Jacob of Sarug's Additional Homilies on Good Friday 9781463207526, 1463207522

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-DFRERI6DUXJ·V Additional Homilies on Good Friday

Texts from Christian Late Antiquity

51 Series Editor George Anton Kiraz

TeCLA (Texts from Christian Late Antiquity) is a series presenting ancient Christian texts both in their original languages and with accompanying contemporary English translations.

-DFRERI6DUXJ·V Additional Homilies on Good Friday

Translation and Introduction by

Edward G Mathews Jr

gp 2018

Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2018 by Gorgias Press LLC 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. ‫ܘ‬

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2018

ISBN 978-1-4632-0752-6

ISSN 1935-6846

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A Cataloging-in-Publication Record is available from the Library of Congress Printed in the United States of America

TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents ..................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ................................................................................ vii Abbreviations ........................................................................................... ix General Introduction ............................................................................... 1 Life of Jacob ..................................................................................... 1 Writings of Jacob ............................................................................. 6 The Present Volume ..................................................................... 11 Introduction ............................................................................................ 13 Classification of Mîmrô ................................................................ 14 Relation to Jacob’s Surviving Corpus......................................... 15 Translation Technique .................................................................. 17 Manuscripts and Editions ............................................................ 19 Date and Authorship .................................................................... 21 Outline............................................................................................. 22 Summary ......................................................................................... 27 Text and Translation .............................................................................. 29 I. Invocation of Divine Assistance ........................................ 31 II. How does one look upon Christ? As God or as man? .. 35 III. Christ is raised upon the cross; The reaction of the elements and the disciples ................................................... 43 IV. Dialogue between Mary and the two archangels ............. 47 V. Christ expires on the Cross; The reaction of the elements ................................................................................. 53 VI. Dialogue between the Good Thief and Jesus .................. 55 VII. The crucified Christ manifested as the Son of God ....... 61 Introduction ............................................................................................ 65 Outline............................................................................................. 65 Summary ......................................................................................... 69 Text and Translation .............................................................................. 71 I. A mîmrô on God is beyond human speech ....................... 72 v

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II. Christ is both God and man ............................................... 78 III. Demons guided the events of the crucifixion .................. 86 Bibliography of Works Cited ................................................................ 93 Primary Texts ................................................................................. 93 Jacob of Sarug .......................................................................... 93 Other Texts .............................................................................. 96 Other Translations .................................................................. 97 Secondary Works ........................................................................... 98 Index of Names and Themes .............................................................109 Index of Biblical References ...............................................................113

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This slim volume has undergone a fairly long, on again off again, gestation period, and thanks are due to many people. First of all, my thanks go to some of my former students at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, then in New Rochelle, NY, who are technically responsible for the ‘discovery’ of the Armenian text edited and translated here. 1 Dr. George Kiraz, President of Gorgias Press and Editor-in-Chief of Texts from Christian Antiquity, was very happy to accept this volume into the series The Metrical Homilies of Mar Jacob of Sarug even though neither text technically qualified for inclusion as neither is found in the edition of Bedjan. Also – and more importantly – I am pleased to publicly acknowledge here his valuable support and friendship over many years. I must also acknowledge here a very great debt to Sebastian Brock for his corrections, suggestions and other helpful comments, not only for this volume but for every one of my previous contributions to this series. My very good friend Bp. Anoushavan Tanielian found time in his busy schedule, as he has so often for me in the past, to read through the entire Armenian text at several different stages; his sage counsel and advice are more appreciated than any words can express. Dr. Melonie Schmierer-Lee has exhibited heroic patience and kindness in once again doing a masterful job of making a presentable volume out of my disorganized submission fraught as it was with careless errors, omissions, oversights and seemingly endless rewrites. I offer my deepest gratitude to Ms. Tessa Mitchell who patiently tracked down for me many books and articles that were no doubt This personal account was briefly recounted in E.G. Mathews, Jr., “Jacob of Serugh, Homily on Good Friday and Other Armenian Treasures: First Glances,” 134–136. 1

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quite beyond the normal purview of a small town public librarian. My most profound thanks must go to the Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fund which has generously funded this volume, along with a number of my translations over the last few years. I offer thanks in particular to Mr. M. Haigentz, the Program Director, who has always treated me with the utmost kindness and patience. His support and encouragement over many years have always been greatly appreciated. Lastly, I offer my very deep thanks to Jennifer with whom I have come to share so much. Her encouragement and support in the concluding stages certainly helped to bring this volume to its final fruition. All of these people are due far more than these few little thanks; without them this volume, even with all my errors and omissions that still remain, would never have seen the light of day.

ABBREVIATIONS AB APB Bedjan, Homiliae BETL BUSK CCC CBOTS CC CCO CES CPG CSCO DS ECR ECS ETL FOTC GECS GEDSH HdO HTR JCSSS JJS LM

Analecta Bollandiana Acta Patristica et Byzantina P. Bedjan, Homiliae Selectae Mar-Jacobi Sarugensis (see BIBLIOGRAPHY) Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium Bibliothèque de l’Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik Cahiers de la Bibliothèque Copte Coniectanea Biblica. Old Testament Series Corpus Christianorum Collectanea Christiana Orientalia Cahiers d’études syriaques Clavis Patrum Graecorum, ed., Maurice Geerard Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium Dictionnaire de Spiritualité Eastern Churches Review Eastern Christian Studies Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses Fathers of the Church Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage Handbuch der Orientalistik Harvard Theological Review Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies Journal of Semitic Studies Le Muséon ix

x LNPF ME OC OCA OCP OECS OKS OLA OS OtSt PdO PO PPS PS ROC RSE SC SCS SNTR Sob SOPJ SP ST SVTQ TFCLA TTH TV VzB WS

ADDITIONAL HOMILIES ON GOOD FRIDAY A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 0ňUćQo(WKpň Oriens Christianus Orientalia Christiana Analecta Orientalia Christiana Periodica Oxford Early Christian Studies Ostkirchliche Studien Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta L’Orient Syrien Oudtestamentische Studien Parole de l’Orient Patrologia Orientalis Popular Patristics Series Patrimoine syriaque Revue de l’Orient chrétien Revue des sciences ecclésiastiques Sources Chrétiennes Syrian Church Series St. Nersess Theological Review Sobornost Syriac Orthodox Patriarchal Journal Studia Patristica Studi e Testi St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly Texts from Christian Late Antiquity Translated Texts for Historians The True Vine Veröffentlichungen zur Byzanzforschung Woodbrooke Studies

GENERAL INTRODUCTION LIFE OF JACOB Jacob of Sarug (†521) was a giant among spiritual authors in the early Syrian church. Dubbed by his contemporaries the “Flute of the Holy Spirit and Harp of the orthodox Church,” 1 he has been called by modern scholars an “outstanding figure of our Syriac heritage,” and “a proficient and natural poet of great genius who is unrivaled and unequalled.” 2 He is generally recognized today as the greatest of the Syriac poets, after only his predecessor Ephrem (†373). 3 From a short early Life of Jacob found in J.S. Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis I.286–289; cf. an English translation in M. Hansbury, Jacob of Serug On the Mother of God, 15; Jacob even calls himself a flute in his first Homily on the Nativity, 61, T. Kollamparampil, Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on the Nativity, 16–17, and in his “Homily on Ephrem”, 166, J. Amar, A Metrical Homily on Holy Mar Ephrem by Mar Jacob of Sarug, 66–67. 2 By Fr. John Meno in G.A. Kiraz, ed., Jacob of Serugh and His Times,” ix, and I. Barsoum, The Scattered Pearls: A History of Syriac Literature and Sciences, 255. See also the panegyrical article of Kh. Dinno, “Jacob of Serugh, the Man behind the Mimre,” 51–69. 3 S. P. Brock, A Brief Outline of Syriac Literature, 37; idem., Homilies of Mar Jacob of Sarug, VI.v; elsewhere the same author 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 T. Kollamparampil, Jacob of Serugh, Select Festal Homilies, v, and elsewhere; in another work Kollamparampil himself says: “Mar Jacob stands as one of the great hymnographers of the early Syriac tradition, perhaps second only to Ephrem the Syrian”, Salvation in Christ according to Jacob of Serugh, 30; cf. also, P. Mouterde, “Deux homélies inédites de Jacques de Saroug,” 3. 1

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As is the case with most personages of antiquity, precious few precise details about the life of Jacob of Sarug have been handed down to us. Jacob was born around the middle of the fifth century AD in Kurtam, a small village near the Euphrates, in the ancient region of Serugh, which stood as the eastern part of the province RI&RPPDJēQēFRUUHVSRQGLQJWRWKHPRGHUQ7XUNLVKGLVWULFWVRI Suruç and Birecik). 4 The general consensus of modern scholars places Jacob’s birth in 451, perhaps the very same year of birth as his contemporary Babgen of Ot‘mus (Ot‘msets‘i), who was the Armenian Catholicos in the early sixth century, 5 and who presided over the first Council of Dvin in which the Armenian hierarchy first attempted to sort out its own official position on Chalcedon and the resultant christological position of the Armenian Church. 6 Whatever the precise year of Jacob’s birth, 451 was also a year of no little significance as it was the very year that the Council of Chalcedon itself was convened. 7 Thus, it is quite obvious that Jacob grew up in the initial turmoil that followed from this council, making him an eye-witness to the intense rifts that split the Church The primary secondary sources, from which what follows is summarized, are: J.-B. Abbeloos, De vita et scriptis Sancti Jacobi, Batnarum Sarugi in Mesopotamia episcopi, J.-P. P. Martin, “Un évêque-poète au Ve et au VIe siècles, I. Barsoum, Scattered Pearls, 255– 63 %URFN qUHSULQWHG $QWoLOLDV $UPHQLDQ &DWKROLFRVDWH RI &LOLFLD Press, 2004]. Akhrass, Roger-Youssef. “La Vierge Mère de Dieu dans la pensée de Philoxène de Mabboug.” Hugoye 13:1 (2010), 31–48. Akhrass, Roger-Youssef. “A List of Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh”. SOPJ 53 (2015), 87–161. Albert, Micheline. “Jacques de Saroug, Lettre sur la Foi aux bienheureux d’Arzoun”. OS 12 (1967), 491–503. Albert, Micheline. “Lettre 19 de Jacques de Saroug”. SP 17 (1982), 1351–1358. Albert, Micheline. “Nouveaux aperçus chez Jacques de Saroug”. SP 18 (1990), 221–229. Albert, Micheline. “Jacques de Saroug (†521) et le magistère”. PdO 17 (1992), 61–71. Alwan, Khalil. “Bibliographie générale raisonnée de Jacques de Saroug († 521)”. PdO 13 (1986), 313–384. Alwan, Khalil. “L’homme, le “microcosme” chez Jacques de Saroug (†521)”. PdO 13 (1986), 51–78. Alwan, Khalil. “Le “Remzô” selon la pensée de Jacques de Saroug”. PdO 15 (1988–1989), 91–106. Alwan, Khalil. “L’homme, était-il mortel ou immortel avant le péché pour Jacques de Saroug?” OCP 55 (1989), 5–31. Assemani, Joseph S. Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana. 3 vols. Rome: Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 1719 [repr. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2000]. Barsoum, Ignatius Aphram I. The Scattered Pearls: A History of Syriac Literature and Sciences. 2d revised edition. Translated by Matti Moosa. Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2003. Baumstark, Anton. Geschichte der syrischen Literatur mit Ausschluss der hristlich-palästinensischen Texte. Bonn: A. Marcus und E. Webers Verlag, 1922.

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Beck, Edmund. “Die Mariologie der echten Schriften Ephräms.” OC 40 (1956), 22–39. Bou Mansour, Tanios. La théologie de Jacques de Saroug. Tome 1: Création, Anthropologie, Ecclésiologie et Sacrements. BUSK 36. Kaslik: Université Saint-Esprit, 1993. Bou Mansour, Tanios. La théologie de Jacques de Saroug. Tome 2: Christologie, Trinité, Eschatologie, Méthode exégétique et théologique. BUSK 40. Kaslik: Université Saint-Esprit, 2000. Bou Mansour, Tanios. “The Christology of Jacob of Sarug.” Christ in Christian Tradition. Vol. 2, part 3: The Churches of Jerusalem and $QWLRFKIURPWR. Edited by Alois Grillmeier and Theresia Hainthaler. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. 430–477 [Original: “Die Christologie des Jakob von Sarug”. Jesus der Christus im Glauben der Kirche. Bd. 2.3: Die Kirchen von JeUXVDOHP XQG $QWLRFKLHQ QDFK  ELV 600. Edited by Alois Grillmeier and Theresia Hainthaler. Freiburg im Breisgau/Basel/Vienna: Herder, 2002. Pp. 449–499]. Brock, Sebastian P. Mary in Syriac Tradition. Oxford: Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1977. Brock, Sebastian P. “The Mysteries hidden in the Side of Christ”. Sob 7 (1978), 462–472. Brock, Sebastian P. “Clothing Metaphors as a Means of Theological Expression in Syriac Tradition.” Typus, Symbol, Allegorie bei den östlichen Vatern und ihren Parallelen im Mittelalter. Edited by Margot Schmidt. Eichstatt, 1981. Pp. 11–40. Brock, Sebastian P. “Jacob of Serugh on the Veil of Moses”. Sob 3 (1981), 70–85. Brock, Sebastian P. “Mary in Syriac Tradition.” Mary’s Place in Christian Dialogue: Occasional Papers of the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1970–. Edited by Alberic Stacpoole. Slough: St. Paul’s Publications, 1982. Pp. 182–191. Brock, Sebastian P. “Mary and the Gardiner: An East Syrian Dialogue Soghitha for the Resurrection.” PdO 11 (1983), 223–234. Brock, Sebastian P. “The Published Verse Homilies of Isaac of Antioch, Jacob of Serug, and Narsai: Index to Incipits”. JJS 32 (1987), 279–313.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Brock, Sebastian P. Sogiatha: Syriac Dialogue Hymns. SCS 11. Kottayam: K.P. Press, 1987. Brock, Sebastian P. “Dramatic Dialogue Poems.” IV Symposium 6\ULDFXP . Edited by H.J.W. Drijvers, R. Lavenant SJ, C. Molenberg, and G.J. Reinink. OCA 229. Rome: Pontificium Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, 1987. Pp. 135–147. Brock, Sebastian P. “The Syrian Orthodox Reaction to the Council of Chalcedon: Jacob of Serugh’s Homily on the Council of Chalcedon”. Texts and Studies: A Review for Hellenism in Diaspora 8–10 (1989–1991), 448–459. Brock, Sebastian P. “Syriac Dispute Poems: The Various Types.” Dispute Poems and Dialogues in the Ancient and Mediaeval Near East. Edited by Gerrit Jan Reinink and Herman L.J. Vanstiphout. OLA 42. Louvain: Peeters, 1991. Pp. 109–119. Brock, Sebastian P. “A Dialogue between Joseph and Mary from the Christian Orient.” Logos: A Welsh Journal of Theology 1 (1992), 4–11. Brock, Sebastian P. A Brief Outline of Syriac Literature. ME 9. Kottayam: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, 1997 [reprint, Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2011]. Brock, Sebastian P. “Jacob of Serugh’s Verse Homily on Tamar (Gen. 38).” LM 115 (2002), 279–315. Brock, Sebastian P. “Mary and the Angel, and Other Syriac Dialogue Poems.” Marianum 68 (2006), 117–151. Brock, Sebastian P. “Jacob’s Forgotten Sughyotho”. Jacob of Serugh and His Times: Studies in Sixth-Century Syriac Christianity. Edited by George Anton Kiraz. GECS 8. Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2010. Pp. 39–50. Brock, Sebastian P. “Jacob of Serugh: A Select Bibliographical Guide.” Jacob of Serugh and His Times: Studies in Sixth-Century Syriac Christianity. Edited by George Anton Kiraz. GECS 8. Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2010. Pp. 219–244. Brock, Sebastian P. q