Patristics

This book consists of two lectures delivered by the author at Trinity College, Dublin: the first deals with Aprahat, the Persian sage, and the second with Bardaisan and the Acts of Judas Thomas.

The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Caesarea, who flourished in the fourth century, has long been considered a landmark in Christian historiography. Written originally in Greek, a Syriac translation appeared during or shortly after the lifetime of the author.

This standard edition of the Chronicle, composed in AD 507, is considered one of the most valuable authorities for the period with which it deals. The manuscript from which the text is derived is a palimpsest copied between 907 and 944.

Cureton’s book was first begun as early as 1848 on the basis of manuscripts in the collection of the British Museum. It furnished nineteenth-century students of Syriac Christianity with a wealth of new resources and continues to be just as valuable for students today.

This book draws upon the works of numerous patristic authorities as well as Bernard of Clairvaux and Peter de Blois. Male synthesized their theological reflection and endeavored to present “the unanimous sentiments of the Church Catholic on its important subject.”

In this GP edition, scholars and students will find Wensinck’s collection of texts from Ethiopic, Arabic, Syriac, and Karshuni manuscripts, as well as English translations of the legends of Archelides and Hilaria, assembled in one volume.

From the Ben Ezra Synagogue Genizah came thirty-two of the thirty-four palimpsest fragments that make up the material of this book. Originally published in 1900, Gorgias Press is pleased to present this reprint edition of Lewis and Gibson’s work.

Composed in three parts, the book chronicles a critical period in the Syriac Orthodox Church, and represents the greatest literary work by the author. It includes grammatical, historical, and geographical notes in English and German.

The text of the long-lost Festal Letters of St. Athanasius, discovered by Cureton. The volume is dedicated to H.G. Francis, Duke of Bedford.

In this revised and updated edition of his classic work, Robert Murray offers the fullest and most vivid picture yet available of the development and character of the culture. It will be of interest to a wide range of readers.

Ephrem, the most celebrated writer of the Syriac Church, presents a wide range of theological themes and images that are characteristic of fourth-century Syrian Christianity. A significant theme that no one has yet studied in Ephrem is the concept of sickness and healing. This book presents the significance of healing theology and the ways in which the healing of man - spiritually, mentally, and corporally - is highly valued by Ephrem. The main part of the book deals with the causes of spiritual sickness and the process of healing, and the way in which Ephrem places them in the divine history of salvation.

The late Cambridge scholar F. H. Chase gives an insightful study on the Lord's prayer in the early Christian Church. The study first discusses the early Church and the Synagogue, then goes through an analytical study of every phrase of the prayer.

The story of the two women martyrs S. Perpetua and her slave S. Felicitas (d. 203 CE) have captivated generations of Christians. In this book, the late Cambridge scholar J. A. Robinson provides a study of the Greek and Latin texts of the Passio based on newly discovered manuscripts, as well as the original Latin text of the Scillitan Martyrs, another text of late 2nd century North African martyrdom.

The Apology of Aristides is the earliest Christian apologia to have survived in its entirety. It was written as a defense of the new Christian way of life against its many rivals and opponents, and details some of its leading ethical precepts. Long thought to have been lost, this early second-century work was rediscovered in a Syriac translation in a seventh-century manuscript preserved in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. This volume contains not only the standard edition of the Syriac text with critical notes, but also the first English translation and a study of surviving fragments in Greek, which were subsequently identified in the 'Life of Barlaam and Josaphat' (an early Christian reworking of the life of Buddha).

Only fragments survive of the writings of the Valentinian Gnostic teacher Heracleon (fl. 145-180 AD). The remnants can be found primarily in quotations in Origen's commentary on the Gospel of John. This study gives an edition of the surviving texts with extensive notes, biblical references, and indices. This volume is indispensable for the study of second century Gnosticism.

Contains six lectures: early bishops of Edessa, Bible in Syriac, early Syriac theology, marriage and the sacraments, Bardaisan and his disciples, Acts of Judas Thomas, and Hymn of the Soul. They were delivered in 1904 by Burkitt, then lecturer in paleography, at the University of Cambridge.

In one volume, this classic in liturgical studies brings together the main types of Eucharistic liturgy of the various Eastern Christian Churches. For more than a century it has been a reference for students and scholars in comparative liturgy.

Antient Liturgies was a valuable resource at an early stage in comparative liturgical studies and continues to provide a broad overview of the diversity of early Christian worship in an accessible and convenient format for students and scholars.

The book takes the reader on a journey of cross symbolism. Karim covers topics from the paradise of Eden to the Crucifixion and Golgotha. He discusses the cross as a symbol of historical, sacramental, and eschatological events.

Buchan’s work is an examination of the theological use of the doctrine of Christ's descent to the dead in the works of Saint Ephrem the Syrian (ca. 306-373 C.E.). Ephrem's conception of Christ's descent to Sheol provides us with an important and distinctive vision of the significance of this salvific event. Ephrem's use of Semitic and non-Western poetic forms and structures as a mode of theological discourse, coupled with his preference for imagery and symbolism rather than definition, resulted in a variety of vivid depictions of Christ's descent to Sheol. The doctrine is shown to be an integral and multifaceted component of Ephrem's theology.

This book deals with the works of the anti-Chalcedonian hagiographer, John Rufus, and traces the basic motives behind the opposition against the council of Chalcedon in the fifth century through an attempt to reconstruct a specific anti-Chalcedonian culture. As part of the eastern monastic culture, it considered itself a counter-culture guarding purity of ascetic conduct and orthodoxy from being defiled by the perverseness of the majority. Reading John Rufus' hagiography, we find ourselves in the midst of a cosmological warfare between good and evil, where the great heroes of the anti-Chalcedonian movement enter into history as God's warriors against the rebellion of demons and heretics.

This book, on the pneumatology of Origen's Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, illustrates the centrality of the Holy Spirit for his theological project. As both God's exitus into the world and humanity's reditus to God, the Spirit forms the crucial link between Origen's doctrine of God and his spiritual anthropology. Origen's images for the Holy Spirit, understood in the context of second century concepts of 'spirit,' convey the intersection of theology and anthropology in his thought. This book explores Origen's understanding of the multiplicity of spirits found in the Scriptures, with particular emphasis on the Holy Spirit as pivotal to God's outreach into the world.

Early lists of bishops, identified by Walter Bauer as "literary propaganda," mark critical points in the development of the doctrine of the apostolic succession of bishops. This study delves into the political struggles surrounding the lists and the doctrine they served to define. Ecclesiastical politics in each case reflects the threat to the bishop's authority and clarifies the meaning of apostolic succession in the Church's development. This social history approach, examining the function of the literature within its historical circumstances, reveals how theology developed from politics. The development is as gripping politically as it is illuminating theologically.

Jacob of Sarug is one of the most celebrated poets of Eastern Christianity and the Syriac tradition. The Gorgias Press edition, edited by Sebastian P. Brock, contains over 100,000 lines of poetry based on Bedjan’s 1905 edition.

Jacob of Sarug is one of the most celebrated poets of Eastern Christianity and the Syriac tradition. The Gorgias Press edition, edited by Sebastian P. Brock, contains over 100,000 lines of poetry based on Bedjan’s 1905 edition.