Ethiopic catena commentary on the Gospel of Matthew

ትርጓሜ ወንጌል (Tǝrgʷāme wangel) · Anonymous (Ethiopic catena compiled from Greek patristic scholia) · translated from Arabic not later than the 16th century (per the Beta maṣāḥǝft record) · commentary · LIT1234Catena

Ethiopic · domain: bible · researched 2026-11-13

Why this is in the register

Beta maṣāḥǝft LIT1234Catena describes a catena drawing on John Chrysostom, Severus, Athanasius, Cyril and others plus anonymous explanations, translated from Arabic by the 16th century, with five manuscript witnesses; its bibliography lists only secondary literature (Cowley 1983, Cowley 1988 at pp. 47 and 53, Witakowski in the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Zotenberg's 1877 catalogue) and no edition or translation (https://betamasaheft.eu/LIT1234Catena). HOLLIS Primo 'Hawi Ethiopian commentary' returns 0 records (https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Hawi%20Ethiopian%20commentary&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01HVD_INST:HVD2&offset=0 Roger Cowley, Ethiopian Biblical Interpretation: A Study in Exegetical Tradition and Hermeneutics (Cambridge 1988) is the standard study and is cited by Beta maṣāḥǝft at pp. 47 and 53 for this catena; it is a study, and no published translation of the work itself was located (https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Ethiopian%20biblical%20interpretation&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01HVD_INST:HVD2&offset=0

This is the patristic-catena stratum of Ethiopian exegesis, as distinct from the vernacular ʾandǝmta; it is the closest Ethiopic analogue to the Greek catenae edited in the Catenae Graecae series, and it has received nothing comparable; the Beta maṣāḥǝft record also gives the alternative title 'Copto-Arabic Gospel Catena', which locates its immediate Vorlage. Five witnesses are recorded in Beta maṣāḥǝft, so a critical edition is feasible.

Existing translations recorded

None recorded in English. Non-English versions, where they exist, are named in the evidence above.

Electronic text

No open electronic text was verified for this work. The Greek/Coptic/Geʿez may exist only in a print or subscription edition (Migne, CSCO, TLG, CMCL).

Scanned witnesses

Scan search: restricted scan — 4 candidate(s). The clavis listWit is exactly what the catalogue supports: BnF Éthiopien 65 (ms_i1), BL Add. 16220 (p2_i1, confirmed by the TEI ref LIT1234Catena at f. 9r-46), EMML 2088 and EMML 2797 (both catalogued by HMML as 'Coptic-Arabic Gospel catena. Matthew'), plus BnF Arabe 55 for the Arabic Vorlage. A title search for 'Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew' pulls in six manuscripts, but three of them are a different, Syriac-derived commentary: BL Or. 732 and BnF d'Abbadie 191 cite LIT2456Tergwa, and EMML 1114 (which does have an open CC BY-NC-ND IIIF facsimile of 219 canvases at https://betamasaheft.eu/api/iiif/EMML1114/manifest, incipit 'መጽሐፈ፡ ልደቱ፡ ለኢየሱስ፡ … ይቤ፡ መተርጕም፡') is the same commentary, translated from Syriac via Arabic and citing Isho'dad of Merv — not the Copto-Arabic catena of LIT1234. So there is an open Gospel-commentary facsimile in this family, but it is the wrong work; the catena itself is BnF (Gallica 403 from this host), BL (reader offline after the 2023 cyber-attack) or HMML (login) only. Migne and CSCO carry no edition of this work. If the priority is an open text, EMML 2088/2797 are the two to request from vHMML.

Harvard Hollis

Hollis query: Ethiopic catena commentary on the Gospel of Matthew — 0 record(s). No catalogue record was retrieved.

Sources checked

• https://betamasaheft.eu/LIT1234Catena
• HOLLIS search — Ethiopian biblical interpretation
• HOLLIS search — Hawi Ethiopian commentary

Cite: Tergwame, “Ethiopic catena commentary on the Gospel of Matthew” (ethiopic gap dossier), 2026. https://naxiai.com/christian/gaps/ethiopic-anonymous-catena-matthew