Reading the Gospels with the Eusebian Canon Tables

Abstract

This chapter looks at the experience of reading a four-gospel codex equipped with the Canon Tables and argues that Eusebius’ paratext has a threefold effect: 1) it binds together four originally separate texts into a single corpus of literature, and by implication excludes all other texts from this category; 2) it encourages a kind of hypertextual reading, in which passages from one gospel are read alongside passages from one or more other gospels; and 3) within this hypertextual mode the Eusebian apparatus is decidedly underdetermined, expressing a Bakhtinian openness with respect to the resolution of tensions internal to the corpus. The chapter concludes with an analysis of six parallels created by Eusebius that demonstrate these three effects.