Syriac Translation Research Articles

Paul of Callinicum and his Place in Syriac Literature

This paper seeks to build upon recent work on Syriac-Greek translations by taking a closer look at the texts ascribed to Paul of Callinicum. Paul is generally held to have been the translator of the otherwise lost writings of Severus of Antioch and, fortunately, his work can be attached to a fairly specific date. By analysing the citations from Cyril of Alexandria within the Severan corpus, this study describes the style of translation that Paul used, principally in terms of his level of verbal and grammatical fidelity to the Greek. His approach is then compared with parallel texts from the fifth century, as well as with the seventh century translator Athanasius of Nisibis, in the hope of pinning down more exactly the nature and extent of the developments in Syriac translation technique which are generally visible between the fifth and the seventh centuries. Broadly, it is suggested that Paul’s era, which coincides with that of Philoxenus, was one of rapid change in approaches to Greek-Syriac translation and that Paul himself was a major player in the move towards to the literalistic mirror translations of the later period.

The Book of Ben Sira in Rabbinic Literature

The Book of Ben Sira is a wisdom composition written in Hebrew toward the beginning of the second century BCE. It is well preserved in a Greek translation that, according to its prologue, was done by the author’s grandson, and a Syriac translation of a few hundred years later is preserved in the Peshitta. Between fragments found at Masada and in the Cairo Geniza, some 60 percent of the book survives in Hebrew.

Qambel Maran: Syriac Chants from South India (review)

Reviewed by: Qambel Maran: Syriac Chants from South India Zoe Sherinian (bio) Qambel Maran: Syriac Chants from South India. Pan Records Ethnic Series, Leiden, Netherlands. One CD, divided into five sections. Liner notes and photography by Joseph J. Palackal. Contact information: Paradox@dataweb.nl. Ethnomusicologist Joseph Palackal's unique recording of Syrian Christian chants from Southern and Central Kerala in Southwest India reflects a growing interest in the music of India's religious minorities. Cassettes of Christian music, particularly of the evangelical variety, are widely available in India. One can also find a few recordings of karnatak-style Tamil Christian music. However, none of these recordings has the extensive ethnomusicological treatment found here, or the valuable historical account of the development of a liturgical practice. Kerala has one of the highest populations of Christians in India at 19 percent, while nationally Christians make up 2.5 percent of the Indian population. Kerala is also home to the oldest community of Indian Christians. Liturgical evidence presented in this recording supports the claim that Christians migrated from Syria to Kerala by the fourth century CE. Folklore, however, still contends that St. Thomas the Apostle established Christian communities in South India as early as 52 CE. While there are over six major Christian sects in Kerala, Palackal focuses on the Chaldean liturgical chant tradition, also known as the East Syriac tradition of the Syro-Malabar Church. The bulk of these chants were recorded at a monastery chapel, while a few were recorded in a studio in Ernakulam. The monastery recordings, in particular, have a beautiful natural resonance. Overall, the quality of sound is very clear, while the inconsistent quality of the religious practitioner's voices lends a "field recording" quality to the collection. Palackal's accompanying notes exemplify thorough historical and contextual ethnomusicological writing. He includes valuable information on the Syrian Christian community, the performers, the text, musical elements, musical instruments, the repertoire, and notes on each piece. He also includes photographs of the musicians, icons, a monastery, and individuals with significant importance to the practice. While there are no translations or transcriptions in the CD notes, one can obtain them by writing to PAN Records. [End Page 158] In his notes, Palackal includes a discussion of the history of Syriac, the language of the majority of these chants. Syriac is a form of Aramaic and a part of the Semitic language family. It was a language of commerce during Ashoka's reign in India (273–32 BCE) and was related to the colloquial language of the Jews and Jesus. Palackal draws the listener to focus on the sound of East Syriac: a fusion of Syriac words with inflections and pronunciation from Malayalam, the language of Kerala. Palackal's discussion of linguistic fusion begs the listener to ask to what degree local musical elements have been fused with these Syriac melodies. Indeed, the whole collection represents musically the culture contact between Malayali, Roman, Syrian, and British Christians over at least the last 1,600 years. However, while Palackal discusses linguistic fusions at length, his discussion of musical fusions is less developed. The strongest influence of the Portuguese and the British appears in the instrumental performance practice heard in this recording. Instrumental accompaniment includes a snare drum-shaped tambor that functions as a bass drum, a tiriyankol, (a Malayalam adoption of the Portuguese triangulo), and the violin, also called rebec. This name, along with iconographic evidence, points to its probable pre-sixteenth century presence in India. Palackal also references the use of an organ as early as 1505. The recording is divided into five sections based on liturgical context: (1) chants from the Liturgy of Hours; (2) chants from the Raza (Eucharistic Orders); (3) Chants from the Service of the Dead; (4) Syriac translation of Latin chants for paraliturgical services; and (5) chants for special occasions. The first section of liturgical chants represents the monastic tradition of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate. It also reflects the mixture of cultural sources in the music. The instrumental accompaniment on the first chant includes a bhajan-style harmonium timbre mixed with melodic gestures of Orthodox Christian chants and chordal patterns of Protestant Indian Christian hymnody usually played...

'The Role of the "Three" in the Text History of the Septuagint': II. Aspects of Interdependence of the Old Greek and the Three in Ecclesiastes

This study elucidates corruption and influence from the versions of the Three Jewish Revisors (Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion) on the textual transmission of the Greek Ecclesiastes and its congeners, especially the Old Latin, as well as corruption of the textual transmission of the Three from the LXX. In some cases, the incestuous relationship between the LXX and the Three cannot be sorted out. The Syro-Hexapla, the Syriac translation of the hexaplaric text, is one of the most important and reliable witnesses to the hexaplaric group and to the Three. The analysis clarifies considerably the text history of the LXX Ecclesiastes.

Early Syriac Translation Technique and the Textual Criticism of the Greek Gospels – P. J. Williams

Early Syriac Translation Technique and the Textual Criticism of the Greek Gospels – P. J. Williams

Johannes Niehoff-Panagiotidis. Übersetzung und Rezeption: Die byzantinish-neugriechischen und spanischen Adaptionen von Kalīla wa-Dimna. Wiesbaden, Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2003, viii+309 p. [Serta Graeca: Beiträge zur Erforschung griechischer Texte, Band 18

The book is divided into five chapters, the first of which traces the textual and translation history of Kalīla wa Dimna, focusing on the Middle Persian recension (pp. 14-19), the Syriac translation (pp. 19-22), the Arabic of Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (pp. 23-32), and the Greek (pp. 34-47, the earliest being a fragmentary version from around 1100 AD), Spanish (pp. 47-52) and Hebrew (pp. 53-57) translations. Originating in 1999 as a Habilitationsschrift at the Freie Universitat in Berlin (Department of ...

Note sur la tradition manuscrite d'un passage disputé du discours 38 de Grégoire de Nazianze (BHG 1938)

In a small number of Greek MSS, Gregory of Nazianzus' 38th homily contains an addition of a few lines which does not belong to the original tradition of the text. This addition is edited here on the basis of 19 Greek MSS and two independent Syriac translations. The Greek MSS all belong to a well known textual family (family M according to Sinko's classification) and several of them were copied in Southern Italy. This case is an illustration of the existence of at least a cultural and well established link between the Near East and Southern Italy.

The Peshitta of Ben Sira: Jewish and/or Christian?

Abstract The religious context in which the Syriac translation of the Bible originated is a much-debated issue. Some scholars argue that it originated in a Jewish context, others that it has a Christian background. Also various hypotheses about a Jewish-Christian origin have been put forward. This paper argues that the question 'Jewish or Christian?' and even the question 'Jewish, Christian, or Jewish-Christian?' is an over-simplification of the problem because of the broad Jewish-Christian spectrum that existed in the first centuries of the Common Era. The paper concentrates on the Syriac translation of Ben Sira, which has some undeniable traces of an origin somewhere on the Christian side of the spectrum.

Athanasiana Syriaca and the library of Dayr al-Suryan

The library of the convent of Dayr al-Suryan, Wadi an-Natrun, Egypt, represents the single most important collection of Syriac manuscripts to have survived into the modern period. Taking as a starting point the preservation in this collection of the Syriac translation of the Festal Letters of St Athanasius (the Greek original of which is lost), the author examines the role of the tenth century abbot Moses of Nisibis in the building of this collection. When the manuscripts added by Moses to the library are viewed in the context of the history of early Syriac literature, it is discovered that the possibility that Moses was able to acquire such a rich body of very early manuscripts precisely because they represented literature of diminished interest in the heartland of Syriac culture, must be given serious consideration.

モプスエスティアのテオドロスにおける予型論の射程

Theodore of Mopsuestia is known as a representative of the Antiochene School of exegesis in the Holy Scripture. He was considered heretical in the Fifth Ecumenical Council at Constantinople on the charge of being the ‘doctrinal founder of Nestorianism’. However, since the Syriac translation of his Catechetical Homilies was discovered, he has been considered an eminent theologian in liturgical spirituality. The aim of this paper is to clarify the relationship of his typology between the liturgy and exegesis.Theodore's standard of typological interpretation in the Old Testament is very rigid. He approves only three passages in the Old Testament from the typological point of view; 1) blood of lamb, 2) serpent made of bronze, 3) Jonah in the belly of a great fish. All of these share the same features; 1› these events or passages are cited in the New Testament with a typological meaning; 2› through these process, people actually achieved salvation from death, although the difference between these patterns of salvation and salvation through Christ is immeasurable. The case of Jonah is also investigated in detail, and it becomes clear that it was not the Jews but the foreigners that achieved salvation through both Jonah and Christ.The theory of ‘catastasis’ or the condition or circumstance of two ages, the present and the future, is characteristic in the theology of Theodore. Christ opened the second catastasis through his resurrection from the dead. The age of the Old Testament falls within the first catastasis, but for us, the baptism means the ‘typos’ of the second. The liturgical action is told as a ‘typos’ of the suffering of Christ, but because Christ's action opened up the second catastasis, the reason why the liturgy is said to be a ‘typos’ is consistent with his theory of catastasis.Theodore insists that the Christ presented in the Eucharist, and the Corpus of Christ is not a ‘typos’. Theodore's rigid standard of typology seems to have limited the scope of typology very narrowly as compared with Alexandrian theologians, but the continuity of the two testaments remains firm through this rigidity and the sense of salvation in liturgy. The result of Theodore's method offers an opportunity for both historical and literal investigation of the text of the Old Testament, free from an allegorical exegesis.

Studies on the Syriac Apocryphal Psalms

Studies on the Syriac Apocryphal Psalms, by H. F. Van Rooy. JSS Supplement 7. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Pp. v + 170. Euro64.00. The number 150 is traditionally the rather sacrosanct number of the biblical psalms attributed to King David. Since the time of the earliest editions of the Greek OT, however, scholars have been aware of additional psalms beyond those canonical 150. The five Syriac apocryphal psalms, numbered 151-155, which constitute the subject matter of this monograph, were only first brought to the attention of the scholarly world when the great Maronite scholars, the brothers Assemani, noted their existence in their catalogue of the Syriac manuscripts in the Vatican Library, published in 1759. Surprisingly, it was not until over a century later that the first text of these psalms appeared. And it was not until 1930 when the first edition of these psalms, utilizing five manuscripts, was first published by the great German scholar Martin Noth. Since this time, Hebrew texts of three of these psalms were discovered among the texts found at Qumran, and a new critical edition of these Syriac psalms was published in 1972, as part of the Leiden Peshitta project (vol. IV.6), which is now nearing completion. With all this data now available, Van Rooy here offers the first monograph-length study of these Syriac psalms. The volume is not a systematic monograph, but is actually comprised of eleven distinct studies, most of which have previously appeared in print. Studies 8-11 originally appeared in English, while studies 2-4, and 7 first appeared in Afrikaans but were translated into English; each of these eight studies was revised for this volume. Studies 1, 5, and 6 were prepared specifically for this volume during a research leave at the Leiden Peshitta Institute and are published here for the first time. The eleven studies found in this volume include a translation of these five Syriac apocryphal psalms, three studies of various aspects of the manuscripts in which they are found, three studies specifically of the forms and provenance of Ps 151, followed by a single study of each of the remaining psalms, 152-155. While others have studied these psalms, they were primarily biblical scholars interested in their relation to Greek and/or Hebrew versions. While Van Rooy rehearses these arguments and offers his own thoughts based on his own investigation into these relationships, the real value of this monograph is that it also offers detailed investigations into the provenance of these Syriac psalms within the context of the development of the Syriac biblical text. For example, these Syriac psalms each contain rather lengthy headings that are clearly an inner Syriac development, and contain comments from Eusebius, Athanasius, and Theodore of Mopsuestia. Van Rooy demonstrates that in the course of transmission of the Syriac Bible there was little change in the development of the text of these psalms. Though this might not be unexpected for biblical texts, he nonetheless discerns in the few variants, which otherwise seem of relatively little textual importance, a possibility that there was a second Syriac translation of these psalms, perhaps as part of one of the later revisions of the entire Bible; unfortunately, he does little more than proffer this suggestion. …

Nuevos textos sapienciales griegos en obras árabe-castellanas

A substantial part of Wisdom Literature texts translated to Castilian by the order of King Alfonso X come from Greek originals: that is certified by the Arab translators of Libro de los Buenos Proverbios (Hunayn) and Poridat de Poridades (ibn Batrik); and two other books, Bocados de Oro and Historia de la donzella Teodor , show the same characteristics. This paper is a first attempt to reconstruct, as fully as possible, the Greek models, as well as to trace their evolution from the 4th century B.C. to the 7th/8th A.D., when the books came to Arabs, directly or through Syriac translations. –– Despite some Arab touch, these works are essentially the Greek texts of the Roman Imperial period, slightly modified by the Byzantine who added religious and palatine allusions, as well as Christian proverbs. Contents and form are coincident with the antique Wisdom Literature as far as we can know it, specially from the Lifes followed by collections of proverbs, and from the literature about Alexander the Great and Aristotle.

Theodorus van Mopsuestia in Het Kader van de Syrische Dialoog

Theodore of Mopsuestia and the Syriac Dialogue The Third Syriac Consultation of the Syriac Dialogue between the different Churches of the Syriac traditions took place at Mundelein near Chicago, Illinois, in July 1997. One of the main topics of the Consultation concerned the person and the teaching of Theodore of Mopsuestia, who died in 428, before the great Christological controversy between Alexandria and Antioch broke out. Cyril of Alexandria had succeeded in condemning his rival Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Soon afterwards Cyril’s supporters in Syria and Egypt started a campaign against the Antiochene ‘forerunners’ of Nestorius. Especially Theodore of Mopsuestia was accused of being the ‘father of Nestorianism’, but Cyril decided not to condemn Theodore officially. In the meantime Theodore’s writings had begun to circulate in Syriac translations in the Church of the East in the Sasanian Empire. It would last until the reign of the Emperor Justinian (527-565) that the issue was reopened. Theodore Askidas, Justinian’s theological advisor, started a deadly attack on Theodore of Mopsuestia who in his eyes should by all means be condemned officially by the Church. Because of the inconsistent attitude of the Roman Pope Vigilius, Justinian convoked a council at Constantinople in 553. The programme of the Council had been carefully drawn up by Askidas and Justinian and the issue of the Council was clear from its start: Theodore of Mopsuestia was to be condemned as the ‘father of Nestorianism’, even given the fact that he had passed away 125 years ago. No real discussion took place about Theodore’s theological background and Theodore’s real vision on the person of Christ. In the Church of the East Theodore lives on as the great ‘interpreter’ of Scripture.

Studien zu Gregor von Nyssa und der christlichen Spätantike (review)

Reviewed by: Studien zu Gregor von Nyssa und der christlichen Spätantike George C. Berthold Hubertus R. Drobner and Christopher Klock , editors. Studien zu Gregor von Nyssa und der christlichen Spätantike. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, 12. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1990. Pp. x + 418. Seven international conferences have already taken place since 1969 on the subject of Gregory of Nyssa and several publications have resulted from them. The present volume is a series of twenty-one studies on a wide range of questions which indicate the present state of the question on current research on Gregory. Of these contributions seven are in English, seven in German, four in Spanish, two in French, and one in Italian. A brief resume in German by H. Drobner is appended to each article and the volume is introduced by a Foreword from the editors in the same language. The contributions fall into four categories: Language, Philosophy, Theology, and Related Material. In the first category Michel van Esbroeck analyzes four treatises, attributed variously to Gregory of Nyssa or Gregory the Wonderworker (or even Gregory Nazianzen), considered in their Marcellian context. Of particular interest is the translation into French that he offers of an unedited collection of texts from the Treatise to Evagrius, That the Trinity is Consubstantial, and the Treatise on the Trinity. Martin F. G. Parmentier presents Gregory's De differentia essentiae et hypostaseos in its Syriac version and an English translation on facing pages. This is Basil's letter 38, now accepted as belonging to Gregory, in a sixth-century Syriac translation, most of which is preserved in the British Library. The text is important, on the need to distinguish the two basic terms of trinitarian discussion. Three other manuscripts of Monophysite origin are also included (in Syriac and English) and set alongside the main text. Everett Ferguson studies Gregory's use of the terms psalm, psalter, psalmody, etc. and concludes that he follows the biblical usage of this term and thus does not differ from other Christian authors in this regard. The final contribution in the Language section, by Manfred Kertsh, studies the excerpts of the Cappadocians and Chrysostom by Isidore of Pelusium and Nilus of Ancyra. In the section on Philosophy, Martin Esper offers an interesting study of the use of analogy and allegory in Gregory, who explains his principle "from the known to the unknown" in the prologue to his commentary on the Song of Songs. His allegorical exegesis changes the pagan analogia entis to the Christian analogia fidei. We see the wisdom of God's working only in a mirror. Esper understands the meaning of In Canticum 4.4 as a paradigm of Gregory's homiletic. God's boundless eternity, where contraries are included, corresponds to human finitude, with our continual progress to God. Alden Mosshammer sees in the debate with Eunomius Gregory's stress on the "role of the human mind in structuring through language the nature of reality as men perceive it." Thus we see the need for a constant reinterpretation of language. As God's infinity contrasts with the finitude of human language, one does not move from the literal to the spiritual but rather understands the spiritual as embodied in the literal. For this reason Mosshammer understands [End Page 76] Gregory as anticipating Kant and Heidegger, not to mention the deconstructionists. Gregory's emphasis on the gap between signifier and signified makes him an important witness in the contemporary heremeneutical debate. On page 119 there is an uncharacteristic typo in this well-edited book, 'principle' for 'principal' (other typos are found in n. 11 on p. 128 and also on pp. 139 and 151, and a misplaced note on p. 242). The third section, on Theology, has understandably the greatest number of papers, eleven in all. In separate articles, Anthony Meredith and Christopher Stead consider Gregory's notion of God, the former investigating the coherences and discordances of the bishop of Nyssa's treatment of God. The stress of each of the five works studied is different, showing Nyssa to be not as consistent as Aquinas. Stead's study is one concerned with the logic of Gregory's trinitarian doctrine, meeting his opponents on...

On the Terminology of the Liber de Causis

Despite the fact that the scholarly literature on the anonymous medieval treatise Liber de Causis is quite extensive, it is still relevant to discuss its terminology. It should be noted that at times it is difficult to determine whether the Arabic terms of philosophy stem directly from the original Greek term or from its Syriac translation. This difficulty is felt especially in connection with the terminology of the Liber de Causis, In such cases the anonymity of the work does not allow to trace the path of formation and further development of its terminology.

John of Scythopolis on Apollinarian Christology and the Pseudo-Areopagite's True Identity

As is well known, theCorpus Dionysiacum(CD) first appeared on the stage of history in the first quarter of the sixth century; what is less well known is that within a generation of its appearance the CD was commented upon by an Orthodox author, John of Scythopolis (d.c. 548). Thereafter, the CD was circulated in a much expanded format—prefaced with John'sPrologueand annotated with hisScholia. John's interpretive work, so close in time to the composition of the CD itself, holds forth the promise of great insight into the earliest stage of the reception of the Areopagite's works in the Christian East. Unfortunately, with the passing of time, John's remarks became so intermingled with the comments of later authors (such as Maximus the Confessor and Germanus of Constantinople) that until quite recently modern scholars have been unable to isolate John'sScholiawith any degree of certainty. However, investigations of theScholiaare now entering a new stage, thanks in large part to the labors of Beate Regina Suchla. As she has demonstrated in a series of recent publications, it is possible to recover John's work through an early Syriac translation of theScholiaand a shorter Greek recension, both of which preserve the earliest version of theScholia, that authored by John. To date, however, she has published results for the scholia on theDivine Namesalone. Using a similar approach, the authors of this article have tentatively identified John's comments on the rest of the CD as well. It is now possible to begin examining thematic aspects of John'sScholiaand to understand something of his intentions in commenting upon the CD. With this goal in mind, we here investigate John's comments on a number of intertwined issues, chiefly, the Christology of Apollinaris and the authenticity of the works of Dionysius.

L'intermediaire syriaque dans la transmission de la philosophie grecque à l'arabe: le cas de l'Organon d'Aristote

This article aims to present a summary account of the role of Syriac in the transmission of Aristotle's Organon from Greek to Arabic. The main sources for that purpose lie in the Syriac and Arabic translations of Aristotle's works, that were achieved during the period from the 7th to the 9th centuries. Some problems related to these translations are discussed, with more attention paid to the emergence of a technical language of logic.

A SYRIAC COMMENTARY ON GREGORY OF NYSSA'S CONTRA EUNOMIUM / A Syriac commentary on Gregory of Nyssa's Contra Eunomium

Summary The 9th century Syriac manuscript Add.17196 of the British Library contains the (damaged and incomplete) text of an anonymous commentary on the second part of Gregory of Nyssa's main dogmatic work Contra Eunomium (CPG 3135 and 3136). At the end, part of a memorandum by Severus of Antioch is quoted, which is also found in Peter of Callinicum's Contra Damianum. The commentary itself is of Monophysite origin and seems to be an original Syriac composition. It contains brief quotations from Gregory's text followed by some comments. The quotations raise new questions concerning Syriac translation technique in general and the Syriac translations of Contra Eunomium in particular. The comments show, amongst other things, that the Greek was not always interpreted correctly. Since part of the text is also found in an 8th century manuscript, the date of this manuscript is the text's terminus ante quem.

The Syriac translation of the old testament — as evidenced around the middle of the fourth century (in Eusebius of Emesa)

The Syriac translation of the old testament — as evidenced around the middle of the fourth century (in Eusebius of Emesa)

EVAGRIUS OF PONTUS' “LETTER TO MELANIA” I

Summary The so-called “Letter to Melania” by the fourth century author Evagrius of Pontus, is an important though perhaps rather hasty summary of his Origenist thought system. In the first article, a general introduction to the author's life, his writings and his doctrine, is given. In this, it is important to see Evagrius' place in desert spirituality as well as the role which his writings played in the 6th century condemnation of Origen. Then follows an English translation of the Letter's text, which has been preserved in a Syriac translation only of the original Greek, and which has been edited in two parts by different editors. In the second article, the present writer attempts to summarize and comment upon the contents of the Letter in some detail.