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