Samuel, Athanasios Yeshuʿ George A. Kiraz Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University The International Balzan Prize Foundation George A. Kiraz Sebastian P. Brock Aaron M. Butts Lucas Van Rompay Ute Possekel Daniel L. Schwartz David A. Michelson Data cleaning, editorial proofreading, and TEI editing by Ute S. Posssekel Data cleaning and initial valid TEI encoding by David Michelson XSLT transformations by Winona Salesky Data cleaning, editorial proofreading, TEI schema, and TEI encoding and editing by Daniel L. Schwartz Conversion to semantic XML by George A. Kiraz Electronic Edition Version 1.5 Published by Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA www.gorgiaspress.com for Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute Published with the collaboration of Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal Published and hosted with the collaboration of the Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University

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2016-09-22-16:00
Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition George A. Kiraz Sebastian P. Brock Aaron M. Butts Lucas Van Rompay Ute Possekel Daniel L. Schwartz David A. Michelson Data cleaning, editorial proofreading, and TEI editing by Ute S. Posssekel Data cleaning and initial valid TEI encoding by David Michelson XSLT transformations by Winona Salesky Data cleaning, editorial proofreading, TEI schema, and TEI encoding and editing by Daniel L. Schwartz Conversion to semantic XML by George A. Kiraz Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage Sebastian P. Brock Aaron M. Butts George A. Kiraz Lucas Van Rompay Piscataway, N.J. Gorgias Press for Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute 2011 Copyright ©2011 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute ISBN: 978-1-59333-714-8
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Samuel, Athanasios Yeshuʿ https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Samuel-Athanasios-Yeshu http://syriaca.org/bibl/478 469 Athanasios Yeshuʿ Samuel http://syriaca.org/person/716 person Bp. of Jerusalem (1947-48), and first bp. of the United States (1957-95). (1907–1995) [Syr. Orth.]

Bp. of Jerusalem (1947–48), and first bp. of the United States (1957–95). He was born in Ḥulwa near Nisibis in 1907, and lost his father at an early age. His mother took him to the Monastery of St. Mark in Jerusalem where they both lived, and where he later became a monk. In 1931 he was part of the entourage of Patr. Eliya III in a visit to India. He studied in Egypt and became editor of the Patriarchal Magazine (Jerusalem). He became an abbot of the monastery and in 1946 was consecrated bp. of Jerusalem.

In 1947 he purchased from Arab bedouins through Iskandar Shahin (Kando), a Syriac antiquity dealer from Bethlehem, four Dead Sea Scrolls, later to be known as the St. Mark’s Scrolls. In 1948, he traveled with the Scrolls to the United States for the purpose of making the Scrolls available to a wider market. In the United States, the Scrolls scrolls were displayed at various institutions, including the Library of Congress and Duke University. After some complications, the Scrolls were purchased by Y.  Yadin, through an intermediary, for the State of Israel.

In 1948 he was appointed Apostolic Legate to the United States, and in 1957 he became the first bp. of the United States and Canada. He was instrumental in the advancement of this new diocese. He is remembered by many parishioners for his humility and for the help that he rendered to new immigrants, sometimes even taking old ladies shopping for food in his car. In 1971 he took part in the consecration of the Coptic Pope Shenouda  III. In addition to his English autobiography (1966, AT 1985), he wrote a series of Syriac readers entitled mhadyono dšarwoye l-lešono oromoyo  / Aramaic new method readers (vols. 1–3, Jerusalem, 1937–45; vols. 4–6, Glanerbrug, 1984); critics, however, claim that Qarabashī may have had a hand in authoring them. He was instrumental in editing and publishing liturgical texts, with facing ET by Murad Barsoum , for many of the Syr. Orth. liturgical books, most notably the Anaphora of St. James (1967, ET only), The sacrament of holy baptism (1974), The order of solemnization of the sacrament of matrimony (1974), The order for the burial of the dead (1974), the mʿadʿdono entitled Maʿdeʿdono Ma’de’dono : The book of the church festivals (1984), and Anaphoras: The book of the divine liturgies (1991) containing thirteen anaphoras. He was also a skillful scribe (many of the inscriptions in the United States are molded from his hand). He died in 1995 and was buried in the Monastery of St. Ephrem in The Netherlands according to his Last Will and Testament, which also stipulated that his substantial estate be used for educational purposes and the training of clergy, now administered by the Athanasius Yeshu Samuel Fund.

See Fig. 40.

Sources Abūna, Adab, 575. M.  Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls of St. Mark’s Monastery (1950). G. A.  Kiraz, Anton Kiraz’s archive on the Dead Sea Scrolls (2005). Munūfar Barṣūm, Aḍwāʾ, 115. A. Y.  Samuel, Treasure of Qumran: My story of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1996).
George A. Kiraz