Manolis Papoutsakis is Research Fellow, Manuscripts Department, National Library of Greece, Athens, Greece.
From Jacob of Serugh to Romanos
May 19, 2021, at 10:00 am (Washington, DC Time)
Abstract
Romanos the Melodist was born in Emesa in the late fifth century. He served as a deacon in the church of Anastasis in Beirut, and in the years of emperor Anastasius I (491-518), he settled in Constantinople. He flourished under Justinian and died after 555. Romanos wrote his hymns in Greek but drew on both Greek and Syriac writings. In a forthcoming piece of detailed research, I study his sources (Greek and Syriac), bring out his familiarity with the verse-homilies of Jacob of Serugh, and discuss the implications of his literary and theological dependence on him. In my presentation, I shall give a few examples which illustrate Romanos’ use of Jacob and shall be discussing his literary output and Christology in light of his debt to the great Syriac homilist.
Select Bibliography
”Formulaic Language in the Metrical Homilies of Jacob of Serugh”, Pages 445-451 in Symposium Syriacum VII: Uppsala University, Department of Asian and African Languages, 11–14 August 1996. Edited by Lavenant, René. Orientalia Christiana Analecta 256. Roma: Pontificio Istituto Orientale, 1998.
“Jacob of Serugh. The Homily on the Deluge (Lines 1–210): Introduction, Translation, and Detailed Commentary”. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oxford, 2000.
”United in the Strife That Divided Them: Narsai and Jacob of Serugh on the Ascension of Christ”, Δελτίο Βιβλικών Μελετών 32:A-B (2017): 45-77.
Vicarious Kingship: A Theme in Syriac Political Theology in Late Antiquity. Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 100. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017.
