Syriac and Eastern Christianity

This books gives the Syriac text of the account of Yaballaha III, Church of the East Patriarch, and his vicar Bar Sauma, the Mongol Ambassador to the Frankish courts at the end of the thirteenth century.

Dialogue poetry is a genre that began in ancient Sumer and continues in rich fashion in the Syriac tradition. Sebastian Brock has selected an edition of twenty six dialogue poems: between the Church and Zion; Abraham and Isaac; Joseph and Benjamin; the body and the soul; Joseph and Mary; the thief and the cherub; Mary and the Magi; the church and the believers; the angel and Mary; among the months of the year; between the angel and Zachariah; death and Satan; Jesus and the faithful; the two thieves; Jesus and John; the sinful woman and Satan; Abel and Cain; and wheat and gold.

Jacob of Sarug (451–521) was a prolific writer of the Syriac Church and was known as “the flute of the Holy Spirit and the harp of the believing church”. Sebastian Brock gives the Syriac edition of six homilies written by Jacob: on the birth of our Lord; on the baptism of our Lord; on the Great Lent; on Palm Sunday; on Good Friday; on Easter Sunday. The text is based on an ancient manuscripts preserved in London and dated 609.

Paul Bedjan produced this catechism to advance the knowledge of Catholicism among Aramaic-speaking Christians of the Middle East. The book is written in Modern Aramaic, in the dialect of Urmia. The book is of interest not only for pedagogical purposes among the Aramaic speakers, but also will give the Neo-Aramaic scholar a literary text from the late nineteenth century.

Bar Hebraeus, a celebrated Syriac writer of the thirteenth century, wrote on nearly every subject imaginable. The Book of Ethics is a manual of discipline and etiquette covering secular life as well as spiritual life.

Discovered in 1933, a fragment of Tatian’s Diatessaron is published here with critical apparatus, a facsimile, and a transcription. The fragment, a discarded portion of a scroll with 14 surviving lines of text, was likely used in the worship of a third century C.E. chapel excavated at Dura Europos.

This translation makes readily available the basic hagiography of St. Nino. Apart from her personal significance, St. Nino represents the important place that women held in the introduction of Christianity to Georgia. Text critical material is offered, and chapters 8 through 11 of the Armenian version are presented.

This essay by Gwilliam explores the vital role of the Syriac Peshitta for textual criticism of the New Testament. While maintaining the priority of the Greek, Gwilliam explores connections and disagreements between the Syriac and the traditional text. An apology for the Peshitto and problems associated with it are openly discussed.

A rare glimpse into the wealth of manuscripts held by the community of Mount Athos, this volume includes material from codices psi and Evang. 1071, and chapters from Acta Pilati, and a fragment of Acta Thomae. A catalogue and description of the manuscripts Lake viewed on his 1899 visit to Mount Athos and substantial introductions to each piece round out this useful study.

Rogers examines what archaeology reveals for the early centuries of the church. From the period of persecution to that of the northern invasions, iconographic evidence for the performance of baptism is presented. Eastern and Western Church fonts are compared and evidence for baptism without a font is assessed. The question of immersion is considered.

This important volume remains a valuable aid to scholars seeking a basic knowledge of Eastern Orthodox rites. A selection of offices, especially those under theological controversy in their time, is presented in the original Greek with an English translation.

This Syriac edition with English translation is the historic first printing of such an edition of the manuscript available to European scholars. The unusual nature of Syriac monks translating the work of the Greek heathen Plutarch give this document inherent historical value.

The observation that scholarly work on the Bible is of little use to theologians is the starting premise for this volume. As a possible solution to this impasse, the contributors explore the potential insights provided by a distinct tradition of biblical interpretation that has its roots in both the patristic School of Antioch and in the Syriac Fathers, such as Ephrem and Jacob of Sarug, and which has survived and developed in the Churches of the Antiochene Patrimony, such as the Maronite and Syriac.

A critical edition of the Syriac Testament of St. Ephrem, along with a French translation and notes, secure Duval’s study a place in the literature concerning this document. This historic study provides a translation in accessible French along with the necessary critical apparatus for scholars.

Gwilliam organizes the sources available for a critical edition of the Peshitto New Testament. These sources include the major manuscripts, Syriac Massorah, and the Arabic and Persian versions. He addresses revisions of the Peshitto New Testament and how the materials cited might be used for a critical edition of the Peshitto.

Gwilliam presents a critical edition of the letter of Eusebius to Carpianus, as well as a Latin translation. Essays concerning this important epistle addressing the harmonization of the Gospels provides a valuable early insight into the Synoptic Problem.

The classic hagiography of Saint George is presented here by E. W. Brooks. He gives a critical edition of the Syriac accompanied by an annotated English translation of the Acts. The “Acts of Saint George” stands in the tradition of early Christian devotional and historical records, and is a standard source for information about this formative saint.

A useful source for Syrian documents generally hard to find, this compendium of the writings of St. Ephraem the Syrian, Rabbula, Bishop of Edessa, and Balai, the hymnographer, is a necessary addition to any Syriac scholar’s library. Presented in Syriac, they are available now as a handy resource.

Commenting on an invaluable document that she personally found, Agnes Smith Lewis expresses her professional insights on this earliest extant version of the Syriac Gospels. This fourth century document, erased and written over, was discovered in the library of St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai in 1892. In addition to discussing New Testament variants Lewis also addresses the issue of how science and biblical teaching might coexist.

Agnes Lewis was the discoverer of the Sinaitic Palimpsest, the oldest Syriac manuscript of the New Testament. Here she publishes her English translation of that text to make it available to Bible students who do not read Syriac. Included are the four canonical Gospels and a list of omitted words and phrases as well as interpolations into the Textus Receptus.

The venerable work of Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Shabushti (d. c. 1000), “The Book of Monasteries,” has come to hold an acclaimed status among scholars of early Arabic Christianity. Thoroughly annotated and cross-referenced, this Arabic edition by George Awwad is more than simply a catalogue of monasteries, it is a view into the culture of early Christianity as it developed in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Arabia.

In this edition of Cheikho’s literary survey of Arabic literature of the nineteenth century, the reader will find the Arabic original of Cheikho’s fine text. Difficult to locate outside the Middle East, Gorgias Press is now bringing this uncommon find to Arabists in the western world.

This multi-volume set is the catalogue for the famed Mingana Collection of Syriac and Arabic manuscripts. A principal resource for scholars of early Middle Eastern documents, this set describes and summarizes the documents that make up this collection.

This multi-volume set is the catalogue for the famed Mingana Collection of Syriac and Arabic manuscripts. A principal resource for scholars of early Middle Eastern documents, this set describes and summarizes the documents that make up this collection.

This multi-volume set is the catalogue for the famed Mingana Collection of Syriac and Arabic manuscripts. A principal resource for scholars of early Middle Eastern documents, this set describes and summarizes the documents that make up this collection.