译自：

  • Robert A. Kitchen , “Book of Steps,” in Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition, edited by Sebastian P. Brock, Aaron M. Butts, George A. Kiraz and Lucas Van Rompay, https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Book-of-Steps.

《步书》（Book of Steps Liber Graduum, Ktābā d-massqātā）

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  • 凡翻译的人名，地名，书名等都用（）注明英文或叙利亚文原文，若译者要做进一步解释，则加（按：…）

（按：《步书》是见证早期叙利亚灵修传统的重要书籍，其中12篇堪称经典，笔者会分享部分译作节选，以供读者品鉴。此篇乃介绍《步书》的学术性论文，凡研究《步书》者，皆可按图索骥，顺藤摸瓜之。）

正文：

其成书时间在四世纪中叶到公元430年。该书讨论灵性生活和追求做完全人，由30篇叙利亚论文 (memre) 和一篇介绍文(mamllā) 组成. 匿名的作者在论文极少提及历史或地理细节，但提及他所在的修道团体位于伊拉克东北部，接近小扎布河（the Lesser Zab River）。

该书无标题。其拉丁名 (Liber Graduum) 是由迈克•可莫斯科（Michael Kmosko）在1926年做叙利亚（连同拉丁译文）校勘本时起的，表明苦修的步骤 (massqātā) ：为了去基督天上之城，人必须爬陡峭的路. 该词步骤在论文中只提到两次，论文19和20。可莫斯科（Kmosko ）用了十五种手稿，其中只有三种手稿含有超过5个论文的内容。

可莫斯科认为该书主要是4世界中晚期弥赛亚运动（按：即叙利亚异端祈祷派，该派认为人可以通过祈祷直接在心里领受恩典，无需教会圣礼）的一手文献。这种论调被哈舍（I. Hausherr ）接受，并占据学术界30年之久。20世纪50年代，阿索•哦伯思（A. Vööbus）挑战了该书的祈祷派特质，并告知学者，该书见证了叙利亚早期灵修传统。关注该书的其他方面的学者有圣灵论(A. Guillaumont), 教会论(R. Murray), 人论和祈祷(A. Kowalski), 结构(L. Wickham)和基督论和苦修主义 (D. Juhl).

30篇论文长短不一，主题多样：涉及解经，讲道，苦修方法。贯穿全书主题的是基督徒的两种生活状态：正直人 uprightness (kenutā) 和完全人或大人perfection or maturity (gmirutā) ，以及那些要过两种生活的人正直人t (kene) 和完全人 (gmire).

写作于修院团体之前，《步书》作者试图对抗对完全者中标准和热情的颓势。书的前半部分介绍蒙召为正直者和完全者的规条。后半部分包含各类主题，最后六个论文指出正直者的合理性。

论文的题目如下：编辑者的序言。1.作者介绍；2.论那些想要成为完全的人；3.论属灵的与属物的侍奉；4.论病人吃的蔬菜；5. 论孩子的奶；6.论完全者和他们持续的成长；7.论对正直者的诫命；8.论人当竭尽所能喂养穷人；9.论正直人和爱正直的人以及先知；10.论禁食以及身心的谦卑；11.论当律法摆在我们面前时，如何听圣经；12.论教会隐秘和公开的使命；13.论正直之道；14.论正直者与完全者；15.论亚当婚姻的渴望；16.论人如何超过主要的诫命；17.论我们主的受难如何成为我们众人的榜样；18.论祈祷的眼泪；19.论完全者的分辨力；20.论去我们主城市路上的艰难步骤；21.论亚当树；22.论审判；23.论撒旦、法老和以色列；24.论忏悔；25.论上帝与撒旦的声音；26.论主为亚当建的第二条诫命；27.关于获救的窃贼的历史；28.论人魂不等同于人血；29.论攻克己身；30.论信心的诫命和对隐修的热爱。

（按：为方便读者找到对应英文，30篇论文题目如下：

  1. Author’s introduction; 2. About those who want to become Perfect; 3. The physical and spiritual ministry; 4. On the vegetables for the sick; 5. On the milk of the children; 6. On those who are made Perfect and continue to grow; 7. On the commandments of the Upright; 8. On one who gives all he has to feed the poor; 9. On Uprightness and the love of the Upright and the prophets; 10. On fasting and the humility of body and soul; 11. On the hearing of Scripture when the Law is read before us; 12. On the hidden and public ministry of the church; 13. By the same author on the ways of the Upright; 14. On the Upright and the Perfect; 15. On Adam’s marital desire; 16. On how a person may surpass the major commandments; 17. On the sufferings of our Lord who became through them an example for us all; 18. On the tears of prayer; 19. On the discernment of the way of Perfection; 20. On the difficult steps which are on the road of the City of our Lord; 21. On the tree of Adam; 22. On the judgments which do not save those who observe them; 23. On Satan and Pharaoh and the Israelites; 24. On repentance; 25. On the voice of God and of Satan; 26. On the second law which the Lord established for Adam; 27. About the history of the thief who is saved; 28. On the fact that the human soul is not identical with the blood; 29. On the discipline of the body; 30. On the commandments of faith and the love of the solitaries.）

Primary Sources

  • R. A.  Kitchen and M. F. G.  Parmentier, The Book of Steps. The Syriac Liber Graduum (2004). (ET, incl. further references)
  • M. Kmosko, Liber Graduum (PS 3; 1926). (Syr. text with LT)

Secondary Sources

  • K.  Fitschen, Messalianismus und Antimessalianismus (1998), 104–128.
  • A.  Guillaumont, ‘Situation et significance du Liber Graduum dans la spiritualité syriaque’, in SymSyr I, 311–22.
  • K. S. Heal and R. A. Kitchen (ed.), Breaking the mind: New studies in the Syriac Book of Steps (2014).
  • D. Juhl, Die Askese im Liber Graduum und bei Afrahat (Orientalia Biblica et Christiana 9; 1996).
  • N. A.  Khalek, ‘Methods of instructing Syriac-speaking Christians to care for the poor: A brief comparison of the eighth Mēmrā of the Book of Steps and the Story of the Man of God of Edessa’, _Hugoye _8.1 (2005).
  • R. A.  Kitchen, ‘Conflict on the stairway to heaven: The anonymity of perfection in the Syriac Liber Graduum’, in SymSyr VII, 211–20.
  • R. A.  Kitchen, ‘Becoming perfect: The maturing of asceticism in the Syriac Book of Steps’, _JCSSS _2 (2002), 30–45.
  • R. A.  Kitchen, ‘Syriac additions to Anderson: The Garden of Eden in the Book of Steps and Philoxenus of Mabbug’, _Hugoye _6.1 (2003).
  • R. A.  Kitchen, ‘Slouching Towards Antioch: Biblical Exegesis in the Syriac Book of Steps’, in Syriac and Antiochian Exegesis and Biblical Theology for the 3rd Millennium, ed. R. D. Miller (2008), 64–95.
  • R. A.  Kitchen, ‘Making the Imperfect Perfect: The Adaptation of Hebrews 11 in the 9th Mēmrā of the Syriac Book of Steps’, in The Reception and Interpretation of the Bible in Late Antiquity, ed. L. DiTommaso and L. Turcescu (2008), 227–51.
  • A.  Kowalski, Perfezione e giustizia di Adamo nel Liber Graduum (OCA 232; 1989).
  • A.  Kowalski, ‘Die Gebete im Liber Graduum’, _OCP _55 (1989), 273–282.
  • D.  Lane, ‘The Book of Grades, or Steps’, _Harp _14 (2001), 81–8.
  • R.  Murray, Symbols of Church and Kingdom (1975), 34–6, 263–269.
  • C. Stewart, Working the earth of the heart: The Messalian controversy in history, texts, and language to AD 431 (1991).
  • A.  Vööbus, ‘Liber Graduum: Some aspects of its significance for the history of early Syrian asceticism’, in Charisteria Ioanni Kõpp octogenario oblata (PETSE 7; 1954), 108–28.
  • A.  Vööbus, History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient, vol. 1 (CSCO 184; 1958), 178–84, 190–7; vol. 3 (CSCO 500; 1988), 1–18.
  • L.  Wickham, ‘The Liber Graduum revisited’, in SymSyr VI (1994), 177–87.

Robert A. Kitchen