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The Acts of Mar Mar the Apostle
Volume Editor
Susan Ashbrook Harvey
Amir Harrak
MAR
I THE APOSTLE
THE ACTS OF MAR
Copyright by the Society of Biblical Literature.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Acts of Mar Mari. English.
The acts of Mar Mar the apostle / translated from Syriac with an introduction and notes by Amir Harrak.
p. cm. -- (Writings from the Greco-Roman world ; )
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-: ---- (paper binding : alk. paper)
ISBN-: --- (paper binding : alk. paper)
. Mari, Saint. . Christian saints--Syria. . Christian saints--Iraq. .
Church history--Primitive and early church, ca. -. I. Harrak, Amir.
II. Title. III. Series.
BS.MA b
. dc
[B]
The book is printed in the United States of America
on recycled, acid-free paper.
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
Maps
vii
ix
Introduction
xi
A. The Manuscripts
xii
B. The Date of the Acts of Mr Mr
xiv
C. The Author
xvii
D. Sources of the Acts of Mr Mr
xix
. The Teaching of Addai
xix
. Eusebius of Caesarea
xxi
. The Bible
xxi
. The Mesopotamian Legacy
xxii
. Other Sources
xxvi
E. Literary Considerations
xxvii
F. Mr Mr and the Christianization of Mesopotamia xxxiii
G. The Present Translation
xxxvii
The Acts of Mr Mr: Text and Translation
List of Variants
Bibliography
Indices
Index of Biblical Citations
Index of Place Names
Index of Personal Names
Subject Index
Abbreviations
Abbeloos, Acta
Acts of Thomas
Amr
Bedjan, Acta
Eusebius, Hist. eccl.
Liber Turris
Mr
Raabe, Geschichte
alb
Teaching of Addai
Yqt, Mujam
AnBoll
ARAM
Analecta Bollandiana
ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian
Studies
CSCO
Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium
JNES
Journal of Near Eastern Studies
Journal of the CSSS Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac
Studies
LCL
Loeb Classical Library
Parole de lOrient
Kaslik
SBLTT
Society of Biblical Literature Texts and
Translations
viii
A
B
CB
Abbeloos, Acta
Bedjan, Acta
Raabe, Geschichte
Introduction
The Syriac Acts of Mr Mr the Apostle and an Arabic account found in a Christian source commonly referred to by its
translated title Liber Turris (Book of the Tower) discuss the introduction of Christianity to upper and lower Mesopotamia by
the holy man Mr Mr at the end of the first and beginning
of the second centuries of our era. He was the disciple of Addai, also known as Thaddeus (Matt :; Mark :), one of the
seventy (or seventy-two) disciples of Jesus (Luke :), who himself preached Christianity in Edessa in Upper Syria, according to
Greek and Syriac sources. At the order of Addai, Mr moved
eastward to Nisibis, and from there he descended toward Erbil
and farther south in Mesopotamia until he reached Seleucia on
the Tigris and Ctesiphon in Babylonia, where he founded the first
church. The conversion of the whole of Mesopotamia was done
through preaching and a series of miracles that struck the imagination and the hearts of the local people. As soon as a city or town
was converted, Mr is said to have founded a church, monastery,
and school, appointing priests, deacons, and teachers over them.
Eventually the Apostle of Babylonia, as he was known in later
sources, retreated to a locality named Qunn, which he had previously brought to Christ. He died there and was buried in the
Monastery of Qunn, which he himself had founded.
While there may be a historical core in the Acts, consisting
of the person of Mr Mr and his key role in converting Babylonia to Christianity, the Acts remains a literary work where history
mingles with Syriac spirituality and where both are disguised under the cover of fictitious stories. As a literary genre, the Acts of
Mr Mr recalls the Acts of the Apostles, the fifth book of the
New Testament. Both sources discuss the progress of Christianity through divine intervention at the hands of either the apostles
Syr. mr means lord and is given to holy men and ecclesiastical leaders. Mr, Aram. for my lord, may be a shortened form of a composite name,
e.g., Mr-yahb The Lord has given (an heir), attested in the Teaching of Addai, page line and passim.
Henricus Gismondi, Maris, Amri, et Salibae, de Patriarchis Nestorianorum commentaria II: Maris textus arabicus et versio latina (Rome: Luigi, ).
xii
or Mr, the latter being one of the seventy disciples of Jesus, according to his own Acts. But as we will see, the Acts of Mr Mr
has more in common with apocryphal Acts and draws enormously
on Syriac sources, such as the Acts of Thomas and especially the
Teaching of Addai.
The present book contains the Acts of Mr Mr in Syriac and the account extracted from Liber Turris in Arabic. Both
sources are translated for the first time into English with notes. In
order to shed more light on the contents of these sources, several
pertinent points are discussed in the following pages, with the aim
of providing an up-to-date view of the subject matter.
.
xiii
Ibid., :v.
xiv
Iraq. The latters translation is abridged; large sections at the beginning and at the end of the Acts were omitted.
.
The date of the Acts of Mr Mr has proven to be a controversial issue. The first editor of the text, Abbeloos, opted for a period
not before the sixth or perhaps the seventh century. Markwart
thought that the date must be late because of two geographical
names, Zawzan and Gawar, that are unattested in the early periods. On the other hand, several scholars preferred a date after
the collapse of the Sassanian Empire at the hands of the Arabs
in the middle of the seventh century, supposedly referred to by
the Acts. The Acts also mentions various cults in Mesopotamia,
such as the cult of trees and stones, but misses the cult of fire,
a landmark of Sassanian culture. This is not to mention the
anachronisms in the Acts, such as making Papa (end of the third
century) contemporary to Mr Mr (end of the first century) and
the casting of some stories on the basis of the book of Daniel, literary practices thought to have developed later.
Some of the reasons behind the dates given above can be
rejected. For example, the Acts never refers to the end of the Sassanian era, and there is no reason to date the Acts to or near that
event. Let us give the controversial passage in the Acts that confused some scholars:
The other kingdom of the Persians, which had ended with the
advent of Ardashir, had not yet begun. Now the cities and territories of Babylonia and Persia were full of small kings, but
the Parthians were ruling the territory of Babylonia. At that
time, the Parthian Aphraha son of Aphraha was reigning in
Babyloniain Seleucia and Ctesiphon in Bth-Army. ()
Abbeloos, Acta, .
xv
Raabe, Geschichte, n. .
See also Marie-Louise Chaumont, La Christianisation de lempire
iranien des origines aux grandes perscutions du e sicle (CSCO , Subsidia
; Louvain: Peeters, ), .
xvi
of the Arab period to use Arabic toponyms in reference to preIslamic places, no such confusion is attested in the Acts. In light
of this lack of references to Arab matters, one can safely conclude
that the Acts must be dated sometime before the advent of Islam.
As for the cults of trees, water sources, and stones that are
also mentioned in late Syriac sources, one must admit that such
cults must have existed in Mesopotamia much earlier than the
ninth century, as suggested by Duval. Rivers and water sources
were deified in ancient Mesopotamia, and the cult of stones is
attested, if not in Mesopotamia, then certainly in pre-Islamic
Arabia. On the other hand, the Acts mentions other cults familiar in Mesopotamia, such as the cult of Ishtar (Astarte), a truly
Mesopotamian deity (); the cult of the Sun () as the god
of justice, just as this deity was worshiped in Babylonia (see the
Code of Hammurabi); and the cult of the Eagle (), which is
well attested in Hatra (pre- and post-Christian eras). The claim
that the cult of fire is not mentioned as frequently as one would
expect in Sassanian Mesopotamia is also invalid. This was the
state cult of the Indo-Aryan Sassanians ruling Mesopotamia; the
largely Semitic peoples of this land were not subjected to it.
Second, by the first Christian century the cult was probably limited to the Parthians in Mesopotamia, unlike its more important
role during the Sassanian period in this same land. Third, the
Acts do refer to the fire as goddess of the Parthians in SeleuciaCtesiphon in one account ().
Taking into consideration the lack of toponyms, personal
names, and technical terms clearly of Arab origin and considering the large number of Persian names, various cults native to
Mesopotamia, and the Sassanian cult of fire, one can safely conclude that the Acts predated the Arab period. It cannot be dated
earlier than the fourth century, however. First, it mentions Papa,
who occupied the see of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, was deposed from it,
and may have reoccupied it until he diedevents that took place
In Sassanian Mesopotamia, conversion from Zoroastrianism to Christianity was not tolerated, whereas there is no evidence of compulsory conversion
from Christianity to Zoroastrianism initiated by the state.
Chaumont, Christianisation, .
xvii
between the end of the third and the early decades of the fourth
centuries. Second, the Acts mentions monasteries and schools,
while it is generally agreed that institutionalized monasticism appeared around the middle of the fifth century and took time to
develop and expand. Third and most important, the Teaching of
Addai, which found its way into the Acts of Mr Mr, is dated
around the beginning of the fifth century, as suggested by terms
and themes found in the speeches of Addai in Edessa. Finally,
the Acts talks about the places supposedly visited by Mr Mr
as well-established and mature Christian centers during a time of
peace and prosperity where the Evil could not molest and Satan
could not harass (). This can hardly be the fourth century,
which witnessed a persecution launched by Shapur II that lasted
forty years, beginning in the year . The fifth century was no
less harsh toward the Christians of Mesopotamia, who suered
several ocial persecutions. By contrast, the sixth century was
a time of relative peace, prosperity, and territorial expansion enjoyed by the church of Babylonia. This could well be the time
when the Acts of Mr Mr was written, though this line of reasoning does not suggest a more specific date.
.
The author of the Acts of Mr Mr did not give his name, but
from the Acts we know that he was a monk in the Monastery of
Qunn (Dayr Qunn), also called the Monastery of Mr Mr the
For more details, see Sebastian Brock, Eusebius and Syriac Christianity, in Eusebius, Christianity and Judaism (ed. H. W. Attridge and G. Hata;
Leiden: Brill, ), ; Sidney Grith, Christianity in Edessa and the
Syriac-Speaking World: Mani, Bar Daysan and Ephraem; the Struggle for Allegiance on the Aramean Frontier, Journal of the CSSS (): .
xviii
Apostle. Perhaps he wrote the Acts so as to highlight the importance of his monastery, which contained the bones of this saint:
We, more than all his other disciples, ought to be diligent in
honoring our Father . . . because the saint wanted his holy bones
to be deposited in this place and among us, rather than in any
other place (). Perhaps he wrote them for the commemoration day of Mr Mr, as suggested by the rhetoric in and the
exhortation to honor the commemoration day of this holy apostle and hero of righteousness (). As early as Labourt
talked about the propagandistic nature of the Acts in favor of Dayr
Qunn.
Al-Shbisht (tenth century) located the Monastery of Qunn
sixteen farsakh (about km) south of Baghdad and described
it as a fortress surrounded by a formidable wall. The ruins of the
monastery are located nowadays about km away from the Tigris,
but we know from the Acts that it was built (surely not at the time
of Mr Mr) on the bank of this river. The humidity of the terrain created great diculties while building it (), and this must
have been true in any period, given the marshy nature of that region. The monastery also became the last resting place of several
East Syriac patriarchs, among whom were Isaac (d. /) and
Dadisho Samuel (d. ). The patriarchs wanted to rest beside
the founder of Christianity in Babylonia.
As for the school of Qunn said to have been founded by
Mr Mr, it was established along with the monastery by Mr
Abd near the end of the fourth century, once Christianity had
taken hold there. Later on, prominent scholars graduated from
it, such as the logician Matt son of Ynis (d. ), the future
patriarch Israel (), and the latters own student, the future
The Monastery of Mr Mr the Apostle is known through the tenthcentury Kitb al-diyrt of al-Shbisht; see Grgs Awwd, ed., Al-diyrt
talf Al ibn Muammad ab al-asan al-marf bil-bit (Baghdad: Mabaat
al-Marif, ), , .
Labourt, Christianisme, .
Awwd, Al-diyrt,
Jean-Maurice Fiey, Assyrie chrtienne: Contribution ltude de lhistoire et de la gographie ecclsiastiques et monastiques du nord de lIraq ( vols.;
Beirut: Dar el-Machreq, ), :.
xix
patriarch Ishoyahb son of Ezekiel (). The monastery was almost in ruins at the time of Yqt al-amaw (d. ).
.
The author of the Acts of Mr Mr claimed that he wrote down
the tradition about this holy man as transmitted in the books
() but failed to identify his sources. He must have incorporated
in his edition of the Acts pieces of information from some old
sources, but they must have been fused within the edition in such
a way that they are no longer individually distinguishable. Elsewhere it is written: We have truly witnessed this matter and did
not receive it orally from somebody, the matter being the transfer of the riverbed by Mr Mr (). Though the pronoun in
the quoted sentence can refer to the writer of the Acts or to the
author of one of his quoted sources, neither is likely to have been
an eyewitness. No one single source, whether written by an eyewitness or by any other writer, for that matter, has ever survived
from the time of Mr Mr, let alone the supposed contemporary
report about the event referred to above.
Otherwise, the Acts of Mr Mr is a literary composition
that takes after a literary prototype: the Teaching of Addai. But
the Acts also draws on Eusebius of Caesarea, the Bible (namely,
the book of Daniel), and the ancient Mesopotamian literary repertoire. While it is possible to identify such borrowings, there
remain others that cannot be assigned prototypes. In the following subsections I will identify the sources clearly detectable in the
Acts.
. The Teaching of Addai
There is nothing new in saying that the Acts of Mr Mr and the
Teaching of Addai form one cycle, the former meant to be an expansion of the latter. The Acts claims that it was Addai who sent
xx
t'
c
E
hC Em
j B (Addai :)
t '
c
)E y n Pt h ( E m
j
h C (Mr , pp.
::)
xxi
jw n m
Bt p
E U x l c ' x y S
h H
jrrc, Christ who sent you to us is witness: you have taught us
the true faith. One can say that Aggai, in the Teaching of Addai,
is the prototype of Papa in the Acts of Mr Mr.
. Eusebius of Caesarea
The Acts also uses the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. -ca. ) in a Syriac translation. For example, in a
discussion concerning the interest in depicting Jesus during his
own time, the Acts mentions a copper statue of a woman whose
blood had run for twelve years (see Mark :). This statue is
said to have stood on a rock opposite the womans own house, and
it depicted her with knees bent and arms outstretched. Beside her
stood a copper statue of Jesus in which he was depicted as clad in
a cloak, stretching his hand toward the woman (). This motif is
found in Hist. eccl. ..
. The Bible
xxii
King Darius for the homage that everyone had to pay to him instead of anyone else in heaven and on earth (Dan :, ).
The account of Mr going inside the blazing fire ()
echoes another story in the book of Daniel, according to which
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the furnace
of blazing fire because of their refusal to worship the golden statue
set up by Nebuchadnezzar (Dan :). Mr and the three biblical men were all spared from death by burning through divine
intervention and because of their strong faith in God. The attempts to make the blaze even more fiery and destructive (Dan
: and ), so as to expose the faithful men to an even greater
danger, are also most probably related.
. The Mesopotamian Legacy
xxiii
Ibid, .
xxiv
Assembly
Head of the Assembly
Assembly of the Elders
Syriac
Arabic
Akkadian
pur
qa pur
fur
ras al-fur
puru
rab puri
pur d-sb
fur al-maikh
puru a btu
Second, the description of the assembly in Liber Turris corresponds to the true nature of the Babylonian assembly. In this
Christian Arabic source the Seleucid assembly is defined as a
convention in which people gathered with regard to religion
according to specific rules (appendix, p. ). The source in question must have used another version of the Acts of Mr Mr that
Cumont did not consult, and thus the identification of Seleucias
assembly as some kind of Brgercasinos of German cities is inappropriate. Babylonian puru refers technically to one of the most
prestigious social and religious institutions in Mesopotamia, the
assembly. Since the dawn of history, Mesopotamian cities each
had a popular assembly made of socially equal citizens. Babylonian sources of the first millennium .. refer to puru a mti,
assembly of the country; puur ummni, assembly of the people; and the assemblies of Babylon, Sippar, Nippur, Ur, Uruk,
and so forth. Thus the pur of Seleucia could have been yet
another local Babylonian assembly.
The mandate of the Mesopotamian historical assembly consisted of making judicial decisions in the context of family law and
property, and in the latter domain it dealt specifically with temple
property and thefts of cattle. Nonetheless, nowhere in cuneiform
historical sources is it mentioned that the mandate also included
banquets and merrymaking. While the historical assembly did not
include banqueting, the banquet was an integral part of the divine
assembly in Mesopotamian mythology. In at least two places the
Babylonian Epic of Creation (Enuma Elish) makes reference to the
divine assembly, including the banquet motif. In tablet III
the gods are said to have assembled to assign Marduk the task
xxv
During the debate, the deities also make Marduk the head of
their assembly. In tablet VI, where the debate about making Marduk the head of the Babylonian pantheon is about to end, Marduk
addresses the gods in the following terms (VI ):
Annam Bbili ubat narmkun
nug aruu idtau tabma
ibma il rabti
zarbaba ikun ina qirti ub
Yes! Babylon is also your dwelling place!
Sing joyfully there, reside in happiness!
The great gods sat down,
they set out the beer mugs; they sat at the banquet.
Ibid., .
xxvi
way that the Syriac term pur means solely banquet outside
the Acts of Mr Mr. Thus, the Mesopotamian literary legacy
served as yet another source for the writer of the Acts of Mr
Mr.
. Other Sources
Fiey, Jalons, .
xxvii
probably a misspelling of the familiar Kokhe, located south of Ctesiphon. At any rate, Fieys observation is insightful. One would
only assume that the activities of Mr Mr were recorded at an
early stage (perhaps during his lifetime) or that the memory of his
presence in Seleucia-Ctesiphon remained truly vivid in the mind
of the early Christians, so as to justify the transmission of a topographical detail throughout the centuries without being distorted.
Otherwise, no written source has ever survived from the first and
the second centuries.
.
The Acts of Mr Mr shares with the Acts of the Apostles, the
fifth book of the New Testament, the aim of tracing the origins
of Christianity since its genesis. The strongest link between both
sources is their own preaching heroes: the apostles in the Acts of
the Apostles; and Mr, said by his Acts to be one of the the seventy disciples () mentioned in Luke :, . They also share
the basic belief that Christianity was of divine origin, as evidenced
through the numerous miracles performed by the apostles in Acts
and by Mr in the Acts of Mr Mr. What is more, the latter
source without hesitation compares its hero to the Apostle Paul,
claiming that both were selected for apostleship after all the other
apostles ().
Nonetheless, the similarities between the Acts of Mr Mr
and the New Testament Acts are superficial, and the former has
more in common with such apocryphal Acts as the Acts of Peter, Paul, John, Andrew, and Thomas, all having the same literary
framework. Being historical novels, their goal is to entertain and
edify, and such topoi as preaching, adventures, miracles, and wonders play pivotal roles in reaching that goal. The Acts of Mr
Mr is even more indebted to the Syriac apocryphal Acts, particularly the Acts of Thomas and the Teaching (or better, Acts)
The title was borrowed by the Acts of Mr Mr from the Teaching of
Addai.
xxviii
For more about this cycle, see Amir Harrak, Trade Routes and the
Christianization of the Near East, Journal of the CSSS (): .
xxix
xxx
Interestingly, in the Acts of Mr Mr demons dare not utter the name
of Jesus or Christ or both but call him son of Mary (), and this is how
demons in the eighth- century Chronicle of Zuqnn call Jesus; see Amir Harrak,
The Chronicle of Zuqnn Parts III and IV A.D. (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, ), .
xxxi
were cured by Mr were also numbered among the men of power,
the story of their conversion reflects the same literary motif. The
statement that Mr baptized the king and the city in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit () reflects the belief
that the Christian message could reach every echelon in the society
through the healing power of baptism.
While the Acts of Mr Mr has much in common with the
Acts of Thomas, it is particularly indebted to the Teaching of Addai. Not only does it borrow sections, ideas, and expressions from
the Teaching of Addai (see D.. above), but these two sources do
not share some basic beliefs expressed in the Acts of Thomas. For
example, they do not reject marriage or consider legitimate intercourse filthy or paint in deep black and pure white the dierence
made by baptism between old man and new man or between
corruptibility and incorruptibilityall landmark features in the
Acts of Thomas. Nor did Mr end his life in martyrdom, as was
the case with Thomas and most of the apostles, but died peacefully, surrounded by his followers and designated successor (),
as was also the case of his own master Addai. In addition, the
Acts of Mr Mr and the Teaching of Addai convey the message that Christianity spread throughout Greater Mesopotamia
triumphally, in contrast to the rejection by the local people of India of Thomass Christian message, for which he even paid the
price of his life. In short, the Acts of Mr Mr borrowed from
the Teaching of Addai the basic structure of its literary composition, whereas both the Teaching of Addai and the Acts of Mr Mr
used numerous literary ingredients found in the Acts of Thomas.
Overlooking the features of Syriac literary and didactic
purposes full of theological symbolism can lead one to draw
unwarranted conclusions about such symbolism. Thus, Raabe
doubted the accuracy of one passage in the Acts in which Mr
Mr was told that he had to go up the summits of those mountains and the top of the high places [in Babylonia], breaking them
up, tilling them, and sowing them to bring plentiful yield! ().
Raabe denied the claim that there were mountains in Seleucia.
Needless to say, the mountains and summits referred to above are
analogies, reflecting the particularly dicult task facing Mr in
his bid to replace Chaldeanism with Christianity (). For
Raabe, Geschichte, n. .
xxxii
Duval, Littrature, .
Labourt, Christianisme, .
Baumstark, Geschichte, .
Raabe, Geschichte, .
xxxiii
.
Not all Syriac sources are unanimous about the role played by
Mr Mr in spreading Christianity in Mesopotamia. In the late
sources, such as Bar-Hebraeus in his Chronicon Ecclesiasticum II
, it is Addai who preached Christianity in Persia, Assyria, Armenia, Media, Babylonia, and so forth, in addition to his main
mission in Edessa. The Liber Turris of Mr son of Sulaymn also claims that Addai traveled to Adiabene, Mosul, and
B
th-Garmai, short of crediting him with the conversion of Babylonia. Even an East Syriac document of the seventh century
makes the claim that Addai spread the Christian faith in the
East, though this word could be taken in its general sense and
not referring specifically to Babylonia. By contrast, early sources,
such as Eusebius, never mention Addais role in Babylonia.
The Liber Turris of Mr son of Sulaymn claims that Addai took with him his disciple Aai to Nisibis, and from there
he sent him to Qard, B
th-Zabdai, B
th-Huzy
, Sind, and as
far as Gog and Magog. While the Acts makes it clear that Mr
Mr converted Nisibis, Nldeke rightly noted that Saint Ephrem
the Syrian (fourth century), a native of this place, never mentioned the name of Mr in this connection. On the other hand,
Chronicle and Patriarch Michael the Syrian (thirteenth century) both claim that Aggai, Addais successor in Edessa, also
preached Christianity in Persia, Ath
r (Assyria), Armenia, Media, lands around Babylonia, B
th-Huzy
, B
th-Gely
, as far as
the boundaries of India, and in Gog and Magog.
Fiey, Jalons, .
Gismondi, Maris, Amri, et Salibae II, .
Jean-Baptiste Chabot, Synodicon orientale ou recueil des synodes nestoriens (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, ), (Syr.), (trans.).
Fiey, Jalons, .
xxxiv
Nonetheless, the person most credited with the christianization of Mesopotamia, namely, Babylonia, is none other than
the hero of the Acts under discussion: Mr Mr. There are two
main reasons why we should also give Mr Mr this distinction. First, though the Acts is relatively late in date and is more
literary than historical, it contains historical details that add to
its credibility. For instance, rather than claiming that Mr Mr
preached Christianity in Khuzistan in southern Persia, the Acts
states that trade people brought this religion into their homeland from the West (). It is historically true that trade routes
were also channels through which religions and ideologies moved,
spreading out geographically, and one need not illustrate this with
examples. Some merchants must have brought Christianity with
them from Syria or Palestine, through the trade route linking
Susa, Mesopotamia, Upper Syria, and down to Palestine, attested since distant antiquity. Moreover, the statement that Mr
Mr preached Christianity in Seleucia prior to its destruction by
raiders also sounds historical. The Roman Avidius Cassius,
general of Lucius Verus, burned down Seleucia in /, though
he did not totally destroy it. It was Emperor Carus who probably carried out its final destruction in , while on an expedition
against Persia. Mr Mr could well have traveled to Seleucia
before these two dates. In addition, the topography of SeleuciaCtesiphon discussed by Fiey is quite supportive of the Acts, which
states that Mr Mr was present in this region before the shift in
the bed of the Tigris between and . Since the Tigris separated Ctesiphon from Seleucia and Kokhe after , the insistence
of the Syriac sources that Mr Mr crossed the Tigris from Seleucia to Ctesiphon and Kokhe is unintelligible unless these sources
During the early second millennium .. and for more than one century, an ecient trade business was conducted by the Assyrians in Cappadocia,
which included the exchange and sale of items coming from Babylonia. Worth
mentioning in this context is an Akkadian epic (King of Battlewith a historical core?) attributed to Sargon of Akkad (twenty-fourth century) that depicts
him campaigning in Asia Minor to protect merchants; see Joan G. Westenholz,
Legends of the Kings of Akkade (Mesopotamian Civilizations ; Winona Lake,
Ind.: Eisenbrauns, ), .
xxxv
Fiey, Jalons, .
About Kokhe, see most recently Marica Cassis, Kokhe, Cradle of the
Church of the East: An Archaeological and Comparative Study, Journal of the
CSSS (): .
Ibid., .
xxxvi
the monks held candles and incense, chanted hymns, and covered
the path of the newly elected patriarch with rugs and cloths
, as was the custom. Significant, too, is the anaphora
named after the apostles Addai and Mr, which is still in use in
the Church of the East today. This is in fact the oldest Christian
anaphora ever, dated probably before the christological controversies of the fourth century, though its other title, Sanctification
of the Apostles, suggests that it was originally named after the
twelve apostles.
In fact, Mr Mr is so associated with Babylonia that one of
its canals may well have been named after him. The thirteenthcentury Geographer Yqt al-amaw mentioned nahru mr
river (= canal) of Mr, and about it he said that it flowed
between Baghdad and al-Numniyyah, emptying itself into the
Euphrates, and on which numerous villages among which is Humayni are located; its mouth is near al-Nl in the district of
Babylon. The Acts mentions al-Nls canal () but not Mrs
canal, which connects with it, and this name seems unattested
outside Yqts Mujam. The canals name may not refer to our
holy man, but its spelling with a long alif, as in Syriac and Arabic (Mr) Mr, is at least suggestive. The fact that Dayr-Qunn
was located on the east bank of the Tigris about km south of
Baghdad, according to al-Shbishthe called it the Monastery
of Mr Mr the Apostle and that al-Nls canal is also found
there reinforces the association of Mrs canal with our holy man.
Taking together the Acts and its historical details, the other
Syriac sources calling Mr the apostle of the East, the topography
of Seleucia-Ctesiphon before , and the deep conviction of the
Church of the East that Mr Mr was its own apostle, one cannot deny his role in christianizing Babylonia. Though his time
frame is more dicult to assert, the early second century is not
a far-fetched date.
Henricus Gismondi, Maris, Amri, et Salibae, de Patriarchis Nestorianorum commentaria I: Amri et Salibae textus (Rome: Luigi, ), .
For a detailed study of the anaphora, its edition, and translation, see A.
Gelston, The Eucharistic Prayer of Addai and Mari (Oxford: Clarendon, ).
Yqt, Mujam, :.
Awwd, Diyrt, .
xxxvii
I have attempted to produce as literal a translation as the English language allows, to be close to the original text. I followed
Abbeloos in dividing the text into numbered sections, since Raabe
previously did so and since the Acts is referred to in modern scholarship in this manner. Variants between the three editions of the
Syriac text are placed at the end of the translation but called to
the attention of the reader in the Syriac text through half square
brackets; one is placed after one variant and two between more
than just one variant. In the footnotes I tried to trace the ecclesiastical administration of the places mentioned in the Acts, and
this task was made easy thanks to the last book published by the
late Fr. Fiey, Oriens Christianus Novus. I am very grateful to this
outstanding scholar of Syriac Christianity, not only for this indispensable tool and his insightful studies of the Acts of Mr Mr,
but also because he was at the origins of my own interest in Syriac
Christianity: Requiescat in pace.
I would like to thank Mr. Nicholas al-Jiloo, of Wakeley, Australia, who kindly accepted to typeset the Syriac text, which he did
with professional accuracy. I am grateful to Susan Ashbrook Harvey of Brown University for reading my introduction and making
excellent suggestions as to the nature of the literary source that the
Acts represents. My thanks are also due to John Fitzgerald of the
University of Miami for accepting my volume in the series Writings from the Greco-Roman World.
Last but not least, I thank my wife Nagham and my son Ryan
for their moral and spiritual support and love.
Toronto
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THE STORY OF
MAR
I THE APOSTLE
MAR
This introductory note is found in A and CB. The note confuses Mr
with Addai in that it calls the former one of the seventy disciples. According
to the Teaching of Addai it was the latter who was one of the seventy-two disciples. But this might not be confusion. For the East Syriac church, Mr Mr
was the missionary who was at the very origins of this church. If he was not
among the seventy-(two) disciples, he was certainly equal to any one of them.
Tiberius I, Roman emperor, ruled between .. and . His fifteenth year of reign corresponds to the year .. .
Herod the Great built this city in the North of Palestine, on the
Mediterranean.
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On the gate of the house of the woman about whom it was written
in the Gospel that her blood ran for twelve years, I saw a bronze
statue (of the woman) standing on a high stone, her knees bent and
her arms stretched forth, begging, as if in reality. Another bronze
statue of a man clothed with a cloak stood opposite her, stretching his hand toward this woman. This statue is the likeness of
our Savior, as all those who were assisted by our Lord and Savior testified: They fashioned his image in every place with the
finest pigments! (These images) stand until now, for at the beginning, the pagans used to honor them simply in this form and in like
manner, as if it were a savior. The Good Message of the heavenly
kingdom flew not only to the common people but also to royalty,
according to what we have learned from old stories.
2 During the time in which the ministry of the Savior took
place, the news of the healing power of our Savior Christ spread
to Abgar, the lord of the city of Edessa. This one had a serious
illness that was constantly tormenting himgout in the feet. He
heard that our Savior was performing signs and miracles, wrote to
him a letter, and dispatched to him envoys and messengers, so that
he might come to him and perform healing on him. This is what
he wrote to him in his letter: Abgar Ukkm, lord of the land,
to Jesus the Savior, peace! I heard that you cleanse lepers, expel
impure spirits, and exorcise devils, and I believe that you are God
and the Son of God, who came down to heal the creation. I have a
serious illness and am asking you to come to me to treat this illness.
I also heard that the Jews among your people hate you and seek to
do you harm. If you desire itI have a small city that is suitable
for you and me; it would be sucient for both of us, and we would
be at rest in it.
The messengers arrived and entered Jerusalem on the
Ukkm, the Black. The reference must be made to Abgar V, a contemporary of Jesus, who reigned ..-.. and once again .. .
The letter, the following reply, and many other details are borrowed
from the Teaching of Addai. Note that the wording of Abgars letter above is
dierent from the one in the Teaching of Addai.
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5 When the king and his nobility realized the signs that Addai performed, they began telling him: We beg you to tell us:
Jesus, who was he? What did he teach? What did he do? Addai said to the king: Time now is late, but if you want, let me
tell you: Send out and call upon all your forces and I will come
in the morning to relate to you the story of Jesus. The king accepted his order happily and sent to gather all his nobles. Addai
came in the morning and started to talk about the divine economy and how (God) created the universe and fashioned human
nature and the kinds of promises that he had made to the old
generations; about the advent of the prophets and the coming of
Christ and the signs that he performed; and about the resurrection and ascension of Christ to heaven and the authorization that
he gave to the prophets and the disciples to preach in the nations.
And as the Apostle said: The king praised his speech, and the Holy
Spirit confirmed his words by the performance of signs. Immediately the city and its suburbs converted on account of the signs
that occurred at the hands of Mr Addai. After a short while, the
whole of Mesopotamia was drawn to faith in Christ. Many among
those who accepted the faith strove to virtuous conduct. After
he had built the church in Edessa, equipped it with whatever it
deserved, and appointed priests and deacons in the city and in its
suburbs, Addai the Apostle left this world in peace on Thursday,
the fourteenth of the month of Iyyr (May), ending his lovely contests with the trophy of victory.
6 So far were (the stories) about the conversion of Mesopotamia. Let us now turn our attention to show how the fear of
God moved from there to our own territories. Because this story
is not told clearly, I am putting into writing the old tradition that
is transmitted in the books, as follows.
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According to Liber Turris, Mr Mr was not only one of the seventy
disciples; he was also Hebrew in origin; Gismondi, Maris, Amri, et Salibae II,
; see the appendix, p. .
Cuneiform Na
ibina, classical Nisibis and Antiochia in Mygdonia, a
city located on the Jaja River, to the west of the Tigris. In antiquity Nisibis and Edessa were major caravan cities situated along a trade route linking
Mesopotamia with Upper Syria and Anatolia. Before the Arab era, Nisibis
was a border city, separating Roman/Byzantine Syria from Parthian/Sassanian
Mesopotamia. Nisibis was a bishopric see since the early fourth century, made
famous by its illustrious bishop James of Nisibis (/-after ). In the
early fifth century, it became the Metropolitan city of Bth-Araby; see JeanMaurice Fiey, Nisibe, mtropole syriaque orientale et ses suragants des origines
nos jours (CSCO , Subsidia ; Louvain: Secrtariat du Corpus SCO, ).
Mr Mr had other disciples, including ms (), Daniel (),
Papa, and Job ().
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Immediately, the king kneeled and bowed down before the blessed
one, begging and saying: My Lord, I believe! Help me! At this
point the blessed one came close and placed his hand on the spot,
saying: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Jews
crucified in Jerusalem, get up on your feet! Concomitant with
the word of the blessed one, the king was healed, and was baptized
along with the members of his house. When the entire city realized that the king was healed, they too came to the blessed one, and
he healed their bruises. He thus converted the whole city, built in
it a church, and appointed over it priests and deacons.
8 From there he left again and came to the land of B
thZabdai. There he converted most of the local people, and from
there the blessed one left for the land of B
th-Araby
, where
he made many conversions. From there, he went down to the land
of Erbil and Ath
r. Now the king of Erbil was stricken with
lepra leonina of Ahazialeprosy that people abhor and hate very
muchand his left hand was paralyzed. When the blessed Mr
Mr went into Erbil, he began to sow in it the seed of life.
The people of the city, along with the worshipers of idols
who were in it, cried out loudly, screaming and saying: From
where did this one who abolishes our gods come to us? Then they
Acts :.
A land located between Qard and Bth-Araby, on the west bank of
the Upper Tigris. It corresponds to Zabdicena of Ammianus Marcellinus .,
, a land to the right bank of the Tigris, opposite Qard. The first two known
bishops in Bth-Zabdai lived during the middle of the fourth century, both deported in and martyred at the hands of Shapur II; Fiey, Nisibe, .
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went into the presence of the king and talked to him, informing
him about what was taking place at the hands of the blessed one.
When the king heard about these things, he grew agitated. He sent
after Mr Mr, who was quickly brought into the kings presence.
The king answered and said to him: What is this that you are
abolishing the gods and teaching about the one Godas people
say and as we have heardwhom the Jews hung on a stake at the
time of Herod? Then the blessed Apostle Mr Mr said: That
he was killed, as you have heard, by the Jews who hate the truth,
and that he was also buried: the matter is true! That he rose up
from the tomb, ascended to heaven in glory and sat to the right side
of the Father: you are not aware, O king! Now that miracles will
be done at my hands in his name, you will be assured that he is the
only true God, and there is none besides him. The king answered
and said to him: What miracles can your God do? The blessed
Mr Mr said to him: Everything is easy for powerful God. Everything, which you ask of him in faith, you will receive. The
king said to him: If you heal the illness with which I am stricken,
I will believe in Christ and in his apostles. Then the blessed one
replied and said to the king: Be patient with me for a short while.
He kneeled down and said: I beg you, God, Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ! Heal this servant of yours! The blessed one took
oil and water, made over them the sign of the cross of the Lord,
and gave them to the king. As he drank from it and anointed himself with it, he was healed, his flesh becoming at once (like that) of
a small child. As for his hand, the disciple seized it with his own
hand, and it immediately stretched forth.
9 There was there a military commander of the king, whose
name was Zaradosh. When he realized that his lord the king
was healed, he cried out saying to the blessed one: Blessed be
your Lord who sent you to us, to heal our bruises. Blessed be
Christ whom you are announcing. May his glory be blessed, and
his honor be higher than that of all other creatures. May he be
worshiped forever in heaven as on earth. Then he lowered his
head before the blessed one and beseeched him and begged him,
saying that he had an only son to heal, for the spirit that was
inhabiting that child was torturing him in such a way that they
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had to chain him with two chains. The name of that child, who
was very handsome, was Daway. The Apostle Mr Mr said to
him: Go and bring your child here, so that you may realize the
love of my Lord Christ for him. When the child came in, he
screamed loudly and foamed at the mouth, and the demon threw
him down as if he were dead.
Then the Apostle Mr Mr drew near to him, and said
to that devil: I order you, accursed demon, in the name of Jesus Christ who overthrew your power and who is now destroying
you, get out of this creature of God, without harming him in any
way! The accursed demon shouted, saying: Where do you order me to go? The blessed one said to him: Go with all your
company to Lower Tartarus! Then that accursed demon came
out, turned as it were into a dark whirlwind, and was never found
again. Then the child stood up, praised God, and fell at the feet
of the blessed Mr Mr the Apostle and kept kissing them.
10 On the same day, the king and all the members of his
family, Zaradosh and his son Qardway and all their relatives, the
eunuchs of the king, and all his nobles were baptized. Realizing the signs and the miracles that were performed, one high
priest of the king and the members of his family believed in our
Lord. They threw down the idols, which they used to worship,
and smashed them, throwing their dust into the Greater Zb.
Mr Mr won the entire region of Ath
r and Nineveh to the
' c: Akkadian
du always in pair with lamassu, both protective
deities. In Assyrian literature and art, both referred to the winged colossi placed
at gates and entrances. But even in Akkadian, there was a bad
du, possibly the
ancestor of the
d in Syriac literature.
Luke :.
For the identification of this branch of the Tigris, see note below.
Nineveh during the first centuries of the Christian era was a mere village located on the top of Tell Nab Ynis. The Tell was once part of the great
Assyrian capital, being the arsenal of King Sennacherib. Nineveh was a bish
E ' y g H . t x b S
jr r c jw n m
U Bw C t y
ry ' .' \j' \' r r`H 'ly ry BwC
j
j wkysm 'syd W 'lP
.wyCtm 'wP kS
r y ' .
r `
H ABr
' j
d b
jd j
ry FwwP .'x ylc
t 'r : r'C
by b rtC
t y b g
j ' C
. b j ' x y l c B
h l \t E
.
jw\ M hH
tT tynP '
:'x ylc
'r
t r q
' x C ' b
E jr
. y > \ \j' : '
: h
n t
t
j jr
t r W
.I y s
m M> \T r Wt
.
P
t 'nw y\ \j'
.X
r t
Cf. John :.
See Cor :.
The passage is not clear. Since the author compared Mr Mr with
St. Paul, the words this one too must refer to Mr. Since Rome was the first
and foremost city in the West, it makes sense for the author to consider SeleuciaCtesiphon as the counterpart of Rome in the East. t y n P is not a pleonasm, as
Raabe suggested in Geschichte, n. . In this context the Syriac word refers to
the cardinal points of the world.
IysmM\: As a place name, this form is attested only in the Bible; see
Exod :. Raabe, Geschichte, n. , suggested Bth-Raaman, though rightly
with hesitation.
X
: The place is also called Bth-Wzq, Arab. Bawzj. The Syriac
name had a Persian counterpart, Kunia (Shapur). In Mr, it is called Ikniy
on the basis of the Persian name; Gismondi, Maris, Amri, et Salibae II, . The
city was located on the east bank of the Lower Zb, in the province of Bth-Garmai. Its first known bishop is named John the Physician, who administered it
Br h z
j . jL w l y E x :
b
M m
j
.E H \j' I y w y m t \ c .h r
z x
B
\j rykc ry gH .B
jwy` E BwC 'npC
'C
'P'
k B
hn
.EgH
'nl ' ry B
hn .AB
jL gH
\w n B
t n
B
h y n O ' M .' y t n y `
@H E
.y\
\
j n
Eb
M .
Erb`
'y> n H \j'
\c
.
ymj Iy w
M \' r
Ej
. h
l j
j
. tr E? \' 'M
.B
LwS Br P M j
hs # Iyw 'nw yCjj
'xylc \' r
ymj Iyw 'nw E lj : A S
tt t
rM 'wy .wj 'ry x .\w \j' #
between and . Before it became a bishopric see, the see was located at
Maoze dArewan, to the south of the Lower Zb, and was under the jurisdiction of Bth-Garmai since ; Fiey, Rpertoire, , .
EH: Region located to the west of the Greater Zb and to the south of
Amdiyya. A-dby, who was appointed bishop over it in , is the first
attested in literary sources. Its bishopric see was under the jurisdiction of Adiabene; Fiey, Assyrie, :.
Media, the land located to the east of Mesopotamia and north of Iran.
Could it be the same as Guwer, south of the Greater Zb, not far away
from its junction with the Tigris, in Adiabene?
.'x ylc
# jwy`
'kS \j' 'nw qc Ej E
12
' k l
. t n jr y Wh S M t ' W
. d t y \j
'nz
.y
'SW
: h
t 'pn
h
r m
M
' n l '
j g H .t x C ' n w
.
E y x
j ' S x C ' m Y
.
E y r q ' n T H
jr B ' . r h
ty .ry hc 'kl
'C
\wk
.j
ryq
wlM .'y rT P h
mc
j
' x k S '
.'
jw r S .j
' w Ct ' y S W
rc
.hmM
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.
j
bMj
in the third hour. His grave became a source of benefits that remains until today.
When the blessed Mr Mr entered the village of Brgi, he
converted a manthe kings chief of the Magianswho was governing there. Because the chief of the Magians heard that the king
and all his nobles had converted, he too accepted the faith and was
baptized, along with the whole city. Then he passed to Raamss
and Wziq, which he converted through the opening of the eyes of
two blind peoplenotable people who were there. There he built
churches after the names of Peter, Paul, and Addai the apostles.
12 From there the blessed one took the road to the land
of darkness and error, the country of B
th-Garmai. First he
went into the city of Shahqirt, where there was a pagan king,
very harsh and frightening. By the time the blessed one went
there, a tree in which Satan was dwelling was being worshiped,
and slaughtered animals were also being oered to a bronze statue.
The king Shahgird had no child except for a daughter named
Phraia, who was very dear to him. But she was tormented by a
serious illnessparalysisand was unable to do anything or to
walk. The Apostle Mr Mr and those who were with him came
r t y : Arab.
(B-jarm), territory located to the east
of the Tigris, between this river, the Lower Zb, and the mountains of imrn
and Diyl. Its center was Karkh-Selokh Citadel of the Seleucids or Karkha
(modern Kirkuk in Iraq). Bth-Garmai may have been a Metropolitan see since
the third century, if not earlier, having its center possibly in Shahrgird (see the
following note). The three earliest bishops of Karkha lived during the reign of
Shapur II () and were martyred by him. After the first quarter of the
ninth century, the see was transferred from Karkha to Shahrzr; Fiey, Rpertoire, .
.t C E
jr
t y l
t n M
.' k l t y
y l W ' C
E n b H
.jr
' M\j E At P .' n w
T . r E EynWj . ryTP E P
cw
'xmW
.'mx Ezm Exkc '
trq
.Et 'q
\ E
tP
wW 'C 'xkS ry ' .
tyl h
r
wqpC : B
hl ty n
.Ed S l
T :
.h
r
'nw 'nM
.Ej wxm : h jw B
h
'xYC hwP
.ky
B
\rSC : A SmMwS Br hmS
.h
t 'n '' h
n VrP : lm \' r
jr
tnM
.'M\j ttP
tmW hj
j
x x
E l ' k l ' C Ww P T . r b
b M ' n .h
fC ' h B
hl Ey w tj .q
P E
Bjwkl
t m l
.r m ' n
. t y P' m \w C ' r
' \' r ' n w h
r
.h E Ww \w n h
E y
. \w n Bw
k A Ww k S f C r y t y .E y l j
t m W
. \w C j c
. \' r E ' x m W t b s C .h
r
B
hl E ` 'nCj XlH 'nTH jwCb`m
. tyP'm
.'kl 'CWwP M EyqP Eyl
z
. tn d
. \wC
c 'kl
tyb wM
.wbqM
j
B
r'C w`
.'kl rT yhc W wmW
j
13
' n B
h r Bw C
z
E
.w l
h
E X l H ' n Cj
.' k l Ar # h E r .B
t r
t y b f C t y /
' M\t
.' C
j C P
j
: 'lMr
'M
z
@W #
jr 'yrP B '
in and settled before the gate of the king. Mr Mr drew near the
gate of the royal house and knocked at it. A little girl responded,
saying: Who are you? The blessed one said to her: Open for
us the door, my daughter, and take from us this bit of flour, knead
it, and bake for us unleavened bread, so that you would be remunerated with a reward on our account, for we came from afar and
could not buy bread in this village! The little girl said to him: I
cannot stand up to open the door for you, for my hands and feet
are paralyzed, and all the members of the house have left to oer
slaughtered animals to the gods. The blessed one replied and said
to her: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may your limbs be
restored to health! While the mouth of the sublime Mr Mr
was still uttering the words, every single illness that was in her left
her, and she stood up immediately and opened the door with joy
and amazement. She replied, saying to him: What can I do for
you, man? The order of our king and that of our kingdom thus
decrees that no one can set fire for baking during three days dedicated to the gods, and he who dares the contrary, he and everything
he has would be destroyed by the fire. The blessed Mr Mr said
to her: Fear not, there is no one who can burn you with the fire!
As he said this to her, she took the flour from Mr Mr, set the
fire, and was ready to bake. But with the work of Satan, the smoke
went up above all the roofs of the city, and those in charge of the
kings order saw it. When they came to investigate, they learned
that the fire was set in the house of the king.
13 They came and stood before Shahgirad the king, seeking to talk to him, but they were afraid. When he saw them he
asked them: What are you talking about? They said to him:
Our lord the king, behold! The smoke is going up from your
palace, as if it were from a furnace! As he was pondering that
there was no one in his house except for Phraia his daughter, he
got up shaking and in terror and came to his house with ten of his
nobles. They went in with him in fear and immediately ran to the
furnace. And they saw his daughter, who had never walked before, standing near the furnace, and the blessed Mr Mr sitting
Read t P instead of t P found in the Syriac text; see also Raabe,
Geschichte, n. .
.'y h
bM 'C 'SCr . \' r h r
h
h
#
tylT 'nmw h
Ekc wn
.'kl h
'nw 'nM # r`sm wxkc ' El h 'C
/ 'ly
A jrb h
Ekc 'xlP h
'xyS .h r
\' r
' x y S ' C
w n
' k l h r
. jw y H ' k l
'
r 'y 'mr h
r .'nw h r
: j r
.' k l h r
. t d E h l @ M : ' M\
' y m c
/ h d k ' n m w E y h ' ' n T E l h E y
d t P '
# h
Bw C t y M .' n w h r
/ Ey
h E l h
hC .'nwT 'kl
j
j
'ly r`
H
.rm
M 'ymS
zt ' jr
E m
w z
jr ' C
' S h y q P w M #
.'kl
tcwq .'klm r
'nw 'nM .h'
h r
'n
.BwC
'S r
\'
LwS Br ty
tlm EyTylc B
t
' : A S LwS
. jr k S
jw Bw q Pj B
h l W '
: A S
. ' m ' S
r y ` # Bw Bw
w q p C
E
.Ej
EySyn BwC
B
hl W
'kl W
there. The king was startled for a while, then replied and said to
the blessed one: Who are you? Mr Mr said to him: I am a
man, servant of the Living God. The king said to him: Who
reestablished the health of this little girl, giving her strength, a
thing that even our gods could not do? The blessed Mr Mr
replied and said to him: Christ, whom she is serving, has performed the healing of the kings daughter. The king said to him:
And who is this Christ whom you mentioned? The blessed one
said to him: The Son of the Most High and Living God, Creator
of heaven and earth and of all creatures. The king said to him:
And these gods of ours, why do they not give health to the sick
ones? The blessed one said to him: Because they are not gods,
but idols and statues in which demons dwell, driving people astray,
lest they come to know the Living and True God. The king grew
furious, because Mr Mrs words implied that he was worshiping demons!
He seized the blessed one and brought him to the idols
shrine in question, where all the citizens of the city were gathered.
The king said to the blessed one: If your God is better than these
gods, and since you said that he is invisible, dwells in heaven, and
performs miracles and signs, go in and bring out the demon whom
you mentioned, so that I can see him and believe in your God.
The blessed one replied and said to the king: Is it true, O king,
that if I bring him out to you, you would believe in Christ? The
king said to him: Yes!
14 The blessed one called Add his disciple and said to
him: Go in and bring out for me this accursed deceiver who
dwells in these statues, along with all his fellows. Add went in,
following the order of the blessed Mr Mr, and said to those
demons: Thus says Mr Mr, the apostle of Jesus Christ: In
the living word of our Lord Jesus Christ, you have no right to
come into the presence of all the people except in a hideous appearance! And in the presence of the king and all the people who
were gathered there, the demons came out in various likenesses,
such as unclean beasts and insects. They were seventy-two in
:' x l P It could be a mistake for ' n x l P or ' C l P, I am serving,
as Raabe also suggested; Geschichte, n. .
.Er
Eylly
Ey`
W
.E\j
Ey`bc 'nynm
'
.npw E 'M\ h
lk
tyl
.@r r n
' k ' .E r
j t d
E
r E ' M X p H
\' r ' n w B
h X M
.E n y M ' ' C ' c
Br
t l m E y T y l c
j B
t
' .B
h r
' b y T
Bw \w C ' Ch g w .E y W Bw k l W Bw ` m cj
t\ tl .'kl Nmc Ey
.Bwkyx lp
Bwk
M r
. \' r ' n w jw
\
.
w l M t l p C
E t y
Bh ' x y S
\ .r
h g H
:
w w
# \' r ' x y l c Bw B
h q P
.h n r b
j
m M
t n m
' k l m
.Bw ' C '
t ' S
\w Ct
.' cw W '
\
r
' @ S / Bw C
\' r ' n w ' n
.' y m ' M
r p ' k l t y
. m M t y ' n . r >
b M
\w Cj E y m l `
. j M
mM ty : Ey SC j
hH 'nwy 'M r>
.BwC
'y E Bd Mts t
\ j
j
.h
t
t ' n
.r \ \j' E j E X p C
15
.'\
'w E hmM
'nw w'
.'TyW
t r W E r b k c
. y Cjt C
t C t
' `
rc
.'y 'ny` ty
.'ll 'rWt t
.j
t
jj .
'ny` E `
.'y M Ej
'P j
'ny`
.
\j n h
EgH
h
\' P E w ' C
k S f C '
.j
r y p c
E
.h
r m
M
' c T #
r W
.Bw C
' c h
E y m \
jj Ah
' P
X
. tn E Xy\ 'm zxC 'nw XlH .'w
number, and screamed in lament and said: Oh! You, son of Mary!
Lo! You have filled the whole world with your teaching, and
you will not desist before you drive us out into the wilderness
and desolate places! We do not know where to go now! The
blessed Mr Mr shouted at them, saying: You have no right, in
the word of our Lord, to let us hear your voices! Go to gehenna,
for the fire is ready for you and for your worshipers! When the
king heard these things, a great fear befell him. He rushed to the
blessed Mr Mr, kneeled down, and paid him homage, saying:
Great is Christ our God! We have no God other than him! Our
father, the Apostle Mr Mr, ordered the demons to go to the
abyss. He baptized the king and the city in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As for the furnace of the kings
house, they dug it to the water level. The blessed Mr Mr built
a church, and above that furnace which they turned into a well,
he built the baptistery. The well is the baptistery until today, as
people testify, and great signs are being done through that water.
15 He went from there to the region of Darabad, and the
time was summer. When the blessed one and those who were with
him grew tired, because of the hot journey, he sought a place to
sit and rest. He found outside the village a place named Gell,
which means spring of water, so they settled there near the water.
Above that spring there was a fig tree, worshiped by the people of
that region. It was awesome and was bearing fruits that no one
could consume because of the demon who was dwelling in it. And
anyone who would eat from the fruits of that fig tree would be
stoned by the demon. When the day turned cool, the blessed one
Luke :.
r \: Also written \, as read above. It was located in the northeast of Iraq, not far away from Shahrzr, south of Shaqlw. At the beginning
of the tenth century, Darabad, which was under the jurisdiction of Adiabene,
shifted to the Metropolitan see of Bth-Garmai; Fiey, Rpertoire, .
.y\ 'C
rm
l M w m W
.
' P E w t r W E l ' C
' n T t n M
.Bw C
' S r
.
jj jw
'C r
t l m Bw k y l c ' Bw k
/ Ej E BwC \c
.
t
'
.'C
'nl'
@W
.h
ycd c E jrqMj
h
T
jt
. \hC Fwlyn
h
.h
E trW E rb t
M
Ej E 'nw
l tr .
r
BwC
'c B
hlW wm\ .'yl
h
# t r W S C B
h l w ` m c
.E E n y q p C
# l t r
.'kl ty O Ntc
' \' r ' n w \ c ' w E
r PY 16
r
tc
M
.'mx EzC
'WwS w`C :
ymj
w x k c
.
\t
j
h m M
\' r @ W
.E j
E Fw m y s C ' n M
.\ ' k l h M\j b Ww : t
tl ' .'\
tt 'nm .h r
'nw
ymj
E ' ch ' M
r PU E .E \ h C Ww P E j\t H
r
'nM .wP
j tzj '
/ tqpC
jw
Cjz
.' m x h t x k c ' # ' Ww S t l M . w Ww b c
.t C ' `
H
m M j . jr
j t C
# Eyllm BwC
.h
'C rT
C
.'C
tyb tlM
went up to see how far he was from the city. He fixed his eyes to
look, and lo! A child of about fourteen years of age was lying down
dead! The blessed one held that child by the hand and said to him:
Child, Jesus Christ resurrects you! Immediately, that child
stood up and paid the blessed Mr Mr homage. The blessed Mr
Mr asked him, saying: Who killed you, my son, and threw you
in this steppe? The child said to him: I came close to this house
of our god so as to eat from its fruits, and his commanders attacked
me and stoned me, killing me. The blessed one turned toward
that fig tree and said to the demons: O stubborn ones, why are you
misleading people to kill them? Because of this I am telling you,
in the living word of God, you have no right to stay in this tree,
nor in this place! He sent them from there to the Nile River
and cursed that fig tree, and it was uprooted. The blessed one
moved from there, and (before) entering the village he spent the
night around it. In that same night the demons screamed, saying:
Gell is ruined! Gell is ruined! Behold! We are leaving! All
the inhabitants of the village heard (them), and so did the house
of the king.
16 In the following morning, the blessed Mr Mr sent
his disciple Add so as to go into the marketplace and buy bread.
Add went in and tarried there. The blessed Mr Mr and those
who were with him got up and went after him, finding him sitting
opposite the gate of King dr. Anasimos, one of the disciples
of the blessed one, spoke and said to him: Why are you sitting
here? Are you not afraid of and terrified by the order of our master,
whom you left since this morning up until now, without a thought
of returning? Add replied, saying: Forgive me! When I came
into the market, I could not see bread in it. But a woman saw me
and said to me: Come with me and get what you are looking for.
And she entered this house, and lo! I am waiting for her!
l tr: (See note ). The story given above is probably a folktale
revolving around this composite toponym, the structure of which (ruins + GN)
is well known in the Near East (e.g., Khirbet Qumran).
r ' n w h
' c
.h
m M ' m x
t q p C
jt C
jr
t n M
.h
t E ' C P
.h
r
\'
.Eyllm BwC
M
.h
t El 'kl j\
.h
Eykyb
. jr
j\
j\ E h
Eyqp 'kl jr
' n w B
h r
.' l m H E
' n y m E b M h
.h
b M h E r .
t m y l M h
b ' . \' r
' n w
z
. j '
y g H ' y n c ' y \ ' C
' C
\w k
.' C r
k
t y l .h
r
' n M
.h
y l M @
\j
tl h
mM
.kyl M wW '\YC 'xyS LwS hmS
w l M
t jr jj
.h
y
B
h l
h
y l r c
rySxn
.' n w h b M t \ j
E tlm
.'C\wC 'mykH QyTM rb .h Er
@W
t`c r
.h
y ' B
hl E jr j\rj .hwP
.'SCr
h .t 'n :h r
h'c
' .'kl r h t
.' y
h
b M ' C ' S Cr
jh y j E y
: B
t g H h
E y l '
.Bw k n p w
.\' r 'xylc h r
.Bd Mts B
h ' jw H
h
r 'xySm
.En 'nyTHd .Bt
j
El 'npw
BwSntC : 'kl qP x
.Enr`H Ey
hmS
.EngH
b`C .'nw E '`
. tn hd B
hl
jw
While they were talking, behold! That woman came out and
with her, the bread! The blessed Mr Mr asked her, saying:
This palace, whose is it? She replied and said to him: This is
the court of our king. While they were talking, lo! The kings
daughter was brought out from one courtyard to another, supported on her right and left sides by slaves. The blessed Mr Mr
asked them: What is the matter with this young girl? Her slaves
said to him: She has been struck by this illness for many years.
As the blessed one looked at her, he pitied her. He spoke and said
to her: Young girl, I say to you: In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, get up on your feet! Concomitantly with his command, her feet and all her body members grew firm. Trembling,
she walked and fell upon the feet of the blessed one and kissed
them.
The king, her father, was at that time hunting. A bearer of
glad tidings went after him and said to him: You must be unaware! God has caused you a great joy today! He said to him:
What? He said to him: A man clad with a fiery cloak! With
one word from his mouth, your daughter recovered from all her
sicknesses! (The king) immediately stood up and returned with
him. He drew near the gate and saw the blessed one, his daughter, and a big crowd sitting there. At his order, the blessed one
went into his presence. The king asked him: Who are you: a god
or a man? The blessed Mr Mr said to him: My lord the king:
I am not a god, but a man, servant of the Living God! The king
said to him: What is your teaching, and what are the deities whom
you worship, that all of these admirable things and healings are being performed by them? The Apostle Mr Mr said to him: We
are Christians in teaching and confession. We worship Christ, Son
of God, and in his name we perform these things.
Immediately the king ordered that all the sick people of the
city be gathered in his presence and asked the blessed one to per
See Luke :.
Abbeloos, Acta, , took r c as pael (conrmavit), but for Raabe,
Geschichte, n. , it should be in this case r c. Nonetheless, the first form
can also be a phonetic spelling of the second one.
Compare with Luke :.
Written them in the Syriac original.
Written they.
In the image of the Seraphim; see Isa .
Written them in the original.
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form signs before him and before his noble men, mainly so that
he could ascertain faith in Christ for himself. The sick and the
healthy people gatheredmen, women, and children, and absolutely the entire nationto witness the miracles and mighty works
to be performed at the hands of the blessed one. Then the blessed
Mr Mr sent all the stricken ones away, healed in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Then they shouted before the king, saying: The
God whom this man announces is greater than all the gods! He is
the only God in heaven and on earth!
17 On that same day, that city converted along with King
dr. The blessed one left Add in the territory of Darabad,
while the blessed Mr Mr and his entourage left for the Persian
territory, where he made many conversions. The other kingdom
of the Persians, which had ended at the hands of Ardashir, had
not yet begun. Now the cities and territories of Babylonia and
Persia were full of small kings, but the Parthians were ruling the
territory of Babylonia. At that time, the Parthian Aphraha son
of Aphraha was reigning in Babyloniain Seleucia and Ctesiphon in B
th-Army
. At the same time, these (two cities)
were extremely prosperous prior to the destruction of old Seleu-
j
j' r r ' n w h k P
E \t E 18
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cia by raiders.
18 After the blessed Mr Mr had returned from the territories of the (As)syrians, he came down to B
th-Army
,
beginning with the region of Rdn. First he entered a village
named Abad, where he converted a manthe chief of that place
and owner of much wealthnamed Laqn, along with his entire family. Because of him, many people, his kinsmen, people of
his region and settlers, accepted the fear of God. Mr Mr
then built churches and monasteries for the faithful in all of the
chiefs towns located above Seleucia and Ctesiphon, and in the
rest of the villages of Rdn; according to tradition, they were
in number. And behold! His memory has been transmitted up until today from all of these places. After he confirmed the people of
Rdn in the fear of God and established for them priests and
The raiders are the Romans, who under Avidius Cassius burned down
this Hellenistic city in .. /; Dio Cassius, Roman History .; see the introduction, page xxxiv.
' y \w H: Syrians, but since Mr Mr conducted his mission in
the Assyrian heartland, as seen above, this term must refer to the inhabitants of
that land, the Assyrians.
Lit. he. This pronoun refers to Mr Mr and not Laqn, despite
the claim made by Liber Turris (see the previous note). Raabe, Geschichte, n.
, rightly said the same.
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deacons, one of the sons of the named Laqn, along with many
other people, followed him.
19 They came down to the city of Seleucia, which was located on the Tigris. Because Christianity did not exist in the
region, nor could they find anyone who would receive them in his
house for Gods sake, the blessed one and those who were with him
rented a house and settled in it. The people of Seleucia were evil
pagans. Mr Mr passed through the whole of Seleucia, but no
one followed him. He realized that they had no concern other than
eating, drinking, and getting drunk. As soon as the wine of the
day before lost its eects, they hastened to drink the wine of the
following day. He could not tell them Gods word because they
were found drunken at all times. When he realized that no one
followed him, he wrote a letter and sent it to the city of Edessa in
Mesopotamia, to his colleagues the apostles. Thus he wrote: The
land to which you have sent me is evil and full of thorns. Its people are arrogant and hard. I am not able to work them and sow (in)
them (the word of God). And now if you order me, I would come
to you or I would go to another place. The apostles took counsel
among themselves and made the right decision, concerned about
the lives of (Seleucias) citizens, lest they perish. They wrote a
letter to the holy Mr Mr, which contained the following: You
have no right to come here or to go elsewhere before you go up
the summits of those mountains and the top of the high places,
breaking them up, tilling them, and sowing them to bring plentiful
yield! When the blessed Mr Mr realized that he had nowhere
to go, he pondered about what he would do.
Now there were three assemblies in Seleucia, one for the
elders, one for the young people, and one for the children, for this
is how they organized their assemblies. The blessed one thought
to stir up controversy at the assembly of the elders: If it would
The wording in CB is
h m c ' n q
r , lit. the son of
Halqn whose name was, but the sons name is not available.
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son from her? Mr Mr said to him: The first generation of
the Son of God did not occur through a woman, but he was generated from the nature of the Father (who is) power and wisdom.
He is a true God, Son of God like a true God. Then the president of the assembly believed in the words of the blessed Mr
Mr and was converted along with the members of his family. He
baptized them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. Then the man rose up and went to his assembly, and remained there as he had in the past.
21 After some time again, the deputy became sick to
death like his colleague. In like manner, the blessed Mr Mr
went to visit him along with those who went to visit him. Mr
Mr said to him: I shall put my hand on you in the name of my
God, and you shall be healed! That man could not talk to him because he was about to die. Now before his eyes he looked and he
too saw heaven opening up and a man, looking like the blessed Mr
Mr, coming down and taking his hand to make him rise, and he
and the members of his family were converted. And he went to the
assembly and reclined on his seat as before. The blessed Mr Mr
too went and reclined on his seat in his place as before. The people who were converted said to each other: This man is a god!
The president of the assembly said to the whole assembly: My
brothers, listen to me! When I was sick, I saw in a vision heaven
opening up, and a man looking like this one came down and made
me rise from my sickbed! The president of the assembly said to
the deputy: Because we were healed of our sicknesses at his hand,
the place where he is now sitting no longer befits him, for his place
is at the bottom. But if we bring him up to us, the citizens of Seleucia will grow angry, because he is a foreigner. So now, let a servant
bring a pillow and let him place it for him between you and me!
And they did as they said.
. rwP _\
' M\ _\ and in Liber Turris
Apparently the pillow (on which the people reclined) was a mere symbolic gesture and was not used by Mr Mr. Liber Turris made it clear that the
holy man remained in his lower seat; see the appendix, p. .
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Mr Mr and said to him: We beg you that these singers remain
here and that they should not return to their regions. And whenever your turn comes up to do the service, your service will be
remitted against the wage of the singers. The holy man said to
them: I do not embezzle the wage of the singers, but if you want,
I have one word to tell you and so listen to me! They said to him:
Speak! He said: Become Christians, and these singers will be
yours! They too asked him, saying: What is Christianity? We
have never heard this name at all! He said to them: Have faith
in God the omnipotent, who created heaven and earththere is no
God other than himand in his Son Jesus Christ who descended
from heaven and assumed the body of the human beings whom
he brought to himself. And believe in the Holy Spirit, she who
placed in our hand the mighty things and the healing of the presidents of your assembly. And he continued to say to them: Those
whom you worship now, leaving aside the worship of your Creator, are not gods, as you believe. Therefore, give up this error
and believe in one true God. The fire that you serve is but one
of Gods creatures, and it is dumb and far from godhood. They
asked him: Where is your God? He said to them: My God is
invisible and dwells in glory in the highest. He does whatever he
wants. They replied and said: This fire is also our goddess. She
is light and capable of burning. She sees us, and we too can see her.
We do not agree to worship that which is invisible. The blessed
Mr Mr said to them: With the power of my God the invisible, I am able to kill your goddess, and she will not be able to do
harm to me. Hence, you will learn that she is not a goddess, but
dead at the hand of a pitiful man! Do not count on her! They
# ' y
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24
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said to him: (If) you stand up to stone her and blow sand and water in her, or extinguish her, then we are also able to do the same.
But if your God is more powerful than her, give proof of this accordingly: Enter her blaze, and if you can kill her while you are not
burned down, it will be known that your God is greater than she
and he is more powerful than she!
24 The valiant holy man, trusting in his Lord, agreed to
their request. The day after, after they kindled a great blaze in
their furnace, all of them gathered to the place and asked him to
go into it, some addressing him in a terrorizing manner and others kindly. The holy one made the sign of the redeeming cross on
himself and made the sign of the cross on the fire too, and entered
into it and came out without harm. Some of the people believed in
the divine miracle, but others said: The fire was not set fittingly.
Upon their disagreement, the holy one told them that on the
next day he would go into it (once again) so as to end (their) skepticism, and thus he agreed to comply with their wish the next day.
They burned the fire vehemently, for they were inflamed by error, while Satan, who from the beginning was mans killer and his
archenemy, was following them closely. In a like manner, he entered it again with the sign of the cross and began to extinguish it.
Nonetheless, they asked him not to extinguish it but to keep quiet
until it died out by itself. He did accordingly until it died out and
was extinguished, and he came out from it without harm. Upon
realizing the divine miracle, they believed in God and accepted the
sign of life.
On the morning of the following day, the king went out to sit
down on the place that was prepared for him, and a great crowd of
people gathered near him. Some began to slander the saint and
others to praise him. The king spoke and said to the slanderers:
What do you want? They said to him: That you deliver him to
(Peshit).
See John :.
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us so that we may kill him or that you drive him out of our land.
But if you do not do so, then all of us, servants of your gods and the
gods of your ancestors, will move out of the city. When the king
saw that most of the people sided with the pagan priests, he calmed
them down, saying: I will only do what you tell me (to do). And
he dismissed them from his presence. The king said to the blessed
one and the people who were with him: My brothers, I know that
the people of Seleucia are evil and malicious, especially those who
perform the burnt oerings who are in the city. If they do not see a
multitude of miracles, they will not submit to me quickly. Therefore, go out now my brothers and show them the might of Jesus
whom you are proclaiming.
As soon as the blessed one came out of the presence of the
king, two blind men met him. He touched the pupils of their eyes,
saying: In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, let the pupils of your
eyes be restored! Immediately those two blind men acquired
sight and believed in him, and most of the other people followed
him. Likewise, when the blessed one heard from people who came
to him about the daughter of the prefect who was in the city, whom
Satan had been tormenting for a long time, he went with them. By
means of the mouth of the little girl, the demon kept screaming,
saying, while all the local people were listening: O you servants
of Christ! You are driving us away from every place: cities, mountains, heights, and deserted ruins! After he said these and other
similar things he threw the girl down. The blessed Mr Mr drew
near and prayed, then returned the girl to her parents healed and
giving thanks. Those who witnessed the miracle fell on the feet of
the blessed one, paying homage to him.
25 The blessed one worked hard for one whole year on
the conversion of Seleucia, through signs and miracles. Then
he asked them for a place where he could build a house of worship for the Living God. They answered and said to him: Ask
for whatever you want, and we will give to you. The holy man
E d t P t y .
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said to them: Give me the pagan temple located outside the city,
and take its price. Now that temple was of King Aphraha, and
many priests were in charge of it. Much money used to be spent
on the (idols) and on the priests, claiming that the idols ate and
drank. The blessed one went with the king and entered the temple. Mr Mr spoke and said to the pagan priests: O impudent
liars! When did these idols, which you call gods, ever eat? Are you
not ashamed? Have you not enough of eating and drinking whatever is oered to them? Though you say that these are deities, they
are not deities as you claim, but statues of wood and bronze inside
which the demons speak!
At this point the priests grew angry and said to the blessed
one: If you claim that these are dumb things, what do you have
to say about the sun-(god), the great judge? The blessed one
said to them: The sun is also a creature of the Living God. It was
placed in order to enlighten the universe, which God had created,
and to distinguish between the day and the night. If it is a deity,
where would it flee during the night? After much discussion the
king ordered, and the temple was given to the blessed one. As for
the idols, the king gave them to the blessed one as a gift. Mr Mr
took them, ground them as fine as dust, and threw their powder
into the Tigris. He demolished the temple of idols and instead he
built a small church, establishing in it priests and deacons. In the
same place he also founded schools and appointed one of his disciples in charge of the teachers.
26 When the pagan priests realized that their hideous
doctrines began to lose ground in the city and in the villages around it, all of them gathered and crossed over to Ctesiphon, to King Araban, who was ruling from Ctesiphon and
The following story is partially modeled on the story of the idol Bel
in Dan :-.
For the people of ancient Mesopotamia, the sun-god was indeed the
god of justice, as is clear in the Code of Hammurabi.
The school of Seleucia was not known before the fourth century. It
may have been founded even later, by Mr b (); Labour, Christianisme, .
Araban II reigned between .. and , too early to be the contemporary of Mr. Also, the claim that he reigned in Ctesiphon at the same
time that Aphraha was ruling over Seleucia is unbelievable.
wW Er
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.
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Gokhay, a bishopric see to the south of Bth-Garmai, is most probably confused with the very familiar Kokhe. According to the late Fr. Fiey, when
the Tigris changed its bed it separated Kokhe from Ctesiphon, linking it with
Seleucia. The Tigris changed its bed between .. and , and this date
was the time frame of Mr Mrs missionary activities in Babylonia, according
to Fiey (Jalons, .); see also the introduction D.., p. xxvi-xxvii.
She was struck with leprosy, according to Liber Turris; see the appendix, p. .
.j
h
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r # 'Sq h r # bW 'nmw tl @M
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at a river named the Middle Zb, he could not cross it, for the
ferryboat was on the other side of it. He heard the voice of someone talking inside the ferryboat. The blessed Mr Mr called
upon him, saying: Bring over for me this ferryboat. The man
said to him: I cannot take you across the river. The holy one
replied and said to him: Why are you not able to take me across
the river? The man said to him: My hands and feet are injured,
and I am not able to hold the oars or the vessel. The holy one
said to the man: What is your name? He said: My name is
Dausti. Holy Mr Mr said to the priest Anasimos, who accompanied him: Say to that man: Mr, disciple of Addai the Apostle,
says to you: In the name of Jesus of Nazareth stand up on your
feet, seize the oars with your hands, and drive the ferryboat across
the river!
As soon as the message of Mr Mr was sent to Dausti, this
man was healed. And he brought the ferryboat, and the blessed
Mr Mr and all those who were with him crossed over. But
Dausti had another ailment: he was constipated. When Dausti
realized that he was healed concomitantly with the holy ones
word, he said to him: My lord, I know that you are a god, for
you have healed my hands and my feet with one command by your
hand. Now I have another ailment: I am constipated. The holy
Mr Mr said to Dausti: Will you become Christian and confess
the true God? Dausti replied and said to him: What is Christianity? I see that you are teaching about a new god in the world,
though I thought you were a god, coming down to visit humanity. The blessed one spoke and said to Dausti: Far be it that
I should be God! I am not God but the apostle of his apostles.
Dausti said to the blessed one: Tell me, what is Christianity? He
said to him: This is Christianity: We believe in one true God
his self-being is hidden, he cannot be fathomed by creatures, his
Fatherhood cannot be understood by his creation, and his lordship is not madein the One Son deriving from himhis genesis
Lit. his anus was plugged. Compare with Acts :, where Paul is
said to have healed Publius of dysentery.
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28
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jw` / r
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Town where Dayr d-Qunn, also called Dayr (Monastery of) Mr
Mr, was located on the east bank of the Tigris, about km south of Baghdad.
Both the town and the monastery were included in the territory of Bth-Dry,
Arab. Bdry or Badry, located km to the south and southeast of Baghdad. One bishop of Qunn is mentioned in the Synods of , , and . The
bishopric see of Bth-Dry is attested after and until the twelfth century,
when it fell under the jurisdiction of Kashkar; Fiey, Rpertoire, .
tynj , lit. built, for tynj as translated above; see also Raabe,
Geschichte, n. .
. \r c t M j w r W
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29
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to live, he found on the bank of the river a place called the Temple of Ester-the-Idol, the goddess for whom Qunn and those
who were with her used to oer slaughtered animals. He wanted
to build there a temple for Almighty God, for three reasons: one,
to uproot the pagan temple from its foundation; two, to change the
rivers bed; and three, since he learned from the vision that people
would increase in number there, to build a temple for them where
they live.
What then? As he wished, thus was done. First, he demolished the temple, then ordered that the transfer of the river from
this side to the other side be donewe have truly witnessed this
matter and did not receive it orally from someone. Afterwards, the
blessed one asked, and as he wished, a temple for God was built
near the Tigris for his sake. Because of the humidity and moisture
in the terrain, it was built with great diculty. His commemoration in it is carried on up until now, and for this reason the church
of Dr-Qunn is counted with the church of Kokhefor the holy
one himself built it.
30 After he converted Seleucia and built before anything
else a church in the land of Kokhe, he then crossed over to the region of the two Zb rivers, converting many people. He went
into a village on the bank of the Tigris and instructed a man in the
faithchief of the village named Wartan. The village was named
after him: Wartan-Qard. His family, friends and companions, and
many among the Jews were instructed in the faith. Mr Mr built
churches in it and established in them priests and deacons. He
then came down to a region called Shafla. After many years
of going around B
th-Army
, where he brought to the Christian faith many among the Jews and the pagans, he departed from
Ester is none other than Ishtar, the great goddess of love and war worshiped in Mesopotamia throughout millennia. She was known under this and
many other similar names, including Astarte.
Not the two Zb rivers in the north of Mesopotamia but the two
canals bearing the same names in Babylonia; see note .
t s ' k . t n r k S k m j .h E r
tmyW j
'myW
. rSC jw
\j' 'c
r ` H j
d b g
.r S y C r Wt r t P ' m y l M
m jj
r t P r w O
. m j ' y g s
E j
w r Wj
t n
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r w t l `
. m M
rkS \j hlk O
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j M ' n
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@W : rkS y
m
j . h tl 'npwy BwC
there for the region of Kashkar. The blessed Mr Mr previously went to Kashkar, when he first arrived in B
th-Army
and
realized that Seleucia would not open its door so that he could
teach its inhabitants a lesson in the fear of God. Its people were
wise and intelligent, and, as soon as they heard the true message
from him, they accepted it and welcomed it ardently. The people
of this place were more diligent than the others in every instruction and assessed everything with sincere scrutiny. Henceforth,
many accompanied him, saying: Instruct in the faith the city of
Kashkar, where a demon in the likeness of an eagle is worshiped
and (where) a standard stands, on which there is an idol named
Nishar. He converted many people thanks to the miracles that
he performed. Even the priest of that idol was instructed in the
faith and was baptized, and because of him, most of the city came
to the fear of God. He built there a church and went around the
entire region of Kashkar instructing, building churches in which
he established priests, and consolidating them in the instruction of
the fear of God.
Arab. Kaskar, the town was located southeast of Babylonia, near the
medieval city of Wsi built by al-ajjj on the east bank of the Tigris. This was
the place where Shapur I had settled Greek deportees in the mid-third century.
An ancient Christian center, Kashkar became a bishopric under the jurisdiction
of the patriarchal see of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, in the Synod of . Afterwards,
Kashkar was ranked first of all other bishopric sees in the patriarchal province:
The bishop of Kashkar is included in the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan: he is
his right hand and auxiliary; he administers his diocese after he died; Chabot,
Synodicon, (Syr.). Bishops are attested in Kashkar since the early fourth century, some of them martyred under the Sassanians. By the middle of the twelfth
century, Kashkar seems to have ceased to exist as a bishopric see, as names of
bishops are no more attested in literary sources; Fiey, Rpertoire, .
/ ' m t S
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31
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Shush in Syriac sources, it was located to the southwest of presentday Iran. Cuneiform sources call it Susa and describe it as the capital of Elam
since Akkadian times. The city was rebuilt by Shapur I in and settled
with captives taken away from Sinjar, Bosra, uwana, and Amida. Miles,
the citys first bishop, who could not convert it, ended his life as a martyr in
. His successors are attested in the Synods between and . Other
names are attested until the year ; Jean-Maurice Fiey, Llam, la premire
des mtropoles ecclsiastiques syriennes orientales (suite), Parole de lOrient
(): ; Rpertoire, .
.Fr p
'
t y j M t Y Cj ' n
E
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t y \j' \' r ' n w N n
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jj
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32
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t
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t
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A serious anachronism, since Papa became bishop in SeleuciaCtesiphon before the end of the third century at the earliest.
' C
: h Cr
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w r q y C b y b E E n 34
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jwby M r Aw c .r'C
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w d E t w c r Aw c .E y m l ` ' l l t '
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B
B\j' ' m l c
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the end, following the order of Papa, the heir of his see. The latter
too, after the honorable and distinguished Mr Mr, established
priests and leaders in the whole land of the East.
34 As for us, my dear ones, let us honor the commemoration day of this holy apostle and hero of righteousness. We, more
than all his other disciples, ought to be diligent in honoring our
Father: one, because he performed wonders and miracles in our
place more than in any other place, whether it is the river that he
ordered to change its bed so that it may not destroy this side, or
the abode that he left for usthe church that he built and completed with his holy hands. Then, and most importantly, because
the saint wanted his holy bones to be deposited in this place and
among us, rather than in any other place. The bone relics of this
saint are for us a source of help and a symbol of excellent protection. Let us worship God, saying: Glory to you forever, my
Lord, on account of your grace that cannot be described. Glory
to you, my Lord, for making us worthy that the bones of this holy
man be placed among us, a source full of blessings. We ask you, my
Lord, through his prayer, provide, my Lord, our region and all its
inhabitants with tranquility and peace. Surround it with a mighty
wallan invincible shelter, and power coming from you. Let it be
more famous and gloriousI mean in faith and righteous deeds
than all the other regions and cities around it. Let the pagans and
erring nations be humbled, while bending their knees before the
true faith. Let the horn of the true faith found in it be elevated
above all erring religions. And in it, let iniquity be humbled, truth
be victorious, and the true faith grow great, forever and ever,
amen.
May God give power to our entire assembly, gathered for
matters divine and worshiping spiritually in this holy monastery
before the Tabernacle of the Pillar of Light our Father the
Apostle Mr Mrand whose hope and reliance are supported
by the Lord; (to) the entire monastic community, which adheres
j in B is more acceptable than j'C in A and CB.
\ j : Raabe, Geschichte, n. , wondered if this word should not
be read '\j ( '\) with metathesis. The root is in fact \ (peal impf. third
The pillar of light is an echo of the pillar of fire that accompanied the
Israelites in their journey to the promised land; see also Raabe, Geschichte,
n. .
B
h l A' m j
. t h
' T y Cw m ` y b ' h
tC .B
tL xcw
B
h ymW
B
hy sk k 'nm h
j
r ' n y Y ' n S m S m
jw n Y t h
' r
Bw C jr S C * E y ' M\ M B
h y y
t b c h
l k #
'P rb . j
\ty d
EyChM 's k B
hlk
B
h l E Bw C r T n C
.B
t M ' P
B
t Hd
' wlc ' ' wT BwC
wSC
/ 'yl
'y s 'n ykC
E B
' t C
Bw m s
t C E j \
/ t y n y m c jw k l
* Ey Btyc\ hnym
' x y l c \' r ' n w t y ` cj Br B\w ` t m l c
.Ey # 'ny : Aw c h'
.A'xC h
Cmt
Appendix
Mar Mar in Liber Turris
The following Arabic text is extracted from the patriarchal list
found in Liber Turris of Mr son of Sulaymn (twelfth century),
edited by Gismondi, Mr, . The text is reproduced here with
all the irregularities of the original source and possible misreadings and or typographical errors in the printed text.
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Mr Mr the Apostle may his prayer protect all the believers.
He was one of the ordained among the seventy (disciples) and
a Hebrew. He began his missionary work and christianized people
in Babylonia, Ahwaz, and the rest of the regions along the Tigris,
the head of the assembly thought that this was the hand of heaven
and said (to Mr): You must not sit at the back of the assembly!
But because of the people, they could not seat him in the front of
the assembly but only at the back.
(Mr) was selected by lot to prepare the banquet, and they
said to him: Prepare the food, and we will provide you with the
rest! He replied: I do not need anything from you! So he
wrote to Addai, informing him of this, and asked him for what he
needed, and he sent him more than what was necessary. When he
prepared the banquet, you could hear hymns beyond compare, in
such a way that when the two other assemblies heard it, they came,
and the people thought that he was a god, and all submitted to him.
He performed signs and miracles in building churches,
among which were the great church of al-Madin and the church
of Dwert in Baghdad, after he returned to irhan. Mr b
expanded the church of al-Madin to the way it is now. And
he went to Dr-Qunn, and in it there was a noble and venerable
woman named Qunn; she quickly had faith in him and accepted
baptism, giving up her estates for him. The reason behind her
faith is that he healed her from her leprosy. He built the monastery
in which he was buried and which had formerly been a fire temple. He went then to Kashkar, the people of which worshiped
two idols. But after they accepted the faith they shattered both of
them, so he instructed them and baptized them and ordained for
them a bishop. The latter was the first bishop that he ever made,
and for this reason the see became the first among the (bishopric)
seessome people said that the ranking of sees took place when
Mr Mrth, bishop of Maipharqin, met with Mr Isaac the
City on the Tigris where old Ba
rah was later built; Yqt, Mujam,
:, and center of Dast-Maysn.
!
Variants
Version (B) of the Acts of Mr Mr published by Bedjan, Acta,
was collated against version (A) published by Abbeloos, Acta,
and the variants are listed below. The notes provided by Raabe,
Geschichte, based on the Berlin manuscript (CB) are also incorporated in this list. The variants are of minimal importance, except
for several passages missing in version (B), as explained in the introduction. Variants in the Syriac text are enclosed between two
half square brackets, as in A' x y S t j' B, and in the
case of just one variant this is followed by one half square bracket,
as in ABr.
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B 't j
B
jwCr
B and CB h
B
B E wxl
B
h rightly not in B
CB ymj
B \t
B
hC
B 'rP
Missing in B
B 'xyS
tj'
B 'xyS
tmyW
B 'xySm
B jw
B @lc Ey
j
hC ty
B
tl
Missing in B
B 'xyS
B and CB y nH
CB Bjrb
CB 'r
B B
jgH
B and CB 'xyS
m j
:
B tP
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B 'xyS LwS
:
CB Ww
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CB Br
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B
jrb
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B 'xyS
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B 'xyS
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CB h
\'P
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CB tyy
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CB 'ylT h
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B 'xyS LwS
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CB hmc
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CB j
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Missing in CB
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CB B
hl
: CB wC
:: Lines missing in B
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CB h
rrc
:
Missing in B
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idem
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idem
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idem
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idem
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idem
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idem
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B 'xyS
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B pC
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B 'C
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B
tyhlc
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B
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CB l h
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B and CB h
y z
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B M
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CB wrc
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B d ykc
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Missing in B
B Enynmh
CB 'C '`
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B 'xySmMwSyCr
CB 'xyS LwS Br
CB 'C 'c
B BwC
Missing in CB
B Ej\j
B Ej\j
B
B
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B 'n Ww
B 'xyS
CB 'nw cf Bedjan, Acta, note
B
ww
CB h sic!
CB Eyd y`
Missing in CB
B correctly has
B d j
t
CB BwpsyTq
B zl
Missing in CB
B 'xwc
B \rc tM
B '
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B Bwtp
Missing in CB
B has rightly rt
B j
B 'xwc
B 'xwc
CB 'C
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:
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B 'm j
B 'xC h
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Bibliography
Abbeloos, Jean-Baptiste. Acta Sancti Maris. AnBoll ():
Abbeloos, Jean Baptiste, and Thomas Joseph Lamy, eds. Gregorii
Barhebraei Chronicon Ecclesiasticum. vols. Louvain: Peeters,
.
AbouZayd, Shafiq. Iidayutha: A Study of the Life of Singleness in the
Syrian Orient from Ignatius of Antioch to Chalcedon A.D. Oxford: ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies, .
Abn, Albert. uhad al-mariq [Martyrs of the East]. Baghdad:
Mabaat al-Khuld, .
Ammianus Marcellinus. Translated by J. C. Rolfe. vols. LCL. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, .
Awwd, Grgs, ed. Al-diyrt talf
Al ibn Muammad ab al-asan
al-ma
rf bil-bit. Baghdad: Mabaat al-Marif, .
Baumstark, Anton. Geschichte der syrischen Literatur. Bonn: Marcus &
Webers, .
Bedjan, Paul. Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum Syriace. vols. Leipzig:
Harrassowitz, . Repr. Hildesheim: Olms, .
Brock, Sebastian. Come Compassionate Mother. . ., Come Holy Spirit:
A Forgotten Aspect of Early Eastern Christian Imagery. Aram
(): .
Eusebius and Syriac Christianity. In Eusebius, Christianity and
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.
Brooks, Ernest W. Chronica Minora II. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium T /Syr . Paris: E. Typographeo Reipublicae,
.
Budge, E. A.Wallis. The Histories of Rabban Hrmzd the Persian and
Rabban Bar-
Idt. vols. London: Luzac, . Repr. New York:
AMS Press, .
Cassis, Marica. Kokhe, Cradle of the Church of the East: An Archaeological and Comparative Study, Journal of the CSSS ():
.
Chabot, Jean-Baptiste. Chronique de Michel le Syrien patriarche jacobite
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Synodicon orientale ou recueil des synodes nestoriens. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale: .
Pervo, Richard I. Prot with Delight: The Literary Genre of the Acts of
the Apostles. Philadelphia: Fortress, .
Phillips, George. The Doctrine of Addai the Apostle Now First Edited in
a Complete Form in the Original Syriac. London: Trbner, .
Pliny the Edler. Naturalis Historia. Translated by Henry T. Riley and J.
Bostock. vols. London: Bohn, .
Qumay
, M. M.
Al ibn al-Husayn al-Mas
d: Murj al-dhahab wama
din al-jawhar. vols. Beirut: Dr al-kutub al-ilmiyya, .
Raabe, Richard. Die Geschichte des Dominus Mri, eines Apostels des Orients. Leipzig: Hinrichs, .
Rolfe, J. C., trans. Ammianus Marcellinus. vols. LCL. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, .
Sachau, Eduard. Reise in Syrien und Mesopotamien. Leipzig: Brockhaus,
.
Scher, Addai. Kitb srat ahar uhad al-mariq al-qiddisn. vols. Mosul: .
Theodorus Bar K
n Liber Scholiorum. CSCO /Syr . Louvain:
Imprimerie Orientaliste, .
Tacitus. The Histories and the Annals. Translated by C. H. Moore and
J. Jackson. vols. LCL. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
.
Vbus, Arthur. History of the School of Nisibis. CSCO , Subsidia .
Louvain: Secrtariat du Corpus SCO, .
Vost, Jacques. Catalogue de la Bibliothque Syro-Chaldenne du couvent
de N.-D. des Semences. Paris: Geuthner, .
Westenholz, Joan G. Legends of the Kings of Akkade. Mesopotamian Civilizations . Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, .
Yqt al-amaw, Shahab al-Dn. Mu
jam al-buldn. Anonymous editor. vols. Beirut: Dr dir, .
Exodus
:,
n.
: n.
Kings
Daniel
: n.
xxi
: xxii
: xxii
: n.
:, xxii
: n.
Kings
: n.
Isaiah
n.
: xi
: n.
: n.
: n.
: n.
Mark
Acts
Matthew
: n.
: xi
: n.
: xxi, n.
:, , n.
: n.
Luke
: n.
: n.
: n.
: n.
: n.
: xi
:, xxvii
: n.
: n.
: n.
: n.
: n.
: n.
: n.
: n.
: n.
Corinthians
:
John
James
: n.
n.
xxix
B th-Parsy and n. ,
B th-Raaman n.
B th-Wzq (see also Wzq,
Bawzj, Kunia [Shapur],
and Ikniy) n.
B th-Zabdai xxxiii, and n.
Bokhtan n.
Bosra n.
Brgi and n. ,
Caesarea xix, xxi,
Cappadocia xxxiv n.
Corduene n.
Ctesiphon xi, xiv-xxviii, xxx,
xxxii, xxxiv, xxxvi, n. ,
and nn. , and n.
, and n. , n. ,
n. , n. , n.
, n. , , and n.
, , n. , n.
Darabad and n. , and n.
Gundishapur nn.
Guwer (South of Greater Zb)
n.
Hatra xv, xvi, n.
erbath-Gell n.
imrn (mountains of) n.
r
Humayni xxxvi
Ikniy (see also Kunia [Shapur],
Wzq, B th-Wzq, and
Bawzj) n.
India xxviii, xxxi, xxxiii, xxxiv
n.
Iran n. ,
Iranshahr n.
Iraq xii, xiv, n. , , n.
Iwan-I Karkh n.
Jaja (river) n.
Jazra (and Jazrat ibn Umar)
n. , n. , n. ,
n.
Jerusalem xxi, , , n. ,
Karkh-Selokh (see also Karkha
and
Karkha
d-B thSelokh) n.
Karkha (see also Karkh-Selokh
and
Karkha
d-B thSelokh) n.
Karkha (d-Ledan or d-Redan;
see also Redan and Ledan)
and nn. ,
Karkha d-B th-Selokh (see also
Karkha and Karkh-Selokh)
xxxv
Karun (river) n.
Kashkar (see also Kaskar) xv,
n. , and nn. &
, , , ,
Kaskar (see also Kashkar) n.
Kerala xxxiv n.
Khbr n.
Khil nn. &
Khirbet Qumran n.
Khuzistan xxxiv, nn.
Mediterranean n.
Mesene (see also Maishan and
Perath Maishan) n.
Nazareth , , ,
Nl (al-, canal in Babylonia)
xxxvi, n.
Nile (river) and n.
Nineveh xv, xvi and n. , n.
, and n.
Nippur xxiv
Nisibis xi, xxxiii, and nn.
, n.
Numniyyah xxxvi, n.
Palestine xxxiv, n.
Perath Maishan (see also Maishan) n.
Persia xiv, xv, xxxiii, xxxiv, ,
and n. , , n. ,
Qin-nishrn n.
Qunn (see also Dr-d-Qunn)
xi, xvii, xviii, xxx, xxxv,
xxxvi, n. , , , ,
,
Rdn (and Rdnu) and nn.
& ,
Raamss and n. ,
Redan (see also Karkha [d-Ledan
or d-Redan]) n. ,
Rew-Ardashir n.
Rome (and Roman Empire) ,
and n.
Salmn Pk and n.
Salmas n.
Samarra n.
Sareisa n.
Satalka n.
Seert xiii
Seleucia (on the Tigris) xi, xiiixvi, xx, xxii, xxiii and n.
, xxvi, xxvii, xxx, xxxi,
xxxiv, xxxvi, n. ,
and nn. , and nn.
& , , , , ,
nn. & , and n.
, , n. , n. ,
n. , , and n. ,
Shafla and n. ,
Shahqirt and nn.
Shahrzr n. , n.
Shaqlw n.
Shaushtara and nn. &
Sind xxxiii
Sinjar n.
Sippar xxiv
Sophanene n.
Sostra (and Sostrate) n.
Susa xxxiv, and nn. &
Talkef xii
Tell Nab Ynis n. , n.
a-dby (Bishop) n.
A
ai (Disciple) xxxiii
A
udemmeh (Bishop) n.
Alexander of Macedonia n.
, ,
Anasimos (Priest) , , ,
Andrew (Acts of) xxvii
Anshar xxv
Ansh (Patriarch) xxxv
Aphraha son of Aphraha (King,
see also Phraates) xiv, xv,
and n. , and n. ,
Ardaq (Bishop) n.
Ardashir (King) xiv, xv, and
n.
Araban V (King) xv, xxvi, n.
, and n. , , n.
,
Astarte (see also Ishtar, goddess)
xvi
Avidius
Cassius
(Emperor)
xxxiv, n.
Bar-Et (biography of) xxxv
Bar-Hebraeus (Author) xvii n.
, xxxiii
Bokhtsh (Family of physicians) n.
Carus (Emperor) xxxiv
Dadisho Samuel (Patriarch)
xviii
Daniel (Mrs disciple) n.
,
Darius (King) xxii
Dausti ,
David (Bishop and martyr)
n.
Daway and n.
Demetrius (Bishop) n.
Dionysius (Priest)
Ebed son of Abd (see also
Abd son of Abd)
and n.
Elijah II (Patriarch) xxxv
Ephrem (St) xxxiii
Ester (Idol; see also Ishtar and
Astarte) and
Eusebius (Bishop of Caesarea)
xix, xxi, xxxiii
ajjj (al-) xv, n.
Herod (King) n. ,
Hezekiah n.
Hurmizd (Priest and martyr)
n.
Ibrhm (Patriarch)
s Aqrri (Scribe) xii
Isaac (Patriarch) xviii, n.
,
Ishoyahb son of Ezekiel (Patriarch) xix
Ishtar (goddess; see also Astarte
and Ester) xvi, n.
Israel (Patriarch) xviii
James of Nisibis n.
Job (Mrs disciple) n. ,
,
John (Acts of) xxvii
John the Physician (Bishop)
n.
Laqn (see also Halqn)
and nn. , and n.
Mr-yahb xi n.
Mardn-Shah (Chief)
Marduk (deity) xxiv, xxv
Mr (Mr)
Builder xi, , , and n.
, , , , , ,
Canal of Mr (Babylonia)
xxxvi
Human and divine characteristics , and n. , ,
, and n. , ,
Commemoration of xviii,
xxxv, ,
Death and grave xviii, xx, ,
,
Phraates V son of Phraates IV
(see also Aphraha) n.
Phraia xxviii, ,
Publius n.
Qardway and
Qunn (Princess) xxx, and n.
, ,
Samiramis (Queen; see also
Shammu-ramat) n. ,
and n.
Sargon (of Akkad) xxxiv n.
Seleucus I Nicator n. ,
Sennacherib (King) n.
Shadrach xxii
Shahgird (also Shahgirad, king)
and n. ,
Shammu-ramat (Queen; see also
Samiramis) n. ,
and n.
Shapur I n. , nn. &
Shapur II xvii, n. , n.
, nn.
Simon (Apostle)
Solomon (Bishop) n.
Thaddeus (Disciple; see also Addai) xi
Thomas (Apostle and Acts of)
xxvii-xxxi, , and n.
Tiamat xxv
Tiberius Caesar and n.
Timothy I (Patriarch) n.
Tobias (see also bn) and
n.
bi (see also bn) n.
bn (see also Tobias) and
n.
ms (Mrs disciple) n.
, and n. , n.
Wartan
Yahbalh I (Patriarch) n.
Yazdgard I (King) n.
Yazdgard III (King) xv
Y
ann of Daylam
Zaradosh (see also Zoroaster)
and n. ,
Zoroaster (see also Zaradosh)
n.
Subject Index
Anachronisms xiv, xxxii, n.
Bishops
A
udemmeh (Nineveh)
n.
Ardaq (B th-Laphat) n.
Cross xxxv, , , ,
Cults xiv, xvi, xxi, xxxii, , ,
, n.
Ester (Ishtar) xvi, and n.
Hymns xxxvi, ,
Images xxi, , , ,
Kingdoms
Roman , and n.
Sassanian xiv-xv, and n.
Parthian xiv-xv,
Persian xiv-xv,
Kings
Abgar (Edessa) xx, xxviii,
and nn. , , , n. ,
ajjj (al-, early Islamic governor) xv, n.
Hammurabi (Babylonia) xvi,
n.
Herod (Palestine) n. ,
Hezekiah (biblical) n.
Mustakf-bi-Allh
(al-,
Caliph) n.
Nebuchadnezzar (Babylonia)
xxi, xxii
Samiramis (Assyrian Queen
Shammu-ramat) n. ,
and n.
Sargon (of Akkad) xxxiv n.
Shahgird
(also
written
Shahrgirad; B th-Garmai)
and n. ,
Shapur I (Persia) n. ,
nn. &
Shapur II (Persia) xvii, n.
, n. , nn.
Yazdgard I (Sassanian) n.
Magians , ,
(of) Maishan and n.
Parthians xiv, xv,
Persians xiv, and n. ,
and , ,
Sassanians xiv, xv,
Seleucians and passim,
Physician xxviii, xxix, n. ,
, n.
Polemics xxi,
, n. , n.
Zb (Assyria, Greater/Upper
and Lower) n. , ,
nn. & , nn. &
, n.
Salvation xxviii, , ,
Schools xi, xvii, xviii (Qunn),
xxiii, xxxii, n. (Nisibis), and n. (Seleucia)
Scriptures
Slaughtering , , ,
Spirit (evil)
Spirit (Holy) xxxi, , , ,
, and ,
Teachers xi, ,
Temples (pagan) xxiv, , ,
(Fire:)
Thanksgiving ,
Topography xxvi, xxxiv, , ,