Taeke Jansma (1919-2007)
Lucas Van Rompay
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2007
Vol. 10, No. 2
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https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/Vol10No2
Lucas Van Rompay
Taeke Jansma (1919-2007)
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol10/HV10N2OBJansma.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 10
issue 2
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
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[1]
Professor Taeke Jansma died on May 30, 2007 in Voorschoten,
near Leiden, The Netherlands, at the age of 87. Present-day
Syriac scholars will not have seen new publications by
Professor Jansma in the last thirty years or so, but several of
his Syriac publications that appeared between 1949 and the
mid-seventies have proven to be of such lasting significance
that there is reason, in a journal devoted to Syriac studies,
to reflect briefly on the work of this eminent scholar.
[2] Taeke
Jansma was born in Almelo, in the province of Overijssel, in
the east of The Netherlands, in 1919. In 1938, he went to
Leiden to study theology and Semitics. Under the supervision of
Professor P.A.H. de Boer (d. 1989) he wrote his dissertation,
Inquiry into the Hebrew Text and the Ancient Versions of
Zechariah IX-XIV (no. 1), with which he earned his Ph.D. in
1949. Chapters are devoted to the Targum, the Peshitta, and the
Septuagint, while Syriac readings are used and referred to
throughout the dissertation. Moreover, several of the
additional theses, short statements that in the Dutch tradition
accompany the dissertation, deal with Syriac. Already during
his student years, therefore, Syriac must have been emerging as
an important focus of his scholarly interests. Jansma acquired
additional expertise in the Aramaic languages of Late Antiquity
including Syriac, Jewish Aramaic, and Samaritan Aramaic during
a period of study spent in Leeds and Oxford in 1949-50.
[3] In 1950,
Leiden University appointed him full professor of “Hebrew
language and literature, Israelite Antiquities, and Aramaic”,
thus putting on his shoulder a heavy teaching load, which
seemed to leave only a little room for Syriac. For nearly a
quarter of a century Jansma’s teaching covered the whole field
that had been entrusted to him. Syllabi and student notes that
continued to circulate in Leiden even many years after his
retirement are a clear indication of the effect his teaching
had on students. He was a powerful teacher, who was always
extremely well prepared and who was able to capture the
attention and stimulate the imagination of students.
[4] When in
the late fifties the Peshitta project of the “International
Organization for the Study of the Old Testament” was set up in
Leiden, under the direction of Professor de Boer, Jansma took
upon himself the preparation of the edition of Genesis (which
appeared in 1977 – no. 6). There can be no doubt that he was
well-equipped to carry out this task, but he saw his work as
much more than that of a text-critic. As he wrote in his
dissertation “… text-critical work only goes part of the way.
It may find its completion by an exegetical study,” for
“judging and weighing is the work of exegesis.” (p. 59). This
must have been the background to his exploration, from the
mid-fifties on, of Syriac interpretations of Genesis. This
exploration led to a number of important publications that
arose out of Jansma’s reading of numerous published and
unpublished Syriac commentaries, treatises, and homilies.
[5] In 1958,
Jansma published a paper of monograph length: “Investigations
into the Early Syrian Fathers on Genesis. An Approach to the
Exegesis of the Nestorian Church and to the Comparison of
Nestorian and Jewish Exegesis,” (no. 8). This is a remarkable
and still very useful survey of relevant Syriac texts, with
comments on the characteristics of each text, on its sources,
and on parallel passages drawn from Greek-Christian as well as
from Jewish writings. This study laid the groundwork for much
of the later scholarship in the field of East-Syriac biblical
interpretation. Along with the work of Professor Van den Eynde
in Louvain (d. 1991), who also in the fifties started his
exemplary edition and annotated translation of
Ishocdad of Merv’s Old Testament commentaries,
Jansma’s studies opened the field, identified the main texts,
and formulated interesting research questions. Subsequent
students and scholars owe a very great debt of gratitude to
these two scholars, Jansma and Van den Eynde. They worked on
the same texts, sometimes came to the same conclusions, and
admired each other’s work. They also had in common, however,
that they shunned public events and felt very uncomfortable
with personal attention – which helps explain why they never
met.
[6] Other
important publications that emerged from Jansma’s work in the
field of Syriac exegesis include his edition and study of
Syriac fragments from Theodore of Mopsuestia’s Commentary on
Genesis (no. 16), his study of interpretations of the Creation
and Paradise story in Jacob of Serug (no. 9) and Narsai (nos.
20, 23, 26, and 27), and his work on Ephrem’s Commentary on
Genesis (nos. 28, 33, 38). Text-criticism and the history of
interpretation are clearly interwoven in Jansma’s study of
specific Genesis readings in the Syro-Hexapla (no. 25),
Bardaisan (no. 24), Ephrem (no. 35), and Barhebraeus (no. 32).
His study of a number of anonymous homilies (in particular nos.
11 and 12) should be mentioned under this rubric as well.
Jansma’s critical notes on the published texts and translations
of Ephrem’s Commentaries on Genesis and Exodus (nos. 28, 31,
33, and 38) as well as on Narsai’s Homilies on Creation (no.
26) remain indispensable for those who study these texts
today.
[7] In
addition to the biblical text and its interpretation, the
figure of Bardaisan and his legacy became an important theme in
Jansma’s work. What was initially intended as a review of
H.J.W. Drijvers’ monograph Bardaisan of Edessa (1966)
grew into a full monograph, which was published in Dutch in
1969: Natuur, lot en vrijheid. Bardesanes, de filosoof der
Arameeërs en zijn images (no. 5). The most significant word
of the title is the last one, “images.” Jansma strongly argued
that the different sources providing information on Bardaisan
and his teaching cannot be brought together into one coherent
picture. We can hardly go beyond the different “images” which
each of the sources create and construct. Present-day students,
therefore, are like visitors in a gallery of paintings spanning
nearly 18 centuries of history. We see, one after the other,
portraits of Bardaisan, positive or negative, painted by such
skilled artists as his disciple Filippus, Sextus Julius
Africanus, Ephrem, … and in recent times, among others, by
Schaeder, Levi della Vida, and Drijvers. Jansma himself clearly
did not want to be one of these artists. With remarkable
sharpness he tried to read each of the ancient sources in its
own right, trying to understand what it was doing in its own
context, and painfully aware (and “filled with unspeakable
bitterness,” as the final sentence of the book has it) that the
real Bardaisan escapes from us, that we know neither his
writings nor his thoughts, and that we have not been able to
glimpse his face.
[8] Jansma’s
book on Bardaisan happened to be the very first monograph on a
Syriac topic that I read as a beginning student of Syriac. The
author’s erudition, which normally would be intimidating for an
inexpert reader, is balanced with a very accessible and truly
beautiful language and style. Moreover, the book is only very
lightly footnoted. The reader is skillfully guided through the
world of Edessene and Syriac Christian culture, and important
lessons in literary and historical criticism are taught.
[9] A very
different period of history is the scene of another of Jansma’s
monographs, published in 1959: Oost-Westelijke
verkenningen (“East-West explorations” – no. 4). It is
built on a parallel reading of two travelogues: the Latin
report by William of Rubroeck of his journey to the Mongol
court in 1253-1255, and the Syriac narrative of Barsauma’s
travels to the Middle East and Europe at the end of the 13th
century. Closely following the texts and explaining them to his
readers in a lively fashion, Jansma delineates the ways in
which the Flemish monk saw Mongolia and the East-Syrian prelate
from the Beijing region saw Europe. The skills of the literary
critic and of the historian, which would become so prominent in
the Bardaisan book ten years later, are already to be found
here. At the same time, this book shows the versatility of the
author, who felt at home with any Syriac text between Bardaisan
and Barhebraeus.
[10] In
1973, the Leiden chair of Hebrew and Aramaic was split up.
Jansma decided to leave the Hebrew part to a newly appointed
colleague, and to become the first incumbent of the new Aramaic
position himself. This could have been the beginning of a new
phase in his career, one entirely devoted to teaching and
research in the field of Aramaic and Syriac. Unfortunately,
soon thereafter his health no longer allowed him to continue
his work. He retired early, in his mid-fifties. Although he
recovered to some extent, he did not resume academic work and
chose not to participate in university life, in spite of his
close physical proximity to it. This was a source of great
sadness for his students and colleagues, who had to find
consolation in their memories and in Jansma’s written work. His
passing away now, more than thirty years later, at an advanced
age, accentuates the pain of his early departure and long
absence. However, in view of the rich diversity of his
scholarship and its remarkable depth, our feelings should in
the first place be ones of admiration and profound gratitude.
May he rest in peace!
Appendix: A list of T. Jansma’s Publications