This variant, I mentioned, might also be attested by the Old Latin Codex Colbertinus and therefore represent another mysterious Syrio-Latin reading. Codex Colbertinus concludes Luke 23:9 with, Ipse vero nihil ei respondit quasi non audiens = "He replied nothing to him as if he didn't hear". Here's a photo of the reading from Colbertinus (BnF Lat. 254 f. 65r).
These two variant readings aren't identical but given the Old Syriac tendency to paraphrase (see Lyon 1994), this could plausibly* reflect two translations of a common Greek text not preserved in our manuscripts.
This Easter Sunday I discovered a new witness to this Syrio-Latin reading. In Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar, Pilate recounts his dream of Jesus' trial in the musical number "Pilate's Dream." The following lines are of particular interest (emphasis mine).
I asked him to say what had happened,
How it all began.
I asked again, he never said a word.
As if he hadn't heard.
How it all began.
I asked again, he never said a word.
As if he hadn't heard.
The lyricist, Tim Rice**, working in 20th century Britain, is unlikely to have drawn upon Codex Colbertinus directly -- especially given how difficult the Bibliothèque nationale de France is to navigate. Although Rice is clearly a person of deep learning, his oeuvre does not evince knowledge of Latin. It seems, therefore, most probable that Rice (or his sources) are drawing this Jesus tradition from a rivulet of oral tradition trickling into 20th century England. More research into this "Superstar Source" is called for! Here's a video of the relevant portion of the consummate dramatization of this 20th century piece of gospel literature.***
*I think this is plausible but (barring more evidence) deserving of a blog post rather than a scholarly publication.
**Thanks to Mark Goodacre for this clarification.
***Superstars Ranked 1) 1973 2) 2018 3) 1999. This is the only part of the blogpost that I will defend with conviction.
x
x
