Jacob of Serugh's Syriac Homily (memrā) on the Maccabean Martyrs (pre-Christian Jewish martyrs of Antioch, S00303) celebrates the story of the martyrdom of the nine pre-Christian martyrs, while putting emphasis on the relevance of their martyrdom for Christians. Written in northern Mesopotamia in the late 5th/early 6th c.
Evidence ID
E06956
Type of Evidence
Liturgical texts - Hymns
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Major author/Major anonymous work
Jacob of Serugh
Jacob of Serugh, Homily on the Maccabean Martyrs
Summary:
The main body of the Homily (pp. 349-358) recounts the story of the martyrdom of the seven Jewish young men, their mother Shmuni, and priest Eleazar under the king Antiochus, and constitutes a paraphrase of the biblical account as it appears in the Books of Maccabees. The primary theological rationale of the Homily, expressed in the introductory (pp. 347-349) and concluding sections (pp. 359-360), is that although the Maccabees suffered before the coming of Christ, no Christian should undervalue their martyrdom, because they sacrificed their lives out of love for Christ.
Summary: S. Minov
Liturgical ActivitiesChant and religious singing
Non Liturgical Activity
Chant and religious singing
Sermon/homily
Non Liturgical ActivityComposing and translating saint-related texts
Source
The Homily on the Maccabean Martyrs is a poetic celebration of the martyrdom of the nine Jewish martyrs under the Seleucid king Antiochus IV (r. 175-164 BCE). The Homily belongs to the literary genre of memrā, a narrative poem that employs couplets all in the same syllabic meter. Such poems, which appear to have been recited rather than sung, were presumably used in the liturgy, though there is no evidence from Late Antiquity of exactly how it happened.There is a critical edition of the Homily, prepared by Roger-Youssef Akhrass and Imad Syryany on the basis of four out of five existing manuscripts.
Syriac text: Akhrass & Syryany 2017, vol. 1, 347-362. For general information on Jacob and his oeuvre, see Brock 2011; Lange 2004; Alwan 1986.
Discussion
The Homily bears witness to the enduring popularity of the Maccabean Martyrs among Syriac-speaking Christians of Mesopotamia during the late 5th and early 6th centuries.Bibliography
Main editions and translations:
Akhrass, R.-Y., and Syryany, I., 160 Unpublished Homilies of Jacob of Serugh. 2 vols (Damascus: Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate, 2017).
Further reading:
Alwan, K., “Bibliographie générale raisonnée de Jacques de Saroug († 521),” Parole de l’Orient 13 (1986), 313-384.
Brock, S.P., “Ya‘qub of Serugh,” in: S.P. Brock, A.M. Butts, G.A. Kiraz and L. van Rompay (eds.), Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2011), 433-435.
Lange, C., “Jakob von Sarug, † 521,” in: W. Klein (ed.), Syrische Kirchenväter (Urban-Taschenbücher 587; Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 2004), 217-227.
Record Created By
Sergey Minov
Date of Entry
19/10/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00303 | Maccabean Martyrs, pre-Christian Jewish martyrs of Antioch | ܡܩܒ̈ܝܐ | Certain |
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