The Sentences of the Syriac Menander appears in two Syriac manuscripts in the British Library, a full version in one codex, and a far shorter version, only a small fraction thereof, in another. This book presents a commentary on the text in its complete version focusing on parallels from both Jewish tradition and the Greco-Roman world, showing that the text is not, as it claims, the work of the Greek author Menander, but rather a work of Jewish Wisdom Literature composed in Syriac, possibly in the ancient city of Edessa itself, and preserved within Christian monastic circles.

The first chapter traces previous scholarship, reconstructs the manuscript’s history, explains how it ended up at the British Library, attempts to date both the present and underlying texts, gives information concerning its provenance, organization, language, genre, and attribution to Menander, and discusses The Sentences of the Syriac Menander as a Jewish pseudepigraphical work. The second chapter presents the first rendition of the Syriac text since the initial work done in the mid 19th century, based on observation of the manuscript with modern lighting and visual aids, gives philological and textual notes and offers a new English translation of the material. A continuous commentary on the full text follows in the third chapter, and the conclusion sets forth what the parallels and comments have to teach about the reception of biblical and extra-biblical material in a part of the world of early Christianity about which not a great deal is known.