The Syriac Book of Steps collects 30 memre by an anonymous late 4th century author in Persia. It describes the struggle of an actual Christian community, not an idealized one, to live a life in the pursuit of perfection in the midst of a hostile culture. The author details the aspirations and standards of the two ranks of Christians prior to the advent of monasticism: the Upright—married people who work and perform acts of charity—and the Perfect who are celibate, do not work, but live a life of prayer, wandering through the region teaching and mediating conflicts.

In the west centuries ago manuscripts were replaced by printed books, and relegated to mostly secular libraries as a result of religious and political upheavals. In the Christian Orient such changes were slower and remain less advanced. Manuscripts have not entirely vanished from regular use, and Christian communities retain ownership of significant collections of their historic manuscripts. The vital connection between manuscripts and religious culture endures, even if attenuated by persecution, diaspora, technology, and other aspects of modernity. This essay provides an historical survey of these issues in both Europe and the Christian Orient (limited here to the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Ethiopia/Eritrea).

Jacob of Sarug's (d. 521) homily constitutes the first example of a Hexameron, or Commentary on the Six Days of Creation, in Syriac literature. This edition presents Jacob’s comments on the first day, Gen. 1:1-5. The volume constitutes a fascicle of The Metrical Homilies of Mar Jacob of Sarug, which, when complete, will contain the original Syriac text of Jacob's surviving sermons, fully vocalized, alongside an annotated English translation.

The main purpose of the book is to demonstrate that as early as the first phase of his activity (386-393 AD), Augustine did make use of some Origenian works, and that basic elements of his early theology were derived from the Alexandrian master.

This book argues that it is the rejection of Paul’s claims to be an apostle in the same sense as the other apostles that ultimately underlies his “mission to the Gentiles.” This argument is advanced through a careful analysis of Paul’s references to his “conversion” in Galatians 1:15-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:8, paying particular attention to Paul’s evocative use of the language of abortion. The contextualization of this curious self-description in 1 Corinthians 15:8 draws upon a growing body of work concerning an area of ancient life that continues to fascinate and perplex moderns; the exposure of unwanted infants.

The Book of the Pupils of the Eye is a short compendium of Aristotelian logic by Barhebraeus. This facsimile edition reproduces a manuscript of the work copied by Ya‘qub b. Buṭrus Sākā in 1896. Ignatius Ephrem Barṣaum made corrections to the text on the basis of another manuscript in 1904.

With a focus on the Kitāb Ādāb al-falāsifah, a book of aphorisms attributed to Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, some of the important aspects of the Kitāb are laid out, particularly those dealing with religion and the pursuit of philosophy. Although putatively, translators and scholars such as Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, opened the way for philosophical dialogue between Muslims and Christians of Orthodox churches on precepts, often based on Aristotle, which they could agree would lead to wisdom and a humane society.

This book is one of the most important sources for the canon law of the East-Syrian Church. In Canon I of the council held in the year 1318, this collection was proclaimed the authoritative canon law and has since retained its status as the binding legal collection of the East Syrian Church. This second edition reproduces the original manuscript in color.

A conversation between James D. Nogalski and Ehud Ben Zvi on the question of The Twelve, its implications for the historically oriented study of the prophetic books in the Hebrew Bible, and for the reconstruction of the intellectual history of ancient Israel.

Jacob of Sarug's (d. 521) homily on Simon Peter, when our Lord said, “Get behind me Satan!” (Matt 16:23) touches the themes of Jesus’ divinity and death, warfare with Satan, the harrowing of hell, and his relationship with Peter. Peter’s rebuke of Jesus’ willingness to die gives Jesus (through Jacob) the occasion to explain what his death will accomplish. The volume constitutes a fascicle of The Metrical Homilies of Mar Jacob of Sarug, which, when complete, will contain the original Syriac text of Jacob's surviving sermons, fully vocalized, alongside an annotated English translation.

This book argues that the genre of the seven messages in Revelation 2–3 is a hybrid prophetic oracle. This oracle is influenced by the Old Testament covenantal elements functioning as a set of lawsuit exhortations. Graves defends this by demonstrating the influence of the Ancient Near Eastern vassal treaty structure in the seven messages. Written in a readable format this work is both an excellent introduction to the book of Revelation as well as a fitting work for the apocalyptic specialist.

James Rendel Harris uses known statistics of ancient autographs (that is, the original version of a written document) to posit the general appearance of the epistles in their original form.

Charles Short gives a clear and thorough overview of the history of the English Bible and its relation to the changing editions of the Greek and Hebrew texts, then gives a detailed analysis of the revised text of Matthew.

This study provides an English translation of the texts for initiation in the Byzantine tradition, drawing on early manuscripts of the euchology and the typikon of the Great Church (Hagia Sophia). This includes texts for the enrollment of children in the rites of the eighth and fortieth days, catechesis and prayers during Lent, final preparations, including consecration of Chrism and the rites of apotaxis and syntaxis on Good Friday, Baptism at the Easter Vigil, postbaptismal rites and rites of closure, and provisions for the other baptismal feasts.

The History of Syriac Dioceses, by the late Patriarch Aphram I of Antioch and all the East, is a synopsis of a much larger study still in manuscript form. This selected portion of this history, published for the first time in English translation (volume 1) along with the original Arabic text (volume 2), offers the reader an in-depth treatment of the conditions of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Abdisho bar Brikha (d. 1318) was a prominent East Syriac writer. While many of his works did not survive, his The Paradise of Eden, a collection of theological poetry, reached us. This edition is based on the rare Urmia (1916) and Mosul (1928) text editions by J. de Kelaita.