Syriac Translation Research Articles

Hermeneutics of the Biblical text in the school of Antioch: Adrian's Intro- duction to the Divine Scriptures

The main purpose of the study was to determine the place of the Greek revisions of the Scripture in Antiochian exegetical practice, on the example of the work of Adrian of Antioch “Εἰσαγωγή εἰς τὰς θείας γραφάς” (“Introduction to the Divine Scriptures”). The detailed analysis of the work envisaged the highlighting of hermeneutic and linguistic issues, as well as the fixation of linguistic features of the text: phonetics, morphology, syntax and vocabulary. An analysis of all levels of the author’s language was necessary for an adequate understanding of the text and the comparison of biblical quotations with existing revisions of the Scriptures. Therefore, the method of textual and contextual analysis, comparative and statistical methods allowed to determine the specificity of Hadrian’s approach to the sacred text, the conceptual apparatus of his work and the source (divergences of the biblical text).The hypothesis of the presence in Adrian’s citations of clear matches with the Hebrew text and the Syriac translation is proved in this article, which emphasizes the absence of a universal standard LXX that would exist as a codified textological tradition among representatives of the Antioch school. Adrian’s quotation from the memory of the biblical text was also confirmed, in the same way as the assumption about the possibility of Adrian’s translation of the Holy Scriptures and the option of having an existing revision of the text before him, but unknown to us today. The thesis of the broad context of the coexistence of textual traditions, in particular in the 5th century, among the representatives of the Antioch school, found its comprehensive justification.

Masterpieces, Altarpieces, and Devotional Prints: Close and Distant Encounters with Michelangelo’s Vatican Pietà

Focussing on the response to the Vatican Pietà and perversely using as a point of departure a 1549 remark on Michelangelo as an ‘inventor of filth,’ this article aims to present Michelangelo as an involuntary inventor of devotional images. The article explores hitherto unconsidered aspects of the reception of the Vatican Pietà from the mid-sixteenth into the early seventeenth century. The material includes mediocre anonymous woodcuts, and elaborate engravings and etchings by renowned masters: Giulio Bonasone, Cornelis Cort, Jacques Callot and Lucas Kilian. A complex chain of relationships is traced among various works, some referring directly to the Vatican Pietà, some indirectly, neither designed nor perceived as its reproductions, but conceived as illustrations of the Syriac translation of the New Testament, of Latin and German editions of Peter Canisius’s Little catechism, of the frontispiece of the Règlement et établissement de la Compagnie des Pénitents blancs de la Ville de Nancy—but above all, widespread as single-leaf popular devotional images.

Some Cases of Root Exegesis of Hebrew Forms in Peshitta Ezekiel

AbstractThe new translation of Peshitta Ezekiel by Gillian Greenberg and Donald M. Walter in the Bible of Antioch series raises issues with regard to the interpretation of the Syriac text and its relationship to the Hebrew. The Syriac translator used root exegesis of Hebrew forms as a translation tool. This study will examine a number of cases of root exegesis in Peshitta Ezekiel with the aim of better understanding the Peshitta translation. This research was undertaken as part of the Bible of Edessa project.

The Harklean Syriac and the Development of the Byzantine Text

Abstract The Syriac translation of the New Testament produced by Thomas of Harkel in ad 616 provides a rich source for studying the transmission of the Greek New Testament. In this case, its relationship to the Byzantine text in the Catholic Epistles is used to test the results of the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method (cbgm), a new computerized tool being used to edit the standard editions of the Greek New Testament (NA28/UBS5). Against claims that the cbgm is not useful for understanding textual history, this study shows that, when used carefully, it can provide valuable clarity to our understanding. The results of this test have implications for the cbgm, for the textual worth of the Byzantine text, and for how all “texts” are related and evaluated.

Postać Dawida w hebrajskiej wersji Psalmu 151 (11Q5)

Until the discovery of Qumran scrolls, Psalm 151 was known only through its Greek and Latin versions that make part of the Book of Psalms in the Septuagint and Vulgate respectively. A Syriac translation included in the Apocryphal Psalms of the Syriac collection from the 10th century was also known. In 1965 James Sanders published the Psalm Scroll, a collection of mostly Hebrew Masoretic psalms found in Qumran Cave 11, together with the Hebrew text of Ps 151 that makes part of the scroll. This article focuses on the figure of David depicted in Psalm 151 which in the poetic form retells the story of the son of Jesse found in 1 Samuel, chapters 16 and 17. The article is divided into two parts. In the first one, we describe the scroll and give a general overview of the scholarly discussion concerning the psalm. The second part contains the Hebrew text of Psalm 151 and its Polish translation together with the linguistic, syntactical and theological analyses followed by a brief summing up.

Comparing Interpretative Notes in the Syriac and Arabic Translations of the Hippocratic Aphorisms

Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France MS Arabe 6734 contains a bilingual Syriac-Arabic text of the Hippocratic Aphorisms. Whereas the Arabic lemmata are clearly taken from Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq’s translation of Galen’s Commentary on the Hippocratic Aphorisms, the Syriac translator has not been identified conclusively. In the Syriac translation, there is a long note on lemma iv. 47 in which the annotator refutes Galen’s interpretation of this lemma. In his Arabic translation of Galen’s Commentary on the Hippocratic Aphorisms, Ḥunayn also notes Galen’s misinterpretation of this lemma. In this article, I present the Syriac note, along with an analysis of Galen’s comment on lemma iv. 47 to show an inconsistency of Galen’s interpretation of this aphorism. I then present Ḥunayn’s note on this lemma for the first time, and illustrate how he edited the Arabic translation.

A Reconsideration of the Authorship of the Syriac Hippocratic Aphorisms: The Creation of the Syro-Arabic Bilingual Manuscript of the Aphorisms in the Tradition of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq’s Arabic Translation

The manuscript Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, fonds arabe 6734 contains a Syriac translation of the Hippocratic Aphorisms. This text remains one of the few examples of an entire Greek medical work translated into Syriac. The copyist however did not include information about the Syriac translator, which has left his identity open to speculation. Since this bilingual manuscript contains both the Syriac translation of the Aphorisms as well as the lemmata from Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq’s Arabic translation of Galen’s commentary on the Aphorisms, it is generally accepted that Ḥunayn is also the Syriac translator. Although the Arabic translation is the key to identifying the Syriac translator, no one has yet attempted to situate the Arabic text within the tradition of Ḥunayn’s Arabic version of the Aphorisms in order to better understand the work of the copyist. This article will analyse the copyist’s editorial process when working with these Arabic lemmata. In doing so, the relationship between the Syriac and the Arabic translations will be explored, providing new insight into the identity of the Syriac translator.

Comparing the terminology of the major Syriac and Arabic translations of the Hippocratic Aphorisms I

This paper is the first in a series that compares in detail the technical vocabulary of the major extant Syriac and Arabic translations of the Hippocratic Aphorisms. It is well known that the famou...

Galen in Syriac: Rethinking Old Assumptions

This article challenges a series of common assumptions regarding the Syriac translations of Galen: first, about the quality of the sixth-century Syriac translations; second, about the status and role of Syriac as a scientific language; and, third, about economic forces and the motivation for excellence in translation. Finally, the circumstances that produced so many incorrect assumptions, and permitted them to persist for so long, are briefly discussed.

The Canons of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in the Manuscript IOM, RAS Syr. 34

The article deals with the manuscript IOM, RAS Syr. 34, one leaf of parchment originating from the collection of Nikolai Likhachev. It contains a Syriac translation of selected documents of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (AD 325): the introduction to the canons, a bilingual Greek-Syriac list of 42 bishops, and the first five canons of the council. Most of the texts are incomplete and damaged. The present article focuses mainly on the study and commented publication of the five Nicaean canons from IOM, RAS Syr. 34. On the basis of comparative textual research the author aims to show the place of the St. Petersburg manuscript in the history of Syriac translations of the canons.

Eusebius’ Historia Ecclesiastica in Syriac and Latin: A First Comparison

The contemporary fifth-century Latin and Syriac translations of Eusebius’ Historia Ecclesiastica provide a great opportunity for a close comparison which both highlights the different linguistic and cultural patterns underlying the translations produced by Rufinus and the Syriac translator and also reveals many similarities between them. This article is not concerned with using the translations to reconstruct the original Greek text, but with trying to understand, by the analysis of some selected parallel passages, the theological, ideological and cultural characteristics of the Latin and Syriac contexts into which Eusebius’ Historia Ecclesiastica was translated.

Syriac Christological Dialogues and the Transmission of Theodotus of Ancyra’s Contra Nestorium

This article analyses the context of the Syriac translation of a refutation of Nestorian excerpts attributed to Theodotus of Ancyra and preserved (with lacunae) in Ms. British Library Add. 17,148, and compares the work with the transmission and translation of the texts attributed to him. The article examines the reception of Cyrillian dialogues as a form of anti-Nestorian invective in Greek, Syriac and Arabic literary communities, and discusses the possibly concomitant composition of soghyatha such as that ‘of Cyril and Nestorius’ in Syriac intellectual cultures.

The Greek Fragments attributed to Eusebius of Caesarea’s Theophania

Some of the Greek fragments that Nicetas of Heraclea attributed to Eusebius of Caesarea’s Theophania lack parallels in the intact Syriac translation of the work. Many of the Greek fragments that lack a Syriac counterpart were not in fact authored by Eusebius of Caesarea, for their themes, vocabulary and style are not characteristic of him. Rather, most of them were authored by Eusebius of Emesa, and were wrongly attributed to the bishop of Caesarea through name confusion in the catenae lemmata. At least two Greek fragments missing in the Syriac version were authored by Eusebius of Caesarea. This suggests that the Syriac translator may have used a version of Theophania that abbreviated parts of the original.

La structure de l'Apologie d'Aristide et son chapitre sur les Juifs

Going back to the question of the attribution to the Apologist Aristides of Apol. 14.1b-15.2, a recent paper (W.C. Rutherford, « Reinscribing the Jews : the story of Aristides’ Apology 2.2-4 and 14.1b-15.2 », Harvard Theological Review 106 (2003), p. 61-91) disproves our argument of the double attestation of the passage within the Romance of Barlaam (B. Pouderon, « Aristide et les Juifs. Sur l’authenticité d’Apol. 14, 2 Ba », Studia Patristica 36 (2001), p. 76-86) in order to attribute it to an unknown author (x) going between Aristides and the Pseudo-John Damascene, and not to Aristides himself. In our opinion, assuming such an hypothetical document is groundless, because the structure of the Apology and its thematic as they appear in the Syriac translation do not go against the presence of this passage in the original, although it seems very harsh against the Jews in contrasting God’s benevolence towards the Hebrew with their own malevolence towards the Just and the Christ himself.

The Paradigmatic Translator and His Method: Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq’s Translation of the Hippocratic Aphorisms from Greek via Syriac into Arabic

The present article deals with the role of the Syriac intermediary within Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq’s working process. In its first part I aim to show that the Syriac translation of the Hippocratic Aphorisms (ed. Pognon) was produced by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq. Since this is the first Syriac translation of an ancient medical text which can be definitely ascribed to Ḥunayn, we are now in a better position to understand his working method. In its second part I compare therefore samples of his Syriac translaton with the Greek Vorlage on the one hand and his Arabic version of this Hippocratic text on the other.

“Life is Short, the Art is Long”: An Interpretation of the First Hippocratic Aphorism by an East Syriac Monk in the 7th Century Iraq (Isaac of Nineveh, Kephalaia gnostica 3,62)

AbstractThe so-called Second Part of monastic writings composed by the 7th century East Syriac author Isaac of Nineveh contains a paraphrased citation from the famous beginning of Hippocrates’ Aphorismoi. The article tackles the issue of Isaac’s awareness of the aphorism and tries to reconstruct its interpretation by the author. Though medical texts were available in the East Syriac monastic milieu of that time, it is not likely that Isaac had at his disposal a complete Syriac translation of the Aphorismoi, but rather his acquaintance with the aphorism was mediated by a source that would more likely have been read in monastic context. A good example offers the treatise De anima by the early 5th century monastic author John the Solitary, whose works exercised profound influence upon the entire East Syriac monastic tradition, including Isaac of Nineveh. The given case of a monastic interpretation of a piece of secular wisdom is an illustrative showcase that provides an opportunity to observe a particular sensitivity of the Syriac tradition to medicine and its power to embed it within an appropriate context.

The Mirror, the Qnoma, and the Soul: Another Perspective on the Christological Formula of Babai the Great

AbstractVarious reasons have been suggested for the addition of “two qnome” to the traditional Antiochene christological formula (two natures in one person) of the Church of the East. These reasons can be found in wide-ranging fields that are often intertwined. Primarily, linguistic differences have caused much confusion, since qnoma was a term often used as a Syriac translation of the Greek term hypostasis, some circles almost identifying qnoma with “person,” and others aligning the term with “nature.” Further reasons derive from Church history, logic, epistemology and politics. Such motives will be discussed in this paper in connection with the challenges Babai encountered. After a short description of various aspects of Babai’s Christology and some contemporary sources, it will be argued that another motive has been hitherto neglected: ascetic mysticism. This new perspective focuses on the asceticism of the monks, which was aimed at finding the highest truth and required the purification of the individual soul. Sometimes, the soul was not only associated closely with the human qnoma, but also compared to a mirror that might reflect the light of Christ, just as Christ was considered to be the perfect representation of God. This might have resulted in an intrinsic motive of the monks to recognize an individual human qnoma in Christ, and might therefore have been an additional motive for their spiritual leader Babai to defend the two-qnome doctrine. It probably also worked the other way around: an integration and elaboration of the two-qnome doctrine in ascetic mysticism also was a means to gain more general acceptance of the doctrine.

The Sentences of Sextus and the Origins of Christian Asceticism. By DANIELE PEVARELLO.

The current popularity of often overtly ‘pagan’ guides to self-improvement indicates the value of an awareness of the varied Greek influences on Christian asceticism as ideals already naturalized in the wider inherited Mediterranean tradition. This careful and perceptive study investigates the likely and specifically Pythagorean sources of The Sentences of Sextus (sources found chiefly in Clitarchus and The Pythagorean Sentences). Sextus is here read as a Christian ‘apologetically’ marrying admired traditional philosophical ideals of disciplined restraint and self-sufficiency with emergent second-century Christian faith and insights in various surviving texts. The setting for the assembly of the Sentences is persuasively argued as most probably Alexandria, with explicit references in Origen, and the discovery of a (fragmentary) Coptic translation at Nag Hammadi, along with resonances in Philo, and more. There is a conventional but informative survey of the history of scholarship, including both attention to origins and to explicit or plausibly discernible echoes in later Christian authors elsewhere, clearest in Rufinus (who translated the Sentences into Latin) and Jerome. The latter could disparage them as encouraging Pelagius but also cite them with approval. Two independent Syriac translations have survived.

The Impact of Aramaic (especially Syriac) on the Qur'ān

AbstractThe impact of Aramaic (especially Syriac) on the Qur'ān has long been a matter of debate among scholars, especially among those of the western academe but also within circles of traditional Muslim scholarship. Central to this discussion is the language and audience of the Qur'ān. Studies on the Qur'ān's foreign vocabulary gradually gave way to more in depth analyses on the text's relationship to Syriac Christian literature as well as debates surrounding the Jewish‐Christian dimensions, the text's audience. The textual theories employed in studying the Qur'ān's relationship to the Syriac language and Biblical canon contain the strongest debate concerning the impact of Aramaic (especially Syriac) on the Qur'ān. These textual theories have been given consideration in recent scholarship, which reads the Qur'ān in light of the Aramaic translations of the Gospels, as well as the Syriac translation of the Didascalia Apostolorum.

La pseudo-autobiographie de Denys l’Aréopagite dans le contexte du corpus dionysien syriaque

The relations between the pseudo-Autobiography ofDionysius the Areopagite and the apocryphal philosophical work known as the ‘‘Dionysian corpus’’, associated with the Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, are undoubtedly complex. After a brief survey of the textual tradition, editions and content of the autobiography, this article examines the relative chronology of the different versions, which makes the text an important witness to the Syriac reception of the Dionysian corpus, in close connection to two other works also attributed to Dionysius : a treatise on cosmology and another against the errors of the Chaldeans, i. e. Persian magicians. Opposing astrology and magic seems to have been a concern of the Syriac translator of the Dionysian corpus in the sixth century, Sergius of Rish Ayno, who belonged to the same Origenist milieu as the likely author of the Book of St. Hierotheos, Stephen bar Sudhaili. Whereas Hierotheos, who appears in the Dionysian corpus as the master of Dionysius, became the patron saint of Origenist doctrine, the pseudoautobiography makes Dionysius the patron saint of the conversion of astronomy into a Christian science, and a symbol of the struggle against magic and astrological divination.