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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2022
The uncovering of manuscripts over the last one hundred years has repeatedly changed how early Christian history is told. With no signs of this trend abating, this article seeks to take stock of how scholars respond to manuscript discoveries by focusing on three debates over the orthodoxy of an early Christian figure that extend over two hundred and fifty years. New manuscript evidence sparked no less than three debates over the christological views of the Syriac author Jacob of Serugh (d. 520/521) from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. In the first debate, the arrival of manuscripts in Western Europe led to a conflict between the Maronite scholars who viewed Jacob as a Chalcedonian thinker and certain textual evidence that suggested otherwise. The second debate began in the late nineteenth century after manuscripts from Egypt arrived in London that contained Jacob’s extensive epistolary corpus, which includes clear expressions of non-Chalcedonian, miaphysite christology. A new acquisition by the Vatican Library in the mid-twentieth century featured a previously unknown homily that included two lines that could be interpreted in a Chalcedonian manner. This inspired several Western scholars to dig yet deeper into the manuscripts to resolve this long-standing debate over his christological views. The focused analysis of the pendulum swings initiated by manuscript discoveries in the scholarly discourse surrounding Jacob of Serugh serves as a mirror for self-reflection on the way that scholars discuss a past whose many unknowns still await discovery.
All translations in the article are mine. In addition to the abbreviations in The SBL Handbook of Style, the following are employed: GEDSH = Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage (ed. Sebastian P. Brock et al.; Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2011); Scr. Syri = Scriptores Syri. There are several systems of sigla used to identify the homilies of Jacob of Serugh. For the sake of concision, I use only one here, indicated by the letter A and the corresponding number following the title of the homily in the footnotes. These sigla refer to the list of homilies in Roger-Youssef Akhrass, “A List of Homilies of Mar Jacob of Serugh,” Syriac Orthodox Patriarchal Journal 53 (2015) 87–161. This article was originally developed as part of a dissertation submitted at Princeton Theological Seminary. I am grateful to my advisor, Kathleen McVey, committee members Paul Rorem and Lucas Van Rompay, external reader Susan Ashbrook Harvey, and the peer reviewers for many helpful suggestions about the clarity and framing of this article.
1 On the rhetoric of discovery in ancient and modern sources, see Eva Mroczek, “True Stories and the Poetics of Textual Discovery,” BSR 45.2 (2016) 21–31.
2 On the change in scholarship brought about by these codices, see especially chs. 6 and 7 in Karen L. King, What Is Gnosticism? (Cambridge: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 2003), and BSR 45.2 (2016), an issue that commemorated the 70th anniversary of the discovery of the codices. On the readers of the codices, see Hugo Lundhaug and Lance Jenott, The Monastic Origins of the Nag Hammadi Codices (Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 97; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015).
3 On the manuscript, see François Dolbeau, “Le sermonnaire augustinien de Mayence (Mainz, Stadtbibliothek I 9): Analyse et histoire,” RBén 106.1 (1996) 5–52, at 46–51. On its parallels with a list of sermons compiled by Possidius (d. after 437), see Cyrille Lambot, “Le catalogue de Possidius et la collection carthusienne de sermons de Saint Augustin,” RBén 60 (1950) 3–7. For the phrase “the find of a century,” see the subtitle to Gerhard May and Geesche Hönscheid, Die Mainzer Augustinus-Predigten: Studien zu einem Jahrhundertfund (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 2003).
4 Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo: A Biography (new ed.; Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000) 445. This statement applies both to the Dolbeau sermons and to the Divjak letters.
5 Numerous articles on this forgery have appeared. For the investigative journalism that uncovered the origins of the forgery, see Ariel Sabar, “The Unbelievable Tale of Jesus’s Wife,” The Atlantic (July/August 2016) 64–78, and now Ariel Sabar, Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife (New York: Doubleday, 2020). Several criticisms of the book have emerged; one of the lengthier reviews that summarizes these points of critique is: Tony Burke, “Some Reflections on Ariel Sabar’s Veritas,” Apocryphicity: A Blog Devoted to the Study of Christian Apocrypha (blog), 1 September 2020 https://www.apocryphicity.ca/2020/08/29/some-reflections-on-ariel-sabars-veritas/. On an earlier stage in the debate over the authenticity of this papyrus, see HTR 107.2 (2014).
6 For a brief orientation to Jacob and his works, see Sebastian P. Brock, “Yaʿqub of Serugh,” in GEDSH, 433–35. For a reconstruction of his life based on his own works and contemporaneous writings, see Philip Michael Forness, Preaching Christology in the Roman Near East: A Study of Jacob of Serugh (OECS; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018) 4–9.
7 All three debates are discussed in Forness, Preaching Christology, 9–18, as well as in Khalil Alwan, “Mār Yaʿqūb as-sarūjī: Ṯalāṯat qurūn min al-jadal ḥawla urṯūḏūksīyatihi,” Al-Manāra 30 (1989) 309–40.
8 See Philip Michael Forness, “Cultural Exchange and Scholarship on Eastern Christianity: An Early Modern Debate over Jacob of Serugh’s Christology,” Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 70 (2018) 257–84, at 260–62.
9 Ibid. In the first few paragraphs of this section, I have necessarily had to include many of the same materials found in this article.
10 “Renaudot, Eusèbe,” in Nouvelle biographie générale (46 vols.; Paris, 1852–1866) 41:997–99; Sebastian P. Brock, “Assemani, Josephus Simonius,” in GEDSH, 43–44.
11 James Thomson Shotwell, “Colbert, Jean Baptiste,” in Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.; 29 vols.: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910–1911) 6:657–59.
12 Eusèbe Renaudot, Liturgiarum orientalium collectio (2 vols.; Paris, 1716) 2:356–66 (liturgy), 2:367–68 (arguments about heterodoxy).
13 On the collection of manuscripts, see Pierre Raphael, Le rôle du Collège maronite romain dans l’orientalisme aux XVII e et XVIII e siècles (Beirut: Université Saint Joseph, 1950) 39–52.
14 Joseph Simonius Assemani, Bibliotheca orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, in qua manuscriptos codices syriacos recensuit (3 vols.; Rome, 1719–1728) 1:283–340.
15 Assemani, Bibliotheca orientalis, 1:294. Assemani encountered this homily in Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 117, fol. 139v–140v. For the homily itself, see Jacob of Serugh, Homily on the Council of Chalcedon [A 211] (Homilies of Mar Jacob of Sarug [ed. Paul Bedjan and Sebastian P. Brock; 6 vols.; Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2006] 6:331–37; Sebastian P. Brock, “The Syrian Orthodox Reaction to the Council of Chalcedon: Jacob of Serugh’s Homily on the Council of Chalcedon,” Texts and Studies: A Review for Hellenism in Diaspora 8–10 [1989–1991] 448–59).
16 Assemani, Bibliotheca orientalis, 1:295. This corresponds to Jacob of Serugh, Letter 19 (Iacobi Sarugensis epistulae quotquot supersunt [ed. Gunnar Olinder; CSCO 110, Scr. Syri 57; Leuven: Peeters, 1937] 102–29).
17 Lucas Van Rompay, “ʿAmīra, Jirjis,” in GEDSH, 20; George Michael Amira, Grammatica syriaca, sive chaldaica (Rome, 1596) 470–74.
18 In addition to the publication of Renaudot mentioned in n. 12, see Joseph Aloysius Assemani, Codex liturgicus ecclesiae universae (5 vols. [1–4, 8]; Rome, 1749–1766) 2:309–50. A breviary attributed to Ephrem and Jacob had also appeared, Breviarium feriale syriacum Ss. Ephrem et Iacob syrorum (Rome, 1787), and includes an excerpt from the Homily on the Departed 2 [A 69].
19 Գիր եւ ճառ հոգեշահ (Constantinople, 1722).
20 On Jacob’s works in Armenian and for further bibliography, see Andy Hilkens, “The Armenian Reception of the Homilies of Jacob of Serugh: New Findings,” in Caught in Translation: Studies on Versions of Late-Antique Christian Literature (ed. Madalina Toca and Dan Batovici; Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity 17 [Leiden: Brill, 2020]) 64–84.
21 Գիրք որ կոչի Այսմաւուրք (ed. Grigor Marzvanec‘i; 2nd ed.; Constantinople, 1730).
22 Lucas Van Rompay, “Mubārak, Buṭros,” in GEDSH, 296.
23 Jacob of Serugh, Homily on the Sleepers of Ephesus [A 210] (Petro Benedetto, “Acta antiquiora auctore Jacobo Sarugensi,” AASS: Julii 6 [1729] 387–89). He translated this homily from the text in Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 115, fol. 80r–83v.
24 Jacob of Serugh, Homily on Symeon the Stylite [A 237] (Acta sanctorum martyrum orientalium et occidentalium [ed. and trans. Stephen Evodius Assemani; 2 vols.; Rome, 1748] 2:230–44). He edited and translated this homily from the text in Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 117, fol. 548v–551r.
25 For Knös and his travels see Sven Dedering, “Gustaf Knös,” in Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (33 vols.; Stockholm: A. Bonnier, 1918–) 21:406–8. Gustaf Knös, Chrestomathia syriaca maximam partem e codicibus manu scriptis collecta (Göttingen, 1807) iii–vi, also provides a brief description of his travels and how he acquired the manuscripts.
26 Knös, Chrestomathia syriaca, 66–107. The manuscript from which he acquired the text was likely Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Syr. 16 (H. Zotenberg, Manuscrits orientaux. Catalogues des manuscrits syriaques et sabéens (mandaïtes) de la Bibliothèque nationale [Paris, 1874] 5).
27 Pseudo-Jacob of Serugh, Homily on Alexander the Great [A 226] (Das syrische Alexanderlied. Die drei Rezensionen [ed. and trans. Gerrit J. Reinink; CSCO 454–55, Scr. Syri 195–96; Leuven: Peeters, 1983], CSCO 454, Scr. Syri 195:22–135; CSCO 455, Scr. Syri 199:20–167). Knös, Chrestomathia syriaca, includes the first recension of this homily. Das syrische Alexanderlied (ed. and trans. Reinink), CSCO 455, Scr. Syri 196:1–15, discusses the debate over the authorship of this work.
28 Des Mor Yaqûb Gedicht über den gläubigen König Aleksandrûs und über das Thor das er Machte Gegen Ogûg und Mogûg (trans. Albrecht F. Weber; Berlin, 1852). In the foreword, Weber mentions that he is correcting Knös’s text.
29 Martin Angerer, “Albert Jäger und Pius Zingerle: Zum 200. Geburtstag zweier bekannter Marienberger Patres,” Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinerordens und seiner Zweige 112 (2001) 461–66, at 463–66; Maria Doerfler, “Zingerle, Pius (Jacob),” in GEDSH, 449–50.
30 Pius Zingerle, “Proben syrischer Poesie aus Jakob von Sarug,” ZDMG 12 (1858) 117–31; 13 (1859) 44–58; 14 (1860): 679–91; 15 (1861): 629–47, at 12 (1858) 117.
31 Ibid., 12 (1858) 117.
32 Zingerle reprinted and translated a section of Jacob of Serugh, Homily on the Departed 2 [A 69] from the Breviarium feriale syriacum in Zingerle, “Proben syrischer Poesie,” 12 (1858) 118. Further selections from the breviary and Sunday office appear in 12 (1858) 119–31; 13 (1859) 44–58; 14 (1860) 679–81. Those from the Homily on Symeon the Stylite [A 237] appear in ibid., 14 (1860) 682–91.
33 See especially Zingerle, “Proben syrischer Poesie,” 15 (1861) 629–30.
34 Ibid., 15 (1861) 630.
35 Angerer, “Albert Jäger und Pius Zingerle,” 463.
36 Pius Zingerle, “Beiträge zur syrischen Literatur aus Rom: I. Zur syrischen Metrik,” ZDMG 17 (1863) 687–90; 18 (1864) 751–59.
37 Zingerle used Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 92, fol. 91r–93r, to publish additional selections from Jacob of Serugh, Homily on the Departed 2 [A 69] (Pius Zingerle, “Nachträgliches zu den Proben syrischer Poesie aus Jacob von Sarug,” ZDMG 20 [1866] 511–26, at 513–16). In the same article, he edits and translates Jacob of Serugh, Homily on the Departed 8 [A 184] (ibid., 517–20), and Homily on the Departed 6 [A 183] (ibid., 521–24, 524–26). These selections come from the same manuscript: Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 92, fol. 97v–99r, 93r–94v, respectively.
38 Sechs Homilien des heiligen Jacob von Sarug (trans. Pius Zingerle; Bonn, 1867). Zingerle does not indicate which manuscript he was using. But Jacques de Saroug. Six homélies festales en prose (ed. and trans. Frédéric Rilliet; PO 43.4 [196]; Turnhout: Brepols, 1986), 8, suggests that it must have been Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 109.
39 Six of Jacob’s sermons, which come from Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 109, 114, and 117, appear in the first volume of Monumenta syriaca ex romanis codicibus collecta (ed. George Mösinger and Pius Zingerle; 2 vols.; Innsbruck, 1869–1878) 1:21–96. Chrestomathia syriaca (ed. Pius Zingerle; Rome, 1871) 286–98, provides excerpts from three homilies from Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 109. Pius Zingerle, “Proben syrischer Hymnologie, aus dem Urtext übersetzt,” TQ 55 (1873) 462–509, at 473–81, translates three liturgical prayers that draw on the work of the Assemanis. In Pius Zingerle, “Christi Leiden und seine Vorbilder im alten Bunde. Eine Rede des Jakob von Sarug,” Der Katholik n.F. 2, 33 (1875) 269–76, at 269 n.*, he indicates that he is making an effort to translate homilies he acquired from manuscripts in Rome. But he does not specify which manuscript he used for this homily. His studies on Jacob include “Über und aus Reden von zwei syrischen Kirchenvätern über das Leiden Jesu (Isaak von Antioch und Jakob von Serug),” TQ 52 (1870) 92–114; 53 (1871) 409–26; “Mittheilungen über und aus acht syrischen Reden des Hl. Jakob von Sarug Bischofs von Batnae in Mesopotamien über das Leiden Christi oder seine Kreuzigung,” TQ 58 (1876) 465–75.
40 Ancient Syriac Documents (ed. and trans. William Cureton; London, 1864) 86–107, 112, includes three complete works of Jacob and two extracts from manuscripts at the British Museum. S. Ephraemi Syri, Rabulae episcopi Edesseni, Balaei aliorumque opera selecta (ed. Julian Joseph Overbeck; Oxford, 1865) 382–402, contains a prayer and two of Jacob’s homilies from the Bodleian’s manuscripts. Johann Baptist Wenig, Schola syriaca (Innsbruck, 1866) 88–89, 155–60, published extracts from Letter 19 (the letter to Samuel of Mar Gabbula [from Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 135]) and his liturgical rites (from Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 58, Officia sanctorum, and the Breviarium, 1787).
41 Zingerle, “Proben syrischer Poesie,” 12 (1858) 117. Zingerle often introduces Jacob in this manner. See, for example, his “Beiträge zur syrischen Literatur,” 93; Chrestomathia syriaca, 286 n. 1; “Mittheilungen,” 465.
42 Zingerle, “Proben syrischer Poesie,” 15 (1861) 634.
43 Ancient Syriac Documents (ed. and trans. Cureton), 189; Wenig, Schola syriaca, 1.
44 Edward Aloysius Pace, “Abbeloos, Jean Baptiste,” in The Catholic Encyclopedia (15 vols.; New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907–1912) 1:7.
45 Jean Baptiste Abbeloos, De vita et scriptis Sancti Jacobi Batnarum Sarugi in Mesopotamia episcopi (Leuven, 1867) ix–x.
46 Ibid., 22–103.
47 Ibid., 89 n. 1, 311–14. Abbeloos had seen a reference to this source in Jan Pieter Nicolaas Land, Anecdota Syriaca (4 vols.; Leiden, 1862–1875) 1:26. The manuscript is London, British Library, Add. 12174, fol. 285r.
48 Abbeloos, De vita et scriptis, 136.
49 Ibid., 136–49.
50 Ibid., 150.
51 Ibid., 165.
52 Ibid., 166–85.
53 Ibid., 171.
54 Ibid., 171, 177. The Homily on the Incomprehensibility of Christ and against the Dyophysites [A 245] (160 Unpublished Homilies of Jacob of Serugh [ed. Roger-Youssef Akhrass and Imad Syryany; 2 vols.; Damascus: Department of Syriac Studies, Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate, 2017] 1:7–16) appears in Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 117, fol. 67v–70v, where Abbeloos encountered it.
55 Abbeloos, De vita et scriptis, 180. Assemani’s distinction between substance and accidents is discussed in Forness, “Cultural Exchange,” 278.
56 Abbeloos, De vita et scriptis, 183.
57 Ibid., 185.
58 John F. Fenlon, “Thomas Joseph Lamy,” in The Catholic Encyclopedia (15 vols.; New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907–1912) 8:772.
59 Thomas Joseph Lamy, “Études de patrologie orientale. S. Jacques de Sarug,” Revue Catholique, n.s., 1.9 [25] (1867) 513–25, at 522.
60 “Elogia patrum Eduardi Carpentier, Henrici Matagne et Josephi van Hecke,” AASS: Octobris 13 (1883) [vi–vii].
61 Lamy, “Études de patrologie orientale,” 513–15, only cites Matagne for his contributions to knowledge of Jacob’s life.
62 Henrico Matagne, “De S. Jacobo, episcopo sarugensi in Mespotamia,” AASS: Octobris 12 (1867) 824–31, at 828.
63 Ibid., 828.
64 This is the Narrative of Mar Jacob, the Divine Teacher (Abbeloos, De vita et scriptis, 311–14; Sebastian P. Brock, “Jacob of Serugh: A Select Bibliographical Guide,” in Jacob of Serugh and His Times: Studies in Sixth-Century Syriac Christianity [ed. George Anton Kiraz; Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies 8; Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2010] 219–44, at 237–38). It appears in London, British Library, Add. 12174, fol. 285r.
65 Henrico Matagne, “Supplementum ad commentarium de S. Jacobo, episcopo sarugensi in Mespotamia,” AASS: Octobris 12 (1867) 927–29, at 927.
66 Sebastian P. Brock, “The Development of Syriac Studies,” in The Edward Hincks Bicentenary Lectures (ed. Kevin J. Cathcart; Dublin: Department of Near Eastern Languages, University College Dublin, 1994) 94–113, at 103.
67 Jacob first appears and is briefly described in Angelo Mai, Scriptorum veterum nova collectio e Vaticanis codicibus edita (10 vols.; Rome, 1825–1838) 4:146.
68 F. Rosen and J. Forshall, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur, pars prima, codices syriacos et carshunicos amplectens (London, 1838) 58 n. 2.
69 R. Payne Smith, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum bibliothecae Bodleianae pars sexta, codices syricacos, carshunicos, mendaeos complectens (Oxford, 1864); Zotenberg, Manuscrits orientaux; William Wright, Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum Acquired since the Year 1838 (3 vols.; London, 1870–1872).
70 Andrew Alphonsus MacErlean, “Bickell, Gustav,” in The Catholic Encyclopedia: Index (New York: The Encyclopedia Press, 1914) 10.
71 Gustav Bickell, Conspectus rei Syrorum literariae, additis notis bibliographicis et excerptis anecdotis (Münster, 1871) 25.
72 G. J. Roper, “Wright, William (1830–1889),” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.; Oxford, 2008), https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/30069.
73 Ausgewählte Gedichte der syrischen Kirchenväter Cyrillonas, Baläus, Isaak v. Antiochien und Jakob v. Sarug (trans. Gustav Bickell; Bibliothek der Kirchenväter; Kempten, 1872) 211. The letters to the monastery of Mar Bassus are Letters 13–17 (Olinder, Epistulae, CSCO 110, Scr. Syri 57, 52–86).
74 Ausgewählte Gedichte (trans. Bickell), 212.
75 Ibid., 217.
76 In addition, Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 107, contains Jacob of Serugh, Letter 13. But the beginning of this letter is missing in the manuscript (see Epistulae [ed. Olinder], CSCO 110, Scr. Syri 57:53; Stephen Evodius Assemani and Joseph Simonius Assemani, Bibliothecae apostolicae vaticanae codicum manuscriptorum catalogus [3 vols.; Rome, 1758–1759] 3:51). Perhaps this led to confusion over whether it came from Letter 19, the letter to Isaac of Mar Gabbula (as asserted by Assemani, Bibliotheca orientalis, 1:302; Assemani and Assemani, Catalogus, 3:51). For an updated list of the manuscripts that contain Jacob’s letters, see Philip Michael Forness, “Biblical Exegesis and the Manuscript Transmission of Letters: A Case Study on Jacob of Serugh’s Letter to Maron (Letter 23),” Δελτίο Βιβλικῶν Μελετῶν, forthcoming.
77 Walter Drum, “Martin, Paulin,” in The Catholic Encyclopedia (15 vols.; New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907–1912) 9:729–30.
78 Jean-Pierre Paulin Martin, Syro-chaldaicae institutiones, seu introductio practica ad studium linguae aramaeae (Paris, 1873) 78–79.
79 Ibid., 79 n. 3.
80 Jean-Pierre Paulin Martin, “Discours de Jacques de Saroug sur la chute des idoles,” ZDMG 29 (1875) 107–47, at 107.
81 Jean-Pierre Paulin Martin, “Lettres de Jacques de Saroug aux moines du Couvent de Mar Bassus, et à Paul d’Edesse, relevées et traduites,” ZDMG 30 (1876) 217–75, at 218 n. 7.
82 Jean-Pierre Paulin Martin, “Un évêque-poète au Ve et au VIe siècles ou Jacques de Saroug, sa vie, son temps, ses œuvres, ses croyances,” Revue des sciences ecclésiastiques 4.4 [198] (1876) 309–52, 385–419, at 341.
83 Ibid., 342, 345–47.
84 Ibid., 386.
85 Ibid., 419.
86 On the assumption of Jacob’s Chalcedonian christology in the 16th and 17th cents., see Forness, “Cultural Exchange,” 260–70
87 Brock, “The Development,” 103.
88 As discussed by Frédéric Rilliet, “Une victime du tournant des études syriaques à la fin du XIXe siècle. Rétrospective sur Jacques de Saroug dans la science occidentale,” Aram 5 (1993) 465–80.
89 Joseph Lebon, Le monophysisme sévérien. Étude historique, littéraire et théologique sur la résistance monophysite au Concile de Chalcédoine jusqu’à la constitution de l’Église jacobite (Leuven: Joseph Van Linthout, 1909); idem, “La christologie du monophysisme syrien,” in Das Konzil von Chalkedon. Geschichte und Gegenwart (ed. Alois Grillmeier and Heinrich Bacht; 3 vols.; Würzburg: Echter Verlag, 1951) 1:425–80. On Lebon, see Jean-Claude Polet, Patrimoine littéraire européen. Index général (Brussels: De Boeck Supérieur, 2000) 451.
90 Tanios Bou Mansour, “The Christology of Jacob of Sarug,” in The Churches of Jerusalem and Antioch from 451 to 600 (ed. Theresia Hainthaler; trans. Marianne Ehrhardt; vol. 2.3 of Christ in Christian Tradition; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) 430–77, at 432–35, provides a short summary of this debate.
91 See Zingerle, “Mittheilungen,” 465, 467.
92 Arthur Lincoln Frothingham Jr., “L’omelia di Giacomo di Sarûg sul battesimo di Costantino imperatore,” Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, Memorie della Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filologiche, 3rd series, 8 (1882–1883) 167–242, at 167, cites only Abbeloos for Jacob’s life. Charles James Ball, “Jacobus Sarugensis,” in A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines (4 vols.; Boston: Little Brown, 1877–1887) 3:327–28, at 3:327, states that “his writings in general supply ample proof of orthodoxy on the doctrines in question.”
93 Robert Schröter, “Trostschreiben Jacob’s von Sarug an die himyaritischen Christen,” ZDMG 31 (1877) 360–405, at 365–68, 397–98 n. 10, 398 n. 12.
94 “Jakob von Sarug,” in Kirchliches Handlexikon (7 vols.; Leipzig, 1887–1902) 3:519; William Wright, “Syriac Literature,” in Encyclopædia Britannica (9th ed.; 25 vols.; Edinburgh, 1875–1889) 22:824–56, at 22:831; Norman McLean, “Jacob of Sĕrūgh,” in Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.; 29 vols.; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910–1911) 15:114–15, at 15:115; Franz X. Schühlein, “Jakob von Sarug,” in Kirchliches Handlexikon. Ein Nachschlagebuch über das Gesamtgebiet der Theologie und ihrer Hilfswissenschaften (ed. Michael Buchberger; 2 vols.; Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1904–1912) 2:17; Eugène Tisserant, “Jacques de Saroug,” in DTC (15 vols.; Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1899–1950) 8.1:300–305, at 8.1:303–4; Martin Jugie, Theologia dogmatica christianorum orientalium ab Ecclesia catholica dissidentium (5 vols.; Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1926–1935) 4:418–19.
95 William Wright and Norman McLean, A Short History of Syriac Literature (London, 1894) 352–53; Carl Brockelmann et al., Geschichte der christlichen Litteraturen des Orients (2nd ed.; Leipzig: C. F. Amelangs, 1909) 25–27; Jean-Baptiste Chabot, Littérature syriaque (Paris: Bloud & Gay, 1935) 63.
96
Morceaux choisis de littérature araméenne (ed. Jacques Eugène Manna; Mosul: Imprimerie des pères dominicains, 1902) 
(= 275); Ausgewählte Schriften der syrischen Dichter Cyrillonas, Baläus, Isaak von Antiochien und Jakob von Sarug (trans. Simon Konrad Landersdorfer; Bibliothek des Kirchenväter 6; Kempten: Josef Köselsche Buchhandlung, 1913) 261.
97 S. Martyrii qui et Sahdona quae supersunt omnia (ed. Paul Bedjan; Paris: Harrassowitz, 1902) xviii; Homiliae selectae Mar-Jacobi Sarugensis (ed. Paul Bedjan; 5 vols.; Paris: Harrassowitz, 1905–1910) 1.v; Richard Hugh Connolly, “A Homily of Mâr Jacob of Sérûgh on the Reception of the Holy Mysteries,” DRev 8 [27] (1908) 278–87, at 278; Die äthiopischen Anaphoren des Hl. Evangelisten Johannes, des Donnersohnes, und des Hl. Jacobus von Sarug (ed. and trans. Sebastian Euringer; Orientalia Christiana 33.1 [90]; Rome: Pontificium Institutum Studiorum Orientalium, 1934) 79.
98 Joseph Halévy, “Examen critique des sources relatives à la persécution des chrétiens de Nedjran par le roi juif des Himyarites,” REJ 18 [35–36] (1889) 16–42, 161–78, at 22; Three Letters of Philoxenus, Bishop of Mabbôgh (485–519) (ed. and trans. Arthur Adolphe Vaschalde; Rome: Tipografia della R. Accademia dei Lincei, 1902) 57 n. 3.
99 Schröter, “Trostschreiben,” 369–95. This corresponds to Jacob of Serugh, Letter 18 (Epistulae [ed. Olinder], CSCO 110, Scr. Syri 57:87–102).
100 Arthur Lincoln Frothingham Jr., Stephen bar Sudaili, the Syrian Mystic, and the Book of Hierotheos (Leiden, 1886) 10–27. This corresponds to Letter 1 (Epistulae [ed. Olinder], CSCO 110, Scr. Syri 57:2–11).
101 For a summary of Bedjan’s life and works, see Heleen Murre-van den Berg, “Paul Bedjan, Missionary for Life (1838–1920)” in Homilies (ed. Bedjan and Brock), 6:339–69.
102 S. Martyrii (ed. Bedjan), 605–13. This corresponds to Letter 6 (Epistulae [ed. Olinder], CSCO 110, Scr. Syri 57:28–34).
103 Epistulae (ed. Olinder), i.
104 Gunnar Olinder, The Letters of Jacob of Sarug: Comments on an Edition (Lunds Universitets Årsskrift, n.f., avd. 1, 34.1; Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, 1939), throughout. The planned second volume would have contained discussion of the literary, philological, biographical, theological, historical, and exegetical aspects of the letters: Olinder, Comments, 3.
105 A nearly complete German translation was the first major translation project of Jacob’s letters: Jakob von Sarug. Ausgewählte Briefe (trans. Severin Matthias Grill; 3 vols.; Heiligenkreuzer Studien 17; Heiligenkreuz: Heiligenkreuzer Verlag, 1971–1972). Arabic, French, and Italian translations followed: Rasāʾil Mār Yaʿqūb as-surūji al-malfān (trans. Behnam M. Boulos Sony; 2 vols.; Dekwaneh, Lebanon, 1995); Les lettres de Jacques de Saroug (trans. Micheline Albert; Patrimoine Syriaque 3; Kaslik, Lebanon: Parole de l’Orient, 2004); Lettere di Giacomo vescovo di Sarug, 451–521 a.d. (trans. Behnam M. Boulos Sony; Rome, 2008).
106 Acta martyrum et sanctorum (ed. Paul Bedjan; 7 vols.; Paris: Harrassowitz, 1890–1897) 1:131–43; 3:665–79; 4:471–99, 650–65; 5:615–27; 6:650–89.
107 Cantus seu homiliae Mar-Jacobi in Jesum et Mariam (ed. Paul Bedjan; Paris: Harrassowitz, 1902).
108 S. Martyrii (ed. Bedjan), 614–865.
109 Homiliae (ed. Bedjan). This was reprinted in Homilies (ed. Bedjan and Brock), vols. 1–5.
110 Carl Hunnius, Das syrische Alexanderlied (Göttingen: Dieterischschen Universitäts-Buchdruckerei, 1904) 3, 31, in which he refutes the long-held assumption that this is Jacob’s homily; Carl Hunnius, “Das syrische Alexanderlied,” ZDMG 60 (1906) 169–209, 558–89, 802–21; Michael Kmosko, “De apocrypha quadam dominici baptismi descriptione corollarium,” OrChr 4.1 (1904) 195–99; Anton Baumstark, “Zwei syrische Dichtungen auf das Entschlafen der allerseligsten Jungfrau,” OrChr 5.1 (1905) 82–125, at 91–99; Connolly, “Reception of the Holy Mysteries”; Richard Hugh Connolly, “A Homily of Mâr Jacob of Sérûgh on the Memorial of the Departed and on the Eucharistic Loaf,” DRev 10 [29] (1910) 260–70; Jacques Babakhan, “Essai du vulgarisation des homélies métriques de Jacques de Saroug, évêque de Batnan en Mésopotamie, 451–521,” Revue de l’Orient chrétien 17 (1912) 410–26; 18 (1913) 42–52, 147–67, 252–69, 358–74; 19 (1914) 61–68, 143–54; Landersdorfer, Ausgewählte Schriften, 272–431; Israel Friedlaender, Die Chadhirlegende und der Alexanderroman. Eine sagengeschichtliche und literarhistorische Untersuchung (Leipzig: Teubner, 1913) 50, who assumes that this homily is authentic; Arthur Allgeier, “Untersuchungen zur syrischen Überlieferung der Siebenschläferlegende,” OrChr, 2nd series, 4 [14] (1914) 279–97; 5 [15] (1915) 10–59, 263–270, at (1915) 43–53; Heinrich Näf, Syrische Josef-Gedichte, mit Übersetzung des Gedichts von Narsai und Proben aus Balai und Jaqob von Sarug (Zürich: A. Schwarzenbach, 1923) 43–50; Samuel Alfred Brown Mercer, “The Anaphora of Saint James of Serug,” JSOR 11 (1927) 71–75; I. K. Cosgrove, “Three Homilies against the Jews by Jacob of Sarug, Edited with Introduction, Translation and Notes” (PhD diss., University of London, 1931); Die äthiopischen Anaphoren (ed. and trans. Euringer), 86–112; Cyril Moss, “Jacob of Serugh’s Homilies on the Spectacles of the Theatre,” Le Muséon 48 (1935) 87–112.
111 Henri Jalabert, Jésuites au Proche-Orient. Notices biographiques (Collection Hommes et Sociétés du Proche-Orient; Beirut: Dar el-Machreq, 1987) 310–11.
112 Paul Mouterde, “Deux homélies inédites de Jacques de Saroug,” MUSJ 26.1 (1944–1946) 1–36, at 4. The manuscript is Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 566. The two homilies are Jacob of Serugh, Homily on Mary and Golgotha [A 212] (Mouterde, “Deux homélies,” 15–22, 29–36); and Homily on the Burial of Strangers [A 213] (Mouterde, “Deux homélies,” 9–14, 23–28).
113 The short biography of Jacob in London, British Library, Add. 12174, from 1196 or 1197, mentions this homily: Narrative of Mar Jacob the Divine Teacher (Abbeloos, De vita et scriptis, 312; Brock, “A Select Bibliographical Guide,” 238).
114 Paul Mouterde, “Homélie sur le voile du visage de Moïse,” Dieu Vivant 12 (1948) 49–62, at 51.
115 Paul Devos, “Le R. P. Paul Peeters (1870–1950). Son œuvre et sa personnalité de bollandiste,” AnBoll 69 (1951) i–lix.
116 Paul Peeters, “Review of Paul Mouterde, ‘Deux homélies inédites de Jacques de Saroug,’ MUSJ 26.1 (1946–1948) 1–36,” AnBoll 65 (1947) 191–93, at 193.
117 Paul Peeters, “Jacques de Saroug appartient-il à la secte monophysite?,” AnBoll 66 (1948) 134–98.
118 Jacob of Serugh, Homily on Mary and Golgotha [A 212] (Mouterde, “Deux homélies,” 11, 25): 
119 Peeters, “Jacques de Saroug,” 138.
120 Ibid., 143, 157–60.
121 Ibid., 194.
122 George Anton Kiraz, “Isḥāq Armalah,” in GEDSH, 33.
123 Ishaq Armalah, Mār Yaʿqūb usquf sarūj al-malfān baḥt intiqādī tārīḵī dīnī (Jounieh, Lebanon, 1946).
124 Peeters, “Jacques de Saroug,” 134 n.*.
125 A response to Armalah appeared in 1949: Būlus Bahnām, Ḵamāʾilu ar-rayḥān aw urṯuḏuksīyat Mār Yaʿqūb as-sarūjī al-malfān (Mosul, 1949). Khalil Alwan, “Bibliographie générale raisonée de Jacques de Saroug (†521),” ParOr 13 (1986) 313–83, at 374, cites one more work by each author, but I have not been able to acquire access to them.
126 Peeters likely heard of it through a review of the work in a European periodical: Johannes Petrus Maria van der Ploeg, “Review of Ishaq Armalah, Mār Yaʿqūb usquf sarūj al-malfān baḥt intiqādī tārīḵī dīnī (Jounieh, Lebanon, 1946),” BO 5.5 (1948) 153–56.
127 Berthold Altaner, Patrologie. Leben, Schriften und Lehre der Kirchenväter (3rd ed.; Freiburg: Herder, 1951) 303.
128 A. A. Vasiliev, Justin the First: An Introduction to the Epoch of Justinian the Great (Dumbarton Oaks Studies 1; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950) 235; Ernst Honigmann, Évêques et évêchés monophysites d’Asie antérieure au VI e siècle (CSCO 127, Subsidia 2; Leuven: L. Durbecq, 1951) 189; W. de Vries, “Primat, Communio und Kirche bei den frühen syrischen Monophysiten,” OCP 18 (1952) 52–88, at 59–60; Costantino Vona, Omelie mariologiche di S. Giacomo di Sarug (Lateranum, n.s., 19.1–4; Rome: Facultas Theologica Pontificii Athenaei Lateranensis, 1953) 28–35.
129 Lebon, “La christologie,” 427 n. 6. Lebon also cites Armalah in this footnote.
130 Kleines Wörterbuch des christlichen Orients (ed. Julius Assfalg and Paul Krüger; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1975) ix.
131 Paul Krüger, “Die Frage der Erbsundigkeit der Gottesmutter im Schrifttum des Jakob von Serugh,” Ostkirchliche Studien 1 (1952) 187–207, at 187.
132 Ibid., 206–7.
133 Paul Krüger, “War Jakob von Serugh Katholik oder Monophysit?,” Ostkirchliche Studien 2 (1953) 199–208, at 201.
134 Ibid., 208.
135 Ibid., 201.
136 Paul Krüger, “Das Problem der Rechtgläubigkeit Jakobs von Serugh und seine Lösung,” Ostkirchliche Studien 5 (1956) 158–76, 225–42, at 167.
137 Ibid., 176.
138 Ibid., 242.
139 Paul Krüger, “La deuxième homélie de Jacques de Saroug sur la foi du concile de Chalcédoine,” OrSyr 2 (1957) 125–36.
140 Ibid., 126. The manuscript Krüger uses is London British Library, Add. 14651, which dates to 850 (Wright, Syriac Manuscripts, 3:1101). Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 117, which Assemani used, dates to 1197.
141 Paul Krüger, “Untersuchungen über die Form der Einheit in Christus nach den Briefen des Jakob von Serugh,” Ostkirchliche Studien 8 (1959) 184–201, at 184. He refers to Ignacio Ortiz de Urbina, Patrologia Syriaca (Rome: Pontificium Institutum Studiorum Orientalium, 1958) 100, who claims that Jacob “held to Chalcedonian orthodoxy at the end of his life,” and to Taeke Jansma, “L’hexaméron de Jacques de Sarûg” (trans. Louis-Marcel Gunthier), OrSyr 4 (1959) 3–42, 129–62, 253–84, at 3–4, who states that there was still uncertainty in this debate, with Peeters and Armalah on one side and Krüger on the other.
142 Krüger, “Das Problem der Rechtgläubigkeit,” 199. A. Michel, “Idiomes (Communication des),” in DTC (15 vols.; Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1899–1950) 7.1:595–602, at 599–600, briefly outlines the debated nature of the communicatio idiomatum among the miaphysites.
143 Paul Krüger, “Le caractère monophysite de la troisième lettre de Jacques de Saroug,” OrSyr 6 (1961) 301–8.
144 Lucas Van Rompay, “Taeke Jansma (1919–2007),” Hug 10 (2007) 95–102.
145 Jacob of Serugh, Homily on the Creation of the World [A 71] (Homiliae [ed. Bedjan], 3:1–151).
146 Jansma, “L’hexaméron de Jacques de Sarûg,” 3–4.
147 Taeke Jansma, “The Credo of Jacob of Sĕrūgh: A Return to Nicea and Constantinople,” Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis 44 (1962) 18–36, at 22.
148 Ibid., 29–30, 32–33.
149 Paul Krüger, “Die kirchliche Zugehörigkeit Jakobs von Serugh im Lichte der handschriftlichen Überlieferung seiner Vita unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Pariser Handschrift 177,” Ostkirchliche Studien 13 (1964) 15–32, at 19.
150 Ibid., 32. This text is the Homily on Mar Jacob, the Teacher, of Batnae of Serugh. It was first printed based on Rome, Vatican Library, Sir. 117 (Abbeloos, De vita et scriptis, 24–85), and then Krüger produced a critical edition using Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Syr. 177 (Paul Krüger, “Ein bislang unbekannter sermo über Leben und Werk des Jakob von Serugh,” OrChr 56 [1972] 80–111, at 82–111).
151 Taeke Jansma, “Die Christologie Jacobs von Serugh und ihre Abhängigkeit von der alexandrinischen Theologie und der Frömmigkeit Ephräms des Syrers,” Le Muséon 78 (1965) 5–46, at 6.
152 Ibid., 21–35.
153 Ibid., 46.
154 Taeke Jansma, “Encore le credo de Jacques de Saroug. Nouvelle recherches sur l’argument historique concernant son orthodoxie,” OrSyr 10 (1965) 79–88, 193–236 (Paul of Edessa); 331–70 (Jacob’s homilies and letters); 475–510 (other historical sources).
155 Ibid., 355.
156 Paul Krüger, “Neues über die Frage der Konfessionszugehörigkeit Jakobs von Serugh,” in Wegzeichen. Festgabe zum 60. Geburtstag von Prof. Dr. Hermenegild M. Biedermann OSA (ed. Ernst Christophor Suttner and Coelestin Patock; Das östliche Christentum, n.F., 25; Würzburg: Augustinus-Verlag, 1971) 245–52; idem, “Ein bislang unbekannter sermo”; idem, “Ein zweiter anonymer memra über Jakob von Serugh,” OrChr 56 (1972) 112–49; idem, “Die sogenannte Philoxenosvita und die Kurzvita des Jacob von Serugh,” Ostkirchliche Studien 21 (1972) 39–45; idem, “Zur Problematik des Mēmrā (Sermo) über den Glauben des Jakob von Serugh und seine Lösung,” Ostkirchliche Studien 23 (1974) 188–96; idem, “Jakob von Sarūg,” in Kleines Wörterbuch des christlichen Orients (ed. Julius Assfalg and Paul Krüger; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1975) 151.
157 But Jakob von Sarug. Die Forschung und das Heiligtum der Kirche (ed. and trans. Severin Matthias Grill; Heiligenkreuzer Studien 13B; Horn: Berger, 1973) 11–12, still supports Krüger over Jansma.
158 Arthur Vööbus, Handschriftliche Überlieferung der Mēmrē-Dichtung des Jaʿqōb von Serūg (4 vols.; CSCO 344–45, 421–22, Subsidia 39–40, 60–61; Leuven: Secrétariat du CorpusSCO, 1973–1980) 1:34–37; François Graffin, “Jacques de Saroug,” in Dictionnaire de spiritualité (15 vols.; Paris: Beauchesne, 1932–1995) 8:56–60, at 8:56; Sebastian P. Brock, “An Early Maronite Text on Prayer,” ParOr 13 (1986) 79–94, at 79 n. 1; Wolfgang Hage, “Jakob von Sarug,” in TRE (36 vols.; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1977–2004) 16:470–74, at 16:471; Frédéric Rilliet, “Jakob von Sarug” (trans. Heinzgerd Brakmann), in RAC (30 vols.; Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 1950–) 16:1217–27, at 16:1220; P. Bettiolo, “Lineamenti di patrologia siriaca,” in Complementi interdisciplinari di patrologia (ed. Antonio Quacquarelli; Rome: Città Nova, 1989) 503–603, at 559; Bou Mansour, “The Christology of Jacob of Sarug,” 477; Peter Bruns, “Christologie” and “Jakob von Sarūg” in Kleines Lexikon des Christlichen Orients. 2. Auflage des kleinen Wörterbuches des christlichen Orients (ed. Hubert Kaufhold; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007) 123–37, at 129; 210–11.
159 Roberta C. Chesnut, Three Monophysite Christologies: Severus of Antioch, Philoxenus of Mabbug and Jacob of Sarug (Oxford Theological Monographs; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976). But this work has not been received well; see the reviews by Lionel R. Wickham in JTS, n.s., 28 (1977) 567–71, and Iain R. Torrance in SJT 32 (1979) 183–85, at 185.
160 Homily on the Council of Chalcedon [A 211] (Homilies [ed. Bedjan and Brock], 6:331–37; Brock, “Reaction”). For a defense of its authenticity, see Forness, Preaching Christology, 135–39.
161 Wadi al-Natrun, Deir al-Surian, Syr. 28A, fol. 5r (Sebastian P. Brock and Lucas Van Rompay, Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts and Fragments in the Library of Deir al-Surian, Wadi al-Natrun (Egypt) [OLA 227; Leuven: Peeters, 2014] 181).
162 Micheline Albert, “Jacques de Saroug (†521) et le magistère,” ParOr 17 (1992) 61–71, at 61, states that she is using Letters 13–17, 19–21.
163 Ibid., 61 n. 1. The connections between the Henoticon and Jacob’s letters and homilies are explored at length in Forness, Preaching Christology.
164 Bou Mansour, “The Christology of Jacob of Sarug,” 434–35, 456, 456 n. 116.
165 160 Unpublished Homilies (ed. Akhrass and Syryany).
166 Forness, Preaching Christology.
167 In this regard, two studies on one of these newly published homilies have already appeared that add significant information about Jacob’s engagement with the events of his day: Muriel Debié, “Guerres et religions en Mésopotamie du Nord dans l’Antiquité tardive. Un mimro inédit de Jacques de Saroug sur l’église Saint-Étienne que les Perses ont transformée en temple du feu à Amid (Diyarbakır) en 503 è.c.,” Syriac Orthodox Patriarchal Journal 56 (2018) 29–89; eadem, “St Stephen in Amida in a New mimro of Jacob of Serugh: Christianity vs. Zoroastrianism in a Clash of Religious Shrines,” in Syriac Hagiography: Texts and Beyond (ed. Sergey Minov and Flavia Ruani; Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity 20; Leiden: Brill, 2021) 340–64.