Yoḥannan bar Zoʿbi (12th/13th cent.) [Ch. of E.]
Learned monk and author. He studied under Shemʿon Shanqlawi and was a monk of the famous monastery of Beth Qoqa in Adiabene; his fame as a scholar was such that he attracted pupils also from the Syr. Orth. Church, among them Yaʿqub bar Shakko. He was the author of an important grammar (unpublished) and a number of verse works on philosophy and on liturgy. His theological compendium Zqorā mlaḥḥmā (‘Well-woven fabric’) exists in several mss. and is quoted in later E.-Syr. literature.
- J. Isaac, ‘Le baptême et le levain sacré par Johannan bar Zoʿbi’, Bayn al-Nahrayn 16 (61–2) (1988), 108–31. (photographic edition with AT)
- A. Khoraiche, ‘L’explication de tous les mystères divins’ de Yohannan bar Zoʿbi selon le ms Borg. sir. 90’, Euntes Docete 19 (1966), 386–426. (FT)
- T. Mannooramparampil, John ba Zoʿbi. Explanation of the Divine Mysteries (Oriental Institute of Religious Studies, India 157, 1992). (ET)
- Baumstark, Literatur, 310–1. (for mss.)
- G. Bohas, Les bgdkpt en syriaque selon Bar Zoʿbi (2005).
- H. Daiber, ‘Ein vergessener syrischer Text: Bar Zoʿbi über die Teile der Philosophie’, OC 69 (1985), 73–80.
- A. Merx, Historia Artis Grammaticae apud Syros (1889), 158–77.
- C. Van den Eynde, Commentaire d’Išoʿdad de Merv sur l’Ancien Testament, VI. Psaumes (CSCO 434; 1981), XXXVIII–XXXIX.
- D. Webb, ‘The mimra on the interpretation of the Mysteries by Rabban Johannan bar Zoʿbi and its symbolism’, LM 88 (1975), 297–326.