ʿEnanishoʿ (Syriac: ܥܢܢܝܫܘܥ,[a] also romanized ʿAnanishoʿ or ʿNānišoʿ) was a monk, philosopher, lexicographer and translator of the Church of the East who flourished in the 7th century.
At Beth ʿAbe, ʿEnanishoʿ took up writing. He wrote a philosophical treatise on "definitions and divisions" and a glossary of difficult words to aid in reading the Church Fathers. He wrote Book of Rules for Homographs[b] about Syriachomographs, words having the same spelling (i.e., consonants) but different pronunciation (i.e., vowels) and meaning. He collaborated with Ishoʿyahb III to revise the Ḥudrā, a liturgical book containing the hymns for Sunday services in the East Syriac rite. Ishoʿyahb's successor, Giwargis I (r. 660/1–680/1), then commissioned him to compile the Paradise of the Fathers, a collection of Syriac translations of Greek works.[2] This major compilation comprises four books: the Lausiac History of Palladius of Helenopolis, another work of history attributed to Palladius, the History of the Monks in Egypt attributed to Jerome and a collection of sayings of the Desert Fathers.[2][4]
The sayings as compiled by ʿEnanishoʿ in Syriac are known under the title Paradise of the Fathers.[5] The Paradise contains some original material based on ʿEnanishoʿ's visit to Scetis. It is divided into fifteen chapters, with the first fourteen arranged topically and the last an unsystematic grouping.[4][6] It had a major influence on East Syriac monasticism. A commentary on it was written before the end of the century by Dadīshōʿ Ḳaṭrāya.[2] The Book of the Little Paradise of David, Bishop of the Kurds, was probably intended as a companion piece covering the native holy men of Mesopotamia.[7] According to Thomas of Marga, a copy was kept in every monastery in the Church of the East.[6]
Budge, E. A. Wallis, ed. (1904). The Book of Paradise, Being the Histories and Sayings of the Monks and Ascetics of the Egyptian Desert. Vol. 2 vols. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Budge, E. A. Wallis, ed. (1907). The Paradise, or Garden of the Holy Fathers. Vol. 2 vols. London: Chatto & Windus.
Sauget, Joseph-Marie, ed. (1987). Une traduction arabe de la collection d'Apopthegmata Patrum de ʿEnānīšōʿ. Étude du ms. Paris arabe 253 et des témoins parallèles. Louvain: Peeters.
Childers, Jeff W. (2018) [2011]. "ʿEnanishoʿ". In Sebastian P. Brock; Aaron M. Butts; George A. Kiraz; Lucas Van Rompay (eds.). Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition. Beth Mardutho [Gorgias Press].
Walters, James E.; et al. (9 December 2016). David A. Michelson; Nathan P. Gibson (eds.). ʿEnanishoʿ — ܥܢܢܝܫܘܥ. Vol. 2 of The Syriac Biographical Dictionary. Retrieved 14 June 2020. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |website= ignored (help)
Wilmshurst, David (2011). The Martyred Church: A History of the Church of the East. East and West Publishing.
Wortley, John (2012). The Book of the Elders—Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Systematic Collection. Cistercian Publications Liturgical Press. ISBN978-0-87907-201-8.