Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/876

 840 SYRIAC LITERATURE [Tin CENT. Under this head we may mention the Scholion de Diaconissis earumque Munerc (Catal. Vat., ii. 319) and the Scholion dc Fori- bus Ecdcsiee dum Ordinationcs aut alia Sacra celebrantur occluden- dis (Cod. Vat. ccciv., in Mai, Scriptt. Vett. Nova Coll., v.). Jacob also composed homilies, of which a few survive in manuscript : for example (1) that Christians are not to offer a lamb after the Jewish fashion, nor oxen and sheep, on behalf of the deceased, nor to use pure wine and unleavened bread in celebrating the Eucharist ; (2) against the use of unleavened bread ; (3) against the Armenians as Dyophysites, and because they offend against these doctrines * ; (4) against certain impious men and transgressors of the law of God, who trample under foot the canons of the church.'-' To these may be added his metrical discourses on the Trinity and the incarnation of the word 3 and on the faith against the Nes- torians. 4 Whether the treatise De Causa omnium Causarum 5 really belongs to him can hardly be decided till it has been published. The remarks in the Bodleian Catalogue, p. 585, note, point to a writer of much later date. The loss of Jacob's Chronicle is greatly to be regretted ; only a few leaves, all more or less mutilated, remain to us in Brit. Mus. Add. 14685. 6 The author's design was to continue the Chronicle of Eusebius on the same plan, from the twentieth year of the reign of Constantine down to his own time. The introduction was divided into four sections, the first of which treated of the canon of Eusebius and the error of three years iu his calculation ; the second of the dynasties contemporary with the Roman empire, but omitted by Eusebius ; the third explained what dynasties were coordinated by Jacob with the Roman empire ; and the fourth contained separate chronologies of each of these dynasties. Then followed the chronological canon, beginning with Olympiad cclxxvi. The last monarchs mentioned in the mutilated MS. are Heraclius I. of Constantinople, Ardasher III. of Persia, and the caliph Abu Bakr. This work, which was finished by the author in 692, 7 has been extensively used by subsequent Syrian historians, both Jacobite and Nestorian, such as Bar-Hebrseus, 8 Elias bar Shinaya, 9 &c., and it is therefore admitted by 'Abhd-isho' into his list of books (B.O., iii. 1, 229). As a translator of Greek works Jacob deserves notice, not so much on account of any Aristotelian labours of his, 10 as because of his version of the Homilias Cnthcdrales of Severus, a work of capital importance, which he finished in 701. 11 He also revised and corrected, with the help of Greek MSS., the abbot Paul's version of the Octoechus of Severus (see above, p. 838). 12 The statement of Bar-Hebrseus 13 that Jacob translated the works of Gregory Nazianzen seems to be erroneous. He merely retouched, we believe, the version of the abbot Paul (see above, p. 838), to which he probably added notes, illustrative extracts from the writings of Severus, and Athanasius's redaction of the "Zwayuyri Kal e%-riyri<Tis icTTOpi&v appended to the homily In Sancta Lumina. 1 * He made the Syriac version of the history of the Reehabites as narrated by Zosimus, which he is said to have translated from Hebrew into Greek and thence into Syriac. 15 Of philosophical writings of his we may specify the Enchiridion, a tract on philosophical terms. 16 The metrical composition on the same subject contained in two Vatican MSS. may perhaps also be by him. 17 As a grammarian Jacob occupies an important place in Syriac literature. Nestorian scholars, such as Narsai and his pupils, more especially Joseph Huzaya (see above, p. 836), had no doubt elaborated a system of accentuation and interpunction, which vies in minuteness with that of the Jews, and had probably begun to store up the results of their studies in Massoretic MSS. of the Bible, like those of which we have already spoken (above, p. 826). But Jacob was the first to give a decided impulse to these pursuits among the Western Syrians, and to induce the monks of Eusebhona and Tell-'Adda to compile Massoretic MSS. like those of their brethren in the East, and to pay attention to mimite accuracy in the matter of the diacritical points and the signs of interpunction. Hence we usually find appended to such MSS. of the Jacobite schools the epistle of Jacob to George, 1 See Bill. Med. Laurent, et Palat. Codd. MSS. Orientt. Catal pp 107-108 2 Wright, Catal., pp. 984, col. 2 ; 996, col. 2. 3 Catal. Vat., ii. 516. 4 Ibid., iii. 353. 5 See B.O., i. 461-463. Besides the MS. described by Assemani, there are two in the Bodleian Library, Hunt. 123 (Payne Smith, Catal., 585) ami Bodl. Or. 732, and a third at Berlin, Sachau 180, with an excerpt in Saehau 203. 6 See Wright, Catal., p. 1062. I See Elias bar Shlnaya in Rosen, Catal., p. 88, col. 1. 8 B.O., ii. 313-314. 9 See, for example, the notes in Abbeloos, Bar- Hebron Oiron. Kccles., ii. 55, 103, 107, 123 ; Baethgen, Fragmente si/r. u. ardb. Historiker, extracted from Elias bar Shinaya, p. 3 ; and the anonymous epitomizer in Land, Anted. Syr., i. 2-22 transl. pp. 103-121 (Brit. Mus. Add. 14643 ; Wright, Catal., p. 1040). 10 Even the translation of the Categories in Cod. Vat. clviii. (Catal., iii. 306 ; comp. Renan, De Philos. 1'eripat. ap. Syros, p. 34) is not by him, but by Bergina of Ras'ain (see above, p. 834). II See B.O., i. 494 ; Cod. Vat. cxli.; Brit. Mus. Add. 12159, dated 868 (Wright, Catal., p. 534 ,/.). 1* B.O., i. 487 ; Cod. Vat. xciv., written between 1010 and 1033 ; Brit. Mus. Add. 17134, dated 675 (Wright, Catal., p. 330 a<j.). 13 B.O., ii. 307, col. 2 ; iii. 1, 23, col. 1. 14 See Wright, Catal., pp. 423-427. 15 Ibid., p. 1128. 16 Mid., p. 984. 17 Cod. Vat. xxxvi. and xcv. (Catal., ii. 243 and 516). In the latter there are three other poems ascribed to him, the first theological, the second with the title De Philosophis et lionis Artibus, and the third entitled On the Mind. In the MSS. these poems are said to be by Jacob of Sgrugli, which seems altogether unlikely. bishop of Seriigh, on Syrian orthography, 18 and a tract by him on the pointing of verbal and nominal forms and on the signs of interpuuction and accentuation, besides a tract of apparently earlier date on the same signs, with a list of their names, by Thomas the deacon. 19 Further, Jacob's acquaintance with the Greek language and Greek MSS. suggested to him a striking simpli- fication of the system of vowel -points which was now probably beginning to be introduced among the Easterns. 20 He saw that all the vowel-sounds of the Syriac language, as spoken by the Edessenes, could be represented by means of the Greek vowel letters, a style of pointing which would be far clearer to the reader than a series of minute dots. Accordingly he, or his school, put for a, for o (a), 6 for e, H for i, oy for u ; and this system has been adhered to by the Western Syrians or Jacobites since his time. 21 Jacob wished, however, to go a step farther, and sought to introduce a reform for which his countrymen were not prepared. The constant perusal of Greek MSS. had accustomed him to see the vowels placed on an equality with the consonants as an integral part of the alphabet ; and, considering how much this contributed to clearness of sense and facility of reading, he desired to see the like done in Syriac. For this purpose he himself designed a set of vowel-signs, to be written on a line with and between the consonants-- ; and for the purpose of making this invention known to his countrymen ho wrote a Syriac Grammar,- 3 in which he used them largely in the paradigms. The innovation, however, found no favour, and the work was supposed to be utterly lost, until a few fragments (partly palimpsest) were simultaneously discovered by the present writer and Dr Neubauer. 24 Finally, amid all his labours as priest and bishop, teacher and author, Jacob found time to correspond with a large number of persons in all parts of Syria ; and these epistles are often among his most interesting writings.- 5 One of his principal correspondents was John the Stylite of the convent of Litarba (ALrappa plur., but also Alrapyov, Avrapyov ; al-Atharib, near Aleppo) ; others were Eustathius of Dara, Kyrisona of Dara, the priest Abraham, the deacon George, and the sculptor Thomas. 26 To the priest Addai he wrote on the orders of baptism and the consecration of the water, 27 to the deacon Bar-hadh-be-shabba against the council of Chalcedon, 58 to the priest Paul of Antioch on the Syriac alphabet, in reply to a letter about the defects of the said alphabet as compared with the Greek,- 9 and to George, bishop of Seriigh, on Syriac orthography (see above). After Jacob we may name his friend Athanasius of Balad, who Athana- also studied under Severus -Sebokht at Ken-neshre, and devoted sins II. himself to the translation of Greek works, philosophical and theo- of Balad, logical, in the convent of Mfir Malchus in Tur 'Abhdin or at Nisibis, where he for a time officiated as priest. He was advanced to the patriarchate in 684 and sat till 687 or 68S. 30 In the year 645 he translated the Isagoge of Porphyry, with an introduction, which seems to be chiefly derived from the preface of the Greek comment- ator Ammonius 31 ; and lie also edited a version of an anonymous 18 See B.O., i. 477 (No. 6) and p. 478 (No. 8). 19 See, forexample, Catal. rat., iii. 290 ; Brit. Mus., Rosen, pp. CO, 70 (Wright, p. 110); Paris, Zotenberg, Catal., p. 30. The letter and tracts have been pub- lished by Phillips, A Lrtti-r bi/ Mar Jacob, Bishop ofEdessa, on S/irinr Orthography, &c. (1869 ; the third Appendix, pp. 85-96, 1870), and Martin, Jacobi epi Edesseni Epistola ad Georgiitm epum Sarngensem de Orthngraphia Si/rlaca (1869). On the possible identity of Thomas the deacon with Thomas of Harkel, see Phillips, third Appendix, p. 00. 21 Tlie credit of inventing this vowel-system is usually given to Theophilus of Edessa, who died in 785-786 (B.n., i. 64, 521), though Wiseman brought for- ward to our mind convincing arguments in his flora? Syriacx, pp. 181-188, in favour of the claims of Jacob. We have now, however, a MS. of Jacob's own time in which these Greek vowels are distinctly appended to Syriac words. See Brit. Mus. Add. 17134, f. S3b, in Wright's Catal., p. 337, col. 2, and pi. vi. In this plate, the handwriting of which cannot well be placed later than about 00, we find in 1. 1 the vowel *^s (ypsilon) in the word 23 the vowel ^ in, and in 1. , both in black ink, besides others in red ink in lines 6, 17, 18, 21, 22, and 31. No one can doubt, we think, that these vowels were added a pr. manu, especially if he compares their forms, particularly the a, with those of the Greek letters on the margin of pi. v. 22 See Bar-Hebra?us in his KethiV>ln1 dliF-Semhe, as quoted by Martin, Jacques d'Kdesse et les l'i.i>n'lli:-< S ; irirn nrx (Jmirn. Asiat., 1869, vol. xiii. pp. 458-459), or pp. 194-195 of Martin's edition. Jacob had ahvady before him the example of the Mandaites, from whose alphabet his figure of a for c appears to be borrowed. 23 B.O., i. 475, 477. 24 See Brit. Mus. Add. 17217, ff. 37,38 ; 14665, f. 28 ; in Wright's Catal., pp.1168- 73. These were reprinted, with the Oxford fragments (Bodl. 150), by Wright in Fragments of the +3 JIJ fl_^l^ JO.Z or S'jrluc Grammar of Jacob of Edessa (1871). o 25 Some are metrical ; see Brit. Mus. Add. 12172, ff. 65a, 73a ; 17168, f. 154a. 26 See all these in Brit. Mus. Add..l2172, ft'. 65-135 (Wright, Catitl., pp. 592-604). Three of tliese letters have been published, two by Wright in the Journal of Sacred Literature, new series, x. (1861), p. 430 srj., and one by Schroter in Z.D.M.G., xxiv. (1870), pp. 261 -300. 27 B.O., i. 486, No. 11 ; Brit, Mus. Add. 14715, f. 170a ; see also Add. 12144, ff. 47a, 52b. 28 B r jt, Mus. Add. 14631, f. lib. 29 B.O.,. 477, No. 7. 30 B.O., ii. 335 ; Bar-Hebra-us, Chron. Ecdes., i. 287, 203. Diouysius of Tell- Mahre places his death as late as 704. 31 Cod. Vat. clviii.; Paris, Anc. fonds 161. According to Renan, De I'liil*. Peripat. ap. Syros, p. 30, note 4, the MSS. clxxxiii. and cxcvi. of the Bibl. Palat. Medic, contain this translation and not that of Honain.