The Audience and Readership of Late Antique Homilies

This chapter offers a new approach to the audience of late antique homilies and reconstructs the process by which they went from spoken word to circulating text. Recent studies have exposed the potential of sermons as sources for social history by focusing on the setting in which preachers delivered their sermons. Yet most sermons from late antiquity—and especially metrical Syriac homilies—do not offer such information. This chapter reframes the question of the audience of late antique sermons to include both the individuals gathered physically before the preacher and the communities that read the homilies after delivery. A summary of the evidence for the setting of delivery reveals the challenge of working with certain homilies. But practices associated with the transmission of homilies—delivering, recording, redacting, collecting, and circulating—help reconstruct the types of individuals who formed the readership of late antique homilies.

The Christological Debates and the Miracles and Sufferings of Christ

This chapter traces the history of the Christological language of the miracles and sufferings of Christ from the fourth through sixth centuries. Armenian, Coptic, Latin, Greek, and Syriac texts pair the miracles of Christ with the sufferings of Christ to express the relationship between his divinity and humanity. This pairing first appeared in Cappadocia in the late fourth century, but it became a source of controversy especially through Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorios of Constantinople’s disagreement. The presence of this phrase in Pope Leo I’s Tome led to further disagreements at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. The Emperor Zeno used this phrase in an imperial decree issued in 482, known as the Henotikon, and it would later be codified in Roman law through the Emperor Justinian I. Miaphysite leaders, including Jacob of Serugh, debated the proper understanding of Christology in reference to this phrase in the early sixth century.

Homilies as Tools for Teaching Theology

This chapter analyzes how Jacob of Serugh communicates Christology within the poetic restraints and oral context of his homilies. He preached his Homily on the Faith in an educational setting and emphasized a correct understanding of Christology. Three known phrases from the Christological controversies reveal the subtle ways that he weaves miaphysite Christology into his homilies. He quotes a phrase attributed to Nestorios of Constantinople in order to liken his opponents to the defamed archbishop. He draws on an even earlier phrase from the fourth-century Trinitarian controversies in accusing his opponents of worshipping a human. Finally, he uses the pairing of miracles and sufferings to criticize the Christology of his opponents and to promote his own views on Christology. Jacob’s transformation of these three phrases reveals how he modifies his expression of Christology to teach his theological perspective within the poetic and stylistic expectations of metrical homilies.

Homilies and Reading Communities

This chapter addresses the most controversial homily in Jacob of Serugh’s corpus, the Homily on the Council of Chalcedon. Recently discovered manuscripts provide a solid basis for viewing this homily as an integral part of his corpus, despite the long debate over its authenticity. The close correspondence of his Christological thought here with that examined in his letters provides an even firmer basis for asserting its authenticity. Although the physical context in which Jacob delivered this homily remains elusive, this chapter demonstrates how scholars can productively interpret it as a text that circulated among reading communities in late antiquity. Two periods of Jacob’s life, known from his letters, would have made ideal contexts in which he circulated this homily as part of a dossier of texts for elite reading communities.

Introduction

The introduction identifies the central questions of the book and provides a basic orientation to the major figures and time period. The Christological controversies have long held an important place in the history of early Christianity, and strong evidence suggests that these quarrels affected all levels of society. This work argues that preaching served as a means of communicating Christological concepts to broad audiences in late antiquity. The homilies of Jacob of Serugh have long resisted efforts of historical contextualization and serve here as a case study for the role of sermons in spreading Christological doctrine. A brief account of Jacob’s life drawn from contemporaneous works establishes the basic characteristics of his time. A summary of the long debate over Jacob’s Christological perspective follows and leads into the structure of the monograph.

Conclusion

The conclusion highlights the central arguments of the monograph and identifies future directions for research. The difficulty of contextualizing Jacob of Serugh’s sermons necessitates attention not only to the physical audience that gathered for his sermons but also to the individuals and communities that read his homilies after delivery. It is possible to connect both Jacob’s letters and his homilies to a historical debate related to the pairing of miracles and sufferings of Christ as found in Zeno’s Henotikon. The four homilies at the center of this work form a spectrum from sermons best interpreted as texts that circulated to those seemingly preached on ordinary liturgical occasions. Future studies could profitably explore the diverse audiences that preachers sought to address in their preaching as well as differences in language, themes, and rhetoric between homilies dictated for circulation and those recorded during oral delivery.

Jacob of Serugh’s Letters as a Context for his Homilies

This chapter demonstrates that Jacob of Serugh engaged directly in debates over Christology through his letters. The pairing of miracles and sufferings explored in the chapter 2 serves as a link between his letters and the activities of his peers. Three sets of correspondence reveal his use of this phrase in concrete situations. His exchanges with the monastery of Mar Bassus feature his direct engagement in the debate over the use of the Henotikon for expressing Christology. His letter to the military leader Bessas shows his advocacy for fellow non‐Chalcedonians experiencing persecution after the rise of Emperor Justin I. Finally, his letter to the Christian community in Najran of the Himyarite Kingdom in South Arabia coordinates miaphysite Christology with the experience of persecution. Jacob saw miaphysite Christology as expressed through the language of miracles and sufferings as an answer to the challenges that non‐Chalcedonian communities faced in the aftermath of Chalcedon.

Homilies and the Spread of Christological Doctrine

This chapter examines two of Jacob of Serugh’s exegetical homilies that use the pairing of miracles and sufferings to defend a miaphysite view of Christology. A homily on the promise of a future prophet in Deuteronomy 18:15–18 features typological exegesis that explores similarities between Moses and Christ. Homilists in late antiquity regularly used typological exegesis to express their views on Christology through familiar biblical stories. In another homily, Jacob offers a Christological interpretation of Peter’s confession of Christ in Matthew 16:13–20 and encourages his audience to imitate Peter in confessing Christ in a way that agrees with the miaphysite view of Christology. Jacob’s contemporaries Philoxenos of Mabbug and Severos of Antioch had similarly used this passage to support miaphysite Christology. The examination of these two homilies solidifies Jacob’s participation in debates over Christology through preaching and his use of homilies to communicate these ideas to broad audiences.