Synopses & Reviews
The Eucharistic Prayer is the most central and distinctive form of Christian public prayer apart from the Lord's Prayer itself. It gradually evolved into fixed forms during the early Christian centuries, and the Eucharistic Prayer of Addai and Mari is almost certainly the oldest such prayer still in use. Gelston's study presents a critical edition of the medieval Syriac text of this ancient Eucharistic prayer. Accompanied by a critical apparatus and a translation, the book addresses such literary, critical, and historical questions as the parallels with the Maronite anaphora Sharar, and provides an opportunity to detect possible later accretions and modifications. A reconstruction of the Prayer as it may have been at the beginning of the fifth century is offered in an appendix.
Review
"This impressive work is recommended for graduate libraries."--Religious Studies Review
"This monograph represents careful and painstaking work, and Gelston's judgements expressed on puzzling problems are balanced and illuminating."--History of Christianity
"This is an important work of scholarship that should be found in any representative collection of liturgical texts and also in any library that purports to give good coverage of the original churches, their history, practices, and doctrines."--Speculum
"This book is a very useful tool....The author's methodological consistency deserves to be specially mentioned."--Journal of Semitic Studies
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [125]-130) and indexes.