This book discusses hagiographic, historiographical, hymnological, and theological sources that contributed to the formation of the sacred picture of the physical as well as metaphysical Jerusalem in the literature of two Eastern Christian denominations, East and West Syrians. Popa analyses the question of Syrian beliefs about the Holy City, their interaction with holy places, and how they travelled in the Holy Land. He also explores how they imagined and reflected the theology of this itinerary through literature in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, set alongside a well-defined local tradition that was at times at odds with Jerusalem. Even though the image of Jerusalem as a land of sacred spaces is unanimously accepted in the history of Christianity, there were also various competing positions and attitudes. This often promoted the attempt at mitigating and replacing Jerusalem’s sacred centrality to the Christian experience with local sacred heritage, which is also explored in this study. Popa argues that despite this rhetoric of artificial boundaries, the general picture epitomises a fluid and animated intersection of Syriac Christians with the Holy City especially in the medieval era and the subsequent period, through a standardised process of pilgrimage, well-integrated in the custom of advanced Christian life and monastic canon. The Making of Syriac Jerusalem is suitable for students and scholars working on the history, literature, and theology of Syriac Christianity in the late antique and medieval periods.

The Council of Chalcedon in 451 divided eastern Christianity, with those who were later called Syrian Orthodox among the Christians in the near eastern provinces who refused to accept the decisions of the council. These non-Chalcedonians (still better known under the misleading term Monophysites) separated from the church of the empire after Justin I attempted to enforce Chalcedon in the East in 518. Volker L. Menze historicizes the formation of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the first half of the sixth century. This volume covers the period from the accession of Justin to the second Council of Constantinople in 553. Menze begins with an exploration of imperial and papal policy from a non-Chalcedonian, eastern perspective, then discusses monks, monasteries and the complex issues surrounding non-Chalcedonian church life and sacraments. The volume concludes with a close look at the working of "collective memory" among the non-Chalcedonians and the construction of a Syrian Orthodox identity. This study is a histoire évènementielle of actual religious practice, especially concerning the Eucharist and the diptychs, and of ecclesiastical and imperial policy which modifies the traditional view of how emperors (and in the case of Theodora: empresses) ruled the late Roman/early Byzantine empire. By combining this detailed analysis of secular and ecclesiastical politics with a study of long-term strategies of memorialization, the book also focuses on deep structures of collective memory on which the tradition of the present Syrian Orthodox Church is founded.

Syriac Christianity developed in the first centuries CE in the Middle East, where it continued to flourish throughout Late Antiquity and the Medieval period, while also spreading widely, as far as India and China. Today, Syriac Christians are found in the Middle East, in India, as well in diasporas scattered across the globe. Over this extended time period and across this vast geographic expanse, Syriac Christians have built impressive churches and monasteries, crafted fine pieces of art, and written and transmitted a sizable body of literature. Though often overlooked, neglected, and even persecuted, Syriac Christianity has been – and continues to be – an important part of the humanistic heritage of the last two millennia. The present volume brings together fourteen studies that offer fresh perspectives on Syriac Christianity, especially its literary texts and authors. The timeframes of the individual studies span from the second-century Syriac translation of the Hebrew Bible up to the thirteenth century with the end of the Syriac Renaissance. Several studies analyze key authors from Late Antiquity, such as Aphrahat, Ephrem, Narsai, and Jacob of Serugh. Others investigate translations into Syriac, both from Hebrew and from Greek, while still others examine hagiography, especially its formation and transmission. Reflecting a growing trend in the field, the volume also devotes significant attention to the Medieval period, during which Syriac Christians lived under Islamic rule. The studies in the volume are united in their quest to explore the richness, diversity, and vibrance of Syriac Christianity.

The context of the history of Georgia from the fourth to the sixth centuries -- Christianity and monasticism in Georgia in the fourth and fifth centuries -- Peter's genealogy in the life of Peter the Iberian : hagiographic ancestry -- The history of the christological controversies and their context in Palestine from the fourth to the sixth centuries -- Monasticism in fifth-century Palestine -- On the death of Theodosius -- The anti-chalcedonian defeat in Palestine -- Authorship -- John Rufus -- Rhetoric and genre in the life of Peter the Iberian -- Text-critical overview -- Versions and original text -- Synopsis of the Vita Petri Iberi and the De obitu Theodosii -- Outline of the Vita Petri Iberi -- Outline of the De obitu Theodosii -- Genealogical tables of the families of Peter the Iberian and Zuzo -- Chronological timeline -- Texts and translations -- Life of Peter the Iberian -- On the death of Theodosius.

A captivating journey through the hidden libraries of Jerusalem, where some of the world’s most enduring ideas were put into words In this enthralling book, Merav Mack and Benjamin Balint explore Jerusalem’s libraries to tell the story of this city as a place where some of the world’s most enduring ideas were put into words. The writers of Jerusalem, although renowned the world over, are not usually thought of as a distinct school; their stories as Jerusalemites have never before been woven into a single narrative. Nor have the stories of the custodians, past and present, who safeguard Jerusalem’s literary legacies. By showing how Jerusalem has been imagined by its writers and shelved by its librarians, Mack and Balint tell the untold history of how the peoples of the book have populated the city with texts. In their hands, Jerusalem itself—perched between East and West, antiquity and modernity, violence and piety—comes alive as a kind of labyrinthine library.

According to the current scholarly consensus, the apocalypse of 2 Baruch, written after the Fall of Jerusalem, either rejected the concept of the Land of Israel as a place of salvation or regarded it as of minor importance. Inspired by the perspective of Critical Spatial Theory, this book discusses the presuppositions behind this consensus with regard to the spatial epistemology it assumes, and explores the conception of the Land as a broad redemptive category. The result is a fresh portrait of the vitality of the Land-theme in the first centuries of the common era and a new perspective on the spatial imagination of 2 Baruch.

In addition to these five books of the Maccabees found within the Peshitta, there is additional Syriac literature associated with the woman and her seven sons, who were tortured to death by King Antiochus. The most famous of these Syriac works is the poem Lady Shamoni and the Maccabean Martyrs, which Western biblical scholars have dubbed 6ᵗʰ Maccabees. The poem goes into more detail regarding the torture of the sons of Shamoni than 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees, where the author skipped over most of the gruesome details and then ended the chapter with “This is enough about the eating of sacrifices and the extreme tortures.” The text of 6ᵗʰ Maccabees is itself somewhat confusing. Scholars agree the original text was the third-person perspective historical narrative that forms most of the text, however, this is repeatedly interrupted by an editor who interjects their own thoughts in first-person perspective. The editor was clearly a Christian, as he references Jesus, however, even the Christian edits use a mix of terms that confuse their dating. It is entirely plausible that more than one Christian editor handled the poem. The older third-person historical narrative appears to be pre-Christian, as it is consistent with Judean writings from the Second Temple era. The focus of the story returns consistently to the preservation of the Orit, the Aramaic version of the Torah that was in use before the Hasmonean dynasty translated and standardized the ancient Samaritan, Judahite, and Aramaic texts into Classical Hebrew. Some scholars believe that this older historical narrative is drawn from the same source the author of 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees used, which is why it retains more of the details. This is conjectural, as the details may be fictional additions to the story found in 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees. However, the author of 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees claimed to be condensing Jason of Cyrene’s five-volume work on the Maccabees and certainly skipped over some of the torture. Jason of Cyrene’s work is lost, and so this may be a section of his work that was later converted into a Syriac Christian poem.

In addition to these five books of the Maccabees found within the Peshitta, there is additional Syriac literature associated with the woman and her seven sons, who were tortured to death by King Antiochus. A lesser-known Syriac work is The Story of the Lady and her Seven Sons, which Western biblical scholars have dubbed 7ᵗʰ Maccabees. 7ᵗʰ Maccabees does not appear to have been significantly altered by Christians. There is a reference to the youths believing in the Messiah that is often assumed to be a reference to Jesus by Christians, however, the prophecy of the Messiah long predated the time of Jesus. Therefore, it does not indicate the work of a Christian editor, but simply that the youths believed a Messiah would come to save the Judeans. This story could also be interpreted as evidence that Judas the hammer was once considered the Messiah, as he drove the Greeks out of Judea. However, he is not viewed that way today. If the story was associated with Judas’ cause at one point, it could explain why 6ᵗʰ and 8ᵗʰ Maccabees refer to the youths as the Maccabean martyrs. The name of the lady is also rendered strangely in 7ᵗʰ Maccabees. In 6ᵗʰ Maccabees, she is called Lady Shamoni, however, in 7ᵗʰ Maccabees the term mrtả is sometimes spelled as mrỉm or mrtỉm. Mrtả was the Syriac word for ‘lady’ or ‘noble woman,’ which was adopted as the name Martha in Greek, and spread into most European languages. As a result, her name is sometimes translated as ‘Martha,’ with both mrỉm and mrtỉm dismissed as scribal errors. Nevertheless, mrtỉm was the Judeo-Aramaic word for ‘ladies,’ suggesting the word is not an error but a transliteration from an older source text. The Syriac form of Aramaic used simpler pluralization, and mrtả was both the singular and plural form of the word ‘lady/ladies.’ Therefore, the terms mrtỉm or mrtả are both translated as the title ‘lady’ in this translation. It is unclear why the term would have been pluralized in the original Judeo-Aramaic text unless there were originally more than one lady in the text. It suggests her original name was Mary Shamone, however, this name is not consistent with Judean or Aramaic naming conventions from the era. If Mary was a mistranslation of mrtỉm, then this likely originated as a reference to eight noble women, not one. If so, the original title of this work was The Story of the Ladies and Their Seven Sons.