Biblical and other Christian Sogdian Texts from the Turfan Collection

By (author) Nicholas Sims-Williams

Book cover: Biblical and other Christian Sogdian Texts from the Turfan Collection

Extent: 247 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Asian/Pacific Studies & Religions, Biblical Studies

Series: Berliner Turfantexte

Series volume number: 32

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(June 2014)

ISBN: 9782503552385

Price: $107.00

On back order

This new volume in the series Berliner Turfantexte contains the edition, with translation and detailed commentary, of a series of important Christian texts in Sogdian, most of them previously unpublished. The emphasis is on Biblical texts translated into Sogdian from the Syriac Peshitta version: a Psalter in Sogdian script, fragments


This new volume in the series Berliner Turfantexte contains the edition, with translation and detailed commentary, of a series of important Christian texts in Sogdian, most of them previously unpublished. The emphasis is on Biblical texts translated into Sogdian from the Syriac Peshitta version: a Psalter in Sogdian script, fragments of Gospel lectionaries, and a double-folio from a lectionary of the Pauline Epistles. Other texts edited in the volume include a retelling of the story of Daniel, a text on the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, and the “Wisdom of Ahiqar,” all of them in recensions which differ significantly from any known Syriac version. Two analytical glossaries, one for the Psalter and other texts in Sogdian script and one for the texts in Syriac script, cover not only the works edited in this book, but also, a number of Christian Sogdian texts published by the author in scattered articles over the last twenty years or so. The volume concludes with a bibliography, an index of words discussed in the commentary, and seventeen plates. This work will be of interest to specialists in Iranian languages, mediaeval Central Asia, Biblical studies, Syriac literature, and the history of the “Church of the East.”

  • By (author) Nicholas Sims-Williams