Many stories and legends about John the son of Zebedee have survived from antiquity. He was known as one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ, as the “Beloved Disciple” and author of the Gospel of John, and even as the recipient of the divine revelation in the Apocalypse. Later traditions, such as the Greek Acts of John, told of how John traveled to Ephesus and converted people to Christianity. John was an important figure to Catholic Christians, to Gnostic Christians, and to Manichaeans. He also found a distinct place among Syriac Christians who preserved their own story about John’s acts in Ephesus. William Wright first introduced the History of John in 1871 using two manuscript witnesses. Since then, more witnesses have been discovered, but little work has been done on this native Syriac apocryphon. The present volume brings together all of the known Syriac witnesses to the History of John with a new translation and includes, for the first time, a critical discussion of the history, provenance, and importance of this text for the study of Syriac Christianity and Christian Apocrypha more generally.

The Law Code of Simeon of Rev-Ardashir, originally written in Persian, was translated into Syriac by a monk of Bēṭ-Qatrāyē. The Code's author, possibly to be identified with a rebellious metropolitan mentioned in the letters of Patriarch Īšoʿ-yahb III, aims to clarify theoretical scriptural law, and to address specific cases of inheritance law.

In this fifth installment of the long Homily 71, On the Six Days of Creation, Jacob treats of the events of the fifth day, the creation from the waters of the various species of fish and reptiles, as well as the assorted types of birds and other winged creatures. God created them all in wisdom and in love, prepared everything that they would need and endowed them with the natural characteristics required for their particular type of life. Jacob highlights the fact that the creation of these animals on the fifth day to inhabit the land and water separated on the third day is a symbol of the Resurrection of Christ.

Narsai’s memra 33 is made of 12 by 12 syllables, and its title “On the Sanctification of the Church” suggests that it was written for the feast of the Dedication of the Church celebrated by the Church of the East to this day on the first of November. The memra names the Church of the Nations the Bride of the Bridegroom Christ. The Church had a pagan origin but Christ chose her to become his bride. He thus saved her through his suffering, cleansed her with baptism, prepared the bridal feast for her through the Eucharist, and crowned her victory over all the nations.

In this fourth installment of the long Homily 71, On the Six Days of Creation, Jacob treats of the events of the fourth day, the creation of the spheres of light over the earth: the sun to rule over the day, and the moon and the stars to rule over the night.

This volume provides a study and an original edition and translation from Syriac into English of Discourse Two of Gabriel of Qatar's liturgical commentary, written in the first half of the seventh century.

Two homilies by Jacob of Sarug on Good Friday, one of which has only survived in Armenian translation.

This book is a part of series of Causes of Celebrations written by Moshe Bar Kepha (813-903). These Causes are unique in that they demonstrate a new genre of the Syriac literature initiated by the East Syriac authors at the beginning of the sixth century. Moreover, these Causes reveal the appreciation and dependency of Moshe Bar Kepha on the East Syriac sources despite the ecclesiastical doctrinal separation between the East Syriac and West Syriac churches.

The so-called "Julian Romance" was discovered among the Nitrian manuscripts in the 1830s. This revised edition, with facing Syriac text and English translation, provides a new, more accurate translation of this important Syriac text.

Cyrillona (fl. 396) has been ranked among the foremost early Syriac poets since his work was rediscovered by scholars in the mid-19th century. His Holy Week discourses on the Last Supper, the Washing of the Feet, and the Institution of the Eucharist have become particularly well-known to western readers through quotations by such diverse authors as Hugo Rahner and Photina Rech. This volume presents the first modern critical edition of Cyrillona’s Syriac works together with the first complete English translation.

In this second part of Homily 71, On the Fashioning of Creation, Jacob treats the making of the firmament: what it was, where it was, what – as far as can be determined – was placed above it and what below it, its purpose and utility for humanity, and the importance of its place in the Genesis account of the six day progression of creation.

Isaac the Syrian lived the solitary life in the 7th century. He was born in Qatar and subsequently lived in present day Iraq and Iran. After life as a monk, then briefly as a bishop, he withdrew to live the solitary life. These discourses are primarily for solitaries to consolidate them in the love and mercy of God. In this volume, the text of Isaac V has also been included because of the light which it sheds on Apocatastasis, of increasing interest in academic and ecclesial circles.

Five homilies by Jacob of Sarug on women whom Jesus met: the Canaanite Woman, the Samaritan Woman, the Hemorrhaging Woman, the Woman Bent Double, and Jairus' Daughter.

In this third part of Homily 71, On the Fashioning of Creation, Jacob treats the God's separation of the waters from the earth, and the bringing forth of vegetation on the newly-revealed dry land.

Part of a series of fascicles containing the bilingual Syriac-English editions of Saint Jacob of Sarug’s homilies, this volume contains his homilies on Praise at Table. These homilies offer a glimpse into the efforts of one late antique author to construct distinctly Christian meaning from the experience of communal meal-sharing. The Syriac text is fully vocalized, and the translation is annotated with a commentary and biblical references. The volume is one of the fascicles of Gorgias Press’s The Metrical Homilies of Mar Jacob of Sarug, which, when complete, will contain all of Jacob’s surviving sermons. Recognized as a saint by both Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Christians alike, Jacob of Sarug (d. 521) produced many narrative poems that have rarely been translated into English. Of his reported 760 metrical homilies, only about half survive.

The Compendious Commentary by the Church of the East monk Dadishoʿ Qaṭraya (7th cent.) was originally written in Syriac but was eventually translated into Garshuni or Syro-Arabic. It is a work aimed at immersing the novice monk in the spiritual lore of the monastic vocation, and saturating his mind and spirit with advice and warnings about the pitfalls of aiming to be perfect while remaining nevertheless an imperfect human being. This is a critical edition and translation of the Compendious Commentary in Garshuni that uses all available manuscripts.

Jacob of Sarug's pastoral concern and rhetorical acumen have appropriately earned him the title “the lyre of the Holy Spirit”. This volume presents Jacob's admonitions to those living a life of consecrated singleness to God.

This volume gives a bilingual Syriac-English edition of Saint Jacob of Sarug’s homily on the Chariot which the Prophet Ezekiel saw. The Syriac text is fully vocalized, and the translation is annotated with a commentary and biblical references. The volume constitutes a fascicle of Gorgias’s Complete Homilies of Saint Jacob of Sarug. In Syriac and English.

Jacob of Sarug's pastoral concern and rhetorical acumen have earned him the title “the lyre of the Holy Spirit”. This volume presents both a text and translation of Jacob’s exposition of a passage central to Christian liturgy and piety.

The first English translation and first complete critical text of a neglected moral treatise from fourth-century Egypt, throwing fresh light on the social history of Egyptian Christianity and on the growth of the church-order tradition.

A critical edition of a fragmentary Arabic manuscript (Mingana Chr. Arab. 18), together with a study which suggests that the three Arabic versions do not represent three different texts, but rather three versions all drawing on the same original text.

This volume presents, with introduction and annotations, two metrical homilies (Bedjan nos. 82, 126) of Jacob of Sarug in which he reflects on the Temptation of Jesus as combat between Satan and Jesus, the latter emerging as the humble victor.

The Syriac Book of Steps collects 30 sermons by a late 4th century anonymous author in the Persian Empire. The author details the spiritual life, highlighting the duties and problems of two ranks of committed Christians, the Upright and the Perfect.

Armenian text of the Prayers attributed to Ephrem the Syrian, with the first-ever translation into a western language. Utilizing a highly developed poetic rhythm, the author manifests a profound spirituality laying his own emptiness before the inexhaustible Mercy of God.

Moses bar Kepha: Commentary on Myron is an important witness to the history of the West Syriac Liturgy. Fr. Baby Varghese has translated the Syriac text into English for the first time.