COMMENTARIES ON THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
The Syrian scholars devoted their utmost efforts to studying and commenting on the Holy Scriptures. Had the many volumes of commentaries not been lost we would have today a complete library of these alone. The oldest of these commentaries belongs to St. Ephraim who wrote them while teaching at the School of Edessa. Yet all that survived was the commentary on Genesis, a great part of Exodus and scattered verses from other books of the Scriptures. His commentary on the New Testament has been lost too, but an exposition of many Biblical verses in his poems and homilies can be found.
St. Ephraim’s disciple, Aba, wrote a commentary on the Gospel, a discourse on the Book of Job and an exposition of the ninth verse of the forty-second Psalm. Jacob of Saruj wrote many maymars (metrical homilies) containing copious commentaries on numerous subjects in the Holy Bible. The commentary of Philoxenus of Mabug on the Gospels has reached us. Moreover, we have the commentaries of Anba John bar Aphtonia on the Song of Songs, of Daniel of Salh on the Psalms in three volumes and of Marutha, maphrian of Takrit on the Gospels which has been quoted by the monk Severus of Antioch. The commentary of Jacob of Edessa on the Holy Bible have also reached us either in his private writings or epistles.
Regarding the commentaries of George Bishop of the Arabs, none of them have reached us except those quoted by later commentators. Furthermore, Rabban (doctor) Lazarus of Beth Qindasa compiled a commentary on some of the Pauline epistles, and Patriarch Jurjis I (George) commented on the Gospel of St. Matthew, John of Dara has a commentary of which nothing is known except his quotations from Bar Salibi’s commentary on the New Testament. From Moses bar Kipha, metropolitan of Barumman and expositor of the New and Old Testaments we have portions of the commentary on Genesis and the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John as well as those of the Epistles of St. Paul.
According to Bar Hebraeus in his Ausar Roze (Storehouse of Secrets), other commentators were the priest, Andrew of Jerusalem, deacon Zoura (Zura) of Nisibin (quoted by Bar Salibi in his commentary on the Old Testament), and the Rabban Yuhanna (John), the disciple of Marun, who wrote a commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes.
Most prominent in this field is Jacob bar Salibi, metropolitan of Amid (d. 1171), who contributed elaborate commentaries on both Testaments. In these masterful commentaries he cited the opinions of the erudite commentators before him. He commented on the Old Testament in many volumes and then abridged his work with a commentary of adequate length. Unfortunately, his first commentary was lost but the second survived. Furthermore, his commentary on the New Testament has become authoritative. Bar Hebraeus’ Ausar Roze (Storehouse of Secrets) contains a commentary on the Old and New Testaments which he adorned with rare traditional as well as philological material. He also made observations on previous commentaries which uncovered and solved problems with unequaled erudition. Besides, the maphrian Barsoum II al-Madani (d. 1454) abridged and commented upon Bar Salibi’s commentary of the Gospels, Patriarch Behnam of Hidl made a selection of the commentaries of the Salhi on the Psalms, and David of Hims abridged parts on the same commentary.1
It may be known that the pioneer commentators until the eighth century provided us with the results of their endeavor. Their commentaries varied from short to long. The commentators of the second period made use of the works of their predecessors, especially the commentaries by the leading Christian fathers like Ephraim, Basilius, John Chrysostom, Cyril and Severus as well as the Syrian commentators who followed them. They chose from their opinion whatever they desired, added to them what they thought they could add, and, to a small extent, developed these commentaries. Thus, Bar Salibi after presenting the different opinions on the subject leaves it up to the reader to choose what he thinks the most appropriate for him.
The method used by these commentators was either to comment on the text verse by verse or confine their commentary to a group of verses. Some of them, however, followed the method of the school of Antioch which emphasized the literal meaning. Others followed the method of the school of Alexandria which emphasized the symbolic and spiritual meaning, while still others such as Bar Salibi combined both methods.
COMMENTARIES ON THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
– Mor Ignatius Aphram Barsoum