Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/862

 826 SYRIAC LITERATURE [BIBLE VERSIONS. Malkite the Christian population of the Malkite (Greek) Church in Pales- version, tine, written in an Aramaic dialect more akin to the language of the Jewish Targums than to that of the Peshltta. 1 A lectionary containing large portions of the Gospels in this dialect was de- scribed by Assemani in the catalogue of the Vatican library, 2 studied by Adler, 3 and edited by Count Fr. Miniscalchi Erizzo under the title of EvangeHarium Hierosolymitanum (2 vols., Verona, 1861-64). It was written in a convent at a place called Abful, 4 not very far from Jerusalem, in the year 1030, and the scribe claims to have copied sundry other service-books for the use of his church (see Assemani, op. cit., p. 102). Fragments of other evangeliaiia have been published by Land, from MSS. at London and St Petersburg, in his Anecd. Syr., iv. pp. 114-162, 213-222 ; of the Acts of the Apostles, p. 168 ; and of the Old Testament (translated from the Greek), pp. 103-110, 165-167, 222-223. According to the same authority (p. 231), the calendar in the Vatican MS. must have been drawn up about the middle of the 9th century. Few, if any, of the extant fragments appear to be of older date. Noldeke places the origin of the version in the 4th or 5th century, certainly not later than 600 (loc. cit., p. 525). 5 All the above revisions of the text of the Syriac Bible according to the Greek are, as we have seen, the work of Monophysites, with the single exception of the last, which proceeded from the Malkites. The Nestorian community obstinately adhered to the old Peshltta, and the solitary attempt made to introduce a revised text among Mar- them seems to have been an utter failure. Mar-abha I., 6 a convert abha I. from Zoroastrianism, who was catholicus from 536 to 552, went to Edessa, studied Greek there under a teacher named Thomas, 7 and with his help translated the whole of the Old Testament into Syriac, and perhaps also the New. This statement rests on the authority of the author of the Kitab al-Majdal (Marl ibn Sulaiman, 8 about the middle of the 12th century, supplemented and abridged by 'Amr ibn Matta of Tirhan, who lived towards the middle of the 14th century), 9 of 'Abhd-Isho', bishop of Nisibis (died 1318), and of Bar-Hebraeus (died 1286) ; and there appears to be no reason to doubt their word. 10 Massor- Before quitting the subject of the versions of Holy Scripture we eticMSS. must devote a few words to the Massoretic MSS. of the Nestorians and Jacobites. 11 In the year 1721 Assemani made mention in the Bibliotheca Orientalis (ii. 283), on the authority of Bar-Hebraeus in the Ausar Raze, of a "versio Karkaphensis, hoc est Montana, qua videlicet incolae montium utuntur. " 12 About the meaning of these words scholars disputed, and some searched for MSS. of the alleged version, but in vain. At last, N. Wiseman (afterwards cardinal), guided by the light of another passage in the Bibliotheca Orientalis (ii. 499, 500, No. xxii.), recognized in Cod. Vat. cliii. a copy of what he believed to be the Karkaphensian version. 13 Later re- searches, more especially those of the Abbe Martin, have corrected these errors. The MSS. of the Karkaphensian tradition, of which there are ten in our European libraries, are now known to contain a philological and grammatical tradition of the pronunciation and punctuation of Holy Writ and sometimes of other writings. 14 Syria was rich in schools and colleges ; most of its towns possessed in- stitutions where instruction was given, more especially to students of theology, in the reading and exposition of the Greek and Syriac Scriptures and their commentators. Such were the great " Persian school " of Edessa, which was destroyed, on account of its Nestorian tendencies, in 489 ; the school of Nisibis ; of Mahoze near Seleucia ; of the monastery of D5r-K6ni or Dair-Kunna ; of the monastery of Ken-neshre or the Eagles' Nest, on the left bank of the Euphrates, opposite Jerabis ; of the Daira 'Ellaita, or monastery of St Gabriel and St Abraham, at Mosul ; and many others. 15 Every such school or college had its teachers of reading and elocution, mahgtydne and makreyane (or makeryane], who taught their pupils to pronounce, add the vowel-points, and interpunctuate correctly, 16 I See Noldeke, in Z.D.M.G., xxii. (1868), p. 443 sq. 3 MSS. Codd. Bibl. Apost. Vatic. Catalogus, ii. No. xix. p. 70 sq. 3 N. Test. Verss. Syriacse Simplex, Philoxeniana, tt Hierosolymitana, Copen- hagen, 1789 ; see also Martin, Introd., p. 237 sq. f See Noldeke, loc. cit., pp. 521, 527 ; Land, Anecd. Syr., iv. pp. 227-229. 5 The remaining literature in this dialect (all of it published by Land) con- sists of a few hymns (pp. 111-113), lives of saints (pp. 169, 170), and theological fragments (pp. 171-210). One fragment (p. 177) contains the title of a homily of John Chrysostom. 6 Properly Mar(I)-abha. 7 B.O., iii. 1, 86 ; compare ii. 411. 8 See p. 852, note 10. 9 See Hoffmann, Ausziige aits syrischen Akten persischer Mdrtyrer, pp. 6 7. 10 See B.O., ii. 411-412, iii. 1, 75 ; Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Eccles., ed. Abbeloos and Lamy, ii. 89 ; Martin, Introd., pp. 292-294. II See Martin, Tradition Karkaphienne on la Massort chez les Syriens, Paris, 1870 (from Journ. Asiat.), and Introd., pp. 276-291. opotamia deg( 13 See his Horse Syriacie, Rome, 1828, p. 78 : II. Symbols; Philologies ad Hist. Version-urn Syriac. vet. fatderis. Particula prima; de versionibus generatim, deinde de Peschito, p. 147; III. Particula secunda; recfnsionem Karkaphensem nunc primum describens. We need not here indicate Wiseman's mistakes, but it is a pity to see them all reproduced even in the third edition of Scrivener's Plain Introduction, 1883. 14 See Hoffmann, Opuscula Nestoriana, 1880, p. v. sq. J 5 See, for example, B.O., iii. 1, 341, col. 2 at the foot, and iii. 2, cmxxiv. so. is Hoffmann, Opusc. Nestor., p. vii. ; Martin, Introd., p. 289. before they were passed on to the higher classes of the cskolaye badhoke or mallephdne, that is, the professors of exegesis and doctors of theology. 17 The more difficult words and phrases of Scripture were gradually collected and written down so as to form " collect- anea," lukkate dha-shSindhe, or "fasciculi," kurrdse dha-sliemahe, and the union of these composed a kethabha dha-kerayatha, or "book of readings," in which it was shown by means of vowel -points and other signs how each word was to he pronounced and accentuated. 18 One such volume in the British Museum (Add. 12138, dated 899) represents the work of a Nestorian student in the convent of Mar Gabriel at Harrfm 19 ; but the other MSS. extant in the different libraries of Europe 20 are of Jacobite origin and have a common source, the scholastic tradition of the convent of Karkaphetha, or "the Skull," at the village of Maghdal or Mijdal near Resh-'aina or Ras-'ain. 21 Such are, for example, Cod. Vat, No. clii., now cliii., described by Assemani (Catal., iii. 287) and Wiseman (fforx Syr., p. 151); Cod. Paris, Ancien fonds 142, described by Zoten- berg (Catal., p. 30, No. 64) and Martin (Tradition Karkaphienne, p. 36); Cod. Brit. Mus. Add. 7183, described by Rosen (Catal, p. 64, No. xlii.), and 12178, described by Wright (Catal, p. 108). From these and similar MSS., as well as from the words of Bar- Hebrseus, 22 it appears that the Karkephaye were the monks of the convent of Karkaphetha ; that they were Westerns or Occidentals, therefore Jacobites ; and that one of their chief authorities, if not the actual originator of the compilation, was Jacob bishop of Edessa. Accordingly, the marginal notes indicate various readings from Syriac MSS., from the LXX., and from the Harklensian version, as well as from different fathers and teachers. 23 To the collection of words and phrases from the Peshltta version is added in several of these MSS. a similar, though shorter, collection from the Hark- lensian version and from the principal works of the Greek fathers which were read in translations in the schools, 24 followed by tracts on different points of orthography, grammar and punctuation. 25 We have spoken above (p. 824) of the deutero-canonical books of Apo- the Old Testament. Other apocrypha may now be noticed more cryphal briefly ; e.g., Ps. cli. (in the hexaplar version of Paul of Telia) ; the works. Parva Genesis, or Liber Jubilxorum, a fragment of which has been edited by Ceriani (Monumenta, vol. ii. fasc. 1, p. ix.) ; the Testament of Adam 26 ; the History of Joseph and Asyath (Asenath), translated by Moses of Aggel * 7 ; the History of Sanherib, his Vizir Alrikar or Hikar, and his Disciple Nadhan. 28 Many similar books exist in Arabic, some of them probably translated from lost Syriac originals. The names of Daniel and Ezra "the scribe" are prefixed to late apocalyptic works, 2U and even to almanacs containing prognostica- tions of the weather, &c. 30 The list of apocrypha of the New Testa- ment is also tolerably extensive. We may mention the Prot- cvangelium Jacobi ; the Gospel of Thomas the Israelite, or of the Infancy of our Lord ; the Letters of Abgar and our Lord ; the Letters of Herod and Pilate ; prayers ascribed to St John the Baptist ; the Transitus, Assumptio, or Koifirjo-is Hcatee Virginis, extant in four or five redactions 31 ; Acts of the Apostles, such as St John, St Philip, St Matthew and St Andrew, St Paul and Thecla, and St Thomas 3 - ; the Doctrine of St Peter ^ ; and the Apocalypse of St Paul. 34 Others Hoffmann, op. cit., pp. xx., xxi. What the whole curriculum of such a 18 Hoffmann, op. cit., pp. vi., vii. 19 See Wright, Catal., p. 101. 20 Martin, Introd., p. 291. Catal., pp. 65, 66 ; Wright, Catal., p. 109. Among these occur Q/ and l^. The investigations of Hoffmann (in Stade's Zeitschrift, 1881, p. 159) and Duval (Journ. Asiat., 1884, p. 560) have made it certain that Q^ designates not the Peshltta, nor Jacob of Edessa, but one Tubhana (perhaps snrnamed "the Beardless"), an eminent teacher at Resh-'aina. His colleague Sabha was probably the famous scribe Sabha, who wrote Brit. Mus. Add. 14428, 14480 (724), and 12135, ff. 1-43 (726). 21 Namely, (Pseudo-)Dionysius Areopagita, Gregory Nazianzen (2 vols.), the works of Basil, the epistles of Gregory and Basil, John Philoponus (the AiatTijrris), and Severus of Antioch (HomiUae Cathedrales and certain synodical letters relating to the council of Autioch). A fuller list is given by Assemani, 3.0., iii. 2, cmxxxvii. sq. 25 See Phillips, A Letter of Mar Jacob, Bishop of Edessa, on Syriac Orthography, &.C., 1869 (Appendix iii. pp. 85-96, issued separately in 1870) ; Martin, Jacobi epi Edesseni Epistola ad Georgium epum Sarugensem de Orthogravhia Syriaca, &c., 1869. 26 Wright, Catal., p. 1242 ; see Renan, in the Journ. Asiat., November and December 1853, p. 427, and Wright, Contributions to the Apocryphal Literature of the New Testament, 1865, p. 61. 27 Wright, Catal., p. 1047; Land, Anecd. Syr., iii. 15-46. 28 Wright, Catal., p. 1207, col. 1 ; Hoffmann, Ausziige aus syrischen AMen persischer Miirtyrer, 1880, p. 182; see for the Syriac text Brit. Mus. Orient. 2313, and a MS. in the collection of the S.P.C.K. (now presented by the Society to the university of Cambridge). 29 Wright, Catal., pp. 9, 10fi5. 30 Wright, Catal.,^ p. 352, col. 2 ; Brit. Mus. Orient. 2084, f. 1, Kethabha dhe- Sh-idhSe dhe-zabhne dhe-Dhdni'el nehhiya. 31 Most of these are published iu Wright's Contributions see also the Journal of Sacred Literature, 1865, vol. vi. 417, vol. vii. 129 ; and B. H. Cowper, The Apocryphal Gospels, &c., 1867. 32 See Wright, Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, 2 vols., 1871. 33 Cureton, Ancient Syriac Documents, pp. 35-41. 34 Translated by Zingerle in Heklenheizn's Vicrteljahrsschrift, iv. p. 139 sq.,