Thursday, July 27, 2023

Muna Tatari and Klaus von Stosch on Jacob of Serugh and Mary Experiencing Labour Pains

  

It is repeatedly claimed that Jacob of Serugh that he denied the existence of labour pain in the case of Mary. Indeed, Jacob’s sermons portray the devil boasting that he has hitherto, ever since the time of Eve, seen to it that every woman invariable suffered labour pains, (cf. Jacob of Serugh’s homilies on the nativity. Second Homily, v. 188) and complaining about the fact that he can do nothing to harm Mary and her newborn infant. (cf. Ibid., v. 197-200) It is not a great leap from quotations like this to the verdict of the secondary literature, namely, that the writings that are attributed to Jacob of Serugh offered contradictory statements about whether Mary suffered labour pains or not. Yet the words in the relevant passages that are frequently translated by the term ‘(labour) pains’ are primarily to be assigned to the semantic field ‘lesion/wound/injury’, with the result that Jacob’s denial of such ‘pains’ on Mary’s part simply means—just as it does in the work of Ephrem—that she did not suffer any lasting harm from giving birth. Thus, what are unequivocally authentic texts by Jacob state clearly that, although the birth of Jesus passed off without any injury occurring to the intact body of the Virgin, he nonetheless emerged from her womb while she was in labour. Evidently, the labour or pains mentioned here are meant to act as signs that Jesus Christ was a real human being; as such, they are significant in balancing out Jacob’s miaphysitic Christology—i.e., his focus on Christ’s divine nature.

 

In common with Ephrem, therefore, Jacob also appears to represent the position that Mary—much to Satan’s chagrin—remains unharmed by the birth, despite the fact that she had to endure the customary labour pains. Thus, Ephrem speaks of the intactness of the seal of virginity, (cf. Ephrem the Syrian, Hymnen de nativitate, 12,2) or of the silent seal and a doorway curtain. (ibid., 12,5) And Jacob too refers to Mary as a sealed letter, ‘within which the secrets and the profundities of the son are concealed.’ (Muna Tatari and Klaus von Stosch, Mary in the Qur’an: Friend of God, Virgin, Mother [trans. Peter Lewis; London: Gingko, 2021], 50-51)