Part of Alphonse Mingana’s Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshūni, edited and translated with a critical apparatus, of which the present book is volume 6, The Commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia on the Lord’s Prayer and on the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist is an important witness to the development of Christianity. Theodore (c. 350-428) was clearly the most important biblical scholar of his age. In a series of six homilies Theodore here addresses the Lord’s Prayer as a springboard to discuss what actually constitutes prayer. His homilies on the sacraments are essential witnesses to the historical development of these sacraments. His work here is basically a commentary on the text of the liturgy, an awareness of the centrality of the sacraments to the life of the church in his age.

Alphonse Mingana (1878-1937) was an educator at the Chaldean Seminary in Iraq. He was also a priest in the Assyrian tradition and a collector of ancient manuscripts. He is renowned for his Mingana Collection, a set of nearly 3000 early Syrian and Arabic documents which he acquired and preserved. His rare volume of the writings of Narsai is also available from Gorgias Press. Mingana eventually immigrated to England, where he spent 17 years in Manchester to continue his work on Oriental Studies.