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Laban the Aramean Rendered Suryoyo

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"And Jacob stole the heart of Laban the Aramean, because he told him not that he was going." Greek: Jacob, however, hid his heart from Laban the Syriac."

Bar Hebraeus records “Laban the Aramean” in the Syriac Peshitta and gives the Greek equivalent “the Syriac,” expressed in Aramaic as “Suryoyo,” treating the two as synonymous.

Author

Bar Hebraeus

Bar Hebraeus [Bar 'Ebroyo] was the Syriac Orthodox Maphrian from 1264 until his death in 1286. He was consecrated in 1246 as Bishop over the district of Gubos by Patriarch Ignatius III David (1222–52) and at this consecration took the name Gregory. He became friends with the Eastern Catholicos, Yahballaha III and recognized the value of Christian unity amongst the "Nestorian", Greek, Latin, and Armenian Christians. As a young man in Antioch and Tripoli, Bar 'Ebroyo was educated in a broad range of fields and industrious in his publications. He published works in the following genres: encyclopedia, philosophy, medicine, mathematics, science, theology, canon law, Biblical exegesis, grammar, chronicles, other miscellaneous works. Bar ʿEbroyo composed over forty works covering a wide range of subjects, mostly in Syriac, but occasionally also in Arabic. Taken as a whole, Bar ʿEbroyo’s literary output may be seen as an attempt at a revival of learning in Syriac through the use of the latest scholarly literature which was available in his day mostly in Arabic.

Item details

Date: 1226-1286 AD
Language: Syriac-Aramaic
Publisher: Bar Hebraeus, Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Or. 230, f. 21r.
URL: iiif.biblissima.fr