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It is my pleasure to announce the publication of On This Day: The Armenian Church Synaxarion; March by Edward G. Mathews Jr. This is the third in a proposed twelve volume series that offers a complete English translation of an important spiritual work from the Armenian Church.The meaning of the word “synaxarion” in the title might stump even the most seasoned student of early Christianity. Fortunately, Professor Robin Darling Young of The Catholic University of America provided an excellent definition in a recent review of the first volume of this work: “The term synaxarion relates to the word synaxis, itself a term for a liturgical assembly, and usually used to refer to a monastic context. It is often a synonym for a Eucharistic gathering. A synaxarion, however, is a specific kind of book used in those monastic assemblies—a collection of brief biographies of martyrs and saints, organized by successive days in the calendar year, in a repeating yearly cycle. Each day of the year features one or more saint’s life so that a monastic assembly would hear about one or more holy person each year on the same day.” ((Robin Darling Young, “Mathews, Edward G., Jr. On this Day: The Armenian Church Synaxarion; January.” Journal of Religions 96.2 (2016): 285-287, citing from p. 285.)) Reading aloud from this library of saints’ lives formed an important part in the moral and spiritual formation of early Christian ascetics, since these “martyrs and saints give examples of the imitation of Christ for later readers to follow. Indeed, the monastic compilers of the volume intended the lives to be edifying models of faithfulness in various times and places, and as they were read aloud in the monastic gathering every day in the yearly cycle, they would have become very familiar to monks over the course of their own lifetimes.” ((Young, “Mathews,” 286.))Thus the repetition of the liturgical year provided repeated opportunities to remember, be taught by, and emulate each of the lives read in the Synaxarion.These monastic collections of saints’ lives are known in and moved between all the languages of ancient Christianity. As the collections of lives migrated from one language to another, they grew—absorbing local saints and martyrs in the process—creating a truly ecumenical library of holy men and women. I find it particularly interesting that the Synaxarion also collects models of virtue from the Old and New Testaments, often in little-known biographical sketches. In March, for example, we read the lives of the Prophet Amos (2nd), the Prophets Ezekiel and Ezra (13th), and Melchizedek (25th).We hear so little about Melchizedek in the Bible (Gen 14:18-20; Ps. 110:4; Heb. 7:1-4), so how do we end up with a life of Melchizedek in the Armenian Synaxarion?This Armenian life of Melchizedek is actually a translation from a Greek life of Melchizedek composed in the fourth of fifth century A.D., which is attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria in some manuscripts. ((The story is translated and studied by the emeritus BYU professor Stephen E. Robinson in, “The Apocryphal Story of Melchizedek.” Journal for the Study of Judaism 18.1 (1987): 26-39. For Melchizedek in LDS tradition see, John W. Welch, “The Melchizedek Material in Alma 13:13-19.” In By Study and Also by Faith, ed. J. Lundquist and S. Ricks, Vol. 2, pp. 238-72. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1990.)) It describes two episodes in the life of Melchizedek.The first recounts how Melchizedek became a follower of the God who made heaven and earth, rather than continuing to worship the idols of his fathers. There are echoes of the ancient traditions of the early life of Abraham here. ((See, John A. Tvedtnes, Brian M. Hauglid, and John Gee, Traditions about the Early Life of Abraham. Provo: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2001.)) When Melchizedek goes up to Mount Tabor to pray for his brother, who is about to be sacrificed by his father, the whole city of Salem is swallowed up in the earth, which is meant to be an explanation for how Melchizedek was “Without father, without mother” (Heb. 7:1).The second episode begins with Melchizedek seeking refuge upon Mount Tabor after the destruction of his family and city. He lives there as a holy man for seven years, at which time Abraham is instructed by God to go up to Mount Tabor and seek out Melchizedek, who is a “priest of God most high,” in order to receive a blessing from him. This strange and lovely story of Melchizedek enjoyed wide appeal in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, being translated not only into Armenian, but also Arabic, Coptic, Georgian, Romanian, Slavonic and Syriac. ((On the latter see, Sergey Minov, “Reception of the Greek Story of Melchizedek in Syriac Christian Tradition.” Journal for the Study of Pseudepigrapha 26.2 (2016): 108-143.)) It forms part of a large and interesting complex of traditions about Melchizedek that existed in early Jewish, Christian and Islamic sources. These stories help explain, and indeed demonstrate, the remark in the Epistle to the Hebrews, “Now consider how great this man was” (Heb. 7:1).This story of Melchizedek is just one of the hundreds of edifying and intriguing stories of saints and martyrs that adorn the pages of the The Armenian Church Synaxarion! *****Kristian Heal received a bachelor’s degree in Jewish history and Hebrew from University College, London, and a Master of Studies in Syriac studies from Oxford University. He received a Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Birmingham. He joined the staff of the Maxwell Institute as a research scholar in 2000. Since 2004 he’s served as the Director of the Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts.

Jessica Steele has an energetic passion for the Middle East and its life, culture, religion, politics, history, and geography. She recently completed a year as a research assistant at the Maxwell Institute’s Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts. In this guest post she reflects on her time at the Institute as it draws to a close. We will miss you, Jessica! When I began working at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute as a research assistant a little over a year ago, I was only marginally aware of the Institute’s purpose and mission as a research arm of Brigham Young University. I knew, of course, that the Institute’s primary focus was on religious scholarship in general, but my initial understanding took that to mean work in apologetics. Pleasantly enough—and as highly as I regard apologetics and its importance for the Church—in my year at the Maxwell Institute I discovered that the range of scholarship and research being conducted under this roof is deeper and richer than I had ever realized. As a place for both intellectual pursuit and profound discipleship, I think it embodies some of the most beautiful attributes of the Gospel.Initially, my work began in CPART (Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts) under Kristian Heal and David Calabro. Under their direction, I assisted in the research and development of a digital Syriac dictionary to enhance and further the study of Syriac texts and literature in the future. Not only is that an incredible apparatus that will allow scholars from all over the world to improve the understanding of these ancient texts, it also puts BYU’s and the Institute’s name out there as a force for serious scholarship that extends across a variety of subjects that are not particular to the Church alone.Likewise, the latter half of my work at the Institute under David Calabro and Brian Hauglid accomplished the same thing, this time with work having to do with a medieval Arabic Islamic manuscript. The work David and Brian are doing on their Ibn Bishr project not only furthers understanding of the manuscript, its time period, and Islam; it also makes a name for BYU and the Neal A. Maxwell Institute and the kind of scholarship in which it is engaged.Finally, many of the gains I have had from working at the Maxwell Institute have simply come from becoming more acquainted from the work of other departments. From the Institute’s podcasts to the literature and scholarship I have been introduced to while working here, I feel like my understanding of the Gospel has increased, and my ability to go out into the world and represent myself as an intellectual and a disciple of Christ has been strengthened.I am deeply indebted to the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for all of the opportunities it has given me. Hopefully I will be able to return the favor in the future by putting into action all that I have learned, as well as by promoting the good work being done at the Institute. I am thankful for this invaluable experience.

Nibley Fellows Luke Drake and Daniel Becerra

Bob Gay (left) and Kristian Heal (center) examine a Syriac text at the Vatican Library in April 2002.

Kristian Heal, director of our Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts, has just published a translation of the Syriac History of Joseph in an important new edition of writings related to the Old Testament entitled Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, Vol. 1.1 This volume is the product of an international project to expand upon a previous collection2 with a corpus of about 100 additional documents including “apocalypses . . . ; magical, oracular, exorcistic and mantic works attributed to prophets and sages such as Moses, David, Solomon, the Sibyl, and Jeremiah; songs and poetry attributed to Old Testament characters, especially David; ‘rewritten scripture’ that retells stories known from the Old Testament from the fall of Adam and Eve to the deaths of the Maccabean martyrs; legends and tales set in the Old Testament period . . . ; and various other obscure and intriguing works, including a legendary account of the hiding places of the Temple treasures, lost pre-exilic oracles of Balaam the seer, and a legend of how all human knowledge was preserved in the Great Pyramid during the Flood.”

“We live in perhaps the most archive-friendly moment in history . . . we have mushrooming digital compilations and ready access to documents of many flavors in unprecedented abundance.” —John Durham Peters, communications theorist

The Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah is currently hosting an impressive exhibit called “Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times.” This is a rare opportunity to see a collection of some of the 2,000-year-old scrolls alongside other rare ancient artifacts.

“In the almost complete absence of written records, one must be permitted to guess, because there is nothing else to do.” –Hugh W. Nibley

Origen was a theological and exegetical superhero for the early Christian movement. He was nicknamed 'Adamantius,' the 'Man of Steel,' by the first Christian church historian, Eusebius. Origen brought the best philosophical views of his time into conversation with scripture the former being subordinate to the latter and his goal was to improve the lives of his fellow Christians. After his death around 234 CE Origen eventually fell into disfavor among church authorities and was labeled a heretic during the sixth century. In spite of his deep commitment to the Bible, the Man of Steel sunk in the eyes of the church. In spite of his heretical status he maintained a lot of influence in the West, but his influence in the East was largely extinguished.

Lecture: 'Ephrem's Economic Self: Metaphors for the Moral Life' Who: Professor Jeffery Wickes, Saint Louis University When: Thursday April 3, 2014, 11:00 am Where: 3716 HBLL (South Entrance), Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah About the Lecture: The earliest strains of biblical tradition depict sin using the language of 'stain' or 'burden.' But a range of economic metaphors for describing the moral life soon developed in post-biblical Aramaic culture. The Syriac poet Ephrem (d. 373 CE) uses these economic metaphors to describe his own poetic project. This presentation traces the development of this economics of the self, and asks why Ephrem used an explicitly moral vocabulary to depict himself and his theological poems.

Three things made November an exciting month for fans of the Dead Sea Scrolls: First, the long awaited Dead Sea Scroll exhibition opened at the Leonardo in Salt Lake City. Second, our Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts completed the latest installment of its Dead Sea Scrolls electronic library. To top it all off, the Maxwell Institute published Illuminating the Dead Sea Scrolls, Donald Parry's brilliantly illuminating and splendidly illustrated basic introduction to the scrolls. And this is just the beginning of an exciting six months during which the scrolls will be visited, read about, lectured upon and taken as the subject of an exciting conference. Of course, such excitement cannot pass without comment from this blog!