Fear of God and the Beginning of Wisdom: The School of Nisibis and the Development of Scholastic Culture in Late Antique Mesopotamia

314 Pages·2006·28.29 MB·English

by  Adam H. Becker

Fear ofGod and
the Beginning ofWisdom
DIVINATIONS: REREADING LATE ANCIENT RELIGION
SeriesEditors: DanielBoyarin,VirginiaBurrus, DerekKrueger
A complete listofbooks in the series is available from the publisher.
Fear ofGod and
the Beginning ofWisdom
The School of Nisibis and
Christian Scholastic Culture in
Late Antique Mesopotamia
ADAM H. BECKER
PENN
UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Philadelphia
Copyright©2006UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper
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Publishedby
UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Philadelphia,Pennsylvania19104--4112
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Becker,AdamH.,1972-
FearofGodandthebeginningofwisdom:theSchoolofNisibisandChristian
scholasticcultureinlateantiqueMesopotamia/ AdamH.Becker.
p. cm.-(Divinations)
ISBN-13:978-0-8122-3934-8 (cloth:alk.paper)
ISBN-I0:0-8122-3934-2 (cloth:alk.paper)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindexes.
1.SchoolofNisibis. 2.Iraq-Churchhistory.I.Title.II.Series
BR1105.B43 2006
230".18-dc22 2005058594
For Leyla
Da stieg ein Baum ... und ein Wassermulch!
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Contents
Preface ix
Note on Transliteration, Spelling, and Terminology xi
Chronology Xlll
Introduction 1
1. Divine Pedagogyand the Transmission ofthe Knowledge ofGod:
The Discursive Backgroundofthe School Movement 22
2. The School ofthe Persians (Part 1): Rereading the Sources 41
3. The School ofthe Persians (Part2):
From Ethnic Circle to Theological School 62
4. The School ofNisibis 77
5. The Scholastic Genre: TheCauseoftheFoundation oftheSchools 98
6. The Reception ofTheodore ofMopsuestiain the
School ofNisibis 113
7. Spelling God's Name with the Letters ofCreation: The Use of
NeoplatonicAristotle in the Cause 126
8. ATypologyofEast-Syrian Schools 155
9. The Monastic Contextofthe East-Syrian School Movement 169
viii Contents
Conclusion: Studyas Ritual in the Church ofthe East 204
Notes 211
Bibliography 275
Index 287
Acknowledgments 297
Preface
This book delineates an intellectual and institutional history of the
scholasticculture ofthe Churchofthe Eastin the late antique andearly
Islamic periods. The primaryfocus will be on the SchoolofNisibis, the
major intellectual center ofthe Church ofthe East in the sixth and early
seventh centuries C.E. and an institution of learning unprecedented
in antiquity. The significance ofthe School ofNisibis hasbeen appreci
ated bysome scholars, butonlya few have studied its sources. However,
like Nisibisitself, sittingon the borderbetween the Roman andSasanian
Empires, the sources from the School-and Syriac studies in general
stand at the convergence ofseveral diverse fields and therefore deserve
far greaterconsideration.
Aside from the interestthatthisbookmayhave to scholarswhowork
in Syriac studies and on "Oriental" Christianity more broadly, it is my
hope that the analysis contained herein will be of use to scholars in
closely related but unfortunately often intellectually and institutionally
separate fields. The studyofthe East-Syrian school movementpromises
to shed light on the development ofChristian paideiain LateAntiquity,
the rise ofthe BabylonianJewish academies, and the background to the
burgeoningMuslim intellectualculture ofthe early(Abbasid period.
I am aware thata synthetic studysuch as this is premature due to the
amount offoundational work that still needs to be done in the Syriac
sources (such as editing oftexts). I hope that my intellectual saltation
from source to source andfrom topic to topicwillbe indulged bythose
whoworkwithin the field ofSyriacstudiesand thatthisworkwill direct
scholarsofotherfields towardsexaminingthefascinatingsourcesofthe
Church ofthe East.
The currentscholarlyprojectoferasing the false boundariescreated
byearlyChristiannotionsofheresycontainsinitshistoriographicalpar
adigm an implicitpoliticalcritique ofan approach to human sociallife
thatfails to accept the inevitabilityofdifference in the pastaswell as in
x Preface
the present. The historiographyofChristianitycontinuesto pushbeyond
the boundariesofecclesiastical historyestablishedbythe heresiologists
and church historians ofthe patristic age. This book does not engage
withtherecentscholarlysubversionof"heresy,"butpointsto thekindof
history that can be done when such false distinctions are ignored and
indigenous Christian traditions are studied as semi-autonomous histori
cal developments.1Christianity, like anyothergenerative andwidespread
culturalinstitution,hasbeenandnodoubtwillalwaysbepluriform,and
the Syriac tradition itselfis a genuswith a numberofspecies.
Although as a historian I tend to focus on the radical discontinuities
between one periodand another, examiningthese discontinuitiesas the
centralpointsofrenegotiation in the transitionfrom one authororone
periodtothenext,itwouldbedisingenuousofmetofail toacknowledge
the livingchurcheswhichidentifywith the traditionofwhichIama stu
dent. TheEastSyriansor"Nestorians,"astheirenemiespreferredto call
them, continue to exist today in the Middle East, South India, and the
worldwidediasporathatspansfrom Swedento theAmericanMidwestto
Australia.2Theyhavebeendividedintoanumberofchurches,including
the twomainonesoftheirancestralhomeland, the HolyApostolicCath
olicAssyrianChurchoftheEastandthe ChaldeanCatholicChurch,but
the members ofeach-as well as their longtime historical adversaries,
such as the Syrian Orthodox (West-Syrian) Church-identify strongly
with the Syriac tradition, even elevating it, not unlike manyJews since
the rise ofZionism, to a national status, one even requiring, according
to some, the national autonomy that this implies.
IdonotpresumetospeakforSyriacChristians.However,asonewhose
country now occupies the land where many of these Christians have
lived for centuries, I am concerned about the present complex of cir
cumstances endangering the Syriac communities ofMesopotamia and
can'thelpbutnotice the strikingsimilaritybetween thesecircumstances
and those which led to the more traumatic episodes in the history of
Syriac Christians over the last two centuries, including the slaughter of
many during what is commonly known as the Armenian genocide. On
the one side, some nationalists in Iraq and those Muslimswith an espe
ciallyreifiedand newfangled notion ofthe Ummaare attimes complicit
in attacks on Syriac Christians, whom they consider part of a larger
Western Christian (and "Zionist") conspiracy to strip Iraq ofits auton
omyandnaturalresources. On the other,foreign invadersoftenemploy
universalist notions, whether "Christian fellowship" or its secularized
twin, "Human Rights,"which fail to recognize the autonomousvalue of
indigenous Christianity and the local forms of negotiating differences
with Muslim compatriots. Christian love and the Rights of Man (and