A gloss on Philemon

[COPLAND_3]

I have admired the glossa ordinaria for some time now, and I have done some studying on it. I love the way it is designed, putting the Scripture in the middle of the page and then surrounding it with patristic commentary. I am now working on creating a gloss on the short book of Philemon. I am trying to make it just like the glossa ordinaria. You will notice that the glossa ordinaria puts what is called an “interlinear gloss” above the words of Scripture that also give short insights, I have done the same thing, and I am using comments from Erasmus from his paraphrase for the interlinear gloss. The glossa ordinaria uses the complete commetary of Nicholas of Lyra at the bottom of the page, I am using the complete commentary of St. Thomas Aquinas instead. I am them providing glosses from the Fathers of the Church around the Scripture. Here is the link to what I am working on catenas.wetpaint.com/page/Philemon+Gloss

 

[Ron_Conte]

Onesimus was a slave (or indentured servant) who fled, was converted to Christianity by Paul and others, and who then was sent back to his master. His transition from a slave to a servant of Philemon is a figure for the transition that a person makes who is freed from the slavery of sin, so as to become the servant of all in Christ Jesus.

 

[Crumpy]

I don’t even understand what the thread is all about. What is a gloss?

I sense in Philemon the allegory of Christ interceding for the Church.

 

[COPLAND_3]

I don’t even understand what the thread is all about. What is a gloss?

I sense in Philemon the allegory of Christ interceding for the Church.

There are medieval commentaries on the Bible that are called glosses, and the one that became the standard is the glossa ordinaria. They were made so that clergy and those who could read Latin could read the Scriptures and have the interpretations right there at a glance. It is set up with the Bible verses in the middle of the page, usually one or a couple of verses per page, and then surrounding the passage of Scripture was numerous comments from the Church Fathers concerning that verse. The glosses were a little different from a typical Bible commentary that is free flowing, whereas the glosses are usually concise insights, often giving a range of different explanations and interpretations. The pages were usually loaded with helpful tools to understand the meaning of the Scripture passages, and even had what is called ‘interlinear glosses’ in which provided even more concise insights to the words of Scripture by placing those little glosses right above the words of Scripture. The glossa ordinaria also provide the commentary of Nicholas of Lyra at the bottom of the page, which would have been a more modern commentary to the medieval reader.

Here is a page I made recently of a page from the glossa ordinaria of the book of Ruth, with a photo copy and a translation of it. litteralchristianlibrary.wetpaint.com/page/Layout+of+the+glossa

Here is a page that I made that is has the whole glossa ordinaria litteralchristianlibrary.wetpaint.com/page/The+Glossa+Ordinaria+Page

Very little of it has ever been translated into English. I would love to see a movement towards getting this masterpeice into English someday!