Fulgentius - full Greek fluency - flaw of separating Latin and Greek fathers

Steven Avery

Administrator
Fulgentius and Greek Fluency

Ideas on Language in Early Latin Christianity: From Tertullian to Isidore of Seville (2017)
Tim Denecker
https://books.google.com/books?id=7yMzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA157
https://books.google.com/books?id=7yMzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA158
https://books.google.com/books?id=7yMzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA375
https://books.google.com/books?id=7yMzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA376
https://books.google.com/books?id=7yMzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA445

Fulgentius of Ruspe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgentius_of_Ruspe
His mother Mariana taught him to speak Greek and Latin. Fulgentius became particularly fluent with the former, speaking it like a native. His biographer says that at an early age Fulgentius committed the entire works of Homer to memory.

Thomas Smith
https://books.google.com/books?id=0g5AAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA136

David Martin
https://books.google.com/books?id=4tlbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA52

Knittel (1785)
http://books.google.com/books?id=kKsCAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA30

A full inquiry into the original authority of that text, I John v. 7.
https://archive.org/details/fullinquiryintoo00emly/page/66/mode/2up
This might be Nolan - very interesting section!

Alban Butler
http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Butler/Fulgentius_von_Ruspe.html

Henry Armfield
http://www.archive.org/stream/threewitnessesdi00armf#page/84/mode/2up

Scrivener
http://books.google.com/books?id=BFtQOr7zsnYC&pg=PA404
Fulgentius - TWO places - TWO Greek evidences -
 
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Steven Avery

Administrator
Friend
Fulgentius not only became the spokesperson for the entire Nicene Christian Empire against the Arians, but also corresponded with Christians all over Christendom from Span to Constantinople. He also wrote instruction books and answered theological questions, etc. Then Fulgentius went on to debate other Arian scholars who knew Greek as well as Latin.

I really think that Fulgentius slam dunks the entire question in our favor. What objection can they find. Oh, yes I know the one that Knittel speaks about with the Latin word confitur, but that is so bogus and technical that it hardly holds water.
 

Steven Avery

Administrator
• [Fabinianus the Arian] The only time Fulgentius of Ruspe considered it necessary to quote Greek was when writing against the Arian Fabianus. At some point between 523 and 533, Fabianus and Fulgentius had engaged in a public debate, most likely in Carthage. Fabianus published the proceedings in a manner so unflattering to his opponent that Fulgentius composed the ten-volume "Contra Fabianum" in response. In the "Contra Fabianum", Fulgentius quoted Scriptures in Greek as well as in Latin, a practice not followed in his other works. He did so with the expectation that Fabianus would be able to follow the Greek, saying at one point that "I will bring forward the truth of the Greek reading in this place also, so that you might understand this (point) more fully." ...
(Dossey, The Last Days of Vandal Africa: An Arian Commentary on Job and its Historical Context, 2003, p. 115-116)

● [Contra Fabianus] For man, being the image of God, is not limited to only one person of the divine, but of the whole of the Trinity. From the holy writings are shown in the Trinity and the nature of the unit. The Trinity in Persons, and the Unity of Essence [of the Godhead] proved from the Holy Scripture. ...This also the holy Apostle [St. Paul] confirms: Who, in respect to the distinction of persons [in the Godhead] syas, "One God the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him; and that the faithful are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit." Shewing also that the one God is a Trinity, he adds, "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God!" And a little afterwards, "For of him, and through him, and in him, are all things : to him be glory forever." But the holy Apostle St. John [proceeds further, for he] plainly says, "And the three are one"; which text concerning the Father, the Son
[Filio] and the Holy Ghost we alleged,
as we did before when ye required a reason from us [our belief].

(Fulgentius, Contra Fabianus, Fragmentum 21; Translated by George Travis, Letters to Edward Gibbon, 3rd edition, 1794, p. 38-39)
 

Steven Avery

Administrator
Steven
So Fulgentius and Aeneas are super-dual language folks, are there others in that league? They are special in their degree of seeking to work with the Latin-Greek divide... of course there are many lesser cases, even Potamius writing to Athanasius

Friend
  • Well, there is Facundus (Latin & Greek) and also had the ability to read Syriac. That is a very important hit for sure.
  • He was writing in Latin because the Pope understood Latin. And what did Facundus say? That brothers were arguing over what "in earth" meant in I John 5:8. Oh my. That means it must have been in Greek!
  • Yes, it is amazing to see how Facundus use of I John 5:8 is reduced to "just another Latin instance" of the verse.
  • I have all of the context in my paper to that is so critical to destroying the nonsense of the critics.
  • Facundus is a Greek father of Constantinople.
  • Who in Constantinople would be arguing over Latin I John 5:8 ???
  • Ok, well, no one of course. It was in Greek there, that is why Facundus is using it in his reply to the Pope.
  • Another father who wrote different languages: Eusebius of Vercelli; Cyril of Alexandria; ...
 
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