836 SYRIAC LITERATURE [Gill CENT. Isaac of Nineveh Abraham of Neph- tar. Moses of Aggel. Peter of Callini- cus. 550. His writings consist of short sermons or tracts, exclusively intended for the training and study of monks and coenobites, and a number of letters. 'Abhd-isho' (foe. cit.) says: "he composed tvo volumes, besides mournful epistles, on the monastic life." They were collected l by his brother, who has prefixed a brief apology, at the end of which the reader may find a curious example of affected humility (B.O., i. 435)." Two short specimens of the style of "the spiritual old man," ash- Shaikh ar-ruhdnl, are printed in Zingerle's Monumenta Syr., i. 102-104. A little junior to John Sabha was the even more widely known Isaac of Nineveh, 3 to whom the Nestorians also lay claim. 4 His date is fixed, as Assemani points out, by the facts of his citing Jacob of Serugh and corresponding with Simeon Stylites the younger or Thaumastorites, who died in 593. According to the Arabic biography, printed in B.O., i. 444, he was a monk of the convent of Mar Matthew at Mosul, and afterwards became bishop of that city, but soon resigned his office and retired to the desert of Skete in Egypt, where he composed his ascetic works. According to 'Abhd-isho' (.0., iii. 1, 104), Isaac "wrote seven volumes on the guidance of the Spirit, and on the Divine mysteries and judgements and dispensation." Many of his discourses and epistles have been catalogued by Assemani, B.O., i. 446-460. The MS. Vat. cxxiv. contains the first half of his writings (Catal., iii. 143), and similarly MSS. Brit. Mus. Add. 14632 and 14633. 5 The Arabic translation is divided into four books ; the Ethiopia is naturally derived from the Arabic. A Greek version was made from the original Syriac by two monks of St Saba, near Jerusalem, named Patricius and Abraamius, on which see Assemani, B.O., i. 445, and Bickell, Con- spectus, p. 26. The only printed specimens of his discourses are two in Zingerle's Monumenta Syr., i. 97-101. Another author of this class, but of less mark, is Abraham of Nephtar, 6 who flourished towards the end of the 6th century and in the early part of the 7th. 7 Him too the Nestorians claim as theirs. 8 'Abhd-isho' speaks of "various works" of his, 9 but our libraries seem to contain only eight short discourses, the titles of which are given by Assemani, B. 0. , i. 464. 10 They have been trans- lated into Arabic, and there was also a Persian version of them by Job the monk (B.O., iii. 1, 431). We record here the name of Moses of Aggel as being one of those who, after Rabbula, undertook the translation of the writings of Cyril of Alexandria into Syriac. He made a version of the Gla- phyra, at the request of a monk named Paphnutius, from whose letter 11 we learn that the treatise On Worship in Spirit and in Truth had been already translated, 12 whilst from the reply of Moses, as quoted mB. 0., ii. 82-83, it is obvious that he was writing after the death of Philoxenus and the chorepiscopus Polycarp. Hence we may place him soon after the middle of the century, say from 550 to 570. Much later he cannot be, because his translation of the History of Moses and Asyath (see above, p. 826) has been ad- mitted into the Syriac compilation that passes under the name of Zacharias Rhetor (see above, p. 835). 13 Peter of Callinlcus (ar-Rakkah), Jacobite patriarch of Antioch, 578-591, 14 deserves mention on account of his huge controversial treatise against Damian, patriarch of Alexandria, manuscripts of parts of which, of the 7th and 8th centuries, are extant in the Vatican and the British Museum. 15 Other writings of his are an anaphora, 16 a short treatise against the Tritheists, 17 sundry letters, 18 and a metrical homily on the Crucifixion of our Lord. 19 In the Daliathensis, i.e., from ad-Daliyah, ij, probably meaning Daliyat Mfilik ibn Tank, on the right bank of the Euphrates below ar-Rakkah and Rahbat Malik ibn Tank. In the Vatican Catalogue he calls him Daliathensis, writing, But how can mean "of ad- however, in Syriac Daliyah" (t*?)7 Following the analogy of t~(Jia.Cl Z>3 _jlC , r lA*Q, and the like, it ought rather to mean "John of the Vine-Branches," or " John with the Varicose Veins." or (as in Arabic) "John of the Buckets." i See Wright, Catal, p. 863,.;. In the B.O., i. 434, Assemani gives an Arabic version of it from a Vatican MS.
- Fora list of them in Syriac and Arabic, see B.0.,i. 435-444, and comp. Wright
Catal., pp. 582, 584, 860, 870 (No. 16). There is also an Ethiopia version,,^ra0a>i Man/atom, made from the Arabic ; see Zotenberg, Catal. des MSS. Ethioviens de la Bibl. Nation., No. 115, p. 134. 3 B.O., i. 444. 4 Ibid., iii. 1, 104. 5 Wright, Catal., pp. 569, 576. 6 Also written Nethpar and Nephrath ; see Assemani, Catal. Vat., iii. 138. But, as we can find no trace of any such town as Nephtar, the name of + j Zl^J may have some other origin. 7 B.O., iii. 1 191 note 1 8 Compare Wright, Catal., p. 187, No. 154. 9 B.O., iii. 1, 191 10 There seem to be ten in Cod. Vat. ccccxix. ; see Mai, Scriptt. Vett. Nova Coll., 11 Cod. Vat. cvii. (Catal., iii. 53) ; Guidi, Rendiconti della R. Accademia dei I.incei, May and June, 1886, p. 399 sq. 12 Brit. Mus. Add. 12166, ff. 155-258, bears date 553 (Wright, Catal., p. 491). Of the Vatican MS. of the Glaphyra only five leaves remain (Catal., iii. 54), and the MS. in the British Museum, Add. 14555, is very imperfect (Wright, Catal., p. 483). As Guidi has shown, these two MSS. are merely the disjecta membra of one codex. 14 B.O., ii. 69, 332 ; Bar-Hebraus, Chron. Ecdes.. i. 250. i* B.O., ii. 77-82; comp. Bar-Hebncus, Citron. Ecdes., i. 257. 16 B.O ii 77 ' Brit. Mus. Add. 12155, f. 231b (Wright, Catal., p. 951). 18 Wright, Catal., p. 1314. 19 Brit. Mus. Add. 14591 (Wright, Catal., p. 671). dispute between him and Damian was involved his syncellus and successor Julian, who defended Peter against an attack made upon him by Sergius the Armenian, bishop of Edessa, and his brother John. 20 Of the numerous Nestorian writers of the 6th century we unfor- tunately know but little more than can be learned from the cata- logue of 'Abhd-isho'. Their works have either been lost, or else very few of them have as yet reached our European libraries. The successor of Narsai (above, p. 830) in the school of Nisibis Abraham was his sister's son Abraham, 21 who must have fled from Edessa of Nisibis. with his uncle. 2 - His principal writings are commentaries on Joshua, Judges, Kings, Eeclesiasticus, Isaiah, the twelve minor prophets, Daniel, and the Song of Songs. 23 To him succeeded as teacher John, also a disciple of Narsai. 24 He John of wrote commentaries on Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, Job, Jere- Nisibis. miah, Ezekiel, and Proverbs ; also controversial treatises against the Magi or Persian priesthood, the Jews, and (Christian) heretics ; a book of questions on the Old and New Testaments ; and various hymns. If the discourses on the plague at Nisibis 25 and the death of Khosrau I. Anosharwan be really by him, he was alive as late as 579, in the spring of which year that monarch died. 26 John was followed by Joseph Huzaya, 27 another disciple of Narsai, 28 Joseph and the first Syriac grammarian. Of him Bar-Hebrseus observes 29 Huzaya. that "he changed the Edessene (or Western) mode of reading into the Eastern mode which the Nestorians employ ; otherwise during the whole time of Narsai they used to read like us Westerns." He was the inventor of some of the Syriac signs of interpunction, 30 and wrote a treatise on grammar 31 and another on words that are spelled with the same letters but have different meanings. 32 Of Mar-abha 33 the Elder, catholicus from 536 to 552, we have Mar- already spoken above as a translator of the Scriptures (p. 826). He ablia I. was a convert from the Zoroastrian religion, and seems to have been a man of great talent and versatility, as he mastered both the Greek and Syriac languages. Receiving baptism at Herta (al-HIrah) from a teacher named Joseph, he went for the purposes of study to Nisibis, and afterwards to Edessa, where he and his teacher Thomas 34 trans- lated into Syriac the liturgy of Nestorius. 35 They visited Constanti- nople together, and, escaping thence at some risk of their lives, be- took themselves to Nisibis, where Mar-abha became eminent as a teacher. On being chosen catholicus he opened a college at Seleucia and lectured there. Unluckily, he got into controversy, it is said, with the Persian monarch Khosrau I. Anosharwan (531-579), who banished him to Adharbaigau (Azerbijan) and destroyed the Nes- torian church beside his palace at Seleucia. Mar-abha, however, had the temerity to return to Seleucia, was thrown by the king into prison, and died there. 36 His dead body was carried by one of his disciples to Herta, where it was buried and a monastery erected over the grave. He wrote 37 commentaries on Genesis, the Psalms, and Proverbs, and the epistles of St Paul to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Hebrews ; various homilies ; synodical epistles 38 ; and ecclesiastical canons. 39 In these last he opposed the practice of marriage at least among the higher orders of the clergy, the bishops and catholics. What is meant by his "canones in totum Davidem" may be seen from such MSS. of the 20 B.O., ii. 333 ; Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Ecdes., i. 259. 21 B.O., iii. 1, 71. Assemani would seem to have confounded him with a later Abraham of Beth Rabban ; see his note, B.O., iii. 1, 631. Hotl'mann, Opusc. Nestor., xi., note 2. 'M B.O., iii. 1, 72. Here again Assemani seems to have mixed up this John with a later John of Beth Rabban and with John Sabha of Beth Garrnai ; see his additional notes in B.O., iii. 1, 631, 708. 25 During the time of the catholics Joseph and Ezekiel, from 552 to 578 : see B.O., ii. 413, 433, note 2. 26 The hymn in the Nestorian MSS. of the Psalter (mentioned in note 23 27 I.e., of al-Ahwaz or Khuzistan. He must not be confounded with Joseph Hazzaya, of whom we shall speak hereafter (see p. 838 infra). 29 Zoc. cit.; comp. B.O., ii. 407. 30 See Wright, Catal., p. 107, col. 2. Assemani (B.O., iii. 1, 64, col. 2) has mis- translated the words CftJ Ag^Vi ^Isr' t_*Lo &> Comp. Hoffmann, Opusc. Nestor., viii., xi. 31 Berlin, Royal Library, Sachau 226, 4. 32 Bar-Hebrams, (Euvres grammatical es, ed. Martin, ii. 77. 33 Properly Mar(i>ablia, but we shall write Mar-abhfi. 34 Probably the same who is mentioned among his disciples in B.0.,ii. 412, and some of whose writings are enumerated by 'Abhd-isho' in B.O., iii. 1, 86-7. 35 So 'Abhd-isho' in B.O., iii. 1,36; but in Brit. Mus. Add. 7181 the same remark is made as to the liturgy of Theodore of Mopsuestia (see Rosen, Catal., p. 59). 36 B.O., ii. 411-412, iii. 1, 75, notes 1,2; Bar-Hebneus, Chron., Ecdes., ii. S'J-95. 37 B.O., iii. 1, 75. 38 jj,^., iii. l, 76, note 4. 39 Ibid., iii. 1, 81, and note 1 ; comp. Cod. Vat. cccvi. in Mai, Scriptt. Vett. Nova Coll., v. 21.
