Thursday, January 20, 2022

John bar Penkaye speaks

[ed. note: Alphonse Mingana, Sources Syriaques (1907) 2.137f. This isn't all John's fourteenth chapter but runs as far as I care to translate for now; Sebastian Brock concluded it here.]

... As for that second synod so convened, at the city Chalcedon. When they gave evidence, that is, about a certain monk Eutyches: it confirmed us about the wickedness of the Egyptian-spawn. Where Cyril planted and Eutyches watered, Satan flourished.

Here then let no man be hesitant over the delay of God's spirit, nor be indignant when he see "a multitude which deviates from justice" to side with sacrilege. What does the breath of the Law testify? do not answer "in a lawsuit so as to pervert justice, in order to side with a multitude which deviates from justice". More! shall one be considered with that multitude destroyed by the Deluge, or with Noah? For my part, my choice is with Lot alone and not with the myriads of the Sodomites. To dwell with Abraham as a foreigner, and not with the multitude of Amorites. To repent with Elijah at Carmel, and not with the thousands of Ba'al's prophets. And to be crucified alone with Christ, and not crowded about the cross. And to be hounded out with Nestorius, and not involved with the endless myriads of the slanderers. For God, who accepts are as minor things. The truth is seen by the few, not by the multitudes. And the road is strait and narrow for the few made to walk by it - so the word of our Lord. Now, to be shown: be not surprised if the many be found wanting. Let us return to the topic of our course.

So when the bishops assembled to the city Chalcedon: they made inquiry about the Theotokos; and about Divine patheia on humankind, as if to bring about its establishment. They reaffirmed the dogma; and they extinguished fire by fire, more that they replaced falsehood by falsehood. And when they confessed her whom they received as if she were the Master from the start: they reverted vainly to make via her of one physis, two natures. They did not distinguish the nature without physis. Instead they were content to confess that for two natures, two physeis: leaving nothing of Nestorius' scheme to forbid, as the queen Pulcheria was commanding. For they loved "the honor of men more than the glory of God". Moreover they banned Eutyches as a bad gardener. But for the Egyptian [Cyril]'s sprouting evil, this they accepted diabolically. Additionally they placed and confirmed under the ban all the wise teachers who ever manifested: I mean, Diodore [of Tarsus] and Theodore [of Mopsuestia], and other such luminaries. And the divided unity of the infant's sentence was split and confirmed. And they unified thusly [the church] of monophysis: when something spoken goes unacknowledged, it is as nothing to contest about. But on account of this, it's time for the dispute to be told as follows: indeed our narrative is for the sake of the dispute; if not as deeds in the abiding church of Christ. Let us return to the run of our course; as among those anticipating the end of days, likewise let us end this narrative so as not to overstep the boundary.

During these two divisive assemblies the blessed Nestorius was slandered and ousted from his seat; and he ended his life in the waste of Awasa. The Church of the East meanwhile was freed entirely from the impiety of these two festivals: by it, the true creed of the 318 was established, and stayed established: and rejected alongside [our church] was that of patheia and of monophysis. [Our church] received thereby those of Diodore's school as being bound by the apostolic creed. From that time our corporeal church is split into three divisions. The easterners confess: God and the Son of Man are one Son of God. The son of man was made God; and God was made son of man. Two natures, two physeis; in unity: one prosôpon of the sonship. When are preserved their characteristics: they have accomplished salvation on behalf of our redemption. It is this prosôpon of united will from two natures, which is lord Christ, and God over all. So much for the easterners. As for the west, is a certain dogma seeking patheia and death, or what name I know not. There is also: of the two natures on the one hand but one physeis when they left - i.e. from that, of two physeis - they spoke with no comprehension about two sons. And they did not understand what would be the nature if so: is it that of the physis able to be acted on? Whatever; the three are divided from then until now - and behold, our masters are like something by Jubal.

The Egyptian however is renowned for his sorceries, of afflictions as much as of astrology - I mean the hermits of the Egyptian desert and the churches and monasteries. In short: Egypt was agreed on all his impiety. Once he crossed the aeon of time for eternal torment, he left behind him evil inheritors, for the evils of evil spirits: by pleasant words and by the sorceries of the belly, these were led astray into the great cupidities of the simple-minded. As for the rest of the Chalcedonians, these were set to follow the former. These took three sects thence until the reign of Kusro king of kings; likewise in the Romans' kingdom, as far as its authority was successful. Little of much was refuted worthy of heresy; but unabandoned were the calumnies [against Nestorius] which clearly should be raised as worthy of that. So from them the next root of evil declared from their evil - I mean here the impious Lulyane. Thus he affirmed his accursed and impious dogma over the salvation of our Lord. Grace ejected it upon a people thick of heart: the Armenian heretics. From them thus was accepted the return of this impiety.

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