Gewargis of Arbela, Pseudo-
author: Sebastian P. Brock
source date: 2011
edition published: 2016-09-22-16:00
availability: Copyright ©2011 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute Distributed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

Gewargis of Arbela, Pseudo-

https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Gewargis-of-Arbela-Pseudo- http://syriaca.org/bibl/235 226 Pseudo- Gewargis of Arbela [pseudonym] [Unknown author of an important Commentary on the Liturgical rites.]

(9th cent.?) [Ch. of E.]

Unknown author of an important Commentary on the Liturgical rites. An extensive liturgical commentary in seven sections is preserved in a number of mss.; in his Bibliotheca Orientalis Assemani attributed the work to Gewargis of Arbela (9th cent.?), but without any good evidence; as a result the author is normally now referred to as ‘Pseudo-Gewargis of Arbela’ (another wrong attribution is to ʿAbdishoʿ bar Bahrīz ). The chapters in each section provide answers to particular questions. The seven sections cover the following topics: 1. the liturgical year (24 questions); 2. ramšā (21 questions); 3. lelyā and ṣaprā (9 questions); 4. the Eucharistic Mysteries (30 questions); 5. Baptism (9 questions); 6. Consecration of a church (8 questions); and 7. Burial, and Marriage (7 questions; the section on Marriage seems to be a secondary addition, though perhaps by the same author). Connolly’s edition also includes the short ‘Commentary on the (liturgical) Services’ by Abraham bar Lipeh of Beth Qaṭraye (II, 161–80); in many places this is simply an abbreviation of Gabriel Qaṭraya ’s Commentary.

Primary Sources

S. P. Brock, in Hugoye 1.1 (1998). (ET of 5.5)
R. H. Connolly, Anonymi auctoris Expositio Officiorum Ecclesiae Georgio Arbelensi vulgo adscripta (CSCO 64, 71–2, 76; 1911–1915). (Syr. with LT)
R. H. Connolly, in A Commentary on the Mass by the Nestorian George, Bishop of Mosul and Arbela, ed. R. Matheus (Kottayam, 2000). (ET of 4)
I. Emlek, Mysterienfeier der Ostsyrischen Kirche im 9. Jahrhundert (2004). (GT of 4)

Secondary Sources

C. Leonhard, ‘Die Initiation nach der Expositio Officiorum Ecclesiae’, in Syriaca, ed. M. Tamcke (2002), 321–54.

Sebastian P. Brock