Bardesan, Dialogue on Fate / The Book of the Laws of the Countries
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, Ipswich, UK A FEW days ago we went up to visit Shemashgram,2 our brother. And Bardesan came and found us there; and when he had felt him, and seen that he was well, he asked us, “What were you talking about, for I heard your voice from without as I was coming in?” For he was accustomed, whenever he found us talking about any thing before him, to ask us, “What were you saying?” that he might converse with us about it. We therefore said to him,” This Avida was saying to us: ‘That if God he one, as you say, and He...
Read MoreChristianity in Edessa and the Syriac-Speaking World: Mani, Bar Daysan and Ephraem; The Struggle for Allegiance on the Aramean Frontier by Sidney Griffith
I Edessa and the Syriac Language In Late Antiquity the geographical area to the east of Antioch, stretching from the northern reaches of the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers westward almost to the Mediterranean sea, and southward to the environs of Damascus, was often called by the local inhabitants, Aram. The name is that of the biblical son of Shem, the son of Noah, from whom the Christian inhabitants of the area in later times derived their legendary ancestry (Genesis 10:22-23).1 At some point after the Seleucids gained power in the area in the fourth century before the...
Read MoreTHE GREAT PERSECUTION – SAMUEH HUGH MOFFETT
( 340 – 401 ) “[ Shapur II ] fell into a Violent rage [ against Shim’un ], gnashed his teeth, and stuch his hands together, saying: Shimun wants to arouse his disciples and his people to rebel against my Empire. He wants to make them slaves of Caesar who, has the same religion as they have: that is why he disobeys my orders” – Bedjan, Acts of the Martyrs and Saints, 2:143. Translated by W . G . Young-Hand book, 278 The Great Persecution * Samuel Hugh Moffett APHRAHAT’S ninth Demonstration is called “On Persecution.” It draws attention to a bitter turn of...
Read Moreنينوى وبابل في ابان مجدهما
بعد أن تقلص ظل الحكم الكوسي من بابل سنة 1169 ق . م حدث أن نور الحياة ومض فيه وقتاً قصيراً الا أنه عاد فتضاءل أمام الأنوار الوهًاجة التي أنبعثت من نهضة الدولة الآشورية في الشمال كان الآشوريون والبابليون من أرومة واحدة . ولكن إتصال الأولين بالشعوب الشمالية هذّب شيئاً من عقليتهم ولغتهم وأورثهم قساوة في طباعهم . ولم تكن نشأتهم...
Read MoreROLE OF THE NESTORIANS AS THE CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN GREEK AND ARABIC MEDICINE* / ALMEN 0. WHIPPLE
This paper deals with a period of history which is rather difficult to define, for its study includes the last part of the ancient period and the early centuries of the Middle Ages. Even from the point of view of Mediterranean culture it is difficult to say when ancient thought ended and medieval thought began. If the Fathers of the Church ushered in the medieval period and ended pagan civilization, their chief accomplishment, considered from the standpoint of science and world culture, lay in the fact that they created a new contact between Greek and Oriental thought. It is important to...
Read MoreHieromonk Alexander Golitzin: ‘The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian’ / Hilarion Alfeyev
Hilarion Alfeyev, The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian. Cistercian Studies Series, Number 175. Kalamazoo MI and Spencer MA: Cistercian Publications, 2000. Pp. 321 . “At last,” writes Bishop Kallistos Ware in his foreword to this second book by Fr. Hilarion Alfeyev, “we have at our disposal a single book in English, offering us a balanced and comprehensive overview of St. Isaac’s life, background, and teaching” (11). The bishop’s exclamation is well taken. One of the extraordinary lacunae in the study of Eastern Christianity is the lack, up to now, of any major study of Isaac...
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