Tag: Syriac

Did early heretics call themselves “Christians”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I was answering an email in great haste earlier today, which contained the assertion that heretics like Marcionites or Valentinians (there was no specific) referred to themselves as Christians.  I think that I sort of assented, or at any rate did not disagree, in the rush to disagree with other parts of the email.

But I found myself wondering.  Do we know that this is true?  Did they, in fact, using the word for themselves?

We are accustomed to different church groups all identifying themselves as Christians.  We are accustomed to modern heretics — liberal clergy who endorse unnatural vice and don’t believe in God — demanding indignantly to be referred to as Christians (to the amused cynicism of everyone else).  But … do we know that the same was true in antiquity?  For antiquity was a different world, and anachronism is always our enemy.

Modern heretics demand the Name, because the name of Christian has a residual positive image in the modern western world: what was once Christendom.  But in ancient times, was this the case?  After all, “christianus” was the name of an illegal cult: non licet esse vos, — you are not allowed to exist, the pagans jeer in the pages of Tertullian’s Apologeticum.

The heresies essentially were pop-pagan philosophical schools, which is, of course, why the early Christians referred to them by the word “haereses”, used, with no pejorative context, for those schools.  But every philosopher made his living by teaching pupils for pay.  And what he had to teach was his own special teachings.  If he was the disciple of some famous earlier philosopher, he would innovate, unless he inherited the school from his master, in order to attract pupils and distinguish himself from other pupils.  To such people, a fresh source of ideas, such as Christianity, was just grist to the mill.  It is telling that the same is true of gnostic groups.  The disciples of Valentinus, such as Apelles, did not teach classical Valentinianism, but their own flavour of it.

In each case, the members of the heresy were not a church in the way that a modern church is organised.  They were more like “hearers”.  The loose organisation of these groups is commented on by Tertullian in De praescriptione haereticorum, who in chapter 6 lists the old-time philosophies from which the new heretics draw their teaching, and towards the end remarks on this lack of structure and definition.

Someone following a school would usually take, I believe, the name of his master, or of the school.  Thus we have the cynics, the Stoics, the Epicureans, and so forth.

Likewise in Corinth, Paul has to tell the Christians not to do the same.  “I follow Paul … I follow Apollos …” is perhaps the same tendency. 

So … do we know that heretical groups generally did not do the same? 

When I read Ephraim the Syrian’s Madrasha 22 against heresies, I do not find that the Marcionites are saying “We are the Christians”.  What they are saying to the Christians is, “You are the followers of Palut”, an early Bishop.  And Ephraim spends a lot of time telling the Christians of the 4th century NOT to name themselves after anyone but Christ.  Do other patristic writers witness to this sort of thing, I wonder?

Did the Valentinians generally call themselves “Valentinians”, perhaps?  Or the Marcionites “Marcionites”?  What is the data, I wonder?

Of course the heretical groups of this period mainly sought to influence Christians, to persuade them to sacrifice and to take on board pagan teachings of one sort of another.  So perhaps it is possible that they found it useful to claim the Name.  I don’t know.  What we need to see, as always, is evidence.

As ever, we need to be so wary of an unconscious anachronism.

UPDATE: See the comments for a couple of examples.  The most interesting is that in the Life of Persian Syriac saint, Mar Aba.

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve commissioned a translation of Ephraim the Syrian’s Hymns against Heresies 22.  I’ve also found somewhere that I can get hold of the text.  I also have a promise of an unpublished translation of the same work; and I have had an interesting email from someone working in the same area who has various translations of parts of the Hymns.  All this is grist to the mill, of course.

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More on Ephraem Syrus’ “Hymni contra haereses”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The 56 Hymns against heresies of Ephraim the Syrian are not online in English, and it does not seem that any published English translation exists.  Sidney H. Griffith has published extracts in English.  The work was published by E. Beck in CSCO 169 (text) and 170 (Latin translation) in 1957, but of course none of us can access this.

Yet a German translation of the work appears in the old Bibliothek der Kirchenvater series, so this suggests that an older edition must exist, which might be online somewhere.  I can only suppose that it is buried in some complete edition of Ephraim’s works. Hmm.

The NPNF series includes some works by Ephraim, translated by John Gwynn, and the introduction refers to “the great Roman edition, S. Ephraemi Syri Opera Syriaca (Rome, 1743).”  The old Library of the Fathers series included a volume of Selected works, which includes a “rhythm against the Jews” which does not seem to be elsewhere and might profitably be placed online.

The “Roman edition” is not easy to find, unless you know that Brigham Young University has  a collection of Syriac books.  It is here.

UPDATE: Yes, well, it might be “here” but I can’t persuade the site to work, either in IE8 or in Chrome.  Why can’t I just download a PDF?!

UPDATE2: Looks as if another copy is here, at the Goussen library.    But it looks as if one can’t download whole volumes, which is very frustrating.  Looks as if there are two series, each of three volumes; series 1, the Greek and Latin works; series 2 the Syriac ones.

UPDATE3: Yay! Found one volume at Google books, here.  Wonder which one? Ah, it’s vol.2 of the Greek and Latin series.  Hit the “About this book” link, and somewhere down the bottom I’m getting other volumes (isn’t Google Books useless for multi-volume works?).  Here’s what I get, after much poking around:

OK, well, that’s something … indeed better than something! Now searching using “Sancti Ephraem Syri Opera omnia quae exstant, Graece” … and this gives me different results again, from what look like Spanish libraries.

Phew.  That was hard work.  But there we have it … all the volumes of this series.

Wonder if any of them contain the Hymni contra haereses?  I think that might be a question for tomorrow!

UPDATE4: vol. 1 of the Syriac is Old Testament commentaries.  Vol. 2 of the Syriac (TOC on p.35 of the PDF) continues this, Job-Malachi, and then has 11 “sermons” on various passages of scripture; then 13 on the Lord’s birthday; then 16 “sermones polemici adversus haereses”, on p.437 (p.472 of the PDF).  We have found our text!  Yay!

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Dumbarton Oaks Syriac resources now online

Posted on by Roger Pearse

An interesting email:

I write to announce the publication of a new online resource at Dumbarton Oaks aimed at the community of Syriac studies. We have assembled numerous freely available, digitized texts — most notably tried-and-true scholarly instrumenta — and organized them into an annotated bibliography that covers several categories (lexica, grammars, histories of Syriac literature, etc.). We have pitched the site at Syriac students who may not know that they need these resources yet, but will be glad to see them all in one place when they do!

This new resource can be found at

http://www.doaks.org/research/byzantine/resources/syriac

You can read more about our goals on the Introduction page. We hope that this site will be of value to the Syriac community, especially those who do not have access to print copies of these (often rare) resources. We will continue to refine and enlarge these pages, and add new ones as well. Of course, we welcome helpful suggestions, comments, and corrections from the scholarly community.

As a caveat, we understand that some of the Google Books links may be useless to those outside of the US because of Google’s decisions regarding copyright law in various countries. Where available, we have tried to link resources on other reputable sites that do not have international restrictions (such as archive.org). We will continue to try to move our links to such sites in the future.

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From my diary, Michael Bourdeaux, East German anti-Christian policy in 1973, and a Swedish Syriac seminary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I have a pile of academic books which I have concluded that I no longer need.  I’ve been fretting about how to post these to a colleague overseas.  But I find that he is at the Warburg Institute in London this month.  So I have spent this evening trying to work out where that is, how I would get there, whether I could park, and so forth.  I’d have to pay the dreaded “congestion charge” tax for the first ever time, as well as my first experience of London traffic.  But it looks a possible for Saturday, if my colleague can give me some directions on what to do when I get there!

I mentioned yesterday that I had an email from Michael Bourdeaux, the founder of Keston College and the man mainly responsible for reporting the persecution of Christians in the old USSR.  I have offered to turn one or two of the old Keston books in English into PDF’s to appear online.  These days the work of Keston is mainly carried out by Russians in their own language.

Keston used to produce a regular journal, Religion in Communist Lands.  Amazingly this is online here.  I have only scratched the surface, but this from Hilary Black, The Church in East Germany, RICL vol. 1.4-5 (1973), p.4-8.

The East German government has always preferred obtaining the support and cooperation of ·the churches to persecution, but the problems of leading a truly Christian life in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) are none the less real for being undramatic.
…
In its early years, the East German government was not sufficiently confident of its control over the population to force the churches to commit themselves to the socialist state, but now that the leadership feels itself firmly established, it is applying increasing pressure.

The churches have to a certain extent acquiesced, in order to avoid an all-out attack on their existence. …
…
In 1971 the government backed up such exhortations with an unpublished administrative regulation which obliged the churches to seek official permission for any activities outside the regular services. Discussion groups and confirmation classes were the particular objects of state attack, and many’ of the clergy are still resisting the injunction, despite the heavy fines which they incur.
…

It is hard to resist a campaign against you when you don’t understand what is happening.  These sorts of narratives will ring a bell in many of us.

Meanwhile I have been corresponding with Father Mikael Lijestrom in Sweden.  He tells me that a new Syriac seminary has opened  there.  There are more Iraqis, he says, in the small town of Södertälje than in the whole of the USA.

I teach at a small but promising pan-orthodox seminary in Stockholm and Södertälje, the Sankt Ignatios Ortodoxa Theologiska seminarium (Saint Ignatius Orthodox Theological Seminary, website at http://www.sanktignatios.org/ all in Swedish) where students from both the Chalcedonian orthodox tradition and the Non-chalcedonians (mainly syriac and coptic  Christians) study theology, Greek, Syriac, some Coptic and  Arabic, patristics, church history,  music, liturgy and a lot more.

The unique thing here is that the Greek and Syriac is on equal footing: they learn both basic Greek and basic Syriac and apply their knowledge on the texts that are used in the other subjects.

This seminary course is intended for everybody who wants to know and partake in the orthodox eastern tradition, and not only to train priests.  Most Syrian orthodox speak Arabic (and Turkish) as well. I hope that many of them will take the challenge  to bring forward the heritage of their forefathers! We have a few persons who work with oriental christian literature at the University of Uppsala too.

The seminary is new and  small and  we are still working to become known and to find suitable localities. We have just finished our first year, and have 9 very qualified  students for the coming year. The Syrian Orthodox Church have teachers —malfone — in their parishes who teach classical syriac for internal ecclesiastical and cultural use, and that is fine and they are supported by the study unions. At the seminary, on the other hand, the Syrian Orthodox and the Byzantine Orthodox together learn Greek for the first semester and Syriac for the second, together with some Coptic and a starter course in Arabic. The Christians from the Middle East generally speak Arabic and read modern Arabic, so for them the study of older texts is easier than for most others.

The aim with this basic course in orthodox Christian tradition is to give the seminarists a good basic knowledge of what orthodox Christianity is, what the Church Fathers generally teach and insights into the different traditions. Thus they will be able to work as journalists,  and in social welfare , as Sunday School teachers etc. Ideally all orthodox people should take this course after high school, when previously everyone did one year of military service. So the slogan is: “One Year for the Church!”

I’m sure that we all wish them the very best with this initiative, which can only do good.

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Aphrahat in English

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I can’t find the post, but a month or two back I decided that I really ought to try to get hold of the complete English translation of the classic Syriac author Aphrahat.  He wrote 26 sermons, and a selection was included in the Ante-Nicene Fathers series so is online.  But few people even know there is a complete translation, made in Kottayam in India a few years ago and available in two volumes from the St Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute at $25 a vol.

At least, in theory it is available.  In practice SEERI are quite hard to deal with.  I wrote and asked, and got a reply asking for my postal address and how I proposed to pay.  I offered to pay using Xoom.com, and heard nothing more.  I was thinking yesterday what to do.  Gorgias Press do a version of the book, at some very high price.

But down at the post office this morning, and the parcel is not the humdrum item that I was expecting, but a parcel from SEERI.  Yep — it’s the Aphrahat!  The packing is not great, and rather torn, but the item has arrived fine!

Opening it was harder than it looks.  But once open, there were the two volumes!

A catalogue search reveals that not a single library in the UK possesses a copy of these.

On opening them, I find that vol. 1 contains a lot of introductory matter, obviously from a thesis, and a preface by Sebastian Brock.  This is solid stuff, in other words.  Now if only it was online!

But now I have to work out how to pay them.  Western Digital is possible; Xoom is possible; but in both cases I need information from SEERI to give them.  I look up their address in Google Maps and they are in the heart of the city of Kottayam.  It is a bit sad, tho, that it is so much work to give them money.  Let’s see what happens!

PS: An email from the library tells me that Brockelmann 2nd ed. vol. 1 has arrived.  Not that I can do much about that until Monday, but good to know.

Now I need to do something with the proposed design leaflet for the Patristics Conference, advertising the Eusebius book.  The final revision awaits!  I’ve already paid for the insert yesterday.  All costly in time and money, N.B.

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“I have outflanked these miserable insects…”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

An interesting email came to me today from David Wilmshurst, discussing the problems that a scholar has in editing Wikipedia, with a very nice turn of phrase in it:

No agreement will ever be possible in a democratic forum like Wikipedia, because Assyrians and Chaldeans cannot agree on the basic premises.  Instead, I have outflanked these miserable insects – as the Nestorian patriarch Elisha  (524-39) amiably termed his opponents – by writing my own book on the subject, in the hope that after it is published I can bludgeon them into submission by citing it as an authority.  I confess, though, that I am not optimistic of success.

The phrase “miserable insects”, for the dogs in the manger, is a delightful one.  My correspondent also kindly sent over a translation of the passage in which Elisha said this.  It comes from the Nestorian Chronicle of Seert, Part II, Chapter 25, apropos of the schism of Narsai and Elisha.  Elisha has suppressed Narsai’s supporters in most of Mesopotamia, and only Kashkar in Beth Aramaye still openly defies him.

Elisha, on his return to Seleucia, reached an agreement with the metropolitans and bishops who supported him to take his revenge on the inhabitants of Kashkar.  He then consecrated a bishop named Barshabba in place of Samuel.  This bishop, who was rejected by the people of Kashkar, returned to Elisha. 

Thanks to the doctor Biron, who obtained for him a royal edict aimed at giving him support, and to the militia commanders, who were ready to act upon his orders, Elisha resolved to attack the people of Kashkar to take his revenge on them.  They, having got wind of his plan, prepared to defend themselves, to fight, and to repel whoever attacked them.  They were supported by many men from Beth Huzaye and Beth Garmai, who opposed Elisha. 

The latter was extremely angry at this.  ‘How,’ he said in the presence of the people of Seleucia, ‘do those those miserable little insects, who claim to have rejected and humiliated me, think that they can get the better of me, since I have been victorious everywhere else?’  This speech reached the ears of the people of Kashkar, and inflamed their anger. 

Elisha returned to his residence, holding the royal edict in his hand.  One of the people of Kashkar approached him in the middle of the crowd to kiss his hand.  When the catholicus held it out to him, the man of Kashkar seized the edict from him and gave it to someone else.  A strict search was made for this man, but he was never found. 

The quarrel worsened.  One group of supporters would tear the clothing from their opponents, or the two sides would come to blows.  Elisha was mortified to have lost the royal edict, which had cost him so much to obtain, and to have been the object of the offensive mockery of the people of Kashkar.

I fear that the Chronicle of Seert is not a pro-Elisha source!  But the impatience of a great man with foolish opposition is apposite.

The text was published with French translation in the Patrologia Orientalis series by Addai Scher, who was done to death in 1915 as part of the massacres of Christians by the Turks.  I don’t know of an English translation, however.

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The pagans at Constantinople in the time of Justinian

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Vivian Nutton’s paper From Galen to Alexander, Aspects of Medicine and Medical Practice in Late Antiquity,1 continues to give interesting pieces of information.  On page 6 he discusses the relationship of antique medicine to Christianity at the opening of the Byzantine period, and tells us:

… John of Ephesus denounced in the persecutions of Justinian an indiscriminate collection of grammarians, sophists, lawyers and, finally, doctors. 

The reference is to the Revue de l’Orient Chretien vol. 2 (1897) p.481 f.  Fortunately this very valuable series was digitised and made available, thanks to the generosity of George Kiraz of Gorgias Press, so we can consult it at Archive.org.

The article begins on p.455, and is by Francois Nau, Analyse de la seconde partie inedite de l’histoire ecclesiastique de Jean d’Asie, patriarche jacobite de Constantinople (d. 585).  This consists of material from the Chronicle of Zuqnin, book 3, which is mainly derived from the lost second book of John of Ephesus.  The article comes with portions of the Syriac text and a French translation of them.  Here is the French, and an English translation of that.

(Folio 200v) En ce temps, on découvrit des Manichéens à Constantinople et on les brûla.

A cette époque un grand nombre d’hommes adhérérent à l’erreur funeste des Manichéens; ils se réunissaient dans des maisons et écoutaient les mystères impurs de cet enseignement. Quand ils eurent été pris, l’empereur les fit comparaître devant lui; il espérait les convertir et les ramener de leur pernicieuse erreur; il disputa avec eux, les instruisit, leur démontra par l’Écriture qu’ils adhéraient à une doctrine païenne, mais ils ne se laissèrent pas persuader; avec une ténacité satanique, ils criaient devant l’empereur sans aucune crainte, disaient qu’ils étaient prêts à affronter le bûcher pour l’enseignement de Manès et à supporter tous les supplices et toutes les souffrances pour ne pas le changer.

Alors l’empereur ordonna d’accomplir leur désir, de les jeter [Syriac] et de les brûler dans la mer afin qu’ils fussent ensevelis dans les flots, et de confisquer leurs biens, car il y avait parmi eux des femmes illustres, des nobles et des sénateurs. C’est ainsi que beaucoup de Manichéens périrent par le feu et ne voulurent pas quitter leurs erreurs.

Des paiens que l’on découvrit à Constantinople sous l’empereur Justinien.

La dix-neuvième année de l’empereur Justinien (546), on s’occupa, grâce à mon zèle, de l’affaire des païens que l’on découvrit à Constantinople. C’étaient des hommes illustres et nobles avec une foule de grammairiens, de sophistes, de scholastiques et de médecins. Quand ils furent découverts et que, grâce aux tortures, ils se furent dénoncés, on les saisit, on les flagella, on les emprisonna, on les donna aux Églises pour qu’ils y apprissent
la foi chrétienne comme il convient aux païens.

Il y avait parmi eux des patrices et des nobles. Ainsi un païen puissant et riche nomme Phocas, qui était patrice, voyant l’âpreté de l’inquisition et sachant que ceux qui étaient arrêtés l’avaient dénoncé comme païen et qu’un jugement sévère avait été rendu contre lui à cause du zèle de l’empereur, prit de nuit un poison mortel et quitta ainsi cette vie terrestre. Quand l’empereur l’apprit, il ordonna avec justice qu’on l’enterrât comme un âne, qu’il n’y eût aucun cortège pour lui ni aucune prière. Ainsi sa famille le mit durant la nuit sur une litière, l’emporta, fit ouvrir un tombeau et l’y jeta comme un animal mort. Grâce à cela les païens craignirent pour quelque temps.

En 853 (542), la bonté de Dieu visita l’Asie, la Carie, la Lydie et la Phrygie, grâce au zéle du victorieux Justinien et par l’opération de son humble serviteur (c’est-à-dire de Jean d’Asie). Aussi par la vertu du Saint-Esprit, 70,000 âmes furent instruites et quittèrent les erreurs du paganisme, l’adoration des idoles et les temples des démons pour la connaissance de la vérité. Tous se convertirent, renièrent les erreurs de leurs ancêtres, furent baptisés au nom de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ, et furent ajoutés au nombre des chrétiens. Le victorieux (Justinien) paya les dépenses et les habits du baptême; il eut soin aussi de donner un trimi/tion (1) à chacun d’eux.

Quand Dieu eut ouvert leurs esprits et leur eut fait connaître la vérité, ils nous aidaient de leurs mains à détruire leurs temples, à renverser leurs idoles, â extirpir les sacrifices que l’on offrait partoùt, à abattre leurs autels souillés par le sang des sacrifices offerts aux démons et à couper les innombrables arbres qu’ils adoraient, car ils s’éloignaient de toutes les erreurs de leurs ancêtres.

Le signe salutaire de la croix fut planté partout chez eux, et des églises  de Dieu furent fondées en tout lieu. Elles furent bâties et édifiées, jusqu’au nombre de quatre-vingt-seize, avec grande diligence et grand zèle dans les montagnes hautes et escarpées et dans les plaines, dans tous les lieux qui portérent le paganisme. Douze monastères (2) furent aussi fondés dans ces lieux qui portérent le paganisme et où le nom de chrétien ne fut jamais entendu depuis le commencement du monde jusqu’à cette époque. Cinquante-cinq églises furent fondées aux frais du trésor public et quarante et une aux frais des nouveaux chrétiens. Le victorieux empereur leur donna volontiers par nos mains les vases sacrés, les vêtements, les livres et l’airain (3).

In English:

At that time, Manichaeans were discovered at Constantinople and burned.

At that time many men adhered to the fatal error of the Manichaeans; they gathered in houses and listened to the impure mysteries of this teaching. When they were taken, the emperor summoned them before him; he hoped to convert them and bring them back from their pernicious errors; he disputed with them, instructed them, showed them from Scripture that they were adhering to a pagan doctrine, but they would not allow themselves to be persuaded; with satanic tenacity, they cried out before the emperor without any fear, said they were ready to face the stake for teaching of Manes and to bear every agony and suffering rather than change.

Then the emperor ordered that their desire should be fulfilled, and to throw them [Syriac] and to burn them in the sea that they might be buried in the waves, and to confiscate their property, because there were among them illustrious women, nobles and senators. Thus many of the Manicheans perished by fire and would not leave their errors.

Of the pagans that were discovered at Constantinople under the Emperor Justinian.

In the nineteenth year of the Emperor Justinian (546), they were busy, thanks to my zeal, with the matter of  the pagans who were discovered in Constantinople. These were illustrious and noble men, with a host of grammarians, sophists, scholastics and physicians. When they were discovered and, thanks to torture, denounced themselves, they were seized, flogged, imprisoned, and sent to the churches so that they might learn the Christian faith as was appropriate for pagans.

There were among them patricians and nobles.  Then a powerful and wealthy pagan named Phocas, who was a patrician, saw the harshness of the inquisition and knowing that those arrested had denounced him as a pagan, and that a severe sentence had been given against him because of the zeal of the emperor, that night took deadly poison and so left this earthly life. When the emperor heard this, he ordered with justice that he should be interred like an ass, that there should be no cortege or prayer for him. So his family during the night put him on a litter, carried him, made an open grave and threw him in it like a dead animal. Thanks to this the pagans were afraid for some time.

In 853 (542), the goodness of God visited Asia, Caria, Lydia and Phrygia, thanks to the zeal of the victorious Justinian and by the efforts of his humble servant [i.e. John of Ephesus himself].  So by the power of the Holy Spirit, 70,000 souls were instructed, and left behind the errors of paganism, the worship of idols and the temples of the demons for the knowledge of the truth. All were converted, disavowed the errors of their ancestors, were baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and were added to the number of Christians.  The victorious (Justinian) paid the expenses and clothing for baptism; he also took care to give a τριμίτιον (1) to each of them.

When God had opened their minds and had made known the truth, they helped us with their own hands to destroy their temples, to overthrow their idols, to extirpate the sacrifices that were offered everywhere, to cut down their altars, soiled with the blood of sacrifices offered to demons, and to cut down countless trees that they worshipped because they were leaving all the errors of their ancestors.

The salutary sign of the cross was planted everywhere among them, and churches of God were founded everywhere.  They were built and erected, to the number of eighty-six, with great diligence and zeal, in the high mountains and steep and in the plains, in all the places where there was paganism.  Twelve monasteries were also founded in places which were pagan, and where the name of Christian name had never been heard from the beginning of the world until this time. Fifty-five churches were founded at public expense and forty-one at the expense of the new Christians.  The victorious emperor gave them willingly, by our hands, the sacred vessels, clothes, books and brass items.

(1) The dictionary gives three gold pieces.

We are so accustomed to Christians being persecuted, that it is right to remember that the name of Christ has been used to justify horrible persecution.  John of Ephesus, it seems clear, was a persecutor.  He ended his life in exile, however, when the tide in Constantinople changed and the monophysites received the treatment that he had handed out as a young man.  It’s sad, sobering stuff.  Note how Justinian didn’t want to say “I am persecuting you” but took refuge in the “I am giving you your desire”.  Such are the tricks that men play on themselves, when they are doing something they know to be wrong, yet doing it anyway.

But an interesting fact is that even in the middle of the 5th century, there were substantial areas of Asia Minor where “the name of Christian had not been heard from the beginning of the world to this time.”

The article mainly summarises what is on each page of the manuscript.  On fol. 238v, we find the statement that in 861 AG (550 AD), John of Ephesus burned the bones of Montanus, Maximilla, and Priscilla, as well as the temples of their adherents.  It is a pity that he does not translate this section. 

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Bar Hebraeus, Chronicon Ecclesiasticum vol. 2 now on Archive.org

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve just created and uploaded a PDF of the Chronicon Ecclesiasticum of Bar Hebraeus, vol.2, to Archive.org.  The url is here:

http://www.archive.org/details/BarHebraeusChroniconEcclesiasticumVol.2

Many blessings on Glasgow University Library who kindly photocopied this 19th century volume for me.  It arrived this evening, so I have spent the time since productively!  It cost about 25GBP to get the copies, or around $40 (the invoice has yet to reach me, but will probably include a charge for postage).

For those not familiar with the work, the Chronicon Ecclesiasticum of Bar Hebraeus is a history of the church in a series of chapters, each covering an ecclesiastical figure.  Usually the figure is a patriarch.  The work is in two parts.  It runs up to his own time, in the 13th century.  He wrote in Syriac; the editors Abbeloos and Lamy include a simple Latin translation alongside it.

I uploaded volume 1 some years ago.  Now only volume 3 remains.  As far as I know, this 1872 edition is the only one that the work has ever received.  Yet it is the fundamental source for all Syriac studies.

I will obtain and scan volume 3 as well.  It’s too important a text to be inaccessible.  Any errors, do let me know.

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