Subject: tc-list In need of more lectionary help

From: "Mark and Wendy Proctor" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 13:50:38 -0600

A few days ago I sent a message out requesting some help on Lectionary 866.  Thanks to everyone who responded.  I now have a few more questions:

(1) Lectionary 866 begins with the Gospel of John, and the various readings are fairly easy to pick out.  Am I correct in assuming that the readings in the lectionary are arranged day-by-day?  Do the readings for one week begin with Sunday and proceed through the course of the next seven days to Saturday, or are the Saturday-Sunday lections fall into a separate category than the weekday lections?  Put simply, I'm wondering if I'll be able to locate my texts (Mark 1:40-45; Matt 8:1-4; Luke 5:12-16) by counting days in the lectionary (since Lectionary 866 is complete and since I now know the days these three passages are read on).
(2) How many weeks are there between Easter and Pentecost?  This should help me locate the ending of John with ease.
(3) How many weeks are there between Holy Cross Day and the start of Lent?

In case you are curious why I need to know these questions, I'll give you my proposed strategy for locating the passages I listed above.
Mark 1:35-44 is read on Saturday of the second week in Great Lent.
Luke 5:12-16 is read on Tues of the second week of Lukan lections.
Matt 7:24-29; 8:1-4 is read on Sat of the third week of Matthean lections.
With this data and the info from the Aland's intro text in mind (pp 176 ff), I came up with the following strategy for locating the passages I need in the text of Lectionary 866.  I assume that the the readings are organized within the lectionary from Sun through Sat.
(1)  Find the end of John.  John is read in the period from Easter to Pentecost, and that is why I need to know the length of this period.
(2)  Matt 8:1-4 should be on Sat of the third week after the end of John.
(3) Count 13 more weeks (273 days) to reach Holy Cross day.
(4)  Lk 5:12-16 is read on Tues of the second week after Holy Cross day, therefore count 10 days after Holy Cross day
(5)  Count "x" weeks ("y" days) from Holy Cross day to reach the beginning of Lent.  As my third question indicates, I need more data to be precise in this regard.
(6)  Count to Sat of the second week in Great Lent to locate Mark 1:35-44.

I must be oversimplifying my task (or perhaps I'm making it more difficult than necessary), but I'll only know if you help me.  Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Mark Proctor

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From: JEAN VALENTIN <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 00:10:24 +0100

Maybe the best way to get acquainted with the lectionary system is to take
the time to make your own table of contents of the lectionary you are
using. If you have an evening you want to use for this, it will be
rewarding.

Here's what I did with one of my Arabic lectionaries: for each reading,
note the first one or two sentences, and the last ones (incipit and
explicit). With this, you will easily be able to find the biblical
references. Besides this, note the folio (the page in your manuscript). Do
this for all readings. If it's important for you, note also the rubrics,
that give you the time of the year when the text is read. You can also give
a number to each reading, beginning with reading number one. So you will
have a table of the readings in the order of the manuscript.

Be careful, in the Holy Week there are harmonized readings which you will
have to read entirely in order to find all the references. The rest of the
year, there are also some, but they are shorter and can be easily found
with the incipit and explicit (For example, I've noticed that my reading 56
has a few verses from Mt 10, then a few from Mt 19, and that my reading 96
has a few verses from Lk 8 followed by a few others from Lk 20).

When you're finished with this, put everything in the order of the biblical
references. You will have tables that allow you to quickly find the reading
you are searching (and that, later, when you are confronted with other
lectionaries, will be useful for comparisons).

You will also notice that the lectionary generally begins with John, then
follows with the other Gospels, but inside each Gospel it doesn't always
follow the exact ("biblical") order. A text that is before another text in
the biblical order can be read after it in the lectionary.

Two examples (from an Arabic lectionary influenced by the Jerusalem rite,
so don't take it for granted that you will meet exactly the same in your
Greek lectionary!):
(1) Reading 6 is Jn 3.22-33. Reading 7 is Jn 20.19-31. Then with reading 8,
we come back to John 2.1-11 and with reading 9, to Jn 3.16-21.
(2) Reading 34 is Jn 10.28-38, then reading 35 is Jn 9.1-38.

Reading 4 is a reading from Lk, in the middle of a whole series from Jn.
Etc, etc...

All of this is due to the necessities of having a reading appropriate for
the time of the year.

Of course, you need to take some time to do this. It might seem a bit
boring to do this job, but it probably is the best way to get a first-hand
acquaintance with the system, which is the same in all the lectionaries of
the Byzantine rite (nearly all Greek lectionaries follow it, and a good
number in other languages). When you have this, you will be able to easily
find a reference in your lectionary if you have noted the page where each
reading occurs. And when you get used to it, you can also use it with the
other lectionaries (except that the page numbers will change of course, but
not the relative position of the readings).

This is what I did as I had no introduction to the Byzantine lectionary
available. For the Jerusalem rite, we have several good works on the
subject, including the invaluable work of Tarchnishvili on the Georgian
lectionary. The edition of the Syropalestinian lectionary can be of good
help, as two manuscripts are closer to the Byzantine system, while the
third one shows influences from the Jerusalem rite.

I'm also a beginner in the use of the lectionaries, so if you or somebody
else on the list has other informations (especially bibligraphical), I'll
be glad to use them!

A suggestion for the TC web site: wouldn't it be nice to have there a
little intro to the lectionary system(s), with a table of the readings, as
this information seems difficult to find in the current introductions to
the discipline?

Greetings,

Jean V.

____________________________________________________________________________
Jean Valentin - Bruxelles - Belgique

[email-masked] / [email-masked]

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From: "James R. Adair" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 10:17:41 -0500 (EST)

> this information seems difficult to find in the current introductions to

Jean,

If you (or someone else) are willing to put together a short intro of this
nature, I'll be glad to add it to the TC Links page.

Jimmy Adair
General Editor of TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism
-------------------> http://purl.org/TC <--------------------