Month: February 2016

The Origenist disputes of the time of Justinian now make an appearance in the chronicle.  But was the bishop of “Manbig” (Arabic) / Mabbug (Syriac) / Hierapolis (Greek) really named Origen?  The Persian chronicle records plots against a weak king by the Zoroastrian priests.

10. In the time of king Justinian lived Origen, Bishop of Manbiğ, who argued for the doctrine of transmigration of souls and denied the resurrection [of the body].  With him were Iniya, Bishop of ar-Ruha, Thaddeus, bishop of al-Masīsah and Theodoret, bishop of the city of Ankara.  These bishops claimed that the body of Christ, our Lord, was a “fantasiya”, that is a shadow without any reality.  On learning of their doctrine, the king sent to them to say to present themselves in Constantinople, and Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople arranged a meeting with them.  The patriarch said to them: “If the body of Christ, our Lord, was, as you assert, a”fantasiya”, then his actions were a ‘fantasiya” too, his words were a “fantasiya” as well.  The same would be true of the body, the actions or words of any [other] man.”  Addressing the Bishop of Manbiğ he said: “Christ our Lord, is truly risen from the dead and has taught us that in the same way we will be resurrected from the dead on the day of judgment.  In fact, he told us in his holy gospel that will be a time when all those lying in tombs will live when they hear the voice of the Son of God.  How then can you say that there is no resurrection?”.  Therefore he interdicted them, and excommunicated them.  The king, in turn, ordered that a council should be held against them at which they could be publicly excommunicated.  Then the king wrote to the four patriarchs summoning them to the council, i.e. to Apollinaris, Patriarch of Alexandria, Domnus, patriarch of Antioch, to Eutychius, Patriarch of Jerusalem and Vigilius, patriarch of Rome, telling them to go to Constantinople, so that they were present at the excommunication of the bishops.  They presented themselves.  At that council Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople, personally took part.  The Patriarch of Jerusalem was not personally present but sent some of his legates.  So too the Patriarch of Rome was not present, who did not send any legate but who agreed with them, and accepted the judgment.  The number of bishops who gathered in the Fifth Council was one hundred and sixty.  They excommunicated the bishops and all those who professed the doctrine, i.e. Origen, Bishop of Manbiğ, Thaddeus, bishop of al-Masīsah, Iniya, Bishop of ar-Ruha and Theodoret, bishop of Ankara.  They established that the Body of our Lord was a real body and not a shadow, and that He is perfect God and perfect man, with two natures, two wills and two operations, and only one person.  They also confirmed the doctrine of the four councils that were held before them, that life on earth is transient, that without doubt there will be the resurrection and that Christ, our Lord, will come with great glory to judge the living and the dead, as already the three hundred and eighteen had said.  Then the honoured ones returned, each to his own home.

11. From the fourth council of six hundred who gathered at Chalcedon and had excommunicated the Jacobites, to this fifth council of one hundred and sixty bishops who gathered in Constantinople, there passed one hundred and three years.  This happened in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Justinian, king of Rum.

12. As for Qabād, son of Firuz, king of the Persians, he incurred the disapproval of his people and they decided to kill him, but refrained from doing so for fear of his minister Suwākhar.  So they did their best to bring Suwākhar into disgrace in the eyes of the king, in order to kill him.  After the killing, a man named Marzīq and his followers confronted him and said, “God has distributed his blessings on earth equally among men, so that no one has more than another.  But men act unjustly to each other and each one puts his own interests ahead of those of his brother.  In view of this, we will take what belongs to the rich and give it to the poor, we will remove from those who have a lot and we will return to those who have little, and those with more assets, more women, more servants and furnishings than others, we will remove them, and distribute them equally between him and the others, so that no one has more goods than another of a certain thing.”  So they began to seize the houses, women and the goods of the people and their position was strengthened.  Then they kidnapped Qabād, son of Firuz, hid him in an inaccessible place and put in place his uncle, named Mārāsf.  On seeing this Bzarmihr rose up against them with a group of Persian noblemen, killed a large number of the men of Marzīq, put Qabād, son of Firuz, back in his place, restoring the kingdom, and drove away Mārāsf.  The Mazdeans who remained started to stir up Qabād  against Bzarmihr until he was killed.  His reign was convulsed and in every part rebels rose up against him.  Seeing the state to which he was reduced Qabād repented that he had killed Sūkhar and his son.

The reign of Justinian continues: but we get the first mention of Islam. 

4. After completing this, he returned to the king.  The king said to him: “Describe how you built the Bethlehem church.”  After hearing the description, the king did not find it to his liking and was not at all satisfied.  Great was his anger against him and he said:  “You took the money and you used it for yourself, you built a small building, you made the church dark, and you have not built it as I would have liked it to be, nor have you followed my advice.”  And so saying he commanded them to lop off his head.

5. King Justinian built in Constantinople the beautiful church of St. Sophia.  Mar Saba died at the age of ninety-four.  Having been informed of the favourable attitude of the King Justinian and his predilection for building churches and monasteries, the monks of Tur Sīnā came to him and complained of the fact that the Arab Ishmaelites harassed them, ate their food, destroyed their sites, broke into their cells, grabbing everything that was there, and entered into the church during the Eucharist.  King Justinian said to them: “What do you want [me to do]?”.  They answered: “We ask you, O king, to build us a monastery in which we can feel safe.”  Before that, in fact, there was no monastery on Mount Sinai where the monks could gather, but they were just scattered here and there in the valleys around the bush from which God – Powerful is his name – spoke to Moses.  Above the bush they had a large tower, which still exists today, in which was the church of Martmaryam.  In that tower the monks were accustomed to assemble, and immediately repaired there when any threat hung over them.  The king sent with them one of his men, to whom he gave much money, and he wrote to his prefect in Egypt to give the messenger all the money he asked, to provide men and to send him food from Egypt.  The messenger ordered the building of a church near the Red Sea, the erection of the monastery of Rayah, and the building of the monastery of Mount Sinai, fortifying it so that there was none more protected and more secure, and that there was nowhere above the monastery from which harm to the monastery itself, and the monks, could come.

6. Once he reached the Red Sea, the messenger erected near the Red Sea the church of Mar Athanasius, and built the monastery of Rayah, and he continued to the Mountain of Tur Sīnā where he found the bush in a gorge between two mountains, the tower built on it, in the vicinity of the bush, as well as sources of water that flowed near the bush, and the monks scattered in the valleys.  He thought of erecting the monastery at the top of the mountain, leaving out the site of the tower and the burning bush, but discarded the idea because of the water; because there was no water in the upper part of the mountain.  So he built the monastery above the bush, on the site of the tower, so that the tower itself was inside it.  Thus the monastery found itself between two mountains in a gorge.  If someone climbed to the top of the mountain, to the north, and he threw down a stone, it would fall in the middle of the monastery and could cause damage to the monks.  And yet he built the monastery in that narrow place only because of the bush, the famous ruins and the water.  Then he built a church on top of the mountain, at the place where Moses received the Torah.  The superior of the monastery was called Dula.  When he returned to king Justinian, the messenger spoke of the churches and monasteries that he had built and described how he had built the monastery of Mount Sinai.  The king said to him: “You were wrong, and you have compromised the safety of the monks in exposing them to the mercy of their enemies.  Why did you not build the monastery on top of the mountain?”.  The messenger replied, “I built the monastery above the bush and near the water simply in consideration of the fact that if I built the monastery on top of the mountain, the monks would have remained without water, and that if the people besieged them, and prevented access to water, they would die of thirst.  And also in consideration of the fact that the bush would be away from them.”  The king said to him: “Then you should have broken down the northern slope overlooking the monastery so that the monks could suffer no damage.”  The messenger replied, “Even if we had spent the riches of the land of Rum, Egypt and Syria, we could not achieve what you ask.” The king was enraged with him and ordered them to lop off his head.

7. Then he sent another messenger together with a hundred men chosen from among the slaves of Rum, with their wives and their children, ordering him to take from Egypt another hundred men with their wives and their children, chosen from among the slaves, and to build them houses, out by Tur Sīnā, so that they could establish themselves and guard the monastery and the monks, making sure that they had the necessary means of livelihood, bringing to them and to the monastery enough food from Egypt.  When he arrived at Tur Sīnā, the messenger built, outside the monastery to the east, many homes, the walls of a fortress and settled the slaves there.  They began to protect the monastery and to defend it.  The place is called today “the monastery of the slaves.”  They increased and multiplied over time and during the caliphate of ‘Abd al-Malik b.Marwan Islam was imposed on them, so they attacked each other and fought among themselves; some of them were killed, others fled, others were converted to Islam.  Their descendants still present today in those places, are the Muslims called Banu Salih, also called Ghulmān ad-Dayr  [= servants of the monastery], from which come the Lakhmids.  Following their conversion to Islam, the monks destroyed the houses.

8. In the second year of the reign of Justinian, there was made patriarch of Rome Boniface.  He held the office for two years and died.  In the fourth year of his reign, there was made patriarch of Rome, John.  He held the office for two years and died.  In the sixth year of his reign, there was made patriarch of Rome Aghābiyūs.  He held the office for a year and died.  In the seventh year of his reign, there was made patriarch of Rome Bīlīnariyus.  He held the office for five years and he died.  In the thirteenth year of his reign, there was made patriarch of Rome Vigilius.  He held the office for eighteen years and died.  In his fifteenth year in office there was the Fifth Council.  In the tenth year of his reign, that is, of the reign of Justinian, there was made patriarch of Constantinople Epiphanius.  He was a Jacobite.  He held the office for six years and died.

9. King Justinian wrote a voluminous treatise containing many rulings and laws.  In the seventeenth year of his reign, there was made patriarch of Constantinople Eutychius.  He held the office for twelve years and was deposed.  In his eleventh year in office there was the Fifth Council.  In the fourteenth year of the reign of Justinian, there was made patriarch of Jerusalem, Macarius.  He held the office for two years and died.  In the seventeenth year of his reign, there was made patriarch of Jerusalem Eutychius.  He held the office for twelve years and died.  In his eleventh year in office there was the Fifth Council.  In the fifteenth year of his reign, there was made patriarch of Antioch Domnus.  He held the office for fourteen years and died.  In his thirteenth year in office there was the Fifth Council.  In the time of king Justinian there appeared in the sky a big star that remained there for forty days.  Then there appeared in the sky a spear of fire which remained there for several days.

A revolt of the Samaritans is put down – Mar Saba requests a reduction in the land tax from Justinian, because Palestine was ruined – Justinian orders that the church of the Nativity in Jerusalem is rebuilt.

3. From the time when Proterius, patriarch of Alexandria, was killed and burned, to the time when Apollinaris killed the Jacobites and the doctrine of the Melkites triumphed, was thirty-five years (In another text it says “eighty-five years”).  [All this happened] because the doctrine of the Jacobites had conquered in Alexandria and throughout Egypt.  The successive patriarchs in Alexandria were in fact Jacobites, and also Jacobites were the kings in the land of Rum, including Leo the less, Zeno, Anastasius and others that we spoke of earlier.  In the twenty-first year of the reign of Justinian the inhabitants of Samaria in Palestine revolted, destroyed and burned all the churches, killed many Christians subjecting them to serious afflictions and put to death the bishop of Nablus.  Hearing of this, the king Justinian sent an great army and many Samaritans were killed.  Then Peter, patriarch of Jerusalem, asked the holy Mar Saba to travel to Constantinople in order to ask the king to lighten the kharāğ<ref>The kharaj or kharatch was the Islamic land-tax, here used for whatever Byzantine tax was its equivalent. kharāğ is apparently the Egyptian form of the word. – RP</ref> on the population of Palestine in view of the damage that the Samaritans had done there.  Mar Saba then went to Constantinople, and great was the joy with which the king received him.  He delivered the letter of the Patriarch of Jerusalem and was asked what he wanted.  Mar Saba said: “I ask you to lighten the kharāğ on Palestine because the Samaritans have exterminated the inhabitants, and have sown destruction.  I would also ask that the king orders the rebuilding of the churches that the Samaritans gave to the fire, that a  hospice for strangers is erected in Jerusalem, and that Eleona, the church begun by Elias, Patriarch of Jerusalem is completed”.  The king granted him this and all he had asked for, he sent with him one of [his] messengers to deal with that everything was done as requested, providing a lot of money.  He then wrote to his prefect in Palestine and ordered him to hand over to the messenger the proceeds of the kharāğ of Palestine, with which to build what the king had ordered.  The king ordered the messenger to demolish the church of Bethlehem, which was small, and to rebuild it more  impressive, big and beautiful, so that there was none more beautiful in Jerusalem.  When the messenger came to Jerusalem he erected a hospice for strangers.  He completed the construction of the church of Eleona, rebuilt the churches which the Samaritans had burned, he built many monasteries, demolished the church of Bethlehem and rebuilt it, just as we see it today.

With chapter 17 of the “Annals”, we move into the last chapter of antiquity – the century from Justinian to Heraclius – before the muslim invasions swept away the ancient world altogether.  As with most chroniclers of this time, Eutychius divides his work into two halves, so this is the last chapter of the first half.  It’s a long chapter, tho.  Let’s resume the story of the Eastern Roman Empire, as seen from a distance of five centuries by a man who spoke Arabic but thought of himself as a Greek.  We begin with the ascent of Justinian to the throne.

1. Justin, king of Rum, died.  After him there reigned over Rum, for thirty-nine years, Justinian.  This was in the forty-first year of the reign of Qabād, son of Firuz, king of the Persians.  King Justinian was a relative of king Justin.  In the first year of his reign, the king Justinian sent his messenger to Alexandria and summoned to him, at Constantinople, the patriarch Theodosius, whom he enjoined to renounce the doctrine of the Jacobites and to return to the truth.  But he refused to do so, so [the king] decreed his death.  Theodora, wife of the king, interceded for him, and the king let him go.  [Theodosius] returned to Egypt, where he hid in a place called Masil or al-Lamīdas, villages in western Egypt, continuing to profess the doctrine of the Jacobites and gaining a lot of people to his cause.  Having received news of this, the king sent one of his messengers, and condemned him to exile.  At Alexandria there was made patriarch a man named Paul.  He was a Melkite.  He held the office for two years when the Jacobites rose up against him and killed him, making patriarch in his place a man named Dalmiyūs.  He was a Melkite.  He held the office for five years in between harassment and affliction from the Jacobites.  They tried to kill him, but he fled.  He remained a fugitive for five years until he died.

2. News came to king Justinian that the Jacobites had risen up in Alexandria and in Egypt, and that they were killing every patriarch who was appointed for them.  The king was enraged, he chose one of his generals, made him patriarch of Alexandria, gave him a huge army and sent him there.  Apollinaris was his name.  When he arrived in Alexandria, the general made his entrance wearing the armour of a soldier, as a sign that he entered as the representative of the king.  When he reached the church, he removed the clothes he wore, put on his patriarchal robes, stepped up to the altar and celebrated mass.  The population of Alexandria rose up against him, throwing by hand from every side stones and rocks which almost killed him.  He departed from them that day, but three days later reappeared telling them that he had received a letter from the king, and that he needed to read it to the people.  So he had rung the bells, ordering the population to gather in church on Sunday, in order to listen to the letter of the king.  As that was a Sunday, all the inhabitants of Alexandria, without exception, appeared.  The patriarch Apollinaris had agreed with his men that when a signal was given, they would strike with the sword all who were in the church.  Then he got onto the ambo, or pulpit, and said: “O people of Alexandria, if you return to the truth and abjure the doctrine of the Jacobites, it will be best for you, because I fear that otherwise the King will send against you someone who considers it lawful to pour out your blood, dishonour your women and make your children orphans.”  While he addressed these words to them, they began to stone him, so that he feared for his life.  Then he made to his men the signal agreed, and they began to strike with the sword all who were in church.  Innumerable were those who were killed, in and around the church, and the soldiers sank to their knees in the blood of the people.  A great of the population was able to escape to Wadi Habib, to the monastery of Abu Maqar.  The doctrine of the Melkites was then triumphant.  They recovered the churches that the Jacobites had taken away from them, and they seized theirs, and peace was re-established in the city.  This was in the fifteenth year of the reign of King Justinian.  Since then, the see of the Jacobites has continued to be in the monastery of Abu Maqar.

This next portion of the Annals of Eutychius of Alexandria (10th c.), also known as Sa`id ibn Batriq, starts with three theological paragraphs.  Since I don’t actually understand the points at issue here, even in English, it isn’t possible for me to translate them; and I doubt many of us are interested in them.  The three paragraphs appear to be interpolated by an editor.

18. Sa`īd ibn Batriq, the doctor said: “It seemed appropriate here to refute the Jacobites and show the falsity and absurdity of their doctrine. … [Also 19 and 20].

21. But let us return to the point in the history where we stopped.  When Severus, Patriarch of Antioch, died, there was made patriarch of Antioch Paul.  He held the office for five years and died (In another text it says “for two years”).  After him there was made patriarch of Antioch Ifrūsinūs.  He held the office for five years and he died.  That was in the twentieth year of the reign of Anastasius, king of Rum.  In the twenty-third year of his reign, that is, after Elias, Patriarch of Jerusalem, had been deposed, the people of Palestine and Jerusalem met serious afflictions: famine, pestilence, a great epidemic, [an invasion of] many grasshoppers and death, and it did not rain for five years.  In the fifth year of the drought the shortage of water in Jerusalem was so great that the spring of Siloam dried up, and the population began to dig everywhere without finding a bit of water.  There was a terrible earthquake in Antioch, many houses collapsed and many people perished.  Five years after Elias, Patriarch of Jerusalem, had been exiled to the city of Aylah, the superiors of the monasteries, including Saba, went to the Patriarch Elias in the city of Aylah.  The Patriarch Elias welcomed them with great joy, and they stayed with him for seven days.  Then he said, “The king Anastasius has just now died.  I will join him in ten days, and contend with him in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Ten days after, the Patriarch Elias died, at the age of eighty-eight, after being Patriarch for twenty-four years.  It is said that St Saba kept in mind the time [specified by Elias], and then having asked about the king Anastasius, the answer was that at that moment there fell on Constantinople lightning, followed by a terrible thunder from which the King Anastasius reported a discomfort in his brain: clutching his head in his hands, crying and asking for help and running from apartment to apartment, he received God’s punishment, and it killed him.  Before dying, the king Anastasius had written a letter, [found] in his possession, to remove St. Theodosius, the founder of the monastery of ad-Dawākis, from Jerusalem.  But the king Anastasius died before sending the letter to Jerusalem.

22. After him there reigned over Rum Justin, from the province of Thrace, for nine years. This happened in the thirty-second year of the reign of Qabād, son of Firuz, king of the Persians.  King Justin was of the Orthodox faith, a believer in the truth.  He ordered restored to their own places everyone that the king Anastasio had exiled and he sent an edict to Jerusalem in which he set forth his faith.  The monks were reunited with cries of joy, and made publicly available the edict of the king, which they celebrated with a magnificent feast and they confirmed the fourth council of six hundred bishops who had gathered at Chalcedon.  In the fifth year of the reign of Justin there was made patriarch of Rome, John.  He held the office for two years and died.  In the seventh year of his reign there was made patriarch of Rome Felix.  He held the office for four years and died.  In the second year of his reign there was made patriarch of Alexandria Theodosius.  He was a Jacobite and a Katib.  He held the office for three years and was deposed.  In his place there was made patriarch of Alexandria Ghābiyūs.  He was a Manichean and archdeacon.  He held the office for two years and was deposed.  Then Theodosius was reinstated in his office.  He held the office for five years, was deposed and died.  In the first year of his reign he was told that Antimus, the patriarch of Constantinople, was a Jacobite.  He removed him and in his place he made Menna Patriarch of Constantinople. He held the office for eighteen years and died.  In the fifth year of his reign Ephrem was made patriarch of Antioch. He held the office for eighteen years and died.  John, Patriarch of Jerusalem, who had taken the place of the deposed Elias, held the office for seven years and he died.

In the third year of the reign of Justin, Peter, a native of Bayt Gibrīh, was made patriarch of Jerusalem.  He held the office for ten years and died (In another text it says, “for twenty years and died”).  King Justin sent an edict to all countries, providing that everyone should profess the faith promulgated by the Chalcedonian council.