Another oddity. In Against Marcion Book Five Chapter 13 at the beginning of the treatment of Romans we read:
Since my little work is approaching its termination, I must treat but briefly the points which still occur, whilst those which have so often turned up must be put aside. I regret still to have to contend about the law----after I have so often proved that its replacement (by the gospel) affords no argument for another god, predicted as it was indeed in Christ, and in the Creator's own plans ordained for His Christ so far as this very epistle looks very much as if it abrogated the law.
Quanto opusculum profligatur, breviter iam retractanda sunt quae rursus occurrunt, quaedam vero tramittenda, quae saepius occurrerunt. Piget de lege adhuc congredi, qui totiens probaverim concessionem eius nullum argumentum praestare diversi dei in Christo, praedicatam scilicet et repromissam in Christum apud creatorem, quatenus et ipsa epistula legem plurimum videtur excludere.
What is odd of course is that the statement would make sense if the treatise were coming to an end. In reality though it comes about in the middle of the treatise - twelve completed chapters of a 21 chapter book. Why does the author say that he must speak 'briefly' (breviter) because the treatise about to end?
Indeed the statement might make sense if the canon followed the order of OUR canon (i.e. where Romans is at the end). But the order is that of Ephrem's community (i.e. the single long 'harmony' community of the East) - i.e. Galatians, Corinthians, Romans ...
https://books.google.com/books?id=l6jNA ... on&f=false
So on the one hand it MIGHT make sense to understand that the statement was part of a commentary on a canon like OUR canon. But the evidence contradicts that as it stands now. Indeed it would be hard to imagine why someone would break up a Roman's last canon and rearrange it according to a Galatians first ordering. But whatever.
Here is what even more odd. Whoever was transcribing the original work must have noticed something unusual about the text. There is a disproportionate amount of information from Galatians (in the 21 chapter work 3 full chapters are devoted to Galatians) and five chapters to 1 Corinthians, one and a half to the first four chapters and a bit from 2 Corinthians but only two paltry chapters for the longest letter of the canon (Romans) and a few lines for the rest of the letters.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
