Meticulously and at God’s pace, Kevin Edgecomb of Berkeley, CA, is building Bombaxo, a remarkable online library of original research. He’s assembled a small but growing collection of ancient Church Orders, the liturgical and disciplinary manuals of the early Christians. You’ll find complete versions of Hippolytus’ Apostolic Tradition and the inimitable Didascalia Apostolorum. These last two links will drop you into the Mass as it was celebrated in the third and fourth centuries, and possibly even earlier.
Though Kevin’s using the established English translations, they’re not available elsewhere on the Web (or at least they weren’t when I first found them at Bombaxo). And, anyway, Kevin never rests with a received translation. He updates critically, based on the best recent research.
Kevin’s an Orthodox layman with a truly catholic range of interests. One of his most fascinating pages is a collection of ancient lectionaries, giving us a look at which biblical readings have matched which feast days, down through the ages — and all through the Christian world. His patristic lectionaries are culled from the works of Augustine and Ambrose, as well as the literary relics of the lesser-known ancient churches — the Armenian, Georgian, and Syriac. The word “bombaxo” is apparently an expletive in classical Greek. But I’ll bet only Oxford-trained Web filters will block it.
Thank you for the notice, Mike! I love the “at God’s pace”! If only every day were like a thousand years, I might get something done. As it is, they seem they’re only like fifteen minutes at most….
I think the word “bombax” and “bombalombax” are not quite expletives (I’ll have to change my website!), but rather more of a positive or superlative exclamation or interjection. LSJ gives it the gloss “prodigious!” noting “bombalombax” as the intensified form. It clearly falls into the range of the other βομβ- words, referring to booms, buzzes, and deep, loud noises in general. Something like “Kaboom!” or “Pow!” would possibly convey the same meaning in English. The actual, exact meaning, though, is something Mnesilochos would have to explain! It may have been a couple of words that he was actually well-known for using, and not just an invention of the otherwise typically bawdy and in-joke-lover Aristophanes. Thanks again and welcome to blogging!
I’m not sure what all that was about, but I think reading it did make me more clever. Better yet, I really do have an Oxford-trained web filter, and it let me read everything. Hooray!