A.A.Vaschalde, Three Letters of Philoxenus (1902). Prefatory material.
THREE LETTERS
OF PHILOXENUS
BISHOP OF MABBÔGH (485-519):
BEING THE LETTER TO THE MONKS,
THE FIRST LETTER TO THE MONKS OF BETH-GAUGAL,
AND THE LETTER TO EMPEROR ZENO;
EDITED
FROM SYRIAC MANUSCRIPTS IN THE VATICAN LIBRARY, WITH AN ENGLISH
TRANSLATION, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LIFE, WORKS, AND DOCTRINES
OF PHILOXENUS, A THEOLOGICAL GLOSSARY, AND AN APPENDIX
OF BIBLE QUOTATIONS;
BY
ARTHUR ADOLPHE VASCHALDE,
Member of the Society of the Priests of St. Basil, Licentiate of Theology.
--------
A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY
OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY.
--------
ROMA
TIPOGRAFIA DELLA R. ACCADEMIA DEI LINCEI
PROPRIETÀ DEL CAV. V. SALVIUCCI
1902
FACULTAS PHILOSOPHIAE
N° 2.
TO THE VERY REVEREND
NOEL DVRAND
SIXTH SVPERIOR GENERAL
OF THE SOCIETY OF THE PRIESTS
OF SAINT BASIL
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The author of this dissertation, ARTHUR ADOLPHE VASCHALDE was born March 10, 1871, at Saint-Pons, department of Ardèche, France. After a preparatory trainingin the public school of his native town, he followed the academic courses at St. Barbe's College, Annonay, in the same department. Coming to Canada in 1888, he took up the study of Theology at Assumption College, Sandwich. There in 1892 he entered the Society of the Priests of Saint Basil. In the fall of 1893 he matriculated at the Catholic University of America, where he pursued the courses of Holy Scripture under Prof. C. P. Grannan, and of Semitic Languages under Prof. H. Hyvernat, and he received the degree of Licentiate of Theology in 1895. After teaching Mental Philosophy at Sandwich for five years, he returned to the University in 1900, to continue the study of Semitic Languages under Prof. H. Hyvernat and of Philosophy under Prof. E. A. Pace.
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With the heresy known as Jacobite Monophysitism are associated some of the greatest names in Syriac history and literature, such as Philoxenus (Aksenaya) of Mabbôgh (+ 523), Severus of Antioch (+ 537), John of Telia (+ 538), Jacob of Serugh (+ 521), Jacob Baradaeus (+ 578), and many others. Although this heresy was named after Jacob Baradaeus, the founder of the Jacobite Church, its origin can be traced to the reaction which, in the latter half of the fifth century, set in against the errors of Nestorius and Eutyches, and against the definition of the Council of Chalcedon respecting the existence of the two natures in Christ. Philoxenus was one of the foremost leaders in that great movement and, beyond question, the ablest champion of the new faith. The extracts from his works in the Bibliotheca Orientalis of Assemani and the recent publications of Guidi, Frothingham and Budge, leave no doubt on this point. Yet, outside of Budge's chapter on the creed of Philoxenus, but little has been written on the doctrines of the famous bishop of Mabbôgh, and, in our manuals of Church history and of dogmatic Theology, all the information which we possess about the life and teachings of Philoxenus is derived almost exclusively from Greek writers of the Byzantine period. |viii
Such information, however, ought to be supplemented by a comparison with the Syriac sources; for it is but fair to let the original documents speak for themselves. Hence, as a small contribution to the literature of this interesting subject, we give here for the first time the Syriac text and the English translation of three important letters of Philoxenus: the Letter to the Monks, the first Letter to the Monks of Beth-Gaugal, and the Letter to Emperor Zeno. It has been thought that these documents, if published and translated in their entirety and taken in connection with what has already been done, would throw more light on the doctrines of Philoxenus than could be obtained heretofore. To emphasize this method, an appendix has been added giving a concordance of the principal theological terms and expressions used by the author; this, we trust, will be useful to such as may wish to pursue the same course with regard to Syrian Monophysitism. In another appendix the Bible quotations, occurring in the text, have been compared with the Peshitta, following in this the laudable example of Budge in his beautiful edition of the Discourses of Philoxenus. To this we have added a list of the few words borrowed from the Greek, which occur in these three letters.
If circumstances permit, this work will be followed by the publication of other texts of the same author; in the meantime, this modest effort will be amply repaid, if it directs the attention of others to the necessity of studying Jacobite Monophysitism in the writings of those who are best qualified to speak for it, namely, the Syriac Monophysite writers of the fifth and sixth centuries.
It is now my pleasing duty to thank Prof. Hyvernat for the care with which he directed my Oriental studies, not only during the four years I spent in his Department, but also during the five years I was absent from the University. I am besides under obligation to him for placing at my disposal the |ix Syriac text of these three letters which he copied himself from the Vatican Manuscripts.
I may not close without expressing my gratitude to Prof. Guidi, of Rome, and to Professors Grannan, Shahan and Pace, of this University who kindly consented to examine this dissertation before it was printed and offered many valuable suggestions.
To Prof. Guidi I am also indebted for a description of Syr. Mss. 135, 136, and 138 of the Vatican library, and also for the anonymous notice on Philoxenus which he transcribed for me from Syr. Ms. 155 of the Vatican. He had also the kindness to read the proof-sheets of this dissertation and took the trouble to correct the Syriac text on the original Manuscripts in the Vatican Library, thus ensuring, even in the apparently most trifling details of punctuation, an accuracy too often wanted in similar publications.
The Catholic University of America,
February, 1902.
A. A. VASCHALDE.
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ABBELOOS (J. B.). ---- De vita et scriptis Sancti Jacobi Sarugensis, Louvain
(Vanlinthout), 1867.
ABBELOOS et LAMY. ---- Gregorii Barhebraei chronicon ecclesiasticum, 3 vol.,
Louvain (Peeters), 1872.
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Rome, 1719-1728.
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CANGE (Du). ---- Glossarium ad Scriptores mediae et infimae graecitatis
2 vol., Lyons, 1688.
The Catholic University Bulletin. Washington, 1895 sqq.
CHABOT (J. B.). ---- De S. Isaaci Ninivitae vita, scriptis et doctrina, Paris
(E. Leroux), 1892.
DENZINGER (H.). ---- Ritus Orientalium, Coptorum, Syrorum et Armenorum in administrandis sacramentis,
2 vol., Würzburg, 1863.
DUVAL (R.). ---- Histoire politique, religieuse et littéraire d'Edesse jusqu'à la première croisade,
Paris (Imprimerie nationale), 1892.
---- La littérature syriaque (no. 2 des anciennes littératures chrétiennes),
2e éd., Paris (Lecoffre), 1900.
FROTHINGHAM (A. L.). ---- Stephen Bar Sudaili, the Syrian Mystic and the book of Hierotheos,
Leyden (Brill), 1886.
GIBBON (E.). ---- The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire,
Milman ed., 8 vol., Paris (Beaudry), 1840.
GRAFFIN (R.). ---- Patrologia Syriaca, vol. I, Paris (F. Didot), 1894.
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Hinrichs, 1892.
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HERGENRÖTHER. ---- Histoire de l'Église, traduction de P. Bélet, 8 vol.,
Paris (V. Palmé), 1880. |xii
Journal Asiatique, Paris (E. Leroux), 9th séries, t. XIV, XV, XVI.
KRÜGER (G.). ---- Monophysitische Streitigkeiten im Zusammenhange mit der Reichspolitik,
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Florence, 1759-1792.
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Paris (V. Lecoffre), 1897.
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---- Patrologia Latina, vol. 1, 2, 41, 48, 54, 58, 68, 78.
NEALE. ---- A History of the holy eastern Church; the patriarchate of Alexandria, 2 vol., London (J. Masters), 1847.
PETAVIUS. ---- Dogmata theologica, ed. J. B. Fournials, 8 vol., Paris (L. Vives), 1865-1867.
LE QUIEN. ---- Oriens Christianus, 3 vol., Paris, 1740.
RENAUDOT. ---- Historia patriarcharum alexandrinorum jacobitarum, Paris (Fournier), 1713.
---- Liturgiarum Orientalium collectio, 2a ed., 2 vol., Frankfurt on the
Main (J. Baer), 1847.
La Revue Catholique de Louvain, Louvain, 1843 sqq.
RITTER. ---- Erdkunde im Verhältniss zur Natur und zur Geschichte des Menschen,
2d ed., 19 vol., Berlin (Reimer), 1822-1859.
ROTHSTEIN. ---- Die Dynastie der Lahmiden von al-Hira, Berlin Reuther n. Reichard, 1899.
SMITH and WACE. ---- A Dictionary of Christian Biography, 4 vol., Boston
(Little, Brown & Co), 1877-1887.
TILLEMONT. ---- Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique des six premiers siècles,
16 vol., Venise (F. Pitteri), 1732.
---- Histoire des Empereurs et des autres princes remarquables qui ont régné durant les six premiers siècles de l'Église,
Venise (F. Pitteri) 1732.
VACANT. ---- Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, Paris (Letouzey et Ané),
1901.
WALLIS-BUDGE. ---- The Discourses of Philoxenus, bishop of Mabbôgh, A. D.
485-519, edited from Syriac Manuscripts of the sixth and seventh centuries in the British Museum, with an English translation.
Vol. I, Syriac text; vol. II, Introduction, translation, etc. London (Asher & Co), 1894.
WRIGHT (W. J.). Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum acquired since the year 1838,
t. I-III, London, 1870-1872.
---- Article Syriac Literature in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th ed. (2d edit., a short History of Syriac Literature, London, A. Ch. Black, 1894).
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35, 53.
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|xiii
PART FIRST
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I. ---- THE LIFE OF PHILOXENUS.
1. Sources 1
2. Early Life of Philoxenus 3
3. Philoxenus at Edessa 6
4. His Struggle with Calandion 9
5. His Appointment to Mabbôgh 13
6. His Struggle with Flavian 15
7. His Exile and Death 19
8. Various Judgments on Philoxenus 20
CHAPTER II. ---- THE PUBLISHED WORKS OF PHILOXENUS.
9. The Discourses and other Texts 25
10. The Letter to Abu-Nafir 29
11. The Letter concerning Stephen Bar Sudaili 33
12. The Letter to the Monks of Teleda 34
CHAPTER III. ---- THE DOCTRINES OF PHILOXENUS.
A) His Doctrine on the Incarnation.
13. General Considerations 38
14. Philoxenus and Nestorius 40 |xiv
15. Heresy of Nestorius . 41
16. The Word Qeoto&koj 42
17. Communicatio Idiomatum 44
18. Union of the Natures 46
19. Consequences of Nestorius' Theory 47
20. Philoxenus and Eutyches 50
21. Heresy of Eutyches 51
22. Manner of Union 53
23. Monotheletism 56
24. Reality of the Body of Christ 57
25. Other Consequences of the Eutychian Theory 61
26. Theory of Philoxenus on the Sufferings of Christ 66
27. Summing up of the Doctrine of Philoxenus 68
28. Philoxenus and Original Sin 69
29. Philoxenus and the Blessed Virgin 70
B) His Doctrine on the Trinity.
30. Three Persons and one Nature 71
31. Equality and Consubstantiality of the Persons 72
32. Eternal Generation of the Son 73
33. Procession of the Holy Ghost 74
C) His Doctrine on the Real Presence.
34. [Our Lord really present in the Holy Eucharist] 76
PART SECOND
CHAPTER I.
35. Description of the Manuscripts 81
CHAPTER II. ---- INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE LETTERS.
A.
36. The Letter to the Monks: Title, date, analysis 83
B.
37. The first Letter to the Monks of Bêth-Gaugal: Title, date, analysis 87
C.
38. The Letter to Zeno: Title, date, analysis 90
CHAPTER III. ---- ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
A.
The Letter to the Monks 93
B.
The first Letter to the Monks of Beth-Gaugal 105
C.
The Letter to Zeno 118
PART THIRD
SYRIAC TEXT.
A.
The Letter to the Monks 127
B.
The first Letter to the Monks of Beth-Gaugal 146
C.
The Letter to Zeno 163
APPENDICES.
I. An anonymous Notice on Philoxenus 175
II. Theological Glossary 177
III. Bible Quotations compared with the Peshitta and the Codex Sinaiticus 183
Greek words occurring in the three letters 190
Note to the online text: Part Third is omitted.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2003. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using the Scholars Press SPIonic font, free from here.
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