Papers on ancient Syriac topics presented to the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, November 25, 2003.
Ilaria
Ramelli
Catholic University of Milan
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2004
Vol. 7, No. 1
For this publication, a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
license has been granted by the author(s), who retain full
copyright.
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv7n1crramelli
Ilaria Ramelli
Papers on ancient Syriac topics presented to the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, November 25, 2003.
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol7/HV7N1CRRamelli.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 7
issue 1
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in January and July) by Beth
Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998, Hugoye seeks to offer the
best scholarship available in the field of Syriac studies.
Syriac Studies
SBL
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CONFERENCE REPORT
[1] The
section entitled Social History of Formative Christianity
and Judaism at the Annual Meeting of the Society of
Biblical Literature (held in Atlanta, November 22-25, 2003,
together with the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of
Religion) was entirely devoted to ancient Syriac questions.
From the chronological point of view the attention was mostly
focused on the late second, the third and the fourth centuries;
only one lecture dealt with fifth-century Syriac Christianity.
The religious, cultural, historical and methodological interest
of these papers seems altogether remarkable, so it will be
useful to present in some extent the contents of each of
them.
[2] The
first lecture was delivered by Stephen Lloyd-Moffett, of the
University of California, Santa Barbara, who presented a
reconsideration of "The 'Heresy' of Encratism and the History
of Christianity in Eastern Syria". He observed that Encratism
was a category created by Western church fathers, but never
existed 'on the ground'. In fact, there were never
self-professed Encratic leaders, Encratic doctrines or Encratic
churches among the Christians of Eastern Syria. The radical
ascetic orientation labelled by the Western authors as
'Encratic' and initiated by Tatian was felt as normal Christian
'orthopraxis' (rather than an 'orthodoxy') by the Syriac
Christians, and represented the basis for Christian unity in
the churches of Syria, not a cause of division. So
Lloyd-Moffett argued that Syriac-church scholars ought to use
categories indigenous to their context rather than others
imported from the West.
[3] Ute
Possekel, of the St. John's Seminary of Boston, presented the
second paper of the session: "Formative Christianity in Edessa:
The Communal Structure of the Early Bardaisanites". It was a
very rich study that explored the reasons of the success of
Bardaisan's community, one of the earliest Christian
communities of Edessa, flourished until at least the early
fifth century, even if it soon came to be labelled as
heretical. Possekel depicted the extraordinary intellectual
figure of Bardaisan with his interests in Greek philosophy,
Christian beliefs, astrology, geography, ethnography, science,
and presented the sources that we have at our disposal for the
study of his thought: the Book of the Laws of the
Countries, written by a disciple, the Adamantius dialogue,
the works of St. Ephrem and several heresiological accounts:
Bardaisan's own writings are now lost. The paper analysed the
communal structure of the Bardaisanites and its influence on
Edessan society and concluded that some aspects of the
community's social structure, above all the provenance of many
members from the local aristocracy, together with some elements
of Bardaisan's teaching, especially his synthesis between
astrology (that interested the upper classes in Edessa) and the
doctrine of free will, considerably contributed to the
Bardaisanite movement.
[4] Tina
Shepardson, of the University of Tennessee, who has devoted
several works to St. Ephrem, in the third paper dealt with this
author's polemics: "Interpret with Care: Jews, Arians, 'Jews'
and 'Arians' in Fourth-century Syria". She focused the
attention on Ephrems' anti-Jewish language, used by him to warn
his audience away from both real Jewish festivals and from the
allegedly "Jewish" Christology of subordinationist Christians:
so, from "Arian" Christianity, in opposition to Nicene
Christianity. In order to explore who these "Jews" and these
"Arians" were, Shepardson made a distinction between their
historical reality and Ephrem's rhetoric, and placed this
rhetoric alongside the location of the Syrian father in
fourth-century Nisibis and Edessa. This helps to throw some
light on the nature of Christianity in these towns.
[5]
Alexander Mirkovic, of the University of South Florida, who is
preparing a book on the Doctrina Addai, dealt with
this subject also in the fourth paper of the session:
"Political Rhetoric of Labubna" (Labubna is the supposed author
of the Teaching of Addai). On the basis of the words,
images and social relations depicted in this Syriac document,
which describes the conversion of the Edessan king Abgar by the
apostle Addai, sent to the region of Northern Mesopotamia
directly by St. Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, Mirkovic
convincingly demonstrated that Labubna's fiction was written in
the fourth century. It reflects an important phase in the
process of Romanization and Christianization of the Syrian
aristocracy: for this reason Addai's mission is directed only
to the members of the Edessan aristocracy and to the king
himself, who in the Teaching looks more like a Roman
governor than a ruler of an independent kingdom. In fact,
Labubna seems to call his community to participate in the new
Roman order of the emperor Constantine.
[6] Lucas
Van Rompay, of Duke University, presented a paper on "Syrian
Christianity in the Age of Justinian: Continuity and
Redefinition", dedicated to the anti-Chalcedonian Miaphysite
church in Syria during the sixth century. The nascent
Syrian-Orthodox church was still part of the Roman Empire, yet
disconnected from the imperial church, and so it needed a
redefinition of its identity. This redefinition was explored by
the author in the paper with particular attention to its
literary, cultural and social aspects. The landscape carefully
depicted in detail is broad and Van Rompay does not see the
creation of Syrian-Orthodox church as a local phenomenon, but
rather puts it in the international context of the
anti-Chalcedonian movement, with ramifications in Egypt,
Ethiopia, Arabia, Armenia and in the Sassanid Empire.