New Sources for the Symbol in Early Syrian Christianity

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New Sources for the Symbol in Early Syrian Christianity

Author(s): A. VbusSource: Vigiliae Christianae, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Dec., 1972), pp. 291-296Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1583561

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VigiliaeChristianae 6 (1972)291-296; ? North-HollandPublishingCompany

NEW SOURCES FOR THE SYMBOL IN EARLY SYRIANCHRISTIANITYBY

A. VOOBUS

A new avenue was opened in the research on the origin and develop-ment of the ancient Christian symbols with the emergence of one suchstemmingfrom ancient Syrian Christianity,specifically,from East SyrianChristendomin Persia- it complements and enriches the materialon thesymbols of Western provenance.Access to this precious item comes by way of a recension of the syn-odical acts of the convocation convened at Seleucia-Ctesiphon in theyear 410.1 Embedded in that recension is the symbol in question.

This marks an important advance over the information previouslyavailable to us in the extant acts2 of this significant convocation. Inthese we see the resolutions put forward in the interest of reorganizingthe East Syrian Church under Catholicos Ishaq. Among other innova-tions, there is included the promulgation of the Nicaean Creed. This isnatural enough since the convocation was summoned precisely for thispurpose, namely to bring the church affairs of Persian Christianityintoline with the Western development and to make the Nicaean faith thecreedal foundation of the reorganized church. To this end Mariuta,bishop of Maipherqat, had labored and the results of these endeavorsbecame manifest in the formulations adopted by the synod.The same is the case with another document connected with the nameMarfita, bishop of Maipherqat.3 Also this cannot offer this service.The new avenue for research was occasioned by the emergence ofanother recension of the acts of the synod. It reaches us through an-other channel, namely through the collections of ecclesiastical legis-

1 Ms. Par.syr.62, fol. 237b-238a.2 Synodiconorientaleou recueilde synodesnestoriens,ed. par J.B.Chabot (Paris1902).3 Les canonsde Pseudo-Niceeen syriaque,6d. par A.Voobus (Stockholm 1972).


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lative sources.4These collections have incorporated also the acts of theSynod of Seleucia-Ctesiphon5but in a different recension.The form of the text employed in this instance is often foreshortenedand condensed, but in one respectthis abridgementand redaction makesa move which is very surprising. The symbol embedded in this recensionis not the symbol of the faith of Nicaea of the official acts of the synodpreviously at our disposal. It is different since it consists of archaicelements combined with those which appear in the Nicaean Creed.It is understandablethat a situation like this draws particular atten-tion to itself for it provides access to an unknown and archaic sourcein the category of creedal formulations.T. J. Lamy was the happy voyageur who came across the firstand onlydocument to that time in Ms. syr. 62 in Paris6and he edited the text ofthis recension on the basis of this singular codex.7 He devoted a spe-cial study to the form of the symbol found8 - it was after all a discoverymuch too important to ignore. In discussing the background of thissurprisingphenomenon Lamy suggested that we have to do with an an-cient symbol of Eastern Syrian Christianity - one that was part of thearchaic heritage of that ecclesiastical community - which had to recedebefore the weight of the Nicene symbol in the wake of reform. This wouldexplain the absence of the ancient creed from the official acts of thesynod. However, Ms. Par. syr. 62 indicates that the new symbol musthave been placed side by side with the ancient one, but the course ofevents initiated by this important synod were such that the archaic sym-bol was unable to retain its position in the official acts and was thusexcluded. However, in the foreshortened recension of the acts, whichcould not be regardedas official, the ancient creed managed to survive.This is an attractive explanation of a curious situation and in itself is aplausible reconstruction of the circumstances. It would serve as an ex-planation of the literary phenomena presented by the two sets of texts.

Every ancient source, particularly a precious relic like this which4 Cf. A.V66bus, SyrischeKanonessammlungen:in Beitragzur Quellenkunde,Westsyrische riginalurkunden, B,CSCOSubsidiaXXXVIII Louvain 1970)p. 440ff.5 But not in all the collections. About a very preciousand uniquecollection,seeTheSynodiconn the WestSyrianTradition, d. by A.V66bus, CSCO (in press).6 Cf. H.Zotenberg, Cataloguedes manuscritsyriaques t sabeens(mandaites)dela BibliothequeNationale Paris 1874)p. 22ff.7 ConciliumSeleuciaeet Ctesiphonti abitumanno410 (Lovanii1868).8 Le concile tenu a Seleucie-Ctesiphonn 410, in: Compte-renduu fIle congresscientifiquenternational es catholiques Bruxelles 1894) p. 250ff.

A. VOOBUS92


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THE SYMBOL IN EARLY SYRIAN CHRISTIANITY

leads us into pre-Nicaean Syrian Christianity and its thoughtworld, iscertainly most welcome. And as everything indicates we do have to dowith such a precious relic in this case. A source of such extraordinarysignificancemerits every effort expanded toward establishing its authen-tic form so that it may be of real service to further research.As has been said, Lamy based his edition on Ms. Par. syr. 62, a unicum.This involves a curious phenomenon: the same codex on the one handled him to the happy find, but on the other, pushed him into a corner.Lamy had no recourse but to trust this codex - unfortunately just thisis what the codex in this particular section does not deserve.

Our labours in the search for new manuscript sources have led us todiscoveries which help us to penetrate much deeper. In fact, our searchhas been rewarded very richly. These discoveries do not only increasethe bulk of the manuscriptwitnesses but open the way to several codiceswhich are much earlier than Ms. Par. syr. 62. Among other discoveriesthere is a very precious one, the earliest among such collections of docu-ments of canon law, namely, Ms. Mardin Orth. 3099 of the 8th century.10Another such venerable source is to be found in Ms. Mardin Orth. 310which is only a little younger." Both are veritable jewels.Thanks to these discoveries we are able to penetrate to the text of thisprecious record as it appears in codices which are more than a centuryearlierthan that of Ms. Par. syr. 62.The codices which render us service are as follows:

Ms. Mardin Orth. 30912 (8th cent.), fol. 149b (A),Ms. Mardin Orth. 31013 8th cent.), fol. 137a (B),Ms. Mardin Orth. 32014 20th cent.), fol. 158a-158b(C),Ms. Mardin Orth. 327 (1916), fol. 123a-123b(D),Ms. Mardin Orth. 337 (19th cent.), fol. 82b-83a (E),Ms. Damascus Patr.158/2 (1938), fol. 80a-80b (F),9 The manuscript s locatedat the archbishopric f the SyrianOrthodox Churchin Mardin.10 Cf. A.Voobus,New ImportantManuscriptDiscoveriesor theHistoryof SyriacLiteraturein press).'1 Ibid.12 See also V66bus,SyrischeKanonessammlungen, p. 443 f.13 Ibid.,p. 447ff.4 Ibid.,p. 471. The codex is a copy of a veryancientmanuscriptn Midyat.15 The manuscript s located at the patriarchate f the SyrianOrthodoxChurchin Damascus.

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Ms. garfeh Patr.1673 (1911),17 ol. 91a-91b (G),Ms. Mingana syr. 818 1911), fol. 163a-163b(H),Ms. Vatican syr. 560B19 1936), fol. 121b (I),Ms. Paris syr. 62 (9th cent.), fol. 237b-238a (J).It now becomes possible to edit the text and to furnish it with a textualcritical apparatus.The faith that was fixed by the Persian bishops:

1 We believe in one God, the Father,2 who through His Son made heaven and earth,3 and through Him established the worlds that are above and thatare below,4 and through Him made the resurrection,5 and the renewal to the whole creation.6 And in His Son, the only one,7 who is born of Him,8 that is, however, from the essence of His Father,9 God from God,10 light from light,11 true God from true God,12 born and not made,13 who is of one nature with His Father,14 who because of us, men, these created by His hands,15 and on account of our salvation

16 descended and put on body and became man,17 and sufferedand rose on the third day,18 and ascended to heaven,19 and sits at the right hand of His Father,20 and He shall come to judge the dead and the living ones.21 And we confess the Spirit, living and holy,22 the living Paracletewho is from the Father and the Son,23 in one essence,24 in one Trinity,25 in one will,26 agreeing with the faith of the 318 bishops that took place in thetown of Nicaea.16 The manuscriptbelongs to the collection of the patriarchateof the SyrianCatholicChurch,and is locatedin the Monasteryof Sarfeh n Harissa,Lebanon.17 Some portionsof this codex have been published n Syriac and Arabic Docu-ments,editedby A.Vo6bus (Stockholm1960).18 Cf. A.Mingana, Catalogue of the Mingana Collection of Manuscripts I (Cam-bridge1933)col. 25ff.19 Cf. A. van Lantschoot, Inventaire des manuscrits syriaques (Citta del Vaticano1965) p. 84.


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As this presentation of the textual evidence shows, the authentic formof the symbol is quite different from that given by Lamy. The creeddoes not speak of "fire"20 ut of "light". The most important rectifica-tion, however, concerns which constitutes the crescendo of the firstsection of the creed. That part concerns a term which Lamy translated"gaudium".21 It is, of course, a corruption. The original contains some-thing entirely different. What the text reads is not "joy for the entireworld", a corruption easily recognizable on palaeographical grounds,but "renewal of the whole world". This makes sense and restores thetrue reading of this primitive East Syrian symbol.We stand face to face with a baffling phenomenon. The evidencedemonstrates that the codex which was the only one available to Lamy,is the worst of all those now known. It is ironic that the scholar whowas led to this discovery should have had in his hands just the manu-script which was the worst for this particular text.Oak Park, III.60302, 230 So. Euclid Avenue

20 Lamy'stranslationreads"lumen"whichis not a correctrenderingof the termwhichappears n the Syriactext whichhe edited;cf. Concilium,ol. 28.21 Ibid., col. 28.

296 A. VOOBUS

New Sources for the Symbol in Early Syrian Christianity

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