Syriac Patrology, Volume 3: The Book of Steps

...with all your strength vigilantly and skillfully: turn away from evil and do good Psalm 34:14, not however having confidence in... and in your law, as if it itself makes you perfect, but believe in God who says to you: [Whoever] has chosen good for himself, I will help him Source of quote unclear (and again he said: Without me you can do nothing) John 15:5 and Paul, who [said]: God who produces both the wanting and the performing Philippians 2:13. [If] you believe these things, you will not be proud of your own righteousness nor will you have confidence in yourself, as if [without God] they make you perfect.

Syriac text: He said[: some] other times (?) if you are those who separate the self-restrained in yourselves ... distance from it the Messalian (heresy) every speech and nothing [is] left for you all. H. In it that I say that he does not distance the single-dweller (hermit) as they learned in perfection in simplicity which is not of knowledge: but this he wishes to say: that I am ... all your strength [through] his seniority as if from numbers you divided the body. And as if not the time he has ... that they may speak that he wishes in you: I believe in God who says [to you] that he bears him to the body like a physician. And he also said that to the sons. You do not trust and you do not set straight anything for you all and for your own soul [which he says]: that God is the one who produces also to want and also to do. [And if] you believe these things you will not be exalted in your righteousness and you do not set straight more than your body from [God] perfect [for you].

The excerpt from some work of John the Monk placed on column 281ab can hardly be read now. From those things which remain, it is gathered that the scribe added some soliloquy, or some ascetic meditation, on that obliterated folio. The excerpt has nothing in common with the Book of Steps.

The orthography of the codex is that which is generally observed in manuscripts written by Jacobites in the 12th century. Abbreviations are indeed not rare, nevertheless they are restricted to certain words such as samid fine flour = samīdā; ayken how = aykannā; amīre said (pl.) = amīrā; amīr said = amīrā. Instead of qaddīšā holy = qaddīšā and māry my lord = māryā; the codex often writes māryā. The affirmative of abstract nouns in -ūtā is reduced to an abbreviation according to this schema: b-mšīḥāyūtā in Christianity = b-mšīḥāyūtēh; b-mšīḥāyūtēhōn in their Christianity = b-mšīḥāyūtēhōn.

The scribe uses the points called seyāmē plural markers correctly, except in these cases: seyāmē are placed on almost all numerals, e.g., 5, 3; they are imposed on the collective noun nāšē people even in connection with nāš anyone, and it is written nāš nāšē, as well as on feminine pronouns and some prepositions conjoined with the suffix of the 3rd person plural feminine: l-hēn, b-hēn, ennēn.

It is habitual for the scribe to conjoin words that cohere more closely, such as en, afen, maṭl-d-men, maṭl-d-hū, maṭl-d-ān, maṭl-d-ayk; here and there even against sound rules, as in Discourse XX, 2, he writes d-hway instead of d-hū hī (col. 259 1-7).

The text generally lacks vowels, yet diacritical points are abundantly applied, and here and there even Greek vowel signs. It is noteworthy that the scribe writes pāraqlīṭā Paraclete.

Where the text edited by us deviates from the writing style of the codex, the difference is noted in the margin, for which reason it suffices to have mentioned the said peculiarities of writing. Regarding the critical value of the codex, see what is to be said below on page 10.

The codices of the British Museum, which exhibit mostly smaller and larger parts, but never the entire text of the Book, are eleven. Of these,

five, to distinguish them by their antiquity, I have marked with Latin capitals, since they are written in Estrangelo script. The others, written in either cursive or mixed script, I have marked with Greek small letters. It is superfluous to dwell longer on describing them, since the Catalogue edited by William Wright provides everything necessary to know. Therefore, the London codices, taking antiquity into account, are:

Add. 14,578, 6th-7th century. Folio 102a exhibits Discourse XIV, On the just and the perfect, and places it among the works of Evagrius Ponticus Cf. Zöckler, Evagrius Pontikus. Seine Stellung in der altchristlichen Literatur- und Dogmengeschichte, Munich, 1893, p. 42. See Wright, CBM No. DLXVII, 11, p. 446.
It is the most ancient of all and is the archetype of Discourse XIV, as it exists in Codex E. See it below.

Add. 14,612, 6th-7th century. Folio 139a proposes Discourse XX, On the arduous steps in the way of the city of the Lord. The orthography of the codex is archaic; it writes ayken (instead of aykannā Nöldeke, Kurzgefasste syrische Grammatik, Leipzig, 1898, p. 44) cols. 536, 564, 580; meddem (cols. 532, 536, 505). In editing Discourse XX, we have used the text of the codex; we have accepted the archaic spellings. See Wright, CBM No. DCCLIII, 20, p. 698.

Add. 18,814, 7th-8th century. Folio 29a exhibits Discourse XVI, How a person may progress with the help of the great commandments. Folio 37a adds Discourse XIX, On the exposition of the way of perfection, without a title. Both discourses are placed among the works of John the Monk and are attributed to that author; however, a more accurate reader of the codex noted in the margin: men ktābā d-dargē From the Book of Steps. We have used the text of the codex in editing both cited discourses, retaining the archaic spellings encountered here and there, such as kdnā with the letter of prolongation in cols. 501, 512, 513, and elsewhere passim. The readings of the codex, when compared with other texts, show great antiquity, as will be shown below. See Wright, CBM No. DCCLXVII, 2, p. 734.

Add. 12,160, 7th-8th century. Folio 153a exhibits Discourse XIX, On the exposition of the perfect way. The codex has many singular readings; nevertheless, the text which it proposes is more recent than that of codex C and shows clear traces of a certain redaction, which, with some sentiments of the book mitigated, has spread to almost all the later copies of the book. See Wright, CBM No. DCCCCXLII, II, 1, p. 1091.