Bar-Hebraeus
1225- 1286.. Bishop of the Syrian Monophysite (Jacobite) Church, and Mafrian (primate) from 1264. Writer of prodigious output, his works include a Bible commentary in scholia (“Storehouse of Secrets”), systematic theology (“Candelabrum of the Sanctuary”) and in summary (“Book of Lightning”), canon law or nomocanon (“Book of Guidance”), ethics (“Book of Ethics”), ascetic spirituality (“Book of the Dove”), exposition of Aristotelian philosophy (“The Cream of Wisdom”), a sketch of logic, physics, and metaphysics (“Book of the Conversation of Wisdom”), grammatical exposition (“Book of Splendors”), astronomy (“The Ascent of Reason”), chronography (both secular and church history), prose and poetry, and a number of translations from Arabic. His works are important for their preservation of textual, lexical, and historical information, excerpted with encyclopedic enthusiasm by this widely learned scholar.