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equal of Socrates and Pythagoras, was (probably a pagan, not a Christian (cf. Harnack, Litteratur, i. 763, ii. 701; E. Renan, in JA, IV., xir.'428; F. Scliulthess, in ZDMG, li. 36:-391).

The beginnings of the Syriac version of a Bible probably came from Syrian Jews (see BIBL, VERSIONs, A, III.; cf. also W. E. Barnes, " The' Peshitta Version of II Kings," in JTS, vi. 220-232, xi. 533-542); but a practical and critical edition of the Syriac Old Testament is still to be made (cf. E. Nestle, in TLB, 1910, no. 23, and the same scholar on the edition of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in ZDMG, lix. 31-32). To Christian or Gnostic literature, rather than to apocryphal or even Jewish, belong the Odes of Solomon (q.v.), which were first edited by J. R. Harris (Cambridge, 1909;

2d ed. revised, 1911), who has also 4. Bible published An Early Christian Psalter and (London, 1909; cf. A. Harnack and

Apocrypha. J. Flemming, Ein iiidisch-chrastliches Psaalmbuch aus alem ersten Jahrhundert, Leipsic, 1910). On the Syriac, translations of the New Testament general reference may be made to BIBLE VERSIONS, A, III., to which may be added, as the most important subsequent publications, A. S. Lewis' Old Syriac Gospels or Evaangelion daa-Mepharre8ha3: Being the Text of the Sinai or Syro-Antiochene Palimpsest, including the latest Additions sand Emendations with the Variants of the Curetonian Text (London, 1910) and H. K. H. von Soden's Die Sehriften ales Neuen Testaments in ihrer altesten erreichbaren Textgestalt (§§ 331, 342, 363-368, 463, 493, 548, Berlin, 1902 sqq.), his main conclusions being that the Diatessaaron of Tatian (q.v.) existed not only in Syriac, but also in Greek, and that the influence of both Tatian and his work was extremely great on the text of the New Testament. Among the Apocrypha of the New Testament more than usual interest attaches to the Acts of Thomas (see APOCRYPHA, B, 11. (9), and cf. A. S. Lewis, in Horse Semiticw, iii., London, 1904), which seems to be of Syriac origin and to belong to the school of Bardesanes (q.v.). It is also noteworthy as containing the celebrated " Hymn of the Soul," on which cf. A. A. Bevan, in TS, v.; BrL, pp. 12-15; F. C. Burkitt, Hymn of Baardaaisan (London, 1899) and Early Eastern Christianity, lecture vi. (New York, 1904; Eng. transl., pp. 218-223). There is considerable doubt as to whether the original language of the " Book of the Laws of the Countries," which also belongs to the school of Bardesanes, was Greek, as is maintained by F. Schulthess, or Syriac, as T. NGldeke holds (cf. ZDMG, lxix., 91-94, 555-560, 745-750; and F. Nau, in ZA, Sept.-Oct., 1910, pp. 209 sqq.)

Excepting these few pieces which have a heathen, Jewish, or Gnostic origin, and to which may be added scattered fragments of Manichean literature (see MAN(, MANICHEANS; and note also MANDMANS), Syriac literature is entirely Christian, and for the most part ecclesiastical and theolog-

Eusebius, in various places in his Hist. ecd., like Jerome and Gennadius in their De vir. ill., make mention of some Syriac writers who had already become known in the West, but the chief work of this sort is the " Catalogue " drawn up by Ebed Jesu (q.v., where details will be fo·,md regarding the edition by J. S. Assemani). Among modern works mention may be made of W. Wright, Short History

of Syriac Literature, London, 1894 (first 2. General published as the article " Syriac Litera-

Works on ture " in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th Syriac ed., xii. 824--856, London, 1887); R.

Literature. Duval, La Litterature syriaque (Paris,

1899; 2d ed., 1901); E. Nestle, Litteraatura Syriaca (Berlin, 1888; extract from his Syrische Graammatik, 2d ed., giving the titles of the principal publications prior to 1888); C. Brockelmann, Syrische Graammatik, pp. 124-144 (2d ed., Berlin, 1905), gives a selection with additions up to 1905, and the same scholar has also treated this field in the section on the Syriac and Christian Arabic literatures in the Geschichte ale- christlichen Literaturen des Ostens, pp. 1-74 (Leipsic, 1907); J. B, Chabot, Les Langues et les litteratures araameens (Paris, 1910); while more special topics are discussed by A. Baumstark in his " Bibliotheks- and Buchwesen der christlichen Syrier," in Germania, Sept. 23, 1909, and in his " Palsestinensia," in RQS, xx. 123-149, 157-188, and " Ostsyrisches Christentum and ostsyrischer Hellenismus," ib., xxii., pp. 17-35. For a more thorough study the catalogues of the collections of Syriac manuscripts in the libraries of Europe and the East are indispensable, since a large part of Syriac literature is still hidden in manuscripts, of which some are to be found in America (for a list of some of these catalogues see BrGr.,* p. 124-125; cf. also the works referred to in SYRIAC CHURCH, especially those of F. C. Burkitt, R. Duval, J. Labourt, and L. J. Tixeront).

A Judaeo-pagan source is probably to be sought in the story of Ahikar the Sage, a fragment of which has been found in one of the Aramaic papyri now in the Royal Library, Berlin, while the complete version was made accessible by F. C. Conybeare, J. R.

Harris, and A. S. Lewis in their Story 3. Judaeo- of Ahikar from the Syriac, Arabic, Ar Pagan menian, Ethiopic, Greek, and Slavonic

5; F. Nau, Histaire et saagesse d'Ahikaar l'Assyrien, Paris, 1909); and Mara bar Serapion, who, in a letter to his son (first edited by W. Cureton, in his Spicilegium Syriacum, London, 1855), makes the wise king of the Jews (i.e., Christ) the

BrGr, C. Brockelmann, Syrische Grammatik, 2d ed., Berlin, 1905.

BrL, C. Brockelmann, in GeschicUe der christlichen Literaturen des Ostens, Leipsic, 1907.

GA, Abhandlungen der koniglichen Gesellschaftder Wiasenschaften zu Gbaingen, Gbttingen, 1843 aqq.

NSt, Neue Studien zur Geschichte der Theologie and Kirehe, ed. G. N. Bonwetsoh and R. Seeberg, Leipsic, 1897 sqq.