IV.
LETTER OF MAR XENAIAS OF MABOG
to Abraham and Orestes , presbyters of Edessa , concerning
Stephen Bar Sudaili the Edessene.
I have learned that Stephen the scribe, who departed from among us some time since, and now resides in the country of Jerusalem, sent to you, some time ago, followers of his with letters and books composed by him; taking care at thesame time that the arrival of those whom he had sent, as well as what he was astutely desirous of accomplishing, should be concealed from us. For he thought that, were I to learn that he had sent to you men and also writings, his hopes might be disappointed. He has insanely imagined — whence I know not, but certainly from Satan, for he is the Father and cause of every heresy — to put forth in a book an impious and foolish doctrine, which is worthy of being reputed not only a heresy, but worse than Heathenism and Judaism, because it openly assimilates the creation to God, and teaches that it is necessary for everything to become like him. It also falsifies the Holy Scriptures, and even destroys faith in Christianity, teaching that every man may sin as he pleases, and dissuading Heathen, Jews, and heretics
from Christian instruction and from being converted to God. It makes of no effect holy Baptism , and the giving of the Divine mysteries, and labors and struggles for righteousness. For if, according to his impious words, not only will there be no Judgment, but all will receive the same measure of retribution , then the same honor will be accorded to the apostle Peter and to Simon Magus, to the preacher Paul and to the traitor Judas, to the Apostles and Evangelists 1).
1) The antithesis which must have followed seems to have been
omitted in our copy.
And, what is especially full of an impiety akin to insanity is, that he says, that everything is of one nature with God. What has just been detailed is most important and most completely reprehensible ; for then the Apostles have in vain worked , and converted all nations from Heathenism to Christianity, if even without instruction in the faith and baptism they are to be equals of the Apostles, and are to become consubstantial with God, the Lord of the Universe. Hence there is no difference between those who died for Christ and those who killed them, for they who were confessors of the faith will receive nothing more, and they who killed them nothing less, because all together, as he says, will arrive at one perfection; and as the members of the body are of the same nature as each other and as the body itself, so, as he means and even says, are we in God and with Him in unity the one with the other.
These things may be known, he says, by the mystery of the first day of the week, when, as he says, God will be all in all: one nature, one substance, one divinity. If then it is possible that men should become consubstantial with the Divinity , then the dispensation of the flesh and the Incarnation were superfluous. From misunderstanding, therefore,
that there will no longer be, He who creates and those who receive his creative action; He who shows benevolence to those whom He loves; and there will no longer he Father, Son and Spirit; for, if he raves that the Creator and all his creatures who are distinct from each other will become one nature and person , how must not consuhstantial persons of necessity also become one person ? Thus there would be a confusion, not only of the creation with the Divine Substance, but also of the Persons one with another.
But in that he says that these three days alone , the sixth , seventh and First days of the week are mysteries , types and parables, he has posited this alternative: it is necessar either to believe that all (the days) are to receive this manner of interpretation, or else not to believe that those are as he says.
Following the Jewish doctrine, he appoints after the resurrection two retributions, one of which he calls rest l) and the other perfection , one liberty and the other divinity , together with other names which he has contrived and applied to them.
1) Cf. Hebrews III and IV.
For to the Jews alone had this theory occurred , who sav that after the resurrection there will be a rest of a thousand years, during which the righteous will eat and drink , and sinners will hunger and thirst ; the just will give themselves up to every bodily delight, and the wicked will suffer every torment. Concerning which belief it is written that Our Lord said: //Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God: for in the resurrection of the dead they do not eat nor drink, neither marry, but are as the angels of God” 2).
2) Mattb. XXII, 29 — 30 and Mark XII, 24—25; the eating and drinking is an interpolation.
But regarding his belief, that rest is one thing and the kingdom another; and the glory before the consummation one thing, and the consummation itself another; we would ask, from what Holy Book, or prophet, or apostle, or teacher, has he received this doctrine of a division into three orders?
For he understands, as he says, by the sixth day motion , having taken the term motion from the monk Evagrius1); by the Sabbath, that Christ will be all and in all men; and by the first day, that God will be all in all. He furthermore shows that it is less for man to be united to Christ than to be in God.
1 ) Evagrius Ponticus was a disciple of Gregory Nazianzen.
He imagined, then, that he could confirm these three (stages) by the words which Our Lord spoke to the Pharisees, which it is certain were not a figure , an allegory, a parable, or a mystery, but the narration of an action imagined by the Pharisees, as is shown by reading them. “The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out and depart hence, for Herod desireth to kill thee. And He said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox , Behold I cast out devils and I perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must work 2) today and tomorrow, and on the day following I will go (hence) , for it cannot be tha* a Prophet perish out of Jerusalem”
2) The expression work instead of walk is in the Peshitta , but notin the Curetonian Gospels.
Now if, according to his researches , today , the sixth day , be an allegory of this world , and tomorrow, the Sabbath , a type of rest , and the third day, the first of the week, a symbol of the consummation; what then comes after the consummation? Is Our Lord again to be crucified? but by whom? for according to his doctrine even the Jews will have become of one nature with God.
4) Luke XIII, 31-83.
Now it is thus written, that Our Lord said, after //today and tomorrow and the third day I shall be perfected”, //because it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem”: it is therefore evident that He means , by the consummation , that He should be crucified, and that this should take place in Jerusalem, where also all the prophets had been killed, and likewise He also was to be crucified there. He said that He would be perfected through the cross, in order to fulfil what is said: //By the cross which consummates” *) ; and this other: //The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified” 1 2), and also: „When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I do nothing of myself”3). Now the Pharisees , burning with envy because they saw that Our Lord taught and performed miracles and was glorified of all men, wished to expel him from among them unto some other place, that they should not be thus vexed. But, as praise from all men was given to him, they thought lo intimidate and terrify him, and said: //Get thee out and depart hence, for Herod desireth to kill thee”. But He said unto them that except He were willing He would not die, and that neither Herod nor they would be able to kill him except at the time He chose. Therefore, when He derides Herod and calls him fox, He indicates that he is but contemptible and despicable, and unable to kill Him before the time at which He has delermined to die: //Go ye and tell that fox, Behold I cast out devils and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected”. He hereby indicates the three years which He passed among the Jews , from His baptism to His crucifixion, in which He also teaches that He worked miracles 5 for in the thirty years which preceded His baptism it is not written that He gave any instruction or manifested any miracle.
1) There seems to be no such expression in Scripture.
2) John XII, 23.
3) From John VIII, 28.
But He says that after three years, which are today, tomorrow and the third day, at the time that He chooses He will go up to Jerusalem, and there will be crucified by the Jews, //for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem”. And to this He adds: // 0 Jerusalem , Jerusalem , that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you , Ye shall not see me until the day come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” l).
Therefore, whether or no there he in these words a symbol or type or anything which allegorically and mystically teaches the things which appear unto this man , read ye and consider and decide among yourselves: for by these three words he sustains, as he imagines, his vain opinion, and the change of the three dispensations of the sixth, the seventh and the first days of the week. For he calls today and tomorrow (respectively) the evil world and liberty, and the being perfected on the third day is , that God will be all in all. All being in Christ on the seventh day (Sabbath) — as if they were not so already by baptism — he believes to indicate that Christ is all and in all men. If this be on the seventh day then nothing took place on the sixth, and Christ was not made flesh and born, and did not suffer and die , neither was the power of death and the reign of corruption destroyed. For these and like things were accomplished by the crucifixion and death of Christ , which took place on the sixth day; who also cried out and said: //All is finished”. This is what this man calls the evil world. Furthermore, as Our Lord taught that the consummation was on the sixth day , because He then fulfilled all things , this man by defining it to be on the first day of the week openly teaches contrary to the word of Our Lord. Our Lord therefore on the sixth day suffered and died and destroyed the dominion of suffering and of death ; on the seventh day He was in the grave, and put an end also to the power of corruption, and visited the souls held captive in Sheol. And on the first day of the week He rose from the dead , and proved by His own resurrection that of all mankind, and the beginning of a new world in which there is no seventh and first day of the week, as this man says, but it is all first day. But he (Bar Sudaili) not being able to see these things himself, nor willing to learn them from those who were able, wrote this book in which he consulted his own vain thoughts and not the Holy Scriptures, and constructed a new doctrine full of wickedness and impiety, in an insipid and foolish language. For although he is not even able to command a language worthy of writing, still, being desirous of making a display, he came forward as an inventor of heresies. I will not, furthermore, omit the following fact, although it is apparent from his writings. There came unto me trustworthy men who said that on entering his cell they found written by him on the wall : |// All nature is consubstantial with the Divine Essence”; and on account of their strongly accusing him of blasphemy, and it becoming known to many monks who murmured at it , he was afraid and removed it from the wall; but secretly put it into his writings.
They related before me that to a certain Jew, who was by the sepulchre ot‘ the Patriarchs of the house of Abraham, he said this word, coming up and sitting by him: //Fear not, neither be concerned that thou art called crucifier, for thy lot is with Abraham:” instead of saying //thy portion”. Concerning various other blasphemies which he raved and uttered, other men, who disputed with him on this subject and were with him for a long time , but are now in the province of Antioch , have spoken to us , but on account of the extreme shamefulness of these blasphemies it has seemed to me not suitable that they should be stated in this letter.
If therefore he has either written unto you, as I have learned, or has sent unto you his blasphemous books, be careful lest they fall into any person’s hands and especially into those of nuns dwelling within church-precincts, lest they be led astray through the simplicity and weakness natural to women. For the wise must all , as is written, //take up the stumbling-block out of the way”1), lest he receive many wounds and become the companion of many others who stumble and fall 2).
Write also to him , if it seem proper to you , that he cease from his blasphemies on an ineffable, pure, incomprehensible and holy doctrine. Concerning which I do not know that he has yet a single disciple, for, of the many arguments which he has collected from the Scriptures, when he applies them, he does not discover the (real) force, but he imagines that they support his view. I remember that I once wrote to him a letter by means of one of his disciples, Abraham by name; a copy of which also I now send unto you. At that time I did not well know that he had dared to imagine such blasphemies, for I had only met with his commentaries on a few of the Psalms, in which he also glorifies himself and ascribes to himself revelations and visions , and (says) that to him alone is it given to understand the Scriptures correctly. In them he also calls the Scriptures dreams , and his commentaries the interpretation of dreams.
1) Isaiah LVII, 14.
2) Cf. Isaiah VIII, 15.
Afterwards he craftily devised to send his books to you and to write to you , in order to deceive the simple people there (at Jerusalem); for I have heard that he says to them, that even in Edessa is his heresy received , and is furthermore much praised by us, — until some of the monks there happened upon the letter which I had written , of which I now send you a copy, and found that (on the contrary) he was strongly censured by me. When therefore you shall have received these letters of mine, that which you know to be just write unto him, and reprove him, and that not feebly but forcibly. I myself would write to the bishop of Jerusalem l) respecting him , were it not for differences concerning the faith , and that the fact of our not being of the same communion is a middle wall (of partition) between us 2).
1) Elias, Patriarch of Jerusalem.
2) Ephesians II, 14.
For this man has sinned not a little, and the offences which he has committed are not small; for he says that dogs, pigs, serpents, scorpions, mice, and other reptiles of the earth, are consubstantial with God: that is will become so. He also strives to persuade others to believe likewise, and says thus: //As the Father and the Son and the Spirit are of one nature, and as the body of the Word is consubstantial with his divinity”, through ignorance he also blasphemes concerning this part (of Church doctrine), adding, //all creation also will become consubstantial with the Divine nature’’ : and magicians and murderers, crucifiers and apostles, persecutors and martyrs , adulterers and virgins , the chaste and those who satisfy their lusts, all, he says, will be changed and become consubstantial with God, and there will be no one who shall excel, neither any one who shall be lacking l)*
1) It seems either that at this point a sheet of the MS. was lost before it was bound, or that the MS. from which this copy was made was a defective one.