Syriac Translation Research Articles

Syriac Exegesis of the Qurʾān

Abstract Christian authors writing in Syriac after the Islamic conquests frequently invoked the Qurʾān to validate the truth of Christian beliefs – such as the Trinity and the Incarnation – and to read the Qurʾān in a manner that removes any criticism of Christians and Christianity. The most comprehensive work of this genre is Against the Arabs of the prolific 12th-century Syrian Orthodox writer, the monophysite bishop of Amida, Dionysius bar Ṣalībī. Hitherto, scholarly attention has been given to exploring Bar Ṣalībī’s Qurʾān quotations vis-à-vis the canonical Qurʾānic text and to identifying the sources from which Bar Ṣalībī quoted the Qurʾān. Building on the current state of research, the aim of the present article is to attempt to provide an analysis of Against the Arabs’ approach to some relatively problematic passages, cruces interpretum, in the Qurʾān. Through studying a number of Qurʾānic verses in Syriac translation, and as commented upon in Against the Arabs, the article highlights the textual problems detected in Against the Arabs and shows that they are genuine problems which are also discussed in the tafsīr (Qurʾān commentary) literature. Put differently, the article demonstrates that – although motivated by different causes – Against the Arabs and the Muslim exegetical literature were both intrigued by the same problems in the Qurʾān but, naturally, reacted to them in different ways. More generally, it is hoped that through showcasing aspects of Against the Arabs’ hermeneutical engagement with the Qurʾān the article will allow us to “hear” the Qurʾān as it was received and interpreted by Syriac Christianity in the High Middle Ages.

Psalm 29 as a poetological example of Peshitta Psalms translation

The existing research on Peshitta has mostly overlooked the translation techniques used in Peshitta Psalms. Prior studies have primarily focused on comparing Peshitta Psalms with the Masoretic Text (MT), the Septuagint and Targum, leaving a gap in the analysis of Peshitta Psalms within the context of Classical Syriac Poetry. This study will delve into how adeptly the Syriac translator employed poetic elements to construct strophic structures and poetic style within the Peshitta Psalm. This article presents an analysis of strophic structure, word repetition, sound figures and versification in the Syriac translation of Psalm 29, comparing them with their Hebrew counterparts. In this study, the utilisation of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) is employed for the MT, while the ‘Leiden edition’ is employed for the Peshitta. The findings from this analysis reveal that the Syriac rendition of Psalm 29 within the Peshitta incorporates numerous poetic elements. This suggests the translator’s familiarity with the strophic arrangement, word repetition, alliteration and various other poetic characteristics utilised by Hebrew scribes. The Peshitta translation of Psalm 29 closely resembles the MT Hebrew text, resulting in a balance of fidelity and aesthetic elegance. The Syriac rendition incorporates poetic elements like strophic arrangement, word repetition and alliteration but employs these features in a distinct manner. The Syriac text has a lower frequency of alliteration and word repetition but still possesses appealing poetic characteristics. The Syriac approach to verse composition closely resembles the Hebrew method, with some exceptions.Contribution: This study explores the Syriac translator’s use of poetic elements in Peshitta Psalms, revealing their familiarity with Hebrew techniques and the unique incorporation of elements. It provides insights into the evolution of Classical Syriac Poetry and contributes to our understanding of Biblical and Syriac poetry.

Strophes in Peshitta Psalms? A Study of Selected Examples

As the Peshitta plays an essential role in literary and textual criticism, the literary features of the Peshitta must be examined not only from the perspective of translation technique but also from the perspective of other factors, such as poetical devices and form. Little attention has been paid to the translation technique in the Peshitta Psalms despite the substantial research conducted on the Peshitta. Most studies have focused on the relationship between the Peshitta Psalms, the Hebrew Masoretic text, and other ancient versions. Therefore, the Peshitta Psalms have yet to be examined from the perspective of classical Syriac poetry. This study investigates how well the Syriac translator employed poetical devices to produce strophic structures and poetic style in the psalms, with particular attention to potential approaches to strophic structure that have not previously been explored. The paper addresses the question of whether the Peshitta Psalms are strophic. The study indicates that Peshitta Psalms 29, 96, 136, and 148 use strophic markers such as word repetition, alliteration, repetition of syntactical structures, parallelism and a balanced number of syllables and words.

Dioscorides and Galen in the Syriac Tradition: A Reconsideration of Three Passages About Herbs in an Anonymous Syriac Pharmacological Book

Abstract This article centres on three passages about herbs and herb remedies (§91, §92 and §97) selected from the anonymous Syriac pharmacological book which Philippe Gignoux recently edited. It argues that all three passages have parallels in Galen’s On Simple Drugs, while the last section of §91 finds a parallel in Dioscorides’ De materia medica 1.107. The parallels not only help us to decipher several terms which remain unresolved in earlier research, but also facilitate a better understanding of some passages which are occasionally misleading due to the highly abbreviated character of the Syriac text. Furthermore, a comparison between the anonymous Syriac pharmacological text and earlier Syriac translations of Galen shows that our text is a multiple-layered pharmacopoeia which combines both earlier elements from Sergius of Rēš ͑ainā in the sixth century and new terminologies from Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq in the ʿAbbāsid translation movement.

Aristide's apology, its form and addressee

The object of the study is early Christian apologetics as a socio-cultural phenomenon. In modern science, the issue related to the audience of early Christian apologies is actively discussed. A number of apologies of the second century, as is known, are addressed directly to the rulers of the Roman Empire themselves. But is such an addressee genuine? Or is there a masterfully executed literary stylization in front of us? The subject of our research is the apology of Aristide. Aristide, according to ancient church historians, was the first apologist of Christianity who submitted his work to the Emperor Hadrian. However, the Syriac translation of the apology indicates the Emperor Antoninus Pius as the addressee. Thus, we are faced with two questions: 1) which of the two emperors was the addressee in the original apology; 2) is the imperial addressee real or is he a literary fiction? In the course of the study, the author came to the following conclusions. Firstly, we have no reason to prefer the Syriac version of the apology to all the data of the church-historical tradition. This data is confirmed by the Armenian translation of the apology. It should also be pointed out that the Syrian addressee contains a number of errors and resembles, rather, a later interpolation. Secondly, the content of the apology convinces that it is designed for an educated pagan, and not for a Christian. And there is every reason to believe that the Emperor Hadrian really acted as such an addressee. At the same time, it should be noted that the apology does not represent an official petition addressed to the emperor, we have before us a literary work written in the protreptic genre.

With or without Candles? Manipulating Cyril of Alexandria's Third Homily In Lucam: Three Versions for One Text

The 156 homilies that Cyril of Alexandria dedicated to Luke's Gospel have experienced a turbulent textual history. In this corpus, the third homily, commenting on Luke 2.21–24, enjoys a special position. Indeed, we can read some fragments of it in the catenae; like two other of the 156 homilies, the third homily is transmitted through a Greek liturgical tradition; and, since Joseph-Marie Sauget discovered the Damascus Patr. 12/20, we have access to a Syriac translation. These three different forms sustain complex relationships with the original text, but all of them are, in various ways, vestigia, manipulations, and rewritings of it. This article thus proposes to focus on the phenomena of manipulating the text of Cyril's third homily, which depends on various needs, either exegetical in the catenae, or liturgical in the Greek tradition. This enables us to get a clearer view of the original text and its reception. The Syriac translation is the most faithful to the hypotext. The catenists, for sure, selected passages and rewrote them, but sometimes they preserved a more conservative text in comparison with the direct tradition. Finally, the liturgical tradition does not hesitate to add a liturgical incipit and to cut the explicit of the homily in the process of fusion with the fourth homily.

From Joseph to Aṅgulimāla

From the late 4th century BCE, the Greeks initiated long-term cultural exchange between the Indian and Mediterranean worlds. Following the Greek conquests of North-West India and Central Asia, Buddhism spread to these regions. Here Buddhists, native and immigrant alike, came into prolonged contact with Western civilizations. The Bible in Greek or Syriac translation may have been available in North-West India and Central Asia in the early centuries CE or before the Common Era. Cumulative evidence also indicates that there were Christians and Jews in these regions during this period. They lived side by side with Buddhists for generations. Presumably under such circumstances, biblical elements found their way, perhaps indirectly, into Buddhist literature. A notable example is one version of the Aṅgulimāla Sutta, T118. The episode of Aṅgulimāla’s encounter with his teacher’s wife was probably adapted from Joseph’s encounter with Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39. In this article, I show that the similarities between the Joseph story and the Aṅgulimāla story greatly surpass those between the Joseph/Aṅgulimāla stories and their counterparts in other literature, including six Greek tales, an Indian epic, two Jātakas and the Divyāvadāna of Buddhism.

Obsequies of My Lady Mary (II): A Fragmentary Syriac Palimpsest Manuscript from Deir al-Suryan (BL, Add 14.665, no. 2)

This Syriac palimpsest manuscript with four remaining folios bound with others into one volume runs under the shelf mark Add 14.665, no. 2 in the British Library. It displays a well-executed 5th century Estrangela. William Wright in his Contributions to the Apocryphal Literature of 1865 offered only readings of some scanty passages. The text has been neglected ever since. Preserved in it are sections of an early witness for the Obsequies of My Lady Mary in Syriac (S1) covering the final part of the second book, the beginning of book three, and central sections of book five with the apocryphal History of Peter and Paul according to the Ethiopic five-book cycle. The textual diversity is at times considerable in comparison to the other early transmissions in Greek and Christian Palestinian Aramaic, and the much later Ethiopic one. It has been the first Syriac source to attest the central term for the palm tradition ܬܘܠܣܐ ‘palm-shoot’. The new and additional readings intend to fill some lacunae in the only partially preserved transmission of the early Syriac translation of the Dormition of Mary from Upper Mesopotamia.

La versio Syra minor della vita di Giovanni il Misericordioso

This article seeks to bring to the attention of scholars an unedited Syriac version of the Life of John the Merciful. The text (preserved in the single manuscript Paris, BnF, Syr. 234) represents a shorter recensio of the Syriac translation recently published in CSCO 679. The metaphrasis, which is characterised by a short form and a high number of variants, has been drawn from a model that was very similar to Paris, BnF, Syr. 235. However, an unknown witness preserving an ancient form of the Syriac translation has contributed to the development of this text. It is for this reason that this versio minor retains a lot of original details of the Greek which are unknown to other Syriac sources. The work is interesting because it provides us with a better understanding of the original text of the Syriac Life, but also because it contains some peculiar characteristics due to the creative pen of its author.

Mary as a Disciple: The Reception of the Figure of Mary of Bethany (John 11:1–46) in the Old Syriac Sinaiticus Manuscript

The figure of Mary, Lazarus's sister, receives an enhanced role in the Old Syriac Sinaiticus translation of the raising of Lazarus (John 11:1–46). Four readings in the Syriac translation focus on Mary and consist of additions or reelaborations of the Greek text that are not errors or misunderstandings of the original but rather the result of reading the figure of Mary in the context of the Fourth Gospel as a whole. The result is a portrait of Mary of Bethany in the Sinaiticus translation that should properly be titled "portrait of a disciple." This analysis results in a deeper appreciation of the Old Syriac translator's overall interpretation of John 11.

Publishing Syriac Aristotle: Some Notes on D. King’s Edition of Categories

Abstract Daniel King’s book The Earliest Syriac Translation of Aristotle’s Categories may be considered the first critical edition of a Syriac translation of Aristotle’s works. Thus, it raises a number of questions of textual criticism that may be discussed against the background of D. Gutas’ research in the field of Graeco-Arabic studies. This article provides a critical review of the book and a description of the new online publication of the anonymous Syriac translation of Aristotle’s Categories in the HUNAYNNET database.

“The History that Should be Placed at the Beginning of the Book of Paul the Apostle”: New Evidence for the Syriac Euthalian Apparatus in Apocryphal Texts

Abstract This paper introduces some overlooked witnesses to the Syriac translation of the Euthalian Apparatus found in apocryphal narratives about Paul. The narratives entitled the “History of Paul”, the “Martyrdom of Paul the Apostle and the Discovery of His Severed Head”, and “The History That Should be Placed at the Beginning of the Book of Paul the Apostle” preserve portions of the prologue to Paul’s Epistles attributed to Euthalius. These narratives circulated independently from New Testament manuscripts where the Euthalian Apparatus typically circulates as paratextual material. They are clearly dependent on the Euthalian prologue and are valuable witnesses for understanding the development and use of the Apparatus in Syriac. These three narratives appear to preserve an early version of the Euthalian Apparatus prior to the insertion of the martyrium Pauli in the fifth century.

A Fragment of the Syriac Translation of Aristotle’s Poetics Preserved by Jacob Bar Shakko

The fragment of the Syriac translation of Aristotle’s Poetics preserved by Jacob (Severus) Bar Shakko (d. 1241) comprises Poet. VI 1449b24–1450a10. In spite of its small size, it serves as an important witness both to the Greek text of the Poetics, and to the reception of this work in the Christian Orient and, later on, in the Muslim world. The fragment derives from a translation, which most likely appeared in West Syriac circles in the 7th/8th centuries AD and later served as the basis for the Arabic translation of the Poetics made by Abū Bishr Mattā ibn Yūnus in the 10th century. The present article includes a new edition of the Syriac text preserved by Bar Shakko, which is based on the collation of six manuscripts and is accompanied by an English translation. The article also provides a detailed analysis of the Syriac fragment as compared to the transmitted Greek text of the Poetics, on the one hand, and to the Arabic translation of it by Abū Bishr, on the other. This comparison allows an assumption that the Syriac version is most likely based on a Greek manuscript, which may have contained glosses and scholia. A Greek and Syriac glossary is attached at the end of the article.

Linking Syriac Liturgies: Digitizing Card Collections and Handwritten Notes from the Archives of the Peshitta Institute

Abstract The Peshitta is the Syriac translation of the Bible from the second century AD. It had an enormous cultural and literary impact in the Middle East, no less than the role that, for example, the Latin Vulgate played in large parts of (Western) Europe. Up to the present, the Peshitta plays a crucial role in the various Syriac Christian communities in the Middle East and the Syriac Diaspora. A valuable resource for Peshitta studies is the collection of handwritten notes on cards and binders from the first decades of the Peshitta Project (started 1959), which were digitized in the dans “Klein Data Project” (kdp) Linking Syriac Liturgies (2018–2019). The notes relate to a wealth of information about manuscripts, liturgical traditions and calendars and various Syriac Bible translations. The kdp has made this material accessible and allows for computational research into the complex interactions between textual and structured data included in this data set, in which more than 9,000 entries containing pericopes read in liturgy are indexed according to more than 70 categories.

The Syriac Text of Book Nine ofOn Simple Drugs. New Evidence from the Syriac Galen Palimpsest

The Syriac Galen Palimpsest (SGP), a privately owned manuscript containing parts of books 2-9 of Galen’s Simple Drugs in Syriac translation, offers important evidence to the reconstruction of the Greek text of book 9. Roughly half the book survives in it, and the article discusses the methodology used to reconstruct the often poorly visible Syriac text, combining computational tools for text and image analysis. In particular, the creation of a lemmatised bilingual Greek-Syriac corpus provides an important heuristic tool for the reconstruction of the text. The Syriac version of two chapters from book 9, ‘on stones in sponges’ and ‘on ostracite’, are edited here for the first time and used to illustrate the challenges and the opportunities that the SGP offers not just for the study of the Greek textual history, but also the transmission from Greek into Arabic.

What is the Relationship between the Two Ancient Syriac Peshitta Versions of 1 Maccabees? A New Proposal that Challenges the Classical Explanation

Abstract The Syriac version of 1 Macc. that is preserved in Codex Ambrosianus (7a1) is very different from the one attested in the rest of the manuscripts of the Peshitta. This double attestation is typically explained by a hypothesis first put forward by G. Schmidt in 1897 that sees the version of 7a1 (Syr-2) as a revision of the original Syriac translation (Syr-1), which is the one attested in the majority of the manuscripts. This article aims to challenge this theory. In fact, this study shows that there is no relationship between Syr-1 and Syr-2, that is, Syr-2 cannot be considered a revision of Syr-1 (intended to eliminate additions), but must be understood as a new translation made from the Greek. For its part, Syr-1 is characterised by a number of double readings that could be interpreted as the work of an editor who preserves readings from two different Syriac versions of 1 Macc.

The First Book of Maccabees in Syriac: Dating and Context

Abstract Syriac literature exhibits interest in narratives associated with the Maccabees by the fourth century. Seventh-century manuscripts preserve two different Syriac translations of 1 Maccabees. The translation of this book into Syriac is not part of the Peshitta Old Testament translated from the Hebrew Bible in the second century CE. Its dating and the possible context for its production have not yet been the topic of scholarly investigation. This article examines quotations of and allusions to 1 Maccabees in Aphrahat, Ephrem, and the Martyrdom of Simeon bar Ṣabbāʿē. The last of these texts, likely produced in the early fifth century, offers the earliest evidence for a Syriac translation of 1 Maccabees. The production of a Syriac translation of 1 Maccabees in the fourth or perhaps early fifth century reflects efforts of Christian communities around this time to appropriate the Maccabean narrative for their own interests.

Między tłumaczeniem słów a tłumaczeniem sensu

Is it necessary to refer literally to all the words in order to translate a text faithfully? The ancient Syriac-speaking church already lived this dilemma. In no ancient language can we have access to a series of translations from different centuries in order to follow the diachronic development of the translation technique so closely. This paper presents for the first time to a Polish reader the process of transformation of the New Testament translations into Syriac from reader-oriented to source-oriented type. Contemporary categories of dynamic and formal equivalence help us to describe the characteristic features of particular translations, in which different assumptions and goals lead to a new reception of the text. The translation technique is analyzed on the example of John 3:1.2.16.17 in three Syriac translations from different epochs: Vetus Syra, Peshitta, Harklean. A broader supplementary bibliography on the topics discussed is also presented.

Теофраст о ветре

Wind as a natural phenomenon as well as the peculiarities of specific winds, such as Boreas, Notos, Eurus, and Zephyrus and their influences on navigation, agriculture and, in general, human live are among the subjects, extensively treated by the Peripatetics. Winds are studied in Aristotle’s Meteorology (1.13, 2.4 sq.), Book 26 of the Problems, the Peripatetic On signs and On the position and Names of the Wind, in an epitome of a meteorological work, ascribed to Theophrastus (the so-called Metarsiology, preserved only in Arabic and Syriac translations) and, finally, in his short (and incomplete) treatise On Winds. The latter work is of special interest not only because it is the only Peripatetic treatise especially dedicated to winds; as such it is a valuable witness of Theophrastus’ position on the nature of this natural phenomenon, generally different from the one advanced by Aristotle. Having summarized some aspects of this rather neglected treatise, I try to correlate meteorological information and explanations offered by Theophrastus with contemporary data, especially in the context of the history of navigation.

An Interpolation Family in the Poetics

The ms. tradition of the Poetics is a mine, quite unexpectedly, when it comes to composition on literary matters: four independent witnesses — Parisinus 1741 (A), Riccardianus 46 (B), and mediaeval translations into Latin by William of Moerbecke and Arabic by Abū-Bishr Mattā made with the help of a Syriac interlinear (not to mention the recentiores which still could prove of some stemmatic value, as for instance Par. gr. 2038, Vat. gr. 1400, Berol. Philipp. and Mon. 493) — allow in most cases for a safe reconstruction of an archetype. Common errors suggest that this text differed from the autograph in some twenty passages, largely interpolations, ranging from a couple of words to a number of phrases. Several intrusions prove to be typologically close. All of them correct what was deemed to be inaccurate or loose argumentation by inserting syntactic complements or references adding cohesion. As a result, both the style and context go largely neglected. The first paragraphs of ch. 6, central to the Poetics, suffered most. This text also came down to us in a Syriac translation having a heavily glossed uncial ms. as its source. Insertions in ch. 6 cause ‘harmonising’ additions to the following text of the treatise. The ‘family of interpolations’ under discussion is tentatively attributed to a professor of Aristotelianism of late antiquity (the most suitable candidate seems to be Themistius): a school-room copy diffused by his pupils became the common ancestor of both the extant Greek mss. of the Poetics and the reconstructed Greek sources of the mediaeval translations. A fresh collation of the Syriac text together with the evidence of variae lectiones in the oldest independent Greek mss. offer a glimpse into the workings of his mind.