Shortly after Dr. Zainaldin's lecture, I also sat in a discussion with the Classics Reading Group. We examined a poem, originally written in Syriac, titled "The Pearl." Written by Ephrem the Syrian (the dashing fellow shown below), it extolls a pearl, held in the hands of the narrator.
Why a pearl? Well, per Dr. Scott Johnson, Matthew 13:45-46 gives us the answer: "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it." (ESV)
Apparently this "pearl" metaphor became popular in theological texts following the Biblical era. Furthermore, nature and scripture were seen to be the "two lyres" by which the Creator could truly be revealed. It was not enough to solely perform scriptural exegesis; one needed to seek God's influence in the physical world to fully appreciate him.
I was unfamiliar with the language of Syriac prior to the lecture, but the language forms the third largest corpus of in the Roman Empire, behind Greek and Roman. Syriac is a Semitic language (a cousin to Hebrew and Arabic) and its usage peaked ~7th century.
I was especially interested to learn about Ephrem because of his involvement with the city of Edessa—a key facet of the Second Crusade. I'd be fascinated to look into whether the crusaders, upon capturing, losing, and subsequently re-assaulting Edessa, understood the significance of Syriac. By and large, the crusaders were xenophobic and uneducated; it's unlikely that they would have been able to parse Syriac. Thus, did they seek to purge Edessa of theological texts in Syriac, even if the texts in question (unbeknownst to them) espoused Christian principles?
Fun to be able to draw parallels to the things I study.
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