1778. THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS

lower part of this page; but the scanty remains appear to support the fuller version of the Syriac as against the much shorter extant Greek, though no definite correspondence can be made out.

9. theon God: so also the Syriac, "that it is God." The extant Greek has thean goddess both here and elsewhere where the subject is feminine.

13. auxei increases: the identification of the exiguous traces is confirmed by the collocation auxei te kai legei increases and ceases farther on in the Book of the Laws of the Countries (BJ). Whether that is to be regarded as a transposition of "sometimes ... ceases" is doubtful, for the Syriac repeats "Since then this wind is sometimes increased and sometimes diminished" at the corresponding point, and it is therefore quite possible that there was a similar repetition in the original. In that case BJ omitted "sometimes ... ceases" here, and did not merely transfer it to a later position.

14. anagkazetai is compelled: cf. the references in BJ to anagkē necessity in connexion with other elements, &c., e. g. iv "the heaven is moved by necessity, and we see it (the sun) moving by necessity," and the application of the same phrase to the moon and to man. To read anagkē estai there will be necessity is less suitable, since of the doubtful letters before tai the second is the taller of the two, whereas if they were es the reverse would be expected. The top of the supposed z is not unlike that of zontes living in l. 8.

16. The very scanty remains are not inconsistent with auxei increases again, though the repetition of this word seems unlikely. Of the three letters printed the e is the most probable; the other two are very uncertain.

17. The first n is very doubtful. The next letter is apparently ō, e, or ē, which is followed by n or k.

18. The doubtful l may be m.

26 sqq. The opening sentence of this section may safely be restored from BJ on the analogy of ll. 8—10: "But those who think that the sun is God are wandering." BJ continues: "For we see him moved by necessity and turning and passing from point to point, setting and rising, for the sake of warming plants and shoots for the use of men, and furthermore having a share with the rest of the stars, and being much smaller than the sky, and eclipsed of light, and having no autocracy. Wherefore it is not considered that the sun is God, but a work of God."

The Syriac is: "So too those have erred who have thought concerning the sun that he is God. For lo! we see him, that by the necessity of another he is moved and turned and runs his course; and he proceeds from degree to degree, rising and setting every day, in order that he may warm the shoots of plants and shrubs and may bring forth in the air which is mingled with him every herb which is on the earth. And in calculation the sun has a part with the rest of the stars in his course, and although he is one in his nature he is mixed with many parts, according to the advantage of the needs of men: and that not according to his own will, but according to the will of Him that ruleth him. Wherefore it is not possible that the sun should be God but a work of God."

Here the Greek of BJ is close to that of the papyrus throughout, especially when one or two necessary corrections have been made. pheromenon borne/moving of l. 2 has disappeared and is more likely to have been simply dropped than to be represented by "passing," since the Syriac has an equivalent for this as well as for pheromenon. "Every day," which the Syriac connects, probably rightly, with "setting and rising," has also been discarded. The article has been omitted with "shoots" and "use" (confirmed against the variant chreian need), and "shoots" and "plants" are transposed; which was the correct order may be questioned, but the papyrus seems on the whole to be supported by the Syriac. "Divisions" (l. 33) was read by Boissonade, with some manuscripts (division in Latin manuscripts; cf. Syriac). In ll. 38-40 "increases and decreases and has an eclipse" is represented by "and eclipsed of light," and this or something like it is probably to be regarded as the correct text, since the indicatives "increases," &c., interrupt the participial construction, which is carried on in ll. 40-1 by "and having no autocracy."