Ishodad of Merv

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Syriac Bible
.

Life

Very little is known of Ishoʿdad's life,[1] but a few details have survived in annotations to the list of patriarchs compiled by Mari ibn Suleiman and Amr ibn Matta.[2] His epithet "of Merv" may denote a birthplace, meaning that he was born in the city of Merv in Khorasan, but this inference remains conjectural: his relationship to Merv is not known with certainty.[3] A member of the Church of the East—historically, though inaccurately,[4] known as the Nestorian church—he became bishop of Hdatta,[5] a town close to the mouth of the Great Zab in modern Iraq, perhaps in 837 after Abraham II of Seleucia-Ctesiphon left the see to become Patriarch of the Church of the East.[3]

Ishodad was a candidate for the patriarchate of the Church of the East around 853 after Abraham's death.[5][6] At the time the patriarchate was subject to the Abbasid Caliphate, and after two failed attempts to select a new patriarch, a secretary of the reigning caliph al-Mutawakkil, Ibrahim ibn Nuh al-Anbari,[6] recommended Ishodad for the position. al-Mutawakkil, however, opted for the candidate of Vizier Bukhtishu, Theodosius of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and Ishoʿdad remained at Hdatta in opposition to the new patriarch.[6] He died shortly afterwards.[5]

Commentaries

Ishodad is best known for his extensive

Jacob Bar-Salibi, for example, made use of Ishodad's work in his own commentaries on the Psalms.[8][9]

Contents

The subjects of Ishodad's commentaries are as follows:[10]

Characteristics

Ishodad's work largely followed the lines set by

Gregory Nazianzen, Basil of Caesarea, and John Chrysostom, and among Syriac authors Aba I, Ephrem the Syrian, Narsai, and Henana of Adiabene.[15]

Clemens Leonhard describes the Commentaries as having a "generally sober character". In line with the traditional view of the exegetical School of Antioch, Ishodad openly rejects allegorical interpretation, and focuses on historical and philosophical problems in the texts.[16] Paul S. Russell views Ishodad's work as displaying a "scholarly sensibility along the lines of modern biblical research" in its careful treatment of different editions of the scriptural texts.[17]

Ishodad is the earliest authority to identify the disciple

Twelve listed in the Synoptics.[18]

Historical context

Ishodad wrote the Commentaries in a fraught context. Under al-Mutawakkil, the tolerance of the Abbasid Caliphate towards its Christian and Jewish subjects had begun to wane.[19] Meanwhile, the Church of the East remained divided over the exegetical innovations of Henana of Adiabene, who had drawn on Greek and West Syriac sources in contrast to the official interpretive tradition of Theodore.[20] Though the increasingly characteristic pessimism of the works of Ishodad's era is not evident in the Commentaries, their intended audience is limited to Christian scholars, reflecting a period in which the possibilities for interreligious dialogue were declining.[21]

Modern editions

The first modern edition of Ishodad's works was prepared by Gustav Diettrich, who published selections of Ishodad's commentaries on the Old Testament in 1902.

Margaret Dunlop Gibson in 1911–16;[23] Ceslas Van den Eynde prepared a complete edition and translation into French of the Old Testament commentaries in 1950–81.[24]

Notes

a. ^ These are treated as a single book in Syriac tradition.[25]

References

  1. ^ Leonhard 2001, p. 4.
  2. ^ Leonhard 2001, pp. 4–5.
  3. ^ a b Leonhard 2001, p. 5.
  4. ^ Guscin 2016, p. 156.
  5. ^ a b c Vauchez, Dobson & Lapidge 2000, p. 739.
  6. ^ a b c Leonhard 2001, p. 8.
  7. ^ Greenberg 2002, p. 416.
  8. ^ Van Rompay 2011.
  9. ^ Leonhard 2001, p. 17.
  10. ^ Van den Eynde 1950–81; Gibson 2011.
  11. ^ Fitzgerald 2010, p. 341.
  12. ^ Van Rompay 2011.
  13. ^ Leonhard 2001, p. 23.
  14. ^ Leonhard 2001, p. 12.
  15. ^ Van Rompay 2011.
  16. ^ Leonhard 2001, p. 24.
  17. ^ Russell 2009, p. 60.
  18. ^ Hill 1998, pp. 49–50.
  19. ^ Leonhard 2001, p. 8.
  20. ^ Leonhard 2001, p. 18.
  21. ^ Leonhard 2001, pp. 9–10.
  22. ^ Leonhard 2001, p. 11.
  23. ^ Gibson 2011.
  24. ^ Van den Eynde 1950–81.
  25. ^ van Peursen 2011, p. 145.

Bibliography

External links

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Ishodad of Merv
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