Babai the Great
Encyclopedia
Babai the Great was an early church father of the Church of the East
. He set several of the foundational pillars of the Church, revived the monastic movement, and formulated its Christology
in a systematic way. He served as an unofficial head of the Nestorian Church from 611 to 628 AD, leaving a legacy of strong discipline and deep religious Orthodoxy
. He is revered in the modern Assyrian Church of the East
.
. Born to a wealthy family, he received a primary education in the Persian (Pahlavi) books. He continued his studies at the Christian School of Nisibis
under the directorship of Abraham of Beth Rabban. Sometime around 571 A.D., when the Origen
ist Henana of Adiabene
became the new headmaster, Babai's teacher, Abraham the Great of Kashkar
, founded a new monastery on Mt. Izla above Nisibis. Babai taught for a while at the Xenodocheio of Nisibis. After that he joined the newly-founded monastery of Abraham on Mt. Izla. When Abraham died in 588, Babai left and founded a new monastery and school in his home country Beth Zabdai.
In 604 Babai became the third head of Abraham's monastery on Mt. Izla.
Abraham the Great had started a monastic reform movement which Babai and other disciples carried through. Since Bar Sauma
and the Synod of Beth Lapat
, monks and nuns had been encouraged to marry. When Babai returned to Mt. Izla in 604, he expelled monks that lived with women and enforced strict discipline, emphasizing a deep life of prayer and solitude. The result was a mass exodus, not only of the married monks.
But the Church of the East
was with Babai. In 604, the Catholicos Mar Sabrisho I died and a new Catholicos had to be elected. The choice fell between two men named Gregory: Bishop Gregory of Nisibis and Professor Gregory of Seleucia. King Khosrau II
, the Sassanid
emperor, stated only that his preferred candidate was Gregory, possibly meaning the bishop. The king's influential wife Shirin
, however, disliked Gregory of Nisibis and preferred Gregory of Seleucia, who had once been her steward. The Synod
(council) rejected the king's initial candidate, taking advantage of the ambiguity of name, and chose Gregory of Seleucia, who became Mar Gregorius I. The king was accordingly displeased, and reluctantly supported the elected candidate (after applying a hefty fine to him), and said, "Patriarch he is and patriarch he shall be -- but never again do I allow another election."
When the Catholicos Gregorius died a few years later in 608, the bishops made the usual request to the king to allow them to elect a new Catholicos, but Khosrau had not forgotten the events of the previous election and refused them leave to do so. The royal physician Gabriel of Shiggar, a staunch Monophysite, suggested to make Henana of Adiabene
or one of his students Catholicos, and also used his influence with the king to prevent an election. The king successfully blocked an election in the church, preventing the church from having any figure who could allow new bishops and metropolitans
to be consecrated.
During the decades of this vacancy, the Nestorian church required a sort of authority. Because the king remained staunch in his policy, the church chose to separate itself from the king's royal proscription. Two vekils (regents) were selected as a stop-gap measure: Archdeacon Mar Aba, who handled matters in the north. In the south, Babai the Great was chosen to lead, who at the time was abbot
of a monastery on Mt. Izla. He was nominated inspector-general or visitor
of the monasteries of the three northern provinces by the Metropolitans of Nisibis
, B. Garmai, and Adiabene
. Therefore Babai, even though not yet a bishop, acted as patriarch in all ecclesiastical matters, though he could not ordain or consecrate. He was appointed 'visitor of the monasteries' of the north, and administered the church in collaboration with Archdeacon Mar Aba. In particular, this new position allowed Babai to investigate the orthodoxy of the monasteries and monks of northern Mesopotamia, and to enforce discipline throughout the monasteries of northern Mesopotamia, even against occasional resistance.
Babai the Great and Mar Aba administered the Nestorian Church for 17 years. Attempts were made during that time to ask the king to change his mind and allow an election, but influences in the court, such as Gabriel of Shiggar, and the king's wife Shirin (who was under Gabriel's influence) blocked the requests. Gabriel was seeking to maneuver things such that the decision of Catholicos would have been in his own (monophysite) hands, an option completely unacceptable, in fact horrifying, to the existing bishops.
The king defended this policy until his death in 628. The situation, and vacancy, endured until Khosrau II was murdered in 628. After this, Babai was promptly, and unanimously, elected Catholicos, but he declined. Soon afterward, he died in the cell of his monastery on Mt. Izla, being 75 or 77 years old.
From 610 to 628 the last and most devastating wars between Byzantium
and Persia took place. First Persia conquered parts of Byzantium, which were populated mostly by Monophysite and Chalcedonian
Christians. To be popular in the newly gained provinces, King Chosroes II did not want to favor the Nestorians any more. During the successful Byzantine counter attack 622—628, Chalcedonians and especially Monophysites were on the advance in Persia and several sees and villages were lost by the Church of the East.
From what has been preserved we learn that his main authority was Theodore of Mopsuestia
, though in general he used few citations from the Fathers. There is no evidence that he could read Greek, and Babai must have relied on translations.
He mainly fought against the ideas of the Monophysites and of the Origenist Henana. They were the inner enemies. He also wrote against Mani, Marcion, Bar Daisan, the Messalians and the general loss of discipline since Beth Lapat.
The Book of Union is Babai's most systematic surviving christological treatise, divided into seven memre that cover more than 200 folios. The 'Tractatus Vaticanus' is another manuscript that deals with the "impossibility of the hypostatic union
and natural union, the possibility of the parsopic union, and the significance of the expression hypostatic union among the fathers of the antiquity".
An important source on the position of Babai the Great against Origen
and his follower Henana of Adiabene
is his commentary on Evagrius Ponticus
. It also shows his opposition to Messalianism. An 8th century manuscript has been preserved that contains Evagrius' text together with Babai's commentary on it. This commentary is an abridged version of a larger one which Babai had written earlier and which is lost.
The writings of Evagrius were important to the current mystical revival among Greek and Syrian monks. For the monks of Mt. Izla, Evagrius was the pillar of mystical theology. The Greek text was condemned already in 553 for its Origenist heresies.
But unlike the Greek, the 'Common Syriac Version', a translation of the Gnostic chapters of Evagrius by the Monophysite Philoxenus
, was void of the specific Origenist-Evagrian Christology. For example, it omits the 'nous-Christos' Christology where the God-logos and the flesh are united in the nous, Jesus Christ, the subject of incarnation. Babai tried to eliminate the Origenist ideas even further and presented Evagrius as opposed to Origen and his follower Henana by pointing out apparent contradictions between them.
"The Devil is telling the people that some of Evagrius' statements are similar
to heresies. Some even tried to translate directly from the Greek to show the
heresy of Evagrius. They translated according to their foolishness, but can
be refuted by other writings of Evagrius. The cursed Origen and his disciple,
the fool Apollinaris, they teach completely different from Evagrius on the
renewal of the soul after death".
To show this further, Babai tells the vita of Evagrius and enumerates his sources: Basilius, Gregorius, and Nectarius. No mention of Origen.
and Diodorus of Tarsus
. He also relied on John Chrysostomos, the Cappadocian fathers and on Ephrem the Syrian
, which were also accepted in the West. In his exegetical methods he synthesized between the rational Theodore and mystical writers like Evagrius.
And most important, instead of breaking with Theodore because of some extreme interpretations of his teachings, like others did, Babai clarified his position to the point that differences with western Christology became superficial and mostly an issue of terminology. His Christology is built in great part on sound exegesis and an interesting anthropology and is far less dualistic than the one Nestorius seems to have presented.
Babai in the 'Book of Union' teaches two qnome (hypostasis—not the Chalcedonian use of this term, essence), which are unmingled but everlastingly united in one parsopa (person, character, identity, also "hypostasis" in Chalcedonian usage.) It is essential to use the Syrian terms here and not any translations, because the same words mean different things to different people, and the words must be accepted in the particular sense of each. In Greek Christology, hypostasis is used specifically to refer to what would correspond to Babai's parsopa, and ousion would correspond to qnome. In the period in which Babai and others formulated their respective Christological models, words such as "hypostasis" and "ousion" had less specifically fixed definitions. Thus, it was possible for two individuals to honestly use a single term to mean two distinctly different things.
Clearly, to Babai, Christ is both God and man. But he could not tolerate any form of Theopaschism
(the belief that God suffered), be it the divinity itself, the Trinity
, or one of the hypostases of the Trinity. According to Babai, Cyril of Alexandria
stood at the root of simple Theopaschism as professed by the Monophysites, and the Emperor Justinian I
at the root of composite Theopaschism. The Nestorian church could accept expressions like 'Christ died', 'the Son died', but not 'the Word died', even not 'the Word died in the flesh'.
In the sixth century AD, Mar Babai wrote the Teshbokhta or (Hymn of Praise) explaining the theology of the Church of the East He writes:
Church of the East
The Church of the East tāʾ d-Maḏnḥāʾ), also known as the Nestorian Church, is a Christian church, part of the Syriac tradition of Eastern Christianity. Originally the church of the Persian Sassanid Empire, it quickly spread widely through Asia...
. He set several of the foundational pillars of the Church, revived the monastic movement, and formulated its Christology
Christology
Christology is the field of study within Christian theology which is primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament. Primary considerations include the relationship of Jesus' nature and person with the nature...
in a systematic way. He served as an unofficial head of the Nestorian Church from 611 to 628 AD, leaving a legacy of strong discipline and deep religious Orthodoxy
Orthodoxy
The word orthodox, from Greek orthos + doxa , is generally used to mean the adherence to accepted norms, more specifically to creeds, especially in religion...
. He is revered in the modern Assyrian Church of the East
Assyrian Church of the East
The Assyrian Church of the East, officially the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East ʻIttā Qaddishtā w-Shlikhāitā Qattoliqi d-Madnĕkhā d-Āturāyē), is a Syriac Church historically centered in Mesopotamia. It is one of the churches that claim continuity with the historical...
.
Biography
Babai the Great, not to be confused with Mar Babai I, the first autonomous leader of the Church of the East, was born in Beth Ainata in Beth ZabdaiBeth Zabdai
Beth Zabdai or Gezireh is a town located on the right hand of the Tigris River, close to Jeziret ibn Omar, now Turkey.Babai the Great, the pillar of the Assyrian Church of the East was born in Beth Ainata in Beth Zabdai in 551....
. Born to a wealthy family, he received a primary education in the Persian (Pahlavi) books. He continued his studies at the Christian School of Nisibis
School of Nisibis
The School of Nisibis , for a time absorbed into the School of Edessa, was an educational establishment in Nisibis, modern-day Turkey. It was an important spiritual center of the early Syriac Orthodox Church, and like Gundeshapur, is sometimes referred to as the world's first university. The...
under the directorship of Abraham of Beth Rabban. Sometime around 571 A.D., when the Origen
Origen
Origen , or Origen Adamantius, 184/5–253/4, was an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, in part because he believed in the pre-existence of souls...
ist Henana of Adiabene
Henana of Adiabene
Henana of Adiabene was headmaster of the School of Nisibis, the theological center of the Church of the East .His predecessor was Abraham of Beth Rabban who had worked hard to make the legacy of Theodore of Mopsuestia more accessible. Before he became headmaster, Henana of Adiabene had occupied the...
became the new headmaster, Babai's teacher, Abraham the Great of Kashkar
Abraham the Great of Kashkar
Abraham the Great of Kashkar was the father of the Assyrian monastic revival in the 6th century. He is hailed as a doctor and saint of the Assyrian Church of the East....
, founded a new monastery on Mt. Izla above Nisibis. Babai taught for a while at the Xenodocheio of Nisibis. After that he joined the newly-founded monastery of Abraham on Mt. Izla. When Abraham died in 588, Babai left and founded a new monastery and school in his home country Beth Zabdai.
In 604 Babai became the third head of Abraham's monastery on Mt. Izla.
Abraham the Great had started a monastic reform movement which Babai and other disciples carried through. Since Bar Sauma
Bar Sauma
Barsauma was Metropolitan of Nisibis in the 5th century, and a major figure in the history of the Church of the East. A capable politician, he was on good terms with Peroz I, King of the Sassanid Empire of Persia, and wielded great influence in the Church of the East. As such he was frequently in...
and the Synod of Beth Lapat
Synod of Beth Lapat
The Synod of Beth Lapat was council of the Church of the East, held in 484 under the leadership of Catholicos Bar Sauma. The most significant result of the synod was the church's official adoption of the doctrine of Nestorianism...
, monks and nuns had been encouraged to marry. When Babai returned to Mt. Izla in 604, he expelled monks that lived with women and enforced strict discipline, emphasizing a deep life of prayer and solitude. The result was a mass exodus, not only of the married monks.
But the Church of the East
Church of the East
The Church of the East tāʾ d-Maḏnḥāʾ), also known as the Nestorian Church, is a Christian church, part of the Syriac tradition of Eastern Christianity. Originally the church of the Persian Sassanid Empire, it quickly spread widely through Asia...
was with Babai. In 604, the Catholicos Mar Sabrisho I died and a new Catholicos had to be elected. The choice fell between two men named Gregory: Bishop Gregory of Nisibis and Professor Gregory of Seleucia. King Khosrau II
Khosrau II
250px|thumb|Khosrau II 250px|thumb|Khosrau II 250px|thumb|Khosrau II (Khosrow II, Chosroes II, or Xosrov II in classical sources, sometimes called Parvez, "the Ever Victorious" – (in Persian: خسرو پرویز), was the twenty-second Sassanid King of Persia, reigning from 590 to 628...
, the Sassanid
Sassanid Empire
The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...
emperor, stated only that his preferred candidate was Gregory, possibly meaning the bishop. The king's influential wife Shirin
Shirin
Shirin was a wife of the Sassanid Persian Shahanshah , Khosrau II. In the revolution after the death of Khosrau's father Hormizd IV, the General Bahram Chobin took power over the Persian empire. Shirin fled with Khosrau to Syria where they lived under the protection of Byzantine emperor Maurice...
, however, disliked Gregory of Nisibis and preferred Gregory of Seleucia, who had once been her steward. The Synod
Synod
A synod historically is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not...
(council) rejected the king's initial candidate, taking advantage of the ambiguity of name, and chose Gregory of Seleucia, who became Mar Gregorius I. The king was accordingly displeased, and reluctantly supported the elected candidate (after applying a hefty fine to him), and said, "Patriarch he is and patriarch he shall be -- but never again do I allow another election."
When the Catholicos Gregorius died a few years later in 608, the bishops made the usual request to the king to allow them to elect a new Catholicos, but Khosrau had not forgotten the events of the previous election and refused them leave to do so. The royal physician Gabriel of Shiggar, a staunch Monophysite, suggested to make Henana of Adiabene
Henana of Adiabene
Henana of Adiabene was headmaster of the School of Nisibis, the theological center of the Church of the East .His predecessor was Abraham of Beth Rabban who had worked hard to make the legacy of Theodore of Mopsuestia more accessible. Before he became headmaster, Henana of Adiabene had occupied the...
or one of his students Catholicos, and also used his influence with the king to prevent an election. The king successfully blocked an election in the church, preventing the church from having any figure who could allow new bishops and metropolitans
Metropolitans
Metropolitans may refer to:Sports*New York Metropolitans , a New York baseball team*New York Mets , a Major League Baseball team*Seattle Metropolitans , a Seattle ice hockey teamOther uses...
to be consecrated.
During the decades of this vacancy, the Nestorian church required a sort of authority. Because the king remained staunch in his policy, the church chose to separate itself from the king's royal proscription. Two vekils (regents) were selected as a stop-gap measure: Archdeacon Mar Aba, who handled matters in the north. In the south, Babai the Great was chosen to lead, who at the time was abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
of a monastery on Mt. Izla. He was nominated inspector-general or visitor
Visitor
A Visitor, in United Kingdom law and history, is an overseer of an autonomous ecclesiastical or eleemosynary institution , who can intervene in the internal affairs of that institution...
of the monasteries of the three northern provinces by the Metropolitans of Nisibis
Nisibis
Nusaybin Nisêbîn) is a city in Mardin Province, Turkey, populated mainly by Kurds. Earlier Arameans, Arabs, and Armenians lived in the city. The population of the city is 83,832 as of 2009.-Ancient Period:...
, B. Garmai, and Adiabene
Adiabene
Adiabene was an ancient Assyrian independent kingdom in Mesopotamia, with its capital at Arbela...
. Therefore Babai, even though not yet a bishop, acted as patriarch in all ecclesiastical matters, though he could not ordain or consecrate. He was appointed 'visitor of the monasteries' of the north, and administered the church in collaboration with Archdeacon Mar Aba. In particular, this new position allowed Babai to investigate the orthodoxy of the monasteries and monks of northern Mesopotamia, and to enforce discipline throughout the monasteries of northern Mesopotamia, even against occasional resistance.
Babai the Great and Mar Aba administered the Nestorian Church for 17 years. Attempts were made during that time to ask the king to change his mind and allow an election, but influences in the court, such as Gabriel of Shiggar, and the king's wife Shirin (who was under Gabriel's influence) blocked the requests. Gabriel was seeking to maneuver things such that the decision of Catholicos would have been in his own (monophysite) hands, an option completely unacceptable, in fact horrifying, to the existing bishops.
The king defended this policy until his death in 628. The situation, and vacancy, endured until Khosrau II was murdered in 628. After this, Babai was promptly, and unanimously, elected Catholicos, but he declined. Soon afterward, he died in the cell of his monastery on Mt. Izla, being 75 or 77 years old.
Babai's teaching
Besides bringing discipline to the monasteries and administering the church, Babai is mainly known for his orthodox teaching.From 610 to 628 the last and most devastating wars between Byzantium
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
and Persia took place. First Persia conquered parts of Byzantium, which were populated mostly by Monophysite and Chalcedonian
Chalcedonian
Chalcedonian describes churches and theologians which accept the definition given at the Council of Chalcedon of how the divine and human relate in the person of Jesus Christ...
Christians. To be popular in the newly gained provinces, King Chosroes II did not want to favor the Nestorians any more. During the successful Byzantine counter attack 622—628, Chalcedonians and especially Monophysites were on the advance in Persia and several sees and villages were lost by the Church of the East.
Babai's writing
To defend and clarify the Nestorian tradition against Henana's Origenism and the advancing Monophysites, Babai the Great produced some 83 or 84 volumes of writing. He developed a systematic Christology, the only one in Nestorian Mesopotamia. Of his extensive exegetical works on all of Scripture nothing survived. What we do have are two hagiographies, his principal work on the foundations of ascetic life 'On the Life of Excellency', and commentaries on mystical themes.From what has been preserved we learn that his main authority was Theodore of Mopsuestia
Theodore of Mopsuestia
Theodore the Interpreter was bishop of Mopsuestia from 392 to 428 AD. He is also known as Theodore of Antioch, from the place of his birth and presbyterate...
, though in general he used few citations from the Fathers. There is no evidence that he could read Greek, and Babai must have relied on translations.
He mainly fought against the ideas of the Monophysites and of the Origenist Henana. They were the inner enemies. He also wrote against Mani, Marcion, Bar Daisan, the Messalians and the general loss of discipline since Beth Lapat.
The Book of Union is Babai's most systematic surviving christological treatise, divided into seven memre that cover more than 200 folios. The 'Tractatus Vaticanus' is another manuscript that deals with the "impossibility of the hypostatic union
Hypostatic union
Hypostatic union is a technical term in Christian theology employed in mainstream Christology to describe the union of Christ's humanity and divinity in one hypostasis.The First Council of Ephesus recognised this doctrine and affirmed its importance, stating that the...
and natural union, the possibility of the parsopic union, and the significance of the expression hypostatic union among the fathers of the antiquity".
An important source on the position of Babai the Great against Origen
Origen
Origen , or Origen Adamantius, 184/5–253/4, was an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, in part because he believed in the pre-existence of souls...
and his follower Henana of Adiabene
Henana of Adiabene
Henana of Adiabene was headmaster of the School of Nisibis, the theological center of the Church of the East .His predecessor was Abraham of Beth Rabban who had worked hard to make the legacy of Theodore of Mopsuestia more accessible. Before he became headmaster, Henana of Adiabene had occupied the...
is his commentary on Evagrius Ponticus
Evagrius Ponticus
Evagrius Ponticus , also called Evagrius the Solitary was a Christian monk and ascetic. One of the rising stars in the late fourth century church, he was well-known as a keen thinker, a polished speaker, and a gifted writer...
. It also shows his opposition to Messalianism. An 8th century manuscript has been preserved that contains Evagrius' text together with Babai's commentary on it. This commentary is an abridged version of a larger one which Babai had written earlier and which is lost.
The writings of Evagrius were important to the current mystical revival among Greek and Syrian monks. For the monks of Mt. Izla, Evagrius was the pillar of mystical theology. The Greek text was condemned already in 553 for its Origenist heresies.
But unlike the Greek, the 'Common Syriac Version', a translation of the Gnostic chapters of Evagrius by the Monophysite Philoxenus
Philoxenus
Philoxenus or Philoxenos is the name of several prominent ancient Greeks:*Philoxenus of Cythera, an ancient Greek dithyrambic poet*Philoxenus of Leucas, a legendary glutton*King Philoxenus, an Indo-Greek king...
, was void of the specific Origenist-Evagrian Christology. For example, it omits the 'nous-Christos' Christology where the God-logos and the flesh are united in the nous, Jesus Christ, the subject of incarnation. Babai tried to eliminate the Origenist ideas even further and presented Evagrius as opposed to Origen and his follower Henana by pointing out apparent contradictions between them.
"The Devil is telling the people that some of Evagrius' statements are similar
to heresies. Some even tried to translate directly from the Greek to show the
heresy of Evagrius. They translated according to their foolishness, but can
be refuted by other writings of Evagrius. The cursed Origen and his disciple,
the fool Apollinaris, they teach completely different from Evagrius on the
renewal of the soul after death".
To show this further, Babai tells the vita of Evagrius and enumerates his sources: Basilius, Gregorius, and Nectarius. No mention of Origen.
Babai's christology
The main theological authorities of Babai were Theodore of MopsuestiaTheodore of Mopsuestia
Theodore the Interpreter was bishop of Mopsuestia from 392 to 428 AD. He is also known as Theodore of Antioch, from the place of his birth and presbyterate...
and Diodorus of Tarsus
Diodorus of Tarsus
Diodore of Tarsus was a Christian bishop, a monastic reformer, and a theologian. A strong supporter of the orthodoxy of Nicaea, Diodore played a pivotal role in the Council of Constantinople and opposed the anti-Christian policies of Julian the Apostate...
. He also relied on John Chrysostomos, the Cappadocian fathers and on Ephrem the Syrian
Ephrem the Syrian
Ephrem the Syrian was a Syriac and a prolific Syriac-language hymnographer and theologian of the 4th century. He is venerated by Christians throughout the world, and especially in the Syriac Orthodox Church, as a saint.Ephrem wrote a wide variety of hymns, poems, and sermons in verse, as well as...
, which were also accepted in the West. In his exegetical methods he synthesized between the rational Theodore and mystical writers like Evagrius.
And most important, instead of breaking with Theodore because of some extreme interpretations of his teachings, like others did, Babai clarified his position to the point that differences with western Christology became superficial and mostly an issue of terminology. His Christology is built in great part on sound exegesis and an interesting anthropology and is far less dualistic than the one Nestorius seems to have presented.
Babai in the 'Book of Union' teaches two qnome (hypostasis—not the Chalcedonian use of this term, essence), which are unmingled but everlastingly united in one parsopa (person, character, identity, also "hypostasis" in Chalcedonian usage.) It is essential to use the Syrian terms here and not any translations, because the same words mean different things to different people, and the words must be accepted in the particular sense of each. In Greek Christology, hypostasis is used specifically to refer to what would correspond to Babai's parsopa, and ousion would correspond to qnome. In the period in which Babai and others formulated their respective Christological models, words such as "hypostasis" and "ousion" had less specifically fixed definitions. Thus, it was possible for two individuals to honestly use a single term to mean two distinctly different things.
Clearly, to Babai, Christ is both God and man. But he could not tolerate any form of Theopaschism
Theopaschism
Theopaschism is the belief that a god can suffer. In Christian theology this involves questions like "was the crucifixion of Jesus a crucifixion of God?".-Cyrillianism vs. Theodoreanism:...
(the belief that God suffered), be it the divinity itself, the Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
, or one of the hypostases of the Trinity. According to Babai, Cyril of Alexandria
Cyril of Alexandria
Cyril of Alexandria was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444. He came to power when the city was at its height of influence and power within the Roman Empire. Cyril wrote extensively and was a leading protagonist in the Christological controversies of the later 4th and 5th centuries...
stood at the root of simple Theopaschism as professed by the Monophysites, and the Emperor Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
at the root of composite Theopaschism. The Nestorian church could accept expressions like 'Christ died', 'the Son died', but not 'the Word died', even not 'the Word died in the flesh'.
In the sixth century AD, Mar Babai wrote the Teshbokhta or (Hymn of Praise) explaining the theology of the Church of the East He writes:
- One is Christ the Son of God,
- Worshiped by all in two natures;
- In His Godhead begotten of the Father,
- Without beginning before all time;
- In His humanity born of Mary,
- In the fullness of time, in a body united;
- Neither His Godhead is of the nature of the mother,
- Nor His humanity of the nature of the Father;
- The natures are preserved in their Qnumas (substance),
- In one person of one Sonship.
- And as the Godhead is three substances in one nature,
- Likewise the Sonship of the Son is in two natures, one person.
- So the Holy Church has taught.
Further reading
- Babai Magnus, Liber de Unione, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum OrientaliumCorpus Scriptorum Christianorum OrientaliumThe Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium is an important multilingual collection of Eastern Christian texts with over 600 volumes published since its foundation in 1903 by Louvain Catholic University in Belgium and The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C....
, tomi 79/80, syri 34/35, Louvain 1915. (The first figures correspond to the Syriac edition, the second to a Latin translation).