-
Title
-
Enchiridion on Various and Necessary Matters Concerning Nature
-
Date
-
c. 640-708 AD
-
Description
-
About the term "nature," Mor Jacob of Edessa mentions his people being Syriac-Arameans:
“So then, this noun kyōnō, as we Syrians—that is, Arameans—express it, is derived from [the word meaning] “natural/capable” (m’eḳan). And because a single term or word does not suffice to elucidate and explain it thoroughly, but [rather] one must make use of further expressions that have, so to speak, the same meaning, either wholly or in part, [for this reason] we shall express it also by means of [some] other terms, in order to demonstrate just what the meaning of the expression is. We say of something that it is m’eḳan to mean that it is appropriate or well-adapted. People customarily say that something has a certain appropriateness in some way or other, and is well-adapted and properly constituted (kuyyōnō). So let us define meḳan as [meaning] appropriate, well-adapted and properly constituted (kīn), such that by means of all of these terms, we may discover what is the usage and the etymology of this word kyōnō, insofar as it is [used] in our language.”
-
Language
-
Syriac-Aramaic
-
Publisher
-
Furlani, Giuseppe, “L’’Εγχειρίδιον di Giacomo d’Edessa nel testo siriaco,” Rendiconti della Reale Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche VI, 4 (1928), p. 222-249.
Mor Jacob of Edessa
