.” Pages 41–86 in vol. 2 of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Edited by Tony Burke. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2020 (translation based on PM 595 with readings from GIOV.AM and MONB.DL).

Chapman, Paul, trans. “Homily on the Passion and Resurrection Attributed to Evodius of Rome.” Pages 83–114 in Homiletica From the Pierpont Morgan Library. Edited by Leo Depuydt. CSCO 525. Leuven: Peeters, 1993 (translation from PM M595).

3.2.2 German

3.2.3 Italian

———. I papiri copti del Museo Egizio di Torino. II, 4. Turin, 1892 (edition of GIOV.AM, pp. 7–39; Italian translation, pp. 101–13).

3.3 General Works

Orlandi, Tito. “The Turin Coptic Papyri.” Aug 53:2 (2013): 501–30.

———. “Cycle” (3:666–68); “Evodius of Rome” (4:1078–79) in The Coptic Encyclopedia. Edited by Aziz S. Atiya. 8 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1991.

Sheridan, Mark. “A Homily on the Death of the Virgin Mary attributed to Evodius of Rome.” Pages 135–47 in Mark Sheridan, From the Nile to the Rhone and Beyond: Studies in Early Monastic Literature and Scriptural Interpretation. SA 156. Rome: Editions Sankt Ottilien, 2012. Reprinted from pages 393–406 in vol. 1 of Coptic Studies on the Threshold of a New Millennium. Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Coptic Studies, Leiden 27 Aug.–2 Sept. 2000. 2 vols. Edited by Matt Immerzeel, Jacques van der Vliet, Maarten Kersten, and Carolien van Zoest. OLA 133. Leuven: Peeters, 2004.

Suciu, Alin. The Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon: A Coptic Apostolic Memoir. WUNT 370. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017 (pp. 102–105).

Vliet, Jacques van der. “The Embroidered Garment: Egyptian Perspectives on ‘Apocryphicity’ and ‘Orthodoxy.’” Pages 177–92 in The Other Side: Apocryphal Perspectives on Ancient Christian “Orthodoxies.” Edited by Tobias Nicklas, Candida R. Moss, Christopher Tuckett, and Joseph Verheyden. NTOA 117. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2017 (esp. pp. 185–87).