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Document Details : Title: The Critical Edition of 'Anthanasius' Werke' Continued Author(s): LEEMANS, J. Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses Volume: 75 Issue: 1 Date: April 1999 Pages: 133-141 DOI: 10.2143/ETL.75.1.504753 Abstract : The critical edition of Athanasius’ Epistula ad episcopos Aegypti et Libyae (EpEpisc) was published in 1996. The EpEpisc is a circular letter of the Alexandrian bishop to his suffragans. He warns them that “Arians” have produced a statement of faith which they will try to persuade them to sign. Athanasius exhorts his bishops to resist the pressure and not to sign the heretical teachings contained in the statement. As a proof of their heresy he points to the Arians’ alliance with the treacherous Melitians, the shameful death of Arius in a latrine, and the content of the Thalia. The EpEpisc is not only an important document for the Egyptian Church in the 350's, the time of its composition, but as a source for the text of Arius’ Thalia it also highlights the very first stage of the so-called Arian Controversy2. For this important work scholars still had to rely on the edition in the Patrologia Graeca, which is basically that of de Montfaucon (1698). So, it is obvious how welcome this new edition of the EpEpisc is. Yet, there are also other reasons which single out the edition: (1) It is a highly promising result of a project which at times, at least for an outsider, seemed lost forever. (2) The edition is the first major result of a much larger research project that has already led to many other publications of a more preparatory nature. (3) A critical assessment of the present edition reveals that in many ways it marks a clear step forward in comparison to the one in the Patrologia Graeca. |
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