Toma of Edessa Adam H. Becker 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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Toma of Edessa https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Toma-of-Edessa http://syriaca.org/bibl/570 561 http://syriaca.org/person/795 person Affiliate of Mar Aba and teacher at School of Nisibis; author of two ‘Explanations’ of liturgical feasts. (mid-6th cent.) [Ch. of E.]

An E.-Syr. student of the Cath. Mar Aba I (d. 552) associated with the School of Nisibis. He is probably not the same Toma of Edessa who is supposed to have taught Aba Greek as well as traveled with him to the West. Furthermore, he has been confused in the past with the W.-Syr. Tumo of Ḥarqel . His two extant treatises, one on the Epiphany and the other on the Nativity, are both examples of the E.-Syr. cause (ʿellta) genre, which focused primarily on the aetiology of E.-Syr. festival days. The former of these two texts remains only in ms. form. Along with these two texts, ʿAbdishoʿ attributes to him a refutation of astrology, ‘hortatory discourses’ (buyyāye), anti-heretical disputations, and a ‘letter on qāle’, that is, strophes with prefixed versicles that are chanted.

Primary Sources Abbeloos and Lamy, Gregorii Barhebraei chronicon ecclesiasticum, vol. 2, 89–90. Assemani, BibOr, vol. 3.1, 86–87. A.  Baumstark, ‘Die nestorianischen Schriften “De causis festorum” ’, <abbr>OC</abbr> 1 (1901), 320–42, esp. 324–5. (see also A.  Baumstark idem , in <abbr>OC</abbr> 9 [1911], 332–37, esp. 335). S. J.  Carr, Thomae Edesseni tractatus de Nativitate D. N. Christi (1898). (Syr. and LT) P. Y.  Patros, Teologia del battesimo e dell’epifania nella “Spiegazione” sull’epifania di Tommaso di Edessa (VI sec.) (Ph. D. Diss., Rome; 2007). (includes an IT of the unpublished text on the Epiphany) A. Scher, Histoire nestorienne inédite (Chronique de Séert), vol. 2 (PO 7.2; 1911), 79. Secondary Sources Baumstark, Literatur, 121–22. P. Bettiolo, ‘Scuola ed Economia Divina nella Catechesi della Chiesa di Persia: Appunti su un testo di Tommaso di Edessa († ca 542)’, in Esegesi e Catechesi nei Padri (secc. IV– VII), ed. S. Felici (1994), 147–57. Th. Haintaler, ‘Thomas of Edessa, Causa de Nativitate. Some considerations’, <abbr>ParOr</abbr> 31 (2006), 63–85. Vööbus, History of the School of Nisibis, 173–4.
Adam H. Becker