Compilateur ou exégète ? Procope et son ouvrage sur l’Exode
Based on the recent edition and translation by Karin Metzler of Procopius’s Commentary on Exodus and on the search for sources that accompanies it, this article examines the organisation of the exegetical content and its articulation with the arrangement of various sources. First, I present certain formal characteristics : the global composition, the discontinuities and heterogeneities of the commentary, the way in which the biblical lemmas are quoted (or not). Then I demonstrate that the commentary on certain verses or pericopes presents a wellstructured composition, either by a thematic progression, or by a differentiation of the various meanings of the Scriptures, sometimes at the expense of the succession of the verses. Once these analyses have demonstrated how Procopius works with his sources, I examine the literary form of this work on Exodus, a special case within the commentary on the Octateuch, echoing the debates rekindled by this new edition.