Moses of Ingila

Last updated May 11, 2019

Moses of Ingila (fl. mid-6th century) was a Syriac Christian author who translated a number of texts from Greek into the Syriac language.

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It has the longest documented history of any living Indo-European language, spanning more than 3000 years of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history; other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.

Syriac, also known as Syrian/Syriac Aramaic, Syro-Aramaic or Classical Syriac, is a dialect of Middle Aramaic of the Northwest Semitic languages of the Afroasiatic family that is written in the Syriac alphabet, a derivation of the Aramaic alphabet. Having first appeared in the early first century CE in Edessa, classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from the 4th to the 8th centuries, preserved in a large body of Syriac literature. Indeed, Syriac literature comprises roughly 90% of the extant Aramaic literature. Syriac was once spoken across much of the Near East as well as Anatolia and Eastern Arabia. Syriac originated in Mesopotamia and eventually spread west of Iraq in which it was became the lingua franca of the region during the Mesopotamian Neo-Assyrian period. During the establishment of the Church of the East in central-southern Iraq, speakers of Syriac split into two; those who followed the Eastern Syriac Rite and those who followed Western Syriac Rite. Syriac was the lingua franca of the entire region of Mesopotamia and the native language of the peoples of Iraq and surrounding regions until it was spread further west of the country to the entire Fertile Crescent region, as well as in parts of Eastern Arabia, becoming the dominant language for centuries, before the spread and replacement with Arabic language as the lingua franca. For this reason, Mesopotamian Iraqi Arabic being an Aramaic Syriac substratum, is said to be the most Aramaic Syriac influenced dialect of Arabic, sharing significant similarities in language structure, as well as having evident and stark influences from other ancient Mesopotamian languages of Iraq, such as Akkadian, Sumerian and Babylonian. Mesopotamian Arabic dialects developed by Iraqi Muslims, Iraqi Jews, as well as dialects by Iraqi Christians, most of whom are native ethnic Syriac speakers. Today, Syriac is the native spoken language of millions of Iraqi-Chaldo-Assyrians living in Iraq and the diaspora, and other Syriac-speaking people from Mesopotamia, such as the Mandaean people of Iraq. The dialects of Syriac spoken today include Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, and Mandaic.

One surviving letter, preserved in British Library MS no. 17,202, prefaces the writing we call Joseph and Aseneth . Around 550 an anonymous individual, probably a monk, found a very old book in Resh'aina, in the library belonging to the line of bishops who had come from Aleppo. This ancient writing (Joseph and Aseneth) was in Greek, a language with which this individual was less familiar than his native Syriac. Suspecting that it contained a "hidden meaning," he wrote to his friend, Moses of Ingila, asking him to provide a Syriac translation along with an explanation as to its hidden meaning. Moses of Ingila obliges with a Syriac translation which he prefaces with a letter.^[1] According to Angela Standhartinger, he explains the story "as an allegory of Christ's marriage to the soul".^[2] An English translation of this letter can be found in Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel ^[3] along with an English translation of the Syriac text of Joseph and Aseneth.

Joseph and Aseneth is a narrative that dates from before the 6th century CE. It seems to relate the romance, marriage and children of the Israelite patriarch Joseph and his Egyptian wife Asenath. Some have regarded it as a Jewish midrash or elaboration on the story in Genesis. Others question this interpretation partly because of its provenance, language, symbolism (Eucharistic) and covering letter which appear to indicate a Christian context.

Simcha Jacobovici Canadian film director

Simcha Jacobovici is an Israeli-Canadian film director, producer, freelance journalist, and writer.

Barrie A. Wilson is Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar, Humanities and Religious Studies, York University, Toronto, where he has taught since 1974. Throughout the 1990s he was Chair, Religious Studies, Atkinson College, York University. He previously taught Ancient Philosophy and Logic at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri from 1969 to 1974.

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New Testament Second division of the Christian biblical canon

The New Testament is the second part of the Christian biblical canon, the first part being the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew Bible. The New Testament discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity. Christians regard both the Old and New Testaments together as sacred scripture. The New Testament has frequently accompanied the spread of Christianity around the world. It reflects and serves as a source for Christian theology and morality. Extended readings and phrases directly from the New Testament are incorporated into the various Christian liturgies. The New Testament has influenced religious, philosophical, and political movements in Christendom and left an indelible mark on literature, art, and music.

Yeshua was a common alternative form of the name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ in later books of the Hebrew Bible and among Jews of the Second Temple period. The name corresponds to the Greek spelling Iesous, from which, through the Latin Iesus, comes the English spelling Jesus.

The Peshitta is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition.

The New Testament in Aramaic languages exists in a number of versions:

the Vetus Syra, the oldest translation from the original Greek into early Classical Syriac, represented in the Curetonian Gospels and the Sinaitic Palimpsest
the Christian Palestinian Aramaic Lectionary fragments represented in such manuscripts as Codex Climaci Rescriptus and later lectionary codices
the Classical Syriac Peshitta, a translation of the entire Bible from Hebrew and Greek and still the standard in most Syriac churches
the Harklean, a strictly literal translation by Thomas of Harqel into Classical Syriac
the Assyrian Modern Version, a new translation into Assyrian Neo-Aramaic from the Greek published in 1997 and mainly in use among Protestants
and a number of other scattered versions in various dialects

The Holy Bible from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts was published by George M. Lamsa in 1933. It was derived, both Old and New Testaments, from the Syriac Peshitta, the Bible used by the Assyrian Church of the East and other Syriac Christian traditions.

The Jesus bloodline is a hypothetical sequence of lineal descendants of the historical Jesus, often by Mary Magdalene, usually portrayed as his wife. Differing and contradictory versions of a Jesus bloodline hypothesis have been proposed in numerous books by authors such as Louis Martin (1886), Donovan Joyce (1973), Andreas Faber-Kaiser (1977), Barbara Thiering (1992), Margaret Starbird (1993), and various websites. Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code used the premise for its plot line. The 2007 documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus proposed that evidence existed to show that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that their son was named Judah, based upon inscriptions found on ossuaries discovered in Jerusalem in 1980. Biblical scholar and author James Tabor has affirmed his belief in a married Jesus.

Prof William Wright LLD was a famous English Orientalist, and Professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge. Many of his works on Syriac literature are still in print and of considerable scholarly value, especially the catalogues of the holdings of the British Library and Cambridge University Library. A Grammar of The Arabic Language, often simply known as Wright's Grammar, continues to be a popular book with students of Arabic. Wright is also remembered for the Short history of Syriac literature.

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Syria played an important or even predominant role in the beginning of Christianity. Here is where the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Luke, the Didache, Ignatiana, and the Gospel of Thomas were written. Syria was the country in which the Greek language intersected with the Syriac, which was closely related to the Aramaic dialect used by Jesus and the Apostles. That is why Syriac versions are highly esteemed by textual critics. Scholars have distinguished five or six different Syriac versions of all or part of the New Testament. It is possible that some translations have been lost. The Manuscripts originate in countries like Lebanon, Egypt (Sinai), Mesopotamia, Assyria, Armenia, Georgia, India, and even from China. This is good evidence for the great historical activity of the Syriac church.

Bible translations in the Middle Ages discussions are rare in contrast to Late Antiquity, when the Bibles available to most Christians were in the local vernacular. In a process seen in many other religions, as languages changed, and in Western Europe languages with no tradition of being written down became dominant, the prevailing vernacular translations remained in place, despite gradually becoming sacred languages, incomprehensible to the majority of the population in many places. In Western Europe, the Latin Vulgate, itself originally a translation into the vernacular, was the standard text of the Bible, and full or partial translations into a vernacular language were uncommon until the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period.

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The earliest extant copy of the Ecclesiastical History of Zacharias Rhetor is included in the late 6th century manuscript, British Library Manuscript #17,202. It has been published by Dr. Land under the title of Zachariae Ep. Mitylenes aliorumque scripta historica Graece plerumque deperdita.

The Lost Gospel: Decoding the Ancient Text that Reveals Jesus' Marriage to Mary the Magdalene is a book published by investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici and Religious Studies historian Barrie Wilson in 2014. It contends that the 6th century manuscript commonly referred to as "Joseph and Aseneth" is really a disguised history. The book's assertions are not supported by mainstream Biblical scholarship.

References

↑ Pearse, Roger. "Zachariah of Mitylene, Syriac Chronicle (1899). Introduction". www.ccel.org.
↑ Angela Standhartinger (2017). "Intersections of Gender, Status, Ethnos, and Religion in Joseph and Aseneth". In Schuller, Eileen M.; Wacker, Marie-Theres (eds.). Early Jewish Writings. SBL Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0884142331 . Retrieved 14 November 2017.
↑ Simcha Jacobovici, Barrie Wilson. The Lost Gospel. New York: Pegasus, 2014.

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[1] Pearse, Roger. "Zachariah of Mitylene, Syriac Chronicle (1899). Introduction". www.ccel.org.

[Standhartinger-2] Angela Standhartinger (2017). "Intersections of Gender, Status, Ethnos, and Religion in Joseph and Aseneth". In Schuller, Eileen M.; Wacker, Marie-Theres (eds.). Early Jewish Writings. SBL Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0884142331 . Retrieved 14 November 2017.

[3] Simcha Jacobovici, Barrie Wilson. The Lost Gospel. New York: Pegasus, 2014.