Abstracts of Papers Presented at the IVth Syriac Symposium at Princeton, July 9-13, 2003
Eugene
Aydin
Princeton Theological Seminary
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2004
Vol. 7, No. 1
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https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv7n1ivsyriacsymabstracts
Eugene Aydin
Abstracts of Papers Presented at the IVth Syriac Symposium at Princeton, July 9-13, 2003
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol7/HV7N1IVSyriacSymAbstracts.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 7
issue 1
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.
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Index
Aydin, Eugene, "From English into
Syriac: A Case Study on the Translation Technique behind
The Bible in the Syriac Tradition."
Ball, Jennifer, "A Syrian Liturgical
Stole from the Metropolitan Museum."
Becker, Adam, "Devotional Study: The
School of Nisibis within East-Syrian Monasticism."
Blanchard, Monica, "Beh Isho‛
Kamulaya: An Introduction."
Borbone, Pier Giorgio, "... The
conversion of the Turks to Christianity in the Syriac
literary sources: a reassessment."
Buchan, Thomas, "Christ's Temptation in
the Wilderness and Descent to Sheol: Complementarity in St.
Ephrem's Theology of Redemption."
Burris, Catherine, "Old Testament Women
in Syriac Christianity."
Clocksin, William & Fernando,
P.P.J., "Towards Automatic Recognition of Syriac
Handwriting."
Dinno, Khalid, "Syriac Christians in
the Modern Diaspora."
Dodd, Erica, "The Double-Naved Church
in Medieval Lebanon."
Ebied, Rifaat, "Prejudice and
Polarization towards Christians, Jews and Muslims: the Syriac
Polemical Treatises of Dionysius bar Salibi."
Farag, Lois, "Coptic Syriac Relations:
Beyond Dogmatic Rhetoric."
Harvey, Susan, "Revisiting the
Daughters of the Covenant."
Hasso, Sargon, "Meltho:
Syriac OpenType Fonts."
Heal, Kristian, "The Ethiopic
History of Joseph and its Syriac
Vorlage."
Healey, John, "The Edessan Milieu and
the Birth of Syriac."
Hevelone-Harper, Jennifer,
"Ecclesiastics And Ascetics: Finding Spiritual Authority in
5th and 6th Century Palestine."
Jeffrey, Peter, "'Watch and Pray': The
Night Vigil as a Context for the Earliest Christian
Hymnody."
Johnson, Dale, "Syriac Monastic
Culture and its influence on Western Monasticism."
Joseph, Thomas, "Automating the
Liturgical Calendar of the Syriac Orthodox Church."
Kiraz, George, "Tabetha Syriac: Child
Language Acquisition of Classical Syriac in a Multi-lingual
Environment."
Kirkpatrick, Shane, "Fasting,
Competition, and Envy: Reading Daniel 1-6 with
Ephrem the Syrian."
Kitchen, Robert, "The Pearl of
Virginity: Death as the Reward of Asceticism in Jacob of
Serug."
Koltun-Fromm, Naomi,
"Qaddishutha and Celibacy between Purity and
Holiness in Early Syriac Literature."
Lehto, Adam, "Divine Law in Aphrahat's
Demonstrations: A Jewish Heritage in Early Syriac
Christianity."
Lund, Jerome, "Translational Features
of the Syrohexapla of Ezekiel."
Mathews, Edward, "The Homily on
Adam and Eve of Isaac of Antioch."
Mengozzi, Alessandro, "The News ...
was put in the Newspaper and spread in the World': A
Neo-Syriac Poem on the Russian-Turkish War in 1877."
Menze, Volker, "Syriac
Non-Chalcedonian Eucharistic communities after
Chalcedon."
Morrison, Craig, "Aphrahat's
appropriation of the Bible in the Fifth
Demonstration, de bellis."
Murre-van den Berg, Heleen, "The
Church of the East between 1550 and 1850: Literary Revival
and Western Influence."
Possekel, Ute, "Bardaisan, Marcion,
and Early Edessan Christianity."
Russell, Paul, "Nisibis as the
Background to the Life and Work of Ephraem the Syrian."
Ruzer, Serge, "Greek Gospel vs. Old
Testament Peshitta: The Vetus Syra Dilemma of
Scriptural Authority."
Saint-Laurent, Jeanne-Nicole, "From
Peking to Rome: Medieval 'Ecumenism' and the Journeys of Bar
Sauma."
Saint-Laurent, Jeanne-Nicole, Report
on Pro Oriente's Sixth Non-Official Consultation on
Dialogue within the Churches of the Syriac Tradition:
Sacraments
Saliba, Issa, "The Changing Fortunes
of Syrian Christianity: What can be gleaned from the
(Pseudo-)Apocalypse of John."
Seville, Anne, "The Syriac Text of
Nilus of Ancyra's De Monastica Exercitatione:
Relationships and Adaptation."
Shahîd, Irfan, "Oc
Arabicus in the Service of Oc Syriacus:
Edessa/Al-ruhĀ and Al-hĪra in Late Antiquity."
Suomala, Karla, "The Colloquy of Moses
on Mount Sinai where Syriac Christianity and Islamic Spain
meet."
Tamcke, Martin, "The Beginnings of
German Lutheran-Assyrian Relations."
Teule, Herman, "The Book of the
Magnet."
Thomas, Tenny, "Severus's Objections
to Chalcedon."
van Bladel, Kevin, "The Syriac
Correspondence of Pebechius and Osron."
Van Rompay, Lucas,
"Mallpânâ dilan
suryâyâ—Ephrem in the works of
Philoxenus of Mabbog: Admiration and Distance."
Villagomez, Cynthia, "Plato and
Pastoral Care in the Life of Narsai, Bishop of
Shenna."
Wheatley-Irving, Linda, "Syriac
Churches and Monasteries from the Adiyaman Survey, S.E.
Turkey."
Wilde, Clare, "Faith and Praxis:
Gendered Concepts in the Semitic Orient (400-900)?"
From English into Syriac: A Case Study on the
Translation Technique behind The Bible in the Syriac
Tradition
Eugene Aydin, Princeton Theological Seminary
[1]
Twentieth century Syriac literature witnessed a few
translations from western languages into modern literary
Syriac, and none on a subject matter relating to Syriac studies
itself. Brock's The Bible in the Syriac Tradition (BST), the
subject matter of this paper, was the first such translation.
Understanding the translation methodology and techniques behind
it may pave the way for a new trend and a new genre in modern
Syriac literary production.
[2] The
paper will start by outlining the challenges that face the
modern translator. It will then examine the translation
methodology and techniques employed. The various potential
methodologies and styles that were under consideration (e.g.,
literal vs. free, native coinage vs. borrowings, etc.) will be
discussed, and the choices made will be argued for in order to
achieve a comprehensible reader-oriented modern translation. A
mini lexicon of neologisms, calques and technical vocabulary
will be given, along with the process of how they were
derived.
[3] Finally,
the paper will draw a comparison between the challenges and
translation techniques used for this work, and those employed
by the old translators of the Syriac scriptures, relating the
challenges of modern day translations to those of the past.
A Syrian Liturgical Stole from the Metropolitan
Museum
Jennifer Ball, Program in Hellenic Studies, Princeton
University
[4] An
important Syrian liturgical stole, known as a
batrashil, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s
Islamic collection has recently come to scholars’
attention after many decades in storage. The 55-inch long,
silk embroidered stole is a unique surviving example of an
Islamic era ecclesiastical vestment from Hamah, Syria,
according to its inscription. Inscribed in both Arabic and
Syriac, we know that it was made in 1534/5 CE by a woman
artist; it is rare enough that a maker’s name survives
let alone that of a woman, who identified herself in
Arabic. The stole, worn by a bishop, is luxuriously
decorated with scenes from the life of Christ in addition to
portraits of the Evangelists, all identified in Syriac. The
colorful scenes are thickly embroidered in silk with some
metallic threads on a blue background all of which remains in
remarkably good condition, which also adds to the exceptional
nature of this object. This paper will discuss the art
historical context of the stole among vestments of the
Byzantine, Coptic and Nubian churches, to which it most closely
relates. Additionally, the object will be understood
within the context of sixteenth-century Syria.
Devotional Study: The School of Nisibis within
East-Syrian Monasticism
Adam H. Becker, New York University
[5] The
School of Nisibis was the major intellectual center of the
Church of the East in the sixth and early seventh centuries as
well as an institution of learning unprecedented in antiquity.
In this paper I will attempt to fit the School of Nisibis and
East-Syrian school movement as whole into the broader spectrum
of East-Syrian monasticism. Instead of seeing monasteries and
schools as wholly different and distinct institutions, I will
argue that the difference between the School of Nisibis and
East-Syrian “reform” monasteries was their notions
of epistemology, the accessibility of the divine, and the
importance of the social interaction. Furthermore, I will
suggest that a homologous relationship exists between the
intellectual and social life that each of these institutions
advocates. In sum, group study at the school serves as a
devotional practice with as much religious significance as
prayer and private reading in a more Evagrius-inspired
institution.
Beh Isho‛ Kamulaya: An Introduction
Monica J. Blanchard, The Catholic University of
America
[6] Beh
Isho‛ Kamulaya and his book on monastic life are
mentioned in the Syriac catalog of the library of
‛Abdisho‛ bar Berikha (d.1318). Until recently,
however, little was known about the writings and the life of
this distinctively-named East Syrian monk who seems to have
flourished in the late eighth century.
[7] The
works of Beh Isho‛ have survived in two Syriac
manuscripts. They are incomplete in a manuscript at The
Catholic University of America (ICOR Syriac MS 18), tentatively
dated to the late ninth or tenth centuries on paleographic
grounds. They also appear in a modern codex, Trichur MS 16,
copied in 1900 by a member of the Kellayta family of copyists
and clerics for Abimelek Bar-M’naha, who later became
Metropolitan Timotheos Abimelek of Trichur. It is now in the
library of the Metropolitan see of the Church of the East, in
Trichur, Kerala, India.
[8] The
works include six discourses (mêmrê) on
the monastic way of life, a collection of “Chapters of
Knowledge” (rišê
d’īdātâ), and a poem
(madrāsâ). The Trichur codex also contains
a biography, which turns out to be a reworking of the Syriac
Life of Abba Bishoi, one of the legendary founders of the
monasteries of the Egyptian Wadi Natrum.
[9] This
focus of this communications is twofold: briefly to introduce
the writings of this monastic writer as they appear in both
manuscripts; and then, drawing on information in the texts, to
begin to situate Beh Isho‛ within the various contexts
(religious, social, political) in which he lived and wrote.
"They absolutely do not know about the coming of
the Christ, our Saviour" The conversion of the Turks to
Christianity in the Syriac literary sources: a
reassessment
Pier Giorgio Borbone, Università di Pisa
(Italy)
[10]
According to the statement by Michael the Great (XIII cent.),
the Turks were in his time ignorant about Christianty.
Nevertheless, several Syriac documents and narratives
explicitly give us witness of conversions to Christianity by
Turkic tribes. The aim of the paper is to re-examine these
documents both from the historical and literary perspective,
paying attention also to the parallel literary texts about the
Islamization of the Turks, and to the epigraphic and
archaeological evidence.
Christ's Temptation in the Wilderness and Descent
to Sheol: Complementarity in St. Ephrem's Theology of
Redemption
Thomas Buchan, Drew University
[11]
Ephrem the Syrian’s use of the doctrine of Christ’s
descent to Sheol has long been noted as an integral component
of his soteriological thought, representing the fulfillment of
the incarnate Son’s identification with humanity and his
restoration of humanity to its intended end of communion with
God. Ephrem articulated the theological significance of
Christ’s descent to Sheol by means of comparison to
several events in Christ’s earthly life and
ministry. The narrative of Christ’s temptation in
the wilderness played a recurring role in Ephrem’s
explication of the meaning of Christ’s descent to Sheol,
relating it not only to the eschatological resurrection, but to
the life of the Church in the temporal world.
[12]
“Clothed” in and possessed of the same human
freewill as fallen Adam, Christ was susceptible to temptation
and to death and therefore able to contend against Satan in the
wilderness and Death in Sheol. Victorious over both of
these “eaters of humanity,” Christ the Second Adam
opened the possibility for his Church to be
“clothed” in his glory and participate in his
conquest of the Evil One “here” and Death
“hereafter” (CN 58.25). Furthermore, because
of the complementarity of Christ’s victories over Satan
and Death, strict distinctions between ordinary and sacred time
with reference to human salvation have been collapsed, allowing
Christians to participate in the temporal in the light of the
eternal and in the eternal by means of the temporal.
Old Testament Women in Syriac Christianity
Catherine Burris, University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill
[13] This
paper will address the role of female figures from Hebrew
Scripture in Syriac Christianity. How were they presented
and used by Syriac writers? What mechanisms were deployed
to translate these women from a Jewish context to a Christian
context? Was it always necessary to make this
translation?
[14] The
simplest method of appropriating the women of Hebrew Scripture
was to group their stories with Christian ones, to make them
part of a collection such as the Syriac Book of Women.
There were, however, more overt and specific ways of making
eminent Jewish women pertinent to Syriac Christianity.
They might be brought into the fold by means of allegorical or
typological interpretation, explaining precisely how their
stories prefigured certain Christian truths. They might
be used to illustrate by analogy the virtues of a Christian
figure. Their stories might even be used as models for
the stories of Christian women.
[15] This
paper will focus primarily on texts from West-Syriac
Christianity of the first millennium, drawing from homilies,
hagiography, hymns, and histories.
Towards Automatic Recognition of Syriac
Handwriting
W.F. Clocksin, Oxford Brookes University
P.P.J. Fernando, Cambridge University
[16] We
describe an implemented method for the recognition of Syriac
handwriting from historical manuscripts. The Syriac language
has been a neglected area for handwriting recognition research,
yet is interesting because the preponderance of scribe-written
manuscripts offers a challenging yet tractable medium for OCR
research between the extremes of typewritten text and free
handwriting. Like Arabic, Syriac is written in a cursive form
from right-to-left, and letter shape depends on the position
within the word. The method described here does not need
to find strokes or contours of the characters. First, words are
segmented into character shapes using a novel non-parametric
probability density estimator. Next, features are found using a
novel generalized moment generating function. Each shape is
recognized individually using a discriminative support vector
machine with 10-fold cross-validation. We describe experiments
using a variety of segmentation methods and combinations of
features. Images from scribe-written historical manuscripts are
used, and the recognition results are compared with those for
images taken from clearer 19th century typeset documents. A
recognition rate of 98% is achieved for the typeset source and
94% for the ancient manuscript source.
Syriac Christians in the Modern Diaspora
Khalid Dinno, St. Behnam Syrian Orthodox Church, Toronto,
Canada
[17] The
vast majority of the Syriac Christians that immigrated to the
West came from the Arab world and Turkey. Despite the
commonality of their historic religious and ethnic roots the
Syriac Christians lived in these vast lands in different social
environments, particularly in the late nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. Their immigration patterns across the span of
the past one and half centuries also varied with the events
that took place in their home countries that prompted their
immigration. The countries that received the Syriac
Christians, though all belonging to the Western Civilization,
have had their own distinct nationalistic social and religious
cultures. These have been factors that have affected the
attitudes of these countries towards the Syriac Christians
arriving from the East.
[18] It
is important, when considering the titled subject, to resist
the temptation to lump all Syriac Christians as one homogeneous
group and to stereotype the recipient societies. However
despite these variations, there is a strong commonality in the
issues that have affected the Syriac Christians in the Diaspora
and in their interaction with their new environments.
[19] The
paper, after providing a brief background of the immigration
patterns, considers the general problem of identity and the
preservation of the social heritage among the Syriac Christians
in the dynamics of the present day communications
revolution. Particular reference is made to the wave of
immigrants from Iraq that followed the 1991 Gulf War.
The Double-Naved Church in Medieval Lebanon
Erica Cruikshank Dodd, University of Victoria, B.C.
Canada
[20]
Churches with two parallel naves and two apses facing east were
built in the mountains of Lebanon during the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. While working on the painted
churches in medieval Lebanon, I noted that out of twenty-six
painted churches, eight of them had two parallel naves and two
apses. This is a substantial proportion, and this number
does not include many churches still standing that are no
longer painted. Why are there so many churches of this
typebuilt in Lebanon during the Crusades?
[21] The
church plan with a single nave and double apse was explored by
Dimitrokallis, in 1976. The double basilica church was the
subject of an essay by Krautheimer in 1936 followed by an
extensive study by Sodini in 1980. Both the plan with two apses
and the double-basilica church are similar to the church with
two parallel naves and two apses, but they are not the
same. While these earlier studies do shed light on the
purpose of the double-naved Lebanese plan, they do not answer
the question:
[22] The
double-naved church is also found occasionally elsewhere along
the Mediterranean coast in Greece, Cappadocia, Palestine and
Syria, and even in northern Italy and Germany, but nowhere is
this plan so common as it is in the Lebanon. This study
suggests that the plan was designed to accommodate two
different liturgies and/or contemporaneous worship in two
different languages during the Crusades.
Prejudice and Polarization towards Christians,
Jews and Muslims: the Syriac Polemical Treatises of Dionysius
bar Salibi
Rifaat Y. Ebied, The University of Sydney
[23] The
importance of inter-faith dialogue in the contemporary world is
undisputed. Nor is it doubted that sound research can
dispel misconceptions and stereotypes which have
too often contributed to distrust and conflict between the
adherents of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Christians, Jews
and Muslims have lived together for centuries, sometimes in
concord, at other times in conflict. One of the most tense
periods for these communities was in the twelfth century,
following the impact of the Crusades which upset the delicate
balance of communities in the Middle East. To date, we still
only possess a partial knowledge of how Christians, Muslims and
Jews in this medieval period encountered and perceived each
other. Similarly we have little understanding of what actually
happened between these groups and particularly the manner of
arguments that were employed by either side in their
altercations and accusations against one another. This is
largely because most of the relevant documents have remained
inaccessible, on the whole remaining untranslated, and so
rarely the subject of extended analysis by scholars in general
and historians in particular. This project, on the Syriac
Polemical Treatises by Dionysius bar Salibi, makes a
unique contribution, through its critical edition, translation
and commentaries. It will provide a fresh assessment of
the relations between Christians, Jews and Muslims in the
period of the Crusades, thus significantly enriching our
knowledge and understanding of the dynamics amongst Middle
Eastern communities in the medieval period.
Coptic Syriac Relations: Beyond Dogmatic
Rhetoric
Lois Farag, Loyola College in Maryland
[24] The
Coptic and the Syriac Churches have historically shared a
common theological agreement and came to be known as
non-Chalcedonian Churches. The theological position of
both churches led scholars to focus on themes such as
“Severus of Antioch,” “John of
Halicarnasus,” and “John Philoponus” and the
manuscript depository in the “Syrian Monastery” in
the Nitrean Desert. This presentation is going to focus on
Coptic Syriac relations that are beyond the dogmatic rhetoric
and scholarly excavations. More specifically, the
presentation will focus on the relationship between the Copts
and the Syrians from Coptic documents. Thus, the relationship
between the two churches will be expressed from the Coptic
perspective. This will not include modern relations that
can be easily found among the minutes of meetings, in print
readily available. The points of discussion will be the
Patriarchs and saints in the liturgical book of the
Synaxarium. This includes a discussion of the Syrians who
resided as Patriarchs of the Coptic Church and the liturgical
and devotional changes that followed such an
exchange. After the Arab conquest of both churches, they
shared a common language, i.e. Arabic. This led to an
exchange of theological terms. The power of the exchange
of language and hagiographic stories of saints strengthened the
relations among the two churches beyond ecclesial
politics. This presentation discusses a relation that has
been strengthened, beyond the common theological agreement, by
geographic proximity of the two churches and the sharing of
similar historical situation, especially after the Arab
invasion.
Revisiting the Daughters of the Covenant
Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Brown University
[25]
Recent scholarship suggests some fresh considerations relevant
to the enigmatic ancient Syriac office of the Daughters of the
Covenant, about which we know even less than we do for its male
counterpart, the Sons of the Covenant. I would like to reassess
our understanding of the Daughters of the Covenant, with
particular attention to the question of women's liturgical
participation. Liturgical chanting was one of the
canonically prescribed activities of the Daughters of the
Covenant (e.g, Rabbula Canons, 20). Indeed, late antique and
medieval primary sources often refer to the women's choirs of
the Syriac civic churches as comprised of, or partially
inclusive of, or led by Daughters of the Covenant. The
presence of women's choirs in the Syriac civic churches was in
fact a contested matter, and stood in contrast to the normal
pattern of Greek civic churches. Recent studies on the
ancient Greek traditions of women's singing, performative
roles, and public voices have raised a number of issues
critical to assessing the presence or absence of women's choirs
or female chanters in late antique churches. This material
bears upon the practices of the Syriac churches in significant
ways, I will argue, and offers important insights to our
understanding of the Daughters of the Covenant as members of a
public office.
Meltho: Syriac OpenType Fonts
Sargon Hasso, Illinois Institute of Technology
[26] The
Syriac language character encoding as approved by The
Unicode Consortium and became part of the Unicode
Standard 3.0, gave us a platform on which we can further
extend these efforts to the application areas. Chief amongst
them was the creation and promotion of a set of fonts for use
by any Unicode compliant software application
independent of the operating system platforms. The chief
sponsor, producer, and promoter of these efforts is Beth
Mardutho (The Syriac Institute). However, the font
specification and its current implementation, using the
OpenType fonts technology, are available for any one interested
in creating Syriac fonts. Meltho: The Syriac OpenType
Fonts for Windows XP/2000™ and Windows 95/98/ME™ is
the name of this font project. Currently, these fonts support
the three major Syriac scripts: Estrangelo, Serto, and East
Syriac in variety of styles and features. The success and wide
use of these fonts are facilitated by the Unicode
(Multilingual) Script Processor of Microsoft’s Windows
operating systems. The Meltho fonts allow the user to
write Syriac not only in word processing applications, but also
in programs for creating web pages, databases, emails,
spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and beyond. Combined
with other technologies, such as XML, they become an invaluable
tool for serious researchers, lexicographers, publishers, and
others.
The Ethiopic History of Joseph and its
Syriac Vorlage
Kristian S. Heal, Brigham Young University
[27] The
story of the Old Testament patriarch Joseph (Genesis 37, 39-50)
had a rich and varied afterlife in early Jewish, Christian and
Islamic literature. The story was retold, paraphrased,
augmented and commented upon extensively in each of these
traditions, and much interesting work has gone into the task of
establishing the relationships between the various texts within
and between the traditions. When, therefore, an Ethiopic
retelling of the story was discovered, and it was argued that
it had as its Vorlage a second temple Jewish text, it
presented a potential very attractive and interesting early
piece of the puzzle.
[28] In
this paper, I argue that this Ethiopic History of
Joseph is in fact a translation, most probably via Arabic,
of an extant Syriac retelling of the Joseph story. This
dependence can be demonstrated by a careful comparison between
the two texts, and by establishing the existence of a likely
Arabic intermediary. As a result of establishing the priority
of the Syriac Vorlage, it will be necessary to ask the
same questions of this text that had previously been asked of
the Ethiopic version, such as whether it is indeed a product of
second temple Judaism. I argue to the contrary. For, it is
possible to locate the Syriac text squarely within the Syriac
tradition of retelling the bible, as a comparison with dramatic
dialogue and prose retellings of Old Testament episodes
shows.
The Edessan Milieu and the Birth of Syriac
John F. Healey, University of Manchester
[29] The
paper attempts to elucidate the milieu from which Syriac
emerged as a literary and liturgical language, taking account
of material remains of early Edessa and the linguistic features
of the pre-Christian Syriac or ‘Old Syriac’
inscriptions and parchments.
The hellenization of pre-Christian Edessa is re-evaluated
and it is argued that the evidence for such hellenization has
been exaggerated. Pre-Christian Edessan culture
(including religion) is best characterized as a local variant
of a widespread Semitic tradition seen also in other
contemporary Middle Eastern centres.
The impact of the Greek language on the pre-Christian
Syriac materials is minimal and such borrowings as exist are
largely limited to the sphere of legal administration and
associated with Romanization in the mid-2nd
century C.E.
‘Old Syriac’ is then considered in the
context of Achaemenid-period and contemporary (Nabataean,
Palmyrene, etc.) forms of Aramaic. Achaemenid Aramaic
was a continuum of dialects rather than a monolith and
‘Old Syriac’ is to be seen as a local form of
post-Achaemenid Aramaic rather than as the offspring of
Official Aramaic.
Specific factors contributed to the rise of classical
Syriac: its earlier use as an administrative, royal and
religious language in the Edessan kingdom. But above
all it was Christianity which gave the Edessan variety of
Aramaic a religious importance which allowed it to stand
alongside Greek as a major literary and liturgical
language.
Ecclesiastics And Ascetics: Finding Spiritual
Authority in 5th and 6th Century
Palestine
Jennifer L. Hevelone-Harper, Gordon College
[30] In
recent decades scholars have fruitfully explored the role of
the holy man in late antiquity. As patrons, healers, and
intercessors, holy men served the laity, intervened in church
councils, and instructed bishops and emperors on their
duties. In these activities monks sometimes came into
conflict with the established hierarchy of the church. As
a source of spiritual authority distinct from ecclesiastical
power circles, ascetics could support or undermine the work of
a bishop.
[31]
During the 5th and 6th centuries, the
church in Palestine experienced considerable turmoil over
christological divisions. In the midst of this controversy
monasteries flourished and their inhabitants produced a
prolific collection of monastic literature. The various
genres that survive—hagiography, polemical texts, and
ascetic exhortations—depict a complex and sometimes
contradictory world. These texts disagree about the proper
role for the monk within the larger church. Drawing upon
the works of John Rufus, Isaiah of Scetis, and Zachariah
Scholasticus and others from the region, this paper will
explore the interactions of monks and bishops as they
established and maintained their own spiritual authority.
[32] In
both monastic and episcopal circles this process of
substantiating spiritual authority was critical if the ascetic,
theological, and ecclesiastical accomplishments of one
generation were to continue to shape the Christian community in
the future. In response to ambiguity about the proper
relationship between ascetic and ecclesiastic leaders, monastic
writers depicted both holy men and bishops as acting out
divinely ordained roles. Yet the texts reveal that both
leaders and laity continued to feel concern about the
possibility that sources of spiritual authority could come into
conflict.
"Watch and Pray": The Night Vigil as a Context for
the Earliest Christian Hymnody
Peter Jeffery, Princeton University
[33] Much
early Christian worship took place at night, or before dawn.
Evidence of a background for this can be found in ordinary
Judaism, in Jewish ascetic groups, and in apocryphal and
apocalyptic literature. Syriac sources including the
Apocalypse of Abraham, the Odes of Solomon
and the Acts of Thomas enable us to trace lines of
trajectory to early Christian liturgical sources, including
Egeria’s Resurrection vigil and the Easter baptism
vigil.
Syriac Monastic Culture and its influence on
Western Monasticism
Dale A. Johnson
[34] The
organizational form of monasteries in the world of Mesopotamian
monasticism was never adopted in the west. Only the substance
of monasticism was adopted through the genius of Benedict who
was influenced by the monastic rules of the east. He drew from
eastern sources including Cassian, Basil, perhaps Rabbula, and
written observations of monasteries in Palestine and Syria, but
he did not adopt the eastern organizational form. This insight
is clear when we look closely at the canons of Syriac
monasteries east of the Euphrates. The monastic cultures
of both the east and west were social experiments. They were
both influenced by their contextual cultures and they
influenced the dominant cultures that followed them.
Today Syriac Christianity stands at a crossroad. Western
culture, in part formed by Benedictine monastic social rules,
now dominates the Syriac Christian diaspora. Clues to its
survival may lie in the canons of social organization in early
Syriac monastic Christianity.
Automating the Liturgical Calendar of the Syriac
Orthodox Church
Thomas Joseph, Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
[35]
Liturgical calendars provide a quotidian guide for the Syriac
Orthodox faithful in the practice of spiritual life in the
Church all through the year, setting apart days for
commemorating principal events in the salvation history of man,
specifying periods of fasting, and marking the feast days of
saints, memorial days of the fathers, and local observances.
Lectionaries prescribe scripture readings for the liturgical
offices of holy days through out the calendar year. Liturgical
calendars and lectionaries have been in use for many centuries
and since the advent of printing have come into wide use among
the laity.
[36]
Through the ages, such calendars have been compiled through a
tedious manual process. This paper describes the automated
generation of the liturgical calendar for a given Gregorian
year. The calendar includes scripture readings for the
principal feast days from the lectionary. The date of Easter
and related movable feasts can be based on the Julian or
Gregorian calendar as required by the Syriac Orthodox practice
in the Middle East and Malankara (India) respectively.
[37] The
current implementation employs a Microsoft
Access® database to persist the liturgical
calendar and lectionary data, a Java application to generate
the calendar for a given year and output calendar data into an
XML format, and an XSLT template for transforming the XML into
an HTML form to display the data in a standard calendar format.
The same XML file can be transformed to produce a lectionary
with an appropriate XSLT.
Tabetha Syriac: Child Language Acquisition of
Classical Syriac in a Multi-lingual Environment
George A. Kiraz, Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
[38]
Today, Classical Syriac is hardly the native tongue of any
single individual. Rather, it is a learned language
spoken primarily by clergy and malphone, especially
amongst the Syriac Orthodox. There have been very rare
cases when children were brought up to speak Classical Syriac,
and always in multilingual environments. None of these
cases has been documented. Hence this process of child
language acquisition is totally unknown.
[39] This
paper, hopefully the first in a series of studies, attempts to
shed some light on child language acquisition in a multilingual
environment where Classical Syriac is one of the primary
languages in use, the others being Turkish, English and Arabic
(in order of usage). The subject of the study is a
2½ year old (at the time of the Symposium)
female. The Classical Syriac speaker is the father, while
the mother is a Turkish speaker.
[40] The
paper will concentrate primarily on two socio-linguistic
aspects of child language acquisitions:
Firstly, the various challenges faced when Syriac is
‘forced’ to become a native tongue. These
challenges include the lack of a larger socio-linguistic
environment, the necessity of child talk in a language
hitherto used solely in adult talk, and the instantaneous
need of coinage, to name a few.
Secondly, the interaction of the four spoken languages
and the code switching that takes place between them. Which
language becomes more dominant, and at what stages of
language acquisitions, are but two questions that will be
tackled.
Fasting, Competition, and Envy: Reading
Daniel 1-6 with Ephrem the Syrian
Shane Kirkpatrick, Anderson University
[41] In
his Hymns on Fasting, Ephrem the Syrian provides a
framework for reading the tales of Daniel
1-6. His reading makes a number of assumptions about
Daniel and his three companions, however, that go beyond the
information explicitly provided in the biblical text. For
example, he calls them “fasters” in episodes where
Daniel and his companions are not described as fasting
(Ieiun. 4.9; cf. Dan. 3). Ephrem also
describes the social dynamics of their situations more
emphatically than does the biblical text. For example, he
names “envy” as the motivation of the
Judeans’ opponents (Ieiun. 7.7).
[42]
These conclusions that Ephrem draws from the biblical
narratives are the result, I submit, of the influence of
Ephrem’s own social and cultural context. Biblical
scholars using social-scientific criticism have developed tools
to help interpreters recognize the influence of social and
cultural contexts on the production and reading of ancient
texts. Valuable here are models by which to understand the
dynamics at work in a society whose central cultural value is
honor. Reading Ephrem’s understanding of the tales
in Daniel 1-6 with attention to these models allows us
to make sense of Ephrem’s use of “honor” and
“shame” language (e.g., Ieiun. 8.3-4), his
reference to “envy” (Ieiun. 7.7), and his
schematization of Daniel and his companions as
“fasters” in an agonistic social competition with
their opponents, the “feasters” (Ieiun.
7-9).
The Pearl of Virginity: Death as the Reward of
Asceticism in Jacob of Serug
Robert A. Kitchen, Knox-Metropolitan United Church, Regina,
Saskatchewan
[43]
Jacob of Serug develops several fundamental concepts of Syriac
asceticism—asceticism as a form of death, and death as
the reward of new life for one’s ascetical
labors—in mēmrā 191 in Bedjan’s
collection (Homiliae Selectae, vol. 5: 821-836):
“On the bart qyāmā, a pure virgin, who
departs from this world.”
[44] This
mēmrā appears to be written for a specific
occasion: the death of a consecrated “daughter of the
Covenant,” and possibly is a funeral oration. The
title teases one to believe that a description of the
institution and practices of the bnat qyāmā
might be forthcoming, but that is not Jacob’s
focus. The term is not employed in the
mēmrā, although Jacob celebrates her
steadfast virginity and the state of apatheia she has
attained.
[45]
Jacob addresses her acquaintances mourning her death and
counsels that death is not the bitter end, but the sweet
entrance into the angelic realm—the realization of the
paradise she tried to recreate in the midst of the sinful
world. Death is not defeat, but the reward for a life of
asceticism, virginity, and devotion to Jesus, the
Īhīdāyā, her betrothed.
[46] In
the latter sections of the mēmrā, Jacob
applies the metaphor of the pearl (Matthew 13:45-46) to the
virginity of the bart qyāmā, illustrating
how she has survived and ascended out of the iniquity of the
world (or sea) to the glory of heaven through the power of her
virginity and asceticism.
Qaddishutha and Celibacy between Purity
and Holiness in Early Syriac Literature
Naomi Koltun-Fromm, Haverford College
[47] The
early Syriac literature often equates qaddishutha with
celibacy. But does that term—derivative of the root
QDS—connote purity, holiness or some combination
of the two for these ancient authors? Is celibacy equivalent to
cultic purity, holiness or both in their understandings? This
paper will explore the variable connotations of
qaddishutha in the early Syriac literature and its
implications for understanding the place of celibacy within the
early Syriac church tradition. As in biblical and rabbinic
Hebrew the root QDS can connote at times
“holy” or “sanctify” and at times
“pure” or “ritually purify.” The
biblical Hebrew texts are usually consistent in distinguishing
these usages often determined only by different verbal
patterns. The Syriac biblical texts tend to carefully preserve
these distinctions as well. Yet the later Syriac exegetical
texts are less concerned with preserving these differences and
even find it advantageous to mix, match and/or elide the
different connotations. In this paper I will compare texts from
the Acts of Judas Thomas and the
Demonstrations of Aphrahat in order to illustrate
their semantic and theological developments, which reflect and
highlight these biblical exegetes’ notions of
qaddishutha and religious identity.
Divine Law in Aphrahat’s
Demonstrations: A Jewish Heritage in Early Syriac
Christianity
Adam Lehto, Waterloo, Canada
[48]
Asceticism, anti-Jewish polemic, and an extensive use of the
Old Testament are three prominent features of the
Demonstrations of Aphrahat that can be brought
together by an examination of the author’s concept of
divine Law. While many scholars have studied these areas in
isolation, the centrality of Law-observance for Aphrahat has
been largely overlooked. This emphasis on the Law affirms the
basic continuity between the moral commandments of the Old
Testament and the New, while adding a new dimension in the
ascetic commands of Christ. In contrast to his clear rejection
of O.T. ritual law, Aphrahat’s high view of the Decalogue
and other O.T. moral laws forms an important part of his
Christian spirituality. Christ’s call to a higher ascetic
way of life does not conflict with a fundamental commitment to
the moral code already known to the Jewish patriarchs. Though
his role clearly goes beyond this, Christ for Aphrahat
functions as a new and final teacher of the Law who points to
love as the fulfillment of the Law. This emphasis on love,
however, is a way of appreciating the fullness of the Law
rather than a way of minimizing its importance. In its ethical
aspect, Aphrahat’s concept of divine Law highlights
continuity rather than discontinuity between Judaism and
Christianity. In many respects, the Demonstrations are
a fairly typical example of Christian anti-Jewish literature.
Aphrahat’s concept of divine Law, however, points to an
unacknowledged debt to Judaism, which, along with much
anti-Jewish polemical material, is common to many early
Christian writers.
Translational Features of the Syrohexapla of
Ezekiel
Jerome A. Lund, Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, Hebrew Union
College
[49] At
least from the 5th century, Syriac speaking
Christians had religious interaction with Greek speaking
Christians. This religious interaction led Syriac speaking
Christians to compare their Syriac Bible text with the Greek
Bible text and, eventually, to produce a translation of the
Greek Bible into Syriac. In 616-617, at Alexandria in Egypt,
Paul of Tella undertook a translation of the Greek Old
Testament into Syriac. As his textual base, he used the fifth
column of Origen’s Hexapla. For the Book of Ezekiel, Paul
of Tella’s translation is preserved in its entirety only
in the photolithographic reproduction of A. Ceriani. The
manuscript British Museum Add. 14,668, folios 26-29, preserves
only Ezekiel 47:23-48:35. With regard to scholarly research, no
one has ever described the translational features of the
Syrohexapla in detail, at least for the Book of Ezekiel.
[50] In
this presentation, I will describe a number of translational
features in the Syrohexapla of Ezekiel, which differentiate it
from the Peshitta. Furthermore, I will attempt to identify
translational features, which, in violating Syriac grammar,
confirm my view that the Syrohexapla was intended as a
scholarly version and not as a church Bible.
This groundbreaking study forms a part of a greater vision
of publishing an edition of the Syrohexapla with accompanying
concordance. Results of this study should be compared with an
analysis of Thomas of Harkel’s Syriac translation of the
New Testament, since Paul of Tella and Thomas of Harkel worked
at the same time, in the same place, and under the same
auspices.
The Homily on Adam and Eve of Isaac of
Antioch
Edward G. Mathews, Jr.
[51]
Isaac the teacher has been lauded by many of his contemporaries
as one OF the greatest writers in Syriac literature.
Nevertheless, nearly two thirds of this large corpus is
essentially unknown to modern scholarship. One such work, which
ought to be of great present interest to scholars in many
fields, is the Homily on Adam and Eve. Yet, outside of
its entry in Assemani’s 18th century
catalogues, it has received no attention at all. It will be the
purpose of my paper then to provide such an introduction to
this work: a brief description of its contents; its place in
the corpus attributed to Isaac of Antioch; and its place in the
history of Syriac exegesis on the Biblical protogenitors.
'The News ... was put in the Newspaper and spread
in the World': A Neo-Syriac Poem on the Russian-Turkish War in
1877
Alessandro Mengozzi, Università degli Studi di
Torino
[52] A
line of continuity links the late East-Syriac perception of
history – as this is reflected in the poetic works of
authors such as Giwargis Warda or Gabriel Qamsa—and the
Neo-Syriac poems which deal with historical events. Neo-Syriac
authors tried to understand the causes of plagues (pestilence,
famine, war) which befell the Christian communities and to
interpret their painful subjection to Muslim rulers. They more
or less explicitly presented disasters as God’s
punishments, but, while linking present hardships to the grand
narrative of Divine intervention in human history, they
committed their future to the liberating hand of God.
[53] By
the end of the 19th century, Neo-Syriac poetry
appears to be sensitive to new trends in reflection on history.
The author of an unpublished poem On the Russian-Turkish
War in 1877 is a physician and adopts a more secular view
of history. He seems well-informed about the diplomatic
scenario of the conflict. His main concern is not the moral and
religious causes of the war, but the reason why of all the
Christian powers only Russia came promptly to the aid of the
Bulgarians against the Ottoman oppressors. England, France and
Italy did not intervene, whereas Tsar Nicolas, together with
Prussian, American and Austrian allies, decided to send their
troops against the Sultan. Neo-Syriac poetry goes beyond the
narrow scope of local historiography and enters the broader
stage of international politics, where the position of (East-)
Syrian Christianity must be defined not only in opposition to
Muslim neighbors but also in relationship to
‘other’, i.e. Western, Christians.
Syriac Non-Chalcedonian Eucharistic communities
after Chalcedon
Volker Menze, Princeton University
[54] The
council of Chalcedon in 451 CE proved to be the cornerstone for
the division of Christianity at the end of Antiquity. The main
cause for the division was a different understanding of the
divine and human aspects of Christ’s nature. My
talk will investigate how the Syriac opponents of the council
of Chalcedon defined their church and perpetuated their
practices during the second half of the 5th century
and the first half of the 6th century.
[55]
Using hagiography, letters, legal and liturgical sources, my
paper will demonstrate that at the heart of this redefinition
was an emphasis on the church’s
sacraments—especially the Eucharist. On a social level,
the Eucharist created a visible line of separation and
resistance against the Chalcedonians and provided a
non-Chalcedonian identity. Second, I will analyze the
distribution of the Eucharist and show the urgent need to
create a flexible church framework which could care for the
faithful laity and distribute the sacraments, even over long
distances and in regions where no non-Chalcedonian priests were
available. Finally, after having showed the importance of
the Eucharist and the care for the communities by the clergy, I
will discuss how the Syriac non-Chalcedonian laity perceived
the sacrament of the Eucharist. It seems that popular
devotion of the Eucharist did not always match with the
official understanding of this sacrament.
Aphrahat's appropriation of the Bible in
the Fifth Demonstration, de bellis
Craig Morrison, Pontifical Biblical Institute
[56]
Aphrahat composed the fifth Demonstration at the time
of increasing tension between the Roman and Sassanian
Empires. In anticipation of the Christian Emperor’s
military campaign against Shapur II, the Persian Sage found in
the bellicose language of the Book of Daniel a
reassuring message for fourth-century Christians living under
Sassanian rule. The cryptic style of this biblical book readily
lent itself to the exigencies of his historical context in
which an equally cryptic style (béråz) was
required. This paper will explore how Aphrahat recasts the
Book of Daniel as a window for understanding his own
world. What verses does he appropriate, and how do
they function within his argument? What is the
relationship between his citations and the Peshitta
text, and what hermeneutical principles underlie his
interpretation?
The Church of the East between 1550 and 1850:
literary revival and western influence
Heleen (H.L.) Murre-van den Berg, Universiteit Leiden
[57]
Almost two centuries after the decline of Church of the East in
the latter half of the fourteenth century, this church
experienced a remarkable recovery during the first two
centuries of Ottoman influence in the region. Although the
earliest signs of recovery predate the extension of Ottoman
influence in Kurdistan (manuscript production is increasing
from the 1450-ies onwards), it is in the late sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries that the Church of the East regained much
of its former strength in matters of language and literature.
The center of literary revival was first located in Gazarta
d-Bet Zabday (present-day Cizre in southeastern Turkey) and
later shifted to Alqosh and the nearby monastery of Rabban
Hormizd (in present-day North Iraq). In the same period, the
Church of the East became open to the influence of the Roman
Catholic Church, which led to a number of unions, the first of
which was initiated by the monk Yuhannan Sulaqa in 1553.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century, a stable uniat
patriarchate emerged in Diyarbakır, which in the early
nineteenth century merged with the uniat patriarchate in
Mosul.
[58] In
this paper I will further elaborate on these defining
developments within the Church of the East, discussing possible
connections between the literary revival and Roman Catholic
influence, as well as between these developments and the
incorporation of the region into the Ottoman Empire. The
sources for this research will be discussed, with particular
attention to the manuscripts produced by the Syriac scribes,
both the manuscripts itself and their colophons.
Bardaisan, Marcion, and Early Edessan
Christianity
Ute Possekel, Saint John’s Seminary, Boston
[59]
Since Walter Bauer's landmark study, Orthodoxy and Heresy
in Earliest Christianity, his thesis of an early heterodox
Christian presence in Edessa has found widespread approval. The
followers of Marcion and Bardaisan (d. 222) flourished in
Edessa at an early date. The Bardaisanites continued to be an
influential community into the fifth century. Bardaisan saw
himself as a Christian, but he soon came to be labeled as a
heretic.
[60] This
paper will examine Bardaisan's understanding of Christianity
and his relation to Marcionism. Scholars have studied various
aspects of Bardaisan's thought, such as his notion of fate and
his cosmogony, but they have paid little attention thus far to
his understanding of the Christian faith as such.
[61] This
paper will examine, to the degree that the sources permit, some
elements of Bardaisan's "theology." How do Bardaisan's ideas
compare with contemporaneous Christian systems of thought? In
particular, how does Bardaisan differ from or agree with
Marcion? Bardaisan is known to have written dialogues against
the Marcionites (Eusebius, h.e. IV.30), and the
Book of the Laws of the Countries, attributed to
Bardaisan's disciple Philip, shows evidence of anti-Marcionism.
On the other hand, Bardaisan's ideas about Christianity also
display parallels with Marcion's theology, and this paper will
investigate these parallels.
Nisibis as the Background to the Life and Work of
Ephraem the Syrian
Paul S. Russell
[62] As
part of an on-going project aimed at producing a volume called
A Companion to the Study of St. Ephraem the Syrian, I
would like to offer a paper examining Nisibis to see what we
can discover of it as the milieu that produced St. Ephraem.
This paper will not argue that Nisibis is the proper place to
examine in this regard (a brief and separate argument) but,
instead, will offer what is presently known about the city and
its surroundings in a number of areas:
The physical surroundings and location
The political importance of the city
The ethnic mix of the city
The religious mix present in the city
The cultural mix present in the city.
[63]
“Relations between Syriac Christians and
‘other’” and “Semitic or Hellenistic
influences on Syriac Christian life” will be
discussed. Due to the sparse nature of the evidence, I may
not have anything new or exciting to offer. Yet the topic is
important for reflection, in my opinion, for the proper
understanding of St. Ephraem.
Greek Gospel vs. Old Testament Peshitta: The
Vetus Syra Dilemma of Scriptural Authority
Serge Ruzer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
[64] The
paper discusses the Old Syriac Gospels (Vetus Syra,
OSG) treatment of biblical quotations. The
investigation focuses on cases where the quotation text form in
the OSG Greek source differs considerably from the one
attested in the Old Testament Peshitta. It is demonstrated, on
the one hand, that in such cases the OSG modus
operandi differs greatly from the one adopted by later
Syriac versions of the Gospels, with their slavish fidelity to
the Greek text; but, on the other, that it does not fit the
usual description of Vetus Syra as a “free,
idiomatically correct rendering.” Instead, the main
objective of the OSG is shown to be to give the
biblical quotation a form as close as possible to the peculiar
wording of the OT Peshitta tradition. The scope of that general
tendency and the existing constraints are both outlined, and it
is argued that this characteristic OSG trend cannot be
reasonably ascribed to dependence on the Diatessaron
of Tatian. Finally, implications for the Vetus
Syra’s provenance are discussed.
From Peking to Rome: Medieval 'Ecumenism' and the
Journeys of Bar Sauma
Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent, Brown University
[65] The
History of Mar Yahbh-Allaha, Patriarch, and of Raban
Sauma is an account of two monks of the Church of
the East who leave China in the thirteenth century, hoping to
visit the holy places of Jerusalem. Rabban Sauma journeys
farther into Western Europe in order to win political support
from the Christian leaders of Europe for the Mongolian King
Arghon. Rabban Sauma’s blend of cultural, religious,
and political ties help this encounter between the Catholic
Church and the Church of the East to be effective. Rabban Sauma
is aware of his role as an ecclesiastical representative of
Patriarch Mar Yahbh-Allaha III and of Christians in Asia. He
retains, however, a strong sense of diplomatic duty to the
Mongolian king whose political interests he must
represent. Rabban Sauma shows his reverence for the
Western Church through his deeds and words of respect to her
leaders, as well as through his desire to visit her shrines and
venerate her relics. These factors together create a
context conducive for positive exchange between Rabban Sauma
and Pope Nicholas IV. Although both are spiritual leaders
of two officially-separated Churches, the Pope allows Rabban
Sauma to celebrate the Eucharist. Rabban Sauma later
receives Communion from the Pope’s hands. The
Catholic Church and the Church of the East thus share
symbolically a moment of solidarity through Rabban
Sauma’s presence in Rome and through his participation in
the liturgy that the Pope offers.
Report on Pro Oriente's Sixth
Non-Official Consultation on Dialogue within the Churches of
the Syriac Tradition: Sacraments
Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent, Brown University
[66] In
March, 2003, Pro Oriente brought leaders of the
Churches of the Syriac tradition together in Vienna to engage
in Ecumenical dialogue concerning the Sacraments. Members
came from the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church
of the East, the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, the
Malankara Orthodox Church, the Chaldean Church, the
Syro-Malabar Church, the Malabar Catholic Church, the Malankara
Catholic Church, the Syrian Catholic Church, and the Maronite
Church. Scholars of Syrian Christianity were also present,
along with representatives from the Pontifical Coucil for
Promoting Christian Unity and the Anglican Church. Members
of the Church of the East, the Syrian Orthodox Church, and the
Maronite Church delivered papers on the Eucharist, discussing
anaphoral prayers used in liturgy, the nature of the
Eucharistic Mystery, and ecumenical dimensions of the
Eucharist. The Malankara Orthodox Church, the Church of
the East, and the Malabar Catholic Church presented papers
concerning Holy Orders. Finally, members of the Ancient
Church of the East, the Syrian Catholic Church, and the
Chaldean Church discussed the practice of Penance
(tyabutho/tyabutho) in their respective traditions,
and they explored helpful ways in which to understand this rite
within modern cultural contexts. This meeting provided a
chance for members of these traditions, whose communities are
dispersed throughout the world, to come together in an
unofficial way and discuss their Church’s traditions,
thus working towards increased mutual understanding and
appreciation.
The Changing Fortunes of Syrian Christianity: What
can be gleaned from the (Pseudo-)Apocalypse of John
Issa A. Saliba, Whitby, Canada
[67] An
ascetic lamenting the misfortunes of his community under early
Muslim rule composed an “Apocalypse of John” from
which we glean valuable historical details. He
proclaims the rise and fall of the Roman Empire praising its
first Christian emperor and his sign of the cross, an
admiration echoed later in many works. But he denounces
Constantine’s successors. His language indicates that by
the seventh-eight century the imperial title
“Augustus” had become practically obsolete, and the
imperial church had become abhorrently detestable to the
monophysite communities.
[68] The
rise of the Persians is a reference to Chosroe’s
successful campaigns against the eastern provinces, and the
description of his death is attested to by other
sources. Persia is superseded by Media. This is not in
agreement with the proper order of events but the apocalyptist
has a conceptual framework into which things must fit.
[69] The
southern wind follows, namely the Arabs, headed by a
“warrior”, the first designation of their leader,
emphasizing his military activities, and whom they call a
“prophet”. This is one of the most ancient
references to Muhammad in a Christian document. War among them
alludes to the conflict which ended with the death of
ʿAli. The imposition of heavy taxes can
only refer to the new fiscal reform
(taʿdil) under
ʿAbd el-Malik. Rapid consolidation of
Muslim control is described but the picture is one of the early
days of Muslim rule where no capital had been yet
designated.
THE SYRIAC TEXT OF NILUS OF ANCYRA’S DE
MONASTICA EXERCITATIONE: RELATIONSHIPS AND ADAPTATION
Anne Seville, Catholic University of America
[70] This
paper examines how and potentially why the Syriac translation
of Nilus of Ancyra’s De monastica exercitatione
was adapted from the Greek original. Nilus of Ancyra, a
late fourth/early fifth century ascetic, wrote this work before
425 as a prophetic call to the monks of his day to mend their
ways and return to the ideals of the ascetic way of life.
The Greek text of the De monastica exercitatione is
divided into three parts: Nilus’ perception of the origin
and aim of asceticism, the responsibilities of a monastic
superior, and the duties of all ascetics. The Syriac
translator of the De monastica exercitatione excised
roughly the first third of the work and in several places
re-contextualized transitions between ideas and even reworked
some of Nilus’ examples of the ascetic life. By
paying careful attention to the Syriac vocabulary used and
noting which descriptions have been altered or added, I will
investigate what patterns emerge and what the Syriac editor
wished to highlight in this work. Without Nilus’
introductory description of the history of asceticism, how does
the Syriac editor portray its development and current
state? Does the editor try to downplay or alter
Nilus’ urgent message of reform and why? Are these
changes influenced by the writings of other Syriac authors and
what audience does the editor intend to reach? These
explorations will draw us into ongoing discussions of the
history of Syriac asceticism.
Oc Arabicus in the Service of Oc
Syriacus: Edessa/Al-ruhĀ and Al-hĪra in Late
Antiquity
Irfan Shahîd, Georgetown University
[71] The
fortunes of the two Christian Semitic peoples in the Fertile
Crescent, the Aramaeans and the Arabs, were interlocked in many
ways. One was their domination by the two world powers,
Persia and Byzantium, hostile to their Christianity, the former
Zoroastrian and the latter still pagan. The Arabs, however,
were politically and militarily more prominent than the
Aramaeans—a fact reflected in their semi-independent
vassal states to the two world powers. Thus, they were
able to give some protection to their Semitic cousins in such
centers of Arab power as Edessa and Hira, both in the Land of
the Two Rivers, the one under Roman suzerainty and the other
under the Persian.
[72]
Edessa, although a Seleucid foundation, was ruled by the
Abgarid Arab Dynasty, from 132 B.C. for three and a half
centuries. Ca. A.D. 200, Abgar IX adopted Christianity as
the state religion, and thus Edessa became in this sense a
Christian city, and it developed into the spiritual capital of
the Semitic Christian Orient, the counterpart of Antioch for
the Greek. Its history as the Holy City of the Christian
Semitic Orient is well known; less known is the Arab
contribution to its holiness and Christianity, which will be
explored in the paper.
[73]
Hira, unlike Edessa, was an Arab foundation of the third
century A.D., which for the following four centuries of
pre-Islam was the principal center of Arab Christianity taking
over from Edessa, almost immediately after the fall of the
latter to the Roman emperor Gordian, the function of protecting
Christianity from hostile Zoroastrian Persia. Its
contribution to Arab Christianity is fairly well known, but
less known is its contribution to Syriac Christianity and
Oriens Christianus Syriacus. This will be explored in
the paper.
The Colloquy of Moses on Mount Sinai where Syriac
Christianity and Islamic Spain meet
Karla Suomala, Luther College
[74] In
the late 19th century, Isaac Hall published the only
extant Syriac edition and translation of The Colloquy of
Moses on Mount Sinai. This text, of unknown date and
provenance, contains a lengthy dialogue between Moses and God
on Sinai concerning proper and improper behaviors and practices
along with their rewards and punishments, as well as a
discussion on the nature of God (i.e., Does God
sleep? Where does God reside? etc.). Interestingly,
this text has striking similarities in both content and form to
a group of late medieval Aljamiado (Islamic literature
written in Spanish but with Arabic characters) dialogues
between God and Moses on Sinai. Since neither the Syriac text
nor the Aljamiado texts have known counterparts within
the larger Christian and Muslim traditions, I will describe the
texts, suggest contexts for each, and explore the possibility
of a common source.
THE BEGINNINGS OF GERMAN LUTHERAN-ASSYRIAN
RELATIONS
Martin Tamcke, Theologische Fakultät, Institut
für Ökumenische Theologie,
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
[75]
Since 1875 the Lutheran mission of the north German
Hermannsburg Mission worked in the Urmia-region. I want to
discuss the question of the beginning of this activity.
Therefore I will especially look at the letter of Bishop
Joseph, which I found in the archive in Hermannsburg. This
letter dates to the time before the activities started. What
was the interest of the bishop? What were the following steps?
How did the work start? In some notes I also want to describe
the forgotten Syriac manuscripts in the archive.
The Book of the Magnet
Herman Teule, Catholic University of Nijmegen
[76] One
of the most popular books of the Chaldean Church in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is The Book of the
Magnet, composed by the Chaldean Patriarch Joseph II in
his town of residence, Diarbakir. The work was
probably written in Arabic, but mostly read in a Syriac
translation. It is basically a book of spirituality and
morality, the sources of which still have to be determined.
Though one of the frequently quoted Fathers is Ephrem the
Syrian, the work was strongly influenced by Western (Latin)
sources. The Book of the Magnet is the result of the
Roman Catholic missionary movement of the seventeenth century
as represented by the French Consul of Aleppo (and later
bishop) François Picquet.
Severus's Objections to Chalcedon
Tenny Thomas, Oriental Institute, Oxford University
[77]
Severus of Antioch, an uncompromising critic of the
Chalcedonian formula, which affirms that Jesus Christ was
“one Person” made known “in two
natures”, criticized the Council of Chalcedon both in the
light of tradition and in the light of theological principles.
He admitted that earlier Fathers used the “two
natures” formula, but he argues that those Fathers
employed it before the outbreak of the Nestorian controversy.
In later times the situation changed, and the imprecise and
innocent expressions of the past were advanced as concomitant
with the theological tradition based on the Nicene Creed as
confirmed by the Councils of Constantinople in 381 and Ephesus
in 431. Leo of Rome, ignoring the tradition established in
the Church, insisted on the phrase “in two natures”
in his Tome, and the Council of Chalcedon adopted it. The
expressions “two natures after the union” or
“in two natures” implied that the human child had
been formed in the womb by himself first, and that God the Word
assumed him at a later time. According to this view, the man
remains man and God the Son remains God the Son in a state of
conjunct existence, without being united in any real sense.
This opinion is precisely what Nestorianism had affirmed and
the Council of Ephesus in 431 had declared to be heretical. On
the strength of passages from the writings of Diodore,
Theodore, Nestorius and Theodoret, Severus concludes that the
Antiochene tradition did not affirm a real union of the
natures; they maintained only the conjunct existence in Christ
of God the Son and the man. Thus they had insisted on
“two natures after the union”. Therefore, in its
historical context, the Council of Chalcedon cannot have meant
anything more than this Antiochene emphasis by the phrase
“in two natures”.
The Syriac Correspondence of Pebechius and
Osron
Kevin T. van Bladel, Yale University
[78] The
story of the recovery of ancient Persian science in Egypt and
its restoration to Sasanian Iran is known from a number of
Middle Persian sources dating from the sixth century onward and
from numerous Arabic works written by Iranians dating from the
eighth century onward. This presentation introduces a Syriac
text that must be related to this account.
[79]
Cambridge manuscript Mm.6.29 contains several unique examples
of Syriac translations of Greek alchemical texts, including
works of the renowned Egyptian alchemist Zosimus (fl. ca. AD
300) that do not survive in the original Greek. Among these is
the supposed correspondence of an Egyptian priest, Pebechius,
with a Persian magus, Osron, concerning the Egyptian recovery
of ancient Persian science. In the first letter Pebechius
claims to have discovered the ancient books of Ostanes (a
legendary Persian alchemist who is said in other works to have
lived in the time of Xerxes, i.e. the 5th century
BC, and to have presided over mysteries in Egypt).
Osron’s reply begs Pebechius to share these ancient
sciences. Pebechius answers that the books of Ostanes include
the whole art of astrology, the manufacture of gold, and
mysteries of Hermes.
[80]
Although the provenance of this text is unknown, its contents
relate a different version of the story of the Persian recovery
of its own science from Egypt. Combined with another, similar
story in a text attributed to Ostanes himself, found in an
Arabic manuscript claiming to contain a translation from Middle
Persian, this Syriac text provides a new document of this
semi-legendary history of science.
Mallpânâ dilan
suryâyâ—Ephrem in the works of
Philoxenus of Mabbog: Admiration and Distance
Lucas Van Rompay, Duke University
[81] In
spite of Ephrem’s great popularity, Syriac authors of the
late fifth and the sixth century found it increasingly
difficult to harmonize his views and images with the
theological discourse of their day, which was largely
determined by Greek writings.
[82] The
somewhat ambivalent attitude of the new generation of Syriac
theologians towards the revered master of earlier days clearly
appears in Philoxenus of Mabbog’s writings. In one of
Philoxenus’ early works, the Mêmrê
against Habbib (482-484), Ephrem still occupies a
prominent place and nearly half of the quotations in the
attached Florilegium are under Ephrem’s name.
But in the Letter to the monks of Senoun, written four
decades later (521), Philoxenus goes to great lengths to
convince the monks that what he is teaching them does not
contradict Ephrem’s ideas. In doing so, he rephrases some
of Ephrem’s theological language and subtly criticizes
the imprecision of his terminology.
[83] The
tension between admiration and a certain critical distance
vis-à-vis the earlier Syriac heritage is symptomatic of
the transition through which Syriac Christianity passed around
the year 500. In an attempt to assess the significance of the
theological reorientation of Syriac Christianity in this
period, Philoxenus’ writings will be explored as well as
a few other sixth-century works. Does the honorific title
“our Syrian teacher” reveal a certain discomfort at
the burden imposed by the past?
Plato and Pastoral Care in the Life of
Narsai, Bishop of Shenna
Cynthia J. Villagomez, Wake Forest University
[84]
Thomas of Marga’s 9th century Book of Governors
is not only a history of the famous holy men of the East Syrian
monastery of Beth Abe, but also a work that epitomizes
contemplative Christian Platonism as the highest expression of
the Christian life. Throughout this text, Thomas reflects his
support of Evagrius’ Hellenistic system of spiritual life
by connecting specific Evagrian quotes to the exemplary lives
of Beth Abe’s outstanding monks, abbots and bishops. He
most explicitly supports Christian Platonism in his Life of
Narsai, a monk from Beth Abe who was selected by Timothy I
as the bishop of Shenna, a city in northern Iraq. Narsai is
presented as the strongest model of the solitary, silent,
meditative life as lived by Plato, “who is wiser in
philosophy than all other men.” He is depicted as
receiving Platonic, mystical revelations of God’s throne
as the reward for the perfection of his spiritual discipline.
The analogies that Thomas describes between the architectural
elements of Beth Abe’s church and heavenly structures and
congregations are well known. This paper will discuss the
connection, made by Thomas, between Narsai’s Christian
Platonic spirituality, his holy visions and the depth and
perfection of his pastoral care. His followers in Shenna are
the great beneficiaries of this spirituality and his connection
to heaven because these open floodgates of miracles,
particularly miracles of physical healing and convicting words
of knowledge. Significantly, many whose lives are improved by
his spiritual gifts are Arabs. I will argue that Thomas could
be using Narsai’s life as a demonstration of the
Christian life as the best reflection of Platonic philosophy
rather than Islam since it is in the late 8th and
early 9th c. when Muslim Arabs begin to claim Platonic thought
as their own.
Syriac Churches and Monasteries from the Adiyaman
Survey, S.E. Turkey
Linda Wheatley-Irving, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
[85] The
creation of the Ataturk Dam in 1991 was preceded by at least a
decade of archaeological field work in its catchment, which
spanned the Turkish Lower Euphrates from Samsat in the south to
Elazig in the north, approximately. In the context of a
survey of those parts of the province of Adiyaman that were due
to be submerged, archaeologists from the British Institute of
Archaeology in Ankara recorded the structures of three
complexes built in a canyon of the Euphrates, just south of
Gerger. The names of two of the complexes are
known: Mar Abhai (“Monastery of the Ladders”)
and Piscina. Their history can be traced from the
11th to 17th centuries through the
writings of Michael the Syrian and manuscript
colophons. Their church architecture is related to that of
the Tur ʿAbdin churches, but also has
elements in common with other Euphrates area churches.
[86] The
churches have been previous published through brief reports in
archaeological journals that are not easily
accessible. Their full publication will form part of my
PhD studies in Byzantine architectural history.
Faith and Praxis: Gendered Concepts in the Semitic
Orient (400-900)?
Clare Wilde, The Catholic University of America
[87]
References to women in fifth-sixth century Syriac Christian and
somewhat later Arabic Muslim writings indicate a
Semitic perception of their ‘proper’ role
in faith and works. The Syriac Bnat Qyama are a
case in point. One memra about a deceased
Bart Qyama, attributed to Jacob of Serug, gives a
glimpse into details of the daily life, even the clothing of
the Bnat Qyama. At least one of these
details—the black veil (of mourning: for the deceased
bridegroom) evokes images of the contemporary Gulf States.
[88]
Qurʿanic parallels may point to further
similarities between Syrian Christian and Arab Muslim
women. There are a number of instances in which the
Qurcan utilizes the feminine and masculine
plurals of the same word: men and women are
believers—but also hypocrites and idolaters—and
they both fast and give alms. Notably absent from these
parallels are men and women who pray and make the pilgrimage,
as well as male and female disbelievers. Male and female
Bnay Qyama were believers who fasted and gave
alms. Although they both prayed, the women could not serve
in the church in the same fashion as their male
counterparts. Women also could not move about freely, so
‘pilgrimage’ would have been difficult.
[89] A
culture common to Syriac Christianity and Arabic
Islam—evidenced in part by the roles of women in the
faith—may explain the comfortable cohabitation of the two
religious traditions. Syriac texts may also provide
additional clues to elusive Qurʿanic
references.