• 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.