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Abraham De-Bēt Rabban and His Rôle in the Hermeneutic Traditions of the School of Nisibis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Arthur Vööbus
Arthur Vööbus
Affiliation:
Lutheran School of Theology, Maywood, Ill.
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Extract

The work of the School of Edessa was put under strictures of ever increasing severity, and led finally to its liquidation under Zeno in 489. The torch of higher learning was then transplanted to Nisibis, a center that had been the pride of Byzantium before it was annexed by the Persians in 361. In Narsai's person and those of his co-workers, the tradition returned to Nisibis from which stimuli once had gone out giving birth to the School of Edessa. The question of time of the founding of the School of Nisibis which has been the subject of disagreement, can now due to an important document be dated with greater precision namely — soon after the year 471. Narsai became the first director. Soon after its appearance upon the scene, the school was accorded an extraordinary élan. It took over the leadership among other radii of intellectual and spiritual life, the best that Christianity under the Sassanides had produced. The life that emanated from it constitutes the most beautiful page in the history of Christianity in this part of the world. Its statutes also occupy a place of honor in the tradition regarding the legislative sources.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , April 1965 , pp. 203 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1965

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References

1 See E. R. Hayes, L'École d'Édesse (Paris, 1930), 191ff.

2 A. Vööbus, Literary-Critical and Historical Studies in Ephrem the Syrian (Stockholm, 1958), 125ff.

3 Vööbus, A., “Un vestige d'une lettre de Narsaï et son importance historique,” L'Orient syrien 9 (1964), 515ff.Google Scholar

4 A. Vööbus, History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient, in Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Subsidia 14 (Louvain, 1958), vol. I, 315ff.

5 The Statutes of the School of Nisibis: the Syriac text with translation and a commentary, edited by A. Vööbus (Stockholm, 1962).

6 A. Vööbus, Die syrischen Kanonessammlungen und ihre handschriftliche Überlieferung: Beiträge zur Quellenkunde der syrischen Kirchengeschichte, vol. II (will be published in the Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Subsidia).

7 Elišaʻ bar Qūzbāiē; however, he was not identical with Hōšeʻ, bishop and metropolitan of Nisibis, as J. B. Chabot, Littérature syriaque (Paris, 1934), 51, has suggested.

8 La seconde partie de l'histoire ecclésiastique, éd. par F. Nau, in Patrologia orientalis IX (Paris, 1913), 620.

9 Histoire nestorienne, éd. par A. Scher, in Patrologia orientalis VII (1919), 116.

10 See ibid., 116, footnote 4.

11 The Statutes of the School of Nisibis, 89f.

12 La cause de la fondation des écoles, éd. par A. Scher, in Patrologia orientalis IV (Paris, 1908), 389.

13 Histoire ecclésiastique, 620.

14 Ibid., 623.

15 Ibid., 622.

16 Ibid., 624.

17 One of his works is devoted to the schools and their history titled ‘The Cause of the Foundation Through Summary Chapters’ as it appears in ʻAbdīšōʻ's work on the history of literature in Ms. Par. syr. 317, fol. 59a; Ms. Mus. Borg. syr. 1, fol. 198b; Ms. Br. Mus. Orient. 4069, fol. 112a. The text in Catalogus librorum, ed. J. S. Assemani, in Bibliotheca orientalis III, 1 (Romae, 1725), 71, is wrong since it is so corrupted that its original meaning is lost.

18 A. Vööbus, Les messaliens et les réformes de Barçauma de Nisibe dans l'église perse (Pinneberg, 1947), 30ff.

19 Syriac and Arabic Documents, ed. by A. Vööbus (Stockholm, 1960), 150ff.

20 A. Vööbus, The School of Nisibis: its history at the zenith of its career and its contribution to the spiritual treasury of the Syrian Orient, in Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Subsidia (Louvain, 1965), chapter V, 3.

21 Histoire nestorienne, 116; see also A. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur (Bonn, 1922), 115.

22 Histoire ecclésiastique, 622.

23 Cause de la fondation des écoles, 389.

24 Catalogus librorum ecclesiasticorum, textum syriacum cum translatione latina et annotationibus edidit A. Vööbus, in Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Lovanii (about to be published).

25 Ibid.; Histoire nestorienne, 116.

26 Ibid.; ʻAbdīšōʻ, Catalogus librorum LV.

27 Ibid.; Histoire nestorienne, 116.

28 Ibid.; Cause de la fondation des écoles, 389.

29 Ms. Šarfeh Patr. syr. 80. However Ms. Vat. syr. 507 is not an independent witness.

30 Ms. Birm. Ming. syr. 547.

31 ʻAbdīšōʻ, Catalogus librorum LV; the commentary is mentioned also in Histoire nestorienne, 116.

32 Histoire nestorienne, 116.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid.

35 Ms. Baghdad A (18 cent.); Ms. Manch. Ryl. syr. 41; Ms. Berl. orient, quart. 870; Ms. Vat. syr. 494.

36 Ms. Jerus. Greek Patr. 10; Ms. Br. Mus. orient. 4524.

37 Ms. Birm. Ming. syr. 58, fol. 17b.

38 Ms. Seert 121, cf. A. Scher, Catalogue des manuscrits syriaques et arabes conservés dans la bibliothèque épiscopate de Séert (Kurdistan), (Mossoul, 1905), 87f.

39 Ms. Baghdad 113, fol. 270b ff.

40 Ms. Birm. Ming. syr. 553, fol. 8ab, 11a, 12b, 13b et passim.

41 Ms. Birm. Ming. syr. 553, fol. 33a, 35a, 37a, 41ab et passim.

42 Ms. Birm. Ming. syr. 553, fol. 59b, 60a, 64ab, 66a et passim. Išōʻdād adds here very little, Ms. Jerus. Greek Patr. 10, fol. 125a.

43 Ms. Birm. Ming. syr. 553, fol. 75a, 78b, 79a, 80b et passim.

44 Ms. Birm. Ming. syr. 553, fol. 98b, 101b, 103b, 105b et passim.

45 Ms. Jerus. Greek Patr. 10, fol. 135a; Ms. Br. Mus. orient 4524, fol. 134b.

46 Ms. Birm. Ming. syr. 58, fol. 17b.

47 Ms. Birm. Ming. syr. 553, cf. footnote 39.

48 It means ‘our master.’

49 Ms. Birm. Ming. syr. 553, fol. 23b.

50 About this question see Vööbus, The School of Nisibis, chapter V, 3.

51 Ms. Baghdad 6024, cah. 12, fol. 10a.

52 Išōʻdad of Merv, Commentaries, ed. by M. D. Gibson (Cambridge, 1911–1916), III, 210.

53 Ibid., V, 1, 107.

54 Ms. Vat. syr. 592, fol. 49b; cf. Ms. Br. Mus. orient. 9358, fol. 34a.

55 See a detailed account of his mēmrē creation in Vööbus, the School of Nisibis, chapter III, 4.

56 Chabot, Littérature syriaque, 50.

57 Vööbus, The School of Nisibis, chapter III, 4.

58 Mešīḥāzekā, Histoire de l'église d'Adiabène, in Sources syriaques, éd. par A. Mingana (Leipzig, 1907), I, 73.

59 La cause de la fondation des écoles, 389.

60 In the School of Edessa under the director Qiiōrē, cf. A. Vööbus, Studies in the History of the Gospel Text in Syriac, in Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Subsidia 3 (Louvain, 1951), 81f.

61 The word is ambiguous and can mean ‘translators.’

62 Histoire ecclésiastique, 622.

63 It is not quite clear whether this means that he prepared improved translations or furnished translations with fuller explanations, or whether this refers to his exegetical works which rest on the exegetical traditions of Theodore of Mopsuestia.

64 Histoire ecclésiastique, 622.

65 Ibid., 620.

66 De partibus divinae legis, in Patrologia latina, ed. J. P. Migne, LXVIII, col. 15ff.

67 ‘Vidisse me quendam Paulum nomine, Persam genere, qui in Syrorum schola in Nisibi urbe est edoctus,’ ibid., col. 15.

68 Procopius, Anecdota XX, 17, ed. J. Haury (Lipsiae, 1905), 117.

69 Theodor von Mopsuestia und Junilius Africanus als Exegeten (Freiburg i. B., 1880), 258f.

70 “Per la vita e gli scritti di ‘Paolo il Persiano’,” Studi e Testi 5 (Roma, 1901), 3 and 15.

71 Le christianisme dans l'empire perse sous la dynastie Sassanide (Paris, 1904), 166.

72 Patrologia syriaca (Romae, 1958), 118.

73 He was consecrated by Catholicos Abā in 540 or 541, and ruled until 571.

74 Mešīḥāzekā, Histoire de l'église d'Abiabène XX, 75.

75 Metropolitan Paul took part in a theological colloquy that took place after 562, cf. Histoire nestorienne, VII, 187. The disputation with a Manichee Photinos in which Paul ‘the Persian’ was engaged, took place in 527.

76 He is not called bishop by Junilius.

77 Nova Patrum Bibliotheca, ed. A. Mai (Romae, 1874), IV, 80ff.

78 De partibus divinae legis, col. 15.

79 De hermeneuticis apud Syros Aristoteleis, ed. J. G. E. Hoffmann (Lipsiae, 1869), 22ff.

80 Πɛρὶ τῶν πέντɛ ϕωνῶν.

81 Logica, ed. I. P. N. Land, in Anecdota syriaca (Lugduni Batavorum, 1875), IV, 6ff.

82 De partibus divinae legis, col. 15.

83 ‘Nisus sum cum beatissimo Agapeto papa urbis Romae, ut sicut apud Alexandriam multo tempore fuisse traditur institutum, nunc etiam in Nisibi civitate Syrorum ab Hebraeis (sic! this seems to be a corruption of hebraice) sedulo fertur exponi, collatis expensis in urbe Romana professos doctores scholae potius acciperent christianae, unde et anima susciperet aeternam salutem et casto atque purissimo eloquio lingua comeretur,’ Institutiones divinarum et humanarum lectionum, ed. J. P. Migne, Patrologia latina LXX, col. 1105f.

84 Ibid., I, 10, col. 1122.