Moses of Ingila

Moses of Ingila (Inghila)

A mid 6th century C.E. Syriac author who translated a number of texts from Greek into Syriac.

One surviving letter, preserved in British Library MS#17,202, prefaces the writing we call Joseph and Aseneth. Around 550 C.E. an anonymous individual, probably a monk, found a very old book in Resh'aina, in the library belonging to the line of bishops who had come from Aleppo. This ancient writing (Joseph and Aseneth) was in Greek, a language with which this individual was less familiar than his native Syriac. Suspecting that it contained a "hidden meaning," he wrote to his friend, Moses of Ingila, asking him to provide a Syriac translation along with an explanation as to its hidden meaning. Moses of Ingila obliges with a Syriac translation which he prefaces with a letter.^[1] He positions the ancient writing (Joseph and Aseneth) as a work of Wisdom, the meaning of which has to be carefully and cautiously discerned. Just as he is about to disclose its secret meaning, which he indicates is Christological in nature, the manuscript is cut off, perhaps deliberately so.

A first-ever English translation of this letter can be found in Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel^[2] along with an English translation of the Syriac text of Joseph and Aseneth.

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