Tjitze Baarda. / Essays on the Diatessaron. Contributions to Biblical Exegesis & Theology, no. 11. Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1994.
1. For more than three decades, Prof. Baarda has immersed himself in what Arthur Vööbus called “one of the most difficult topics in all the field of New Testament textual criticism”–namely, Tatian’s Diatessaron. A Dutchman by birth, Baarda took a doctorate in Semitic languages at the Free University of Amsterdam, where he studied under R. Schippers. After some years teaching there, he moved to Utrecht where he became the successor of W.C. van Unnik. More recently he returned to the Free University, where he is Dean of Theology and Professor of New Testament. Now...
Read MoreNEW LIGHT ON THE TEXTUAL TRADITION OF BAR BAHLUL’S BOOK OF SIGNS
NEW LIGHT ON THE TEXTUAL TRADITION OF BAR BAHLUL’S BOOK OF SIGNS Bar Bahlul was a tenth-century Nestorian who spent most of his life in Baghdad1. He is primarily remembered today for his remarkable lexicon of the Syriac language2. In the early 1970s Fuat Sezgin discovered in Istanbul another work by Bar Bahlul, his Kitab al-Dala’il or Book of Signs. This new text is not unlike a modern almanac3. It presents first chronological synopses of the various feasts and festivals of the eastern churches, as well as of the Jews, Muslims, Îarranian pagans, and others. It then turns its...
Read MoreChina Review International Volume 14, Number 2, Fall 2007 Reviewed by / John W. Witek
China Review International Volume 14, Number 2, Fall 2007 Reviewed by John W. Witek Roman Malek, editor. Jingjiao: The Church of the East in China and Central Asia. Collectanea Serica. In connection with Peter Hofrichter. Sankt Augustin: Institut Monumenta Serica, 2006. 701 pp. Paperback $65.00, ISBN 3–8050–0534–2. In 1623 near Xi’an, a farmer unearthed a stele bearing a lengthy Chinese text on its face with Syriac inscriptions on its sides that recounted the development of the Syro-Oriental Church. Its leader, Aluoben, came to Chang’an, the capital of the Tang dynasty under...
Read MoreBryn Mawr / Classical Review 2000.10.07 Elizabeth Key Fowden, The Barbarian Plain: Saint Sergius between Rome and Iran.
Elizabeth Key Fowden, The Barbarian Plain: Saint Sergius between Rome and Iran. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999. Pp. xix + 227; 17 b/w ills. ISBN 0-520-21685-7. $55.00. Reviewed by Jas’ Elsner, Corpus Christi College Word count: 1028 words In his brilliant and underrated account of pagan pilgrimage to the great temple of Atargatis in Hierapolis (Manbij) in Syria, Lucian evokes the multicultural constituency of the goddess’ adherents. He tells us that “no temple is more sacred nor any region more holy” than Hierapolis, whose sanctuary is...
Read MoreBook Review: The Wisdom of the Pearlers Trans. and Intro. / Brian E. Colless
Cistercian Publications, 2008. ISBN: 9780879073169. ~$25 Recently there has been a great interest among the general public, and to a lesser extent, among scholars. This book seems to be aimed more at a public audience than at an academic one. Part of this desire stems from the popularization of Islamic origins courtesy of Ibn Warraq, Andrew Rippin, and the cheap reprints of John Wansbrough’s seminal works publish more than 30 years ago. The Cistercian Studies series is not geared toward this goal, but does have many books that cover Syriac topics, such as Sebastian Brock’s...
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