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By Theodore called Abū Qurrah, Bishop of the Ḥarrānians, That we have five enemies from whom the Savior freed us. By way of question and answer (opusculum 1) Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Greek Description This treatise sets out in some detail Abū Qurra's views on soteriology. He explains, first, how human beings fell into various types of slavery and how they are unable to free themselves through repentance. He then recounts how the death of Christ effected their salvation, by 'assuming the curse and condemnation that was owed by us'. Significance Abū Q…

By the same, A dialogue demonstrating that the Father begets eternally, while the Son is begotten eternally (opusculum 26) Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Greek Description This dialogue defends the thesis that the Son was begotten by the Father and that this act of begetting is not to be understood as having taken place within the realm of time. The method of argumentation is entirely philosophical. Significance The participants in this dialogue are a representative of Orthodoxy and an anonymous heretic, whose identity is not spec…

Biography A native of Damascus, Leontius became a monk at the monastery of Mār Sabas toward the end of the 8th century. His spiritual turmoil brought him to Stephen, another monk at the monastery, and through Stephen's teachings and prayers, Leontius received freedom from certain disturbing thoughts. In time, Stephen accepted Leontius as a disciple. Over the course of the next f…

Life of John of Edessa Unknown author Date: Perhaps c. 900 Original Language: Arabic Description The Life of John of Edessa recounts the saintly bishop’s debate and thaumaturgic contest with a certain Phineas the Jew, in the presence of the Caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd (r. 786-809). The text opens with a description of the wicked Jew Phineas, a courtier of the caliph, and how he had turned the caliph against the Christians. When John learns of this, after praying before the image of Christ in Edessa (mandylion), he travels to al-Raqqa to meet with the caliph. Upon John’s arrival, the caliph summons him and Phineas to take…

This is a disputation between the Christians and the Jews – that is to say, there was a certain Christian and a certain Jew [who] were in Homs and were disputing with one another, The disputation of Abū Iṣḥāq and a Jew, in the presence of the Muslim notable Junāda ibn Marwān of Homs The Disputation of Abū Isḥāq and a Jew…

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The Life and conduct of our holy father, the pure and upright Mār Stephen, the virtuous anchorite who dwelt in the lavra of our father Mār Sabas Leontius of Damascus Date: Between 800 and 807 Original Language: Greek Description The original Greek title of this work has been lost. The title given above is found in the Arabic version. Stephen of Mār Sabas was born in the year 724 and died on 31 March 794. He spent the greater part of his life practising asceticism in and around the monastery of Mār Sabas, to the southeast of Jerusalem. An account of his …

The Refutation Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Arabic Description This treatise consists of a collection of biblical texts designed to refute (i) those who say that Christ is the Word of God, but that he is created and something other than the Creator, (ii) those who say that the Spirit is created, (iii) those who say that Christ cannot be God in that he experienced suffering and death, and (iv) those who say that Christ did not ascend into heaven and take his seat on the throne. Most of the citations are taken from the book of Psalms and from the Minor Prophets. Sig…

A treatise imparted by the holy Abba Theodore, Bishop of Ḥarrān, that is, Abū Qurra, in which he establishes that prostration to the image of Christ our God (who took flesh from the Holy Spirit and from the pure virgin Mary) and to the images of the saints is incumbent on every Christian; and that every Christian who neglects the veneration of these images does so solely because of ignorance of the nobility of the Christianity that he has received; and that, if he takes this stand, he must (also…

A Dialogue between Theodore, Bishop of Ḥarrān, called Abū Qurra, and the master of the post of Emesa, who asked him to prove through reason alone that God exists (opusculum 3) Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Greek Description A number of topics are treated in this dialogue between Abū Qurra and an unbeliever. It opens with arguments designed to prove that there is a God. These arguments mostly turn on the impossibility of an infinite regress. It next argues that this God must have a co-eternal Son, in t…

Questions on the Son of God Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Arabic Description The original title of this work has been lost. Its three extant selections are entitled: (i) Maymar fī annahu lā yughfaru (sic) li-aḥad khaṭīʾatuhu illā bi-awjāʿ al-Masīḥ allatī ḥallat bihi fī shaʾn al-nās wa-anna man lā yuʾminu bi-hādhihi l-awjāʿ wa-yuqarribuhā li-l-Āb ʿan dhunūbihi fa-lā maghfirata li-dhunūbihi abadan, 'Treatise on the fact that no one's sins are forgiven except through the pains that Christ experienced for the sake of human be…

Biography David was a 9th-century Melkite metropolitan of Damascus. In the year 884, a controversy between him and his patriarch occasioned an exchange of letters, some written by him, others written in his defense. Taken as a whole, these letters show David to have been a figure of some standing in the church, able not only to resist the will of his patriarch, but also to summon the assistance of a variety of powerful allies, including the patriarchs of Jerusalem and Alexandria and the most powerfu…

Treatise on the confirmation of the Gospel and that everything that the Gospel does not confirm is false Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Arabic Description The works opens with a discussion of the reasons that lead people to accept religions that are false. It next argues that Christianity was not accepted for any of these reasons, but because of miracles. Significance That Theodore's primary opponents in this treatise are Muslims is suggested by the rather playful qurʾānic allusions (ed. Bacha, p. 74) Manuscripts MS Sinai – New Finds, parchment, …

Treatise confirming that the religion of God, whereby God judges [His] servants on the day of the resurrection, without accepting from them a religion other than it, is the religion that the apostles (that is, the messengers of Christ our Lord) brought to [all] the regions of the earth and to all the nations of the world Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Arabic Description This short treatise, which is lacking at its end, summarizes Theodore's views on the characteristics of the true religion. He argues that one can consider that …

Another question, by the same (opusculum 35) Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Unknown Original Language: Greek Description This work, a dialogue between a Christian and a Muslim, is concerned first with the origins of evil and the defense of human free will. The author seeks to show the error of the Muslims when they claim that God is the source of both good and evil. The author then turns to the Muslim claim that Jesus is the Word and Spirit of God, and seeks to show that as such the Son is eternal. Significance This work has traditionally been assigned to Abū Qurra, though none of the known M…

A copy of the complaint that Abba David, the metropolitan of Damascus, presented to Abba Michael, the patriarch of Alexandria, and Abba Elias, the patriarch of Jerusalem, concerning the action of Abba Symeon, the patriarch of Antioch, as well as what the two of them ruled on the matter and that to which they affixed their signatures David of Damascus Date: 884 Original Language: Arabic Description This letter is the first of a series exchanged between David, Melkite metropolitan of Damascus, Elias, the patriarch of Jerusalem, and Michael, the patriarch of Alex…

The Life of Timothy of Kākhushtā Date of Birth: 9th or 10th c. Place of Birth: Perhaps Syria Date of Death: 9th or 10th c. Place of Death: Perhaps Syria Biography Little is known about the authors of various recensions of the Life of Timothy of Kākhushtā. The earliest version seems to have been written by someone attached to the monastery of the saint, following his death in the early decades of the 9th century (Lamoreaux and Cairala, Life of Timothy, p. 27). Later versions, in Arabic, Greek, and Georgian, were written in Antioch after Timothy’s remains had been translated …

Unknown author Date of Birth: Unknown; possibly late 9th century Place of Birth: Possibly Syria, Homs in particular Date of Death: Unknown; possibly 9th or 10th century Place of Death: Possibly Syria, Homs in particular Biography The author of this text cannot be identified. Given the geographical focus of his work, he may have been a Syrian, or perhaps from the city of Homs itself. He was likely a Melkite, as the Melkites alone have preserved his work. As argued below, he may have been writing after about 800, the possible floruit of one of the characters mentioned in the disputation…

The Refutation of those who say that the Word of God is created Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Arabic Description Taking as its starting point the qurʾānic acknowledgment of Christ as the Word of God, this text seeks to explain how this Word was begotten without the physical accouterments of birth and why it is necessary that this Word be eternal like God himself. Significance Theodore's opponents in this text are unnamed. In that they acknowledge Christ to be the Word of God, however, it is clear that they are Muslims. The text…

‘Treatise confirming that Christians do not necessarily speak of three gods when they say that the Father is God and the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, and that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God, even though each of them is fully God by himself Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Arabic Description This treatise begins with a series of reflections on the motives that lead people to accept or reject a religion and argues against those who would accept a religion that caters to their desires or is characterize…

A question of the Arabs to a Christian (opusculum 8) Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Greek Description In this short dialogue, Abū Qurra endeavors to explain how Christ and the Holy Spirit can be God without there being more than one God. In arguing that there is a distinction between hypostases and nature, he draws an analogy with the Qurʾān, which exists in multiple copies without there being more than one Qurʾān. Significance The arguments here are also found in Abū Qurra’s Arabic works. In particular, one may compare the treatise des…

Treatise on the existence of the Creator and the true religion Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Arabic Description Since Cheikho's edition of 1912, this work is generally referred to under the title given above. In the al-Shīr MS from which that edition was made, however, the work is untitled. In the Shuwayr MS, the work is entitled, Fī ḥaqīqat wujūd Allāh wa-annahu muthallath al-aqānīm wa-ḥaqīqat al-dīn al-masīḥī wa-anna lā dīn fī l-ʿālam ghayrahu qaṭṭ, 'On the truth of the existence of God and that he a Trinity of hypostases and on the …

Treatise on the way of knowing God and the confirmation of the eternal Son Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Arabic Description This treatise begins with a discussion of the various methods whereby God can be known by the human mind, with special attention being given to the knowledge of God through his effects and through what resembles or does not resemble him. Theodore then seeks to show that human reason can discover that God has a Son, one of his own essence and equal to him in every regard. Significance This is a rather generic defense of the Christi…

Biography Ibrāhīm Ibn Yuḥannā al-Anṭākī was born in the middle of the 10th century. He may have been a native of Antioch; he was certainly already present there as a child. He was fluent in both Greek and Arabic. His must have been an influential family, as both he and his father were designated as protospatharioi (an imperial title of great dignity). Ibrāhīm is best remembered for his many labors as a translator of Greek patristic works into Arabic. He was also the author of a number of hagiographical works, on saints living in and around Antioch in the second half of the 10th century. These wor…

Prayer for al-Maʾmūn Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Arabic Description This rather curious piece is a short prayer, in rhymed prose, for the Caliph al-Maʾmūn, asking God to grant him wisdom and protection. Significance If this work is actually by Theodore, one wonders if it might not originally have been the preface or conclusion to a larger work, now lost. Manuscripts MS Sinai - Ar. 447, fols 181v-182v (13th c.) Editions & Translations M. Swanson, 'The Christian al-Maʾmūn tradition', in D. Thomas (ed.), Christians at the heart of Islamic rule. C…

The Life of the holy and virtuous ascetic, Timothy, Life of Timothy of Kākhushtā Unknown author Date: 9th or 10th c. Original Language: Arabic Description The Life of Timothy is set in the last decades of the 8th century and the early decades of the 9th, in the little-known villages located between Antioch and Aleppo. Timothy was a native of the otherwise unknown village of Kākhushtā. His parents having died while he was still an infant, he was raised by his brothers and sisters. When he was seven years old, a beating at t…

Another question (opusculum 37) Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Unknown Original Language: Greek Description Again, a short dialogue between a Christian and a Muslim. Two questions are treated: that Mary did not die, and that God did not create anything after the first seven days of creation. Significance See the comments on p. 488. Manuscripts MS Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana - Gr. 521 (316), between fols 168r and 170v (13th c.) MS Wolfenbüttel, Herzog-August-Bibliothek - Gud. Gr. 102, fols 33v-34r (14th c.) MS Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek - Gr. 66, fols 61v-62r (16th c.) MS V…

A Hagarene’s question to the same (opusculum 9) Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Greek Description This short text answers a Muslim who asks Abū Qurra whether Christ willed to be crucified, suggesting that had he willed it the Jews are to be praised for having crucified him. Abū Qurra argues against this person via an analogy, citing as his example the Muslims who are killed while waging jihād against the Christians of Byzantium. Significance See the comments at 2.11.6. Manuscripts MS Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek – Phil. Gr. 314, f…

Truth of the orthodox faith Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Greek Description This work seeks to defend the truth of the Orthodox faith against the impiety of the Muslims. The argument is largely philosophical. The main topics treated include: that God has a Son; that God is a Trinity of persons; that God's nature cannot be comprehended; the philosophical and scriptural understandings of the name 'Son'; the Muslim claim that Jesus is the Word and Spirit of God; that God is known both from reason and revelation. Significance Only a single copy of this w…

Abba Theodore Abū Qurra, the Bishop of Ḥarrān, was asked about Christ, whether he was crucified willingly or not Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Arabic Description This short text is an answer to a Muslim who questions Theodore as to whether Christ willed to be crucified, suggesting that had he so willed, then the Jews are to be praised for having crucified him. Theodore argues against this person via an analogy, citing as his example the Muslims who are killed while waging jihād against the Christians of Byzantium. Significance This fragment is of unkn…

Biography Beyond the few items listed below, little is known about the events of Theodore Abū Qurra’s life. He seems to have been a native of Edessa, and was born toward the middle of the 8th century. A Melkite, he was one of the earliest Christians known to have written in Arabic. While it has been suggested that as a young man he was a monk at the Palestinian monastery of Mār Saba, the evidence for this is both slight and dubious (Lamoreaux, ‘The biography’). At an unknown date, he was ordained as the bishop of Ḥarrān, an impor…

Treatise on the confirmation of the holy law of Moses and the prophets who prophesied about Christ and the holy Gospel which was transmitted to the nations by the disciples of Christ, born of the pure Mary, and on the confirmation of the orthodoxy that people attribute to Chalcedonianism and the refutation of every religious community that lays claim to Christianity other than this community Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Arabic Description This work consists of two independent treatises. The first is a refutation of the Jews. In it Th…

Abū Qurra was questioned by an unbeliever (opusculum 17) Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Greek Description This short but fascinating dialogue seeks to explain how those who died before Christ can be saved. In particular, it tries to understand how they were able to receive their requisite baptism. Abū Qurra argues that the water that issued from Christ's side at the time of the crucifixion was dissolved into the elements and thus functioned as a baptism for the dead, who had also …

Another question (opusculum 36) Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Unknown Original Language: Greek Description This short work is a dialogue between a Christian and a Muslim. It seeks to establish that God has a Word and that this Word is eternal. Significance See the comments on p. 488. Manuscripts MS Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana - Gr. 521 (316), between fols 168r and 170v (13th c.) MS Wolfenbüttel, Herzog-August-Bibliothek - Gud. Gr. 102, fol. 33r-v (14th c.) MS Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek - Gr. 66, fol. 61r-v (16th c.) MS Vat - Ottob. Gr. 382, fols 89v-90r (17th c.) Editions & T…

The Refutation of those who say that Christians believe in a weak God, in that they say that Christ is God and that he was slapped, struck, crucified, died and rose (again) Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Arabic Description This treatise seeks to answer the objection described in its title. Theodore argues that God is possessed of four attributes, justice, goodness, might, and wisdom; that it is because of these four attributes that he allowed his Son to suffer death on the cross; and that only thus could human beings be freed from slavery to the devil. Signifi…

An unbeliever’s question to the same (opusculum 16) Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Greek Description Abū Qurra argues in this short treatise that Christ was able both to be hypostatically united to his flesh and to be present in all things, providentially providing for them and governing them. Significance Abū Qurra’s opponent is never specified. However, it is very likely a question of a Muslim, as a similar argument can be found in part six of Abū Qurra’s Against the outsiders (see above, pp. 470-71). Manuscripts MS Vienna, Österreichische Nationa…

By the same Theodore, the Bishop of the Ḥarrānians, On the contending of Christ with the devil (opusculum 7) Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Greek Description This treatise is concerned with three topics. Abū Qurra argues, first, that human salvation could not have been accomplished if either God himself had died on the cross or a man alone had died on the cross. Rather, God in the flesh had to die. Second, he argues that God the Word governs and moves his own mind, senses, and faculties. Th…

Some statements of Theodore the Bishop of Ḥarrān, known as Abū Qurra, against the outsiders Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Arabic Description This work consists of eight small texts against Islam. The first is a dialogue. It takes takes place while Theodore and some other Christians were visiting the Holy Sepulcher. Theodore is approached by some Muslims who ask him whether Christ willed to be crucified. What follows is very nearly identical to Theodore’s About Christ whether he was crucified willingly or not (see above, p. 468). The second records a…

Refutations of the Saracens by Bishop Theodore of Ḥarrān, called Abū Qurra, as reported by John the Deacon Theodore Abū Qurra Date: 9th c.? (compiled possibly during the lifetime of Abū Qurra) Original Language: Greek Description This work opens with a short preface from the hand of a certain John the Deacon, who records that in his writings Abū Qurra 'worthily held up to public scorn the impious religion of the Agarenes' and further claims himself often to have been present when Abū Qurra debated with Muslims. He states that assa…

The Life of John of Edessa Date of Birth: Perhaps 8th c. Place of Birth: Perhaps Edessa Date of Death: Perhaps 9th c. Place of Death: Perhaps Edessa Biography The anonymous author of the Life of John of Edessa seems to have been active in about 900, perhaps in Edessa. Beyond this, nothing else about him is known. Primary Sources of Information -- Secondary Sources of Information J. Lamoreaux and H. Khairallah, ‘The Arabic version of the Life of John of Edessa’, Le Muséon 113 (2000) 439-60 P. Peeters, ‘La passion de S. Michel le Sabaïte’, AB 48 (1930) 65-98, pp. 85-91 K. K’ek’elidze, ‘Zhitie i po…

An account of the life of the patriarch of Antioch, the martyr Christopher, and his martyrdom in it [Antioch], which Ibrāhīm ibn Yūḥannā, the Melkite protospatharios, wrote in it [Antioch] in Greek [and] then also translated into Arabic (title in the Sinai MS; Zayat’s edition bears no title) Ibrāhīm ibn Yūḥannā al-Anṭākī Date: About 1025 or shortly thereafter Original Language: Arabic Description Ibrāhīm begins his Life of Christopher with a brief account of his hero’s birth and upbringing in Baghdad, and then of his relocation to Aleppo. It was there that Ch…

Treatise on the death of Christ, and that when we say that Christ died for us we say that the eternal Son begotten of the Father before the ages died for us, not in his divine nature, but in his human nature, and how this death is to be understood, and that it is right that it be said of the eternal Son in the manner that Orthodoxy says it of him Theodore Abū Qurra Date: Late 8th or early 9th c. Original Language: Arabic Description This treatise concerns the manner of Christ's death. It argues against the Nestorians that it was not a mere man that died for us. It argues against …