Procope compilateur d’exégèses et Procope sophiste de Gaza : un seul et même auteur ?
(2024) Procopius the Christian Sophist: Catenist, Compiler, Epitomist — ISBN: [978-2-503-60989-8], p. 17-48, published
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- The article questions the widespread identification of Procopius the compiler of Christian exegesis as the renowned sophist from Gaza. I argue that the original title of Procopius’ biblical works never specifies the geographical origin of the author. His connection with Gaza (Γαζαίου) was suggested in the colophon of manuscripts by a Byzantine copyist, on the fragile basis of homonymy; it was adopted and generalized by readers, editors and translators of Procopius’ commentaries from the mid-sixteenth century. A more serious obstacle to the two Procopii being the same person is the silence of ancient sources: Choricius of Gaza says nothing suggesting that his master Procopius embarked on a vast enterprise of compiling patristic exegeses; Photius presents separately, and evaluates differently, the writings of “Procopius the rhetorician” from Gaza and the biblical commentaries of “Procopius the sophist”, as if they were by two different authors. Moreover, from the information provided by Choricius, it becomes clear that throughout his life Procopius, official sophist of Gaza, devoted himself to the practice and teaching of pagan rhetoric, not to biblical interpretation. This also explains why his known works abound in classical Greek culture, but make no reference to the Bible. Instead of assuming that at some point the famous rhetorician of Gaza was converted, i.e., reduced, into a compiler of biblical commentaries, and instead of imagining in him the coexistence of two contradictory and separate souls, one pagan, the other Christian, we should recognize two different writers with the same name (Προκοπίου) and the same qualifier (σοφιστοῦ). This solution is confirmed by a new argument which seems to be decisive: the Epitome on Genesis includes sources which are contemporary or posterior to Procopius of Gaza (died c. 528), such as a refutation of the eternity of the world, a parallel with John Philoponus and an anti-Origenist florilegium. The use of such late sources provides as terminus post quem, for the compilation of this Epitome, the mid-sixth century, and necessarily implies that its author, “Procopius the Christian sophist”, was active after the death of Procopius of Gaza.
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Zaganas, D. (2024). Procope compilateur d’exégèses et Procope sophiste de Gaza : un seul et même auteur ? In Dimitrios Zaganas, Jean-Marie Auwers, and Joseph Verheyden (ed.), Procopius the Christian Sophist: Catenist, Compiler, Epitomist (p. p. 17-48). Brepols. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.IPM-EB.5.136513