Verse Homilies
composition: secureauthorship: probable
Hundreds of metrical homilies expound scripture in a Syriac verse line so consistent it is named after him, developing biblical episodes into extended meditation rather than argument.
- a fixed twelve-syllable line adopted as a school metre
- narrative expansion of scripture in place of systematic exposition
- deliberate reticence on contested christological formulas
- verse homily as the normal vehicle of Syriac theology
Jacob composed a very large body of homilies in a twelve-syllable metre that later tradition simply called the metre of Mar Jacob. His method is expansive: a scriptural episode is retold with the inner life of its participants filled in, and doctrinal points arise from the retelling. He avoided the sharpest christological formulations of his day, which has left his own position debated. The homilies were copied widely and influenced Greek liturgical verse.
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