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To Train His Soul in Books: Syriac Asceticism in Early

Christianity
Robin Darling Young
Monica J. Blanchard

Series: CUA Studies in Early Christianity

Copyright Date: 2011
Published by: Catholic University of America Press
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x
Pages: 240

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt284w2x

Table of Contents

Export Selected Citations 

Front Matter (pp. i-vi)
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.1

Table of Contents (pp. vii-viii)

DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.2

ABBREVIATIONS (pp. ix-x)

DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.3

INTRODUCTION (pp. xi-xx)

 DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.4

This volume of essays, a collection of studies on the work of Ephrem the Syrian and subsequent
developments in Syriac-speaking asceticism, is a small sign of the respect and fondness its authors share
for Professor Sidney H. Griffith. Some of the authors have worked with Sidney as his students, and others
began as colleagues and are grateful to call themselves his friends. Compiling this volume in celebration
of Sidney’s scholarly work and in view of his approaching seventieth birthday, they also know that they are
representing many other scholars and friends who gladly would add their tributes to the life...

PART I. POE TRY AND EPHREM THE SYRI AN

1. SYRIAC STROPHIC POETRY: Intercalated Psalms (pp. 3-22)

Joseph P. Amar
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.5

Beginning with the New Testament itself, early Christian literature abounds with references to the use
of the psalms in Christian worship.¹ Although the psalms were employed in a variety of ways, the
evidence suggests that the simplest, and perhaps earliest, method of praying the psalms consisted
of a soloist who chanted each verse of the psalm, to which the congregation then responded with a
simple word (“Alleluia”) or a phrase (“Glory to you”) or a set psalm verse. From this basic
“responsorial” pattern, there emerged the more highly developed “antiphonal” form of praying the
psalms in which each verse of...

2. EFRÉN DE NISIBE, HIMNOS DE VIRGINITATE, I–III (pp. 23-54)

Francisco Javier Martínez
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.6

Mi primer contacto con S. Efrén tuvo lugar en Jerusalén, allá por el año 1978, en el monasterio sirio
ortodoxo de S. Marcos. La profesora que aquel curso enseñaba siríaco en L’École Biblique, Kathleen
E. McVey, llevó a sus alumnos a participar en una liturgia de vísperas en el monasterio, famoso por
aquel entonces debido al papel que había jugado en las peripecias de los primeros manuscritos
hallados en Qumran. También fue con ella con quien, por primera vez, “intentamos” traducir un himno
de S. Efrén. Y fue también ella quien primero me habló de Catholic University y de Sidney...

PART II. TEXT S, TERMS, ME TAPHORS

3. REDEEM YOUR SINS THROUGH WORKS OF CHARITY (pp. 57-65)

Gary A. Anderson
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.7

In the fourth chapter of the Book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and the prophet Daniel
is summoned to give an interpretation. In this dream, a tree, abundant in foliage and rich in fruit, rises
up in the midst of the earth, providing shade to the animals below and a domicile for the birds above.
But then, quite abruptly, a Holy Watcher descends and announces that the tree is to be torn down, and
only a stump left in its place. The king is to be fettered to it and spend such time as it would take for...

4. A MONASTIC SETTING FOR THE SYRIAC APOCALYPSE OF DANIEL (pp. 66-98)

Alexander Golitzin
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.8

Just over a year and a half ago as I write, Professor Matthias Henze of Rice University published an
edition with text, translation, annotations, and introduction of a Syrian Christian pseudepigraphon,
which he entitled the Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel (hereafter, SAD).¹ The document is preserved in a
single manuscript, Harvard MS Syr 42, where it is placed toward the very end of a collection of
ascetical literature dominated by a fairly complete assemblage of the works of John of Dalyatha
(eighth century), and including brief selections from John bar Penkaye, Evagrius Ponticus, Basil the
Great, Philoxenus of Mabbug, John Chrysostom,...

5. A SYRIAC LIFE OF ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA (pp. 99-121)

Michael J. Hollerich
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.9

In 1978 Arthur Vööbus published a brief description of a Syriac life of Athanasius of Alexandria,
which he had discovered in the manuscript collection formerly of the Mar Hananya Monastery in Tur
‘Abdin.¹ This Vita Athanasii syriaca (VAS) was bound in a large codex (now MS Dam. Patr. 12/17) with
a mass of other biographies, encomia, and histories of ecclesiastical figures. Although the codex
lacked a colophon, Vööbus believed he could date the Estrangelo script to the twelfth century. It was
written on parchment in three‑column format. The Athanasian vita bore the full title, “The History of
the Holy and...

6. RADICAL RENUNCIATION: The Ideal of msarrqûtâ (pp. 122-133)

Sebastian P. Brock
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.10

Although this passage from one of the Sermones attributed to Ephrem cannot possibly be by the
saint himself,² it usefully serves to introduce right at the outset some of the main features of
msarrqûtâ. But before drawing out these features, we need to face the problem of how best to render
 the term in English. Dictionaries and modern translations offer a variety of possibilities, such as
“privation,” “voluntary poverty,” “renunciation,” “voluntary renunciation of worldly goods,” “self-
deprivation,” “emptying of self,” “nonpossession,” “nonpossessiveness,” etc. Since (as will be seen)
the term has somewhat different connotations in different sources, it will be best...

7. HOUSEKEEPING: An Ascetic Theme in Late Antiquity (pp. 134-154)

Susan Ashbrook Harvey
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.11

One of the motifs especially dear to early Christian writers was that of the house as a metaphor for
the human person, or of the body as a temple or sanctuary. Biblical allusions from both the Hebrew
Bible and New Testament underlay this imagery. In Late Antiquity, however, this complex of building
metaphors gained an additional set of images with the development of housekeeping as an image
for ascetic discipline. In particular, the tasks and methods of cleaning house proved to be effective
tropes for the practice of long-term asceticism, as a means for maintaining the self-identity of the
Christian...

PART III. AF TER EPHREM THE SYRI AN

8. THE INFLUENCE OF EVAGRIUS OF PONTUS (pp. 157-175)

Robin Darling Young
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.12

In about 460, a young Persian Christian named Aksenâyâ traveled north from his home province of
Beth Garmai to become a student at the school of Edessa. Already committed to the monastic life, he
undertook there a study of the works of Cyril of Alexandria. That study convinced him of the errors of
the East Syrian theology with which he had probably been raised, and eventually led him to go further
west, allying himself with the anti-Chalcedonian monasteries and hierarchies of northern and western
Syria.

An eloquent symbol of his relocation was the new name that Aksenâyâ was given by...

9. THE SYRIAC DISCOURSES OF BEH ISHO‘ KAMULAYA (pp. 176-188)

Monica J. Blanchard
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.13

Purity of heart is an important concept in early Christian ascetical and monastic literature.¹ It is also
an important theme in the writings of a late eighth-century East Syrian monk, Beh Isho‘ Kamulaya,
whose writings have only recently been rediscovered. I would like to take the opportunity here to
 introduce the works of Beh Isho‘ by tracing this theme as it appears in his Syriac discourses on the
monastic way of life.

The Institute of Christian Oriental Research (ICOR) at the Catholic University of America owns a small
Syriac manuscript which has not yet been published. Incomplete at beginning and...

10. ODE TO JOY (pp. 189-204)

Shawqi Talia
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.14

The genesis of this soġīṭā was the presentation of a festschrift¹ to Fr. Sidney Griffith, professor of
Semitic languages at the Catholic University of America. Dr. Monica Blanchard, of the Institute of
Christian Oriental Research at the university, kindly invited this writer to preface the presentation with
an introduction.² It was, indeed, an honor and a privilege to do so. Professor Griffith has been a
colleague and a friend for more than three decades.

Scholars and readers of Syriac studies and Christian Arabic literature are well apprised of Professor
Griffith’s contribution in these two fields. His erudition in the field...

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WORKS OF SIDNEY H. GRIFFITH (pp. 205-216)

DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.15

CONTRIBUTORS (pp. 217-217)

DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.16

Back Matter (pp. 218-218)

DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt284w2x.17

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