Le droit en monde syriaque, V. BERTI & M. DEBIÉ (éds), Paris, 2023 (Études syriaques 18), p. 267-290. JEWS AND JUDAISM IN THE CANONICAL TRADITION OF SYRIAC CHURCHES Sergey MINOV Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies, HSE University, Moscow Syriac Christians had a long and entangled history of relations with Jews and Judaism that goes back to the very beginnings of the new religious movement in the regions of Syria and Mesopotamia. 1 Jews and their religion constituted, arguably, the primal element of the unholy trinity of Judaism, Paganism, 2 and Heresy, the paradigmatic triangle of otherness that served as the fundamental framework for the development of Christian collective identity in the pre-modern era. In the course of time, ecclesiastical elites developed a wide range of discursive channels through which norms and beliefs connected with this ethno-religious group were diffused. One of the most important channels in shaping attitudes and conduct of Christians toward Jews was the corpus of canonical literature. In the case of Syriac Christians, their ecclesiastical codes, comprising both civil and religious regulations, are multi-layered outcomes of complex evolutionary processes, which emerged and developed under the influence of several legal systems, such as the biblical legislation at their outset, Roman law in the late Roman Empire, Sassanian law in pre-Islamic Iran, and Muslim jurisprudence in various Islamic polities. Aimed at regulating various aspects of behaviour of believers by bringing them as close as possible to the ideal of proper Christian life, as the high-ranking members of clergy envisioned it, legal texts played a central role in the processes of identity formation, boundary making and maintenance among Christians. An 1. A comprehensive analysis of relations between Syriac Christians and Jews during the pre-modern period is still a desideratum. Meanwhile, see DRIJVERS 1992; VAN ROMPAY 2011; BECKER 2020; GRIFFITH 1988; ROGGEMA 2020. 2. This category could encompass the followers of ancient Near Eastern and Greco- Roman cults, Zoroastrians, and, later, Muslims.