New Evidence for Solving the Ninth-Century West Syrian Synoptic Problem

Abstract This article investigates the textual parallelism between Book iii of the treatise On the Resurrection of the Human Bodies , attributed to John of Dara, and Moses bar Kepha’s Commentary on the Words of Paul Demonstrating the Resurrection of the Bodies . Both works offer a running commentary on 1 Cor 15 in such a similar way that they present yet another synoptic problem, in addition to others documented in previous scholarship, of determining the relationship between these two texts. After a comparison of the respective texts’ structure and style, we address two contradictory pieces of evidence for the question of precedence: logical flaws in John’s text, pointing to its dependence upon Moses’, and a citation by Moses from John, rather indicating John’s priority. In the conclusion, we try to solve this contradiction and offer a solution to this further instantiation of close intertextuality between these two West Syrian authors.