Saints Jacob of Serugh and Severus of Antioch provided monastic interpretations for Syriac Orthodoxy. Bcheiry highlights St. Jacob's exegesis of Jonah as a spiritual struggle with ascetic appearances. St. Severus address the movement from self-deial to purity in his Lenten homilies.

The year 652 marked a fundamental political change in the Middle East and the surrounding region. An important and contemporary source of the state of the Christian Church at this time is to be found in the correspondence of the patriarch of the Church of the East, Išū‘yahb III (649–659), which he wrote between 628 and 658. This books discusses Išū‘yahb’s view of and attitudes toward the Muslim Arabs.