Early eastern Christianity

Front matter

tibrarp of the theological ^etmnarjp

PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY

PURCHASED BY THE MRS. ROBERT LENOX KENNEDY CHURCH HISTORY FUND i— j r

Preface

“Early Eastern Christianity,” the title which I have given to these six Lectures, may possibly be held to be a misleading name. My Lectures are an attempt to sketch the leading character¬ istics of the ancient Church of Edessa and the Euphrates Valley from the earliest times to the Council of Chalcedon. The “Eastern Church” in popular usage generally means something geographically wider. We think of Greeks and of Russians, of Alexandria and Constantinople. But compared with the Church about which I have written these names belong to the West, to the great Church within the Roman Empire. It is the unique distinction of the Church of the Euphrates Valley, that alone among the develop¬ ments of Christianity in the ante-Nicene age it had some of its roots in a realm outside the Roman Empire, and that the language of its learning and its aspirations was a tongue akin to that of Palestine.

It would have been possible to trace out some

Vlll

PREFACE of those elements in the Grseco- Roman Church which were most akin to the ideas and practices which flourished at Edessa. To name but one notable example, it would be extremely interesting to compare in detail the theological and ethical standpoint of the newly discovered Acts of Paul with that of Serapion of Antioch and his disciple Palut. But apart from considerations of space it seemed to me better to let Syriac Christianity speak for itself. It is a far-away tale of a vanished civilisation, but an excursion into this remote region may give us a new point of view from which to look at our own ideals and beliefs.

It only remains to say that the photographs of Edessa in this volume were very kindly taken for me by Fr. Raphael of the Capuchin Mission at Urfa. The two great Columns in the Frontis¬ piece were set up in the days of paganism, and fragments of their Dedication Inscription are still legible upon one of them. Below this may be seen a few letters containing the Moslem pro¬ fession of faith cut in an early Arabic character. Between the period covered by these two Inscrip¬ tions must be placed the rise of Christianity in Edessa and its slow decline.

Contents

PAGE

I. THE EARLY BISHOPS OF EDESSA .... I

II. THE BIBLE IN SYRIAC . 39

I. Three illustrious Priests

In the type of the two great Lights, Transmitted and delivered to one another, Throne and Hand and Flock :

To us, whose grief was great for the two,

The last was wholly consolation.

To Thee be glory , Who didst choose them /

1 Bickell’s Carmina Nisibena , p. 20 ; translated by Gwynn, p. 180.

THE NISI BENE HYMNS

II. He Who created the two great Lights

Chose for Himself the three great Lights,

And set them in the three Cloistered darknesses that came to pass.

When the pair of Lights were quenched The last was altogether radiant.

To Thee be glory , &c.

III

The three Priests were treasurers Who held in their integrity The key of the Trinity ;

Three doors did they open to us,

Each one of them with his key In his time 1 was opening his door.

To Thee be glory , &c.