Jacob of Serugh

Saint Jacob of Serugh
Syriac depiction of Jacob of Serugh, from ancient manuscript
Deacon, Priest, Bishop
Born	c. 451 AD Kurtam on the Euphrates (near Harran)
Died	(521-11-29)29 November 521 AD Batnan daSrugh, Byzantine Empire (modern-day Suruç, Urfa, Turkey)
Venerated in	Catholic Church Oriental Orthodox Church
Canonized	Pre-congregation
Major shrine	St. Mary Church, Diyarbakır
Feast	29 November (Roman Catholic, Oriental Orthodox) 3 Koiak (Coptic calendar)
Attributes	Staff, pointed hood, flute

Jacob of Serugh (Syriac: ܝܥܩܘܒ ܣܪܘܓܝܐ, romanized: Yaʿquḇ Sruḡāyâ, Classical Syriac pronunciation: [ˌjaˤˈquβ sᵊˌruɣˈɒˌjɒ]; Latin: Iacobus Sarugiensis; c. 452–521), also called Jacob of Sarug or Mar Jacob (Syriac: ܡܪ ܝܝܥܩܘܒ, romanized: Mār Yaʿquḇ),^[1] was one of the foremost poets and theologians of the Syriac Christian tradition, second only to Ephrem the Syrian and equal to Narsai. He lived most of his life as an ecclesiastical official in Suruç, in modern-day Turkey. He became a bishop (of Batnan) near the end of his life in 519.^[2] He was a Miaphysite (a form of Non-Chalcedonian Christianity), albeit moderate compared to his contemporaries.^[3]

Jacob is best known for the homilies he wrote in the late fifth and early sixth centuries. He wrote in prose, as well as in 12-syllable (dodecasyllabic) meter, which he invented, and he was known for his eloquence.^[4][5] According to Jacob of Edessa, he composed 763 works during his lifetime. Around 400 survive, and over 200 of those have been published. The longest is about 1,400 verses.^[2] By the time of his death, he had a great reputation. His works were so popular that of any author from late antiquity, only the writings of Augustine of Hippo and John Chrysostom survive in a greater number of manuscripts than Jacob's.^[6]

His work earned him many nicknames, including "Flute of the Holy Spirit" (which also belonged to his predecessor Ephrem the Syrian), and "Lyre of the Believing Church" (in Antiochene Syriac Christianity).^[7] Both Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian traditions of Christianity now take him as a saint.

Jacob was born around the middle of the fifth century in the village of Kurtam (ܟܘܪܬܘܡ) on the Euphrates in the ancient region of Serugh, which stood as the eastern part of the province of Commagene (corresponding to the modern districts of Suruç and Birecik). He was educated in the famous School of Edessa and became chorepiscopus back in the Serugh area, serving rural churches of Haura (ܚܘܪܐ, Ḥaurâ). His tenure of this office extended over a time of great trouble to the Christian population of Mesopotamia, due to the fierce war carried on by the Sasanian emperor Kavadh I within the Roman borders.^[8]

In 519 and at the age of 67, Jacob was elected bishop of the main city of the area, called in Syriac Baṭnān d-Sruḡ (ܒܛܢܢ ܕܣܪܘܓ). As Jacob was born in the same year as the controversial Council of Chalcedon, he lived through the intense rifts that split Eastern Christianity, which led to most Syriac speakers being separated from Byzantine communion. Even though imperial persecution of anti-Chalcedonians became increasingly brutal towards the end of Jacob's life, he remained surprisingly quiet on such divisive theological and political issues. However, when pressed in correspondence by Paul, bishop of Edessa, he openly expressed dissatisfaction with the proceedings of Chalcedon.^{[citation needed]}

The primary genres Jacob composed his writings in, for which he is now best known for today, include those of sugyoto (dialogue poems with an acrostic), turgome (prose homilies for liturgical feasts), madroshe and mimre (narrative or verse poems without strophies).^[2]

Jacob's homilies on the Genesis creation narrative was the first Hexaemeron to be composed in the Syriac language.^[9] Later, Jacob of Edessa would also compose his own Hexaemeron.^[10]

Jacob's literary activity was unceasing. According to Bar Hebraeus (Chron. Eccles. i. 191) he employed 70 amanuenses and wrote in all 760 metrical homilies, besides expositions, letters and hymns of different sorts. Paul Bedjan's edition of selected metrical homilies (Paris 1905–1908) containing 146 pieces all written throughout in dodecasyllabic metre, and those published deal mainly with biblical themes, though there are also poems on such subjects as the deaths of Christian martyrs, the fall of the idols and the First Council of Nicaea.^[11]

Of Jacob's prose works, which are not nearly so numerous, the most interesting are his letters, which throw light upon some of the events of his time and reveal his attachment to Miaphysitism, which was then struggling for supremacy in the Syriac churches, and particularly at Edessa, over the opposite teaching of Nestorius.^[11]

Jacob gained sufficient repute as an author and composer of works that others began to compose works and pseudonymously attribute them to Jacob, one example being the Song of Alexander, thought to have been written sometime between the last quarter of the sixth and the first half of the seventh century.^[12][13]

Towards the end of his life, the fate of Miaphysite leaders such as himself took a turn for the worse with the accession of Justin I (r. 518–527) to the throne of the Byzantine Empire. In response to these affairs, Jacob composed two letters and they were composed in the following context. First, on March 28, 519, Justin adopted a pro-Chalcedonian text known as the Formula of Faith which had been written by Pope Hormisdas a few years beforehand, in 515. However, Paul of Edessa, the bishop of Edessa, refused to sign the text, which led Justin to lay siege to the city in November. Paul was exiled, but after forty days was allowed to be let back into the city in December. Immediately thereafter, Jacob wrote his Letter 32 to Paul. In it, he called Paul a "confessor", a title reserved for those who were persecuted but not killed for their faith. Jacob believed that Paul's refusal to sign the text was correct. After a military leader named Patricius invaded Edessa to, Jacob then composed his Letter 35 to the military leader of the city, Bessas. Bessas is praised for his faith which has helped to exalt the city. Jacob recognizes the suffering Bessas had endured for his faith as well and compares him with Abgar of Edessa, the man credited with introducing Christianity to Edessa.^[14] To some surprise, aside from praising these two, Jacob also praised the faith of Justin in his letter to Paul: for allowing Paul to return to the city, by comparing him to Abgar, by describing his crown which displays features of the cross of Jesus, and more.^[14]

Another affair that Jacob became somewhat involved in was during the persecutions of the Christian community of Najran under the Jewish Himyarite king Dhu Nuwas, which had caused widespread reactions in the world of Syriac Christianity. Between 518 and 521, Jacob composed his Letter to the Himyarites to help extol them for their faith and their endurance. This text is also the only extant literary composition that was sent into pre-Islamic Arabia.^[15][16]

Jacob is especially famous for his metrical homilies in the dodecasyllabic verse of which, says Bar Hebraeus, he composed over eight hundred known to us.^[17] Only a selection of them have been published in modern translations, but an ongoing translation series is underway and being published by Gorgias Press. As of 2018, 20% of Jacob's corpus had been translated and 33% had been assigned to scholars for translation.^[18] The most recent compilation of the works of Jacob is Roger-Youssef Akhrass and Imad Syryany, eds., 160 Unpublished Homilies of Jacob of Serugh (Damascus 2017), 1:xiv – xxiii.

Jacob's homilies are found in a substantial number of surviving manuscripts. The earliest are from the sixth and seventh centuries, and massive manuscripts have also been recovered produced in the eleventh-thirteenth centuries containing up to two hundred of Jacob's homilies.^[19][20] A distinct transmission of manuscripts of Jacob's writings also permeated monastic circles.^[21]

Manuscripts of Jacob's homilies are also found in multiple languages beyond Syriac to which they were translated, including Coptic,^[22] Georgian, Armenian, Arabic,^[23][24] and Ethiopic.^[25] The number of Jacob's works translated into Arabic number over one hundred,^[23] and there are over two hundred Armenian manuscripts of them that date from the twelfth to twentieth centuries.^[26]

In modern-times, Behnam Sony has composed a five-volume translation of Jacob's writings into Arabic.^[27]

In European languages, Jacob's writings have been widely translated into English, German, French, and Italian.^[28]

From the eighteenth century onwards, new discoveries of manuscripts of Jacob's works have sparked no less than three debates over his Christology.^[29]

• Iacobus Sarugensis (1952). G Olinder (ed.). Iacobi Sarugensis epistulae quotquot supersunt. Corpus scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Scriptores Syri, v. 57. Louvain.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Mar Jacobus Sarugensis (1905). Paulus Bedjan (ed.). Homilae selectae Mar-Jacobi Sarugensis (in Syriac and French). Paris: Otto Harrassowitz.

• Mary, mother of Jesus — Jacob of Serug (1998). Mary Hansbury (ed.). On the Mother of God. Crestwood, New York, US: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press. ISBN 0-88141-184-1. Also — Giacomo de Sarug (1953). Constantino Vona (ed.). Omelie mariologiche. Lateranum: nova ser., an. 19, n. 1-4 (in Italian). Rome: Facultas Theologica Pontificii Athenaei Lateranensis.
• Women whom Jesus met — Susan Ashbrook Harvey; Sebastian P. Brock; Reyhan Durmaz; Rebecca Stephens Falcasantos; Michael Payne; Daniel Picus, eds. (2016). Jacob of Sarug's homilies on the Women whom Jesus Met. Texts from Christian Late Antiquity. Vol. 44. Piscataway, N. J.: Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-4632-0580-5.
• Veil of Moses — Brock, Sebastian Paul (1981). "Jacob of Serugh on the Veil of Moses". Sobornost'/Eastern Churches Review. 3 (1): 70–85.
• Ephrem the Syrian — Jacob of Sarug (1995). Joseph P Amar (ed.). A metrical homily on holy Mar Ephrem. Patrologia Orientalis; t. 47, fasc. 1. Turnhout: Brepols.
• Simeon Stylites — Harvey, Susan Ashbrook (1990). "Memra on Simeon the Stylite". In Vincent L Wimbush (ed.). Ascetic behavior in Greco-Roman antiquity: a sourcebook. Minneapolis: Fortress. pp. 15–28. ISBN 0-8006-3105-6.
• Thomas the Apostle — Jakob von Sarug (1976). Werner Strothmann (ed.). Drei Gedichte über den Apostel Thomas in Indien. Göttinger Orientforschungen I Reihe, Syriaca; Bd 12. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-01720-1.
• Melchizedek — Thokeparampil, J (1993). "Memra on Melkizedek". The Harp. 6: 53–64.
• Letters — Bou Mansour, Tanios (1993). La théologie de Jacques de Saroug (in French). Kaslik: Université Saint Esprit.
• Thomas the Apostle in India – Jacob of Serug (2007). D.P. Curtin (ed.). The Palace built by Thomas the Apostle in India. Philadelphia: Dalcassian. ISBN 9798869093387.
• Aaron the High Priest — Heal, Kristian (2022). Jacob of Sarug's Homily on Aaron the Priest. Gorgias Press.
• Abgar and Addai — Gibson, Kelli (2022). Jacob of Sarug's Homilies on Abgar and Addai. Gorgias Press.
• Samson — Miller, Dana (2021). Jacob of Sarug's Homily on Samson. Gorgias Press.
• Paul — Hansbury, Mary; Parakkott, Raja (2021). Jacob of Sarug's Homilies on Paul. Gorgias Press.
• Jonah and the Ninevites — Translation of a partial Armenian translation of a now-lost fuller homily by Jacob. Hilkens, Andy (2024). "An Armenian Invocational Prayer of a Now Lost Homily of Jacob of Serugh on Jonah and the Ninevites". Journal of Theological Studies. doi:10.1093/jts/flae003.

• Four homilies on creation. Jaques de Saroug (1989). Khalil Alwan (ed.). Quatre homélies métriques sur la création. Corpus scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. Scriptores Syri. 0070-0452 ;t.214, 215 (in French). Leuven: Peeters.
• Homily on the seven days of creation translated by Edward G. Mathews Jr.:
  • First day: Jacob of Sarug's homilies on the six days of creation. The first day. Gorgias Press. 2009. ISBN 978-1607243236.
  • Second day of creation. Jacob of Sarug's homilies on the six days of creation. The second day. Gorgias Press. 2016.
  • Third day. Jacob of Sarug's homilies on the six days of creation. The third day. Gorgias Press. 2016.
  • Fourth day. Jacob of Sarug's homilies on the six days of creation. The fourth day. Gorgias Press. 2018.
  • Fifth day. Jacob of Sarug's homilies on the six days of creation. The fifth day. Gorgias Press. 2019.
  • Sixth day. Jacob of Sarug's homilies on the six days of creation. The sixth day. Gorgias Press. 2020.
  • Seventh day. Jacob of Sarug's homilies on the six days of creation. The seventh day. Gorgias Press. 2021.
• Jacob of Serugh's Hexaemeron. Muraoka, T (2018). Jacob of Serugh's Hexaemeron. Peeters.

• Prose homilies (turgame) — Jacques de Saroug (1986). Frédéric Rilliet (ed.). Six homélies festales en prose. Patrologia Orientalis; t. 43, fasc. 4 (in French). Turnhout: Brepols.
• Stanzaic poetry — Brock, Sebastian (2022). The Stanzaic Poems of Jacob of Serugh: A Collection of His Madroshe and Sughyotho. Gorgias Press.
• Prayers — Hansbury, Mary (2015). The Prayers of Jacob of Serugh. SLG Press.
• Seven homilies against the Jews, of which the sixth takes the form of a dispute (ܣܓܝܬܐ sāḡiṯâ) between personifications of the Synagogue and the Church — Jacques de Saroug (1976). Micheline Albert (ed.). Homélies contre les Juifs. Patrologia Orientalis; t. 38, fasc. 1 (in French). Turnhout: Brepols.
• On the dominical feasts — Jacob of Serugh (1997). Thomas Kollamparampil (ed.). Select festal homilies. Bangalore and Rome: Dharmaram and Centre for Indian and Inter-Religious Studies.
• Concerning the red heifer — Alibertis, Demetrios (2022). Jacob of Sarug's Homily Concerning the Red Heifer and the Crucifixion of our Lord. Gorgias Press.
• God's love towards humanity and the just — Sirgy, Dominique (2022). Jacob of Sarug's Homily on the Love of God towards Humanity and of the Just towards God. Gorgias Press.
• Seeking above outer darkness — Sirgy, Dominique (2022). Jacob of Sarug's Homily on Paul's Word to Seek What is Above and on Outer Darkness. Gorgias Press.
• Edessa and Jerusalem — Loopstra, Jonathan (2021). Jacob of Sarug's Homily on Edessa and Jerusalem. Gorgias Press.

• Eastern Christianity
• Letter to the Himyarites
• Oriental Orthodoxy
• Romanos the Melodist

• Butts, Aaron Michael (2020). "Diversity in the Christian Arabic Reception of Jacob of Serugh (d. 521)". In Roggema, Barbara; Treiger, Alexander (eds.). Patristic Literature in Arabic Translations. Brill. pp. 89–128.
• Chatonnet, Françoise Briquel; Debié, Muriel (2023). The Syriac World: In Search of a Forgotten Christianity. Yale University Press.
• Dinno, Khalid (2010). "Jacob of Serugh, the Man Behind the Mimre". In Kiraz, George (ed.). Jacob of Serugh and His Times: Studies in Sixth-Century Syriac Christianity. De Gruyter. pp. 51–69.
• Durmaz, Reyhan (2022). Stories Between Christianity and Islam: Saints, Memory, and Cultural Exchange in Late Antiquity and Beyond. University of California Press.
• Forness, Michael (2019). Preaching Christology in the Roman Near East: A Study of Jacob of Serugh. Oxford University Press.
• Forness, Philip Michael (2020). "New Textual Evidence for Jacob of Serugh's Letters: An Analysis and Collation of Five Monastic Miscellanies". Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies. 20 (1): 51–128.
• Forness, Philip Michael (2022). "Faithful Rulers and Theological Deviance: Ephrem the Syrian and Jacob of Serugh on the Roman Emperor". In Forness, Philip Michael; Hasse-Ungeheuer, Alexandra; Leppin, Hartmut (eds.). The Good Christian Ruler in the First Millennium. pp. 141–167.
• Forness, Philip Michael (2022b). "Manuscript Discoveries and Debates over Orthodoxy in Early Christian Studies: The Case of the Syriac Poet-Theologian Jacob of Serugh". Harvard Theological Review. 115 (3): 416–440.
• Hilkens, Andy (2020). "The Armenian Reception of the Homilies of Jacob of Serugh: New Findings". In Toca, Madalina; Batovici, Dan (eds.). Caught in Translation: Studies on Versions of Late-Antique Christian Literature. Brill. pp. 64–84.
• Romeny, Bas Ter Haar (2008). "Jacob of Edessa on Genesis: His Quotations of the Peshitta and his Revision of the Text". In Romeny, Bas Ter Haar (ed.). Jacob of Edessa and the Syriac Culture of His Day. Brill. pp. 145–158.
• Suciu, Alin (2015). "The Sahidic Version of Jacob of Serugh's Memrā on the Ascension of Christ". Le Muséon. 128 (1–2): 49–83.
• Tesei, Tommaso (2023). The Syriac Legend of Alexander's Gate. Oxford University Press.
• Tumara, Nebojsa (2024). "Creation in Syriac Christianity". In Goroncy, Jason (ed.). T&T Clark Handbook of the Doctrine of Creation. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 164–175.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: McLean, Norman (1911). "Jacob of Sĕrūgh". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 114–115.

• Kiraz, George (ed). Jacob of Serugh and His Times: Studies in Sixth-Century Syriac Christianity. Gorgias Press, 2010.
• Forness, Philip Michael. Preaching Christology in the Roman Near East: A Study of Jacob of Serugh. Oxford University Press, 2019.