The Syriac Translator of Basil's Small Asketikon: Translation Techniques and Personal Identity

Abstract

The 'Questions of the Brothers', or 'QF' for short (from 'Quaestiones Fratrum') is a translation into Syriac of the Small Asketikon of St Basil the Great (c. 329-378). I have spent the past few years working on a critical edition of the Syriac text from the manuscripts, two from the British Library, two from the Vatican Library, and one from the Ambrosian Library in Milan. In addition I worked concurrently on a new edition of the 'Regula Basilii', or 'Rule of Basil', which is a translation into Latin of the same original Greek document, made by Rufinus of Aquileia in 397. Intimate acquaintance with the content of the RBas is indispensible if one is to obtain some estimate of the Syriac translator's distinctive approach to translation. Then both the Latin and the Syriac must be read against what is discernible in the Greek of the later edition of the Asketikon, 'the Great Asketikon', for apart from a few fragments, the Greek text of the earlier version has not survived. In this paper, we will briefly allude to the general character of the Syriac translator's techniques, profile distinctive aspects of his mentality and character attested in the many passages of free invention in the QF, and on that basis, advance a case for the possible identity of the translator.