Bardaisan's "Book of the Laws of Countries" - a selective bibliography

by Dirk Bakker, Leiden Institute for Religious Studies

Editions etc. of the Book of the Laws of the Countries

• William Cureton, ‘Bardesan – The book of the Laws of Countries’ in Spicilegium Syriacum: containing remains of Bardesan, Meliton, Ambrose and Mara Bar Serapion, London: Francis and John Rivington, 1855. (Editio princeps)
• A. Merx, Bardesanes von Edessa, nebst einer Untersuchung über das Verhältniss der clementinischen Recognitionen zu dem Buche der Gesetze der Länder, Halle 1863.
• François Nau, Bardésane – Le Livre des Lois des Pays. Traduction Française, Paris 1899.
• François Nau, ‘Bardesanes – Liber Legum Regionum’ in R. Graffin: Patrologia Syriaca I, 2, Paris 1907: 490–658.
• François Nau, Bardésane – Le Livre des Lois des Pays. Texte Syriaque, Paris 1931.
• H.J.W. Drijvers, The book of the laws of countries. Dialogue on fate of Bardaiṣan of Edessa, Assen 1965. (Reprint with introduction by J.W. Drijvers: Gorgias Press, 2007)
• T. Krannich & P. Stein, ‘Das “Buch der Gesetze der Länder” des Bardesanes von Edessa’ in Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum 8/2 (2005): 203-229.
• Jerome Lund – The Book of the Laws of the Countries. A Dialogue on Free Will versus Fate. A Key-Word-in-Context Concordance, Piscataway, NJ 2007.

Backgrounds to Bardaisan and the Book of the Laws of the Countries

• Peter Bruns, ‘Bardaisan, der “aramäische Philosoph” (154-222)’ in Das Christusbild Aphrahats des Persischen Weisen, Solingen 1990.
• H.J.W. Drijvers, Bardaiṣan of Edessa, Assen 1966.
• H.J.W. Drijvers, ‘Bardesanes’ in Theologische Realenzyklopädie 5 (1980): 206–212.
• Tim Hegedus, ‘Necessity and Free Will in the Thought of Bardaisan of Edessa’ in Laval théologique et philosophique 59, 2 (June 2003): 333-344.
• A. Hilgenfeld, Bardesanes, der letzte Gnostiker; Leipzig 1864.
• T. Jansma, Natuur, lot en vrijheid: Bardesanes, de filosoof der Arameeërs en zijn images, Wageningen 1969.
• Paul-Hubert Poirier, ‘Faith and Persuasion in the Book of the Laws of Countries: A Note on Bardaiṣanian Epistemology’ in Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 2 (2002): 21–29.
• Javier Teixidor, Bardesane d'Édesse: la première philosophie syriaque. Paris 1992.

Isaac Of Nineveh Ascetical Homilies online

Roger Pearse, translator singularis, has uploaded the 1923 version of Isaac Of Nineveh's Mystic Treatises (aka the Ascetical Homilies) translated by Arent Jan Wensinck. This first series of treatises was very translated from Syriac into Greek and several other languages. (A second series of mystical treatises in Syriac was recently discovered and translated by Sebastian Brock). Patrik Hagman's forthcoming book on Isaac mentions the Wensinck translation:

The First Part has been translated several times into many languages. A large number of these translations are based on the Greek text. The only complete translations of the Syriac text into modern languages are Wensinck's English translation from 1923, and Serafim Seppälä's translation into Finnish from 2005. Wensinck's translation is far from satisfactory, and the student of Isaac's text can profitably consult the partial translations made by Hansbury and Brock. Finally, the translation by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery, although mostly done from the Greek translation, includes translations from Syriac of those parts of the First Part that are not included in the Greek text.

The downloadable file (PDF, 16 MB) can be found on Archive.org:

http://www.archive.org/details/IsaacOfNinevehMysticTreatises

Or open/download directly from this link:

http://www.archive.org/download/IsaacOfNinevehMysticTreatises/isaac_of_nineveh_mystical_treatises.pdf

To find out more about Roger Pearse, who has done a lot to bring ancient Christian texts to the internet for us regular folks, see his blog here:

http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/