Patristics

Jacob of Sarug's (d. 521) homily constitutes the first example of a Hexameron, or Commentary on the Six Days of Creation, in Syriac literature. This edition presents Jacob’s comments on the first day, Gen. 1:1-5. The volume constitutes a fascicle of The Metrical Homilies of Mar Jacob of Sarug, which, when complete, will contain the original Syriac text of Jacob's surviving sermons, fully vocalized, alongside an annotated English translation.

A text for students, with translation, introduction and annotations.

A Text for Students, with Introduction, Translation and Notes.

The Martyrdom, and the later History, of Simeon bar Sabba’e narrate the death of the bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon who was killed around the year 340 C.E. at the beginning of King Shapur II’s “Great Persecution” of Christians in Sasanian Persia.

Marius Besson presents the critical text of two manuscripts containing an apophthegmatic text with sayings attributed to Isaac of Nineveh. The text also includes a separate apparatus with references to parallel texts in various early Christian documents.

François Nau collated various manuscripts containing stories about the holy fathers of Sinai and presents here the critical and annotated text. These stories offer otherwise unknown information about St. John Climacus and include useful historical and geographic details.

These eighteen stories pertaining to Anastasius of Mount Sinai include unique information and variations of stories preserved elsewhere. Nau presents the edited Greek text along with an introductory discussion of authorship and sources.

Oskar Braun provides a brief introduction to the life and career of Patriarch Timothy I, including a list of his writings with special attention to his letters and the Syriac text and German translation for five of Timothy’s letters.

Anton Baumstark presents a historical survey of the development of the exegetical methods of the Syriac Orthodox (“Jacobite/Monophysite”) tradition. Baumstark conducts this survey by detailing the influence of various exegetical works through three distinct historical periods.

The “Autobiography” of Dionysius the (Pseudo-)Aereopagite exists in two separate recensions found in three manuscripts. Marc-Antoine Kugener publishes here the Syriac text of the two recensions along with an introduction and a German translation.

Jacob Wickert offers one of the most thorough discussions of Euthymios Zigabenus ever produced, including an introduction to his life and a detailed discussion of the contents of Euthymios’s compendium of heresies, the Panoplia Dogmatica.

The ancient myth of a hero who slays a mythical beast worked its way into the lore of early Christianity. Willy Hengstenberg discusses here the sources for the dragon-slaying legend attributed to two separate fourth-century figures named Theodore.

Marius Chaîne publishes the Coptic text and French translation of a letter attributed to Severus of Antioch and addressed to the deaconess Anastasia. In the introduction, Chaîne discusses the attribution to Severus and the exegetical method displayed within the letter.

Arthur Allgeier publishes here two articles concerning the “Legend of the Seven Sleepers” in the Syriac tradition. The first article includes a discussion of the text’s transmission history and the second includes the Syriac text, German translation, and apparatus.

In this important work on Jacob of Sarug, Martin examines what is known of the poet’s life, looks at his lasting influence, offers a number of extracts from Jacob’s homilies and letters in French, and discusses his orthodoxy.

This volume contains the Syriac text of one of Dionysius bar Salibi’s polemical writings, that against the Jews, based on a manuscript now located at the Harvard Semitic Museum. An English translation was promised by the editor, but never appeared.

This volume contains the Syriac text, with German translation, of an (anonymous) introduction to the Psalms, together with two homilies from Daniel of Salah’s (fl. mid-6th century) long Psalms commentary. Diettrich’s detailed introduction adds richly to the work.

Samuel Lee arranges texts by the fourth century church historian Eusebius of Caesarea as they are known to him in their surviving Syriac versions.

In the early twentieth-century, P.S. Landersdorfer published a translation of Jacob of Serug’s homily on the fall of the idols accompanied by a commentary. Bernhard Vandenhoff publishes here a critique of Landersdorfer’s conclusions about the gods mentioned in Jacob’s “god-list.”

Felix Haase presents one of the first in-depth surveys of the text of the Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahre and focuses on the issue of the texts that were used as sources for the composition of the Chronicle

Under the name of Isaac of Antioch, also known as the Great, or the Teacher, more than 200 memre exist. Here Bedjan produces the (vocalized) Syriac text of 67 memre, 43 edited for the first time.

August Haffner provides a critique of Ernst Trumpp’s use of the Ethiopic and Arabic sources used in his publication of the Hexamaron of Pseudo-Ephiphanius.

P. Maternus Wolff publishes here the Syriac text and German translation of three burial hymns by Narsai that were originally included in an unfinished work by Karl Macke. Wolff also includes an introduction and a critical apparatus for the text.

Frothingham here offers the Syriac text, with an annotated Italian translation, of Jacob of Sarug’s homily on the Baptism of Constantine (832 lines), based chiefly two manuscripts, one from the Vatican and the other from the British Museum.

Wright’s edition of the homilies of the early Syriac father, Aphrahat, includes the text, critical apparatus, and notes on biblical citations, which are also indexed. The preface surveys Aphrahat’s life and deals with the manuscripts used.