Recognized as a saint by both Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Christians alike, Jacob of Sarug (d. 521) produced many narrative poems that have rarely been translated into English. Of his reported 760 metrical homilies, only about half survive. Part of a series of fascicles containing the bilingual Syriac-English editions of Saint Jacob of Sarug’s homilies, this volume contains his homilies on the Six Days of Creation. The Syriac text is fully vocalized, and the translation is annotated with a commentary and biblical references. The volume is one of the fascicles of Gorgias Press’s The Metrical Homilies of Mar Jacob of Sarug, which, when complete, will contain all of Jacob’s surviving sermons. In this fourth installment of the long Homily 71, On the Six Days of Creation, Jacob treats of the events of the fourth day, the creation of the spheres of light over the earth: the sun to rule over the day, and the moon and the stars to rule over the night. They all play a role in the growth of vegetation, trees, etc., as well as the various times and seasons of the year. Jacob even describes the sun and moon as types of God and humankind, respectively.
Table of Contents (v)
Abbreviations (vii)
Introduction (1)
Outline (1)
Summary (5)
Text and Translation (7)
Homily 71d: On the Fashioning of Creation: The Fourth Day (8)
I. God creates the Luminaries and fills them with Light from the First Day (8)
II. God lays out the courses for each of the luminaries (12)
III. The Erroneous Teaching of the Chaldeans (16)
IV. The Role of the Sun and the Moon in Plant Germination (22)
V. The Moon is a Type of a Human Being (26)
VI. The Sun is a type of God (28)
VII. The Heavens Proclaim the Glory of the Creator (32)
VIII. On the Fourth Day God Created the Moon Full (36)
IX. God set the Luminaries in Continuous Motion along Specific Courses (40)
X. God gave to each of the Luminaries its own Particular Glory (44)
XI. God established the Times and Seasons by the Sun and the Moon (46)
Bibliography of Works Cited (51)
Primary Texts (51)
Secondary Works (52)
Index (55)
Names and Themes (55)
Biblical References (58)