Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition

Sextus, Sentences of

A Greek collection of ethical sayings dating from the 2nd cent., and probably of Christian authorship (though this has been disputed); Sextus, to whom the original collection of 451 sayings is attributed, is otherwise unknown. The sayings already enjoyed great popularity in Origen’s day and were subsequently translated into Latin, Syriac, and Armenian. In the Syriac translation, preserved in a considerable number of mss. from the 6th cent. onwards, the Sextus is wrongly identified as ‘Xystos, bp. of Rome’ (i.e., Sixtus II, 257–8; thus also Rufinus). The sayings were particularly appreciated in monastic circles, and in modern times they have been reproduced in part in Qolo Suryoyo 129–32 (2001–2).

Sources

H. Chadwick, The Sentences of Sextus (1959). (with Greek and Latin texts)
P. de Lagarde, Analecta Syriaca (1858, repr. 1967), iii–xi (collations), 2–31 (text).
V. Ryssel, ‘Die syrische Übersetzung der Sextussentenzen’, Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie 38 (1895), 617–30; 39 (1896), 568–624; 40 (1897), 131–49. (with GT)

Sebastian P. Brock