The Harrowing of Hell

In volume 99 of the series Instrumenta Patristica et Mediaevalia Rémi Gounelle, Aidan Conti and Zbigniew Izydorczyk investigate the fascinating set of sermons attributed to pseudo-Eusebius of Alexandria, with a focus on the Greek sermons 15 (CPG 5524) and 17 (CPG 5526), their Latin translations, the Sermo de confusione diaboli et inferni (CPL 977a) and the Gospel of Nicodemus. The book is available in print and in Open Access.

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A fascinating journey, highlighting the creativity of the copyists and translators of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and demonstrating their profound interest and investment in the story of Christ’s Descent into Hell

In 1904, Edward Kennard Rand published a Latin sermon by an unknown author from a single manuscript of the ninth century that recounts the amazement of the devil at the crucifixion of Jesus and the devil’s defeat at the coming of Christ into the underworld, or the Harrowing of Hell. This Sermo de confusione diaboli et inferni added a new dimension to the already complex body of research on the sermons attributed to pseudo-Eusebius of Alexandria and the Gospel of Nicodemus. A century later, new witnesses of the text edited by Rand and an unedited Latin translation of pseudo-Eusebius’ Sermo 17 have begun to shed new light on the interconnectedness of all these materials.

The present book critically edits the newly identified Latin documents and discusses them in relation to their Greek source(s) and to one another. It retraces the paths from the protean forms of pseudo-Eusebius’ Greek sermons 15 and 17 to their Latin translations, to the Sermo de confusione diaboli et inferni, and to the Gospel of Nicodemus. In the process, it highlights the creativity of the copyists and translators of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and demonstrates their profound interest and investment in the story of Christ’s Descent into Hell.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction (R. Gounelle)

Chapter 1. State of research and new perspectives on Eusebius of Alexandria and the corpus of homilies ascribed to him

1. Did Eusebius of Alexandria really exist? (D. Niquin)

2. The collection of homilies by Pseudo-Eusebius of Alexandria (R. Gounelle)

3. History of research on the Greek manuscript tradition of Sermons 15 and 17 (R. Gounelle)

4. The Greek tradition of the Sermones 15 & 17 (R. Gounelle)

Appendix to chapter 1:

Edition of Greek texts of sermons 15 and 17 of Pseudo-Eusebius of Alexandria (R. Gounelle)

Chapter 2. The Latin witnesses

1. The De passione (A. Conti)

2. The Sermo de confusione diaboli (Z. Izydorczyk)

Appendix to chapter 2:

Synoptic presentation of the Latin texts of sermo 17

Chapter 3. Relations of the De passione and the Sermo de confusione diaboli with their presumed Greek sources

1. A single translation of Sermo 17 (A. Conti – R. Gounelle –  Z. Izydorczyk)

2. The Latin translation of Sermo 15 A. Conti – R. Gounelle –  Z. Izydorczyk)

3. The origins of the Latin De confusione text (Z. Izydorczyk – R. Gounelle)

Chapter 4 Relationship between De Passione / De Confusione and the Gospel of Nicodemus (R. Gounelle – Z. Izydorczyk)

1. Parallel yet different narratives

2. The relationship between the two versions

General conclusion (R. Gounelle – A. Conti – Z. Izydorczyk)

General stemma

Bibliography

Index of biblical citations

Index of the Latin words discussed in the notes or in the philological commentary