Major Subsections of the Translator’s Introduction

A Historical Account of the Life and Writings of Saint Isaac the Syrian

Including a review of the latest scholarship on the popularity of the Ascetical Homilies in Western Europe [more here]

On the Orthodoxy of Saint Isaac and the Church of Persia of his day

On the Text of the Ascetical Homilies

The Syriac Text

The Greek Text

The Slavonic and Russian Translations

A Brief Explanation Concerning the Translation of the Text of Saint Isaac the Syrian from Greek into the Slavonic Tongue

By St. Paisius Velichkovsky, giving an account of his trials and labors in making a new Slavonic translation of St. Isaac’s homilies

Wensinck’s English Translation

The Present Translation

The Present Edition

Including an explanation of differences between the first and second editions and the reasons for them

Greek and Syriac manuscripts used to establish the text

The Appendices