Syriac and Eastern Christianity

The long memra translated here in this volume presents the seven parts of the homily on Creation in a single volume.

Jacob of Sarug's homily on Aaron the Priest, focusing on the period leading up to and including the death of Aaron described in Numbers 20:22–29.

Although the verse homilies of Jacob of Serugh are well known to lovers of Syriac literature, his stanzaic poetry, in the form of madroshe and sughyotho, have been largely forgotten. This volume contains twenty-five poems preserved in their complete form and attributed to Jacob in old manuscripts of the sixth/seventh to ninth/tenth century preserved today in the British Library, but largely originating from Deir al-Surian in Egypt.

Jacob of Sarug's homily chronicles the unravelling of God's love in sacred history and the inability of humankind to return God's love and grace.

During the 6th century AD, Īshōʿyahb I, Patriarch of the Church of the East, produced a code of law dealing with questions raised by Bishop Jacob of Darai in the Gulf. Perennial Church issues include priestly conducts, ecclesiastical rankings, and ordinations. Legal matters for the faithful concern wills, marriages, vows, lending at interest, and swearing. Most interesting are names of church architecture that the Code gives, including bema, diaconicon, and qestroma, terms that are still used today.

The Armenian Church Synaxarion is a collection of saints’ lives according to the day of the year on which each saint is celebrated. Part of the great and varied Armenian liturgical tradition from the turn of the first millennium, the first Armenian Church Synaxarion represented the logical culmination of a long and steady development of what is today called the cult of the saints. This volume, the first Armenian-English edition, is the eighth of a twelve-volume series—one for each month of the year—and is ideal for personal devotional use or as a valuable resource for anyone interested in saints.

A sourcebook of major Arabic Christian theologians and texts from the 9th-11th centuries. Christian authors who spoke and wrote Arabic had no choice but to engage with Islam and the complex realities of life—initially as a majority, later as a minority—under Muslim rule. They had to express their theology in new ways, polemicize against the claims of a new religion, as well as defend their doctrines against Islam’s challenges.

A new English translation of the two apologetic works by the 9th-century East Syrian theologian ʿAmmār al-Baṣrī. The Book of the Proof and The Book of Questions and Answers were written to defend Christian beliefs in the face of Muslim criticism.

Jacob of Sarug's homily on the Apostle Paul's advice to those who prioritise worldly matters, leading to an afterlife remote from God.

An English translation of the second edition of Peter Kawerau's Die Jakobitische Kirche im Zeitalter der syrischen Renaissance (1960).

Jacob of Sarug's homilies on King Abgar and the Apostle Addai, recounting the famous legend of Abgar of Edessa's conversion to Christianity.

Jacob of Sarug's homily on the red heifer slaughter ritual in Numbers 19. For Jacob, the narrative is a prefigurement of Christ's death and its ability to restore and permanently purify all who enter the church through baptism.

A historical study of the Fāṭimid caliphate in Palestine and Egypt during the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries.

The Shbītho d-Dayroye is a thirteenth-century anthology dedicated to the personal prayer of monks and nuns. The collection comprises the writings of great saints in the Syriac Orthodox tradition including Ephrem the Syrian, Abraham Qidun, John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus, Philoxenos, Basil the Great, and Isaac the Syrian. For each of the seven daily prayer times (morning, third hour, noon, ninth hour, evening, and night), there is a main prayer and a closing prayer. The present edition is the first translation to make the spiritual treasures of the original Syriac text available to readers in English.

More than one hundred years after the publication of the BFBS volume of the Peshitta NT (1920), a critical edition of the Praxapostolos is still a desideratum. This edition fills the gap for the Corpus Paulinum. It expands the collations of the Scottish scholar John Pinkerton (1882–1916) up to some 60 manuscripts, incl. 5 lectionaries and 7 ‘masoretic’ manuscripts; it is based on the (slightly modified) BFBS text, which was established by the majority vote of Pinkerton’s collated manuscripts. The present edition turns the editorial principle of ‘majority vote’ into a textual history, considering the East-West-bifurcation of textual traditions, and the development of the Textus receptus by standardization. 9 printed editions are included, among which are 6 of the Textus receptus (incl. the editio princeps of 1555), thus covering the transmission of the Corpus Paulinum from the beginnings up to the 16th century.

In the mid-6th century, Grigor, the general of the Sasanian king’s armies and a converted from Zoroastrianism to Christianity, was put to death. This event brings about the conversion of several Zoroastrian notables such as Yazd-panāh, a judge who also died as a martyr three years later, and the courtier ʿAwira. The reign of King Khusrō I (531–579) was a key-chapter in the history of the Persian Empire, but also for the Church of the East, some members of which were involved in the Sasanian administration. These East-Syrian historical texts, which are among the few passions of this period in Syriac, have received little scholarly attention. This volume offers a critical text and commentary, as well as the first translation into English of these two martyr texts. Written by contemporaries, they provide valuable information regarding socio-religious life and the political context. They demonstrate how Persian Christians, despite sporadic persecution, were able to maintain a distinct identity while simultaneously acculturating to the norms of Iranian society.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit in Classical Syriac is a retelling of Beatrix Potter’s classic tale for students of Classical Syriac as well as heritage readership. The vocabulary and expressions woven by George Kiraz draw not only on the language of the Peshitta Bible, but also on the language used in other texts, especially tales and colophons. Partially vocalized, the text aims to be readable to students of the language after completing a semester at the university level.

Thirty short reading selections from the Book of Entertaining Stories of Gregory Bar ʿEbrāyā, with an analysis of the grammar and vocabulary of the texts.

A refereed journal published annually by the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies.

A Festschrift for Rifaat Ebied celebrating a lifetime of work in the field of Semitic Studies, in particular Syriac, Christian Arabic, and Mandaic.

An Arabic translation of George Anton Kiraz's 'The Syriac Orthodox in North America (1895–1995)' – a short history of the Syriac Orthodox community in North America between 1895, the year of the First Sayfo that triggered the first wave of immigration to North America, and 1995, marking the passing away of Metropolitan Mor Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, the first and only Archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of the United States and Canada.

A study of how the Sedrō of Entrance has been practiced in earlier periods and architectural contexts and to investigate what role the entrance rite may have had in constructing the sanctuary as sacred space and the worshipping community as church.

This volume brings together the texts and translations for three Syriac martyr acts, set in Sasanian Persia during the reign of Shapur II (309-379 CE). These texts offer compelling witness to the challenges of a community’s need to honor memory and experience, and evidence towards the formation and sustenance of Christian identity in the midst of Persian society and culture.

The Fourth Revised Edition of George A. Kiraz's Syriac Primer.

Identity has become a central theme in a globalised world, both in politics and in the humanities, and the Syrian churches cannot escape it either. Christianity also exists as an identity that can in some ways compete with or even contradict theological understandings as a witness. But how should religious leaders deal with the fact that their churches are as much faith communities as identity markers? This volume does not offer the all-encompassing answer to this central question, but it provides keys for reflection and discussion beyond the circle of clergy and theologians, showing why the Syriac tradition matters for global Christianity. With contributions by Naures Atto, Bishop Anoine Audo SJ, Sebastian Brock, Mar Theophilose Kuriakose, Archbishop Paul Matar, Philip Nelpuraparambil, Andreas Schmoller, Baby Varghese and Dietmar W. Winkler.