Corpus of Latin Ecclesiastical Writers, Vol. LXV: Hilary's Treatise on the Mysteries, Fragments, and Hymns

These words, we believe, clearly show that Hilary had not written special treatises on the types or mysteries of the Old Testament before he composed the Tractatus super psalmos Treatise on the Psalms.

We have indicated in the apparatus which books of Origen Hilary primarily used in composing the Tractatus, where we noted parallel passages that exhibit a greater similarity; cf. also the index of passages below. Perhaps someone will find Hilary dependent on Origen in other places as well, for example if they compare p. 17, 12 Rebecca with homily X on Genesis, p. 20, 15 ager field with homily XI 3 on Numbers, p. 22, 30—23, 13 with homily III 4 on Exodus, p. 25, 17 eguisse to have needed with homily VII 1 on Exodus, p. 27, 1—9 with homily VII 3 on Exodus, p. 28, 10 sq. with homily VII 2 on Exodus, p. 29, 3 sol sun with homily II 1 on Exodus and with homily XXIII 5 on Numbers, p. 29, 10—16 with homily VII 5 on Exodus, p. 31, 1 sqq. with homily III 4 on the book of Joshua, etc. The number of such passages could undoubtedly be increased if Origen's homilies on the books of the Old Testament were intact and, especially, if the two books of the same author’s mystical homilies, in which he also treated Genesis (Rufinus, apol. II 20), had been handed down to us. You will find several witnesses indicated in Studien III p. 40 who, besides Origen, discuss the changed names Abram and Sara (at p. 16, 6) in a similar, though not the same, manner as Hilary.

5. It is deeply to be regretted that the Hilarian work did not reach us whole in Codex A, but mutilated by the injury of time. Both the author and Codex A itself provide certain clues as to how many leaves perished and what they contained. First, the Tractatus are called a "little book" by the author himself: "3, 20 it has seemed [good] to show in this little book"; from these words it appears the book was not large. If, then, we can have faith in the subscription of Codex A (finit tractat; mysteriorum s̄ hylarii ep̄i ab adā usq; ad noe. deinde abrą. ysaac. iacob. moysi. et oseę prophē. et helie, The treatise on the mysteries of St. Hilary, bishop, ends; from Adam to Noah. Then Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the prophet Hosea, and Elijah, cf. below p. 38), it will be possible to gather the same from it. For the subscription enumerates the types, all of which we find treated in the preserved parts of the work: namely Adam (and Eve, Cain and Abel, Lamech, Seth), Noah (and his sons in part), Abraham (in part), Isaac (in part), (Esau and) Jacob (in part), Moses, Hosea (in part), Elijah (but cf. p. XVIII). However, we bear it with difficulty that there is no mention of the question of Joshua in the subscription, especially since to one reading the Tractatus attentively, it might perhaps also seem strange that Hilary only speaks of Joshua and Rahab after he has set out to treat the types of the prophets.