[2] In various works, he treated theological, liturgical, canonical, philosophical and historical subjects, and contributed significantly to scholarly and literary development of Syriac Christianity.
[4] Jacob of Edessa was born in Aindaba (Arabic: عيندابا) at 50 km west of Aleppo, around 640.
Ordained a priest in 672, he was appointed metropolitan of Edessa by his friend Athanasius II, Patriarch of Antioch.
From there to the monastery of Eusebona where, for eleven years, he taught the Psalms and the reading of the Scriptures in Greek.
Towards the close of this period Jacob again encountered opposition, this time from monks who despised the Greeks.
[5][6] Jacob left Eusebona and proceeded to the great convent of Tel ʿAde (Arabic: تل عدا), one of several Syriac Orthodox monasteries on the 'mountain of Edessa' (?
[8][7] Jacob belonged to the Syriac Orthodox Church and his writings have a definite Miaphysite character.
His translations of various Greek works into Classical Syriac, followed by formation of appropriate terms and expressions, contributed significantly to the overall development of his native language.
In 1911 most of the information available was to be found in Giuseppe Simone Assemani's Bibliotheca Orientalis and Wright's Catalogue of Syriac MSS in the British Museum.
Jacob was also the chief founder of the Syriac Massorah among the Syrians, which produced such manuscripts as the one (Vat.
[7] Jacob translated the apocryphal History of the Rechabites composed by Zosimus from Greek into Syriac (Wright, Catalogue 1128, and Nau in Revue semitique vi.
All of them were translated and expounded by Carl Kayser, Die Canones Jacobs von Edessa (Leipzig, 1886).
As a liturgical author, Jacob drew up an anaphora, or liturgy, revised the Liturgy of St. James, wrote the celebrated "Book of Treasures", composed orders of baptism, of the blessing of water on the eve of the Epiphany, and of the celebration of matrimony, to which may be added his translation of Severus's order of Baptism.
[8] Jacob's chief original contribution was his Enchiridion or Manual, a tract on philosophical terms (Wright, Catalogue 984).
In his letter to George, bishop of Serugh, on Syriac orthography (published by Phillips in London 1869, and by Martin in Paris the same year) he sets forth the importance of fidelity by scribes in the copying of minutiae of spelling.
[7] As a translator Jacob's greatest achievement was his Syriac version of the Homiliae cathedrales of Severus, the monophysite patriarch of Antioch.
This important collection is now in part known to us by E. W. Brooks's edition and translation of the 6th book of selected epistles of Severus, according to another Syriac version made by Athanasius of Nisibis in 669.
Besides those on the canon law to Addai, and on grammar to George of Serugh referred to above, there are others dealing with doctrine, liturgy, and so forth.