Texts from Christian Late Antiquity

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

The Law Code of Simeon of Rev-Ardashir, originally written in Persian, was translated into Syriac by a monk of Bēṭ-Qatrāyē. The Code's author, possibly to be identified with a rebellious metropolitan mentioned in the letters of Patriarch Īšoʿ-yahb III, aims to clarify theoretical scriptural law, and to address specific cases of inheritance law.

Two homilies by Jacob of Sarug on Good Friday, one of which has only survived in Armenian translation.

The first ever critical edition and complete translation of the Syriac Life of Saint Simeon of the Olives, who was an abbot of Qartmin Monastery in Tur Abdin and a bishop of the city of Harran in the late seventh and early eighth century AD.

This volume gives a bilingual Syriac-English edition of Saint Jacob of Sarug’s homily on the Chariot which the Prophet Ezekiel saw. The Syriac text is fully vocalized, and the translation is annotated with a commentary and biblical references. The volume constitutes a fascicle of Gorgias’s Complete Homilies of Saint Jacob of Sarug. In Syriac and English.

Armenian text of the Prayers attributed to Ephrem the Syrian, with the first-ever translation into a western language. Utilizing a highly developed poetic rhythm, the author manifests a profound spirituality laying his own emptiness before the inexhaustible Mercy of God.

Narsai’s memra 33 is made of 12 by 12 syllables, and its title “On the Sanctification of the Church” suggests that it was written for the feast of the Dedication of the Church celebrated by the Church of the East to this day on the first of November. The memra names the Church of the Nations the Bride of the Bridegroom Christ. The Church had a pagan origin but Christ chose her to become his bride. He thus saved her through his suffering, cleansed her with baptism, prepared the bridal feast for her through the Eucharist, and crowned her victory over all the nations.

Different parts of the Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary are known from the second century onwards. Translations and adaptations into Syriac and other languages also became available from very early centuries. The compilation in the Syriac language was translated into Malayalam in 1925, but an English translation containing the full text did not exist at all. This gap has been filled now by this work. Sebastian Brock’s Foreword gives important information on the background and authenticity of the different sources that form the basis of the text. This biography is unique in that it brings together some very early accounts of the birth of Mary, the birth of Jesus, the flight into Egypt, and most importantly, the very rare account of the ‘Dormition’ or ‘falling asleep’ of the Blessed Mother.

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.

Severus of Antioch was the Patriarch of Antioch and a moderate Miaphysite. Sergius the Grammarian is a lesser-known figure, but the content of his letters demonstrates that he was a more extreme Miaphysite. The early 6th century correspondence between the two consists of a set of three letters apiece and an apology by Sergius. Made available in Syriac along with Torrance’s translation, these letters are an important part of the working out of concerns associated with the Council of Chalecedon.

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

Cyrillona (fl. 396) has been ranked among the foremost early Syriac poets since his work was rediscovered by scholars in the mid-19th century. His Holy Week discourses on the Last Supper, the Washing of the Feet, and the Institution of the Eucharist have become particularly well-known to western readers through quotations by such diverse authors as Hugo Rahner and Photina Rech. This volume presents the first modern critical edition of Cyrillona’s Syriac works together with the first complete English translation.

The Syriac Book of Steps collects 30 memre by an anonymous late 4th century author in Persia. It describes the struggle of an actual Christian community, not an idealized one, to live a life in the pursuit of perfection in the midst of a hostile culture. The author details the aspirations and standards of the two ranks of Christians prior to the advent of monasticism: the Upright—married people who work and perform acts of charity—and the Perfect who are celibate, do not work, but live a life of prayer, wandering through the region teaching and mediating conflicts.

The Syriac Book of Steps collects 30 memre by an anonymous late 4th century author in Persia. It describes the struggle of an actual Christian community, not an idealized one, to live a life in the pursuit of perfection in the midst of a hostile culture. The author details the aspirations and standards of the two ranks of Christians prior to the advent of monasticism: the Upright—married people who work and perform acts of charity—and the Perfect who are celibate, do not work, but live a life of prayer, wandering through the region teaching and mediating conflicts.

In this treatise, John the Solitary (ca. 390) enters into a dialogue with two disciples who have come past the beginning stage of the spiritual life and have brought him their struggle against the passions in the life of the inner person (barnâšâ gawwâyâ). John’s description of the life of the soul is outlined here in a framework of the stages of the spiritual life. Included is his analysis of the passions, showing very little if any Evagrian influence. The Dialogue on the Soul is a difficult text. It is hoped that this Syriac-English presentation will enable others to take the discussion forward. John’s genial thought merits this.

This volume collects Mar Jacob of Sarug's (d. 521) sermons on the nativity. Always one of the highlights of the liturgical year, Jacob welcomes the Christmas season with gorgeous poetry that touches on all parts of God’s plan and the miracle of his Son being born among us. 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.

In the thirteenth-century, a debate transpired over the course of several days between a monk named Jurjī and several Muslims jurists in the city of Aleppo. This debate represents a careful and sophisticated example of a literary genre that had been developing among the Christians living under Islamic rule since the seventh century. The immense popularity of this work is demonstrated by the sheer volume of surviving manuscripts, which number around hundred. This volume provides a critical edition and translation of the text.

The Syriac Book of Steps collects 30 sermons by a late 4th century anonymous author in the Persian Empire. The author details the spiritual life, highlighting the duties and problems of two ranks of committed Christians, the Upright and the Perfect.

Ishoʿdad of Merv’s (fl. 850 AD) Commentary on Daniel provides an important witness to East Syriac exegetical technique. In it Ishoʿdad typically emphasizes an historical reading of the Old Testament above any kind of allegorical, spiritual, or even Christological interpretation. Most notable is Ishoʿdad’s belief that the Maccabees fulfilled several of the visions described in the book of Daniel, even including the Heavenly Kingdom of Daniel chapters 2, 7, and 8, and the physical resurrection of Daniel 12. These interpretations dramatically depart from most eastern and western commentators who considered Daniel’s visions to portend the rise of the Roman Empire and the advent of Christ. Ishoʿdad’s commentary is translated here into English for the first time.

The Life of Theodotus of Amida is that rare thing: a securely dated eye-witness account of life under Arab Muslim rule in the first century of Islam, and one of the few extant texts from seventh-century North Mesopotamia. It is imbued with local color and contemporary detail, revealing an intimate knowledge of the terrain, its inhabitants and officialdom, as well as the precariousness of the lives of those living in the borderlands between the Byzantine and Islamic empires.

John of Dalyatha (690-780 CE) was a monk from a monastery near the Turkey-Iraq border. After living in the monastery for only seven years, he received permission to live a solitary life in the over 9,000 ft high mountains of Dalyatha where he spent most of his life. When he became too old to live on his own, he came down from the mountains, formed a community around himself and wrote these works. In them, John outlines the life itinerary of those who are baptized, the "Way of Wonder" - leading to the vision of God.

This edition of Mar Jacob of Sarug's (d. 521) homilies on the prophet Elisha deals with some of the more difficult stories in the Old Testament, how to understand the story of the bears who ravage the children who made fun of the prophet and why the sacrifice by the King of Moab of his son to his pagan god was seemingly successful. 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.

The Compendious Commentary by the Church of the East monk Dadishoʿ Qaṭraya (7th cent.) was originally written in Syriac but was eventually translated into Garshuni or Syro-Arabic. It is a work aimed at immersing the novice monk in the spiritual lore of the monastic vocation, and saturating his mind and spirit with advice and warnings about the pitfalls of aiming to be perfect while remaining nevertheless an imperfect human being. This is a critical edition and translation of the Compendious Commentary in Garshuni that uses all available manuscripts.

Isaac the Syrian lived the solitary life in the 7th century. He was born in Qatar and subsequently lived in present day Iraq and Iran. After life as a monk, then briefly as a bishop, he withdrew to live the solitary life. These discourses are primarily for solitaries to consolidate them in the love and mercy of God. In this volume, the text of Isaac V has also been included because of the light which it sheds on Apocatastasis, of increasing interest in academic and ecclesial circles.

This volume provides a study and an original edition and translation from Syriac into English of Discourse Two of Gabriel of Qatar's liturgical commentary, written in the first half of the seventh century.