Jeff Childers: Chrysostom in Syriac Dress

John Chrysostom’s Exegetical Homilies on the Gospel of John were translated into Syriac in the fifth century and enjoyed great popularity in Syriac-speaking churches. As instances of cross-cultural reception and recontextualization, they put the voice of the Golden Mouth into an oriental idiom, drawing him into various conversations that were fundamental to the development of the Syriac heritage. His impact on that heritage is signalled by the number of Syriac manuscripts containing the Homilies, predominantly of the 6th–7th century and significantly predating the existing Greek evidence, the controversy alleged to have surrounded his exegetical legacy in the Syriac Church of the East (i.e. “Nestorians”), and his continuing Nachleben in the broader Syriac interpretive, ascetic, and liturgical traditions. The Homilies are saturated with biblical citation and exposition, supplying early evidence pertinent to the rich Syriac biblical tradition and illuminating the ways in which Greek Antiochene exegesis was being appropriated into oriental Christian communities. The Syriac Homilies have even been heralded as a principal source of evidence for a pre-canonical form of the Greek text of John’s Gospel.

Despite the remarkable age and inherent richness of the texts, only preliminary studies have been done so far. Indeed, it has only recently become possible to gain access to portions of the extant Syriac evidence in Damascus, and due to recent work, it has also now become possible to identify previously unknown manuscripts and fragments containing portions of the text and to “reunite” formerly separated portions of important early evidence from Sinai that had been scattered across Europe. This paper briefly presents the results of a thorough analysis of these texts, including those having recently come to light, in order to clarify their significance as early evidence for Chrysostom’s Homilies and for multiple avenues of other research across a wide range of interests in Greek and Syriac patristics.

Jeff Childers: Jacob of Serugh's Memra 9 On Praise at Table: A Newly Published Syriac Text

With the recent appearance of 160 Unpublished Homilies of Jacob of Serugh (Akhrass & Syryany 2017), many new works ascribed to the prolific late antique Syriac author have been brought to light. This communication will examine one such work: Jacob of Serugh's Memra 9 "On Praise at Table.” This memra (Number 52 in the new collection) explores wedding motifs, illuminating christological and ecclesiological dimensions of the groom, the bride, and the wedding feast. An analysis of the work’s vocabulary, literary style, and fundamental themes will provide insight into this unstudied text, enabling a comparison with the known cycle of eight “Praise at Table” hymns ascribed to Jacob. The analysis will help determine the nature of the new memra’s proper relationship to the known cycle and clarify its contributions to our understanding of Jacob's thought.

Jeff Childers: SC Praise at Table: A Cycle of Meditations by Jacob of Serugh

Edited by P. Bedjan (1908) under the title, “On Praise at Table,” this hitherto unstudied cycle of Syriac memre (nos. 139–146) attributed to Jacob of Serugh deals with a range of topics that are especially appropriate for meal-time reflection, such as: providence, bread and wine, honey, alms, gluttony, and reading scripture at table. Characterized by a tone of thankful praise, the meditations of these memre move between the body’s delight in the Creator’s provision of physical nourishment and the soul’s deeper need for spiritual sustenance. The poet’s celebration of food is qualified by his exhortation to spiritual discipline and his warnings against ingratitude or gluttony. This short communication presents the results of a close analysis of the style, metaphors, themes, theological content, and rhetorical features of these memre. The texts are full of biblical images and theological content; they invite the hearer and reader to engage in spiritual practices connected with food as a divine gift; they depict a community formed into a table fellowship by habits of embodied gratitude and discipline. Among the many areas of interest attaching to Jacob’s legacy, attention has turned recently to questions surrounding the identities and social locations of the people to whom Jacob preached and the people among whom he ministered. This communication will attempt to set these memre in their historical, theological, and communal context, illuminating aspects of Christian communal in the late antique Christian East.