Yodh Heh- a Christian Nomen Sacrum

The following was posted on Facebook by a Syriac scholar:

The Yodh Heh symbol shows up frequently on the internet and on publications, (particularly in conjunction with the Syriac Church) however it is rare to find its explanation or history.

The early Syrian Christians, when composing their texts, relied on earlier Aramaic texts of the Torah (law), Neviim (prophets) and Ketuvim (writings). In these Aramaic texts, the full name of God or the Tetragramaton, was never fully written out, but was abbreviated as Yah out of respect for the name, much as Jews of today refer to Him merely as HaShem (the name) or Adonai (Lord). Fast forward to the birth of the faith, Jesus' name in Aramaic is Yahshuo which means "God saves". For this reason, both He and God in the early Christian texts were referred to as Mar Yah. (Mar = Lord, thus... Lord God) This clearly shows that the early Christians did believe that Christ was, in fact, God. The Peshitta leaves no doubt whatsoever that Jesus was God Himself, manifest in the flesh.

• Examples: Luke2:11 - "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord God (Mar Yah)"
• 1 Corinthians 12:3 "and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord God (Mar Yah) but by the Holy Spirit."
• Matthew 22:43 "He said to them, How is it then that David through the spirit calls him Lord God?"
• Mark 12:29 "Jesus said to him, The first of all commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord God (Mar Yah)"
• Acts 10:36 For God sent the word to the children of Israel, preaching peace and tranquility by Jesus Christ; he is the Lord God (Mar Yah) of all.

There are literally thousands of such verses in the Aramaic which show both God and Jesus both being referred to as Mar Yah (Lord God). Thus, in the Syriac Church, the Holy Name Yah became a symbol of God and of Christ, and of the oneness of the physical and heavenly manifestations of the one God.

Regardless, this tradition continued on through the Syriac Church as a "Nomen Sacrum" (and sadly impressions of the name were used even as talismans among Muslims). The three dots above the two written letters represent the three parts of the one God, the two letters represent His two wills (The Yod being the higher or Godly will Y'Chshab = thought, and the Heh being the lower or earthly will Ha'aydin = to do) of Christ, and the single dot on the bottom indicates the Ihadaya... the oneness of God. It is not known if the dots were formulated first and vowel markings came to be based upon them, or if the vowel markings came first and conveniently taught sacred theology.

Mystic Treatises By Isaac Of Nineveh: Translated From Bedjan's Syriac Text

A reprint company has produced a hardcopy version of R. Payne Smith's "Compendious Syriac Dictionary" and BarEbroyo's "Dove". This small company (Old South Books, not to be confused with the Old South Books which concentrates on medical manuscripts) has typically concentrated on Civil War topics, but if you browse their blog, it becomes apparent they are branching out. Further still, the icing on the cake is their reprint of "Mystic Treatises By Isaac Of Nineveh". These works are freely available on the internet in various locations (see list of links to the left) however, reading e-text can be a tremendous strain on the eyes and a PC limits how and where you can sit. Opening a real book and feeling the pages in your hands lends itself far more powerfully to memorization and spiritual insight than looking at a computer screen. Excellent prices, too, for us non-academics.


Mystic Treatises By Isaac Of Nineveh: Translated From Bedjan's Syriac Text With Introduction
Translated by A. J. Wensinck
Paperback, 406 pages
Published in 1923, this is a collection of treatises on mysticism by Isaac of Nineveh. Translated from Bedjan's syriac text with an introduction and registers.
$14.50




Bar Hebraeus's Book Of The Dove: Together With Some Chapters From His Ethikon
Authored by A. J. Wensinck
Paperback, 292 pages
Published in 1919, this is Book Of The Dove by Bar Hebraeus (Bar Ebroyo). Includes some sections from his Ethikon. With introduction and notes.
$11.50



A Compendious Syriac Dictionary: Founded Upon The Thesaurus Syriacus Of R. Payne Smith, D.D.
Authored by J. Payne Smith
Paperback, 640 pages
Published in 1903, this volume is a Syriac dictionary, including abbreviations and explainations.
$19.50

Summer School: The Age of Constantine

2012 Summer School: The Age of Constantine

The Rockford Institute’s 15th Annual Summer School
The Age of Constantine
July 10-15, 2012
Rockford, Illinois

In the fourth century, at the very moment when the Church emerged from the catacombs, “The whole world groaned,” Saint Jerome wrote, “and was amazed to find itself Arian.”  As blood martyrdom gave way to a different kind of threat, God raised up holy and courageous men, from Saint Athanasius to Saint Augustine, to destroy heresy through a brilliant exposition of the living Faith that still inspires Christians today.

For more information on the conference, go here...


Conference Reading List:

• Gibbon, Edward: Decline and Fall, chapters  XIII-25
• Burckhardt, Jacob: The Age of Constantine the Great
• Marcellinus, Ammianus: History (The Later Roman Empire, Penguin)*
• Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History
  Life of Constantine
  "Oration on Constantine's 30th Anniversary"
• "Reply to Hierocles"
• Porphyry: "Life of Plotinus"
• "Letter to Marcella"*
• Fragments of Against the Christians
• Iamblichus: On the Mysteries
• Julian: "The Caesars"
• "Against the Galileans"
• Sallustius: "On the Gods and the World"
• Ambrose: De Officiis Ministrorum, On the Duties of the Clergy
• Athanasius: Life of Anthony
• Lactantius: The Divine Institutes
  On the Deaths of the Persecutors
• Basil the Great: On Social Justice (ed. C. Paul Schroeder)
• On the Human Condition (tr. Nonna Verna Harrison)
• Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns on Paradise

Esotericism and Political Theology

Author James Kelley explores alchemy as an important aspect of inquiry in Western Civilization in "Anatomyzing Divinity: Studies in Science, Esotericism and Political Theology".  The book is an attempt to afford the reader rare insights into the history and meaning of Western esotericism. Kelley is interviewed in the following podcast by Gnostic Media...

http://www.gnosticmedia.com/james-kelley-interview-alchemy-the-trinity-and-the-great-work-139/#.T2MHG7BfHZc.facebook

Kelley is currently conducting research on the history of Western esotericism at the University of Oklahoma’s History of Science Collections. His previous publications include: “A Realism of Glory: Lectures on Christology in the Works of Protopresbyter John Romanides” (Rollinsford, N.H.: Orthodox Research Institute, 2009); and “Anthropos: New Studies” (forthcoming).

Fr. McGuckin hits another one out of the ballpark

This is tremendously exciting; The Ascent of Christian Law: Patristic and Byzantine Reformulations of Greco-Roman Attitudes in the Making of a Christian Civilization is a new publication that bridges the gap between Eastern Christian thought, Roman antiquity, and political science. Moreover the author is John McGuckin, probably unknown in poli sci circles, but well respected in the field of early Christianity and religious philosophy. Then why care? Then how is this relevant to political science?

Because one might notice that scholars from other fields seem to be making inroads into areas we would consider political science; that is, as historians, philosophers, Patristics scholars write within their fields, they explore the political implications of their respective areas of research. This is superb in my mind.

However one must ask the question; do we see the same kind of multidisciplinary interests on the part of political scientists? I am convinced that these other fields are valuable to political science but at the same time, someone from within the poli sci discipline could take such research even further.

Case in point: as I've read scholarly and pop-scholarly books on Christian origins, I frequently run across language that, I feel, is subtly political; language that in a historical context of the book itself would have little use, but when read by someone within our modern religious-political environment, would be persuasive. As polemical as Christian history and the new "skepticism" has become, this would be an area ripe for students of propaganda and public influence.

Natural law and social contract weren't ideas born out of a vacuum. Nor were their Thomist and monarchist antecedents. It behooves us to understand the wisdom and thought that came before. That is why McGuckin's book will no doubt open new areas of discussion regarding the common understanding of Christian influence on Western Civilization.

Emory University's Center for the Study of Law & Religion reviewed the book and has this to say:

This volume aims to fill a large gap in the historical materials available to students of early Christian and Byzantine Christian studies. To that extent, it will be designed as a wide-ranging historical survey that covers the varying attitudes among the major early Christian theorists of law and governance issues as the church moved in its condition from a minority of resistance to the imperial church. The field of early studies of Christian law is dominated by scholars of Western canon law (though often microscopically treated). Eastern canon law remains massively neglected, relegated to studies by Orthodox canonists who have been concerned largely with issues of ecclesiastical precedence and protocol, rather than with large questions of the role of law in culture-making.

This book intends to consider questions such as: "What difference did Christianity make as a builder of civilization?" To what extent did the church, in presenting to late Roman society a vision of a New Order, actually begin to articulate the structures that would form the polity of such an order? How far did the Church articulate a theory of law as "new-culture building" in advance of the Constantinian reordering of society by the promotion of bishops as magistrates? To what extent did the post-Constantinian, Justinianic, and later Byzantine theory and systems of evolving Christian legislation, simply extend Roman legal, political, and cultural aspirations, or to what extent did Christian theologians and jurists consciously rebuild? The book seeks to answer these questions by looking at main protagonists who consider the issues of law and theology from the early centuries through to the medieval Byzantine period. A second part offers a series of reflective reviews on certain "points in question," including slavery, freedom of the person, ownership, reconciliation, and governance theory.

From: http://cslr.law.emory.edu/publications/publication/title/the-ascent-of-christian-law-patristic-and-byzantine-reformulations-of-greco-roman-attitudes-in-the/

Are Christian writings evaluated fairly?

The Ehrman Project Blog addresses a question I've often wondered about; whether or not historical Christian documents are evaluated by the same standards of writings from other religions. The Ehrman Project is an evangelical site dedicated to providing answers- not to general critisms of New Testament reliability- but rather to Bart Ehrman's critique of New Testament scriptures. The site doesn't target Ehrman himself but is a response to be a media personality cult built around him. An inquirer poses this question:

"... Irish legends dating back to the middle ages tell of magical and powerful races that inhabited Ireland before the arrival of the Gaels. Scholars consider this to be how that culture "remembered" historical waves of migration on the island. Also stories of Mesopotamian gods and patriarchs (such as Cain and Abel) record the rivalry between the farmer and the herder. In other words it seems to be generally accepted that the mythological stories so important to ancient cultures have some basis in historical fact, thought the details may be lost.

The exception seems to be New Testament scholarship. Stories such as the Magi, the census in Luke, and the resurrection are seen as simple fabrications... The assumption seems to be that the Gospels have cobbled together a series of fabrications, unless of course the exact details are found in other (preferably) non-Christian sources... Are early Christian writings really evaluated by a different standard than writings from other cultures and other religions?

The Ehrman Project objects to the inquirer's implication that New Testament accounts are "on the same level" as cultural legends, this is, merely embellishments layered over kernels of truth. I honestly do not see how the people at the Ehrman Project drew that conclusion. The inquirer is simply drawing a contrast between two widely different forms of literature and how they are treated. The entire first section of the response preaches to the choir, trying to convince the inquirer of something he is already convinced of- that the New Testament is fundamentally different in nature from cultural legends. (Paul, too, insists that the core events of the Christian message—the death, burial, resurrection, and reappearance of Jesus of Nazareth—are not only significant; they are also verifiably true.) But the Ehrman Project continues with a response that should be very interesting to believers who intend to enter academia and those who casually read best sellers by pop-experts:

Many New Testament scholars do indeed seem to have a bias against New Testament “history” as being unworthy of that name.  They seem to hold the New Testament documents to a different standard of reliability than they hold classical documents to.  F.F. Bruce, professor of New Testament at the University of Manchester in England... did see a bias in the evaluation of the New Testament documents in Religion Departments at universities that he did not see in Classics or History Departments. By the standards employed in the latter departments, the New Testament documents come off looking much stronger in their claims to historical reliability than the accepted documents of ancient Greek and Roman history, and yet no one disputes the basic trustworthiness of these sources for conveying the gist of what happened.

Full post can be read here

Just Released! Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian

Excellent news! Holy Transfiguration Monastery has released their updated edition of The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian. Here is an excerpt from their site:

The book includes among other things an introduction discussing what we know of the Saint's life and the manuscripts of the homilies and the various translations of them, with maps, and Appendices with homilies by Saint Isaac only in the Syriac, a Glossary of special terms, and more. Includes all the homilies by Saint Isaac in the first edition plus two newly translated from the Syriac that were omitted from the first edition. A major work of scholarship.

Indeed! Buy a copy here.