Alibertis: Jacob of Sarug's Homily Concerning the Red Heifer and Crucifixion of our Lord (Texts from Late Antiquity #78)

Recognized as a saint by both Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Christians alike, Jacob of Sarug (d. 521) produced many narrative poems that have rarely been translated into English. Of his reported 760 metrical homilies, only about half survive. Part of a series of fascicles containing the bilingual Syriac-English editions of Saint Jacob of Sarug’s homilies, this volume contains his homily on the red heifer slaughter ritual in Numbers 19. For Jacob, the narrative is a prefigurement of Christ's death and its ability to restore and permanently purify all who enter the church through baptism. The Syriac text is fully vocalized, and the translation is annotated with a commentary and biblical references. The volume is one of the fascicles of Gorgias Press’s The Metrical Homilies of Mar Jacob of Sarug, which, when complete, will contain all of Jacob’s surviving sermons.

Contributor Biography

Demetrios Alibertis

Demetrios Alibertis holds a BA in Near Middle Eastern Studies and Jewish Studies from the University of Toronto, an MSt in Syriac Studies from the University of Oxford, an MA in Hebrew and Aramaic Languages and Literature from Leiden University, and a PhD in Syriac and Rabbinic Studies from the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the passage of Jewish exegetical traditions into the writings and commentaries of early Syriac Christian authors. He held a postdoctoral teaching fellowship at the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto in 2021/22.