Studies in Syriac Christianity: History, Literature, Theology

Variorum
Sebastian Brock
ISBN: 0860783057
price: $122.95   hardcover

The primary concern of these articles is the interaction of Syriac with Greek culture in Late Antiquity. In the opening studies, Sebastian Brock presents surveys and analyses of particular historical sources in Syriac, and later similarly examines the process of translation from Greek into Syriac, and the development of the christology of the Church of the East up into the 7th-century.
The second group of articles, which covers aspects of the literary history, includes studies of a number of unusual Greek texts, both secular and religious, which found their way into Syriac. The final section sheds new light on inter-church relations in the 5th-7th centuries. Many of the texts published and translated were hitherto unknown and, overall, the volume emphasizes the importance of the Syriac source material, not only for the study of the Christian East, but for the world of Late Antiquity as a whole.
Contents: Preface; Syriac historical writing: a survey of the main sources; North Mesopotamia in the late seventh century: Book XV of John Bar Penka-ye-'s Ré-sh Melle-; Syriac inscriptions: a preliminary check list of European publications; Jewish traditions in Syriac sources; A piece of Wisdom literature in Syriac; Syriac and Greek hymnography: problems of origin; A Syriac collection of prophecies of the pagan philosophers; The Laments of the Philosophers over Alexander in Syriac; Secundus the silent philosopher: some notes on the Syriac tradition; Towards a history of Syriac translation technique; Clothing metaphors as a means of theological expression in Syriac tradition; The christology of the Church of the East in the synods of the 5th to early 7th centuries; The conversations with the Syrian Orthodox under Justinian (532); A monothelete florilegium in Syriac; Two sets of monothelete questions to the Maximianists; Addenda and corrigenda ; Index.