Pawla of Edessa (early 7th cent.) [Syr. Orth.]

Metropolitan of Edessa and translator.

Metropolitan of Edessa and translator. His careful revision of an earlier translation of Gregory of Nazianzus ’s Discourses survives complete; this was done while he was in Cyprus in 623/4, during the Persian invasion and occupation of Mesopotamia. Another large undertaking while he was in Cyprus was the translation of a collection of hymns (maʿnyoto) by Severus ‘according to the tradition of Qenneshre ’, that was later to be revised by Yaʿqub of Edessa (ed. E. W. Brooks, in PO 6.1, 7.5; 1910–11). He is probably also the ‘Abbas Pawla’ who translated the pericope John 7:50–8:12, absent from the Peshitta and Ḥarqlean. He is commemorated in one liturgical calendar (PO 10, 124) on 23 Aug. (‘Pawla, bp. of Edessa, who translated the books’).