The Harp (Volume 13) 9781463233013

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The Harp (Volume 13)

„ 'K i- if ( r, ^ J»»'

The Harp

13

The Harp is an annual review of Syriac Christianity.

The Harp (Volume 13)

Edited by Geevarghese Panicker Jakob Thekeparampil Abraham Kalakudi

1 gorgias press 2012

Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2012 by Gorgias Press LLC Originally published in 2000 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. 2012

1

ISBN 978-1-61143-647-1 Reprinted from the 2000 Kottayam edition.

Printed in the United States of America

Comiteinits Editorial 1. The background to some terms in the Syriac Eudiarisfk ipideses - Sebastian Brock, Oxford 13. The Contribution of iWalpan Andrew Kalapura to the Syriac Language, Liturgy, and the Community in Malabar -Zacharias Thekkekandom, Poonjar 21. "Veracity of parts of the Acts o? Judas Thomas and the Song of Thomas ftambhan corroborated by advances in Indian Numismatic studies" -George Menachery, Ollur 29. h irief Account of His Excellency Metropolitan Mar Yokhannan Issayi -Humblot, Tehran 33. The Homily of Marsai on the Virgin Mary -Charles Payngot, Puthuppally 39. The Formation of the Canon of the New Testament in the Syrian Church -Adai Jacob, Udayagiri 49.

Loyalty to the emperor and change of rite What induced the flflelkite Church to exchange the Syrian for the Byzantine tradition. -Gregory Hohmann, Wiirzburg

57. The Concept of Incarnation in fhe Syrian Orthodox Liturgies -P. K. Babu, Kottayam 65.

Some Common Elements in the East and the West Syrian Liturgies -B. Varghese, Kottayam

77.

The Presence and influence of Syrian Christians in Classical Tamil Literature (Synopsis) -Joseph Kolangaden, Trichur

vol AHI 2000

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85.

A Handful of Gems of Wisdom From the Treasury of Poet Raban John of Mosul -Curien Kaniamparampil, Tiruvalla

99.

The Exegesis of Aphrahat and Ephrem with special reference to the Gospel Parables -Kuriakose Valavanolickal, Aluva

109.

Sumerian Survivals in Syriac -K. Luke, Thellakom

125. Mar Narsai, The "Charismatic: A Study Based on Mar Narsai's Homily on Pentecost -Isaac Arickappillil, Bangalore 135.

"The Son as the Revealer of the Father in Ephraem the Syrian's Sermon I De Fide" -Paul S. Russell, Maryland

141.

Dionysius bar Slib's Treaty against the Jews -Behnam Keryo, Bordeau

147.

Adam-Christ Complementary and the Economy of Salvation in Jacob of Serugh -Thomas Kollamparampil, Bangalore

171.

Points for "Codicology" -F. Briquel-Chatonnet, Paris

173.

Philoxenus of Mabbug The Eighth Discourse on Poverty -John P. Mathezv

177.

On the way towards Unity? -Lothar Waldmiiller, Munich

183.

(A) Ostsyrische Tauftheologie -Bertsam Schmitz

233.

(B) Bestattung -Bertsam. Schmitz

273.

Parumala Church - An Exaltation -A. M. Mathew

275.

News

285.

SEERI Chronicle

289.

Book Review

The Harp

Vol.XtH 2000

Editorial

J

* the previous number o/HARP we published the text of several papers presented by Scholars from India and from various Countries at the World Syriac Conference held here at SEERI towards the end of1998. It was notpossible then to include all such papers in a single volume. Hence this issue may be deemed the second part of the previous one because most of the material herein is the contents of the papers we had to set aside earlier. With these we complete the publication ofallpapers ofthe W>rld Syriac Conference made available to us. It is our confident hope that our readers would welcome and appreciate the publication of the traits of research done by eminent scholars. The editorial board of HARP will be happy to publish in forthcoming issues, articles or research papers which scholars associated with SEERI would kindly send us. These can be on any subject that our erudite readers would find enlightening and useful. Although the English Panguase is wresferabk, we shall acceptpapers inFrench and German Panguases too for publication. Rev. Dr. Baby Varghese of the Orthodox Syrian Church has joined the editorial team o/HARP. We welcome him whole heartedly. His contribution will definitely benefit HARP and all its readers. Finally we appeal to all our subscribers to help us by sending their subscription dues without delay.

VolXIII 2000

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Sebastian Brock, Oxford

The background to soma terms in the Syriac Eucharistic Epicleses In the various anaphoras used by the different Churches of Syriac liturgical tradition the wording of the epiclesis, or invocation to the Holy Spirit, takes on many different forms.1 In this paper my aim is to explore something of the background to four of the main verbs used. The majority of epicleses are addressed to the Father, who is asked, either to 'send' his Holy Spirit, or that his Holy Spirit 'may come'. The latter, with 'may your Spirit come ...' is the form familiar from the Anaphora of the Apostles Addai and Mari, and from the other two East Syrian anaphoras. It is also found in a considerable number of West Syrian anaphoras, either alone, or in combination with 'send'; in Greek, it features in the Anaphora of St Basil, and ih a few Coptic and Ethiopic anaphoras. Its roots can be traced back to 1. For an important recent study, using the early Syriac material, see G.. Winkler, 'Nochmals zu den Anfangen der Epiklese und des Sanctus Im Eucharistlschen Hochgebet', Theologische Quartalschrift 174 (1994), 214-31, and her 'Zur Erforschung orientalischer Anaphoren...', Orientalia Christiana Periodica 63 (1997), 363-420. A detailed study of the Syriac epicleses in the current anaphoras can be found in my 'Towards a typology of the epicleses in the West Syrian Anaphoras', in R. Taft and others (eds.), Festschrift for Gabriele Winkler (Rome, forthcoming). The verbs discussed here also feature in invocations to the Spirit in the various Syriac baptismal services, for which see my 'The Epiclesis in the Antiochene baptismal ordines', [I] Symposium Syriacum (OCA 197,1974), 183-218. VOL XIII 2000

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the phrase marana tha, 'our Lord, come', in the New Testament. 'Send' is the verb found in the Anaphora of St James, and it features in the majority of the West Syrian anaphoras, as well as in the Greek anaphoras of St John Chrysostom, St Gregory, St James and St Mark, and in the various Coptic and Ethiopic anaphoras. 2

It is not, however, my purpose to spend time on these two initial verbs; instead, I would like to concentrate on four specific verbs with which the wording of many of the epicleses continues, namely shra, 'to reside', ettnih, 'to find rest', rahhep, 'to hover', and aggen, 'to tabernacle, to overshadow', the last two of which also have related noun forms, ruhhapa, 'hovering', and maggnannta, 'tabernacling, overshadowing'. Usually these verbs will occur in combination with one another, and with other verbs such as qaddesh, 'to sanctify', barrek, 'to bless', and are then followed either by 'bad, 'make, effect' or hwa, 'to become (see Appendix 2). Thus, just to give two examples here, taken from the most commonly used anaphoras: the Anaphora of the Apostles Addai and Mari has '... Lord, may your Holy Spirit come and find rest (w-nettnih) on this offering,... and bless it and sanctify it so that it becomes for us ... etc.', while the Anaphora of St James has '... send upon us and upon these offerings set out your Holy Spirit,..., so that, tabernacling (kad maggen), he may make the bread ... etc.' 1. shra, ' t o r e s i d e ' The verb shra, in the sense of 'reside' temporarily, is already used in the Jewish Targums in a sacral context. In these Jewish Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible actions by God are often paraphrased, in order to preserve a sense of divine transcendence. Thus for example, at Exod.25:8, where the Hebrew text has '(make me a sanctuary) and I (= God) will dwell among them,' Targum Onkelos renders this b y ' I will cause my Shekhhina to reside (ashre shekhinti) among them/ using the causative, or afel, form of the verb shra. It is very possible that the earliest Aramaic-speaking Christians took over this verb in order to describe the mystery of the incarnation:3 this is 2. The phrase can be taken in two ways: (1) maran atha, 'our Lord has come', or (2) marana tha, 'our Lord, come!'. Since Palestinian Aramaic of the first century AD seems to have had a 1st plural suffic in -na, rather than -an, this means that the second interpretation is the most likely. 3. For this, see my 'The lost Old Syriac at Luke 1:35 and the earliest Syriac terms for the incarnation', in W. L. Petersen (ed.), Gospel Traditions in the second Century (Notre Dame, 1989), pp. 117-31. The Harp

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suggested by the fact that in early Syriac poetry (and indeed in Syriac liturgical poetry in general), this is the verb regularly used when authors are paraphrasing the two key verses of the Gospels which refer to the incarnation, namely the annunciation narrative in Luke 1:35, 'the Holy Spirit will come and the Power of the Most High will overshadow you', and John 1:14 'the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us'; their constant use of the verb shra in these two contexts is all the more striking in that all the Syriac versions of the Gospels use quite a different verb of both passages, namely aggen, 'to tabernacle', one of the verbs to which we shall be returning below. A couple of examples must suffice to illustrate this use of shra instead of aggen in these two fundamental Gospel passages. Reflecting the use of the term 'Power (of the Most High)' in Luke 1:35, Ephrem writes: When the Power resided (shra) in the womb, that same Power wasi fashioning babes in the womb. (Madrashe on the Nativity, 4:174). The use of the verb shra to describe the incarnation of the Divine Word in Mary's womb is found in many other passages of Ephrem's madrashe on the Nativity, and elsewhere.4 The same verb can also be found, though less frequently, in clear allusions to Johnl:14. Thus, again from Ephrem, we find the following: Blessed is He who bent down his height And resided (wa-shra) in us. (Madrashe on the Church, 15:2; cp on Resurrection, 1:7). From the more specific point of view of the use of shra in eucharistic epicleses to denote the activity of the Spirit, it is intriguing to find that there are close parallels in phraseology already in the Targums. In the official Targum (Onkelos) at Gen. 45:27 we read that 'the Spirit of Holiness resided (shrat) on Jacob', and likewise in the Palestinian Targum Neofiti at Num.ll:25 'the Spirit of Holiness' is described as having 'resided (shrat) on the Seventy Elders.'5 The use of the verb shra in a eucharistic context is already found in Syriac in the Acts of Thomas. In a passage describing the baptism 4. E.g. H. de Nativitate 3:20, 16:2,21:6; H. de Virginitate 25:8; Carmina Nisibena 46:1. In many passages in the Fenqitho and: Hudra both aggen and shra are used together in paraphrases of Luke 1:35. 5. Ephrem uses shra with the Holy Spirit as subject at H. de Nativitate 5:10 and 6:13. Vol. XIII 2 0 0 0

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of the general Sipur and his wife and daughter, at the ensuing qurbana the apostle Judas Thomas prays, saying 'We call to inind the name of the Spirit over you, the exalted name, hidden from all; in your name, Jesus, may the power of blessing and thanksgiving come and reside (w-neshre) on this bread ...'. (133) Likewise in Ephrem, in a passage where he addresses Christ: In your bread is hidden the Spirit... in your wine there resides (sharya) the Fire... (Madrashe on Faith, 10:8).

It is significant that no verb corresponding to shra is ever to be found in any Greek anaphora; this absence as a technical term from Greek is a further indication that we are dealing with a specialized term that goes back to the very roots of Aramaic- and Syriac- speaking Christianity.

2. ettnih, 'to rest, find rest' The biblical origins of the use of this verb in connection with the Spirit lie in the Peshitta translation of Isaiah 11:2, '(A staff shall come forth from the trunk of Jesse, and a shoot will bud from his stock), and the Spirit of God will rest and reside upon him (w-teitnih wteshre...)'. The concept of 'rest' (Syriac nyaha, Greek anapausis) was evidently an important one in early Christianity and was associated with Matt. 11:28-29, where Christ says 'Come to me, all you who toil and are burdened, and I will give your rest. Take up upon yourselves my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for yourselves (or: your souls)'.6 Corresponding to the word translated 'gentle' here (prans in Greek), in the Syriac Gospels there is niha, which is from the same root as nyaha, 'rest', and one is tempted to suspect that the same word play was also present in the Jewish Aramaic saying of Jesus behind the Greek Matthew. Whether or not that was the case, it is evident from a variety of different sources that the verb ettnih, 'to rest, find rest' was taken up at an early date in Syriac as one of the specialized terms to denote the activity of the Holy Spirit. This use of ettnih in the context of invocations of the Spirit seems to be a feature distinctive to Syriac liturgical tradition, for no 6. For this, see G. Winkler, 'Ein Bedeutsamer Zusammenhang Zwischen Erkenntnis un Ruhe in Mt 11,27-29 un dem Ruhen des Geistes auf Jesus a m Jordan. Eine Analyse zur Geist-Christologie in syrischen und armenischen Quellen', Le Museon 96 (1983), 267-326. The Harp

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5 corresponding use of the verb anapauein ('to rest') is to be found in Greek epicleses.

3. rahhep, 'to hover' In the Syriac Bible both the verb rahhep and its derived noun form, ruhhapa, 'hovering, hovering presence', occur a number of times. In almost all of these passages, in both Old and New Testaments, the noun is found in combination with rahme, 'compassion', and the verb rahhep normally translates Hebrew verbs meaning 'to have compassion'; likewise the nominal form mrahhpana is regularly paired with mrahhmana, 'compassionate'. But none of these passages provides the origin of rahhep and ruhhapa as they are used in subsequent Syriac literature, above all in a liturgical context. For this origin we need to go back to a single verse at the beginning of the Creation narrative in Genesis, 'the ruha (spirit, wind) of God hovered (mrahhpa) over the surface of the water' (Gen 1:2b). The underlying Hebrew verb here, mrahepet, is from the same root as the Syriac; the Greek translation of the Septuagint, by contrast, rendered the Hebrew verb by a passive, epephereto, 'was carried' - a difference which (as we shall see) was to become important for one strand of Syriac exegesis. Unlike the situation in the Syriac Bible, the verbal root rhp only occurs once again in the Hebrew Bible, at Deut 32:11, where it is used of a bird hovering over its nest. At this point we must make a short diversion into the exegetical problems surrounding Gen 1:2. A glance at a selection of modern English translations of the Bible will quickly indicate that there is great uncertainty about the exegesis and translation of the passage, and in particular about the precise identity of the subject of the Hebrew participle mrahepet here, n a m e the ruheh d-allaha (Hebrew ruah 'elohim):

does it refer to the Holy Spirit, or to a divine spirit other than the Holy Spirit; or does ruah really mean 'wind', in which case, is it 'a wind of God' or just 'a mighty wind'? The variety of opinion among modern Bible translators and exegetes is no new thing, for in antiquity there was a similar variety of views among both Jews and Christians. Discussion of the matter took on somewhat different forms in different languages, and here we shall glance at the intriguing history of the different Syriac interpretations.7 7. For fuller details, see my 'The ruah 'elohim of Gen 1,2 and its reception history in theSyriac tradition', in the Melanges for P-M. Bogaert (Louvain, forthcoming). The Harp

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The two earliest references to Gen 1:2 in Syriac literature, in the Acts of Thomas and in Aphrahat, clearly identify the ruheh d-allahci in this verse as the Holy Spirit, and it is likely that this was the widespread understanding in early Syriac Christianity. Only on this supposition is it possible to explain how the adoption of rahhep as a specialised verb, denoting the activing of the Holy Spirit, came about. Only a few decades after Aphrahat wrote his Demonstrations, however, we find Ephrem taking a totally different view in his Commentary on Genesis. Although he knows of the identification of the ruheh d-allaha with the Holy Spirit, he goes on to say that 'the faithful' understand it as 'a wind of God', sent to disperse the clouds that had produced the darkness (mentioned in the first half of Gen 1:2). This is not the place to go into his reasons, which seem to have been governed, at least in part, by a desire to controvert Bardaisan's views on the verse. The fact that Ephrem is perfectly happy in his other works to use the verb rahhep, and the noun ruhhapa, in connection with the Holy Spirit (outside the context of Gen 1:2) simply indicates that these terms had already by his day become standard ones in Syriac for describing the activity of the Holy Spirit. As far as the understanding of Gen 1:2, however, was concerned, Ephrem's voice carried authority in the later Syriac tradition. Now is so happened that the same view was taken by the main Greek writers in the Antiochene exegetical tradition, Diodore, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Theodoret (one of Theodore's arguments was that the passive verb of the Septuagint was inappropriate for describing any action of the Holy Spirit). Theodore's Commentary on Genesis was translated into Syriac and was evidently studied at the famous Persian School in Edessa and in the successor School of Nisibis (where of course Theodore became the 'Exegete' or 'Interpreter' (mpashshqana) par excellence). The combinated authority of Ephrem and Theodore ensured that the East Syrian exegetical tradition was unanimous in taking the ruha of Gen 1:2 as just 'wind'. On the surface this might lead one to suspect that this understanding of the identity of the ruha which hovered over the primordial water accounts for the absence of rahhep from any of the epicleses in the three East Syrian anaphoras. Though this is just a possibility, it needs to be recalled that the noun ruhhapa was used in precisely this context in the famous verse commentary on the liturgy, namely Homily 17 attributed to Narsai (there are good reasons for doubting the attribution and dating it instead to the sixth century); here we find the explicit statement, put in the very mouth of Christ: lÄttftffi.

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The background to some terms in the Syriac Eucharistic Epicleses

I will make the bread and wine Body and Blood through the hovering (ruhhapa) and action of the Holy Spirit. In fact there are quite a number of occurrences of both rahhep and ruhhapa in East Syrian liturgical poetry describing the activity of the Holy Spirit in a variety of different contexts. Thus, for example, a passage in the Hudra for Pentecost describes the 'power of the Spirit' as 'hovering over the apostles' (the biblical text in Acts has 'settled' (iteb). What about the West Syrian tradition? Although Theodore's name was anathema, nevertheless his biblical exegesis, as taught at the Persian School of Edessa, did exert a considerable influence on Syrian Orthodox authors who were educated at this School. Among these was the famous poet Jacob of Serugh, whose verse homilies on the Six Days of Creation draw heavily on the exegetical traditions of Theodore as well as Ephrem. But again, despite his identification of the ruha of Gen 1:2 as 'wind', Jacob is perfectly happy to use both rahhep and ruhhapa in other contexts, including eucharistic ones. Most later Syrian Orthodox writers, however, see Gen 1:2 as referring to the Holy Spirit; as authorities for this view they were able to claim the authority of St Basil, in his Commentary on thé Hexaemeron, or Six Days of Creation. Basil himself quotes as the source for his understanding an anonymous Syrian. There is a perennial urge to identify anonymous persons, and this particular anonymous Syrian was already by the early sixth century identified as Ephrem: this identification is. found in both Severus of Antioch, and in the sixthcentury Life of St Ephrem (whose author indeed uses the identification as the foundation stone for his apocryphal story of St Ephrem's visit to St Basil). Though a few perceptive critics, like Moshe bar Kepha, pointed out that this identification did not fit with Ephrem's own views, as known from his Commentary on Genesis, for many this alleged authority of St Ephrem, combined with that of St Basil, was welcomed. It so happens that the true identity of this anonymous Syrian has only recently come to light:8 he is now known to have been an older contemporary of St Ephrem, Eusebius of Emesa, who actually originated from Edessa. Turning now to the various Syriac anaphoras, we find both rahhep and ruhhapa appearing in epicleses in a number of Syrian Orthodox anaphoras. Thus in the Syriac anaphora of St John Chrysostom (which 8. S e e L. van Rompay, 'L'Informateur syrien de Basile de Cesaree', Christiana Periodica 5 8 (1992), pp. 2 4 5 - 5 1 . Vol X I I I 2 0 0 0

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is totally different form the Greek anaphora attributed to this saint), the relevant part of the epiclesis reads:'... may your Spirit and your sanctifying Power tabernacle over this holy altar and sanctify its offerings, and may he hover (nrahhep) and reside (w-neshre) upon the bread ...'•, and, for an example of the use of ruhhapa, we may take the anaphora of Gregory Iuhannon:.. may your Spirit come and reside (w-neshre) and tabernacle over these Mysteries and sanctify them with the sanctity that comes from him, so that through his hidden and mysterious hovering (ruhhapa) he may make the bread ...'. As with the two verbs, shra and ettnih, previously considered, rahhep too has no counterpart in Greek epicleses (and indeed the verb used by the Septuagint in Gen. 1:2, epephereto, 'was carried', is hardly appropriate for use in invocations to the Spirit). g

4. aggen, 'to tabernacle'

Our fourth term, aggen, 'to tabernacle', has its roots in Jewish Aramaic, as was the case with shra. In certain strands of the Palestinian Targum tradition aggen was the verb used to translate the mysterious Hebrew verb pasah in the Exodus narrative (Exod.12). This verb (from which Pesach, i.e. Pascha, Passover, derives) is of very uncertain meaning and scholars both in antiquity and in modern times have come up with a large number of suggestions. The translators of the Palestinian Targum evidently chose aggen because it was a verb that had connotations of divine protection (the root is also found in Hebrew magen, 'a shield'). Although the Peshitta translation of Exodus chose quite as different translation for pasah, earliest Syriac-speaking Christianity must have taken over from Jewish Aramaic the specialized use of the verb aggen for denoting divine activity among humanity, and this was why it was the term chosen to render the two different Greek verbs used in the key verses mentioned above, Luke 1:35 (where the Greek has epeskiasen, 'overshadowed') and John 1:14 (where it has eskenosen, 'tabernacled'). The original choice of aggen seems to go back to the Syriac Diatessaron, and the rendering has been preserved in all subsequent Syriac versions of the Gospels. Now in neither Gospel passage is aggen an obvious translation of the Greek, and closer renderings could easily have been found; this means that 9. For fuller details, see my 'From Annunciation to Pentecost: the travels of a technical term', in E. Carr and others (eds), Eulogema: Studies in Honor of Robert Taft SJ (Studia Anselmiana 110,1993), pp. 71 -91. It is difficult to find a satisfactory translation of aggen (all the more so since it translates two different verbs in Luke and John); I choose 'tabernacle' (closer to John) in view of the etymologically related noun gnona, 'bridal canopy, bridal chamber'.

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Epicleses

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the person who chose to use aggcn did so for some particular reason. Here one can tentative ' y suggest that he did so because he was aware of the Palestinian Tari-.um use of the verb in the Passover narrative and, as a result, wanted to introduce into these two Gospel passages a typological resonance between the incarnate Lamb of God and the passover lamb. This may at first sound rather far-fetched, but it needs to be remembered that this typological links between the passover lamb and Christ, 'the true lamb', was very strong in early Syriac Christianity, and the parallels between the two were worked out in detail by Ephrem and others, as the following passage from Ephrem's Commentary on Exodus will indicate: The (passover) lamb is a symbol of our Lord who came to the womb on the 10th day of Nisan. For, from the 10th of the seventh month, when Zechariah was told about the birth of John (Luke 1:11, taken as the Day of Atonement), up to the tenth of the first month (= Nisan), when the announcement was made to Mary by the angel, constitutes six months. That was why the angel said to her, "This is the sixth month for her who had been called barren" (Luke 1:36). On the 10th (Nisan), therefore, when the (passover) lamb was confined (Exod. 12:3), our Lord was conceived10, and on the 14th, when it was slaughtered, he whom the lamb symbolized was crucified. From the fifth century onwards the use of aggen was extended from the context of the annunciation to that of other important stages in salvation history, above all the eucharist. Here, the common use of the verb aggen in both the annunciation narrative and with reference to the consecratory action of the Spirit in the Eucharist helped to bring out the close links, as seen by Syriac writers from Ephrem onwards, between the incarnation and the eucharistic consecration of the bread and wine. In the East Syrian anaphoras aggen occurs only in the anaphora under the name of Theodore. It has been suggested that the use of aggen in this anaphora is due to the influence of the West Syrian anaphora of James, where kad maggen, 'while tabernacling', features very prominently, corresponding to the Greek participle, epiphoitêsan. Thé wording of the epiclesis in the Anaphora of St James certainly exerted a strong influence on many subsequent Syrian Orthodox anaporas, where the phrase kad maggen is preserved. In view, however, 10. T h e 101" Nisan April) is regularly seen as the date of the Annunciation in early Syriac literature. T h e 25 t h March, familiar today, is a much later introduction. Vol. XIII 2 0 0 0

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of the widespread use of aggen in the context of the eucharistic epiclesis among Syriac writers of the fifth and sixth century, it may well be that the use of the imperfect of aggen, as opposed to the phrase kad maggen, arose quite independently of influence from the Anaphora of St James. The derived noun maggnanuta is first attested at the end of the fifty century, normally in the context of the incarnation. It too, however, soon got extended to other contexts and above all, the Eucharist, where it features in a considerable number of West Syrian epicleses. Although the phrase kad maggen in the Anaphora of James is certainly a translation of the Greek participle epiphoitesan, it is not at all likely that the use of aggen in Syriac invocations took its origin in this Greek verb, seeing that aggen is an important biblical word in Syriac, whereas epiphoitad (and likewise the noun epiphoitesis) in Greek is not. All four of these verb used in Syriac eucharistic epicleses are distinctive features of the Syriac liturgical tradition, and each of them has its own resonance and its own intriguing background, sometimes (as in the case of shra and aggen) even taking us back into the prehistory of Syriac Chriistianity, to its roots in Jewish Aramaic. Another, rahhep, has an origin in a passage of the Peshitta Old Testament that subsequently became the subject of a lively exegetical rahhep controversy -not that this ever impinged on the use of rahhep in the context of the Eucharist. The remaining verb, ettnih, likewise has its origin in the Peshitta Old Testament, but seems to have taken on added connotations from a passage in the Syriac Gospels. An awareness of all these various associations which lie behind the use of these four terms in the Syriac Eucharistic epicleses can profitable serve to help enrich our understanding of the mysterious action of the Holy Spirit in the course of each celebration of the Qurbana.

APPENDIX 1 Attestation of the four verbs, shra, ettnih, rahhep and aggen, in the East and West Syrian epicleses. shra

Nestorius, Theodore; 11 West Syrian anaphoras."

11. For the identity of the West Syrian anaphoras, see my 'Towards a typology ...' (n. 1).

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ettnih

11

Addai & Mari, Nestorius; 6 West Syrian anaphoras.

rahhep -; 14 West Syrian anaphoras. ruhhapa -; 9 West Syrian anaphoras. aggen

Theodore; 18 West Syrian anaphoras.

kad maggen -; James and 17 West Syrian anaphoras. maggnanuta

-; 8 West Syrian anaphoras.

APPENDIX 2 Verbs used in the epicleses of select Syriac anaphoras (for the West Syrian anaphoras the selection is based on the collections of anaphoras published at Pampakuda). (a) East Syrian: ADDAI AND MARI: ... wnettnih ... wa-nbarrkiw(hy) wanqaddshiw(hy) d-nehwe..., '(may the Spirit) ... find rest... and bless and sanctify it so that it may become NESTORIUS: ... w-teshre w-tettnih ... wa-tbarrkiw(hy)watqaddshiw(hy) w-te'bdiw(hy)...kad mshah\ep...wa-mqaddesh...dnehwe..., '(may the grace of the Spirit)... and reside and find rest... and bless it and sanctify it and make it..., changing ... and sanctifying ... so that it may become ...'. THEODORE: .. .w-teshre w-taggen ... wa-tbarrek wa-tqaddesh wathattem...w-nehwe..., '(may the grace of the Spirit)... and reside and tabernacle ... and bless and sanctify and seal... so that it may become...'. (b) West Syrian: JAMES: ... kad maggen ne'bed..., tabernacling make ...'.

'(may the Spirit) ... while

XII APOSTLES (second anaphora of): ... wa-nrahhep ... wne'bdiw(hy)... (w-lan nhasse wa-nqaddesh) ... dab-maggnanuteh ne'bed ... d-nehwe...,'... and hover...and make...(and forgive and sanctify us)... so that through his tabernacling he make make.. .so that it becomes...'. DIONYSIUS BAR SALIBI (first anaphora of): ... nshahlep...,'.. .may he complete... and change...'.

negmor...

JOHN the EVANGELIST:... naggen... wa-nqaddesh... d-kad maggen ne'bed...,'.. .may he tabernacle ... and sanctify.. .so that, while tabernacling, he may make...'. Vol, Xtll 2000

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Sebastian Brock

12

JOHN of HARRAN (or 'John Chrysostom'):.. .w-mggen w-neshre ...wa-nqaddesh...ne'bed...nhawwe...nshamle..., '...and may he

tabernacle and reside...and make.. .appoint.. .perfect...'.

JULIUS: wa-nralihep.. .(wa-ndayyarban kad maggen... ne'bed....

sanctify...may

wq-nqaddesh

lebbawatan)..

MATTHEW the SHEPHERD: ...w-naggen nqaddshiw(hy)...

d-kad sha'eb. ..wa-mrahhep...

he .d-

w-neshre...wanshamle.

..negmor...,

'.. .may he tabernacle and reside.. .and sanctify it.. .so that, while scorching.. .and hovering.. .he may perfect and complete. XYSTUS:.. .w-qaddesh...

b-maggnanuteh.

and sanctify...by complete.. .perfect.

The Harp

his

..negmor.

..nsahmle...,'...

tabernacling...may

he

Vol. Xlli 2000

Zacharias Thekkekandom, T l h © MiaOpami to

Poonjar

O o o t t r a b y t f l © ^ . A t m d t r e w S y i r n a ©

[Utatrgjy, O o m m n i y i n i S t y

© f

UCsiOapotra

LsiEmg(Loag.e.y

a m i d 5mi

t h e

¡ V i l a 11a b a t r

Malpan Andrew Kalapura was a great devotee of St. Ephrem, the Harp of the Holy Spirit. He imbibed the deep meaning of the saint's words: 44

»«Silaa ilia* 4 a

"Every beginning in God will reach a happy ending." This firm belief induced and successfully led him through every endeavour and activity which he confidently undertook in diverse circumstances. A Brief Sketch of his Life 1. Kunjanthreose was born as the fourth child of his parents Eapen and Anasthasia (Kalapurackal) Thekkekandathil on the 19lh of March 1864 in the Parish of Pala which subsequently became the cathedral church of the diocese of Pala. He had his primary education under local Asans (Tutors) according to the custom in vogue at the time. In spite of the initial objection of his father, the boy was able to join the Malpanate (Minor Seminary) where Kaniarakath Mani Malpan was training candidates to priesthood. 2. He eagerly studied and acquired a solid foundation in the ritual language Syriac, which stood him in good stead in his future life, during his long training period as well as in the unusually long professional m - x t f ! 2000

pp: 13-19

THéfiâïp

14

Zacharias Thekkekandom

career in diverse fields of activities. When he finished his studies in the Malpanate Anthreose joined the seminary at Mannanam on 8th December 1883 and continued his studies. When the ecclesiastical authorities established a common seminary at Puthenpally (Veropoly) for all the students for priesthood, cleric Andrew was sent there on 10th January 1891. He completed his studies and was ordained a priest on 31st March 1895. 3. Interestingly, even before ordination deacon Andrew was appointed professor of Syrian Liturgy in his 'Alma Mater' on the first of February 1895. The event leading to the appointment is worth noting. In connection with the celebration of the feast of St. Ephrem, deacon Andrew delivered a speech in Syriac about his favourite patron. It was so elegant and impressive that the authorities forthwith appointed him professor. From 1895 onwards up to the year 1932 Malpan had been teaching at Puthenpally. On the shifting of the seminary to Mangalapuzha (Aluva) he also went over to Mangalapuzha and continued as professor up to 1938. He died on November 24th 1944 and was buried at Pala on the next day. Being the founder of the Sacred Heart convent Melucavumattom, his mortal remains were transferred to the chapel of the said convent on the 6th February 1977. The Contribution of Malpan Andrew to Syriac Language 4. Before the establishment of a common seminary, the training of the Syro-Malabar clergy was that of a Malpanate system. Under the Malpan the cleric studied thoroughly the ritual language. With the erection of a common seminary - both for Syrians and Latins - the importance of the study of the Syriac language decreased, while that of Latin increased. At the time when Fr. Andrew was appointed professor, Syriac was not included in the regular curriculum. Syriac was taught for an hour only on holidays. The first attempt of the young Malpan was to rectify this situation. His efficiency, persistence and tactful handling of the problem brought about a change in this state of affairs. As time went by the cultic language of the Syrians came to enjoy the same prestige as that of Latin. 5. At the time of his appointment as Malpan there was scarcity of printed text books in the language. During the Malpanate system of training as well as in the beginning of the common seminary, only manuscript books were mainly available. To print necessary text books he founded the Mar Thoma Sliha press in the year 1901.

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Andrew Kalapura...

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6. He published the Syriac-Malayalam dictionary in the year 1906. He had taken steps to publish a Malayalam-Syriac dictionary. But he could not complete it. It may be useful to refer to the Foreword to the dictionary. "On carefully going through the draft it was noticed that many words of common usage and currently in use for scientific discourse have not been included therein. I have taken the liberty to include such of those words. I have also specially included quite a few Syriac words of similar meaning and made, wherever relevant, appropriate changes as I considered necessary. In so finalising the dictionary, I have mainly relied on the dictionary of the Syriac Language by Archbishop Mar Thoma Audo. In. addition, I have utilised the SyriacLatin dictionary of Rev. Bran, the Kasteli Dictionary and different Karzon dictionaries." 7. In the year 1913 a grammar book under the title 'crojrilomodl ajai aJOOo' - "Suriyani Moolapadham" - was published by our Malpan. In the said book Fr. Andrew gives a Syriac translation of 'Orientalium Dignitas'of Pope Leo XIII with the Latin text. His love of the Syriac language, perhaps is evident from the fact that the Syriac translation is given first in the book, followed by the Latin Text, paragraph by paragraph. The letter (1895) of Mar Geevarghese Audiso V, the Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon is also given in Syriac in this book. Other Literary Works 8. The liturgical books used at that time were mainly manuscripts, and that too not in an orderly form. Our Malpan collected the scattered manuscripts and printed them in an orderly manner. A list of 35 books thus published is given in the book 'Anthereous Malpanachan' 'm,(m emoiro"QeJkjocn4jti3'(pp.XI-XIV). But the list is incomplete. AsSyriacwas the liturgical language of the Syro Malabar Church, it was used in sacred worship for communication with God. A mention may be made about a few of them. 9. The first to come is the 'Thakssa' (Missal). In the year 1905' Malpan Andrew visited the Holy Father Pope Pius X in Rome and got permission to print Thakssa including new feasts. On his return he printed it in his own Mar Thoma Sliha Press. 10. The second important work to be mentioned is 'Magnathis Ruhanayasa'.

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Thekkekandom

Books to get proficiency in Syriac literature were rare at that time. Fr. Andrew came to know about the said book written by the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babel, Mar Joseph II. He bough a copy of the manuscript; had it corrected, edited and printed it in 1910. This corrected manuscript is kept at the Mangalapuzha seminary library. Anyone going through the manuscript of about 360 pages and observing the corrections in the margins and in between lines, will easily be convinced how proficient was Fr. Andrew in the Syriac language. It also bears witness to his heroic endeavour to propagate the same. This book was printed at Mar Thoma Sliha Press, Puthenpally (Veropoly) in the year 1910. It contains 400 pages, divided into two parts. Each part is divided into chapters (Kepaleon) and each chapter in turn is divided into sections (Pusake). The first part is contained on pages 1-172 and has eight chapters and all the chapters, except the third, are divided into sections. The second part is contained on pages 173-397. It has 24 chapters, of which eleven are divided into sections while the others have no Sections. The two parts do not have special titles, while each chapter has a title at the beginning of the chapter. We also find a title for each section given in the body of the text and on the top of each page where it is contained. Pages 398 to 400 contain the contents of the book, not so much in the form of the modern table of contents. The contents are printed in Malayalam, while the body of the book is in Syriac. Where the Syriac text ends on page 397, we find a list of the names of the diseases referred to on page 353 in the sixth section of the 22nd chapter. We find here the names of the diseases and their Malayalam equivalents. This is not an organized treatise, nor a specialized book. There is no uniform subject treated in this work. We find a number of subjects of cathechetical and pastoral interest. This work can be described as a catechetical and spiritual treatise for the common man. Altogether some ninety five topics are treated at varying length. For example in the first chapter of the first part we find subjects like the Holy Name of Jesus, the things that a true Christian should do, mortal sin and venial sins, responsibility of the parents in teaching the children, the responsibility of the household, the capital sins, the four ends of man. In the second part we find subjects like the divine grace, about daily prayers, about holy water, about relics of saints, about the Eucharistic celebration, the Sunday observance, confession, communion, purgatory, prayer for the dead etc. The Harp

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The Contribution of Malpan Andrew Kalapura... Community in Malabar

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11.1 would be failing in my duty, if I do not mention another one, though very small - Colloquial phrases and short and easy dialogues .tKAao tiSa »Siaiao t^Ai.iy lioJ^iva It is not known whether any other Malpan in Kerala has ever made an attempt to make Syriac conversation easy for beginners. This is a small booklet of 4" x 3" size containing 24 pages. It was printed at Mar Thoma Sliha Press in 1922. This book was meant to help the student to make conversation in Syriac language. Conversational phrases include phrases and expression meant for 13 life situations like meeting a friend, parting, asking and thanking, affirming and denying, probability, joy, sorrow, blame, anger, consulting, news, going and coming. First the English expression and then the Syriac equivalents are given. This work shows the great interest and love of the author for the Syriac language and how he like his students attempt speaking in Syriac. This booklet is an example of his desire to propagate the Syriac language as a language of daily discourse, a medium of communication with men. For various matters pertaining to the Syro Malabar Church and its liturgy, the Malpan had been corresponding with Fr. Paulose David, the representative of the Chaldean Patriarch in Rome and consultant with the Sacred Congregation for Oriental Rites. It is recorded that these correspondences were carried out in Syriac. His command of the language and scholarly erudition were greatly appreciated by Fr. Paulose David and others. He was of the opinion that at least some of the Syro-Malabar clergy, should go over to Babel and other Syriac centres for higher studies. Chev. V. C. George narrates a particular instance when our Malpan offered to one of his disciples all helps, including financial, for higher study abroad. His contribution in other fields 12. Besides those mentioned he had contributed greatly to the good of the Syro-Malabar Community, especially the clergy. First to be mentioned is the famous book he edited and published, 'The Orthodoxy of the Mar Thoma Nazranees'. It was a time when their orthodoxy was questioned. He also published a Malayalam monthly, 'ffl«4 Brief Account of His Excellency Metropolitan Mar Yokhannan

Issayi

31

succeeding bishop of Tehran ChrUdean diocese and now the new Metropolitan oi the Church of Tehran. In addition to his religious rank, as a theologian possessing extensive knowledge, his excellency attended many Vatican conferences on behalf of the Iranian AssyroChaldean Catholics as well as other Christians. Certainly among Mar Yokhannan lasting contributions to the church, there is his translation of mass book and book of prayers from Aramaic to modem colloquial Syriac. Furthermore, he has translated and written extensively religious or historic issues in modern Assyrian, including an unpublished comprehensive Syriac dictionary, also he has composed many literary poems in modern Assyrian. His excellency supervised the writing of different religious books for Assyio - Chaldean students from elementary to high school, in cooperation w ith 3 other Assyrian churches at Tehran. For many years Mar Yokhannan taught Aramaic and colloquial Syriac to Assyro Chaldean students, especially in Behnam School at Tehran. Furthermore, his excellency has been the editor of the church's periodicals - Marga, published in Persian and modern Assyro Chaldean, and later on Payam, printed in Farsi. Without any doubt, Mar Yokhannan has been, one of the most distinguished and learned educators and teachers modern Assyro Chaldean and contributors to his spread and education in the second half1 of twentieth century, especially in Tehran. In addition to his religious, charitable, educational and cultural contributions^ his excellency has always been an intelligent, honourable and sincere supporter of constructive Assyro - Chaldean social efforts in Tehran. Mar Yokhannan has helped or supervised the construction of many of the church's building projects including: the construction of Mar Yosip Church between 1947 to 1950, the building of old Behnam in Mar Yosip Church's compound from 1950 to 1957 together with the late Mar Cheikho, and these were the first Assyro - Chaldean church and school to be built in Tehran. In 1947 he helped the late Khoury Tooma Yokhannan Saint Vincent in building Mart Maryam (Saint Mary) Church and School in Tehran. After becoming bishop, in 1968 his excellency initiated and supervised the construction of the new Behnam School complex in Tehran, and the building of a nunnery at Tehransar, and also he took care of St. John the apostle educational center and a house of the aged, both in Tehran, for all Assyro-Chaldean Christians without any difference regarding their denominations. In addition to non-religious building projects, Mar Yokhannan has taken of the maintenance of Mart Maryam Church in Vol. Xlil 2000

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Sanandaj, The sacred Heart church in Kermanshah, the Malaka (angel) Raphael Church in Hamadan, and Mart Maryam Church in Qazvin. And now, may our saviour Jesus Christ reward him for his resolute belief in Christianity, his human and kind character, and sincere efforts and services that he rendered to the church, people, and Christian faith and let be concluded with the following verse from holy Bible: "... Come you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was stranger and you took me in; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me;... Truly I tell you, inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me". (Matthew, 25: 34 - 40)

The Harp

Vol. XIII 2 0 0 0

Charles Payngot, Puthuppally

The Homily of Narsai o n the V i r g i n M a r y This is just a modest attempt to expose some stray thoughts about the Homily of Narsai on the Virgin Mary. Mingana did not publish it though he includes it in the list of the works of Narsai. I do not know if it is published in the recent edition of Narsai's Homilies by the Assyrians of the United States. In spite of the repeated attempts I could not acquire a copy of this. Nevertheless the Manuscript volume Vatican Syriac 588 contains this homily together with some others from the same author (Vat. Syr. 588 p. 11-21). This Manuscript, Written in West Syriac is generally legible except in a few minor cases. This Homily is titled as Memra d'dukranah d'Mart Maryam tuvanisa. Homily on the commemoration of the Blessed Mary. This was prepared presumably for the day during Christmas period to commemorate and pay respects to the mother of Christ. This may explain why, despite the title, it is more concerned about the Incarnation. In fact out of the 261 lines only a few are directly concerned about Mary. Narsai starts with. God's work of creation. Already at that moment God had in mind what He wanted to achieve through the Incarnation of His Son. He created the spiritual beings without giving them any indication about His own essence. After creating, the material world He did not give it any name. But He took some dust from the ground and made man out of it calling him His own image (Gen. 2, 7 +1, 26). Only at this moment of creation did God take counsel. When He announced the creation of man, the heavenly beings were surprised and curious to know what it would be like. Vol. XIII 2000

pp: 3 3 - 3 7

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Charles Payngot

They did not possess the power to grasp it. The Lord wanted to let them know only that there is something hidden in His essence, when He said "Let us make man". Hence their surprise. "Who is this with the power of creation whom He invited for the creation of His own true image? How is it possible that His creature be like Him?" God reserved the last phase of creation to reveal something about His essence, namely about the Qnome in Godhead. In granting such greathonour to man God had a special purpose, namely to test the heavenly beings. And God discovered that the gold of their conscience was not genuine. In the case of Adam He set certain limits knowing that the latter would go beyond. God's intention was to unveil man's propensity towards evil. The wicked enemy was filled with jealousy to God; but since be could not do anything against God, he turned to man. The devil hoped that by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil Adam would be dead for ever. But the good God did not allow the devil's plan to have its course to the last. The Lord of Adam was in future to assume the image of Adam. He struck down the power death had over man and made his body a source of life to his race. God set His own name, as it were, like a fountain, in the nature of man. Thus man could transmit God's image to his posterity. One man in the future was to be made the abode of God's love. For this anticipatively He named the created man as His own image. For the effective realization of His purpose God chose a particular people in order to have the leaven of life preserved among them. Adam transmitted the image to Seth (Gen. 5,3) but not to Cain or Abel because one of these died and the other fell a victim to judgement. It continued up to Abraham and from him to Mary. In Mary the promise of life came to its termination. She was the harbour of peace to man, and remained undisturbed by the violent waves of the mortals. Like a ship she carried in her womb the entire human race and disembarked it on the heavenly shore. She accepted without hesitation the conception without marriage, as it was communicated to her by the Angel. In faith she gave her consent to the Angel as did the earth to the voice of God in the beginning. The same artisan who took dust without hand and formed Adam in the beginning, fashioned from Mary a body similar to the first one. The one who breathed into Adam the spirit of life, created a soul, similar to the one of the beginning. Through this work He revealed His divinity to the creatures for them to grasp the Qnome. Through this unusual The Harp

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conception God announced His hidden Son, equal to Himself in essence. Basing on the way of His birth God called Him the second Adam. The Angel called Him the Son of the most High to teach us that He is the heavenly son in an inscrutable way (cf Lk. 1,32). That means that He was to ascend to the rank of the Word of God and hence God depicted Him in anticipation, in the rank of that name already before its realization. (We may note here that when Narsai says "He was to ascendf", this He refers to the body miraculously formed in Mary's womb. Narsai called this body by the name mortal son. (cf. line 119)1. For the sake of all God chose Him as the firstling in order to reconcile all through Him with the Divine Essence. The. Son of the Hidden one did not come to a bodily child. Rather it was to the Son of the daughter of man that the Hidden Will descended (124)1. Here again the son of the daughter of man must be understood as indicated above. He was to become one with the Son without beginning, and (therefore) He placed on His head the name of His own essence, as it were, like a crown (118). The Divine will descended to form the bodily image and not to form His Qnoma which is eternal (126). To implant life among the mortals He rested upon another not to dispossess Himself of life on account of the new arrangement (127). In other words through the Incarnation God did not lost anything that was His own from eternity. How can He, who is, subject Himself to a becoming? To become something else He will have first to deplete His existence and then come to being again (128). A new existence (**•***) for God would mean a total dissolution of His existence and after the becoming He cannot go back to the previous stage (129). If the one who is from eternity the Son of the Father, subject Himself to a second birth, He will lose His eternal existence (130). Again, He. is not a composite and is without limit. If subjected to limits in the human womb, then he would become another human being (131). Everything that the Father has, He too has from eternity. If the Holy Spirit fashioned Him, then He would be a mere creature (132). The Divine Will prepared a body in the bodily womb in order to renew through it the body consumed by death (139). This body was prepared, in a new way, i.e. without marriage, and the Divine Will filled it with the Spirit to give mankind a spiritual birth (140), This Divine Will remained with Him inseparably and prevailed over everything through its power (143). He. and the power that operated 1. The numbers within brackets indicate the line. In the original, however, lines are not numbered. Vol, XIII 2 0 0 0

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Charles Payngot

in Him were but one and not merely "like one". In other words He did not have a purely apparent unity that was effected by the mixing of natures (144). The hidden one remains hidden even if bodily things are added. In the same way the body remains the same in spite of any blending of spiritual qualities to it (148). The hidden one was united to the body only in love and the union of the manifest one to the hidden, was effected only by name (149). We can call both these as one in existence as long as the distinctions of both are kept in mind (150). The will of the Son of God was pleased with the Son of man giving Him what was His own and accepted the characteristics of the latter but not in nature (152). The Word of the Father dwelt in him but without participating in his weaknesses (173) (cfr Heb 4,15). From the moment the Angel gave the good news to his mother, the word of the Father was fully in him through the will. But as to how and how far is beyond explanation (174). The following statements are clear expressions of his Christology: I count him as one with the (self) - existing Being on account of His rank. I consider the Son of God, Him and the Word as One (177). Such a unity does not mean that the Word was as it were imprisoned in the body. Heaven and earth are not enough for him (185). On the Cross the mortal one died and not the Word; the power of the Word brought him back to life (214). The same power left him on earth for a period of 40 days after the resurrection to give strength to the doubting people (210). The same power raised Him to heaven (222). There all will praise the two images, namely, that of the creator and of the servant in one person - Parsopa - (253). There all tongues will praise the one Person and repeat the one sanctifying hymn (Qudasa) to the Word and the body (254). There all will be seeing a great wonder, namely the creature along with the creator, receiving adoration (257). Thus in the face of the transcendence of God, admitting his own limits Narsai tried to explain how God could assume the form of a slave, as St. Paul puts it (Phil. 2,7). As God created the first man out of dust and infused life into him, so in this case, by a special intervention He formed a perfect human body from Mary. This body, with its particular and distinguishing characteristics is a human Qnoma. It is this Qnoma that the second person of the Bl. Trinity appropriated to Himself from the very beginning of its formation. The result was a parsopa i.e. one concrete person, in this particular case with two natures. All these are clearly in the hymn or Thesbohta in the Lelya of Sundays during the period of Annunciation in the The Harp

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TheHomily of Narsai on the Virgin Mary

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East Syrian tradition. Qnoma, incidentally, may be defined as any nature with its particular and non-communicable characteristics. Narsai occasionally calls this particular body formed in the womb of Mary, a man. He does not evidently mean a human person. Language has its limits, particularly in Syriac. Besides, Syriac has no neuter gender and so masculine pronouns and suffixes are used to refer to this particular body. This may easily be misunderstood. Mary contributed the body of Christ and not the Person, or the subject of activities of His body. Hence, the term Theotokos, Mother of God, is not acceptable. This is not any denial of the divinity of Christ; it is only because it may mean more than what is intended. Hence the more exact expression Mother of Christ. It may not be out of place to quote a prayer addressed to Christ, recited every Wednesday during the vespers. It runs as follows: Our Lord and God, equip us with the strong and invincible weapon through the prayers of Your Mother, the Blessed Mary, and give us a share and participation in the heavenly chamber.2 Here Christ is addressed as God and is reminded of the intercession of "Your" mother. The catholic edition of the same prayer, though unwittingly, made the1 unpardonable omission of the word "Your".3 In the early centuries Jesus Christ was subjected to microscopic examination through the lenses of philosophical terms. These attempts to bring God within the range of the intellectual perceptivity of man had disastrous effects as is well-known, in history. Of late Pope John Paul II and the Assyrian Patriarch Mar Dinkha V issued a common declaration on November 11,1994 admitting that there were misunderstandings in the past. This document affirms that "the divinity and humanity are united in the person of the same and unique Son of God and Lord Jesus Christ". L'Osservatore Romano Nov. 12,1994. P. 1. And this is what, as far as I understand, Narsai had been saying. Fr. Charles Payngot, CMI

2. East Syrian Hudra (Divine Office), Trichur. P. 22 in all volumes. 3. Bedjan, Chaldean Breviary P. 13 in all volumes.

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For this is the Good One, who could have forced us to please Him, without any trouble to Himself; but instead He toiled by every means so that we might act pleasingly to Him of our free will, that we might depict our beauty with the colours that our own free will had gathered; whereas, if He had adorned us, then we would have resembled a portrait that someone else had painted, adorning it with his own colours. (St Ephrem - Faith)

Adai Jacob, Udayagiri

The Formation of the Canon of the N e w Testament in the Syrian Church From the concept of New Testament Canon and from the idea of canonisation we mean the acceptance and selection of the NT books as authoritative books of the Christian Church. Canon therefore contains a fairly long history of the selection and approval of the various books of NT. The acceptance of the NT books was not a sudden incident but a gradual process. Only step by step in the course of time the NT books were selected and accepted. The Syrian church has its own history of canonisation and it deserves special attention. A comparison of the canonisation process of the Syrian Church with that of the Greek and Latin churches will show that the Syrian Church adopted a strict and discretionary attitude towards canonisation. The modern scientific research proves that the strict attitude of the Syrian Church in the case of acceptance of certain books of the NT was based on sound reasons. Apostolic origin, apostolic background or connection, conformity with the rule of faith and divine inspiration are the main criteria to get acceptance as a canonical book. We can assume that Syrian Church was very strict in keeping the criteria and cautious in the selection of books. As an inseparable part of the process of canonisation we have to deal with the different translations of New Testament in to the Syriac language from the 2nd till the 7th century. Therefore this small presentation is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the Vol. XIII 2000

pp: 39-47

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40

various translations of the New Testament into Syriac and the second part deals with the process of canonisation. I. Part I - The various translations of the NT into Syriac The list of books found in the translations done during centuries is the most important evidence for the development of the Syriac canon of NT. a. The Old Syriac Translation 1 For the Old Syriac translation of the four Gospels we have two important Manuscript evidences. The first one is a manuscript found in the Monastery of St. Mary in the desert at the Western side of Cairo. This manuscript was discovered by William Cureton in 1842 and it is now kept in the British Museum. It was published ion 1858 with the name Curetonian Syriac version (Syr0). The second manuscript evidence for the Old Syriac translation of the four Gospels is a Palimpsest found in the monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai. This manuscript was discovered in 1892 by Agnas Smith Lewis and it is called Sinaitic Syriac version (Syrs). Some of the scholars have the opinion that these manuscripts were originally written in the middle or 2nd half of the second century. Manuscript evidence for Old Syriac translation of Acts and letters of Paul are traceable from the writings of Syrian Fathers. St.Ephrem had written commentaries on Acts and letters of Paul using the text of the Old Syriac translation. This translation is considered to be still older than the translation of the four Gospels. Old Syriac translation for the Catholic letters and for the book of revelation is not available. b. Diatessaron of Tatian

2

A Syrian Monk called Tatian wrote a harmony of the four Gospels and it is called Diatessaron. It was written in the 2nd half of the second century. Many of the scholars believe that Diatessaron is the oldest Syriac manuscript of the NT. The influence of Diatessaron was great in the Syrian Church and at least for three centuries Diatessaron was 'Compare A. Voobus, The Old Syriac Version in a new light

Stockholm 1949

", Studies in the history of the Gospel Text in Syriac, Louvrain, 1951 Th. Zahn, Tatian's Diatessaron, Erlangen 1881

2 Compare

Untersuchungen zum Diatessaron Tatians, Heidelberg 1918 The Harp

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used for public reading instead of the four gospels. In the early centuries in the NT canon of the Syrian church, Diatessaron occupied the position of the four gospels. c) Peshitta (SyrPesh) In the beginning of the 5th century a new translation of the books of NT appeared and it became part of the official Bible of the Syrian Church. From the 10th century onwards this new version of the Syriac Bible began to be called "Peshitta". The NT Peshitta contains only 22 books. The four minor Catholic letters and the book of Revelation are omitted. There is no exact information regarding the master brain behind the formation of Peshitta. The test critic E Burkitt has the opinion that Bishop Rabbula of Edessa (411-431) is the creator of Peshitta. Bishop Rabbula had made an exact translation of NT in to Syriac using the Greek text. Burkitt identifies this Syriac translation made by Rabbula with Peshitta. Regarding the time of Origin of Peshitta Arthur Voobus holds another view. According to him Peshitta originated at the end of the 4th century. He defends the argument saying that Peshitta was widely in use even before the split in the Syrian Church in 431. M. Black after a critical examination expresses his own opinion regarding the role of bishop Rabulla to the formation of Peshitta. According to him bishop Rabulla made a complete revision of the Old Syriac Text and this revision was an important step towards the formation of Peshitta.

d) Philoxiniana (SyrPh) In the West Syrian Church there was always the tendency to revise the older Syriac texts of the NT. Bishop Philoxinos of Mabug inititated a revision of Peshitta in the year 508 with the help of his assistant Polycarpos. He made a new translation of NT in to Syriac comparing and using the Greek Manuscripts making it closer to the Greek text. In this translation as a result of the comparison with the Greek canon the four minor Catholic epistles and the book of Revelation which were omitted in Peshitta were included.

e) Charclensis (Syrh) Thomas of Charkal was Bishop of Mabug but he was expelled by Caeser Mauritius and therefore he was staying in St. Anthony's Monastery near Alexandria. He himself said that he had made a Vol. XUi 2000

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comparison of Philoxiniana with Greek Manuscripts in the year 616. This means that Bishop Thomas of Charckel revised Phiioxiniana using the Western type of Manuscripts. This revision is known as Charclensis. 'Pal

f) The Palestinian-Syriac Translation (Syr ) Greek was the language used in Palestine during early centuries of Christian era. But there were a lot of common people, who were not able to understand Greek but knew a type of Syriac dialect called the Palestinian Syriac. Therefore during the time of worship the readings from the Bible and the Homily were translated into Palestinian Syriac. This popular dialect of the common people was an offshoot of the Armaic language and was spoken by Jesus Christ. According to Lagrange a translation of NT was made in the 5th Century into the above mentioned Palestinian Syriac. For this translation a complete Manuscript evidence is not available, but we have 3 lectionaries and other fragments of gospels to prove the existence of such a translation.

II. Part II - Formation of the Canon of the N e w Testament in the Syrian Church In the Syrian Church also the formation of the canon of the New Testament was a gradual process, Without much conscious effort as a natural phenomenon the canonisation process started already in the 2nd century and continued till the 7th century. We will try to analyse the development of the canon on Chronological basis.

a) Situation of the canon in the 2nd century In the case of gospels two types of Syriac translations emerged during this period. The first type is the translation of the four gospels done separately as we see new. This translation was later known as evengelion "da mepharreshe" and it means separated gospels. It is believed that this translation took place in the middle of the 2nd century and if so it is perhaps the oldest translation of the gospels. The date of origin is highly disputed. The Manuscript evidence is the old Syriac translation called Syrsin. Acts and the letters of Paul were also translated into old Syriac in the 2nd century. Most probably from the letters of Paul "Hebrews" and Philemon were excluded. Therefore in the 2nd century the canon of the Syrian Church contained only 17 books including 4 gospels Acts and 12 letters of Paul. The Harp

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The second type of translation was made by the Syrian Monk called Tatian3 who was expelled from the Church in Rome and came back to the Orient in the year 172. As we know he made a harmony of the four gospels in Syriac known as Diatessaron and it was also known as Evengelion "damehallete" and it means mixed gospels. Some of the Scholars have the opinion that Tatian had used Old Syriac translation of the separated gospels to write his Diatessaron4. Soon in the canon of the Syrian Church the four Gospels were replaced by Diatessaron. Till the 5th century Diatessaron enjoyed the position of a canonical book in the place of the four gospels. b) Position of the canon in the 3rd and 4th centuries Regarding Canon no radical change occurred in the 3rd Century. We can assume that the situation in the 2nd cent, continued in the 3rd cen. also. But from the 4th century onwards we get more information from the writings of the Fathers. In the beginning of the 4th cent, the Syrian Church in Antioch accepted only three Catholic letters as canonical books (James, IPet, ljn) and rejected the other four minor Catholic Epistles and the book of Revelation. Lucian of Antioch (312) who had his education in Edesa and settled down in Antioch was one of the leaders of the Antiochian school of thought. John Chrysostom also accepted only the three Catholic epistles. Diodorus of Tarsus (394), Severian from Gabala, Polychronius of Apamea etc. belong to the Antiochian school of thought. With the end of the 4th century the Canon of the Syrian Church contained 22 (19) books. But instead of the four Gospels Diatessaron was used. Fathers like Aprahat and Ephrem had quoted from Diatessaron and St. Ephran had written a commentary on Diatessaron. c) Development of the Canon in 5th century 5th century became the most decisive and crucial period in the history of the New Testament canon. Majority of the documents that give a clear picture of the New Testament Canon of the Syrian Church were written in the fifth century. A Brief survey of those documents will provide us with ample material to grasp the attitude of the Syrian Church toward the New Testament canon. 1) Doctrine of Addai 5 3 Wikenhanser,

Einleitung 81, Kummel, Einleitung 4 6 7

"Einleitung 85

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This document emerged around the year 400 and it gives a hint regarding the Syriac canon just before the. time of Peshitta. Apostel Adai is considered as the founder of the Church in Edessa. At the time of his death he called his disciple and gave the following advise; "The Law, the Gospels, the letters of Paul and Acts of the Apostles are the books that you can read in the church of Christ and outside those you should not read anything because nothing is given outside them in which the truth is written". Here the gospels means most probably Diatessaron. But the canonical books are listed here. 2) Syriac Canon from Sinai Some of the scholars hold the view that the Syriac Canon discovered by A. S. Lewis was written around 400 A. D. In this canon the four separate gospels (listed instead of Diatessaron), the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul are the books approved by the Holy Church. 3) Apostolic Constitution This book was written in the beginning of the 5th century. This contains the list of books that can be read during worship. In this list also we see only the four gospels, Acts and the letters of Paul. In the beginning of the fifth century in the list of letters of Paul among the 14 letters the letter to the Hebrews and a third letter to the Corithians are included, but the letter to Philemon is omitted. 4) Apostolic Canon Apostolic Canon is also from the 5th century. This book seems to be an appendix to the Apostolic Constitution. According to this canon the 7 Catholic letters are approved as canonical books. But the book of Revelation is omitted. 5) Introduction of Peshitta In the beginning of the 5 th cent. Peshitta was introduced as the official Bible of the Syrian Church and that was the most important incident in the history of the canon of the Syrian Church. From the 7 Catholic Epestles only the three major epestles - James, I Peter and I John were approved. Therefore the original New Testament canon of the Syrian Church contained only 22 books. The date of origin of Peshitta is a matter of debate and dispute. After the council of Ephesos in 431 as we all know there occurred the great split in the Syrian Church and East Syrians separated themselves and formed their own Church. But Peshitta was the common Bible for Both. In the West 5 Kiimmel,

Einleitung 4 4 3

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Syrian Church there was the tendency to revise the canon of the New Testament. d) Canon of the West Syrian Church in the 6th century In the beginning of the 6th century a revision of the canon of the New Testament took place in the West Syrian Church. This revision was initiated by Bishop Phiiexinos of Mabug. In the new revised list the four minor Catholic epistles and the book Revelation were included. It is perhaps because of the influence of the Coptic and Greek churches that the West Syrian Church included those 5 book in the Syriac canon. Thus the number NT books was fixed as 27. e) Canon of the West Syrian Church in the 7 th century An important witness to the Canon of the West Syrian Church in the 7th century is the new translation made by bishop Thomas of Charkel. The list of NT books found in Philexiniana was adopted in this version also. In the West Syrian Church all the 27 books began to get approval. But the book of Revelation was never fully accepted and not used for public reading. f) An important witness to the canon of the west Syrian Church in the 12 century in the 12 century In the 12th century Dionasius Bar Sleebi was an outstanding Theologian, linguist and liturgist of the West Syrian Church. His commentary on the 27 books of the New Testament is an important testimony to prove that the West Syrian church has approved all the 27 books of NT. But for public reading during worship the minor Catholic letters are very selten used and the book of revelation is not used. Conclusion In the first five centuries the Syrian Church wa s perhaps the most flourishing church in the world. Syriac became a developed language of the learned and the Syrian Universities of Edessa and Nissibis were great centres of learning. In the field of Textual criticism more research is needed to trace out the crucial role of the Syriac language in the formation of the New Testament.

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Bibliography

01. Bauer, W.

Der Apóstoles der Syrer, Giessen, 1903

02. Bauer, W.

Rechtglaubigkeit und Ketzerei in ättesten Christentum/Tubingen, 1934,6 - 48

03. Baumstark, A,

Geschichte der Syrischen Literatur, Bonn 1922

04. Black, M.

Rabbuia of Edessa and the Peshitta in BJRL 33 (1950/ 51) 203 - 210

05. Black, M.

The Palestinian Syriac Gospels and the Diatessaron in : Och 35 (1939) 101 -111.

06. Burkitt, F. C. 07. Burkitt, F. C. 08. Kähle, P.

Evangelion da-Mepharreshe, Cambridge -1904 Untersuchungen in Orient, Tubingen 1907 The Cairo Geniza, London, 1947

09. Kümmel, W. G.

Einleitung in das Neue Testament Quelle + Meyer, Heidelberg 1973

10. Lagrange,

L'Origene de la version Syro Palestinienne des evengeles in RE34 (1925) 481 - 504

11. Mertens, H. A.,

Handbuch der Bibelkunde Patmos-Verlag, Dusseldorf 1966

12. Plooij, D.

A further study of the liege Diatessaron, Leidin 1925

13. Preuschen, E.

Untersuchungen zum Diatessaron Tatians S. B. Heidelberg 1918

14. Torry, C. C ,

Documents of the primitive Church New York, 1912

15. Voobus, A.

Studies in the history of the Gospel text in Syriac Louvain 1951

16. Voobus, A.

NEUentdeektes Test material zur Vetus Syria in Th Z 7 (1951) 30-38

17. Voobus, A.

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The Old Syriac Version in a new light an urgent Task in Testual criticism of the NT in Apophoreta Tartuensia Stockhelm 1949,144ff Vol, XIII 2 0 0 0

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47 Investigations in to the text of the NT used by Rabbuia of Edessa, Pinnenberg 1947 the Syrian Church

19. Voobus, A.

Researches on the circulation of Peshitta in the middle of the 5lh Cent. Pinnerberg 1947

20. Voobus, A.

New Dates for the Solution of the Problem concerning Philexenian Version, spiritus et Veritas, Festschr. K. Kundsin 1953.169 ff.

^

21. Wickenhauser, A. Einlectung in das Neue Testament Herder Friburg 1953 22. Zahn, Th.

Die Urauggabe der Apg 1916

23. Zahn, Th.

Tatians Diatessaron, Erlaugen 1881.

A person who is teaching a parrot to speak hides behind a mirror and teaches it in this way: when the bird turns in the direction of the voice which is speaking if finds in front of its eyes its own resemblance reflected; it imagines that it is another parrot, conversing with itself. The man puts the bird's image in front of it, so that thereby it might learn how to speak. This bird is a fellow creature with the man, but although this relationship exists, the man beguiles and teaches the parrot something alien to itself by means of itself; in this way he speaks with it. The Divine Being that in all things is exalted above all things in His love bent down from on high and acquired from us our own habits: He laboured by every means so as to turn all to Himself.

(St. Ephrem - Faith)

Gregory Hohmann, Wiirzburg

Loyalty to the emperor a n d change of rite W h a t induced the Melkite Church t o exchange the Syrian for the Byzantine tradition. To find our way more rapidly into the subject, we must throw a quick glance at the amply complicated history of the christological disputes of the 5th century which led to the split of the patriarchates of Alexandria, Antiochia and Jerusalem into a monophysitical and an Orthodox part. TheCouncilofChalcedon(451) is, the point, from which the Eastern churches of the Near East went separate ways. The oecumene, which means the all Christian embracing (orthodox) church, was distributed by the emergence of the Antichalcedonic churches or, more precisely, destroyed, as until this day it could not be restored. The Antichalcedonians do not share to this day either with the Orthodox nor the Catholic Church Eucharistic community. Also the Pro-Oriente-dialogues of Vienna, which brought to light an actual agreement on Christology, could not bring back the old communion. The chief impediment is the fact that neither the Catholics nor the Orthodox did ever revoke the condemnation of the Fathers, who are holy to the antichalcedonians, as for example that of Dioskurus. While the Nestorian theology did not have any importance in the Byzantine Empire after Chalcedon, its adherents were beyond Vol. XIII 2000

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thereachof the Byzantine Emperor, the opposition against Chalcedon caused to the empire for a long time much difficulty. In the beginning the main resistance came from Alexandria. Its head was Timotheos Ailuros, an ardent follower of Dioskurus, who after the assassination of his predecessor Proterios in 457 became patriarch of Alexandria. By his synod he caused Leo of Rome, Anatolios of Constantinople and Basilios of Antiochia to be excommunicated and appointed in his patriarchate only bishops who were devoted to him. This brought him exile by Emperor Leon I. In the time of the usurper Basiliskos he succeeded, however, to return in triumph to Alexandria (475). As a demonstration of power the mortal remains of Dioskurus, who had died in exile, were returned to Alexandria and buried next to the deceased patriarchs. This "get-rid-of-Byzantium-movement" was mainly based on most of the Copt dislike of the foreign Byzantine rule. Especially the lower class, which had not been formed by Greek education and which still felt strong bonds to the Egypt of the Pharaohs, saw in the rejection of the decisions of Chalcedon a fair possibility to protest against Byzantium. It was not exactly a pleasure for the Christians in Egypt, that the successors of Timotheos Ailuros - Salophakiolos and Petros Mongos - and their followers did not agree in their judgment of the Council of Chalcedon. For there happened serious internal disputes. For the Copts accustomed to a strict ecclesiastical regime this was an unfamiliar situation. Therefore it does not surprise that the intensity of the charism of the Egyptian church decreased. The emphasis of the monophysitical churches shifted as a consequence from Egypt to Syria. In Antiochia the monophysitical patriarch Severos (512-518) took steps as a good theologian to reconcile the Chalcedonians with the Monphysites. We are accustomed to call this attempt NewChalcedonism. It is the attempt to save Chalcodon without closing the mind to the arguments of the Monophysites. The reason why Monophysitism did not disappear in spite of all the efforts of the emperors to stamp it out, especially of Justinian (537), was a mighty patroness, the Empress Theodora. Protected by her the removed Alexandrinian Patriarch Theodosius was able to build up at his place of exile a monophysitical clergy. A similar event Theodora made possible for Syria. In 542 she had the Syrian Jacob Burdeana (Baradaus) ordained bishop by the exiled Theodosius at Constantinople, who set immediately about, in spite of many persecutions, to build up secretly a new monophysitical clergy. Until T h e Harp

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today the Syrian Old Orientals are also called "Jacobites". When in 610 Heraklios became emperor of Byzantium he had to face the depressing fact that the Persians had in between to a great extent withdrawn the provinces Syria, Palestine and Egypt from the influence of Byzantium. Also his imposing victory over the Persians in 628 could not hide the fact, that the interior unity of the empire had begun to break up. The Christian population of Armenia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt had become more self-conscious and estranged from the not at all loved Byzantium. The last attempt to save the ideological unity of the empire by formulas of compromise between Monotheletism and Monergetism was doomed to failure. The strict Chalcedonians and Monophysites insisted each on their own position. After this short looking back at history we come to the true theme, that is to the question when and why the Melkites of the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem accepted the Byzantine rite in place of the Syrian rite. Right at the beginning we must stress that taking on the Byzantine rite did not mean entering completely new territory. Too close had been the interconnections and mutual influence of both rites for a long time. It is even possible to affirm that Syrians, Egyptians and Palestinians had been helpers in the creation of the Byzantine rite. Great names adorn the series of bishops, priests, deacons, monks, pi >ets and writers, who originate in the Near East and had a direct influence on the church of Byzantium. The great Father of the Church John Chrysostom precedes all, who though coming from Antioch ascended the episcopal throne of Constantinople and whose name contains the most important anaphora of the Byzantine rite: the divine liturgy of our holy Father John Chrysostom. This, of course, does not prove that Chrysostom was indeed its author. From the Syrian Homs (Emesa) comes the great poet of hymns Romanos, the composer of melodies (+ 556). To him the Byzantine hymnology owes among others the incomparable Christmas condakion. The Syrian John Damascenus (+ 749) is the creator of the famous Easter Canon of the Byzantine celebration of the Easter night. Likewise in Damascus originates Andrew of Crete, the poet of hymns (+ 470). Damascus, too, was the native town of Saint Sophronius, the patriarch of Jerusalem (+ 638), to whom the Byzantine Office owes the text of the great benediction of water on the feast of the Epiphany. The Egyptian Saint Cyrill, patriarch of Alexandria, contributed to the Byzantine Office the great hours of Good Friday. Vol. Xifl 2 0 0 0

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All these names, to which many more could be added, show that the ecclesiastical life of Byzantium did not receive its most important impulses from Constantinople or even of Athens, but into the seventh century from Syria and Egypt. Before the here quoted texts were introduced in Byzantium, they had been tested a long time in the monastries of the Melkite patriarchate. It is now necessary to show, which liturgies the three patriarchates had, before they went separate ways in the development of liturgy, after the division into a monophysitic and an Orthodox church. In the process we shall essentially follow the results of the research of Cyrill Karalevsky, which he published in his work of several volumes "Histoire des Patriarcats Melkites-depuis le schisme monophysite d u sixième siècle jusquà nos jours" (Rome 1911). The Liturgy of the patriarcale of Alexandria included at that times the following elements: 1) Psalmody 2) Homily 3) Prayer at the dismissal of the catechumens 4) Bringing the gifts to the altar 5) C o m m o n prayer of intercession 6) 1. Prayer over the people 7) Diptychs 8) 2. Prayer over the people 9) Washing of the hands 10) Preface 11) Anaphora 12) Elevation of the gifts 13) Breaking of the bread 14) Benedictions before C o m m u n i o n 15) C o m m u n i o n 15) Thanksgiving. The old Byzantine rule to celebrate on the same day at the same altar but one Eucharist seems to have been valid also in Egypt, for Pope Leo I recommends to the patriarch Dioskurus a repeated celebration of the liturgy on the same day, if the large number of people so demanded. Already early efforts of independence become noticeable in the church of Alexandria. By the condemnation of Dioskuros at the Council of Chalcedon and because of the raising of the position of the patriarchate of Constantinople to the detriment of the much older churches of Alexandria and Antioch they increase. The Coptic language is favored as language for the liturgy. Greek disappears more and more. In 638, after the Arabs had conquered Alexandria, the patriarchate Alexandria under the first monophysitic patriarch Benjamin separated itself definitely from the church of the empire. Only a minority of Greek character remains faithful to the emperor the Melkites. This minority opened itself more than ever to the GreekByzantine influence. It consists especially in taking over Byzantine texts into the still practised Alexandrian Liturgy. [More or less like this the "hô monogenes" gets into the liturgy.] The number of such The Harp

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borrowings increases steadily. However, also in the opposite direction Alexandrinian texts gets into the Byzantine Office, as for example into the great hours of Good Friday and the vigils of Christmas and Epiphany. It is impossible to indicate the exact time, when this change of rites took place. It is rather the case of a slow infiltration of Byzantine elements until the Alexandrian rite was fully absorbed. This process seems still to have lasted until the beginning of the 13th century. For in 1203 the melkite Alexandrinian Patriarch Markos comes to Constantinople. He first celebrates there according to the Egyptian custom, feels himself, however, quickly as an exotic outsider. To get clear, he asked his colleague, the Melkite Patriarch of Antioch, Theodore IV. Balsamon, w h o also, as a refugee, stayed in Constantinople, a few questions concerning the liturgical practice. Theodore answered the so-called Alexandrinian liturgy of Saint Marc was not to be recommended, as with certainty it had not been written by Marc. It would therefore be advisable to better follow the custom of Constantinople. This answer of Theodore denotes the beginning of the end of what remains of the Alexandrinian liturgy with the Egyptian Melkites. The first quarter of the 13th century is also the period in which we have to assume the final takeover of the Byzantine liturgy by the Egyptian Melkites. The complete Byzantine Office had already before this time been taken into the practice of the Alexandrinian-Melkite church, as a manuscript of the Mount Sinai monastery proves it. The liturgy of the IVielkiie patriarchate of Antiochia. Still less, discernible than in Alexandria are the origins of the liturgy in Syria. Only in the homilies of Chrysostom, who from 386398 was a priest in Antiochia, we can find indications, which allow us to draw the conclusion, that there the so-called liturgy of James was in common use. The influence of Byzantium starts from the division of the Antiochian patriaicate into a "monophysitic" (Jacobite) and an orthodox (Melkite) church. Yet the influence does also take the opposite direction: Byzantium accepts many compositions of hymns, e.g. those of Ephrem, Romanos, Andre of Crete. Later on they were united with the creation of texts by the Byzantines of the 8 th century. Their most i m p o r t a n t authors were Joseph the Hymnographer, Theodore of Studion and Theophanes Graptos. Out of this fusion arose what even today is considered the largest part of the Byzantine Office. The Syrian-Jacobite Church, after the separation from the church of the Empire kept the Syro-Antiochene rite, as it was used at that time. Vol. XIII 2000

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Contrary to Egypt, where only the purely hellenistic groups of people remained Orthodox, in Syria also native Christians joined the Melkite Church. On the whole, three groups may be distinguished: a) p u r e Greeks consisting of Byzantine officials, merchants and soldiers b) hellenized native Syrians c) pure Syrians. As already mentioned, the Syrian worship was mainly based on the so-called liturgy of St. James. Its most important evidence in writing are a) the Rotulus Messanensis (end of the 11th century) b) the Codex Rossanensis (13th century) c) the Parisian Manuscripts (15th century). In these texts the growing Byzantinisation of the liturgy of St. James can be followed up. The Codex Messanensis for instance knows already the silent prayer before the Gospel, the offertory prayer of the Proscomidy, the prayer before the great entrance and more other elements. A special encouragement in Byzantinicising the Syrian liturgy was the circumstance that the Syro-Melkite patriarchs had to rule over their patriarchates (in the time from 1098 till 1268 almost without any exception) from Constantinople, as the political situation permitted them to return to Antiochia only during the rule of the tolerant Sultan Beibar. While returning they also brought along the Byzantine liturgy, which soon afterwards superseded the native Syrian liturgy (end of the 13th century). N o w also the liturgical books of Byzantium were translated into Syrian, until they also had to give w a y b y and b y to Arabic, because the p e o p l e did n o t longer understand Syriac. As for Egypt, so also for Syria an exact date of the change of rites cannot be indicated. Also here, it w a s a question of a gradual process. The liturgy of the patriarchate of Jerusalem. The y o u n g e s t of the five old p a t r i a r c h a t e s (Pentarchy) is Jerusalem. It has been erected b y the Council of Chalcedon in 451 by exempting the city of Jerusalem and its environment f r o m the jurisdiction of the patriarchate of Antioch. It has always remained in the shadow of Antioch and had never the importance of the four other great patriarchates. Its spiritual significance consists in its being the protectress of the holy places of Christians in the Holy Land. The existence of these places was also the reason, w h y in the patriarchate of Jerusalem different liturgical customs evolved in the otherwise Syriac liturgy. The best information of these special customs are left The Harp

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to us by well-known pilgrim Aetheria in her account of her journey. The Syrian liturgy of St. James seems to have lasted longer in Jerusalem than in Antioch. Still in the 14th century it was celebrated there at least oh high feasts. The time of its final disappearance cannot be determined. According to Karalevsky, there the influence of the Byzantine liturgy on the Syrian rite is much less than it has been in Antioch. Conclusion

The taking over of the Byzantine rite by the Melkite Churches of Alexandria, Antiochia and Jerusalem demonstrates on the one hand that this voluntary close connection with the Byzantine Empire was for the Melkites in the midst of an Islamic environment a help to survive, but on the other hand, that they had, at times, to pay for this aid a total dependence on Byzantium. The part of the Melkite church, which in the 18th century entered into communion with Rome changed the dependence on Byzantium with the dependence on Rome. Also today's Catholic Melkites are not very happy with this state of things. Yet the Melkites do not have to be blamed for the change from the Syrian to the Byzantine rite, for because of the many elements they have brought from their own Syrian heritage they did not become, poorer, Byzantium on the other hand became richer. Joseph Hajjar is surely right by affirming in his book "Between Rome and Byzantium" (p. 92). "We love to speak of the of the Byzantine liturgical system by the Melkite Patriarchate. It is a question, if we should not better speak of a according to Byzantine pattern, as the material and the formal base are common good, many a time are derived from Melkite space." Bibliography

Winkelmann, Friedhelm, Die östlichen Kirchen in der Epoche der christologischen Auseinandersetzungen/1/6 Kirchengeschichte in Einzeldarstellungen, Evangelische Verlagsanstalt Berlin, 1980 Drijvers, Han J. W., East of Antioch - Studies in Early Syriac Christianity, Variorum Reprints, London 1984 Onasch, Konrad, Liturgie und Kunst der Ostkirche in Stichworten, Koehler u. Amelang, Leipzig, 1981 Döpmann, Hans-Dieter, Die Orthodoxen Kirchen, VerlagsAnstalt Union, Berlin, 1991 Vol. Xill 2000

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Gregory Hohmarin

Hajjar, Joseph, Zwischen Rom und Byzanz - Die Unierten Christen des Nahens Ostens, Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, Mainz, 1972 de Vries, Wilhelm, Rom und die Patriarchate des Ostens, Reihe Orbis Academicus, Verlag Karl Alber, Freiburg/München 1963 Karalevsky, Cyrille, Histoire des Patriarcats Melkites (Alexandrie, Antioche, Jérusalem) depuis le schisme monophysite du sixième siècle jusqu'à nos jours, Tome III, Imprimerie du Sénat, Rome, 1911 Handbuch der Ostkirchenkunde, Hrsg. Endre von Ivänka, Julius Tyciak, Paul Wiertz, Patmos-Verlag, Düsseldorf, 1971 Descy, Serge, Histoire de l'Église en Orient (Études et Matériaux) II Antioche, 1 Introduction à l'histoire et l'Ecclésiologie de l'Église Melkite, Editions Saint Paul, Beyrouth-Jounieh (Liban), 1986

P. K. Babu, Kottayam

The Concept of Incarnation in the Syrian Orthodox Liturgies The Syrian Orthodox Church It is the most ancient church which sprouted in the self same soil of both Old Testament and New Testament and is nurished and cherished from that tradition. It inherited Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, spoken by our Lord and His mother and disciples and its cultural heritage. Its Primate and Supreme Head is the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East H. H. Ignatius Zaka Iwas 1, the successor of St. Peter the Chief of the Apostles. This church opted to follow the non-Chalcedonian group following the footprints of St. Cyril and Dioscorus of Alexandria, and then the Patriarch, of Antioch Severius the Great and Philoxinus of Maboog and Timothius Aulerius,. Antimose etc. and later Bar Hebraeus and Dionisius Bar Saleeby etc. Harp of the Holy Spirit Mar Ephraim, Jacob of Sarug, Mar Balai, Moses Bar Keepo, John of Edessa, great Capadocian fathers, Golden tongued Ivanius etc. are venerable doctors of this Church. It is widely considered as a Monophysite Church, though the Church fathers have taken enough precautions to do away with Eutycanism and Julianism along with Nesthorianism.

Definitions/Terminologies The Liturgies By the word liturgy I mean not only anaphora but all canonical prayers and rites prescribed by this Church for public worship. Vol. Xlil 2000

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The words used to describe incarnation are (1) Mesbasaronooso meaning embodiment or becoming flesh and (2) Mesbarnasonooso meaning assumption of human nature or becoming man. Ithutho = Ousia: is the defining property of a set Onumo = Hypostasis: is being a member of a set Parsupo = Prosopon: is the concrete existence of an element Kvono = Nature: is the characteristic of the hypostasis or prosopon The texts quoted (1) "Son of God! Who is a Person of the Holy Trinity, You begot from the Being of the Father before all worlds. By Thy compassion towards Your creation You descended Yourself to the earth. Without separating from the bosom of Your Father You indwelt in the womb of the Virgin. From the blood of the Virgin and Holy Spirit without male sperm, You created a body for Yourself. To participate in our sufferings and to be in our nature You took flesh endowed with a rational soul and mind. You took the body not before union. Within a short period, in a fraction of a second, at the same time Gebriel announced to the Mother with salutation, You united to the flesh. You made it the body and rational soul of the Word God. You completed the gestation period in the womb. Yet You did not untie her Virgin knot. Veritably You became human natured. Nevertheless, You continued in Divinity without change. As You are united from the two natures of Divinity and humanity in an ineffable manner, You are One Natured, One Lord, One Christ, One Person and One Hypostasis. The two are neither admixtured nor existed separately. We know You as One. Your Divine and Human operations were not separate. You, who is simultaneously God and Man, are One. In Your Divinity You are consubstantial with Your Father and in Your Manhood You are consubstantial with us. By nature You are impassible and immortal. You who took flesh from the descendent of Abraham suffered in Your body and died. You became equal to us in all things except sin. After the natural and hypostatic union, we do not recognize two Sons or two Christs or two Persons or two Natures. The nature of the incarnate Word is considered as one. We reject the opinion of two natures. Without destructing and harming each other, the properties of both are The Harp

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preserved." (Second Sunday after Easter Evening: Sedara.) (2) "O! Christ God who can adequately praise Your redemptive and life-giving incarnation. When You beheld our human race, pulled down from its high estate, completely doomed to destruction and reduced to corruption. You, Eternal Son of the Eternal Father, dwelt in the Holy Virgin's womb, and after nine full months You were born to her in the flesh supernaturally. You arose and came forth from her by birth, true God and true man. You were not known by two but from two natures united, into one, divinity and humanity, and were professed in one nature without separation and intermixture." (Order of Christmas: Sedara) (3) "You created man in Your own image and in Your own likeness; making him the king of Your creation. When he fell down from his great office, through his negligence, You brought him back to his divine rank by Your coming in the flesh, washing away, by the second birth, the impurity which had defiled him" (The Order of Ephiphany: Sedara) (4) "Now the neglected and rejected became heirs and sons. As the Lord became Son of the. Virgin, they were made sons of His Father" (Sunday after Yeldo Midnight first Qaumo Sedara). (5) "He being invisible and infinite along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, condescended to the human level so as to turn us to the worship of the Holy Trinity in spirit and truth" (Pentecost evening Sedara) (6) "At last, in a mortal body susceptible to sufferings, willfully and voluntarily without any compulsion, You really endured our natural afflictions and was crucified and- bore our death and made our death a mere slumber." (Transfiguration day Midnight Second Qauma Sedera.) (7) "Christ our God, the heavenly Lamb, who came down from heaven, begot from His glorious Father without a mother and in the fullness of time born from the unmarried mother without a corporeal father" (Sedara of Anaphora) (8) "The real Son of the Father who came for second birth from the holy Virgin who does not have a marital relation" (The Sunday before Christmas Midnight first Sedara). (9) "The One who cannot be contained by the universe was contained in the womb of theVirgin. One who is consubstantial with Father imprisoned in the small womb" (Sunday after Yeldo 2nd Qaumo: Sedara) Vol. XIII 2 0 0 0

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(10) "You who is the Creator of time and make grow every thing grew up in age and size" (Yedo Midnight first Qaumo: Sedara) (11) "One is Ammanuel, and cannot be separated into two natures after the inseparable union." (Prayer of Fraction: Holy Qurbana) (12) Salmoosa is the bond written by the candidate to the holy orders; declaring the profession of faith. The following are a passage from it. "... One Person of the Holy Trinity-The word and Son Of the Fatherby the will of Himself and His Father and the Holy Spirit, came down from heaven, with the annunciation of angel Gebriel and dwelled in the womb of St. Mary and assumed a body from her by the Holy Spirit. Divinity united to humanity. After completing nine months, He born from her and remained a mystery beyond all human perception. Before, after and at the time of delivery, her virginity remained unaffected. When they saw the One with whose glory the heaven and earth are Med, being laid in a manger like an infant, the celestial and terrestrial beings together glorified Him. He was perfect in the manger. At the same time He was perfect in the bosom of the Father. In incarnation, the Godhead and manhood are so intimately united, preserving the qualities of Godhead and manhood except sin, without ever being separated. In this union, neither the divine nature turned into human nature, nor the human nature turned into divine nature, nor changed into anew nature, nor the qualities one nature is destroyed by the other. This union is a mystery. Word became flesh and dwelt among us. I believe and confess this true faith of the catholic and apostolic Church" (Page 68 of Holy Spirit and Priesthood by Rev.Fr.M. V. Ittyra Malpan). (13) By the prayers of Thy mother who brought Forth Thee all Thy saints, I will adore Thee my Lord and king, the only begotten Son and the Word of the heavenly Father, who art in Thy nature immortal, who in Thy grace didst come for the life and salvation of the whole human race and was incarnate of the holy and glorious pure virgin Mary, mother of God, who by Thy death trampled and killed our death, Thou who as one of the Holy Trinity art worshipped and glorified together with Thy Father and Holy Ghost: have mercy upon us. (Maneeso of Mar Severius Patriarch of Antioch and all the East.) (14) "And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, who was born of the Father before all the worlds; Light of Light, very God of very God, born and not made, one in essence with the Father, by whom all things are made; who for us men and our salvation, The Harp

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came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and from the holy virgin Mary, mother of God and became man, and was crucified for us in the days of Pontius Pilate, and suffered and died and was buried and rose the third day as he willed and ascended to heaven and sat on the right hand of his Father, and He cometh again in His great glory to judge the quick and dead; and to His kingdom there is no end." (The holy Creed.)

Affirmations regarding the union. 1) It is a God's action for the salvation of the fallen human race. 2) The union is from the two natures of Divinity and humanity and remains as a mystery. 3) The union was hypostatic, i.e. the union took place in the Qnuma and not on the prosopon level. 4) The union is without confusion, diminution, admixture or separation. 5) The union is so intimate that after union there is only one nature; the one composite nature of the Word incarnate. 6) The union is real and eternal and it can never be separated. 7) In the union the Trinity has not changed to Quaternity. 8) It is not coexistence, but a perfect union. 9) The body was not in existence before the union. 9) After the union, He is consubstantial with the Father in His Divinity and consubstantial with us in His manhood. 10) In incarnation, eternal Son of the Father, had' a second birth from His mother without a father.

Affirmation regarding Godhead. 1) In the incarnation the divine nature of the Word was not changed into what it was not. 2) God the Son accepted an incarnate state as a dispensation for the salvation of the world. 3) The disposition is God's action. It did not affect His eternal Being. As God He fills everything and His operation is discernible everywhere in nature and man. Vol, Xill 2 0 0 0

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4) To become incarnate God the Son accepted on Himself a self limitation. This is mystery to be accepted by faith. 5) As God the Word is beyond suffering in His nature, He assumed a flesh in order to participate in our sufferings.

The affirmations regarding manhood. 1) The manhood was not changed into Godhead. 2) The union of natures did not affect the creaturely status of the manhood or its properties and faculties. 3) God the Son, in His incarnate state permitted the manhood to exercise all its creaturely functions from the state of union. But because the manhood was inseparably united with the Godhead, these faculties were never misused to disobey God. 4) The manhood had all the limitations of our manhood with the only exception that it was sinless. 5) The human realities were taken over as His own by God the Son in the dispensation. 6) He took a body endowed with a rational soul and will. 7) Holy Spirit gave fruitfulness to the Virgin, but the reality of His body received from here body.

Some of the heresies which the Church Repudiates. 1. Ebonites They believed that Jesus was the natural son of Joseph and Mary, but because of his special goodness he was elevated to the position of Son of God. This occurred at the time of his baptism, at which time the Spirit of the eternal Christ descended upon him. 2. Adoptinism To them, Jesus was a man who, by a special decree of God, was born of a Virgin, and who after having been tested, was given supernatural powers by the Holy Spirit at the time of his baptism. As a reward of his superior qualities and achievements he was raised from the dead and adopted into the sphere of Godhead. Thus he was a man made God. 3. Docetism They had different types of views. All of them converge to the The Harp

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idea that Jesus was seemed to be real. Some says he was the natural son of Joseph and Mary and Christ like Spirit came upon him at the time of baptism and left him before his crucifixion. Some others claim that from the very beginning his body was unread or an apparition. Still others say that Simon of Cyrine who carried his cross crucified in his place. 4. Arienism To them there was a time when Christ was not, and he was created1 by God the Father and hence he is inferior to the Father and is not eternal. Everything else was created by him. Thus Christ is an intermediary between Father and all creations. Because of this exalted position Christ deserved to be called and worshipped as God. Though closed to God he is secondary to Father. 5. Appolinarianism They believed that Jesus had a human body, but not a human soul and mind. Thus Christ's human nature was limited to possessing a body, and the Word gave spiritual nature to the body conceived in the womb. Hence the Word took the place of the rational soul in other human beings. 6. Nestorianism Nestorianism teaches that Jesus was a dual personality - one human and one divine - without any real union between them. They insist that Mary was the Mother of a human personality, but not of the divine. They even refused to call Mary Theotokose, but preferred Christotokos. 7. Eutychanism Eutychus taught that Jesus's nature was neither human nor divine, but a blend of both, a deified humanity. As he denies the real human nature, a real atonement to our sin is not possible. 8. Julianism Julian taught that Christ's manhood was not corruptible, as God the Son assumed the manhood of Adam before fall and hence impassible and incorruptible. Hence the pre-resurrected body and post-resurrected body of Christ he finds no difference. From the texts quoted above it can be noted that the fathers carefully eliminated all the above said heresies and its traces. 9. Tome of Leo/Chalcedon Affirmation The Tome of Leo states "The natures are separate principles of Vol. XIII 2000

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operation, although they always act in concert with the other. Each form accomplishes in concert with the other what is appropriate to it, Word performing what belongs to the Word, and flesh carrying out what belongs to the flesh, (page 337 of Early Christian Doctrine By J. N. D. Kelly) and the Chalcedon affirmation " Christ is to be acknowledged in two natures after the union" were rejected by this Church on the ground that it does not confess the unity of Christ. Conclusions Special attention is to be drawn to the joint declaration by H. H. Ignatius Zaka Iwas and H. H. Pope John Paul I I " ... We confess that our Lord, our God, our Saviour and King of all, Jesus Christ, is perfect God as to His divinity and perfect man as to His humanity. In Him His divinity is united to His humanity. This union is real, perfect, without blending or mingling, without confusion, without alteration, without division, without least separation. He who is God eternal and indivisible, became visible in the flesh and took the form of a servant. In His are united, in a real, perfect, indivisible and inseparable way divinity and humanity, and in Him all their properties are present and active." Here the unity of the two natures are stressed specifically. Hence both warring groups have come to an amicable settlement. Reformulating the profession of faith rigorously and precisely, stressing the essentials and avoiding all ambiguities a reconciliation is brought forth, satisfying both sides. This is a wonderful achievement. This is the true faith of the Church. I here conclude the topic hoping that I have specifically and vividly explained the stand of my Church on the incarnation of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ and submit it for further discussion if necessary. Notes: The quotations are from the liturgies which are widely used by this Church. It might have undergone various revisions before it has come to the present form we are using.

B. Varghese, Kottayam

Some C o m m o n Elements in the East a n d the West Syrian Liturgies In the West Syrian Tradition, the writers like Dionysius Bar Salibi (+ 1171) and Bar Hebraeus (+ 1286) refer to the differences in the liturgical practices of the "Westners and the Eastners" 1 , that is the Syrian Christians under the Patriarchate of Antioch and the Catholicate of Tagrit. Liturgical texts, both manuscripts and printed, show that there existed and still exist two liturgical traditions (probably more!) in the Syrian Orthodox Church. The Syrian Orthodox Liturgy, both "eastern and western" was developed and attained its present shape in Mesopotamia. It is a MesopotamianPersian version of the Antiochene liturgy. Similarly the East Syrian Anaphorae of Theodore and of Nestorius are antiochene in origin and were translated from Greek and adapted in the East Syrian Church 2 . The Anaphora of the Apostles, popularly known as the Anaphora of Addai and Mari is not purely Persian as some of the liturgists believe. There is close relationship between, the Anaphora of the Apostles and the Maronite Anaphora of St. Peter (known as Peter Sharar). 1. See, Dionysius Bar Salibi: Commentary on the Eucharist, (trans. B. Varghese), Mörän 'Eth'ö-10, (SEERI, Kottayam, 1998), ch. 8:1; 19:10 (Hereafter quoted as Bar Salibi, Eucharist) Bar Hebraeus, Nomocanon, 5:2 (on the fasting). 2. Tradition attributes the translation to the Patriarch Mar Aba I (540-552). Cfr. A. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur (Bonn, 1922), p. 119-20.

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W. Macomber has suggested that both the East Syrian and the Maronite texts may be two versions of an original anaphora of Edessene origin 3 . This edessene anaphora may be perhaps the "western rite" of Mar Isaac and Mar Marutha that the Persian Church adopted in 410 at the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. We may suppose that this anaphora ultimately supplanted the local rites. We know that Edessa was a city open to liturgical and theological traditions of Antioch. The liturgical developments in Edessa, often under the influence of the Greek-speaking areas of Syria, namely Antioch, also played a role in the fixation of the present shape of the East Syrian Anaphora of the Apostles. Thus the antiochene elements such as the dialogue and the litanies were introduced into it4. The anti-nestotians of Edessa and the East (= the Syrian Orthodox Christians) probably continued to use the local liturgy at least until the beginning of the 6th century. We do not know whether the reforms of Rabbula of Edessa (411-435) affected the local liturgical practices. However, the most significant liturgical reform undertaken by Rabbula (a man from near Aleppo), was the suppression of Diatessaron and the introduction of separate Gospels. He has been credited with a part in the translation of Peshitta, which eventually became the official Gospel text of both the East and the West Syrian Churches5. This would mean that both traditions continued to have common liturgical practices, inspite of the doctrinal differences. In the following centuries, both churches were more or less open to each other to adopt liturgical elements. I do not forget that there existed occasional theological conflicts and mutual accusations between the East and the West Syrians. St. James Liturgy reached Mesopotamia probably through the non-chalcedonians in the beginning of the sixth century, perhaps slightly earlier. The present text of Greek St. James is a byzantinised antiochene version. The Antiochene Church adapted the Jerusalemite 3. W. Macomber, "A Theory on the Origins of the Syrian, Maronite and Chaldean Rites", OCP. 39 (1973), 235-36; "A History of the Chaldean mass", Worship 51 (1977), 110. 4. Macomber, "A History...", p. 111. 5. See A. Vôôbus, "Investigations into the Text of the New Testament used by Rabbula of Edessa", in Contributions of the Baltic University (Hambourg/ Pinneberg, 1947), Vol.59, p. 37; B. Metzger, Early Versions of the New Testament (Oxford, 1977), 56-63; F. C. Burkitt, Evangelion de-Mepharreshe 2 (Cambridge, 1904). Burkittand most of the early scholars credited Rabbula with producing the Peshitta Text. But Vôôbus says that his contribution was partial. The Harp

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liturgy incorporating some local elements. This adaptation might have taken place before the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD). The Non-Chalcedonians brought the antiochene version of St. James to Edessa around 500 AD, and was soon translated into Syriac. The first Syriac version was not a verbatim translation, but most probably an adaptation incorporating several local features. Later, Jacob of Edessa (+ 708) made a "new and correct recension" on the basis of the Greek manuscripts available to him. But the Syrian Orthodox Church did not abandon the Edessene elements. Several of them continued to exist for a few centuries and ultimately the tradition followed by the Patriarchate of Antioch prevailed over the "eastern customs", though the latter did not disappear completely. Some of the Mesopotamian elements are found in the East and the West Syrian Eucharistic celebrations, both in liturgical actions and in prayers. These elements could be classified into three groups: (i) Elements of Mesopotamian-Edessene origin, which may go back to the common liturgical heritage existed before the separation of the Syrian Orthodox and the East Syrian Churches. (ii) Elements of East Syrian origin which influenced and found place in the West Syrian liturgy. (iii) Elements of West Syrian origin, which were adopted by the East Syrians. A detailed study of the commonalty which unites the East and the West Syrian Church is of great significance in the ecumenical context. In this paper, I shall present the results of a first step.

Genuflexion or Prostration Genuflexion or prostration is one of the characteristics of the Mesopotamian liturgy. Among the East Syrians, Narsai refers to it as part of the Epiklesis 6. Moses Bar Kepha also speaks of this custom 7 . George, bishop of the Arabs and a 6 t h /7 t h century 6. Narsai, The Liturgical Homilies of Narsai (tr. R. H. Connolly, Cambridge, 1909), Horn.XVII (A), p. 22-23. Hereafter, Narsai, Homilies) 7. Moses Bar Kepha, Commentary on the Eucharist, in R. H. Connolly & H. W. Codrington (ed. & tr), Two Commentaries on the Jacobite Liturgy by George Bishop of the Arab Tribes and Moses Bar Kepha: Together with the Syriac Anaphora of St. James and a document entitled The Book of Life, (Oxford, 1913), p. 60. (Hereafter quoted as Bar Kepha, Eucharist, George, Commentary, Connolly, Book of Life. We give the references of the English translation). Bar Salibi, whose commentary is largely based on. Bar Kepha, does not mention it. See, Bar Salibi, Eucharist, ch. 14, 6-14.

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commentary on the Eucharist also mention genuflexion8. Several manuscripts of St. James liturgy attest the existence of a prostration during the Epiklesis. Eg. BM. Add. 14523 (8/9 th cent)9, and BM. 17128, fol. 15b (10/ 11th cent). It is found in the manuscripts of other ancient anaphorae as well. Eg. The Anaphora of Timothy of Alexandria (BM. Add. 14520, fol. 147a; ms. Dated 8 / 9 * century; text published by A. RUCKER, Anaphora Syriaca, I p. 22); The Anaphora of the Twelve Apostles, (BM. Add. 17128, fol. 12b)10 According to the Anaphora of the Twelve Apostles, the whole congregation might have joined the celebrant in the act of genuflexion ("We ask You therefore, Almighty, Lord and God of the holy powers, falling on our faces before You, that You send Your Holy Spirit...") In the East Syrian tradition, Abraham Bar Lipeh (7/8 lh cent) says that the priest and the people prostrated during the invocation of the Holy Spirit". John Bar Zobi (12/13 th century) also comments on this custom12. In the Syrian Orthodox Church, the genuflexion during the Epiklesis has been completely disappeared. The East Syrians have replaced it with an indication (Eg. The text published by F. E. Brightman and the Chaldean Missel published by Mgr. F. Y. Alichoran)13. In the East Syrian pre-anaphora, after having recited the Creed, the celebrant makes a series of genuflexions /prostrations14. The same rite is attested in a few ancient manuscripts of the Syrian Orthodox pre-anaphora. BM. Add. 17128 (10/ll t h cent) contains the following rubrics: "The prayer that the priest says inaudibly. He makes three 8. George, Commentary, p. 19. S. Brock, " A n Early Commentary on the Liturgy", JTS.37 (1986), p. 394 (= D 52). 9. Published by Connolly & Codrington (see supra, n. 7), (Eng. P. 97 = MS. A; Syr. p.95) 10. cfr. BM. Add. 14493, fol. 14b (10 cent); Text published by A. Raes, Anaphorae Syriaca, / (Rome, 1939), ,p.218. 11. R. H. Connolly (ed), Expositio Officiorum Ecclesia, C S C O 72; SS.29, p. 178 (Syriac). 12. T h o m a s Mannooramparampil, John Bar Zobi, Explanation of the Divine Mysteries, (Vadavathoor, 1992), p.49. 13. F. E. Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western, (Oxford, 1896: Rep. 1965), p. 287 (hereafter, Brightman, LEW). F. Y. Alichoran, Misselchaldeen, (Paris, 19829, p. 89(fr.). 14. ibid. p. 271-72.

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prostrations before the door of Holy of Holies and while making the prostrations he says three times: Glory be to the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit"(fol. lr). Then follows an introductory prayer: "Having our hearts sprinkled (kad rsisin)" found in almost all the ancient texts of the Syrian Orthodox pre-anaphora and in a number of East Syrian texts (see supra). The rubrics of BM- Add. 17128 confines: "Prayer that the priest says inaudibly when fie enters the interior of the Holy of Holies. He makes three prostrations before the table of life and making prostrations, he says three times: 'Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit...' " This rite has left its vestiges in the Syrian Orthodox preparation rites and the Pre-anaphora. Thus the celebrant prostrates before the altar after the vesture and the chanting, of the Creed. In the East Syrian Eucharist, the celebrant strikes his face with the hands during the Epiklesis15. This custom is attested by the 9th century Syrian Orthodox commentator John of Dara16. In his Commentary, Moses Bar Kepha condemns this practice as inappropriate action by "uninstructed priests"17. Beading of the Book of Life The reading of the "Book of Life" was peculiar to the Mesopotamian-Persian liturgy. This corresponds to the diptychs of the Syro-antiochene tradition. In the antiochene tradition, diptychs are generally placed after the Epiklesis, whereas in the MesopotamianPersian tradition, the Book of Life is read before the Anaphora, that is between the Kiss of Peace and the washing of the hands. In the Syroantiochene tradition, Dinoysius the Areopagite also attests the reading of the diptychs between the Kiss of Peace and the Lavabo18. According to the Homilies of Theodore of Mopsuestia, in Cilicia (?), the "tablets 15. ibid. p. 287. 16. Jean Sader (ed. & tr.), Le De Oblatione de Jean de Dara, CSC0.308-309; SS.132-133,. (Louvain, 1970), III, 18 (CSC0.390, p. 48). (Eng. Translation by B. Varghese, John of Dara: Commentary on the Eucharist, Mörän 'Etho12 (1999), 4:14, p.80 17. Bar Kepha, Eucharist,

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(penqito) were read in the beginning of the anaphora19. Among the East Syrian writers, Narsai comments on the Book of Life, which was read in its usual East Syrian position, that is between the Pax and the Lavabo20. This order is followed in the printed East Syrian liturgical texts21. In the Syrian Orthodox tradition, there are three documents which attest the reading of the Book of Life. 1. A short commentary assigned by W. Wright to George of the Arabs (687-Z24)22. 2. An anonymous document known as the Breaking of the Bread. The date of this document is not known. But R. H. Connolly says: "... there can be little doubt that the work was composed before Bar Kepha's Exposition"23. But it is not sure whether this document is anterior to Bar Kepha's work, as Connolly does not give any evidence to support his affirmation. 3. Moses Bar Kepha's Commentary on the Eucharist24. Bishop George says that the Book of Life was read "upon the altar before the consecration of the mysteries"25. The Breaking of the Bread places it at the "time of peace". Bar Kepha is more precise about its position: the reading takes place between the Pax and the Lavabo as in the East Syrian tradition. The text of the Syrian Orthodox Book of Life has come down to us in two later texts. The first one is a copy made in 1648, "according to the custom of the Church of the Mother of God in the city of Beroea (Aleppo) by the command of the Patriarch Mar Ignatius Simon26. The second text has been published by A. N. Palmer27. 19. A. Mingana, Commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia on the Lord's Prayer and on the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist (Woodbrooke Studies6, Cambridge, 1933), p. 94 (= Horn. 15, 43). 20. Narsai, Homilies, p. 10. 21. cfr. The Urmiia Edition, pp. 11-12; SPCK translation as well as the Chaldean text. R. H. Connolly says that Brightman's order needs to be corrected since it places the diptychs before the Pax, see, Connolly, "The Book of Life", JTS. 13(1912), p. 592. 22. George, Commentary, pp. 15-20 (on the Eucharist). 23. Extracts published by R. H. Connolly, "The Book of Life". JTS 13 (1912), 580-94 (pp. 582-4). 24. Bar Kepha, Eucharist. 25. George, Commentary, p. 20. 26. Connolly, Book of Life, pp. 112-127 (= in Two The Harp

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The Syrian Orthodox sources give the impression that the Book of Life was read occasionally, not on every Sunday as in the East Syrian Tradition. This has led Fr. R. Taft to conclude that the East Syrian diptychs were imitated by the Syrian Orthodox Maphrianate of Tikrit in Mesopotamia28. Even though both the traditions borrowed mutually the liturgical practices, in the case of the Book of Life, I think that it was not East Syrian origin as Fr. Taft seems to believe. Fr. Taft's assumption is based on R. H. Connolly's discussion of the Syrian Orthodox Book of Life29. In fact Connolly had concluded that the reading of the Book of Life was a common practice which existed "in regions lying to the north and east of the district in which the rite of Antioch prevailed"30. I am inclined to follow this conclusion. The earliest Syrian Orthodox sources on the Book of Life attest the practice in the Maphrianate of Tikrit (see the above mentioned sources). But in the 12th century, Dionysius Bar Salibi does not mention the reading of the Book of Life, as he witnesses to the tradition of the Patriarchate of Antioch. The Aleppo version of the Book of Life says: "(It) is read on Sundays and feasts of our Lord at the time of the mysteries, on the right hand of the table of life, by one of the approved, priests, in Jerusalem and in the great sees and in the celebrated cities and famous convents"31. The extent of the use of the Book of Life as mentioned here may be an exaggeration. However, it shows that it did not become completely obsolete in the Syrian Orthodox Church. Even though the Book of Life was of Mesopotamian origin, the Syrian Orthodox Maphrianate of Tikrit discontinued its reading, obviously under the influence of the Antiochene liturgical tradition. The introduction of the Antiochene version of St. James Liturgy in Mesopotamia might have played the most crucial role in the disappearance of the Book of Life. We have evidence that in some 27. A. N. Palmer, Monk and Mason on the Tigris Frontier: The Early History of Turabdin, (Cambridge, 1990), see second sheet Of the microfiche. For the details, A. N. Palmer, "The Book of Life in the Syriac Liturgy. An instrument of Social and Spiritual Survival", THE HARP IV( 1991), 161-1:71. 28. R. F. Taft, A History of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Vol.IV: The Diptychs, (OCA. 238, Rome, 1991), p. 72 (hereafter, Taft, Diptychs). 29. ibid. p. 72: Fr. Taft says: "Connolly has shown that these are the traditional Nestorian diptychs...". 30. JTS. 13 (1912), p. 593. 31. Connolly, Book of Life, in Two Commentaries, Vol. XIII 2 0 0 0

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centres of Mesopotamia, Book of Life was incorporated into the Antiochene structure, thus both the Book of Life and the Diptychs (after the Epiklesis) were said (Eg. Moses Bar Kepha and other sources mentioned above). In his liturgical commentaries, Jacob of Edessa does not mention the reading of the Book of Life32. This does not mean that it was absent in the Syrian Orthodox Church in Mesopotamia and that it was added later. Jacob of Edessa is probably not witnessing to the Edessene liturgical tradition. He was a native of En-debha, a village in the district of Gumyah, in the province of Antioch. He studies at the famous convent of Ken-neshre. In 679/80, he was ordained bishop of Edessa and held the office for three or four years. He left Edessa following the conflicts with the local clergy. After a brief stay in the Convent of Kaisum in Samosata, he taught for 11 years in the Convent of Eusebhona and left it because of disputes with some monks "who hated Greeks". Then he taught at the convent of Tell-Adda for 9 years. However, he spent four months in Edessa before his death 33 . Jacob's liturgical works were probably composed during his stay in "the West". His antiochene sympathies might have been the main reason for his conflicts with the clergy and the monks. We know that he had translated several Greek liturgical texts into Syriac including the baptismal ordo attributed to Severus of Antioch. Moreover, he made a "new and correct recension" of the Anaphora of Syriac, using the best Greek manuscripts available to him. The antiochene liturgical practices became popular in Mesopotamia probably through the translations of Jacob. It is not clear whether one of the reasons for his conflicts with the Mesopotamian clergy was his liturgical reforms. This is not impossible, because the clergy and the monks are always very sensitive to liturgical reforms. However/the antiochene custom of reading the Diptychs after the epiklesis probably reached Mesopotamia through the Syriac translation of St. James Liturgy. If we compare Moses Bar Kepha's comments on the Book of Life and those on the Diptychs, we will get the impression that his readers were more used to the reading of the former. Thus he writes: 32. The Epistles of James of Edessa to Thomas the Presbyter, (Eng. tr. Brightman, LEW, pp. 490-94. Jacob's commentary on the Eucharist addressed to George the Sty lite of Serugh, MS. Berlin, SACHAU. 218, fol. 178b-186b. (English translation to be published in HARP). 33. W. Wright, A Short History of Syriac Literature (London, 1894), p. 141-43.

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"Concerning the Book of Life which is read upon the altar: The Book of Life is read upon the altar for these reasons" (Bar Kepha gives six reasons)34. "Again, concerning the diptychs. which the deacon proclaims - it is right to know that the diptychs which the deacon proclaims are six, three of the living and three of the dead"35. Then Bar Kepha corrects certain confusion related' to the reading of the diptychs. (No such corrections are suggested regarding the reading of the Book of Life, as it was an established practice). He says: "And whenever the Book of Life is not read upon the altar, it is not right for him to omit anything from them (= diptychs), for two reasons..."36. This means that the diptychs could be omitted when the Book of Life is read and vice versa. Bar Kepha says that the omission of the both is not allowed'. It is interesting to note that Jacob of Edessa permits the omission of the diptychs ("canons") in case the deacon is absent37. Then Bar Kepha complains that the deacons are accustomed tot omit the diptychs of the Kings. Then he points out the correct responses to be said after the reading of the Book of Life and the Diptychs. Thus Bar Kepha's commentary suggests that the reading of the diptychs, rather than the Book of Life was "the foreign intrusion" (to use the expression of Fr. Taft)38. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude, as R. H. Connolly had already done, that the origin of the Mesopotamian Book of Life could go back to a period anterior to the separation of the Syrian Orthodox and the East Syrian Churches. The Syrian Orthodox Maphrianate gradually left out the reading of the Book of Life and followed the antiochene custom of reading the diptychs after the epiklesis. The Maphrianate abandoned several local, customs in favour of the antiochene practices. Thus the antiochene practice of the washing of the hand's before the Kiss of peace prevailed against the Mesopotamian order: Pax-Lavabo39 34. Bar Kepha, Eucharist, p. 41-42; 35. ibid p. 63. 36. ibid. 37. Brightman, LEW, p. 494. 38. Taft, Diptychs, p. 73. 39. cfr. Bar Kepha, Eucharist, p. 40-42. Vol. XII! 2 6 0 0

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Two koruzwoto: In the East Syrian eucharistic celebration, there are two konizwoto (= deacon's admonitions/litanies): one after the Gospel and the other before the anaphora, between the Creed and the Lavabo 40 . A few of the Syrian Orthodox sources also attest the existence of the koriizwoto in the same position. Thus Moses Bar Kepha comments on both of them. In the 12th century, Dionysius Bar Salibi also comments on the koruzuto which follows the Gospel. But regarding the second one, he is silent. In the course of time, the first koruzuto also was dropped by the Syrian Orthodox Church, probably in favour of hymns. However, the post-Gospel litanies survive in some liturgical services such as the Funeral, Epiphany, Palm Sunday, Pentecost and the consecration of Myron. The litanies m i g h t h a v e b e e n i n t r o d u c e d in these celebrations, following the example of the Eucharist. There still remains a trace of evidence for its existence in the Syrian Orthodox pre-anaphora. Thus in the present practice, the reading of the Gospel is followed by a hymn. As soon as the h y m n is over, the deacons cries out: Stomen kalos (= Let us stand well), a phrase which usually introduces a litany. The Mesopotamian koruzuto is most probably a n adaptation of the antiochene litanies41. They might have been introduced in Edessa before the seventh century 42 . A detailed study of their origin, structure and purpose needs to be undertaken by liturgists. A Common Pre-anaphoral Prayer: The following prayer is found in the East Syrian, Syrian Orthodox and the Maronite Pre-anaphorae: "Having our hearts sprinkled and cleansed from an evil conscience, may w e be accounted worthy to enter into the holy of holies high and exalted and in purity and in circumspection and holiness to stand before thine holy altar and to offer to thee spiritual and reasonable sacrifice in true faith.... "43. Syriac Liturgists usually refer to this prayer kdd rsisin followed the incipit. The East Syrians placed this prayer in the pre-anaphora between the anthem of the mysteries and the Creed. In the Syrian Orthodox 40. On the koruzuto after the Gospel, see S. H. Jammo, La structure de la messe chatdeeenne, (OCA. 207, Rome, 1979), 125-150. 41. ibid p. 149 42. ibid. 43. Brightman, LEW, p. 270; Jammo, op cit. P. 185-187; Alichoran, op. cit., p. 20 (syr); p. 65 (trench tr.). The Harp

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tradition, a 9 century manuscript of the Pre-anaphora (BM. Add. 14494) is the oldest witness to its existence. BM. Add. 14495 (10/11th cent) and 14491 (AD. 1230) prescribed that the priest shall recite it in an inclined position before approaching the altar. But after the tenth century most of the manuscripts place this prayer in the preparatory rites. This corresponds to its present position in the East Syrian Tradition. Later the Syrian Orthodox Church placed this prayer in the beginning of the preparatory rites. When the preparatory rite was divided into two parts, it was placed in the beginning of the second part. In the 14th century, the maronite had borrowed this prayer at this stage of development 44 . Kad rsisin seems to be of Syrian Orthodox origin, as almost all the ancient manuscripts of the pre-anaphora and the preparatory rites contain it. The East Syrians might have borrowed it from the West Syrians, as they were conscious of the common liturgical heritage which unites them in spite of the christological differences. Conclusion There were remarkable differences between the liturgical practices of the Patriarchate of Antioch and those of the Maphrianate of Tikrit. The former could be qualified as West Mesopotamian tradition and thelatter as the East Mesopotamian-Persian tradition. In the Syrian Orthodox Church they are sometimes known as the Tur-Abdin and the Mosul traditions. The former was more antiochene, whereas the latter preserved several indigenous elements. Some of them are preserved in the East Syrian liturgy, a hybrid liturgical form containing both antiochene and Mesopotamian-Persian elements. Whenever some non-antiochene elements are found in both traditions, some liturgists hastily conclude that they are of East Syrian origin and that the Syrian Orthodox Church has simply borrowed or imitated them. But we have solid evidences to think that most of them belong to an ancient common Mesopotamian tradition. A serious comparative study of both traditions is necessary to evaluate them. I have pointed out four of such elements found in the eucharistic liturgy. Several! common features are found in the Breviaries of both traditions. Both of them have even a common mystagogical tradition. 44. P. E. Gamayel, Avant-Messe Maronite. Histoire etstructure, (OCA.174, Rome, 1965), p. 260. Vol. XIII 2 0 0 0

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Z6 B. Varghese th Thus in the 14 century Timothy II (1318-32) had used the mnarez ktidshe (= The Book of the Light of the Sanctuary) as one of the sources for his treatise on baptism. Unfortunately, studies on Syriac liturgy rarely discuss these issues in the context of the Antiochene-Mesopotamian tradition, from which the East and the West Syrian Liturgies developed.

The Harp

Vol Xlil

Joseph Kolangaden,

Trichur

The Presence a n d Influence of Syrian Christians in Classical Tamil Literature (Synopsis) Koheleth (Ecclesiastes) - eye-opener Yavana - Roman - Jewish Presence in Tamizhakam Apostle Thomas and Tiruvalluvar Encounter Dr. G. U. Pope - Christian elements in Tirukkural Biblical parallels galore in Manikkavacakar's Tiruvacakam Manimekhalai meets Isanuvadi at Vancimanagar Jivakacintamani - the Hymn of the soul Bardaisson friendly with Ilango-Adigal (Cilappadhikaram XXIX. 186-202 parallel to Isaiah 58.4-12) Mariamman - Mar Ammon (Mani's disciple) Agastyar Jnanakorvai Patirrupatt III 10.33-38 Cenkuttuvan's Eucharistic sacrifice Purananuru 166 refers to the 12 Apostles Cattanar - Msiha (Anointed) - Kathanar Avvaikural 109 Avaventrotiyarul perrar (invoked Aba and attained grace) Sangha - Pulavars: Atan, Antuan, Aviar, Taman, Mosi, Avvayar ... (Explicitly Christian names) Vol Xlli 2000

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Tirumular Tirnmcindiram Redemption necessitates incarnation Ignatius Hirudayam S. J.: Tirtimurai & Divya Prabandham recitable after Holy Communion Tayumanavar: Matatita Arul (Grace beyond religious barriers) Tilak: Azuras - Assyrians Max Muller: Semitic & Aryan languages originally the same. Octavio Paz: Hinduism an immense metaphysical boa Rashtrapati K. R. Narayanan: Christian influence in Sankara's Advaita.

The Presence and Influence of Syrian Christians in Classical Tamil Literature Christian elements in classical Tamil Literature, prima facie sound improbably, if not impossible. Yet persistent in-depth study of Sangha Kala masterpieces has revealed ever so many basically Christian terms, themes and tenets. The Hebrew title Koheleth of Ecclesiastes serves as an eye-opener. Bishop Caldwell's Comparative Grammar of Dravidian Languages has noted several words of Tamil origin in the Old Testament. Hiram's ships are believed to have imported gold and jewels for the interior decoration of Solomon's Jerusalem Temple, from Tamizhakam (Ptolemy's misspelt 'Limurike'). The intense maritime commerce between India and the West was all the more intensified by Hippalus' discovery of the monsoon (wind) accelerating the sail to South India. Arikamedu excavations have unearthed undeniable evidence for Roman garrisons stationed South of Madras under Augustan Pax Roman. In such favourable conditions for commerce, the ubiquitous Jewish Mercantile community had taken root in Tamizhakam before Christ. Unhesitatingly therefore, Kendra Sahitya Academy Member, late Ka Naa Subramanyam, a Tamil Brahmin in his mellow wisdom wrote Thomas Vantar (Thomas Did Come), dedicating it to Prof. C. D. Narasimhayya, the celebrated Mysore Brahmin. Sri Subramanyam has highlighted Apostle Thomas landing at Muziris, the world emporium during the first Chera empire. After the evangelization of Cheranadu (the present Kerala), Thomas' Apostolic activities in the Pallava region near Mylapore (Madras) brought him in contact with T h e Harp

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Tiruvalluvar whose Tirukkural is universally acclaimed as the greatest Tamil classic. Dr. G. U. Pope has enumerated the Christian elements in Tirukkural. The very opening couplet is reminiscent of biblical Alpha and Omega. Akaram Mutai Ezhutheliâm, Âdi Bhagavan muttarr ulaku Aintavittan (couplet 6) can best be interpreted as referring to Jesus (Pancakshata). Couplet 30 limelights Antanar (The Kingdom of God is interior), sharing .with, and caring for, all living beings. Rather than external ceremonies and rituals Christ had stressed concern for others. No wonder Rahnar has defined Christ as the man for others. Couplet 34 Maiiattukkan Màsilan, Pure of mind, Christ has extolled above those indulging in purificatory ablutions. Couplet 44 Pâttûn is the Tamil equivalent of 'breaking of the bread', the Eucharist, characteristic of the followers of Jesus. Couplet 267 'Cudacudarum ponpôl olividum tumpam' takes us to the core or crux of Christ - the salvific value of suffering. Couplet 299 Ella Vilakum Vilakalla Poyyâvilakkê vilakku reminds us of Christ's claim: Innâna Nûre d'Almç. Obviously then Valluvar - Thomas encounter has left its indelible vestiges in the most oft. quoted Tamil Classic, Tirukkural. Tirukkural, Tiruvâcakam, Tirumantiram constitute the trinity of Tamil theological treatises. Mânikkavâcakar, the composer of Tiruvâcakam, according to several scholars, is the Persian Gnostic heresiarch, Mani who had definitely landed in Tamizhakam during Pallava hegemony. Anyhow biblical parallels, echoes, allusions are galore in Mânikkavâcakar's ruby-like utterance. Ennutarkkettâ Ezilar (beautiful beyond reckoning) Vinniraintu Manniraintu mikkay Ellaiyilàtane (unbounded) Mayjnananamâki Milirkinra meycudare Ajnânam tannai akalvikkum nallarive Mâzarra Jôti malarnta malarcudare perumkarunai perâre. Ârâamute arule pôrri Vol. XIII 2 0 0 0

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Âtiyana Antam Naduvâki Alla te Nôkkariya nôkke nunnurakkariya nunnunarve Kâkkumenkâvalana kânpariya pêroliye Which Christians cannot recite these ejaculations? Padaippôr padaikkum pazaiyôn padaittavai Kâppôrkâkkum Kadavulkâppavai Doesn't the above sound as a positive rendering of "Unless the Lord Builds, the Builders Build in vain; unless the Lord guards, the guards guard in vain". Tannêrillôn tanekânka (unique) Ariyatil Ariya Ariyôn kânka (most precious) Antamum Âdiyum akanrôn kânka Vâvarum peravurum îsan kanka Cuzirum tumpam tavaippô vâzka Corpadam Kadantatollôn Ullattunarcciyir kollavum padân Kanmutar pulanâr kadciyum illôn Yâvarcon Ennaiyum vantândukondân Yâmarkum kudiyallôm yâtum ancôm Ps 27 "The Lord is my salvation whom shall I fear?" Of the five outstanding Tamil epics, Mani Mêkhalai is associated with Mani. The heroine Mani Mêkhalai in Vanchimànagar encounters various religionists, Pramânavadi to Bhûtavâdi. Isânuvâdi claims: God has no peer, not to speak of superior. This unequivocally asserts the transcendent God-concept, the bedrock of Judaic, Christian faith. The same 27th Kadai (Gatha) refers to Mârgalinûl (Marganîta), the famous Syriac treatise elaborating Âjîvaka, born in a stable (Gozala Kosala). Mani is associated with Jîvakacintâmani of the soul.

too, the jewel-like Hymn

Bardaisson, the Father of Syriac Literature, is known to have visited Tamizhakam. His Acts of Judas Thomas has unmistakable similarities with Cilappadiâram, the best known Tamil epic. Burdaizzon T h e Harp

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had stayed at Êlimalai, had been friendly with Ilango-Adikal. The result of their friendly exchanges is refulgent in 29th Gatha 11186-202 reminiscent of Isaiah 58.4-12. The popular Tamil deity Mâriamman, some scholars opine, is actually Mâr Ammôn, a disciple of Mani. Agastyar Jnânakorvai "vanankuvai jagajôti yoruvanàki" Patittiipatt gives us authentic account of First Chera Empire. Ill 10.33-38 provides a detailed description of a sacrifice offered by Chenguttuvan. This, properly interpreted, refers to the Eucharistie sacrifice. Patikam 9 celebrates Sântivèttu, propitiatory sacrifice presided by Elanchêral irumporai., J. J. Moris in his treatise Kêralamataviszvâsangal - Sangha kàla krtikalilude enumerates innumerable instances of clear Christian participation in early centuries of the Christian era in the day-to-day life and activities of Tamizhakam. II. 4.12.13 'Chanror Maymarai vanurai' refers to the faithful into whom the Holy Spirit is infused. IV 8.15.16 Pakuttûn Tokotta vânmai pirarkkena vâzâti i îiyâkanmare Here again we come across the encomium paid to the Eucharistie sharing. VII 4.4 Uraisâlvêlvimudinta kelvi Vânathil Nilaiperum kadavul Puranânuru 166: Mutumutalvan vâipôkâTonrupurinta Vîrarirandin Ârunarnta vorumutunûl The twice six heroes (disciples) of the First Path setter comprehended the original utterances - so chants Âvur Moolankizhôr. Uraiyur Mutukûttanar extolls Bhôkabali (Ponkal) Vencôru. Puranânuru 380 Valvercâttanallisai Câttanar means anointed, Abhishikta, M'siha, Christ. «»12000

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Cathanar therefore signifies Christ's priest. The common linguistic feature of 'c' turning to 'k' gives us Kattanar, the appellation of Kerala Christian priests till the advent of the Portuguese with their padiries. Avaikural has distinct Christian ethos - 94 Nesattalisanaitedu 104 Masarra tuimaiyamisanarul 106 Ella porulumudikkalamisanran Tollaiyarul perrakal 109 Avavenrotiyarulperrarkkallatu Tavato Jnanaveli Note 'Aba' invocation, the essence of Christianity - the paternity of God and its correlative the fraternity of man. 100 Ulakattil mannumuyirkkellamisan Alakiranta adiyeyam 141 Ellakattennaiyiruntataiyokkum Ullakattisanoli 149 Ninaippavarkku Nencakattul Nirmalanayinirkum Anaittuyirkum tanamon 154 Tanakkoruruvillai tanenkumaki Manattakamay Nirkkumkatu 188 Ullolittonrilunarilaruloli Avvoli adiyoli 190 Adiyoliyaki arvanumtanai adiyavanuruvamam A dan, Antuvan, Aviyar, Taman, M5si, Avvaiyar ... How many explicitly Christian names we come across among Sangha Pulavara. Tirumular Tirumandiram (900 AD) Man cannot get rid of his sins by his own efforts. Redemption necessitates incarnation, the central theme of Christianity. Ignatius Hirudayam S. J. in his article "My Pilgrimage in Interfaith dialogue" observes: "Several stanzas of Thirumurai and the Divyaprabandham would be recited after communion, if we only omitted the names and mythological references". The Harp

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Thayamanavar's prayer is relevant in this regard: "Oh Lord, when shall. I be devoid of the desire to instruct others and be in the Bliss of silent communion". 'Matatitamana A r u l m a r a v u ' provides Pure Grace which transcends all religions. The great Indian historian, Romila Thapar has brought out M'siha undertones in Mahayana Buddhism. Vikramaditya is hailed Sakari, restoring Hinduism. Boudha is a blanket term in the South Indian, context. Balagangadhara Thi'lak speaks of Chaldean and Indian Ved'as, identifying Asuralokam as Assyria. (Bhandarkar commemoration volume). Max Muller has established Sesmitic and Aryan languages were originally the same. Raymonde Panikkar has brought out the Hidden Christ of Hinduism. Earlier Edamaram had published Pathrosum Vedavyasanum. Recently Octavio Paz remarked: Hinduism is an immense metaphysical boa which can absorb other faiths. Rashtrapathi K. R. Narayanan has traced Christian influence in Adi Sankara's Advaita Philosophy. The presence of Syrian Christians in Tamizhakam was providentially instrumental by cultural Symbiosis fermenting the religious mass in South India. 'Deo Gratias' in our ecumenical era.

Bibliography Dr. Caldwell A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian

Languages

Ka. Naa. Subramanyam Thomas Vantar (Tamil) Madras 1988' Raymundo Panikkar The Hidden Christ of Hinduism Octavio Paz In Light of India Dr. Arulappa Tirukkural - A Christian Book? K. C. A. Jnanamani Nadar Latin Words of Tamil Origin Dr. Daiwanayagam Viviliam Thirukkural

Saivasiddanta

Dr. Nanbiaparambil CMI Shashti Souvenier Pilgrims of Dialogue Kochi 1991 J. J. Moris Keralamataviswasangal:

Sangakalakritikalilude

P. V. Mathew Sugandanadu Nasranicharitram Edamaram Pathrdsum

Vedavyasanum

Dr. Abraham Koshi Prajapatiyagam Enna Vol XIII 2000

Cochin 1984 Knisikaranam The Harp

It is written in Scripture that the Good Lord 'repented' and 'was weary', for He put on our weakness; but then He turned round and clothed us in the names of His own Majesty. (St. Ephrem- Faith 54:8)

God has names that are perfect and exact, and He has names that are borrowed and transient; these latter He quickly puts on and quickly takes off. (St. Ephrem - Faith 44:2)

Take care of God's perfect and holy names, for if you deny one of them, then they all fly away off:7 each one is bound up with the other, they support everything, like the pillars of the world. (St. Ephrem - Fa ith 44.3)

Curien Kaniamparampil,

Tiruvalla

A Handful of Gems of W i s d o m F r o m the Treasury of Poet Raban J o h n of M o s u l The poetical works of Rabart John of Mosul, his monumental contributions to the Syriac Literature, the elegance, style, and command of ideas and words, remind the reader, of the giants of Syriac Poetry, of the 'Golden Age' of Syriac and the notable poets of later centuries. Raban John is at par with Mar Aprem, Mar Narsai, Mar Balai, Mar Jacob of Sarug. It is not only the elegance in composition, but also the splendour of the gems of wisdom, exhibited throughout, that arrests, the attention of the reader. Collection of the works of the monk (Raban) John of the Dayra (monastery) Mar Michael, founded near the River Deklas has been published by the congregation of Propaganda (Rome) in the'name "Shappir Doobore". This paper is a humble effort to bring to light even a small portion of the wisdom of a great man of the 13th century to those of the 20th century. John of Mosul's, Septasyllabic stanzas, just like Mar Aprem's, are varied and instructive. Of his nearly 2000 stanzas, printed in 'Saphir Doobore' only a very few has been translated in verse in this paper. Even though the 'Golden Age' of Syriac was became dim under Arabic Clouds, there had been eminent and world famous writers and scholars in Syriac. The 12lh century and the. next one, had been a Vol. XIII 2000

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period of scholars in Syriac, who could contribute scholarly volumes in Syriac, both in prose and in verse. It was in AD 1145 that the Catholic Raban John of Mosul presented this wonderful scholarly contribution to the Syriac literature. It was in this century that the greatest prose-writer and historian, Mar Michael Rabo Patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church, presented to Syriac literature, his voluminous Church History and World History. Christianity is the absence of the 'Sringara Rasam' (Love Scene) in Syriac. The only explanation, I think, we might be able to produce is that - all the above - said authors were celebates in makes of! Monasteries, where prayer, fasting and study were the mode of life. Hence the spiritual and moral instructions and the absence of novels, drama and the like. The 13th century witnessed the unequalled writer in Syriac, Mar Gregorius Bar Bebraens, who wrote on almost all branches of knowledge.

Concluding his noble work, John of Mosul writes, 1. Works of a monk so insignificant, And truly, a poor mean servant Hath by Grace, his work finished, Pray that my sins be blotted. 2. Discrepancies, found in this, correct them kindly Oh, my friends; In the name of Lord Jesus Giver of life and all solace. 3. Idle, I had never been, In spite of my distractions And my meagre education And lack of knowledge and Vision. 4.1 have finished this Mimra Six-twenty two (622) of Higrah A peaceful inmate of Dayara Of Michael, the great 'hero'. The Harp

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5. Dayara stands on Eastern bank Of the famous River Deklas, Adjacent to the Capital The renowned city of Mosul. 6.1 am a native of Mosul And by birth a chaldean Sinful, poor Yuhanon Only in name, a Dayroyo! 7. Glory, honour and adoration To Him who strengthens me often Now and forever be given Until the end of 'Creation'. II

I. Regarding "Custody of Senses". 1. If your senses, be careful Because they may cause your fall Your eyes, ears and your nose, And your tongue and touch of hands. 2. Of your tongue, you take care more So that destruction may not come near It will make thy friend, thy foe And. from God, it separates you. 3. As you wish, that others fo you do, Likewise to them you too do. In thy daily actions, word and deed Though thy body and thy mind. 4. If your foe is too hungry To feed him, sumptuously your hurry! Vol. XH! 2000

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Drink thou give him, if thirsty By these shall cease enmity. 5. Should never have the mentality That on him, befall calamity. As a fool you will surely fall With woe into the horrible hell. 6. Judge you always very justly And the judge, who judges, lawfully Him examines and gives him joy Or Woe, as the case may be. 7. With the wicked, don't combat Win him through thy pure heart, Show your motive, pure and right He will be your friend, closest.

II. Excellence of Faith. Hope and Charity. 1. With the faith as girdle worn Make it as thy foundation Have the works of 'freedom' done To be living and not be dead and gone. 2. Hope you take as shield ever That you never come to despair, Arrows coming from afar, You'll overcome with no horror. 3. Love is first in 'commandments' It does fulfil the laws of saints It's the crown of the obedient, The head dress of the combatant. 4. Mundane motive, never shall be

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In your Love, but let it be For the Kingdom, everlasting And for God, the life giving. 5. Freedom, never shall mislead you And make you behave on your view Error, by loss of wisdom, done makes you lost and desperate one. 6. Oft thou remember the hell-fire Gnashing of teeth and torture there! When you stand with awe before The judge, may be not thy destroyer. 7. Death is at the door to hold The child,, the young man and the old 'Viaticum' let us make ready That we be pleasant on the way. 8. Flee from falsehood of Heresy And from doctrines too clumsy That are 'gamst the Revealed Truth And not befitting Holy Faith. 9. Love you all, the True Religion, And believe in Resurrection Remember the promises that are in The Old and in the. new Testaments. III. Raban John's exhortation regarding MERCY, are words memorable for the formation of a better society. 1. MERCY, the fullness of all virtues from all failings, it rescues It doth really make one, great In this and in the coming world. Vol, Xili 2000

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2. May it be the foundation Of all virtues and actions It will save from destruction And from vices, protection. 3. As our Saviour of you taught Succour render day and night. Then they offspring be more blast And what you got, be never lost. 4. Beware, Beware, beloved son, Help and mercy not be done For loud applause nor for gain Then you money and reward gone! 5. What a man doth sow here, With Love and with heart fure, With bliss he reaps hereafter And is blessed here and there. 6. Remember! The Angels on your right Satan standing on your left Angels always promise bliss Satan drawn to wickedness. 7. Give the helpless at your gate A morsel of thy bread and some drink. As your Saviour had advised Give and give more and be glad. 8. "The widow's mile" remember, you! Praised it our Lord more than all Offerings of the Great and Small And raised her gladly above all. 9. Give a 'pence' and earn a 'pound' l i e Harp

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From the Treasury of our Lord Who lavishly doth reward Every one in times of need. 10. Look not into the caste or creed Every one, a child of God! Jew and gentile, our Lord healed May Your hands for giving stretched. 11. To show His Love, our Lord said "I was hungry and naked, I was a stranger and in need And to me, you were too much kind" 12. Through your mercy, be blessed And be true friends of our Lord, Creator and Saviour of the World And the heirs of the coming world. 13. Which is better, think over! The beggar coming at your door And you feed them each hour! Or you beg at another's door? 14. To one who begs, syon shouldn't say Lord'll care him every day. From there he wants food and drink Not to know, who protects him. 15. You, who pray for 'daily bread' Through your riches make a friend Then in the realm of the kind-hearted Surely, you would find a nice abode. 16. Stretched out palms of a blind beggar Regard them as a high Altar Vol XIII 2000

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Offerings on them do offer; The Lord will answer your prayer. 17. Give to the Lord from "what is His" And the Lord'll give thee "what is His", Alms you give from "what is this" You will obtain "What is His", (Mar Jacob of Sarug in the same Vein, in his poem, writes about alms-giving as under: -) "The field does not approach the farmer, begging seeds. It is the farmer that goes out and in plenty, throws seeds. Likewise, do not wait for the beggar, to come; you go out and do feed them. When the needy knocks at your door, never you tell him, that the merciful Lord would sustain him. These pious words, bring you no reward at all! Give him a morcel of bread or a mite and then preach on and on for hours, because he knows more than you, who is sustaining him"

IV. Fasting Why and How? 1. Fast does brighten a person's mind And doth make his body sound And the heart, it makes so glad It doth bring you nearer to God. 2. In the commandments Fast is ordained It's the cause of everything good From temptations, the mind is freed The fountain of every noble deed. 3. Don't be gloomy when you fast, That others may know that you do fast May your face be glad and bright As your Lord hath early taught. 4. Fasting for the mercy of God The Harp

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That is from the will and mind, Of all the lusts it makes an end All the filth and faults, absolved. 5. Fasting, forced by necessity Futile it is, and empty; Its' not in conformity With the Laws of fasts' purity. 6. To fast, then, highly bound, we are By the church and fathers, fixed they are Let us observe fast together As taught by those who are gone before. 7. Fasting, well linked with Prayers And by deeds of Repentance The Lord of worlds, we shall appear And thus shall every danger cease. 8. Wounds of body, through gluttony Fast shall heal them* too easily It will overcome the belly too And all ticklings of the lust. 9. Sages mentioned in the 'Old' And the famous Saints of 'New' Fasting and holiness, they did love And taught us all to do it how. 10. Together with fasting you do harm! And evil actions, you perform! And words, so filthy, you do use! Is it 'fast? Or something else? 11. Abstaining from food and drink Nearer to God, it does not bring Vol. XIII 2000

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If the mind is impure and motive wrong Physical fast and spiritual fall! 12. Observe the fast of fifty days Hours twelve on every day Prayers fixed for each day. Pray The Apostles did it every day (Fifty days fasting you observe And meals to the poor you do serve Seven times a day, you do pray As King David everyday (St. Aprem). 13. Carnal pleasures, you reject Arid temptations you resist Keep your senses all perfect And the weak and needy, do assist 14. Make the needy, full of pry Feed the poor every day Gladden every heart gloomy, And he thou blest on all thy way. 15. With the poor, share your joy At thy table comfort him, For your progress they would pray And the Lord will bless thee lavishly. Raban John of Moral in Prayer

V. 1. With your fasting prayer you yoke And Alms-giving for the needy folk May thy Love, thy torch lighten, And be the Bridegrooms Chamberlain. the Harp

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2. Wash your face and head anoint As your Lord hath plainly taught Pray them, your Lord in secret And his gift, in public, do accept. 3. Offer, that which in woe vowed Call Him; danger all around All thy illness shall vanish And thou wilt every work finish. 4. When you come in and you go Sign of the cross draw, on your brow Prayer'11 soothe you in surround And' blunt the edge of foe's arrow. 5. Holy Prayer, a boat resembles In which sits the soul simple Words of prayer are the oars To arrive at the Haven of Peace. 6. Give up all the wondering thoughts Fix thy mind on the Holy source Look to the Lord of love and peace Fast and prayer will bring vou bliss. 7. Pray that Holy will of God In you, every day, be fulfilled Nor for favours, you should ask Each day His face, you do seek. 8. Pray for those who harm you most And who wish to see you lost, All your failings would be swept In heavenly residence you'll be kept. 9. Intercession of the Mother of God Vol. m

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Seek it always, young and old All the saints do intercede Who are alive in the Lord. 10. Never be idle, in praying Fasting and in Alms giving God would render everything And on thee His blessings bring.

Various Useful Admonitions 1. As you prepared the nuptial dress Get you ready thy burial dress The former for your good beginning And the latter for thy good ending. 2. Take me (a dead man) as an example Arise and, be too humble Give up sins and be simple; Remember this place (grave) above all. 3. Grief and groanings and sorrow A miserable end and every woe On him, who doth Love the world, Sooner or Later would descend. 4. Love, unity, charity Mercy, help and chastity May your motto be very bright In a world that lost its sight. 5. A wise man asked a gentlemen, 'How your change has come so soon?' In a second, answer came The Harp

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'In the moment, I found me'. 6. He who humbles himself will Raised be, by all above all He that rises through his will Shall have sure and horrible fall. 7. He who sits on even ground Hath no fear of fall and wound He that stands on lofty peak Trembles of his. fall so quick! 8. Divide a night, into three One for sleep so carefree One for prayer and devotion Another for they meditation. Our brother, who have come from everywhere, for the advancement of Syriac, the Language of our Lord who came down. Let us all praise Him, that we may be blest by Him. With arms stretched, we do with much love embrace you. sweet words, we extend welcome to you.

And in

Let us all perceive the wonderful activities of the gentle Priest here, in the SEERI the unequalled Establishment. This is. the only Institution, Pride of every Indian, and all scholars with its collection of books - its Library. We do praise Rev. Dr. Jacob and his activities, we do esteem, for his long life we do pray. Thank you, thank you, we do repeat.

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Father, Son and Holy Spirit can be reached only by their names; do not look further, to their Persons (qnome). just meditate on their names. If you investigate the person of God, you will perish, but if you believe in the name, you will live. Let the name of the Father be a boundary to you, do not cross it and investigate His nature; let the name of the Son be a wall to you, do not cross it and investigate His birth from the Father; let the name of the Spirit be a fence for you, do not enter inside for the purpose of prying into Him. (Memra on Faith 4:129-40)

Kuriakose Valavanolickal, Aluva

The Exegesis of Aphrahat and Ephrem with special reference to the Gospel Parables Aphrahat and Ephrem are the earliest major witnesses to Syriacspeaking Christianity. Though they shared the same tradition and are near contemporaries, there is no evidence that they knew one another and only in a very few cases does it seem likely that Ephrem is aware of Aphrahat's writings.1 They provide us with a literature representing a Christianity in its most Semitic form, still largely free from Greek cultural and theological influences.2 Aphrahat's3 and V. J. Botha makes a comparison between Demonstration XII andAzym. XXI and he suggests the possibility of Ephrem's knowledge of Aphrahat Demonstrations; cf. "A comparison between Aphrahat and Ephrem on the subject of Passover, in H. F. Stander (ed.) Acta Patristicsa et Byzantina III, (Pretoria, 1992), 46-62. S. P. Brock draws attention to a passage in CDiat. XVl:25 which reflects a reading in Demonstration XXIII:9; "Notulae Syriacae: some miscellaneous identification", LM 108 (1995), 69-78, esp. 77. In my book, "The Use of Gospel Parables in the Writings of Aphrahat and Ephrem", (Frankfurt, 1996), 353, I have presented two cases where the wording of Ephrem almost agrees with Aphrahat. 2Cf.

for example R. Murray, Symbols of Church and Kingdom, (Cambridge, 1975), 2; C. McCarthy, Saint Ephrem's Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron, JSSS 2, (Oxford, 1993), 14-16.

though Aphrahat was translated into Armenian at an early date and was known to Gennadius (De viris illustribus, chapter 1), his influence on later Syriac writers was not so great, and even his name (properly Jacob) was forgotten, and he was simply known as 'the Persian Sage'. Gennadius also confuses Aphrahat with Jacob of Nisibis. Vol. XIII 2000

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Ephrem's exegesis of the parables provides an important means for the study of their exegesis, their way of thinking and their theology in its specific context. Aphrahat and Ephrem have chosen only those parables which are suitable to their requirement. Nor have they referred to all aspects of any given parable, but only to that aspect or those aspects that are applicable to their particular subject matter. Sometimes they have cited only the introduction or the conclusion of a parable. They treat the parables just like any other passage from the Bible. The use of the parable by both writers is almost the same: as exhortation, proof text, explanation, exegesis etc. Many occurrences of the parable in Ephrem are in defence of orthodox faith; in Aphrahat most of the parables are confined to the first group of his Demonstrations, which has the nature of a series of exhortations. In our present study, based on the canon of parables established by J. Jeremias, we take the number of parables as forty-two.4 Among the forty-two parables, neither refers to Going before the Judge and the Servant's Wages; Aphrahat furthermore never mentions seven parables: the Children in the Marketplace, the Return of the Evil Spirit, the Leaven, the Two Sons, the Fig Tree, the Burglar and the Seed Growing Secretly. "in the modern period there has been no unanimous agreement among the scholars on the canon of Jesus' parables. According to J. Jeremias, the synoptic parables are forty: J. Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus, (rev. ed., London, 1963), 247-248; he does not include the Two Houses in the index of parables given here. But later he changed his mind and added the Two Houses to the previous list and excluded the Choice Places at the Table from it: cf. J. Jeremias, Rediscovering the Parables, (London, 1966), 189-191. We include both the Two Houses and the Choice Places at the Table in our list; furthermore we treat the Tower Builder and the King contemplating a Campaign as two parables, whereas J. Jeremias considers them as one. 5

ln order to understand Aphrahat and Ephrem in their own context we prefer to use the terms interior and exterior, or spiritual and historical interpretations rather than allegorical or literal interpretations. But it does not mean spiritual or historical interpretation is entirely different from allegorical and literal. Spiritual or historical interpretation is more suitable to denote their exegesis because they explored the hidden power of the Scripture through their experience of wonder, love, faith and discernment, rather than through categories and definitions. By choosing the terms interior and exterior, or spiritual and historical we try to avoid some of the confusions and philosophical controversies surrounding the terms allegorical and literal interpretations. Cf. also A. Louth, Discerning the Mystery, (Oxford, 1989), 97-98; M. Simonetti, Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church, (Edinburgh, 1994), 1-33. The Harp

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Methods of Interpretation: Interior and exterior or spiritual and historical Interpretations The life of the individual and of the community in the early Church in its various aspects - discipline, organisation, liturgy etc. was shaped by the Scriptures. Therefore our authors engaged in a complex process of interpretations, making the parables relevant and meaningful to the community and its individuals in their particular circumstances. Our authors took into consideration in their exegesis that the Scripture has two sides: interior and exterior6 or spiritual and historical.7 The interior is concerned with the infinite number of eternal truths behind the surface meanings; while the. exterior is concerned with the circumstances connected with the events. The exterior is finite and fixed, while the interior is infinite in its interpretations. But both interpretations co-exist with each other in our authors. A prominent idea found behind' the spiritual exegesis of Ephrem is that in order to penetrate into the interior meaning and to find out the inter-relation between the interior and the exterior meanings, one should have openness and receptivity, discernment and faith in one's approach to Scripture and God, otherwise he will have only misconceptions about the metaphors used to reveal the nature of God. Aphrahat refers to thirty-three parables in the course of fourteen Demonstrations.8 Ephrem employs the forty parables through his twenty-nine works.

Aphrahat's and Ephrem's Handling of the Parables: Formal Aspects (i). The most popular parables in Aphrahat are the Talents and the Ten Virgins; they occur twenty-three and twenty times respectively. The Talents is used eight times in Demonstration XIV and the Ten Virgins is referred to eight times in Demonstration VI. The parables most referred to in Ephrem are the Talents and the Weeds, twentynine times each; among those, the Talents occurs nine times in CDiat and the Weeds seven times in Nis. 6 This

corresponds to Ephrem's frequent use of the contrasted terms kasya 'hidden', and galya 'revealed'. This corresponds to the contrasted terms ruhana'it 'spiritually', and su'rana'it 'factually', found in Ephrem's CGen. XLIII:1. 8 The parables occur only in Demonstrations, I, II, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, XIV, XVII, XX. XXI, XXII and XXIII.

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(ii). When the same parable occurs in more than one Gospel, in certain cases the narration of one evangelist is followed rather than that of the other(s). When both authors are in agreement with regard to this phenomenon for a particular parable, then there is the possibility that they were following a common exegetical tradition, though it should be noted that their agreement in most cases does not extend to the subject matter as well. Some more striking examples of this phenomenon are the following. Aphrahat: In the Two Houses he follows Matthew more closely than Luke; like Matthew, he distinguishes between the wise and the foolish builders. For the Sower he follows the account of Matthew and Luke three times each with regard to the production of the good soil, and never that of Mark. In the same parable, in the various passages where Ephrem refers to the produce of the good soil he follows the account of Luke eight times, Mark seven times and Matthew twice; in no single passage does he ever combine material from two or more Gospels. For the Marriage Feast; in Par. XI:14, he follows Matthew, since Matthew only refers to the servants who were sent out with the invitations; while in Luke it is a single servant; likewise, in CDiat. V:9 the references to 'the servants' and to the term mesuta denote that Matthew is being followed. (iii). When a parable is narrated by more than one evangelist, Aphrahat and Ephrem combine the narrations of a parable by two evangelists in certain cases. Here also the agreement between our authors is limited in that while they follow this practice, they do not agree in their subject matter in most cases.9 Examples include the following: Aphrahat joins the wise builders of Matthew with the digging of the foundation in Luke in the Two Houses (Dem. XIV:38), and in the Talents he uses the tassi of Matthew in conjunction with the many a of Luke (Dem. XXIII:68). Ephrem in the Two Houses joins 'the flood' of Luke with 'the sand' of Matthew C P; in Res. 1:2 the sheep have gone astray (Matthew) and He carries it on His shoulders (Luke). (iv). Both authors combine, for the purpose of exegesis, two or more parables which have a similar setting, message or characters in order to make the message more meaningful to the audience. They do this by means of the use of certain distinctive terms, or through the interchange of particular characters in the parables. Sometimes a parable is linked also with other quotations from the Bible. In this 91n

two cases where they do agree in content (the sheep both 'got lost' [Luke] and 'went astray' [Matthew]; the combining of the kakra [Matthew] with the manya [Luke], this may point to the sharing of a common source or exegetical tradition.

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process they are able to introduce new issues relevant to the Christian community of their day. Among the examples in Aphrahat we may note here the following. The Sower is frequently (ten times) associated with the Weeds through the qualification of the seed as 'good', as in the Weeds. In Demonstration XIV: 16, the Guest without a Wedding Garment and the Ten Virgins, together with Mark 2:19-20 (the Sons of the Bridal Chamber), are combined because all three have the background of marriage. In Demonstration 11:20 the Rich Man and Lazarus, the Rich Fool and the Prodigal Son are all combined; the Rich Man and Lazarus and the Prodigal Son are linked thrice by the phrase "No man gave to him" (Dems 11:20, XX:7 and 8). Ephrem quite often relates two or more parables together; often he also associates the parables with other incidents of a similar nature from elsewhere in the Bible, as for example, in Nis. 1:8, where the Two Houses is linked with the wall of Jericho Qos. 6:20) and 'the wall' that Moses built in the sea (Ex. 14:21); the same parable is associated with the Tower Builder and Matthew 5:16 in Fid. XII:17. The rejected stone of the Wicked Tenants is linked with the stone which gave drink to the people (Num. 20:11; 1 Cor. 10:14), with the Stone which was the Bread of Life (Jn. 6:35) and the stone which shattered the great image (Dan. 2:34) (Virg. XIV:6-7). Aphrahat and Ephrem apply here the well-known technique of explaining one text of the Bible by means of another. They are also aware that by mixing these parables and texts from the Bible which have a similar background and setting, they will have more effect on their audience. (v). The juxtaposition, for rhetorical effect, of references to a number of parables of related content, in some cases joined by other biblical references not from the parables, is an especially notable feature, and to be found in both prose and poetry. Thus, for example in Demonstration VI:1 Aphrahat demands perseverance in the convenantal life by means of reference to the Ten Virgins, the Marriage Feast, the Tower Builder, the Two Houses and the Weeds. Serving as a series of types of convenantal life are the successful merchant (the Pearl), the fisherman (the Net), the one who received good seed (the Sower) and the athlete (1 Cor. 9:24-25) (Dem. VI:1). Turning to Ephrem we find that the relationship of Jesus to each human being is depicted by means of the Sower together with the Two Houses and the Tower Builder (Fid. XII:18) and to describe the irresponsibility of the pastors of the Church the Lost Sheep, the Two Houses and the Last Judgement Vol. XIII 2000

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are all linked together in Sermo I:i. In CDiat. XIV:19 and 20 the Lost Coin, the Prodigal Son and the Lost Sheep are treated as a unit and commented upon together. (vi). Although not directly connected with their exegesis, it is nevertheless worth drawing attention here to a more general area where Aphrahat and Ephrem share common features in their treatment of the parables; this lies in Syriac (and more generally, Semitic), rhetorical tradition, and their use of parallelism, rhythmic and syllabic patterns, paradigmatic catenae etc.10 Since those features are especially characteristic of artistic prose, it is not surprising that we find them most in Aphrahat, seeing that Ephrem uses artistic prose only in SDN and in Ep. Pub.11 Aphrahat does not use artistic prose for the straight retelling of a parable (eg. the Sower, Dem. XIV:46), whereas Ephrem does in Ep. Pub. Ephrem's delight in the play of words is also occasionally found in connection with the exegesis of the parable, revealing the fertile imagination of his mind; thus "He drowned through Bardaisan more that the Daisan" (the Weeds, Haer. 11:1). Another notable example occurs in Epiph. V1I:18, "Also the diver/baptised brings up from the sea the pearl, they dived down/ were baptised ..." (the Pearl)12 etc. It is the Application and not the Method of Interpretation that is of fundamental Concern Our authors adapted the parables to various situations and their exegesis was conditioned by these factors. Therefore the original setting and message of the parables were interpreted in the light of their particular interests and concerns. The most important of these interests can be identified as eschatology, the role of Christ, the spiritual life of the individual and of the community, contemporary historical developments, the sacraments and salvation history. Many of these interests may be present at the same time in the interpretation of a particular parable and they are intimately related to each other. In order to see what sort of methods of interpretation Aphrahat and Ephrem actually employ, it will be helpful to look at the Guest without a Wedding Garment for which Aphrahat and Ephrem give a 1°Cf.

M. M. Maude, "Rhythmic patterns in the Homilies of Aphraates", ATR 17 (1935), 225-233. R. Murray, "Some rhetorical patterns in early Syriac Literature", in R. H. Fischer (ed.), A Tribute to Arthur Voobus., (Chicago, 1977), 109-131; "Hellenistic-Jewish rhetoric in Aphrahat"', in III Symposium Syriacum 1980, OCA 221 (Rome, 1983), 79-85. 11 Cf. S. P. Brock, "Ephrem's Letter to Publius", LM 89 (1976), 262-266. The same word play on the Vnac/occurs in Fid. LXXXV:6. The Harp

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variety of different interpretations. In Demonstrations VI and VII the parable is applied to the individual ascetic with two different purposes; (I). He exhorts him 'to put off filth'. In Demonstration VII:19 the reference to 'chosen' (from the Choice Place) is to make the parable more relevant to "the ascetic élite". As we see it: Aphrahat actualizes the situation described in the parable, i.e. he brings the parable to throw light on their situation. As Aphrahat saw it: the situation of contemporary ascetic Christians is identified as that of the one described in the parable, (for example he says in the Sower in Demonstration 1:20, "You will be like that ploughed land..."). So the parable is a paradigm to which different situations in time and place can be related. In Demonstration VI:6 only the eschatological dimension is hinted at. This brought out the second purpose, (ii). 'fear of exclusion'. This maybe here and now (Dem. VII:25), or at the eschaton (second death after the judgement; Dem. VIII:19). We may note here the unusual and interesting exegesis given by Ephrem to the Guest without a Wedding Garment in Nis. XLIII:21, where he identifies the wedding garment as the body, in the light of the familiar early Syriac metaphor for the incarnation, 'He put on the body'. Thus, the First-Born puts on the body as a garment and the wedding guests, who have been provided each with a body/ wedding garment, are exhorted to imitate the First-Born and preserve their body/wedding garment unspotted for the eschatological marriage feast. As a result of this adaptation, the person who is bound and thrown out is not so much the guest who came without a wedding garment, but the guest whose wedding garment (body) was defiled. From this example of Aphrahat and Ephrem on the Guest without a Wedding Garment we can see that both writers regard the parables as serving a paradigmatic function which can be applicable to many different contexts. The basic idea behind this seems to be that the Gospel parables are, as it were, models of situations against which other situations can be compared. The Gospel parable in this way functions as an intermediary between a contemporary situation in the life of the Christian community and the kingdom of heaven. It is because of the paradigmatic character which Aphrahat and Ephrem attribute to the parables that they often limit their attention to specific details within a parable, ignoring the rest. Notable examples are the following. In the interpretation of the Good Samaritan Aphrahat deviates from the original parable considerably in order to advise the covenanaters who had fallen from their way of life to reveal to the doctor their wounds. In his exegesis Voi. XI» 2000

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the doctor (the inn keeper) is the central figure; he stresses the role of the two denarii and the wounded man, but he does not even mention the good Samaritan. In the Labourers in the Vineyard four times Aphrahat mentions that those who have borne the burden and heat of the whole day can demand a wage13 that is superior to the wages of the late-comers; his motive behind this in Demonstration VI may be in order to insist on the fact that the ascetics who came early to the vineyard will be rewarded at the resurrection more than ordinary people who lead an ordinary way of life, while in Demonstration XIV and XXIII he may be guided by the idea that justice is the determinative principle at the final judgement; "The workmen who ask wages are superior ... they ask in confidence that He will add to them more" (Dem XXII:18). A particularly striking interpretation is given to the Rich Man and Lazarus by Aphrahat in Demonstration XX where he present the rich man as Israel, the poor man as Jesus, while the dogs which licked the wounds of the poor man are the Gentiles, and their licking the wounds is an allusion to the Eucharist. When he employs the Lost Coin against the Jews Aphrahat does not follow either the message or the spirit of the original parable. In the single occurrence of this parable in Demonstration I he gives a historicizing explanation, identifying the woman who lost her coin as Israel, while the lost coin is the first commandment, which is God Himself; when the Jews lost the first commandment it was impossible for them to keep the nine commandments (Dem. 1:11). In the Last Judgement, Ephrem has given a psychological interpretation to Gehenna in Ep. Pub. § 22 and 23 deviating from the traditional one. Gehenna of the wicked consists in their very separation which burns them, and their mind acts as the flame. The hidden judge who is seated in the discerning mind has become for them the righteous judge, who scourges them without mercy with the torments of remorse. 13

This aspect is well brought out later; thus, for example, we read in the Syrian Orthodox weekday prayers for Sat. Sapro as follows: Those who have worked in His vineyard will ask for their wages and say to Him, "Give us our wages, who have laboured from morning to evening". He will say to them "I will give you what I promised you, I will add yet more: I will give you an open face at the resurrection". For the text see Monastery of St Ephrem, Shehimo, (Holland, 1981), 166-167.

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Seen in this light it is often rather difficult to describe the exegesis of Aphrahat and Ephrem in terms of 'literal' versus 'allegorical'. In any case it is not a choice of either/or but of both/and. Certain interpretations in both writers certainly could be described as 'allegorical' (in a fairly loose sense). This would apply above all to Aphrahat's interpretation of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Demonstration XX:7-12, or of the Lost Coin in Demonstration 1:11, and to the interpretation of the Labourers in the Vineyard in CDiat. XV:16-17. It is important to remember, however, that even these 'allegorical' interpretations are not allegory in the sense that the interpretation is a decoding of a message, where, once the decoding has taken place, the vehicle of the message loses any further importance. For both Aphrahat and Ephrem, though the parables may be given allegorical interpretations, the parables themselves remain paradigmatic, awaiting innumerable other possible interpretation and application to different contexts. Conclusion The above analysis points to the fact that Aphrahat and Ephrem represent an exegetical tradition distinctive in both methods of interpretation and in the interpretation itself given to many parables. In the reapplication of the parables in their particular situations, they have given a paradigmatic character to the parables and in most cases they were not concerned with keeping to the letter or even the original message of the particular parables in their exegesis. They were making parables meaningful to their community in their specific situation by interpreting the original context and their message; in certain cases this has gone far beyond what was meant by Jesus or by the evangelists. In today's terms they were not strictly faithful to the original text and message of the parable; but this does not mean they doubted the literary and scriptural authenticity of the parables. Their approach was essentially pastoral rather than historical, and the methods of interpretations they employed depended entirely on the application to which they were putting the parable. In character these methods ranged from, straightforward interpretation to more allegorical: their choice depended on which would provide the most meaningful understanding for the particular context they had in mind.

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Abbreviations ATR

Anglican Theological Review

Azym. Hymns, on Unleavened Bread C Curetonian Manuscript of the Old Syriac Gospels CDiat. The Commentary on the Diatessaron CGen. The Commentary on Genesis Dem. (s)

Demonstration (s)

Ep. Pub.

Letter to Publius

Epiph. Hymns on the Epiphany Fid.

Hymns on Faith

Haer.

Hymns against Heresies

JSSS

Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement

LM

Le Museon

Nis.

Hymns on Nisibis

OCA

Orientalia Christiana Analecta

P Peshitta [G. H. Gwilliam (ed. and tr.), Tetraeuangelium Sanctum, (Oxford, 1901)] Par.

Hymns on Paradise

SDN

Memra (Sermo) on Our Lord

Virg.

Hymns on Virginity

Kuriakose Valavanolickal M. C. B. S Study House Aluva 683 102 Kerala, India

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K. Luke, Thellakom

Sumerian Survivals in Syriac Syriac is in possession of a very rich vocabulary, which includes not only words of Aramaic origin1 but also loan words from Accadian2, Persian3, Sumerian4, etc. In the present study an endeavour is made to analyse a couple of Sumerian expressions which now form part and parcel of the basic stock of words in Syriac. In what follows Sumerian texts and wofds are transcribed in capitals (except the determinatives) 5 , and those from other languages in italics; the 1

For Syriac is a dialect of East Aramaic that developed among Christians living in the region of E d e s s a . S u r v e y of research, in F. Rosenthal, D i e aramaistische Forschung seit Th. Nöldeke's Veröffentlichungen. Leiden, 1939 (repr., ibid., 1964). Continuation of Rosenthal's survey in E. Y. Kutscher, "Aramaic." Current Trends in Linguistics. VI. Linguistics in Southwest Asia and North Africa (The Hague, 1970) pp. 347-412 (bibliography, pp. 404-

412). S. A. Kaufman. The Accadian Influences on Aramaic. Chicago, 1974. Luke, "East Semitic Survivals in Syriac," Bible Bhashyam 22 (1996) pp. 139155. \ u k e , "Persian Words in Syriac," The Harp 5 (1992) pp. 223-249. Id., 'WordStudies in Syriac," ibid. 3 (1990) pp.31-43. Id., "Etymological Studies in Syriac," ibid.. pp.123-136. A. Deimel, Sumerische Grammatik. Scripta Pontificii Institut! Biblici. 2 ed., Rome,. 1939. F. Delitzsch, Sumerisches Glossar. Repr., Leipzig, 1979. A. Falkenstein, Das Sumerische. Handbuch der Orientalistik. I. Abteilung, II. Band, I. and II. Abschnitt, Lieferung 1. Repr., Leiden, 1964. J. L Hayes, A Manual of Sumerian Grammar and Texts. Aids and Research Tools in Ancient Near Eastern Studies 5. Malibu, 1990. B. Hiibner-A. Reizammer, Sumerisch-Deut-sches Glossar. 2 vols. INIM KIENGI II. Marktredwitz, 19851986. 2

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orthography has been somewhat simplified in order to facilitate the printer's work. S . Shûsheppâ' The term shûsheppâ' 6 is familiar to those who celebrate the liturgy in Syraic, but its origin remains unknown to them. J. P. Smith gives three series of meanings of the term: 1) veil, covering, chalice veil; 2) napkin/handkerchief, towel (also the towel used at the time of baptism); 3) vestment, robe (of judges, kings and priests)? She derives the form from ship 8 , which is, however, something impossible, for the combination shap-shap will give rise to shapap but not to shashap: no Semitic root can have as its first and second radical the same consonant9. Interesting to note, Ethiopie attests verbal forms such as babava. "to rejoice," dadaqa. "to happen," sasata. "to mock," sasawa. "to feed," and so on. These verbs go back to baybava. daqdaqa. etc., and they are all secondary formations on the analogy of roots that have the same consonant as the second and third radical10. We wish also to recall here that Accadian includes forms such as shushduhu. "to lead in procession," shushgumu. "to cause to howl," shushhutu. "to 5

ln cuneiform writing it is customary to add before certain words a term pointing out the nature of what they denote: thus gish literally means "wood," and it is prefixed to objects made of wood: " "hBANSHliR, "table" (discussed in Section IV); lu, "man," is prefixed to words denoting man: '"DUB-SAR, "male scribe;" dingir, "god," is prefixed to divine names: d'ngirNANNA. At times the determinatives may come after the noun. List of determinative in HiibnerReizammer, op.cit. II, pp.1227-1228. It is important to note that the determinative are not to be read 6 There are orthographic variations (sho-. shaw-) which do not In any way affect our discussions; the form given in the text is the more accurate one, representing the normal development from Accadian shushippu. The writer has analysed the term in his "Word-Studies in Syriac," Bible Bhashvam 18 (1992) pp.235-245 (p.p.235-237). ? Smith, A Compendious Svriac ¡Dictionary (repr., Oxford, 1985) p.569. Cf. too K. Brockelmann, Lexicon Svriacum (repr., Hildesheim, 1982) p.787. s Smith, op.cit.. p. 567. Brockelmann, op.cit.. ibid., suggests (with a question mark) neshap. from which too the actual form cannot be derived. g S. Moscati (ed.), An Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages (Porta linguarum orientalium NS 6. Wiesbaden, 1964) pp.71 -74. 10 W. Leslau, Comparative Dictionary of Ge'ez. Repr., Wiesbaden, 1991. This work replaces A. Dillmann, Lexicon linguae aethiopicae. Leipzig, 1865 (repr., 1970). G. da Maggiore. Vocabulario-etiopico-italiano-latino. Asmara, 1953 (summary of Dillman's work). Cf. too Leslau, Concise Dictionary of Ge'ez: Classical Ethiopie. Wiesbaden, 1989. Grammatical discussions in M. Chaîne, Grammaire éthiopienne. Repr., Beirut, 1938. T. O. Lambdin, Introduction to Classical Ethiopie. Harvard Semitic Studies 24. Harvard, 1978.

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cause to fear."shushlcunu. "to cause to dwell," etc. which are causatives formed with the help of shu-, the causative prefix12, from, the roots shadahu. "to proceed," shagamu. "to howl," shahatu, "to fear," and shakanu. "to dwell". Historically speaking, the word in Syriac is borrowed from Accadian where it appears as shushippu. and there are too the variants shusippu. shushuppu. shusuppu. and sasuppu13. The word is an old one, occurring in the Old Babylonian documents from Mari on the Euphrates, and it is found too in Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian sources as well as in ritual texts. The meaning it has in cuneiform documents is "cloth, loin-cloth," which is at times said to be made of wool, and which is worn by the gods, rulers and priestesses. As for the Accadian forms (which are all anomalous for the reason indicated above), they are all modifications of Sumerian SHU-SUUB (to be read shusub). and Sumero-Accadian lexical texts attest the correspondence SHU-SU-UB = shu-su-up-pu14. These texts put before the Sumerogram the sign TUG (= Accadian subatu), "garment, clothing," which is a determinative denoting garments in general15. In short, SHU-SU-UB denotes clothing, clothes and indeed any item of clothing. The Aramaens borrowed the Accadian term, which subsequently passed into Jewish Aramaic16, where the forms attested are shosipa' and shosippa'. "head-covering, scarf, a coarse cloak" (used as bedsheet). In the Targums the word figures as the rendering of Hebrew 'adderet. "cloak, mantle, cover" (2Kg 2:8), salmah. "dress, garment" (ISam 21:10), ma'atapah. "tunic, mantle" (Is 3:22), etc. 11 W.

von Soden, Akkadisches Handvv jrbuch (3 vols., Wiesbaden, 1.965-1981) III, passim (roots beginning with sl>) Von Soden, Grundriss der akkadischen Grammatik (Analecta Orientalia 3 8 , 4 7 . 2 ed., Rome, 1969) pp. 116-117. The historical and dialectal problems involved here are analysed in Moscati, op. cit.. pp.125-126. 13 Von Soden, op.cit. Ill, p.1289. On the various lexical compilations, cf. Luke, "Sumerian Religious Lyric," The Living Word 83 (1977) pp.75-99 (pp.93-95). The most voluminous of these combinations is HAR-ra = hubullu (modern scholars prefer UR -ra = hubullu). covering 24 large tablets and listing some 10,000 items. Succinct survey in Haves. Manual of Sumerian Grammar, pp.273-281. 1 5 Compare U 9 BAR-SI, "turban," " 9 SIG, "mantle," '"TUG, "tailor," etc. List of meanings and forms in Hubner-Reizammer, op.cit. II. pp.1044-1045. The word is not found in biblical Aramaic. References to rabbinic sources in M. Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Taraumim. the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi. and the Midrashic Literature (2 vols. Repr., New York, 1950) II, p.1543. Vol. XIII 2000

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Here are a couple of texts from the Targums that will illustrate the Jewish tradition17. Tamar, demanding a pledge, tells Judah: "Your seal-ring, your shosippa'. and your staff that is in your hand" (Gen 38:18). Later on she asks her father-in-law: "Acknowledge now, whose are these, the seal-ring, the shosippayva' and the staff: (Gen 38:25). The Hebrew original has patil. "twisted thread, cord," which ran through the cylinder seal18, and was worn round the neck. In the account of the making of the golden calf it is said that Aaron bound it in a shosippa' (Ex 32:4); the Hebrew text has here a rare word which has been interpreted in different ways by exegetes, both ancient and modern19. To cite one more example, Dt 22:17 runs as follows: "... they shall spread the shSsippa' before the elders of the city;" the Hebrew original has simlah20. On turning to the Peshitta, we notice that it has in Gen 38:18,25 the rendering shdseppa'. and this is too the case with regard to Dt 22:17 and so on. The reading in these passages is significant, in as much as it confirms the thesis that the men responsible for the creation of the Syriac Pentateuch were actually Jews or, maybe, Jews converted to the Christian faith21. ^Examples will be cited from the Targum Onkelos, a s edited by A. Sperber, The Bible in Aramaic. I. The Pentateuch according to Targum Onkelos. Leiden, 1959. English translation (outmoded in some respects) i.n J. W. Ethridge, The Targum of Onkelos and Jonathan ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch with the Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum. London, 1862 (repr., New York, 1982). The writer does not have at his disposal the new translation in the course of publication under the editorship of Martin McNamara. For a specimen, cf. J. B. Pritchard. T h e Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, 1956) no.265 (p.79; cf. p. 278). Discussions in S. E. Loewenstamm, 'The Making and Destruction of the Golden Calf - a Rejoinder," Biblica 56 (1975) pp.330-343. s i This is a variant of salmSh (1Sam 21:10). There is the view that the basis of the Syriac Pentateuch was a Palestinian Targum, defended especially by A. Baumstark and P. E. Kahle (references in Luke, "The Peshitta Version of the Old Testament," Bible Bhashvam 9 (1983) pp.200219). The position now commonly held by experts is thatthe theory of Targumic origin cannot be defended. The rhetorical query raised by A. Sperber, The Bible in Aramaic. IVB. The Targum and the Hebrew Bible (Leiden, 1973) :p. 412, is to the point: "Why should these men who must have had an excellent command of Hebrew... have wasted so much time and energy on revising the Palestinian Targum, when... they could have translated straight from the Hebrew into the Eastern dialect?" Cf. too M. D. Koster, "Which came First: the Chicken or E g g ? The Development of the Text of the Peshitta of Genesis and Exodus in the Light of Recent Studies," The Peshitta: its Early Text and History (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute 4. Leiden, 1985) pp.99-126.

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II. Shawtäputä' The word here cited means "fellowship, communion," and the like,22 and, as the professional Semitist will, recognize, it is an abstract noun formed by means of the suffix -fit- from the root shawtep. "to share, take part," etc.23 This verbal base, which represents the causative stem24, is itself borrowed from Accadian which attests shutäpu (also shuttapu). "companion, partner, co-worker;"25 compare, "The gods created the, slave shu-tap-ku-un. as your companion:" there are idiomatic expressions such as mär X shu-ü-ta-a-pi-shu. "son of X, his companion," ina qätX shu-ta-pi-shu-nu. "in the hand of X, their companion," etc. There is in Accadian the abstract noun shutäpu tu. "companionship, common work" (in the field), which is not of any significance for our study. Accadian shutäpu is itself a compound formed form the substantive tuppü (contracted from tuppä'u). "companion, partner."26 It is interesting to note that according to a cuneiform document the gods demand of pious men to become their tuppü, "companion."27 From the present term is created the abstract noun tuppütu. "companionship," and also "co-operation, giving help." Accadian tuppü is on its pat a loanword from Sumerian, for it is a modification of TAB, "companion;"28 compare MASH-TAB-BA, ^Smith. Compendious Syriac Dictionary, p.576. Detailed survey of the NT tradition in Luke, "Shawtaputa of the Holy Spirit," Christian Orient 5 (1'984) pp.105121. O n nouns in Hit; (-Qtä1). cf. K. Brockelmann, Syrische Grammatik (Lehrbücher für das Studium der orientalischen und afrikanischen Sprachen 4.10 ed., Leipzig, 1965) p.74. T. Nöldeke, Kurzgefasste syrische Grammatik (repr., Darmstadt, 1966) p. 64. Smith, op.cit.. p.569. List of meanings in Luke, op.cit.. p.113. Compare Brockelmann, op.cit.. pp.82-83. Nöldeke. op.cit.. p.180. Examples of the type of formation in question here are shawzeb. "to save," shawhar. "to be late," shawda. "to make known," shawheb. "to hasten," etc. Von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch III, p.1291 (whence the examples are borrowed). 26 Von Soden, op.cit. Ill, pp.1321-1322. There is a tablet from Ugarit in which a person states that, as he was lying ill, he consulted a diviner who make known to him that the infirmity was the manifestation of a n erishtu. "desire," on the part of the god Apshukka: ana amil tap-pu-ti-shu e-er-ri-sha-an-ni. "He desires me as his companion." Here we have a medical oracle which is representative of "une election divine d'un genre nouveau." For the text, cf. J. Nougayrol, Le palais royal' d'Uaarit. IV. Textes accadiens des archives sud (Mission de R a s Shamra 6. Paris, 1956) pp.222-223. O n erishtu. cf. Nouaavrol'. Reveu d'Assyriologie40 (1945) pp.7376. Von Soden, op.cit.I. pp.241-242. Hübner-Reizammer, Sumerisch-Deutsches Glossar II, pp.1015-1018. Vol. Xlil 2000

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29 W. H. Ph. Römer, Sumerische 'Köniqshvmnen' der Isin-Zeit (Documenta et monumenta orientis antiqui 13, Leiden, 1965) pp.251-252 (where several examples are cited). Cf. too A. Falkenstein-.l. van Dijk, Sumerische Gdtterlieder 2 vols. A b h a n d l u n g e n der Heidelberger A k a d e m i e der Wissenschaften. Philol.- hist. Klasse, 1951/1, 1960/1. Heidelberg, 1959, 1960)11, p.153. Leslau, Comparative Dictionary of Ge'ez. p.517. Other forms belonging here are sutuf. "companion, partaker, partner, accomplice," sutäfi. "partner, companion, associate," and tasäfäfi. "associative, companion." The simple stem satafa is not in use, but the derivative one tasatafa, "to associate with, share, participate," etc., is quite common. The word denotes Holy Communion. The text is cited from the Bible Society edition of the NT (Adis Ababa, 1968; p.323: 2Cor 13:13). 32 The common Semitic designation of the supreme being 'ii(u). in all likelihood, "the powerful one" (details in Luke, "An Instance of the Devil's Trickery." Bible Bhashvam 23 (1997) pp.183-197 [pp.187-188]), which is replaced in Ehiopic by 'eazi 'abher. literally, the master of the land." Christ is called 'eqzi'. "master, lord, owner" (Leslau, op.cit.. p.210). The root is qaz'a, "to dominate, master," which is well attested in the languages of Ethiopia, but whose connection with the other Semitic languages is not clear. Cf. Luke, 'The Ethiopic Version of the Bible," Bible Bhashvam II (1985) pp. 169-188, 236-253. A common Semitic term which originally denoted beathing and derivatively also the soul, the throat, etc.; compare Ethiopic basema 'ab wawaled wamanfas qeddus. "in the name of the Father..." Jastrow, Dictionary of the Taraumim II, pp.1639-1640.

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The Rabbis have created from the substantive a fresh verbal form, shatap. "to combine, join together,"15 whose intensive stem they use in their writings. The idiom is clear from "The Lord shittep. combined his great name with that of Israel." The participle occurs in "Everyone mEshattep. who includes the name of God in his trouble,36 his means of support will be doubled;" "What will you do with your great name which is meshutl:ap, embodied in our own (name)?" There is a Jewish legend that the devil told Noah: shutt-pi 'immak. "I will go into partnership with you." The Romans could not defeat the Greeks until shutt-pmlm, they made him (= Israel) their ally. "The Targum on Son 1:7 reads: "The flocks of the sons of Esau and Ishmael who mf,shatter» in. follow you."37 The second Targum on Esther 7:9 has "I was shuttap 'im 'etroga'. with the ethrog" (i.e. orange or citron wreaths used on the occasion of the feast of booths). Finally there is the use of the reflexive-passive of the intensive stem as well, the meaning being "to be joined, form a partnership with;" compare the Targum on Prv 5:17, "Let not strangers nishtatt e pun. share it with you." The two following texts from Rabbinic sources are quite to the point: "A man should always y^shshattep. include himself in the community" (i.e. he must pray for all); "I used to make myself a mishtattapna'. partner by contributing some money" (towards meeting the expenses of a feast). It is not possible to specify whether the Syrians took over shawtaputa' from Accadian or Aramaic. Syria and the adjacent regions fell within the Accadian sphere of influence, an historical circumstance that may account for the survival of shutapu in Syriac. Derivation from Aramaic is something that does not call for any comment.

III. Ternaqla' The present term designates the cock, and there is also the form tarnagul; here belong too tarnagulta' and tarnagrl ta'. "hen, fowl."38 ^ T h e verbal root is therefore denominative, and not primary. The sense is that he who prays to: God when he is in trouble... W e may very well say, "Everyone who, when he is in distress, has God as his companion, will find security." Some of the Targums on the hagiographa are very late compilations, and they have not yet been studied in depth, but it is a fact that they preserve archaic expressions and traditions. W e follow here P. de Lagarde, Hagiographa chaidaice. Repr:, Osnabriick, 1967. Brockelmann. Lexicon Svriacum. p.836. Smith. Compendious Syriac Dictionary. p.621. Vol. XIII 2000:

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The forms are all ultimately derived from Sumerian which attests DAR-LUGAL and DAR-LUGAL-MUSHEN, "the cock/' 39 which, because of the crown-like thing on its head, is pictured as LUGAL, "king."40 The sources preserve too DAR, DAR-A, DAR-DAR (= Accadian burrumu. tarru). "particoloured bird," DARMUSHEN (= Accadian burrumtü), "hen, fowl," etc. Special mention must be made of the expression DAR-ME-LUH-HAmush