A museum scholar and translator
Born in 1857, Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge entered Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1878. He joined the British Museum in 1883 and became Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in 1894, retiring from that office in 1924. His publications ranged across ancient languages and religions; his name on a Christian monastic collection reflects this broad work as an editor and translator.[1]
His legacy also belongs to the history of museum collecting. Christ’s College acknowledges the controversial removal of Egyptian objects and the limited attention paid to local communities during his collecting career. The college also records his scholarly publications and the bequests that endowed Egyptology fellowships at Cambridge and Oxford in memory of his wife, Dora Helen Emerson. He died in 1934.[3]
From a Syriac manuscript to the English Paradise
Budge explains the origin of his translation in the preface dated June 5, 1907. During a visit to Mosul in the winter of 1888, the vicar of the Chaldean Patriarch showed him a substantial Syriac manuscript of monastic literature. Because it was Church property, it could not be purchased. With permission, a copy was made and sent to England. Budge’s account therefore describes access through a locally held Christian manuscript and an authorized copy.[5]
The collection is associated with Anan-Isho, also written ʿEnanishoʿ, a monk of Beth Abhe. The Syriac Biographical Dictionary places him in the seventh century. Earlier lives and sayings reached English readers through this Syriac gathering of material, rather than through a single ancient author writing the entire book. Budge’s introduction discusses this history; his name identifies the modern translator, not the speaker of every saying.[4][5]
Budge first published the Syriac texts and English translations in 1904 for private circulation. For the more widely available 1907 edition, he revised the translation using additional manuscripts and supplied a new introduction. The RareOrthodoxBooks.com volumes reproduce the historical English translation in a modern edition. When quoting a passage, distinguish the elder named in the story, the collection containing it, and Budge’s English rendering.[5]
What the two volumes contain
Volume I, The Lives of the Fathers, opens with the Life of Saint Anthony. It continues with the collection presented under Palladius’s name, then the material concerning Pachomius and the monks of Tabenna, and a History of the Monks traditionally attributed to Jerome. The contents include accounts of women such as Melania and Olympias as well as male ascetics. Its range makes it a collection of monastic lives and traditions, not one continuous biography.[5]
Volume II, The Sayings of the Fathers, begins with fourteen thematic chapters of counsels. Their subjects include solitude, prayer, compunction, poverty, patience, obedience, hospitality, humility, chastity, and repentance. Its second book gathers questions and answers. Readers interested in a particular virtue can enter through these headings, while the longer lives in volume I give a broader narrative setting for the desert tradition.[6]
One early example shows how a story teaches. In volume II, Book I, chapter 1, saying 3, two ascetics discouraged by their efforts to help others visit a companion living in solitude. He pours water into a basin: while it is disturbed they cannot see clearly, but once it settles they see their reflection. The image turns attention toward self-knowledge and the inward effects of distraction. Read it as a particular counsel within a collection that also teaches love and hospitality.[6]
The arrangement provides two complementary ways to read. Follow a complete life in volume I to see a person’s struggles unfold, or read a small group of counsels in volume II and compare their circumstances. A brief instruction addressed to one monk may answer a problem that is not explained by an isolated quotation. Keeping the speaker and setting in view helps preserve the meaning of these compact stories.[6]
Books and where to begin
Begin with the Life of Saint Anthony in volume I for a sustained narrative, or with the thematic counsels in volume II for shorter readings. The editions include glossaries and indexes. For a passage you want to revisit, record its book, chapter, and saying number where available, since page numbers vary between editions.
Related authors and places
John Moschus and the Spiritual Meadow offer a related collection of monastic narratives. Isaac the Syrian introduces another major body of Christian literature originally written in Syriac.
Explore the Desert Fathers and Mothers for the historical setting, principal teachings, and a comparison of the Paradise with Cassian’s Conferences, the Miterikon, and the Spiritual Meadow.