Symbols of Church and Kingdom: A Study in Early Syriac Tradition

412 Pages·2004·22.72 MB·English

by  Murray Robert

SYMBOLS OF
CHURCH AND KINGDOM
The Crucifixion and the Women at the Sepulchre
Syriac Gospels of Rabbula, 586 CE (see p. 331)
SYMBOLS OF
CHURCH AND KINGDOM
A STUDY IN
EARUY SYRIAC TRADITION
ROBERT MURRAY
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Published by T&T Clark
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
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without permission in writing from the publishers.
Copyright © Robert Murray, 2006
First published by the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, 1975
Republished with corrections 1977
This edition first published and copyright © T&T Clark International, 2004
This edition published 2006
Robert Murray has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as the Author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 567 03082 2 (Paperback)
Typeset by BookEns Ltd, Royston, Herts.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire
In memory oj my Parents
A.H.J.M., M.R.M., M.D.M.,
who served in China the same Lord
as did their first predecessors
from the Church of the East
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements page viii
Preface to the Second Edition ix
Method of Citation and Transliteration xi
Abbreviations xiii
The Homelands of Aramaic and Synac Culture xvi
Introduction 1
PART I: THEMES OF CHRIST AND THE CHURCH
I The Nation and the Nations' 41
II The Body of Christ 69
III The Vineyard, the Grape and the Tree of Life 9,5
IV The Church, Bride and Mother 131
V Titles shared by Christ and the Apostles or Bishops 1,59
VI The Rock and the House on the Rock 205
VII The 'Pilgrim Church' and its Fulfilment 239
P A R T II: IN S E A R C H () F T II E SOU R C E S 277
Appendix 349
Bibliography 364
Indices 377
Old Testament
Mew Testament
Jewish Writings
Oriental Literature
Greek and Latin Literature
Foreign Words
Modern Authors
General
vn
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
What follows is largely as in the first edition, but the majority of those to
whom I then recorded my thanks are no longer living; the names of
these are marked by a cross (f), with one variation.
My thanks are due in the first place to my confreres in the Society of
Jesus: to my superiors for the opportunities to pursue the research
involved in this work, and to many others for their help and
encouragement, especially fFr Ignacio Ortiz de Urbina, who supervised
the original thesis; to the librarians of the Pontifical Oriental and Biblical
Institutes in Rome and of Heythrop College, and among others,
especially fFr Raymond Robert and Dr Jose Zubizarreta for philological
help and fFr Engelbert Kirschbaum for guidance on iconographical
matters. To name all the others to whom I was and remain indebted in
some way would by now hardly be possible. Writing in 1974,1 said: 'two
must stand for all, f Dom Louis Leloir and f Dom Jean Gribomont, both
monks of Clervaux'; now I must add f PY Francois Graffin.
Chapter VI and some pages in Part II appeared previously inOCP 30
(1964), pp. 315-62, and were included by permission of the editor.
For technical help I again record my thanks to Mr Michael Walsh for
ordering the bibliography and fFr John Coventry for making the index,
and to Mrs Virginia Hastings for typing the greater part of the book. My
gratitude remains to f Professor Matthew Black for recommending the
work to the Cambridge University Press, and to the editorial staff there.
It is to my great pleasure and gratitude that this work has been adopted
for a new edition by T&T Clark International. For this I thank all those
who have helped in editorial matters and production.
In 1974 I ended: 'Finally, as I look back over and beyond the twelve
years of study [now over forty!] which this work represents, I am
constantly conscious of one who, though not an orientalist, was the
greatest teacher I have had, and who desired to see this book completed:
Eduard Fraenkel' (zikhrono livrakhah}. But of all who have helped me
since I wrote that, I must acknowledge a greater debt than I can express
to Dr Sebastian Brock.
*
For permission to reproduce photographs I thank the State Hermitage
Museum in St Petersburg for the picture on the cover, and the Biblioteca
Medicea Laurenziana in Florence for the frontispiece, ms. Plut. 1.56, c.
13. (For the latter all rights of further reproduction are reserved to the
Ministero per i Beni e le Attivita Culturali, and further permissions must
be sought from the Biblioteca.)
R.M.
vm
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
This work grew from research in Rome from 1961 to 1963 for a
thesis, The Church in Aphrahat and Ephrem, which gained a doctorate
in theology at the Gregorian University. After ten years a sahbatical
in Rome made it possible to rework the thesis as this hook which is
now revised. Accepted by the Cambridge University Press and
published in 197.5, it wras well received by scholars and students both
of Syriac and of other patristic literature; however, in 1989 the Press
decided against reprinting.
Since then my own wish to republish it has been spurred by
enquiries and requests from three continents, but pressure of other
occupations, and a growing realization that some views I had
expressed must be revised, combined to deter me from seeking
republication without considerable revision of the Introduction, while
reproducing the main body of the work as it was, but for a lew added
notes. However, encouragement by friends and finally an offer of
publication have persuaded me to undertake the work.
The need to insert some revisions into this book is due to the
exponential growth of Syriac studies in recent years. Unprecedented
advances in almost even area have transformed our state of
knowledge: new critical biblical texts; better-grounded studies of
how the Syriac Bible came about and of the development of Syriac-
speaking Christianity in relation to Judaism; ever more editions of
Syriac literature never previously printed; new scholarly periodicals,
translations and works of interpretation. Many of these publications
reflect a rebirth of Syriac studies in the diaspora, both in South India
and wherever Syrian Christians have had to find new homes since
the twentieth-century disasters in their homelands. The meetings
under the name 'Symposium Synacum' every tew years since 1972
have brought together ever more numerous synacisants, creating
international friendships and new collaborative enterprises. Finally
and not least, recent years have seen the development of theological
dialogue between representatives of the separated Syrian churches,
leading to new mutual understanding and joint statements of faith,
and overcoming old obstacles which can now be seen as
predominantly linguistic, cultural or political in character; mutual
accusations of heresy can now be buried, together with the labels
'Monophysite', 'Jacobite' and 'Nestorian'.
The developments of which scholars must take account have been
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