Steadfast Wonder: The Liturgical Spirituality of Jacob of Serugh

By Vincent Michael

Jacob of Serugh (451-521) is one of the most important Patristic authors for the West Syriac tradition, contributing to their liturgies through his poetry. In addition to these works, well known to those in the pews even if they do not know their author, he also wrote about the liturgy in his many homilies which he gave in his career. Given his importance to these traditions, it is worthwhile to examine his thought on what can be called liturgical spirituality. This liturgical spirituality is based on inspiring single-minded wonder, drawing from Jacob’s commitment to keeping theology the handmaiden of awe, particularly in regards to his views on Christology and the return to Paradise.

Jacob of Serugh was born in the same year as the Council of Chalcedon, living the era of the Christological controversies. He spent his life around the city of Batnan where he was ordained, preaching in the territory of that see. He gained fame for his mimre, metrical homilies, in which he developed much of his thought. At the end of his life, he was ordained bishop of Batnan and died soon after. Jacob publicly remained distant and quiet about the specifics of the controversies of his day. What he was very clear about however, was his disgust at the spirit of disputation behind them. He was much more interested in helping his flock better appreciate the ineffable mystery of God. Regarding the liturgy, this can be seen in two mimre, On the Chariot that the Prophet Ezekiel Saw and On the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries. The former is thought by some to have been written to counteract the attraction of members of his flock to the Jewish merkavah mysticism of his time as he shows that true mystical experience of God’s presence is not to be found on the chariot shown to Ezekiel, but on the altar. The latter is dedicated to convincing his lay audience to stay and be attentive to the wonder in the liturgy. Both focus on aiding the listeners to give proper awe where it is due, and to focus the mind accordingly.

Jacob’s theology resembles that of his famous predecessor St Ephrem in his condemnation of “scrutiny” and undue “investigation” into the matters of God, holding rather that theology is to be a means of finding awe in God’s glory in love. In his homily On Inquiry and the Sanctity of the Church, he personifies the Church and has her declare “I love Him [Jesus] without investigation, for He died for me, and I worship Him without inquiry, for He saved me.”[1] Further she declares “Do not also investigate many things. The truth is one, and I have told it to you exactly as it is.”[2] Rather, the proper response one ought to have before the mystery of God is praise and awe. As he has the Church say, “go away from me, haughty Learned! Leave me alone to praise! You have hindered the hymn of thanksgiving in my assemblies. I have laid before my children a hymn of praise that they might meditate on it.”[3] It is hymnody, praise, and meditation which are the Church’s business, and Jacob’s work reflects his beliefs. Besides letters, it is in hymns and mimre, which he develops his thought, slowly chewing on an idea over several verses, turning it over again to gain different insights, all ordered to praise before God. Alexander Golitzin applies the term fides fides adorans mysterium to Jacob’s method, which aptly fits.[4] This adoring, as Jacob notes, takes place in the Church’s assemblies, and it is Jacob’s purpose to show why those assemblies should inspire such adoration.

Christology, Creation, and Communion: On That Chariot That Ezekiel Saw

While he eschewed the Christological Controversies, Jacob was interested in the role of Christology. Rather than tedious debates about nature and person made even more difficult through passing from Greek to Syriac, he was more interested in the role of the Incarnation in regards to creation and human nature. This comes in particular importance for his Eucharistic mimro On the Chariot that the Prophet Ezekiel Saw.

According to Jacob, God made Adam as a microcosm of all creation, containing within himself the natures of all other created things, so that all is summed up in him.[5] In his On the Creation of Adam and the Resurrection of the Dead he writes:

All natures perceptible and insentient the eternal wise one constituted within His creation when making him. The Creator united fire and air with earth and water, He formed the image that He may manifest to the world His wisdom, in these He breathed living fire and He made the man stand amazingly, He gave to him senses to perceive.[6]

Man is thus both physical and spiritual, sharing nature not only with material creation, the physical “heaven and earth, sea and dry land, everything that is in them” but the spiritual “hidden worlds.”[7] The reference to “living fire” immediately recalls the angels, which in Syriac thought are frequently described as “fiery.” Therefore, the natures of both higher and lower creation can be found in him making him an intermediary between the heights and the depths.[8] Thus, in his actions all other things in creation participate through him, which is why when Adam fell and became subject to death and decay, so did all the rest of the physical order.[9]

In addition to being the microcosm, Jacob follows the biblical account in stating that man is created in the image of God. This means two things for Jacob. First, that man is thus given authority by God, as His representative to creation, making him, not only an intermediary between the higher and lower natures but between creation and the creator. Adam was made in order that he “might be lord of everything” and “by his creator, he was a god of flesh in creation.”[10] Second, and stemming from this, is that Adam was made in God’s image in that he was made as what the Son would incarnate as. Jacob himself describes that “the Father gazed at the likeness of His Son and molded Adam, since He was going to give the Son to the world, He delineated Him beforehand. For this cause He said ‘Let us make man in our image.’”[11] God made creation with His joining it in mind, and thus made man, who contains all of creation within himself, for that specific end, making human nature the “intermediary between the heights and the depths,” between God and the entire created order, giving humanity a privilege beyond that of even the angels.

In order to counter the Jewish mysticism of his time and place, trying to ascend and see the angelic chariot that Ezekiel once saw, Jacob proposes a better alternative: the Eucharist. The chariot was nothing but an image made as an act of mercy so that the angels had a way of praising God, since the diving nature is so above theirs that unless He did so they would be utterly lost. Evidently drawing from Ezekiel’s language of “appearance” and “likeness” found in his account, Jacob states that as for the angels “they stand before Him as though He was fully there . . . and all of them look at that metaphorical place, which He has chosen . . . so that with one accord they might multiply their shouts of joy to Him.”[12] The image though pointed to the fulfillment in the Church’s liturgy, with the coals representing the Eucharist upon the altar, and the appearance of God as man on the throne pointing to His taking on our body, which He gives as food. While the angels have an image, mankind receives the real thing, saying “He gave the chariot as a shadow by which He might be escorted, while He gave to the Church His body and blood, which are no shadow at all” and “if there were jealousy among the angels there, the cherubim would have been close to being jealous of the sons of men.”[13] Humanity through the Church becomes “a schoolmistress of the heavenly beings,”[14] showing them the true worship and fulfillment of the plan of God. Rather than man ascending to the angelic worship, the angels come to us to participate in true worship, “and they all stand in splendor, trembling and ministering to Him with those below”[15] a statement strengthened by the Syriac liturgy’s emphasis on the angelic presence at the celebration of the Holy Mysteries. Man’s intermediary role between God and creation is thus established at the altar in the Eucharistic Sacrifice.[16] God’s love for His creatures, the union of creator and created, is found in the Lord and His Church His bride as “He has summoned her and allowed her touch and hold His body fast, to show openly the truth of how much He loves her.”[17] It is thus through God’s love to humanity that the depths of His love is revealed even to the heavenly beings.

Rather than going off and looking up to find God on the chariot like the Jewish mystics, one ought to go to the altar for “for the body of the Son of God – see! – is on the table.”[18] Instead of seeking the glory of God elsewhere, like the angels directing their praise in one place, so too mankind must seek to mystically see Him where He has chosen to reveal Himself, the altar, and be in awe there.

Paradise, Anxiety, and the Bridal Chamber: On the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries

In his On the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, Jacob attempted to persuade his listeners to forsake the anxiety which drove them to focus on the marketplace while in the liturgy and instead to focus them on the Mysteries. In order to fully understand this one must turn to his use Paradise imagery, which, while not a major theme of the homily, nonetheless forms an important background for its suppositions. While being used in all Christian traditions, the theme of the return to Paradise has a special prominence in the Syriac tradition, in which various other aspects of the faith, such as the sacraments, atonement, mystical union, etc. are described using the imagery of Eden. Whether in homilies, hymns, the ascetical life, or liturgy, it constantly reappears as the frame through which to view Christianity, and Jacob no exception to this tendency. In relative succinctness, Jacob explains his views in a letter to the Syriac mystic Stephen Bar Sudaili saying:

The lance of the Cherub has been taken away and the way to Paradise is open. The Planter of Paradise has been wounded by the lance in the place of the thieving gardener, and He has opened the garden that those who were expelled might return to their place. The Great Lawgiver descended from heaven, became the teacher of the world, and the creation was illumined by His doctrine, that no man should covet riches He has not, provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses, neither two coats, nor staff, nor scrip, and salute no man by the way . . . the Garden is open and awaits you; advance in haste to the beautiful bridal chamber! . . . Paradise awaits you, what do you do among thorns? God begot you of water and spirit, and brought you up on the blood of His Son, and called you to be His heir.[19]

The work of Christ and the Christian way which He established in His Church can thus be described as paving the way to return to the Garden of Eden. Similar to St Ignatius of Antioch’s idea of recapitulation, Jacob shows Christ as undoing the fall through His actions, such as seeing His fasting as undoing Adam and Eve’s eating the Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden, as “he began to employ that which Adam did not when he fell.”^[20]

In making Paradise open, as the quote from Jacob’s letter shows, it is through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross that opens the gates of Eden again, by taking on the sins of Adam and dying in order to rescue him.[21] That he mentions at the end that it is through the sacraments, being begotten of water and spirit and brought up on Christ’s blood makes us an heir of Paradise is no accident. First, Jacob holds that the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist came from the side of Christ. Second, in baptism we are joined to Christ, who is the heir to the house of Adam as the new Adam;[22] since we are identified with him, we too receive his inheritance. Third, is the Eucharist, which completes and confirms this entire schema. For Jacob, as part of His recapitulation, the Cross becomes the Tree of Life; the Eucharist is its fruit. Thus, the Eucharist is the pledge and promise of eternal life, making those who partake of it heirs of eternal life. This makes the Church, in which the re-presentation of the sacrifice on Golgotha and the Fruit of Life are present, Eden renewed. As Jacob proclaims:

[The Lord] established on earth the Holy Church instead of Paradise and appointed priests to His service without [animal] sacrifices. . . In splendor, with the gentle waving of the hands, and in holiness, behold, they surround the Tree of Life at the Holy Altar. . .They glorify Him in the Church, God’s Eden, and give the fruits of the Tree of Life to the entire world . . . They take up common bread to the Altar while reciting [prayers] and bring down from it an Immolated Body that the Church might eat from it. They pour wine of vines in chalices in the Holy of Holies and it becomes blood that the entire world might be pardoned with it.[23]

It is thus in the Church’s worship in the sacrifice upon the altar that the hopes of mankind, to reenter the lost Paradise, are fulfilled on earth, and promised in full in heaven.

As can be seen from Jacob’s letter to Stephen, one must act accordingly to ascend to Paradise, and that too applies to the Church’s liturgy, Eden on earth. He singles out Jesus’s teaching on detachment from material things, which is rooted in the mutual exclusive relationship between Paradise and anxiety. In line with the teaching of the Syriac Book of Steps of the Fourth Century, Jacob holds that much like Adam in the Garden, one ought to keep one’s gaze fixed on God, saying in his Homily on the Solitaries “The soul has looked up, open to receive the great wealth from the unshakable Essence . . . To the degree that the mind does not gaze at the earth or its adornment, it finds comfort where the Trinity resides.”^[24] Material goods distract the soul not only due to the delight one might find in them, but in anxiety. He draws a connection between the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and material goods and notes:

By that tree of knowledge whose appearance was beautiful, wealth was dressed up as wealth for those who acquire it. The world’s property is that murderous fruit, but whoever possesses nothing in the world will not taste it. Anxiety over extravagances pours forth from [the fruit] into the soul, so be free of it. ^[25]

Wealth leads one to ponder over how to gain and secure it, nagging one so that the mind cannot ascend to God. In addition, to do so show a lack of the trust in God found in the Garden and moreover is a direct contradiction to the directions of Jesus, to which Jacob reminds his listeners

Anxiety over extravagances pours forth from [the fruit] into the soul, so be free of it. Be not anxious, as it was commanded. With that spiritual commandment, “Let no one be anxious,” he distances [himself] from that fruit which chokes the one who plucks it. Our Lord tread a way up from death for his apostles and would say “Do not be anxious,” lest you be strangled. ^[26]

The fall from Paradise and the anxiety as thus tightly linked in Jacob’s mind. As material goods only distract one and increases his anxiety, which was not known in the trusting rest of Paradise, one must forsake attachment to them. The command to leave behind concern for worldly wealth and to leave behind anxiety are thus two ways of saying the same thing.

Thus, in his attempt to get his congregation to appreciate the Divine Liturgy in On the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, the root of the problems which he complains about in his mimre is against anxiety. He warns against the tiring running after wealth and gold, not allowing any rest, and that since “anxiety is a heavy fetter” for the soul, “take it off your neck and free yourself from it.”[27] In addition to leading to weariness, such anxiety has the negative effect of distracting the mind so that while one is standing in the Church “outside in the market, in calculations and profits, your mind errs.”[28] In the Church, one ought to gather one’s mind on the Mysteries, and thus find in the Church “a great harbor full of peace”[29] and instead of the seeking of what one cannot keep, one ought to be in the liturgy, in which “a person lives richly without concern.”[30] Elsewhere, in his mimro On the Love of Money, he castigates the clergy with similar warnings, all the more because of their position.

Also of note in Jacob’s letter is the reference to the bridal chamber. This is another favorite term of Syriac writers to note the consummation of the relationship between God and humanity, of the intimacy of the divine love, much as the Song of Songs has inspired generations of mystics. It was for this purpose that God created Eden; as Jacob writes in On the Creation of Adam and the Resurrection of the Dead, for Adam “the Good one also wove a bridal chamber of light for him in Eden.” The bridal imagery frequently comes up again in context of the cross, which is itself, as previously noted, tied to Eden, since it is where Christ the bridegroom offers Himself in love to His bride the Church. The wedding feast for this marriage is the Eucharist, which promises a share in the life to come. To add to the wonder, it is the bridegroom who is Himself the feast, as Jacob says in On the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries:

The Bride shuts the gates and east the Bridegroom who betrothed her; no stranger can taste Him for she does not offer Him to the former. Whoever saw a Bridegroom immolated in the banquet hall, or brides eating their Bridegrooms? The Son of God has made a new thing in the world, which no one – except for Him – had ever done! He has set at the wedding feast His body and blood before the reclining ones, that they may eat of Him and live without end.[31]

Once again, in this passage, one can see Jacob’s primary goal of inspiring awe at the Mysteries in his listeners. Not only is the Eucharist the Fruit of the Tree of Life, the fulfillment of humanity’s longing, but it brings about the intimate union with God Himself, the consummation of the wedding of God and man. The saga of salvation history thus finds the foretaste of its conclusion in the mystical union of Christ the Bridegroom and the Church His bride at the altar.

This nuptial love provides a positive reason to forsake the gods of the world and focus one’s mind on praise, on top of avoiding anxiety. The one attending the liturgy should be filled with love for the bridegroom. As Jacob says:

When she [the soul] hears the voice of the Service of God’s house, she is moved spiritually with the love of God, and she despises the evil world and its affairs, she goes in and mingles with the divine meditations. She pursues and loves this spiritual intimacy, while she despises the world with its possessions and affairs.[32]

The Lord who grants peace, who saves His beloved from the snares of the ravenous demons,[33] who heals her illnesses,[34] who grants life, who suffered agony and death,[35] is the one who is coming; the least the faithful can do is remain with Him, united in mind and body, rather than going out to the market places.[36] It is a great privilege, unavailable to outsiders, to eat of the wedding feast, as those who live with Him live without end; after all He “gave us His body and blood that we may delight in Him.”[37] By these descriptions of what Christ has done for the Church, Jacob attempts to stir his audience to admiration and awe, and from there, to inspire in them the divine love, so that they may “never come out of his inner chamber to be with outsiders.”[38]

Conclusion

Jacob’s liturgical spirituality is firmly based on his general theological method of inspiring awe and devotion to God rather than speculation, using favorite themes of his and the tradition to which he belonged. He takes a very internal approach; besides not wandering out of the church during the liturgy to do business, there is relatively little one must do as far as outward actions go, rather, it is about a proper disposal of the mind, gathering it from either a false mysticism or the attractions and worries of wealth and focusing it on God.

It is also worth noting that Jacob is very much rooted in the thought of Christian Syriac east. First, the choice of themes he uses are those which had a very rich set of meanings for his audience. The angels were a vivid image of the spiritual life for Near Eastern Christians as models of constant devotion which were both exalted yet not far removed from humanity; living the life of the angels was one of the goals of the Syriac ascetic.[39] By, in a sense, turning the tables on the Cherubim in On the Chariot that the Prophet Ezekiel Saw, Jacob would have effectively played with the expectations of his audience while still holding them as models of undivided attention.[40] Second, the imagery of Paradise and the tree of life was also, as previously noted, pervasive in Syriac Christianity, with importance for their cultures even before Christianity, and Jacob uses these themes effectively, though in a somewhat typical manner and with less creativity than he does with Ezekiel’s chariot. Third, the exuberant tenor of his spirituality, even in regards to contemplation and meditation, is also common with his larger tradition, seen in the eccentricities and zeal of its solitaries as witnessed by Theodoret, in the rich imagery of its liturgies, and in its mystics such as John of Dalyatha or in the Greek, though of Syrian provenance, Macarian Homilies. His writing is lively, and anything but staid. Finally, these homilies give reflections into the lived experience of his churches, whether in the matters of what kind of mystical contemplation they were finding themselves attracted to, their preoccupation with business, or even in the apparently high quality of their singing.[41]

Though firmly rooted in his tradition, Jacob’s liturgical spirituality retains its power, perhaps all the more for his refusal to be publicly dragged into the Christological debates of his time. By using resonant imagery and themes, Jacob does this by inspiring his audience to awe and wonder at God’s work in the Divine Mysteries, and from awe to love and delight.

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Bibliography

Brown, Peter. The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.

Elkhoury, Armando. “Types and Symbols of the Church in the Writings of Jacob of Serugh.” Dissertation, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, 2017.

Golitzin, Alexander. “The Image and Glory of God in Jacob of Serug’s Homily, ‘On That Chariot That Ezekiel the Prophet Saw.’” The Theophaneia School, 2009, 180–212. https://doi.org/10.31826/9781463216313-013.

Jacob of Sarug. Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on Praise at Table. Translated by Jeff W. Childers. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2016.

Jacob of Serugh. Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Chariot That Prophet Ezekiel Saw. Translated by Mary Hansbury. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press LLC, 2016.

Jacob of Sarug. Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Creation of Adam and the Resurrection of the Dead. Translated by Edward J. Mathews. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2014.

Jacob of Sarug. Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2009.

Jacob of Sarug. Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on the Solitaries. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2016.

Jacob of Sarug. Jacob of Serugh: Select Festal Homilies. Translated by Thomas Kollamparampil. Rome, Italy: Centre for Indian and Inter-Religious Studies, 1997.

Jacob of Serugh. Jacob of Serugh: Selected Metrical Homilies. Translated by Armando Elkhoury and Robert A. Kitchen. Washington, DC: The Hidden Pearl Press, 2021.

John of Dalyatha. The Letters of John of Dalyatha. Translated by Mary Hansbury. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006.

Pseudo-Macarius. Pseudo-Macarius: The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter. Translated by George A. Maloney. The Classics of Western Spirituality. Mahwah , NY: Paulist Press, 1992.

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[1] Jacob of Serugh, On Inquiry and the Sanctity of the Church, “Types and Symbols of the Church in the Writings of Jacob of Serugh” Armando Elkhoury, (dissertation, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, 2017), pp.335.

[2] Jacob of Serugh, On Inquiry and the Sanctity of the Church, 347.

[3] Jacob of Serugh, On Inquiry and the Sanctity of the Church, 347.

[4] Alexander Golitzin, “The Image and Glory of God in Jacob of Serug’s Homily, ‘On That Chariot That Ezekiel the Prophet Saw,’” The Theophaneia School, 2009, pp. 180-212, https://doi.org/10.31826/9781463216313-013, 184.

[5] This is of course not unique to Jacob, but can be found in other Christian writers of Late Antiquity, such as Maximus the Confessor, though formulated differently.

[6] Jacob of Sarug, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Creation of Adam and the Resurrection of the Dead, (Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2014), 19.

[7] Jacob of Sarug, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Creation of Adam and the Resurrection of the Dead, 17. The translation of this passage is my own.

[8] Jacob of Sarug, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Creation of Adam and the Resurrection of the Dead, 18.

[9] He does not remark on how his fall touched the angels; likely he assumes that as the spirit is immortal and not subject to decay, they were not touched.

[10] Jacob of Sarug, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Creation of Adam and the Resurrection of the Dead, 14.

[11] Jacob of Sarug, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Chariot that the Prophet Ezekiel Saw, trans Alexander Golitzin. (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2016) 110. While being mindful of the differences, one could make certain comparisons between Jacob’s view described in this paragraph with that of St Maximus the Confessor and to the Franciscan Thesis of the Absolute Primacy of Christ.

[12] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Chariot that the Prophet Ezekiel Saw, 70-72.

[13] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Chariot that the Prophet Ezekiel Saw,146.

[14] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Chariot that the Prophet Ezekiel Saw, 146.

[15] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Chariot that the Prophet Ezekiel Saw, 144.

[16] This is furthered, from the lower end of creation in other works, where he states that physical things such as wine can praise God through the sacramental worship of the Church. Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on Praise at Table, (Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2016), 44.

[17] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Chariot that the Prophet Ezekiel Saw, 146.

[18] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Chariot that the Prophet Ezekiel Saw, 144.

[19] Jacob of Sarug, “Letter to Sephen Bar Sudaili,” in A. L. Frothingham Jr., Stephen Bar Sudaili the Syrian Mystic and the Book of Hierotheos, (Leyden: E. J. Brill, 1886), 13-15.

[20] Jacob of Sarug, “Prose Homily on the Forty Day’s Fast,” in Thomas Kollamparampil, ed., Jacob of Serugh: Select Festal Homilies, (Rome: Centre for Indian and Inter-Religious Studies, 1997), 235.

[21] Jacob of Sarug, “On the Friday of the Passion,” Thomas Kollamparampil, ed., Jacob of Serugh: Select Festal Homilies, (Rome: Centre for Indian and Inter-Religious Studies, 1997), 280-282.

[22] Jacob of Sarug, “On the Friday of the Passion,” Thomas Kollamparampil, ed., Jacob of Serugh: Select Festal Homilies, (Rome: Centre for Indian and Inter-Religious Studies, 1997), 280-281.

[23] Armando Elkhoury, 2015, “The Church, Paradise on Earth, in Whose Midst is the Tree of Life. Let us Pluck its Fruit and Live!” The Hidden Pearl: Syriac and Arabic Christianity, July 2, https://thehiddenpearl.org/2015/07/02/church-paradise-on-earth-in-whose-midst-is-the-tree-of-life-let-us-pluck-its-fruit-and-live/

[24] Jacob of Sarug, Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on the Solitaries, (Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2016), 40.

[25] Jacob of Sarug, Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on the Solitaries, 24.

[26] Jacob of Sarug, Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on the Solitaries, 24. It is worth noting that Jacob artfully chose the verbs in this passage in addition to ܝܨܦ “to be anxious”, such as ܚܢܩ “to choke,” and ܩܛܦ “to pluck,” which can both carry meanings, “to torment, to oppress” and “to annoy, to vex, to disturb” respectively, related to anxiety and trouble.

[27] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, trans. Amir Harrak (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2009), 12.

[28] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, 16.

[29] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, 10.

[30] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, 14.

[31] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, 42.

[32] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, 22.

[33] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, 36.

[34] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, 14.

[35] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, 38-40.

[36] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, 42.

[37] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, 42.

[38] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, 36.

[39] Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), 330-331.

[40] It is worth noting that the first of the Macarian Homilies, likely written in Greek in northern Mesopotamia, the same region as Jacob though a century before him, uses the image of Ezekiel’s chariot as an example of total attention and obedience to God.

[41] Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries, 18.