James' liturgy is older;[1] it was soon translated into Syriac, certainly before the Monophysite schism. At first it was used in Greek or Syriac indifferently. Then the Orthodox kept the Greek form,[2] the Jacobites used only Syriac. The Greek form was gradually Byzantinized in various details; in the 13th century the Orthodox abandoned it altogether and adopted the Byzantine rite.[3] So the rite of Antioch, once so mighty in the East, became the speciality of one little sect only.[4] Bar Ṣalībi gives a curious account of its origin. It is the oldest, the most apostolic of all. On Whitsunday the apostles received the Holy Ghost; the next day they consecrated the chrism, on Tuesday they consecrated an altar, on Wednesday St. James, the brother of the Lord, celebrated this liturgy, and, when he was asked whence he had taken it, he said: "As the Lord lives, I have neither added nor taken away anything from what I heard from our Lord."[5]
Some Greek forms remain in the Syriac liturgy: "stumen- kālus,"[6] "ḳurye elaisun," "sufiyâ," "prusḥumen"; but it is not riddled with Greek formulas as is that of the Copts. The essential Jacobite liturgy consists of the Ordo communis, that is, all up to the anaphora and the prayers after communion, and the anaphora — all of St. James, corresponding to the Greek St. James. Then they have a bewildering number of alternative anaphoras, which they may substitute for that of St. James. There seems to be some strange tendency which causes just the smallest Churches to compose a multitude of anaphoras. The enormous Roman patriarchate is content with one canon all the
2 Though they used Syriac very considerably, too, down to the 18th century. Even after they had adopted the Byzantine rite, they said it in many places in Syriac. See Charon: Le rite Byzantin, in (
Greek characters) (Rome, 1908), pp. 499-501.
6 Bar Ṣalībi, by the way, always quotes this formula in Syriac: "nḳum shafīr."
- ↑ Printed in Brightman: Eastern Liturgies, pp. 31-68.
- ↑ 2
- ↑ Probably under the influence of the same Theodore Balsamon who abolished the Greek St. Mark rite (p. 276 above; see Charon: op. cit. pp. 492-493). Greek St. James is used now again twice a year in two Orthodox churches (above, p. 344, n. 1).
- ↑ More about the Antiochene rite will be found in Baumstark: Die Messe im Morgenland, pp. 28-47, and in my book: The Mass, pp. 80-93.
- ↑ Ed. cit. p. 36.
- ↑ 6
