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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > E > Euthalius


EUTHALIUS

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A deacon of Alexandria and later Bishop of Sulca. He lived towards the middle of
the fifth century and is chiefly known through his work on the New Testament in
particular as the author of the "Euthalian Sections". It is well known that the
divisions into chapters and verses with which we are familiar were entirely
wanting in the original and early copies of the New-Testament writings; there
was even no perceptible space between words. To obviate the manifest
inconveniences arising from this condition of the text, Ammonius of Alexandria,
in the third century, conceived the idea of dividing the Four Gospels into
sections varying in size according to the substance of the narrative embodied in
them, and Euthalius, following up the same idea, extended a similar system of
division to the other books of the New Testament with the exception of the
Apocalypse. So obvious were the advantages of the scheme that it was soon
adopted throughout the Greek Church. As divisions of the text these sections
have no longer any intrinsic value. But as they were at a given period adopted
in nearly all the Churches, and noted by the copyists, they are valuable as
chronological indications, their presence or absence being an important
circumstance in determining the antiquity of a manuscript.



Other labours of Euthalius in connexion with the text of the New Testament refer
to the larger sections or lessons to be read in the liturgical services, and to
the more minute divisions of the text called , or verses. The custom of reading
portions of the New Testament in the public liturgical services was already
ancient in the Church, but with regard to the choice and delimitation of the
passages there was little or no uniformity, the Churches having, for the most
part, each its own series of selections. Euthalius elaborated a scheme of
divisions which was soon universally adopted. Neither the Gospels nor the
Apocalypse enter into this series, but the other portions of the New Testament
are divided into 57 sections of varying length, 53 of which are assigned to the
Sundays of the year, while the remaining four refer probably to Christmas, the
Epiphany, Good Friday, and Easter.

The idea of dividing the Scriptures into , or verses, did not originate with
Euthalius. It had already been applied to portions of the Old Testament,
especially to the poetical parts, and even to some parts of the New. Here, as
with regard to the other divisions, Euthalius only carried out systematically
and completed a scheme which had been but partially and imperfectly realized by
others, and his work marks a stage of that progress which led finally to
punctuation of the text. These were of unequal length, either containing a few
words forming a complete sense, or as many as could be conveniently uttered with
one breath. Thus, for instance, the Epistle to the Romans contained 920 of these
verses; Galatians, 293; Hebrews, 703; Philemon, 37, and so on.

Besides these textual labours Euthalius framed a catalogue of the quotations
from the Old Testament and from profane authors which are found in the New-
Testament writings. He also wrote a short "Life of St. Paul" and a series of
"Argumenta" or short summaries which are placed by way of introduction to the
different books of the New Testament. Of Euthalius' activities as a bishop
little or nothing is known. Even the location of his episcopal see, Sulca, is a
matter of doubt. It can hardly be identified with the bishopric of that name in
Sardinia. More likely it was situated somewhere in Egypt, and it has been
conjectured that it is the same as Psilka, a city of the Thebaid in the
neighbourhood of Syene.

After having long lain in oblivion, the works of Euthalius were published in
Rome, in 1698, by Lorenzo Alessandro Zaccagni, Prefect of the Vatican Library.
They are embodied in the first volume of his "Collectanea Monumentorum Veterum
Ecclesiæ Græcæ ac Latinæ." They can also be found in Gallanci (Biblioth. Pat.,
X, 197) and in Migne (P.G., LXXXV, 621).




SOURCES

VIGOUROUX in Dict. de la Bible, s.v.; MILLIGAN in Dict. of Christian Biography,
s.v.; SCRIVENER, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament
(London, 1894), 53, 63, 64, etc.


ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Driscoll, J.F. (1909). Euthalius. In The Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05629b.htm

MLA citation. Driscoll, James F. "Euthalius." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5.
New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05629b.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by WGKofron. With
thanks to Fr. John Hilkert, Akron, Ohio.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor.
Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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