Dáibhí Ó Cróinín

A New Seventh-Century Irish Commentary on Genesis

The publication in 1954 of Bernhard Bischoffs Wendepunkte in der Geschichte des lateinischen Exegese im Fruhmittelalter was itself a turning-point in the modern study of medieval exegesis. Bischoffs catalogue of 39 biblical commentaries, most of them previously unidentified, revolutionised at a stroke the field of biblical studies in Ireland and Britain, and his belief that these commentaries were either the work of anonymous Irish exegetes, or influenced by Irish exegetical techniques, opened a new vista on biblical sutdies in the Early Middle Ages. Not everyone, however, accepted Bischoffs arguments, and some scholars questioned his conclusions. Indeed one recent writer (Michael Gorman) has denied completely the validity of Bischoffs methods, dismissing his corpus of supposedly Hiberno-Latin exegetical writing as an elaborate hoax. This paper focuses on one particular text mentioned in passing by him, a Genesis commentary, and analyses its contents, with a view to establishing whether or not it satisfies the criteria for Irishness laid down by Bischoff. The paper shows that the sources drawn on in the commentary, as well as the techniques used, combine palaeographical and other data to vindicate Bischoffs ideas.