ADDAI AND MARI

it is generally accepted that the anaphora which underlies the East Syrian anaphora of Addai and Mari, and its ‘twin’, the Maronite anaphora called Sharar, is a very early composition, reflecting the Jewish–Christian communities of Syria, with parts dating back to the third century and possibly earlier. However, although the sanctus is found in both versions of this anaphora, it has almost unanimously been regarded as a later interpolation. This view seems to have originated with E. C. Ratcliff in his reconstruction of the ‘original form’ published in 1929. Ratcliff wrote:

Ratcliff's later opinion, echoed by W. E. Pitt, was that in fact Addai and Mari had always contained the sanctus, but as the termination of the anaphora. Nevertheless, the view that the sanctus in its present position represented an intrusion was subsequently endorsed by Gregory Dix, Bernard Botte and Louis Bouyer. In 1966 W. F. Macomber published the Mar Esa'ya text of Addai and Mari, the manuscript of which he dated tenth to eleventh century, and which is regarded as our earliest witness to the text. Although the sanctus is contained in this text, Macomber at that time endorsed Ratcliff's view. Such a view has been repeated more recently by J. M. Sánchez Caro, H. A. J. Wegman and Jean Magne.