Anaphora of St James

In Brief

The Anaphora of St James is the ordinary eucharistic prayer of the West Syriac tradition: the prayer of the Syriac Orthodox, the Syriac Catholics and the Malankara Churches, obligatory on the great occasions, and one of the anaphoras of the Maronite books.^1,2,3 Greek is accepted as its original language, and its core goes back to the fourth or early fifth century, to the Jerusalem-Antiochene world before the fifth-century separation.⁴ The Syriac version is a translation, made probably before the end of the sixth century; its history before Jacob of Edessa is obscure.⁴

In shape it is Antiochene throughout: the dialogue, the thanksgiving, the Sanctus, a post-Sanctus that gathers the whole economy of salvation, the institution narrative, an anamnesis that in Syriac is addressed to the Son and flows in one movement into the offering, a single epiclesis after the anamnesis, the intercessions, the commemorations, and the doxology.⁵ The 1182 manuscript behind Brightman's text opens the intercessions with "the holy Sion the mother of all churches", the mark of a prayer formed at Jerusalem for the use of Antioch.⁵

The Shape of the Liturgy

Part by Part

Authorship & Date

The books ascribe the anaphora to St James the brother of the Lord, and the ascription is kept here as a tradition, never converted into historical authorship. The Antiochene version was made before the Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Churches parted ways, with the first half of the fifth century as its earliest possible date.⁴

The harder question concerns the Syriac revision. The manuscripts of the "new and correct recension" carry Jacob of Edessa's name, claiming he corrected the Old Syriac version against the Greek manuscripts he could find.⁴ Rücker and Heiming both argued against the attribution: the revision looks like an evolution over one or two centuries rather than the work of one man, and Jacob's own liturgical commentaries, to George the Stylite and to Thomas the Presbyter, reflect the Old Syriac Version's structure, not the new recension's.⁴ Michael the Syrian, who knew Jacob's reputation well, says nothing of any liturgical revision; Jacob's authority as a corrector of texts only grew in the twelfth century, when it became useful to attach.⁴ The entry therefore treats the Jacob of Edessa revision as disputed: the manuscripts claim it, the philology doubts it.

Witnesses & Editions

The oldest Syriac witness is a fragment, not a book: BL Add. 14615, an eighth-century palimpsest of the Old Syriac Version.⁴ The Old Syriac Version is the pre-eleventh-century text; the "new recension" and the textus receptus follow it in the manuscript tradition. The new recension's oldest manuscript is BL Add. 14493 of the tenth century in Rücker's judgement, BL Add. 14499 in Heiming's; Heiming's edition in Anaphorae Syriacae 2.2 (Rome 1953, thirty manuscripts) is the most reliable Syriac edition, though not the text printed here.⁴

Brightman's English, the public-domain base of this entry, is itself a composite, and he says so. The anaphora proper (his pp. 83-106) comes from BL Add. 14690 of A.D. 1182; the ordo communis around it comes from the Severus fragment and from modern Malabar sources, with his additions numbered in the source table.⁵ He warns that his arrangement of St James "rests simply on my own judgement and is open to criticism", and that the celebration at Zante he had witnessed in 1894 "scarcely represents the older Syrian practice".⁵ The shape strip above follows the 1182 manuscript's anaphora, pp. 85-96.⁵

Theology & Spirit

The post-Sanctus is the anaphora's dogmatic hinge: "Even as in truth thou art holy, King of the worlds and giver of all holiness", and holy also the Son and the Spirit, and then the whole story, from man's making out of earth and his fall, through the law and the prophets, to the sending of the Only-begotten "that he might renew thine image".⁵ The institution follows in the familiar words, bread and cup, "for the remission of sins and for eternal life", with the people's Amen after each.⁵

The Syriac anamnesis turns where the Greek does not: it is addressed to the Son. "Commemorating therefore, o Lord, thy death and thy resurrection on the third day from the tomb and thine ascension into heaven and thy session at the right hand of God the Father and as well thy second coming fearful and glorious", and in the same breath, "we offer thee this fearful and unbloody sacrifice".⁵ The Old Syriac Version's anamnesis is long; the new recension abridged it.⁴ Bar Kepa, who died in 903, directed that the anaphora's prayers, except the final thanksgiving, be addressed to the Father, which shows how early the Son-addressed anamnesis was felt as an exception.⁴

The epiclesis asks the Father: "Have mercy upon us, God the Father almighty, and send upon us and upon these gifts set before thee thine Holy Spirit", and then, thrice, "Hear me, o Lord", that the Spirit "coming down may make of this bread the lifegiving body" and of the cup "the blood of the new testament".⁵ The deacon's bidding before it, "In silence and fear stand and pray", with the people's threefold Kurillison, is one of the oldest-sounding moments in the rite.⁵

The intercessions open "Wherefore we offer unto thee, o Lord, this same fearful and unbloody sacrifice", and the first name on the Church's lips is "the holy Sion the mother of all churches", then the worldwide Church, the bishops, the clergy, and the celebrant's own lowliness.⁵ The prayer closes as it opened, in the Trinity: "thine allhonoured and blessed name may be glorified and extolled with the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and thine Holy Spirit now and ever and world without end".⁵

Relations

The Greek St James is the mother text: the Jerusalem liturgy in its Eastern, Intermediate and Western manuscript forms, with the Georgian version probably from an earlier Greek (or Syriac) form and the Armenian and Ethiopian from the Syriac.⁴ The Syriac Anaphora of the Twelve Apostles keeps the older single commemoration prayer that St James's Old Syriac Version also had, and like St James addresses its anamnesis to the Son.⁴ Fenwick proposed that the Jerusalem redaction conflates Palestinian sources with an early form of the Anaphora of St Basil; Winkler's critical review is noted, and the entry keeps the theory as Fenwick's hypothesis, not as an established dependence.⁴

• Anaphora of the Twelve Apostles (Syriac)companionThe Syriac Twelve Apostles keeps the older single commemoration prayer that St James's Old Syriac Version also had.⁴
• Anaphora of St Basil (Byzantine)relatedFenwick proposed the Jerusalem redaction conflates Palestinian sources with an early form of Basil's anaphora; a hypothesis, not an established dependence.⁴

Disputed Questions

Three questions stay open. First, Fenwick's conflation theory, above: a hypothesis with a critical review, not a result.⁴ Second, the Jacob of Edessa revision: manuscript title against philology, with Jacob's own commentaries siding with the older text.⁴ Third, the direction of translation: Khouri-Sarkis proved the Syriac a translation from Greek by its literal renderings, while allowing that some typically Aramaic expressions may have travelled the other way.⁴ The entry's positions: the Syriac is translated from Greek, the revision's author is disputed, the conflation is unproven.

Go Deeper

The commemorations deserve a closer look, because they grew. In the developed text they run as eighteen prayers in six groups, each group with its ekphonesis, the deacon's canon and the ghanoto: for the living, for kings and founders, for Mary and the saints, for the departed bishops, for the faithful departed, and the final rest and forgiveness.⁴ The division was introduced before the new recension and was widespread by the tenth century; the Old Syriac Version knew only a single commemoration prayer.⁴ Brightman's 1182 text shows the developed order in full, from Sion through the long diptychs of the departed to the last "Rest them, remit, forgive".⁵

On Domus Dei

• The West Syriac Rite

Recommended reading

• Brightman, F. E., Liturgies Eastern and Western, vol. 1: Eastern Liturgies, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896.The public-domain English of the Syriac anaphora (pp. 85-96, the anaphora proper from BL Add. 14690 of 1182), with his source table and preface. Read online
• Varghese, Baby, “The Anaphora of Saint James and Jacob of Edessa”, Jacob of Edessa and the Syriac Culture of His Day (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute, Brill, 2008), pp. 239-264, 2008.The fullest recent study of the Syriac version: the manuscript groups, the Jacob of Edessa question, the sixfold commemorations, the anamnesis addressed to the Son. Read online
• Barsom, Murad Saliba (trans.), The Anaphora of the Holy Apostle St. James, the Brother of Our Lord, Hackensack, NJ: Syriac Orthodox Church, 1967.The Syriac Orthodox English order with the 1967 patriarchal imprimatur (the Syriac columns did not OCR). Read online

Sources

1. Primary textBarsom, Murad Saliba (trans.); Samuel, Mar Athanasius Yeshue (ed. and publ.), The Anaphoras of the Syro-Antiochene Church, Lodi, NJ, 1991, p. 96 n. 1. LinkVerified 2026-09-19 · web reproduction of the 1991 book (Syriac and English) read (19 Sep 2026): the Introduction (Metropolitan Samuel, Lodi, New Jersey, 1991), the menu of 13 anaphoras (St James, St Mark, St Peter, Twelve Apostles, St John, St Xystus, St Julius, St John Chrysostom, St Cyril, Jacob of Sarugh, Philoxenus, Severius, Mar Bar Salibi), the St James text with notes (obligatory occasions n. 96:1, the fraction n. 126:2). The reproduction carries no Syriac characters (0 code points in U+0700-074F).
2. Primary textBarsom, Murad Saliba (trans.), The Anaphora of the Holy Apostle St. James, the Brother of Our Lord, Hackensack, NJ: Syriac Orthodox Church, 1967, p. 35 n. 1. LinkVerified 2026-09-19 · archive.org djvu text read (19 Sep 2026): preface leaves with the imprimatur of Patriarch Ignatius Yacoub III (14 Aug 1967); the order, pp. 20-21 (Trisagion), 24-25 (prumion-sedro-qolo-'etro), 30 (Creed), 35-63 (the Qurbono, incl. p. 35 n. 1 on the obligatory occasions, the epiclesis, the diptychs, the fraction, the people's communion, the dismissal), p. 74 (discipline of the mysteries), p. 85 (the fans). The Syriac columns did not OCR: no Serto incipits taken.
3. Primary textGemayel, Boutros (Archbishop), trans. Stephen Hector Doueihi, “Qurbono: The Book of Offering. General Introduction and Explanation (Bkerke, 31 July 1992)”, Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn (reprinted with permission), 1992, the six anaphoras. LinkVerified 2026-09-18 · read in full: the first edition, 'published in Rome between 1592 and 1594' from a manuscript written in 1566, whose publishers 'translated the words of consecration from Latin to Syriac'; the patriarch rejected it, then under the papal delegate Dandini accepted it temporarily (1596); the second edition (1716) 'proved to be more Latinized than the first one', 'the anaphora of the Latin Mass, translated into Syriac and Arabic, was inserted here, while the Anaphora of Sharar was removed'; the third (1763) 'included eight anaphoras instead of the fourteen'; Qozhaya 1816, 1838, 1855, 1872; Beirut 1888 and 1908, where Bishop Youssef Dibs 'placed the Roman anaphora before the other anaphoras'; Jounieh 1959; the 'Simple Rite' of 1973, 'used experimentally for only one year'; all save 1973 published 'without the seal or the signature of the patriarch'; the new text presented to the Patriarchal Synod in 1980 and 1982, 'accepted, definitively, and in all its details' by the Synod and the Congregation for the Oriental Churches; the order of the Service of the Word, with the Prayer of Forgiveness with the Incense (Hoosoyo), the Qadeeshat (Trisagion), 'addressed to the Lord Jesus alone' in the Maronite and other Syriac Churches, while 'The Latin Church, theologically speaking, considers this hymn as Trinitarian', and 'almost fifty services, having the same number as the weeks of the year'; the preparation of the offerings assigned 'to the deacon according to earlier tradition'; the liturgical year 'begins with the first Sunday of November and concludes with the last Sunday of October'; the words of the Lord 'are sufficient to consecrate the Qurbono', the meaning of 'the profound bowing of the celebrant after each of the Lord's words', and yet 'we consider the eucharistic prayer as one… it is perfected only by the invocation of the Holy Spirit'; the Lord's Prayer and 'a rite of communal penance'; 'Holy things for the holy', answered 'One Holy Father, one Holy Son, one Holy Spirit'; the farewell, 'Remain in peace, O altar of God'; the Maronites 'preserved the Eastern Syriac anaphora known as the Anaphora of the Apostles or Sharar'; 'six anaphoras only', all 'prior to the tenth century': Twelve Apostles, St Peter Head of the Apostles, St James, St John, St Mark, Sixtus; 'one single text for the words of consecration', the Twelve Apostles' with 'slight touch-ups'; the entrance hymn 'must be sung in Syriac in the Maronite churches all over the world', so that 'Maronites, wherever they may be, will then be able to hear the same hymn, with the same melody, and in the same language', with the Qadishat and the Institution narrative; Sharar 'as it stands now, it cannot be used', surviving as 'a rite of communion for Great Friday'; on 6 June 1992 the Synod allowed celebration facing the people or facing east, the ruling left to the local hierarch; Communion by dipping the Body into the cup and giving it 'directly in the mouth'
4. ScholarshipVarghese, Baby, “The Anaphora of Saint James and Jacob of Edessa”, Jacob of Edessa and the Syriac Culture of His Day (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute, Brill, 2008), pp. 239-264, 2008, pp. 240-241; p. 242; pp. 262-263; p. 244; pp. 244, 262-263; pp. 246, 261; p. 243; p. 263; p. 256; p. 240; pp. 256, 262; pp. 256-258. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · read in full (browser text of the PDF, pp. 239-264): Greek accepted as the original language; the core back to the 4th/early 5th c. (Tardy); Fenwick's conflation hypothesis (Jerusalem redaction from Palestinian sources + early Basil) with Winkler's critical review noted; the Antiochene version before the Chalcedonian/non-Chalcedonian split, earliest possible date first half of the 5th c.; Syriac translation before the end of the 6th c. (Khouri-Sarkis on literal Greek renderings); the three Syriac manuscript groups (OSV, NCR, textus receptus); the oldest OSV witness BL Add. 14615 (8th-c. palimpsest); Rucker's 57 manuscripts (5 Maronite); Heiming's edition (Anaphorae Syriacae 2.2, Rome 1953, 30 mss., 109-179) 'the most reliable'; the NCR attribution to Jacob of Edessa challenged by Rucker and Heiming (an evolution over one or two centuries, not one man's work); Jacob's commentaries (GS, Th) reflecting OSV not NCR; the sixfold commemoration division (18 prayers in 6 groups) introduced before NCR and widespread by the 10th c.; the Syriac anamnesis addressed to the Son (unlike Greek), long in OSV and abridged in NCR; Bar Kepa's 9th-c. directive to address the prayers to the Father; Jacob of Edessa's biography (En Deba, Eusebona, 'who hated Greeks'); Michael the Syrian's silence on any liturgical revision; the 12th-c. growth of Jacob's authority; the general practice of attributing anaphoras to apostles and Fathers 'to get wider acceptance'; Raes on the Twelve Apostles (II) and Jacob of Edessa institution narratives (Anaphorae Syriacae 1.2, 1940 and 3.1, 1981)
5. Primary textBrightman, F. E., Liturgies Eastern and Western, vol. 1: Eastern Liturgies, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896, pp. 85-96; pp. 89-90; source table; preface; pp. 86-87; p. 87; pp. 87-88; pp. 88-89; p. 88; p. 96; pp. 89-96. LinkVerified 2026-09-12 · archive.org full text; pp. lxxxiii, lxxxv, lxxxviii–lxxxix checked; order locators spot-checked 13 Sep 2026 (pp. 362, 377–378, 393, 394; glossary s.v. Zeon, Cancelli, Ektene). Checked 19 Sep 2026 for the Ge'ez entry: Preface p. xiii, the Ethiopic translations are the Rev. C. J. Ball's ('the Rev. C. J. Ball for the Ethiopic (including the collation of the British Museum manuscripts)'); p. lxiii, the Egyptian rite; pp. lxxii-lxxiii, the Rome printing of 1548 ('Testamentum novum.. Missale') and the Lord's anaphora there; pp. 194-244, the Ethiopic Liturgy of the Apostles from BM Or. 545 (1670-75); p. 232, 'THIS bread… IS MY BODY' (a rubric between) and 'DRINK… THIS CUP'
6. Primary textMaronite Patriarchate, Patriarchal Commission for Liturgical Affairs, Kitāb al-Quddās bi-ḥasab ṭaqs al-Kanīsa al-Anṭākiyya al-Suryāniyya al-Mārūniyya. Kitāb al-muʾminīn (the Book of the Mass according to the rite of the Antiochene Syriac Maronite Church: the people's volume), Bkerke: Maronite Patriarchate, 2005, contents p. 1116.Verified 2026-09-18 · read on the page images of the people's volume, cited by printed page. Title page: title, 'Kitab al-mu'minin', 'Bkerke 2005'. pp. 4-5, the patriarchal decree (register of delegations no. 1512 of 2005), given at Bkerke on the feast of Sts Peter and Paul, 29 June 2005, signed and sealed by Cardinal Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir: it cites CCEO cann. 656 and 657, the letter of Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud, head of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, no. 381/2003 of 17 April 2005, approving the use of the book, and the consent of the Synod of Bishops to the new edition prepared by the Patriarchal Commission for Liturgical Affairs; it orders its use in all Maronite churches within the Patriarchate and in the countries of the diaspora from the first Sunday of November 2005, the start of the liturgical year, and forbids the use of any other book for the Maronite Quddas (Mass) from Christmas, 25 December 2005. pp. 8-9, Sfeir's preface: the 'Simple Rite' approved by Patriarch Meouchi with the Synod and put in force by decree no. 43 of 13 April 1973, for one year, experimentally; p. 8, 'circumstances', especially from 1975, when the wars broke out that 'lasted sixteen years', kept the Liturgical Commission from continuing its work 'in a regular manner' (bi-sura muntazama; re-read on the image 18 Sep 2026); the renewed rite 'in a second edition'. p. 32: the Gospel chanted in Syriac and then read in Arabic until the twentieth century. pp. 33-34, the introduction of Archbishop Boutros Gemayel: the first edition, 1594, had 14 anaphoras; that of 1716 also 14, turning Sharar into the rite of the Signing of the Cup; the 1992 edition had 6; two anaphoras of the West Syriac pattern were added, attributed to St John Chrysostom and St John Maron, 'for their relation to the Antiochene Syriac Maronite Church and for the great esteem of these two names', so that the collection 'now consists of eight anaphoras'; of the John Maron anaphora 'we find no trace in any of the old manuscripts'; Duwaihy's collection has 34 anaphoras. p. 35: all stand at the elevation and say its prayer with the priest; the Commission insists on Communion under both kinds, the priest dipping the Body in the chalice, 'but the final decision belongs to the Holy Synod'. pp. 46-48, the rules: St Maron on 9 February only (rule 39); the offerings prepared on Sundays and feasts on a small altar to the right of the main altar, on weekdays at the main altar (rule 46); the celebrant chooses one of the eight anaphoras and says it in Syriac or in Arabic (rule 48). p. 53: the celebrant, or whoever he deputes, prepares the offerings; the people sit. p. 54: under 'The vesting' the celebrant vests in the sacristy or at the church door and says quietly (sirran) the psalm 'Have mercy on me, O God' (Ps 50/51), named by its opening words, or one of three other prayers (to p. 55). p. 57: the entrance, standing. The anaphora of the Twelve Apostles, pp. 728-744: the rite of peace, sitting (p. 728), the peace passed with joined hands during a hymn of peace (p. 729); the Eucharistic Prayer, standing (p. 730); at the epiclesis the deacon bids all stand in prayer and the celebrant kneels on both knees, 'Answer us, O Lord' three times, the people answering Kyrie eleison (pp. 733-734); the commemorations, sitting (p. 735); the elevation, standing (p. 739); the Lord's Prayer with hands extended (p. 740); the bowing of heads and the blessing (p. 741); Communion, the communicant bowing and signing himself, with the words 'The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ and his Blood are given to you for the forgiveness of your sins and for eternal life' (pp. 743-744). pp. 924-926, the obligatory Syriac texts: the entrance, the Trisagion, the pre-anaphora and the Institution narrative. p. 1116, the contents: the anaphoras of the Twelve Apostles, St Peter Head of the Apostles, St James Brother of the Lord, St John the Apostle, St Mark the Evangelist, St Xystus Pope of Rome, St John Chrysostom and St John Maron