Introduction to This Volume

How this book is arranged

This is the eighty-first volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early Church in order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth century. This volume holds Syriac Teachers and the Church of the East, from the period about AD 450 – 800.

Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section numbers.

The translations

The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation. In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. All the works in this volume are printed in older public-domain translations.

In this volume

Narsai was born about AD 399 in northern Mesopotamia and taught at the school of Edessa. About AD 457 he left for Nisibis, where he founded a school that became the chief centre of learning of the Church of the East. He died about AD 502. More than eighty of his metrical homilies survive, and among them are the four liturgical homilies printed here.

Jacob was born about AD 451 near the Euphrates and became bishop of Batnan in the district of Serugh in AD 519. He died in AD 521. He wrote hundreds of verse homilies in Syriac on Scripture, on the feasts and on the life of the Church.

Isaac was born in the Persian Gulf region and became a monk in the mountains of Beth Qatraye. He was made bishop of Nineveh about AD 676, and he gave up the see after a few months to live as a hermit in the mountains of Khuzistan, where he lost his sight. He died about AD 700. His writings on prayer, silence, humility and the mercy of God were translated into Greek and Arabic and read throughout the Eastern Churches.

John, called bar Penkaye, was a monk of northern Mesopotamia who wrote his Summary of World History in Syriac in fifteen books, about AD 687. The last book describes the Arab conquest and the first civil wars of the Muslims, and John reads them as a judgment of God on the Christians for their sins.

Jacob was born about AD 633 near Antioch and was made bishop of Edessa about AD 684. He resigned the see after a few years and spent the rest of his life teaching and translating, among other things the Cathedral Homilies of Severus of Antioch. He wrote on Scripture, grammar and history, and a large number of his letters survive. He died in AD 708.

Timothy was born about AD 727 and was patriarch of the Church of the East from AD 780 until his death in AD 823. He moved the seat of the patriarchate to Baghdad and was on friendly terms with the caliphs of the early Abbasid dynasty. He is the author of many letters and of this account of his debate with the caliph al-Mahdi, held about AD 781.

The Syriac churches produced a rich literature of poetry, homilies and letters. This volume brings together Narsai of Nisibis, Jacob of Serugh, Isaac of Nineveh, John bar Penkaye, Jacob of Edessa and Timothy I of Baghdad, writers of both the West Syriac and the East Syriac traditions.

Dates and authorship

Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is uncertain.