THEHARP A Review of Syriac, Oriental and Ecumenical Studies Volume: XXXIII 2018 St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute (SEERI) Baker Hill, Kottayam - 686001, Kerala, India i THEHARP A Review of Syriac, Oriental and Ecumenical Studies © SEERI Publications, Kottayam All Rights reserved Published by St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute (SEERI) Edited by Jacob Thekeparampil Thomas Koonammakkal Baby Varghese With the Assistance of Metropolitan Mar Aprem, Assad Sauma, Sebastian P. Brock, J.P. Deschler, F.B. Chatonnet, A. Desreumaux, R.Y. Ebied, D. Taylor, T.C. Falla, K.M. George,W. Hage, A. Harrak, F. Cassingena, K.H. Kuhlmann, H. Teule, K. McVey, A. Badwi, A. Schmidt, H. Suermann, M. Tamcke, J. Tubach, L. Van Rompey, J.W. Watt, Cornelia B. Horn, Muriel Debié, D. Winkler, Jiffy F. Mekkattukulam, Shabo Talay, E. Vergani Printed in India Composed & laid out by Kaval Graphics, Kottayam Printed at St. Joseph’s Press, Mannanam Price In India Rs. 300.00 + Postage All correspondences regarding the Review should be addressed to: The Editors, The Harp, SEERI, Baker Hill, Kottayam - 686 001, Kerala, India Phone : 0091 481 2564333, 2560856. E-mail: [email protected] & [email protected] iiii Contents Editorial 1 Two Vital Collections of Syriac Manuscripts - Sebastian Brock 11 Why Patriarch Aphrem Barsaum was called "Athoraya"?: An investigation into the Geographical names Athor and Mosul in Syriac - Assad Sauma 51 The Syriac Calligraphy: A secret incantation and an initiatory journey which demands constant training and impeccable principles - Behnam Keryo 63 The Theology of Existence in the works of Vladimir Solovyov, Pavel Florenski and Sergei Bulgakov - Ionita Apostolache 89 Darge Kahanauthe d Etha d Madenha - Grades of Priesthood in the East Syrian Tradition - Devamitra Neelankavil 103 Acts of Thomas re-examined in the light of the Song of Thomâ Ramban - Thomas Koonammakkal 145 "The Perfect road is this, 'Bless him who curses you and love him who hates you, and pray for whomever harms you and persecutes you' " (LG XIX, 12) Bible and Perfection in the Liber Graduum - Pablo Argárate 171 Reading Mazmure and Madrase: A Cross-Pollination between Psalm (79/)80 and Ephrem the Syrian's Hymn on Faith 12 - Charis Vleugels 205 Comparing the Syriac and Arabic Chronicles of Barhebraeus: The question of intended Audiences. - Dibo Habbabe 269 Religion and Divine Music in Nature with Special Reference to Ephrem the Poet - Thomas Koonammakkal Vol. XXXIII 2018 The Harp iii 279 Re-establishment of Orthodoxy: The Chengannoor Synod of 1686 CE - Meladath Kurian Thomas 287 Towards a Common list of Martyrs: Syriac Perspective - Baby Varghese 303 The Word and the Eschatological Dimension in East-Syrian Synodical Records - Martin Tamcke 315 On Barhebraeus the Grammarian - Rainer Voigt 335 The Bride-Bridegroom Imagery in the West Syriac Marriage Liturgy - Santhosh Joshua 377 Liturgy as an Element of Communion and Communication between Churches - Baby Varghese 389 The Syriac Version of the Treatise on the Origin and History of the Thirty Pieces of Silver which Judas received from the Jews - Rifaat Ebied 413 Syriac Prayer-Amulets from Turfan - Erica C.D. Hunter 439 Spirituality of St. Ephrem - Stephen Plathottathil 457 The Syriac Translation of Joseph and Aseneth - Jonathon Wright 467 In Memoriam: Robert F. Taft 471 Book Review 476 List of publications iv Editorial In the last three issues of the Harp (Vol. Nos. 30, 31 & 32) we published most of the papers presented in the 8th World Syriac Conference held in SEERI during Sept. 2014. In this issue (Vol. No. XXXIII), we are happy to publish the remaining papers presented in the Conference, together with a few scholarly papers submitted by learned authors. We hope that those who did not get the opportunity to participate in the last conference will be greatly benefitted by these presentations. Let this issue be a valuable addition to their collection! We could not bring out the entire papers presented in the last conference, as some of the participants failed to submit copies of their presentations in a digital form or as a hard copy even after repeated requests. Of course, this is a great loss to our readers and we sincerely regret for the same. Vol. XXXIII 2018 The Harp v Sebastian Brock TWO VITAL COLLECTIONS OF SYRIAC MANUSCRIPTS It is a sobering fact that if we did not have the benefit of just two monasteries’ collections of Syriac manuscripts, our knowledge of early Syriac literature would be immensely poorer; we would not, for example, have any complete poems of St Ephrem, and many works, including important translations from the Greek Fathers, lost in their Greek original, would remain unknown. The reason for this is a simple one: it is only thanks to the dry climate of Egypt that considerable numbers of Syriac manuscripts dating from the fifth to eleventh century have been preserved. Elsewhere in West Asia (or, from a European perspective, the Middle East) it is very rare for Syriac manuscripts that date from before about AD 1000 to have survived. The two monasteries in question are, of course, St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, and Deir al-Surian, between Alexandria and Cairo. Since they belong to different ecclesial traditions, Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian, each preserves a different selection of writings, as far as patristic and liturgical texts are concerned. In the following brief survey of these two monastic collections, I include in the discussion those manuscripts which are not any longer in their original home, but are now scattered all over the world in public libraries and private collections. Since the collection of Deir al-Surian is of greater importance because of its size, I take it first. Vol. XXXIII 2018 1-10 The Harp 2 Sebastian Brock Deir al-Surian (Dayra d-Yaldat Alaha) The presence of Syriac monks at this Coptic monastery in the desert of Sketis goes back to the early ninth century and continued until the mid seventeenth century. That the monastery remained both Coptic and Syriac during this period is indicated both by the presence of inscriptions in both languages in the monastery church, and by the fact that Syriac manuscripts written in the monastery normally commemorate both the Patriarch of Antioch and the Patriarch of Alexandria in their colophons. A certain amount about how the collection was built up can be learnt from notes about donors that have been added to manuscripts.1 Thus we know that in the early period of the Syriac presence there was a close connection between the monastery and Takrit, through merchants from Takrit who were residing in Old Cairo. Quite a number of important old manuscripts go back to these early donations, but it is above all to the initiative of Abbot Mushe of Nisibis, in the early tenth century, that a large number of manuscripts were added to the library.2 Abbot Mushe had travelled to Baghdad in 927 in order to negotiate a reduction in new taxes that had been imposed on the monasteries in the desert of Sketis. As is not unusual today as well, dealing with tax authorities can be a protracted business; in the case of Abbot Mushe’s visit to Baghdad, it was only after six years that he returned, but his time in the Abbasid capital had by no means been wasted, for, as he proudly announces in notes inserted into quite a number of manuscripts: To the honour, renown and exaltation of this holy Monastery of the shrine of the Bearer of God, of the Syrians, in the desert 1 An overview, with references to further literature, is given in the Introduction to S.P. Brock and L. van Rompay, Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts and Fragments in the Library of Deir al-Surian, Wadi al-Natrun (Egypt) (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 227; Leuven, 2014). 2 For the significance of Mushe’s work, see my ‘Without Mushe of Nisibis, where would we be? Some reflections on the transmission of Syriac literature’, Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 56 (2004), pp.15-24. The Harp Vol. XXXIII 2018 Two vital collections of Syriac Manuscripts 3 of Sketis, Mushe, the insignificant sinner known as ‘the Nisibene’, made the effort to acquire this book, along with 250 others. He purchased most of them, but some were given him as a ‘blessing’ by individuals, when he went to Baghdad on behalf of this desert and the monks there. May God, for whose glory he did this and for the benefit of those who read them, - may God forgive him and everyone who has participated in them. By the living Word of God, no one is authorized to abscond with a single one of them, or to delete this memorandum, or to remove, cut out or take them away from this Monastery. Anyone who dares to do so is anathematized: have pity on your soul, O wretch! These books came with the above-mentioned Abbot Mushe in the year 1243 of the Greeks [= AD 932]. After the time of Abbot Mushe the library continued to increase its holdings of manuscripts, either by further donations, or with manuscripts written in the monastery itself. Already in the twelfth century the library of Deir al Surian had one of the richest collections of Syrian Orthodox manuscripts in the Middle East, and it was from this monastery that Patriarch Michael the Great (d.1199) borrowed a large quantity of manuscripts in order to have them copied at his own monastery of Mor Barsaumo (near modern Malatya in Turkey), in order to replenish its library after a disastrous fire. As we learn from notes in manuscripts still at Deir al-Surian, not all of them seem to have been returned. By the sixteenth century the Syriac presence had dwindled, and since the Syriac manuscripts were of no special interest for the Coptic Orthodox monks, in the following centuries many were sold, others were donated, and yet others were illicitly removed from the library - all despite the dire curses written at the end of many manuscripts on anyone who removed the manuscript from the library.