PHYSITES.
3. Monothelitic Wi'iteis. — The only writer who cer- tainly belonged to this sect was Thomas of Haran, bishop of Kapharlab, who in 1089 sent an apology of the monothelitic doctrine to the patriarch John of Antioch. But there is a controversj' whether the patriarch of Antioch, John INIaro, was a Catholic, monothelite, or a mystical person, and whether the Maronites were al- ready orthodox before the crusades. The writings which go under his name, the Metul Kohvnotha, a treatise on the priesthood, and a commentary on the liturg}', are not his — the former belongs to John of Dara, the latter to Dionysius bar-Calib. But there is no reason to deny him the authorship of the treatise on the faith of the Church against the Monophysites and Nestorians, which is preserved in a MS. dated 1392, and written in Syriac with an Arabic translation.
HL Translations.— The translations made from the
SYRIAC LITERATURE
110
SYRIAC LITERATURE
Greek into Sj-riac are very numerous, especially of the writings of the apostolic fathers. The Syrians had both epistles of Clement of Kome to the Corinthians (see Lagarde, dementis Romuni Reco'imtiones Syriace [Lips. 1861]; id. Clemeniina [ibid. I'seS]; Funk, Die syrische UifM-rsetzung der Clemenshricfe, in the Theolorj. Quurtdlschrift, 1877, p. 477; and \\\\g9n(c\(\, Die Bricjv des romischen Clemens laid ihre syrische Uebei'setzung, in the Zeitschrift Jiir wissensch. Theol. 1877, xx, pt. 4), On the seven epistles of Ignatius of Antioch, see, as for the controversy, the art. Ignatius of Antioch, and add Lipsius, Ueber das Verhdltniss der 3 syr, Briefe des lyniUius zii den ubriqeu Recenss. der ignat. Literutur (ibid. 1859), and Merx, Mektemata Ignatiana (Breslau, 18G1).
A somewhat peculiar work is the Gnomology men- tioned by Origen, and ascribed to Sixttis I (in the be- ginning of the ■2d century), published in Latin by Hil- lesemius in 1574 and by Siber in 1725. Lagarde has published it in the Syriac according to Nitrian MSS. in his Analectu. Very important also are the contribu- tions of the Syrian Church to the apologetic literature of the "id century. In Cureton's Spicilegium. we find an oration of Melito of Sardes, written about A.D. 160 to JMarc Aurel, in which he tries to show the folly of polytheism and seeks to gain him for the Christian faith. A German translation of this oration was made by Wette, in the Tiibinger Qnartalscbrift, 1862. Besides this oration, Cureton also gives some fragments from IMelito's writings on the body and soul, on the cross and faith. In the same Spicilegium we find another apolo- getic work, which is otherwise mentioned as the "ora- tion to the Greeks" by Justin. The Sj'rian text as- cribes it to Ambrose, a Greek. Fragments of a Sj-rian translation of Irenaus are given by Pitra in the Spicile- gium Solesmense (Paris, 1852), i, 3, 6.
The Nitrian MSS. also contain much material per- taining to the works of Hippolytus, the author of the Philosophumena. Lagarde, who published a Greek edi- tion of Hippolytus (irippofyti Romani qiue ferimtur omnia Greece [Lips. 1858]), has collected the Syrian fragments in his Analecfa, p. 79-91; and in his Appen- dix ad Analecfa sua Syriaca (ibid. 1858), he gives Arabic fragments of Hippolytus's commentary on the Apocalypse. As for the Syriac fragments, they contain an extract of Hippolytus's commentary on Daniel. Chapters viii and xi he refers to Persia, Alexander, and Antiochus Epiphanes; the four kingdoms (ch. ii and vii) are the Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, and Ro- man ; the ten horns (ch. vii) he refers to ten kingdoms growing out of the Roman empire, three of which — Egypt, Ethiopia, and Libya— will be annihilated by the antichrist. Besides the commentar\' on Daniel, these fragments also contain a scholium on the authors, di- vision, collection, and order of the Psalms, fragments of a commentary on the Song of Songs, also fragments of a treatise on the resurrection (in which the deacon Nicolaus is designated as the author of the Nicolaitans) addressed to the empress Mammaia, on the Passover, the four animals b}' Ezekiel, and the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
In Lagarde's Reliquice Juris Eccles. Antiquissimee Syriace (Lips. 1856), we also have the minutes of the Carthagenian Synod of 256, together with Cyprian's epistles and the Epistola Canonica of Peter of Alexan- dria in the Syrian version, while th^ A nalecta by the same author contain Syriac writings and fragments of Gregor}^ Thaumaturgus. A fragment of an epistle of pope Felix I to Maximus of Alexandria is contained in Zingerle's Monumenta Syriaca. This much for the ante- Nicene period.. As to the post-Nicene period, we men- tion two works of Harris Cowper, Analecfa Nicmna (Lond. 1857), fragments relating to the Council of Nice, and Syriac Miscellanies (ibid. 1861), or extracts re- lating to the first and second general councils, and va- rious quotations. In these two works we have Constan- tine's invitatory address to the bishops of the Nicene
Council, his decree against Arins, and the episcopal sig- natures to councils of the 4th century.
A great favorite Avith the Syrian translators was Eusebius of C«sarea, whose ecclesiastical historj- is pre- served for the greatest part in London and St. Peters- burg JISS. of the 5th and Gth centuries. Specimens of the Syriac translation were given by Cureton in the Coipus Ignafianum, in the Spicilegium and Ancient Documents, while Wright is preparing a Syriac edition, who also edited and translated in the Jour, of Sac, Lit. July, Oct., 1866, a treatise On the Star, ascribed to Eusebius, and which is found in a MS. of the 6th cen- tury. The Theophamj {^eo(l>avtia), long lost, was dis- covered by Tattam in a Nitrian monastery, and was edited, untler the title Eusebius on the Theophania or Divine Manifestation of Jesus Christ, by Lee (Lond. 1842), who also translated the same into English (ibid. 1843). The MS. is now in the British Museum, and Lee assigns it to A.D. 411. The Theophania has the same object in view as the airoSti^i^ tvayyiXiK)), the Demonstratio Evangelica. It speaks in the first booh of the Logos, the mediator between God and the world, and the prototype of the divine ideas expressed in the Creation, refuting at the same time atheism, polythe- ism, pantheism, and materialism. The secondbook treats of the fall and sin, and of the necessity of a divine inter- vention for the conversion and sanctification of man- kind ; the third speaks of the incarnation of the divine Logos, his redeeming death, resurrection, etc. ; the fourth speaks of the fulfilment of the prophecies of Christ con- cerning tlie extension of his kingdom, the destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple, etc. ; the fifth book refutes the objections made to Christ's miracles as being magi- cal humbug or invented by his disciples.