Peter Miller: Jewish Wisdom, Pagan Authors, Christian Monasteries: The Sentences of the Syriac Menander and the Preservation of Classical Authors in Syriac

Two Syriac volumes in the British Library purchased from the Egyptian Christian monastery Deir al-Surian preserve collections of gnomic wisdom attributed to Menander the Wise, better known as a New Comic poet. Due to his prominence in the educational curriculum, the moral maxims excerpted from his comedies loom in the background of many early Christian texts, from Paul of Tarsus to Justin Martyr to Socrates Scholasticus. However, the moral phrases contained in BL Or. Add. 14658 and 14614 that bear Menander’s name do not align with known fragments of the comedies, and seem to date to the Roman period as described by Monaco(2013), et al. While this text was clearly translated from the Greek (Baarda, Land), it is representative of an interest in the Western Syriac context to translate and preserve certain works of pre-Christian Hellenistic writers alongside honored theologians, including Melito and Gregory Nazianzus.In this paper, I argue that the preservation of the Sentences of the Syriac Menander aligns with broader translation interests of the Western Syriac context, which has selectively harvested certain works by or attributed to Greek authors predating Christianity. For the Syriac communities in Edessa, Nisibis, and Egypt, these authors who stand alongside pseudo-Menander include Galen and Aristotle translated by Sergius of Reshaina, an anonymous Socratic dialogue, Isocrates, and Porphyry of Tyre, some even in the same codex. Through this analysis, I will argue that the preservation of tracts like the Sentences reveals a willingness to syncretize perceived pre-Christian morality and monastic discipline.