Syriac Papers at the North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting Loyola University, Chicago May 27-29, 2004
Jeanne-Nicole
Saint-Laurent
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2004
Vol. 7, No. 2
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license has been granted by the author(s), who retain full
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https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv7n2crsaintlaurent
Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent
Syriac Papers at the North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting Loyola University, Chicago May 27-29, 2004
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol7/HV7N2CRSaintLaurent.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 7
issue 2
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.
Syriac Studies
Patristics
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[1] Scholars
and graduate students presented a variety of papers relevant to
Syriac studies at the North American Patristics Society (NAPS)
annual meeting at Loyola University (Chicago) May 27-29, 2004.
This year’s meeting featured two sessions related to
Syriac Patristics. The growth in the number of students
concentrating on Syriac related fields brought forth the
beginning of a new group for graduate students of Syriac
Studies: Dorushe, which met for the first time. Both
graduate students and scholars offered ideas and suggestions to
promote the group.
[2] In the
first session on Syriac Patristics, three graduate students
specializing in Syriac Early Christian Studies presented their
communications. Senior scholars in the field offered their
papers during the second session. Joseph P. Amar of the
University of Notre Dame and Susan Ashbrook Harvey of Brown
University served as the chairs for the two sessions.
[3] Please
see http://moses.creighton.edu/NAPS/Conference/conference.html
for a list of all the papers read at this year’s NAPS
conference. I am grateful to the presenters of the papers for
the abstracts that they submitted. I have adapted their
summaries below for this conference report.
Amy M. Donaldson, "Temple Imagery in
Ephrem’s Hymns on Paradise"
Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent, "Healing, the
Eucharist, and Pastoral Sense in Ephrem"
Susan E. Ramsey, "The Meaning of Sabbath
Rest in Aphrahat and Macarius"
Joseph G. Mueller, "Post-baptismal
Chrismation in Syria: A Reconsideration of the
Evidence"
Kristian Heal, "The Redemption of
Potiphar’s Wife in Syriac Tradition"
Ute Possekel, "Will the Body be Raised?
Resurrection Theology in Early Christian Edessa"
Temple Imagery in Ephrem’s Hymns on
Paradise
Amy M. Donaldson, University of Notre Dame
[4] As
exemplified in his hymns, St. Ephrem is a linguistic artisan
who takes strands of tradition and weaves them together to
create his own unique tapestry to illuminate the Scriptural
text. It is in this manner that he expounds upon Genesis
2-3 in his Hymns on aradise. Like many of his
contemporaries, Ephrem envisions paradise as a mountain with
many levels, each assigned to believers of varying holiness,
approaching the summit where the presence of God
resides. This description of paradise invites Ephrem to
elaborate on the text through a variety of scriptural
metaphors, such as the image of paradise as a
temple. Neither the concepts involved nor this comparison
itself are unique to Ephrem. The idea of the cosmic
mountain reaches back to the ancient near east and stands
behind the association of three key mountains of religious
significance—Sinai, Zion, and (arguably) Eden—in
the Hebrew Bible. Ezekiel provides an example of the link
between the temple and paradise, an image further elaborated
upon in later texts such as Revelation and 1
Enoch. The Book of Jubilees includes this
temple imagery in the retelling of Genesis 2-3, envisioning
Adam himself as a priest, a theme also appearing later in the
Syriac Cave of Treasures. The motif of Christ as
the High Priest in the Epistle to the Hebrews also provides an
important link between the earthly and heavenly
temples. What is unique to Ephrem, however, is his
adaptation of these various traditions as he meditates upon the
biblical story of the Fall in poetic form, interweaving
Adam’s Eden with Israel’s temple and ultimately
Christ’s Golgotha. In this way, Ephrem beautifully
embroiders the Genesis story with other Scriptural layers to
show the true depths of the biblical text.
Healing, the Eucharist, and Pastoral Sense in
Ephrem
Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent, Brown University
[5] Ephrem
the Syrian demonstrates a strong concern for pastoral
instruction in Eucharistic texts. This paper investigated
how Ephrem, a bishop’s assistant to the Nicene
communities of fourth-century Nisibis and Edessa, shows his
involvement in parish life in hymns and homilies, exegesis and
instruction. Current events and crises of the fourth
century Syrian Church shape Ephrem’s Eucharistic
teaching. His language of healing draws out divine
instruction from ordinary natural world and is the instrument
of his ministry to the Nicene community. Though Ephrem is
a great poet and theologian, he is also a humble
mshamshono in dedicated ministry to the communities
and bishops he serves. Attending to the pastoral strain in
Ephrem’s Eucharistic theology reminds the historian of
the context out of which Ephem’s hymns and homilies on
the Eucharist emerge.
The Meaning of Sabbath Rest in Aphrahat and
Macarius
Susan E. Ramsey, Marquette University
[6] As an
initial stage towards understanding the significance of the
terminology for rest in Syriac and Greek, this paper examines
the use of this terminology in two writings on the Sabbath by
Aphrahat (Demonstration XIII) and Macarius (Homily
II.35). The paper discusses background information on
Aphrahat and Macarius, definitions of the Greek and Syriac
words for rest, the contents of these two texts, and an
analysis of the relationship between rest and Sabbath according
to these two texts. The contours of the terminology engage some
key theological concepts including soteriology, Christology,
harmatiology, pneumatology, and eschatology, as well as the
ontology of Eden. This study builds an initial foundation for
the author’s dissertation topic that will explore the
meaning and function of Rest in the Macarian Corpus.
Post-baptismal Chrismation in Syria: A
Reconsideration of the Evidence
Joseph G. Mueller, S.J., Marquette University
[7] In
Vigiliae Christianae (1997) and in Journal of
Theological Studies (1998), Alastair Logan argued for the
existence of a post-baptismal anointing with muron in parts of
the “great church” of second-century Syria and Asia
Minor. Logan adduced especially three texts:
Ignatius’s Letter to the Ephesians 17.1, the blessing at
the end of the Coptic Didache 10.7, and the version of
this prayer in Apostolic Constitutions
7.27. Ignatius’s Letter to the Ephesians, however,
says too little about the anointing practiced in communities he
judged orthodox to witness to a post-baptismal muron rite in
these churches. In addition, Logan’s argument that the
Coptic prayer refers to ointment and is an original part of
this document fails to answer sufficiently too many questions
and counterarguments found in the literature on these
points. Finally, his argument for supposing that
Apostolic Constitutions 7.27 proposes a ritual
innovation considered essential by the redactor depends on the
misreading of some passages and on the false assertion of
multiple interpretations of the baptismal muron in this
work. Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, and
Theodore’s homilies help to show that the redactor of the
Apostolic Constitutions expressed a unified
interpretation of this rite. Thus, Logan’s
hypothesis still lacks convincing evidence.
The Redemption of Potiphar’s Wife in Syriac
Tradition
Kristian Heal, Brigham Young University
[8] The
character of Potiphar's wife was developed in considerable and
diverse ways in Jewish, Christian and Muslim retellings of the
story of Joseph. Though studies have been devoted to this
figure in Jewish, Muslim and Medieval Christian sources, the
Syriac tradition has received little attention. The three
pillars of the tradition, the homilies of Aphrahat (fl. mid 4th
C), a fourth century prose narrative mis-attributed to St.
Basil, and the prose commentary of Ephrem (d. 373), each
develop the character differently. Likewise, each of the later
sources, Narsai (d. 502), Jacob of Serugh (d. 521) and the
collection of 5th and 6th century dramatic dialogue poems,
recreate the character to meet their own purposes. This paper
considered the diversity of portrayal of Potiphar's wife in
these 4th to the 6th century sources. To illustrate one of the
trajectories of interpretation, the paper focused in on the
theme of the redemption of Potiphar's wife, looking in
particular at how this narrative expansion entered into and
developed in the Syriac tradition.
Will the Body be Raised? Resurrection Theology in
Early Christian Edessa
Ute Possekel, St. John's Seminary
[9] This
paper compares the resurrection theology of Bardaisan and
Ephrem. The former taught that the soul alone would be raised,
whereas the latter argued for the resurrection of body and
soul. The different eschatological models provided by Bardaisan
and Ephrem are rooted in their respective theological systems,
constructed to respond to the particular challenges of their
day. For Bardaisan in the early third-century, this was the
problem of astrology: his response was a theology that drew on
Greek philosophical paradigms, locating human identity in the
soul. As a consequence, his eschatology stressed the
resurrection of the soul. For Ephrem in the fourth-century, by
contrast, the main challenge was dualist groups. He replied
with a world-affirming theology, emphasizing the biblical
concept of the human person as a psycho-somatic unity. In
Ephrem's time, moreover, the Edessan church had become strongly
ascetical and was confronted with the experience of martyrdom,
factors which contributed to his emphasis on a bodily
resurrection.
[10] The
papers presented in both sessions and the interesting
discussions that followed fostered and confirmed a growing
enthusiasm for Syriac Studies within the larger field of Early
Christian Studies. Next year’s meeting will take place
one week later than usual, June 2-4, 2005, at Loyola
University.