Eschatology in Jacob of Edessa’s Anaphora

Series: Monographs of the Peshitta Institute 18 (Leiden: Brill, 2008)

Jacob of Edessa (c.640-708) is considered the most learned Christian of the early days of Islam. In all fifteen contributions to this volume, written by prominent specialists, the interaction between Christianity, Judaism, and the new religion is an important issue. The articles discuss Jacob’s biography as well as his position in early Islamic Edessa, and give a full picture of the various aspects of Jacob of Edessa’s life and work as a scholar and clergyman. Attention is paid to his efforts in the fields of historiography, correspondence, canon law, text and interpretation of the Bible, language and translation, theology, philosophy, and science. The book, which marks the 1300th anniversary of Jacob’s death, also contains a bibliographical clavis.

2017

This study deals with the life story of Jacob of Sarug (A.D. 451-521) and the various typologies of the Church scattered in his copious mimre. Jacob of Sarug is one of the most prolific, distinguished, and influential Syriac authors, yet a systematic examination of his symbolic language referring to the Church remains a desideratum. The following research satisfies this want which stems from the fact that the Church is next to Jesus Christ in importance, as her subject is prominent in Jacob's poetic works. The work presented herein complements and contributes to the scholarly works already published in the theological field of Syriac Ecclesiology. Moreover, it is a foundational study for further researchers and theologians wishing to investigate Jacob’s comprehension of the Church. This study shows that the question about the person of Jacob of Sarug shall remain unsatisfactorily answered, for his life stories discovered in extant manuscripts are hagiographical. Next, it reveals the Church as a building on Golgotha based on the actions of Melchizedek, Abraham, Jacob, and Moses. Then, it explains Jacob's depiction of the Church as a fisherman and life-giving fishnet. Next, it deals with the topic of the Church as the Garden of Eden on Earth in whose midst is the Tree of Life. Lastly, this study explicates the notion of the Church as the Virgin Bride of Christ. The Church as such emerges as a permanent reality solidly founded on the cross, a sacramental and missionary Church, and sacrifice is central to her understanding. The Mysteries and the proclamation of the Good News are essential to the continuation of her Lord's mission. Moreover, she is a return to the Garden of Eden which anticipates God's promise of salvation in the afterlife. Finally, Christ will always be united to her no matter what, for she is in effect his created body. Therefore, she remains with him wherever he is, and her actions mimic his deeds. She follows him to Sheol, breaks down its gates, frees Adam, resurrects with her Lord, is victorious over sin and death, and nothing overcomes her.

D. Kruisheer, ‘A Bibliographical Clavis to the Works of Jacob of Edessa (revised and expanded)’, in B. ter Haar Romeny (ed.), Jacob of Edessa and the Syriac Culture of His Day (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute Leiden 18; Leiden: Brill, 2008), 265–293.

The Appropriation of the Theme of Christ’s Descent to Hell in the Early Syriac Liturgical Tradition, 2000

Jesus Christ’s descent to the realm of the dead, called Sheol in Syriac, is a central motif of the Syriac-speaking churches to describe the paschal event. This dissertation investigates the motif in the early Syriac literary and liturgical traditions and analyzes its appropriation by the liturgy of the East Syrian Church as set out in the contemporary printed editions of its Missal and Breviary. Because of the Syriac tradition’s preference for symbol, metaphor, and poetry as vehicles to articulate and contemplate the Christian faith, this dissertation employs a hermeneutical approach that accounts for the interplay of literary and liturgical genres, attends to the multilayered sedimentations of language, and addresses the dynamic assimilation, transposition, distortion, and refiguration of the theme. Chapter two sets out the language and imagery of Sheol in the Syriac Bible (Peshita), identifying the cumulative impact of the biblical imagery that the Syriac writers took up in a privileged way. Chapter three presents and evaluates the literary history of the descent motif, discerns the meanings that emerge in particular historical, cultural, and theological contexts, and identifies the compositional strategies that influenced the motif's development, in particular reinscription, amplification, and embedding. Chapter four demonstrates how the liturgical tradition extends and advances interpretative horizon of the Syriac literary tradition. The analysis focuses on the East Syrian tradition’s liturgies for Pasch, Epiphany (Denha), baptism, and eucharist in their ritual contexts. These texts refigure the descent myth and its symbols to mediate the meaning of Christ’s redemptive work for the community of faith. The final chapter reflects theoretically on the interweaving of discourses in East Syrian liturgy. The intention is to delineate the ‘appropriation’ o f the descent motif by the East Syrian liturgy, explicate how the motif generates theological meaning through the genres of liturgy, and elucidate how the motif in the Syriac liturgical tradition contributes to the wider theological tradition in terms of eschatology, pneumatology, and soteriology. The doxological character of liturgical language demands that when it appropriates an image, motif, or metaphor, it reconstitutes and reorients it. In these liturgical texts, the tradition’s language is broken and refigured to emphasize the assembly’s participation in the new life that comes from Christ’s Pasch.

The Syriac Orthodox Patriarchal Journal, 2022

The Syriac liturgical tradition transmitted in manuscripts and fragments includes several liturgical commentaries that can shed light on liturgical developments. These commentaries explain the meaning of the liturgical acts, rōze (which literally means: “symbols” or “mysteries”), and objects. Although many of the famous liturgical commentaries have been already published, including two commentaries accredited to Mor Jacob of Edessa (d. 708† AD), nevertheless, his commentary to George the Stylite of Serugh has survived only in two manuscripts: Berlin (B); Sachau 218, and Jerusalem (J), St Mark Monastery no. 309, which is published here for the first time. “Jacob of Edessa’s Liturgical Commentary to George the Stylite of Serugh”, with Gabriel Aydin, The Syriac Orthodox Patriarchal Journal (60/2022), pp. 67–89.

ORIENTALIA CHRISTIANA PERIODICA 79.2, 2013

One of the most important turning points of the research on the Ethiopian national epic, namely the Kebra Nagast, was the discovery regarding the connection between this central work and the Syriac Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, written at the end of the seventh century. The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius was an early Christian response to Islam and to the Arab conquest, which reflects the significant impact of the Arab invasion. The Apocalypse, which partly relies on Psalm 68:31, affirms that the Byzantine King, rather than the Ethiopian King, will assume the role of the eschatological savior of the Christendom. The Pseudo-Methodius was promptly translated into Greek, and from Greek into Latin, soon after its circulation in the Syriac Christian world at the end of the seventh century. In this paper, I will analyze and describe the link between the Ethiopian national epic and this Syriac Apocalypse, following Shahid‟s approach which dates the Kebra Nagast as a sixth century work, originally composed in Coptic. In addition, I will discuss the influence and status of the image of the “Ethiopian Negus” for the Syriac Christianity of the seventh century, and his significance in the Miaphysite context, by analyzing the cumbersome intentions of the Pseudo-Methodius’ author.

Scrinium, 2013