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The main purpose of the book is to provide the Syriac texts and annotated English translations of four anonymous dialogue poems (with separate introductions to each) where the protagonists are, respectively, Synagogue and Church, Sion and Church, Jesus and the Synagogue, Jesus and the Pharisees. Syriac texts of the first two dialogue poems are critical editions based on the oldest manuscripts; the first replaces an earlier edition (1902) based on a very corrupt manuscript, and the second and third have only previously been published in Sughyotho mgabyotho (Select dialogue poems; Monastery of St Ephrem, NL, 1982), intended for a Syrian Orthodox readership. The Syriac text of the fourth is primarily based on earlier editions in F. Feldman, Syrische Wechsellieder von Narses (Leipzig, 1896) and A. Mingana, Narsai Doctoris syri homiliae et carmina II (Mosul, 1905), where the poem is almost certainly wrongly attributed to Narsai.
About the author
Sebastian P. Brock, FBA, is one of the foremost scholars in the field of Syriac studies today. He taught at the Universities of Birmingham and Cambridge, and was Reader in Syriac Studies at the University of Oxford until his retirement in 2003. He is currently an Emeritus Fellow at Wolfson College and Emeritus Reader in Syriac Studies at the Faculty of Oriental Studies in Oxford. He has been awarded a number of honorary doctorates. He continues to publish extensively in the field of Syriac literature, liturgical and monastic literature, and has edited a number of previously unpublished texts.
Summary
The main purpose of the book is to provide the Syriac texts from 5th to 7th AD and annotated English translations of four anonymous dialogue poems (with separate introductions to each) where the protagonists are, respectively, Synagogue and Church, Sion and Church, Jesus and the Synagogue, Jesus and the Pharisees.
