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JACOB OF EDESSA

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 114 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JACOB OF See also:EDESSA , who ranks with Barhebraeus as the most distinguished for scholarship among See also:Syriac writers,3.was See also:born at 'En-debha in the See also:province of See also:Antioch, probably about A.U. 640. From the trustworthy See also:account of his See also:life by Barhebraeus (Chron. See also:Eccles. i. 289) we learn that he studied first at the famous monastery of See also:Ken-neshre (on the See also:left See also:bank of the See also:Euphrates, opposite Jerabis) and afterwards at See also:Alexandria, which had of course been 3 " In the literature of his See also:country Jacob holds much the same See also:place as See also:Jerome among the Latin fathers " (See also:Wright, See also:Short His& a) Syr. Lit. p. 143). for some See also:time in the hands of the Moslems.' On his return he was appointed See also:bishop of Edessa by his friend See also:Athanasius II. (of Balad), probably in 684,2 but held this See also:office only for three or four years, as the See also:clergy withstood his strict enforcement of the See also:Church canons and he was not supported by See also:Julian, the successor of Athanasius in the patriarchate. Accordingly, having in anger publicly burnt a copy of the canons in front of Julian's See also:residence, Jacob retired to the monastery of Kaisum near See also:Samosata, and from there to the monastery of Eusebhona,3 where for eleven years he taught the See also:Psalms and the See also:reading of the Scriptures in See also:Greek. But towards the See also:close of this See also:period he again encountered opposition, this time from monks " who hated the Greeks," and so proceeded to the See also:great See also:convent of Tell 'Addy or Teleda (? See also:modern Telladi, N.W. of See also:Aleppo), where he spent nine years in revising and emending the Peshitta version of the Old Testament by the help of the various Greek versions. He was finally recalled to the bishopric of Edessa in 708, but died four months later, on the 5th of See also:June.

In See also:

doctrine Jacob was undoubtedly Monophysite.¢ Of the very large number of his See also:works, which are mostly in See also:prose, not many have as yet been published, but much See also:information may be gathered from See also:Assemani's Bibliotheca Orientalis and Wright's See also:Catalogue of Syriac See also:MSS. in the See also:British Museum. (i) Of the Syriac Old Testament Jacob produced what Wright calls " a curious eclectic or patchwork See also:text," of which five volumes survive in See also:Europe (Wright's Catalogue 38). It was " the last See also:attempt at a revision of the Old Testament in the Monophysite Church." Jacob was also the See also:chief founder of the Syriac Massorah among the See also:Monophysites, which produced such MSS. as the one (Vat. cliii.) described by See also:Wiseman in Ilorae syriacae, See also:part iii. (2) Jacob was the author both of commentaries and of scholia on the sacred books ; of these specimens are given by Assemani and Wright. They were largely quoted by later commentators, who often refer to Jacob as " the interpreter of the Scriptures." With the commentaries may be mentioned his Hexahemeron, or See also:treatise on the six days of creation, MSS. of which exist at See also:Leiden and at See also:Lyons. It was his latest See also:work, and being left 1~1'See also:complete was finished by his friend See also:George the bishop of the See also:Arabs. Among apocrypha, the See also:History of the See also:Rechabites composed by See also:Zosimus was translated from Greek into Syriac by Jacob (Wright's Catalogue 1128, and Nau in Revue semitique vi. 263, vii. 54, 136). (3) Mention has been made above of Jacob's zeal on behalf of ecclesiastical canons. In his See also:letter to the See also:priest Addai we possess a collection of canons from his See also:pen, given in the See also:form of answers to Addai's questions. These were edited by See also:Lagarde in Reliquiae See also:juris eccl. syriace, pp.

117 sqq. and Lamy in Dissert. pp. 98 sqq. Additional canons were given in Wright's Notulae syriacae. The whole have been translated and expounded by See also:

Kayser, See also:Die Canones See also:Jacobs von Edessa (See also:Leipzig, 1886). (4) Jacob made many contributions to Syriac See also:liturgy, both See also:original and translated (Wright, Short Hist. p. 145 seq.). (5) To philosophical literature hischief original contribution was his Enchiridion, a See also:tract on philosophical terms (Wright's Catalogue 984). The See also:translations of works of See also:Aristotle which have been attributed to him are probably by other hands (Wright, Short Hist. p. 149; See also:Duval, Litterature syriaque, pp. 255, 258). The treatise De causa omnium causarum, which was the work of a bishop of Edessa, was formerly attributed to Jacob; but the publication of the whole by Kayser has made it clear that the treatise is of much later date. (6) An important See also:historical work by Jacob—a See also:Chronicle in continuation of that of See also:Eusebius—has unfortunately perished all except a few leaves.

Of these a full account is given in Wright's Catalogue 1062. (7) Jacob's fame among his countrymen rests most of all on his labours as a grammarian. In his letter to George, bishop of Sera gh, on Syriac See also:

orthography (published by See also:Phillips in See also:London 1869, and by See also:Martin in See also:Paris the same See also:year) he sets forth the importance of fidelity by See also:scribes in the copying of minutiae of spelling. In his See also:grammar 6 (of which only some fragments remain), while expressing ' Merx infers that the fact of Jacob's going to Alexandria as a student tells against the view that the Arabs burned the great library (Hist. artis gramm. apud Syros, p. 35). On this question cf. Krehl in Atli del iv. congr. internaz. degli Orientalisti (See also:Florence, 188o), PP. 433 sqq. 2 Pseudo-See also:Dionysius of Tell-Mahre says 677; but Athanasius was See also:patriarch only 684-687. ' According to Merx (op. cit. p. 43) this may be the celebrated convent of Eusebius near See also:Apamea. ° Assemani tried hard to prove him orthodox (B.O. i.

470 sqq.) but changed his See also:

opinion on reading his See also:biography by Barhebraeus (ib. ii. 337). See especially Lamy, Dissert. de Syrorum fide, pp. 2o6 sqq. ' Text at Leipzig 1889 (See also:Des See also:Buch der Erkenntniss der Wahrheit See also:oder der Ursache aller Ursachen) : See also:translation (posthumously) at See also:Strassburg 1893. a The surviving fragments were published by Wright (London, 1871) and by Merx, op. cit. p. 73 sqq. of Syriac text.his sense of the disadvantage under which Syriac labours through its See also:alphabet containing only consonants, he declined to introduce a See also:general See also:system of vowel-signs, lest the See also:change should contribute to the neglect and loss of the older books written without vowels. At the same time he invented, by See also:adaptation of the Greek vowels, such a system of signs as might serve for purposes of grammatical exposition, and elaborated the rules by which certain consonants serve to indicate vowels. He also systematized and extended the use of diacritical points. It is still a See also:moot question how far Jacob is to be regarded as the author of the five vowel-signs derived from Greek which soon after came into use among the See also:Jacobites' In any See also:case he made the most important contribution to Syriac grammar down to the time of Barhebraeus. (8) As a translator Jacob's greatest achievement was his Syriac version of the Homiliae cathedrales of See also:Severus, the monophysite patriarch of Antioch (512-518, 535-536). This important collection is now in part known to us by E.

W. See also:

Brooks's edition and translation of the 6th See also:book of selected epistles of Severus, according to another Syriac version made by Athanasius of See also:Nisibis in 669. (9) A large number of letters by Jacob to various correspondents have been found in various MSS. Besides those on the See also:canon See also:law to Addai, and on grammar to George of Serugh referred to above, there are others dealing with doctrine, liturgy, &c. A few are in See also:verse. Jacob impresses the modern reader mainly as an educator of his countrymen, and particularly of the clergy. His writings lack the fervid See also:rhetoric and graceful See also:style of such authors as See also:Isaac of Antioch, Jacob of Serugh, and See also:Philoxenus of Mabbog. But judged by the See also:standard of his time he shows the qualities of a truly scientific theologian and See also:scholar. (N.

End of Article: JACOB OF EDESSA

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