(QottteU Inineraitg ffiihtarg jitliata. ^tta ^orh BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE 1891 Cornell University Library PJ 5494.W95 Short history of Syriac literature 3 1924 026 819 916 W96' The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92402681 9916 A SHOET HISTORY OF SYEIAG LITEEATUEE. PEINIED BY 0. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SONS, AT THE UNrVEESIiy PKESS. A SHOET HISTOEY OF SYEIAC LITEEATUEE BY THE LATE WILLIAM WEIGHT, LL.D. PBOFBSBOB OF ARABIC IN THE tJNlVEBSITT OF CAMBRIDGE. LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1894 -3 3t) PEEFATORY NOTE. npHIS volume is a reprint of the late Professor -*- W. Wright's article on Syriac Literature, which appeared in vol. XXII. of the Encyclo- paedia Britannica in 1887. A number of brief additions have been made, in order to note publications subsequent to the date of the article : these are enclosed in square brackets. A few of them are derived from notes made by Professor Wright on his own copy, or were suggested in letters written to him by M. Duval and Dr Nestle ; and many of the others are due to the late Professor W. Robertson Smith, who was keenly interested in the preparation of this edition. An index has been added which will, it is hoped, increase the usefulness of the work. N. M. September, 1894. ERRATUM. On p. 185 1. 9 for Bar-Sahdg read Bar-Sahde. SYEIAC LITEEATUEE, rpHE literature of Syria, as known to us at the -^ present day, is, with the exception of trans- lations from the Greek and some other languages, a Christian literature. The writings of the Syrian heathens, such as the so-called Sabians of Harran, which were extant, at least in part, even in the 13th century % seem to have now wholly dis- appeared. The beginnings of this literature are lost in the darkness of the earliest ages of Christianity. It was at its best from the 4th to the 8th century, and then gradually died away, though it kept up a flickering existence till the 14th century or even later. We must own — and it is well to make the confession at the outset — that the literature of Syria is, on the whole, not an attractive one. As Eenan said long ago^ the 1 Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Syr., ed. Bruns and Kirsch, p. 176 [ed. Bedjan, p. 168] ; Chwolsoiin, Ssabier und Ssabismus, i. 177. 2 De Philoaophia Feripatetioa apud Syros, 1852, p. 3. S. L. 1 2 SYRIAC LITERATURE. characteristic of the Syrians is a certain medio- crity. They shone neither in war, nor in the arts, nor in science. They altogether lacked the poetic fire of the older — we purposely emphasize the word — the older Hebrews and of the Arabs. But they were apt enough as pupils of the Greeks ; they assimilated and reproduced, adding little or nothing of their own. There was no Al-Farabi, no Ibn Sina, no Ibn Rushd, in the cloisters of Edessa, Ken-neshre, or Nisibis. Yet to the Syrians belongs the merit of having passed on the lore of ancient Greece to the Arabs, and therefore, as a matter of history, their literature must always possess a certain amount of interest in the eyes of the modern student. The Syrian Church never produced men who rose to the level of a Eusebius, a Gregory Nazianzen, a Basil, and a Chrysostom ; but we may still be thankful to the plodding diligence which has preserved for us in faii'ly good translations many valuable works of Greek fathers which would otherwise have been lost. And even Syria's humble chroniclers, such as John of Ephesus, Dionysius of Tell-Mahre, and Bar-Hebrseus, deserve their meed of praise, seeing that, without their guidance, we should have known far less than we now know about the history of two important branches of the Eastern Church, besides losing much interesting informa- pSshitta. 3 tion as to the political events of the periods with which their annals are occupied. As Syriac literature commences with the Bible, we first briefly enumerate the different versions of Holy Scripture. The most important of these is the so-called Peshitta (mappakfa p^shUta), " the simple " or "plain version," the Syriac vulgate. This name is in use as early as the 9th or 10th century^ As to the Old Testament, neither the exact time nor place of its translation is known; indeed, from certain differences of style and manner in its several parts, we may rather suppose it to be the work of different hands, extending over a con- siderable period of time. It would seem, however, as a whole, to have been a product of the 2nd century, and not improbably a monument of the learning and zeal of the Christians of Edessa. Possibly Jewish converts, or even Jews, took a part in it, for some books (such as the Pentateuch and Job) are very literally rendered, whereas the coincidences with the LXX. (which are particu- larly numerous in the prophetical books) show the hand of Christian translators or revisers. That Jews should have had at any rate a consultative 1 See the passage of Moses bar Kepha, who died in 903, cited by the Abb^ Martin in his Introduction d la Critique Textuelle dv, Nouveau Testament, p. 101, note. 1—2 4 SYEIAC LITERATURE. share in this work need not surprise us, when we remember that Syrian fathers, such as Aphraates, in the middle of the 4th century, and Jacob of Edessa, in the latter half of the 7th, had frequent recourse, like Jerome, to the scholars of the synagogue. To what extent subsequent revision may have been carried it is not easy to say ; but it seems tolerably certain that alterations were made from time to time with a view to harmo- nizing the Syriac text with that of the LXX. Such an opportunity may, for instance, have been afforded on a considerable scale by the adoption of Lucian's text of the LXX. at Antioch in the beginning of the 4th century. On all these points, however, we know nothing for certain, and may well repeat the words of Theodore of Mop- suestia in his commentary on Zephaniah i. 6^: Tjpfirfvevrai, he Tavra et? fiev rrjv ^vp(ov -Trap' otov 8?; TTore" ovBe yap eyvacrTai l^^'^pi' tt}^ T-)]/j,epov 0(7Ti<; TTore ovto<; iarlv. The canonical books of the Old Testament according to the Peshitta are substantially those of the Hebrew Bible. In the Massoretic MSS. (see below, p. 20 sq.), whether Nestorian or Jacobite, the books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah are passed ovei-, and in the Nestorian the book of 1 Mai, Patrum Nova Bihliotheca, vol. vii. 252. PESHITTA. 5 Esther also. But, on the other hand, it must be noticed that all these books are cited byAphraates, and that they all appear in the Codex Ambrosia- nus. Of the Chronicles there is a MS. of the 6th century in the British Museum, Add. 17104. Esther appears in a volume of equal age (Add. 14652) as one of the constituent parts of the " Book of Women," the others being Ruth, Susanna, Judith, and the history of Thecla, the disciple of St Paul, which last is excluded from Biblical MSS. The oldest dated MS. of any portion of the Old Testament at present known to us is Add. 14425 in the British Museum (Gen., Exod., Num., Deut.), transcribed at Amid, by a deacon named John in 464. The deutero-canoni- cal books or apocrypha, translated by different hands from the Greek ^, are nearly the same as in the LXX." The Codex Amhrosianus^, for example, contains Wisdom, the Epistle of Jeremiah, and two Epistles of Baruch ; the Song of the Three 1 Some scholars, such as P. de Lagarde and Bickell, think that Bcclesiasticus was translated from the lost Hebrew text. 2 See Ceriani, Monumenta Sacra et Profana, vol. i. fascc. 1, 2 ; vol. v. fascc. 1,2; P. de Lagarde, Libri Vet. Test. Apocryphi Syriace. 3 Splendidly reproduced at Milan by the process of photo-lithography under the direction of the Rev. Dr A. M. Ceriani, 5 parts, 1876 foil. 6 SYRIAC LITERATUEE. Children, Bel and the Dragon, and Susanna ; Judith, Siracides or Ecclesiasticus ; the Apoca- lypse of Baruch ; the fourth book of Esdras ; and five books of the Maccabees, the fourth being the history of Samona and her sons, and the fifth Josephi de Bella Judaico lib. vi.' To these must be added from other MSS. the first or third book of Esdras, the book of Tobit, and the prayer of Manasses. Of the first book of the Maccabees two recensions are extant, as far as chap. xiv. 24. The book of Tobit presents the text of the LXX. as far as chap. vii. 11-. The canonical books of the New Testament are the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles (to which are annexed the three catholic epistles, viz., James, 1 Peter, and 1 John), and the fourteen epistles of St Paul. The shorter apostolic epistles, viz., 2 and 3 John, 2 Peter, and Jude, and the Apocalypse of St John, were rejected by the early Syrian Church ^ 1 See Das dte Buck d. Bellum Judaicum iiheraetzt u. kritisch bearheitet, by Dr H. Kottek, Berlin, 1886 ; only capp. 1 and 2. 2 See the Syriao note on p. xii. of De Lagarde's edition. 3 The principal editions of the Pgshltta are contained in the Paris polyglott of Le Jay and the London polyglott of Walton, to which latter is attached the immortal Lexicon Heptaglotton of Edmund Castell. The Old Testament (without the apocrypha) was edited by S. Lee PESHITTA AND CUEETONIAN GOSPELS. 7 As to the Pgshitta version of the Gospels (P), a variety of critical questions arise when we consider it in connexion with two other works, the Dia-tessaron of Tatian (T) and the Guretonian Gospels (Sc)^ Tatian, the friend of Justin Martyr, afterwards counted a heretic, composed out of the four Gospels a work which received the title of To Sta reaadpav evwyyeXioi', in Syriac more briefly Dia-tessaron or Evangelion da-Mehallete, " the Gospel of the Mixed." It is a subject of controversy whether Tatian wrote this work in Greek or in Syriac, and whether he compiled it in 1823 for the Bible Society, and is frequently bound up with the New Testament of 1826. The first edition of the New Testament was that of J. A. Widmanstad, with the help of Moses of Mardin (Vienna, 1555). Those of Tremellius (1569), Trost (1621), Gutbir (1664), and Leusden and Schaaf (1708, 1717) are well known. To the last named belongs Schaafs admirable Lexicon Syriacum Goncordantiale. The American missionaries at Urumiyah have published both the Old and New Testaments in ancient and modern Syriac, the former in 1852, the latter in 1846. [A convenient and cheap edition of the N.T., with the Psalter, in Nestorian characters, has been pub- lished at New York. An edition of the O.T. printed by the Dominicans of Mosul (2 vols, 1887, 8) follows the order of the Vulgate and claims to be free from Protestant corruptions. A third vol. containing the N.T. is reported as published in 1891.] 1 Remains of a very Antient Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac, hitherto unknown in Europe, discovered, edited, and translated by W. Cureton, D.D., F.R.S., 1858. 8 SYRIA C LITERATURE. from the Greek Gospels or from a previous Syriac version. According to Zahn^ and Baethgen^ the author's language was Syriac, his sources Greek. They hold that this was the only Gospel in use in the Syrian Church for nearly a century, but that about the year 250, under the influence of Western MSS. of the Greek text (see Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in the Original Greek, Introd., §§ 118, 214), a version of "the Separate Gospels," Evangelion da-Mepharreshe, was introduced'. The translator, according to Baethgen'', made use of T as far as he could ; and of this text So is, in the opinion of these scholars, the solitary survival in our days. The evidence for this view does not, however, appear to be conclusive. It seems that a Syriac version of the four Gospels, as well as of the other parts of the New Testament, must have existed in the 2nd century, perhaps even before the version of the Old Testament. From this Tatian may have compiled his Dia-tessaron, or' he may have written that work in Greek and others may have done it into Syriac. Be that as it may, T certainly gained great popularity in the early 1 Forschungen zur Oeschichte des neutestmnentlichen Kanons, &o., 1. Theil: Tatian^ Diatessaron, pp. 98, 99. ^ Evangelienfragmenie. Der griechische Text des Cure- ton' schen Syrers vdederhergestellt, 1885. 3 Zahn, op. cit., pp. 104-106. * Op. cit, pp. 59, 60, 72 sq. PESHITTA AND CUEETONIAN GOSPELS. 9 Syrian Church, and almost superseded the Sepa- rate Gospels. Aphraates quoted it' ; Ephraim wrote a commentary upon it^ ; the Doctrine of Addai or Addseus (in its present shape a work of the latter half of the 4th century) transfers it to the apostolic times^; Rabbula, bishop of Edessa (411-435), promulgated an order that " the priests and deacons should take care that in every church there should be a copy of the Separate Gospels (Evangelion da-Mepharr^she), and that it should be read"^; and Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus (423-457), swept up more than two hundred copies of it in the churches of his diocese, and introduced the four Gospels in their place: ra tSsv Terrdpcov evayyeXoaToov avTetaTTyayov evay- ye\ia\ The result of these and similar well meant efforts is that not a single copy of T has 1 Wright's edition, p. «»-», 1- 10, "as it is written at the head of the Gospel of our Lifegiver, In the beginning was the Word." 2 Now extant only in the old Armenian version, translated by the Mechitarist Aucher, and revised by G. Mosinger under the title of Evangelii Concordantis Expositio facta a S. Ephraemo, Venice, 1876. 3 PhiUips's edition, p. Oi, 1. 17. « S. Ephraemi Syri Rahuloe epi Edesseni Baled alio- rumque opera seleeta, ed. J. J. Overbeck, Oxford, 1865, p. 220, 3. ^ AlpeTiK^s RaKOjivBlas iirvroiirj, 1. 20. 10 SYRIAC LITERATURE. come down to our times'. Both Aphraates and Ephraim, however, made use of the Separate Gospels. The former seems to have employed a text which Baethgen calls a slightly revised form of Sc {pp. cit, p. 95) ; we would rather speak of it as a revised form of the old Syriac Gospels of the 2nd century. The latter made use of a more thorough Edessene revision, closely approaching in form to, if not identical with, P (Baethgen, 1 Martin's article " Le Aia Tio-a-apav de Tatien " (from Revue des Questions Historiques, April 1883) contains much curious literary information, particularly regarding similar compilations of later date. See also Ciasca's article "De Tatiani Diatessaron Arabica Versione,'' in Cardinal Pitra's Analecta Sacra Spicilegio Solesmensi parata, iv. 465. [The Vatican MS. of] this Arabic Diatessaron begins with Mark i. 1, John i. 1-5, Luke i. 5-80, Matthew i. l-25a, Luke ii. 1-39. Ciasca's copy is now (1887) in the hands of De Lagarde, who has published a few pages of it in Nachrichten von der konigl. Oesellsehaft der Wisseiischaften, 1886, No. 4, pp. 150-158. According to De Lagarde, the text is that of the ordinary PSshltta. [In 1886 the Museum Borgianum acquired a better MS. of the Arabic Tatian from Egypt, and ft'om it, and the Vatican MS. described in his earlier essay, Ciasca pubHshed Tatiani evangeliorum harmonice Arabice, with a Latin transl., Rome, 1888. According to a note in the Cod. Borg. this Arabic version was made by the Kestoriau Abulfaraj 'Abdallah b. at-Tib (f a.d. 1043) from a Syriac copy written by a disciple of the famous Honain b. Ishak. Thus, at best, the Arabic version gives only the form that the Syriac Tatian had assumed in the middle of the ninth century. The Borgian MS. begins with Joh. i. 1.] PfiSHITTA AND CURETONIAN GOSPELS. 11 p. 95 ; Zahn, p. 65)\ Our oldest MSS. of P are, however, more than a hundred years later than Ephraim's time. We cannot, therefore, expect very important textual results from the collation of even such MSS. as Add. 14470, 14453, 14459, ff. 1-66, and 17117, in the British Museum, all of which may be safely ascribed to the latter part of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century ''. Early in the 5 th century Rabbula, bishop of Edessa, the friend and correspondent of Cyril of Alexandria, occupied himself with "translating the New Testament out of the Greek into the Syriac, because of its variations, exactly as it was^." This probably means, as has been sug- gested by Nestle, that Rabbiila undertook a re- vision of the Syriac text according to a Greek MS. or MSS. in his possession, that is to say, still further assimilated P of that day to a Greek (possibly, from his connexion with Cyril, Alex- andrian) text. We do not as yet know, however, whether this revision was merely a private effort, or what influence, if any, it exercised on the history of P ; more likely it was a first step in the direction of the Philoxenian version (see below). 1 [See also an essay by Rev. F. H. "Woods in SUidia Biblica, iii. 105 sq. (Oxford, 1891).] 2 [Cf. Rev. G. H. Gwilliam's essay " Materials for the criticism of the Peshitto N.T. etc." in Studia Bihlioa, iii. 47 sq.} ' Overbeck, op. cit, p. 172, 18-20. 12 SYRIAC LITERATURE. The result of these successive revisions as regards So has been that it survives in but one mutilated codex, and that written at comparatively so late a date as 450-470\ — a phenomenon which has its parallel in the ease of the Itala codex c of the Gospels, copied in the 11th century. The greater part of this volume is in the British Museum (Add. 14451)^; but there are three leaves of it in the royal library at Berlin, forming the fly-leaves of the MS. marked Orient. Quart. 528^ Crow- foot's attempt to retranslate Sc into Greek is a 1 The whole of the Abb^ Martin's elaborate argumen- tation (Jntrod. a la Critique Textuelle du N.T., pp. 163-236) is of no avail against this palseographic fact. No one who is conversant with Syriac MSS. can for a moment doubt that our codex of Sc was written within a few years of the time indicated above. The handwritings of Jacob of Edessa's time (the latter half of the 7th century) are altogether different. Possessors of the abba's work should cancel pp. 234-236. The " Postscriptum,'' as the author himself has explained, is only an elaborate joke. There is no MS. Add. Y0125 in the British Museum, no catalogue of the Greek MSS. in twenty-five volumes, and of course no such photograph exists as he has described. As for the "special telegram" from "Kdverend Crowfoot" through the "agence Fri-Frou-Fro and Co.," dated 25th December, 1882, it is enough to say that Mr Crowfoot died on 18th March 1875. 2 See Wright, Catalogue, p. 73, No. cxis. 3 See Rodiger in the ilonatsherichte of the Berlin Academy for July 1872, p. 557; "Wright, Fragments of the Curetonian Gospels (privately printed). MONOPHYSITE VERSIONS. 13 failure (Fragmenta Evangelica, 1870-72) ; Baeth- gen's work (Evangelienfragmente, &c.) will perhaps be found more satisfactory. [At the present moment all critical questions connected with the history of the Old Syriac Gospels stand suspended, till the publication of the Sinai Palimpsest, which was unearthed and photographed by Mrs Lewis in 1892 ; identified from her photographs by the late Prof Bensly and Mr Burkitt as containing a text closely allied to the Curetonian ; and copied by these gentle- men and Mr Rendel Harris at Sinai in the spring of 1893. The publication has been undertaken by the Cambridge University Press.] The scholars of the Monophysite branch of the Syrian Church were, however, by no means satisfied even with the revised text of P, and demanded a yet more accurate reproduction of the Greek text in use among them. Accordingly Aksenaya or Philoxenus, bishop of Mabbogh (485-619), undertook to satisfy this want, and with the assistance of his chorepiscopus, Polycarp, produced a literal translation of the whole Bible in the year 508 \ This seems at first to have met with considerable approval; Moses of Aggel, for 1 Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis, ii. 23. [The B.O. is one of those works which may be justly styled Keifiriktov is acL^ 14 SYRIAC LITERATURE. example, who flourished from 550 to 570\ refers to the version of the New Testament and of the Psalms evidently as the standard work of the day^- But it was in its turn superseded by two later revisions, and MSS. of it are now very rare. Portions of Isaiah survive in the British Museum, Add. 17106, ff. 74-87', and the text of the Gos- pels in the codex A. 2, 18 of the Biblioteca An- gelica at Rome, of the 11th or 12th century^, and perhaps also in the Beirut (Beyrout) MS. de- scribed by Isaac H. Halll At the beginning of the 7th century the work of retranslation and revision was again taken in hand by the Mono- physites, the scene of their labours being the different convents in the neighbourhood of Alex- andria. There, in the years 616-617", Paul, bishop of Telia dhe-Mauzelath or Constantina, 1 B.O., ii. 82. ^ Ibid., ii. 83 ; Guidi, Rendiconti delta R. Accadeinia dei Lincei, May and June 1886, p. 404. ^ Edited by Ceriani in Monumenta Sacra et Profana, vol. V. faso. 1, pp. 1-40. * See Bernstein, Das heilige Eoangelium des Johannes, Leipsic, 1853, krit. Anmerkungen, pp. 3, 29 ; Martin, Introd. a la Crit. Text, du N^.T., pp. 160-161. ° Syriac Manuscript, Gospels of a pre-Harklensian Version, Acts and Epistles of the Peshitto Version, written {probably) hettoeen 700 and %00 A.D., Janviary, 1884. ^ See Ceriani, Monumenta, vol. i. fasc. 1 : Prolegoinena in Edit. Vers. Syr. ex Te.vtn LXX., p. iii. ; Martin, Introd., p. 139, note. MONOPHYSITE VERSIONS. 15 undertook a version of the hexaplar text of the LXX. at the request of the patriarch Athanasius I.^ Of parts of this many MSS. are extant in the British Museum and the Bibliothfeque Na- tionale at Paris, and the Biblioteca Ambrosiana at Milan possesses the second volume of a codex of the entire work, which has been reproduced by photo-lithography under the direction of Ceriani^. This version not only exhibits the asterisks and obeli of Origen's text of the LXX., but the mar- ginal notes contain many readings of the other 1 B.O., ii. 333-334. ^ Monumenta, vol. vii. : Codex 8yro-hexaplaris Am- brosianus, 1874. The first volume of this codex was in the possession of Andreas Masius, but has disappeared since his death in 1573. It contained part of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, (four books of) Kings, Chronicles, Ezra (and Nehemiah), Judith, and part of Tobit. See Middel- dorpf. Codex Syriaco-hexaplaris, Berlin, 1835, who enume- rates in his preface the labours of previous editors. Since his time the books of Judges and Buth have been published by T. Skat Eordam {Lihri Judicv/m et Ruth secundum Vers. Syriaco-hexaplarem, Copenhagen, 1859-61), and Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, 1 and 2 Kings, by P. de Lagarde {Vet. Test, db Origene receiwiti Fragmenta apud Syros servata quinque, Gottingen, 1880, printed with Hebrew letters). Ceriani has commenced a critical edition in the Monumenta, vol. i. fasc. 1; vol. ii. fascc. 1^; vol. v. fascc. 1, 2. [Finally, De Lagarde's posthumous volume, Bihliothecce Syriacw (Gottingen, 1892), contains a fresh edition of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges and Euth, 1 and 2 Kings.] 16 SYEIAC LITEEATURE. Greek translators, which have been largely uti- lized by Field in his noble work Origenis Hexa- plorum qu€B supersunt (2 vols., Oxford, 1875). At the same time and place the New Testament of Philoxenus was thoroughly revised by Thomas of Harkel or Heraclea^ bishop of Mabbogh^, who, being driven from his diocese, betook himself to Alexandria and worked there in the convent of St Antony at the Enaton (or Nine-mile- village) ^ This version comprises not only all the books contained in the Peshitta but also the four shorter epistles*. The lapse of another century brings us 1 See 5.0., ii. 90, 334; Bernstein, De Hharkhmi N.T. Trandatione Syriaca Commentatio, p. '4. ^ Or Manbij ; according to others, of Germanicia, or Mar'ash. He must not be confounded with an older Thomas of Germanicia, a Monophysite of the earlier part of the 6th century; see B.O., ii. 92, 326; Kleyn, Jacobus Baradams, p. 43, note 1. 3 See Wright, Catal., p. 34, note. * It has been edited by White at Oxford — the Gospels in 1778, the Acts and Apostolic epistles in 1799, the Pauline epistles in 1803. The epistle to the Hebrews is defective, ending in the middle of chap. xi. 27[, but this lacuna has been supplied, from the Cambridge MS., by Bensly's The HarUean Version of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Chap. xi. 28-xiii. 25, Cambridge, 1889]. The text of the shorter epistles, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude, has been recently reproduced by phototype from a manuscript dated 1471 — Williams Manuscript. Tlie Syrian Antilegonwna Epistles . . . edited by Isaac E. Hall, 1886. Consult also Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxvii. No. MALKITE VERSION. 17 to the last attempt at a revision of the Old Testa- ment in the Monophysite Church. Jacob, bishop of Edessa, undertook, when living in retirement in the convent of Tell-' Adda or Teleda^ in 704- 705, to revise the text of the PSshitta with the help of the Greek versions at his disposal^, thus producing a curious eclectic or patchwork text. Of this work there are but five volumes extant in Europe, four of which came from the Nitrian Desert and form parts of a set which was written in the years 719-720. It would seem, therefore, never to have attained popularity''. One other version remains to be noticed, namely, that used'by the Christian population of the Malkite (Greek) Church in Palestine, written in an Aramaic dialect more akin to the language viii., "On a Syrian MS. belonging to the Collection of Archbishop Ussher," by the Eev. J. Gwynn, D.D. [On a possible revision by Barsallbl, see Hermathena vi. 417.] There is a fine MS. of this version, dated 1170, in the university library, Cambridge, Add. MS. 1700. Its pecuhar feature is that it has the two epistles of Clement inserted between the catholic epistles and those of St Paul. 1 Probably the modern Tell'adi or Tell'ade ; see Socin, Palast. 11. Syrieii, p. 480 ; Sachau, Beise in Syrien u. Meso- potamien, p. 459. 2 Wright, Catal, p. 38, col. 1. 3 See Ceriani, Le Edizioni e i Manoscritti ddle Versioni Siriache del Vecchio Test, 1869, p. 27, and Monwrnenta, vol. ii. faso. 1, pp. xi., xii., vol. v. fasc. 1, pp. 1-40 ; Martin, Introd., pp. 230-232, 296 aq. S. L. 2 18 SYEIAC LITERATURE. of the Jewish Targums than to that of the Peshitta\ A lectionary containing large portions of the Gospels in this dialect was described by Assemani in the catalogue of the Vatican library^, studied by Adler^, and edited by Count Fr. Miniscalchi Erizzo under the title of Evange- liarium Hierosolymitanum (2 vols., Verona, 1861- 64) [and again by De Lagarde in his posthumous work Bibliothecce Syriacce (Gottingen, 1892)]. It was written in a convent at a place called Abud^, not very far from Jerusalem, in the year 1030, and the scribe claims to have copied sundry other service-books for the use of his church (see Asse- mani, op. cit, p. 102). Fragments of other evan- geliaria have been published by Land, from MSS. at London and St Petersburg, in his Anecd. Syr., iv. pp. 114-162, 213-222; of the Acts of the Apostles, p. 168; and of the Old Testament (translated from the Greek), pp. 103-110, 165- 167, 222-223. According to the same authority (p. 231), the calendar in the Vatican MS. must 1 See Noldeke, in Z.D.M.O., xxii. (1868), p. 443 sq. 2 MSS. Codd. Bihl. Apost. Vatic. Catalogm, ii. No. xix. p. 70 sq. ^ N. Test. Verss. Syriacm Simplex, Philoxeniana, et Hierosolymitana, Copenhagen, 1789 ; see also Martin, Introd., p. 237 sq. * See Noldeke, loc. cit., pp. 521, 527; Land, Anecd. Syr., iv. pp. 227-229. NESTOEIAN VERSION. 19 have been drawn up about the middle of the 9th century. Few, if any, of the extant fragments appear to be of older date. Noldeke places the origin of the version in the 4th or 5th century, certainly not later than 600 {loc. cit., p. 525)^ All the above revisions of the text of the Syriac Bible according to the Greek are, as we have seen, the work of Monophysites, with the single exception of the last, which proceeded from the Malkites. The Nestorian community obsti- nately adhered to the old Peshitta, and the solitary attempt made to introduce a revised text among them seems to have been an utter failure. Mar-abha I.^, a convert from Zoroastrianism, who was catholicus from .536 to 552, went to Edessa, studied Greek there under a teacher named Thomas '^j and with his help translated the whole of the Old Testament into Syriac, and perhaps also the New. This statement rests on the authority of the author of the Kitdh al-Majdal 1 The remaining literature in this dialect (all of it published by Land) consists of a few hymns (pp. 111-113), lives of saints (pp. 169, 170), and theological fragments (pp. 171-210). One fragment (p. 177) contains the title of a homily of John Chrysostom. [Several additions to this list are promised from Sinai MSS.] 2 Properly Mar(I)-abha. ' B.O., iii. 1, 86; compare ii. 411. 2—2 20 SYRIAC LITERATURE. (Marl ibn SulaimanS abont the middle of the 12th century, supplemented and abridged by 'Amr ibn Matta of Tirhan, who lived towards the middle of the 14th century)^ of ' Abhd-isho , bishop of Nisibis (died 1318), and of Bar-Hebrseus (died 1286); and there appears to be no reason to doubt their word^ Before quitting the subject of the versions of Holy Scripture we must devote a few words to the Massoretic MSS. of the Nestorians and Jaco- bites'*. In the year 1721 Assemani made mention in the Bibliotheca Orientalis (ii. 283), on the authority of Bar-Hebraeus in the Ausar Raze, of a " versio Karkaphensis, hoc est Montana, qua videlicet incolse montium utunturl" About the meaning of these words scholars disputed, and some searched for MSS. of the alleged version, ^ See p. 255, note. 2 See Hoffmann, Ausziige aus syrischen Alcten persischer Mdrtyrer, pp. 6, 7 [in Ahhandlungen fiir d. Kunde d. Morgenlandes vii. (Leipzig, 1880)]. 3 See B.O., ii. 411-412, iii. 1, 75; Bar-Hebraeus, Chrmi. Eccles., ed. Abbeloos and Lamy, ii. 89; Martin, Introd., pp. 292-294. * See Martin, Tradition KarhapMenne oii la Maisore chez les Syriens, Pai-is, 1870 (from Journ. Asiat.), and Introd., pp. 276-291. s In the Vatican Catalogue (vol. iii. 287, No. clii.) he translates the words akh mashUmanUtha karl-(phaitCi by "juxta traditionem verticalem (!): hoc est, Montanorum in Phoenioe et Mesopotamia degentium." MASSORETIC MANUSCRIPTS. 21 but in vain. At last, N. Wiseman (afterwards cardinal), guided by the light of another passage in the Bibliotheca Orientalis (ii. 499, 500, No. xxii.), recognized in Cod. Vat. cliii. a copy of what he believed to be the Karkaphensian ver- sion^ Later researches, more especially those of the Abbd Martin, have corrected these errors. The MSS. of the Karkaphensian tradition, of which there are ten in our European libraries, are now known to contain a philological and grammatical tradition of the pronunciation and punctuation of Holy Writ and sometimes of other writings^. Syria was rich in schools and colleges; most of its towns possessed institutions where instruction was given, more especially to students of theology, in the reading and exposition of the Greek and Syriac Scriptures and their commen- tators. Such were the great " Persian school " of Edessa, which was destroyed, on account of its Nestorian tendencies, in 489 ; the school of 1 See his Horce Syriacm, Rome, 1828, p. 78; II. Symbolce Philologicce ad Mist. Versionum Syriac. vet. fmderis. Particula prima ; de versionibus generatim, deiiide de Peschito, p. 147; III. Particula secimda; recensionem Karkaphensem nwnc primum describens. We need not here indicate Wiseman's mistakes, but it is a pity to see them all reproduced even in the third edition of Scrivener's Plain Introduction, 1883. 2 See Hoffmann, Opicsciila JVestoriaiia, 1880, p. v. sq. 22 SYRIAC LITERATURE. Nisibis ; of Mahoze near Seleucia ; of the monas- tery of Dor-Koni or Dair-]iunna ; of the monas- tery of Ken-neshre or the Eagles' Nest, on the left bank of the Euphrates, opposite Jerabis ; of the Daira 'Ellaita, or monastery of St Gabriel and St Abraham, at Mosul ; and many others^. Every such school or college had its teachers of reading and elocution, mahgeydne and makreyane (or maker yarie), who taught their pupils to pronounce, add the vowel-points, and interpunctuate correct- ly^, before they were passed on to the higher classes of the eskolaye, bddhoke or mallephdne, that is, the professors of exegesis and doctors of theology^. The more difficult words and phrases of Scripture were gradually collected and written down so as to form " collectanea," lukkdte dha- shemdhe, or " fasciculi," kurrdse dha-sMmahe, and the union of these composed a kethdbhd dha- kerdydthd, or " book of readings," in which it was 1 See, for example, B.O., iii. 1, 341, col. 2 at the foot, and iii. 2, cmxxiv. sq. 2 Hoffoaann, Opusc. Westor.,-p. vii. ; Martin, Introd., p. 289. 3 Hoffmann, op. cit., pp. xx., xxi. What the whole curriculum of such a student should be, according to the mind of Bar-HebrEeus in the 13th centm-y, may be seen from the B.O., iii. 2, 937-938 {Nomocanon, translated by J. A. Assemani, in Mai, Scriptt. Vett. Nova Coll., x. cap. vii. § 9, pp. 54-56). [See also Merx, Historia artis grammaticce apud Syros (in Ahkaiidlwigen fiir die Kvnde des Morgmi- landes, vol. ix.).] MASSORETIC MANUSCEIPTS. 23 shown by means of vowel-points and other signs how each word was to be pronounced and ac- centuated ^ One such volume in the British Museum (Add. 12138, dated 899) represents the work of a Nestorian student in the convent of Mar Gabriel at Harran^; but the other MSS. extant in the different libraries of Europe^ are of Jacobite origin and have a common source, the scholastic tradition of the convent of Karkaphetha, or "the Skull," at the village of Maghdal or Mijdal near Resh-'aina or Ras-'ain^. Such are, for example, Cod. Vat., No. clii., now cliii., de- scribed by Assemani (Catal., iii. 287) and Wise- man (HorcB Syr., p. 161); Cod. Paris, Ancien fonds 142, described by Zotenberg (Catal., p. 30, No. 64) and Martin (Tradition Karhaphienne, p. 36) ; Cod. Brit. Mus. Add. 7183, described by Rosen (Catal, p. 64, No. xlii.)' and 12178, de- scribed by Wright (Catal., p. 108). From these and similar MSS., as well as from the words of Bar-Hebraeus^, it appears that the Karkgphaye 1 Hoffmann, op. cit., pp. vi., vii. 2 See Wright, Catal., p. 101, [Merx, op. cit. p. 30 sq., and a specimen in Studia Bihlica, iii. 93-95]. 3 Martin, Introd., p. 291. * Hoffmann, in Z.D.M.G., xxxii. (1878), p. 745; and in Stade's Zeitsckrift filr d. Alttest. Wissenschafi, 1881, p. 159. 5 .[A specimen in Studia Biblioa, iii. 96.] c Martin, op. cit., pp. 122, 129. 24 SYEIAC LITERATURE. were the monks of the convent of Karkaphetha ; that they were Westerns or Occidentals, therefore Jacobites ; and that one of their chief authorities, if not the actual originator of the compilation, was Jacob bishop of Edessa. Accordingly, the marginal notes indicate various readings from Syriac MSS., from the LXX., and from the Harklensian version, as well as from different fathers and teachers ^ To the collection of words and phrases from the Peshitta version is added in several of these MSS. a similar, though shorter, collection from the Harklensian version and from the principal works of the Greek fathers which were read in translations in the schools^, followed 1 See Wiseman, op. cit,, p. 178; Martin, op. cit., pp.76, 77, 133; Rosen, Catal, pp. 65, 66; Wright, Catal., p. 109. Among these occur Q_^ and |*~^rf). The investigations of Hoflfmann (in Stade's Zeitschrift, 1881, p. 159) and Duval {Journ. Asiat., 1884, p. 560) have made it certain that Q-^ designates not the PSshitta, nor Jacob of Edessa, but one Tubhana (perhaps surnamed "the Beardless"), an eminent teacher at Resh-'aina. His colleague Sabha was probably the famous scribe Sabha, who wrote Brit. Mus. Add. 14428, 14430 (724), and 12135, ff. 1-43 (726). 2 Namely, (Pseudo-)Dionysius Areopagita, Gregory Nazianzen (2 vols.), the works of Basil, the epistles of Gregory and Basil, John Philoponus (the Amn-rjTTjs), and Sevems of Antioch {Homilice Cathedrales and certain synodical letters relating to the council of Antioch). A fuller list is given by Assemani, B.O., iii. 2, cmxxsvii. so. APOCRYPHA. 25 by tracts on different points of orthography, grammar and punctuation ^ We have spoken above (p. 5 sq.) of the deutero- canonical books of the Old Testament. Other apocrypha may now be noticed more briefly ; e.g., Ps. cli. (in the hexaplar version of Paul of Telia) ; the Parva Genesis, or Liber Juhilceorum, a frag- ment of which has been edited by Ceriani (Monumenta, vol. ii. fasc. 1, p. ix.); the Testament of Adam^; the History of Joseph and Asyath (Asenath), translated by Moses of Aggel ^ ; the History of Sanherib, his Vizir Ahikar or Hikar, and his Disciple Nadhan^. Many similar books 1 See Phillips, A Letter of Mar Jacob, Bishop of JSdessa, on Syriao Orthography, &c., 1869 (Appendix iii. p. 85-96, issued separately in 1870) ; Martin, Jacohi epi Edesseni Epistola ad Oeorgium epum Sarugensem de OrthograpMa Syriaca, &c., 1869. [Compare also Merx, op. cit. chap, iii.] 2 Wright, Catal., p. 1242; see Eenan, in the Journ. Asiat., November and December 1853, p. 427, and Wright, Contributions to the Apocryphal Literature of the New Testament, 1865, p. 61. [It is not given in the Syriao text of the Me'drath Oazze, but in the Arabic version, whence it has passed into the Ethiopia Clementines.] 3 Wright, Catal., p. 1047 ; Land, Anecd. Syr., iii. 15-46. * Wright, Catal., p. 1207, col. 1 ; Hoffmann, AuszUge aus syrisohen Akten persischer Mdrtyrer, p. 182; see for the Syriao text Brit. Mus. Orient. 2313, and a MS. in the collection of the S.P.C.K. (now presented by the Society to the university of Cambridge). [An addition to the above list is furnished by some apocryphal psalms, 26 SYRIAC LITERATURE. exist in Arabic, some of them probably translated from lost Syriac originals. The names of Daniel and Ezra "the scribe" are prefixed to late apocalyptic works', and even to almanacs con- taining prognostications of the weather, &c. ' The list of apocrypha of the New Testament is also tolerably extensive. We may mention the Protevangelium Jacobi; the Gospel of Thomas the Israelite, or of the Infancy of our Lord ; the Letters of Abgar and our Lord; the Letters of Herod and Pilate ; prayers ascribed to St John the Baptist ; the Transitus, Assumptio, or Kot- fi7)(Ti,<; BeatcB Virginis, extant in four or five redactions"; Acts of the Apostles, such as St John, St Philip, St Matthew and St Andrew, St Paul and Thecla, and St Thomas*; the Doc- trine of St Peter °; and the Apocalypse of St published by Wright in Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch. is. 257-266.] 1 Wright, Catal, pp. 9, 1065. 2 Wright, Catal., p. 352, col. 2; Brit. Mus. Orient. 2084, f. 1, KHhabhd dM-Shudhae dke-zabhm dhe-Dhanl'el nShhiya. 3 Most of these are published in Wright's Contributions ; see also the Journal of Sacred Literature, 1865, vol. vi. 417, vol. vii. 129 ; and B. H. Cowper, The Apocryphal Gospels, &o., 1867. * See Wright, Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, 2 vols., 1871 ; [(Bedjan), Acta Jkartyrum et Sanctorum, Paris, 1890-94]. 5 Cureton, Ancient Syriac Documents, pp. 35-41. SERVICE-BOOKS. 27 Paul \ Others of these apocrypha are extant in Arabic, but the Syriac originals have not yet been recovered. To these may be added such works as the Didascalia Apostolorum, edited (anonymously) by P. de Lagarde in 1854; extracts from the Constitutioties Apostolorum, ascribed to Clement, in the same editor's Reliquice Juris Eccles. Antiq., pp. 2-32, 44-60 ; and the Doctrina Apostolorum, in Cureton's Ancie^it Syriac Documents, pp. 24-35, and in Reliquice Juris Eccles. Antiq. (under the title of Doctrina Addcei), pp. 32-44. Into a description of the service-books of the Syrian Church in its different sects — Nestorians, Jacobites, Maronites, and Malkites — we cannot here enter'^. The bare enumeration of the various psalters, lectionaries, missals, &c., would far exceed 1 Translated by Zingerle in Heidenheim's Vierteljahrs- schrift, iv. p. 139 sq., and by Perkins, Journal of the American Oriental Society, viii. p. 182 sq. ; reprinted in the Journal of Sacred Literature, January 1865, p. 372 sq. 2 The reader is referred to the following works : J. A. Assemani, Codex Liturg. JEcclesice Universce, 13 vols., Rome, 1749-66; Renaudot, Liturgiarum Orient. Collectio, 2 vols., Paris, 1716; Etheridge, The Syrian Chv/rches, their Early History, Liturgies, and Literature, London, 1846; Badger, The Nestorians and their Rituals, 2 vols., London, 1852; Howard, The Christians of St Thomas and their Liturgies, Oxford, 1864; Denzinger Ritus Orientalium, Goptorum, Syrorum, et Armenorum in administrandis sacramentis, 2 vols., Wiirzburg, 1863-64 ; J. Morinus, Comment, de Sacris Eccles. Ordinationihus, &o.. •28 SYEIAC LITERATURE. our limits. The oldest Syriac psalter in our European collections is not earlier than 600 (Brit. Mus. Add. 17110), and the series of lection- aries commences with the 9th century. Of ana- phorse or liturgies it would be easy to specify some sixty \ The oldest of all is a fragment of the anaphora of Diodorus of Tarsus (in the British Museum, Add. 14699, S. 20, 21), of the 6th century, which has been edited and translated by Bickelll Besides the versions of Holy Writ and other works enumerated above, the literature of Syria comprises a vast amount of matter, interesting not merely to the Orientalist but also to the classical scholar, the theologian, and the historian. Some portions of this literature we must now endeavour to pass under review. The long series of Syrian writers is headed by the name of Bar-Daisan or Bardesanes, " the last of the Gnostics ^" He was born at Edessa -on Paris, 1655, Antwerp, 1695; Bickell, Co'iupectus Rei Si/ro- rum Literarice, chaps, vii.-x. 1 See a complete list in Bickell's Conspectus, pp. 65-68 ; comp. also Neale and Littledale's Liturgies of SS. Marl; James, &o., 2d ed., 1869, p. 146, and Appendix i. ; [Maclean, Zitii.rgia Sanctorum Apostolorum Adaei et Claris, Urmi, 1890]. 2 See his Conspectits, pp. 63, 71-72. The Syriac text is given in Z.DJI.G., xxvii. (1873), pp. 608-613. ^ See ^l&v\, Bardesanes von Edessa, 1863; Hilgenfeld, BARDESANES. 29 11th July 154\ and seems to have been the son of heathen parents of rank. Of the manner of his conversion to Christianity, and how he came to deviate from orthodoxy, we are uninformed. Part of his life he spent at the court of Edessa ; then he betook himself as a missionary to the rude mountaineers of Armenia, and finally settled down in the fortress of Anium, where he probably remained till his death in 2221 He wrote, we are told, a History of Armenia, which Moses of Chorene used in a Greek translation ; Hypomne- mata Indica, compiled from the oral information which he obtained from an Indian embassy pass- ing through Edessa on its way to the Roman court ; and polemical treatises against the poly- theism of the heathens and the dualism of Marcion. He and his son Harmonius were poets, and their hymns were greatly admired and imitated. Even Ephraim could not help admitting their merits, whilst he reviled theml Of these works, however, only a few fragments have been preserved by Bardesanes, der letzte Onostiher, 1864; Hahn, Bardesanes Gnosticus Syrorum primus Hymnologus, 1819. 1 So the Chronicon JSdessenwm, in Assemani, B.O., i. 389, and Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Moles., i. 47 ; but Elias of Nisibis, as cited by Abbeloos in bis notes on Bar-Hebreeus, loc. cit., places his birth in 134. 2 Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Eccles., i. 47. 3 E.g., Opera Syr., ii. 439 D, 553 F, last line. 30 SYRIAC LITERATURE. later writers^ The famous dialogue TJepl el/xap- /MevT]^ or Be Fato, which the voice of antiquity has unanimously ascribed to Bardesanes, was in reality composed by his disciple Philip, and doubtless presents us with an accurate account of his master's teaching. The Syriac title is Kethabha dhe-Ndmose dh' Athrawatha (The Book of the Laws of the Countries) =. Of Simeon bar Sabbae ("the Dyers' Son"), bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, and Milles, bishop of Susa, we know little beyond the fact of their martyrdom in the great persecution of the Christians by Shabhor or Sapor II., which began in 339-3401 Simeon is said by 'Abhd-isho'^ to have written " epistles V' which seem to be no 1 Compare the hymn in the Syriac Acts of St Thomas (Wright, Apocryphal Acts, p. 274) ; Lipsius, Die Apocryphen- Apostelgeschichten und -Apostellegenden, i. 292 sq. ^ It was first edited by Cureton, with an English translation, in his Spicilegium Syriacmn ; see also T. & T. Clark's Ante-2^icene Christian Library, vol. xsii. p. 85 sq., and Merx, op. cit., p. 25 sq. ' See S. E. Assemani, Acta Sanctorum Martyrum, i. 10 sq., 66 sq. ; [(Bedjan), Acta Mart, et Sanct., ii. 128 sq., 260 sq.]. * Or 'Ebedh-yeshu', bishop of Nislbis, whose biblio- graphical Catalogue has been edited by Abraham Ecohell- ensis, Eome, 1653, and by J. S. Assemani in his B.O., iii. 1. There is an English translation of it by Badger, The JS'estorians, ii. 361-379. 6 B.O., iii. 1, 51. JACOB OF NISIBIS. 81 longer extant. To him are also ascribed sundry hymns \ and a work entitled Kethahha dh'Ahha- hdtha (The Book of the Fathers), which, according to Sachau, treats of the heavenly and earthly hierarchy'^. The writings of Milles are stated by 'Abhd-isho' (loc. cit.) to have been " epistles and discourses (memre) on various subjects " ; but of these time has also robbed us. The name of Jacob (or St James) of Nisibis^ is far more widely known. As bishop of that city he was present at the council of Nicsea. He lived to witness the outbreak of war between the Romans and the Persians, and is said to have delivered the city by his prayers from the latter power. He died in the same year (338)*. To him has been ascribed, on the authority of Genna- dius of Marseilles" and of the ancient Armenian 1 Assemani, Acta Sanctorum Martyrum, i. 5 ; Rosen, Catalogtw, p. 14, col. 2, aa; Overbeok, S. Ephraemi, &c., Opera Selecta, p. 424. 2 Kurzes Verzeichniss der Saohau'scken Sammlung syr- ischer Handschriften, Berlin, 1885, p. x. and No. 108, 3. ^ Koi Svplrjs nidou el8a Koi atrrea navra, NiVi/Sti', 'Evpa- Trjv Stands, Lightfoot, S. Ignatius, i. 480. * This date is given by the Chronic. Edess. {B.O., i. 395), by Dionysius of Tell-Mahre {ibid., p. 17), by the so-called Liber Chcdipharum (in Land, Anecd. Syr., i. 4), by Blias of Nislbis (see Abbeloos's note in Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Ecdes., ii. 31), and inferentially by Bphraim (Bickell, S. Ephraemi Syri Carmina Nisibena, p. 20). * In his Be Viris Illustribus, written before 496. 32 SYRIAC LITERATURE. version', a collection of homilies, the Syiiac text of which has only been recovered and published within the last few years. George, bishop of the Arab tribes, writing to a friend in the year 714, is aware that the author was a certain " Persian sage," hakkwia Pharsaya, and discusses his date and position in the church^, but does not think of identifying him with Jacob of Nisibis. Later writers are better informed. Bar-Hebraeus knows the name of Pharhadh as the author' ; 'Abhd- isho' gives the older form of Aphrahat or 'A^paa- tt;?*; and he is also cited by name by Elias of Nisibis (11th century) in his Chronicle^. The real author of the twenty-two alphabetical Homi- lies and the separate homily " On the Cluster " is now, therefore, known to have been Aphraates, a Persian Christian, who took the name of Jacob, and was subsequently famous as "the Persian 1 Publislied by N. Antonelli (Eome, 1756) with a Latin translation, and reprinted in Gallandius, Bibl. Vet. Patrum, vol. V. The mistake has passed (no doubt through the Arabic) to the Bthiopic translation of the fifth homily ; see Zotenberg, Catal. des MSS. Ethiopiens de la Bibl. Nat., p. 248, col. 2, No. 17. 2 See De Lagarde, Anal. Syr., p. 108 ; The Homilies of Aphraates, ed. Wright, p. 19 ; Eyssel, Ein Brief Georgs, Bischofs der Araber, 1883. 3 Chron. Eccles., ii. 34. 4 B.O., iii. 1, 85. ^ See Wright, Aphraates, p. 38. APHKAATES. — EPHRAIM. 33 sage." He was probably bishop of the convent of Mar Matthew near Mosul, and composed his works, as he himself tells us, in the years 337, 344, and 345, during the great persecution under Sapor 11.^ A junior contemporary of Aphraates was Eph- raim^, commonly called Ephraem Syrus, " the prophet of the Syrians," the most celebrated father of the Syrian Church and certainly one of its most voluminous and widely read writers. He was born of heathen parents at Nislbis, but became the pupil of the bishop Jacob, and finished his education at Edessa. The incidents of his career are too well known to need recapitulation here^. His death took place in June 373^. His works 1 Wright, Aphraates, pp. 440 and 507 ; comp. Sasse, Prolegomena in Aphr. Sap. Pers. Sermones Homileticos, 1878; J. Forget, De Vita et Scriptis Aphr., Sap. Persce, 1882 ; Biokell in Thalhofer, Bibliothek der Kirchenvtiter, 102 and 103, where eight of the homihes are translated. [All the homilies have been translated by Bert, in Vou Gebhardt and Harnack's series of Texte und Untersuohun- gen, vol. iii., Leipzig, 1888.] 2 More correctly Aphrem. 3 See the Acta S. Ephraenxi in the Roman ed. of his works by Peter Mobarak (Petrus Benedictus) and the Assemanis, pp. xxiii-lxiii; and comp. Bickell, Conspectus, p. 26, note 11. * See the various authorities cited by Assemani, B.O., i. 54, note ; Bickell, Carmiiia Nisibena, p. 9, note ; Gabriel Cardahi, Liher Thesauri de Arte Poetica Syrorum, 1875, pp. 9-13. S. L. 3 34 SYRIAC LITERATURE. have been largely translated into Greek', Arme- nian, Coptic, Arabic, and Ethiopic^. They consist of commentaries on the Scriptures, expository sermons, and a vast mass of metrical homilies and hymns on every variety of theological subject". Many of these last are composed in his favourite seven-syllable metre, in stanzas of different length ; but he frequently used other metres and mixed strophic arrangements'- Of Ephraim's commen- taries on the Old Testament but little has reached us in the original Syriac^. Most of what has been published in Ephraemi Opera Syr., vols. i. and ii., 1 Even Photius speaks with respect of the rhetorical talent of Ephraim, so far as he could judge of it from these imperfect translations (ed. Bekker, p. 160). 2 See B.O., i. 149 sq. 3 Ibid., i. 63-149; iii. 1, 61. * Compare, for instance, Bickell, Cann. Sisib., Introd., p. 31. The Syrian line consists of a certain fixed number of syllables, four, five, six, seven, eight, twelve, &c. In the older writers there is no intentional rime, which first appears, we believe, among the Westerns, in Antooius Rhetor (9th century). Real metres, like those of the Greeks and Arabs, coupled in the latter case with rime, were wholly unknown to the Syrians. Hebrew poetry barely rises, as regards outward foi-m, beyond the level of Arabic rimed prose ; the Syrians, whilst destitute of rime, at least imposed upon themselves the restraint of a limited but fixed number of syllables. ^ Genesis and Exodus in Cod. Vat. ex., and five leaves of Genesis in Cod. Vat. cxx. (see Assemani, CataL, iii. p. 125). EPHRAIM. 35 is derived from a large Catena Patrum, compiled by one Severus, a monk of Edessa, in 861*. Of his commentary on the Dia-tessaron, preserved only in an early Armenian translation, we have spoken above (p. 9). In the same language there is extant a translation of his commentary on the Pauline epistles I Vol. ii. of the Koman edition contains some exegetical discourses (pp. 316—395), the number of which has been largely increased by Overbeck (S. Ephraemi 8yri, &c., Opera Selecta, pp. 74-104). In the same work will be found two of the discourses against early heresies addressed to Hypatius and Domnus (pp. 21-73 ; comp. Wright, CataL, p. 766, col. 2), two tracts on the love of the Most High (pp. 103-112), and the epistle to the monks who dwelt in the mountains (pp. 113-131). Of metrical writings the same book contains (pp. 339-354) the hymns against Julian the Apostate (pp. 1-20), and the conclusion of the hymns on Paradise (wanting in the Eoman ed., vol. iii. 598) ^ Other metrical 1 Cod. Vat. oiii., Brit. Mus. Add. 12144. Severus used for Genesis a commentary different from that in Cod. Vat. ex. ; see Bickell, Cmispectus, p. 19 ; comp. Pohlmann, S. Ephraemi Syri Commentariorum in s. scripturam textus in codd. vatt. mamiscriptus et in edit. Rom. impressus, 2 parts, 1862-64. 2 See Bickell, Conspectus, p. 20. 3 The last hymn (p. 351) is genuine, as the very fact of 3—2 36 SYRIAC LITERATURE. homilies were published by Zingerle'; but far more important, as having a real historical in- terest, are the Carmina Nisihena, or " Hymns relating to the City of Nisibis," edited by Bickell in 1866. These poems, which deal in great part with the history of Nisibis and its bishops and of adjacent cities (such as Anzit or Hanzit, Edessa, and Harran), were composed, according to Bickell (Introd., p. 6 sq.), between the years 350 and 370 or thereabouts^. A large quantity of hitherto unpublished matter is also contained in Lamy, its being an acrostic shows (see Bickell, Conspectus, p. 19) ; whereas the metrical homily on the baptism of Constantine (pp. 355-361) is certainly spm-ious (Bickell, loe. cit). ' S. P. Ephraemi Syri Sermones duo, Brixen, 1869 (see B.O., i. 149, col. 1, No. 31) ; Monmnenta Syriaca ex Ro- manis Codd. coUecta, i. 4 {B.O., loc. cit.. No. 30). Zingerle has rendered many of Ephraim's works into German, e.g., Die heilige Muse der Syrer: Oesange des h. Kirchem-aters Ephraem, 1833 ; Oesange gegen die Griihler iiher die Oeheimnisse Oottes, 1834 ; Festkrdnze avs Libanons Garten, 1846 ; Des h. Kirchenvaters Ephraem aiisgewiihlte Schriften, aus d. Griechischen und Syrischen uehersetzt, 6 vols., 2d ed., 1845-47 ; Die Reden des h. Ephraem gegen die Ketzer, 1850 ; Reden des h. Ephraem des Syrers iiher Selbstverlmgnimg imd eiiisame Lehensweise, mit einem Briefe desselben an Einsiedler, 1871. Translations into EngUsh have been attempted, though with less success, by Morris {Select Works of S. Ephraem the Syrian, 1847) and Burgess {Select Metrical Hymns and Homilies of Ephraem Syncs, 1853; The Repentance of Xiiieveh, &c., 1853). 2 Comp. Bickell, Conspectus, p. 28, note 21. EPHRAIM. 37 S. Ephraemi Syri Hymni et Sermones, vol. i., 1882, and vol. ii., 1886,— e.£r., fifteen hymns on the Epiphany, a discourse on our Lord, several metrical homilies (in particular for Passion week, the Resurrection, and New or Low Sunday), hymns on the Passover or unleavened bread (De Azymis) and on the Crucifixion, acts of Ephraim from the Paris MS. Ancien fonds 144, commen- taries on portions of the Old Testament, other metrical homilies, and hymns on the nativity, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Lent, &c. [Vol. iii., 1889, contains a few homilies' and many hymns, chiefly on martyrs, before unpublished. It also contains a re-edition of the poem on the history of Joseph in ten books (see below, p. 40).] The so-called Testament of Ephraim^ has been printed in the Opera Grceca, ii. pp. 395-410 (with various readings at p. 433), and again by Overbeck (op. cit, pp. 137-156)1 Notwithstanding his vast fecundity and great 1 [Noldeke has shown, in Wienei- Zeitschrift fiir die Kunde des Morgenlandes, iv. 245 sq., that the homily on Antichrist cannot be Ephraim's.] 2 See B.O., i. 141, No. 8. 2 That it has been interpolated by a later hand is shown by the long and purposeless digression on Moses and Pharaoh {Op. Or., ii. 405) and the story of Lamprotate at the end {ibid., p. 409), as also by the stanzas regarding the vine which Ephraim saw growing out of his mouth when he was an infant {ibid., p. 408). 38 SYRIAC LITERATURE. popularity as a theological writer, Ephraim seems not to have had any pupils worthy to take his place. In the Testament we find mentioned with high commendation the names of Abha, Abraham, Simeon, Mara of Aggel, and Zenobius of Gezirta', to whom we may add Isaac ^ and Jacob '. Two, on the other hand, are named with decided re- probation as heretics, namely, Paulonas (Uav- Xwj'a?) or Paulinus (IlauXti'o?) and Arwadh or Arwat^. Of these, Abha is cited by later writers and compilers as the author of a commentarj- on the Gospels, a discourse on Job, and an exposition of Ps. xlii. 9^^ Paulonas or Paulinus is probably the same who is mentioned by 'Abhd-isho'* as having written " madhrdshe or metrical homilies, discourses against inquirers, disputations against Marcion, and a treatise concerning believers and the creed." Zenobius, who was deacon of the church of Edessa, according to the same autho- rity', composed treatises against Marcion and 1 B.O., i. 38, 144. 2 Ibid., i. 165. 3 See "Wright, Catal, p. 992, col. 2, Xo. 36. * Also written ..^CU31 =Ariiut and ^^-'''^l = Urit. See Overbeck's text, p. 147, and the variants, p. xxx. The name seems to have been hopelessly corrupted by the scribes. 5 See Wright, Catal., pp. 831, col 1, and 1002, col. 1. £.0., iii. 1, 170. ' Ibid., i. 168; iii. 1, 43. BALAI AND CYRILLONA. 39 Pamphylius (?), besides sundry epistles. He was also the teacher of Isaac of Antioch, of whom we shall speak shortly. Better known than any of these disciples of Ephraim are two writers who belong to the close of this century and the beginning of the next, Balai and Cyrillona. The date of Balai or Balseus, chorepiscopus (as it seems) of the diocese of Aleppo, is fixed by his being mentioned by Bar- Hebrseus^ after Ephraim, but before the time of the council of Ephesus (431). Acacius, bishop of Aleppo, whom he celebrates in one of his poems, must therefore, as Bickell says^, be the same Acacius who had a share in converting Rabbula to Christianity^ and died at an extreme old age (it is said 110 years) in 432. His favourite metre was the pentasyllable, which is known by his name, as the heptasyllabic by that of Ephraim, and the twelve-syllable line by that of Jacob of Serugh. Some of his poems have been edited by Overbeck in the often cited collection S. Ephraemi Syri, &c.. Opera Selecta, pp. 251-336, namely, a 1 In a passage cited by Assemani, B.O., i. 166. Cardahl (Liber Thes., pp. 25-27) places Balai's death in 460, but gives, as usual, no authority. This seems too late. 2 Conspectus, p. 21 ; Thalhofer, Bihliothei der Kirchen- vater, 41, p. 68. 3 Overbeck, S. Ephraemi Syri, &c.. Opera Seleeta, p. 162, 1. 20. 40 SYRIAC LITERATURE. poem on the dedication of the newly built church in the town of Ken-neshrin (Kinnesrin), five poems in praise of Acacius, the late bishop of Aleppo, the first and eighth homilies on the history of Joseph, specimens of prayers, and a fragment on the death of Aaron ^ [The whole ten books on the history of Joseph were published at Paris in 1887, Histoire de Joseph par Saint Ephrem (a 2nd edition in 1891), and also by Lamy in vol. iiL of Ephraim's works (see above).] Cyrillona com- posed a poem " on the locusts, and on (divine) chastisement, and on the invasion of the HunsV' in which he says : " The North is distressed and full of wars ; and if Thou be neglectful, Lord, they will again lay me waste. If the Huns, Lord, conquer me, why do I seek refuge with the martyrs ? If their swords lay me waste, why do I lay hold on Thy great Cross ? If Thou givest up my cities unto them, where is the glory of Thy holy Church ? A year is not yet at an end since they came forth and laid us waste and took my children captive ; and lo, a second time they threaten our land that they will humble it." Now the invasion of the Huns took place in 395^, ' See also "Wenig, Scliola Syriaca, Chrestomathia, pp. 160-162; Bickell, Compectus, p. 46, note 5; Thalhofer, Bibliothek, 41, p. 67, and 44. 2 See Wright, Catal, p. 671, col. 1, Xo. 5, a. ^ See Chroa. Edess. in B.O., i. 400, Xo. xl. ; Dionysius CYKILLONA. 41 and this poem must have been written in the following year (396). The few remaining writings of Cyrillona, composed in various metres, have been edited by Bickell in the Z.D.M.G., xxvii. p. 566 sq., and translated by him in Thalhofer's Bibliothek, 41, pp. 9-63=. BickelP is inclined to identify this Cyrillona with another writer of the same period, 'Abhsamya, a priest of Edessa, Ephraim's sister's son and a pupil of Zenobius; but his reasons do not seem to us sufficient. The Chron. Edess. (B.O., i. 401) states that 'Abhsamya composed his hymns and discourses on the in- vasion of the Huns in 404; and Dionysius of Tell-Mahre (B.O., i.- 169) speaks of him in the year 397. Bar-Hebrseus is less precise as to the date : after mentioning the death of Chrysostom (in 407), he adds that about this time Theodore of Mopsuestia died (429) and ' Abhsamya flourished, who " composed many discourses in the (hepta- syllabic) metre of Mar Ephraim " on the invasion of Tell-Mahre, ibid., note 1 ; and an anonymous oontinuer of Eusebius in Land's Anecd. Syr., i. 8, 1. 2. Joshua Stylites (ed. Wright, p. 10, 1. 1) specifies A. Gr. 707, which began with October 395. 1 See also Wright, Catal., pp. 670-671 ; Overbeok, S. Ephraemi, &c., Opera Selecta, pp. 379-381 ; Bickell, Coiupectus, p. 34; Cardahi, Liber Thes., pp. 27-29, who places his death in 400. 2 See his Conspectus, p. 21 ; Thalhofer, Bihl., 41, pp. 13, 16 (in, the note). 42 SYRIAC LITERATURE. of the Huns\ That 'Abhsamya may have taken the name of Cyrillona at his ordination is of course possible, but it seems strange that none of these three writers should have mentioned it, if such were the case. On Bar-Hebrseus's statement regarding the metre which he used in his dis- courses we do not insist ; he might easily make a mistake in such a matter. During the latter part of the 4th century, too, there lived in the island of Cyprus the abbot Gregory, who appears to have been sent thither from some monastery in Palestine as the spiritual head of the Syriac-speaking monks in the islands He cherished friendly relations with Epiphanius, afterwards bishop of Salamis or Constantia (367- 403), and a monk named Theodore. To these are addressed several of his discourses and letters ; others are general exhortations to the monks under his charge^ The discourses seem to be only portions of a work on the monastic life, which has not come down to us in a complete form, the " book " mentioned by 'Abhd-isho' in B.O., iii. 1, 191. In the letters he addresses Epiphanius as an older man speaking with autho- rity to a younger ; it is to be presumed, therefore, 1 Bar-Hebra3us, Chron. Eccles., i. 133. 2 See B.O., i. 170-171. 3 Ibid., i. 172. MARTYKOLOGIES. 43 that they were written before Epiphanius became bishop. With the 5th century commences the native historical literature of Syria. Previous to this time there existed martyrologies and lives of saints, martyrs, and other holy men, drawn up, in part at least, to meet the requirements of the services of the church. Such are, for example, the ancient martyrology in a manuscript of 411 1; the Doctrine of Addai, in its present shape a product of the latter half of the 4th century- ; the Hypomnemata of Sharhel ; and the Martyr- doms of Bar-samyd, Bishop of Edessa, and the Deacon Habbibh, which all belong to about the same period'. This sort of legendary writing 1 Brit. Mus. Add. 12150, f. 252, edited by Wright in the Journal of Sacred Literature, 1865-66, viii. 45, 423; see the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. xii. 183-185. It can hardly be later than the middle of the 4th century. ^ Edited in part by Cureton, in his A7icient Syriac Documents, from MSS. of the 5th and 6th centuries in the British Museum ; and in full by Phillips from a MS. of the 6th oentiiry at St Petersburg, 1876. See also Lettre d'Abgar ou Histoire de la Conversion des Edess^ens, trans- lated from the Armenian version, Venice, 1868 ; Lipsius, Die Edessenische Ahgar-Sage, 1880; Matthes, Die Edesse- nisohe Ahgar-Sage, 1882; Mosinger, Acta SS. Martyrum Edeisenorum Sarbelii, &c., No. 1, 1874; [Tixeront, Les Origines de I'Eglise d'Edesse, Paris, 1888]. ' See Cureton, Anc. Syr. Doc, and Lipsius, Die Edess. Ahgar-Sage, p. 41 sq. 44 SYRIAC LITERATURE. was carried on to a much later date^ The History of Beth Selokh and its Martyrs, for instance, can hardly have been composed before the 6th century, if so early '■'; and the Acts of Marl must be still later'' No larger collection of such documents had, however, been attempted before the time of Marutha, bishop of Maiperkat*, a man of much weight and authority, who was twice sent by the emperor Theodosius II. on embassies to the Persian monarch Yazdegerd I., and presided at the councils of Seleucia or Ctesiphon, under the catholics Isaac and Yabh- 1 See Hoffmann, Ausmge aits syr. Aktenpers. 2Iartyrer. [A large collection of martyrdoms of different dates is con- tained in (Bedjan's) Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum, of which vols, i.-iv., Paris, 1890-94, have thus far appeared. Other Syriac martyrdoms are to be found in Analecta Bollandiana. See also Budge, The Martyrdom of Isaac of Tiphre (in Trans. Soc. Bibl. Archceo. ix. 74^111) ; Amiaud, La Legende Syriaque de Saint Alexis, Paris, 1889; Feige, Die Oeschichte des Mdr 'AhhdlsS, &o., Kiel, 1890 ; and Xoldeke's paper on Some Syriaii Saints in Sketches fi-om Eastern History (Eng. trans, published by A. & C. Black, 1892).] 2 See Jlosinger, 2Ionximenta Syr., ii. 63, and Hoffmann, op. cit., p. 45. 2 See Abbeloos, Acta S. Maris, 1885, p. 47, where, as Noldeke has pointed out, the writer confounds Ardasher, the first king of the Sasanian dynasty, with the last king of that line, Yazdegerd III., who was overthrown by the Arabs in the battle of Xihawand, a.h. 21 (642 a.d.). ■* Called by the Greeks Martyropolis, in Syriac Mgdhi- nath Sahde, and by the Arabs ilaiyafarikln. MARUTHA OF MAIPERKAT. 45 alaha respectively'. He is said, too, to have been a skilful physician^. To him 'Abhd-isho' assigns the following works^ — "A book of martyrdoms, anthems and hymns on the martyrs, and a trans- lation of the canons of the council of Nicsea, with a history of that council." The last named of these he undertook at the request of Isaac, catholicus of Seleucia, who died in 41 6 ^ The canons which pass under his name are those of the council of Seleucia in 410''. But his great work was the Book of Martyrs, containing ac- counts of those who suffered for the Christian faith under Sapor TI., Yazdegerd I., and Bahram v., to which he prefixed two discourses on the glory of the martyrs and on their torments. One of these narratives claims to have been recorded by an eye-witness, Isaiah, the son of Hadhbo (or Hadhabh€i), of Arzan (Ap^avrjvrj), one of the Persian king's horsemen". Portions of this work survive in the British Museum in MSS. of the 1 See B.O., i. 174 sq. ; Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Ecoles., i. 121, ii. 45, 49. 2 B.O., iii. 1, 73, and note 4. 3 Ibid., loo. cit. ■* Ibid., i. 195. 5 See Lamy, Cmicilium Seleucice et Ctesiphonti kabitum anno 410 ; comp. S. E. Assemani, Codd. MSS. Orient. Bibl. Palat. Medic., p. 94. e B.O., i. 15. 46 SYRIAC LITERATURE. 5th and 6th centuries, as well as in some of later date both there and in the Vatican. They have been edited by S. E. Assemani in the first volume of the Acta Sanctorum Martyrum, 1748\ The commentary on the Gospels mentioned by Asse- mani is really by Maratha, the maphrian of Taghrith (Tekrit), who is also the author of the anaphora or liturgy^. Of him we shall have occasion to speak afterwards (see p. 136 infra). It is possible too that some of the above-men- tioned Acts may belong not to the work of Marutha but to that of Aha, the successor of Isaac in the see of Seleucia, who likewise wrote a history of the Persian martyrs and a life of his teacher 'Abhda, the head of the school in the monastery of Dor-Koni or Dair-Kunna (where the apostle Mari was buried)^. About this time evil days came upon the Christian church in Syria. Paul of Samosata, Diodore of Tarsus, and Theodore of Mopsuestia had paved the way for Nestorius. The doctrines of these writers were warmly espoused by many of the Syrian theologians ; and the warfare raged 1 See also B.O., i. 181-194. There is a German trans- lation by Zingerle, Echte A cten der h. J/iirti/rer des Morge7i- landes, 2 vols., 1836. 2 B.O., i. 179. 3 Ibid., ii. 401, iii. 1, 369 ; also Abbeloos, Acta S. Maris, pp. 72 sq., 88. NESTOEIAN SCHISM. — RABBULA. 47 for many years in and around Edessa, till it ended in the total destruction of the great Persian school by the order of the emperor Zeno (488- 489)^- Rabbula, a native of Ken-neshrin (Kin- nesrin), whose father was a heathen priest but his mother a Christian, was converted to Christianity by Eusebius, bishop of Ken-neshrin, and Acacius, bishop of Aleppo. He voluntarily gave up all his property, forsook his wife, and became a monk in the convent of Abraham near his native city. On the death of Diogenes, bishop of Edessa, he was appointed his successor (411-412). His admiring biographer depicts him as a model bishop, and he certainly appears to have been active and energetic in teaching and preaching and attending to the needs of the poor^. In the theological disputes of the day he seems at first to have sided, if not with Nestorius, at least with those who were averse to extreme measures, such as John, patriarch of Antioch, and his partisans ; but afterwards he joined the opposite party, and became a warm champion of the doc- trines of Cyril, which he supported at the council of Edessa (431). From this time onward he was 1 B.O., i. 353, 406. 2 See his biography in Overbeok, S. Ephraemi, &c., Opera Selecta, p. 159 sq., especially pp. 170-181 ; translated by Bickell, in Thalhofer's BMiotkek, Nos. 102-104. 48 SYEIAC LITERATURE. a staunch opponent of Nestorianism, and even resorted to such an extreme measure as burning the writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia. Hence Ibas in his letter to Mari speaks of him as " the tyrant of Edessa," and Andrew of Samosata, writing to Alexander of Hierapolis in 432, com- plains bitterly of his persecution of the orthodox {i.e., the Nestorians). He died in August 435 ^ Of the writings of Rabbiila but little has come down to us. There is a sermon extant in manu- script^, enjoining the bestowing of alms oil behalf of the souls of the dead and prohibiting all feasting on the occasion of their commemoration. Another sermon, preached at Constantinople, is directed against the errors of Nestorius'- There are also extant canons and orders addressed to the monks and clergy of his diocese'', and a number of hymns, of which Overbeck has printed some specimens''. He also rendered into Syriac Cyril's treatise De Recta in Dominum nostmm J. C. Fide ad Theodosium Imperatorem^ from a copy which 1 B.O., i. 403. 2 Codd. 3ISS. Orient. Bill. Palat. Medic, p. 107. 3 See Overbeck, S. Ephraemi, &c., Opera Selecta, pp. 239-244 ; translated by Bickell. « Ibid., pp. 210-221. 5 Ibid., pp. 245-248, 362-378. e See Wright, Gated., p. 719. RABBtJLA. — IBAS. 49 was sent to him by the author^ His biographer intended to translate into Syriac a collection of forty-six of his letters, written in Greek " to priests and emperors and nobles and monks^"; but of these only a few remain, e.g., to Andrew of Samosata, condemning his treatise against the twelve anathemas of CyriP; to Cyril, regarding Theodore of Mopsuestia" ; and to Gemellinus of Perrhe, about certain monks and other persons who misused the sacred elements as ordinary food". Rabbula was succeeded in the see of Edessa (435) by Ihibha or Hibha (Grsecized Ibas)^, who in his younger days had been one of the trans- lators of Theodore's works in the Persian school'. This, with his letter to Mari the Persian^ and other utterances, led to his being charged with Nestorianism. He was acquitted by the two synods of Tyre and Beirut, but condemned by ' Comp. the letter of Cyril to Eabbula, Overbeck, op. cit, pp. 228-229. 2 See Overbeck, op. cit., p. 200. 3 lUd., p. 222. * Ibid., p. 223, a fragment. 6 Ibid., pp. 230-238. The shorter fragment should follow the longer one. 6 B.O., i. 199. f Ibid., iii. 1, 85 ; Wright, Catal, pp. 107, col. 2, 644, col. 1. 8 See Labbe, Condi., is. 51 ; Mansi, vii. 241. S. L. 4 50 SYRIAC LITERATURE. the second council of Ephesus (449)', and Nonnus was substituted in his room. He was restored, however, at the end of two years by the council of Chalcedon, and sat till October 457, when he was succeeded by Nonnus^ who in his turn was followed by Cjtus in 471. Besides the writings above-mentioned, 'Abhd-isho' attributes to Ibas^ 1 The so-called Xi/orpi/t^ crvvoSos or latroci'/iium Epheai- num. Of tlie first session of this council a portion is extant in Syriac in Brit. Mus. Add. 12156, fi". 51b-61a (written before 562), containing the acta in the cases of Flavian of Antioch and Eusebius of Dorylseum. Add. 14530 (dated 535) contains the second session, comprising the acta in the cases of Ibas, his nephew Daniel of Harran, Irenseus of Tyre, Aquilinus of Byblus, Sophronius of TeUa or Constantina, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and Domnus of Antioch. These documents have been translated into German by Hoffmann, Verhandlungen der Kirchenver- sammlung zu Epliesus am xxii. August CDXLIX., &c., 1873; into French by ^Martin, Actes du Briga-iidage d^Ephhe, 1874 ; and into English (with the assistance of a Gterman scholar) by the Rev. S. G. F. Perry, The Second Synod of Ephesus, 1881. See also Martin, Le Pseudo-Synode connu datis I'Ristoire sous le nam de Brigandage d^Ephhe, &c., 1875 ; and Perry, An Ancient Syri/xc Document purporting to be the record in its chief features of the Second Synod of Ephesus, &c., part i., 1867. Mr Perry printed a complete edition of the Syriac text at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, but no one seems to know what has become of the copies. The copies of the English translation were purchased at the sale of Jlr Perry's library by Mr Quaritch. 2 B.O., i. 257. 3 Ibid., iii. 1, 86. These are of course vitterly ignored by Asseniani in vol. i. ACACIUS OF AMID. 51 "a commentary on Proverbs, sermons and metrical homilies (madhrashe), and a disputation with a heretic " ; but none of these appear to have come down to us. During this stormy period the name of Acacius, bishop of Amid, is mentioned as the author of certain epistles^. The great event of his life, which is referred by Socrates (bk. vii. 21) to the year 422, is thus briefly recorded in the Martyro- logi'um Romanum Gregorii XIII. (Malines, 1859), 9th April : " Amidse in Mesopotamia sancti Acatii episcopi, qui pro redimendis captivis etiam ecclesise vasa conflavit ac vendidit." The said captives were Persian subjects, who were thus ransomed and sent back to their king and country^ Acacius was doubtless a favourer of Nestorianism, for his letters were thought worthy of a commentary by Mari, bishop of Beth Hardasher^, the corre- spondent of Ibas*. Aboiit the same time rose one of the stars of Syriac literature, Isaac, commonly called the 1 B.O., iii. 1, 51. 2 Ibid., i. 195-196. 3 Beth Hardasher or Beth Hartasher, in Persian Weh- Ardasher or Beh-Ardasher, Arabicized Bahurasir, close by Seleticia, on the right bank of the Tigris. See Hoffmann, Verhandlungen der Kirchenversammlung zu Ephesui, &c., p. 93, note 160. « B.O., iii. 1, 172. 4—2 62 SVEIAC LITERATURE. Great, of Antioch^ He was a native of Amid, but went as a young man to Edessa, where he enjoyed the teaching of Zenobius, the disciple of Ephraim=. Thence he removed to Antioch, where he lived as priest and abbot of one of the many convents in its immediate neighbourhood. In his younger days he would seem to have travelled farther than most of his countrymen, as it is stated that he visited Rome and other cities I With this agrees what is recorded by Dionysius of Tell-Mahre* as to his having composed poems on the secular games celebrated at Rome in 404, and on the capture of the city by Alaric in 410, which shows that he took a more than ordinary interest in the Western capital. Isaac died in or about 1 B.O., i. 207-234; Biokell, in Thalhofer's Bihliotliek, No. 44, and Conspectus, p. 22. 2 That he is identical with Isaac, the disciple of Ephraim (as some have supposed), seems wholly unUkely. He may possibly have seen Ephraim in the flesh, but this is very doubtful, considering the date of his own death. Even Jacob of Edessa appears to have got into some confusion on this subject (see Wright, CataL, p. 603, col. 2). s Land, Anecd. Syr., iii. 84. * 5. 0., i. 208-209; s^Q Dionysii Telmahharen^is Chronid liber I., ed. Tullberg, 1850, p. 52, and Eusebii Canonum Epitome ex Dionysii Telm. Chronica petita, by C. Siegfried and H. Gelzer, 1884, p. 29. The difficulty was first cleared \ip by Scaligei", who in his Thesaurus Temporion, Animadv. No. MDLXIV., proposed v. ISAAC OF ANTIOCH. 53 460, soon after the destruction of Antioch by the earthquake of 459, on which he wrote a poem^ Isaac's works are nearly as voluminous and varied as those of Ephraim, with which indeed they are often confounded in MSS. and in the Roman edition I They were gathered into one corpus by the Jacobite patriarch John bar Shushan or Susanna, who began in his old age to transcribe and annotate them, but was hindered from com- pleting his task by death (1073)^. Assemani has given a list of considerably more than a hundred metrical homilies from MSS. in the Vatican^ Of these part of one on the Crucifixion was edited by Overbeck", and another on the love of learning by Zingerle^ But it has been left to Bickell to collect and translate all the extant writings of this Syrian father and to commence the publi- cation of them. Out of nearly 200 metrical 1 B.O., i. 211. ^ See Bickell, Co7ispectus, p. 23, note. 3 B.O., i. 214-215, ii. 355; Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Scales., i. 447. * B.O., i. 214-234. 5 S. Ephraemi Syri, &c., Opera Selecta, pp. 379-381. [This homily may be Cyrillona's or Balai's : see above, p. 41, n. 1, and Bickell in Z.D.M.O., sxvii. p. 571, n. 1.] '^ Monumenta Syriaca, i. 13-20; see also some extracts in Zingerle's Chrestom, Syr., pp. 299 sq., 387 sq. Zingerle has translated large portions of the homilies on the Crucifixion into German in the Tiibinger Theolog. Quartalschrift, 1870, 1. Further, Cardahl, Liber Thes., pp. 21-25. 54 SYRIAC LITERATURE. homilies his first volume contains in 307 pages only fifteen, and his second brings us in 353 pages only as far as No. 37^. Some of these poems have a certain historical value, such as the second homily on fasting, probably written soon after 420^ the two homilies on the destruction of the town of Beth Hur by the Arabs (c. 457)^ and the two against persons who resort to soothsayers^. Others possess some interest as bearing on the theological views of the author, who combats the errors of Nestorius and Eutyches". One of the longest and most wearisome is a stupendous poem of 2137 verses on a parrot which proclaimed 07409 ©eo? in the streets of Antioch^. Another on repentance runs to the length of 1929 verses. In prose Isaac seems to have written very little ; at least Bickell'' mentions only " various questions and answers, an ascetic narrative and ascetic rules." Concerning Isaac's contemporary Dadha we know but little" He was a monk from the ' S. Isaad Aniiocheni, Dooioris Syronmi, Opera Omnia, ed. G. Bickell, part i., 18*73; part ii., 1877. We hope soon to receive the remaining parts at his hands. 2 B.O.,i. 227; Bickell, i. 280. 3 B.O., i. 225; Bickell, i. 207, 227. * Bickell, ii. 205 sq. ^ See Bickell's translations in Thalhofer's Bihliotheh, 44. " Bickell, i. 85. '' Opera, i. p. \\\\. ^ See Land, Aneod. Syr., iii. 84. SIMEON THE STYLITE. 55 neighbourhood of Amid, who was sent by the people of that city to Constantinople on account of the ravages of war and famine, to obtain remission of the taxes or some similar relief, and was well received by the emperor. He is said to have written about three hundred tracts on various topics connected with the Scriptures and on the saints, besides poems (madhrashe). Here, too, we may record the name of Simeon the Sty lite, who died in 459 or soon after ^ The Monophysites contend that he held their theological views, and accordingly we find in a MS. of the 8th century a letter of his to the emperor Leo regarding Theodoret of Cyrrhus, who had come to him and tried to pervert him to the opinions of the Dyophysites^ and in another MS., of about the same age, three letters to the emperor Leo, to the abbot Jacob of Kaphra RShima, and to John I., patriarch of Antioch, all tending to prove that he rejected the council of Chalcedony A third MS., of the 6th century, contains certain "precepts and admonitions " addressed by him to the brethren'. 1 See Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., i. 142, 181, and note 2; B.0.,\. 252, 405. 2 Wright, Catal, p. 951, No. xxix. 3 Ibid., p. 986, No. 33. 1 Ibid., p. 1153, col. 1. 56 SYRIAC LITERATURE. There is extant in very old MSS.^ a Life of Simeon, full of absurd stories, which has been edited by S. E. Assemani in the Acta Sanctorum Martyrum, vol. ii. 268 sq.; [and again (from Brit. Mus. Add. 14484) in (Bedjan's) Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum, vol. iv. 507 sq.]. At the end of it there is a letter by one Cosmas^, priest of the village of Panir, written in the name of his congregation to the Stylite, promising im- plicit obedience to all his precepts and orders, and requesting his prayers on their behalf; but there is nothing whatever to show that this Cosmas was the author of the Life or had any share in writing it^. About this time we find Dadh-isho', the catholicus of Seleucia (421-456)^ composing his commentaries on the books of Daniel, Kings, and Bar-Sira or Ecclesiasticus^. But the chief seat of Nestorian scholarship and literary activity was still the Persian school of Edessa, where 1 B.ff., Cod. Vat. clx., transcribed 473 ; Brit. Mus. Add. 14484, of the 6tli century. 2 B.O., i. 237. 3 Assemani is also mistaken in supposing that the Life was composed at the request of Simeon, the son of Apol- lonius, and Bar-Hatar (?), the son of Udhan (Uranius?). These are merely the persons who paid for the writing of this portion of Cod. Vat. clx. ■* See Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 57, note 1. 6 B.O., iii. 1, 214. BAR-SAUMA OF NISIBIS. 57 Bar-sauma and other teachers were actively engaged in defending and propagating their peculiar tenets. Bar-sauma, if we may believe the scurrilous Monophysite Simeon of Beth Arsham^ was originally the slave of one Mara of Beth Kardu^, and bore at Edessa the nickname of Sdhe beth Mnaiyd^. He was at Edessa in 449, when his expulsion was called for by the rabble^. In what year it actually took place we do not know, but we afterwards find him busy in the East under the catholicus Babhoyah or Babuseus (from about 457 to 483)' and his successor Acacius (from about 484 to 496), during which period he Avas bishop of Nisibis^. Of his personal character and work this is not the place to attempt to form a judgment ; but the reader 1 B.O., i. 351. 2 On the left bank of the Tigi-is, over against Jazirat Ibn 'Omar. 3 " The Swimmer, or Bather, among the Reeds," mean- ing "the wild boar." See Hoffmann, Verhmidl. d. Kirchen- versam. zu Ephesus, &o., p. 91, note 114. * Hoffmann, op. a'i., p. 14; Bar-Hebreeus, CArora. .fi'ocfe., ii. 55, note 1. * Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 57, note 1. ^ See B.O., iii. 1, 66, note 7, compared with i. 351, note 4, and ii. 407, note 2. [Guidi has shown from the Syriac Synodicxim that Bar-sauma was bishop of Nislbis in 485 but that his successor Hosea was in ofSce in 496 {Z.D.M.O., xliii. 412; Gli statuti della Scuola di Nisihi, Rome, 1890, p. 3).] 58 SYRIAC LITERATURE. should beware of placing implicit trust in the statements of bitter and unscrupulous theological opponents like Simeon of Beth Arsham, Bar- Hebrseus, and Assemani. Bar-sauma, does not appear to have written much, as 'Abhd-isho'^ mentions only parsenetic and funeral sermons, hymns of the class called turgdnie^, metrical homilies (madhrdshe), letters, and an anaphora or liturgy. A fellow-worker with him both at Edessa and Nisibis was Narsai (or Narse), of Ma'alletha or Ma'althaya^ whom Simeon of Beth Arsham calls " the Leper"*," whereas his co-sectarians style him "the Harp of the Holy Spirit." He was especially famous as a writer of hymns and other metrical compositions, his favourite metre being that of six syllables ^ He fled from Edessa to escape the wrath of the bishop Cyrus (471-498), probably in the year 489, and died at Nisibis early in the next century ^ Narsai's works, as 1 B.O., iii. 1, 66. 2 See Badger, The JS'estorians, ii. 19. 3 HoflFmann, Auszuge, p. 208; Badger, The Nestorians, i. 174. * Perhaps in a spiritual sense only, though Assemani thinks otherwise; see B.O., i. 352 and note 5, 354 ; iii. 1, 63. 6 B.O., iii. 1, 65, note 6. 8 See Bar-Hebrajus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 77; B.O., ii. 407. NARSAI AND OTHER NESTORIANS. 59 enumerated by 'Abhd-isho'\ consist of commen- taries OB the first four books of the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and Ecclesiastes, Isaiah and the twelve minor prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, twelve volumes of metrical discourses (360 in number/, a liturgy, expositions of the order of celebrating the Eucharist and of baptism, parsenetic and funeral sermons, hymns of several sorts', and a book entitled On the Corruption of Morals. Mari the Persian has been already mentioned as the correspondent of Ibas. Besides the com- mentary on the epistles of Acacius (see above, p. 51), he wrote a commentary on the book of Daniel and a controversial treatise against the magi^ of Nisibis^. Acacius, catholicus of Seleucia 1 B.O.,w.. 1, 65, 66. 2 Some of these are probably contained in the Berlin MSS. Sachau 174-176 {memre dha-med/iabbgrdnuthd, on the life of our Lord) and 219 (two poems on Joseph, and two others). 3 Two of them are often found in the Nestorian Psalter. See, for example, Brit. Mus. Add. 7156 (Rosen, Catal., p. 12, col. 2, No. 3a, c) and Add. 17219 (Wright, Catal., p. 134, col. 2, No. 3 a, c). * Meghushe, from niagu, mag, the Persian priesthood, the head of whom in each district was the magupat, mogpet, or mohedh. See Noldeke, Oeschiohte der Perser und Araher zur Zeit der Sasaniden, p. 450. 6 B.O., iii. 1, 171. 60 SYRIAC LITERATURE. (c. 484-496), composed discourses on fasting and on the faith, as also against the Monophysites, and translated into Persian for the king Kawadh a treatise on the faith by Elisha, bishop of Nisibis, the successor of Bar-sauma'. Assemani tries hard to cleanse Acacius from the stain of Nestorianism, but, as Abbeloos remarks^, " vereor ne iEthiopem dealbare voluerit ; nam omnia tum Jacobitarum tum Nestorianorum monumenta, quse ipse recitat, contrarium testantur." Mikha or Micah, another member of the band of exiled Edessenes^ became bishop of Lashom*. He wrote a commentary on the books of Kings, a discourse on his predecessor Sabhr-isho', another on a person whose name is written Kntropos^ and a tract entitled The Five Reasons of the Mautebhe^. To these writers may ' B.O., iii. 1, 389. Elisha is called by some authorities Hosea ; ibid., ii. 407, iii. 1, 429. [So the Syriac Synodicon as cited by Guidi in Z.D.M.O., xliii. 412, and Oli statuti della Scuola di Xisihi, p. 3.] 2 Bar-Hebrceus, Ghron. Eccles., ii. 74, note 2. 3 B.O., i. 352-353. His enemies gave him the nickname of Dagon. * Now Lasim, a short distance south-west of Dakuk or Ta'uk, in Beth Garmai ; see Hoffmann, A iisziige, p. 274. ^ Vocalized Kentropos or Kantropos; B.O., iii. 1, 170, 1. 2. <• Meaning probably the division of the Psalter into three kathismata (Bickell, Conspectus, p. 92); see B.O., iii. 1, 71, note 2. TRANSLATIONS FROM GREEK. 61 be added two others, — Yazidadh\ who is also said to have belonged to the Edessene school and to have compiled "a book of collectanea (lukJcdte)'," and Ara, who wrote a treatise against the magi or Persian priesthood, and another against the followers of Bardesanes with the contemptuous title of Habhshoshyatha or " the Beetles ^" The Persian school at Edessa was, as we have already hinted, the chief seat of the study of Greek during the early days of the Syrian litera- ture. Of the most ancient translators we know nothing; but the oldest MSS. are Edessene, viz., the famous MS. in the British Museum, Add. 12150, dated towards the end of 411, and the equally well known codex at St Petersburg, written in 462. The former contains the Recog- nitiones of Clement, the discourses of Titus of Bostra against the Manichees, the Theophania of Eusebius, and his history of the confessors in Palestine ; the latter, the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius. Now, as the text presented by these MSS. has evidently passed through the hands of several successive scribes, it seems to 1 For Yazed-dadh or Izad-dadh, like Yazed-panah, Yazed-bozedh ; see Hoffmann, Ausziige, p. 88, note 796. 2 B.O., iii. 1, 226. 5 Of Ara we seem to know absolutely nothing; his very floruit is uncertain, and he may have belonged to the previous century; B.O., iii. 1, 230. 62 SYEIAC LITERATURE. follow that these books were translated into Syriac in the lifetime of the authors themselves, or very soon after, for Eusebius died in 340 and Titus in 371. Very likely the one or the other may have had a friend at the chief seat of Syriac learning who was willing to perform for him the same kind office that Rabbula undertook for Cyrils A little later on our information becomes fuller and more exact. Ma'na^ a Persian by race'', from the town of Beth Hardasher, was resident at Edessa in the earlier part of the 5th century, and is mentioned by Simeon of Beth Arsham among the distin- guished Nestorian scholars whom he holds up to ridicule^. His nickname was Shathe ketma, " the 1 See above, p. 48, and compare Merx, " De Eusebianse Historiae Eocles. Versionibus, Syriaca et Armeniaca," in Atti del IV. Congresso Internazionale degli Orientcdisti, Florence, 1880, i. 199 sq., especially pp. 201-202. It may here be mentioned that the literature of Armenia is largely indebted in its earliest days to that of Syria, not only for the translation of Eusebius's Ecdes. History, but for such works as the Doctrine of Addai and the Homilies of Aphraates, wrongly ascribed to Jacob of Nisibis. 2 So the name is written by Marl bar ShSlemon, whom Assemani follows, B.O., iii. 1, 376, pronouncing it, however, Ma'ne or Maanes. Eliaa of Nisibis also gives Ma'na (Bar- HebrcBus, Chron. Ecdes., ii. 53, note 2); but Bar-Hebrceus himself {loo. cit.) has Maghna, which Abbeloos latinizes Magnes. ^ His Persian name is unknown to us. 1 B.O., i. 352. MA'NA. 63 Drinker of Ashes." Ma'na devoted himself to the task of translating into Syriac the commentaries of Theodore of Mopsuestia during the lifetime of that great theologian, who did not die till 429. He must, however, have withdrawn from Edessa at a comparatively early period, as he was bishop of Persis' prior to 420, in which year (the last of his reign) Yazdegerd I. made him catholicus of Seleucia, in succession to Yabh- alaha^. He had, it appears, translated a number of books from Syriac into Persian (Pahlavi), and thus probably ingratiated himself with the king". However, he soon fell under the royal displeasure, was degraded from his office, and ordered to retire to Persis, where he resumed his former duties*, and so incurred the anger of Yazdegerd's successor, Peroz^ Ma'na's work, the exact extent of which is not known to us, was carried on and completed by other members of the Persian school, — such as Acacius the catholicus and Yazidadh ; John of Beth Garmai, afterwards bishop of Beth Sari (or Serai ?), and Abraham the Mede, disciples of Narsai; Mikha, afterwards bishop of Lashom in Beth Garmai; Paul bar Kakai (or Kaki), after- 1 Bar-Hebreeus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 55, 63. 2 B.O., ii. 401. 3 i})i^_^ iii. i^ 376. •• Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Ecdes., ii. 63. 5 B.O., ii. 402 ; iii. 1, 377. 64 SYEIAC LITERATURE. wards bishop of Ladhan in al-Ahwaz ; 'Abhshota (?) of Nineveh, and others^ — who are expressly said to " have taken away with them " {appek 'ammehon) from Edessa, and disseminated through- out the East, the writings of Theodore and Nestorius^. Ibas himself was one of these translators in his younger days (see above, p. 49). About the same time with Ma'na's translations began the Aristotelian studies of the Sjrrian Nestorians. To understand and translate the writings of their favourite Greek theologians, Paul of Samosata, Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Nestorius himself, not to mention Theodoret' of Cyrrhus, required a con- siderable knowledge of the Aristotelian logic. Hence the labours of Probus (IIpo/So?, in Syriac Probhos, Probha, or Probhe), who translated and commented on the Hepl ipfiT]veia<;^, and probably treated in a similar manner other parts of the 1 B.O., i. 351-354. 2 Ibid., i. 350; iii. 1, 226, note 8. 3 His Eranistei (of which the foiirth book is a demmi- stratio per syllogismos of the incarnation) appears as the name of an author in 'Abhd-ish6"s Catalogue {B.O., iii. 1, 41), under the form of Eranistatheos, or something similar. * See Hoffmann, De Hermeiieuticis apiid Syros Aris- toteleis, 1869. MSS.,— Berhn, Alt. Best. 36, 9, 10; Brit. Mus. Add. 14660. The translation may possibly be even anterior to Probus. MONOPHTSITE SCHISM. 65 Organon^. It is not easy to fix his date precisely. ' Abhd-isho' ^ makes him contemporary with Ibas and another translator named Kumi [or Kumai]. If the Berlin MS. Sachau 226 can be trusted, he was archdeacon and archiater at Antioch. Hoffmann^ has assigned reasons for supposing him not to be anterior to the Athenian expositor Syrianus (433-450 ?). Whilst the Nestorians were thus making rapid progress all over the East, another heresy was spreading in the West. Eutyches had found followers in Syria, among others Bar-sauma the archimandrite, a man famous for his piety and asceticism*, who represented the abbots of Syria 1 Berlin, Sachau 226, 1, is described as " Isagoge des Porphyrius, von Probus, Presbyter, Archidiacon, und Archiater in Antiochien"; and in the same MS., No 8, is "Erklarung der Analytica von Probus," with an "Einlei- tung in d. Erkl. d. Anal, von Probus," No. 7. 2 B.O., iii. 1, 85. 3 Op. cit, pp. 144-145. The name of PubrI or Phubrius, which appears as a variation of Probus in Hettinger's Bibl. Orient., in Assemani {B.O., iii. 1, 85, note 5), in Renan {De PhilosopMa Peripatetica apud Syros, p. 14), and in other books on this subject, has nothing to do with that of Probus, but is an error for Kuwairl, Abu Ishak Ibrahim, a Syro-Arabian Aristotelian who lived about the beginning of the 10th century. See the Fihrut, p. 262 ; Ibn Abl Osaibi'ah, i. 234 ; Wiistenfeld, Oesch. d. Arab. Aerzte, p. 24, No. 62, " Futherl oder Fubrl." * All "hypocrisy" in the eyes of Assemani, B.O., ii. 2; " scelestissimus pseudo-monaohus," p. 9. S. L. 5 66 SYRIAC LITERATURE. at the second council of Ephesus^ and was after- wards condemned by the council of Chalcedon'-'. He died in 458^ His life was written by his disciple Samuel, in much the same style as that of Simon Stylites, and is extant in several MSS. in the British Museum^ His memory has always been held in the greatest reverence by the Jaco- bites. The Armenians, according to Assemani^, keep his commemoration on the 1st of February, the Syrians and Copts on the 3rd. The decisions of the council of Chalcedon produced an imme- diate and irreparable breach in the Eastern Church ; and the struggle of the rival factions was carried on with desperate fury alike at Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria. In Syria the persecution of the Monophysites was violent during the years 518-521, under the emperor Justin, and again in 535 and the fol- lowing years, under Justinian, when they seemed in a fair way of being completely crushed by brute force. 1 Bar-Hebrseus, Ohron. Eccles., i. 161-165; Hofiinann, Verhandl. d. Kirchenversarmnlung zu Bpfiesits, &c., p. 4, 1. 39. 2 Bar-Hebrseus, loc. cit., 179. ^ Ibid., 181. 1 B.O., ii. 296, also p. cxlviii. No. 3 ; Wright, Catal., p. 1123. 6 B.O., ii. 9 ; comp. Wright, CataL, p. 175, col. 2, No. 3, and p. 311, No. coclxsxvii. JACOB OF sErugh. 67 The first name to be mentioned here, as belonging to both the 5th and 6th centuries, is that of Jacob of SSriigh, one of the most cele- brated writers of the Syrian Church', " the flute of the Holy Spirit and the harp of the believing church." There are no less than three biographies of him extant in Syriac, — the first, by his name- sake Jacob of Edessa' ; the second, anonymous^; the third, a lengthy metrical panegyric, said to have been written for his commemoration* by a disciple of his named George'. This, how- ever, seems, from the whole tone of the composition, to be unlikely, and Bickell is probably right in supposing the author to be George, bishop of SSrugh, a contemporary of Jacob of Edessa". ' B. 0., i. 28Z sq. ; i/lsitngae, in Acta Sanctorum, Ootoher, vol. xii. 824, 927; Abbeloos, De Vita et Scriptis S. Jacohi Batnarum Sarugi in Mesopotamia epi, 1867; Bickell, Conspectiis, p. 25; BickeU in Thalhofer, Bihl. d. Kirchen- vater, 58; Martin, "Lettres de Jacques de Saroug aux Moines du Couvent de Mar Bassus, et k Paul d'Edesse," in Z.D.M.a., XXX. (1876), p. 217. 2 B.O., i. 286, 299; Martin, in Z.D.M.O., xxx. p. 217, note 3. 3 Abbeloos, op. cit., p. 311. * See Wright, Catal., p. 311, No. occlxxxix. The Armenians hold it on 25th September, the Jacobites on 29th June, 29th July, and 29th October. 5 Abbeloos, op. cit., p. 24; B.O., i. 286, 340. 6 See Bickell in Thalhofer, Bibl, 58, p. 198. 5—2 68 SYEIAC LITERATURE. Jacob was bom at Kurtam, "a village on the river Euphrates," probably in the district of Serugh, in 451. His father was a priest, and, as his parents had been childless for many years, his birth was regarded as a reward for their alms, prayers, and vows. Whether he was educated at Edessa or not, he soon acquired a great reputation for learning and eloquence. He appears to have led a life of quiet work and study, and to have devoted himself in particular to literary composi- tion. He became periodeutes of Haura in Serugh, whence we find him writing to the Christians of Najran, and to the city of Edessa when threatened by the Persians ^ As periodeutes he is mentioned in eulogistic terms by Joshua the Stylite^ (503). In 519, when sixty-eight years old, he was made bishop of Batnan, the chief town of Serugh, where he died on 29th November 521. Jacob's prose writings are not numerous^. A liturgy is ascribed to him, and an order of baptism, the former of which has been translated by Renaudot* the latter edited by J. A. Assemani^ Further, he composed six festal homilies, one of which has 1 Wright, CataL, p. 520, Nos. 15, 16. ^ Chronicle, ed. "Wright, ch. liv. Joshua wrote in 507. ^ B.O., i. 300-305. * Litiirgg. Orientt. Collectio, ii. 356. ^ Cod. Liturg. Ecd. Univers., ii. 309, iii. 184. JACOB OF sErugh. 69 been published by Zingerle^ who has also trans- lated the whole of them into German^; a discourse showing that we should not neglect or despise our sins^ ; another for the night of Wednesday in the third week of Lent^ ; and some short funeral sermons I To him we also owe a life of Mar Hannina (died in 500), addressed to one Philo- theus". Of his letters a considerable number have been preserved, particularly in two MSS. in the British Museum, Add. 14587 and 17163, S. 1-48'. Of these Martin has edited and translated the three epistles to the monks of the convent of Mar Bassus at Harim^ with a reply by the monks, and another letter to Paul, bishop of Edessa, from all of which it is evident that Jacob always was a Monophysite, and continued such to his deaths The letter to Stephen bar Sudh-aile is given, with an English version, by Frothing- t, Syr., i. 91. 2 Sechs Homilien des h. Jacob von Sarug, 1867. 3 Wright, Catal, p. 826, No. 16; comp. the Index, 1293, col. 1. 4 aid., p. 844, No. 32. 6 Ibid., p. 364, col. 2. e Ibid., p. 1113, No. 14; p. 1126, No. 16. 7 Ibid., Nos. dclixii., dclxxiii., and comp. the Index, 1293, col. 1. 8 Rid., p. 602, col. 2. 3 See Martin, Z.D.M.G., xxx. (1876), pp. 217-219. 70 SYRIAC LITERATURE. ham'; and that to the Himyarite Christians of Najran has been edited and translated by Schroter in the Z.D.M.G., xxxi. (1877), p. 360 sq. It belongs to the year 519 or 520^. According to Bar-Hebrseus^ he also wrote "a commentary on the six centuries of Evagrius, at the request of Mar George, bishop of the (Arab) tribes, who was his disciple." As George, bishop of the Arab tribes, was a contemporary of Jacob of Edessa, this statement seems to rest on some misappre- hension ; at all events no such work now exists. The paucity of Jacob's prose writings is more than compensated by a flood of metrical compo- sitions, mostly in dodecasyllabic verse, or the four-syllable line thrice repeated. "He had," says Bar-Hebrseus*, " seventy amanuenses to copy out his metrical homilies, which were 760^ in number, besides commentaries and letters and odes {ma- dhrashe) and hymns (sughyatha)." Of these 1 See his Stephen bar Sudaili the Syrian Mystic and the Book of Hierotheos, Leyden, 1886, p. 10 sq. 2 See Guidi, La Lettera di Simeone Vescovo di BHh- Arsdm sopra i Martiri Omenti, 1881, p. 11. s Chron. Eccles., i. 191. ^ Loc. cit. ^ Jacob of Edessa says 763, of which that on the chariot of Ezekiel was the first, and that on Mary and Golgotha the last, which he left unfinished; see B.O., i. 299; Abbeloos, De Vita, &o., p. 312. JACOB OF S^RtiGH. 71 homilies more than the half have perished, but nearly 300 are still preserved in European collections \ Very few of them have as yet been published, though many of them are by no means devoid of interest^. Indeed Jacob is on the whole ' Comp. B.O., i. 305-339; Abbeloos, op. cit., pp. 106-113. ^ Zingerle has given extracts in the Z.D.M.O., xii., xiii., xiv., XV., and xx., and in his Chrest. Syr., pp. 360-386. The homily on Simeon Stylites has been published by Assemani in the Acta S. Martyrum, ii. 230 sq., [and has anew appeared in vol. iv. 650 sq. of (Bedjan's) Acta Martyrwm et Sa7iotorum']; that on virginity, fornication, &c., by Overbeck, S. Ephraemi Syri, &c.. Opera Selecta, p. 385 sq. ; that on Alexander the Great (perhaps spurious) by Knos, Chrest. Syr., 1807, p. 66 sj. [and (a better edition) by Budge, Zeitschrift f. Assyriologie, vi. 359-404], (there is a German translation by A. Weber, Bes M&r Yakuh Oedicht iiher den glduhigen Konig Alexsandnls, 1852); on Habblbh and on Gurya and Shamuna, Edessene martyrs, with a sughitha on Edessa, by Ciireton, Ancient Syriac Documents, pp. 86-98 [and in Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum,, vol. i. 131 S2'., 160^2'.]; on Sharbel by Mosinger, Mon. Syr., ii. 52, and on the chariot of Ezekiel, with an Arabic translation, ihid., p. 76 ; two on the Blessed Virgin Mary by Abbeloos, Be Vita, &c., pp. 203-301 ; on Jacob at Bethel, on our Lord and Jacob, the church and Rachel, Leah and the synagogue, on the two birds (Lev. xiv. 4), on the two goats (Lev. xvi. 7), and on Moses' vail (Exod. xxxiv. 33) by Zingerle, Mon. Syr., i. 21-90; on Tamar by J. Zingerle, 1871 ; on the palace which St Thomas built for the king of India in Heaven (perhaps spurious) by Schroter, in Z.D.M.O., xxv. 321, xxviii. 584; on the fall of the idols by Martin, in Z.D.M.O., xxix. 107 ; on the baptism 72 SYRIAC LITERATURE. far more readable than Ephraim or Isaac of Antioch. Very different from the gentle and studious bishop of Serugh was his contemporary and neighbour, the energetic and fiery Philoxenus of Mabbogh. AksSnaya or Philoxenus was a native of Tahal, somewhere in Beth Garmai, and studied at Edessa in the time of Ibas^ ■ He was ordained bishop of Hierapolis or Mabbogh (Manbij) by Peter the Fuller, patriarch of Antioch, in 485, and devoted his life to the advocacy of Monophy- site doctrine. Twice he visited Constantinople in the service of his party, and suffered much (as was to be expected) at the hands of its enemies, for thus he writes in later years to the monks of the convent of Seniin near Edessa ; " What I endured from Flavian and Macedonius, who were archbishops of Antioch and of the capital, and previously from Calendion, is known and spoken of everywhere. I keep silence both as to what of Gonstantine (perhaps spurious) by Frothingham, in the Atii della Accademia dei Lincei for 1881-82 (Rome, 1882). Bickell has translated into German (in Thalhofer, Bihl., 58) the first homily on the Blessed Virgin Mary, that on Jacob at Bethel, on Moses' vail, and on Gurya and Shamuna. Some of Jacob's homilies are extant in Arabic, and even in Ethiopia. His prayer as a child see in Over- beck, op. cit.-i p. 382. 1 B.O., i. 3.53. ^ PHILOXENUS OF MABBOGH. 73 was plotted against me in the time of the Persian war among the nobles by the care of the aforesaid Flavian the heretic, and also as to what befell me in Edessa, and in the district of the Apameans, and in that of the Antiochians, when I was in the convent of the blessed Mar Bassus, and again in Antioch itself; and when I went up on two occasions to the capital, like things were done to me by the Nestorian heretics ^" He succeeded at last in getting rid of his enemy Flavian in 512, and in the same year he presided at a synod in which his friend Severus was ordained patriarch of Antioch ^ His triumph, however, was but short-lived, for Justin, the successor of Anastasius, sentenced to banishment in 519 fifty-four bishops who refused to accept the decrees of the council of Chalcedon, among whom were Severus, Philo- xenus, Peter of Apamea, John of Telia, Julian of Halicarnassus, and Mara of Amid. Philoxenus was exiled to Philippopolis in Thrace^, and afterwards to Gangra in Paphlagonia, where he was murdered about the year 523. The Jacobite Church commemorates him on 10th December, 1 B.O., ii. 15; oomp. the mention of him at Edessa by Joshua the Stylite in 498, Chronicle, ed. Wright, chap. xsx. 2 Ihid., pp. 17, 18. 5 He "wa.s living there when he wrote to the monks of Sgnrmin522; ^.tt, ii. 20. 74 SYRIAC LITERATURE. 18th February, and 1st April. Philoxenus, however, was something more than a man of action and of strife: he was a scholar and an elegant writer. Even Assemani, who never misses an opportunity of reviling him^ is obliged to ovm {B.O., ii. 20) " scripsit Syriace, si quis alius, elegantissime, atque adeo inter optimos hujusce linguEe scriptores a Jacobo Edesseno collocari meruit." [Until the recent edition of his homilies by Budge] scarcely any of his numerous works had been printed I To him the Syriac Church owed its first revised translation of the Scriptures (see above, p. 13); and he also drew up an anaphora^ and an order of baptism^ Portions of his commentaries on the Gospels are contained in two MSS. in the British Museum ^ Besides sundry sermons, he composed thirteen homilies on the Christian life and character, of which there are several ancient copies in the British Museum. [Of these homilies a fine edition by Budge has now appeared, based on the Brit. Mus. MSS. of 1 "Soelestissimushsereticiis'' (5.O., ii. 11); "flagitiosis- simus homo " (p. 12) ; " ecclesiam Dei tanquam ferus aper devastaverit" (p. 18). 2 B.O., ii. 23 sj. ; Wright, Caial, Index, p. 1315. 3 Eenaudot, ii. 310 ; B.O., ii. 24. 4 B.O., ii. 24. 5 Add. 17126, dated 511, and Add. 14534, probably of equal age. PHILOXENUS OF MABBOGH. 75 the 6th and 7th centuries ^] Of his controversial works the two most important are a treatise On the Trinity and the Incarnation in three discourses ^ and another, in ten discourses, showing " that one (Person) of the Trinity became incarnate and suffered^ " ; but there are many smaller tracts against the Nestorians and Dyophysites''. His letters are numerous and may be of some value for the ecclesiastical history of his time. Asse- mani enumerates and gives extracts from several of them^ but none of them have as yet been printed in full, with the exception of that to Abu Nafir of Herta (al-Hirah)^, to the monks of Tell-'Adda^ and to the priests Abraham and 1 [The Discourses of Philoxenus, Bishop of Mahhogh, A.D. 485-519, vol. i., London, 1894. Vol. ii., which is still in course of preparation, is to contain an English transla- tion, with illustrative extracts from the unpublished works of Philoxenus.] 2 The Vatican MS. (Assemani, Catal., iii. p. 217, No. cxxxvii.) is dated 564; see B.O., ii. %5sq. 3 B.O., ii. 27 «y. The Vatican MS. is dated 581; that in the British Museum Add. 12164 is at least as old. 4 See B.O., ii. 45, Nos. 15-17, and Wright, Catal, p. 1315. ^ B.O., ii. 30-46. Others may be found in Wright, Catal, p. 1315. ^ See Martin, Qrammatica Chrestomathia et Olossarium Linguw Syriacce, p. 71. ' Ign. Guidi, La Lettera di Filosseno ai Monad di Tell ^Addd {Teleda), Reale Accademia dei Lincei, anno cclxxxii., 76 SYEIAC LITERATURE. Orestes of Edessa regarding Stephen bar Stidh- aile^ Contemporary with Jacob of SSrugh and Philoxenus of Mabbogh was the pantheist Stephen bar Sudh-aile^, with whom both of these writers corresponded ^ and regarding whom the latter wrote the above-mentioned letter to the priests Abraham and Orestes. This man was the author of the work entitled The Book of Hierotheus, which he published under the name of Hiero- theus, the teacher of St Dionysius of Athens ^ and 1884-85, Rome, 1886. In the Ethiopic literature there is extant a book entitled FlUksSyus, i.e., Philoxenus, from the name of its author, "Philoxenus the Syrian, bishop of Manbag" (see, for example, Wright, Catal., p. 177). It is a series of questions and answers on the Paradise of Palladius, like the Syriac work described in Wright, Catal., p. 1078. 1 See B.O., ii. 30; Frothingham, Stephen bar Svdaili, p. 28 sq. 2 So in a MS. of the 7th oentiiry (Brit. Mus. Add. 17163; see Wright, Catal., p. 524). The MSS. of Bar- Hebraeus {Chron. Eccles., i. 221) have . . \ . mjn. or ■ ■ \ .i-n -^"t Assemani writes - - \ - y^x {Sudaili). " Hunt the deer " can of course be only a nickname of the father. See Frothingham, op. cit., p. 56 sq. ^ B.O., i. 303, ii. 32 ; comp. Bar-Hebrjeus, Chron. Eccles., i. 221. 1 B.O., ii. 120, 290, 302 ; Frothingham, op. cit., p. 63 sj. The existence of any Greek text seems to be very doubtful, see Frothingham, p. 70. JOSHUA THE STYLITE. 77 exercised a strong influence on the whole pseudo- Dionysian literature^ Theodosius, patriarch of Antioch (887-896), wrote a commentary on the Hierotheus^. Bar-Hebreeus too made copious ex- tracts from it, which he arranged and illustrated with a commentary chiefly derived from that of Theodosius^. At the same time with Jacob of SSrugh and Philoxenus, and in the same neighbourhood, lived one of the earliest and best of the Syrian histor- ians, the Stylite monk Yeshu' or Joshua. Of him we know nothing but that he originally belonged to the great convent of Zuknin near Amid, that at the beginning of the 6th century he was residing at Edessa, and that he dedicated his Chronicle of the Persian War * to an abbot named Sergius. His approving mention of Jacob' and Philoxenus* shows that he was a Monophysite. Joshua's Chronicle would have been entirely lost to us, had it not been for the thoughtfulness of a 1 B.O., iii. 1, 13; Frothingham, op. cit., pp. 2 and 81. 2 See MS. Brit. Mus. Add. 7189 (apparently the very copy used by Bar-Hebr8sus) ; Rosen, Gatal., p. 74 sq. ; Frothingham, op. cit., p. 84. 3 Brit. Mus. Or. 1017 (Wright, Catal, pp. 893-895) ; Bibl. Nation., Anc. fonds 138 (Zotenberg, Gatal., pp. 175- 176); Frothingham, op. cit., p. 87. * Ed. Wright, p. ix. * Ihid., chap. hv. " Ihid., chap. xxx. 78 SYRIAC LITERATURE. later writer, Dionysius of Tell-Mahre (d. 845), who incorporated it with his account of the reign of Anastasius in the smaller redaction of his own History. It was first made known to us by Assemani {Bihl. Orient., i. 260-283), who gave a copious analysis with some extracts ; and it is now generally acknowledged to be one of the best, if not actually the best, account of the great war between the Persian and Byzantine empires during the reigns of Kawadh and Anastasius (502-506)\ To the indefatigable Abb^ Martin belongs the credit of publishing the editio prin- ceps of the Syriac text^. The work was wi-itten in the year 507, immediately after the conclusion of the war, as is shown by the whole tone of the last chapter ; and it is much to be regretted that the author did not carry out his intention of continuing it, or, if he did, that the continuation has perished. The interest which Jacob of SSrugh took in every branch of literature was the means of bringing into notice a hymn-writer of humble 1 See, for example, the use that has been made of it in De Saint-Martin's notes to Lebeau's Hist, du Bas-empire, vol. vii. 2 Chroniquede JosvA le Stylite, 1876, in vol. vi. of the Ahhaoidlungen fur d. Kmide d. Morgeidandes. Another edition was published by Wright, The Chronicle, of Joshua the Stylite, 1882. SIMEON OF BETH ARSHAM. 79 rank, the deacon Simeon Kukaya, a potter by trade, as his name denotes. This man lived in the village of Geshir^, not far from the convent of Mar Bassus, and while he worked at his wheel composed hymns, which he wrote down on a tablet or a scroll, as might be convenient. Jacob heard of him from the monks, paid him a visit, admired his hymns, and took away some of them with him, at the same time urging the author to continue his labours^. A specimen of these Kuhdyatha has been preserved in the shape of nine hymns on the nativity of our Lord, Brit. Mus. Add. 14520, a MS. of the 8th or 9th century'. About the sanae time flourished Simeon, bishop of Beth Arsham^ commonly called Ddrosha Phdr- sdyd or " the Persian Disputant." This keen Monophysite'' was one of the few representatives 2 See the narrative by Jacob of Edessa in Wrigbt, Catal, p. 602; and comp. B.O., i. 121, ii. 322; Bar- Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., i. 191. 3 Wright, Catal, p. 363. * A village near Seleuoia and Ctesiphon ; Bar-Hebreeus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 85. 6 Assemani has tried to whitewash him, but with little success; B.O., i. 342 sj. If he had had before him the account of Simeon by John of Ephesus (Land, Anead. Syr., ii. 76-88), he would probably have abandoned the attempt 80 SYKIAC LITERATUEE. of his creed in the Persian territory, and exhibited a wonderful activity, mental and bodily, on behalf of his co-religionists, traversing the Babylonian and Persian districts in all directions, and disput- ing with Manichees, Daisanites, Eutychians, and Nestorians'. After one of these disputations, at which the Nestorian catholicus Babhai (498-503) was present '^j Simeon was made bishop, a dignity which he had declined on several previous occa- sions. He visited Herta (al-Hirah) more than once, and died during his third residence at Constantinople, whither he had come to see the empress Theodora ^ Assemani states, on the authority of Dionysius of Tell-Mahre, that he was bishop of Beth Arsham from 510 to 515, but the Syriac passage which he quotes merely gives the floruit of 510. If, however, the statements of John of Ephesus, who knew him personally, be coiTect, he was probably made bishop before 503, the date of Babhai's decease*. His death must have taken place before 548, in which year Theo- dora departed this life. Besides an anaphora ^ we in disgust. See Guidi, La Lettera di Simeoiie Vescovo di Beth-Ar^dm sopra i Martin Omeriti, 1881, pp. 4-7. 1 See Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eecles., ii. 85, i. 189 ; comp. B.O., i. 341, ii. 409, iii. 1, 403. '^ Land, Aiiecd. Syr., ii. 82, 1. 12. 3 Ibid., ii. 87, last line. ^ B.O., iii. 1, 427. ^ /j,v?., i. 345. JOHN BAE CURSUS. 81 possess only two letters of Simeon, which are both of considerable interest. The one is entitled On Bar-saunm and the Sect of the Nestorians'-; it deals with the origin and spread of Nestorianism in the East, but from the bitterest and narrowest sectarian point of view^- The other, which is much more valuable, is addressed to Simeon, abbot of Gabbula', and treats of the persecution of the Christians at Najran by Dhu Nuwas, king of al-Yaman, in the year 523*. It is dated 524, in which year the writer was himself at Herta (al-Hirah). To the same age and sect as Simeon belonged John bar Cursus {Kovpaosiy, bishop of Telia or 1 B.O., i. 346. 2 First printed in B.O., i. 346 sq., from the Vatican MS. cxxxv. {Catal., iii. 214). 5 Al-Jabbul. Or is it Jabbul, on the east bank of the Tigris, between an-Nu'manlyah and Wasit ? * First printed in B.O., i. 364 sj., according to the text offered by John of Ephesus in his History, There is, however, a longer and better text in a MS. of the Museo Borgiano and in Brit. Mus. Add. 14650, from which it has been reedited (with an excellent introduction, translation, and notes) by Guidi, La Lettera di Simeone, &c., Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1881. To this work the reader is referred for all the documents bearing on the subject. [Another edition of the text, following Guidi's, in (Bedjan's) Acta Martyrv/m el Sanctorum, i. 372 sq.1 5 The name of the father is also given as Curcus and Cyriacus. Assemani's Barsus {B.O., ii. 54) is a mis- reading. S. L. 6 82 SYRIAC LITERATURE. Constantina. He was a native of Callinicus (ar- Rakkah), of good family, and was carefully educated by his widowed mother, who put him into the army at the age of twenty. He would not, however, be hindered from quitting the service after a few years and becoming a monk. Subsequently, in 519, he was raised to the dignity of bishop of Telia, whence he was expelled by Justin in 521. In 533 he visited Constantinople, and on his return to the East was seized by his enemies in the mountains of Sinjar, and dragged to Nisibis, Ras'ain, and Antioch, where he died in 538, at the age of fifty-five, having been for a year and six days a close prisoner in the convent of the Comes Manasse by order of the cruel persecutor Ephraim, patriarch of Antioch (529-544). His life was written by his disciple Elias (of Dara ?)\ The Jacobite Church commemorates him on the 6th of February. Canons by John of Telia are extant in several MSS. in the British Museum and elsewhere ^ The questions put to him by Sergius with his replies have been published by Lamy". His creed or confession of faith, addressed I There are two copies in the British Museum, edited by Kleyn, Het Leven van Johannes van Telia door Elias, 1882 ; see also the Life by John of Asia in Land, Anecd. |fv%»7?, but a wholly different tractate in five short sections. It also contains Sergius's own treatise on logic, addressed to Theodore, which is unfortunately 1 There is a fragment of the Isagoge also in Brit. Mus. Add. 1618 (Wright, Gatal., p. 738). 2 In the Vatican MS. clviii. {Catal., iii. 306, No. vi.) this translation is wrongly ascribed to Jacob of Edessa, who could hardly have been more than a boy at the time when the MS. in the British Museum was transcribed. Besides, the -version is not in his style. The Paris MS. Anoien fonds 161 naturally repeats this mistake (Zoten- berg, Gatal., p. 202). In Gatal. Bibl. Palat. Medic, cod. cxcvi., it is likewise erroneously attributed to Honain ibn Ishak (comp. Renan, De Philos. Peripat. ap. Syros, p. 34, note 3). The Berlin MS. Alt. Best. 36 contains as No. 7 a treatise of Sergius on the Categories addressed to Phi- lotheus. 2 Edited by Lagarde, Anal. Syr., p. 134 sq. ■ see V. Ryssel, Ueher den textkritischen Werth d. syr. Uebersetz- imgen griechischer Klassiker, part i. 1880, part ii. 1881. In part i. p. 4 Professor Eyssel speaks of this version as " ein Meisterwerk der Uebersetzungskunst" ; and in part ii. p. 10 he says : " Die Uebersetzung der Schrift n-cpl koo-^iou schliesst sich aufs engste an den Text des griechischen Originales an. Dass wir deshalb diese Uebersetzung als eine im besten Sinne wortgetreue bezeichnen konnen, zeigt schon eine Vergleichung mit der lateinischen Bearbeitung des Apulejus von Madaura." This opinion serves to rectify the judgment of Ibn Abi Osaibi'ah (i. 204) that Sergius was only a mediocre translator, and that his work needed revision by the later Honain ibn Ishak. 92 SYRIAC LITERATURE. imperfect ; a tract on negation and affirmation ; a treatise, likewise addressed to Theodore, On the Causes of the Universe, according to the views of Aristotle, showing how it is a circle; a tract On Genus, Species, and Individuality; and a third tract addressed to Theodore, On tlie Action and Influence of the Moon, explanatory and illustrative of Galen's Yiepl Kpia-iixwv r^p.epwv, bk. iii.', with a short appendix "On the Motion of the Sun." Here too we find part (sections 11, 12) of his version of the Ars Grammatica of Dionysius Thrax, a larger portion (sections 11-20) being contained in Brit. Mus. Add. 14620 (Wright, Catal, p. 802)^ There is a scholion of Sergius on the term axvf^C' in the Brit. Mus. Add. 14660 (see Wright, Catal., p. 1162). In his capacity of physician, Sergius translated part of the works of Galen. Brit. Mus. Add. 14661 contains books vi.-viii. of the treatise De Simplicium Medicamen- torum Temper amentis ac Facultatihus (Wright, 1 See Sachau, Inedita Syr., pp. 101-126. ^ This identification is due to Merx; see Dionydi Thracis Ars Orarmnatica, ed. Uhlig, p. xliv. sq. ilerx has treated of an old, but independent, Armenian version in the same book, p. Ivii. sq. [The Syriac text is given in the appendix to Merx's Historia artis granmiaticae apiid Syros. Merx however maintains that the work was not translated by Sergius, and that several other of the contents of Brit. Mus. Add. 14658 are not his {op. cit., p. 7 sq.).'] SERGIUS OF RAS'aIN. 93 Gatal., p. 1187)', addressed to Theodore; and in Brit. Mus. Add. 17156 there are three leaves, two of whioh contain fragments of the Ars Medica, and one of the treatise Be Alimentorum Facidtat- ibus (Wright, Gatal., p. 1188)^ As one of the clergy, he wasted his time in making a translation of the works which passed under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite'- Brit. Mus. Add. 12151'' contains this version with the introduction and notes of Phocas bar Sergius of Edessa^ a writer of the 8th century, as appears from his citing Athanasius II. and Jacob of Edessa. In Brit. Mus. Add. 22370" we find Sergius's own introduction and the commentary of a later writer, Theodore bar Zarudil 1 See Merx's article in Z.D.M.O., xxxix. (1885), p. 237 sq. 2 See Sachau, Ined. Syr., pp. 88-94. ' See Frothingham, Stephen bar Sudaili, p. 3. 1 See Wright, Catal., p. 493. 5 B.O., i. 468. Assemani erroneously places him before Jacob of Edessa. 6 See "Wright, Catal., p. 500. ' There are also old MSS. of Sergitis's version in the Vatican; Catal., iii. Nos. cvii. (p. 56), ocliv. (p. 542). Bar-Hebreeus states {Hist. Dynast., p. 158; transL, p. 99) that Sergius translated into Syriac the Syntagma of the Alexandrian priest and physician Aaron, and added to it two books; but Steinschneider {Al-Fdratn, p. 166, note 2) says that this is a mistake, and that the real author of the two additional books was the Arabic translator Masarja- M SYEIAC LITERATURE. If Sergius was the Probus of the Monophysites, their Ma'na was Paul, bishop of Callinicus (ar- Rakkah)', who, being expelled from his see in 519, betook himself to Edessa and there devoted himself to the task of translating the works of Severus into Syriac. We know for certain^ that he edited versions of the correspondence of Severus and Julian of Halicarnassus on the corruptibility or incorruptibility of the body of Christ, with a discourse of Severus against Julian"; of the treatise against the Additions or Appendices of Julian^, and against the last apology of Julian^; waihi or Masarjis. The translator of the Geoponioa, Al-Faldhah ar Humiyah (Leyden, cod. 414 Warn. ; Catal., iii. 211) and joint translator of the VleyoK-q a-vvra^is of Ptolemy (Leyden, cod. 680 Warn. ; Catal., iii. 80), by name Serjis or Serjun (Sergius or Sergona) ibn ar-Roml, seems to be a quite different person of later date. 1 B.O., ii. 46. He is to be distinguished from his namesake and contemporary, Paul, bishop of Edessa, who ■was banished to Euchaita in 522 {B.O., i. 409-411), restored to his see in 526 {ihid., p. 413), and died in the following year ; whereas Paul of Callinicus was working at Edessa in 528 (see p. 135, infra). 2 Thanks in part to a note at the end of Cod. Vat. cxl. {Catal., iii. 223; comp. B.O., loc. cit.). 3 Completed in 528 ; Cod. Vat. cxl. ; Brit. Mus. Add. 17200 (Wright, Catal, p. 554). •> Cod. Vat. cxl. ; Brit. Mus. Add. 12158 (Wright, Catal., p. 556), dated 588. 6 Brit. Mus. Add. 12158. PAUL OF CALLINiCUS— L^ W8 OF TBE EMPER0R8. 95 of that against the Manichees ; and of the Phila- letlies^. Probably by him are the older translation of the Homilice Cathedrales'' and that of the correspondence of Sergius Grammaticus and Severus regarding the doctrine of the two natures in Christ', possibly, too, the translation of the treatise against John Grammaticus of Csesarea* and of some other works which are known to us only by a few scattered citations'. Hence he is called by the Jacobites Mephashshekand dhakhS- thabhe, " the Translator of Books*." This seems the proper place to make mention of a most important though anonymous work, the translation of the so-called Civil Laws of the Emperors Oonstantine, Theodosius and Leo, which lies at the root of all subsequent Christian Oriental legislation in ecclesiastical, judicial, and private ' There is a long extract from this work in Cod. Vat. cxl. (Caial., iii. 232). 2 Brit. Mus. Add. 14599, dated 569; Cod. Vat. cxlii., dated 576; oxliii., dated 563; colvi. s Brit. Mus. Add. 17154. 4 Brit. Mus. Add. 17210-11, 12157. 5 Compare, for example, Wright, Catal., p. 1323. The translation of the Octoechus is the work, not of Paul of Callinlcus, but of an abbot Paul, who executed it in the island of Cyprus (see p. 135 i?ifra). 8 The passage quoted by Assemani (B.O.,i. 409, note 2) seems, however, to confound him with his namesake of Edessa. 96 SYRIAC LITERATURE. matters'. The Syriac version, made from a Greek original, exists in two manuscripts^ the older of which undeniably belongs to the earlier part of the 6th century. The work itself appears, according to the researches of Bruns (op. cit., pp. 318-319), to date from the time of the emperor Basilicus (a.d. 475-477), who was a favourer of the Monophysites ; the Syriac translation is ascribed to a Monophysite monk of Mabbogh or Hierapolis (ibid., p. 155). The Paris MS. probably represents a Nestorian revision of the 9th or 10th century at (Baghdad) Baghdadh (ibid., p. 166). [A third Syriac recension, which must have differed very considerably from the other two, is known from an imperfect Cambridge MS.^] The oldest MS. of the secondary Arabic version is dated 1352 (ibid., p. 164), but it has been traced back to the time of the Nestorian lawyer 1 B.O., iii. 1, 267, note 6, 278, 338-339, 351, col. 2; comp. Bruns and Sachau, Syrisoh-Romisches Rechtshuch, 1880, pp. 175-180. 2 Brit. Mus. Add. 14528 (Wright, Catal., p. 177), and Paris, Suppl. 38 (Zotenberg, Catal., p. 75, col. 1, No. 46). The text of the former was first published by Land [A-mcd. Syr., i. 30-64), with a Latin translation. Both have been edited and translated, along with the Arabic and Armenian versions, with translations and a learned apparatus, by Bruns and Sachau, op. cit. 2 [Only the last four sections remain; printed (for private circulation) in Wright's Notuloe Syriacce, 1887.] ahu-dh'emmeh. 97 Abu 'l-Faraj 'Abdallah ibn at-Taiyib (who died 1043), whether made by him or not (ibid., p. 177). It belongs to the same class as the London Syriac, but is based on a better text, such as that of the fragment in Brit. Mus. Add. 18295 (ibid., p. 172)\ Of the secondaiy Armenian translation the same is to be said as of the Arabic. The oldest MS. of it dates from 1328, but it probably goes as far back as the end of the 12th century (ibid., p. 164). The Georgian version, of which there is a MS. at St Petersburg, is most likely an offshoot of the Armenian. Another scholar, besides Sergius, whom 'Abhd-isho' wrongly claims as a Nestorian, is Ahii-dh'emmeh, metropolitan of Taghrith (Tekrit). He appears, on the contrary, to have been the head of the Monophysites in the Persian territory. According to Bar-Hebraeus", he was appointed by Christopher, catholicus of the Armenians, to be bishop of Beth 'Arbaye^ but was promoted by Jacob Burde'ana in 559 to the see of Taghrith, where he ordained many priests and founded two monasteries. Among his numerous converts from heathenism was a youthful member of the 1 Wright, CataL, p. 1184. 2 Chron. Eoeles., ii. 99; comp. B.O., ii. 414, iii. 1, 192, note 3. 3 Ba-'arbaya, the district between Nislbis and the Tigris. S. L. 7 98 SYRIAG LITERATURE. royal family of Persia, whom he baptized by the name of George. This excited the anger of Khosrau I. Anosharwan, who ordered the bishop to be beheaded (2d August 575). As a writer Ahu-dh'emmeh seems to have been more of a philosopher than a theologian ^ He wrote against the Persian priesthood and against the Greek philosophers, a book of definitions, a treatise on logic, on freewill in two discourses, on the soul and on man as the microcosm, and a treatise on the composition of man as consisting of soul and body^. He is also mentioned by later authors as a writer on grammar^ [Here may be mentioned the MS'drath Gazze (' Cave of Treasures'), an original Syriac work, which, according to Bezold^ and Nbldeke", dates in all probability from the 6th century. It consists of an expansion of the early biblical history, somewhat after the manner of the Book of Jubilees. The substance of it has passed into the Ethiopic Book of Adam, the second and third parts of which agree with it in matter, though 1 B.O., iii. 1, 192. 2 Of this last part is extant in Brit. Mus. Add. 14620 (Wright, Catal., p. 802). 3 See B.O., iii. 1, 256, note 2; [cf. Merx, Rist. artis gramm. ap. Syros, p. 33 sq.\ * [i)ie SchaUhShle, vol. i. p. s. 5 In Literarisches Centralblatt for 1888, col. 234. ROMANCE OF JULIAN. 99 not verbally. The Syriac text has been edited by Bezold from four MSS.^ and accompanied by the old Arabic version^.] Early in the 6th century a monk of Edessa, whose name is unknown to us, tried his hand at the composition of a tripartite historical romance', — a history of Constantino and his three sons ; an account of Eusebius, bishop of Rome, and his sufferings at the hands of Julian the Apostate; and a history of Jovian or, as the Orientals usually call him, Jovinian, under Julian and during his own reign. The whole purports to be written by one Aploris or Aplolaris (Apollinarius ?), an official at the court of Jovian, at the request of 'Abhdel, abbot of Sndrun (?) Mahoza, with a view to the conversion of the heathens. All three parts contain but a very small quantity of histo- rical facts or dates, and deal in the grossest exaggerations and inventions. Yet the Syriac style is pure, and we gain from the book a good 1 Brit. Mus. Add. 25875 and 7199, Sachau MSS. 131, Cod. Vat. Syn. 164. 2 Die SchaUhohle,vol.u.,'Leipzig, 1888. Vol. i., published in 1882, contains a German translation from the Syriac : vol. iii., which has not yet appeared, is to furnish a general introduction. A review by Noldeke in Ziterar. Centralhl. for 1888, coll. 233-236.] 3 Contained in Brit. Mus. Add. 14641, ff. 1-131, a MS. of the 6th century. 7—2 100 SYEIAC LITERATURE. idea of the way in which the author's countrymen thought and spoke and acted. This romance has been published by Hoffmann \ and Ndldeke has given a full account of it, with an abridged translation, in Z.D.M.G., xxviii. p. 263 sq. He places the time of composition between 502 and 532. It is curious to find that this romance must have been known in an Arabic translation to the historian at-Tabari, who treats it as a genuine historical document^ From him it has passed to the Kdmil of Ibn al-Athir i. 283 sq., and the Akhbar al-Bashar of Abu 1-Fida {Hist. Anteis- laniica, ed. Fleischer, p. 84). Ibn Wadih al-Ya'kubi seems in his Amials^ to have drawn from the same source, though independently of at-Tabari, and so also al-Mas'udi, Muruj adh- Dhaliah, ii. 323. Bar-Hebrseus has also made some use of it in his Chronicon, ed. Bruns and Kirsch, pp. 68-69 ; [ed. Bedjan, pp. 63-64]. No doubt, too, it is the work attributed by 'Abhd-isho' to the grave ecclesiastical historian Socrates, who, as he says*, wrote "a history of the emperors Constantine and Jovinian." 1 Julianas der Abtriinnige, 1880. 2 At-Tabarl, Annales, i. 840 sq. ; see Noldeke, in Z.D.M.G., xxviii. 291-292, and Oeschichte der Perser und Araher zur Zeit der Sasaniden, p. 59 sq. 3 Ed. Houtsma, i. 182-183. * B.O., iii. 1, 41. CHRONICON EDESSENUM. 101 Another, but much inferior, romance, of which Julian is the hero, is contained in Brit. Mus. Add. 7192, a manuscript of the 7th century. It has been edited by Hoffmann, op. cit, pp. 242-259, and translated by Nbldeke, Z.D.M.G., xxviii. 660-674. We shall not be far wrong in assigning it likewise to the 6th century, though it is probably rather later than that just noticed. Of real historical value, on the contrary, is the anonymous Ghronicon Edessenum, fortunately preserved to us in the Vatican MS. clxiii.', and edited by Assemani in B.O., i. 388-417. [It has also been edited and translated into German by Hallier in Untersuchungen ilber die edessenische Chronik (Von Gebhardt and Harnack's Tewte und Untersuchungen, ix. 1, Leipzig, 1892).] There is an English translation of it in the Journ. of Sacred Lit, 1864, vol. V. (new ser.), p. 28 sq. It begins with A.Gr. 180, but the entries are very sparse till we reach A.Gr. 513 (202 A.D.). The last of them refers to the year 540, about which time the little book must have been compiled. The author made use of the archives of Edessa and other documents now lost to us, as well as of the Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite (see above, p. 77). In religious matters he is not a violent partisan, 1 See Catal., iii. 329. 102 SYRIAC LITERATURE. nor given to the use of harsh words, a thing to be noted in the age in which he lived. Another writer of first-rate importance as a historian is John, bishop of Asia or Ephesus, " the teacher of the heathen," "the overseer of the heathen," and "the idol-breaker," as he loves to style himself^. He was a native of Amid-, and must have beeu born early in the 6th century, according to Land about 505. He was ordained deacon in the convent of St John in 529, when he must have been at least twenty years of age ^ In 584 the terrible pestilence of the reign of Justi- nian broke out, and at that time John was in Palestine*, having, doubtless, fled from Amid to avoid the persecution of the Monophysites by Abraham bar Kill (?) of Telia, bishop of Amid (from about 520 to 546), and Ephraim bar Appian of Amid, patriarch of Antioch (529-544), "a much worse persecutor than Paul or Euphrasius^" In 535 we find him at Constantinople, where in the following year, according to Bar-Hebraeus*, he ' See Eccles. Hist, ed. Cureton, bk. ii. oh. 4, and bk iii. ch. 36 ; Land, Anecd. Syr., ii. 256, 1. 25. 2 B.O., ii. 83; Bar-Hebr»us, Chron. Eccles., i. 195. 5 B.O., ii.. Dissert, de Monophysitis, p. cxxv. ; Land, Anecd. Syr., 174, 11. 8, 9. ^ B.O., ii. 85-86. "" E.H., ed. Cureton, bk. i. ch. 41, comp. B.O., ii. 51. Chron. Eccles., i. 195. JOHN OF ASIA OR EPHESUS. 103 became bishop of the Monophysites in succession to the deposed Anthimus. Be this as it may, he was certainly received with great favour by Justinian, whose friendship and confidence he enjoyed for thirty years, and "had the admini- stration of the entire revenues of all the congre- gations of the believers {i.e., the Monophysites) in Constantinople and everywhere else'." Wishing to root out heathenism in Asia Minor, obviously for political as well as religious reasons, the emperor appointed John to be his missionary bishop I In this task he had great success, to which his faithful friend and fellow-labourer for thirty -five years, Deuterius, largely contributed'. He interested himself, too, in the missionary efforts of Julian, Theodore, and Longinus among the Nubians and Alodsei^. In 546 the emperor 1 E.H., ed. Cureton, bk. v. ch. 1. 2 Ibid., bk. ii. ch. 44; bk. iii. oh. 36, 37; comp. B.O., ii. 85. 3 E.H., ed. Cureton, bk. ii. ch. 44. * Ibid., bk. iv. ch. 6-8, 49-53 ; comp. Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Eocles., i. 229. How just his views were as a missionary may be seen from bk. iv. oh. 50, where he says "that it was not right that to an erring and heathen people, who asked to be converted to Christianity and to learn the fear of God, there should be sent by letter, before everything that was necessary for their edification, con- fusion and offence and the revilings of Christians against Christians." 104 SYRIAC LITERATURE. employed him in searching out and putting down the secret practice of idolatry in Constantinople and its neighbourhood'. After the death of his patron the fortunes of John soon underwent a change. Bk. i. of the third part of his History commences with the persecution under Justin in 571, in which he suffered imprisonment^. His friend Deuterius, whom he had made bishop of Caria, was also pei-secuted, and died at Constan- tinople^. From this time forward John's story is that of his party, and the evidently confused and disordered state of his History is fully explained and excused by his own words in bk. ii. 50, where he tells us^ " that most of these histories were written at the very time when the persecution was going on, and under the difiSculties caused by its pressure ; and it was even necessary that friends should remove the leaves on which these chapters were inscribed, and every other particle of writing, and conceal them in various places, where they sometimes remained for two or three years. When therefore matters occurred which 1 B.O., ii. 85. 2 E.H., ed. Cureton, bk. i. oh. 17; bk. ii. ch..4-7. Of unjust legal proceedings he complains in bk. ii. ch. 41, where he loses his Trpoaa^eiov, &c, ' E.H., ed. Cureton, bk. ii. ch. 44. * Payne Smith's translation, p. 163. JOHN OF ASIA OR EPHESUS. 105 the writer wished to record, it was possible that he might have partly spoken of them before, but he had no papers or notes by which to read and know whether they had been described or not. If therefore he did not remember that he had recorded them, at some subsequent time he probably again proceeded to their detail ; and therefore occasionally the same subject is recorded in more chapters than one ; nor afterwards did he ever find a fitting time for plainly and clearly arranging them in an orderly narrative." Some of the chapters are actually dated at various times from A.Gr. 886 (575 A.D.) to 896 (585). The time and place of his death are unknown, but he cannot have lived long after 685, being then about eighty years of age'. His greatest literary work is his Ecclesiastical History in three parts, the first two of which, as he himself tells us^ embraced, in six books each, the period from Julius Caesar to the seventh year of Justin II., whilst the third, also in six books, carried on the tale to the end of the author's life. The first part is entirely lost. Of the second we have copious excerpts in the Chronicle of Dionysius of Tell- 1 See Land, Joannes Bisckof von Ephesos, der erste Syrische Kirchenhistoriker, 1856. A very useful book. 2 E.H... ed. Cureton, bk. i. ch. 3. 106 SYRIAC LITERATURE. Mahre* and in two MSS. in the British Museum^. The third has fortunately come down to us, though with considerable lacunas, in Brit. Mus. Add. 14640 (of the 7th century)'. This book is worthy of all praise for the fulness and accuracy of its information and the evident striving of the author after impartiality. The Syriac style, however, is very awkward and involved, and abounds in Greek words and phrases. Of scarcely less value for the history of his own time is another work entitled Biographies of Eastern Saints, men and women, contained in Brit. Mus. Add. 14647, S. 1-135*. These lives were gathered into one corpus about 569, as appears from the account of the combi- nation of the monasteries of Amid during the persecution of 521, which was put on paper in 1 B.O., ii. 100; comp. pp. 85-90. 2 Add. 14647 (dated 688), ff. 136-139 : Add. 146.50 (dated 875), ff. 189-206. Edited by Land, Anecd. Sp:, ii. 289-329 and 385-391. See also a small fragment, ibid., 363, from Add. 12154, f. 201b. 3 Edited by Cureton, 1853. There is an English trans- lation by R. Payne Smith, 1860, and a German one by Schonfelder, 1862. ^ Edited by Land, Anecd. Syr., ii. 1-288. [These and the fragments of E.H. printed in Anecd. Syr. have also been translated into Latin by van Douwen and Land, Cmn- mentarii de heatis orientalibics et historiae eccles. froymmita, Amsterdam, 1889.] ZACHARIAS RHETOR. lOT 567\ and from the history of the convent of St John, extending from its foundation in 389 to 568^ To these lives Land has added three more, which are ascribed in MSS. to John, but do not seem to have been included in this collection'. The name of Zacharias Rhetor or Scholasticus, bishop of Mitylene in Lesbos*, must next be mentioned, for, though a Greek author, his work has entered into the Syriac literature as part of a compilation by a Syrian monk. The Ecclesiastical History of Zacharias seems to have terminated about the year 518, whereas his Syriac translator was writing as late as 569 ^ and even later. The MS. in the British Museum, Add. 17202°, cannot be younger than the beginning of the 7th century, and is clearly the compilation of a Monophysite, who used Zacharias as his chief authority in books iii.-vi.; whereas books i., ii., and vii.-xii. were 1 Anecd. Syr., ii. 212, 1. 17; see also p. 191, last two lines. 2 Ihid., ii. 288, 11. 2, 3. 3 Ihid., ii. 343-362. That of Jacob BurdS'ana {ibid., p. 364) is not his, at least in its present shape (see above, p. 85). There is a slightly different redaction of it in the Bibl. Nation, at Paris, Anc. fonds 144 (Zotenberg, Catal., p. 187). * See Land, Joannes Bischof von Ephesos, p. Zbsq., and Anecd. Syr., iii.. Preface. 6 Land, Anecd. Syr., iii. pp. xi., xii., and p. 5, 1. 21 sq. See Wright, Catal, p. 1046 sq. 108 SYRIAC LITERATURE. gathered from different sources, such as Moses of Aggel (about 550-570), Simeon of Beth Arsham (see above, p. 79 sq.), Mara of Amid (see above, p. 83), the correspondence of Julian of Halicamassus and Severus of Antioch (see above, p. 94), the history of John of Ephesus^ &c. In a Syriac MS. in the Vatican (No. cxlv.)^ we find a series of extracts from this Syriac work (f. 78 sq.) as a continuation of copious excerpts from the Greek histories of Socrates and Theodoret. The last of these, on the public buildings, statues, and other decorations of the city of Rome, has been carefully re-edited and annotated by Guidi'. [The Syriac version of the life of Severus of Antioch, by Zacharias Rhetor, has been edited by Spanuth from Sachau MS. 321 (Gottingen, 1893).] '■ Not a few chapters in books vii.-x. seem to be derived, in part at any rate, from the second part of the Ecclesiastical History. 2 Catal., iii. 253; B.O., ii. 54 sj.; Mai, Soriptorum Veterum Nova CoUectio, x. pp. xi.-xiv., 332-388. The MS.! which Assemani calls " pervetustus, Syriacis literis strong- hylis exaratus " (p. 253), is not likely to be earlier than the middle of the 8th centmy, as it contains a work of the patriarch Elias, who sat from 708 to 728. 3 11 Testa Siriaco della Descridone di Roma, &c., from the Bullettino della Co^nmissione Archeologica di Roma, fasc. iv. anno 1884 (Rome, 1885). It is also extant in a shorter form in Brit. Mus. Add. 12154, f. 158a (see Wright, Catal, p. 984; Guidi, p. 235 sj.). JOHN SABHA. 109 We turn from the historians to the ascetic writers of this century, who seem to have been more prized by their countrymen, though far less valuable to us. And first we mention the author who is commonly called John Sabha^ or " the- Aged," placing him here on the authority of Assemani {B.O., i. 433), for 'Abhd-isho' claims him as a Nestorian {B.O., iii. 1, 103). His floruit is given as about 550. His writings consist of short sermons or tracts, exclusively intended for the training and study of monks and coenobites, and a number of letters. 'Abhd-isho' Hoc. cit.) says : "he composed two volumes, besides mourn- ful epistles, on the monastic life." They were 1 There is some uncertainty about his name. In B.O., i. 434, Assemani gives \t i \-»» 001 _J_kjQ_i, John of Dilaita, which, he says (p. 433), is a convent at Nineveh, on the opposite bank of the Tigris from Mosul. In vol. iii. 1, 103 he prints aiAj_i.J> 001 ,_l_»jQ_., which he renders Joannes Daliathensis, i.e., from ad-Daliyah, AJtjJt, prob- ably meaning Daliyat Malik ibn Tauk, on the right bank of the Euphrates below ar-Rakkah and Rahbat Malik ibn Tauk. In the Vatican Catalogue he calls him Daliathensis, writing, however, in Syriac 1Aj_^jJ>. But how can OiAj^JJ mean " of ad-Daliyah " (] i i \>)? Following the analogy of i-iOlClilADJ u^l^D, ■.^OlOTrCQ? _-J-»oaj, and the like, it ought rather to mean " John of the Vine- Branches,'' or "John with the Varicose Veins," or (as in Arabic) "John of the Buckets." 110 SYRIAC LITERATURE. collected^ by his brother, who has prefixed a brief apology, at the end of which the reader may find a curious example of affected humility {B.O., i. 435)1 Two short specimens of the style of "the spiritual old man," ash-Shaikh ar-ruham, are printed in Zingerle's Monumenta Syr., i. 102-104. A little junior to John Sabha was the even more widely known Isaac of Nineveh^ to whom the Nestorians also lay claim^ His date is fixed, as Assemani points out, by the facts of his citing Jacob of Serugh and corresponding with Simeon Stylites the younger or Thaumastorites, who died in 593. According to the Arabic biography, printed in B.O., i. 444, he was a monk of the convent of Mar Matthew at Mosul, and afterwards became bishop of that city, but soon resigned his office and retired to the desert of Skete in Egypt, where he composed his ascetic works. According to 'Abhd-isho' (B.O., iii. 1, 104), Isaac "wrote 1 See Wright, Catal., p. 863, J. In the B.O., i. 434, Assemani gives an Arabic version of it from a Vatican MS. 2 For a list of them in Syriac and Arabic, see B.O., i. 435-444, and comp. Wright, Catal., pp. 582, 584, 860, 870 (No. 16). There is also an Ethiopic version, Aracfdm ManfasCni'i, made from the Arabic ; see Zotenberg, Catal. des MSS. Mhiopiens de la Bibl. Xation., Xo. 115, p. 134. 3 B.O., i. 444. < Ihid., iii. 1, 104. ISAAC OF NINEVEH. — ABRAHAM OF NEPHTAR. Ill seven volumes on the guidance of the Spirit, and on the Divine mysteries and judgements and dispensation." Many of his discourses and epistles have been catalogued by Assemani, B.O., i. 446- 460. The MS. Vat. cxxiv. contains the first half of his writings (Catal., iii. 143), and similarly MSS. Brit. Mus. Add. 14632 and 14633^ The Arabic translation is divided into four books ; the Ethiopic is naturally derived from the Arabic. A Greek version was made from the original Syriac by two monks of St Saba, near Jerusalem, named Patricius and Abraamius, on which see Assemani, B.O., i. 445, and Bickell, Conspectus, p. 26. The only printed specimens of his discourses are two in Zingerle's Monumenta Syr., i. 97-101 ; [and three which have been edited and translated into Latin by Chabot as an appendix to his essay De S. Isaaci Ninivitae Vita, Scriptis et Boctrina, Paris, 1892]. Another author of this class, but of less mark, is Abraham of Nephtar^, who flourished towards the end of the 6th century and in the early part of the 7th^ Him too the Nestorians claim as 1 Wright, Catca., pp. 569, 576. 2 Also written Nethpar and Nephrath ; see Assemani, Catal. Vat., iii. 138. But, as we can find no trace of any such town as Nephtar, the name of fjJAsu may have some other origin. 3 B.O., iii. 1, 191, note 1. 112 SYRIAC LITERATURE. theirs ^ 'Abhd-isho' speaks of "various works" of his^ but our libraries seem to contain only eight short discourses, the titles of which are given by Assemani, B.O., i. 464^. They have been trans- lated into Arabic, and there was also a Persian version of them by Job the monk (B.O., iii. 1, 431). We record here the name of Moses of Aggel as being one of those who, after Rabbula, under- took the translation of the writings of Cyril of Alexandria into Syriac. He made a version of the Glaphyra, at the request of a monk named Paphnutius, from whose letter* we learn that the treatise On Worship in Spirit and in Truth had been already translated ^ whilst from the reply of Moses, as quoted in B.O., ii. 82-83, it is obvious that he was writing after the death of Philoxenus and the chorepiscopus Polycarp. Hence we may place him soon after the middle of the century, say from 550 to 570. Much later he cannot be, 1 Compare "Wright, CataL, p. 187, No. 154. 2 B.O., iii. 1, 191. 3 There seem to bo ten in Cod. Vat. ccccxix. ; see Mai, Smptt. Vet. Nova Coll., v. 65. * Cod. Vat. cvii. {CataL, iii. 53); Quidi, Bendiconti della R. Aocademia dei Lincei, May and June, 1886, p. 399 sg. 6 Brit. Mus. Add. 12166, fF. 155-258, bears date 553 (Wright, Catal, p. 491). PETER OF CALLINiCUS. 113 because his translation of the History of Joseph and Asyath (see above, p. 25) has been admitted into the Syriac compilation that passes under the name of Zacharias Khetor (see above, p. 107)^ Peter of Callinlcus (ar-Rakkah), Jacobite patriarch of Antioch, 578-591 ^ deserves mention on account of his huge controversial treatise against Damian, patriarch of Alexandria, manu- scripts of parts of which, of the 7th and 8th centuries, are extant in the Vatican and the British Museum^. Other writings of his are an anaphora^ a short treatise against the Tritheists', sundry letters", and a metrical homily on the Crucifixion of our Lord'. In the dispute between him and Damian was involved his syncellus and successor Julian, who defended Peter against an 1 Of the Vatican MS. of the Olaphyra only five leaves remain {Catal., iii. 54), and the MS. in the British Museum, Add. 14555, is very imperfect (Wright, Catal., p. 483). As Guidi has shown, these two MSS. are merely the disjecta membra of one codex. 2 B.O., ii. 69, 332 ; Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eocles., i. 250. 5 B.O., ii. 77-82; comp. Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Secies., i. 257. « B.O., ii. 77. 6 Brit. Mus. Add. 12155, f. 231b (Wright, Catal., p. 951). 6 Wright, Catal, p. 1314. '' Brit. Mus. Add. 14591 (Wright, Catal., p. 671). S. L. 8 114 SYRIAC LITERATURE. attack made upon him by Sergius the Armenian, bishop of Edessa, and his brother John*. Of the numerous Nestorian writers of the 6th century we unfortunately know but little more than can be learned from the catalogue of 'Abhd- isho'. Their works have either been lost, or else very few of them have as yet reached our European libraries. The successor of Narsai (above, p. 58) in the school of Nisibis was his sister's son Abraham-, who must have fled from Edessa with his uncle^. His principal writings are commentaries on Joshua, Judges, Kings, Ecclesiasticus, Isaiah, the twelve minor prophets, Daniel, and the Song of Songs^ To him succeeded as teacher John, also a disciple of Narsai^ He wrote commentaries on 1 B.O., ii. 333; Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. jEcdes., i. 259. 2 B.O., iii. 1, 71. Assemani would seem to have confounded him with a later Abraham of Beth Rabban; see his note, B.O., iii. 1, 631. 2 There seems to be no reason for identifying him with Abraham "the Mede," whom Simeon of Beth Arsham nicknames "the Heater of Baths" {B.O., i. 352). * The hymn appended to Nestorian copies of the Psalter probably pertains to this Abraham and not to the later Abraham of Beth Rabban (see, for example, Brit. Mus. Add. 7156, f 157 b); comp. Bickell, Conspectm, p. 37, and Hoffmann, Opusc. Nestor., xi., note 2. ^ B.O., iii. 1, 72. Here again Assemani seems to have mixed up this John with a later John of Beth Rabban and JOHN OF NISlBIS. — JOSEPH HtJZAYA. 115 Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, Job, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Proverbs ; also controversial treatises against the Magi or Persian priesthood, the Jews, and (Christian) heretics ; a book of questions on the Old and New Testaments ; and various hymns. If the discourses on the plague at Nisibis^ and the death of Khosrau I. Anosharwan be really by him, he was alive as late as 579, in the spring of which year that monarch died°. John was followed by Joseph Huzaya', another disciple of Narsai^ and the first Syriac grammar- with John Sabha of Beth Garmai ; see his additional notes in B.O., iii. 1, 631, 708. ^ During the time of the catholics Joseph and Ezekiel, from 552 to 578; see B.O., ii. 413, 433, note 2. 2 The hymn in the Nestorian MSS. of the Psalter (mentioned in note 4, p. 114) is probably by this John and not by the later John of Beth Rabban ; comp. Hoffmann's note referred to above. The monastery of Rabban ZSkha- Isho' (or isho'-zSkha) in Dasen was not founded till about 590, and Zgkha-Isho' himself did not die tiU the thirteenth year of Khosrau II. Parwez, 603; see B.O., iii. 1, 472. ^ I.e., of al-Ahwaz or Khuzistan. He must not be confounded with Joseph Hazzaya, of whom we shall speak hereafter (see p. 128 infra). " Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eoeles., ii. 78, says that Joseph Huzaya was the immediate successor of Narsai ; but the Nestorian writer cited by Assemani {B.O., iii. 1, 64) is likely to be better informed. The passage quoted ibid., p. 82, points in the same direction; comp. also B.O., iii. 2, cmxxvii. 8—2 116 SYRIAC LITERATURE. ian. Of him Bar-Hebraeus observes^ that "he changed the Edessene (or Western) mode of reading into the Eastern mode which the Nesto- rians employ ; otherwise during the whole time of Narsai they used to read like us Westerns.'' He was the inventor of some of the Syriac signs of interpunction^, and wrote a treatise on grammar^ and another on words that are spelled with the same letters but have different mean- ings ^ Of Mar-abha'^ the Elder, catholicus from 536 to 552, we have already spoken above as a translator of the Scriptures (p. 19). He was a convert from the Zoroastrian religion, and seems to have been a man of great talent and versatility, as he mastered both the Greek and Syriac languages. Receiving baptism at Herta (al-Hii-ah) from a teacher named Joseph, he went for the purposes of study to Nisibis, and afterwards to 1 Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 78 ; comp. B.O., ii. 407. 2 See Wright, Catal., p. 107, col. 2. Assemani {B.O., iii. 1, 64, ool. 2) has mistranslated the words ^^ hJu >> x... Z> >»lakUJI ky.«^Uc Comp. Hofl&Qann, Opitsc. Nestor., viii., xi.; [Merx, Hist, artis gramm. ap. Syros, p. 28, sq.l 3 Berlin, Royal Library, Sachau 226, 4. * Bar-Hebr£eus, (Euvres grammatic ales, ed. Martin, ii. 77. "> Properly Mar(l)-abha, but we shall write Mar-abha. MAR-ABHA I. 117 Edessa, where he and his teacher Thomas' translated into Syriac the liturgy of Nestorius^ They visited Constantinople together, and, escap- ing thence at some risk of their lives, betook themselves to Nisibis, where Mar-abha became eminent as a teacher. On being chosen catholicus he opened a college at Seleucia and lectured there. Unluckily, he got into controversy, it is said, with the Persian monarch Khosrau I. Anosharwan (531-579), who banished him to Adharbaigan (Azerbijan) and destroyed the Nestorian church beside his palace at Seleucia. Mar-abha, however, had the temerity to return to Seleucia, was thrown by the king into prison, and died there ^. His dead body was carried by one of his disciples to Herta, where it was buried and a monastery erected over the grave. He wrote ■' commentaries on Genesis, the Psalms, and Pro- verbs, and the epistles of St Paul to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 Probably the same who is mentioned among his disciples in B.O., ii. 412, and some of whose writings are envimerated by 'Abhd-Isho" in B.O., iii. 1, 86-7. 2 So 'Abhd-Isho' in B.O., iii. 1, 36; but in Brit. Mus. Add. 7181 the same remark is made as to the litm'gy of Theodore of Mopsuestia (see Rosen, Catal, p. 59). 3 B.O., ii. 411-412, iii. 1, 75, notes 1, 2; Bar-Hebraeus, Chroii. Eccles., ii. 89-95. * 5.0, iii. 1, 75. 118 SYEIAC LITERATURE. and Hebrews ; various homilies ; synodical epi- stles^; and ecclesiastical canons I In these last he opposed the practice of marriage at least among the higher orders of the clergy, the bishops and catholics. What is meant by his " canones in totum Davidem " may be seen from such MSS. of the Psalter as Brit. Mus. Add. 7156' and Munich, cod. Syr. 4 (Orient. 147)*. Hymns of his are also extant^ Under Mar-abha flourished Abraham of Kash- kar (al-Wasit), distinguished for his acquaintance with philosophy and for his ascetic virtues. He introduced certain reforms into the Persian monasteries. After living for some time in a cave at Hazzah", he betook himself to Jerusalem and thence to Egypt. Returning to his old haunt, he led the life of a hermit for thirty years, travelling into the far north as a missionary. He died at Hazzah, but his body was secretly 1 B.O., iii. 1, 76, note 4. 2 Ihid., iii. 1, 81, and note 1 ; comp. Cod. Vat. occvi. in Mai, Sa-iptt. Vett. Nova Coll., v. 21. 5 Kosen, Catal., p. 12. ^ Verseichniss d. orient. HMidschriften d. k. Hof- u. Staats-Bibl., &c., p. 111. ^ See Bickell, Conspectus, p. 37, and comp. Brit. Mus. Add. 17219, f. 165b (beg., Gloiy to Thee, Lord; how good Thou art!). '^ A village near Arbel or Irbil, in Hgdhaiyabh. ABRAHAM OF KASHKAR. — THEODORE OF MERV. 119 removed to his native place Kashkar. He wrote a treatise on the monastic life, which was trans- lated into Persian by his disciple Job the monk\ He must, it would seem, be distinguished from another Abraham of Kashkar, who lived about the same time, and with whom Assemani has confounded him I This Abraham was a student at Nisibis under Abraham the nephew of Narsai. Thence he went to Herta (al-Hirah), where he converted some of the heathen inhabit- ants, visited Egypt and Mount Sinai, and finally settled down as a hermit in a cave on Mount Izla, near Nisibis, where a great number of followers soon gathered about him and a large monastery was built. He introduced stricter rules than heretofore among the coenobites'. His death did not take place till towards the end of the century^. Theodore, bishop of Maru or Merv, was appointed to this see by Mar-abha in place of David, whom he had deposed, about 540. He seems to have been much addicted to the study of the Aristotelian dialectics, since several of the translations and treatises of Sergius of Ras'aio ' B.O., iii. 1, 155, col. 1, 431 ; iii. 2, docclsxiii. ^ Comp. B.O., iii. 1, 154, note 4, with Hoffmann, Auszilge, p. 172. 3 B.O., iii. 1, 93. * See Hofiinann, loc. oit. 120 SYEIAC LITERATURE. are dedicated to him^. Among his own works^ there is mentioned "a solution of the ten questions of Sergius." He also composed a commentary on the Psalms and a metrical history of Mar Eugenius and his companions^ who came from Klysma and introduced asceticism into Mesopo- tamia about the beginning of the 4th century. What may have been the contents of the "liber varii argumenti" which he wrote at the request of Mar-abha himself it is hard to guess, in the default of any copy of it. Theodore's brother Gabriel, bishop of Hor- mizdsher^ is stated by 'Abhd-isho'^ to have written two controversial books against the 1 See Brit. Mus. Add. 14658 (Wright, CataZ., p. 1154); Eenan, De Philosophia Peripat. ap. Syros, p. 29. 2 B.O., \ii. 1, 147. 2 See B.O., iii. 1, 147, note 4, and 633; iii. 2, dccolxii. ; Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Ecoles., i. 85, with note 5 ; Hoffmann, Auszilge, p. 167. If the poem mentioned by Assemani {B.O., iii. 1, 147, note 4) really speaks of Abraham of Kashkar and still more of Babhai of Nislbis, it must be of later date, and Hoffmann is inclined to ascribe it to George Warda, a writer of the 13th century (see Ausziige, p. 171, note 1327). * A corruption of Hormizd-Ardasher, still further shortened by the Arabs into Hormushlr. It is identical with Suk al-Ahwaz, or simply al-Ahwaz, on the river Karun. See Noldeke, Gesch. d. Perser u. Araher, p. 19, with note 5. 5 B.O., iii. 1, 147. JOSEPH OF SELEUCIA. 121 Manichees and the Chaldseans (astrologers), as also about 300 chapters on various passages of Scripture which needed elucidation and expla- nation. The successor of Mar-abha in the see of Seleucia was Joseph, in 552. He studied medicine in the West and practised in Nisibis, where he lived in one of the convents. Having been introduced by a Persian noble to the notice of Khosrau I., he cured that monarch of an illness, and ingratiated himself with him so much that he favoured his appointment to the office of catholicus. Of his strange pranks and cruelties as archbishop some account, doubtless highly coloured, may be read in B.O., iii. 1, 432-433, and Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 95-97. He was deposed after he had sat for three years, but he lived twelve years longer, during which time no successor was appointed. He promulgated twenty-three canons^ and, according to Elias, bishop of Damascus (893)^, after his deposition drew up a list of his predecessors in the dignity of catholicus, wherein he would seem to have paid special attention to those who had shared the 1 B.O., iii. 1, 435. Elias bar Shinaya cites his "synod"; see Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 96, note 1. 2 In his Nomocanon, quoted by Assemani, B.O., iii. 1, 434. 122 SYEIAC LITERATURE. same fate with himself. At least Bar-Hebraeus^ (perhaps not a quite trustworthy witness in this case) gives currency to the charge of his having forged the consolatory epistles of Jacob of Nisibis and Mar Ephraim to Papa of Seleucia on his deposition. A little later in the century, under the sway of his successor Ezekiel (a disciple of Mar-abha and the son-in-law of his predecessor Paul), 567- 580 ^ there flourished Paul the Persian', of Dershar or Dershahr*, a courtier of Khosrau I. Anosharwan'^- He is said by Bar-Hebreeus" to have been distinguished alike in ecclesiastical and philosophical lore, and to have aspired to the post of metropolitan bishop of Persis, but, being disappointed, to have gone over to the Zoroastrian religion. This may or may not be true ; but it is certain that Paul thought more of knowledge than faith, for thus he speaks': "Scientia enim 1 Chron. Eccles., ii. 31. 2 See B.O., iii. 1, 435-439; Bar-Hebrajus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 97, 103. ' B.O., iii. 1, 439 ; Renan, i)e Philos. Peripat. ap. Syros, pp. 16-22. ' r->r->?! A place not known to the present writer. ^ See Noldeke, Oesch. d. Perser u. Araber, p. 160, note 3. " Chron. Eccles., ii. 97. ' In the Preface to his Logic, as translated by Land (see note 3, p. 123). PAUL THE PERSIAN. — BODH. 123 agit de rebus proximis et manifestis et quae sciri possunt, fides autem de omnibus materiis qu.-e remotse sunt, neque conspiciuntur neque certa ratione cognoscuntur. Hsec quidem cum dubio est, ilia autem sine dubio. Omne dubium dissensionera parit, dubii absentia autem unani- mitatem. Scientia igitur potior est fide, et illam prae hac eligendum est." Bar-Hebraeus speaks of Paul's "admirable introduction to the dialectics (of Aristotle)^" by which he no doubt means the treatise on logic extant in a single MS. in the Brit. Mus.^ It has been edited, with a Latin translation and notes, by Land I About this same time Assemani^ places the periodeutes Bodh, who is said to have had the charge of the Christians in the remoter districts of the Persian empire as far as India. Among his writings are specified " discourses on the faith and against the Manichees and Marcionites," as well as a book of "Greek questions," probably philosophical, bearing the strange title of Aleph Migin^. All these have perished, but his name 1 Chron. Eccles., ii. 97. 2 Add. 14660, f. 55 b; see "Wright, Catal., p. 1161. 3 Anecd. Syr., iv., Syr. text, pp. 1-32 ; transl., pp. 1-30 ; notes, pp. 99-113. * B.O., iii. 1, 219. ^ Assemani, loo. cit., note 1, proposes to read Aleph Mellin, "the Thousand Words" ; but Aleph 3Iigln is more 124 SYRIAC LITERATURE. will go down to remote posterity as the translator into Syriac of the collection of Indian tales commonly called Kalllah and Dimnah^. Of this work a single copy has come down to our time, preserved in an Oriental library. A transcript of it was first procured by BickelP, who, in conjunc- tion with Benfey, edited the book (Leipsic, 1876); and since then three additional copies of the same original have been got by Sachau'. That Bodh made his Syriac translation from an Indian (Sanskrit) original, as 'Abhd-isho' asserts, is wholly unlikely ; he no doubt had before him a Pahlavi or Persian version*. Just at this period the Nestorian Church ran a great risk of disruption from an internal schism. Hannana of HSdhaiyabh, the successor of Joseph Huzaya in the school of Nisibis [and the author of a revision of its statutes published in 590 under the metropolitan Simeon]', who had, it is likely to be a corruption of some Greek word. [According to Steinschneider it is to aX(\>a jxiyav, i.e., Book A of the Metaphysics of Aristotle.] 1 The Syriac title keeps the older forms Kalilagh and 2 Gottingen, university library, MS. Orient. 18d. 3 Berlin, Royal Library, Sachau 139, 149, 150. * See Keith-Falconer, Kalllah and Dimnah, Introd., xlii. sq. ^ [See Guidi, Sauola di Xisibi, p. 4. Earlier writers, who had access only to an imperfect Arabic redaction of the H ANN ANA OF hEdHAIYABH. 125 said, a following of 800 pupils ^ had dared to assail the doctrines and exegesis of Theodore of Mop- suestia and to follow in some points those of Chrysostom^ During the time of the catholicus Ezekiel (567-580)'' he brought forward his theo- logical views, which were condemned at a synod held under the next catholicus, Isho'-yabh of Arzon (581-595)^, and at another synod presided over by his successor, Sabhr-isho' (596-604) ^ On the death of this latter a struggle took place between the rival factions, the orthodox Nestor- ians putting forward as their candidate Gregory of Tell-Besme', bishop of Nisibis, whilst the others supported Gregory of Kashkar, a teacher in the school of Mahoze or SSlik (Seleucia)'. The inflvience of the Persian court decided the statutes have confused this revision with the later and final edition of the statutes published under the metro- politan Aha-dh'abt3.(hi), a.d. 602. Guidi's documents have made it necessary to omit or change a few words in this paragraph.] 1 B.O., iii. 1, 81, note 2, 437. 2 lUd., iii. 1, 84, note 3. 8 Ibid., a. 413; iii. 1,435. * Ihid., ii. 415, iii. 1, 108; Bar-Hebrseus, C7m-o?i. ^ec^es., ii. 105, note 3. 5 B.O.,u. 415; iii. 1,82, 441. 8 Not aromatarius, as Assemani translates Besmdyd. ' B.O., ii. 416; iii. 1, 449. We need not believe the statements of Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 107. 126 SYRIAC LITERATUEK. matter in favour of the latter, who was a persona grata in the eyes of the queen Shirin and her physician Gabriel of Shiggar (Sinjar)^ a keen Monophysite, who naturally availed himself of this opportunity to harm the rival sect of Christians^. Gregory was not, however, a partisan of Hannana, but an orthodox Nestorian, as appears from the account given of the synod over which he pre- sided ^ by which the Nicene creed was confirmed, the commentaries of Theodore of Mopsuestia approved, and the memory and writings of Bar- sauma vindicated against his assailants. He died at the end of three years (607), and the archiepis- copal see remained vacant till after the murder of Khosrau II. Parwez in 628, during which time of persecution Babhai the archimandrite distinguished himself as the leader and guide of the Nestorian Church. In the overthrow of 1 See B.O., ii. 404-406, 416, 472; Bar-Hebraeus, Ch,-on. Secies., ii. 109; Noldeke, Oesch. d. Perser u. Araber, p. 358, in the note; Hoffmann, Amziige, pp. 118-121. ^ [But according to the Syriao chronicle published by Oiiidi at the Stockholm Congress, the court favourite, who was elected catholicus, was Gregory of Pordth (a place near Basra), whereas Gregory of Kaskkar was the unsuccessful candidate of the orthodox Nestorians. See Xoldeke, Die von Guidi herausgegebene syrische Chroaik (Vienna, 1893), pp. 18, 19 (in Sitzungsber. d. hauerlichen Akad. der Wtssenschaften).'] 3 B.O., iii. 1, 452. HANNANA. — JOSEPH HAZZAYA. 127 Khosrau the oppressed Nestorians bore a part, more especially Shamta^ and Kurta, the sons of the noble Yazdin, who had been the director of the land-tax of the whole kingdom and had amassed an enormous fortune, which the king confiscated''. To return to Hannana, his works, as enumerated by ' Abhd-isho' ^ are — commentaries on Genesis, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, the twelve minor prophets, the Gospel of St Mark, and the epistles of St Paul; expositions of the (Nicene) creed and the liturgy ; on the occasions of the celebration of Palm Sunday, Golden Friday*, rogations ^ and the invention of the cross ; a discourse on Palm Sunday ; and various other writings in which he attacked the teaching of Theodore of Mopsuestia, and which the church therefore placed on its index expurgatorius^. The doctrines of Hannana found a warm 1 See B.O., iii. 1, 471. 2 See Hoffmann, AuszUge, pp. 115-121 ; Noldeke, Gesch. d. Perser u. Araher, p. 383. To Yazdin is ascribed a hymn which appears in Neatorian Psalters, e.g., Wright, Catal., p. 135 ; Zotenberg, Catal., p. 9. 3 B.O., iii. 1, 83-84. * The first Friday after Pentecost or Whitsunday, with reference to Acts iii. 6. 5 See B.O., ii. 413. 6 Ibid., iii. 1, 84, note 3. 128 SYRIAC LITERATURE. champion in Joseph of Hazza (Arbel or Irbil)^ with whom Babhai the archimandrite entered into controversy^- He is said to have composed some 1900 tracts, of which 'Abhd-isho' mentions about a dozen as "profitable," whence we may conjecture that the rest were more or less deeply tinged with heresy. The chief of them are — on theory (or speculation) and practice ; the book of the treasurer, containing the solution of abstruse questions ; on misfortunes and chastisements ; on the reasons of the principal feasts of the church ; the book of the histories of the Paradise of the Orientals, containing many notices of ecclesiastical history; an exposition of the vision of Ezekiel and of the vision of St Gregory; of the book of the merchant'; of (pseudo-)Dionysius (the Areo- pagite); and of the capita scientiw or heads of knowledge (of Evagrius) ; besides epistles on the exalted character of the monastic life. Joseph appears to have been made a bishop in his latter 1 B.O., iii. 1, 100 ; Hoflfmann, Aiiszuge, p. 117. Asse- mani confounds Joseph Hazzaya with the older Joseph Huzaya, and translates Hazzaya by "videns" instead of "Hazzseus." ^ E.g., his letters to Joseph of IJazza, B.O., iii. 1, 97, and the tract De Unione, ib., 95. 3 According to Assemani, B.O., iii. 1, 102, note 4, of Isaiah of Scete, who, according to Palladius, was originally a merchant. iSHO'-TABH I. OF ARZON. 129 days, and to have taken the name of 'Abhd-isho' ; at least a MS. in the India Office (No. 9) contains a tract on Zech. iv. 10 (f. 241 b), and three series of questions addressed by a pupil to his teacher, by "Mar 'Abhd-isho', who is Joseph Hazzaya" (f 293 a)'. The successor of Ezekiel as catholicus of the Nestorians was Isho'-yabh of Arzon, 581-595^. He was a native of Beth 'Arbaye, educated at Nisibis under Abraham (see above, p. 114), and subsequently made bishop of Arzon {' Ap^avrjvij). He managed to ingratiate himself with the Persian monarch Hormizd IV. (579-590), by whose influence he was raised to the archiepisco- pate ; and he continued to stand in favour with his son and successor Khosrau II. Parwez, as well as with the Greek emperor Maurice. Doubtless both found the Christian archbishop a convenient ambassador and agent in public and private affairs, for Maurice had given his daughter Maria in marriage to Khosrau'. He was also a friend of the Arab king of Herta (al-Hirah), Abii ^^'b^s Nu'man ibn al-Mundhir, who had been converted 1 See Hofiinann, Ausziige, p. 117, note 1057. 2 B.O., ii. 415, ill. 1, 108 ; Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Ecdes., ii. 105, note 3 ; Noldeke, Oesch. d. Perser u. Araber, p. 347, note 1. 3 See Noldeke, op. cit., p. 283, note 2, and comp. p. 287, note 2. S. L. 9 180 SYEIAC LITERATURE. to Christianity, with his sons, by Simeon, bishop of Herta, Sabhr-isho', bishop of Lashom, and the monk Isho'-zekha^ On a pastoral visit to this part of his diocese, the catholicus was taken ill, and died in the convent of Hind (the daughter of Nu'man) at al-IJirah. Among his works are mentioned^ a treatise against Eunomius, one against a heretical (Monophysite) bishop who had entered iato argument with him, twenty-two questions regarding the sacraments of the church', an apology^ and synodical canons and epistles. Meshiha-zekha, also called Isho'-zekha or Zekha-isho', was a monk of Mount Izla^ When many of his brotherhood were expelled from their convent by Babhai the archimandrite ^ he betook himself to the district of Dasen', and founded there a monastery, which was henceforth known as Beth Rabban Zekha-isho' or, for shortness' 1 Bar-Hebraeus {Chron. Eccles., ii. 105) tries to make out that Nu'man was a Monophysite, and that Isho'-yabh was trying to pervert him at the time of his death. But in such matters he is hardly a trustworthy witness. 2 B.O., iii. 1, 108. ^ See a specimen in Assemani's Catal. of the Vatican Library, iii. 280, No. cl., v. * Probably a defence of his doctrines addressed to the emperor Maurice ; see B.O., iii. 1, 109, in the note. ^ B.O., iii. 1, 216, note 1. See above, p. 115, note 2. « Ihid., iii. 1, 88-89. ' 'H.oSmsxm, Ausziige, p. 202 sq. DADH-iSHO'. — BAR-'iDTl. 131 sake, Beth Rabban simply^ He was the author of an ecclesiastical history, which 'Abhd-isho' praises as being " exact." Dadh-isho' was the successor of Abraham of Kashkar as abbot of the great convent on Mount Izla^, apparently during the lifetime of the latter, who lived to a great age (see above, p. 119)^ He composed a treatise on the monastic life and another entitled On Silence in Body and in Spirit, a discourse on the consecration of the cell, besides funeral sermons and epistles. He also translated or edited a commentary on The Paradise of the Western Monks (probably meaning the Paradise of Palladius and Jerome), and annotated the works of Isaiah of Scete^ Hereabout too is the date of the monk Bar- 'idta^ the founder of the convent which bears his name^ a contemporary of Babhai of Izla and Jacob of Beth 'Abhe'. He was the author of a monastic history, which is often quoted by Thomas of Marga^ and seems to have been a work of 1 B.O., iii. 1, 216, note 1 ; 255, in the note ; Hoffmann, Auszilge, p. 206. 2 B.O., iii. 1, 98, note 1. 3 Hoffmann, Auszilge, p. 173. ^ B.O., iii. 1, 99. 6 Ihid., ii. 415, col. 2. Pronounce Bar-'itta. « B.O., iii. 2, dccclxxix. ; Hoffmann, Aussiige, p. 181. 7 Oomp. Wright, Catal, p. 187, No. 152. 8 B.O., iii. 1, 453, 458, 471. 9—2 132 SYRIAC LITERATURE. considerable value. He must be distinguished from a later Bar-'idta, of the convent of Selibha, near the village of Heghla on the Tigris ^ with whom Assemani has confounded him^. In the Bihl. Orient, iii. 1, 230, 'Abhd-isho' mentions an historian whose name is given by Assemani as Simeon Karkhaya, with the additional information that he was bishop of Karkha and flourished under the patriarch Timothy I. about 800. His name seems, however, to have been wrongly read, and he appears to have lived at a much earlier date. At least Elias bar Shinaya speaks in his Chronicle^ of one Simeon Barkaya^ as the author of a chronicle (in at least two books), who wrote in the reign of the Persian king Khosrau II. Parwez, A. Gr. 902 = 591 A.D. [Here may perhaps be mentioned a Sjrriac compilation of uncertain date, the Keihdhha dha- kheydnaydtha or Liber naturalium, which has been edited and translated into German by Ahrens^. It consists of a series of short chapters on land and sea animals, and on certain natural 1 See Hoflfmann, Auszuge, p. 181, note 1414. 2 B.O., iii. 1, 458. 3 See Rosen, Catal., p. 88, col. 1, 2. ^ The diflferenoe in writing between ].jl2^ and I I P; •^i is not great. The pronunciation of the word I . CI; »~i is not quite certain. '' \_Das " Buoh der Naturgege')istdnde," Kiel, 1892. SABHR-iSHO'. 133 objects. Its main contents are taken from a Syriac version of the Physiologus : but the author has also borrowed from Basil's Homilies on the Hexaemeron, and probably from another Syriac book on animals. As to the date of compilation we can only say that it is later than Basil and earlier than 1000 A.D. : from the style of the Syriac Noldeke^ is inclined to favour an approach to the earlier limit.] The name of Sabhr-isho' the catholicus carries us over into the 7th century. He y^as a native of Peroz-abadh in Beth Garmai, became bishop of Lashom, and was raised to the archiepiscopate in 596 by the favour of Khosrau II. Parwez^. On the murder of his father-in-law Maurice (Novem- ber 602), Khosrau resolved upon war, and took the field in 604, when he besieged and captured the fortress of Dara, the first great success in a fearful struggle of twenty-five years. Bar-He- brseus states that Sabhr-isho' accompanied him and died during the siege'; but other authorities say, doubtless more correctly, that he died at Nisibis*. He is said to have been the author of an ecclesiastical history, of which a fragment, 1 Z.D.M.G., xlv,, p. 695.] 2 B.O., ii. 415, iii. 1, 441 tq. ; Baethgen, Fragmente syr. u. arah. Historiker, pp. 36, 119. 3 Chron. Ecdes., ii. 107. * Chron. Ecdes., loc. cit., note 2 ; B.O., iii. 1, 441, col. 1. 134 SYEIAC LITERATURE. relating to the emperor Maurice, was supposed to be extant in Cod. Vat. clxxxiii.; but Guidi has shown that this is incorrect, and that the said fragment is merely an extract from a legendary life of Sabhr-isho' by some later hand {Z.D.M.G., xl., pp. 559-561)1. About the same time with Sabhr-isho', if Assemani be right^, we may place Simeon of Beth Garmai, who translated into Syriac the Chronicle of Eusebius. This version seems unfortunately to be entirely lost. With the 7th century begins the slow decay of the native literature of the Syrians, to which the frightful sufferings of the people during the great war with the Persians in its first quarter largely contributed ^ During all those years we meet with scarcely a name of any note in letters, more especially in western Syria. Paul of Telia and Thomas of Harkel were, it is true, labouring at the revised versions of the Old and New Testaments in Alexandria*, but even they were 1 Assemani, Catal., iii. 387. 2 B.O., iii. 1, 168, 633. ^ See the remarlis of Noldeke in Oesck. d. Ferser u. Araber, p. 299, note 4. * See above, p. 14, sq. Thomas of Harkel also compiled a liturgy {B.O., ii. 92, col. 1), and is said to have translated from Greek into Syriac five other liturgies {ibid., col. 2), viz., those of Gregory Nazianzen, Basil, GE^CO-PERSIAN WAR. — ABBOT PAUL. 135 scared by the Persian hosts, who took possession of the city in 615 or 616, shortly after the capture of Jerusalem by another army in 614'. A third diligent worker under the same adverse circum- stances was the abbot Paul, who fled from his convent in Syria to escape the Persian invasion, and took refuge in the island of Cyprus. Here he occupied himself with rendering into Syriac the works of Gregory Nazianzenl Of this version, which was completed in two volumes in 624, there are several old MSS. in the British Museum^. This Paul was also the translator of the Octoechus of Severus, of which there is a MS. in the British Museum, Add. 17134, dated 675^ To this Gregory Nyssen, Dionysius the Areopagite, and John Chrysostom. 1 See Noldeke, Qesch. d. Perser u. Araher, pp. 291-292 ; Chroniqm de Michel le Grand, p. 222 ; Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Syr., p. 99. 2 See^.O., i. 171; iii. 1,23. 3 See the fine series of MSS. described in Wright's Catcd., pp. 423-435. One of these is dated 790, another 845. The other MSS. {ibid., pp. 436-438) seem to contain part of the older version of the Nestorians {B.O., iii. 1, 24, note 1). * Wright, Catal., p. 330 sq. The translator is wrongly described in the codex as " bishop of Edessa " (see above, p. 94, note 1). His convent was probably that of Ken- neshre, of which both John bar Aphtonya (see above, p. 84) and John Psaltes or Calligraphus were abbots. Compare B.O., ii. 54. 136 SYRIAC LITERATURE. collection he himself contributed a hymn on the holy chrism and a translation of the " Gloria in excelsis." The name of Martitha' is the first that deserves mention here, more, however, on account of his ecclesiastical weight and position than his literary merit. He was a native of Shurzak (?), a village in the diocese of Beth Nuhadhre^ was ordained priest in the convent of Nardus, lived for twenty years in the convent of Zakkai or Zacchseus at Callinicus (ar-Rakkah), and went thence to Edessa for purposes of study. On returning to the East, he resided in the convent of Mar Matthew at Mosul, where he occupied himself with remodelling its rules and orders. He sided with the Mono- physite party at the Persian court, and, after the death of the physician GabrieP, found it advisable to retire to 'Akola (al-Kufah)''. He was elevated to the dignity of metropolitan bishop of Taghrith in 640, after the establishment of peace between the Greeks and Persians^ and was the first real 1 B.O., ii. 416, 418. 2 See Hofifmann, Axtsziige, pp. 208-216, but especially p. 215. 2 See above, p. 126. * Bar-Hebrteus, Chron. Eccles., ii. Ill; B.O., ii. 416. ^ The circumstances are given in detail by Bar- Hebrseus {Chron. Modes., ii. 119 gq.) and Assemani {B.O., ii. 419). MARtJTHA OF TAGHRITH. — SEVERUS SEBOKHT. 137 maphrian (maphrgyana) and organizer of the Jacobite Church in the East, which so rapidly increased in numbers and influence that he was called upon to ordain bishops for such remote regions as Segestan (Sistan) and Harew (Herat). Marutha died in 649. His life was wiitten by his successor Denha\ Mariitha compiled a liturgy and wrote a commentary on the Gospels, both of which are sometimes wrongly assigned to the elder Marutha of Maiperkat^. He was also the author of short discourses on New (or Low) Sunday, and on the consecration of the water on the eve of the Epiphany, as well as of some hymns and sedras'. Contemporary with Mariitha, under the pa- triarch Athanasius Gammala (died in 631*) and his successor John, flourished Severus Sebokht^ 1 See Brit. Mua. Add. 14645, f. 198 a (Wright, Catal, p. 1113). 2 See above, p. 46. From the commentary are taken the passages quoted in the Catena of Severus. See Asse- mani, Catal., iii. 11 (on Exod. xv. 25), 24, and Wright, Catal, p. 910. 3 See Brit. Mus. Add. 14727, f. 140 a; 17267, f. 17 b; 17254, f. 164 a; 17128, f. 91b. * According to Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., i. 275 ; B.O., ii. 334. Dionysius of Tell-Mahre gives 644. 5 On the Persian name Sebokht see Noldeke, Oesch. des ArtachMr i Pdpahdn, in Beitmge z. Kunde d. indogerm. Sprachen, iv. 49, note 4 ; Oesch. d. Perser u. Araber, p. 396, note 1. 138 SYRIAC LITERATURE. of Nisibis\ bishop of the convent of Ken-neshre, at this time one of the chief seats of Greek learning in western Syrian He devoted himself, as might be expected, to philosophical and mathematical as well as theological studies I Of the first we have specimens in his treatise on the syllogisms in the Analytica Prior a of Aristotle, his commentary on the Tlepl ip/^Tjveia^, and his letters to the priest Aitilaha of Mosul on certain terms in the Uepl ip/xrjveia<;, and to the perio- deutes Yaunan or Jonas on some points in the logic of Aristotle*. Of his astronomical and geographical studies there are a few examples in Brit. Mus. Add. 14538, ff. 153-155^ such as whether the heaven surrounds the earth in the form of a wheel or sphere, on the habitable and uninhabitable portions of the earth, on the measurement of the heaven and the earth and the space between them, and on the motions of the sun and moon". In the Royal Library at 1 See Wright, Catal, p. 598, col. 1. 2 See B.O., ii. 335 ; Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Eccles., i. 275. 3 Compare Eenan, De Philos. Peripat. ap. Syros, pp. 29, 30. « See Brit. Mus. Add. 14660 and 17156 (Wright, Catal, pp. 1160-63), and the Catal. of the Eoyal Library of Berlin, Saohau 226, 6, 9. 6 Wright, Catal, p. 1008. s See Saohau, Ined. Syr., pp. 127-134. JOHN I. — LIFE OF ALEXANDER. 139 Berlin there is a short treatise of his on the astrolabe^ More or less theological in their nature are his letter to the priest and periodeutes Basil of Cyprus, on the 14th of Nisan, A. Gr. 976 (665 A.D.)^, a treatise on the weeks of DanieP, and letters to Sergius, abbot of Shiggar (Sinjar), on two discourses of Gregory Nazianzenl He is also said to have drawn up a liturgy'. John I., Jacobite patriarch of Antioch, was called from the convent of Eusebhona at Tell-' Adda to the archiepiscopal throne in 631, and died in December 648^ Bar-Hebrseus tells us that he translated the Gospels into Arabic at the command of the Arab emir 'Amr ibn Sa'd. He is better known as the author of numerous sedras and other prayers, whence he is commonly called Yohannan dg-sedhrau(hi), or "John of the Sedras." He also drew up a liturgy'. [To the 7th century, if we are to accept the view proposed by Nbldeke, belongs the Syriac version of Pseudo-Callisthenes's Life of Alexander 1 Alter Bestand 37, 2 (Eurses Vermchniss, p. 32). 2 Same MS., 3. 3 Wright, Caial, p. 988, ool. 2. 1 Ibid., p. 432, col. 2. 6 B.O., ii. 463. 6 Bar-Hebrseus, Chroti. Eccles., i. 275 ; B.O., ii. 335. But Dionysius of Tell-Mahre says 650; B.O., i. 425, 7 Berlin, Saohau 185, 6. 140 SYRIAC LITERATURE. the Great, which has been edited and translated into English by Budget This version was formerly believed to have been made from the Arabic, and to be a product of the 10th or 11th century. But Noldeke has shown- from an examination of the language, and especially the forms of the proper names, that the Syriac must be a translation from the Pahlavi, and almost certainly not later than the 7th century.] During the second quarter of this century, from 633 to 636, the Muhammadan conquest of Syria took place. The petty Arab kingdoms of the Lakhmites (al-IJirah), the Tha'labites and Kindites, and the Ghassanites, as well as the wandering tribes of Mesopotamia, were absorbed ; and the Persians were beaten back into their own country, quickly to be overrun in its turn. The year 638 witnessed the last effort of the Greek empire to wrest Syria from the invaders ; the Muslim yoke was no longer to be shaken off. The effects of this conquest soon begin to make themselves manifest in the literature of the country. The more the Arabic language comes into use, the more the Syriac wanes and wastes ^ l^The History of Alexander the Great, Cambridge, 1889. 2 Beitrage zur Oeschickte des A lexanderromans (in Derik- schriften der kaiserlichen Ahademie der Wissenschaften), Vienna, 1890, p. 11, sq.] MUHAMMADAN CONQUEST. — JACOB OF EDESSA. 141 away; the more Muhammadan literature flourishes, the more purely Christian literature pines and dwindles; so that from this time on it becomes necessary to compile grammars and dictionaries of the old Syriac tongue, and to note and record the correct reading and pronunciation of words in the Scriptures and other books, in order that the understanding of them may not be lost. Among the small band of Monophysite scholars who made themselves conspicuous during the latter half of the 7th century the most famous name is that of Jacob of Edessa\ He was a native of 'En-debha (the Wolf's well), a village in the district of Gumyah (al-Jiimah), in the province of Antioch. The date of his birth is not men- tioned, but it may have been about 640 or a little earlier^ He studied under Severus Sebokht at the famous convent of Ken-neshre, where he learned Greek and the accurate reading of the Scriptures. Thence he went to Alexandria, but we are not told how long he remained there. After his return to Syria he was appointed bishop 1 Bar-Hebrseus, Ghron. Bodes., i. 289 ; B.O., i. 468, ii. 335. Assemani tries hard in vol. i. to prove that he was not a Monophysite (p. 470 sq.), but in vol. ii. 337 he gives up the attempt in despair. Compare Lamy, Dissert, de Syrorum. Fide, &o., p. 206 sq. 2 The dates given in B.O., i. 469, seem to be utterly wrong. 142 SYRIAC LITERATURE. of Edessa in 679-680^; but Bar-Hebrseus says that he was ordained by the patriarch Athanasius II., 684-687, which seems more probable, as they were intimate friends. If he was appointed in 684, the three or four years for which he held this office would terminate in 687-688, in which latter year Julian Romaya (or "the Soldier")^ was elected patriarch. Apparently Jacob was very strict in the enforcement of canonical rules, and thereby offended a portion of his clergy. He would seem to have appealed to the patriarch and his fellow- bishops, who were in favour of temporizing; whereupon Jacob burnt a copy of the rules before the gate of Julian's convent, at the same time crying aloud, " I burn with fire as superfluous and useless the canons which ye trample under foot and heed not." He then betook himself to the convent at Kaisiim, a town near Samosata, and Habbibh was appointed to Edessa in his stead. After a while the monks of Eusebhona invited Jacob to their convent, and there he taught for eleven years the Psalms and the reading of the Scriptures in Greek, the study of which language had fallen into desuetude. Owing to disputes > According to the calculation of Dionysius of Tell- Mahre, 677 ; see B.O., i. 426. 2 So called because he had in his younger days served along with his father in the imperial army. JACOB OF EDBSSA. 143 with some of the brethren "who hated the Greeks," he left this house and went to the great convent at Tell-' Adda, where he worked for nine years more at his revised version of the Old Testaments On the death of 5abbibh Jacob was recalled to Edessa, where he resided for four months, at the end of which time he returned to Tell-' Adda to fetch his library and pupils, but died there on 5th June TOS''. In the literature of his country Jacob holds much the same place as Jerome among the Latin fathers. He was, for his time, a man of great culture and wide reading, being familiar with Greek and with older Sjrriac writers. Of Hebrew he probably understood very little, but he was always ready, like Aphraates, to avail himself of the aid of Jewish scholars, whose opinion he often cites. He appears before us as at once theologian, historian, philosopher, and grammarian, as a translator of various Greek works, and as the indefatigable correspondent of many students who sought his advice and assistance from far and near. As a theologian, Jacob wrote commentaries on the Old and New Testaments, which are cited 1 See above, p. IV. 2 According to Dionysius of Tell-Mahre, B.O., i. 426, A.D. 710 ; but Elias bar Shinaya confirms the earlier date, See Baethgen, Fragmente syr. u. arah. Historiher, pp. 40, 121. 144 SYRIAC LITERATURE. by later authors, such as Dionysius bar SalibP and Bar-Hebrseus, as well as in the large Catena of the monk Severus^ further, scholia on the whole Scriptures, of which specimens may be found in S. Ephrwmi Opera Syr? and in Phillips's Scholia on some Passages of the Old Testament (1864)*. His discourses on the six days of creation are extant at Leyden and Lyons* This was his latest work, being unfinished at the time of his death ; it was completed by his friend George, bishop of the Arab tribes. Like many other doctors of the Syrian Church, Jacob drew up an 1 See Bihl. Med. Laurent, et Palat. Codd. Orientt. Catal., p. 85, No. xlviii. 2 B.O., i. 487-488 ; Cod. Vat. ciii. {Catcd., iii. 7) ; Brit. Mus. Add. 12144 (Wright, Catal., p. 908). The former MS. contains a brief exposition of the Pentateuch, Job, Joshua, and Judges by Jacob, loc. cit., pp. 9-11. 3 B.O., i. 489-493. * See Brit. Mus. Add. 14483 and 17193, ff. 55 a, 61a ; compare Cod. Vat. v. {Catal., ii. pp. 12, 13). ^ Leyden, Cod. 66 (1) Gol. (see Catal. Codd. Orientt., V. 69, and Land, Anecd. Syr., i. 2-4) ; Lyons, No. 2 (see Neubauer in Archives des Missions scientifiqites et litte'raires, 3 ser., vol. i., p. 568, Paris, 1873). The Paris MS. is merely a partial copy of the Leyden one (Zotenberg, Catal, p. 197). It is cited in Brit. Mus. Add. 14731, f 98 b (Wright, Catal., p. 854, col. 2, at the foot), and in the Bodleian Catal, p. 462, No. 5. Another Paris MS. (Zoten- berg, Catal, p. 213) contains the punctuation and explana- tion of difficult words and phrases in this work. JACOB OF EDESSA. 145 anaphora or liturgy ^ and revised the liturgy of St James, the brother of our Lord^ He also composed orders of baptism ^ of the consecration of the water on the eve of the Epiphany^ and of the solemnization of matrimony', with which we may connect his translation of the order of baptism of Severus" and the tract upon the forbidden degrees of affinity'. The Book of Treasures^ contained expositions of the Euchar- istic service, of the consecration of the water, and of the rite of baptism, probably identical with or similar to those which are found separately in MSS.° He likewise arranged the horologium or 1 B.O., i. 476. It is extant in many MSS. 2 Ihid.; Brit. Mus. Add. 14691, f. 2 b, and elsewhere. Whether he was the translator of the anaphora of Ignatius, we are unable to affirm or deny. s B.O., i. 477. * Ihid., 486, col. 1. '' E.g., Zotenberg, Catal., pp. 66, 67. '^ E.g., Rosen, Catal., p. 61, ool. 2. 7 Cod. Vat. xxxvii. {Catal., ii. 244). 8 B.O., i. 487. " E.g., the Eucharist, Berlin, Sachau 218, 4 (addressed to the Stylite George of Sgrugh); Brit. Mus. Add. 14496, f . 1 a (Wright, Catal., p. 224). The similar exposition edited by Assemani {B.O., i. 479) is addressed to the priest Thomas ; comp. Brit. Mus. Add. 17215, f. 22 b. The con- secration of the water. Cod. Vat. cccv., in Mai, Scriptt. Vett. Nova Coll., v. The order of baptism, Brit. Mus. 14496, f. 23 a (a mere fragment). S. L. 10 146 SYEIAC LITERATURE. canonical hours of the ferial days', and drew up a calendar of feasts and saints' days for the whole year'-". Of his numerous canons^ those addressed to the priest Addai have been edited by Lamy, Dissert, de Syrormn Fide, &c., p. 98 sq., and De Lagarde, ReliquicB Juris Eccles. Antiquissimce, p. 117 sq* Under this head we may mention the Scholion de Diaconissis earumque Munere {Catal. Vat, ii. 319) and the Scholion de Foribus Ecclesice dum Ordinationes aut alia Sacra celebrantur occludendis (Cod. Vat. ccciv., in Mai, Scriptt. Vett. Nova Coll., v.). Jacob also composed homilies, of which a few survive in manuscript : for example — (1) that Christians are not to offer a lamb after the Jewish fashion, nor oxen and sheep, on behalf of the deceased, nor to use pure wine and un- leavened bread in celebrating the Eucharist; (2) against the use of unleavened bread; (3) against the Armenians as Dyophysites, and because they offend against these doctrines''; (4) against certain 1 Brit. Mus. Add. 14704, Paris, Ano. fonds 73. 2 See Catal. Vat., ii. 250-272; and comp. Berlin, Sachau 39, 4. 3 B.O.,i.417. * See also [Wright's Notulae syriaoae and] Kayser, Die Ganones Jacob's von Edessa iibersetzt und erlimtert, zum The.il auoh ziwrst im Oiiindtext veroffentlickt, 1886. 5 See Bibl. Med. Laurent, et Palat. Codd. MSS. Orientt. Catal, pp. 107-108. JACOB OF EDESSA. 147 impious men and transgressors of the law of God, who trample under foot the canons of the church^ To these may be added his metrical discourses on the Trinity and the incarnation of the word^ and on the faith against the Nestorians'. Whether the treatise De Causa omnium Causarum" really belongs to him can hardly be decided till it has been published. The remarks in the Bodleian Catalogue, p. 585, note, point to a writer of much later date. [This question has been decided in the negative since Kayser's publication of the text and translation of the work^] The loss of Jacob's Chronicle is greatly to be regretted ; only a few leaves, all more or less mutilated, remain to us in Brit. Mus. Add. 14685 ^ The author's 1 Wright, Oatal, pp. 984, col. 2; 996, col. 2. 2 Catal. Vat., ii. 516. 3 Ibid., iii. 353. [The text and a Latin translation of this homily, by Ugolini, are contained in the volume, Al Sommo Pontifioe Leone XIII. Ommagio Oiuhilare della Biblioteca Vaticana, Rome, 1888.] * See B.O., i. 461-463. Besides the MS. described by Assemani, there are two in the Bodleian Library, Hunt. 123 (Payne Smith, Catal., 585) and Bodl. Or. 732, and a third at Berlin, Sachau 180, with an excerpt in Sachau 203. 5 [Das Buck von der Erkenntniss der Wahrheit, text published at Leipzig 1889 ; German translation, Strass- burg 1893. Cf. Noldeke, Literarisches Centralhlatt for 1889, No. 30.] 6 See Wright, Catal., p. 1062. 10—2 148 SYRIAC LITERATURE. design was to continue the Chronicle of Eusebius on the same plan, from the twentieth year of the reign of Constantine down to his own time. The introduction was divided into four sections, the first of which treated of the canon of Eusebius and the error of three years in his calculation; the second of the dynasties contemporary with the Roman empire, but omitted by Eusebius ; the third explained what dynasties were coordinated by Jacob with the Roman empire ; and the fourth contained separate chronologies of each of these dynasties. Then followed the chronological canon, beginning with Olympiad cclxxvi. The last monarchs mentioned in the mutilated MS. are Heraclius I. of Constantinople, Ardasher III. of Persia, and the caliph Abu Bakr. This work, which was finished by the author in 692^, has been extensively used by subsequent Syrian historians, both Jacobite and Nestorian, such as Bar-Hebrseus'^ Elias bar Shinaya^, &c., and it is therefore admitted by 'Abhd-isho' into his list of 1 See Elias bar Shmaya in Rosen, Catal., p. 88, col. 1. 2 B.O., ii. 313-314. s See, for example, the notes in Abbeloos, Bar-HehroBi Chron. Eocles., ii. 55, 103, 107, 123 ; Baetbgen, Fragmsnte syr. u. arab. Historiker, extracted from Elias bar Shinaya, p. 3; and the anonymous epitomizer in Land, Aneed. Syr., i. 2-22, transl. pp. 103-121 (Brit. Mus. Add. 14643; Wright, Catal, p. 1040). JACOB OF EDESSA. 149 books (B.O., iii. 1, 229). As a translator of Greek works Jacob deserves notice, not so much on account of any Aristotelian labours of his^ as because of his version of the Homilice Cathedrales of Severus, a work of capital importance, which he finished in 701 '^ He also revised and corrected, with the help of Greek MSS., the abbot Paul's version of the Octoechus of Severus (see above, p. 135)^ The statement of Bar-Hebrseus* that Jacob translated the works of Gregory Nazianzen seems to be erroneous. He merely retouched, we believe, the version of the abbot Paul (see above, p. 135), to which he probably added notes, illustra- tive extracts from the writings of Severus, and Athanasius's redaction of the liwayayrj kol i^r^ryrjCTK la-Topiwv appended to the homily In Sancta Lumina^. He made the Syriac version of the history of the Rechabites as narrated by Zosimus, which he is said to have translated from 1 Even the translation of the Categories in Cod. Vat. clviii. {Catal., iii. 306; comp. Renan, De Philos. Peripat. ap. Syros, p. 34) is not by him, but by Sergius of Ras'ain (see above, p. 91). 2 See B.O., i. 494; Cod. Yat. cxli.; Brit. Mus. Add. 12159, dated 868 (Wright, Catal, p. 534 sq.). 3 B.O., i. 487; Cod. Vat. xciv., written between 1010 and 1033; Brit. Mus. Add. 17134, dated 675 (Wright, Catal., p. 330 sq.). " B.O., ii. 307, col. 2; iii. 1, 23, col. 1. 5 See Wright, Catal, pp. 423-427. 150 SYEIAC LITERATURE. Hebrew into Greek and thence into Syriac\ Of philosophical writings of his we may specify the Enchiridion, a tract on philosophical terras ^ The metrical composition on the same subject con- tained in two Vatican MSS. may perhaps also be by him^. As a grammarian Jacob occupies an important place in Syriac literature. Nestorian scholars, such as Narsai and his pupils, more especially Joseph Hiizaya (see above, p. 115 sq.), had no doubt elaborated a system of accentuation and interpunction, which vies in minuteness with that of the Jews, and had probably begun to store up the results of their studies in Massoretic MSS. of the Bible, like those of which we have already spoken (above, p. 20 sq.). But Jacob was the first to give a decided impulse to these pursuits among the Western Syrians, and to induce the monks of Eusebhona and Tell-' Adda to compile Massoretic MSS. like those of their brethren in the East, and to pay attention to minute accuracy in the matter of the diacritical points and the signs of inter- 1 See Wright, Catal., p. 1128. 2 Ibid., p. 984. 5 Cod. Vat. xxxvi. and xcv. {Catal., ii. 243 and 516). In the latter there are three other poems ascribed to him, the first theological, the second with the title De Philo- sophis et Bonis Artibus, and the third entitled On the Mind. In the MSS. these poems are said to be by Jacob of SSrugh, which seems altogether unlikely. JACOB OF EDESSA. 151 punction. Hence we usually find appended to such MSS. of the Jacobite schools the epistle of Jacob to George, bishop of S§rugh, on Syrian orthography^ and a tract by him on the pointing of verbal and nominal forms and on the signs of interpunction and accentuation, besides a tract of apparently earlier date on the same signs, with a list of their names, by Thomas the deacon I Further, Jacob's acquaintance with the Greek language and Greek MSS. suggested to him a striking simplification of the system of vowel- points which was now probably beginning to be introduced among the Easterns^. He saw that all the vowel-sounds of the Syriac language, as spoken by the Edessenes, could be represented by 1 See B.O., i. 477 (No. 6) and p. 478 (No. 8). 2 See, for example, Catal. Vat., iii. 290; Brit. Mus., Kosen, pp. 69, 70 (Wright, p. 110); Paris, Zotenberg, Catal., p. 30. The letter and tracts have been published by Phillips, A Letter hy Mar Jacob, Bishop of Edessa, on Syriac Orthography, &c. (1869; the third Appendix, pp. 85-96, 1870), and Martin, Jacohi epi Edesieni Epistola ad Georgiv/m epum Sarugensem de Orthographia Syriaaa (1869). On the possible identity of Thomas the deacon with Thomas of Harkel, see Phillips, third Appendix, p. 90. 3 In the year 899 we find the fully developed Nestorian system of vowel-points in use (Brit. Mus. Add. 12138, see the facsimile in Wright's Catal., pi. xiii.). We may there- fore fairly place its beginnings as early as Jacob's time. 152 SYRIAC LITERATURE. means of the Greek vowel letters, a style of pointing which would be far clearer to the reader than a series of minute dots. Accordingly he, or his school, put A for S,, o for o {a), e for e, h for i, OY for u ; and this system has been adhered to by the Western Syrians or Jacobites since his time\ Jacob wished, however, to go a step farther, and sought to introduce a reform for which his countrymen were not prepared. The constant perusal of Greek MSS. had accustomed him to see the vowels placed on an equality with the consonants as an integral part of the alphabet ; and, considering how much this contributed to clearness of sense and facility of reading, he 1 The credit of inventing this vowel-system is usually given to Theophilus of Edessa, who died in 785-786 (B.O., i. 64, 521), though Wiseman brought forward to our mind convincing arguments in his Horce Syriacce, pp. 181-188, in favour of the claims of Jacob. "We have now, however, a MS. of Jacob's own time in which these Greek vowels are distinctly appended to Syriac words. See Brit. Mus. Add. 17134, f. 83 b, in Wright's Catal., p. 337, col. 2, and pi. vi. In this plate, the handwriting of which cannot well be placed later than about 700, we find in 1. 1 the vowel "^ (ypsilon) in the word lAso,^, and in 1. 23 the vowel Q in ^j^iiij, both in black ink, besides others in red ink in lines 6, 17, 18, 21, 22, and 31. No one can doubt, we think, that these vowels were added a pr. inanu, especially if he compares their forms, particularly the a, with those of the Greek letters on the margin of pi. v. JACOB OF EDESSA. 153 desired to see the like done in Syriac. For this purpose he himself designed a set of vowel-signs, to be written on a line with and between the consonants^; and for the purpose of making this invention known to his countrymen he wrote a Syriac Grammar'^, in which he used them largely in the paradigms. The innovation, however, found no favour, and the work was supposed to be utterly lost, until a few fragments (partly palimpsest) were simultaneously discovered by the present writer and Dr Neubauer*. Finally, amid all his labours as priest and bishop, teacher and author, Jacob found time to correspond with a large number of persons in all parts of Syria ; and these epistles are often among his most 1 See Bar-Hebrasus in his Kethabha dhe-Semhe, as quoted by Martin, Jacques d'Edesse et lea Voyelles Syri- ennes (Jown. Asiat., 1869, vol. xiii. pp. 458-459), or pp. 19