THE IMAGE AND GLORY OF GOD IN JACOB OF SERUG'S HOMILY, «ON THAT CHARIOT THAT EZEKIEL THE PROPHET SAW»

Abstract

Jacob of Serug († 521) is, after Ephrem of Nisibis, the most beloved of theologian poets among the Syriac-speaking Christians of the East. Until recently, though, he was not well known in Western Christian circles and, when discussed at all, was usually associated with Severus of Antioch and Philoxenus of Mabbug as part of a triad of the most important, early sixth-century «Monophysites» theologians. This article seeks rather to examine one of Jacob's works, the long verse homily on Ezekiel's chariot vision, against the background of those traditions common in particular to Eastern Christianity and looking to their origins in the Judaism of the Second Temple. The homily conjoins three biblical texts: Genesis 1:26; Ezekiel 1:26, 28; and Phillipians 2:6. Its point is simple and fully in accord with, especially, pre-Nicene Christianity: the one who appeared to Moses and the prophets is the same one who was born of Mary Theotokos. While making this point, however, Jacob draws on — and occasionally opposes and criticizes — originally Second Temple Jewish traditions around the figure of Adam, mystical ascent to the divine throne, and the object of that ascent, the vision of the glorious form of God. He is thus a witness to the currency of these traditions in Christian circles, perhaps especially among the monks. His answer is the Eucharist. In the divine liturgy, he argues, everything that the prophet saw is present, and the one whom the ancients longed to go up to heaven to see, the one who rides on the throne of the cherubim, is present to the Christian in the bread and wine of communio