The book has 3 incantation texts in the original Syriac, with translation into French and a good critical apparatus. Obviously, it's not on the bestseller list, but for those interested in Syriac the texts are quite interesting.

Saint Vladimir's Seminary Press, and the translator Mary Hansbury, are to be thanked for making these poetical meditations and homilies by Jacob of Serug (451-522) available to the public. Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics, and anyone who recognizes the Virgin as "the mother of holy hope" (Sirach 24) will be deeply moved by this fairly slender but devout volume.

There are times when Jacob of Serug seems to repeat himself in the fashion of much ancient poetry; nonetheless, the repetitions rarely give the impression of being gratuitous. The mysteries explored in these four homilies (each homily a poem of more than 20 pages) are the Annunication, the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, and the Dormition of Mary. A section of Homily 1 speaks of Mary as the New Eve, restoring grace to fallen humanity. And from Homily 3:

"O cloud of mercy, which is full of hope for all the world, all the earth which had been ravaged was pacified by it.

"O ship of riches in which the Father's treasury was sent to the poor in a needy place and it enriched them!

"O field, which without a ploughman yielded a sheaf of life, and all creation that had been needy was satiated by it.

"O virginal vine, which though not pruned gave a cluster, behold by whose wine creation, which was mourning, rejoices.

"Daughter of poor ones, who was mother to the only rich One, behold whose treasures are lavished on mendicants to enrich them."

At last a new edition of Paradigms and Exercises in Syriac Grammar! I studied Syriac at university using the previous edition (the 4th) and found it lacking. The new revision does help clarify the language considerably, tho' at heart Robinson remains, as ever, a traditional grammar book (not a bad thing). While I think I would rather use Wheeler Thackston, for a student who's already studied some Hebrew or Arabic, especially one who is going to start by spending time reading a lot of vocalized Biblical Syriac, this shorter guide will be as effective a guide as Weingreen in Hebrew or Heywood and Nahmad in Arabic. The book uses Serto script with Western vocalization throughout, and the distinction between begadkpat letters seems slightly better than in earlier editions. It's still in handy pocket size, and one can again get it in hardback too!

Perrin makes a powerful case that the Gospel of Thomas was originally written in an eastern Aramaic dialect, and, somewhat less persuasively, that it is dependent on a gospel harmony written in 173 A.D. Both conclusions challenge the premises of the Jesus Seminar and other recent scholars that Thomas was originally written in Greek and predates the canonical Gospels. Although intended for academic audiences, Perrin's book is surprisingly accessible to non-specialists and well-educated laymen.

The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus contained in a 4th century Coptic manuscript that came to light in 1948. In addition, Thomas is attested in three Greek fragments that were discovered in 1898 and dated to the 2nd century. About half of its sayings parallel those in the New Testament, but others are quite different. Although scholars initially assigned the original composition of Thomas to the early-to-mid 2nd century, a recent trend in certain scholarly circles is to situate Thomas as early as 50 A.D., making it one of the earliest sources for early Christianity and the historical Jesus. As a result, Thomas has become very important in recent times.

Perrin approaches Thomas from a different angle, by concentrating on its original language of composition and using that to assess Thomas's origin. He makes a powerful case that Thomas was originally written in Syriac, an eastern dialect of Aramaic (Jesus spoke a western dialect). Perrin begins by surveying scholarship on Thomas's language of composition and notes several places where certain oddities in Thomas can be readily explained by an Aramaic or Syriac intermediary. Building on the observation that Thomas appears to be organized by catchwords (similarly sounding words that link one saying to the next), Perrin next investigates whether each saying can be connected by Syriac catchwords. He finds that Thomas has 502 potential catchwords in Syriac, but only 263 in Greek and 269 in Coptic. In addition, all but three of the sayings can be linked by a Syriac catchword to its neighboring sayings, and some of the repeated catchwords are based on puns that only work in Syriac. Perrin's case is compelling and fits very neatly with other scholars' findings that Thomas reflects an eastern Syrian provenance.

Perrin's second point, that Thomas is dependent on Tatian's Diatessaron, is less thoroughly established. Unfortunately, Perrin did not do a detailed comparison of each saying in Thomas with corresponding passages in the Diatessaron. Rather, Perrin argued that Thomas must have had written sources and the Diatessaron, as the first known source of Gospel tradition in Syriac, is the best candidate to be one of those sources. Although this argument is very suggestive and Perrin did point out a few contacts in Thomas with the Diatessaron in his initial survey, a full judgment on this issue must be withheld until the detailed comparison is made.

Those seriously interested in the Gospel of Thomas will find Perrin's book intriguing and thought-provoking. Knowledge of Syriac is not necessary to follow his arguments.

Wright's indespensible history of Syriac literature is sadly as dull as the author regards Syriac literature. Wright, one of the great ninteenth-century Semetists, originally wrote this book as as the Encyclopedia Britannica article in 1887; it was later expanded and published posthumously. It is good as a summary and should be on a Syriacist's bookcase. It is, of course, hugely out of date.

But for something more interesting, try Patriarch Aphraim I Barsoum's "Unstrung Pearls in the History of Syriac Literature and Sciences" (released as "History of Syriac Literature and Sciences" and about to come back into print in English - it is in print in Syriac and Arabic)

For more up-to-date bibliographic info, start with Sebastian Brock's bibliography in Muraoka's Syriac Grammar, following with his annual bibliographies in the academic on-line journal Hugoye.

I am learning syraic, and I speek french, for me it's verry important to dicover a syriac grammar in french.