Recognized as a saint by both Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Christians alike, Jacob of Sarug (d. 521) produced many narrative poems that have rarely been translated into English. Of his reported 760 metrical homilies, only about half survive. Part of a series of fascicles containing the bilingual Syriac-English editions of Saint Jacob of Sarug’s homilies, this volume contains two of his homilies on Jacob. The Syriac text is fully vocalized, and the translation is annotated with a commentary and biblical references. The volume is one of the fascicles of Gorgias Press’s Complete Homilies of Saint Jacob of Sarug, which, when complete, will contain all of Jacob’s surviving sermons.
Table of Contents (v)
Abbreviations (vii)
Introduction (1)
Outline (1)
Eye of Prophecy (4)
Other Parallels in the Writings of Jacob (6)
Jacob in an Exegetical Tradition (6)
Summary (9)
On the Vision of Jacob at Bethel [#74] (9)
On the Church and Rachel [#75] (11)
Text and Translation (13)
Homily 74: A Homily on Jacob’s Revelation at Bethel (14)
I. Love as a Principle of Exegesis (14)
II. Divine Revelations (18)
1. The Staff and the Cross (18)
2. The Ladder and the Cross (20)
III. Jacob’s Responses (34)
1. Request of Blessings (34)
2. Placing of the First Stone of the Church (36)
3. Vows of Poverty and Renunciation (44)
4. Jacob invokes the Our Father (46)
Homily 75: A Homily On Our Lord and Jacob, On the Church and Rachel, and On Leah and the Synagogue (54)
Bibliography of Works Cited (87)
Index (93)
Biblical References (93)
Index of Key Terms (93)