«Dilibatio et massa». L’esegesi priscillianista di Rm 11, 16

The corpus of Würzburg, attributed to Priscillian, includes a tractate, the Liber de fide de apocryfis, that legitimates the reading of apocryphal writings. Becoming part of a long tradition, the author uses the anonymous citations that he found in canonical texts (e.g. Jud 14-15, Mt 2, 15) to justify the use of non-canonical texts. But he introduces some significant innovation such as the use of Rm 11, 16: taken out of its original context on the salvation of the people of Israel, the biblical quotation is used to represent the distinction of two groups of writings equally inspired: the dilibatio, i.e. the canonical texts, and the massa, i.e. all divine scriptures.