Although there is no physical “fall” in the narrative of being expelled from the Garden of Eden in the Torah, in both the Quran and the sermons of Jacob of Serugh, Adam falls from above to below along with Satan. Both sources seem to imagine the Garden of Eden at the top of a cosmic mountain.
Likewise, there is a similarity behind both the Quran and the rhetoric of Jacob of Serugh regarding the Judgment Day: “Neither the angels in heaven nor the Son know that day and hour; No one knows but the Father.” (Matthew 24:36)
Considering that Jacob of Serugh(d. 521) wrote a letter to the persecuted Christians in the Kingdom of Himyar, located in today’s Yemen, it can be understood that there were much more complex ties in the Arab geography in Late Antiquity. Yakup from Serugh seems to have a special place in these ties and relationships.
Although they do not appear as prophets in the Bible, Joseph, Abraham, Jacob and Isaac are mentioned as “prophets” both in the Quran and, interestingly, in Syriac Christian literature: However, this prophecy in Syriac Christian literature is linked to the typology of Jesus Christ.
Similarly, in the hymns of Jacob of Suruç (d. 521), while Joseph is in prison, Jesus announces the “Good News” (Gospel) as his typology: However, while Joseph’s statement in the dungeon in the Quran is about the unity of Allah, Joseph’s statement in the sermon of Jacob of Suruç reflects the Jesus-Joseph typology.
In other words, although the theological messages are very different, it can be thought that these two traditions are in close interaction and even respond to the Joseph-Jesus typology of the Quran. Also, parallels between the conceptual formulations between the Surah Yusuf and the sermons of Jacob of Serugh:
“Do they not see the birds subjugated in the void of the sky? No one holds them (in the void) except Allah..” (Nahl 79) Parallelism and semantic commonalities between Nahl 79 and the sermon of Jacob of Serugh (d. 521) with the concept of “birds standing in the air without support”:
“It is without any support that you can see the heavens “He created” (Luqman 10) Parallels of the “building of the heavens without support” motif in the Quran and the Syriac Christian tradition: [Aphrahat (d. ca. 345) and Jacob of Serugh (d. 521)] “He suspended the sky without pillars..”
