Reading Gregory of Nyssa Alongside Dionysius bar Ṣalibi: The Commentary on the Song of Songs in ms. Mardin 68

Abstract This article provides an edition, English translation, and study of an anonymous preface to Dionysius bar Ṣalibi’s commentary on the Song of Songs featured in ms. Mardin, Church of the Forty Martyrs 68. The article shows that this preface consists of abridged interpretations taken from the Syriac translation of Gregory of Nyssa’s Homilies on the Song of Songs . Moreover, it is demonstrated that the preface marks the beginning of a more extensive entanglement of Gregory and Bar Ṣalibi in ms. Mardin 68, in which Gregory’s spiritual and Bar Ṣalibi’s factual and spiritual interpretations of the Song are presented in parallel. This article argues that Bar Ṣalibi’s commentary was supplemented with Gregory’s justification for the Song’s spiritual interpretation. By examining how the anonymous Syriac compiler selected, shortened, and rephrased passages from Gregory, the article contributes to the study of excerpting and compiling practices, and the repurposing of texts in new contexts.