An Armenian Invocational Prayer of a Lost Memra of Jacob of
Serugh on Good Friday and the Destruction of Sheol
Andy
Hilkens
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Joss Childs
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https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv23n2hilkens
Andy Hilkens
An Armenian Invocational Prayer of a Lost Memra of Jacob of
Serugh on Good Friday and the Destruction of Sheol
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol23/HV23N2Hilkens.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute, 2020
vol 23
issue 2
pp 263–277
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in January and July) by Beth
Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998, Hugoye seeks to offer the
best scholarship available in the field of Syriac studies.
Memro
Armenian
Invocational prayer
Jacob of Serugh
File updated and published by James E. Walters
File created by Joss Childs
ABSTRACT This article
grew out of research that began during the first two years of a
three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of History at Ghent
University (2016-2018), funded by the Research Foundation of Flanders
(Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Vlaanderen, FWO), and continued at the
Center for the Study of Christianity at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, where I took up a one-year postdoctoral research fellowship
in 2018-2019. I am thankful to Edward G. Mathews Jr. for offering his
advice and corrections to the edition and translation. Thanks are also
in order for the reviewers for their generous feedback and suggestions
for improvement, especially of the translation. As always, any remaining
errors are entirely my own.
This article offers the editio princeps and translation
of the Armenian translation of an invocational prayer of a now lost memra of
Jacob of Serugh on Good Friday and the destruction of Sheol. This text is
different from the Armenian homily on Good Friday which was recently edited and
translated by Edward G. Mathews, Jr. On the basis of comparisons
with extant homilies of Jacob, it is argued that the prayer is genuine.
I. INTRODUCTION
It was not only Syriac Orthodox Christians who recognized the eloquence of Jacob
of Serugh (d. 29 November 520 or 521), one of the most prolific authors of
homilies of Late Antiquity; other Christian communities did as well. In
particular, Armenian Christians seem to have appreciated his works. As many as
twenty-five of his homilies may have been translated into Armenian, as well as
his Lives of Daniel of Aghlosh and Hannina. On the homilies, see A. Hilkens, “The manuscripts of
the Armenian homilies of Jacob of Serugh: preliminary observations and
checklist” Manuscripta (forthcoming); id., “The
Armenian reception of the homilies of Jacob of Serugh: new findings.” in
Caught in Translation: Studies on Versions of
Late-Antique Christian Literature, Texts and Studies in Eastern
Christianity 17, ed. M. Toca and D. Batovici. Leiden: Brill, 2019,
64–84. For an earlier introduction, which was the inspiration for my
research, see Edward G. Mathews, Jr., “Jacob of Serugh, Homily on Good
Friday and other Armenian treasures: first glances,” in Jacob of Serugh and his times, ed. G. Kiraz
(Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press, 2010), 133–161. The Armenian version of
the Life of Hannina remains unedited but one manuscript witness of the
Life of Daniel was published in L. Ter-Petrosyan, “Jacob of Serugh’s
‘Life of Mar Daniel of Galash,’” Ējmiadzin 36
(1979): 22–40. Research on the manuscript tradition is still
in its infancy, but has already revealed an interesting characteristic: a small
number of manuscripts only preserve the invocational prayers with which Jacob
began his metrical homilies. A. Hilkens, “The manuscripts of the Armenian homilies”
(forthcoming); id., “‘Beautiful little gems in their own right’:
seventeenth-century Armenian collections of invocational prayers from
Jacob of Serugh’s memre” (to be published in a Festschrift for Sebastian
Brock, edited by M. Hjälm, B. Bitton-Ashkelony and R. Kitchen).
Occasionally, these manuscripts contain the only remnants of an
Armenian translation of a homily of Jacob, which is still extant in Syriac,
A. Hilkens, “The
Armenian version of Jacob of Serugh’s Memra on the Five Talents,” Le Muséon (forthcoming 2020). as is
the case for instance with his memra on the Five Talents, but two
invocational prayers of homilies of which the Syriac original appears to be lost
have also survived, one on Jonah and the Ninevites Id., “An Armenian invocational prayer
of a lost homily on Jonah and the Ninevites by Jacob of Serugh” (in
preparation). and another on Good Friday and the Destruction
of Sheol. This text is
different from (1) the Armenian translation of Jacob’s now lost homily
on the topic of Good Friday and (2) Jacob’s last homily on Mary and
Golgotha, both recently edited and translated in E.G. Mathews, Jr., Jacob of Sarug’s Additional Homilies on Good
Friday (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press, 2018), as well as (3-4)
from the two homilies edited in P. Bedjan, Homiliae
selectae Mar-Jacobi Sarugensis (Paris: Harrassowitz, 1910)
[repr. P. Bedjan and S.P. Brock, Homilies of Mar Jacob
of Sarug / Homiliae Selectae Mar-Jacobi Sarugensis (Piscataway
NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006)], vol. 2, 522–554 and 554–579, and (3) the turgama on this topic edited and translated by F.
Rilliet, Jacques de Sarough, Six Homélies Festales en
Prose, PO 43.4 (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1986), 610–628.
This brief article presents the editio princeps,
translation, and commentary on the latter text. Currently, only three manuscript
witnesses are known.
Some 6500 manuscripts in the Matenadaran await to be catalogued in
detail so it is possible that more witnesses will turn up in the future.
The first is New Julfa (Isfahan), Church of the All-Saviour (=
NOJ) 295, fols. 64v-65v, a homiliary (քարոզգիրք, k‛arozgirk‛) that was copied in 1659 in the Shenher
convent in Julfa (a city, currently in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan).
S. Ter-Avetissian,
Katalog der armenischen Handschriften in der
Bibliothek des Klosters in Neu-Djoulfa. Band I (Vienna:
Mekhitarist Press, 1970), 729 (cat. nr. 464). Unfortunately, this
manuscript has remained inaccessible to me until the time of publication
of this article, but the makeup of the collection and the title of the
text as described in the catalogue makes it likely that this is the same
text. The second was copied six years later in Kayseri
(Central Anatolia): Yerevan, Matenadaran - Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient
Manuscripts (= M) 2291, fols. 119rv, a miscellany (with a section of texts
clearly drawn from a similar homiliary as the previous manuscript). G. Ter-Vardanyan, General catalogue of Armenian manuscripts of the
Mashtots Matenadaran. Volume VII (Yerevan: Nairi, 2012),
813–820. The third is Jerusalem, Armenian Patriarchate (= J)
1499, a manuscript of uncertain origin to which several different
scribes contributed in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. N. Bogharyan, General Catalogue of the Manuscripts in St. James’
monastery. Volume 5 (Jerusalem: St. James’ Press, 1971),
235–236. This explains why it contains two different
collections of invocational prayers from Jacob’s homilies and prologues of other
homilies by and attributed to other authors (most notably Ephrem and the
Armenian homilist Arak‛el of Baghesh/Bitlis For a brief English introduction to Arak’el
vardapet and a translation of his Lament on the Fall of Constantinople
in 1453, see A.J. Hacikyan, The Heritage of Armenian
Literature. Volume II: From the Sixth to the Eighteenth Century
(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000), 668–681. For an
introduction into his corpus of writings (in Armenian), see A. Ghazinyan
and P.M. Khachatryan, Arakʿel of Baghesh (15th
century). Study, critical texts, notes, Medieval Armenian Hymns
8 (Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1971), H.A. Anasyan, Armenian Bibliography 5th-18th cc. Volume 1
(Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1959), col. 1106–1143 and
id., Armenian Bibliography 5th-18th cc. Volume 2
(Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1976), col. 89–151.
(1380-1454)), both of which include a version of the invocational prayer from
this lost homily on Good Friday (p. 53 and pp. 142-143). Bogharyan’s description of this
manuscript is incomplete: he only mentions the existence of the first
collection and the names of a few authors without identifying any of the
texts. Of the second collection he only identifies three texts, on the
Star (p. 131), on the Ninevites (p. 133) and on Antioch (p. 148) - which
makes it seem as though these texts may be the complete homilies, but in
fact these are only the invocational prayers, surrounded by many other
prologues of homilies that Bogharyan has not mentioned. A complete
description of the contents of these two (and the other) collections
will be provided in Hilkens, “‘Beautiful little gems in their own
right’” (forthcoming). Unfortunately I did not find out about the
presence of the invocational prayer on Good Friday in this manuscript
until after submitting this article to Hugoye for review. During the
limited time that I was able to consult the extensive collection of
Armenian manuscripts in Jerusalem, I only had time to catalogue and
identify the texts in this manuscript but not to copy any of them (aside
from the ones on the Five Talents) nor to compare the version of this
prayer with the one in M 2291. Subsequently I did order images of the
manuscript in question, but unfortunately, due to various factors
including the Covid-19 crisis, these images did not reach me in time
before the publication of this article. That having been
said, judging from my study of the Armenian translation of the
invocational prayer of Jacob’s homily on the Five Talents, which is a
similar case, also being present in M 2291 and twice in J 1499, I would
suggest that the versions of the invocational prayer on Good Friday in J
1499 will probably not vary a great deal, neither from one another nor
from the version in M 2291.
It is worth noting that this text is never explicitly attributed to Jacob of
Serugh. In M 2291 and in the first collection in J 1499 the text remains
anonymous, but in the second collection in J 1499 as well as in NOJ 295, it is
attributed to “the same Jacob” (Նորին Յակոբայ).
For the titles,
see above and footnotes 16, 17, and 21 below. This label
refers back to Jacob of Serugh (Յակոբայ Սրճոյ, յակոբայ
սրճեցոյ) who is identified as the author of earlier texts in both
collections: a text “on the Mystery of Sunday” (ի
խորհուրդ կիւրակէի) in the case of NOJ 295 (fols. 40v-41r) and one
on the Raising of Lazarus and another text that was intended to be read on Holy
Monday in the second collection in J 1499 (pp. 136-137 and 138-140
respectively). I have not been able to see this text on the Mystery of Sunday in
NOJ 295, but a text with the same title, which is always attributed to “Jacob of
Serugh” and whose language suggests that it is indeed a translation of one of
Jacob’s invocational prayers, is extant in other manuscripts: M 2291, fols.
116v-117r, Title:
Նորին սրբոյն Յակոբայ Սրճեցոյ ասացեալ ի
խորհուրդ կիրակէի, “Said by the same holy Jacob of Serugh
about the Mystery of Sunday.” M 2103, fols. 14rv, On this manuscript, see
Ter-Vardanyan, General catalogue, col. 17–20.
and J 1499, p. 19 Title: նորին սրբոյն յակոբայ
սրճեցոյ ասացեալ ի խորհուրդ կիւրակէի, “Spoken by the same
holy Jacob of Serugh on the Mystery of Sunday.” and pp.
144-145. Title:
նորին սրբոյն յակոբայ ասացեալ ի խորհուրդ
կիւրակէի, Spoken by the same holy Jacob on the Mystery of
Sunday.” Neither of these texts in this manuscript is mentioned in the
catalogue. I am preparing an edition of this text based on the
accessible witnesses (M 2103, M 2291 and J 1499). In
contrast to this text and what is likely to be the invocational
prayer of Jacob’s metrical homily on the Raising of Lazarus in J 1499, the text
for Great Monday is actually not a translation of one of Jacob’s writings, but
the prologue of a homily of the fifteenth-century Armenian author Arak‛el of
Baghesh. On this
text, see Anasyan, Armenian Bibliography 5th-18th cc.
Volume 1, col. 1141-1142 (nr. 10) who mentions the following
witnesses in addition to M 2291: M 2121, f. 378v-9r, M 745, f.
112v-113r, M 597, f. 53v-54r and M 3457, f. 211v-212r.
The attribution to Jacob of the prayer on Good Friday and the Destruction of
Sheol appears to be correct. The Armenian text seems to be a translation of a
now lost Syriac original, genuinely written by Jacob. The language is very
similar to Jacob’s and some of the imagery that is used in this invocational
prayer is also attested in other homilies by Jacob. Links with characteristics of other
writings by Jacob are explained in the footnotes.
Furthermore, the way in which the invocational prayer is built up is also
typical for his work. The four constituent components of preaching that Jacob
tends to include in his introductory prayers are all represented: the Lord, the
speaker, the memra, and the hearers. S. Ashbrook Harvey, “Th Poet’s Prayer: Invocational
Prayers in the Mêmrê of Jacob of Sarug,” in Papers
presented at the Seventeenth International Conference on Patristic
Studies held in Oxford 2015, StPatr 78, ed. M. Vinzent, J.
Wickes and K.S. Heal (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017), 51–60, at 53.
The first two verses connect the Lord and the speaker (i.e.
Jacob): Jacob beseeches “Christ, the one who gives light to the universe” to
also illuminate Jacob’s “obscured mind to preach about” him. The reference to
preaching already links these two components to the memra itself. In the last
two verses of the prayer, the homily is described as “the words of the
bridegroom” and “my homily”, which allow Jacob to not only link the memra to the
Lord (“the bridegroom”), but also both to the other two components: the speaker
(“my homily”) and his audience (“sons of the bride of the church” and “daughters
of Sion”).
II. EDITION AND TRANSLATION
Ի Մեծի ուրբաթին եւ ի կործանումն դժոխոց
As mentioned above,
the title in NOJ 295 and the second collection in J 1499 is preceded by
the words Նորին Յակոբայ ասացեալ,
“Spoken/dictated by the same Jacob”, but because my edition is based on
M 2291, I have not added those words to the text.
Լուսատու տիեզերաց ք[րիստո]ս
լուսաւորեա զմթացեալ միտս իմ քարոզել զքէն.
շնորհ[եա]յ ինձ յողորմութէ քումմէ.
զի ողորմութեամբ քո ճանաչեցից զմարդասիրութիւն քո.
տուր ինձ շնորհս քարոզել զքէն.
զի ամ[ենայ]քն ոյք լսիցեն զղջանալով դարձցին ի չար գ[ո]րծ[ո]ց իւր[եան]ց.
սիրով բարերարութ[են]է քո մերձեցիր առ իս.
ք[ա]ր[ո]զել մարդկան զփառս քո.
զի որք լսիցեն խնդրեսցեն ի քէն ներել յանցանաց.
զպահպանիչ հոգիդ ս[ուր]բ առաքեա առ իս.
զի ես նովաւ զօրանամ խօսել վ[ա]ս[ն] անյաղթ զօրութ[են]է քում
որպէս կործանեցեր ի ձայնէ եղջերփողոյն զպարիսպն երիքովի.
և այժմ շնորհեայ ձայնի քարոզութե[ան]ս իմոյ կործանել զամրութի[ւն] թշնամոյն.
որ սրսկմամբ արեան քո զկահս խորանին սրբեցեր.
և այժմ ցօղեա առ իս զողորմութի[ւն] քո.
մատամբ քո լուսաւորութի[ւն] շնորհեցեր մեծին մովսէսի.
ք[ա]ր[ո]զել զա[ստուա]ծութի[ւն] քո.
և այժմ լուսաւորեա զիս ծագմամբ լուսավ քո.
զի ես լուսովն քո լուսաւորեցից զորդիս եկեղեցոյ քում.
որդիք հարսին եկեղեցւոյ. ընկալարուք զբանս փեսային.
և դստերք սիոնի լուարուք զքարոզս:
On Great Friday and the Destruction of Sheol The link between
the crucifixion and the destruction of Sheol also appears in Jacob’s
last and unfinished homily, on Mary and Golgotha: “when the one
slain cries out in a [loud] voice and the walls of Sheol have
fallen” (Mathews, Jacob of Sarug’s Additional
Homilies, 78, ll. 33–34). See also T. Kollamparampil, Salvation in Christ according to Jacob of Serugh:
An exegetico-theological study on the homilies of Jacob of
Serugh on the Feasts of Our Lord, Gorgias Dissertations in
Early Christian Studies 49 (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press, 2010),
210–211.
O Christ, the one who gives light to the universe,
illuminate my obscured mind to preach about you. See also in the Armenian homily
on Good Friday: “the mind that has seen You is illumined by You to
speak of what it has received from You” (Mathews, Jacob of Sarug’s Additional Homilies, 33, ll. 12–13) and
“O day-star, great sun, spread forth Your rays into my dark heart,
that I may be illumined to speak of You in a worthy manner”
(Mathews, Jacob of Sarug’s Additional
Homilies, 33, ll. 18–20). For Jacob’s use of the imagery of
light and darkness, see Kollamparampil, Salvation
in Christ, 345–347.
Grant me from your mercy, In this text, the term
ողորմութիւն is consistently used to render the idea of
mercy. In the case of the Armenian version of Jacob’s homily on the
Five Talents, or at least the Armenian equivalent of its
invocational prayer, ողորմութիւն
appears as the counterpart to two Syriac words that can be
rendered as “mercy”, ܚܢܢܐ
and ܪ̈ܚܡܐ, see
Hilkens, “The Armenian version” (forthcoming). On ܚܢܢܐ, divine mercy, in Jacob’s oeuvre,
see Kollamparampil, Salvation in Christ,
206–207.
so that through your mercy I may comprehend your love of humanity.
Grant me grace to preach about you,
so that all who listen may turn away in penance from their evil deeds.
Touch me through love from your beneficence to proclaim The verb that is used here
is քարոզել, k’arozel, from the
Syriac ܟܪܙ. The same word is
used in line 5, where I have translated it as “to preach”.
your glory to humanity,
so that those who listen may entreat you to forgive trespasses.
Send to me the protector, The word պահպանիչ
also means “blessing”, but the translation “guardian,
protector” makes more sense in this context. I am thankful to the
anonymous reviewer for this and several other suggestions for
improvement of the translation. your Holy Spirit,
so that through It I may be strengthened Because I have only inspected the text in M
2291, I am hesitant to correct the indicative present զօրանամ (zōranam), but I would suggest
that the translation may have originally contained the
subjunctive զօրասցի (zōrasc’i),
hence my translation “so that through It I may be strengthened”
rather than “for through It I am strengthened”. Having said that,
this error may also be present in the other witnesses. In the case
of the Armenian version of the invocational prayer of Jacob’s homily
on the Five Talents, for instance, all four witnesses that I have
seen contain the same error in the equivalent of verse 18: առաքինութիւն (aṙak’inut’iwn) instead
of առաքելութիւն
(aṙak’elut’iwn), the latter of which is the equivalent of ܫܠܝܚܘܬܐ, “mission”, which is in the
Syriac text, see Hilkens, “The Armenian version” (forthcoming).
to speak about your invincible force.
As you destroyed the walls of Jericho by the sound of the horn, Josh 6:1–27. Jacob
also evokes the fall of Jericho in his homily on the veil of Moses,
where he compares it to Christ’s overthrowing of Sheol, see
Kollamparampil, Salvation in Christ, 196 n
138 and 332.
so also now give grace to the sound of my preaching to destroy the stronghold
of the enemy. For
Jacob’s use of military language, see e.g. A. McCollum, Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on Jesus’
Temptation, Texts from Christian Late Antiquity 38, The
Metrical Homilies of Mar Jacob of Sarug 33 (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias
Press, 2014) and A. Hilkens, “Rhetoric in Jacob of
Serugh’s Mimro on St. George the Martyr,” in Rhetoric and historiography, ed. L. Van Hoof and M.
Conterno, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (forthcoming). In
the homily on St. George, for instance, Jacob urges his hearers to
build strongholds (ܚܣ̈ܢܐ):
“Blessed are you who make fortified strongholds that cannot be
captured, in which those who flee from Satan take refuge” (Bedjan
and Brock, Homilies / Homiliae, vol. 5, 770,
l. 4).
(You) who by the sprinkling Here, the idea of sprinkling is rendered in Armenian
with the noun սրսկումն (srskumn,
‛sprinkling’). In the next verse an entirely different root is used,
which suggests perhaps that Jacob himself also used two different
Syriac roots. of your blood sanctified the furnishings
of the tabernacle, Presumably this is the “tabernacle of mysteries”, the “house for
the holy things”, the “house for the mysteries” that was built by
Melchizedek, like the altar that was built by Abraham and Isaac on
Golgotha, the site of the crucifixion, at least according to Jacob.
Here it is not a metaphor for Christ himself, but for the Church,
which was sanctified by the blood that flowed out of Christ’s side,
see A.B. Elkhoury, Types and Symbols of the Church
in the Writings of Jacob of Serugh, PhD Dissertation,
Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt 2017, 56 and 69–71.
There may also be links with the unstudied homily on the Mystery of
the Tabernacle of which the editio princeps
appeared recently, R. Akhrass and I. Syryany, 160
Unpublished Homilies of Jacob of Serugh, 2 vols. (Damascus:
Department of Syriac Studies, Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate, 2017),
vol. 2, 174–191. A study of this homily could also be useful on
another level, as it was also translated into Armenian. The
diplomatic edition of the Armenian text, based on an unknown
manuscript, was published in Spiritual writings
and homilies (Constantinople, 1722), 388–410. Only three
Armenian manuscripts are known, two manuscripts in the Armenian
Patriarchate in Jerusalem (154c, pp. 1552–1561, copied in 1737, and
1365, fols. 52v-83v of unknown date) as well as a late copy in the
Matenadaran, M 2786, fols. 129v-135r (19th c.).
so also now sprinkle your mercy on me. Jacob also uses the image of the sprinkling of
mercy in his homily on the Ascension: “He walked on the earth and
sprinkled mercy and filled it with hope” (Kollamparampil, Salvation
in Christ, 207). For the edition and translation of this homily, see
P. Bedjan, S. Martyrii, qui et Sahdona, quae supersunt omnia,
Paris-Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1902, 808–832 (at 812, l. 17; repr. in
P. Bedjan, Cantus seu Homiliae Mar Jacobi in Jesum
et Mariam, Paris-Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1902, 169–220 and
Bedjan and Brock, Homiliae / Homilies, vol.
6, 196–220). A vocalized version of this edition,
furnished with an English translation, can be found in T.
Kollamparampil, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the
Ascension of Our Lord, Texts from Late Antiquity 24, The
Metrical Homilies of Jacob of Sarug 21 (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias
Press, 2010). In the Armenian translation of the homily on the
Ascension the verb ցօղեմ, derived
from the noun ցօղ, “dew,” is used
to render the verb ܪܰܣ, “to
sprinkle,” see Գիրք եւ ճառ
հոգեշահ
[Spiritual writings and
homilies], 345–369 (at 350) as well as the draft edition of
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. arm. 116, fols.
319r-322v (AD 1307), prepared by Alin Suciu and available on his
Academia.edu page: շրջեցաւ յերկրի
(P 116: յաշխարհի), և ցօղեաց ի նա
զգութ իւր, և ելից զնա յուսով, “He went around the
earth, he sprinkled his mercy on it, and he filled it with hope.”
That the translator of the invocational prayer from the homily on
Good Friday and the Destruction of Sheol used ցօղեա, the imperative form of this verb, in this
verse suggests that the verb ܪܰܣ
may have appeared in the Syriac Vorlage. However, note
also how in the Armenian version of the homily on the
Ascension, ܚܢܢܐ (“mercy”) is
rendered as գութ rather than
ողորմութիւն, which could
suggest the involvement of a different translator.
By your finger
Perhaps alluding to Lev 4:5–6, which describes how during the
sacrifice at the tabernacle, the priest dips his finger in the blood
and sprinkles the blood seven times before the veil. you
granted illumination to the great Moses to proclaim your divinity,
so also now illuminate me by the dawning Presumably ծագմամբ
is the equivalent of
ܒܕܢܚܐ. In the Armenian version of Jacob’s Memra on the
Star that appeared to the Magi and on the Slaughter of
Infants ܒܕܢܚܐ, the very first
word, was rendered as ծագումն. For
the Syriac text of this homily, see Bedjan, Homiliae selectae,
vol.1, 84–153 (first word of line 1), translated into English by N.
Macabasag, “Jacob of Serugh’s Memra on the Star that appeared to the
Magi and on the Slaughter of Infants (vat. syr. 118)”, Parole de l’Orient 43 (2017): 237–302. The
Armenian text is unedited. So far, I have only identified six
manuscripts of the Armenian translation, the oldest manuscript being
ms. 1, fols. 20v-37v, in the collection of the Mekhitarist fathers
in Vienna. In this manuscript, the text is incorrectly ascribed to
Jacob of Nisibis. This misattribution also occurs in the most recent
witness, ms. 1286, fols. 5r-10v (dated 1820), in the collection of
the Mekhitarist fathers in Venice. of your light, For the idea of the
dawning of the sun on the mind, see e.g. Jacob’s second homily on
Elissaeus and on the King of Moab (Bedjan, Homiliae selectae, vol. 4, 282, l. 6–7; Kollamparampil,
Salvation in Christ, 387).
so that by your light I may illuminate On illumination, see above. the
sons The Vorlage of որդիք, “sons”, is most likely ܒܢ̈ܝ, which literally means “sons”, but can be
translated more generally as “children (of your church).”
of your church.
Sons Here the
translation as “sons” is fairly certain, given that it acts as a
counterpart to the “daughters of Sion”. of the bride of
the church, receive the words of the bridegroom On Jacob’s use of this popular
and much older theme of the Church as the bride of Christ who is the
bridegroom (Mk 2:19–20; Jn 3:29; Eph 5:25–27; 2 Cor 11:2), see e.g.
Elkhoury, Types and Symbols, 221. The theme
is also used in the Armenian homily on Good Friday, Mathews, Jacob of Sarug’s Additional Homilies, 82.
and daughters of Zion, Cf. Zech 9:9; Jn 12:15; Mt 21:5. Jacob uses this term
in the singular to refer to Israel, see Kollamparampil Salvation, 156–157, 254, 256 and Elkhoury,
Types and Symbols, 292, 294.
listen to my homily The Armenian word քարոզ
k‛aroz is used for a homily here. In the translation of
the invocational prayer of the homily on the Five Talents, memra is
consistently translated as ճառ, a
word commonly used to refer to homilies, but which has the basic
meaning of “discourse”. This may suggest that the word քարոզ k‛aroz here, was used by the
compiler of the invocational prayers, who appears to have made
alterations to the last verses of several other invocational prayers
as well, see Hilkens, “The Armenian version” (forthcoming).
.
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