6th century letter by Jacob of Serugh
The Letter to the Himyarites was composed by Jacob of Serugh and sent to the Christian community of Najran as they were persecuted by the Jewish monarch Dhu Nuwas (r. 517–530 AD), then-king of the Himyarite Kingdom. Some related compositions were produced during this time period, such as Simeon of Beth Arsham's "Letter on the Himyarite Martyrs", although Jacob's letter was addressed directly to that community.
Jacob's letter may be contextualized by the interest of the Miaphysite Church in the kingdoms of Pre-Islamic Arabia and also reflects the wide and non-elite readership that his writings would sometimes draw.
A Syriac edition of Jacob's letter was published by Gunnar Olinder in 1937. The letter is itemized and sometimes referred to as Letter 18.
Content.
Jacob's letter was structured into five main sections:
The letter opens, in the salutation, as follows:To the chosen athletes, the friends of true victory, the astonishing and the powerful, the servants of God, the truly faithful, our Christian brothers, and the tested confessors, in the city of Najran of the Himyarites, the lowly Jacob, who is from the region of Edessa, the faithful city of the Romans, in Jesus, the light of the gentiles and the hope of the worlds, and the judge of the dead and the living: Peace.Jacob rejoices in the faith of the Christians in Himyar and informs them that the Church is praying for them; for the victory of Christ and the trampling of Satan. Later, the third consolation adjures the Himyarites to compare their present suffering with the glory they will gain in heaven. The present world faces. As such, hope should be placed in the world to come. The exposition of Christology provides a basic outline following that of the Nicene Creed. Jacob asserts equality between the Father and the Son, and then describes the incarnation of Jesus and his virgin birth. Jacob then describes Jesus' affairs on Earth, and then hones in on his crucifixion and resurrection. The "Henotikon" is quoted several times here, including at the conclusion of this section: "These wondrous things and these lowly things are of the one hypostasis of the only-begotten Son. For of him are the sufferings and the miraculous feats." For Jacob, the Christology of Jesus offers answers to the persecutions that the Himyarites suffer. The consolation after the exposition contains three parts: one focusing on the cosmic battle between God and Satan, a second that distinguishes between the soul and the body, and the third that returns to discussing the cosmic battle, though adding mention of the hope that they will receive their reward from God when the end is brought about.
Reception.
In Quranic studies, it has been argued that Jacob's articulation of Christology became symptomatic of the expression of Christological doctrine and among Christians. In turn, the semantic and stylistic form of how Jacob expressed his and the Christology of the Christians of Najran in this letter looks as though it was engaged with (in terms of being addressed and/or responded to) in Surat Al-Ikhlas of the Quran.
Manuscripts.
Manuscripts of Jacob's letter to the Himyarites are known from the 6th and 7th centuries.
Dating.
The exact date of the letter is controversial and ties into controversies surrounding the dating of the Christian persecutions. The persecutions are typically dated between 518 and 523. The traditional date comes from a well-known text known as the "Martyrdom of Arethas", which places the persecution as beginning in the year 835 according to the Seleucid era, which corresponds to 523 AD. However, this late-date is challenged by Jacob's "Letter", which could not have been composed any later than 521, the year that Jacob himself died. The table of contents in the "Book of the Himyarites" evinces two main phases of the persecution: while the eighth chapter regards the 523 AD persecution (corresponding to the massacre of Najran), the title of the lost fourth chapter preserved in the table of contents mentions a persecution of Christians as having occurred before this. A council in the city of Ramla also refers to a persecution of Christians in Southern Arabia, either in 519 or 524. A third, even earlier persecution from the second half of the fifth century is also described in the Ethiopic "Martyrdom of Azqir".
References.
Citations.
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