Yoḥannan bar Zoʿbi

1246), commonly Rabban Yoḥannan[1] and sometimes anglicized John bar Zobi,[2] was a monk, grammarian, philosopher, theologian and liturgist of the Church of the East who wrote in Syriac.

[6] Bar Zoʿbi later professed as a priest and monk in the East Syriac monastery of Beth Qoqa in the same region.

[15] Besides his highly esteemed work on grammar, Bar Zoʿbi wrote on philosophy, theology and liturgy.

[3] In a short two-page treatise, Shuʾālē luqbal harrātīqē w-Ishmaʿlāyē ('Questions against the heretics and Ishmaelites'), he addresses five questions that might be posed by Muslims.

", he answers that it corrects those who abhor women and balances the fact that sin entered the world through a woman.

[3] His theological magnum opus is the compendium Zqorā mlaḥḥmā ('well woven fabric'), which was widely copied and quoted in the Church of the East.

[18] Bar Zoʿbi wrote several memre (verse homilies) on the subject of faith and on the liturgy, including commentaries on the fermentum, baptism and communion.

[19] Bar Zoʿbi may be the anonymous author who completed the lexicographical Book of Similar Words of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, according to a note in the Berlin manuscript Sachau 72.