Jacob of Serugh, Homily on Good Friday" and Other Armenian Treasures: First Glances 9781463234331

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Jacob of Serugh, Homily on Good Friday and Other Armenian Treasures

Analecta Gorgiana

1048 Series Editor George Anton Kiraz

Analecta Gorgiana is a collection of long essays and short monographs which are consistently cited by modern scholars but previously difficult to find because of their original appearance in obscure publications. Carefully selected by a team of scholars based on their relevance to modern scholarship, these essays can now be fully utilized by scholars and proudly owned by libraries.

Jacob of Serugh, Homily on Good Friday and Other Armenian Treasures

First Glances

Edward G. Mathews, Jr.

9

34 2011

Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2011 by Gorgias Press LLC Originally published in 2010 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. 2011

‫ܒܐ‬

9

ISBN 978-1-4632-0096-1

ISSN 1935-6854

Reprinted from the 2010 Piscataway edition.

Printed in the United States of America

JACOB OF SERUGH,

HOMILY ON GOOD FRIDAY

AND OTHER ARMENIAN TREASURES: FIRST GLANCES

EDWARD G. MATHEWS, JR. Jacob of Serugh, “a natural poet of great genius,” dubbed by his contemporaries the “Flute of the Holy Spirit and Harp of the Believing Church,” is generally recognized as the greatest of the Syriac poets after Ephrem—his successor as ‘poet laureate’ as it were. 1 As is all too well known, the surviving works of Jacob of Serugh comprise just less than half of his known œuvre. While sources tell us that Jacob’s total production included as many as 763 mêmrê, 2 Sebastian Brock has been able to locate only 381. 3 And

Barsoum, Ignatius Aphram I. The Scattered Pearls: A History of Syriac Literature and Sciences, 2nd revised edition, 255, Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2003; Patriarch Barsoum actually goes one step further and calls Jacob a poet who is “unrivaled and unequalled”. Sebastian Brock also states unabashedly that “after Ephrem, it is undoubtedly Jacob of Serugh who shines out most brightly as a luminary of the Syriac poetic tradition,” foreword to Kollamparampil, Thomas. Jacob of Serugh, Select Festal Homilies, v. Rome: Centre for Indian and Inter-religious Studies, 1997. 2 An anonymous author of a Life of Jacob records that he wrote a total of 763 mêmrê; cited from Assemani, Joseph S. Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, 3 vols. I, 299, Rome: Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 1719. Bar Hebraeus reckons Jacob’s total output to be 760 mêmrê, Abbeloos, Jean-Baptiste, and Thomas J. Lamy, eds. 1

133

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EDWARD G. MATHEWS, JR.

of these 381, more than a hundred remain unpublished. It should, therefore, be of immense interest to scholars to know that some of those of his works currently considered lost—even if only a few— have in fact survived. This particular ‘discovery’, as so many others, had a rather curious, but fortuitous history and, if the reader will indulge me a short personal reminiscence, I would like to share briefly what actually transpired. One evening during dinner at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, one of our students came up to me with a large tome in hand that he had brought from chapel and he asked me if I could translate for him one of the non-biblical selections that he had found in it. This large tome is called a Jashots‘ Girk‘, the great Armenian Lectionary for the entire liturgical year, and the piece was a homily On Good Friday, attributed to a Yakob Srjets‘i, which is the Armenian rendering of Jacob of Serugh 4. I was a bit taken aback for two reasons. Firstly, while Armenian is well known for its having preserved a number of otherwise lost patristic texts, Greek and Syriac (Irenaeus and Ephrem, of course, come immediately to mind), Jacob of Serugh is, for all intents and purposes, completely absent from the lists of such translated

Gregorii Barhebraei Chronicon Ecclesiasticum (3 vols.; Paris and Louvain: Peeters, 1872), I.191. 3 Bedjan, Paulus, ed., with additional material by Sebastian P. Brock. Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh, 6 vols., Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2006 [original publication Homiliae Selectae Mar-Jacobi Serughensis, 5 vols.; Paris/ Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1905–1910], VI, 372–99. Assemani, J.S. Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, I, 305–40, lists only 231 mêmrê. 4

Ճաշոց Գիրք Հայաստանեայց Առաքելական Սուրբ Եկեղեցւոյ

[The Lectionary Book of the Holy Armenian Apostolic Church], 229–34 [hereafter, Jashots‘ Girk‘], Jerusalem: St. James Printing Press, 1967. For the history of this fascinating collection, see Renoux, Athanase [Charles]. Le Codex Arménien Jérusalem 121, 2 vols., Patrologia Orientalis, XXXV.1 [163], XXXVI.2 [168]. Turnhout: Brepols, 1969, 1971; Renoux, Charles. Le lectionnaire de Jérusalem en Arménie, le Čašoc‘, 3 vols., Patrologia Orientalis, XLIV.4 [200], XLVIII.2 [214], XLIX.5 [221], Turnhout: Brepols, 1989, 1999, 2005.

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authors. 5 Secondly, in a collection of nearly a thousand pages that includes only a handful of non-biblical readings, 6 it was more than

For example, Ter Petrosian, Levon. Ancient Armenian Translations, New York: St. Vartan’s Press, 1992, devoted specifically to this subject by one who is well-versed in Syriac literature, makes no mention of Jacob of Serugh whatsoever, nor does Sever Voicu in his catalogue of patristic works in Armenian; see di Berardino, Angelo, ed. Patrology: The Eastern Fathers from the Council of Chalcedon (451) to John of Damascus (†750), 571–88, Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2006. Such standard histories as Abeghyan, Manuk. History of Ancient Armenian Literature I: From the Beginning to the Tenth Century [in Armenian], Beirut: Sevan Press, 1955 [reprinted, Ant‘ilias: Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia Press, 2004], and Inglisian, Vahan. “Die armenische Literatur,” in idem. Armenisch und Kaukasische Sprachen, 157–250, Handbuch der Orientalistik, I.7, Leiden: Brill, 1963, also make no mention of Jacob. Hayrapetean, Srpuhi. The History of Ancient and Medieval Armenian Literature [in Armenian], 413, Ant‘ilias: Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia Press, 1988, mentions—only in passing and without citation—that some homilies and panegyrics of Jacob were translated into Armenian during the Cilician period; Kollamparampil, Jacob of Serugh, Select Festal Homilies, 15, notes that “other homilies [were] translated into Arabic, Armenian and Ethiopic” but he too provides no source information or itemization. Thomson, Robert W. A Bibliography of Classical Armenian Literature to 1500 AD, Corpus Christianorum, Turnhout: Brepols, 1995, does not even have an entry for Jacob, although in a later published supplement, idem. “Supplement to A Bibliography of Classical Armenian Literature to 1500 AD: Publications 1993–2005,” Le Muséon 120 (2007): 175, he does note an old collection (?) of Jacob’s Armenian works: “Homelies of Blessed Jacob of Serugh,” in Spiritual Writings and Homilies [in Armenian], Constantinople, 1722; unfortunately, I have been unable to locate any copy of this work. Only Zarp‘analean, Karekin. 5

Մատենադարան Հայկական Թարգմանութեանց Նախնեաց (Դար Դ– ԺԳ) [Catalogue of Ancient Armenian Translations (Fourth-Thirteenth Centuries)],

572–5, Venice: Mekhitarist Press, 1889, a work inaccessible to most nonArmenian specialists, but which was cited in Graffin, François. “Jacques de Saroug,” in Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, VIII, 57, Paris: Beauchesne, 1974, provides even the most rudimentary introduction to the works attributed to Jacob in Armenian (see further, below).

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a little surprising that one of these few such works would claim to be a work of an author who is generally considered never to have been translated into Armenian. It was a very busy time of the semester, so I decided to take a “shortcut” and simply compare this Armenian text against the recent list of incipits compiled by Sebastian Brock. Once I located the original Syriac text in his list, I could then see if there did not already exist an English translation of that text to which I could refer my student. However, it clearly did not match up with any of the few extant homilies concerning Good Friday or the Crucifixion, and as I worked my way through the rest of Brock’s list, it also became clear to me that this Armenian text did not, in fact, match any of the extant Syriac homilies found in his list. Spurred on by the excitement of this ‘discovery,’ as soon as time permitted I began to pore through the available manuscript catalogues to see if any further copies of this text—or even any others!—might have survived in Armenian. Thus, this paper is the first fruit of a chance dinner conversation, and it has a very modest two-fold purpose: 1. to provide an initial description, including portions of a preliminary translation of this ‘new’ Homily on Good Friday by Jacob of Serugh, as found in the Armenian Jashots‘ Girk‘; and 2. to provide a brief listing of the other Armenian works attributed to Jacob of Serugh that I have so far been able to discover. 7

THE ARMENIAN HOMILY ON GOOD FRIDAY The full title of this homily, as given in the Armenian Jashots‘ Girk‘, is “On the Day of Great Friday, On the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ at the Ninth Hour, recited 8 by Blessed Saint James, Bishop For the entire year there are only two readings from John Chrysostom and one from Cyril of Jerusalem; from native Armenian tradition there are also one reading each from Ełišê, Nersēs Shnorhali, and Nersēs Lambronac‘i. 7 I am very happy here to offer my deepest thanks to all my colleagues and the students at St. Nersess for their support and encouragement. 8 This word, asats‘eal, the Armenian equivalent of the Syriac, d’amīrâ (lit., “which was said,” can also be rendered here as “dictated,” particularly 6

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of Serugh”. 9 There is, so far as I can see, no reason to doubt the authenticity of this attribution of authorship. The language is very much that of Jacob. The homily follows a style and pattern of exposition that is well known from Jacob’s genuine Syriac works, and it treats a theme common to several works in Jacob’s corpus (see further, below). I have so far been able to find this Armenian Homily on Good Friday in nine manuscripts all of which appear, so far as can be discerned from the catalogue entries, to be complete. 10 I hope eventually to be able to publish a complete edition and translation of this homily, with a fuller study of the questions of genre, authenticity, etc. Interesting enough, however, we are given some rather precise information concerning the date of the translation of this Homily on Good Friday. Zarp‘analean, in his brief description of this work, records a colophon from a manuscript then kept in the Monastery as Bar Hebraeus tells us that Jacob had a team of seventy scribes working for him; Abbeloos, J.-B. ed. Gregorii Barhebraei Chronicon Ecclesiasticum, I, 191. 9

Երանելւոյ սրբոյն Յակովբայ Սրճոյ եպիսկոպոսի ասացեալ ի յաւր մեծի ուրբաթին չարչարանաց Տեառն մերոյ Յիսուսի Քրիստոսի յիններորդ ժամու. Jashots‘ Girk‘, 229a. Curiously, however, this work of

Jacob is found only in this Jerusalem edition; in the edition printed in Etchmiadzin there are only found some anonymous prayers, see Ճաշոց Գիրք Հայաստանեայց Եկեղեցւոյ [The Lectionary Book of the Armenian Church], 227–32, Vagharshapat: The Holy Catholicossate of Etchmiadzin Press, 1872. For other manuscript titles of this homily, see n. 37, below. 10 This total is very likely to increase as I have so far not had access to all the printed catalogues. To hinder matters further, the new catalogue of manuscripts in the Matenadaran, the National library and largest deposit of Armenian manuscripts, covers only mss. 1–1000 of nearly twenty thousand manuscripts. The two volume checklist, Eganyan, O., A. Zeyt‘unyan and P‘. Ant‘abyan, Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Mashtoc‘ Matenadaran [in Armenian], 2 vols., Erevan: Armenian Academic Press, 1965, 1970, is incomplete and is inadequate to determine the exact number of copies of this work. In addition, this catalogue often simply lists “a homily of Jacob of Serugh” with no other information.

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of Sevan which reads: “This homily was translated from the Syriac [language] into our [Armenian language], at the command of Gregory, the Catholicos of the Armenians, by the hand of a certain priest whose name was Isaac, a Syrian by race, who is learned in our literature”. 11 This Catholicos Gregory is probably not Gregory Vkayasēr, the “Lover of Martyrs,” who was Catholicos from 1066– 1105, and is already well-known for his translation activity, especially from Syriac. This Gregory is more likely to have been Gregory III Pahlawuni, who was Catholicos from 1113–1166, as the same colophon continues by saying that “[Isaac (or the translation)] was approved by our great, holy and just Archbishop Nersēs, the orator and lover of wisdom,” who is no doubt Nersēs Shnorhali, the brother of Gregory Pahlawuni and his successor as Catholicos; Gregory Vkayasēr died while Nersēs was yet only five or six years old. 12 Mar Isaac, the translator, has made no attempt to maintain any poetic lines or reasonably consistent syllable count; in fact, it is often very difficult even to determine where the underlying Syriac line may have ended and the next begins. Thus, it cannot be clearly determined whether this homily was originally a turgāmâ or a mêmrâ, and so I will simply refer to this work as a homily so as not to prejudge the issue. Without the original Syriac, nothing can be said of the translation technique of this Homily On Good Friday, but we can Zarp‘analean, Catalogue of Ancient Armenian Translations, 573. I have not yet been able to identify this particular manuscript, but the very same colophon is found in Ms. Mat. 843b, f.98v, see Eganyan, O., P‘. Ant‘abyan, et al., Grand Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the Mashtoc‘ Matenadaran [in Armenian], 3 vols. to date. III, 952. Erevan: Magaghat Press, 2007, and in Ms. Armash 12, f.380v, which otherwise contains different material from Ms. Mat. 843b; see Topdjian, Hovhannēs. Catalogue des manuscrits d’Armache [in Armenian], 76. Venice: St. Lazare, 1962. This latter colophon was already noted in Tsovakan (Pogharean), Norayr. Վանատուր [Monastic Miscellanies], 193. Jerusalem: St. James Press, 1993. 12 Pogharean, Norayr. Հայ Գրողներ [Armenian Writers], 194–9, 226– 227, 233–39. Jerusalem: St. James Press, 1971. 11

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provide a sample from another homily that was very likely translated around the same time, if not by the same translator (see below); from this comparison one can clearly see how the Armenian translator freely interpreted, even embellished, the Syriac text before him. Here are the first six lines of the original Syriac of the Mêmrâ In Praise of John the Baptist, along with the corresponding six lines of a printed Armenian text of the same homily: 13 ̈ ‫ܐ ܚ܆‬ ‫ܕ‬ ‫ܥ ܗܪ ܕ‬ ‫܀‬ ‫ܘ‬ ‫ܐ ܪ ܘܐ‬ ̈ ‫ܕ‬ ‫̈ ܆‬ ‫ܕܪܕܦ‬ ̇ ‫݂ ܀‬ ‫ܝ ܬܬ‬ ‫ܗ‬ ‫ܪ‬ ‫܆‬ ‫ܐ‬ ‫ܕ ܘܢ‬ ‫ܪ‬ ‫܀‬ ‫ܗ ܕ‬ ‫ܕ‬ ‫ܕܐܨܘܪ ܨ‬

‫ܕ‬ ‫ܗܪ‬ ‫ܨ‬ ‫ܨ‬ ‫ܗܒ‬

O Jesus the light, whose dawning gladdens the ends [of the world], Rise up in me that I may be light and speak of you with wisdom. O light of the nations who chased the darkness from the regions [of the earth], May your great splendor rouse my word to recount your story. O great image, by which all beauty is comprehended, Grant that I may paint an image of a mêmrâ about a certain beautiful one.

Յիսուս լոյս փառաց որ զամենայն տիեզերս պայծառացոյց ծագումն յայտնութեան քո. յայտնեա՛ առ իս ի նշուղից շնորհաց քոց, որպէս զի լուսաւորեալ քեւ, խաւսեցայց զքէն իմաստութեամբ: Քրիստոս լոյս հեթանոսաց՝ որ հալածեցեր զխաւարն անգիտութեան ի չորից կողմանց տիեզերաց, հալածեա՛ զծուլութիւն մտաց իմոց, եւ զարթո՛ զբանս իմ պատմել զանքննելի տնաւրէնութիւնդ քո: 13

For the relevant bibliographical information, see I.6, below.

140

EDWARD G. MATHEWS, JR. Անսկիզբն նկարագիր, անսկզբնականին Աստուծոյ, որ եւ ամենայն գեղեցիկ նկարագիրք արարածոց՝ քեւ կատարեցան, Շնորհեա՛ եւ ինձ նկարագրել բան միոյ գեղեցիկ պատկերի: O Jesus, light of glory, whose dawn of revelation has shone on this entire world, Make manifest to me by the rays of your grace so that enlightened by you, I might speak of you with wisdom. O Christ, light of the nations, who chased the darkness of ignorance from the four corners of the earth, Chase away the idleness from my mind and rouse my word to recount your inscrutable economy. O likeness without beginning, of the beginning-less God, in you are all the beautiful likenesses of creation perfected, Grant that I may paint a word [= mêmrâ] about one beautiful image.

Nothing, of course, can be stated categorically about the Homily on Good Friday based upon the technique of another homily, but it certainly does have the same feel of having been somewhat embellished. Only the discovery of the original Syriac will allow any definitive conclusions, but it would seem more likely that we are dealing with a somewhat interpretive, rather than a literal, translation. In the surviving corpus of Jacob of Serugh the passion of Christ is an oft-treated subject. Assemani lists a cycle of seven mêmrê “De crucifixione Domini”; 14 two of these were edited by Bedjan, 15 the other five remain unedited. There also survive another three works specifically to do with Good Friday. A twiceedited Festal Homily (turgāmâ), entitled On the Friday of the Passion, “surveys the events concerning the passion of Our Lord beginning from the house of Caiaphas and proceeding through the judgement 14 15

Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, I, 325. Bedjan, Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh, I, 506–34, 554–79.

JACOB OF SERUGH, HOMILY ON GOOD FRIDAY

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seat of Pilate to the crowning with thorns and the mockery of the soldiers.” 16 There also exists a cycle of mêmrê on Holy Week, all of which have been edited by Bedjan. In this collection are found two mêmrê concerned specifically with Good Friday; these are titled On the Eve of Friday and On the Day of Friday. 17 On the Eve of Friday speaks for itself; it pertains to the Last Supper, the agony in Gethsemane, the arrest, etc., that led up to the events discussed in the turgāmâ just mentioned above. The Mêmrâ on the Day of Friday, then continues recounting the events beginning from the presence of Jesus before Pilate to his carrying his cross up to Calvary: the crowd’s cry for Barabbas, the agitation of Pilate’s wife, the denial of Peter, the wailing of his female followers, and the raising of the cross. The events of this mêmrâ end with Jesus nailed to the cross with the title “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” affixed to its top. The chronological sequence of these mêmrê now becomes an interesting point as this ‘newly discovered’ Armenian homily “takes place” entirely upon the cross. Apart from Jacob’s introductory invocation and his narrative description, the entire Homily on Good Friday is composed of two fairly short dialogues: the first between Mary, sitting at the foot of the cross, and the archangels, and the second between Jesus and the Good Thief. Thus, before we even begin to describe this new Homily, it seems that Jacob may have intended a cycle of homilies for Good Friday or—and this is probably more likely—highlighted different events of the passion so that the four works that have come down to us show an almost seamless progression from the Last Supper to the Crucifixion. Kollamparampil, Jacob of Serugh, Select Festal Homilies, 278. This work was edited by Brock, Sebastian P. Turgāmê da-simin l-qaddišâ Mar Ya‘qob da Sarûg Malpānâ, 36–46, Holland: Losser, 1984, and again by Rilliet, Frédéric. Jacques de Saroug, Six Homélies Festales en Prose, 610–28, Patrologia Orientalis, 43.4 [196], Turnhout: Brepols, 1986, with facing French translation. An English translation can be found in Kollamparampil, Jacob of Serugh, Select Festal Homilies, 279–91. 17 Bedjan, Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh, II, 522–54, 554–79. English translations of these works are in preparation in the Gorgias Press Series, The Metrical Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh. 16

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EDWARD G. MATHEWS, JR.

I have not been able to see it, but one cannot help but wonder if or how another still unedited mêmrâ, entitled On the Cherub and the Thief, 18 might also fit into this sequence. 19 Of course, although this progression can very clearly be discerned in these surviving homilies, this observation does not at all prove that Jacob actually delivered them in such a “chronological” order. The Armenian Homily on Good Friday, composed by Jacob of Serugh, can be divided into five basic sections: a. Invocation for Divine assistance b. Summary description of prior events c. Dialogue between Mary and archangels d. Plea of Good Thief and Jesus’ Response e. Conclusion/Epilogue The first section is a long invocation to God to overlook the failings of the author and to provide him with the necessary virtues to carry out the great task of writing about this great event, a task that is beyond even the ranks of angels. This manner of invocation, so typical of many of Jacob’s mêmrê, begins thus: O unknowable offspring from the bosom of Your Father, O Only-Begotten, rouse up my lyre, and enrich it to speak of Your great salvation. Let my weak tongue sing a sweet song about Your mysteries, that, with my words, I might suitably polish the image that it erects. This mêmrâ was already listed in Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, I, 325. Cf. Brock’s n. 262 in Bedjan, Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh, VI, 390–1. I have checked the incipit of this mêmrâ against the entire text of the Homily on Good Friday; it does not seem to be a fragment of the Homily. 19 Although the title might suggest otherwise, the Mêmrâ on Mary and Golgatha, which Jacob left unfinished when he died, would not seem to belong here in such a “chronological” reconstruction. For the text and translation, see Mouterde, Paul, SJ. “Deux homélies inédites de Jacques de Saroug,” Mélanges de l’Université Saint Joseph 26 (1944–1946): 3–36, especially pp. 9–14 (translation), 23–28 (text). 18

JACOB OF SERUGH, HOMILY ON GOOD FRIDAY

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By You[r help], O God, may my weak mind, crippled by lethargy, be roused that I may become a sober worker in the field of discoursing about You. Your splendor shone through the windows of Your scriptures and is desirable; the mind that has seen You is illumined by You to speak of what it received from You. . . . . . O day-star, great sun, spread forth Your rays into my dark heart, that I may be illumined to speak of You in a suitable manner. May my mind receive from You the grace to look upon Your mysteries, and having received it may I, with loud voice, sing the glory of Your marvelous works. . . . . . Your speeches are comely, Your beauty is wondrous, Your works are praiseworthy; Your mystery is awesome! Which shall I recount? Which figure shall I leave out? Upon Your first manifestation in the womb up to Your resurrection I gaze, but I am unable to recount Your marvelous deeds. By what cause might my tongue be moved to tell of You? Even a myriad of angels is unable [to tell of] You, for You are higher than all!

After this introductory invocation, Jacob goes on at some length resuming the events from Jesus’ birth up to the crucifixion. But rather than a simple resumption, it seems rather that Jacob is looking at Jesus on the cross saying “You should not be remembered this way. How then can I remember you? In your birth? In your Baptism? In your preaching? etc.” From the end of this second section, the remainder of the Homily consists almost entirely of two rather one-sided discourses: a lament from Mary, the mother of Jesus, to both archangels, Gabriel and Michael, to which one of them—it is not clear which one—responds briefly in order to give her comfort and encouragement. This dialogue is followed by a second, even more one-sided, between the Good

144

EDWARD G. MATHEWS, JR.

Thief and Jesus. The Good Thief pleads with Jesus, in a lengthy elaboration on the Lucan pericope, and Jesus offers a simple oneline response. This lament of Mary is also, it seems to me, of particular interest as it seems to constitute a unique interpretation of her presence at the cross. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is usually portrayed as the sole person who resolutely follows her Son to the Cross, who knows his mission, and who encourages others to do the same, as she had already done at Cana (John 2:5). Jacob himself seems to suggest this cooperation when he says elsewhere: Your mother endured many sufferings for your sake; every grief encompassed her at your Crucifixion. How much sighing and sorrowful tears did her eyes shed, when they enshrouded you and brought you to rest within the tomb. She endured sufferings when she saw that you were hung on the cross, that with a spear they had pierced your side on Golgotha; and when the Jews had sealed the sepulcher in which had been placed your living body which gives life and remits debts. 20

This same sentiment is echoed in another, perhaps contemporary, hymn that Jacob himself might even have read: That virgin, surrounded with wonder, Shone out amid this hidden mystery, Aware who He was, and whose Son Was that blessed Fruit which she was bearing; In all things was she wise. 21

Jacob of Serugh, “On the Death and Burial of Mary,” in Bedjan, Paulus, ed. S. Martyrii, qui est Sahdona, quae supersunt omnia, 710, Paris/Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1902; English translation from Hansbury, Mary. Jacob of Serugh on the Mother of God, 90, Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1998. See also the discussion in Puthuparampil, James. Mariological Thought of Mar Jacob of Serugh (451–521), 323–5, Mōrān ‘Eth’ō, 25, Kottayam: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, 2005). 20

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145

In this next section, contrary to what was just said and to what is generally held about her, Mary does not simply make a lament here; she rather chides, in fact, she actually hurls accusations at the archangels for not defending her Son and for their standing idly by while he was being crucified, thus breaking all their promises to her. First, she briefly addresses Gabriel, but then turns and directs most of the bitterness of her denunciation at Michael. Because of the interesting nature of this accusation on the part of Mary, I provide here my preliminary translation of her entire lament: “O Gabriel, come and see the outcome of your ‘good news’, for my Only-Begotten sits not on the throne of David, as you promised; rather He, the innocent one, has been bound to a cross by his oppressors. And, you Michael, O fiery one, why do you stand there in silence, you whose sword once cut down a hundred eighty-five thousand. 22 Has your fierceness now grown too cold to seek revenge for your innocent Lord who stands condemned? The Apostles abandoned their teacher and fled in mortal fear, but you, incorporeal powers, why do you not stand up for Him who has been condemned by those slanderers? Creatures of the earth flee from swords and from clubs, but you, O spiritual creatures, why do you timidly hand your Lord over into the hands of the unworthy?

Brock, Sebastian. Bride of Light: Hymns on Mary from the Syriac Churches, 39, Mōrān ‘Eth’ō, 6, Kottayam: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, 1994. In his introduction (p. 13), Brock says that “the majority [of the anonymous works translated in this volume] will belong approximately to the fifth or early sixth century.” 22 Cf. II(IV) Kings 19:35, where only “the angel of the Lord” is mentioned, but whom Jacob here clearly interprets as Michael. 21

146

EDWARD G. MATHEWS, JR. Two of you condemned Sodom and, by the beating of your wings, brought down a fiery rain, and you burned down the city with its inhabitants. You did not hold back your innocent hands from vengeance when you wished, yet you now sit back and endure the outrages of my OnlyBegotten, your Lord! The son of Amram, 23 deprived of his nation, sought vengeance against the Egyptians, yet you are too lazy to become fellow soldiers of the sinless lamb, and you stand around like those who watch over dogs and cattle? They opened their mouths against Him in blasphemy, yet you heavenly beings remain silent. The King stood on the tribunal, bound unjustly, yet help from His fiery hosts remained far from Him. While the Lord of fire was stretched out upon the wood, their fire died down and the fiery angels stood in the heavens holding their peace, While the earthly creatures were gathering themselves together, the angels remained speechless, the ashes numbing their tongues, and the seraphim covered themselves with their wings and spewed forth spit. Stones were split yet traitorous hearts would not be mollified, statues cried out but the ear of the unjust would not be opened.”

The Mary that Jacob presents here is contrary to the Mary, mother of the Lord, whom we usually encounter in Christian literature. Another example of more ‘traditional’ Mariology can be found in another Marian poem that Sebastian Brock also thinks may be contemporary, or even prior, to Jacob and thus, may even have been known to him. Brock also points out that this poem, taken from the Syrian Catholic Phenqitho, likely represents the only 23

I.e., Moses; cf. Exodus 6:20, 26.

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known Stabat Mater in Syriac literature. I have included here Brock’s translation of portions of this hymn as it provides, in the same scene as Jacob presents her, a Mary that is more in line with the cooperating partner found above and, thus providing further evidence for the uniqueness of the Mary described by Jacob. In this mêmrâ, Mary addresses a short lament to both Gabriel and Michael but in a context of offering comfort to her son and in a tone much less accusatory than pleading, almost paralleling Jesus’ own plea in the Garden of Gethsemane. Would that I were an eagle, my Son, That I might fly to the four quarters of the earth To invite and bring in all the nations To the great wedding feast of your death. Who is it who has been moved by envy against you, my sweet one? . . . . . Your tomb is like a marriage chamber And in it you, my son, are like the Bridegroom; The dead resemble the wedding guests Who are served in the presence of angels. Weep, all created things, At your Lord who hangs on the wood. O sun, draw in your rays So that the shame of your Lord may be hidden; Descend and shine out in the darkness Where your Creator has shone forth, That the dead of Sheol may see And say “He is the Lifegiver”. . . . . . Tremble, O earth, quake in fear, For the Son of your Lord is abused upon you: Open your mouth and avenge his shame, Punishing the wicked children of Sion. Where is your sword, Michael, Which devastated peoples and nations? Where is your zeal, Gabriel,

148

EDWARD G. MATHEWS, JR. Mighty with your flame? Your Lord lies stripped on the cross, Why are your courses silent? 24

As we return to Jacob’s Homily on Good Friday, following Mary’s accusations against Gabriel and Michael, the latter 25 then offers her his comfort and assures, or reminds, her that this act on the part of her son is the necessary result of his willing obedience to the will of his Father; love, not weakness, provoked him to carry out such an act. He continues by reminding her that should her son have so desired, he certainly had the power to bring it about otherwise: “Be not astonished, O immaculate dove, at the willing death of your Only-Begotten, for He is stretched out on the cross in obedience to His Father. His love compelled Him to dwell in your womb at the Incarnation, and His mercy bound Him to die and bring Adam to life by the death of his offspring. Death is defeated by a man; by his sufferings the bolts of hell are smashed and its bonds are loosed. By him the captivity of the house of Adam who had been dispersed is overturned, and he himself set them in the land of Eden whence they had gone out. If He had not willed it, the tree of shame would not have been able to hold Him. Could the One who raised the dead not have raised up Himself if He wished? He opened [the eyes of] the blind man; could He not have removed the nails from His hands?

Brock, Bride of Light: Hymns on Mary from the Syriac Churches, 109–10. The text actually says simply “the angel”, but Michael is presumably intended as he took “the brunt” of Mary’s accusations. 24 25

JACOB OF SERUGH, HOMILY ON GOOD FRIDAY

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Could He who cleansed lepers, not have cleansed the spittle from His face? He silenced the sea; could He not have stopped up the voices of those rioters? He changed the water; could He not have sweetened the vinegar they gave Him? He made the earth shake; could He not have caused His judges to tremble? He darkened the sun; could He not have blinded the crucifiers? He shook the mountains; could He not have submerged those despicable ones? He split open stones; could He not have cut off those who hate Him?

After this exchange, the text then moves back to the cross, to the plea of the thief who is being crucified next to Jesus. Here Jacob simply has the thief elaborate on the biblical verse “Remember me, O Lord, when you come into your kingdom”; part of the thief’s plea reads: O Bread of Life, grant that I may be joyful at Your great table. O High Wall, grant that I may enter and post myself within You. O desert tower, take me into Your storehouses and guard me from robbers’ assaults. O Great Treasure-house, bestow on me some of Your treasure that is full of blessing, that by Your gift I may forget my oppressive poverty. O Master, who contracted me for one denarius with the hired workers at the first hour, procure for me the same grace as those who came to Your vineyard at the eleventh hour.

Jesus’ response is a one line clear echo of his response as found in Luke: “Amen I say to you, O man, believe, for on this day you will have joy in Paradise (Luke 23:43).” The Homily then moves to a brief description of two events: the offering of the wine-soaked sponge, and the lancing of his side by the soldier, with minimal theological elaboration. Then the text ends in an awfully abrupt manner; the last few lines read as follows:

150

EDWARD G. MATHEWS, JR. By the lance with which the First-Born was pierced, the fiery sword was voided, by the side that was torn open, that boundary partition was undone. just as in Adam you all died, likewise in Christ you have all been given life. O Christ, who made peace, and killed the enemy in Your flesh, give peace to the Church in the four corners of the earth, and to You be glory for ever. Amen.

Even if this Armenian translation has been embellished in part, the Homily On Good Friday is still almost certainly a genuine composition of Jacob of Serugh, and its restoration to the immense legacy of one of Syria’s finest poets, even if only in Armenian translation, makes it none the less important to scholars. But it is not the only work of Jacob of Serugh that has been preserved in Armenian translation.

JACOB OF SERUGH IN ARMENIAN As already noted above, modern scholars seem to be almost completely unaware that any work of Jacob has survived in Armenian. Over a century ago, though, Zarp‘analean had already identified eleven Armenian works of Jacob of Serugh, 26 who is remembered among the Armenians as one of the great orthodox fathers. 27 While the current state of manuscript catalogues remains far from ideal, they are certainly much better than they were in the nineteenth century. Having these catalogues available, I can now add a number of additional works to the list of Zarp‘analean. I have not been able to see every available catalogue and others, particularly that of the manuscripts in the Matenadaran, the largest collection of Armenian manuscripts, is only beginning to be redone; thus, this list must for now remain incomplete (see n. 9, Zarp‘analean, Catalogue of Ancient Armenian Translations, 572–5. See, for example, the list of orthodox teachers mentioned in the “Confession of Orthodox Christians,” as printed in Bogharian, N. Grand Catalogue of St. James Manuscripts [in Armenian], 11 vols., IV, 290, Jerusalem: St. James Press, 1969. 26 27

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above), but there remains every hope that even more works of Jacob of Serugh will soon be discovered. To date, I have located a total of seventeen homilies, at least one turgāmâ and mostly mêmrê, including the Homily On Good Friday discussed above. Nearly all of these are found in manuscripts titled Jaṛĕntir, which are collections of homilies (literally, “selection of homilies”), usually assembled for liturgical purposes. 28 There are also a number of other works that are found attributed to the same Yakob Srjets‘i/Jacob of Serugh, but which are not sufficiently identified. I have included them in a separate section simply to present as complete a picture as the catalogues I have perused allow of what the Armenians received as having come from the pen of Jacob of Serugh. Of the seventeen turgāmê and mêmrê, I have divided them into two groups: those with surviving Syriac originals and those without. Of these seventeen there are seven, including the Homily On Good Friday, that have no counterpart in the surviving Syriac corpus of Jacob’s works. 29 Thus, from our gleanings to date, the following list of Jacob’s works surviving in Armenian can be set out. 30 I have used the following abbreviations (full bibliographical citation can be found in the notes above):

Mss. Mat. 993 and 7729, two of the larger and more famous Jar.ĕntir manuscripts, have been discussed and catalogued in van Esbroeck, Michel, and Ugo Zanetti. “Le manuscrit Érévan 999. Inventaire des pièces,” Revue des études arméniennes 12 (1977): 123–67; and van Esbroeck, Michel. “Description du repertoire de l’Homéliaire de Muš (Maténadaran 7729),” Revue des études arméniennes 18 (1984): 237–80. 29 This number was arrived at by a comparison of the incipits as provided by the Armenian manuscript catalogues with the list of incipits of the Syriac homilies compiled by Sebastian P. Brock and found in Bedjan, Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh, VI, 372–99. I have not been able to see the manuscripts of any of these works. 30 I hope to be able, in the near future, to produce a complete list of all the surviving works of Jacob in Armenian, along with a detailed catalogue of all the manuscripts where they can be found. 28

152

EDWARD G. MATHEWS, JR.

A Assemani, J.S. Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, I B Bedjan, P., ed. Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh, 6 vols. Br Brock, S.P. “Index of First Lines.” In Bedjan, P. ed. Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh, VI, 372–99. Z Zarp‘analean, K. Catalogue of Ancient Armenian Translations, 572–5. 31 For the editions of the Syriac texts, one can consult the entry in Brock’s “Index.” I have also provided the bibliographical details for English translations of these Syriac mêmrê, where available; for the others, translations are in preparation in the Gorgias Press series, The Metrical Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh, of which more than a dozen fascicules have already appeared. I. Texts with surviving Syriac originals (I include an English translation of the Armenian incipit only when it is fuller or differs significantly from the Syriac): 1. Turgāmâ On the Resurrection of Our Savior Syr. Inc. 32 ‫ܗ ܕ‬ ‫ܐܬ‬ Ass p. 305 33 Zarp 2 34

‫ܪ‬

‫ܘܬ‬

The numbers following the abbreviations A, Br, and Z refer to the entry number, not the page number (unless otherwise noted); the numbers following B refer to volume number and pages. 32 This work has been edited in Brock, Turgāmê da-simin l-qaddišâ Mar Ya‘qob da Sarûg Malpānâ, 47–55, and again by in Rilliet, Jacques de Saroug, Six Homélies Festales en Prose, 630–44, with facing French translation; an English translation can be found in Kollamparampil, Jacob of Serugh, Select Festal Homilies, 319–28. 33 van Esbroeck and Zanetti, “Le manuscrit Érévan 999. Inventaire des pièces,” 152, identify this homily with that found in Bedjan, Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh, II. 624–35, but this is erroneous. 34 Zarp‘analean, Catalogue of Ancient Armenian Translations, 572, misidentifies this work with mêmrâ n. 175, in Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, I, 326. 31

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Arm. Inc. Այսաւր ուրախութիւն մեծ՝ լի ընտրութեամբք զարհուրեցուցանէ զիս պատմել զբան մարգարէին 2. On the Raising of Lazarus

‫̈ ܬܝ‬

Syr. Inc. ‫ܟ‬

‫ܚ‬

Ass 134 Br 309 B III.564–81 Arm. Inc. Բաց զշրթունս իմ խաւսել վասն քո Որդի Աստուծոյ զի քեւ բարբառին ամենայն բանաւորք [Open my lips to speak about You, O Son of God for all intelligent creatures cry out to You]

3. On the Ascension Syr. Inc.

‫ܗ ܕ‬

‫ܬ‬

‫ܝ‬

‫ܐܬܬ‬

Ass 183 Br 55 B VI.196–220 Zarp 4 Arm. Inc. Զարթիր քնար իմ եւ երգեա աւրհնութիւնն Միածին մինչչեւ լռեցուցեալ [Rise up, my lyre, and sing out the blessing of the Only-Begotten until interrupted]

4. On the Symbols of Our Lord Syr. Inc. ‫ܘ‬

‫ܬ‬

‫ܐ‬

‫ܗ‬

‫ܕ ܐܙ‬

Br 206 Zarp 8 Arm. Inc. Ի ծով խորհրդոց քոց ահա իջանեմ ի վաճառ որդի Աստուծոյ [Arm. adds only “O Son of God”]

5. On the Star [indicating] the Coming [of the Lord] Syr. Inc. ‫ܙ ̈ ܗܝ‬

‫ܕ‬

Ass 14 Br 135 B I.84–153 Arm. Inc. Ծագումն մեծ որ լցեր զաշխարհս ամենայն ի ճառագայթից քոց

‫ܪ‬

‫ܕ‬

154

EDWARD G. MATHEWS, JR.

6. In Praise of John the Baptist Syr. Inc. ‫ܚ‬

‫ܐ‬

Ass 35 Br 183 Zarp Arm. Inc. Յիսուս լոյս փառաց պայծառացոյց

̈

‫ܕ‬

‫ܕ‬

‫ܗܪ‬

‫ܥ‬

7 35

որ

7. On New Sunday and the Apostle Thomas Syr. Inc. ‫ܪ‬

զամենայն

̈

տիեզերս

‫ܪ‬

Zarp 5 Ass 182 Br 189 B II.649–69 36 Arm. Inc. Յորժամ յարեաւ հովիւն ի մեռելոց մեծաւ զաւրութեամբ սքանչելի նշանաւք [Arm. adds “[and] with wondrous signs”]

8. On the Death of Mary, the Virgin Mother of God Syr. Inc. ‫ܪ‬ ‫ܘ‬ ‫ܪܘ‬

‫ܐܪ‬

‫ܕ‬

Br 109 B VI.97–107 Zarp 6 Arm. Inc. Որդի Աստուծոյ Աստուած ճշմարիտ որ սիրով քո խոնարհեցար եւ իջեր յերկիր [O Son of God, True God, who in Your love humbled Yourself and came down to earth]

9. On Thaddeus and Abgar, King of Armenia and Syria Syr. Inc. ‫̈ ܗܝ ܘܙܘܬܗ‬ ‫ܕ ܒ‬

‫ܐ‬

Ass 100 Br 99 Arm. Inc. Որդի Աստուծոյ, որ ետուր սրբոց առաքելոցն զբան քարոզութեան քո A printed version of the Armenian text of this work, based upon a single unidentified manuscript (presumably from the collection then at Etchmiadzin and now at the Matenadaran in Erevan), was anonymously published, with no introduction or notes, in Ararat 21 (1888): 271–83. 36 An English translation of the Syriac text of Bedjan can be found in Holy Transfiguration Monastery, “A Homily on New Sunday, and on Thomas the Apostle by Mar Jacob, Bishop of Serugh (†451),” True Vine 4 (1992): 49–66. 35

JACOB OF SERUGH, HOMILY ON GOOD FRIDAY 10. On the Birth of Christ, our God Syr. Inc. ‫ܪ ܗܘ‬

‫ܘܙ‬

‫ܐ‬ ‫ܪ‬

‫ܟ‬ ‫ܪ‬

155

‫ܗܘ‬

‫ܬܗܪ‬

Ass 11 Br 366 37 Arm. Inc. Սքանչելի է ծնունդ Քրիստոսի Որդի Աստուծոյ II. Texts with no apparent surviving Syriac original: 1. On Good Friday 38 Arm. Inc. Անծանաւթ ծնունդ ծոցոյ քո Հաւր միածին զարթոյ զքնարս իմ եւ փարթամացոյ

Zarp 1

[O unknowable offspring from the bosom of Your Father, O Only-Begotten, rouse up my lyre, and enrich it]

2. On Antioch Zarp 10 Arm. Inc. Ասէ Պետրոս, աշակերտ նորա իցեմ: ասէ Պաւղոս, ամենայն աշակերտ զարուեստն

ի վարդապետէն ուսանի

[Peter said, “I will be His disciple”; Paul said, “Every disciple learns the art from a teacher.”] This text was first edited in Bedjan, S. Martyrii, qui est Sahdona, quae supersunt omnia, 720–74, and reprinted in idem. Cantus seu Homiliae MarJacobi in Jesum et Mariam, 108–62, Paris/Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1902, the text was also reproduced in the supplemental volume to the Gorgias reprint of Jacob’s works; see Bedjan, Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh, VI, 108[720]–162[774]. An English translation can be found in Kollamparampil, Jacob of Serugh, Select Festal Homilies, 41–93. 38 The full title, as found in the Jashots‘ Girk‘, is given above, n. 9. Zarp‘analean, Catalogue of Ancient Armenian Translations, 572–3, notes two other manuscripts, then Etchmiadzin 914 and 922, that have the following titles: “An admirable discourse on the Thief on the right side [of Our Lord];” and “On the sufferings of Our Lord Jesus Christ at the ninth hour [and] On the Thief who was invited into Paradise, and on the Cherub who guarded the way.” The latter title I have also found in Ms. Mat. 641, f. 275v; see Eganyan, Ant‘abyan, et al., Grand Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the Mashtoc‘ Matenadaran, III, 171. 37

156

EDWARD G. MATHEWS, JR.

3. In Praise of the Holy Virgin Arm. Inc. Բազմութիւնք քրիստոսասէր ժողովոյս [A multitude of Christ-loving crowds]

4. On the Resurrection of the Lord Zarp 3 and on the Soldiers guarding the Tomb Arm. Inc. Յարութիւն քո Քրիստոս զարթուցանէ զիս ճառել զինքենէ, դու Տէր պարգեւեա ինձ ձայն որ գոչեա զզարթուցումն քո [Your resurrection, O Christ, rouses me to speak of You; You, O Lord, grant to me the voice to exclaim Your waking]

5. On the Ninevites Arm. Inc. Յիսուս լոյս իմաստութեան հաւր [Jesus, the Light of the Father of Wisdom]

Zarp 9 39 6. On the Conversion of the City of Antioch Arm. Inc. Լուսով բանիւ քո գամ առ քեզ Որդի Աստուծոյ առ ի տեսանել զճշմարիտ եւ զհրաշալի պայծառութիւնդ քո [By Your light and word I come to You, O Son of God, to see Your truth and Your wondrous brilliance]

7. On the Mystery of the Tabernacle Arm. Inc. Ով ամենակարող Տէր իմ Յիսուս Աստուած Իսրայեղի հնոյն ի նորոյս [O All-powerful Lord, my Jesus, God of Israel, both Old and New] Zarp‘analean, Catalogue of Ancient Armenian Translations, 574, refers to the description of such a homily in Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, I, 332; S. Brock also lists a work with this exact title, but the incipits are quite dissimilar; of course, here and elsewhere, one or the other could be merely a fragment, see n. 42 in Bedjan, Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh, VI, 376. 39

JACOB OF SERUGH, HOMILY ON GOOD FRIDAY

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III. Others 1. The Life of Daniel of Galash There also survives, in at least two Armenian manuscripts, a prose Life of Daniel of Galash “and on the miracles that he wrought from the account and the interpretation of Jacob, the Patriarch of Serugh.” The Syriac text is considered to be a genuine work of Jacob by Baumstark, 40 despite some minor reservations by Nau in his summary of the Life. 41 This Syriac text has yet to be edited, but the Armenian translation under discussion here, was published over a quarter century ago on the basis of one of the extant manuscripts. 42 This account of the life of Daniel (d. 439), is the only known account of his life and it also seems to be the earliest mention of the famous mandylion of Christ that was preserved in Edessa. 43

Baumstark, Anton. Geschichte der syrischen Literatur mit Ausschluss der christlich-palästinensischen Texte, 149, Bonn: A. Marcus und E. Weber Verlag, 1922; he lists only Ms. Par. Syr. 235, as containing this text. 41 Nau, François. “Hagiographie Syriaque,” Revue de l’Orient Chrétien 2ème Série V (1910): 60–2; he too, also notes only Ms. Par. Syr. 235. 42 Ter-Petrosyan, Levon H. “Jacob of Serugh’s ‘Life of Mar Daniel of Galash [in Armenian],” Ējmiadzin 36.3 (1979): 22–40; his Armenian text is printed from Ms. Mat. 2270. Another copy which shows some substantial differences, can be found in Ms. Jer. Arm. 3681; see Bogharian, Grand Catalogue of St. James Manuscripts, XI, 106. In his introduction (p. 22), TerPetrosyan notes four additional Syriac manuscripts that contain this Life: Mss. Syr. Mardin 259.3 and 273, Mss. Syr. Damascus 9/8 and 12/17. 43 Balicka-Witakowski, Ewa, Sebastian P. Brock, et al., The Hidden Pearl. The Syrian Orthodox Church and its Ancient Aramaic Heritage, II: The Heirs of the Ancient Aramaic Heritage, 122, Rome: Trans World Film Italia, 2001. On the history of the mandylion see, most recently, Brock, Sebastian. “Transformations of the Edessa Portrait of Christ,” Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 18 (2004): 46–56. In neither of these works does Brock express any hesitation about the authorship of Jacob. 40

158

EDWARD G. MATHEWS, JR.

2. On the Capture of the Ark by the Philistines Zarp‘analean lists this work as n. 11, the last item in his list of Jacob’s Armenian works. 44 He gives no incipit and I have yet to find it in any of the manuscript catalogues that I have looked at. It is, perhaps, to be identified with an unedited mêmrâ, titled On the Philistines, 45 but this cannot yet be determined. 3. Assorted Works From our research to date, there remains only to mention a single manuscript, Ms. Nor Julfa 464, which is a K‘arozagirk‘, a collection of homilies. 46 These homilies, at least according to their attributions, are mostly translations of Syriac texts, and most of these from the pen of Jacob of Serugh. According to the catalogue, this manuscript contains one work each by Anania Shirakats‘i and Yovhannēs Ojnets‘i, three works from a Sargis Vardapet, four works from Ephrem, and twenty-three works attributed to Jacob of Serugh. Unfortunately, the catalogue provides no incipits for any of these works. All the titles—again, as the catalogue gives them—are subjects that Jacob wrote on, so there is a good chance that many, if not all, of them, are authentic, but until the manuscript itself can be looked at, no such determination can be made. I give here the titles, as found in the catalogue, of these twenty-three works of Jacob. I have also provided the entry numbers from Brock’s “Index”, below each corresponding title, for those works whose Syriac titles are close to the titles of the Armenian works found in this Ms. Nor Julfa 464. These numbers are provided only for interim interest; it is possible that they will have nothing to do with the actual Armenian texts.

Zarp‘analean, Catalogue of Ancient Armenian Translations, 575. See Brock’s n. 8, in Bedjan, Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh, VI, 373. 46 Tēr-Avetisean, Smbat. Ցուցակ Հայերէն Ձեռագրաց Նոր Ջուղայի Ամենափրկիչ Վանքի [Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the All-Saviour Monastery in New Julfa], 2 vols., I, 729–30, Vienna: Mekhitarist Printing Press, 1970. 44 45

JACOB OF SERUGH, HOMILY ON GOOD FRIDAY a.

On John the Baptist Br 183, 249 b. On the Entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem Br 260 c. On the Meaning of Sunday Br 189 d. On the Transfiguration Br 154 e. On Palm Sunday Br 260 f. On Stealing g. On the Resurrection Br 69, 319, 320; see also II.4, above h. On Good Friday see II.1, above i. On the Conversion of Antioch Br 42; see also II.2, 6, above j. On the Star and the Magi Br 135 k. On the Ninevites see II.5, above l. On Easter and on the Resurrection Br 69, 319, 320; see also II.4, above m. On John, the Forerunner Br 183, 249 n. On Giving Alms to the Poor Br 265 o. On Prayer/Supplication Br 3 p. On Envy q. On Prayer r. Another on Prayer s. On Prayer t. On Almsgiving u. On Confession v. Another on Confession w. On Faith Br 19, 21, 52, 125, 274, 303, 347

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EDWARD G. MATHEWS, JR.

It appears that there is a good chance that many of these works may be genuine Jacob of Serugh, although some at the end of the list may actually turn out to be compositions of Ephrem. Nonetheless, there remains a good possibility that we will find additional ‘newly discovered’ homilies of Jacob.

CONCLUSION One can now see that counter to the evidence found in modern handbooks, histories, bibliographies, etc., there are indeed a number of works of Jacob of Serugh translated into Armenian. He was also well enough known in Armenia to have been considered one of the great orthodox teachers. Nearly all of the seventeen works enumerated above are found in at least eight manuscripts, another attestation of how highly regarded Jacob was and how widely he was read in Armenian. It is too early to detail the influence of Jacob’s writings on Armenian authors, but the manuscripts do provide further evidence of when Jacob was translated into Armenian. In addition to the colophon already noted above, we also have two short colophons, included among three works of Jacob that are found in Ms. Jer. Arm. 1365, that provide us further evidence that the works of Jacob were not translated into Armenian until at least the twelfth century. They read, respectively: “In the year 695 of the Armenians (=1246), this homily (On Thaddeus and Abgar, cf. I.9, above) was translated from Syriac by the hand of the Syrian priest, Simeon, at the command of Vardan Vardapet, (f. 131)” and “This homily (On the Symbols of Our Lord, cf. I.4, above) from the praiseworthy compositions of Mar Jacob, and other works by him, were translated by Vardan Vardapet (f. 157).” 47 This Vardan Vardapet, or Teacher, is no doubt to be identified with Vardan Arewelts‘i (c. 1200–1271), the great biblical commentator and theologian. It is already likely that Vardan himself might have been the translator of the Old Testament Commentaries attributed to

47

Bogharian, Grand Catalogue of St. James Manuscripts, IV, 643–51.

JACOB OF SERUGH, HOMILY ON GOOD FRIDAY

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Ephrem. 48 From the aggregate witness of these three colophons we can surmise that the bulk of the works of Jacob of Serugh were translated into Armenian between the mid-twelfth and the midthirteenth centuries, and not in the sixth or seventh shortly after his death. It is certain that the data above and, especially, the manuscripts themselves need further study, but it is equally certain that not only were there works of Jacob of Serugh that were translated into Armenian, but that his work was also held in great esteem by some of the greatest scholars of the medieval Armenian Church. Many important patristic texts were translated into Armenian at various times and in various places, but as is the case with such works as Irenaeus’ Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, Eusebius’ Chronicle, numerous Hymns of Ephrem, Timothy Aelurus’ Against the Council of Chalcedon, even some works of Philo, scholars and faithful alike owe the Armenian church a tremendous debt for the preservation of so many valuable patristic and theological works. Now we can add at least seven new works of Jacob of Serugh to our already immense debt to the dedication, the industry, and the great ecumenical spirit of the Armenian Church.

See Mathews, Edward G., Jr., tr. The Armenian Commentary on Genesis attributed to Ephrem the Syrian, L, CSCO, 573, Louvain: Peeters, 1998. Thus, these colophons now provide further evidence that Vardan may have been even more involved in translating Syrian works into Armenian then heretofore realized. 48