Books by Robert Kitchen

This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshitta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars.

The Syriac Book of Steps collects 30 sermons by a late 4th century anonymous author in the Persian Empire. The author details the spiritual life, highlighting the duties and problems of two ranks of committed Christians, the Upright and the Perfect.

The author details the aspirations and standards of the two ranks of Christians prior to the advent of monasticism: the Upright-married people who work and perform acts of charity-and the Perfect who are celibate, do not work, but live a life of prayer, wandering through the region teaching and mediating conflicts.