For better understanding, it is necessary to know the division of the Psalter among the Nestorians, which almost corresponds to that of the Greek Church. The book of Psalms is divided into twenty hullalas, to which is added as the twenty-first the song of Exod. xvi and Dent, xxxii. The hullalas are again subdivided into fifty-seven (inclusive of Exod. xvi and Deut. xxxii, sixty) marmithas. Each marmitha is preceded by a prayer and succeeded by the Gloria Patri. Each psalm has an antiphon (canon) after the first verse, which serves very often to impress the whole with a specific Christian character. The psalms thus arranged were printed at Mosul in 1866 and twice at Rome, Psalterium Chaldaicum in Usum Nationis Chald. editum (1842), and Breviarium Chald. in Usum Nat. Chald. a Jos. Guriel, secundo editum (1865). As it is not the object of this article to give a description of the breviary, we here mention only, for such as are interested, Dietrich, Morgenr/ebete der alten Kirche des Orients fiir die Fest- zeiten (Leips. 1864) ; Takhsa de teshmeshatha itanjatha de jaumatha shechime ve da star ve methidn Kethaba dakdam vadebathar (Mosiil, 1866) ; Schonfelder, in the TUbinger Quartalschrift, 1866, p. 179 sq.
The Western Syriac or Jacobitic office, with which the Maronitic corresponds for the greater part, is distin- guished not only from the Eastern Syriac, but also from all others, in not having the psalms as its main sub- stance. The Jacobitic office is found in Bj-eviarium Feriule Syriacvin SS. Ephrami et Jacobi Syrorum juxta Ritum ejusdem Nationis, quod incipit a Feria II usque ad Sabbatum inclusive; additis variis Ilymnis ac Bun ilir/ioriibns, A b A than. Saphar Episcopo Mar- din (i;..m. \>\'M'<). The Sunday office maj- be found in Officium. Fi:ri(ih'. juxta Ritum Ecclesife Syrorum (ibid, 1851). The office for the Passion week was published by Clodius from a Leipsic MS. in 1720, Lituryia; Syri- uccB Septimanm Passio7ns Bom. N. I. Chr. excerptum e Cod. ^/S. BMioth. Lips. ed. ac notis illustr.
The Maronitic festival office is found in OJficia Sanc- torum juxta Ritum Ecclesice Maronitarum (Rom. 1666, 2 vols, lol.), and in Breviarium Syriacum, Ojficium Fe- riale juxt. Rit. Eccl. Syr. Maron. Innocentii X Pont. Max. Jussu Editum, Denuo Typis Excusum (5th ed.
ibid. 1863), with an appendix containing the Officium Defunctorum and other prayers. An edition of the of- fice was published on Mount Lebanon in 1855, Be shem abba va bera va ructia de Kudsha alaha sharira tabei- nan shechimetha akh ejada de ita de Maronaje.
It may not be out of order to speak here of the Syrian Church lectionary. The MSS. of the Syriac New Test, are strangers to the modern division of the books into chapters and verses, instead of which they divide the several books (except the Apocalypse) into reading-les- sons of different lengths, but averaging about fifteen of our verses. Thus the first lesson (Matt, i, 1-17) is for the Sunday before Christmas; the second (ver. 18- 25) is entitled the revelation to Joseph; the third (ii, 1-12), vespers of Christmas; the fourth (ver. 13-18), matins of slaughter of the infants, etc. The four Gos- pels contain 248 lessons, of which seven are unappro- priated or serve for any day, and the remaining 241 serve for 252 different occasions. The Acts and the Epistles (which are collectively called the Apostles) con- tain 242 lessons, of which twenty are unappropriated, and the remaining 222 serve for 241 occasions. On most of the occasions there was one lesson appointed from the Gospels, and one also from the Apostles. A tabular view of these lessons is given in the first appen- dix to Murdock's Xew Test, from the Syriac Peshito ver- sion (N. Y. 1869).
YII. Ilymnology. — According to Hahn, the first hym- nologist of the Syrians was the celebrated Gnostic Bar- desanes, who flourished in the second half of the 2d century. In this he is in some degree supported by Ephrem in his Fifty-third Homily against Heretics (ii, 553), where, although he does not actually assert that Bardesanes was the inventor of measures, yet he speaks of him in terms which show that he not only wrote hymns, but also imply that at least he revived and brought into fashion a taste for hymnology :
" For these things Bardesanes Uttered in his writings. He composed odes, And mingled them with music; He harmonized psnlnis And introduced meiisures — By measures and balances He divided words. He thus concealed for the simple The bitter with the sweet ; For the siclcly do not prefer Food which is wholesome. He sought to imitate David, To adorn himself with his beauty So that he might be praised by the likeness. He therefore set in order Psalms one hundred and fifty, But he deserted the truth of David, And only imitated his numbers."
It is to be regretted that of the hymns of Bardesanes — which, it .appears, in consequence of their high poetic merit, exercised an extensive influence over the relig- ions opinions of the age in which he lived, and gave so much strength and popularity to his Gnostic errors — a very few fragments only remain. These fragments are to be found scattered through the works of Ephrem. For Bardesanes, see the excellent monograph by Hahn, Bardesanus Gnosticus Syrorum Primus Hymnologus (Lips. 1819), who makes the following beautiful re- mark: "Gnosticism itself is poetry; it is not therefore wonderful that among its votaries true poets should have been found. Tertullian mentions the psalms of Valentinus; and IMarcus, his disciple, a contemporary of Bardesanes, inculcated his (inosticism in a song, in which he introduced the /Eons conversing" (foe. cit, p. 28).