The Qur'an in its historical context (pdf - Islam and Christian-Muslim ...

SIDNEY GRIFFITH
Furthermore, given the likely, oral form of the legend’s circulation in this milieu
it is reasonable to suppose that the liturgy and its wider ecclesial ambience was
the primary setting in which the legend circulated among Arabic-speaking,
“Jacobite” Christians. This being the case, it is also reasonable to suppose that the
recollection of the details of the legend in the liturgically inspired mêmrâ of Jacob
of Serugh is, textually speaking, the most likely, still extant, single narrative
ancestor in Syriac in the background of the Arabic Qur’an’s evocation of the
legend. 50 Nevertheless, the fact remains that no single Syriac text includes every
aspect of the legend as it circulated orally or as the Qur’an evokes it. A situation
of intertextuality obtains, according to which one expects to find details of
the narrative scattered among the several textual witnesses, with no one of them
containing all the narrative features in a single record.
The “The Youths of Ephesus” in the mêmrâ attributed
to Jacob of Serugh
The two recensions of the mêmrâ attributed to Jacob of Serugh on “The Youths of
Ephesus” are transmitted in several different Syriac manuscripts, of different
provenance and different dating. 51 The first recension, and seemingly the earlier
of the two, is known in two manuscripts, one of which, Vatican Syriac MS 115,
paleographically dated to the seventh or eighth century, is among the oldest,
extant collections of Jacob of Serugh’s mêmrê. 52 The other manuscript containing
the first recension, of uncertain date, is Codex Syriacus Nitriensis 13. 53 The
second recension is so far known in only a single manuscript of an uncertain later
date, Vatican Syriac MS 217. 54
Many of the 763 mêmrê which both Jacob of Edessa (c. 640–708) and Bar
Hebraeus say Jacob of Serugh composed55 have been transmitted in several recensions.
Because of their constant use in the homiletic and catechetical enterprises of
the “Jacobite” communities many of these mêmrê effectively became the property
of the churchmen who used them and they seem often to have altered them the
better to suit their immediate purposes. Most of the alterations, as in the second
recension of the mêmrâ here under discussion, are not of major significance; they
are for the most part cosmetic, improving the grammar or diction, occasionally
correcting a narrative detail. The story recalled in both recensions of the mêmrâ
on the “Youths of Ephesus” remains a faithful recollection of the legend as we
also have it in the somewhat later sixth century historical texts of Zacharias of
Mitylene and John of Ephesus.
At the beginning of his mêmrâ on the “Youths of Ephesus,” Jacob of Serugh
evokes the liturgical setting of the composition; first he addresses himself in
prayer to the Son of God and then he says, “About the children, the sons of the
princes of Ephesus, I have a homily (mêmrâ) to declaim before the hearers. Pay
attention to me, laborers; sing praise, sons of the bridal chamber.” 56 It was
probably the feast day of the youths, who were considered to be martyrs; Jacob
clearly expects his congregation, perhaps monks, to be familiar with the story.
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