Syriology

The Jewish Christian Source and Macarius: F.C. Burkitt, who laid the foundations of modern Syriology, already in his Eastern Christianity of 1899 argued that Syriac, Aramaic Christianity, centred in Mesopotamian Edessa, was based on Palestinian, Jewish Christian foundations. In our times, Arthur Vööbus, the greatest living Syriologis, has concluded from the agreements between the militant, ascetic Christianity of the Syrian “Sons of the Covenant” and the Dead Sea Scrolls that even the typically Syrian asceticism was due to an ascetic shade of Palestinian Christianity which was Essene in origin.

1981, Colloque international sur les textes de Nag Hammadi, page 245

This vision of a large scale research program stimulated another hope, one which spurred me on in my endeavors. I envisaged the establishment of an institute of Syriac manuscript studies at the University of Tartu. That thought had been gestating in my mind all the while when I was engaged in other areas of Syriology.

1987, Arthur Vööbus, Studies in the History of the Gospel Text in Syriac, page 28

Syria is today a totalitarian state, and the possibilities of communicating with knowledgeable Syrians are severely circumscribed. [...] Syriology is now a science almost comparable to Kremlinology. I hope, nevertheless, to give in broad outline a correct impression of what the Syrian economy is and may become.

1971, Economic Development and Population Growth in the Middle East, page 331