The thesis conducts systematic studies of the Syriac versions of St. John Chrysostom's Homilies on the New Testamentandmdash;the Homilies on Matthew, the Homilies on John, and the Homilies on the Epistles of St. Paul. The thesis focuses mainly on sixth- and seventh-century British Library manuscripts, but is also concerned with the spread of the material over the course of centuries into different sorts of books. Pre-dating extant Greek witnesses by centuries, the main Syriac manuscripts preserve translations made during the fifth and sixth centuries and constitute unique textual evidence for students of the Greek. By analyzing the methods of translation, it has been possible to place the versions within the framework of the development of Syriac translation technique and to highlight methodological issues for those attempting to relate Syriac versions to their Greek source texts. The translation analysis includes Biblical citations. The analyses have shown that the Homilies on the Epistles were translated last and are the most literal. The Homilies on Matthew and on John were translated earlier, are relatively less literal, and most likely to have Peshitta or even (occasionally) Old Syriac Bible texts rather than direct translations from the Greek. Several of the Homilies on John are edited and translated, allowing a critique of M.-E. Boismard's interpretation and use of the Syriac version, which is seen to be unsatisfactory in several ways.

La thèse a pour objet d’étudier le phénomène de création festive qui traverse les communautés juives de l’Antiquité à partir du VIe siècle av. J.-C. Ces fêtes nouvelles, de par leur typologie, leur théologie, leurs rites et leurs fonctions, s’écartent du modèle biblique tout en le revendiquant. Leur multiplication à l’époque hellénistique, sensible à travers leur mention dans la littérature juive hellénisée, témoigne d’évolutions qui, même si elles peuvent procéder d’une dynamique interne au judaïsme, témoignent d’interactions avec les communautés religieuses du monde grec puis romain. D’essence essentiellement locale, elles constituent un critère de définition identitaire et sont instrumentalisées pour servir des intérêts variés, notamment en termes de légitimation de l’autorité. Leur caractère récent leur confère une souplesse qui permet une actualisation constante de leur signification au gré des conjonctures, que ce soit à l’échelle locale ou au sein de courants transversaux comme le judaïsme rabbinique. Elles fonctionnent donc comme un révélateur du degré d’intégration ou d’exclusion des communautés juives dans leur environnement politique, social, culturel et religieux. / This dissertation aims at studying festive creativity within ancient Jewish communities from the VIth century B.C. onwards. From a typological, a theological, a liturgical and a functional viewpoint, these new festivals divert from Biblical tradition even though they claim not to. Their increase during the Hellenistic period, a phenomenon made clear in Jewish Literature written in Greek, attest to an evolution which, even though it could, in some cases, proceed from an inherently Jewish dynamic, fall within the category of cultural and religious interactions with other religious communities from the Greek and Roman world. Of an essentially local provenance, they are instrumental to a community’ self-definition and are often used to legitimate their founder or their organizer’s authority. Since they only appeared recently, their meaning can be updated to reflect various situations, either regarding a specific place and time or within such movements as Rabbinic Judaism. New festivals bring light to the place of a Jewish community within its milieu, be it political, social, cultural or religious.