Patristic literature

The schools of Edessa and Nisibis

Parallel with its richer and better-known Greek and Latin counterparts, an independent Syriac Christian literature flourished inside, and later outside (in Persia), the frontiers of the Roman Empire from the early 4th century onward. Aphraates, an ascetic cleric under whose name 23 treatises written between 336 and 345 have survived, is considered the first Syriac Father. Deeply Christian in tone, these tracts present a primitive theology, with no trace of Hellenistic influence but a firm grasp and skillful use of scripture. Edessa and Nisibis (now Urfa and Nusaybin in southeast Turkey) were the creative centres of this literature. Edessa had been a focus of Christian culture well before 200; the old Syriac version of the New Testament and Tatian’s Diatessaron, as well as a mass of Syriac apocryphal writings, probably originated there.

The chief glory of Edessene Christianity was Ephraem Syrus (c. 306–373), the classic writer of the Syrian Church who established his school of theology there when Nisibis, its original home and his own birthplace, was ceded to Persia under the peace treaty of 363, after the death of Julian the Apostate. In his lifetime Ephraem had a reputation as a brilliant preacher, commentator, controversialist, and above all, sacred poet. His exegesis shows Antiochene tendencies, but as a theologian he championed Nicene orthodoxy and attacked Arianism. His hymns, many in his favourite seven-syllable metre, deal with such themes as the Nativity, the Epiphany, and the Crucifixion or else are directed against skeptics and heretics. His Carmina Nisibena (“Songs of Nisibis”) make a valuable source book for historians, especially for information about the frontier wars.

After Ephraem’s death in 373, the school at Edessa developed his lively interest in exegesis and became increasingly identified with the Antiochene line in theology. Among those responsible for this was one of its leading instructors, Ibas (d. 457), who worked energetically translating Theodore of Mopsuestia’s commentaries and disseminating his Christological views. His own stance on the now urgent Christological issue was akin to that of Theodoret of Cyrrhus—roughly midway between Nestorius’ dualism and the Alexandrian doctrine of one nature—and he bluntly criticized Cyril’s position in his famous letter to Maris (433), the sole survivor (in a Greek translation) of his abundant works; it was one of the Three Chapters anathematized by the second Council of Constantinople (553).

The frankly Antiochene posture typified by Ibas brought the school into collision with Rabbula, bishop of Edessa from 412 to 435, an uncompromising supporter of Cyril and the Alexandrian Christology. As well as writing numerous letters, hymns, and a sermon against Nestorius, Rabbula translated Cyril’s De recta fide (Concerning the Correct Faith) into Syriac and also probably compiled the revised Syriac version of the four Gospels (contained in the Peshitta) in order to oust Tatian’s Diatessaron. On his death he was succeeded by Ibas, who predictably exerted his influence in an Antiochene direction.

Another eminent Edessene writer was Narses (d. c. 503), who became one of the formative theologians of the Nestorian Church. He was the author of extensive commentaries, now lost, and of metrical homilies, dialogue songs, and liturgical hymns. In 447, when a Monophysite reaction set in, he was expelled from Edessa along with Barsumas, the head of the school, but they promptly set up a new school at Nisibis on Persian territory. The school at Edessa was finally closed, because of its Nestorian leanings, by the emperor Zeno in 489, but its offshoot at Nisibis flourished for more than 200 years and became the principal seat of Nestorian culture. At one time it had as many as 800 students and was able to ensure that the then prosperous church in Persia was Nestorian. On the other hand, Philoxenus of Mabbug, who had studied at Edessa in the second half of the 5th century and was one of the most learned of Syrian theologians, was a vehement advocate of Monophysitism. His 13 homilies on the Christian life and his letters reveal him as a fine prose writer; but he is chiefly remembered for the revision of the Syriac translation of the Bible (the so-called Philoxenian version) for which he was responsible and which was used by Syrian Monophysites in the 6th century.