Optatus and the African Old Latin

Abstract

The alteration of the “African Old Latin” has been a matter of common remark since the days of Augustine, but we have hardly any historical traditions of the localities in which such changes took place or the people by whom they were made. The “African Old Latin” is represented only in the Gospels by the fragmentary codex Bobbiensis (k) and codex Palatinus (e). For large parts of the Bible knowledge of the text derives entirely from the quotations that are preserved in the writings of the Fathers. It is mainly by carefully studying these quotations that any fixed criteria can be found for assigning the continuous texts of the MSS to Africa. This article looks at and analyzes the “African Old Latin” according to Optatus. By examining certain aspects of the quotations within the Adversus donatistas (i.e., quotations that appear in two variant forms), the author attempts to establish the context in which a revision took place.