The Spiritual World of

ISAAC the SYR1AD

by tlllarlon Alfeyev
Cistercian Studies Series: Number one hundred seventy-five

Hilarion Alfeyev

THE SPIRITUAL WORLD OL ISAAC THE SYRIAN

Cistercian Studies Series: Number one hundred seventy-five

THE SPIRITUAL WORLD

OL ISAAC THE SYRIAN

by

Hilarion Alfeyev

Foreword by
Bishop Kallistos [Ware] of Diokleia

Cistercian Publications
Kalamazoo, Michigan — Spencer, Massachusetts

Thomas J. Bata Library

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For my teacher
Sebastian Brock
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Forword
Bishop Kallistos [Ware] 9

Introduction. Isaac of Nineveh as a Spiritual Writer

of the Church of the East 15
1. The Church of the East at the Time of Isaac 16
2. The Christology of the Church of tire East 20
3. The Life of Isaac the Syrian 25
4. The Writings of Isaac 29
5. The Sources of Isaac’s Theology 32

Chapter I. God, the Universe and Humankind 35

1. Divine Love which Reveals Itself through the Created World 35
2. The Structure of the Created World 43
3. The Incarnation 49

Chapter II. The Way of a Solitary 61

1. Solitude and Renunciation of the World 61
2. Love of God and Love of One’s Neighbour 67
3. Stillness and Silence 77
4. A Monastic Way to God 81

Chapter III. Trials on the Way to God 91

1. Temptations 91
2. Experience of Abandonment 101

Chapter IV. Humility 111

1. Humility as Assimilation to God 111
2. Humility as an Inner Quality 116
3. External Signs of Humility 123
Chapter V. Tears 129
1. Repentance 129
2. Bitter and Sweet Tears 134

Chapter VI. The School of Prayer 143

1. Prayer 144
2. Outward Aspects of Prayer 150
3. Prayer before the Cross 163
4. Reading 174
5. Night Prayer 184
6. The ‘Rule of Slavery’ and the ‘Rule of Freedom’ 193
7. Prayer for the World 201
8. Meditation on God and ‘Pure Prayer’ 208

Chapter VTI. The Life in God 217

1. ‘Spiritual Prayer’ and the Stillness of Mind 21.8
2. Contemplation 223
3. Visions, Revelations, Insights 229
4. ‘Overshadowing’ and ‘Illumination’ 236
5. Wonder 241
6. ‘Inebriation’ by the Love of God 248
7. Faith and Knowledge 256

Chapter VIII. The Life of the Age to Come 269

1. Meditation on the Future World 270
2. Life after Death 274
3. Eternal Punishment or Universal Salvation? 283
4. Divine Love which Reveals Itself in the Final Destiny
of the World 292

Conclusion: The Enduring Influence of Saint Isaac 299

Bibliography 303
Index of Syriac Terms 313
General Index 315
 FOREWORD

I CAN CLEARLY REMEMBER THE first time that I came

across the name of Saint Isaac the Syrian. It was about forty
years ago. In a popular anthology, next to a passage from
Spinoza, I read these words from Isaac: ‘What is a compas¬
sionate heart? It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation, for
humanity, for the birds, for the animals, for demons, and for
all that exists.’ Isaac goes on to speak of the tears shed by the
person with the heart such as this, when confronted by the pain
and anguish of any living thing: ‘As a result of this deep mercy
his heart shrinks and cannot bear to look on any injury or the
slightest suffering of any in creation.’1
Who, I asked myself, is this Isaac who writes about compas¬
sion with such a powerful sense of cosmic unity? For the time
being my curiosity remained unsatisfied; but Isaac the Syrian
was a name that I resolved to keep in view.
I did not have to wait long before I met him again. Reading
Vladimir Lossky’s master-work The Mystical Theology of the East¬
ern Church, I found Saint Isaac the Syrian mentioned on many
pages. I was particularly struck by some words of Isaac, quoted
by Lossky, about the suffering of those in hell. According to
Isaac, those who endure torment in gehenna are chastised,
not by divine anger, not by any desire on God’s part to exact
retribution—for there is no cruelty or vindictiveness in God—
but ‘with the scourge of love’.

The sorrow which takes hold of the heart that has sinned
against love is more piercing than any other pain. It is not
1. Isaac, Homily 1/71 (344-345).

9
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

right to say that sinners in hell are deprived of the love of

God. . . . But love acts in a double way, as suffering in the
reproved, and as joy in the blessed.

Lossky comments: ‘The love of God will be an intolerable

torment for those who have not acquired it within themselves. ’2
Once more, as with Isaac’s description of the compassionate
heart, it was as if someone had suddenly opened a window in my
mind and flooded my whole interior world with light. Here, I
felt, is the only interpretation of judgement and hell that makes
any sense. God is love, and his love is inexhaustible; and this
inexhaustible love is present everywhere, even in hell. But ‘love
acts in a double way’.
A third stage in my encounter with Saint Isaac came when I
read an article on Isaac’s theology of the Incarnation by the
Roman Catholic scholar Irenee Hausherr.3 Christ’s birth in
Bethlehem, Isaac maintains, is the happiest event that could
possibly have occurred in the entire history of the world. Is
it not absurd, then, to assign as the reason for this supremely
joyful event something which might not and, indeed, ought
not ever to have happened—namely, human sin? The main and
only reason for the Saviour’s coming on earth is not negative
but positive. The reason for his Incarnation is not human sin
but divine love: ‘God did all this for no other reason, except
to make known to the world the love that He has’. He became
incarnate ‘not to redeem us from sins, or for any other reasons,
but solely in order that the world might become aware of the
love which God has for the whole of His creation’.4
Once again, Saint Isaac’s words made immediate sense to
me. The Incarnation is not to be seen merely as a ‘contin¬
gency plan’ devised by God in response to the Fall; it is an

2. Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (London, 1957)
234, quoting 1/28 (141).
3. I. Hausherr, ‘Un precurseur de la theorie scotiste sur la fin de 1’ Incarnation’,
Recherches de sciences religieuses 22 1932), 316-320; reprinted in I. Hausherr, Etudes de
spiritualityorientale, Orientalia Christiana Analectra 183 (Rome, 1969) 1-5.
4. Gnostic Chapters iv. 78.

10
 Foreword

expression of God’s eternal nature as self-giving love. Here

was unexpected support for the Scotist understanding of the
aim of the Incarnation.5 I recognized, however, that Isaac was
not actually raising the later scholastic question, ‘Would the
Incarnation have occurred, even if there had never been a Fall
into sin?’ For us this is an unreal question, for the only world we
know from personal experience is a fallen world, marked by sin;
and the Fathers do not on the whole concern themselves with
unreal questions. They do not ask, ‘What would have happened
if. . . they theologize on the basis of our present situation. All
that Saint Isaac affirms, therefore, with true patristic reticence,
is that the motive for God’s flesh-taking is his divine love.
Running through all three of my initial encounters with Isaac
was a single theme: the primacy of love. It is love that provides
an explanation—so far as any explanation is possible—for the
creation of the universe and for the Incarnation of Christ. It is
love that enables us, as nothing else can do, compassionately to
embrace and transfigure the suffering of the world. And it is the
logic of divine love that provides a key to the dark mystery of
hell. What impressed me, moreover, was not simply the central
place that Isaac assigns to love, but the directness, the simplicity,
the intensity with which he speaks about God’s loving economy.
Never before, outside Holy Scripture, had I found someone
who could say so much in so few words.
Not long after these three meetings with Isaac, I came across
the translation of his Mystic Treatises by A. J. Wensinck. This I
read, sometimes with bafflement, but always with a consuming
eagerness. I filled scores of filing cards with extracts from the
text. When I came to the end of the work, even after four
hundred pages I was left thirsty for more. From Wensinck’s
preface and other works I learnt who Isaac was: a monk living
in Mesopotamia in the seventh century, briefly bishop of Nin¬
eveh, and then in his final years a recluse in the mountains. I

5. Further support can be found in Isaac’s contemporary, St Maximus the Con¬

fessor: see Georges Florovsky, ‘Car Dens Homo? The Motive of the Incarnation’ in
Florovsky, Collected Works, vol. 3 (Belmont, Nordland: 1976), 163-170.

11
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

discovered that he belonged to the Church of the East, com¬

monly called ‘nestorian’. But, so I gradually came to realize,
this did not mean that either Isaac himself, or the ecclesiastical
community to which he belonged, could justly be condemned
as heretical.
My knowledge of Isaac had to be gathered, more than a
generation ago, from many scattered sources. Now at last, to my
great delight, we have at our disposal a single book in English,
offering us a balanced and comprehensive overview of Isaac’s
life, background and teaching. Wisely Fr Hilarion Alfeyev has
allowed Isaac to speak for himself. The book is full of well-
chosen quotations, in which Isaac’s true voice can be plainly
heard. Fr Hilarion has had the great advantage of being able to
make use of the second part of Isaac’s writings which was long
feared to have been lost, but which has now been rediscovered
and made available by Dr Sebastian Brock.
‘I do not wish to count milestones, but to enter the marriage
chamber’, says Isaac; ‘any path that quickly takes me there I
will travel on.’6 His words can be applied to his own writings.
He does not offer ‘milestones’, or spiritual maps, or a carefully
devised plan of the Christian journey in specific stages. He is
intuitive and unsystematic. His writings are full of repetitions,
of unexpected transitions, of epigrammatic sayings not fully ex¬
plained. Yet, beneath this apparent lack of system, there is in his
spiritual teaching a profound inner coherence; and it is precisely
this that Fr Hilarion makes clear to us. Drawing together Isaac’s
key statements on the life in Christ, the present book shows us
the unity and consistency that marks his spiritual vision.
Saint Isaac the Syrian was an ascetic, a mountain solitary, but
his writings are universal in scope. They are addressed not just
to the desert but to the city, not just to monastics but to all the
baptized. With sharp vividness he speaks about themes relevant
to every Christian: about repentance and humility, about prayer
in its many forms, both outer and inner, about solitude and

6. 1/75 (355). Cf Wensinck, Mystic Treatises 80 (367-8).

12
 Foreword

community, about silence, wonder, and ecstasy. Along with the

emphasis that he places upon ‘luminous love’—to use his own
phrase— two things above all mark his spiritual theology: his
sense of God as living mystery; and his warm devotion to the
Saviour Christ.
When the fourteenth-century hesychast master Saint Gre¬
gory of Sinai was advising his disciples about what to read, he
selected Isaac for special mention: ‘Read works of the Fathers
related to stillness and prayer, like those of Saint John Climacus,
Saint Isaac, Saint Maximos . . . .’7 And when, in the nineteenth
century, the Slavophil thinker Ivan Kireevsky wanted to single
out one specific author who embodies par excellence the essence
of the Orthodox spirituality, he chose Saint Isaac the Syrian:
his teaching, in Kireevsky’s view, is ‘more profoundly thought
through’ than that of any other Father.8 Readers of Fr Flilarion’s
book will easily appreciate why Gregory of Sinai and Ivan
Kireevsky felt as they did.
+ Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia

7. On Stillness: Fifteen Texts 11, in the Philokalia: The Complete Text, tr. G. E. H.
Palmer, P. Sherrard and K. Ware, vol. 4 (London, 1995) 271.
8. I. Kireevsky, Collected Works, vol. 2 (Moscow, 1911) 118-19.

13
 INTRODUCTION

ISAAC OF NINEVEH AS
A SPIRITUAL WRITER
OF THE CHURCH OF THE EAST

Mar Isaac speaks the language of the heavenly beings . . .

Yuhanna ibn Barsi

S YRIAC CHRISTIANITY is known in history in three main

ecclesiastical and theological traditions which go back to the
epoch of the Ecumenical Councils (fourth—seventh centuries
of the Christian era).1 These are:

The Syrian Orthodox Church, known also as the Church

of the West or Jacobite Church:2 this Church considered
itself the heir to the Christology of Cyril of Alexandria and
Severus of Antioch and rejected the Council of Chalcedon
(451 ad);
The Church of the East, which rejected the Council of
Ephesus (431 ad) and considered Theodore of Mopsuestia
as its main theologian and teacher;3
Some Syriac-speaking communities in Syria and Leb¬
anon, which accepted chalcedonian Christology and sub¬
sequently divided into two groups:

1. See Brock, ‘Background’, 30-31.

2. Named after one of its most prominent leaders Jacob Baradaeus (sixth century).
Also called ‘Monophysite’ by its theological opponents.
3. Called ‘Nestorian’ by its opponents.

15
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

the Melkites, who accepted the Sixth Ecumenical

Council (680 ad),
and the Maronites, who rejected it.

Saint Isaac of Nineveh, or Isaac the Syrian, belonged to the

Church of the East. In his day the borders of this Church
approximately coincided with those of the Persian Empire of
the Sassanids (modern Iraq and Iran). Was this Church actually
nestorian, as its enemies claimed? To determine whether or not
Isaac was a Nestorian, one must answer this question.
In this Introduction we shall look briefly at the history of
the Church of the East and at the main theological streams
which existed in Syria by the seventh century. Then we shall
analyze the information on the life and writings of Isaac and
shall outline the main sources of his theology.

1. The Church of the East at the time of Isaac

As early as in the first century there were Christian communities

in Persia. Christianity expanded there first among the Jews and
secondly, among the native persian adherents of the zoroastrian
religion. In the third and fourth centuries Persian Christians
suffered cruel persecutions on the part of the zoroastrian clergy:
the persecution of the mid-fourth century, under Shapur II, was
especially severe.
For several centuries the Church of Persia had little contact
with the Churches of the Roman Empire. Its rather isolated
position to no small degree conditioned the historical devel¬
opment of the Persian Church. It developed its own liturgical
traditions, founded its own theological schools and elaborated
its own theological language.
Another factor which contributed even more to the original¬
ity of the development of persian Christianity was the close links
between the Church and the synagogue, which existed there
much longer than in the West. The Semitic roots of persian

16
 The Church of the East at the Time of Isaac

Christianity can be clearly seen in Aphrahat, ‘The Persian Sage’,

who wrote in Syriac in the first half of the fourth century.
His twenty-three ‘Demonstrations’ are characterized by ‘the
simple, biblical expression of faith, the complete absence of
any influence of Greek-thought forms and continual concern
with the teachings and customs of the Jews’.4
The syriac language, which was spoken in Persia, belongs
moreover to the Semitic family languages and is a dialect of
Aramaic, the language of Jesus and the Apostles. Thus the
second- or third-century translation of the Gospels into Syriac
(Old Syriac) reflects the Semitic roots of Christianity more
fully than does their greek original. Accordingly, the syriac
theological tradition preserved a close proximity to biblical
language far longer than did the byzantine Greek-speaking
tradition, which was greatly influenced by Platonism and Neo-
Platonism, and by greek philosophical thought in general.
The ‘School of Persians’ (i.e. persian refugees), a very im¬
portant theological centre for the entire east-syrian Christian
tradition, was founded in the fourth century in Edessa: its
influence on the development of Syrian theology cannot be
overestimated. The main subject of study in this school was
Holy Scripture: the disciples listened to their teacher and wrote
down his interpretations.5 The school was attended by Syriac¬
speaking youth from Edessa and its environs, as well as by the
persian emigres.6 The biblical commentaries of Saint Ephrem,
who interpreted only some parts of the Bible, were used as
models of exegesis until the mid-fifth century.
Because Ephrem’s commentaries encompassed only a small
part of Holy Scripture, however, the decision was made some
time in the fifth century to translate from Greek the entire
corpus of the exegetical works by Theodore of Mopsuestia.
The main reason behind this decision was that Theodore had
interpreted almost all parts of the Bible consecutively, using the

4. Miller, ‘Epilogue’, 484.

5. Florovsky, VyzOtcy, 227.
6. Miller, ‘Epilogue’, 489.

17
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

antiochene literal method of exegesis: his commentaries had as

their aim clarification of the text and he avoided allegorical
interpretation. Once the translation was completed, Theodore
of Mopsuestia became the main biblical commentator of the
east-syrian tradition: all subsequent spiritual writers of this
tradition, including Saint Isaac, referred to him as ‘the Blessed
Interpreter’.
The translation of Theodore’s works was of crucial impor¬
tance for syriac Christianity: along with his exegetical method,
his theological views—including his christological opinions—
were incorporated into east-syrian tradition. These opinions
became a subject of heated discussions in the Greek-speaking
East after the Council of Ephesus (431), which condemned
Nestorius. At that time all writers of extreme diophysite ori¬
entation were likely to be counted among the Nestorians.
Theodore made a sharp distinction between Jesus the man7
and the Word of God, speaking of the ‘inhabitation’ of the
Word of God in Jesus as in the ‘temple’, and his Christology
came more and more often to be labelled as ‘nestorian’. In
the end, Theodore was posthumously condemned by the Fifth
Ecumenical Council (533). Yet for east-syrian Christians he
remained forever an unquestioned authority in the field of
theology. This explains how the Church of Persia and the entire
east-syrian theological tradition came to be called ‘nestorian’,
the name which was never used by this Church itself, which
had no historical link with Nestorius.
In 489 the ‘Persian School’ was closed by order of Emperor
Zeno. Some years before that, however, its head, Narsai, to¬
gether with his students, had moved to Nisibis. By the end of
the fifth century the School of Nisibis became one of the main
theological and spiritual centres of the Church of Persia.
At the end of the sixth century, Henana, who had become
the head of the School in 572, made an attempt to replace

7. The word ‘man’ is used in the present study to refer to Jesus Christ as a human
being. It is not used as a generic term except in the quotations from Part I of Isaac the
Syrian: these quotations are given in D. Miller’s translation, which we cannot modify.

18
 The Church of the East at the Time of Isaac

Theodore’s biblical commentaries with his own, which were

based on the allegorical method of Origen. Henana’s attempt
was not crowned with success. A local Council in 585 confirmed
the unshakable authority of Theodore and forbade anyone ‘in
open or in secret to defame this Doctor of the Church or
to refute his holy books’. Subsequently two other Councils,
in 596 and 605, condemned Henana’s interpretations and re¬
peated the anathemas against those who ‘refute the commen¬
taries, exegeses and teachings of the proven teacher, the blessed
Theodore the Interpreter, and who attempt to introduce new
and strange exegeses replete with folly and blasphemy’.8 The
faith of the Church of Persia became ‘the faith of Theodore’,
or ‘of Theodore and Diodore’, as Diodore, the fourth-century
teacher of Theodore and bishop of Tarsus, was also surrounded
by a halo of sanctity and theological authority in the east-syrian
tradition.
The end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh cen¬
turies were marked by the theological activity of Babai the
Great, who wrote extensively on christological matters. His
theology is a sort of synthesis of the Christologies of Theodore,
Diodore, and Nestorius.9 Being a leader of the conservative
party which fought for strict adherence to the teaching of
Theodore, Babai was in the forefront of Syrian opposition
to the Council of Chalcedon. He insisted on the doctrine of
‘two qnome’ in the incarnate Christ, employing the syriac term
which was used to translate greek hypostasis, but which for Babai
meant something different.10 Babai’s reference to two qnome
thus gave the appearance of a direct conflict with the Chal-
cedonian definition of‘one hypostasis (qnoma in Syriac) in two
natures’. In developing the christological views of Theodore,
Babai did make some use of Nestorius, in particular of his
‘Bazaar of Heraclides’, an apology written by Nestorius after his

8. Quoted from Miller, ‘Epilogue’, 503.

9. See Chediath, Christology, 194.
10. See the discussion of the syriac christological terminology in Section 2 of this
Chapter.

19
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

condemnation by the Council of Ephesus and translated into

Syriac in the mid-sixth century.11 By the mid-seventh century
the names of ‘the three teachers’—Diodore, Theodore, and
Nestorius—were inserted in the diptychs of the Church of the
East12 and they have been commemorated there ever since.

2. The Christology of the Church of the East

Was the Church to which Saint Isaac belonged ‘nestorian’P To

answer this question, we need to look at why did the Church of
the East not accept the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon.
That the christological controversies of the fifth century
revealed various points of view on the relation between the di¬
vinity and humanity of Jesus Christ is well known. In particular,
the representatives of the antiochene school, Diodore of Tarsus,
Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Nestorius of Constantinople,
suggested the following terminological expression of the unity
between the two natures: God the Word ‘assumed’ the man
Jesus; the unbegotten Word of God ‘inhabited’ the one who
was born from Mary; the Word dwelt in the man as in its
‘temple’; the Word put on human nature as a ‘garment’. The
man Jesus was united with the Word and assumed divine dignity.
When asked the question ‘Who suffered on the Cross?’, they
would answer: ‘the flesh of Christ’, ‘the humanity of Christ’,
his ‘human nature’, or ‘the things human’.13 Thus they drew
a sharp line between the divine and human natures of Christ.
During the earthly life of Jesus both natures preserved their
characteristics, so if one speaks of unity of the two natures,
this unity is mental rather than ontological: it exists in our
understanding of Christ, in our worship of him; roe unite both
natures and venerate one Christ, God and man.

11. Though Babai never mentions Nestorius by name, it is clear that he knew the
‘Bazaar of Heraclides’; see Miller, ‘Epilogue’, 504.
12. Ibid, 507-508.
13. Meyendorff, Imperial Unity, 191.

20
 The Christology of the Church of the East

The alexandrian tradition which, in the person of Cyril of

Alexandria, was in conflict with Nestorius, opposed to the
antiochene scheme another understanding of the unity of the
two natures: the Word became human and did not merely ‘as¬
sume’ human nature; the unbegotten Word of God is the
same person as Jesus born from Mary; therefore it was God
the Word Himself who ‘suffered in the flesh’ (epathen sarki).14
Thus, there is one Son, one hypostasis, ‘one nature of God
the Word incarnate’ {nna physis to theou logon sesarkomene). The
latter phrase, which belonged to Apollinaris of Laodicaea, cast
the suspicion of‘mixture’ and ‘confusion’ of the two natures on
Cyril of Alexandria. Cyril’s Christology was confirmed by the
Council of Ephesus (431), but rejected by the east-syrian theo¬
logical tradition, which remained faithful to the christological
terminology of Theodore and Diodore.
The Council of Chalcedon (451) returned to the antioch¬
ene strict distinction between the two natures, but tended to
avoid the terminology of the ‘indwelling’ of the divinity in
the humanity and of ‘assumption’ of the human nature by the
divine nature. The chalcedonian definition of faith was meant
to bring about a reconciliation between the alexandrian and
antiochene parties by accentuating simultaneously the unity of
the hypostasis of Christ and the existence of two natures:

. . . We all with one voice confess our Lord Jesus Christ

one and the same Son, the same perfect in Godhead, the
same perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man,. . .
one and the same Christ, Son, Lord Only-begotten, to be
acknowledged in two natures, without confusion, without
change, without division, without separation; the distinc¬
tion of natures being in no way abolished because of the
union but rather the characteristic property of each nature
being preserved, and concurring into one person and one
hypostasis ... 15

14. See Cyril of Alexandria, 3rd Letter to Nestorius.

15. Quoted from Meyendorff, Christ, 25-26.

21
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

This terminology, welcomed by Nestorius himself,16 did not

receive approbation in the Syrian East. Writers of the subse¬
quent period, like Babai the Great, whose Christology was close
to Isaac of Nineveh’s, continued to speak of the ‘indwelling’ of
the divinity in the humanity and of the human nature as the
‘temple’ and ‘garment’ of the Godhead.
Why did the east-syrian tradition not accept the Council of
Ephesus? The answer is concealed not in the personality of
Nestorius—he was barely known in Persia even by name until
the sixth century—but in the procedures of the Council. The
Church of Persia did not accept the Council mainly because it
was conducted by Cyril of Alexandria and his adherents in the
absence of John of Antioch, who, upon his arrival to Ephesus,
anathematized Cyril. The christological position of the Council
of Ephesus was purely alexandrian: it took no account of the
antiochene position, and it was precisely the antiochene (and
not ‘nestorian’) Christology that was the Christology of the
Church of the East.
It is more difficult to answer the question of why the Council
of Chalcedon was not accepted by the East Syrians. Its formula
‘one hypostasis in two natures’ should have brought agreement
between the warring factions. The greek word hypostasis in this
context meant a specific person, Jesus Christ, God the Word,
whereas the word physis (nature) referred to the humanity and
divinity of Christ. When translated into Syriac, however, this
terminological distinction could not be expressed adequately,
since in Syriac the word qnoma (used to translate hypostasis) car¬
ried the meaning of the individual expression of kyana (nature);
thus Syriac writers normally spoke of natures and their qnome.
Consequently, whereas Severus of Antioch thought that one
hypostasis implies one nature, diophysite writers claimed that
two natures imply two hypostases.17

16. In 449 Nestorius, who was still alive, agreed with the Tome of Pope Leo the
Great, which was accepted as a basis of the christological definition of Chalcedon.
17. Brock, ‘Misnomer’, 25.

22
 The Christology of the Church of the East

Following the same logic, the Catholicos Isho‘yahb II (628-

646) explained why the Church of the East could not accept the
chalcedonian definition of faith:

Although those who gathered at the Synod of Chalcedon

were clothed with the intention of restoring the faith,
yet they too slid away from the true faith: owing to their
feeble phraseology, wrapped in an obscure meaning, they
provided a stumbling block to many. Although, in accor¬
dance with the opinion of their own minds, they preserved
the true faith with the confession of ‘two natures’, yet
by their formula of ‘one qnoma\ it seems, they tempted
weak minds. As an outcome of the affair a contradic¬
tion occurred, for with the formula of ‘one qnoma' they
corrupted the confession of ‘two natures’, while with the
‘two natures’ they rebuked and refuted the ‘one qnoma1.
So they found themselves standing at a cross roads, and
they wavered and turned aside from the blessed ranks
of the orthodox, yet they did not join the assemblies of
the heretics. . . . On what side we should number them I
do not know, for their terminology cannot stand up, as
Nature and Scripture testify: for in these, many qnome
can be found in a single ‘nature’, but that there should be
various ‘natures’ in a single qnoma has never been the case
and has not been heard of.18

These words show very clearly why the chalcedonian defi¬

nition of faith was unacceptable to the Syrian ear: it sounded
illogical. Interestingly enough, Isho‘yahb does not accuse the
chalcedonian fathers of heresy: he acknowledges their good
intentions, yet claims that they did not succeed in reconcil¬
ing the antiochene and alexandrian traditions because of their
terminology of compromise, which damaged the truth. Ul¬
timately, Isho‘yahb’s reluctance to reckon the chalcedonian

18. Quoted from Brock, ‘Misnomer’, 24.

23
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

fathers among either orthodox or hereodox shows that the

Council of Chalcedon was quite irrelevant to this Eastern
Catholicos; it was not a Council in which his own Church
would have participated. One should remember, when speaking
of the acceptance or non-acceptance of certain Ecumenical
Councils outside the Roman Empire that the ‘Ecumenical’
Councils of the fourth to the seventh centuries took place within
the oikoumene of the Roman Empire and were therefore not
of direct concern to the Churches outside that Empire. The
Church of the East, located within the Persian Empire, had
no direct links with the councils of the byzantine world. If
certain Councils were recognized in the non-byzantine East,
this normally happened much later than the date at which
Councils had convened: for example, the I Ecumenical Council
(Nicaea, 325) was recognized by the Church of Persia eighty-
five years after the Council sat.19
Having made this necessarily brief excursus into the his¬
tory of the christological controversies of the fifth century,
we can now answer our question about the ‘Nestorianism’ of
the Church of the East. If by the term ‘Nestorianism’ we are
to understand the teaching against which Cyril of Alexandria
fought—that is, the teaching about the two different persons in
the Son of God which led to the recognition of ‘two sons’20—
then this doctrine was alien to the east-syrian tradition. Yet
east-syrian theologians did speak of two qnome-hypostases in
connection with the incarnate Son of God, and the Church of
Persia, having not recognized the chalcedonian doctrine of‘one
hypostasis in two natures’, found itself in verbal opposition to
the byzantine Church. From the fifth to the eighth centuries,
writers of the Church of the East continued to use the christo¬
logical terminology of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodore,
and in the Greek-speaking East this was generally identified as
nestorian. The Church of the East continued to commemorate

19. Brock, ‘Misnomer’, 33.

20. Nestorius himself decisively refuted the idea of ‘two sons’, considering this
idea as a misinterpretation of his Christology.

24
 The life of Isaac the Syrian

Theodore and Diodore after they had been anathematized

in Byzantium, and it included the name of Nestorius on the
diptychs long after he had been condemned. All of this testifies
that the Church of Persia, though not ‘nestorian’ in a strict
doctrinal sense, adhered to the theological and christological
thought which was rather close to that of Nestorius.
By the end of the seventh century, political circumstances
effectively cut the Church of the East off from the byzantine
world, which thus became largely irrelevant to it. This further
isolation did not, however, lead to any decline in theology and
the spiritual life. On the contrary, in the seventh and the eighth
centuries the Church of the East reached the highest flowering
of its theology: at this time lived and worked such writers as
Martyrius-Sahdona, Dadisho4, Symeon the Graceful, Joseph
Hazzaya, and John of Dalyatha. All of them were primarily
mystical writers and did not occupy themselves with christolog¬
ical questions. Little known outside the east-syrian tradition,
they constituted what one may call ‘the golden age of syriac
Christian literature’. The only representative of this ‘golden age’
to become known throughout the world was Isaac of Nineveh.

3. The life of Isaac the Syrian

Biographical information on Isaac is contained in two syriac

sources: The Book of Chastity, short biographies of Persian as¬
cetics by the east-syrian historian Isho‘denah, the bishop of
Basra; and a west-syrian source of uncertain date and origin.
Chapter 124 of the book by Isho‘denah is called ‘On the
holy mar Ishaq, bishop of Nineveh, who abdicated from his
episcopacy and composed books on the discipline of solitude’.
Isho‘denah says about Isaac:

He was ordained bishop of Nineveh by Mar Giwargis the

Catholicos in the monastery of Beit ‘Abe. But after he
had held the office of the shepherd of Nineveh for five

25
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

months ... he abdicated his episcopacy for a reason which

God knows, and he departed and dwelt in the moun¬
tains. . . . He ascended the mountain of Matout, which
is encircled by the region of Beit Huzaye, and he dwelt
in stillness together with the anchorites who lived there¬
abouts. Afterward he went to the monastery of Rabban
Shabur. He was exceedingly well versed in the divine writ¬
ings, even to the point that he lost his eyesight by reason
of his reading and asceticism. He entered deeply into the
divine mysteries and composed books on the divine dis¬
cipline of solitude. He said, however, three points which
were not accepted by many. Daniel Bar Tubanitha, the
bishop of Beit Garmai, was scandalized at him on account
of the three propositions which he expounded. Yet when
he reached deep old age, he departed from temporal life,
and his body was placed in the monastery of Shabur. He .
was born in Beit Qatraye, and I think that envy was stirred
up against him by those who dwelt in the interior parts
of Persia.21

The west-syrian source contains similar information on

Isaac, not mentioning the controversies surrounding Isaac’s
theological propositions, but adding some other descriptive
traits. In particular, the source relates that when Isaac went
blind, his disciples wrote down his teachings.

They called him the second Didymos, for indeed, he was

quiet, kind and humble, and his word was gentle. He ate
only three loaves a week with some vegetables, and he
did not taste any food that was cooked. He composed five
volumes, that are known even until this day, filled with
sweet teaching.22

21. Isho‘denah, Livre, 63-64 (277-278).

22. Stadia Syriaca volume I, page 33 (32-33) [Volume and page will hereafter be
cited as 1:33].

26
 The life of Isaac the Syrian

The province of Qatar, where Isaac was born, was situated

on the western shore of the Persian Gulf (the present Qatar in
the United Arab Emirates). Around 648 the bishops of Qatar
separated from the persian Catholicos. The schism lasted until
676, when the Catholicos Giwargis visited Qatar and reconciled
its bishops with the Church of Persia. Possibly it was at that
time that he consecrated Isaac, who was known for his strict
asceticism, as the bishop of Nineveh.
Isaac had little success as a bishop. The following east-syrian
legend, preserved in arabic translation, tells of his abdication.
The first day after his ordination, while Isaac was sitting in
his residence, two men came to his room, disputing with each
other. One of them was demanding the return of a loan: ‘If this
man refuses to pay back what belongs to me, I will be obliged
to take him to court’. Isaac said to him: ‘Since the Holy Gospel
teaches us not to take back what has been given away, you should
at least grant this man a day to make his repayment’. The man
answered: ‘Leave aside for the moment the teachings of the
Gospel’. Then Isaac said: ‘If the Gospel is not to be present,
what have I come here to do?’ And seeing that the office of
bishop disturbed his solitary life, ‘the holy man abdicated from
his episcopacy and fled to the holy desert of Skete’.23
This bit of information contradicts the above-cited chronicle
of Isho‘denah, which claims that Isaac departed to the moun¬
tains of Huzistan and not to the egyptian desert of Skete. It is
somewhat unlikely, moreover, that Isaac’s abdication from the
episcopacy would have been occasioned by one insignificant
incident. Since we know that Isaac came from the provincial
diocese of Qatar, which had been in schism for almost thirty
years, it is more likely that his appointment was regarded with
dissatisfaction by the citizens of Nineveh. At the time Nineveh
was a centre of activity for the Jacobites; the very people against
whom Isaac, as a ‘nestorian’ bishop, was supposed to contend.24

23. Cf Brock, Spirituality, 33; Miller, ‘Introduction’, LXVIII-LXIX.

24. Miller, ‘Introduction’, LXIX-LXX.

27
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Not being inclined to arguments on dogmatic subjects, Isaac

preferred to retire from Nineveh, which became an arena
of conflict.
Just what three ‘propositions’ Isaac allegedly expounded and
what precisely instigated Daniel Bar Tubanitha’s opposition
remain an enigma. We know that Daniel composed ‘a solution
to the questions raised by the fifth volume of Mar Isaac of
Nineveh’,25 but the only testimony about this work left to
us occurs in a record by the ninth-century east-syrian writer
Hanoun ibn Yuhanna ben As-salt. He describes a visit of the
Catholicos Yuhanna ibn Barsi to a famous monk. With him, the
Catholicos brought the writings by Isaac and read them aloud,
‘without lifting his head until the sun shone on him’. After
he finished, the monk asked the Catholicos which was more
trustworthy: Isaac’s writings or Daniel’s refutation of them. The
Catholicos replied: ‘Is it possible for a man like you to ask such a
question? Mar Isaac speaks the language of the heavenly beings,
whereas Daniel speaks the language of the earthly ones’.26
The precise date of Isaac’s death is unknown, as is the date
of his birth. It is quite likely that already during his earthly life
he was venerated as a saint. After his death his glory increased
as his writings spread. Joseph Hazzaya, in the eighth century,
called him ‘famous among the saints’.27 Another Syrian writer
calls him ‘the master and teacher of all monks and the haven
of salvation for the whole world’.28 By the eleventh century,
the greek translation of his writings made Isaac widely known
in the Greek-speaking East: in the famous anthology of as-
cetical texts, the Evergetinon, passages from ‘abba Isaac the
Syrian’ stand on the same footing as those from the classics
of early byzantine spirituality. This is how a modest ‘nestorian’
bishop from a remote province of Persia became a Holy Fa¬
ther of the Orthodox Church of chalcedonian orientation—

25. Assemani, Bibliotheca III/1: 104.

26. Sbath, Traite's, 54—55 (109).
27. Mingana, Woodbroke Studies VII:268.
28. Chabot, De sancti Isaaci, VII.

28
 The writings of Isaac

a rather exceptional phenomenon in the history of Eastern

Christianity.

4. The writings of Isaac

The anonymous west-syrian source mentioned above speaks of

‘five volumes’ by Isaac. The thirteenth-century writer Abdisho‘
of Nisibis, who left behind a catalogue of east-syrian writers,
mentions Isaac’s ‘seven volumes on spiritual discipline, on the
divine mysteries, on judgments, and on providence’.29 We do
not know whether this discrepancy is merely different divisions
of the same corpus of texts that have come down to us or
whether some works by Isaac are now lost. At present, we pos¬
sess Isaac’s works in two parts: the first is widely known, having
been translated into many languages; while the second, having
remained virtually unknown, was only recently rediscovered.
The original text of Part I has come down to us in two
different recensions: eastern and western.30 The eastern is re¬
produced in the edition by P. Bedjan, the only existing edition of
Part I.31 The western exists in several manuscripts, the earliest
of them dating to the ninth or tenth centuries.32 The main
differences between the two recensions are: 1) the eastern con¬
tains many passages and eight entire homilies which are absent
in the western; 2) the western contains a few passages which
are absent in the eastern; 3) the eastern contains quotations
from Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodore of Tarsus, while in
the western these quotations are attributed to other authors.
Undoubtedly, it is the eastern recension which reflects the
original text of Isaac, whereas the western is a Syrian Orthodox
(‘monophysite’) reworking of Isaac’s writings.33

29. Assemani, Bibliotheca 111/1:174.

30. See Miller, ‘Introduction’, LXXVITLXXVIII.
31. In referring to this edition in our footnotes, we use the abbreviation ‘PR’ (for
the full title, see below, Bibliography).
32. Codex Sinaiticus Syriacus 24.
33. See Miller, ‘Introduction’, LXXVIII.

29
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

It was from the western recension that the greek translation

of Isaac’s work was made at the end of the eighth or the begin¬
ning of the ninth century. In this translation by Abraham and
Patrikios, monks of the Lavra of Saint Sabas in Palestine, quota¬
tions from Evagrius were attributed to Gregory Nazianzen, and
some homilies and difficult passages were omitted. On the other
hand, four homilies by John of Dalyatha were included,34 as was
The Epistle to Symeon by the Syrian Orthodox writer of the fifth-
sixth century, Philoxenus of Mabbug.35 The greek translation
of Isaac is literal and thus preserves many unclear passages from
the original syriac text: sometimes, it seems, the translators did
not understand the original themselves. The greek translation
was first published in 1770 in Leipzig36 and since then has been
reprinted many times.
From Greek the writings of Isaac were translated into Geor¬
gian (tenth century), Slavonic (fourteenth century), and Latin
(fifteenth century); from Latin, in turn, into Portuguese, Span¬
ish, Catalan, French, and Italian (fifteenth and sixteenth cen¬
turies). Later, Isaac’s writings were translated from the Greek
printed edition into Romanian (1781), Russian (1854 and 1911),
modern Greek (1871), French (1981), and English (1984); and
from Russian into Japanese (1909). From the Syriac Isaac’s
writings were in ancient times translated into Arabic (ninth
century) and Ethiopic (before the fourteenth century), and
in modern times, in part into German (1876), and then into
English (192 1),37 and, in part, into Italian (1984).
This (possibly incomplete) list of translations alone shows the
popularity the writings of Isaac have enjoyed until the present.
As we can see, however, most of the translations have been made
from the greek text, which not only reflected the west-syrian
recension of Isaac but was, in its turn, an Orthodox reworking
of this Syrian Orthodox (‘monophysite’) recension. In other

34. These are Homilies 15, 16, 17 and 31 from the Greek printed edition.
35. This is Epistle 4 in the Greek edition.
36. See Asketika.
37. See Mystic Treatises.

30
 The writings of Isaac

words, for ten centuries the world has know an ‘improved’ Isaac,
turned from a ‘Nestorian’ into a ‘monophysite’ and then from
a ‘monophysite’ into ‘Orthodox’.38
At the present time, the possibility of discovering the original
Isaac has been opened, thanks to Bedjan’s edition of Part I and,
especially, to the recent discovery of Part II. The existence of
Part II was known to Bedjan, who published some fragments
of it in his edition of Part I39 using a manuscript which was
subsequently (in 1918) lost. In 1983, however, Dr Sebastian
Brock identified in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, a tenth- or
eleventh-century manuscript containing the entire text of Part
II. This Part contains forty-one chapters, among which chapter
III contains, in its turn, four hundred ‘Gnostic Chapters’. An
edition of the original text of the ‘Gnostic Chapters’ is being
prepared by P. Bettiolo, but an italian translation of them is
already available.40 Chapters IV-XLI have been published by
Dr Brock, with an english translation, in the Corpus Scriptorum
Christianorum Orientaliumf1
This study is based on both Part I and Part II of Saint
Isaac’s writings. Quotations from Isaac have been taken from
the translations of Dana Miller (Part I) and Sebastian Brock
(Part II); full references appear in the Bibliography. These
quotations form an integral, and perhaps the most important,
element of the book; we ask the reader not to skip over them.
Some of Isaac’s expression are difficult to render in English and
therefore difficult to understand in translation. This is not the
translators’ fault. As J.-B.Chabot wrote over a century ago, Isaac
is ‘one of the most difficult syriac authors to understand’.43

38. We place these terms in inverted commas to emphasise their ambiguity in

connection with Syrian tradition.
39. See PR, pp 585-600. Bedjan gives some extracts from Part III as well (see PR,
pp .601-628), but these texts belong in fact to Dadisho' from Qatar (seventh century).
Bedjan also mentions The Book of Grace, which is attributed to Isaac, but modern scholars
question its authenticity. D. Miller claims that it is not by Isaac but belongs to the pen
of Symeon d-Taibutheh (‘Introduction’, LXXXI-LXXXV).
40. See Isaaco, Discorsi.
41. See Isaac, Part II.
42. Chabot, Desanctilsaaci, 63. In a few places translations have been altered slightly
for the sake of clarity—ed.

31
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

5. The sources of Isaac’s theology

Before turning to an analysis of Isaac’s theology, we should

consider the predecessors who exercised some influence over
him. Isaac was well-read in ascetical literature and he frequently
cited, or referred to, ancient authors, both syriac and greek.
According to Brock, Isaac’s style—phraseology and termi¬
nology—‘owes a great debt to two writers in particular, John
the Solitary and Evagrius’.43 The writings of John (first half
of the fifth century) exercised a profound influence not only
on Isaac but also on many syriac ascetical writers after the
fifth century.44 Though Isaac does not mention John by name,
he uses many phrases borrowed from his language. Evagrius,
a fourth-century writer, was the main authority in spiritual
matters for all syriac authors: his works were translated into
Syriac and enjoyed great popularity.45 Isaac mentions Evagrius
by name and many times quotes from him; in imitation of
Evagrius’ ‘Gnostic Chapters’, Isaac wrote his own four hundred
‘Gnostic Chapters’. For Isaac, Evagrius was ‘a recipient of
boundless spiritual revelations’46 and ‘the one who has defined
the form proper to each of our actions’,47 that is, laid the
foundation of the theological comprehension of all aspects of
ascetical activity.
In addition to John of Apamea among the east-syrian authors,
Isaac knew Aphrahat and Ephrem, whom he quoted by name,
as well as Narsai and Babai the Great, neither of whom he
named. Among patristic translations, Isaac had knowledge of
the Corpus Areopagiticum, the Macarian Homilies, the Apophtheg-
mata patrum, the writings of Mark the Hermit, Abba Isaias,
Nilus of Ancyra (fifth century), The Life of Saint Antony written
by Athanasius of Alexandria (fourth century), as well as other
hagiographic, ascetical and dogmatic literature.

43. Brock, ‘Introduction’, XXXVII - X XXVI11.

44. Ibid, XVII.
45. Ibid, XXIII.
46. 11/35,12.
47. 1/8 (68) = PR 8 (106) Cf. PR 9 (113); PR 19 (160); PR 22 (168); PR 44 (319).

32
 The sources of Isaac’s theology

In the field of dogmatics and exegesis, Theodore of Mopsues-

tia and Diodore of Tarsus were Isaac’s main authorities, as they
were for the whole of the east-syrian tradition. Isaac referred
to Theodore many times, calling him ‘the Blessed Interpreter’
and anathematizing his opponents:

Lest any of those who zealously imagine that they are

being zealous for the cause of truth should imagine that
we are introducing something novel of our own accord,
things of which our former Orthodox fathers never spoke,
as though we were bursting out with an opinion which
did not accord with truth, anyone who likes can turn to
the writings of the Blessed Interpreter, a man who had
his sufficient fill of the gifts of grace, who was entrusted
with the hidden mysteries of the Scriptures, enabling him
to instruct on the path to truth the whole community of
the Church; who, above all, has illumined us Orientals
[i.e. East Syrians] with wisdom—nor is our mind’s vision
capable enough to bear the brilliancy of his compositions,
inspired by the divine Spirit. For we are not rejecting his
words—far from it! Rather, we accept him like one of the
apostles, and anyone who opposes his words, introduces
doubt into his interpretations, or shows hesitation at his
words, such a person we hold to be alien to the com¬
munity of the Church and someone who is erring from
the truth.48

As for Diodore of Tarsus, Isaac speaks of him with the

greatest respect, calling him ‘a trustworthy witness’, ‘a per¬
son of high intelligence’, ‘someone from whose fountain the
clear-sounding Theodore himself drank’, ‘the great teacher of
the Church’, ‘wonderful among the teachers and instructor of
Theodore’.49

48. 11/39,7. One may hear in these expressions the echo of the anathemas of the
Councils of 585, 596 and 605 against Henana.
49. 11/39,10-11.

33
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

We can see that in his choice of authors, in the fields both of

dogmatics and of asceticism, Isaac was faithful to the tradition
of his Church. He must be therefore considered as a traditional
writer.
At the same time Isaac is one of the most original authors,
not only in the east-syrian tradition, but also in the mystical
literature of all Christianity. His originality lies not in opposing
his mystical vision to a traditional one, but rather, as an heir
of the same tradition and experience as his predecessors, in
expressing this experience in new and original language and
in many cases in coming to new solutions of old problems.
Isaac did not feel intimidated in expressing his own opinions
on ascetical and dogmatic matters—among the latter there are
some very courageous ones, as we shall see in the course of
our study. Yet he always tried to support his ideas by following
the patristic tradition. He was not afraid to speak openly of
his own experience of the ascetical life, but to confirm it he
referred to the experience of others, his predecessors and his
contemporaries.
Isaac lived in harmony with his Church, combining full free¬
dom of thought with adherence to the Church’s tradition. By
the conformity of Isaac’s experience and theology to the tradi¬
tion one of the secrets of Isaac’s enormous popularity through¬
out the centuries is explained. From age to age Christians have
found in him a great teacher whose spiritual experience speaks
to ever new generations.

34
 Chapter I

GOD, THE UNIVERSE

AND HUMANKIND

The world has become mingled with God,

and creation and Creator became one!
11/5,18

O UR STUDY OF SAINT ISAAC must begin with an

investigation of his doctrine of God, the Creator and
Guide of the universe, and his understanding of how God
reveals himself through the created world. In this connection,
Isaac’s ontology must also be analyzed, that is, his teaching
on the structure of the created being, as must his Christology,
the doctrine of the redemption of the world by the incarnate
Word of God. This analysis will help us define Isaac’s place
in the Eastern theological tradition and his interpretation of
the Christian faith, that is, his personal attitude to fundamental
dogmas of Christianity.

1. Divine love which reveals itself

THROUGH THE CREATED WORLD

In Isaac’s understanding, God is above all immeasurable and

boundless love.1 The conviction that God is love dominates

1. The theme of the divine love runs through the whole of the syriac theological
tradition; see Brock, Spirituality, 84.

35
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Isaac’s thought: it is the source of his theological opinions, as-

cetical recommendations, and mystical insights. His theological
system cannot be comprehended apart from this fundamental
concept.
Divine love surpasses human understanding and verbal de¬
scription. At the same time, this love is reflected in God’s actions
with respect to the created world and humankind: ‘Among all
his actions there is none which is not entirely a matter of mercy,
love, and compassion: this constitutes the beginning and the
end of his dealings with us’.2 Both the creation of the world and
God’s coming to earth in flesh had as its only aim, ‘to reveal his
boundless love to the world’.3
Divine love was the main reason why God created the uni¬
verse and is the main driving force behind the whole of creation.4
In the creation of the world divine love revealed itself in its
fullness:

What that invisible Being is like, who is without any

beginning in his nature, unique in himself, who is by
nature beyond the knowledge, intellect, and feel of created
beings, who is beyond time and space, being the Creator
of these, who at the beginning of time was learnt about
through hints and was made known as if it were through
his mark by means of the establishing of the fullness of
creation, who made his voice heard in connection with
his handiwork and so the Being of his lordship was made
known, the fountainhead of innumerable natures—this
Being is hidden, for as he dwelt in his Being for aeons
without number or limit or beginning, it pleased his gra¬
ciousness and he made a beginning of time, bringing the
worlds and created beings into existence. Let us consider
then, how rich in its wealth is the ocean of his creative act,
and how many created things belong to God, and how in

2. 11/39,22.
3. Gnostic Chapters IV, 79.
4. Cf Bettiolo, ‘Charite’.

36
 Divine love which reveals itself through the created world

his compassion he carries everything, acting providentially

as he guides creation, and how with a love that cannot be
measured he arrived at the establishment of the world and
the beginning of creation; and how compassionate God
is, and how patient; and how he loves creation, and how
he carries it, gently enduring its importunity, the various
sins and wickednesses, the terrible blasphemies of demons
and evil men.5

Divine love is a continuing realisation of the creative poten¬

tial of God, an endless revelation of the Divinity in his creative
act. Divine love lies at the foundation of the universe, it governs
the world, and it will lead the world to that glorious outcome
when it will be entirely ‘consumed’ by the Godhead:

What profundity of richness, what mind and exalted wis¬

dom is God’s! What compassionate kindness and abun¬
dant goodness belong to the Creator! With what purpose
and with what love did he create this world and bring
it into existence! What a mystery does the coming into
being of the creation look towards! To what a state is
our common nature invited! What love served to initiate
the creation of the world! ... In love did he bring the
world into existence; in love is he going to bring it to that
wondrous transformed state, and in love will the world
be swallowed up in the great mystery of him who has
performed all these things; in love will the whole course
of the governance of creation be finally comprised.6

The will of God, which is replete with love, is the primal

source of all that exists within the universe:

He it is who dwells in the light of his nature, who wished

all creation to approach the dark cloud of his eternal glory,

5. 11/10,18-19.
6. 11/38,1-2.

37
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

who has given the crown of his own everlastingness to the

creation which he made, . . . who has caused the fullness
of what he has established to participate in the everlast¬
ingness of his Kingdom, Being, and Lord, exalted beyond
any secondary notion; whose will is the fountainhead of
natures, with the worlds, created beings and natures flow¬
ing from him as though from a source, without number
or limits.7

God is not only the Creator of the universe and its driving
force, he is first of all ‘the true Father’, ‘who in his great and
immeasurable love surpasses all in paternal affection’.8 9 Thus his
attitude to the created world is characterized by an unceasing
providential care for all its inhabitants: for angels and demons,
human beings and animals. God’s providence is universal and
embraces all.Q None of his creatures is excluded from the scope
of the loving providence of God, but the love of the Creator is
bestowed equally upon all:

There is not a single nature who is in the first place

or last place in creation in the Creator’s knowledge, . . .
similarly there is no before or after in his love towards
them: no greater or lesser amount of love is to be found
with him at all. Rather, just like the continual equality of
his knowledge, so too is the continual equality of his love.10

All living creatures exist in God’s mind before their creation.

And before they were brought into being, they received their
place in the hierarchical structure of the universe, a place which
is taken away from no one, even if one falls away from God:

Everyone has a single place in [God’s] purpose in the

ranking of love, corresponding to the form he beheld in

7. 11/10,24.
8. 1/52 (254) = PR 51 (361).
9. 1/7 (65) = PR 7 (103).
10. 11/38,3.

38
 Divine love which reveals itself through the created world

them before he created them and all the rest of created

beings, that is, at the time before the eternal purpose for
the delineation of the world was put into effect. . . . He has
a single ranking of complete and impassible love towards
everyone, and he has a single caring concern for those who
have fallen, just as much as for those who have not fallen.11

The providential care of God and his love extend to angels,

who were the first product of the divine creative act, and in¬
cludes those who fell away from God and turned into demons.
According to Isaac, the love of the Creator towards fallen angels
does not diminish as a result of their fall, and it is no less than
the fullness of love which he has towards other angels.12
To think that hatred and resentment exist in God, even
against demonic beings, would be thoroughly odious and ut¬
terly blasphemous, Isaac claims; as it would be to imagine in that
glorious Nature any other weakness or passibility or whatever
else might be involved in the retribution of good or bad. Instead,
God acts towards us in ways he knows will be advantageous to
us, whether by means of things that cause suffering, or by way of
things that cause relief, whether they cause joy or grief, whether
they are insignificant or glorious: all are directed towards the
single eternal good.13
To say that the love of God diminishes or vanishes because
of a created being’s fall would be ‘to reduce the glorious Nature
of the Creator to weakness and change’.14 Yet we know that

There is no change or any earlier or later intentions, with

the Creator: there is no hatred or resentment in his nature,
no greater or lesser place in his love, no before or after in
his knowledge. For if it is believed by everyone that the
creation came into existence as a result of the Creator’s

11. 11/40,3.
12. 11/40,2.
13. 11/39,3.
14. 11/38,4.

39
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

goodness and love, then we know that this original cause

does not ever diminish or change in the Creator’s Nature
as a result of the disordered course of creation.15

Nothing that happens in creation may affect the nature of

the Creator, Who is ‘exalted, lofty and glorious, perfect and
complete in his knowledge, and complete in his love’.16
This is why God loves the righteous and sinners equally,
making no distinction between them. Before creation, God
knew humanity’s future sinful life, and yet created humankind.17
God knew all persons before they become righteous or sinners,
yet the fact that they underwent change does not change his
love.18 Even many blameworthy deeds are accepted by God
with mercy,

and are forgiven their authors, without any blame, by the

omniscient God to whom all things are revealed before
they happen, and who was aware of the constraints of our
nature before he created us. For God, who is good and
compassionate, is not in the habit of judging the infirmities
of human nature or actions brought about by necessity,
even though they may be reprehensible.19

Even when God chastises someone, he does so out of love and

for the sake of that person’s salvation and not for retribution.
God respects human free will and does nothing against it:

God chastises with love, not for the sake of revenge—far

be it!—but in seeking to make whole his image. And he
does not harbour wrath until such time as correction is
no longer possible, for he does not seek vengeance for
himself. This is the aim of love. Love’s chastisement is for
15. 11/38,5.
16. 11/10,23. Cf 11/40,1.
17. n/5,11.
18. 11/38,3.
19. 11/14,15.

40
 Divine love which reveals itself through the created world

correction, but does not aim at retribution. . . . The man

who chooses to consider God as avenger, presuming that
in this manner he bears witness to His justice, the same
accuses Him of being bereft of goodness. Far be it that
vengeance could ever be found in that Fountain of love
and Ocean brimming with goodness!20

The image of God as Judge is completely overshadowed in

Isaac by the image of God as Love (hubba) and Mercy (rahme).
According to him, mercifulness (mrahmanuta) is incompatible
with justice (<k'inuta):

Mercy is opposed to justice. Justice is equality on the

even scale, for it gives to each as he deserves. . . . Mercy,
on the other hand, is a sorrow and pity stirred up by
goodness . . .; it does not requite a man who is deserving
of evil, and to him who is deserving of good it gives a dou¬
ble portion. If, therefore, it is evident that mercy belongs
to the portion of righteousness, then justice belongs to the
portion of wickedness. As grass and fire cannot coexist in
one place, so justice and mercy cannot abide in one soul.

Thus one can speak not at all of God’s justice, but of mercy
that surpasses all justice:

As a grain of sand cannot counterbalance a great quantity

of gold, so in comparison God’s use of justice cannot
counterbalance his mercy. Like a handful of sand thrown
into the great sea, so are the sins of the flesh in comparison
with the mind of God. And just as a strongly flowing spring
is not obscured by a handful of dust, so the mercy of the
Creator is not stemmed by the vices of his creatures.21

Decisively rejecting the idea of requital, Isaac shows that the

Old Testament understanding of God as a chastiser of sinners,

20. 1/48 (230) = PR 45 (323).

21. 1/51 (244) = PR 50 (345).

41
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

‘visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generation’,22 does not correspond with the
revelation we have received through Christ in the New Testa¬
ment. Though David in the Psalms called God ‘righteous and
upright in his judgments’,23 God is in fact good and merciful.
Christ himself confirmed God’s ‘injustice’, in his parables—in
particular the parables of the workers in the vineyard and of
the prodigal son,24 and still more so by his incarnation for the
sake of sinners: ‘Where, then, is God’s justice, for while we are
sinners Christ died for us?’25
Thus, Isaac claims, one should not interpret literally those
Old Testament texts, where wrath, anger, hatred, and other
similar terms are applied to the Creator. When such anthro¬
pomorphic terms occur in Scripture, they are being used in
a figurative sense, for God never does anything out of wrath,
anger, or hatred: anything of that sort is far removed from his
nature. We should not read everything literally, as it is written,
but rather perceive within the Old Testament narratives the
hidden providence and eternal knowledge of God.26 ‘Fear God
out of love for him, and not for the reputation of austerity that
has been attributed to him’.27
If by nature God is love, someone who has acquired perfect
love and mercy towards all creation becomes godlike: his perfect
state of love towards creation is a mirror wherein he can see a
true image and likeness of the Divine Essence.28 All the saints
‘seek for themselves the sign of complete likeness to God: to
be perfect in the love of the neighbour’.29 Characteristic in this
connection is Isaac’s well-known text about the ‘merciful heart’
through which one becomes like God:

22. Ex 20:5; Num 14:18.

23. Ps 117:137.
24. See Mt 20:13-15; Lk 15:20-22.
25. 1/51 (250-251) = PR 50 (357-358).
26. 11/39,19.
27. 1/51 (251) = PR 50 (358).
28. 1/64 (312) = PR 65 (455).
29. 1/71 (346) = PR 74 (510).

42
 The structure of the created world

And what is a merciful heart? It is the heart burning for

the sake of all creation, for men, for birds, for animals,
for demons, and for every created thing; and by the re¬
collection of them the eyes of a merciful man pour forth
abundant tears. By the strong and vehement mercy which
grips his heart and by his great compassion, his heart is
humbled and he cannot bear to hear or to see any injury
or slight sorrow in creation. For this reason he offers up
tearful prayer continually even for irrational beasts, for the
enemies of the truth, and for those who harm him, that
they be protected and receive mercy. And in like manner
he even prays for the family of reptiles because of the great
compassion that burns without measure in his heart in the
likeness of God.30

The ‘merciful heart’ in a human person is therefore the image

and likeness of God’s mercy, which embraces the whole of
creation, people, animals, reptiles, and demons. In God, there
in no hatred towards anyone, but all-embracing love which does
not distinguish between righteous and sinner, between a friend
of truth and an enemy of truth, between angel and demon.
Every created being is precious in God’s eyes. He cares for
every creature, and everyone finds in him a loving Father. Even
if we turn away from God, God does not turn away from us:
‘If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, for he cannot deny
himself’.31 Whatever happens to humankind and to the whole
of creation, however far it may remove from God, he remains
faithful to it in his love, which he cannot and will not deny.

2. The structure of the created world

According to biblical revelation, creation comprises both the

invisible world of bodiless spirits and the visible material world.

30. 1/71 (344-345) = PR 74 (507-508).

31. 1 Tim 2:13.

43
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

To the former belong angels and demons; to the latter the

whole universe, including human beings, animals, and inani¬
mate objects.
Isaac summarizes the biblical account of creation in the
following passage:

On the first day eight noetic natures were created, seven in

silence and one by verbal command, and this was light; on
the second day the firmament was created; on the third day
God gathered the waters and made the herbs to blossom
forth; on the fourth day, the division of light; on the fifth
day, the birds, reptiles and fish; and on the sixth day, the
animals and man.32

In speaking of the structure of the angelic world, Isaac ex¬

pounds on the ninefold angelic hierarchy, a teaching borrowed
from the Corpus Areopagiticum, which is in turn based on the
names of angelic beings encountered in the Old Testament.
Referring to the biblical text, Isaac says:

The divine books have given all these spiritual essences

nine spiritual names and divided them into three divisions
of three each. The first is composed of the great, sublime
and most holy Thrones, the many-eyed Cherubim, and
the six-winged Seraphim; the second in order is composed
of the Dominions, the Virtues and the Powers; the third
is composed of the Principalities, the Archangels and the
Angels. The names of the orders are thus interpreted:
in Hebrew Seraphim means those who are fervent and
burning;33 the Cherubim, those who are great in knowl¬
edge and wisdom; the Thrones, receptacles of God and
rest. ...34 These orders are given these names because of

32. 1/26 (132) = PR 25 (187-188).

3 3. We slightly alter D. Miller’s translation of this phrase, as only the interpretation
of the name of Seraphim is based on Hebrew.
34. Here follows the quotation from the Dionysian On the Celestial Hierarchies 72.

44
 The structure of the created world

their operations. The Thrones are so called as once truly

honoured; the Dominions, as those who possess author¬
ity over every kingdom; the Principalities, as those who
govern the atmosphere; Powers, as those who give power
over the nations and every man; Virtues, as once mighty
in power and dreadful in appearance; the Seraphim, as
those who make holy; the Cherubim, as those who carry;
the Archangels, as vigilant guardians; the Angels, as those
who are sent.35

Isaac tells us that God created angels ‘all of a sudden, out of

nothing’ as

worlds on high without number, limitless powers, legions

of seraphs of fire, fearful and swift, wondrous and mighty,
which have the power to carry out the will of the almighty
design, the simple spirits which are luminous and incor¬
poreal, which speak without a mouth, which see without
any eyes, which hear without any ears, which fly without
any wings. . . . They do not tire or grow feeble, they are
swift in movements, never delaying in any action, fearful
to look upon, whose ministry is wondrous, who are rich
in revelations, exalted in contemplation, who peer into
the place of the Shekhincf6 of Invisibleness, glorious and
holy essences, who are arranged in ninefold order by the
Wisdom which has created all. . . . They are fiery in their
movements, acute in intellect, wondrous in knowledge,
resembling God insofar as that is possible.37

Thus angels resemble God and within themselves bear his

likeness: ‘In them Being, the Creator who is above all things,
constituted a resemblance in everything—as far as possible—

35. 1/26 (131-132) = PR 25 (187-188).

36. The hebrew term Shekhina means ‘presence’, ‘glory’. It is found in several early
syriac writers and in liturgical texts; see Brock, Note 5 to 11/10,24 (46).
37. 11/10,24.

45
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

to himself’.38 Angels, Isaac says, are ‘invisible beings, whose

task it is to be stirred by praises of God in that great stillness
which is spread over their world, so that, by these praises, they
may be raised up in contemplation to the glorious Nature of
the Trinity, and remain in wonder at the vision of the majesty
of that ineffable glory’.39 Angels are always astonished at the
divine mysteries, ‘because of revelations that come upon them
in various ways’.40
Demons, on the other hand, are ‘extremely polluted’, and
in their state of uncleanness they cannot see the angelic orders
that are above them.41 Demons possess the same qualities as
angels, but the divine light is not given to them, as they are
bearers of darkness.42 The demons will to ruin and destroy a
human being; yet they cannot do any harm to him unless they
have permission from God.43 Thus demons are entirely subject
to God and they act only in accordance with God’s permission
and order. In particular, when we are attached to God night and
day, God allows neither demons nor wild animals and reptiles
to hurt us in any way: ‘rather, in our presence they behave in
complete peacefulness, as ministers of God’s will’.44 But if we
are attached to sin, God gives the order to one of the demons to
‘flog us harshly’, not out of revenge, but so that ‘by one means
or another we will not become lost far away from God’.45
If the invisible world of angels has been created with the
aim of praising God’s glory and might, the material world also
is called to bear witness to God’s omnipotence. The material
world has been made as a magnificent temple that reveals and
reflects God’s beauty. Isaac’s cosmology corresponds to the
scientific conceptions of his time: God laid out the earth as

38. 11/20,8.
39. 11/12,1.
40. 11/8,6.
41. 1/26 (130) = PR 25 (184).
42. Cf 1/28 (137-138) = PR 27 (196).
43. 1/54 (270) = PR 53 (386).
44. 11/9,6.
45. 11/9,12.

46
 The structure of the created world

a bed and heaven as ‘a vault’; he fixed ‘the second heaven as a

wheel that adheres to the first heaven’; he created the ocean that
surrounds heaven and earth ‘as a girdle’; ‘therein he established
lofty mountains reaching even to heaven, and he ordered the
sun to journey behind the mountains all the night long; he set
the great sea within the mountains and it dominates over one-
half and one-fourth of the dry land’.46
The human person is also created as a temple of God, a
dwelling place of the Divinity.47 The indwelling of God within
this temple was most fully realized in the person of Christ—
God who became man. We shall speak more specifically later of
Isaac’s Christology and of his understanding of the deification
of human nature by Jesus Christ. Here we want only to point out
that human nature, in Isaac’s vision, is created with the potential
of accommodating the fullness of the Divinity. Human nature
has also the potential for endless existence, in the likeness of
God.48 Every human person is provided with five ‘incompa¬
rably great gifts’: life, sense perception, reason, free will, and
authority.49 In speaking of the structure of a human person,
Isaac follows the division of human nature into spirit, soul, and
body which is traditional in greek philosophical and patristic
anthropology.50 He also maintains the division of the soul into
three parts—desire, zeal, and reason (fehmta, tnana, mliluta,
corresponding to the Greek to epithymkikon, to thymoeides, to
logistikon).51 This concept, derived from platonic anthropology,
he borrowed from Evagrius, John the Solitary, and Babai.52
We do not find in Isaac a developed doctrine of the fall and
original sin, which, according to Christian tradition, led to the
loss of the initial god-likeness of human beings and damaged
and perverted the whole of human nature. Isaac’s teaching on

46. 1/26 (132) = PR 25 (187).

47. 11/5,6.
48. Cf 11/18,18.
49. 11/18,18.
50. Cf 1/4 (32) = PR 4 (45) et al.
51. 11/19,1 Cf. n/17,1.
52. See Brock, Note 2 to II/17,1 (91).

47
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

the passions and sin, however, fully corresponds to that doc¬

trine. According to him, God did not impose the passions and
sin upon our nature.53 The passions are characteristic of humans
in their fallen state. By its nature, the soul is dispassionate.
In its original nature, the soul was characterized by godlike
dispassion; only later did the passions entered into the soul.54
Both the body and the soul became subject to the passions
when they lost what belonged to them by their nature and went
outside their well-being.55
At the same time, as if contradicting himself, Isaac claims
that there are passions which are given by God: these passions
of the body and soul are implanted in them for their benefit
and growth.56 This apparent contradiction is clarified by the
fact that the syriac word hassa, like its greek counterpart pathos,
means both ‘passion’ and ‘suffering’. Thus, the sinful passions
are unnatural, whereas the sufferings sent by God may serve
to promote spiritual growth. Isaac’s teaching is also clarified
by reference to the patristic tradition, in which there are two
understandings ofpathos: a sinful desire of the soul; and a natural
capacity of the soul which can be directed towards both good
and evil.57 Isaac may have had in mind both understandings of
‘passion’ as he wrote the texts quoted above.
Unlike the sufferings which come from God, the sinful pas¬
sions harm human nature. ‘Anyone who does not voluntarily
withdraw himself from the causes of the passions is involun¬
tarily drawn away by sin’, Isaac warns. ‘These are the causes
of sin: wine, women, riches, and robust health of body. Not
that by their nature these things are sins, but rather nature
readily inclines towards the sinful passions on their account,
and for this reason man must guard himself against them with
great care’.58
53. 1/3 (19) = PR 3 (26).
54. 1/3 (17) = PR 3 (21).
55. 1/3 (19) = PR 3 (25).
56. 1/3 (19) = PR 3 (25).
57. See Ware, ‘Pathos’.
58. 1/5 (41-42) = PR 5 (61).

48
 The Incarnation

3. The Incarnation

After the fall, humanity’s only means of turning away from the
passionate towards the original blessed state comes through the
Incarnation of the Word of God. The Incarnation, which stands
at the centre of the New Testament message, is one of the key
themes of Saint Isaac.
Because Isaac expounded his Christology in accordance with
east-syrian theological tradition, where the use of ‘nestorian’
terminology is characteristic—it is in fact the terminology of
Theodore of Mopsuestia, inherited by his disciple Nestorius—
a good number of Isaac’s christological texts were never trans¬
lated into Greek and thus remained unknown till the present.
The only work of the ‘Greek Isaac’ that deals directly with
christological matters is the ‘Epistle to Symeon’, but it belongs,
as we have said, to Philoxenus of Mabbug and thus contains a
Christology opposed to Isaac’s. Only after the rediscovery of
Part II does a precise analysis of Isaac’s Christology become
possible. But before turning to the newly-discovered texts, let
us first point to a few characteristic passages from Part I in
which some christological themes are mentioned.
Here we find the Incarnation identified as the moment when
the love of God for human beings reveals itself to the highest
degree and when human beings are called, in turn, to respond
to the love of God with their own love for God:

God the Lord surrendered his own Son to death on the

cross for the fervent love of creation. . . . Yet this was not
because he could not redeem us in another way, but so that
his surpassing love, manifested hereby, might be a teacher
unto us. And by the death of his Only-begotten Son he
made us near to himself. Yea, if he had had anything more
precious, he would have given it to us, so that by it our race
might be his own. Because of his great love for us it was his
pleasure not to do violence to our freedom, although he is
able to do so, but he chose that we should draw near to him

49
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

by the love of our understanding. For the sake of his love

for us and obedience to his Father, Christ joyfully took
upon himself insult and sorrow. ... In like manner, when
the saints become perfect, they all attain to this perfection,
and by the superabundant outpouring of their love and
compassion on all men, they resemble God.-''

The Incarnation took place, then, because of the love of both

the Father and of the Son for human beings, and because of the
Incarnation a human person is able to attain such a state of love
when he becomes like God.
The Incarnation of the Son of God is, according to Isaac,
the new revelation about God. In Old Testament times, before
the Incarnation, people were unable to contemplate God and
to hear his voice, but after the Incarnation this became possible:

Creation could not look upon him unless he took part of it

to himself and thus conversed with it, and neither could it
hear the words of his mouth face to face. The sons of Israel
were not even able to hear his voice when he spoke with
them from the cloud. ...60 The sons of Israel made ready
and prepared themselves, keeping themselves chaste for
three days according to the command of Moses,61 that they
might be made worthy of hearing the voice of God, and of
seeing the vision of his revelation. And when the time was
come, they could not receive the vision of his light and
the fierceness of the voice of his thunder. But now, when
he poured out his grace upon the world through his own
coming, he has descended, not in an earthquake, not in a
fire, not in a terrible and mighty sound,62 but ‘as the rain
upon a fleece, and rain-drops that fall upon the earth’,63

59. 1/71 (345-346) = PR 74 (509-510).

60. Cf Dt 5:25 ff.
61. Cf Ex 19:15 ff.
62. Cf 3 Kgs 19:12.
63. Ps 72:6.

50
 The Incarnation

softly, and he was seen conversing with us after another

fashion. This came to pass when, as though in a treasury,
he concealed his majesty with the veil of his flesh,64 and
among us spoke with us in that body which his own bidding
wrought for him out of the womb of the Virgin.65

Not only for human beings, but also for angels, the door of
contemplation and vision was opened in Jesus when the Word
became flesh; before the Incarnation they could not penetrate
into these mysteries, Isaac claims.66
In Part I we also find a passage in which Isaac discusses
how the two natures of Christ are shown in Holy Scripture.
According to him, Scripture often uses words figuratively. For
example, ‘things that pertain to the body are said of the soul’,
and vice versa.

Likewise things pertaining to the Lord’s Divinity, which

are not compatible with human nature, are said with re¬
spect to his all-holy body; and again, lowly things are said
concerning his divinity which pertain to his humanity.
Many, not understanding the intent of the divine words,
have stumbled here with a stumbling from which there is
no recovery.67

Under the ‘many’ Isaac most probably means the monophysites:

as a true diophysite, he insists upon the necessity of distinguish¬
ing between the divine and human natures of Christ, in spite of
the fact that Scripture does not make such a precise distinction.
These are the main christological passages from Part I.
When we turn to Part II we direct our attention first to one of
the ‘Gnostic Chapters’ in which Isaac speaks of the Incarnation.
He emphasizes that God’s love for creation was the main and

64. CfHeb 10:20.

65. 1/77 (381-382) = PR 82 (574-575).
66. 1/28 (139). The text is absent from the east-syrian version but is found in the
west-syrian (and thus in the greek translation).
67. 1/3 (18) = PR 3 (24).

51
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian_

only reason of the coming on earth of the Son of God and of

his death on the cross:

If zeal had been appropriate for putting humanity right,

why did God the Word clothe himself in the body, using
gentleness and humility in order to bring the world back
to his Father? And why was he stretched out on the cross
for the sake of sinners, handing over his sacred body to
suffering on behalf of the world? I myself say that God
did all this for no other reason than to make known to
the world the love that he has, his aim being that we, as
a result of our greater love arising from an awareness of
this, might be captivated by his love when he provided the
occasion of this manifestation of the kingdom of heaven’s
mighty power—which consists in love—by means of the
death of his Son.68

The Incarnation and the death on the cross of the Saviour,

Isaac claims, happened

not to redeem us from sins, or for any other reason, but

solely in order that the world might become aware of
the love which God has for his creation. Had all this
astounding affair taken place solely for the purpose of
forgiveness of sin, it would have been sufficient to redeem
us by some other means. What objection would there have
been if he had done what he did by means of an ordinary
death? But he did not make his death at all an ordinary
one—so that you might realize the nature of this mystery.
Rather, he tasted death in the cruel suffering of the cross.
What need was there for the outrage done to him and
the spitting? Just death would have been sufficient for
our redemption—and in particular his death, without any
of these other things which took place. What wisdom is

68. Gnostic Chapters IV, 78.

52
 The Incarnation

God’s! And how filled with life! Now you can understand
and realize why the coming of our Lord took place with all
the events that followed it, even to the extent of his telling
the purpose quite clearly out of his own holy mouth:
‘God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten
Son’6Q—referring to the Incarnation and the renewal he
brought about.70

Therefore, it was the love of God, and not the necessity of

redeeming humanity from sin, which was the sole reason for the
Incarnation of the Word. God became man because he wanted
human beings to turn to him as their father. Isaac speaks of this
in Chapter XL:

When the entire extent of creation had abandoned and

forgotten God and had perfected themselves in every kind
of wickedness, of his own will and without any supplication
or request from elsewhere he came down to their abode
and lived among them in their body just as one of them,
and with a love exalted beyond knowledge or description
by any created being, he begged them to turn back to
himself, showing them concerning the glorious establish¬
ment of the world to come, having intended before all
worlds to introduce felicity such as this for creation: he
informed them of its existence and forgave them all the
sins which they had previously committed, and confirmed
this good will by means of authoritative signs and wonders,
and the revelation to them of his Mysteries; and finally he
has stooped down so far that he is willing to be called
‘Father’ of sinful human nature, dust from the earth, de¬
spicable human beings, flesh and blood: can these things
be performed without great love?71

69. Jn 3:16.
70. Gnostic Chapters IV, 78.
71. H/40,14.

53
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Let us now look at Chapter XI, in which the Christology

of Isaac is expounded with great precision. In this chapter,
which is largely dedicated to the cross, our attention is drawn
by the abundance of typically east-syrian terms through which
Isaac presents his christological ideas. The cross, he says, is
a symbol of ‘the Man who completely became a temple’ of
God;72 the cross is made in the name of ‘that Man in whom
the Divinity dwells’;73 the humanity of Christ is the ‘garment
of his Divinity’.74 The use of such terms is characteristic of the
entire east-syrian tradition, which can be designated as strongly
dyophysite. The humanity of Christ had already been described
by Ephrem as a ‘garment’, a phraseology preserved by later east-
syrian writers, but subsequently expunged in the west-syrian
tradition.75
Following a tradition derived from Theodore ofMopsuestia
and Diodore, Isaac emphasizes that, although Christ has two
natures, we venerate them together, that is, we worship one
Christ in two natures. In doing so, we ascribe to the man Jesus
the same names that are ascribed to God the Word:

We do not hesitate to call the humanity of our Lord—

he being truly man—‘God’ and ‘Creator’ and ‘Lord’; or
to apply to him in divine fashion the statement that ‘by
his hand the worlds were established76 and everything was
created’. For he to whom all these things apply willingly
dwelt in him, giving him the honor of his divinity and
authority over all, because of the benefits which creation
was about to receive through him. . . . He even bade the
angels worship him, according to the words of the blessed
Paul: ‘introducing the Firstborn into the world, he said:
Him shall all the angels of God worship’.7 He granted to

72. 11/11,12. The word ‘temple’ is based on John 2:19.

73. 11/11,13.
74. 11/11,24.
75. See Brock, Note 1 to 11/11,24. Cf Brock, ‘Metaphors’, 16—18.
76. CfHeb 1:13.
77. CfHeb 1:6.

54
 The Incarnation

him that he should be worshipped with himself indistin¬

guishable with a single act of worship for the Man who
became Lord and for the Divinity equally, while the two
natures are preserved with their properties, without there
being any difference of honor.78

Therefore God ‘willingly dwelt’ in the man Jesus; whereas

the man Jesus ‘became’ God and by his death on the cross
received power over the whole of creation. Because of the cross,
the man Jesus was lifted up to God the Word:

For we believe that all that applies to the Man is raised up

to the Word who accepts it for himself, having willed to
make him share in this honor. All this is made known to
us in the cross, and through this affair, which unbelievers
consider so contemptible, we have acquired an accurate
knowledge of the Creator.79

This strongly diophysite understanding of the person of

Jesus Christ may appear to lead in the theological thought of
Isaac to a division of the image of the historical Jesus. But this is
not the case. Isaac understands Christ as one person: God who
came in human flesh. The humanity of Christ is as real as the
humanity of each one of us. At the same time the man Jesus is
simultaneously God the Word and the Creator of the universe:

O wonder! The Creator clothed in a human being enters

the house of tax collectors and prostitutes,80 and when
they turn towards him—through his own action—he was
urging them, providing them, by means of his teaching,
with assurance and reconciliation with him. And he sealed
the word of truth with true testimonies, consisting in

78. II/l 1,21. Isaac uses the language of the east-syrian Synods of 554 and 612, both
of which spoke of the ‘properties’ of two natures, the first presumably reflecting the
chalcedonian definition; see Brock, Note 3 to 11/11,21.
79. 11/1 1,22.
80. Cf Mt 21:31-32.

55
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

miracles and signs. Thus the entire universe, through

the beauty of the sight of him, was drawn by his love to
the single confession of God, the Lord of all, and so the
knowledge of the one Creator was sown everywhere.81

The universal significance of the coming of God on earth and

dwelling in human flesh is thus clearly emphasized.
What are the soteriological consequences of Isaac’s christo-
logical accent on the distinction between the two natures of
Christ? Does it not imply a rejection of the belief—which is
traditional in Eastern Christian theology—that the salvation of
humanity occurs through deification of the human nature and
that this takes place because of the union of human nature with
the divine in the person of Christ? In the alexandrian tradition,
in particular, deification was understood as occurring through
the unity of the two natures in Christ: as iron, in being united
with fire, turns into fire, so humanity, united with the Divinity,
becomes deified. If there is no real unity and there is only a
conditional unity ‘in veneration’, how can anyone speak of the
deification of human nature?
Isaac, who did not use the alexandrian terminology of de¬
ification, appears not to have rejected the idea of deification,
but he expressed it in a different way. According to him, the
man Jesus, upon ascending to God after his resurrection, raised
human nature up to the level of the Divinity. Furthermore,
the suffering, the death, the resurrection and the ascension of
Christ opened up to human nature the possibility of ascending
to God:

Amid ineffable splendour the Father raised him to himself

to heaven, to that place where no created being had trod,
but to which he had, through his own action, invited
all rational beings—angels and human beings—to that
blessed Entry, in order to delight in the divine light in

81. 11/11,28.

56
 The Incarnation

which was clothed that Man who is filled with all that
is holy, who is now with God in ineffable honour and
splendour’.82

This approach to soteriology differs from the alexandrian;

but does not lose the essence of the Christian message: the
salvation of the human being by Christ through the unity
of human nature with the Divinity. The way by which the
man Jesus ascended—from earth to heaven, from humanity
to Divinity—is opened up to everyone after his resurrection.
Deification is perceived dynamically, as an ascent of the human
being, together with the whole created world, to divine glory,
holiness and light.
In addition to Chapter XI, another very important text in
connection with Christology is Chapter V of Part II, which
also contains several characteristic passages. There we find a
prayer using the terminology of a ‘temple’ and ‘the one who
dwells in it’:

I give praise to your holy Nature, Lord, for you have

made my nature a sanctuary for your hiddenness and a
tabernacle for your mysteries, a place where you can dwell,
and a holy temple for your Divinity, namely, for him who
holds the sceptre of your kingdom, who governs all you
have brought into being, the glorious Tabernacle of your
eternal Being, the source of renewal for the ranks of fire
which minister to you, the Way to knowledge of you, the
Door to the vision of you, the summation of your power
and great wisdom—Jesus Christ, the only-begotten from
your bosom and remnant gathered in from your creation,
both visible and spiritual.83

The idea of the human person ascending to God through

the Incarnation of the Word is also present in this prayer:

82. 11/11,29.
83. 11/5,6. The scriptural allusions are to John 10:9 (‘door’), John 1:18 (‘bosom’),
Is 1:9 = Rom 9:29 (‘remnant’).

57
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

‘O Mystery exalted beyond every word and beyond silence,

who became human in order to renew us by means of voluntary
union with the flesh, reveal to me the path by which I may be
raised up to your mysteries . . .’84The terminology of‘voluntary
union’, which occurs in both Nestorius and Babai, is generally
characteristic of the east-syrian tradition.8-
The Incarnation is understood as the sacrifice of God the
Son which was offered because God the Father loves the world
and which united the created world with God. Isaac speaks of
the union of God with the world as a ‘mingling’, an expression
which would never be allowed by the east-syrian tradition in
connection with the natures of Christ:

You have given your entire treasure to the world: if you

gave the only-begotten from your bosom and from the
throne of your Being for the benefit of all, what further
do you have which you have not given to your creation?
The world has become mingled with God, and creation
and Creator have become one!86

Is this statement about the ‘mingling’ between the world and

God not a way of overcoming of the extremes of the dyophysi-
tism? In other words, this statement breaks down the sharp
boundaries between God and creation which are a characteristic
of the strongly diophysite position of the Church of the East.
If Theodore ofMopsuestia and his disciples can be accused of
making a distinction between the divine and human natures
which leads to a division of the image of Christ into two, can
we maintain that in Isaac the Syrian, who represents the same
stream of theological thought, we find a break with the extremes
of diophysitism? Isaac does not speak of the essential unity,
let alone a ‘confusion’, of the two natures of Christ. He does,

84. 11/5,7.
85. See Brock, Note 1 to 11/5,7.
86. 11/5,18.

58
 The lncai~nation

however, speak of the ‘mingling’ of God with creation,87 and

this implies that the sharp demarcation between divinity and
humanity that was strongly present in the school of Theodore
is not equally strong in Isaac.
Precisely because the uncreated Word of God and the cre¬
ated man Jesus are one and the same person, Isaac finds it
possible to speak of the ‘mingling’ (hultana) of God with the
creation through the Incarnation of God88 the Word. Thus
in his prayer Isaac appeals to Christ as to one person who is
simultaneously God and man:

O Christ who are covered with light as though with

garment,89 who for my sake stood naked in front of Pilate,
clothe me with that might which you caused to over¬
shadow the saints, whereby they conquered this world of
struggle. May your Divinity, Lord, take pleasure in me,
and lead me above the world to be with you. O Christ,
upon you the many-eyed Cherubim are unable to look
because of the glory of your countenance, yet out of your
love you received spit upon your face: remove the shame
from my face and grant an open face before you at the
time of prayer.90

In summarizing what has been said of the theology of Isaac

the Syrian, we emphasize yet again that his entire theological
thought derives from the idea that God reveals himself to the
world as ineffable love. This love created the world and guides
it. Out of love for creation and for the salvation of humankind,
God assumed human flesh and died on the cross that he might

87. The theme of the ‘mingling’ of God with creation is very characteristic of
Ephrem in referring to the Incarnation and the Eucharist, and appears frequently in
his hymns.
88. Cf 11/7,3, where Isaac speaks of the ‘perfect mingling’ of the saints with God,
which symbolically typifies the union of Christ in the Holy Trinity. The terminology
is Evagrian: see Brock, Note 7 to 11/7,3.
89. Cf Ps 104:2.
90. 11/5:22-23.

59
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

renew human nature and open for humanity an entrance into

the kingdom of heaven. The salvation of a human person is
nothing else than an ascent to the divine light and love; it is a
following of Christ, who was a human being, but was raised up
to the level of the Divinity, and by this deified human nature.

60
 Chapter II

THE WAY OF A SOLITARY

Love all men, but keep distant from all men.

1/64 (314) = PR 65 (457)

A MONG THE CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS of Saint

Isaac the Syrian’s asceticism we shall look at in this chapter,
we begin with his understanding of the ascetical life as one
lived in solitude, far from the world and the passions. We
shall explore his teachings on the renunciation of the world
required of a Christian when he enters the ascetic way; on
the love of God and neighbor; on stillness as one of the main
conditions for achieving peace of the mind. While we will
emphasize various aspects of monastic and solitary life, we shall
also touch on some of Isaac’s more general ideas concerning
Christian life, in particular his teaching on the fulfillment of
God’s commandments and the struggle against the passions.
This survey should allow us to see Isaac’s individuality as an
ascetical writer and to appreciate the originality of his approach
to some key themes of Christian asceticism.

1. Solitude and renunciation of the world

The hero in Isaac’s writings is the ihidaya, the ‘solitary’ or,

literally, ‘single one’. In Isaac’s day, this term (related to Hebrew
yahid, ‘single’) was used to designate a solitary monk, as opposed
to dayraya, a cenobitic monk. The initial meaning of the term,

61
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

however, points much more broadly to the unity of a human

person within himself and to his unity with God. Thus in the
Peshitta, the term ihidaya was used as a title for Adam as created
after the image of one God: ‘It was wisdom which preserved
the ancestral father, the ihidaya, who had been created in the
world’.1 In the New Testament ihidaya is first of all the epithet of
Jesus Christ, translating Greek monogenes, ‘the Only-Begotten’.
In syriac writings of the fourth century the term was already
being used to refer to ascetics, those who are like angels in that
they do not marry. A solitary is someone who lives in Christ,
‘the Only-Begotten (ihidaya) from the Father who gives joy to
all solitaries (ihidayef, as Aphrahat says.2
Solitude is not for Isaac a synonym for celibacy and the
eremitical life. It is first and foremost an experience of union
with God. Most people find loneliness burdensome, taking it
as a fully negative experience of isolation, abandonment, the
absence of ‘the other’ with whom they might share the joys
and sufferings of earthly existence. For Isaac, on the contrary,
loneliness is an experience of the presence of God, who is
closer to him than any friend and who always cares for him.
‘ . . . God has never perceptibly shown his action except in
a region of stillness, in the desert, and in places bereft of
chance encounters with men and of the turbulence of their
habitations’.3 If someone lives in the desert, far from people, one
should be sure that there is with him a Guardian who will never
leave him alone.4 The soul of the person who is separated from
the world and leads the life of stillness is lifted up toward God:
astonished, it is struck with wonder and remains with God.5

1. Wisdom of Solomon 10:1. Cf the Palestinian Targum in syriac translation:

‘Behold the first Adam whom I created is single (ihiday) in the world just as I am
single in the heights of heaven’; quoted from AbouZayd, Ihidayutha, 269. See also
Brock, Luminous Eye, 112.
2. Demonstrations 6,6. For more general discussion of what solitude meant in the
syriac tradition see Griffith, ‘Monks’; Idem., ‘Asceticism’.
3. 1/72 (355) = PR 72 (531).
4. 1/54 (270-271) = PR 53 (386).
5. 1/3 (16) = PR 3 (20-21).

62
 Solitude and renunciation of the world

Solitude is the internal experience of living within oneself,

of withdrawal into one’s inner person—a necessary action for
uniting oneself with God. At the same time, it is the experience
of renouncing the ‘other’, even a friend or a relative. It is, finally,
an experience of withdrawal from the world and renunciation
of it for the purpose of achieving union with God. Solitude
can be painful, fraught with inner suffering, but without the
experience of solitude one can never come close to the fullness
of life in God.
Thus, according to Isaac, renunciation of the world for the
sake of a solitary life in God is a necessary condition for entering
upon the way to God. ‘Liberation from the material things
precedes the bond of God’.6 Again, ‘No one can draw nigh to
God save the man who has separated himself from the world.
But I call separation not the departure from the body, but
departure from the world’s affairs’.7 The ‘world’ in this context
is ‘a collective noun which is applied to the so-called passions’.8
To go out of the world and to die to the world means to liberate
oneself from passions and ‘the mind of the flesh’,9 that is, from
everything bodily and material which puts obstacles in the way
of the spiritual life.10 Love of the world is incompatible with love
of God; one needs to liberate oneself from the first in order to
acquire the second: ‘The soul that loves God finds rest only in
God. First detach yourself from all external bonds and then you
may strive to bind your heart to God, because unification with
God is preceded by detachment from matter’.11
Renunciation of the world is a gradual process which begins
with a desire to attain contemplation of God. Renunciation
includes the discipline of both the body and the mind. There
is a correspondence between the degree of one’s renunciation
and one’s ability to enter the contemplation of God:

6. 1/1 (7) = PR 1 (7).

7. 1/1 (3^1) = PR 1 (2).
8. 1/2 (14) = PR 2 (18).
9. Rom 8:7.
10. 1/2 (15) = PR 2 (19).
11. 1/4 (29) = PR 4 (40).

63
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Blessed is the majesty of the Lord who opens the door

before us, so that we may have no other wish save desire for
him! For thus do we abandon all things and our mind goes
forth in quest of him alone, having no care which might
hinder it from the contemplation of the Lord. The more
the mind takes leave of care for the visible and is concerned
with the hope of future things, my beloved brothers, . . .
the more it is refined and becomes translucent in prayer.
And the more the body is freed from the bonds of worldly
affairs, the more the mind is also freed from the same. . . .
Therefore the Lord gave us a commandment that before
all else a man should hold fast to non-possessiveness and
should withdraw from the turmoil of the world and re¬
lease himself from the cares common to all men. He said:
‘Whosoever forsaketh not his entire human state and all
that belongeth to him, and renounceth not himself, cannot
be my disciple’.12

This ideal of total renunciation of the world was embodied in

practice in early eremitical monasticism. Because they wished
avoid the struggle arising from the proximity of worldly things,
the ascetics of the past withdrew into the desert:

... As long as a man does not remove himself from what

his heart dreads, his enemy always has a point of vantage
against him. . . . Because our ancient Fathers, who walked
these paths, knew fully well that our intellect is not at all
times in vigorous health, . . . they with wisdom considered
the matter, and clad themselves with non-possessiveness
as a weapon. . . . They have gone out into the desert,
where there is nothing which can be an occasion for
the passions. ... I mean they would have no occasion for
anger, lust, the remembrance of wrongs, and glory, and
that both these and their like would be at a minimum by

12. 1/63 (302-303) = PR 63 (437^338). Cf Lk 14:33.

64
 Solitude and renunciation of the world

reason of the desert. For they walled themselves up in the

desert as in an impregnable tower. Thus each of them was
able to finish his struggle in solitude, where the senses find
no help for assisting our adversary through encounter with
hurtful things.13

Monks flee from the world, therefore, to avoid occasions

of encountering the passions, sins, and sinful thoughts. But
apart from this there is in eremitical monasticism a quest for a
renunciation of people which in some cases leads a solitary to
total rejection of any encounter with them. This flight, too, is
undertaken for the sake of union with God: the solitary does not
want anyone to distract him from God. Isaac has very strong
words about the harm which may be done to a solitary through
encounters with people:

O, how evil is the sight of men and intercourse with

them for solitaries! . . .For just as the sudden blast of ice
falling on the buds of the fruit-trees nips and destroys
them, so too, contacts with men, even though they be
quite brief and to all appearances done to a good purpose,
wither the bloom of virtue—newly flowering due to the
temperate air of stillness—which covers with softness and
delicacy the fruit-tree of the soul planted beside the chan¬
nels of the waters of repentance. And just as the bitterness
of the frost, seizing upon new shoots, consumes them,
so too does conversation with men seize upon the root
of a mind that has begun to sprout the tender blades
of the virtues. And if the talk of those who have con¬
trolled themselves in one particular thing, but who in
another have minor faults, is apt to harm the soul, how
much more will the chatter and sight of ignoramuses and
fools . . . ?14

13. 1/73 (358-359) = PR 78 (536-538).

14. 1/19 (99) = PR 16 (131-132).

65
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Speaking of the necessity of fleeing the world and people,

Isaac often cites as examples the ancient ascetics. Arsenius the
Great, who was especially dear to him, observed a command¬
ment given to him by God: ‘Arsenius, flee men and be saved’.15
Once, seeing a visitor approaching his desert, Arsenius ran away
from him. ‘Wait for me, father’, the monk cried, ‘because I am
running after you for God’s sake’. ‘And I for God’s sake am
fleeing you’, Arsenius replied.16 On another occasion Arsenius
fell down before a monk who came to see him, declaring: ‘I shall
not get up until you have departed’. When an archbishop came
to ask him for spiritual instruction, he answered: ‘Whenever
you hear that Arsenius is found, do not draw nigh to that place’.
Being asked by Abba Macarius about his reason for avoiding
people, Arsenius replied: ‘God knows that I love you, but I
cannot be with both God and men’.
The renunciation of people, Isaac taught, should be radical
and absolute. Any bond of relationship, friendship, or love
should be severed. The renunciation of relatives is a traditional
theme in monastic literature. In developing it, Isaac refers to
the example of a saintly monk who never visited his brother,
also a monk. When the brother was about to die, he sent word
to him, asking to come to bid him farewell.

But the blessed man was not persuaded, not even at that
hour when nature is wont to be compassionate to other
men and to overstep the limit set by the will. He said: ‘If
I go out, my heart will not be pure before God. . . .’ And
his brother died and did not see him.17

This refusal may seem cruel by contemporary standards, but it

shows the degree of renunciation required of monks in early
monasticism.

15. 1/44 (218-219) = PR 41 (309-310). The stories related are taken from Apoph-
thegmata, see Arsenius 37; 7; 13; 1, et al.
16. 1/21 (112) = PR 18 (153-154). Cf Palladius, Lausiac History 2.16.
17. 1/44 (220) = PR 41 (312).

66
 Love of God and love of one's neighbour

To achieve fullness in his life in God, a monk should be able

to forget other people, to restrain himself from care about them
and from acts of mercy:

If you wish to hold fast to stillness, become like the Cheru¬

bim, who take no thought for anything of this life, and fix
in your mind that no one else exists on the earth but you
and God whom you heed, even as you have been taught by
the fathers who lived before you. Unless a monk hardens
his heart and forcibly restrains his compassion so as to
become distant from solicitude for all other men, either
for God’s sake or for some material need, and he perseveres
only in prayer during the times which he has appointed
without having affection and concern for others enter his
heart, he will be unable to attain freedom from turbulence
and cares and to live in stillness.18

Though the point here is refraining from acts of mercy

during times appointed for prayer, Isaac clearly considered the
life of stillness higher than activity on behalf of people. He
insisted upon the necessity of renouncing philanthropic activity,
at least during certain periods of time.

2. Love of God and love of one’s neighbour

How does this radical insistence on the renunciation of people

correspond to the commandment to love one’s neighbour? Is
this flight from people not a flight from Christ himself, who
said: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’?19 Does this
self-isolation not lead to a loss or an absence of love for people,
to selfish indifference towards anyone except oneself?
Isaac would reply in the negative. On the contrary, he says,
flight from people paradoxically leads to an increased love

18. 1/21 (112) = PR 18 (153).

19. Mt 22:39.

67
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

of them. The commandment to love God is universal and it

embraces the commandment to love one’s neighbour:

The commandment which says, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord

thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind’,20 more than the world, nature, and all that
pertains thereto, is fulfilled when you patiently endure in
your stillness. And the commandment that speaks of the
love of neighbour is included within the former. Do you
wish to acquire in your soul the love of your neighbour
according to the commandment of the Gospel? Separate
yourself from him, and then the heat and flame of love for
him will burn in you and you will rejoice at the sight of
his countenance as though you beheld an angel of light.
And do you wish that those who love you should thirst for
you? See their faces on fixed days only. Truly, experience
is the teacher of all.21

We should emphasize here, for the sake of readers who find

this attitude towards other people shocking, that Isaac was
not here giving recommendations which would be universally
applicable. His writings are addressed primarily to solitaries,
and he is usually talking to a very specific readership. Moreover,
he speaks only of his own experience as a solitary by vocation,
and of the experience of other solitaries, those around him and
those of past ages. At issue is the specifically monastic way of
learning to love people by giving up all encounters with them.
Isaac is convinced that the main task of a Christian is the
purification of his inner person: this is more important than
contact with people or any activity on their behalf. Such activity
is especially dangerous when the soul of a monk is not yet
purified and the passions are not yet extirpated from it. There
were many people, Isaac says, who were known for their deeds
of philanthropy, but because they dwelt constantly in the world,

20. Mt 22:37.
21. 1/44 (220) = PR 41 (312-313).

68
 Love of God and love of one's neighbour

with its passions and temptations, they failed to take sufficient

care for their own souls:

Many persons have accomplished mighty deeds—raised

the dead, toiled for the conversion of the erring, and
wrought great wonders; and by their hands they have
led many to the knowledge of God. Yet after doing these
things, these same people who quickened others fell into
vile and abominable passions and killed themselves, be¬
coming a stumbling-block for many once their action was
manifest. For they were still sickly in soul, and instead of
caring for their soul’s health, they cast themselves into the
sea of this world in order to heal the souls of others, but
being yet in ill health, in the manner I have stated, they
lost their souls and fell away from their hope in God. The
infirmity of their senses was not able to confront or resist
the flame of things which customarily drive the vehemence
of the passions wild.22

Isaac does not reject good deeds. He simply points to the

necessity of being spiritually healthy before going into the
world to heal others. One can bring more profit to others when
one is spiritually strong and has acquired experience of the inner
life. External activity is no substitute for inner depth, not even
an apostolic activity which is indeed very useful to others:

It is an excellent thing to teach men what is good and

by constant care to draw them away from delusion and
into the knowledge of life. This is the path of Christ and
the apostles, and it is very lofty. But if a man perceives
within himself that by such a way of life and continual
communion with men his conscience is being weakened
by seeing external things, his serenity is being disturbed,
and his knowledge is being darkened, . . . and that while

22. 1/4 (32) = PR 4 (46).

69
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

he seeks to heal others he is losing his own health and,

departing from the chaste freedom of his will, his intellect
is being shaken; then let him . . . turn back, lest he hear
from the Lord the words of the proverb, ‘Physician, heal
thyself’;23 let him condemn himself, let him watch over his
own good health. Instead of audible words let his excellent
manner of life serve as an education, and instead of the
sounds of his mouth let his deeds teach others, and when
he keeps his soul healthy, let him profit others and heal
them by his own good health. For when he is far from
men he can benefit them even more by the zeal of his
good works than by his words, since he is himself sickly
and in greater need than they of healing. For ‘If the blind
lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch’.24

The solitary, according to Isaac, must first heal his own soul
and only then care for the souls of others. Inner life in God is
more important than any philanthropic and missionary activity:

Love the idleness of stillness above providing for the

world’s starving and the conversion of a multitude of hea¬
then to the worship of God. It is better for you to free
yourself from the shackle of sin than to free slaves from
their slavery. It is better for you to make peace with your
soul. . . than by your teaching to bring peace among men
at variance. For, as Gregory the Theologian says, ‘It is
a good thing to speak concerning the things of God for
God’s sake, but it is better for a man to make himself pure
for God’.25... It is more profitable for you to attend to
raising up unto the activity of intuitions concerning God
the deadness of your soul due to the passions than it is
resurrecting the dead.26

23. Lk 4:23.
24. 1/6 (57) = PR 6 (89). Cf Mt 15:14.
25. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 31.2. This quotation is absent from the east Syrian
version.
26. 1/4 (32) = PR 4 (45^36).

70
 Love of God and love of one's neighbour

This does not mean that Isaac disapproved of works of charity

in general. He simply emphasized that these works are not
the hermits’ primary task: they are more appropriating for
laymen.27 Christians in the world should do charitable work;
the hermits’ first task is to look after their own inner thoughts
and purify their intellect:

For the fulfilling of the duty of love with respect to pro¬

viding for physical well-being is the work of those in the
world, or even of monks, but only those who are imperfect,
who do not dwell in stillness, or who combine stillness
with brotherly concord and continually come and go. For
such men this is good and worthy of admiration. Those,
however, who have chosen to withdraw from the world in
body and in mind, . . . should not serve in the husbandry
of physical things and visible righteousness. . . . Rather,
by mortification of their members which are upon the
earth—after the apostolic utterance28—they should offer
God the pure and blameless sacrifice of their thoughts,
the first-fruits of their husbandry, and also the affliction
of their bodies by their patient endurance of perils for
their future hope. For the monastic discipline rivals that
of the angels. It is not right for us to abandon this celestial
husbandry and to cleave to material things.29

Speaking outside the context of the eremitical life, Isaac

emphasizes the necessity of good deeds done for the sake of
one’s neighbour. He objects to the words of a certain monk
who says that ‘monks are not obliged to give alms’: only that
monk, Isaac says, is not obliged to do so who ‘possesses nothing

27. 1/54 (270) = PR 53 (385).

28. Cf Col 3:5.
29. 1/21 (109) = PR 18 (147-148). This distinction between the ‘solitaries’ and
‘other people’ may remind one of the distinction between ‘the perfect’ and ‘the
righteous’ in the Liber Graduum. According to the Liber, the perfect should be like
angels, who do not clothe the naked, do not feed the hungry, do not take care of their
brothers; see Liber Graduum;, col. 751.

71
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

upon the earth, who earns nothing for himself among material
things, who in his mind clings to nothing visible, and does
not endeavour to acquire anything’.30 Cenobitic monks are not
released from the necessity of giving alms and performing acts
of philanthropy for their neighbour. As for hermits, they cannot
give alms, but they must have mercy, which should be revealed
not so much in good deeds as in prayer which takes in the whole
world. At the same time deeds cannot be avoided, especially if
the situation requires immediate action for the sake of someone
who is suffering:

‘Blessed is the merciful man, for he shall obtain mercy’,31

not only in the hereafter, but also here in a mystical way.
Indeed, what mercy is greater than this, that when a man
is moved with compassion for a fellow man and becomes a
partaker in his suffering? Our Lord delivers his soul from
the gloom of darkness—which is the noetic gehenna—
and brings her into the light of life, thus filling her with
delight. . . . And when it is in your power to deliver the
iniquitous man from evil, do not neglect to do so. I do
not mean that if the affair is far removed from you, you
should go and throw yourself into the work of this sort,
for deeds of this kind do not belong to your way of life.
If, however, the affair is placed directly into your hands
and is within your power, . . . then take heed to yourself,
lest you become a partaker of the blood of the iniquitous
man by not taking pains to deliver him. . . . Instead of
an avenger, be a deliverer. Instead of a faultfinder, be a
soother. Instead of a betrayer, be a martyr. Instead of a
chider, be a defender. Beseech God on behalf of sinners
that they receive mercy.32

Even hermits, whose task is not to perform good deeds,

should act as deliverers and defenders of people in some sit-

30. 1/21 (110) = PR 18 (148-149).

31. Cf Mt 5:7.
32. 1/64 (313-314) = PR 65 (456-157).

72
 Love of God and love of one !r neighbour

uations. In general, they should strive to obtain love of their

neighbour as an inner quality, to acquire a universal merciful
love towards every human being and every creature. Through
being merciful they may heal their own souls, Isaac says, making
an important addendum to his own opinion that good deeds
should not be performed before one’s soul is healed. While
good deeds cannot heal the soul of the person doing them, the
inner mercy does heal his soul:

Let the scale of mercy always be preponderant within you,

until you perceive in yourself that mercy which God has
for the world. Let this our state become a mirror wherein
we may see in ourselves that likeness and true image which
naturally belong to the Divine Essence. By these things
and their like we are enlightened so as to be moved toward
God with a limpid intellect. A harsh and merciless heart
will never be purified. A merciful man is the physician
of his own soul, for as with a violent wind he drives the
darkness of passions out of his inner self.33

This universal love about which Isaac speaks cannot be ob¬

tained by deeds of philanthropy or, in general, by human effort:
it is a gift which we receive directly from God. Isaac’s teaching
on how the love of neighbour is acquired can be outlined as
follows:

• a person withdraws himself from his neighbour for the sake

of life in solitude and stillness;
• through this he acquires an ardent love of God;
• this love gives birth in him to the ‘luminous love’ (hubba
sapya) of humanity.

This term is borrowed by Isaac from the Macarian Homilies,

John the Solitary and other Syrian writers.34 The theme of
‘luminous love’ is developed by Isaac in Chapter X of Part II:

33. 1/64 (312) = PR 65 (455).

34. See Brock, Note 1 to II/10, 34.

73
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

A person who has stillness and converse of knowledge will

easily and quickly arrive at the love of God, and with the
love of God he will draw close to perfect love of fellow
human beings. No one has ever been able to draw close
to this luminous love of humanity without having first
been held worthy of the wonderful and inebriating love
of God.35

The scheme offered by Isaac is therefore different from the

one we find in the First Epistle of John: ‘He that loveth not his
brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he
hath not seen?’36 According to Isaac, one should first love God
whom he does not see and by means of this love draw near to
the love of his neighbour whom he sees—or in this case whom
he also does not see because he has deliberately withdrawn from
seeing him. To acquire the love of one’s neighbour by means
of good deeds is as impossible as acquiring the love of God by
means of the love of neighbour:

To come from the toil and struggle with the thoughts

to the luminous love of humanity, and from this to be
raised up to the love of God—is a course impossible for
someone to complete in this life, right up to the time he
departs from the world, however hard he struggles. On
the basis of the commandments and by discernment, it
is possible for someone to control his thoughts and to
purify his sensibility with respect to [others], and he can
even perform good towards them. But for him to attain to
a luminous love of humanity by means of struggle, I am
not persuaded to admit as possible: there is no one who
has attained this, and none who will attain it, by this path
in life. Without wine no one can get drunk, nor will his
heart leap with joy; and without inebriation in God, no
one by the natural course of events will obtain the virtue

35. 11/10,33-34.
36. 1 Jn 4:20.

74
 Love of God and love of one's neighbour

that does not belong to him, nor will it remain in him

serenely and without compulsion.37

At issue here is a special and the highest form of love of

one’s neighbour, which Isaac calls ‘luminous’ and ‘perfect’ and
which is a gift from God. It does not belong to human nature
and is therefore not a natural love of human beings, domestic
animals, birds, wild animals, and so on, which we encounter
in some people;38 it is a supernatural love which is born from
‘inebriation’ in the love of God.39
The ‘luminous love’ of neighbour is that sacrificial love which
makes one like God, who loves sinners and righteous equally:

In the case of the person who has been deemed worthy to

taste of divine love (hubba alahaya)f° that person custom¬
arily forgets everything else by reason of its sweetness, for
it is something at whose taste all visible things seem despi¬
cable: such a person’s soul gladly draws near to a luminous
love of humanity, without distinguishing [between sinners
and righteous]; he is never overcome by the weakness to
be found in people, nor is he perturbed. He is just as the
blessed Apostles were as well: people who in the midst
of all the bad things they endured from the others were
nonetheless utterly incapable of hating them or of being
fed up with showing love for them. This was manifested
in actual deed, for after all the other things they accepted
even death so that these people might be retrieved. These
were men who only a little bit earlier had begged Christ
that fire might descend from heaven upon the Samaritans
just because they had not received them into their village!41

37. 11/10,35.
38. 11/10,35.
39. The theme of‘inebriation’ is discussed in Chapter VTI below.
40. This phrase is especially characteristic of John the Solitary: see Brock, Note
1 to 11/10, 36.
41. Cf Lk 9:54.

75
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

But once they had received the gift and tasted the love of
God, they were made perfect in love even for wicked men:
enduring all kinds of evils in order to retrieve them, they
could not possibly hate them. So you see that perfect love
of fellow human beings cannot be found just as a result of
keeping the commandments.42

Taking the Gospel’s teaching about the two greatest com¬

mandments as his base, therefore, Isaac offers his own inter¬
pretation. He sets out his own path for attaining to the love
of God and neighbour. But this path is not for the majority
of people who live in the world: it is only for those who have
chosen solitude as a way of life, who have renounced the world
and who draw near to God by means of life in stillness.
Living far from people and remaining internally alone, one
can and must show love to others:

Rejoice with the joyous and weep with those who weep;43
for this is the sign of limpid purity. Suffer with those who
are ill and mourn with sinners; with those who repent
rejoice. Be every man’s friend, but in your mind remain
alone. Be a partaker of the sufferings of all men, but keep
your body distant from all. Rebuke no one, revile no
one, not even men who live very wickedly. Spread your
cloak over the man who is falling and cover him. And
if you cannot take upon yourself his sins and receive his
chastisement in his stead, then at least patiently suffer his
shame and do not disgrace him. . . . Know, brother, that
the reason why we must remain within the door of our
cell is to be ignorant of the wicked deeds of men, and
thus, seeing all as holy and good, we shall attain to purity
of mind.44

42. 11/10,36.
43. Cf Rom 12:15.
44. 1/51 (247) = PR 50 (349-350).

76
 Stillness and silence

The luminous love of neighbour is born from the heart that

is purified and the mind that dwells in stillness and is totally
freed from worldly affairs.

3. Stillness and silence

What is the ‘stillness’ (.selya), of which Isaac so often speaks?

It is a deliberate denial of the gift of words for the sake of
achieving inner silence, in the midst of which a person can hear
the presence of God. It is standing unceasingly, silently, and
prayerfully before God. It is withdrawal from every activity
of word and thought in order to attain to stillness and peace
of mind.

And this is the definition of stillness (d-selya): silence

(selyuta) to all things. If in stillness you are found full
of turbulence, and you disturb your body by the work
of your hands and your soul with cares, then judge for
yourself what sort of stillness you are practising, being
concerned with many things in order to please God! For
it is ridiculous for us to speak of achieving stillness if we
do not abandon all things and separate ourselves from
every care.45

Isaac identifies two types of stillness: outward and inward.

Outward stillness consists in keeping the tongue and mouth
silent; inward is the silence of the intellect, peace of thought,
stillness of heart. Inward stillness is higher than outward, but
when inward stillness is lacking, the other is useful: ‘If you can¬
not be still within your heart, then at least still your tongue’.46
Inward stillness is deepened by outward stillness; and the ascetic
should always strive after the second in order to achieve the first:

45. 1/21 (112) = PR 18 (154).

46. 1/51 (247) = PR 50 (350).

77
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Love silence above all things, because it brings you close to

fruit that the tongue cannot express. Let us force ourselves
to be silent and then, from out of this silence is born
something that leads to silence itself [i.e. inner silence].
God grant you may perceive some part of that which is
born of silence! If you begin with this discipline, I know
not how much light will dawn on you from it. Do not
infer, O brother, from what is said of that wondrous man
Arsenius, that when the fathers would visit him and the
brethren come to see him, and he would sit with them and
remain silent, and in silence let them go—do not infer, I
say, that he did this completely voluntarily, except at the
beginning, when he forced himself to it. After a time a
certain sweetness is born in the heart out of the practice
of this labour, and it leads the body by force to persevere
in stillness. . . . Silence is also a way to stillness. . . . When
Arsenius found that it was often impossible, because of the
place of his abode, to be far withdrawn from the proximity
of men and from the monks who settled in those parts-—
then by grace he learned this way of life: unbroken silence.
And if out of necessity he ever opened his door to some of
them, they were gladdened only by the mere sight of him;
but conversation with words, and its employment, were
rendered superfluous between them.47

An experience of silence as the absence of words is an ex¬

perience of participation in the life of the world to come. As
Isaac says, ‘silence is a mystery of the age to come, but words
are instruments of this world’.48 Outward silence brings inner
fruits, whereas failure to guard the tongue leads to spiritual
darkening:

If you guard your tongue, my brother, God will give you

the gift of compunction of heart so that you may see your

47. 1/64 (310-311) = PR 65 (450-452).

48. 1/65 (321) = PR 66 (470).

78
 Stillness and silence

soul, and thereby you will enter into spiritual joy. But if
your tongue defeats you, . . . you will never be able to
escape from darkness. If you do not have a pure heart,
at least have a pure mouth ... 49

The nature of inner stillness will be discussed specifically in

Chapter VII, where the subject will be ‘stillness of mind’, one
of the highest states of spiritual progress. For the moment we
confine ourselves to pointing out the various inner fruits of the
‘life of stillness’, that is, the eremitical monastic life. Isaac deals
with this question in a letter he sent to an anonymous friend.
In it Isaac collects testimonies on the fruits of stillness from the
ascetics of his time. These testimonies point to different fruits
of the life of stillness; in particular:

• How this life is conducive to concentration of mind and

a deepening of the spiritual activity of the intellect: ‘The
profit which I gain from stillness is this: when I depart
from the dwelling wherein I abide, my mind is void of the
preparations of war and turns to a superior activity’.
• How this life leads one to spiritual sweetness, joy, inner
tranquillity, and an ecstatic loss of sensory and logical ac¬
tivity: ‘I run to stillness so that the verses of my reading and
prayer should become sweet to me. And when my tongue
becomes silent because of the sweetness that comes from
understanding them, then, as if into a kind of sleep, I fall into
a state in which my senses and my thoughts become inactive.
When by prolonged silence my heart becomes tranquil
and undisturbed, . . . waves of joy ceaselessly burst forth
to delight my heart. And when these waves approach the
barque of my soul, they plunge her into veritable wonders
in the stillness which is in God.’

49. 1/48 (236) = PR 46 (334).

79
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

• How stillness erases those memories which are harmful to

the mind; and how because of this the mind is able to return
to its natural state.
• How stillness helps one free the mind and concentrate on
repentance and prayer: ‘When a man sees different faces
and hears many kinds of voices foreign to his spiritual
rumination,... his mind will not be free so that he can see
himself in secret, remember his sins, demolish his thoughts,
pay attention to what befalls him, and attend to hidden
prayer’.
• How stillness assists one ‘to bring the senses into submis¬
sion to the sovereignty of the soul’.30

The life of stillness and silence leads to the awakening within

the person of that ‘hidden man of the heart’ of which Saint Peter
speaks.51 This process develops proportionately to the degree
of mortification of the outward person, who exists amidst the
struggles of this world:

Stillness, as Saint Basil says, is the beginning of the soul’s

purification.52 For when the outward members cease from
their outward activity and from the distraction caused
thereby, then the mind turns away from distractions and
wandering thoughts that are outside its realm and abides
quietly within itself, and the heart awakens for the search¬
ing out of deliberations that are within the soul. And if
purity is nothing else save forgetting an unfree mode of
life and departing from its habits, how and when will a man
purify his soul who, actively of himself or through others,
renews in himself the memory of his former habits . . . ? If
the heart is defiled every day, when will it be cleansed from
defilement? But if he cannot even withstand the action
upon him of outward things, how much less will he be

50. 1/65 (320-321) = PR 66 (468-170).

51. 1 Pt 3:4.
52. Letter 2 (to Gregory of Nyssa).

80
 A monastic way to God

able to purify his heart, seeing that he stands in the midst

of the camp and every day hears urgent tidings of war . . . ?
If, however, he should withdraw from this, little by little he
will be able to make the first inner turmoils cease. . . . Only
when a man enters stillness can his soul distinguish the
passions and prudently search out her own wisdom. Then
the inner man also awakens for spiritual work and day by
day he perceives the hidden wisdom which blossoms forth
in his soul. . . . Stillness mortifies the outward senses and
resurrects the inward movements, whereas the outward
manner of life does the opposite, that is, it resurrects the
outward senses and deadens the inward movements.53

Isaac is very consistent in emphasizing the priority of inward

over outward activity. At the same time, he makes readers aware
that without outward silence of tongue, senses, and thoughts,
one cannot achieve inward stillness of mind. So ‘the silence for
all’ becomes the first law of the spiritual life. Without this a
person is unable, not only to reach the state of perfection, but
even to begin on his pathway to God.

4. A MONASTIC WAY TO GoD

Isaac the Syrian regards the Christian life as a way whose goal
is union with God. Borrowing Saint Paul’s metaphor,54 Isaac
uses the image of a runner in the stadium to describe how
the human intellect moves towards that spiritual enjoyment
of Christ which is the crown of the solitary life.55 Sometimes
spiritual life is compared with sailing in the sea.56 But much
more often it is described as an ascent by ladder,57 a very

53. 1/37 (173-175) = PR 35 (243-247).

54. Cf 1 Cor 9:24-25.
55. 11/10, 40.
56. 1/21 (112) = PR 18 (225).
57. 1/2 (11) = PR 2 (12), etal.

81
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

traditional image in Christian literature.58 According to Isaac,

this ascent is endless, as its aim is the unbounded God:

The limit of this journey is so truly unattainable that even

the saints are found wanting with respect to the perfection
of wisdom, because there is no end to wisdom’s journey.
Wisdom ascends even till this: until she unites with God
him who follows after her. And this is the sign that the
insights of wisdom have no limit: that wisdom is God
himself.59

The only way of ascent to God known to Isaac through ex¬

perience was the monastic and eremitical life. It is therefore not
surprising that his ascetical recommendations were addressed
primarily to monks, even though many of them are universally
applicable. The beginning of life with God is described as
making a covenant (qyama) to separate oneself from the world:

For when a man comes unto God, he makes a covenant

with God to separate himself from these things. And these
are the things I mean: not to look on the face of a woman;
not to look on magnificent things or magnificent persons
and their luxury, nor on elegant persons and their clothing;
not to behold the society of men of the world, nor to hear
their words, nor to inquire concerning them.60

The question is not so much of monastic vows as of the inner

determination to renounce the world and everything worldly,
to withdraw completely from human society.
The ‘covenant’ with God is one of the most prominent
themes in syriac proto-monastic literature. It was given a par¬
ticular development by Aphrahat, who mentions an ascetic
group within the Syrian Church, ‘the covenanters’ (bnai qyama),

58. It is enough to recall The Interpretation of the Beatitudes by Gregory of Nyssa

and The Ladder by Tohn Climacus.
59. 1/37 (163) = PR 35 (225).
60. 1/37 (169) = PR 35 (235).

82
 A monastic way to God

literally ‘sons of the covenant’.61 These lay people’s life was no

different from that of other Syrian Christians, except
for their vows of virginity, poverty, and service to the parish
community.62 At a later time the notion of‘covenant’ was trans¬
ferred to Syrian monasticism, which developed the ascetical
aspirations of the ‘covenanters’. In particular, the idea of the
separation of the ‘chosen’ from others, which loomed large in
the spirituality of the ‘covenanters’, received its fall develop¬
ment in the later monastic tradition to which Isaac belonged.
In the latter, monasticism sets itself apart from the rest of
humanity; the monks regard themselves as a society of the
chosen ones:

By this the sons of God are set apart from the rest of
mankind: they live in afflictions, but the world rejoices
in luxury and ease. For it is not God’s good pleasure that
those whom he loves should live in ease while they are in
the flesh. He wills rather that, so long as they are in this
life, they abide in affliction, in oppression, in weariness, in
poverty, in nakedness, isolation, want, illness, degradation,
bufferings, contrition of heart, bodily hardship, renuncia¬
tion of relatives, and sorrowful thought. He wants them to
possess an aspect differing from that of the rest of creation,
a habitation unlike that of the rest of men, and to live in a
solitary and quiet dwelling, unknown to the sight of men
and bereft of every gladdening thing of this life. They
mourn, but the world laughs; they are sombre, but the
world is joyous; they fast, but the world lives in pleasure.
They toil by day, and by night they compel themselves to
ascetic struggles in straitness and weariness.63

Even within Christian society monasticism plays a very special

role. It is a kind of small church within the Church. Thus every

61. See Griffith, ‘Monks’, 141ff; Nedungatt, ‘Covenanters’, 191ff.

62. AbouZayd, Ihidayutba, 101.
63. 1/60 (293-294) = PR 60 (424-425).

83
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

monk should be blameless in his life and a good example for

people living in the world:

The monk (ihidaya, solitary) ought in his appearance and

in all his actions to be a sight of stimulation to those who
see him, so that by reason of his many virtues, which
shine forth like sun-beams, the enemies of truth, when
they look upon him, will involuntarily confess that the
hope of salvation which the Christians have is firm and
unshakeable, and from every side will run to him as to
a refuge . . . For the boast of the Church is the monastic
way of life.64

Monastic way of life is an unseen martyrdom undergone for

the sake of receiving the crown of sanctification.6' It is ‘taking
up the cross’ and thus incompatible with seeking ease: ‘The
path of God is a daily cross. No one has ascended into heaven
by means of ease . . .’66 Taking up the cross means participating
in the suffering of Christ: ‘O straggler, taste within yourself
Christ’s suffering, that you may be deemed worthy of tasting his
glory. For if we suffer with him, then we are glorified with him.
The intellect is not glorified with Jesus, if the body does not
suffer together with Jesus’.67 The whole earthly life is perceived
by the monk as a self-crucifixion:

As long as you have hands, stretch them out to heaven in

prayer, before your arms fall from their joints, and though
you desire to draw them up, you will not be able. As long

64. I/ll (77) = PR 11 (119). This view of monasticism was characteristic in the
whole Christian East of seventh and eighth centuries. It was even stronger in Byzan¬
tium, where monasticism, because of this view, received the leading role within the
Church, especially in the post-iconoclastic epoch. In the Ladder byjohn Climacus (ch.
26) we find words which correspond to what Isaac says about monks: ‘Angels are a light
for monks, and the monastic life is a light for all men. Therefore let monks strive to
become a good example in everything’.
65. 1/37 (173) = PR 35 (242).
66. 1/59 (290) = PR 59 (418).
67. 1/36 (161) = PR 34 (222).

84
 A monastic way to God

as you have fingers, cross yourself in prayer, before death

comes to loose the comely strength of their sinews. As long
as you have eyes, fill them with tears before that hour when
dust will cover your black clothes ...68

The way to God is different for each individual monk, but the
starting point is the same for everyone: asceticism that includes
prayer and fasting.69 Isaac ascribes an important role to fasting
and other means of disciplining the body:

Fasting, vigil and wakefulness in God’s service, renouncing

the sweetness of sleep by crucifying the body through¬
out the day and night, are God’s holy pathway and the
foundation of every virtue. Fasting is the champion of
every virtue, the beginning of the straggle, the crown
of the abstinent, the beauty of virginity and sanctity, the
resplendence of chastity, the commencement of the path
of Christianity, the mother of prayer, the well-spring of
sobriety and prudence, the teacher of stillness, and the
precursor of all good works. Just as the enjoyment of
light is coupled with healthy eyes, so desire for prayer ac¬
companies fasting that is practiced with discernment. . . .
And the Saviour also, when he manifested himself to the
world in the Jordan, began at this point. For after his
baptism. ... he fasted for forty days and forty nights.70
Likewise all who set out to follow in his footsteps make
the beginning of their straggle upon this foundation. 1

Fasting should accompany spiritual activity. Bodily labour,

according to Isaac, precedes the labour of the soul, which, in
turn, precedes all spiritual activity:

68. 1/64 (315) = PR 65 (459-460).

69. CfH/31,1.
70. CfMt 4:1-2.
71. 1/37 (171-172) = PR 35 (238-240).

85
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Works performed with the body precede those performed

with the soul. . . . The man who has not performed bodily
works cannot possess the works of the soul, since the latter
are born of the former as the ear of corn comes from a
naked grain of wheat. And the man who does not possess
the works of the soul is bereft of spiritual gifts. 2

Mortification of the body is conducive to spiritual renewal

of the soul: ‘To the same extent that the body dries up and
grows feeble ... so the soul is renewed day by day and flourishes
through progress towards God . . .’73 But there is no profit in
bodily labours if they are not accompanied by ‘inward ministry
of mind’ or if a monk restricts his spiritual life to them. The
monk who relies only on external ascetical efforts is like the
Pharisees, whom Christ condemned:

The constant limitation of hope which is a feature of

merely an outward ministry belongs to the immature and
jewish way of thinking of those who boast on their fasts,
their tithes, and the length of their prayers, as our Lord
says,74 not possessing inwardly any thought of spiritual
awareness or right reflection on God to adorn their inte¬
rior state with an increase of hope.75

In a classical pattern derived from such earlier writers as

Evagrius Ponticus and John the Solitary, the monastic way to
God is divided into the three stages of spiritual advancement.
Following this scheme, Isaac writes:

The stages through which man advances are three: the be¬
ginner’s stage, the intermediate, and that of the perfect. In
the first stage all a man’s thinking and recollection is held
within the passions, even if his mind is directed toward

72. 1/4 (29) = PR 4 (40-41).

73. 11/24,3.
74. CfMt 6:16; 21:13,23.
75. 11/24,5.

86
 A monastic way to God

good. The second is a kind of midway point between

passion and the spiritual state: both thoughts from the
right hand and those from the left move equally within it,
and light and darkness never cease from welling forth.

The third stage is characterized by the revelations of divine

mysteries, when God opens his door to a monk for his perse¬
verance in labours.76
Accordingly, there are three different types of spiritual la¬
bour, each corresponding to a certain stage of spiritual advance¬
ment:

The manner and aim of spiritual labour is not the same

for the initial stage as for the intermediary one or for
the concluding stage. The initial stage involves labouring
with a great deal of recitation and simply ‘treading out’
the body by means of laborious fasting. The interme¬
diary culminating point lessens the amount of all this,
exchanging persistence in these for persistence in other
things, labouring on spiritual reading and especially on
kneeling. The culminating point of the third stage lessens
persistence along the lines of the previous stage, labouring
instead on meditation and on prayer of the heart.7'

This does not mean that it is only the beginners who should
keep fasting, the intermediate who should read the Scriptures,
and the advanced who should pray. The same types of spiritual
activity are accomplished by ascetics at all stages throughout
their whole life. At the beginner’s stage, however, the accent on
bodily labours is characteristic; at the stage of perfection the
inner activity of mind is more suitable:

It is not that each of these culminating points completely

leaves behind the labours characteristic of the previous

76. 1/12 (79-80) = PR 12 (121-122).

77. 11/22,1-3.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

stage; rather they make an alteration in the aim and man¬

ner in which they are performed ... To the middle stage
belongs the recitation of the psalms and the labour of
fasting; but this is not done without discernment or in
an impetuous way, as happens at the initial level. Like¬
wise, even at the perfect culminating point, there is read¬
ing and the labour of kneeling and psalmody—but more
important than them is persistent meditation on God’s
providence (;mdabbranuta)78 together with hidden prayer,
seeing that there is no longer any need for a great quan¬
tity of the former, since after only being occupied with
them for a short while, a person is seized by, and remains
in wonder.79

In the pages that follow we shall speak about various aspects

of the inward activity of the mind, discussing separately differ¬
ent sorts of prayer and such mystical phenomena as ‘wonder’
and contemplation. In the meantime, let us draw some brief
conclusions on the way to God Isaac describes. It is a way of
ascent from an outward activity of the body to the heights
of inward contemplative activity when one is deemed worthy
of mystical ‘wonder’ and union with God. To attain this, one
must first renounce the world and be alone with God. One
must achieve the inward stillness of mind and heart which is
born of the outward silence of the mouth and of solitude. The
renunciation of the world and life in solitude do not mean a
denial of the love of one’s neighbour: on the contrary, by means
of this renunciation and withdrawal a person participates in
the love of God, which becomes the reason for the awakening
within him of the ‘luminous love’ of his fellow human beings. In
short, the life of the solitary Isaac describes moves from outward

78. The syriac term mdabbranuta is equivalent to the greek oikonomia, which sig¬
nifies the divine providence and economy concerning humanity. It is also used to refer
to the salvific and redemptive activity of the Son of God and his death for salvation
of humankind.
79. 11/22,4-6.

88
 A monastic way to God

asceticism to inward contemplation of God; from silence of

mouth to stillness of intellect; from solitude to union with God;
from outward activity for the sake of people to the ‘luminous
love of humanity’.

89
 Chapter III

TRIALS ON THE WAY TO GOD

God does not grant a great gift without a great trial.

1/42 (209) = PR 39 (298)

I myself have had many experiences of these things, and what

I have discovered is along the lines of what I have indicated
here as a reminder, out of brotherly love, since many, I think,
are benefitted by these experiences.
11/33,3

I SAAC THE SYRIAN, while best known for his descriptions

of the high mystical states characteristic of ascetics who have
reached spiritual perfection, does not overlook the negative
aspects of Christian life—the ordeals and sufferings through
which an ascetic has to pass.
In this chapter we shall analyze Isaac’s teaching on the dif¬
ficulties of the Christian ascetic life and make an attempt to
summarize the negative experiences described in the pages
of his works. First, we shall speak of the various temptations
which are endured by the ascetic who travels towards God, and,
second, of abandonment by God, which is the highest form of
suffering.

1. Temptations

The syriac term nesyona, which corresponds to the greekpeiras-

mos, can be translated as ‘temptation’, ‘trial’, ‘ordeal’, ‘examina-

91
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

tion’, or ‘test’; a related word nesyana means ‘experience’. Both

are related to the hebrew root nsh, which means ‘to put on trial,
to test’.
In the Bible, we find several types of temptations. Involved
in them are three persons: God, a human being, and the devil.
God ‘tempts’ Abraham in order to test his faith;1 God tests
his chosen people in the ‘furnace of affliction’;2 He ‘tries the
hearts and reins’ of people;3 He ‘searches all inward parts of
the belly’.4 5 The devil, on the other hand, tempts Adam and
Eve, urging them to eat from the tree of knowledge; '1 he tempts
Jesus in the desert.6 7 There is also a third type of temptation—
when a human person tempts God: in their disbelief, the people
of Israel tempted God; the Pharisees and Herodians tempted
Jesus;8 Ananias and Sapphira tempted the Holy Spirit.9 Finally,
in a fourth type of temptation, a human being is ‘tempted when
he is driven away out of his own lust’.10
Normally, Isaac the Syrian speaks of the two first types of
temptation—that coming from God and that coming from the
devil. In the first case, it is a question of the experience which is
necessary for attaining to knowledge of God; in the second,
of what a Christian should fear and try to avoid. Isaac was
asked how the words of Christ, ‘Pray that ye enter not into
temptation,’11 fit in with Christ’s own constant admonitions to
bear temptations and afflictions.12 Isaac answered:

Pray, he says, that you enter not into temptations of your

faith. Pray that through your mind’s self-esteem you enter

1. Cf Gen 22:1.
2. Cf Is 48:10.
3. Cf Ps 7:9.
4. Cf Prov 20:27.
5. Cf Gen 3:1-6.
6. Cf Mt 4:1-11.
7. Cf Ex 17:2.
8. Cf Mt 22:18; 35.
9. Cf Ac 5:9.
10. Cf Jas 1:14.
11. Cf Mt 26:41.
12. Cf Mt 10:28; 39 et al.

92
 Temptations

not into temptation with the demon of blasphemy and

pride. Pray that you enter not by God’s permission into the
manifest temptations of the senses, which the devil knows
how to bring upon you when God permits it because of the
foolish thoughts you entertain. . . . Pray that you enter not
into temptations of soul through doubts and provocations
by which the soul is violently drawn into great conflict.
Even so, prepare yourself with all your soul to receive
bodily temptations; voyage in them with all your members
and fill your eyes with tears, so that the angel who guards
you does not depart from you. For without trials God’s
providence is not seen, and you cannot obtain boldness
before God, nor learn the wisdom of the Spirit, nor can
divine longing be established in you. Before temptations
man prays to God as though he were a stranger; but when
he enters into temptations for the sake of his love and
does not permit himself to be deflected, then straightway
he has, as it were, God as his debtor, and God reckons him
as a true friend, since he had warred against his enemy and
defeated him for the sake of his will. This is to ‘pray that
you enter not into temptation’. And again, pray that you
enter not into the fearsome temptation of the devil by
reason of your arrogance, but because you love God, and
you wish that his power might help you and through you
vanquish his enemies. Pray that you enter not into such
trials because of the folly of your thoughts and works, but
rather in order that your love of God may be tested, and
that his strength be glorified in your patience.13

Those trials which come from God are sent with the aim of
healing the illnesses of the soul. Through bearing temptations
a person is drawn near to God and his faith is strengthened:

By the experience of many interventions of divine as¬

sistance in temptations, a man also acquires firm faith.

13. 1/3 (25-26) = PR 3 (36-37).

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Thenceforward he has no fear, and he gains stout-hearted¬

ness in temptations from the training he acquired. Temp¬
tation is profitable for every one. . . . Ascetic strugglers are
tried, that they may add to their riches; the slothful are
tried, that they may thereby guard themselves from what
is harmful to them; the sleepy are tried, that they may be
armed with wakefulness; those who are far away are tried,
that they may draw nearer to God; those who are God’s
own are tried, that with boldness they may enter into his
house. . . . There is no man who will not feel oppressed
at the time of training. And there is no man who will not
find bitter the time when he is given the virulent potion of
trials to drink. Without temptations a man cannot acquire
a strong constitution ... 14

Temptations are sent by God so that in the midst of them

one might feel the closeness of God and his providence. When a
person put his hope firmly in God, then God sends temptations
in order to bring him closer:

As soon as divine grace has made his thinking secure, . . .

so that he puts his confidence in God, she begins, little by
little, to introduce him to temptations. She permits him to
be sent temptations suited to his measure, that he may bear
their force. But in these very temptations her aid palpably
draws near him, that he may take courage until little by
little he gains experience, acquires wisdom, and holds his
enemies in contempt because of the confidence he has in
God. For it is not possible without temptations for a man
to grow wise in spiritual warfare, to know his Provider and
perceive his God, and to be secretly confirmed in his faith,
save by virtue of the experience which he has gained. . . .
For Gods marvelous love of man is made known to him

14. 1/61 (296) = PR 61 (429).

94
 Te?nptations

when he is in the midst of circumstances that cut off his

hope; herein God shows his power by saving him.15

It is amidst temptations, afflictions, and struggles that one

can find God, not in ease and slackness. Isaac speaks of bearing
temptations as sailing in rough seas: when the voyage is over
and a person reaches the promised haven, he thanks God for
the tribulations he has had to endure.16 Isaac also compares an
ascetic with a diver who searches for pearls at the bottom of the
sea—a profession whose dangers were familiar to him since he
came from Qatar on the Red Sea:17

If the diver found a pearl in every oyster, then everyone

would quickly become rich! And if he brought one up
the moment he dove, without waves beating against him,
without any sharks encountering him, without having to
hold his breath until he nearly expires, without being
deprived of the clear air granted to everyone and having
to descend to the abyss—if all this were the case, pearls
would come thicker and faster than lightning flashes!18

The closer a person comes to God the higher the intensity

of temptations rises: this is a law of the spiritual life.

As long as you are journeying in the way to the city

of the kingdom [Isaac writes] and are drawing near the
city of God, let this be for you a signpost: the strength
of the temptations you encounter. The nearer you draw
and progress, the more temptations multiply against you.
Whenever you perceive in your soul diverse and intensi¬
fied temptations in your path, therefore, know that at that
time your soul has in fact secretly entered a new higher

15. 1/72 (355) = PR 77 (531).

16. 1/6 (61) = PR 6 (96).
17. See Brock, Note 2 to 11/34, 4.
18. 11/34,4. According to the scientific views of Isaac’s time, a pearl is born in the
oyster as a result of lightning penetrating the oyster when its folds are open.

95
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

level, and that grace has been added to her in the state
where she was found; for God leads the soul into the
afflictions of trials in exact proportion to the magnificence
of the grace which he bestows.19

Isaac emphasizes that God does not send us temptations

which would exceed our ability to bear: he always adjusts the
force and quantity of them to human strength. But if a person
is unable to bear great temptations, he will also not be able to
receive great gifts: this is another law of the spiritual life.

If a man’s soul has an infirmity and it does not have

strength enough for great temptations, and it therefore
asks not to enter into them, and God heeds this, then
know for a certainty that insofar as the soul is insufficient
for great trials, in the same measure it is insufficient for
great gifts; and insofar as great temptations are prevented
from entering upon the soul, to the same degree great
gifts are withheld from it. For God does not grant a great
gift without a great trial. In his wisdom, which is beyond
the understanding of his creatures, God has ordained that
gifts be bestowed in proportion to temptations.20

At the same time, Isaac claims, God will not send someone
great trials unless He has prepared him by divine grace to bear
them. In the combination of temptations and gifts of grace there
is a certain dynamic:

Question-. Does, then, the trial come first and afterward the
gift, or the gift first and the trial follow behind it?
Answer: A trial does not come unless the soul has first
secretly received both a portion greater than the measure
which it had formerly received and the Spirit of grace. The
Lord’s temptation and the trials of the apostles testify to

19. 1/42 (208) = PR 39 (298).

20. 1/42 (209) = PR 39 (298).

96
 Temptations

the truth of this, for they were not permitted to enter

into temptation until they had received the Comforter.
It is fitting that those who partake of good should endure
also their trials, because their affliction is mingled together
with the good. . . . If it be so, therefore, that a gift is before
trial, nevertheless it is certain that for the testing of a
man’s freedom, his awareness of temptations precedes his
awareness of a gift; for grace never enters a man before he
has tasted temptations. Hence, in reality grace comes first,
but in the awareness of the senses, it delays to manifest
itself.21

What is the difference between trials coming from God and

those due to the activity of the devil? The trials from God are
sent to ‘the friends of God, that is to say, the humble’. The
friends of God are placed in trials, not in punishment, but with
a view to their spiritual progress. These trials are acts of divine
pedagogy:

The trials inflicted by the paternal rod for the soul’s

progress and growth, and those whereby it may be trained,
are the following: sloth, oppressiveness of the body;
enfeeblement of the limbs; despondency; confusion of
mind; bodily pains; temporary loss of hope; darkening of
thoughts; absence of human help; scarcity of bodily neces¬
sities, and the like. By these temptations a man’s soul feels
herself lonely and defenseless, his heart is deadened and
filled with humility, and he is trained thereby to come to
yearn for his Creator. Yet divine providence proportions
these trials to the strength and needs of those who suffer
them. In them are mingled both consolation and griefs,
light and darkness, wars and aid. . . . This is the sign of
the increase of God’s help.22

21. 1/42 (209) = PR 39 (299).

22. 1/42 (209-210) = PR 39 (299-300).

97
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

By contrast, temptations that come from the devil are sent to

‘the enemies of God, that is to say, the proud’: these temptations
‘fall upon the men who are shameless’ and who in their pride
abuse God’s goodness. Temptations of this sort may exceed the
limit of human strength and lead to a spiritual fall. Isaac divides
temptations from the devil into two categories: those afflicting
the soul and the body. To the first he ascribes ‘the withdrawal of
the forces of wisdom which men possess, the piercing sensation
of the thought of fornication, . . . quick temper, the desire to
have one’s own way, disputatiousness, vituperation, a scornful
heart, an intellect completely gone astray, blasphemy against
the name of God, absurd notions that are ridiculous, or rather
lamentable’. To the temptations of the body belong

painful adversities, always prolonged, intricate, and dif¬

ficult to resolve; constant encounters with wicked and
godless men; falling into the hands of men who afflict us;
the heart’s being suddenly, irrationally, seized by terror;
many times stumbling severely on rocks, and having grave
falls from high places, and similar mishaps which do the
body great injury; and, finally, the heart’s being entirely
destitute of reliance upon God’s care and of the confidence
of its faith.23

Those Christians who truly love God prove their love by

bearing temptations and are strengthened in love: they are
tested, like gold in fire, and by this testing become friends of
God. On the contrary, those who do not love God ‘fall away
as dross, since giving way to the enemy they leave the field
of battle laden with guilt, either because of the laxity of their
mind or because of their pride. They were not worthy to receive
the power that the saints had working with them . . ,’24 In this
way, temptations reveal who is a friend and who is an enemy of
God, who is faithful and who is not. Temptations are therefore

23. 1/42 (210) = PR 39 (300-301).

24. 1/39 (195) = PR 36 (279).

98
 Temptations

that ‘crisis’, a judgment before the Last Judgment, where the

separation of the sheep from the goats takes place.25
A person who tempts God by his pride and laxity can be
delivered into the hands of the devil for a trial or temptation.
In this case God’s anger flames up against him:

You have not yet experienced the sternness of the Lord,

when he changes from his right hand, full of kindness, to
his left hand, exacting his due to those who abuse him—
how angry he burns, and how filled he is with zeal at
the time when this has been aroused. He will not turn
back, even though you beg him at length, once he has
been aroused to this; rather, he burns like a furnace in
his anger.26

It is very rare for Isaac to speak of God’s anger—which

does not mean a punishment or requital for sins. As we saw
in Chapter I, the idea of divine requital was totally alien to
Isaac: God is not angry at someone because he feels insulted or
because he burns with the desire of vengeance. Rather he shows
visible signs of anger, changing from his right hand to the left, so
that a human person can experience the feeling of abandonment
and may then be converted to God with a whole heart.
It is precisely for this purpose that one can be ‘delivered
unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh’.27 The devil cannot
tempt a person at all unless this is allowed by God. There is
then a certain ‘accord’ between God and the devil concerning
the limits within which the latter can act. The devil ‘asks’ God
for people, as he ‘asked’ to put the righteous Job on trial,28 but it
is entirely up to God’s power whether or not to deliver someone
for trial. Therefore, both the temptations that come from God
and those that come from the devil are allowed by God and so
can serve one’s salvation and spiritual progress.

25. CfMt 25:32-33.

26. 11/31,10. Cf Mal.3:19.
27. Cf 1 Cor 5:5.
28. Cf Job 1:6-11; 2:1-5.

99
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

According to Isaac, the devil has four methods of warring

against ascetics. First, at the very beginning when someone
enters the way to God, the devil inflicts upon him grave and
strong temptations, so that by means of them he may bring
the aspiring ascetic to the abyss of despair and turn him from
his chosen path. Second, the devil waits a while and when the
ascetic’s initial zeal grows cold the devil approaches him. Third,
the devil observes that an ascetic has made good progress in
the spiritual life and then sows in his mind the thought that his
success can be ascribed to himself and not to God. Fourth,
the devil tempts an ascetic with something to which he is
inclined by nature—stimulating in his intellect, for example,
thoughts of fornication or various illusions. ‘The devil and
tempter is allowed to make war upon the saints in all these
ways of temptation, so that thereby their love of God may be
proven . . .’29
Temptations from God and temptations from the devil can,
therefore, both be useful to an ascetic and give him a chance
of proving his love for God. Isaac invites every Christian to
prepare himself to bear temptations. Without them, no one
can make progress in virtues:

Whenever you wish to make a beginning in some good

work, first prepare yourself for the temptations that will
come upon you, and do not doubt the truth. For it is
the enemy’s custom, whenever he sees a man beginning
a good mode of life with fervent faith, to confront him
with diverse and fearful temptations. ... It is not that
our adversary has such power—for then no one could
ever do good—but that God concedes it to him, as we
have learned with the righteous Job.30 Therefore prepare
yourself manfully to encounter temptations ...31

29. 1/39 (189-194) = PR 36 (369-278).

30. This reference to Job is absent from the east syriac recension.
31. 1/5 (42) = PR 5 (61-62).

100
 Experience of abandonment

2. Experience of abandonment

Isaac describes the ascetical life as a constant fluctuation be¬

tween periods of ‘assistance’ and ‘feebleness’, presence and
abandonment, spiritual ups and downs:

Thus in this way the variation between assistance and

feebleness takes place for a person at all times and at all
stages in the ascetic life: it may be in the battles waged
against chastity, or in the varied states of joy and of gloom;
for sometimes there are luminous and joyous stirrings, but
then again all at once there is darkness and cloud. Likewise
with the things revealed in certain mystical and divine in¬
sights concerning truth: the same variation is experienced
by the person who serves God, with the apperception of
the assistance of divine power which suddenly attaches
itself to the intellect—or it may be the apperception of
the opposite, where the intention is that he should receive
awareness of the weakness of human nature, and realize
what his own nature is, and how weak, feeble, stupid and
childish it is ...32

Periods of abandonment and spiritual decay are necessary for

a person that he may perceive his helplessness and dependence
upon God. Abandonment (mestabqanuta) is not God withdraw¬
ing from a person: it is a subjective sense of God’s absence;
this person is not really forgotten by God but God leaves him
alone with the reality that surrounds him. Antony the Great
was left alone for many days to struggle against the demons;
when he was completely exhausted, God appeared to him as
a ray of light. ‘Where were you?’ Antony asked, ‘why didn’t
you come in the beginning, to stop my sufferings?’ The voice
of God answered him: ‘I was here, Antony, but I waited to see
you struggle’.33 It is God’s will that, through the experience of

32. 11/9,11.
33. Athanasius of Alexandria, The Life of St Antony 10.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

abandonment, a person may gain his own victory and become

worthy of God.
Since the fall of Adam, abandonment has been an experi¬
ence common to the whole of humanity—both believers and
unbelievers. For a believer, however, it is an experience of the
temporary absence of God, and gives place to an intense feeling
of presence; for an atheist it is an experience of constant and
irreparable absence. An atheist considers the absence of God
the norm; a believer endures the feeling of absence as very
strong and intensely painful suffering. He cannot cope with the
absence of God. Even though in his mind he knows that God
has not forgotten him, his soul and heart thirst for conscious
experience of God’s presence. The life in God is accompanied
with the feeling of God’s presence, and when this feeling is lost,
a believer cannot find calm until it returns.
Abandonment is the critical stage of one’s spiritual develop¬
ment wherein one’s attitude to God is tested in a very profound
way. For any Christian, the experience of abandonment has only
two possible outcomes—either growth of faith and drawing
nearer to God, or a ‘shipwreck’ of faith34 and loss of God. Thus
Isaac cautions against cursing God during periods of abandon¬
ment and against yielding to a temptation which may lead to
a loss of faith. When someone is deprived of grace, Isaac says,
trust in God and a right way of thinking about God’s providence
are abandoned;35 the person can come to the ‘conclusion that
God no longer exists for him’.36 Yet instead of being angry at
God, a person should remind himself of God’s good providence
and calm himself down:

Draw near a little to God in your trials, O fellow human

being, by means of your mental disposition. Are you re¬
ally aware against whom you are thundering away? You

34. Cf 1 Tim 1:19.

35. 1/1 (4) = PR 1 (3).
36. 11/26,6.

102
 Experience of abandonment

would immediately find relief if you have the wisdom to

remember the hidden providence of this very same God.37

This feeling of abandonment occurs for various reasons.38

Sometimes the reason is a person’s own negligence and short¬
ness of patience, as well as pride. In this case abandonment
appears as faint-heartedness and despondency, which is a hell
on earth:

When it is God’s pleasure to subject a man to even greater

afflictions, he permits him to fall into the hands of faint¬
heartedness. This begets in him a mighty force of despon¬
dency, wherein he feels his soul being suffocated. This is a
foretaste of gehenna. From this, there is unleashed upon
him the spirit of aberration—from which ten thousand
trials gush forth; confusion; wrath; blasphemy; protesting
and bewailing one’s lot; perverted thoughts; wandering
from place to place; and the like. And if you should ask
what the cause of these things is, I answer that it is you
yourself, for the reason that you have not taken pains to
find the remedy for them. The remedy for them is . . .
humility of heart.39

The feeling of abandonment may also overwhelm someone

for reasons which do not depend on him at all. In particular,
periods of abandonment, depression, darkening, and despair
envelop ascetics who live in stillness. In this case the reason is
the ineffable providence of God:

Let us not be troubled when we are found in darkness,

especially if the cause of it is not in us. But reckon this as
the work of God’s providence for a reason which he alone
knows. At times our soul is suffocated and is, as it were,

37. 11/26,7.
38. Cf Evagrius, The Gnostic Chapters 28 (five reasons for abandonment).
39. 1/42 (211) = PR 39 (302).

103
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

amid the waves; and whether a man reads the Scriptures,

or performs his liturgy, or approaches anything whatever,
he receives darkness upon darkness. He leaves off prayer
and cannot even draw nigh to it. He is wholly unable to
believe that a change will occur and that he will be at peace.
This hour is full of despair and fear; hope in God and the
consolation of faith are utterly effaced from his soul, and
she is wholly and entirely filled with doubt and fear.40

However, Isaac continues, God does not leave the soul in this
state for very long. After the period of despair, a change for the
better should take place:

Those who are tried by the billows of this hour know from
experience the change that follows upon its completion.
God does not leave the soul in these things an entire
day, for otherwise she would perish, being estranged from
the Christian hope; but he speedily provides her with an
escape.41

What should an ascetic do during periods of abandonment

and darkness? A normal piece of advice would be to pray until
it passes: ‘During periods of these temptations, when someone
is darkened, he ought to fall on his face in prayer, and not rise
up until power come to him from heaven and a light which will
support his heart in a faith that has no doubts’.42
Another recommendation is to remember one’s initial zeal
and early years of the ascetical life:

At the time of your defeat. . . ponder in your heart on

the former time of your diligence, and how you used to
concern yourself even over the most minute matters, and
the valiant struggle which you displayed, and how you

40. 1/50 (241) = PR 48 (339).

41. 1/50 (241) = PR 48 (339).
42. 11/9,5.

104
 Experience of abandonment

were stirred up with zeal against those who would hinder

you in your progress. . . . For thus, with such and so many
recollections, your soul is wakened as if from deep sleep
and is clad with the flame of zeal. . . . She rises up out of
her sunken state as if from the dead, she is raised on high,
and she returns to her ancient estate.43

Isaac also recommends occupying oneself with the reading

of patristic writings:

Whenever it happens to you . . . that your soul is en¬

shrouded by thick darkness from within and, as with the
sun’s rays when they are hidden from the earth in the
midst of clouds, for a brief time she is deprived of spiritual
comfort and the light of grace on account of the cloud
of passions that overshadows her; and further, when the
joy-producing power in your soul is curtailed for a little,
and your mind is overshadowed by an unwonted mist:
then do not be troubled in your mind, do not give way
to despondency. But be patient, be engaged in reading the
books of the Doctors of the Church, compel yourself in
prayer, and expect to receive help. Then straightway help
will come unawares.44

‘Scriptural reading’ (qeryana—a syriac term referring to both

the Bible and the Church Fathers)45 casts away despondency
and darkness from the soul:

I myself have had many experiences of these things, and

what I have discovered is along the lines of what I have
indicated here as a reminder, out of brotherly love, since
many, I think, are benefited by these experiences, and they
make progress as they come to realize that in half the cases

43. 1/2 (10-11) = PR 2 (11-12).

44. 1/13 (81) = PR 13 (124).
45. Cf Miller, ‘Introduction’, CXI-CXII.

105
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

of a sense of heaviness during stillness, this is dissolved by

some form of scriptural reading; in some cases, by means
of the discernment they taste as a result of the illumination
provided by the wisdom that lies in the words.46

The sense of abandonment and despondency may, however,

be so severe that a person cannot find the strength in himself
either to read the Scriptures or to pray. In these circumstances,
Isaac offers the following recommendation:

If you do not have the strength to master yourself and to

fall upon your face in prayer, then wrap your head in your
cloak and sleep until this hour of darkness pass from you,
but do not leave your dwelling. This trial befalls those
especially who desire to pass their life in the discipline
of the mind, and who throughout their journey seek the
consolation of faith. For this reason their greatest pain and
travail is the dark hour when their mind wavers with doubt.
And blasphemy follows hard upon this. Sometimes the
man is seized by doubts in the resurrection, and by other
things whereof we have no need to speak. Many times
we have experienced all these things, and we have written
of this struggle for the comfort of many. . . . Blessed is
he who patiently endures these things within the doors
of his cell! Afterwards, as Fathers say, he will attain to a
magnificent and powerful dwelling.47

At the same time, Isaac continues, it is impossible to liberate

oneself completely from periods of darkening and abandon¬
ment, and to reach perfect rest in this earthly life. A variation
of periods of darkness and light is characteristic of the life
of the solitary until the very hour of his death: ‘Sometimes
trial, sometimes consolation. A man continues in these things

46. 11/33,3.
47. 1/50 (241-242) = PR 48 (339-340).

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 Experience of abandonment

until his departure. In this life we should not expect to re¬

ceive perfect freedom from this struggle, nor to receive perfect
consolation’.48
These periods of darkness and abandonment Isaac compares
to winter; natural life almost completely ceases, but the seeds
lie deep in the earth, waiting for spring, when they put out new
shoots. One should not fall into despair but rather wait patiently
until the afflictions, despondency, and abandonment that one
has endured bring their fruits:

How blessed is the person who, out of hope for God’s

grace, has endured the dejectedness which is a hidden
trial of the mind’s virtue and growth. It is like the gloom
of winter, which nevertheless causes the hidden seed to
grow as it disintegrates under the ground in the harsh
changes of blustery weather. With the same expectation
of fruit in the end, by placing this expectation over an
extended period of time, a person will push dejectedness
away from himself. . . . Thus he should await at a distance,
not considering them to be close at hand. For when he has
not received consolation at his labours in the short term,
he may end up in despair, like the hired labourer who has
been cheated of the wage for which he has worked.49

As suddenly and unexpectedly as it began, the winter cold

ends and the spring of the soul burgeons:

God permits coldness and heaviness to come upon a man

to train and test him. But if he zealously rouses himself
and compels himself a little to shake off these things, then
grace will immediately draw near him, as it did formerly,
and a different power will come upon him, bearing hidden
within it all that is good and every manner of succour.

48. 1/50 (242) = PR 48 (341).

49. 11/34,3.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

He will marvel with great astonishment, bringing to mind

both the former heaviness and the lightness and strength
which has now overtaken him and considering both the
difference between them and his present state, and how
such a great change has so suddenly found him. Thence¬
forth he will be wise, and if again such heaviness should
come upon him, he will know about it by his former
experience.50

Isaac describes in bright colours the state of spiritual enlight¬

enment and exultation which follows the period of darkness:

There are times when a person sits in a stillness . . . and

there is no entry or exit for him. But after much con¬
verse with the Scriptures, continuous supplication and
thanksgiving at his feeble state, with his gaze extended
unceasingly towards God’s grace after great dejection in
the stillness, and little by little from that starting point
some spaciousness of heart is born, and a germination
takes place which gives birth to joy from within, even
though that joy has no origin within that person himself,
by some kind of initiating process of thought. He is aware
that his heart is rejoicing, but he does not know the reason
why. For a kind of exultation takes hold of the soul; in its
enjoyment everything that exists and is seen is disregarded,
and the mind sees, through its power, whence comes the
foundation of that rapture of thought—but why it occurs
he does not comprehend. He sees that the mind is raised
up from its association with everything else, is lifted up
and finds itself above the world in its upsurge . . . but does
not discern any extension of intellect at this leaping of
the heart or at the drawing out of the mind during its
vexation.51

50. 1/20 (103) = PR 17 (138).

51. n/34,2.

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 Experience of abandonment

In this way an ascetic acquires experience from enduring

temptations and ascends from one step to another on the ladder
leading to God. Trials and temptations, according to Isaac, are
necessary for everyone on the way to God. Of these trials the
most painful is that of abandonment, the experience of ‘tasting
gehenna’. One falls into darkness and despondency, loses hope
and the consolation of faith. One should not despair but rather
think of the providence of God, who ‘will, with the temptation,
also make a way to escape’,52 as well as remain humble and pray
as zealously as is possible. Temptation will assuredly be replaced
by a period of closeness of God, and the feeling of abandonment
will change to a sense of God’s presence.

52. 1 Cor 10:13.

109
-
 Chapter IV

HUMILITY

Humility is the raiment of the Godhead.

1/77 (381) = PR 82 (575)

Blessed is he who humbles himself in all things,

for he will be exalted in all.
For a man who for God’s sake humbles himself
and thinks meanly of himself is glorified by God.
The man who hungers and thirsts for God’s sake,
God will make drunk with that wine whose inebriation
never passes fro?n those who drink it.
And he who goes naked for God’s sake
is clad by Hi?n in a robe of incorruption and glory.
And he who becomes poor for His sake
is consoled with His true riches.
1/5 (50-51) = PR 5 (77)

O NE OF ISAAC’S CONSTANT THEMES, to which he

returns many times, is humility. Several homilies from
Parts I and II are entirely dedicated to this subject. In this chap¬
ter we shall look at Isaac’s teaching on humility as assimilation
to God and at internal and external signs of true humility.

1. Humility as assimilation to God

To speak of humility (mukkaka or makkikuta) meant to Isaac to

speak of God, for God in his vision is primarily the One who

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

is ‘meek and lowly in heart’.1 God’s humility was revealed to

the world in the Incarnation of the Word. In the Old Testa¬
ment, God remained invisible to and unattainable by everyone
approaching him. But when he clothed himself in humility and
hid his glory under human flesh, he became both visible and
attainable:

Humility is the raiment of the Godhead. The Word who

became human clothed himself in it, and he spoke to us in
our body. Everyone who has been clothed with humility
has truly been made like unto Him who came down from
his own exaltedness and hid the splendour of his majesty
and concealed his glory with humility, lest creation be
utterly consumed by the contemplation of him.2

Every Christian is called to imitate Christ in humility. In

acquiring humility, a person becomes like the Lord and clothes
himself in Christ:

Wherefore every man has put on Christ when he is clothed

with the raiment wherein the Creator was seen through
the body that he put on. For the likeness in which he was
seen by his own creation and in which he kept company
with it, he willed to put on in his inner man, and to be
seen therein by his fellow-servants.3

Humility together with rightly directed labours ‘makes man

god on earth’.4
Adoption by and assimilation to God happen, according to
Isaac, not so much through various ascetical labours as through
acquiring humility. The labours without humility bring no
profit, whereas humility without any ascetic exercises is suf¬
ficient for adoption by God:

1. Mt 11:29.
2. 1/77 (381-382) = PR 82 (575). Cf Heb 10:20.
3. 1/77 (382) = PR 82 (575-576). Cf Phil 2:7.
4. 1/6 (60) = PR 6 (95).

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 Humility as assimilation to God

Humility, even without works, gains forgiveness for many

offenses; but without her, works are of no profit to us
and instead prepare for us great evils. Therefore, through
humility, as I said, find forgiveness for your iniquitous
deeds. What salt is for any food, humility is for every
virtue, and she can mightily obliterate many sins. . . . And
if she becomes ours, she will make us sons of God, and
even without good works she will present us to God. For
without humility all our works are vain—every virtue and
every righteous labour.5

Accordingly, a person should not wait until he gains humility

for the fruits of his spiritual labour , even if he makes many
ascetical efforts to reach his aim: ‘If you practice an excellent
virtue without perceiving the taste of its aid, do not marvel; for
until a man becomes humble, he will not receive a reward for his
labour. Recompense is given, not for labour, but for humility.’6
In putting on humility, a person becomes so godlike that he
is loved by eveyone around him and is regarded as a god on
earth. Humility helps restore the reign of love amongst people.

No one ever hates or wounds with words or despises

someone who is humble, for because his Master loves him,
he is loved by all. He loves all and is loved by all. All men
cherish him, and in every place he approaches they see him
as an angel of light and mark him out with honour. And
though the wise man and the teacher discourse, they are
silenced, that they may yield their place to the humble man
to speak. The eyes of all give heed to his mouth, and to
whatever word issues from it. And every man waits on his
words, even as on the words of God. . . . He is announced
as a god by all men, even though he be inexpert in his
speech, and despicable and vile in his appearance.7

5. 1/69 (338) = PR 72 (499).

6. 1/57 (282) = PR 58 (408).
7. 1/77 (382-383) = PR 82 (576-577).

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Assimilation to God through humility brings a human being

back to the primordial sinless state and to that harmony between
him and the universe which was lost as a result of the fall.
Not only people, but also animals and the elements, obey the
humble, as they obeyed Adam in paradise. Even the demons
become his slaves:

The humble man approaches ravening beasts, and when

their gaze rests upon him, their wildness is tamed. They
come up to him as to their master, wag their heads and
tails and lick his hands and feet, for they smell coming
from him that same scent that exhaled from Adam before
the fall, when they were gathered before him and he gave
them names in Paradise. ...8 Even the demons with their
fierceness, their hostility, and all their boastful thinking,
become like dust as soon as they come before him. All
their wickedness becomes folly, and their stratagems are
undone, and their wiles and pernicious cunning are ren¬
dered powerless.9

Humility, by Isaac’s definition, is a certain mysterious power

which is acquired by the saints when they reach the state of
perfection. This power was granted to the Apostles on the
day of Pentecost, when they should receive the power from
on high after Jesus had commanded them not to depart from
Jerusalem.10

The humble are accounted worthy of receiving in them¬

selves the Spirit of revelations who teaches mysteries. On
this account it has been said by certain holy men that hu¬
mility perfects the soul through divine visions. . . . Blessed

8. Cf Gen 2:19. In hagiography, there are many stories of how wild beasts submit
themselves to the humble. Cf the Life of Saint Gerasimos by Jordan, who is said to be
served by a lion. Much later examples are Saint Francis of Assisi, who tamed a wolf,
and Saint Seraphim of Sarov, who was served by a bear.
9. 1/77 (383) = PR 82 (577-578).
10. Cf Acts 1:4, 8.

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 Humility as assimilation to God

is he that has gained it, because at every moment he kisses

and embraces the bosom of Jesus!11

If humility is a supernatural gift of God, not everyone who

is by nature gentle, quiet, prudent, or meek can be regarded
as humble.12 There is a difference between natural and super¬
natural humility, as Isaac discusses in Chapter XVIII of Part II.
There he claims that natural humility cannot be a substitute for
that humility which is born in a Christian by deep repentance
and the memory of God’s greatness and Christ’s humility:

Humility of heart can occur in someone for two reasons:

either as a result of a precise knowledge of one’s sins; or
as a result of recollecting the lowliness of our Lord—or
rather, as a result of recollecting the greatness of God and
the extent to which the greatness of the Lord lowered
itself in order to speak to and instruct us human beings in
various ways—so abasing himself that he even took a body
from humanity. How much did our Lord’s body endure,
what did it have to go through, how despised did he appear
to the world, while all the time he possessed ineffable glory
on high with God the Father, with the angels trembling
at the sight of him as the glory of his countenance blazed
among their ranks! In our case, he appeared in such lowli¬
ness that human beings could, because of the ordinariness
of his appearance, seize hold of him as he spoke with them
and hang him on the wood of the cross.1'

Natural humility has little in common with this supernatural

humility:

Do not adduce for me as an example those who are humble

by nature, saying that there are many such people whose
very nature testifies that they are humble. . . . [These

11. 1/77 (384—385) = PR 82 (580).

12. 1/77 (383) = PR 82 (579-580).
13. 11/18,6.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

people] do not possess this discerning lowliness which

consists in lowly thoughts, discerning and painstaking
reflection, the insignificance in which a person regards
himself, his heart broken, and the flow of tears stemming
from suffering of mind and discernment of the will. If you
choose, ask them. You will find that they have none of
these, no meditation that causes them real suffering, no
real concern over their consciences. They do not meditate
and recollect the lowliness of our Lord; they are not
pierced by the sharp pain that comes from a knowledge
of their sins; there is no burning fervour which enflames
their hearts at the recollection of the good things that
are to come; they have none of the other advantageous
thoughts that are normally stirred up in the heart as a
result of the mind’s wakefulness.14

If one is to include in the ranks of the humble all those who

are meek and gentle by nature, then one must number eunuchs
among virgins and the consecrated,15 even though it was only
nature, and not their own will, that kept them from marriage.
‘It is exactly the same with those who are mild and humble by
nature: it is nature which has moderated their impulses, and
not strength of will. These people neither taste nor are they
in the slightest aware of the sweetness of the charisms and
consolations of which those who are humble for our Lord’s
sake taste’.16

2. Humility as an inner quality

Humility is primarily an inner quality. It consists in trust in

God, absence of hope in one’s self, the sense of one’s own

14. 11/18,8-9.
15. The term qaddise (consecrated) in early syriac literature (Aphrahat) refers to
married people who willingly abstain from sexual intercourse; later it was used to mean
‘saints’ in general.
16. 11/18,10-11.

116
 Humility as an inner quality

unworthiness and defenselessness, the presence of the Holy

Spirit hidden in the depths of the heart. At the same time humil¬
ity reveals itself outwardly; it is expressed in lowly appearance
and poor clothing, in lack of verbosity and obtrusiveness, in
giving honour to others, in trying to avoid privileges, in endur¬
ing offenses and afflictions. The inward and outward aspects
of humility are inseparably linked. Outward humility is false
unless a person humbles himself before God in his heart, and
inward humility cannot be true if it in no way reveals itself
outwardly.
By this understanding, there are both inward and outward
signs of humility. Drawing a boundary line between them is
difficult, as we see in the following passage:

Humility is accompanied by modesty and self-collected¬

ness: that is, chastity of the senses; a moderated voice;
mean speech; self-belittlement; poor raiment; a gait that
is not pompous; a gaze directed toward the earth; su¬
perabundant mercy; easily flowing tears; a solitary soul;
a contrite heart; imperturbability to anger; undistracted
senses; few possessions; moderation in every need; en¬
durance; patience; fearlessness; manliness of heart born of
a hatred for this temporal life; patient endurance of trials;
deliberations that are ponderous, not light; extinction of
thoughts; guarding of mysteries; chastity; modesty; rever¬
ence; and above all, continually to be still and always to
claim ignorance.17

In this catalogue of the marks of humility both inward and

outward qualities are listed without any specific classification.
If we were to classify the signs of humility and to speak
first of inner signs, the first of them would be a deep sense
of God’s presence, out of which humility is born. A person
cannot be humble by himself, by means of his own efforts and

17. 1/71 (349) = PR 74 (516-517).

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

external activities: he humbles himself when, in encountering

God, he perceives God’s greatness and his own nothingness.
After such an encounter a person comes to God in deep silence
of heart, not even considering himself worthy to utter the words
of prayer in the presence of Him who is above all words. This
silent, humble prayer leads a person to mystical depths of divine
contemplation:

I should marvel greatly if there were any truly humble man

who would venture to supplicate God when he draws nigh
to prayer, or to ask to be accounted worthy of prayer, or
to make entreaty for any other thing, or who would know
what to pray. For the humble man keeps a reign of silence
over all his deliberations, and simply awaits mercy and
whatever decree should come forth concerning him from
the countenance of God’s worshipful majesty. . . . When
he bows his head to the earth, and contemplation within
his heart is raised to the sublime gate leading to the Holy
of Holies wherein is He whose dwelling place is darkness18
which dims the eyes of the Seraphim and whose brilliance
awes the legions of their choirs and sheds silence upon
all their orders. . . . Then he dares only to speak and pray
thus, ‘May it be unto me according to thy will, O Lord’.19

Another inner sign of humility is death to the world: ‘The

man who has acquired humility in his heart is dead to this
world’.20 Revulsion for this world is a sign of humility which
comes from spiritual wisdom:

Question: Whence does a man perceive that he has received

wisdom from the Spirit?
Answer-. From the knowledge that teaches him the ways of
humility in his hidden depths and in his senses, and reveals
to him in his intellect how humility is received.
18. Cf 3 Kings 8:12, 54.
19. 1/71 (350) = PR 74 (517-518).
20. 1/51 (244) = PR 50 (346).

118
 Humility as an inner quality

Question: Whence does a man perceive that he has attained

to humility?
Answer-. From the fact that he regards it as odious to please
the world either in his association with it or by word, and
the glory of this world is an abomination in his eye.21

The awakening of the voice of conscience in a person is yet

another inner sign of humility. It teaches him not to accuse
God or his neighbour in anything, not to lay the blame on the
occurrences of life or to justify himself. The person who listens
to the voice of his conscience will attain spiritual stillness and
reconciliation with God:

The continual reprimands of the conscience are a sign of

humility. The lack of these in any undertaking is a sign
of hardness in heart: it is an indication that a person is in
the habit of justifying himself, of blaming his neighbour
instead—or, even worse, of blaming the wise provision of
God. Conversely, a person cannot leave the boundaries
of humility unless he first sees himself as being without
blame, blaming instead the events and occasions which
have been provided for him by God. For when, as a
result of a strict conscience, he observes himself subject
to events, then a person will recognize that his condition
is one of a profound degree of humility. This will be
recognized by the fact that he is in a state of peace and
tranquillity at all that happens to him; for he proves to be
imperturbed - and this is the restful state which belongs to
humility, and is the fruit of maturity. Whoever has entered
this will find that in every temptation his feeling of rest
will be greater than his feeling of vexation.22

Inner stillness is one of the characteristic signs of humility. It

manifests itself in the absence of fear amid life’s circumstances,

21. 1/62 (298) = PR 62 (431-432).

22. 11/37,1-2.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

in confidence in the divine providence which protects one from

every evil:

A humble man is never rushed, hasty, or agitated, never

has any hot or volatile thoughts, but at all times remains
calm. Even if heaven were to fall and cleave to the earth,
the humble man would not be dismayed. Not every quiet
man is humble, but every humble man is quiet, . . . for
the humble man is always at rest, because there is nothing
which can agitate or shake his mind. Just as no one can
frighten a mountain, so the mind of a humble man cannot
be frightened.23

The humble person does not fear accidental occurrences,

for it is only God whom he fears: the fear of God drives any
other fear away from his heart. The notion of the fear of
God presupposes an attitude to him that is characterized by
a religious trepidation before him, an effort not to offend him
by any sinful deed or thought. Humility, according to Isaac, is
born of the fear of God. Humility involves contrition of heart,
the fear of God, and spiritual joy:

There is a humility that comes from the fear of God, and

a humility that comes from the fervent love of God. One
man is humbled because of his fear of God; another is
humbled because of his joy. The man humbled by fear
of God is possessed of modesty in his members, a right
ordering of his senses, and a heart contrite at all times.
But the man humbled because of joy is possessed of great
exuberance and an open and insuppressible heart.24

Isaac compares humility with infancy: the humble for the

sake of God are like infants in their simplicity and innocence.
The exhortation to become like children is part of the message

23. 1/71 (349) = PR 74 (515).

24. 1/51 (245) = PR 50 (346).

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 Humility as an inner quality

of Jesus: ‘Except ye be converted, and become as little children,

ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven’.25 The exegetes of
the antiochene school interpreted this text as an indication that
a Christian should be humble and simple-hearted.26 Developing
this theme, Isaac points out that the defenselessness of small
children forces God to take particular care of them. The humble
should be similarly defenseless:

It has been said, ‘The Lord preserveth the infants’.27 An

infant goes up to a snake and clasps it by the neck, and it
does him no harm. An infant goes naked all winter long,
when everyone else is dressed and covered up, and the
cold steals over all his limbs unfelt. He sits naked on a
day of cold, ice, and frost and suffers nothing because the
body of his innocence is swaddled with another, invisible,
garment woven of that hidden providence which protects
his tender limbs, lest harm from any source come near
him. . . . ‘The Lord preserveth the infants’. And not only
those who are tiny in body, but also those who, being
wise in the world, abandon their knowledge, . . . applying
themselves entirely to that other, all-sufficing wisdom, and
becoming like babes in their own free will. ...28

Therefore, the humble person is preserved under the special

protection of God’s providence: it covers him like clothing, pro¬
tecting him from every danger from outside. In other words, the
humble enters into a special relationship with God: renouncing
natural means of self-defense, he puts his whole trust in God,
who ‘preserveth the infants’.
In human weakness, the strength of God is made perfect,
as Saint Paul claimed.29 When a person becomes aware of

25. Mt 18:3.
26. Cf John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew 58.2-3.
27. Ps 114:6.
28. 1/72 (351-352) = PR 77 (525).
29. Cf 2 Cor 12:9.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

his own weakness and calls on God to come to his aid, he

will undoubtedly receive this aid. Between humility and prayer
there is an unbroken link:

Blessed is the man who knows his own weakness, for this
knowledge becomes for him the foundation, the root, and
the beginning of all goodness. . . . When a man knows that
he is in need of divine help, he offers up many prayers. And
by as much as he multiplies them is his heart humbled,
for there is no man who will not be humbled when he is
offering supplication and entreaty. ‘A heart that is broken
and humbled, God will not despise’.30

One should therefore pray to reach the state of humility, be¬

cause it is impossible to attain to it using only human means.
As Isaac says:

What is impossible with humanity can very well happen

with God.31 Instead of making your prayer on the topic
of this thing or another, or concerning that matter or an¬
other, abandon all these and rely on a single prayer, saying,
‘O God, grant me humility so that I may be freed from the
lash, so that with humility I may draw near even to those
delights of the mind of which I am unaware—however
much I may desire to know them—before I acquire this
humility’. And God will then give you the gift of his Spirit,
a gift whose greatness you are not capable of speaking
about or conceiving, for by it you will be made humble
in a hidden way. . . . My brother, believe that humility is a
power which cannot be described by the tongue, nor can
it be acquired by human power; rather, it is given in prayer
to whomsoever it may be given, and it is received amidst
vigils consisting of supplication and fervent entreaties.32

30. 1/8 (67-68) = PR 8 (104-105). Cf Ps 51:17.

31. Cf Mt 19:26.
32. 11/27,1-3.

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 External signs of humility

3. External signs of humility

When we turn to external signs of humility, we must speak in

particular of the absence of any interest in earthly distractions
and pleasures, of striving to avoid worldly cares and luxury. A
person who possesses a great deal of money, who is preoccupied
with labour, or who takes part in social activity, is bound hand
and foot by the ties of this world. On the other hand, the
person who avoids all of these entanglements, preserves godlike
freedom:

A humble man is never pleased to see gatherings, con¬

fused crowds, tumult, shouts and cries, opulence, adorn¬
ment, and luxury, the cause of insobriety; nor does he
take pleasure in conversations, assemblies, noise, and the
scattering of the senses; but above all else he chooses to
be by himself and to collect himself within himself—being
alone in stillness, separated from all creation, and taking
heed of himself in a silent place. Insignificance, absence of
possessions, want, and poverty are in every way beloved by
him. He is not engaged in manifold and fluctuating affairs,
but at all times he desires to be unoccupied and free of the
cares and the confusion of the things of this world, that
he may keep his thoughts from going outside himself. . . .
For all these reasons a humble man unceasingly protects
himself from many affairs, and thus at all times he is found
tranquil, gentle, peaceful, modest, and reverent.33

This attitude towards life, the choice not to be involved in

worldly activities and to feel oneself as a guest in human society,
greek ascetical writers call xeniteia, which means ‘exile’ or,
literally, ‘living as a stranger’ (from xenos, ‘stranger’). The syriac
rendering of this term is aksenayuta (from aksenaya, ‘stranger’).34
An ascetic should be ‘living as a stranger’, according to Isaac,

33. 1/71 (348-349) = PR 74 (515-516).

34. On xeniteia/aksenayuta, see Guillaumont, ‘Depaysement’.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

in every place and at all times: ‘Consider yourself a stranger

all the days of your life, wherever you may be . . ,’35 In the
ascetical tradition, xeniteia consists, not in a nomadic existence,
but in withdrawal from the world and worldly entertainment, in
a sense of the shortness and fragility of this life, the renunciation
of the earthly for the sake of the heavenly. This xeniteia leads
to humility:

How can man acquire humility? ... By an unceasing

remembrance of transgressions; by the anticipation of
approaching death; by inexpensive clothing; by always
preferring the last place; by always running to do the
tasks that are the most insignificant and distasteful; by not
being disobedient; by unceasing silence; by a dislike of
gatherings; by desiring to be unknown and of no account;
by never holding to one sort of work exclusively; by shun¬
ning conversation with numerous persons; by abhorrence
of material gain; and, after these things, by raising the
mind above the reproach and accusation of every man
and above zealotry; by not being a man whose hand is
against everyone and against whom is everyone’s hand,36
but rather someone who remains alone, occupied with his
own affairs; by having no concern for anyone in the world
save himself. In brief, exile, poverty, and a solitary life give
birth to humility and cleanse the heart.37

Another external manifestation of humility is the uncom¬

plaining endurance of all sorts of humiliations:

Suffer contempt and humiliation with good will, that you

may have boldness before God. The man who knowingly
endures all manner of harsh words, without having previ¬
ously wronged his chider, at that moment places a crown of

35. 1/4 (33) = PR 4 (47).

36. Cf Gen 16:12.
37. 1/71 (345) = PR 74 (508).

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 External signs of humility

thorns on his head, and he is blessed, for he is crowned with

an imperishable crown in a time which he knows not.38

Isaac considers the unmurmuring endurance of offenses and

accusations as the highest virtue:

Someone who is able to suffer wrong with joy, though

having at hand the means to rebuff it, has consciously
received from God the consolation of his faith. The man
who endures accusations against himself with humility has
arrived at perfection, and he is marveled at by the holy
angels, for there is no other virtue so great and so hard
to achieve.39

Humility is also manifested in a person’s striving to be hu¬

miliated by other people:

As grace accompanies humility, so painful incidents ac¬

company pride. The eyes of the Lord are upon the humble
to make them glad; but the face of the Lord is against the
proud to make them humble. Humility always receives
mercy from God; but hardness of heart and littleness of
faith contend with fearful encounters. ... In all respects
belittle yourself before all men, and you will be raised
above the princes of this age. Anticipate every person
with your greeting and your bow, and you will be more
highly prized than those who bring the gold of Ophir as
a gift.40 Be contemptible in your own eyes, and you will
see the glory of God within yourself. For where humility
burgeons, there God’s glory wells forth. If you strive to
be slighted openly by all men, God will cause you to be
glorified. If you have humility in your heart, then in your
heart God will show you his glory. Be disdained in your

38. 1/4 (29) = PR 4 (41).

39. 1/5 (43) = PR 5 (63-64).
40. Cf 3 Kings [Heb: 1 Kings] 10:11.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

greatness, and not great in your insignificance. Endeavour

to be despised, and you will be filled with the honour of
God. Seek not to be honoured while within you are full
of wounds. Deprecate honour, that you maybe honoured;
and do not love it, that you may be dishonoured.41

True humility, according to Isaac, reveals itself in honouring

one’s neighbour more even than he deserves. The humble
person will treat everyone he encounters with respect, honour
and love:

When you meet your fellow man, constrain yourself to pay

him more honour than is his due. Kiss his hands and feet;
often take his hand with deep respect, put them over your
eyes, and praise him for what he does not even possess.
And when he parts from you, say every good thing about
him, and whatever it may be that commands respect. For
by these and similar acts, you draw him to good . . . and
you sow the seeds of virtue in him.42

Though Isaac speaks here of‘constraining’ oneself to paying

honour to a fellow human being, he does not mean having
an artificially affectionate attitude: rather, this attitude should
be a natural consequence of a true love of one’s neighbour,
deepest respect for him, and a sense of one’s own unworthiness
before him.
An extreme outward manifestation of inner humility is ‘holy
folly’, a fairly widespread phenomenon in the Orthodox East at
the time of Isaac the Syrian. To be ‘a holy fool’ means deliber¬
ately to take upon oneself the appearance of a fool or to commit
certain reprehensible actions in order to be condemned and de¬
spised by other people. Holy folly was exercised by ascetics who
became renowned for their virtuous and saintly life: devoid of an
opportunity to endure offenses and humiliation, they put on a

41. 1/5 (50) = PR 5 (76-77).

42. 1/5 (51-52) = PR 5 (79).

126
 External signs of humility

mask of madness in order to recover this opportunity. ‘If a man’,

Isaac writes, ‘does not despise honours and dishonours, and if,
for the sake of stillness, he does not patiently endure reproach,
mocking, injury, and even blows and become a laughing-stock,
considered by all who see him to be a fool and a half-wit, he
cannot persevere in the good things of stillness’.43
Isaac cites as an example ancient saints who took upon them¬
selves the mask of folly for the sake of avoiding human glory,
and who, in order to be humiliated, even confessed sins that
they did not commit:

A man who is truly humble is not troubled when he is

wronged and he says nothing to justify himself against
the injustice, but he accepts slander as truth; he does
not attempt to persuade men that he is calumniated, but
he begs forgiveness. Some have voluntarily drawn upon
themselves the repute of being licentious, when they are
not; others have endured the charge of adultery, being
far from it, and have proclaimed by their tears that they
bear the fruit of sins they have not committed, and have
wept, asking their offenders’ forgiveness for the iniquity
they have not perpetrated; all the while their souls are
crowned with all purity and chastity. Others, lest they be
glorified for the virtuous state they have hidden within
them, have pretended to be lunatics, while in truth they
were so permeated with divine salt and so securely fixed in
serenity, because of their uttermost perfection, that they
had holy angels as heralds of their deeds of valour.44

Isaac shares with us his own personal memoirs of conversa¬

tions on the theme of holy folly with famous ascetics of the time
of his monastic youth. He tells us about how he once went to
‘a certain elder, an excellent and virtuous man’ and said to him:

43. 1/44 (217) = PR 41 (307-308).

44. 1/6 (55) = PR 6 (85-86). Isaac refers, in particular, to the Life of Saint Symeon
of Emesa, a holy fool of the sixth century.

127
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

‘Father, the thought comes to me to go early to the portico of

the church on Sunday and to sit down there and eat, so that
everyone who enters or departs would see and scorn me’. In
answer to this the elder replied:

It is written that every man who causes scandal for those

of the world shall not see light. No one knows you in
this region,45 nor does anyone know what your fame is,
and so they will say, ‘The monks eat from the morning
hours’.. . . The fathers of old did such things because of
the many miracles which they worked and the honour and
great name they possessed among men. They did this, that
they might be dishonoured, to hide the glory of their way
of life, and to drive away from themselves the causes of
pride. But what necessity obliges you to do such a thing?
Do you know that every discipline has its rule and time?
Your way of life is not singular, nor your name famous,
for your discipline is [simply] that of the brethren; this
thing would not be profitable to you and you would harm
the others. Furthermore, such things are done by way of
dispensation and are not beneficial for every man, but only
the great and perfect’.46

In this way the elder tried to temper the young ascetic’s

fervour and prevent him from committing acts which were
blameworthy from the point of view of monastic ethics, even if
the aim of all this was obtaining humility.

45. This remark shows that in his youth Isaac dwelt or traveled in a foreign land
46. 1/21 (106-107) = PR 18 (142-143).

128
 Chapter V

TEARS

It is you who grant repentance and a sorrowing heart to the

sinner who repents; in this way you ease his heart of the
weight of sin that is laid upon it, thanks to the comfort which
comes from sorrowing and from the gift of tears.
11/5,3-

S AINT ISAAC’S TEACHING ON TEARS is closely con¬

nected with the theme of repentance. As we shall see, how¬
ever, he speaks not only of weeping in repentance for sins
but also of the tears of compunction that well up in a person
at his encounter with God. In this chapter we shall discuss
Isaac’s teaching on repentance and then his notion of the two
kinds of tears: bitter tears of repentance; and sweet tears of
compunction.

1. Repentance

Following Aphrahat and John the Solitary,1 Isaac speaks of

repentance as a medicine invented by God for the constant
renewal and healing of a person:

Because God, with that compassionate knowledge of his,

knew that if genuine righteousness were required of hu¬
man beings, then only one in ten thousand would be found

1. Cf Aphrahat, Demonstrations 7,3-4; John of Apamea, Epistle 45. Cf Brock, Note

2 to 11/40,8.

129
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

who could enter the kingdom of heaven, he accordingly

provided them instead with a medicine suitable for every¬
one, namely repentance, so that on every day and at every
moment there would be available to them an opportunity
easily to be put in the right by means of the strength of
this medicine: through compunction they would be able
at any time to wash away from themselves every stain they
might incur; they would be able to be renewed each day
through repentance. How great are the means which our
compassionate Maker has, in the wisdom of his divinity,
provided us for the sake of our everlasting life (hayye),2
for it is his wish that we should be renewed each day and
begin again with a virtuous change of will and a renewal
of mind.3

Repentance is the constant spiritual state of an ascetic; -it

should be forever present in the heart: ‘At every moment we
should know that we stand in need of repentance throughout
the twenty-four hours of the night and day’ .4 Repentance should
not be limited to a certain period in a person’s life nor con¬
sidered the lot of a certain category of people. Repentance is
universal:

If we are all sinners and no man is above sin’s temptations,

it is certainly true that no virtue is more pre-eminent
than repentance. (For a man can never complete the work
of repentance. It is always suitable to every sinner and
righteous man who wishes to gain salvation. There is no
limit to perfection, for even the perfection of the perfect
is truly without completion. And for this very reason
repentance is bounded neither by periods of time nor by
works until a man’s death).5

2. The syriac term hayye means both ‘life’ and ‘salvation’.

3. 11/40,8-9.
4. 1/70 (340) = PR 73 (502).
5. 1/32 (153) = PR 30 (217). The text in brackets is absent from the east-syrian
recension.

130
 Repentance

Isaac defines repentance as the ‘abandoning of former deeds

and grieving for them’.6 7 Using another definition, he writes:
‘the meaning of the word repentance (tyabuta) ... is this: con¬
tinual and mournful supplication which by means of prayer
filled with compunction draws nigh to God in order to seek
forgiveness of past offenses, and entreaty for preservation from
future’. In the latter definition we can distinguish three points.
First, repentance is prayer to God, it is standing before God and
not merely thinking about past sins within oneself. Secondly, it
is the renunciation of one’s sinful past and regret for it. Thirdly,
it is looking forward towards the future, and choosing to pre¬
serve oneself from sin. Repentance is, therefore, a synthetic act:
it includes standing before God, regretting past sins and willing
to avoid them in the future.
Repentance can be compared with a ship by which a person
crosses the sea that separates him from the noetic paradise. The
pilot of this ship is the fear of God, and the goal of the journey
and its haven is divine love. Into this haven enter all who are
‘afflicted and heavy laden’ in repentance.8 ‘Rig together my
impulses for the ship of repentance’, Isaac prays, ‘so that in it I
may exult as I travel over the world’s sea until I reach the haven
of your hope.’9
It is traditional in patristic literature to present repentance as
a second baptism, and Isaac develops this same theme. Accord¬
ing to him, God did not wish that human beings, who abused
their freedom, should be deprived of the blessed state that had
been prepared for them, and thus God ‘in his mercifulness
devised a second gift, which is repentance, so that by it the
soul’s life might acquire renewal every day and thereby every

6. 1/71 (344) = PR 74 (507).

7. 1/70 (340) = PR 73 (502).
8. 1/46 (224-225) = PR 43 (317). Cf Mt 11:28.
9. 11/5,14. Nautical imagery is traditional for the east-syrian writers of the time
before Isaac; the phrase ‘the sea of the world’ (yammeh d-‘alma) is a commonplace
found in both greek and syriac writers; see Brock, Notes 2-3 to 11/5,14 (12); Note 4
to 11/7,3 (25).

131
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

time be put aright’.10 Repentance is the renewal of the grace of

baptism that was lost after humanity’s fall:

Repentance is given to man as grace after grace, for repen¬

tance is a second regeneration by God. That of which we
have received an earnest by baptism, we receive as a gift
by means of repentance. Repentance is the door of mercy,
opened to those who seek it. By this door we enter into
the mercy of God, and apart from this entrance we shall
not find mercy. . . . Repentance is the second grace ... 11

Through repentance a person receives back that knowledge

which was given to him as a pledge in baptism.12
Repentance arises in a person through the activity of divine
grace in the soul. It begins when God bestows on us a con¬
sciousness of our own sins. This consciousness penetrates into
our thoughts as God sees to it that we suffer multifarious trials.13
Perceiving one’s own sins, Isaac claims, is more important than
performing miracles or having supernatural mystical visions,
for with this awareness the way of repentance begins. And
repentance itself is higher than many other virtues:

The man who is conscious of his sins is greater than

someone who profits the whole world by the sight of his
countenance. The man who sighs over his soul for but
one hour is greater than someone who raises the dead by
his prayer while dwelling amid many men. The man who
is deemed worthy to see himself is greater than someone
who is deemed worthy to see the angels, for the latter
has communion through his bodily eyes, but the former
through the eyes of his soul. The man who follows Christ
in solitary mourning is greater than someone who praises
God in the congregation of men.14

10. n/10,19.
11. 1/46 (223) = PR 43 (315).
12. 1/47 (227) = PR 44 (319). Cf 1/46 (223) = PR43 (315); 1/64 (305) = PR65 (443).
13. 1/74 (362) = PR 79 (542).
14. 1/64 (317) = PR 65 (463-464).

132
 Repentance

Repentance is an integral act involving both the heart and

the intellect of a person. Isaac speaks of the ‘grief of the heart’
and ‘sorrow of mind’ as attributes of repentance.15 ‘A broken
and a contrite heart’, of which the Psalms speak,16 is acquired
by a person in the process of repenting and realizing his own
sins and this is at the same time deliverance from the burden
of these sins: ‘It is You who grant repentance and a sorrowing
heart to the sinner who repents; in this way You ease his heart
of the weight of sin that is laid upon it, thanks to the comfort
which comes from sorrowing and from the gift of tears’.17
Forgiveness of sins, the fruit of repentance, immediately fol¬
lows repentance, and the reason for this is God’s immeasurable
love for humankind, the love which impelled the Son of God
not only to forgive all sinners but also to become human for
the deliverance of human persons from sins: ‘Seeing that his
face is set all the time towards forgiveness, ... he pours over us
his immense grace that, like the ocean, knows no measure. To
anyone who shows just a little suffering and the will to com¬
punction for what has occurred, to such a person immediately,
at once, without any delay, he will grant forgiveness of their
sins’.18
For this reason a Christian should never doubt that his sins,
even grave sins, are forgiven by God as soon as he repents.
Confidence in forgiveness derives from faith in God’s mercy,
which surpasses God’s justice, in divine providence, and espe¬
cially in the Incarnation of God the Word which is a pledge of
reconciliation between God and the humanity:

Who, on seeing and hearing these things, will be stirred

by that recollection of his sins which will raise doubt
in his mind: ‘Will God, if I ask him, forgive me these
things by which I am pained and by whose memory I am
tormented, things by which, though I abhor them, I go on

15. 1/51 (243-244) = PR 50 (344).

16. Cf Ps 51:17.
17. 11/5,3.
18. 11/40,13.

133
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

backsliding? Yet after they have taken place the pain they
give me is even greater than that of a scorpion’s sting.
Though I abhor them, I am still in the middle of them,
and when I repent of them with suffering I wretchedly
return to them again.’ This is how many God-fearing
people think, people who foster virtue and are pricked
with the suffering of compunction, who mourn over their
sin; yet human prosperity compels them to bear with the
backsliding which results from it. They live between sin
and repentance all the time. Let us not be in doubt, O
fellow humanity, concerning the hope of our salvation,
seeing that he who bore sufferings for our sakes is very
concerned about our salvation; his mercifulness is far more
extensive than we can conceive, his grace is greater than
what we ask for. For the right hand of our Lord is stretched
out night and day, while he is on the look out to support,
comfort, and encourage everyone—especially to see if he
can find any who endure even just a little suffering and
grief so that their sins may be forgiven—people who are
grieved over the small portion of their righteousness ... 19

Through the act of repentance, reconciliation between God

and a human person takes place. A person is required to repent
the sins he has committed, to make a decisive act of will to pre¬
serve himself from them in the future, to maintain a prayerful
attitude before God, and to ask for forgiveness. The forgiveness
which comes from God, reconciles the penitent with God and
lets him participate in divine love.

2. Bitter and sweet tears

The gift of tears is a characteristic theme of syriac ascetical

literature, and an integral part of Isaac the Syrian’s monastic
spirituality.20

19. 11/40,15-17. The text of the last phrase is damaged in the manuscript; see
Brock, Note 2 to 11/40,17 (179).
20. Cf Licher, ‘Tears’; Mascia, ‘Tears’, passim.

134
 Bitter and sweet tears

In Syriac, the word abila, ‘a mourner’, was used to designate

a monk. According to Syrian tradition, a monk is primarily
someone who mourns for himself, for others, for the whole
world. ‘A mourner (abila) is he who passes all the days of his
life in hunger and thirst for the sake of his hope and future
good things’, Isaac says. ‘A monk (ihidaya) is he who, making his
dwelling far from the world’s spectacles, has as the only entreaty
of his prayer the desire for the world to come. A monk’s wealth is
the comfort that comes of mourning . . .’21 In accordance with
this concept of the monk as mourner for sins, Isaac writes:

What meditation can a monk have in his cell save weeping?

Could he have any time free from weeping to turn his
gaze to another thought? And what occupation is better
than this? A monk’s very cell and his solitude, which bear
a likeness to life in a tomb, far from human joys, teach
him that his work is to mourn. And the very calling of
his name urges and spurs him on to this, because he is
called ‘the mournful one’ (abila), that is, bitter in heart.
All the saints have left this life in mourning. If, therefore,
all the saints mourned and their eyes were ever filled with
tears till they departed from this life, who would have
no need of weeping? A monk’s consolation is born of his
weeping. And if the perfect and victorious wept here, how
could a man covered with wounds endure to abstain from
weeping? He whose loved one lies dead before him and
who sees himself dead in sins—has he need of instruction
on the thought he should employ for tears? Your soul, slain
by sins, lies before you; your soul which is of greater value
to you than the whole world. Could there be no need for
you to weep over her? If, therefore, we enter stillness and
patiently persevere therein, we shall certainly by able to
be constant in weeping. So let us entreat the Lord with an
unrelenting mind to grant us mourning.22

21. 1/6 (54) = PR 6 (83-84).

22. 1/37 (177-178) = PR 35 (251-252).

135
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian _

Thus mourning, Isaac teaches, should be constant and un¬

ceasing. As one comes closer to the fruit of spiritual life, tears
become more and more frequent until they flow forth every day
and every hour:

Question: What are the exact tokens and accurate signs that
the fruit which is hidden in the soul has begun to appear
from a man’s labour?
Answer: When a man is deemed worthy to receive the gift
of abundant tears which overcome him effortlessly- For
tears are established lor the mind as a kind of boundary
between what is physical and what is spiritual and between
passionateness and purity. Until a man receives this gift,
the activity of his work is still in the outer man and he has
not yet perceived at all the activity of the hidden things
of the spiritual man. But when a man begins to relinquish
the corporeal things of the present age and crosses this
boundary to that which lies inside the visible nature, then
straightway he will attain to the grace of tears. And from
the first hospice of the hidden discipline tears begin to
flow and they lead a man to perfection in the love of God.
The more he progresses in this discipline, the more he is
enriched with love, until by reason of his constant converse
with tears he imbibes them with his food and drink.-''

At the same time constant weeping does not mark the cli¬
max of the spiritual journey. The culmination, according to
Isaac, is the state wherein a person, under the influence of
constant weeping, comes to ‘peace of thought' and spiritual
rest: in this state tears become ‘moderate’. The dynamics of the
transition from recurrent tears to constant weeping, and then
from constant weeping to the ‘moderate’ tears of the perfect,
is described by Isaac in Homily XIY of Part 1: the advent of
tears of repentance signifies that a person is embarking on the

23. 1/37 (174) = PR 35 (244-245).

 Bitter and sweet tears

way to God. In the first stage of this way, tears are temporary
and recurrent; in the second they flow without ceasing; in the
highest, they come to a ‘measure’. Isaac considers his teaching
consonant with the faith of the whole Church:

When you attain to the region of tears, then know that

your mind has left the prison of this world and has set
its foot on the roadway of the new age, and has begun
to breathe that other air, new and wonderful. And at the
same moment it begins to shed tears, since the birth pangs
of the spiritual infant are at hand. For grace, the common
mother of all, makes haste mystically to give birth in the
soul to the divine image for the light of the age to come.

Developing the same metaphor, Isaac teaches that before the

infant has been born, tears come to a solitary from time to time,
but once the infant is born, the tears increase as he grows up
until they flow unceasingly: ‘the eyes of such a man become
like fountains of water for two years’ time or even more, that is,
during the time of transition’. After this transition, the person
enters into the ‘peace of thought’ and the ‘rest’ of which Saint
Paul spoke.24

When you enter into that region which is peace of the

thoughts, then the multitude of tears is taken away from
you, and afterwards tears come to you in due measure
and at the appropriate time. This is, in all exactness, the
truth of the matter as told in brief, and it is believed by
the whole Church and by her eminent men and front-line
warriors.23

Tears of repentance bom from the consciousness of sins

are accompanied by a ‘bitterness of the heart’ and contrition.
But the dynamics of human development involves a gradual

24. Cf Heb 4:3.

25. 1/14 (82-83) = PR 14 (125-127).

137
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

transition from this type of tears to another, to the sweet tears

of compunction. Isaac expounds his teaching on the two types
of tears in Homily XXXVTI of Part I:

There are tears that burn and there are tears that anoint as
if with oil, Isaac writes. All tears that flow out of contrition
and an anguish of heart on account of sins dry up and
burn the body, and often even the governing faculty feels
the injury caused by their outflow. At first a man must
necessarily come to this order of tears and through them
a door is opened unto him to enter into the second order,
which is superior to the first; this is the sign that a man has
received mercy. These are the tears that are shed because
of insight; they make the body comely and anoint it as
if with oil, and they pour forth by themselves without
compulsion. Not only do they anoint the body with oil,
but they also alter a man’s countenance. ‘When the heart
rejoiceth’, he says, ‘the countenance gloweth, but when it
is in sorrows the countenance is downcast’.26 While the
thinking is silent, these tears are poured forth over the
entire countenance. The body receives from them a sort
of nourishment, and gladness is imprinted upon the face.
Someone who has had experience of these two alterations
will understand.27

The tears of compunction which are accompanied by the

feeling of spiritual joy are granted to someone who attains
purity of heart and dispassion. These tears, a consequence of
the person’s receiving revelations from above and the vision of
God, are implied in the Beatitudes:

Blessed, therefore, are the pure in heart,28 for there is no

time when they do not enjoy the sweetness of tears, and

26. Prov 15:13.

27. 1/37 (174—175) = PR 35 (245-246).
28. Cf Mt 5:8.

138
 Bitter and sweet tears

in this sweetness they see the Lord at all times. While

tears are still wet in their eyes, they are deemed worthy of
beholding his revelations at the height of their prayer; and
they make no prayer without tears. This is the meaning of
the Lord’s saying, ‘Blessed are they that mourn, for they
shall be comforted’.29 For a man comes from mourning
into purity of soul. But when the Lord said that they will be
comforted, he did not explain what sort of comfort. When
by means of tears a monk is deemed worthy of traversing
the land of the passions and of reaching the plains of purity
of soul, then he encounters there consolation which is
not to be discovered in this world. Then he understands
that this is the consolation received through purity at the
completion of mourning, when God wills to give it to
those who weep. For it is not possible that a man who
continually mourns and weeps should be disquieted by the
passions, since the gift of weeping and mourning belongs
to the dispassionate. And if the tears of a man who weeps
and mourns for a long time can not only lead him to
dispassion, but even completely cleanse and free his mind
of the memory of the passions, what can we say of those
who night and day devote themselves to this activity? No
one, therefore, accurately knows the help that comes of
weeping, save only those who have surrendered their souls
to this work. All the saints strive to reach this entryway,
because by means of tears the door is opened for them to
enter the land of consolation, where the footsteps of the
love of God are imprinted through revelations.30

Thus the tears of compunction which are born as someone

reaches the state of purity and dispassion lead him to the perfec¬
tion of the love of God. And the sign that a person has attained
the love of God is his ability to shed tears every time when he
remembers God:

29. Mt 5:4.
30. 1/37 (178-179) = PR 35 (253).

139
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Question: And whence does a man know that he has at¬

tained to the perfect love of God?
Answer-. When the recollection of God is stirred in his
mind, straightway his heart is kindled by the love of Him
and his eyes pour forth abundant tears. For love is wont to
ignite tears by the recollection of beloved ones. A man who
is in this state will never be found destitute of tears, because
that which brings him to the recollection of God is never
absent from him; wherefore even in sleep he converses
with God. For love is wont to cause such things.31

Isaac often says that tears of compunction should accompany

prayer. Tears during prayer are a sign that a person’s repentance
has been accepted by God.32 When the gift of tears is granted,
Isaac warns, the delight of these tears should not be counted as
idleness.33 A multitude of tears is born to a person in the life of
stillness, ‘sometimes with pain, sometimes with amazement; for
the heart humbles herself and becomes like a tiny babe, and as
soon as she begins to pray, tears flow in advance of her prayer’.34
By Isaac’s testimony, tears during prayer were experienced by
the majority of good monks of his time. A monk

may receive the gift of tears during the office—something

which the majority of right-minded brethren experience
—tears which by their quantity so compel that brother
that he is unable to complete the office even though he
struggles hard to do so: instead, he has to abandon the
office because of abundant weeping . . ,’35

As we see, Isaac does not regard tears as an extraordinary gift,

a special charisma of which only very few are counted worthy.

31. 1/37 (183) = PR 35 (261-262).

32. 1/54 (269) = PR 53 (384).
33. 1/64 (307) = PR 65 (446). *
34. 1/64 (310) = PR 65 (451).
35. 11/14,46.

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 Bitter and sweet tears

On the contrary, he is of the opinion that not only monks, but

also persons in the world must shed tears of compunction.
What of those who are by nature incapable of or disinclined
to tears? Isaac answers this question in Chapter XVIII of Part
II. Continual weeping, he says, is born in a person for three
reasons:

[First], as a result of wonder at the insights filled with

mysteries that are revealed all the time to the intellect it
can happen that abundant tears flow involuntarily without
that person feeling any sorrow. . . . Or tears may come
from a fervent love of God which inflames the soul when
someone can no longer endure without weeping contin¬
ually as a result of its sweetness and delight. Or tears may
come from an abundant lowliness of heart.36

But if a person does not possess the flow of tears,

it is not just that he has no tears; rather, he is bereft of

the things which cause tears and he does not possess in
his soul those roots which give birth to them. In other
words, he has never been aware of the taste of the love
of God; reflection on the divine mysteries resulting from
his continuance in God’s presence has never stirred within
him; nor does he possess lowliness of heart, even though
he may imagine that he possesses humility.37

When tears are absent, therefore, a person should not look

for an excuse in the peculiarities of his nature. As true humility
is not a natural quality but is acquired through the awareness
of one’s own unworthiness and remembrance of the Lord’s
humility, so in the same manner tears do not depend on nature
but are a consequence of one of the three reasons mentioned
above:

36. 11/18,4—6.
37. 11/18,7.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

. . . If you do not possess lowliness of heart, or the sweet

and burning suffering that comes with the love of God,
things which are the root for those tears which pour forth
delectable consolation in the heart, then do not take refuge
in the excuse of any lameness on nature’s part, or people
whose heart is naturally torpid.

Where there is lowliness of heart and awareness of one’s own

unworthiness, there

it is not possible for that person to hold himself back

from weeping, even though he does no want to. This is
because the heart involuntary surges forth with a fountain
of weeping continually, due to the burning feeling of
suffering that is uncontrollably in it, and the contrition
of heart.38

Isaac does not always distinguish between the bitter tears of

repentance and the sweet tears of compunction. The two types
of tears are as two sides of a single coin, two aspects of one
and the same experience. The tears of compunction, born from
mystical insights, from the love of God, and from deep humility,
are joyful tears. Yet at the same time they are accompanied
by repentance, by the awareness of one’s own sinfulness, by
‘burning suffering’ and a contrite heart.

38. 11/18,14—15.

142
 Chapter VI

THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER

Just as nothing resembles God,

so there is no ministry or work
which resembles converse with God in stillness.
11/30,1

P RAYER IS UNDOUBTEDLY the most frequently dis¬

cussed and most thoroughly developed theme in Saint
Isaac. When reading his works, one receives a clear idea of
how he and other members of the Church of the East prayed
in his time: one can also gain a detailed picture of the theory
and practice of prayer in the whole of the Eastern Christian
tradition. This clarity is the reason why the writings of Isaac
were a school of prayer for his contemporaries and remained—
and still remain—such a school for many Christians in various
parts of the world where Isaac’s works are read and his recom¬
mendations put into practice.
In this chapter, after discussing Isaac’s theory of prayer, we
shall speak of various external aspects of prayer and then deal
with the practice of prayer before the cross. The reading of
Scripture and the night vigil will be analyzed as important
constituents of the daily practice of prayer. We shall also point
to Isaac’s teaching on the rule of prayer, the universal character
of prayer, and prayers for one’s neighbour, the Church, and
the world. In the concluding section, we will turn to the high¬
est stages of prayer, when human prayer reaches the point of
cessation and is transformed into contemplation.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

1. Prayer

‘Prayer’, according to Evagrius Ponticus, ‘is the converse of the

mind with God’.' For Isaac the Syrian, the converse (‘enyana) of
the mind with God is the highest and most important spiritual
activity of a Christian, and cannot be compared with any other
endeavour: ‘Just as nothing resembles God, so there is no
ministry or work which resembles converse with God (‘enyana
d- ‘am. alaha) in stillness’.1 2 By prayer Isaac understands the whole
range of activities which accompany the converse of the mind
with God:

Every good care of the intellect directed toward God and

every meditation upon spiritual things is delimited by
prayer, is called by the name of prayer and under its name
is comprehended; whether you speak of various readings,
or the cries of a mouth glorifying God, or sorrowing
reflection on the Lord, or making bows with the body,
or the alleluias of psalmody, or all the other things from
which the teaching of genuine prayer ensues.3

According to the understanding traditional in Eastern Chris¬

tian asceticism, prayer is the basis of a Christian’s spiritual life,
a source and cause of all good things. Isaac defines prayer as:

. . . the refuge of help, a source of salvation, a treasury

of assurance, a haven that rescues from the tempest, a
light to those who are in darkness, a staff of the infirm, a
shelter in time of temptations, a medicine at the height of
sickness, a shield of deliverance in war, an arrow sharpened
against the face of the enemies, to speak simply: the entire
multitude of these good things is found to have its entrance
through prayer.4

1. On Prayer 3 [Translated as ‘continual intercourse of the spirit’ by John Eudes

Bamberger, Evagrius Ponticus: Praktikos a?id Chapters on Prayer, p. 56].
2. 11/30,1.
3. 1/63 (303) = PR 63 (435M40).
4. 1/8 (68) = PR 8 (105).

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 Prayer

In another place, he defines prayer as ‘the mind’s freedom

and rest from everything of this world and a heart that has
completely turned its gaze toward the fervent desire belonging
to the hope of future things’.5
At the time of prayer, when a person’s mind is collected and
all the senses are brought into harmony, an encounter between
God and the person praying takes place. This explains why all
spiritual gifts and all mystical visions have been given to the
saints at the time of prayer. It was during prayer that an angel
appeared to Zacharias and announced the conception of John
the Baptist;6 7 8 9 it was during the prayer of the sixth hour that Peter
beheld the divine vision;’ it was while Cornelius the Centurion
prayed that an angel appeared to him.*

When the High Priest once a year, during the dread

time of prayer, entered the Holy of Holies and cast him¬
self down upon his face, ... he heard the oracles of God
through an awesome and ineffable revelation. O how awe¬
some was the mystery which was ministered in this cere¬
mony! So also at the time of prayer were all visions and
revelations made manifest to the saints. For what other
time is so holy, and by its sanctity so apt for the reception
of gifts, as the time of prayer, wherein a man converses
with God? At this time, when we make our petitions and
our supplications to God, and we speak with him, a human
being forcefully gathers together all the movements and
deliberations of his soul and converses with God alone,
and his heart is abundantly filled with God.6

What are the main requirements which Isaac lays down for
true prayer?

5. 1/71 (345) = PR 74 (508).

6. Cf Lk 1:10 ff.
7. Cf Acts 10:9 ff.
8. Cf Acts 10:3 ff.
9. 1/23 (120-121) = PR 22 (173-174).

145
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian_

First, one should pray with attention and without distraction:

external activity should not draw one’s attention from prayer.
Isaac cites as an example an ascetic who said: ‘I was amazed
when I heard of monks who do handwork in their cells and
are able to perform their rule of prayer without omissions and
remain free of turbulence. ... I tell you in very truth, that if I
go out to pass water, I am shaken from my habit of mind and its
order and I am impeded from the accomplishment of my deeds
of excellence’.10
Secondly, one should pray with humility. The prayer of a
humble person goes directly from his mouth to God’s ear.1'

When you fall down before God in prayer, become in your

thought like an ant, like a creeping thing of the earth, like
a leech, and like a tiny lisping child. Do not say anything
before him with knowledge, but with a child’s manner of
thought, draw near God and walk before him, that you
may be counted worthy of that paternal providence that
fathers have for their small children.12

Thirdly, one should pray with deep affection and tears. The
sense of the heart’s affliction, accompanied by bodily labour—
that is prostrations—should become an integral part of prayer:
‘Reckon every prayer wherein the body does not toil and the
heart is not afflicted to be a miscarriage, for this prayer has no
soul’.13 At the same time, as Isaac quotes Evagrius, ‘prayer is
joy that sends up thanksgiving’.14 The paradoxical combination
of affliction of the heart and the spiritual joy of thanksgiving
becomes a source of tears, which accompany prayer, especially
at its highest stages. ‘The fullness of prayer is the gift of tears’,
Isaac says.15

10. 1/21 (108) = PR 18 (146).

11. 1/6 (59) = PR 6 (93).
12. 1/72 (351) = PR 77 (524).
13. 1/21 (107) = PR 65 (446).
14. 1/8 (68) = PR 8 (106). Cf Evagrius, On Prayer 15: ‘Prayer is the fruit of joy and
thanksgiving’ [Bamberger, p. 58],
15. 1/64 (307) = PR 65 (446).

146
 Prayer

Tears during prayer is a sign that the soul has been deemed
worthy of God’s mercy in her repentance, and that her
repentance has been accepted, and through her tears the
soul has begun to enter into the plain of limpid purity.16

Fourthly, one should pray with a patience and an ardour that

are connected with the love of God:

Love is a fruit of prayer that, by prayer’s contemplation,

draws the intellect insatiably toward that for which it longs
when the intellect patiently perseveres in prayer without
wearying, whether it prays in a visible way, employing
the body, or with the mind’s silent reflections, diligently
and with ardour. Prayer is the mortification of the will’s
motions pertaining to the life of the flesh. For a man who
prays correctly is the equal of the man who is dead to
the world. And the meaning of ‘to deny oneself’ is this:
courageously to persevere in prayer.17

Fifthly, every word of prayer should come from the depths

of the heart. Even if the words of prayer are borrowed from the
psalms, they should be uttered as if they were one’s own:

In the verses of your psalmody do not be like a man

who borrows words from another, lest. . . you be left
utterly devoid of the compunction and joy to be found
in psalmody. Rather, recite the words of psalmody as your
very own, that you may utter the words of your supplica¬
tion with insight and with discriminating compunction.18

Isaac valued psalmody highly and emphasized the necessity of

meditating on the words of psalms:

16. 1/54 (269) = PR 53 (384).

17. 1/66 (325) = PR 68 (476).
18. 1/54 (269) = PR 53 (384).

147
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

. . . The wondrous words set out in the Odes which are

appointed in the Holy Church, along with all sorts of other
lofty words set out by the Spirit in harmonious chants, all
these can fulfill the place of perfect prayer in someone:
by being meditated upon, they give birth within us to
pure prayers and exalted insights, thus bringing us close
to luminosity of mind and wonder at God, as well as to all
the other things with which the Lord will enlighten you
with wisdom in their due time, as you select those verses
that are appropriate and offer them up to your Lord with
supplication as your intention, repeating them at length
and serenely.19

Finally, prayer should be based on faith and absolute trust

in God.20 Thus we may not ask God for earthly goods, which
God will give us even without our making a special request:

Do not ask of God a thing which he himself, without our

asking, has already taken forethought to give . . . to us. . . .
A son does not ask bread of his father, but seeks the great
and lofty things of his father’s house. It was on account of
the feebleness of the minds of common men that the Lord
commanded us to ask for our daily bread,21 for mark what
he commanded to those who are perfect in knowledge
and healthy in soul: ‘Take no thought concerning food and
raiment. ...22 But seek ye rather the kingdom of God and
its righteousness, and all these things will be added unto
you’.23

Those who truly believe in God do not ask God ‘Give this to
us’, or ‘Take that from us’, and do not take heed of themselves
at all, for they perceive in their life the fatherly providence of
19. n/21,7.
20. 1/54 (266) = PR 53 (379).
21. Cf Mt 6:11.
22. Cf Mt 6:28.
23. 1/3 (23-24) = PR 3 (32-33). Cf Mt 6:33.

148
 Prayer

God.24 Instead of asking God ‘What will you give me?’, the
freeborn soul asks God to preserve the treasury of faith in its
heart, ‘though in fact God does not need even this prayer’.25
The main requirements necessary for prayer, according to
Isaac, are therefore: attentiveness and the absence of distrac¬
tion, humility, a deep feeling of contrition accompanied by
tears, patience, and ardor, words of prayer uttered out of the
depths of the heart, true belief, and trust in God. Such prayer
will easily and speedily reach the ears of God.
Sometimes, however, God may appear to be slow in answer¬
ing prayer and not always to fulfill requests. Isaac gives two
reasons for this. The first is the providence of God, by which
God gives to everyone according to his measure and ability
to receive:

If you should beseech God for a thing and he is slow to

hearken to you speedily, do not grieve, for you are not
wiser than God. This happens to you either because you
are not worthy to obtain your request, or because the
pathways of your heart do not accord with your petitions,
but rather the contrary, or because your hidden measure
is too immature for the greatness of the thing you are
asking for.26

Another reason why God seems not to hear our prayer is our
own sins:

Since we say that God is plenteous in mercy, why is it that

when amidst temptations we unceasingly knock and pray,
we are not heard and he disregards our prayer? This we are
clearly taught by the Prophet when he says: ‘The Lord’s
hand is not little, that it cannot save; nor is he heavy of
hearing, that he cannot hear: but our sins have separated

24. 1/52 (253-254) = PR 51 (360-361).

25. 11/8,24.
26. 1/3 (24) = PR 3 (33).

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

us from him, and our iniquities have turned away his face
that he doth not hearken’.27 Remember God at all times,
and he will remember you whenever you fall into evils.28

2. Outward aspects of prayer

Widespread opinion holds that an interest in the external as¬

pects of ascetical activity and the practice of prayer is not
characteristic of the mystical writers; they allegedly concentrate
only on the inner fruits of this practice. Isaac the Syrian is one of
many writers who prove how misleading this idea is. We find in
his works many descriptions of outward forms of prayer based
on his own practice and that of the solitaries of his time. To cite
just one example:

One person may spend the entire day in prayer and in read¬
ing Scripture, giving over only a small part to standing in
the recitation of the Psalter, in this way best increasing in
himself the continual recollection of God. Another person
may be occupied the whole day solely in psalmody, without
specifically being aware at all of prayer. Yet another may
occupy himself night and day just with frequent kneelings,
incorporating the distinctive limits of the Hours and Of¬
fice prayers within his frequent kneelings, without mark¬
ing them off. . . . And occasionally, standing up from there
for a while at peace in his heart, he will turn himself for a
little to meditating on Scripture. Yet another person may
occupy the entire day in reading Scripture, his aim being
to forget this transient world and to be dead in his mind
to the recollection of its transient affairs. . . . Delighting
in the insights of divine mysteries and in wonder at God’s
dispensation at every moment, he will give himself over

27. Is 59:1-2.
28. 1/5 (46) = PR 5 (70).

150
 Outward aspects of prayer

for a little to standing in prayer and psalmody. But the

portion of his reading is greater than that of prayer.29

In this passage, several outward forms of prayer are listed,

such as psalmody, reading, kneeling. Isaac attaches great value
to kneelings (prostrations), considering them as one of the
most important spiritual exercises: ‘More than the practice of
psalmody, love prostrations during prayer’.30 Isaac recommends
that an ascetic make many prostrations during prayer:

At whatever time God should open up your thinking from

within, give yourself over to unremitting bows and pros¬
trations. . . . There is nothing greater and more laborious
in ascetical struggles, and nothing more excites envy in
the demons, than if a man prostrates himself before the
cross of Christ, praying night and day, and is like a convict
whose hands are bound behind him.31

As an example of how prayer should be accompanied by many

prostrations, Isaac cites the night prayer of one monk whom
he visited: ‘ ... It was impossible for me to count the number
of his prostrations. Indeed, who could number the prostrations
which that brother made every night?’32
Another external action which can accompany prayer is strik¬
ing the head with the hand. This, or a similar, practice seems to
be widespread not only in the Syrian tradition, but in oriental
monasticism in general.33 ‘Tears, striking the head in prayer
with the hand, and casting oneself with fervour upon the earth’,
Isaac says, ‘waken the warmth of. . . sweetness inside the heart,
and with a laudable ecstasy the heart soars up toward God . . .’34

29. 11/30,4-7.
30. 1/64 (307) = PR 65 (446).
31.1/4 (38) = PR 4 (57-58).
32. 1/21 (105) = PR 18 (140).
33. Thus John Climacus (Ladder 5; Patrologia Graeca 88:765 AC) mentions the
practice of beating one’s breast during prayer, whereas Symeon the New Theologian
speaks of beating one’s face and pulling one’s hair (Catechetical Discourse 30,168-169).
34. 1/19 (99) = PR 16 (131).

151
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Isaac also speaks of striking one’s head upon the ground ‘a hun¬
dred times or more’.35 He emphasizes that every ascetic employs
one or another form of ascetical practice during prayer, for there
is no common rule for everyone. But his regard for beating
one’s head as a possible substitute for the whole sequence of
daily monastic offices is quite intriguing:

The diverse works of those who live according to God

are the following: one man strikes his head all the day
long, and does this instead of the hours of his services.
Another joins together the set number of his prayers by
persevering in continual prostrations. Another replaces
services by copious tears and this suffices him. . . . But
another, having tested but a little of these things, became
puffed up and fell into error.36

Those who ‘became puffed up’ refers to the Messalians.

Isaac was generally not interested in polemics: he avoided,
for example, the discussion of any christological points which
might have caused controversy among his readers. We do, how¬
ever, find in his writings polemical statements against messalian
opinions.37 The messalian movement—a name taken from the
syriac msallyane, ‘those who pray’—appeared in the fourth cen¬
tury and spread over the entire Christian Orient. Messalians
rejected the Church’s sacraments and asceticism: prayer was
considered as the main spiritual activity, and by means of it,
the Messalians claimed, one reaches various ecstatic states.38 As
a mystical writer who developed themes connected with the
practice of prayer and spiritual life, Isaac was sensitive to the
manifestations of false mysticism and to all sorts of corruption
of the practice of prayer, and keenly reacted to the ‘messalian
errors’.

35. 1/21 (105) = PR 18 (140).

36. 1/6 (62) = PR 6 (98).
37. See PR 72 (495); 11/14,22 and 47; GnostChapt.W,31 and 34, et al.
38. An important contribution to our understanding of Messalianism is Stewart,
Working.

152
 Outward aspects of prayer

Among Isaac’s writings dedicated to anti-messalian polemics,

Chapter XIV of Part II occupies first place. Called ‘On prayer
and its outward forms’, it contains many precious indications
of how the Syrian monks of Isaac’s time prayed.
Though the state of perfection consists in having obtained
spiritual gifts and attained pure prayer, nobody should ne¬
glect outward forms of prayer, states Isaac. Reverential outward
postures are conducive to one’s inward progress towards pure
prayer:

If someone decides to abandon what belongs in first place,

without having found what comes afterwards, then it is
clear that he is being mocked by the demons. ... It is in
proportion to the honour which someone shows in his
person to God during the time of prayer, both with his
body and the mind, that the door to assistance will be
opened for him, leading to the purifying of the impulses
and to illumination in prayer. Someone who shows a rev¬
erential posture during prayer, by stretching out his hands
to heaven as he stands in modesty, or by falling on his face
to the ground, will be accounted worthy of great grace
from on high. Anyone who continuously adorns his prayer
with such outward postures will swiftly and quickly be
accounted worthy of the activity of the Holy Spirit, for the
Lord is accounted great in his eyes, thanks to the honour
he shows in the sacrifices which he presents before the
Lord at those times which have been set apart for him by
the law of freewill.39

Isaac emphasizes at the same time that God does not need
our external signs of reverence. A reverential outward posture
is necessary for us, however, so that we may be trained in a
reverent attitude to God:

You should realize, my brothers, that in all our service

God very much wants outward postures, specific kinds

39. 11/14,8-12.

153
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

of honour, and visible forms of prayer—not for his own

sake, but for our benefit. He himself is not profited by such
things, nor does he lose anything when they are neglected;
rather, they are for the sake of our feeble nature. Had
such things not been requisite, he himself would not have
adopted such outward postures during his incarnation—
thus speaking with us in the Holy Scriptures. He cannot
be dishonoured by anything, seeing that honour belongs
to him by his very nature. But we, as a result of slovenly
habits and various outward actions which lack reverence,
have acquired an attitude of mind that shows contempt
towards him. Consequently we fall from grace of our own
volition, seeing that we are subject to backsliding: then we
are assailed by incessant attacks and continual deception
from the demons, as we acquire a nature that loves comfort
and is easily swayed to evil actions.40

Having substantiated the need for outward forms of prayer,

Isaac turns to a direct attack on messalian practice:

Many people have despised these outward postures in their

thoughts and supposed that prayer of the heart suffices
by itself for God, claiming, as they lie on their backs or
are sitting in a disrespectful manner, that there should
only be an interior recollection of God; they are not
concerned at all with adorning the visible side of their
worship with prolonged standing, corresponding to their
body’s strength, or with making the venerable sign of
the cross over their organs of the senses. Nor are they
concerned, as they kneel on the ground, to act like those
about to draw near to a flame and themselves assume,
both inwardly and outwardly, a reverential posture, or to
accord especial honour to the Lord, honouring him with
all their limbs and with reverence on their faces. This is

40. 11/14,13.

154
 Outward aspects of prayer

because they have not perceived the might of the adversary

they have, and as a result they are handed over to the
workings of falsehood, not having understood that they
are still mortal and liable to be stirred by their soul, which
is subject to backsliding; they do not realize that they have
not yet reached the state of spiritual beings, or that the
resurrection has not yet taken place and they have not yet
achieved a state of immutability. During the body’s life,
when human nature is in need of labour and training in
new things all the time, they have wanted to lead their lives
in a purely spiritual state, without being involved in those
things which necessarily daily constrain the world which is
subject to the passions. ‘Imagining in themselves that they
are wise, they have acted with disrespect’,41 in that the sign
of pride and disrespect for God has appeared in them.
As a result they have doubled their perdition by means
of prayer—which is properly the fountainhead of all life.
This is because they supposed they could offer disrespect
to the Honourable One who is not to be disrespected and
who is to be honoured by all created beings.42

By their neglect of outward forms of prayer, claims Isaac,

the Messalians placed themselves in opposition to Church tra¬
dition. The ancient Fathers not only prayed in their heart, but
also observed various external rules and cared about the posture
of the body during prayer:

It was not the case, as detractors say, that these fixed

numbers of prayers related concerning them were prayers
which just took place in the heart; this is what people with
messalian opinions proclaim concerning them, those who
say that outward forms of worship are unnecessary.43

41. Rom 1:22.

42. 11/14,14.
43. 11/14,22.

155
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

The Holy Fathers, Isaac continues, prayed with reverence,

falling down before the cross, making prostrations, kissing the
cross, and sometimes spending hours on their knees:

These Fathers’ acts of worship44 were very real, and in

particular, by means of them their soul was kept humble.
They carried them all out, taking care to stand up from
their places as they did so—provided they were not pre¬
vented by physical weakness—with great reverence and
deep lowliness of both mind and body, lying prostrate on
their faces before the cross. These acts of worship were
quite separate from those which took place in the heart.
Nevertheless, each time they stood up, they performed
many acts of worship, their body assisting them as the
occasion might allow, kissing the cross five or maybe ten
times, reckoning each act of worship and kiss as a single
prayer. During such acts someone might all of a sudden
sometimes discover a pearl which in a single prayer would
encompass the number of all the others. Sometimes a
person would be standing on his feet, or kneeling, his
mind seized by the wonder of prayer—a state not under
the control of the will of flesh and blood45 and the soul’s
impulses. Or he might be in one of those states of purity
of prayer which we will elucidate later.46

Isaac then discusses in greater detail how the Fathers counted

the prayers they performed daily. They said many prayers and
made many prostrations, he suggests, but did not stand up for
each prostration and did not sit down after each prayer. Having
once stood up, they would make many prostrations, and then,
after finishing, they would read Scripture, or recite the service,
or pray with tears:

44. Or ‘prostrations’.
45. Cf Jn 1:13.
46. 11/14,24.

156
 Outward aspects of prayer

In this manner the Fathers used to carry out those large

numbers of prayers, just as I have described. It was not,
as many people suppose and as others also claim, that
they distinguished a separate time of standing for each
prayer individually—for the wretched body is not capable
of such numbers, standing up separately for each separate
prayer. On this reckoning all the prayers would never be
achieved if someone wanted to stand up from his place
a hundred times in a day, or fifty, or sixty times—to say
nothing of three hundred times or more, as was the custom
of some of die saints; otherwise there would have been no
room for reading or any of the other requirements. Nor
would there have been any opportunity for prolonging
prayer, should it happen that during someone’s prayer,
the gift of tears were granted by grace or a limpid stir¬
ring to draw out one’s prayer, as happens with those who
have been counted worthy of one of these kinds of grace
at such times. Instead, such a person’s Office would be
turbulent and he would be filled with turmoil in all his
ministry.47

Then Isaac suggests that his reader experience the effect of

various ways of prayer in order to see how impossible it is to
stand up separately for each and every prayer:

If someone does not believe this, let him experiment on

himself and see whether he can get up tranquilly from
his place fifty times during a day—let alone a hundred or
two hundred times—and remain undisturbed in himself
and his prayer peaceful, as well as fulfil his Office and the
appointed scriptural reading—which constitutes a large
part of prayer—still unperturbed; will he manage to do
this for a whole week—let alone all the days of his life?48

47. 11/14,25.
48. 11/14,26.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Isaac records all these statements on the practice of prayer

because, in opposition to Messalianism, he wants to leave his
disciples a detailed manual of prayer. The Messalians, he con¬
tinues, reject not only external forms of prayer, but also the
sacraments of the Church and the reading of Scripture. This
break with the tradition of the Church led the Messalians to
spiritual error, pride, and demonic beguilement:

It is not continual prayer which is the cause of going astray,

nor the omission of some psalms—provided there is an
appropriate reason for this; nor do we go on to account
prayer—the source of life—and the labour involved in it
as something which leads to error. Rather, error came
when certain people abandoned prayer’s venerable out¬
ward forms, turning instead to their own rules and special
customs which they had laid down for themselves accord¬
ing to their own whim, and when they completely deprived
themselves of the Holy Mysteries, instead despising and
scorning them; when they deprived themselves further¬
more of the light of the divine Scriptures and failed to
study the teaching of the words of the Fathers which give
instructions about the stratagems against the demons; and
when they gave up the various acts of lowliness, pros¬
trations, continual falling upon the ground, a suffering
heart and the submissive postures appropriate to prayer,
modest standing, hands clasped in submissive fashion,
or stretched out to heaven, the senses respectful during
prayer. Instead, they seized upon various forms of pride,
as a result mingling with their prayer insult towards God.
They accompanied their prayer with haughty outward
postures, forgetting how exalted is the Divine Nature
and how their own nature is but dust. Yet in all this the
words of their prayer were no different from those of
the psalms.49

49. 11/14,42.

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 Outward aspects of prayer

Continuing his description of the outward forms of prayer,

Isaac then comes to prayer with outstretched hands. This pos¬
ture, according to him, promotes concentration of thought
and a deep feeling of compunction. Isaac also emphasizes the
necessity of prayer with one’s own words; this prayer, he is
convinced, leads to spiritual insights:

Most prayers, in fact, consist of words chosen from psalms

containing ideas and sentiments of grief and supplication,
or of thanksgiving and praise, on so on. Thus sometimes,
when someone is kneeling with his face bowed or has his
fingers and gaze raised to heaven, he will add his own
feeling to the words and repeat them slowly. On occasion
the suffering and pain of his heart will cause all sorts of
deeply-felt words of prayer to spring up, or joy may burst
forth in response to something, stirring that person to
alter his prayer to praises owing to the delight his mind
feels. The same applies to other stirrings at prayer which
the Holy Spirit sets in motion in the saints, in whose
utterances are ineffable mysteries and insights. And when
the outward form of prayer provides some sign of the
insight they contain, this is an indication of the mysteries
and perfect knowledge which the saints receive mingled
into their prayers through the wisdom of the Spirit.50

The advantage of praying in one’s own words is that it does

not require the recitation of texts from a book or learning texts
by heart and repeating them. Some ancient saints, Isaac notes,
did not know the psalms at all, yet their prayer, unlike that of
the Messalians, reached God because of their humility:

A person either draws near God or he falls away from

truth; this depends on the direction in which his mind is
aimed and not on the external features of what is done

50. 11/14,43.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

or neglected. Many of the early Fathers—I refer to some

of the great solitaries—did not even know the psalms, yet
their prayers ascended to God like fire as a result of their
excellent ways and the lowliness of mind which they had
acquired. Their words chased away demons like flies; they
buzzed off as they approached. Many people, however,
have used prayer as an excuse for slackness and pride:
failing to grasp the better part,51 they also lost the part
they had. Though they held nothing in their hands, they
imagined that they stood in a state of perfection. Others,
merely on the basis of the educational training they have
had, have supposed that this would be enough to enable
them to discover knowledge of truth: relying on secular
culture and ordinary reading, they fell away from truth,
and failed to humble themselves so as to stand up again.52

We see what meaning outward forms of prayer held for

Isaac.53 He was convinced that prayer with all its outward forms
is ‘the fulfillment of all virtues’.54
At the same time he understands that outward forms, how¬
ever important they may be, are only an aid in acquiring pure
prayer. Outside the context of the anti-messalian polemic he
speaks of the necessity of outward forms in a much more re¬
served manner. In particular, he accepts prayer while sitting.55
Especially for the old and the sick, there must be special rules
which exclude bodily labour:

We do not force the sick or the infirm to abide by the

rule, nor do we say that we should subject someone to
impossibilities. Everything that takes place with reverence
and trembling, and as a result of the exigency of the

51. Cf Lk 10:42.
52. 11/14,44.
53. For the discussion of the outward forms of prayer see also Aphrahat, Demon¬
stration 4; Origen, On Prayer.
54. 11/14,45.
55. 1/20 (103) = PR 17 (137-138) Cf 11/21,6.

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 Outward aspects of prayer

occasion, is seen by God as a choice offering, even if it

lies outside the norm of the rule. Not only does he attach
no blame to the person who so acts, but he accepts paltry
and insignificant things done with a good will for his sake
along with mighty and perfect actions.56

Outward forms of prayer are necessary, but they should be

measured in accordance with the strength of each person. It is
not only the old and infirm who are freed from the necessity
of performing many prostrations and other external actions of
prayer. Anyone who is grown tired in prayer deserves a rest:

Once you have grown feeble and become weary as a result

of the labour of psalmody . . . and as a result of old age or
of great infirmity of body, you are no longer able to toil
at this as you once did, then toil instead in supplication
and intercession, and things like these. Offer up your
supplication at length and earnestly; make your requests
with care, and toil on your supplication with the toil of
the heart. Be importunate, extend your prayer and hold
out until the door is opened to you. For our Lord is
merciful and he will receive you—not on the basis of your
labour, but in accordance with the direction of your mind.
Then your soul will become illumined as you extend your
supplication and your thoughts will be enflamed with love
of him. In this way you will receive assistance from God
in the meagre labours that your weak body undertakes,
without, so far as possible, completely abandoning your
curtailed Offices—so that you do not appear to be like
someone who is unwilling to be subjected to the monastic
rule, for that would result in the demon of pride assaulting
you, as happens with the person who imagines that he no
longer needs such things; or you will gradually end up
in a state of voluntary lassitude. I am not imposing any

56. H/14,15.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

necessary time limit: rather, I am speaking of what can

happen and take place.57

One can pray standing, sitting, or kneeling; what is important

is that prayer should be offered in the fear of God:

Nor would it be anything blameworthy if, in accordance

with the time that corresponds with our strength—and
it does not even need to correspond—we are standing
or sitting, provided that great awe and wakefulness ac¬
company us, thus preventing any contempt of God from
entering us at the time when his Office is being performed
by us, or when the sacrifice of prayer is being made before
him. Rather, this is a matter of understanding and dis¬
cernment, and not of fixed limits and confusion, without
your being too greatly concerned with quantity—for this ,
often enough proves to be the cause of inner turbulence.
Instead, our aim should be to find a way by which our heart
can draw near to God in the Office and in prayer: this is
the purpose of your being subject to the law that apper¬
tains to children. But even more than psalmody, add these
other things and make special use of them, sometimes
standing on your feet, sometimes kneeling, sometimes,
again, seated.58

Ultimately, Isaac comes to the conclusion that there are no

outward postures that are inevitably requisite during prayer.
A deliberate rejection of outward forms of prayer may cause
someone to fall into pride and the ‘messalian error’. Yet this
does not imply that it is completely impossible to pray without
outward forms. On the contrary, one should pray at any time
and in any physical posture:

A person can be occupied at this while standing up or

sitting down, while working or while walking inside his
57. 11/21,1-3.
58. 11/21,4—6.

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 Prayer before the Cross

cell, while he is going to sleep, until the point when sleep

takes over, while he is indoors or while he is traveling on
a journey, secretly occupying himself with them within
his heart; likewise, while he is constantly kneeling on the
ground, or wherever he happens to be standing, even if it
is not in front of the cross. ...59

3. Prayer before the Cross

In several of the passages quoted above, Isaac mentions prayer

and prostrations before the cross, kissing the cross, and other
signs of special reverence which a Christian must show to the
cross. Isaac’s frequent references to the cross reflect the excep¬
tional place that the holy cross occupies in syriac Christianity.
The Church of the East at the time of Isaac did not have a
developed tradition of icon-painting. Though various types of
icons had existed in this Church since a very early date,60 the
cult of the cross was much more developed. The Church of the
East surrounded the holy cross with devotional and liturgical
veneration as a symbol of human salvation and of God’s invisible
presence. In this respect Isaac’s teaching on prayer before the
cross is of special interest, for it allows us to come into contact
with the ancient tradition of the Syrian Orient and to see what
the importance of the cross was in the spiritual life of Isaac’s
compatriots and contemporaries.
Saint Isaac’s teaching on the holy cross as a symbol of divine
dispensation and an object of religious veneration is expounded
in Chapter XI of Part II, under the heading ‘On the con¬
templation of the mystery of the cross; and on what power it
conveys in an invisible way in its visible form, and on the vast
mysteries of God’s governance which were performed in the
ancients, and the summing up of this in Christ our Lord; and

59. II/5, title.

60. On the veneration of icons in the Churches of the syriac tradition, see Brock,
‘Iconoclasm’; Mundell, ‘Decoration’, Dauvillier, ‘Images’, Delly, ‘Images’.

163
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

how the all-powerful cross conveys the sum of this’. The text
begins with a question which contains clear indications of the
universal character of the veneration of the cross in the Syrian
tradition: ‘In what sense, and whose type is it that the image
of the cross depicts for us—this image which is held in great
honour by us and which is gladly venerated by us with love and
insatiable desire; whose story is known to and repeated by, as
it were, the whole world?’ In an introductory paragraph Isaac
makes clear his intention to speak of the action of the power
of God in different epochs of human history; and of how God
‘places his honoured name in an awesome way upon corporeal
objects in every generation, manifesting in them wondrous and
magnificent things to the world, granting by their means great
benefits to humanity’; and finally of the eternal power which is
in the cross.61
As he begins his exposition, Isaac emphasizes that there is no
special power in the cross different from that power through
which the worlds were brought into being and which governs all
of creation in accordance with God’s will. In the cross lives the
very same power that lived in the ark of the covenant, regarded
with awesome veneration by the people of Israel:

The limitless power of God dwells in the cross, just as

it resided in an incomprehensible way in the ark which
was venerated amidst great honour and awe by the jewish
people, performing by it miracles and awesome signs in
the midst of those who were not ashamed to call it ‘God’,62
that is, they would gaze upon it in awe as though upon
God, because of the glory of God’s honoured name which
was upon it. This ark was honoured with this name not
only by the jewish people, but by foreign peoples, their
enemies: ‘Woe to us, for the God of the People has come
to the camp today’.63 That power which existed in the ark

61. H/11,1-2.
62. See Num 10:35-36, where Moses addresses the ark as ‘Lord’.
63. Cf 1 Sam 4:7.

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 Prayer before the Cross

is believed by us to exist in this revered form of the cross,

which we hold in honour in great awareness of God.64

What was in the ark, Isaac asks, that made it so awesome and
filled with powers and signs? The ark was venerated, he answers,
because the invisible Shekhina (Presence) of God dwelt in it:
‘Did not Moses and the People prostrate before the ark in great
awe and trembling? Did not Joshua son of Nun lie stretched
out on his face before it from morning until evening?65 Were
not God’s fearsome revelations manifested there, as if to afford
honour to this object, seeing that the Shekhina of God was
residing in it?’66 The very same Shekhina now resides in the
Holy Cross: it has departed from the Old Testament ark and
entered the New Testament cross.67 This is why the miracles
of the Apostles, which are described in the New Testament,
were more powerful than those performed in Old Testament
times:

Through the power of the cross many have restrained wild

animals, acted boldly in the face of fire, walked on lakes,
raised the dead, held back plagues, caused springs to flow
in parched and wild terrain, set a boundary to the seas,
commanded the surge of mighty rivers to flow after them,
and reversed the course of water. Why do I speak of these
things? Satan himself and all his tyranny is in terror of the
form of the cross, when it is depicted by us against him.68

The Old Testament cult with all its signs and wonders,
Isaac continues, was unable to eradicate sin, whereas the cross
destroyed the power of sin. The cross also destroyed the power
of death:

64. II/11,4.
65. Cf Josh 7:6.
66. 11/11,5.
67. H/11,5.
68. 11/11,7-8.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

And as for death, which had been so fearful for human

nature, now even women and children can hold up their
heads against it. Death which reigns over all has now
proved easier, not only for believers, but also for pagans
as well: fear of it has been greatly diminished from what
had been the case previously.69

In other words, the religion of the cross brought into the world
a different attitude to death: it is no longer feared, as it once
was in pre-christian times. Does this passage contain a reference
to the epoch of martyrdom, when women and children faced
death? According to Isaac, Christian tranquillity in the face of
death influenced pagan society as well: the attitude to death
became less dramatic.
Returning to Old Testament images, Isaac asks why it was
that before the construction of the wooden ark, built by the
hands of carpenters, ‘adoration filled with awe was offered up
continuously’, in spite of the prohibition of the Law against
worshipping the work of human hands or any image or like¬
ness?70 Because in the ark, Isaac answers, unlike in the pagan
idols, the power of God was manifested openly and the name
of God was set upon it.71 Turning to the veneration of the
cross, Isaac therefore sweeps aside the accusation of idolatry,
the very same accusation that was brought up against iconodules
in Byzantium in the eighth century. Though in the byzantine
polemic against iconoclasm the main argument for the venera¬
tion of icons was the Incarnation of God the Word which made
possible the depiction of God in material colours—a theme not
touched upon by Isaac—in general Isaac’s idea of the presence
of the Godhead in material objects has much in common with
what byzantine polemicists of his time were writing on the
presence of God in icons. In particular, Isaac says, if the cross
were made not ‘in the name of that Man in whom the Divinity

69. 11/11,8.
70. Cf Ex 20:4—5; Lev 26:1; Deut 5:8.
71. 11/11,10-11.

166
 Prayer before the Cross

dwells’—that is, the Incarnate God the Word—the accusation

of idolatry would have been justified.72 He also alludes to the
interpretation of the ‘Orthodox Fathers’, according to whom
the metal leaf which was placed above the ark of the convenant73
was a type of the human nature of Christ.74
Isaac emphasizes that the divine Presence-Shekhina always
accompanies the cross, from the very moment of its depiction:

The moment this form is depicted on a wall or on a board,

or is fashioned out of some kind of gold or silver and the
like, or carved out of wood, immediately it takes on and is
filled with the divine power . . . and so it becomes a place
of God’s Shekhina, even more so than the ark.77

This passage contains important evidence concerning various

types of the cross used in the Syrian tradition. It also points to the
practice of the ancient Church which knew no special prayers
for the consecration of a cross: it was believed that, as soon as the
cross is made or depicted, it becomes a source of sanctification
for people and a place of divine presence. Consequently:

whenever we gaze upon this image in the time of prayer,

or when we show reverence to it, because that Man was
crucified upon it, we receive divine power through it and
we are held worthy of assistance, salvation, and ineffable
good in this world and in the world to come. ... 76

Old Testament symbols were only a type and shadow of New

Testament realities, according to Isaac, who emphasises the
superiority of the cross over Old Testament representations:

72. 11/11,13.
73. Cf Ex 25:17.
74. 11/11,13. Isaac has in mind Narsai, Homily on the Ark 183-184: ‘With the term
“leaf” (tassa, a gold leaf on the ark of covenant), Scripture tells us of the humanity of
our Lord’.
75. H/11,12.
76. 11/11,13.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Just as the ministry of the New Covenant is more hon¬

ourable before God than the things which took place in the
Old Covenant, just as there is a difference between Moses
and Christ, just as the ministry which Jesus exercised
is more excellent that the one given through Moses . . .
so this form of the cross which now exists is far more
honourable because of the honour of the Man whom the
Godhead took from us as his abode; and because the divine
good pleasure which is in this Man who completely be¬
came its temple77 is different from the metaphorical good
pleasure which of old was in those inarticulate objects
which foreshadowed these things to come in Christ.78

The Old Testament cult required a devout and fearful atti¬

tude towards sacred objects. Whenever the priest entered the
ark, ‘he did not dare raise his eyes and examine it, for the
awesome Shekhina of the Divinity was in it’. But if the type was
so fearful and honourable, how much more honourable should
be ‘the very archetype to whom belong all symbols and types’.
At the same time, the veneration offered to sacred objects in
the Old Testament was caused by fear of the punishment to
which everyone who showed disrespect to them was subject. In
the New Testament, on the contrary, ‘grace without measure
has been poured out, and severity has been swallowed up by
gentleness, and a familiarity of speech (parresia) . . . has been
born. . . . And familiarity of speech is in the habit of chasing
away fear, thanks to the abundant kindness of God which has
come upon us at this time’.79
We venerate the cross, therefore, not out of fear of punish¬
ment, but because of our fearful love of Christ, who accom¬
plished our salvation through the cross. In contemplating the
cross, Christians see Christ himself:

77. The chnstological language of this passage is typically east-syrian.

78. 11/11,12.
79. 11/11,14-16.

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 Prayer before the Cross

For true believers the sign of the cross is no small thing,

for all symbols are understood to be contained within it.
But whenever they raise their eyes and gaze on it, it is as
though they were contemplating the face of Christ, and
accordingly they are filled with reverence for it: the sight
of it is precious and fearsome to them, and at the same
time, beloved. . . . And whenever we approach the cross,
it is as though we are brought close to the body of Christ:
this is what it seems to us to be in our faith in him. And by
drawing near to him, and gazing towards him, straightway
we travel in our intellects to heaven, mystically. As though
at some sight that cannot be seen or sensed, and out
of honour for our Lord’s humanity, our hidden vision
is swallowed up through a certain contemplation of the
mystery of faith.80

We venerate the cross in the name of Christ and because

of Christ.81 In general, all that belonged to Christ as a Man
should be venerated by us as having been raised up to the level
of God, who wanted the man Christ to share in the glory of
his Godhead. All this became clear to us on the cross, and it
is through the cross that we acquire an accurate knowledge of
the Creator.82
The material cross, whose type was the ark of the covenant,
is, in turn, the type of the eschatological kingdom of Christ. The
cross, as it were, links the Old Testament with the New, and the
New with the age to come, when all material symbols and types
will be abolished. The whole economy of Christ, which began
in Old Testament times and will continue until the end of the
world, is encompassed in the symbol of the cross:

For the cross is Christ’s garment just as the humanity

of Christ is the garment of the Divinity. Thus the cross

80. II/l 1,17-19.

81. 11/11,21.
82. II/l 1,21—22. See the exact quotation in Chapter I.

169
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

today serves as a type, awaiting the time when the true

prototype will be revealed: then those things will not be
required any longer. For the Divinity dwells insepara¬
bly in the Humanity, without any end, and for ever; in
other words, boundlessly. For this reason we look on the
cross as the place belonging to the Shekhina of the Most
High, the Lord’s sanctuary, the ocean of the symbols of
God’s economy. This form of the cross manifests to us,
by means of the eye of faith, the symbol belonging to
the two Testaments. . . . Moreover, it is the final seal of
the economy of our Saviour. Whenever we gaze on the
cross, . . . the recollection of our Lord’s entire economy
gathers together and stands before our interior eyes.83

The Chapter ends with the hymn of thanksgiving to God

who eternally had the intention of giving the true knowledge
to humanity by means of the cross, a material symbol of his
economy:

Blessed is God who uses corporeal objects continually to

draw us close in a symbolic way to a knowledge of his
invisible nature. . . . Let our hearts rejoice in the mysteries
of the faith which we hold; let us exult in God who is so
concerned with us. . . . How much to be worshipped is
the God who, for our salvation, has done everything in
the world to bring us close to him, before the time when
what has been prepared will be revealed. . . . How much
to be worshipped is the symbol of the cross, seeing that
it has given to us all these things, and through it we have
been deemed worthy of the knowledge of angels—that is,
through the power by which all created things, both visible
and invisible, were created.84

This is the ‘theology of the cross’ expounded by Isaac in

Chapter XI of Part II. It can be summed up in the following

83. 11/11,24—26.
84. II/l 1,30-34.

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 Prayer before the Cross

propositions: 1) the ark of the covenant was a type of the cross;

2) the Sbekhina-Presence of God resides in the cross, having
passed there front the ark of the covenant; 3) veneration of the
cross is not idolatry, because Christ is present in the cross, and
the veneration is directed to him and not to a material object;
4) the cross is a symbol of God’s economy concerning human
beings; 5) the cross is a type of the reality of the age to come,
where all material symbols will be abolished.
In the Syrian tradition in general and in Saint Isaac in partic¬
ular, we see that the cross is in fact the main and the only sacred
picture which becomes an object of liturgical veneration. If,
in the byzantine tradition, various stages of Christ’s economy,
as well as different heroes of biblical and Church history (the
prophets, apostles, saints) might have been depicted variously
in icons, for a Syrian Christian all this variety of iconography
was replaced by the image of the cross. Theirs is an extremely
concentrated and ascetic vision, which does not need different
painted images. In the syriac tradition prayer is, as it were,
focused on one point, and this point was the cross of Christ.
When Isaac remarks that it is possible to pray while ‘not
even in front of the cross’,85 he reveals that the prayer before
the cross was regarded as an invariable part of the practice of
prayer. Prayer in front of the cross was so commonly accepted
that the prayer not in front of it required special apology.
Isaac also describes different forms of prayer before the
cross. One of them (already mentioned above) consists in lying
prostrate before the cross in silence for a long time. During
periods of grace, Isaac writes, all rules of prayer can be replaced
by lying face down before the cross:

Is it not clear from the fact that you are lying prostrate
before the cross for most of the day—a form of prayer
which encompasses within itself all partial prayer and the
office—that this prayer has made the canons subordinate
to you? ... In the case of someone who is clinging to

85. II/5, title.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

God unceasingly in the continual outpouring that takes

place in prayer, constantly stretched out on the ground in
supplication to him, his soul swallowed up with yearning as
he lies fallen before the cross—this person is not subject
to any law or canonical rules, nor do times and specific
appointed periods have any authority over him; rather, he
is from that point on above them, being with God without
any limitation.86

Lying prostrate before the cross, according to Isaac, is a form

of prayer higher than all others, for, being an experience of
extreme concentration and collectedness which is accompanied
by the intensive feeling of God’s presence, it encompasses all
others within itself.
Another form of prayer before the cross consisted of raising
one’s eyes and continually ‘gazing’ upon the cross: this prayer
can be accomplished while standing or sitting, as well as while
kneeling with hands stretched out. Isaac describes a man who
‘bends his knees in prayer and stretches forth his hands to the
heavens, fixing his eyes upon the cross of Christ and concentrat¬
ing all his thoughts on God during prayer’.8 In other place he
speaks of ‘insight into the Crucified’ during prayer before the
cross.88 Does he mean here a crucifix, the cross with the image
of the crucified Christ, or a simple cross without any image,
which is a symbol of the invisible presence of the Crucified One?
Probably the second: insight into Christ present in the cross in
an invisible manner. The popularity of images of the crucified
Christ in Byzantium did not spread to the Syrian tradition. It
was not by chance that Isaac suggested, in a passage quoted
above, that whenever believers raise their eyes to gaze on the
cross, it is as though they see Christ himself,89 that is, they do not
see a representation of Christ with their physical eyes; they see
Christ with the eyes of the intellect and heart.

86. 11/4,4 and 9.

87. 1/4 (39) = PR 4 (58).
88. 11/5,16.
89. 11/11,17.

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 Prayer before the Cross

Isaac also speaks of prostrations before the cross: both mul¬

tiple prostrations and a single extended prostration. In one
passage he mentions Christians enduring

. . . hunger, reading, all-night and sober vigil, according

to a man’s strength, and the numerous prostrations we
are obliged to make both during the hours of the day and
also frequently at night. Some make thirty prostrations
at a time, and afterward kiss the precious cross and then
withdraw from it. There are those who add to this number
according to their own capacity. And there are others who
stay three hours in one prayer and without effort possess a
vigilant intellect and no wandering of thoughts while they
cast themselves upon their faces.90

Kissing the cross many times is yet another form of the

veneration of the cross. After making prostrations, the ancient
Fathers kissed the cross five or ten times.91 Isaac tells us of the
prayer of a solitary at whose house he happened to spend the
night when he was ill:

... I saw this brother’s custom of rising at night before the

other brethren to begin his prayer rule. He would recite
the psalms until suddenly he would leave off his rule and,
falling upon his face, he would strike his head upon the
ground a hundred times or more with fervour kindled in
his heart by grace. Then he would stand up, kiss the cross
of the Master, again make a prostration, again kiss the
same cross, and again throw himself upon his face. . . .
He would kiss the cross some twenty times with fear and
ardour, with love mingled with reverence, and then begin
again to recite the psalms.1’2

90. 1/18 (97) = PR 15 (129).

91. II/ 14,24.
92. 1/21 (105) = PR 18 (140).

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

It is evident that the practice of venerating the cross and prayer

before the cross was one of the most important constituents of
Isaac’s teaching on prayer.

4. Reading

Another important practice was the prayerful recitation, or

‘reading’ (qeryana), which is often mentioned or described by
Isaac. This term refers primarily, though not exclusively, to
the reading of Scripture. For Isaac, as for the whole of ancient
monastic tradition, the reading of Scripture is not so much study
of the biblical text with a cognitive aim as converse, encounter,
revelation: the text of the Bible is a means by which we can
directly experience converse with God, a mystical encounter
which bestows insights into the depths of the divine reality.
Isaac speaks of reading Scripture as the chief means of a
spiritual transformation that is accompanied by a rejection of
sinful life:

The beginning of the path of life is continually to exercise

the intellect in the words of God, and to live in poverty. . . .
There is nothing so capable of banishing the inherent
tendencies of licentiousness from our soul, and of driving
away those active memories which rebel in our flesh and
produce a turbulent flame, as to immerse oneself in the
fervent love of instruction, and to search closely into the
depth of the insights of divine Scriptures. When a man’s
thoughts are totally immersed in the delight of pursuing
the wisdom treasured in the words of Scripture by means
of the faculty that gains enlightenment from them, then he
puts the world behind his back and forgets everything in
it. . . . Often he does not even remember the employment
of the habitual thoughts which visit human nature, and his
soul remains in ecstasy by reason of those new encounters
that arise from the sea of the Scripture’s mysteries.93

93. 1/1 (3-5) = PR 1 (2-5).

174
 Scripture and patristic literature are the two kinds of reading
recommended by Isaac:

We should consider the labour of reading to be something

extremely elevated; its importance cannot be exaggerated.
For it serves as the gate by which the intellect enters into
the divine mysteries and takes strength for attaining lu¬
minosity in prayer: it bathes with enjoyment as it wanders
over the acts of God’s dispensation which have taken place
for the benefit of humanity. . . . From these acts prayer is
illumined and strengthened—whether it be that they are
taken from the spiritual Scriptures, or from things written
by the great teachers in the Church on the topic of the di¬
vine dispensation; or among those who teach the mysteries
of the ascetic life. These two kinds of reading are useful
for the man of the spirit. . . . Without reading the intellect
has no means of drawing near to God: Scripture draws
the mind up and sets it at every moment in the direction
of God; it baptizes it from this corporeal world with its
insights and causes it to be above the body continually.
There is no other toil by which someone can make better
progress. Provided that person is reading Scripture for
the sake of the truth, these are the sorts of things he will
discover from it.94

Reading Scripture and the Fathers—as well as the lives of

the saints—is, like prayer, conversation with God. Isaac recom¬
mends alternating prayer and reading, so that, during prayer,
ideas drawn from Scripture fill the mind. Passing in this way
from one kind of converse to another, a person constantly holds
within his mind the memory of God:

Read often and insatiably the books of the teachers of

the Church on divine providence. . . . Read also the two
Testaments, which God ordained for knowledge of the

94. 11/21,13-15.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

whole world. ... To exchange one converse for another,

occupy yourself with reading books which will make plain
to you the subtle pathways of ascetical discipline, of con¬
templation, and of the lives of the saints. . . . And when
you stand up to pray and to say your rule of prayer, instead
of thinking of what you have seen and heard in the world,
you will find yourself pondering the divine Scriptures you
have read. . . . By reading the soul is enlightened anew and
helped always to pray assiduously and without confusion.95

In this sense, reading is ‘the source of pure prayer’.96

Yet ‘not all books are profitable for the concentration of
the mind’.97 An ascetic should abstain, above all, from reading
heterodox literature: ‘Beware of reading books that delineate
the doctrines of creeds with a view to explaining them, for they,
more than anything else, can arm the spirit of blasphemy against
you’.98 Beyond that, any sort of literature outside the compass
of scriptural and patristic writings should be excluded from the
ascetic’s daily reading as a potential distraction:

For the rest, any kind of reading that there may be will
actually cause him loss and darken his mind, obscuring its
goal, which lies with God. These other kinds of reading
will bring upon him darkness and listlessness during the
time of the Office and prayer.99

Not only secular literature, but even the books of the Fathers
on dogmatic matters are not always useful for someone whose

95. 1/4 (33; 36) = PR 4 (48; 52-53).

96. 1/64 (307) = PR 65 (447).
97. 1/64 (307) = PR 65 (446).
98. 1/4 (33) = PR 4 (48). In A. Wensinck’s translation {Mystic Treatises, p.34) this
is rendered as follows: ‘[You should have] prudence against reading books which
accentuate the differences between the confessions, with the aim of causing schisms,
which provides the spirit of slander with a mighty weapon against the soul’. This might
be a reference to anti-jewish polemical literature, or, more likely, to the anti-diophysite
(or anti-monophysite) literature.
99. 11/21,14.

176
 Reading

intellect has not been cleansed of the passions. To some people

only ascetical literature may be recommended:

There are also people whom not even reading about God’s
acts of dispensation will profit, and they get no benefit
thereby. For the most part they may actually become more
darkened, because they are much more in need of some
reading on the topic of putting the passions aright. Ev¬
eryone benefits, and progresses, as a result of the reading
appropriate to the stage he has reached.100

The last phrase reflects a general attitude of ancient monasti-

cism: the only significance reading has is its improvement of
one’s life. A monk is not supposed to be well-read: he is rather
supposed to be pure in mind. Hence Isaac’s recommendation:

The course of your reading should be parallel to the aim of

your way of life. . . . Most books that contain instructions
in doctrine are not useful for purification. The reading of
many diverse books brings distraction of mind down on
you. Know, then, that not every book that teaches about
religion is useful for the purification of the consciousness
and the concentration of the thoughts.101

The recommendation to abstain not only from secular read¬

ing, but also from Christian dogmatic literature may seem to be
a kind of obscurantism on Isaac’s part. Isaac seems, however,
not to mean that a monk is not in need of understanding Chris¬
tian doctrine clearly and distinctly. His intention was, first, to
remind his reader of a monastic maxim which is very traditional
indeed: reading should correspond to life. In addition, we must
remember that Isaac and his contemporaries lived in a situation
of continuing christological conflict. His warning should be
understood in the context of that situation: he did not want the

100. 11/21,16.
101. 1/64 (307) = PR 65 (446^147).

177
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

monks to be involved in any kind of theological argument, even

on questions of truth and true faith. ‘Someone who has tasted
the truth will not enter into dispute concerning the truth. . . .
He is not even aroused concerning the faith’.102 True faith,
according to Isaac, derives not from books, but from experience:
it is born of purification of mind rather than of reading.103
Let us now mark Isaac’s suggestions concerning how do read
Scripture.

• His first requirement for any kind of reading in the cell is

that it be done in silence and stillness: ‘Persevere in reading
while dwelling in stillness that your intellect may be drawn
toward the awestruck wonder at all times ... 104 Let your
reading be done in stillness which nothing disturbs’.105
• His second requirement is collectedness of mind and the
absence of exterior thoughts: ‘Be free of all concern for the
body and the turmoil of affairs, so that through the sweet
understanding of the sense of Scripture which surpasses all
the senses you may savour that most sweet taste in your
soul. . .’106
• His third requirement is prayer before beginning to read¬
ing: ‘Do not approach the words of the mysteries contained
in the divine Scriptures without prayer and beseeching God
for help, but say: “Lord, grant me to perceive the power in
them!” Reckon prayer to be the key to the true understand¬
ing of the divine Scriptures’.107

The understanding of the inner and hidden meaning of

Scripture is the main goal of reading. This is not a question of

102. Gnostic Chapters IV, 77.

103. For Isaac’s understanding of faith, see below, Chapter VH: Faith and Knowl¬
edge.
104. 1/4 (31) = PR 4 (43).
105. 1/4 (34) = PR 4 (48).
106. 1/4 (34) = PR 4 (48-49).
107. 1/48 (233) = PR 45 (329).

178
 Reading

the allegorical interpretation of the text, which was not favoured

by the east-syrian tradition, even though Isaac did employ it
here and there. At stake here are mystical insights (sukkale) into
the spiritual meaning of certain scriptural words and phrases
which appear in an ascetic’s mind while reading with deep
recollectedness and attention. These insights are like a ray of the
sun that suddenly appears in the mind of the person who reads:

Do not. . . overly scrutinize words that are written from

experience for nurturing your way of life and that help
you, by their lofty insights, to elevate yourself. Discern the
purport of all the passages that you come upon in sacred
writings, so as to immerse yourself deeply therein, and to
fathom the profound insights found in the compositions
of enlightened men. Those who in their way of life are
led by divine grace to be enlightened are always aware of
something like a noetic ray running between the written
lines which enables the mind to distinguish words spoken
simply from those spoken with great meaning for the soul’s
enlightenment. When in a common way a man reads lines
that contain great meaning, he makes his heart common
and devoid of that holy power which gives the heart a
most sweet taste through intuitions that awe the soul.
Everything is wont to run to its kindred; and the soul
that has a share of the Spirit, on hearing the phrase that
has spiritual power hidden within, ardently draws out its
content for herself. Not every man is wakened to wonder
by what is said spiritually and has great power concealed
in it.108

This passage can serve as a summary of Isaac’s understanding

of Holy Scripture. He discerns in it, on the one hand, ‘the words
spoken simply’ which say nothing to one’s heart and mind, and,
on the other hand, ‘what is said spiritually’ and what is aimed

108. V\ (6-7) = PR 1 (6-7).

179
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

directly at the reader’s soul. This distinction does not imply

that there are in Scripture both meaningful and meaningless
words: it suggests instead that not every word of Scripture has
equal significance to each reader. Isaac puts the accent on the
subjective attitude of the person reading to the text being read:
there are words and phrases that leave him cool and indifferent,
and there are some which enkindle the flame of the love of God
in him. What is important is not to miss these ‘meaningful’
verses of Scripture and not to be devoid of the spiritual insights
contained in them.
When an ascetic reads Scripture, striving to perceive its
hidden content, his understanding increases as long as he reads,
and he is led gradually to the state of spiritual wonder. Once
having attained it, he is totally immersed in God. An ascetic,
Isaac tells us,

. . . will certainly remain unvexed by the passions if he

passes his time in the study of the divine Scriptures, seek¬
ing out their meanings. For because of the understanding
of the divine Scriptures which grows and abides in him,
vain thoughts hastily flee from him, and his mind is unable
to separate itself from its yearning and the recollection
of the Scriptures. Nor will his mind be able to give any
attention whatever to this life by reason of the great sweet¬
ness of the rumination by which, in the ascetic’s profound
stillness in the desert, it is exalted. Wherefore he even
forgets himself and his nature, he becomes like a man in
ecstasy who has no recollection at all of this age. With
special diligence he ponders and reflects on what pertains
to God’s majesty, and he says, ‘Glory be to his Divinity!’,
and again, ‘Glory be to his wondrous acts!. . . .’ And so the
ascetic, engrossed in these marvels and continually struck
with wonder, is always intoxicated as he lives, as it were,
the life after the resurrection.109

109. 1/37 (179) = PR 35 (254).

180
 Reading

Isaac expounds his teaching on reading Scripture in Chapter

XXIX of Part II, whose title is ‘ . On the great benefits which
are born from converse with the Scriptures and from the hid¬
den ministry and the meditation and constant searching out it
involves, and from the search for the subject of what it teaches.
And against people who find fault with those who diligently
apply themselves to this wondrous and divine labour. . . .’no Al¬
though polemical in character, this text is not a reaction against
a particular heresy, like Messalianism. Isaac is contending here
against the view, which was probably widespread in monastic
circles, that reading books is useless and that only active work
is required of a monk.111
Those who consider active work and bodily labour higher
than reading are in error, Isaac asserts. To perform physical
labour is ‘the way and norm of secular people’. For ascetics,
it is far more important that their mind be continually filled
with the thought of the divine economy: this constitutes ‘the
complete performance and sum of our Lord’s commandments’.
Someone whose recollection is forever bound up with the Lord
by means of reading and prayer ‘has fixed in himself all the works
of excellence’ and ‘has brought them to complete fulfillment,
with nothing lacking’.112
Reading, Isaac assures us, is the fountainhead of prayer. By
means of reading and prayer

we are transported in the direction of the love of God,

whose sweetness is poured out continually in our hearts
like honey in a honeycomb, and our souls exult at the
taste which the hidden ministry of prayer and the reading
of Scripture pour into our hearts.

By prayer and reading, as well as through love of God that

is born of them, the human heart is enkindled with flame.

110. 11/29, title.

111. 11/29,1.
112. 11/29,2-3.

181
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian _

Ascetics remain in constant converse with God, and their in¬

tellect ‘causes a particular symbol of Truth to blossom forth as
a result of the continual delight in the momentous words with
which such people labour night and day’. The search for the
spiritual meanings of the words of Scripture leads them to the
state of deep inner joy:

And what more is greater than this, than that someone

should be continually rejoicing in God, praising him at
every moment with a new song of praise113 which as a result
of wonder springs forth from the heart that rejoices—
together with other such things as are born from this
source, such as the prayer which springs forth all sud¬
denly, continuously, and involuntarily, from the depths of
the heart which has become a searcher-out of spiritual
meanings.114

Isaac then denounces those who read Scripture only with the
aim of ‘receiving from the Scriptures the material for human
glory, or a sharpening of the mind’. One should read Scripture
only ‘for the sake of truth’; only then is one’s mind

dwelling continually in heaven, making conversation with

God at every moment, with his thoughts wandering in
yearning for the world to come, . . . and his mind medi¬
tates on the hope to come, and throughout all his life he
chooses no other task or labour or ministry that is greater
than this one.

In this state, one becomes like the angels and reflects only on
God and things divine.115
All the texts quoted here show how important the reading
of Scripture, and patristic literature, was to Isaac, and how

113. Cf Ps 33:3; 40:3; 96:1.

114. 11/29,5-9.
115. 11/29,10-12.

182
 Reading

integral it was to his idea of prayer. We should remember that

in Christian antiquity, especially in monastic practice, reading
was done not simply with the eyes, but aloud, even by those who
were alone. Scripture was read slowly, with pauses for reflecting
on the meaning of each phrase and every word. This culture of
reading has fallen practically into disuse in modern times be¬
cause of the necessity of gulping great quantities of meaningless
words and skimming tens and hundreds of pages. Even today,
however, the ‘prayerful reading’ Isaac recommended—that is,
reading involving keen attention of mind to every word—
remains an ideal for anyone who wants to penetrate the spiritual
meaning of Holy Scripture. The experience and the recommen¬
dations of Isaac have not lost their validity.
For all his love of reading, especially Scripture, Isaac admits
that one can reach a spiritual state in which no reading is
necessary:

Until a man has received the Comforter, he requires in¬

scriptions in ink to imprint the memory of good in his
heart, to keep his striving for good constantly renewed
by continual reading, and to preserve his soul from the
subdeties of the ways of sin; for he has not yet acquired
the power of the Spirit that drives away the delusion which
takes soul-profiting recollections captive and makes a man
cold through the distraction of his intellect. When the
power of the Spirit has penetrated the noetic powers of
the active soul, then in place of the laws written in ink, the
commandments of the Spirit take root in his heart and
a man is secretly taught by the Spirit and needs no help
from sensory matter.116

Isaac was not alone in emphasising the priority of spiritual

experience over any formal expression of this experience, even
the reading of scriptural and ascetical texts. This is, in fact,

116. 1/6 (58) = PR 6 (91).

183
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

one of the characteristic themes of monastic and hagiographic

literature.117 For Isaac, the text being read is not more impor¬
tant than the spiritual and mystical insights which the reader
receives by means of reading. Reading as a form of converse
with God leads to converse in which the activity of the mind
ceases as we enter into direct contact with God.

5. Night prayer

Nocturnal prayer is traditional in Christian liturgical practice in

general,118 and in particular, in the monastic practice of prayer.
When recommending night vigils to monks, teachers of the
ascetical life emphasised that night is the most suitable time for
prayer, because then the whole world is immersed in sleep and
there is nothing to distract an ascetic. ‘Let every prayer that
you offer in the night’, Isaac says, ‘be more precious in your
eyes than all your activities of the day’.119 Keeping night vigil is
a ‘work filled with delight’ during which ‘the soul experiences
that immortal life, and by means of this experience she puts off
the vesture of darkness and receives the gifts of the Spirit’.120
Isaac develops the theme of nocturnal vigil in Homilies XX
and LXXV of Part I. The first of them provides us with some
theoretical background on the vigil; the second contains mainly
practical advice, with references to the lives of the saints. The
second homily in question is only partly included in the west-
syrian recension of Isaac and so only some of it has been
translated into Greek. First, we will look at what Isaac says

117. Cf The Life of Mary of Egypt 31 (3717 D-3720 A), where we are told of a
woman who went into the desert without ever reading a word from Scripture; after
many years of strictly ascetic life she was able to quote Scripture by heart, having
received knowledge of it directly from the Holy Spirit. Cf also the story of Paul the
Simple (Rufinus, Historia monachorum IX,2,7), who had only learnt three verses of Psalm
I and this was enough for him to attain to the state of spiritual perfection.
118. Cf the ‘night vigils’ which have been preserved in the Orthodox Church up
to the present.
119. 1/64 (308) = PR 65 (447).
120. 1/65 (320-321) = PR 66 (469).

184
 Night prayer

about nocturnal prayer in Homily XX and then see, on the

basis of Homily LXXV, how this vigil was practised in Eastern
monasticism.
Homily XX begins with a ‘praise of vigil’, which Isaac regards
as an angelic activity leading to God:

Do not imagine, O man, that among all the works of

monastics there is any practice greater than night vigil. . . .
A monk who perseveres in vigil with a discerning intellect
will seem not to be clad with flesh, for this is truly the
work of the angelic estate. ... A soul which labours in the
practice of vigil and excels therein will have the eyes of
cherubim, that she may at all times gaze upon and espy
celestial visions.121

However, as Isaac immediately points out, the labour of vigil

is useful only when the ascetic preserves himself during the day
from distraction and worldly cares. Otherwise, while standing
at the vigil, he will not be able to concentrate his mind and his
whole night labour will be fruitless.

Why, O man, do you govern your life with such a lack of

discernment? You stand the whole night through and suf¬
fer travail in psalmody, hymns, and supplications, and does
a little heedfulness during the day seem to you to be too
great and arduous a task, if thereby you are deemed worthy
of God’s grace granted you on account of your diligence in
other works? Why do you belabour yourself, when at night
you sow, but during the day you dissipate your toil which
is thus rendered unfruitful? ... If, however, you had made
your cultivation and the fervour of your heart’s converse
during the day conform to your night’s meditation, and
you had placed no wall of separation between them, then
in a short time you would have embraced Jesus’ bosom.122

121. 1/20 (101) = PR 17 (134).

122. 1/20 (102) = PR 17 (135-136).

185
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

The person who guards himself during the day knows the
power of night vigil. By itself, it can replace other virtues:
If a man’s body be enfeebled by illness and he cannot fast,
vigil alone can gain for the intellect steadfastness in prayer and
bestow upon his heart noetic insight to understand the nature
of spiritual power’. Moreover, if someone has not the strength
to make prostrations and recite psalms by reason of spiritual
darkening and laxity, then vigil alone, even while sitting, will
be adequate for him:

If these works [prostrations and psalmody] depart from

you and you cannot perform them, at least remain wake¬
ful in a sitting position, pray with your heart, and make
every effort to pass the night without sleeping, sitting and
pondering good thoughts. And if you do not harden your
heart and darken it with sleep, then by the grace that first
fervour, lightness and strength will return to you and you
will leap with joy, giving thanks unto God.123

Turning now to Isaac’s Homily LXXV, let us look at his

practical recommendations for keeping vigil. First, he gives
advice on how to begin nocturnal prayer. One should not com¬
mence without proper preparation, which means first making
a prostration, then making the sign of the Cross, standing in
silence for a while, and then praying in one’s own words:

When you desire to take your stand in the liturgy of your

vigil, with God as your helper, do as I tell you. Bend your
knees, as is the custom, but do not immediately begin
your liturgy. After you have made a prayer and completed
it, and signed your heart and your limbs with the life-
creating sign of the cross, stand silently for a moment
until your senses have been set at rest and your thoughts
have become tranquil. Then raise your inner vision up to
the Lord and beseech him with an afflicted soul to fortify
your weakness and to grant that the psalmody of your

123. 1/20 (103) = PR 17 (137-138).

186
 Night prayer

tongue and the reflections of your heart may be pleasing

to his will, saying quietly in the prayer of your heart the
following: ‘O Lord Jesus my God, thou who overseest thy
creation, thou to whom my passions, the infirmity of our
nature, and the might of our adversary are evident, do thou
thyself shelter me from the wickedness of our common
enemy. ... Do thou safeguard me from the turmoil of
thoughts and the inundation of passions, and account me
worthy to perform this sacred liturgy, lest perchance I
should taint its sweetness by my passions and be found
as one shameless and audacious before thee’.124

This prayer is not taken from any liturgical rite but was
composed by Isaac himself, as were many other prayers spread
through his writings. Isaac highly valued praying in one’s own
words and recommended that a Christian not limit himself to
reciting prayers prescribed by rule but find his own words for
converse with God.
At the same time, the night vigil of every ascetic included a
certain ‘rule’, that is, the succession of prayers, psalms, hymns,
readings, and prostrations which were to be done every time the
vigil is kept. This rule, according to Isaac, does not, however,
need to contain a fixed number of prayers: to remain in God
with one’s intellect is much more important than to adhere
rigidly to a particular rule.

It behooves us to observe our liturgy in complete freedom

from every childish and disquieting thought. If we see that
there is little time and that dawn will overtake us before
we finish our liturgy, then let us voluntarily omit one
marmita125 with prudence, or even two, from that which
is the customary rule, lest we give place to turmoil, and
obliterate the sweet taste of our liturgy. ... 126

124. 1/75 (365-366) = PR 80 (546-547).

125. A part of the Psalter. In the east-syrian tradition, the Psalter was divided into
twenty hullale and fifty-seven mamvyata.
126. 1/75 (366) = PR 80 (547).'

187
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Precisely for this reason, one should not recite psalms hastily,
with the aim of finishing the rule sooner, and so lose the savour
of one’s vigil.

If, while you are observing your liturgy, a thought should

accost you and whisper to you, saying, ‘Hasten a little,
your work is multiplying; free yourself of it quickly’, then
pay no attention to it. But if this thought disturbs you
more, immediately go back to the last marmita, or as
many as you like, and chant each verse repeatedly with
understanding. . . . And if the thought troubles you again,
or straitens you, leave off your psalmody, and bend your
knees in prayer, saying: ‘I wish not to count up words, but
to attain to heavenly mansions. . . .’127

In Isaac’s opinion, then, the first way of resisting the thoughts

consists in reciting psalms slowly, repeating every verse many
times, while the second, in leaving off the prescribed psalms
and praying with one’s own words.
If, Isaac continues, as a result of standing a long time in prayer
you become feeble from fatigue and the thought intrudes,
‘Finish up, for you can stand no longer’, then answer: ‘No,
but I shall sit down, for even this is better than sleep. Although
my tongue is silent and utters no psalm, yet my mind is engaged
with God in prayer and in my converse with him; wakefulness
is always more profitable than sleep’.128 Here our attention is
drawn to Isaac’s permission to replace reading aloud with silent
prayer in one’s mind. Prayer aloud was probably a common
practice among the ascetics of his time; prayer in the mind was
prescribed for times when one is tired, or during some common
activity, when one is not alone.
Then Isaac goes on to say that the order of nocturnal vigil
is not the same for all ascetics. As well as numerous means of
attaining attention and humility, there are many types of vigil

127. 1/75 (366) = PR 80 (548).

128. 1/75 (366) = PR 80 (548).

188
 Night prayer

and various sequences of prayers that may be read. Of special

interest is Isaac’s reference to the prayer with a short formula129
and to the practice of praying without kneeling:

Neither prayer nor simple psalmody fully comprise a

monk’s vigil. One person continues in psalmody all the
night long; another passes the night in repentance, com-
punctionate entreaties, and prostrations; another in weep¬
ing, tears, and lamentation over his sins. It is written
concerning one of our fathers that for forty years his
prayer consisted of but one saying, ‘As a man I have sinned,
but thou, as God, forgive me’.130 The fathers heard him
sorrowfully meditating upon this verse, and how he wept
and would not be silent. This prayer took the place of
his liturgy both night and day. Another man spends part
of his evening in psalmody and the rest of the night he
chants songs,131 glorifications, hymns, and other mournful
melodies. Another man passes the night in glorifying God
and in reading marmyata, and between each marmita he
illumines and refreshes himself with reading from the
Bible until he is rested. And again another makes for
himself the rule not to bend his knees,132 not even in the
prayer that concludes a marmita, though this is customary
during vigils, and he passes the entire night in unbroken
silence.133

This reference to Moses the Black, who prayed without

kneeling, concludes Homily LXXV in the west-syrian recen¬
sion and in the greek translation. In the original version follow
passages in which Isaac speaks of the spiritual joy that overtakes
a person during night vigil:

129. The ‘Jesus Prayer’, which was widely spread throughout the byzantine East,
is one of many kinds of such prayer.
130. Abba Apollo. See Palladius, Lausiac History 2.
131. Greek troparia.
132. The reference is to Moses the Black.
133. 1/75 (366-367) = PR 80 (548-549).

189
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

While the strenuous take their delight in such diverse

things and their like during their vigils, they pass the
entire duration of the long hours of the night without
despondency. Their souls flourish and rejoice and forget
the garment of flesh. . . . From the delight and the leaping
of their hearts they do not bring sleep to mind, for they
think that they have put off the body or that they have
already reached that state which will be theirs after the
resurrection. And because of their great joy they some¬
times leave off psalmody, and they fall on their faces on
account of the onrush of joy that surges in their souls.
The whole length of the night is like the day to them,
and the coming of darkness is like the rising of the sun by
reason of that hope which exalts their hearts and inebriates
them by its meditation. . . . While their tongue plays on
the spiritual lyre, their intellect looks after its own mat¬
ters. Sometimes it turns toward the sense of the verses,
sometimes it repulses an alien thought as it appears, and
sometimes, when the soul grows weary, the intellect turns
to the contents of the reading for the day.134

Then Isaac returns to recommendations for prayer in a state

of fatigue. If someone wishes to give his body a little rest, he
should sit down facing the East. So long as he is sitting, he
should not allow his mind to be idle, but reflect upon the
usefulness of night vigil and upon how the ancient Fathers
persevered in this labour. From these reflections, a person is
seized by wonder, thinking of the great tradition to which he
is heir. Many examples of great Fathers who toiled in night
vigil—Isaac gives several names—lead a person to spiritual
inebriation, for it seems to him that he abides with these saints
and sees them.135

134. 1/75 (367-368) = PR 80 (550).

135. 1/75 (368-370) = PR 80 (551-555).

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 Night prayer

And by remembering the lives of the saints which his

intellect conceives through recalling their histories, and by
musing upon them, his despondency forthwith vanishes,
sloth is put to flight, his limbs are strengthened, sleep is
driven from his eyelids . . . and ineffable joy arises in the
soul. And further, sweet tears moisten the cheeks, spir¬
itual jubilation inebriates the intellect, the soul receives
inexpressible consolations, hope supports the heart and
makes it courageous. Then it seems to that man that he
dwells in heaven during his vigil, which is so replete with
good things.136

The theme of ‘spiritual inebriation’ is the single most char¬

acteristic mystical theme in the works of Isaac the Syrian. In
the next chapter we shall analyze it in greater detail. For the
moment, let us simply point to the ecstatic character of night
prayer, which, according to Isaac, is a source of supernatural
joy and illumination. ‘For there is nothing which makes the
mind so radiant and joyous and so enlightens it and expels evil
thoughts, causing the soul to exult, as do continual vigils’.137
Christ himself, Isaac says, ‘continually separated himself for
prayer, and not indiscriminately, but he chose the night for this,
and as a place, the desert’.138 And all the revelations given to the
saints came to them mostly during their prayer at night.139

Prayer offered up at night possesses great power, greater

than the prayer of the daytime. Therefore all the righteous
prayed during the night, while combating the heaviness
of the body and the sweetness of sleep. This is why Sa¬
tan fears the labour of night vigil and uses every means
to prevent ascetics from doing it, as was the case with
Anthony the Great, the blessed Paul, Arsenius, and other

136. 1/75 (370) = PR 80 (555).

137. 1/75 (370) = PR 80 (555-556).
138. Cf Mt 14:23; Mk 1:35.
139. 1/75 (371) = PR 80 (556).

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

egyptian Fathers. Yet the saints diligently persevered in

vigils and overcame the power of the devil. Which one of
the solitaries, though possessing all the virtues together,
could neglect this work, and not be reckoned idle without
it? For night vigil is the light of the thinking (tar'ita);
and by it the understanding (mad‘a) is exalted, the mind
{refund) is collected, and the intellect {hauna) takes flight
and gazes at spiritual things and by prayer is rejuvenated
and shines brightly.140

This passage is unique in Isaac141 in that he uses together

all four syriac terms relative to the mental faculties of the
human person. By doing so, Isaac probably wants to emphasize
that night prayer can embrace an entire person and totally
transfigure the person’s whole intellectual sphere. Nocturnal
prayer has, in Isaac, an all-embracing character and is regarded
as a universal means for attaining illumination of mind. The
favourite hero of Isaac, Saint Arsenius, ‘on the eve of the Lord’s
day [i.e. Sunday] would leave the sun behind his back and stretch
out his hands toward heaven, until the sun rose and shone
in his face’.142 By constant vigils, Arsenius reached a state of
such illumination that his entire body became like flame when
he prayed.143 In the same manner Saint Pachomius, who was
equal to Arsenius, kept vigil and became pure in heart to such
an extent that ‘he saw God, who is invisible, as it were in a
mirror’. ‘These are the fruits of vigil,’ Isaac emphasizes, ‘these
are the blessings of its practitioners, and these are the crowns
of its struggle’.144
Transfiguration of the mind, purification of the heart, and
mystical vision of God are the fruits of night vigil. Isaac con¬
cludes by appealing to his reader to imitate the ancient saints

140. 1/75 (372-373) = PR 80 (560).

141. As D. Miller notes; see his Note 26 to 1/75 (373).
142. Cf Apophthegmata, Arsenius 30.
143. Cf Apophthegmata, Arsenius 27.
144. 1/75 (374) = PR 80 (563-564).

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 The ‘rule of slavery' and the ‘rule of freedom'

in order to become ‘a partaker of these saints and a heir to their

way of life’.145

6. The ‘rule of slavery’ and the ‘rule of freedom’

Isaac, as we saw, prescribes that nocturnal prayer should be per¬

formed ‘in complete freedom’ from the childish wish to adhere
to a prescribed rule. He constantly returns to this prescription,
emphasizing that a ‘slavish’ attitude, by which reciting the
required number of prayers is regarded as the most important
thing, does not liberate one from confusion or outside thoughts;
‘freedom’, on the other hand, brings about a peaceful state of
mind and soul:

Do you wish to take delight in the psalmody of your

liturgy and to understand the oracles of the Spirit which
you recite? Then disregard completely the quantity of
verses, and set at naught your skill in giving rhythm to
the verses, so that you may speak them in the manner
of a prayer. Abandon your customary repetition by heart,
and understand what I tell you. . . . And when your mind
is made steadfast in these meditations, then confusion
will give place and depart from you. Peace of thought is
not to be found in slavish activity; nor in the freedom
of the children of God is there found the confusion and
turmoil.146

In Chapter IV of Part II, Isaac teaches that the rule, which

includes many different prayers, is suitable for those whose
minds have not yet reached the state of illumination, whereas
the illumined mind needs no such rule. Similarily, a rule is
useful in the state of spiritual laxity but needless during periods
of grace.

145. 1/75 (375) = PR 80 (564).

146. 1/54 (268) = PR 53 (382-382).

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

A mind which has once been illumined has no need of the

varied wording of various prayers: just the single door of
prayer suffices to enfold the mind within prayer, allowing
it to mingle with God. Varieties of prayers indeed greatly
help a mind which is harassed by distraction: by them, and
by means of the strength resulting from them, the mind ex¬
periences compunction and so acquires sweet prayer, pro¬
longed kneeling, intercession for creation, and extended
supplications which are set into motion from within. This
happens to someone because, with each single word which
he encounters in these prayers, he is like someone who is
wakened from sleep: he encounters in them astounding
insights all the time, seeing that these very words are
the result of the gift of grace and so possess a hidden
power. . . . During periods of grace, when you enjoy this
prayer of delight and those prolonged kneelings, there is-
no great need for you to stand by the canonical Hours or
to worry yourself over the matter of the number of prayers
that remain to be recited, for such prayer has encompassed
within itself prayers which are recited according to fixed
number and it has made the canons subordinate to you.147

Pure prayer, Isaac continues, is the pinnacle of the work

of prayer: someone who has attained to it has no need of
canonical rules. Anyone who has not attained pure prayer, how¬
ever, should not abandon rules. If someone partially possesses
pure prayer, then he should ‘keep the canonical rule for the
other part’.148 Keeping rules is necessary during one’s spiritual
childhood; but when one has reached maturity, rules become
ineffective.149 There is ‘the law of children which brings the
person up in freedom and gives him light’, and there is ‘the
law of servants which does not allow progress, and whereby a

147. 11/4,2-4.
148. 11/4,5.
149. 11/4,6.

194
 The Tule of slavery ’ and the Tule of freedom ’

person is educated in a way befitting young children’.150 The

first corresponds to the ‘rule of freedom’; it is the attitude a
son has towards a father and does not require special rules; the
second corresponds to the ‘rule of slavery’ and needs canonical
boundaries. As long as someone prays only at specific times of
day, he should observe the canonical offices; but if he is able to
pray unceasingly, lying prostrate before the cross, then he

is not subject to any law or canonical rules, nor do times

and specific appointed periods have any authority over
him; rather, he is from that point on above them, being
with God without any limitation.151

Isaac develops the same theme, but in an entirely different

context, in the anti-messalian Chapter XIV of Part II, of which
we have already spoken. Here the accent is laid on the utility
and necessity of the rule of prayer, which is contrasted to the
messalian denial of external forms of prayer. Even here, how¬
ever, Isaac describes those states in which one can neglect the
rule of prayer in the delight which comes from the divine love:

The following is a bad sign when it appears: that someone

should neglect the duty of the Hours of the Office without
any pressing reasons. But if it is prayer which has drawn
someone to neglect these Hours, and if it is the compulsion
and weighty experience of long drawn out prayer which
has led him to desist from them, or if the delay brought
about by prayer’s overpowering delight causes him to
neglect the time of Office, then this person has chanced
upon a splendid piece of merchandise as a result of the
change brought about by the enviable object which has
fallen into his hands. ... All is well, provided he does
not neglect the time of the Office as a result of empty
ideas or a contemptuous attitude, but rather the sweet

150. H/4,7.
151. E/4,8-9.

195
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

delight found in prayer has held him fast, as a result of

the constraint of divine love—for this, after all, is the
fulfillment of our ministry, and is not constrained by, or
subject to, any rule.152

Isaac alternates, as it were, between criticism of the Mes-

salians’ ‘contemptuous attitude’ to rule and his own conviction
that observing rules is not always necessary and not always
possible for an Orthodox ascetic. He obviously did not want
his own love of freedom to be confused with Messalianism, and
therefore very decisively dissociated himself from it by empha¬
sizing that in Orthodox tradition abandoning rules results, not
from contempt and arrogance, but rather from the abundance
of the love of God which forces the person praying sometimes
to forget rules entirely.

And if such things occur to someone continually—and

they are a sign of divine charisms and a mighty opening
to purity of prayer—and especially if he manifests a rev¬
erential outward posture and profound reverence during
his prayer, then that person is quickly raised to the rank
of the perfected. But if someone decides to abandon what
belongs first of all, without yet having found what comes
afterwards, then it is clear that he is being mocked by the
demons. ... 153

The rule is useful, Isaac claims, because it teaches humility,

whereas neglecting the rule may lead one to pride:

The heart acquires greater freedom of speech with God

during prayer than it does during the Office. But complete
neglect of the Office causes pride, and it is out of pride
that one falls away from God. You see, the very fact that
someone forces himself to be subjected to a rule—when

152. 11/14,7.
153. 11/14,7-8.

196
 The ‘rule of slavery ’ and the ‘rule of freedom ’

he is quite free in his way of life—keeps the soul humble,

and offers no opportunity for the demon of pride to dangle
before him some evil thought. By continually considering
himself as insignificant and not capable of freedom, he
humbles and brings low any pride of thought. There is no
more effective bridle than this to place in the mouth of
the mind that exalts itself.154

Precisely for this reason the ancient Fathers did not abandon
their rule, even though they possessed unceasing prayer:155

It was not to no purpose that these Fathers imposed upon

themselves, in some cases one hundred, in others fifty or
sixty or more, prayers—even though they had already en¬
tirely become an altar of prayer. Why were fixed numbers
so necessary, when they never ceased from prayer? It is said
that Evagrius had one hundred, the blessed Macarius sixty,
and Moses the Black, the Ethiopian, had fifty, whereas a
certain great solitary, Paul, had three hundred, and so on.
The reason why these blessed Fathers compelled them¬
selves, like servants, to keep such rules was fear of pride.156

A rule induces in the soul the humility that belongs to servi¬

tude. Yet in the rule itself, there is liberty, as in liberty there is
a rule. Some people make progress as a result of rule; and some
as a result of the liberty which comes from it.157

In freedom someone makes more progress than when sub¬

ject to a rule. Nevertheless, often enough out of freedom
there spring up many paths leading to error; in freedom
there lurk many varieties of downfall. Whereas with a rule
no one ever goes astray; those who persevere under the

154. 11/14,18.
155. 11/14,19.
156. 11/14,20-22.
157. 11/14,31-32.

197
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

yoke of some rule will only be driven to some downfall

once they have abandoned that rule and disregarded it. For
this reason the saints of old who completed their course
without going astray, governed themselves by means of
some rule.158

According to Isaac, ‘there is a rule involving liberty and there

is a rule for slaves’. The latter consists of reciting a fixed number
of psalms and prayers at every Office. The person who is subject
to this rule,

... is inalterably bound by obligation, without the pos¬

sibility of change, to these same psalms all his days—all
because he is tied to the obligation, in prayer and in the
Office, to follow the details of the number, length, and
fixed character of their quantity which he has decreed and
fixed for himself. All this is utterly alien to the path of true
knowledge, for such a person does not bear in mind either
divine activity or the feebleness of nature, or the hazard
of frequent battles: in the first case grace may be given so
that he tarries beyond what his will has decreed; in the
second case human nature may prove too weak to fulfill
the rule. . . . 159

In other words, someone who appoints for himself a fixed

quantity of prayers to be recited at certain hours of the day
does not take into account that he may be incapable of observing
these rules, either out of the abundance of grace which forces
him to forget the words of prayer, or out of physical weakness
which saps him of the strength to recite the prescribed prayers.
The ‘rule of liberty’, on the contrary, does not fix the se¬
quence and number of prayers to be said. Each monk should
maintain the traditional seven times of prayer during the day,
but the content and length of these Hours are left to discretion:

158. 11/14,33.
159. 11/14,34.

198
 The ‘rule of slavery' and the ‘rule of freedom ’

The rule of liberty consists in one’s unfailing observance

of the seven Offices, ordained for our chaste mode of life
by Holy Church at the hands of the Fathers who were
assembled by the Holy Spirit for the ecumenical synod.160
Far be it from us solitaries that we not be subject to the
Church or her leaders or laws. This is precisely the reason
why we observe the ordinance of the seven Hours of the
Office, in conformity with what the Church has laid down
for us, as her children. This does not mean, however, that
for each Office I should perform the same particular fixed
number of psalms; nor does one fix each day a particular
number of prayers to be said between these Offices, during
both night and day. And one does not set a time limit for
each of these prayers, nor does one decide upon specific
words to use. Rather, one spends as long on each prayer as
grace provides the strength, asking whatever the pressing
need of the moment may require, using whatever prayer
one is stirred to use. And while such a person prays he
is all the more recollected and undistracted in view of
the delight of this kind of prayer. During such prayers
a person measures his request in conformity with the
strength of human nature and the wisdom that the Lord
accords to him.161

This passage, by emphasising that monks are to be obedient

to the Church, again constitutes an attack upon the Messalians
who reject the tradition of the Church in advocating sponta¬
neous prayer. At the same time, the seven times of prayer are
presented as a framework for monastic prayer, which can also
be somewhat spontaneous: neither the sequence of prayers nor
their length is fixed. Among the factors which influence the
length and sequence of prayer are ‘the pressing need of the
moment’ or ‘the strength of nature’. In other words, prayer

160. Isaac refers to Canon 54 of the Council of Nicaea (325), which mandates the
performance of seven offices every day.
161. 11/14,35.

199
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

should not ignore the needs of the person who prays and it
should not by its length exceed the person’s natural limitations.
As to the words to be recited, none of the written prayers, not
even the Lord’s Prayer is compulsory, according to Isaac. The
importance of even this prayer is not restricted to its words;
what is important is that the one who prays it is penetrated by
its spirit:

If someone says that in all our prayers we should recite

the prayer uttered by our Saviour, using the same wording
and keeping the exact order of the words rather than their
sense, such a person is very deficient in his understand¬
ing of our Saviour’s purpose in uttering this prayer, nor
has he ever drawn close to the thinking of the Blessed
Interpreter.162 Our Lord did not teach us a particular
sequence of words here; rather, the teaching he provided '
in this prayer consists in showing us on what we should be
focusing our minds during the entire course of our life. It
was the sense that he gave us, and not the precise sequence
of words to be recited by our lips. Thus, whenever we
set this prayer before our minds as something to aim at,
we will pray following its sense, and we will direct the
movements of our own prayer in accordance with it, as
we ask for the kingdom and righteousness,163 or, as may
sometimes be the case, for escape from temptations; and
at times we may be asking for the needs of our human
nature, that is, for sustenance for the day; likewise with all
the other things, in accordance with the aims with which
he provided us, telling us what we should pray for. So our
prayer should be inspired by its sense, and we should set
aright our lives in strict accordance with it. . . . 164

When our Lord gave this prayer to his disciples, he was

162. Theodore of Mopsuestia, whose Catechetical Homily XI is dedicated to the

‘Our Father’.
163. Cf Mt 6:33.
164. 11/14,36-37.

200
 Prayer for the world

concerned, not with the sequence and order of words, but with
instructing the disciples ‘not to intermingle into prayer, as do
the pagans, all sorts of other things which are contrary to his
commandments’.16'' To think otherwise reflects

... a childish mentality which investigates and is con¬

cerned with the exact sequence of words rather than with
setting its sight on their sense, out of which spring prayers,
requests, and reflections excellently suited to the conduct
of the New World. Altering the outward form of the words
of the prayer which our Lord handed down makes no
difference provided our prayer stems from its sense, and
that the mind follows that sense.166

These passages make clear that Isaac was in favour of a free

attitude to the rule of prayer and to the texts to be used in one’s
rule. What is important is that prayer should correspond to
the inner need of the person who prays and to Jesus Christ’s
teaching on prayer. One can pray in one’s own words and can
use the psalms and prayers written by others: in the latter case
the words that originally belonged to another person should
become the words of the person who prays them, that is, they
should pass through the depths of his own heart. Faithfulness
to Christ consists not in the literal repetition of the prayer he
gave, but in being imbued with its spirit. In the same manner,
faithfulness to the Church and the monastic tradition consists
not in reciting all the Offices and psalms written by the ancient
Fathers, but in being filled with the spirit of those Fathers and
in attaining to the measure of their sanctity.

7. Prayer for the world

Isaac the Syrian was one of those ancient Church writers who
possessed a universal vision encompassing a constant memory

165. H/14,38.
166. H/14,39.

201
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

of the entire world and the whole creation, of all people and
their sufferings. This is the paradox of a solitary life: withdraw¬
ing from people, a recluse does not forget them; renouncing the
world, he does not cease praying for it. Isaac loved solitude and
stillness, but any kind of closing in upon himself, any thought of
his own salvation apart from his brethren, was entirely alien to
him. He possessed that ‘merciful heart’ which is characterized
by having compassion on all creatures, not only Christians, but
also apostates, animals, and demons. His personal prayer, like
liturgical prayer, grew to a cosmic scale, embracing not only
neighbours and strangers, but the whole of humanity and the
entire universe.
This exceptional experience of universal prayer can be seen
in a lengthy prayer for the whole world which is contained in
Chapter V of Part II. Isaac begins by giving thanks to God for
his Incarnation:

As my soul bows down to the ground I offer you with all

my bones and all my heart the worship that befits you. O
glorious God, who dwells in ineffable silence. You have
built for my renewal a tabernacle of love on earth where it
is your good pleasure to rest, a temple made of flesh and
fashioned with the most holy sanctuary oil. Then vou filled
it with your holy presence so that all worship might be
fulfilled in it, indicating the worship of the eternal Persons
of your Trinity and revealing to the worlds which in your
grace you created an ineffable mystery, a power which
cannot be felt or grasped by any part of your creation
which has come into being. In wonder at it angelic beings
are plunged into silence, awed at the dark cloud167 of this
eternal mystery and at the flood of glory which issues from
within the source of wonder, for it receives worship in the
sphere of silence from every intelligence that has been
sanctified and made worthy of you.168

167. Cf Ex 20:21.
168. 11/5,1.

202
 Prayer for the world

Our attention is drawn by the language of the opening peti¬

tions, which is very close to that of the psalms: such phrases as
‘with all my bones and with all my heart’ are clearly inspired by
the images of the psalter.169 Continuing his prayer, Isaac turns
his mind to the creation and the fall of man, projecting the latter
upon himself. Isaac speaks of himself as a child and implores
God to treat him with fatherly care:

I prostrate myself, Lord, at the footstool of your feet170 and

at your holy right hand which has fashioned and made
me a human being capable of becoming aware of you.
But I have sinned and done wrong, both in myself and
before you, for I have abandoned holy converse with you
and have given my days over to converse with the lusts.
I beg of you, Lord, do not set against me the sins of my
youth,1'1 the ignorance of my old age, and the frailty of my
nature . . . Rather, turn my heart towards you, away from
the troublesome distraction of the lusts; cause to dwell
within me a hidden light. Your acts of goodness towards
me always anticipate any kind of volition on my part to do
well and any readiness for virtue on the part of my heart.
You have never held back your care to test my freewill;
rather, as with the care of a father towards his young son,
so has your care for me run after me, . . . for you knew all
the time that, even less than a child do I know whither I
am traveling.172

After requesting deliverance from evil intentions, carnal de¬

sire, and the power of the devil,173 Isaac asks God to give him
true repentance that he may see his own sins:

At the door of your compassion do I knock, Lord. Send aid

to my scattered impulses, which are intoxicated with the

169. Cf Ps 9:1; 35:10; 119:10, et al.

170. Cf Ps 99:5; 132:7.
171. Cf Ps 25:7.
172. 11/5,2.
173. 11/5,3.

203
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

multitude of the passions and the power of darkness. You

can see my sores hidden within me: stir up contrition—
though not corresponding to the weight of my sins, for
if I receive full awareness of the extent of my sins, Lord,
my soul would be consumed with the bitter pain from
them. . . . O name of Jesus,174 key to all gifts, open up for
me the great door to your treasure-house, that I may enter
and praise you with the praise that comes from the heart in
return for your mercies which I have experienced in latter
days; for you came and renewed me with an awareness of
the New World.175

Other entreaties of a rather personal character follow. Various

feelings and expressions of repentance are intermingled with
glorifications and praises.
Turning again to the Incarnation of God the Word, Isaac
asks God to hold him worthy of insight ‘into the mystery of
the killing’ of his beloved Son.176 The remembrance of Christ’s
death on the cross gives rise to a hymn of thanksgiving in which
his prayer reaches a dramatic tension:

You have given your entire treasure to the world. . . .Truly

this mystery is vast. . . . The flood of Christ’s mysteries
presses upon my mind like the waves of the sea. I wanted
to be silent before them, and not speak, but they proved
to be like burning fire that was kindled in my bones. My
mind rebukes me, revealing my sins to me. Your mystery
stupefies me, but urges me on to behold it. ... O my
Hope, pour into my heart the inebriation which consists
in the hope of you. O Jesus Christ, the resurrection and
light of all worlds, place upon my soul’s head the crown
of knowledge of you; open before me all of a sudden the

174. On the name of Jesus see Ephrem, Hymns on Faith 6,17; Hymns on Nativity 21
175. 11/5,4-5.
176. 11/5,15.

204
 Prayer for the world

door of mercies, cause the rays of your grace to shine out

in my heart. ... 177

After a long and expressive prayer to Christ in which his

life and suffering for the sake of humankind are remembered,
Isaac turns to prayer for monks and solitaries, both living and
departed. His prayer takes on that universal ring characteristic
of the eucharistic anaphoras of the Eastern Church. It is not by
mere chance that he refers in his prayer to the offering of the
Body and Blood of Christ:

May there be remembered, Lord, on your holy altar at

that fearful moment when your Body and your Blood are
sacrificed for the salvation of the world, all the fathers and
brethren who are on mountains, in caves, in ravines, cliffs,
rugged and desolate places, who are hidden from the world
and it is only known to you where they are. . . . O King of
all worlds and of all the Orthodox Fathers who, for the sake
of the truth of the faith, have endured exile and afflictions
at the hands of persecutors, who in monasteries, convents,
deserts and the habitations of the world, everywhere and
in every place, have made it their care to please you with
labours for the sake of virtue: accompany them with Your
assistance, Lord, and . . . may the power of your Trinity
dwell in them. ... 178

After the prayer for monks and solitaries follows one for the
sick and captives:

May those who suffer from dire and grievous illnesses of

the body also be remembered before you; send to them
an angel of compassion and assuage their souls, which are
grievously tormented by their bodies’ terrible afflictions.
Have pity, too, Lord, on those who are subjected to the

177. 11/5,18-21.
178. 11/5,26.

205
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

hands of evil, wicked, and godless men; send to them

speedily an angel of compassion, and save them from their
plight. O my Lord and my God, send comfort to all those
who are constrained by whatever kind of hardship.1 11

In this petition, and even more in those which follow, one

discerns literal parallels between Isaac’s language and that of the
eucharistic prayers of the Eastern Church. Thus, the prayer for
deliverance of the Church from persecution and inner conflicts,
and for the preservation of love and unanimity between kings
and priests—i.e. between the state and the Church—reads as
follows:

Lord, overshadow your holy Church which has been re¬

deemed by your blood; cause to dwell in it your true peace
which you gave to your holy apostles; bind her children-
in holy bonds of indissoluble love; may the rebel not have
power over her, and keep far from her persecution, tumult,
and wars, both from those within and from those without;
and may kings and priests be bound together in great peace
and love, their minds always filled with gazing towards
you; and may the holy faith be a wall for your flock.180

Let us recall, for comparison, a eucharistic prayer from the

east-syrian Anaphora of Mar Theodore of Mopsuestia:

Lord, mighty God, accept this offering ... for all kings,
priests and authorities ... for the whole Catholic Church,
that you may cause to dwell within her your tranquillity
and your peace all the days of the world. . . . And may
persecutions, disturbances, controversies, schisms and di¬
visions be put far away from her. And may we all be united
with one another in one accord with pure heart and entire
love.181
179. 11/5,27.
180. n/5,28.
181. Quoted from Vadakkel, Anaphora, 87-89.

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 Prayer for the world

In his concluding petitions, Isaac remembers those who have

gone astray and those who departed this life without repentance
and true faith:

I beg and beseech you, Lord: grant to all who have gone
astray a true knowledge of you, so that each and every one
may come to know your glory.182 In the case of those who
have passed from this world lacking a virtuous life and
having had no faith, be an advocate for them, Lord, for
the sake of the body which you took from them, so that
from the single united body of the world we may offer up
praise to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the kingdom of
heaven, an unending source of eternal delight.183

This last petition for those who died without having true
faith shows that the idea of the impossibility of prayer for the
departed non-Christians was totally alien to Isaac. He did not
imagine a kingdom of heaven which would be accessible only
to certain chosen people while the rest of humankind remained
outside it. As we can see, Isaac regards the whole world as ‘a
single united body’ of which every human being is a member. In
the age to come, the whole universe must be transformed into
the Body of Christ, which is the Church of those redeemed by
him. In Chapter VIII, when we discuss Isaac’s eschatology, we
shall see how this universal vision influences Isaac’s thinking on
universal salvation.
Isaac is convinced that Christians should pray for all persons,
regardless of their virtues or beliefs:

We should pray with suffering, and we should make sup¬

plication to God for all these things with pain. And this
is the attitude we should have towards all human beings:

182. Cf the Anaphora of Theodore of Mopsuestia: ‘And for the whole race of
mankind, those who are in sin and error, that by Your grace, O my Lord, You may
make them worthy of the knowledge of truth’; see Vadakkel, Anaphora, 89.
183. 11/5,29-30.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

we should pray for them with suffering, as for ourselves,

for in this way the Divinity will come and rest in us, and
cause his will to reside in us ‘as in heaven, so on earth’.184

8. Meditation on God and pure prayer

Among the kinds of prayer mentioned by Isaac, meditation

occupies a special place. He uses several terms to designate
this type of prayer, including three which are characteristic
of the whole east-syrian tradition: herga, meditation; renya,
reflection; ‘uhdana, recollection, remembrance. Each of these
three terms, for all their differences in nuance, may refer to
meditation on God and on spiritual things. In this section, we
shall speak principally about what Isaac called herga db-alaha,
meditation on God. This mediation is closely connected with
prayer, and we cannot easily separate the one from the other:
prayer sometimes gives birth to meditation, and at other times
it is born from meditation.185
In one of his ‘Gnostic Chapters’, Isaac explains in detail what
the practice of ‘meditation on God’ entails:

When you sit down between one Office and another to ap¬
ply your intellect to meditation on God, add these consid¬
erations: consider how it was from complete non-existence
that you came to existence; who it was who so made
you that you came into being, into your present state
of existence out of not existing at all; and, to speak in
the terms of Scripture, how, although you were initially
created beautiful, of your own will you came to be in a
bad way in that you ate of the forbidden tree, and you
continue to eat of it each day; and how you turned aside to
evil. . . . Again, consider what you have become through
your own will, and in what state you are now, without any

184. 11/5,32. Cf Mt 6:10.

185. 11/10,3.

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 Meditation on God and pure prayer

expectations, yet to what hope you have all suddenly been

called by the abundance of the compassion of him who
called you in Christ Jesus our Lord, returning you to your
original luminous relationship with God; and how you
remained in your disobedience and persisted in your fallen
state, yet God did not neglect you, but of his own accord
devised these excellent things for you, coming to save you
when you did not even know to ask this for yourself. Again,
consider what you are now in this life here, and what you
are going to be after a little while; and in what state of
corruption your present condition will end up, and that
out of your present existence you will again become as
though you had never existed—without remembrance, or
name, or memorial throughout all the generations to come
of this world. How can I describe what is so astonishing:
that out of such a condition of corruption there should be
such a new state of existence, moving from such a hovel
to such an abode; and farther, the comparison of what
is here with what is beyond, and the transition from our
present mode of life to the future life, as we move from
suppositions to certain knowledge and vision.186

Meditation on God presupposes remembrance of the whole

economy of God concerning humanity, beginning with the
creation of man, including the Incarnation and finishing with
the life of the age to come. At the same time, meditation on God
also includes pondering upon the ascetical life and Christian
virtues, as Isaac shows in Chapter X of Part II. This meditation,
according to Isaac, leads to spiritual illumination:

Everyone, then, will find illumination in that medita¬

tion into which he throws himself and in the reflection
he examines assiduously in his mind: by it he will gain
wisdom and will concentrate more on it if, in reflecting

186. Gnostic Chapters II, 84.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

on the ministry of righteousness, he ponders the actions

of righteousness, and he will be illumined. . . . And if,
again, he reflects on the ministry of virtue—how he can
please God in the purity of his body, the toil of prayer,
the clarifying of his body through fasting, the recitation
of psalmody, and the struggle against all the things that
hinder these; and if he reflects on how many different
forms virtue divides itself up into—and through which of
its constituent parts he finds illumination and advances
while persevering particularly in it—and reflects on what
is standing in opposition to each of these, then he will
thereby grow deep in understanding.187

This examination of virtues and their various kinds, which

Isaac suggests, is a meditation on moral issues. It is necessary for
an ascetic to practise it, as it provides a theoretical background
for a virtuous life. But it is important that one reflect not only
on the negative aspect of the ascetical life—that is, the struggle
against the passions and thoughts, a useful type of meditation,
but far less profitable than meditation on the positive aspects
of Christian life:

If a person meditates on the passions, on thoughts and

their struggles, on how thoughts attach themselves to one
another, and on which passion is attached to which, and
on what is the beginning of the first and what is the end;
and on what potency each of the passions possesses and by
what it is mitigated, and whence it receives potency—such
a person is concentrating just on matters of the passions,
exercising his intellect on them. But if he meditates on
God and allows his mind to wander on the things that
belong to him, searching God out single-mindedly, then
he will be illumined and will encompass those former
matters as well. Those former matters are fine, but they

187. 11/10,4-6.

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 Meditation on God and pure pj'ayer

involve contests, and reflection and knowledge of soul and

body should not rest all with them; nor should reflection
that consists only in opposing the passions . . . constitute
the goal of the hope that has been preached to us. Nor is it
what the Apostle said about ‘attaining, with all the saints,
to what is the height and depth, length and breadth’,188
or ‘Let a person excel in every kind of wisdom, and in
every kind of spiritual insight’.189 How can he grow wise
and become aware of these things if he remains night and
day only with release from and arguments against passion¬
ate thoughts and continual concern for them? Neverthe¬
less many people exercise themselves and concentrate on
these—and their service is fine and arduous, but they are
not in the slightest concerned with this other aspect.190

Someone who is consumed by thinking about the passions

and virtues is always involved in struggles: sometimes he gains
victories in the spiritual life, but not infrequently is he defeat¬
ed.191 But someone who is concerned with meditation on God
finds himself above struggles against the passions:

It is not that his intellect actually vanquishes thoughts,

stirrings, and passions, but it reigns over them, and they
vanish away. They are not actually defeated, for no victory
is involved there. Rather, the passions, memories, and all
that they induce, are no longer there, for that person has
actually been raised from the world, leaving behind, below
where they belong, all reflection on it, its affairs in all their
various sorts, and knowledge of them, while the intellect
is taken from their midst. . . . Once someone meditates
on God and on the riches of the waves of everything
that belongs to Him and applies to Him, then he has

188. Eph 3:18.

189. Eph 1:18.
190. 11/10,7-10.
191. 11/10,11.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

departed from the world, and the door is held closed on all
memories of it, the passions remaining idle in their own
places, while that person has actually been raised up from
where they are.192

Meditation on God, accompanied by total forgetfulness of

this world, leads one to the state of spiritual contemplation in
which one penetrates into the ‘dark cloud’ of God’s glory,19’ and
becomes like the angels:

. . . meditating on God first stirs in a person, and then

gradually meditating encompasses his intellect little by
little, and it brings the intellect in and makes it stand in
the dark cloud of His glory, and in that Fountain of Life
whence life bursts forth at all times without interruption
for the benefit of all intellects, both those above and those
below—of those whose labour is set in the heights above
the body and of those whose labour is on earth and dies; of
those whose movements are ‘burning fire’194 and of those
whose movements are limited by their gross nature.195

‘Luminous meditation’ on God is one of the highest stages of

prayer: beyond it remains only one step to mystical ‘wonder’, a
state in which the intellect is totally withdrawn from this world
and entirely captivated by God.

If you are desirous of tasting the love of God, my brother,

ponder, and with understanding meditate, on the things
that pertain to him and which have to do with him and
his holy nature: meditate and ponder mentally, cause your
intellect to wander on this all your time, and by this you
will become aware of how all the parts of your soul become

192. 11/10,12-13.
193. Cf Ex 20:21.
194. Cf Ps 104:4.
195. H/10,17.

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 Meditation on God and pure prayer

enflamed with love, as a burning flame alights on your

heart, and desire for God excels in you. . . . Luminous
meditation on God is the goal of prayer; or rather, it is the
fountainhead of prayers, in that prayer itself ends in reflec¬
tion on God. There are times when a person is transported
from prayer to a wondrous meditation on God. And there
are times when prayer is born out of meditating on God.
All these are different stages in the course run, in divine
fashion, by the intellect in the stadium of this world, each
person having his gaze fixed on the crown.196 The crown of
the solitary is the spiritual enjoyment of Christ our Lord.
Whoever has found this, has received from this world a
pledge of those things which are to come.197

The mutual connection between prayer and meditation is

discussed in Chapter XV of Part II. ‘Pure prayer’ (.slota dkita)
is the main subject of this chapter. According to Isaac, ‘pure
prayer’ consists in ‘meditation on virtue’. One should not think,
suggests Isaac, that pure prayer is the complete absence of
thoughts; it is instead a ‘wandering’ (pehya) of mind on things
divine:

Purity of prayer, O disciple of truth, and the recollection

of mind that exists in it consists in the exact reflection on
virtue in which we carefully engage at the time of prayer.
Just as purity of heart, to which the Fathers diligently
exhort us, is not a matter of being totally without thought
or reflection or stirring. Rather, it consists in the heart
purified of all evil, and in gazing favourably on everything,
and considering it from God’s point of view. It is the
same with pure and undistracted prayer. This does not
mean that the mind is entirely devoid of any thought or
wandering of any kind, but that it does not wander about
on empty subjects during the time of prayer. It is not the

196. Cf 1 Cor 9:24-25.

197. 11/10,29; 38^-0.

213
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

case that the mind is outside of purity of prayer unless

it is wandering about in something specifically good; it
may also ponder on things that are appropriate and think
thoughts pleasing to God during the time of prayer. Nor
is it required of anyone that empty recollections not come
at all during prayer, but one should not occupy himself
with them and be distracted by them.198

There are two kinds of wandering of mind: bad and good.

Even pure prayer involves wandering, but it is an ‘excellent
wandering’, as the mind is concentrated on good and divine
things.199

Wandering is bad when someone is distracted by empty

thoughts or by reflecting on something bad, and so he
thinks evil thoughts when he is at prayer before God:
Wandering is good when the mind wanders on God during
the entire extent of its prayer, on his glory and majesty, a
wandering stemming from a recollection of the Scriptures
and prompted by insights into the divine utterances and
the holy words of the Spirit. . . . We do not consider as
alien to purity of prayer or as detrimental to collectedness
of thoughts in prayer any profitable recollections that may
spring up in the mind from the Writings of the Spirit, and
that may result in insights and spiritual understanding of
the divine world during the time of prayer. For someone
to examine and think in a recollected manner about the
object of his supplication and the request of his prayer is
an excellent kind of prayer, provided it is consonant with
the intention of our Lord’s commandments. This kind of
collectedness of mind is very good.200

Meditation on divine things and pure prayer are thus syn¬

onymous. Isaac goes so far as to state that wandering of mind
198. 11/15,2.
199. 11/15,3.
200. H/15,4-5.

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 Meditation on God and pure prayer

can be better than prayer if it is accompanied by insights into

spiritual reality:

If the mind is released from this prayer and becomes dif¬

fused in things divine, or if there occurs to it some excellent
reflection arising out of Scripture’s insights on God—
insights that are either individual to the person or belong
to the whole community, insights into God’s dispensations
and acts of providence, whether they be those belonging to
each successive day or universal ones—all things by which
the depth of the heart is stirred to the praise of God or to
thanksgiving and joy at the immensity and exalted nature
of his compassion and love towards us; if this happens, this
kind of wandering is even better than prayer! However
exalted and pure someone’s supplication may be, this is
the culmination of every kind of collectedness of mind
and of excellence of prayer.201

‘Insights’ (sukkale) is one of Isaac’s favourite terms: we shall

return to this in the next chapter. Here we simply point out
that the question concerns mystical contiguities and encounters
which happen during prayer, encounters with another reality
surpassing human understanding and words. Insights can be
both personal and ‘belonging to the community’. What might
the latter entail? This concerns, not the experience of a group
of people who simultaneously receive the same insight, but the
personal insight of one particular member of the community
into the experience of the whole Church, an insight which lets
the experience of the Church become his own experience. In
other words, during his prayer something is revealed to a person
that was earlier revealed to other members of the Church
community: by this personal revelation, the experience of the
community is integrated into the experience of the particular
believer. Pure prayer, therefore, allows the convergence and the

201. n/15,6.

215
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

unity of a single person with an ecclesiastical community and

with the tradition of the Church.
Pure prayer, in Isaac’s understanding, is the final aim and the
highest limit of any prayer; beyond it, prayer ceases:

Even as the whole force of the laws and the command¬

ments given by God to humankind terminate in purity
of the heart, according to the word of the Fathers, so all
the modes and forms of prayer by which men pray to God
terminate in pure prayer. For sighs, prostrations, heart-felt
supplications, sweet cries of lamentation, and all the other
forms of prayer have their limitation, as I have said, and the
extent of their domain in pure prayer. But once the mind
crosses this boundary,... it no longer possesses prayer,
or movement, or weeping, or dominion, or free will, or
supplication, or desire, or fervent longing for things hoped
for in this life or in the age to come. Therefore, there exists
no prayer beyond pure prayer.202

Those who attain purity of prayer are very rare, Isaac adds:
‘Only one man among thousands will be found who . . . has
been accounted worthy to attain to pure prayer. . . . But as to
that mystery which is after pure prayer and lies beyond it, there
is scarcely to be found a single man from generation to gener¬
ation who by God’s grace has attained to this knowledge’.203
Pure prayer, then, is the mind wandering on divine things,
when nothing earthly or vain is mingled with the stirrings of
prayer. This prayer is very like meditation, and both constitute
the highest stages of the labour of prayer. What is beyond
the boundary of pure prayer—the so-called ‘spiritual prayer’,
wonder, contemplation—is no longer prayer. It is that fullness
of life in God which belongs to the life of the age to come:
it grows out of the experience of prayer, but goes far beyond
its limits.

202. 1/23 (116) = PR 22 (165).

203. 1/23 (117) = PR 22 (166-167).

216
 Chapter VII

THE LIFE IN GOD

0 man, pay attention to what you read here.

Indeed, can these things
be known from writings in ink?
Or can the taste of honey
pass over the palate by reading books?
For if you do not strive, you will not find.
1/4 (39) = PR 4 (58-59)

HIS CHAPTER DEVOTED TO THE MYSTICISM of

X Isaac begins with the theme of ‘spiritual prayer’, a state in
which the intellect becomes silent. Then we turn to his teaching
on contemplation (theoria), ‘overshadowing’, and illumination.
The characteristic themes of mystical ‘wonder’ (ecstasy) and
‘inebriation’ by the love of God will also be considered. Finally,
we shall conclude our survey of mystical themes in Isaac with an
analysis of his gnoseology, that is, his teaching on the knowledge
that is born of faith in God. All these themes are closely linked
and intermingled in Isaac, and it is difficult to single them out
and to subject each to systematic analysis.
To give the mystical theology of Isaac the appearance of a
coherent system, we need to analyze his mystical terminology.
We shall therefore treat the main terms he uses to designate
one or another aspect of the mystical experience. This should
help us draw general conclusions concerning the character of
the mysticism of Isaac the Syrian.

217
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

1. ‘Spiritual prayer’ and the stillness of mind

Isaac speaks of both pure prayer and ‘spiritual prayer’ (slota

ruhanayta):' the latter phrase, which he borrowed from John
of Apamea and other early ascetical writers, he understood
as the state which is beyond the borders of pure prayer. The
difference between pure prayer and the beyond-state, according
to Isaac, is that, during pure prayer, one’s mind is full of varied
movements (zaw ‘e, stirrings), such as prayers for deliverance
from trials, whereas in the beyond-state, the mind is free from
all movements. The purity of prayer, according to him, means
that the mind, when offering the movements of prayers, is not
commingled with foreign thoughts and does not wander astray.
‘Spiritual prayer’ does not involve any movement of the mind.
For

the saints of the age to come do not pray with prayer when
their intellects have been swallowed up by the Spirit, but
rather with awestruck wonder they dwell in that gladden¬
ing glory. So it is with us, at the time when the intellect
is deemed worthy to perceive the future blessedness, it
forgets itself and all things of the world, and no longer
has movement with regard to any thing.1 2

‘Spiritual prayer’ begins beyond the borders of pure prayer.

It marks the descent of mind to a state of peace and stillness. In
this state, every prayer ceases:

In the life of the spirit. . . there is no longer any prayer.

Every kind of prayer that exists consists on the level of the
soul of beauteous thoughts which arise in a person. . . . On
the level and in the life of the spirit, there are no thoughts,
no stirrings; no, not even any sensation or the slightest
movement of the soul concerning anything, for human

1. See Khalife-Hachem, ‘Priere\ passim.

2. 1/23 (119) = PR 22 (170).

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 1Spiritual prayer’ and the stillness of mind

nature completely departs from these things and from

all that belongs to itself. Instead it remains in a certain
ineffable and inexplicable silence, for the working of the
Holy Spirit stirs in it, having been raised above the realm
of the soul’s understanding.3

‘Stillness’ iselya) and ‘spiritual prayer’ are synonymous for

Isaac. The state of stillness of mind is not acquired by human
effort but is a gift:

When the mind is entirely without any kind of reflection,

this is silence of the mind and not purity of prayer. It is
one thing to pray purely, and quite another for the mind
to be silent from any wandering at all or from insight into
the words of prayer, and to remain without any stirring.
No one is so stupid as to want to find this by means of
struggle and the strength of his own will, for this is the
gift of the revelation to the intellect, and it is not within
the reach of pure prayer, or a matter of the will.4

The term ‘spiritual prayer’, according to Isaac, is used by

ascetical writers conditionally, as it designates the state which
in the literal sense is not a prayer at all:

Sometimes spiritual prayer is called by some theoria—

contemplation—and by others knowledge, and again by
others the revelation of noetic things. Do you see how the
Fathers interchange applications for spiritual things? For
the exactitude of designations remains valid for things
here, whereas there is no perfect or true name at all for
things of the age to come; it is a simple state of knowing
only, surpassing every appellation, every rudimentary ele¬
ment, form, colour, shape, and composite denomination.
For this reason the Fathers employ whatever appellations

3. 11/32,4.
4. 11/15,7.

219
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

they please to indicate that state of knowing once the soul’s

knowledge is raised out of the visible world, since no one
knows its name with exactness. But so as to make the
soul’s deliberations steadfast therein the Fathers resort to
appellations and parables, according to Saint Dionysius,
who writes: ‘We use parables and syllables, and permissible
names, and words on account of our senses; but when our
soul is moved by the operation of the Spirit toward those
divine things, then both our senses and their operations
are superfluous once the soul has become like unto the
Godhead by an incomprehensible union, and is illumined
in her movements by the ray of the sublime Light’.5

Is that complete cessation of intellectual activity which Isaac

calls ‘stillness of mind’ a migration beyond the borders of
personal existence, a complete loss of personal self-awareness?
No. In Isaac, ‘stillness of mind’ is not a synonym for unconscious
and insensible oblivion: there is a positive element in Isaac’s
‘stillness’, the capture of the mind by God. ‘Stillness of mind’ is a
state of extremely intense activity of the mind, which finds itself
entirely under the power of God and is drawn into undiscovered
depths of the Spirit:

Once the intellect enters the realm of stillness, it ceases

from prayer. ... As soon as the governance and the stew¬
ardship of the Spirit rule the intellect, . . . then a man’s
nature is deprived of its free will and is led by another
guidance, and does not direct itself. Where, then, will
prayer be, when a man’s nature has no authority over itself,
but is led whither it knows not by some other power, and
is not able to direct the movements of the mind in what
it chooses, but at that moment is held fast in a captivity
by which it is guided whither it does not perceive? But
according to the testimony of Scripture, at such a time a

5. 1/23 (118) = PR 22 (168—169). Cf Dionysius, On the Divine Names 4.11.

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 ''Spiritual prayer' and the stillness of mind

man will not possess a will, nor will he know whether he

is ‘in the body or out of the body’.6

The state of stillness involves, therefore, the absence of the

movements and desires of the intellect, but not the loss of
personal existence: on the contrary, in the stillness of mind there
is an intense personal communion between a human person and
a personal God.
The state of stillness of mind is related to ‘wonder’ and
‘contemplation’: it surpasses the boundary of pure prayer.
According to Isaac,

. . . there is awestruck wonder and not prayer. For what

pertains to prayer has ceased, while a certain divine vision
(:te’orya, contemplation) remains, and the mind does not
pray a prayer. . . . Prayer is one thing, and contemplation
during prayer is another, even though each takes its incep¬
tion from the other. For prayer is the seed, and the con¬
templation is the harvesting of the sheaves. Whence the
reaper stands in ecstasy before the unutterable sight, how
from the mean and naked seed which he sowed, such rich
ears of wheat have suddenly burst forth before his eyes;
then he remains entirely motionless in his contemplation.7

In Isaac’s teaching on stillness of mind, the influence of

Evagrius Ponticus is unmistakable. WTen speaking of the state
of stillness characterized by the ‘inebriation’ of the mind under
the influence of the Holy Spirit, Isaac directly quotes Evagrius:

For the Holy Spirit moves in each man according to his

measure, ... so that. . . his prayer is bereaved of move¬
ment, and his influence is confounded and swallowed up
in awestruck wonder. . . . The intellect’s movements are
immersed in a profound inebriation, and it is not in this

6. 1/23 (118-119) = PR 22 (169-170). Cf 1 Cor 12:2.

7. 1/23 (116-117) = PR 22 (165-166).

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

world; at such a time there will be no distinction between

soul and body, nor the remembrance of anything, even as
the great and divine Evagrius said: ‘Prayer is the settled
state of the intellect, and it is terminated only by the light
of the Holy Trinity through awestruck wonder’. . . . And
again the same Evagrius writes: ‘Purity of the intellect is
the lofty flight of the noetic faculties, which resembles the
hue of the sky, and upon and through which the light of
the Holy Trinity shines at the time of prayer’.8

Isaac goes on to develop the evagrian notion of the intellect’s

vision of its own luminous nature, as well as the teaching
of Dionysius the Areopagite on the ‘blessed unknowing’ that
surpasses all human knowledge:

When the intellect puts off the old man and puts on the
new man of grace, then it sees its purity to be like unto
heaven’s hue,9 which was also called the ‘place of God’ by
the council of elders of Israel, when it was seen bv them
in the mountain.10 Therefore, as I have said, one must not
call this grace and gift spiritual prayer, but the offspring
of pure prayer which is engulfed by the Holy Spirit. At
that moment the intellect is yonder, above prayer, and by
the discovery of something better, prayer is abandoned.
Then the intellect does not pray with prayer, but it gazes
in ecstasy on incomprehensible things which surpass this
mortal world, and it is silenced by its ignorance of all that is
found there. This is the unknowing which has been called
more sublime than knowledge.11

Spiritual prayer, according to Isaac, is participation in the age

to come, an experience of paradise on earth. The experience of

8. 1/23 (121) = PR 22 (174). Cf Evagrius, Skemmata 27 and 4.

9. Cf Evagrius, Skemm,ata 4.
10. Cf Ex 24:9ff.
11. 1/23 (121-122) = PR 22 (174-175). Cf Dionysius the Areopagite, On Mystical
Theology 1, 3, 2.

222
 Conte?nplation

contemplation which the saints enjoy in the future life is given

to some during their earthly life through ‘spiritual prayer’:

The soul does not pray a prayer, but in awareness she

perceives the spiritual things of that other age which tran¬
scend human conception; and the understanding of these
is but the power of the Holy Spirit. This is noetic con¬
templation, not the movement and entreaty of prayer,
although it has its starting-point in prayer.12

In Isaac’s teaching on spiritual prayer and stillness of mind are

outlined all of the major themes of his mystical theology—
themes such as contemplation, spiritual vision, wonder, ‘ine¬
briation’, unknowing. Each of them will be discussed below.

2. Contemplation

Among the mystical terms found in Isaac’s writings, the term

te'orya (from the Greek theoria), draws our attention. Isaac bor¬
rowed this term from the language of Evagrius and Dionysius
the Areopagite. In early syriac writers, including Aphrahat,
Ephrem, Narsai, and Jacob of Sarug, the term does not occur.
John the Solitary was probably the first syriac writer to use
this term; in the sixth and seventh centuries the term is used by
those east-syrian writers who were acquainted with the writings
of Evagrius.13 In the context of mystical theology the term is
normally translated as ‘contemplation’. Isaac translates it into
Syriac as ‘spiritual vision’.14
The term ‘contemplation’ occurs in Isaac in conjunction
with a number of adjectives: essential, divine, hidden, exact,

12. 1/37 (182-183) = PR 35 (260).

13. See Brock, ‘Theoria’, 407-408.
14. 1/37 (183) = PR 35 (260). D. Miller in his translation of Part I employs the
phrase ‘divine vision’ to translate Syriac te'orya, whereas S. Brock in the translation of
Part II employs the word ‘contemplation’. We normally use the word ‘contemplation’
to translate te’orya.

223
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

noetic, single, natural, angelic, exalted, spiritual, lofty, true,

heavenly, and still others. Isaac talks about the contemplation
of mysteries, of the Being of the Divinity, of divine care, of
the creative activity of God, of created things, of the properties
of Christ, of wisdom, of noetic things, of the Scriptures, of
the angels, of prayer, of truth, of light, of glory. As Sebastian
Brock has shown, many of these phrases he borrowed from the
language of Evagrius, but some appear to be innovations by
Isaac himself.15 Being primarily interested here in theoria as a
mystical phenomenon, we shall limit ourselves to looking at
certain texts on the contemplation of God and of the reality of
the immaterial world.
In Isaac the term ‘contemplation’ very often appears as a
synonym for ‘vision of God’. He speaks of the supernatural
state of the soul, ‘her movement in the contemplation of the
transubstantial Deity’.16 In this state, the soul

rushes forward . . . and on the wings of faith she soars

aloft, taking leave of visible creation; she becomes as one
drunken in awestruck wonder of her continual solicitude
for God; and by simple, uncompounded vision, and by
unseeing intuitions concerning the Divine Nature.17

At the same time Isaac emphasizes that the righteous cannot see
the essence of God. When someone is raised to the contem¬
plation of God, one sees not God’s essence, but ‘the dark cloud
of his glory’.18 One can see only a reflection of God’s essence,
though this vision will be fuller in the age to come:

The more a man becomes perfect with respect to God, the

more he follows after him. But in the age of truth, God will
show him His face, although not His essence. For however

15. Brock, ‘Theoria’, 408-410.

16. 1/3 (18) = PR 3 (23).
17. 1/52 (263) = PR 51 (377).
18. 11/10,17.

224
 Conte?nplation

much the righteous enter into the contemplation of Him,

they behold an enigma of His vision, like an image that
is seen through a mirror;19 but yonder they behold the
revelation of the truth.20

Isaac speaks of contemplation-r/jeom as a high mystical state

which very few people have attained:

It is not possible that even one in a thousand righteous

men should be accounted worthy of this lofty noetic per¬
ception. And indeed, the theoria concerning our Lord’s
incarnation and his manifestation in the flesh is also said
to arise from theoria concerning the Divinity.

Besides the contemplation of God in his nature and his ac¬

tions, contemplation of the angelic powers ‘in their very nature
and their own realm’ is also possible. This angelic contempla¬
tion is to be distinguished from visions in which angels appear
to people in visible forms. Such visions are not a true vision,
but only a manifestation to encourage the simple. Only the
contemplation of the angels in their own invisible realm is true
contemplation: it ‘belongs to illumined and wise men who have
been exalted by the glorious discipline of stillness to the rank
of purity’.21
Isaac also draws a distinction between ‘natural (kyanayta)
contemplation’—that is, the one related to the nature of the
soul—and ‘spiritual (:ruhanayta) contemplation’, which is a su¬
pernatural gift of God. The first is characteristic of human
beings in their primordial natural state before the fall; the
second is reserved to the blessed life of the age to come:

This contemplation brings the soul close to the nakedness

of the intellect which is called immaterial theoria. And this

19. Cf 1 Cor 13:12.

20. 1/48 (230-231) = PR 45 (324).
21. 1/22 (113-114) = PR 20 (161-162).

225
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

is the spiritual discipline. For it lifts up the understanding

from earthly things, brings it close to the spirit’s pristine
theoria, and presents it to God through the divine vision
of that unutterable pristine glory. . . . This is the disci¬
pline written about by the Fathers, namely that whenever
the intellects of the saints receive hypostatic theoria, then
even the body’s grossness is taken away, and from thence¬
forward their vision becomes spiritual. Now ‘hypostatic
theoria’ refers to the created state of man’s primordial
nature. And from this hypostatic vision a man is easily
moved and led up to what is called unitary knowledge,
which is, in plain terms, awestruck wonder at God. This
is the state of the majestical way of life to come, which is
granted in the freedom of immortal life in existence after
the resurrection.22

Contemplation of God becomes in Isaac an experience of

the departure from this world and participation in the world
to come. This eschatological character of the contemplation of
God is stressed by Isaac’s claim that the kingdom of heaven is
‘spiritual contemplation’ (te'orya ruhanayta).23 The experience
ot this kingdom begins in earthly life and continues in the age
to come. Yet in this life only very few are counted worthy of
this gift, mostly ascetics and solitaries who renounce the world:

A spiritual theoria ... is arrayed in luminous intuitions.

He who possesses it will not gaze searchingly at the world
again nor will he cleave to his body. ... If God would send
forth this true theoria to mankind but for a short while,
the world would remain without succeeding generations.
This divine vision is a bond before which nature cannot
stand, and it proves to be for the man who has received
this meditation in his soul a God-given grace. ... It is
given especially to those concerning whom God knows

22. 1/43 (213-214) = PR 40 (303-304).

23. 1/72 (353) = PR 77 (528).

226
 Contemplation

that they must truly withdraw from the world to a better

life because of the good volition that he has found in them.
But it increases and abides with them when they dwell in a
secluded and solitary place. Let us make entreaty for this
contemplation in our prayers. Let us keep long vigils for
the sake of it. And let us beseech the Lord with tears that
he grant us this as a gift which has no equal.24

The contemplation of God, Isaac asserts, occurs in the pres¬

ence of angels:

When by the in-working of divine grace there suddenly

arise within us great thoughts and astonishment at the in¬
tellect’s contemplations, which are more lofty than nature,
and when, as Saint Evagrius25 says, the holy angels draw
nigh to us, filling us with spiritual vision, then all things
that oppose us retreat and there is peace and ineffable tran¬
quillity for as long a time as we remain in these things.26

When Isaac speaks of‘angelic contemplation’ (te^orya maVakay-

ta),27 and of‘heavenly contemplations’ (te’oryas smayyanyata) in
which the intellect is ‘moved without the senses by the spiritual
powers of those worlds on high which possess wonders without
number’,28 his phraseology is meant to point to the presence of
the angelic world when one contemplates divine realities.
In his teaching on contemplation-theoria, Isaac was under
the influence of the hierarchical system of Dionysius the Are-
opagite, according to which contemplation of God is impossible
for human beings except through the mediation of the angels.
Divine revelations are transmitted from God to the angels
through the mediation of Jesus, and then from the angels to

24. 1/49 (239) = PR 47 (336-337).

25. Greek ‘Saint Mark’.
26. 1/69 (337) = PR 72 (497).
27. Gnostic Chapters III, 90.
28. 1/43 (215-216) = PR 40 (307).

227
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

human beings. Echoing the Areopagite, Isaac says of the hier¬

archical order of transmission of divine revelation from God to
human beings:

The angels are our teachers, even as they are for one
another; for the lower ones are taught by those who over¬
see them and possess more light, and so each order is
illuminated from the one above even up to that one order
that possesses the Holy Trinity as teacher. And further, this
very first order says openly that it is not instructed of itself,
but it has as its teacher Jesus the Mediator, from whom
it receives and then transmits to those below it. It is my
opinion that our intellect does not have a natural power to
be moved to the contemplation of Divinity. . . . Although
we, human beings, should purify and cleanse ourselves,
yet without the mediation of angels our intellect will not
be able to attain to the revelations and insights which lead
to that essential divine vision which is the true revelation
of mysteries. For our intellect does not have a capacity
as great as that of the most sublime beings, who without
mediation receive revelations and divine visions from the
Eternal One.29

In the age to come, the saints will contemplate God face to

face, while in this present life contemplation is possible only
through the mediation of angels:

Whenever the perception of the revelation of a mystery

descends into the intellects of the saints, this is also from
the angels. When it is permitted by God, a mystery is
revealed from a higher angelic order to a lower one, even
unto the lowest; and in the same manner, when it is per¬
mitted by the divine nod that a mystery should come even
to human nature, it is transmitted by those who are wholly

29. 1/28 (139) = PR 27 (197-199).

228
 Visions, revelations, insights

worthy of it. For by their intermediary the saints receive

the light of divine vision, leading even to the glorious
Eternal Being, the mystery which cannot be taught. . . .
In the future age, however, this order of things will be
abolished. For then one will not receive from another the
revelation of Gods glory unto the gladness and joy of his
soul; but to each by himself the Master will give according
to the measure of his excellence and his worthiness.30

3. Visions, revelations, insights

‘Vision’ (hzata) and ‘revelation’ (gelyana) are terms closely asso¬

ciated with ‘contemplation’. Whereas contemplation depends
on the mediation of angels, visions and revelations are often an
immediate contact with the world on high. At the same time, as
we shall see, angels can take part in visions, but their function
in them is not limited to mediation between God and a human
person; rather, in visions they act in an independent role as
messengers of divine mysteries.
Isaac defines the ‘divine vision’ (hzata alahaya) as a ‘non-
sensible revelation to the intellect’.31 ‘Vision’ and ‘revelation’
are often regarded by Isaac as synonyms. There is, however, a
certain semantic difference between them, which is indicated
in the following passage:

Question: Are vision and revelation the same, or different?

Answer: No, they are different. Revelation is often said
with respect to the two, because what is hidden is revealed
and something once hidden now becomes manifest by
some means. Not every revelation is a vision, but ev¬
ery vision is called a revelation, because what is hidden
is revealed. Still, not all becomes revealed and known
through a vision. Revelation is received for the most part

30. 1/28 (140) = PR 27 (200-201).

31. 1/22 (113) = PR 20 (162).

229
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

concerning things that are known, tasted and perceived

by the intellect. But vision comes to pass in many ways,
as it were in likeness and in types, even as it was given
in olden times to the ancients, whether in deep sleep or
waking. Sometimes it was precise, sometimes as though
in an apparition and somehow obscurely. For often the
very man who beholds the vision does not know whether
the thing had truly taken place or it occurred as though
in a dream. It also happens that a voice of succour is
heard, at times a certain form is seen, at times a more
distinct vision, that is, face to face, and sight, and speech,
and questions and the ensuing intercourse. These things
occur in desert wildernesses and places far removed from
men, where a man is by necessity in great need of them
because he has no help or comfort from any quarter. But
the revelations that are perceived by the intellect through
its purity are received by perfect men alone who are replete
with knowledge.32

Revelation is therefore higher than vision. Revelation, more¬

over, is a more general concept than vision. The term ‘revela¬
tion’ refers to the inward mystical experience; ‘vision’ indicates
concrete and visible appearances from the immaterial world.
To the realm of visions belong in particular, the appearances of
angels to saints and martyrs:

Let the holy martyrs be examples to encourage you. The

martyrs, often many together but sometimes one alone,
in places both many and diverse, contested for Christ’s
sake. ... To such as these, the holy angels would mani¬
festly appear. . . . But what need is there to speak of the as¬
cetics, those strangers to the world, and of the anchorites,
who made the desert a city33 and a dwelling-place and
hostelry of angels? For the angels would continually visit

32. 1/37 (176-177) = PR 35 (249-250).

33. Cf Athanasius of Alexandria, The Life of Saint Antony 14.

230
 Visions, revelations, insights

these men because their modes of life were so similar. . . .

And since, having abandoned things earthly, they loved the
heavenly and were become imitators of the angels, rightly
did those very same holy angels not conceal the sight of
themselves from them. ... 34

Not only angels, but also departed saints appear to ascetics

in dream:

Those who are near to attaining the stage of purity are

deemed worthy always to behold certain of the saints
during the vision of the night; and at every moment during
the day, the vision of them, which has been engraved upon
their souls, produces in these men the food of joy through
their intellect’s noetic rumination.35

‘Revelation’ refers to the inner contiguity of a person with

an unearthly reality; it does not necessarily presuppose seeing
a certain visible image. Most frequently the term is used in the
plural:

The beginning of spiritual contemplation . . . is the begin¬

ning of every revelation in the intellect; by this activity the
intellect grows and becomes powerful in hidden things,
and by this the intellect advances to other revelations
which surpass the nature of man. In a word, ... all di¬
vine contemplation and all revelations of the Spirit which
the saints receive in this world, and whatever gifts and
revelations human nature can come to know in this life,
pass over to a man.36

Here revelations are spoken of as a phenomenon which accom¬

panies the intellect in different stages of its development: the

34. 1/5 (44) = PR 5 (65).

35. 1/54 (267) = PR 53 (381).
36. 1/49 (240) = PR 47 (338).

231
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian_

way of the intellect is regarded as a way from one revelation to

another.
‘Revelations’, in Isaac’s vocabulary, are the experience of
participation in the kingdom of heaven during one’s earthly
life:

The revelation of the good that is hidden within us is

the apperception of knowledge of truth: ‘The Kingdom
of heaven is mystically within you’... 3 Wonder at the
divine nature is a revelation of the New World. Revela¬
tions of the New World are wondrous stirrings concern¬
ing God. With these mysteries all rational nature will be
stirred in that future existence, in that heavenly abode.
The holy powers exist now by means of these impulses:
this is the mode of life of angels, so that they are astonished,
at this mystery all the time, due to revelations that come
upon them in various ways during these stirrings concern¬
ing the Divine Nature. This is the exalted position which
life after the resurrection holds.38

Isaac distinguishes between the revelations ‘of the New

World’ and the revelations ‘about the New World’. The first are
meetings with the divine reality; the second are spiritual insights
into the eschatological ‘future state’ of the created world:

The revelations of the New World are quite different

from the revelations about the New World. The former
concern the glorious nature of the divine Majesty; the lat¬
ter concern the wondrous transformations which creation
will experience, and concern each aspect of the future state
as it is made known to the intellect through the revelation
of various insights, which in turn are the result of continual
reflection on them and illumination.39

37. Cf Lk 17:21.
38. 11/8,1; 4-6.
39. 11/8,7.

232
 Visions, revelations, insights

In one of the chapters in Part I,40 Isaac speaks of the six

kinds of revelations which are mentioned in Scripture: through
the senses; by means of physical sight; through the rapture
of the spirit; ‘by the rank of prophecy’; ‘in some intellectual
way’; and ‘as if by dream’. Revelations through the senses are
either ‘those which take place by means of the elements’—
the Burning Bush, for example, or the cloud of God’s glory—
or those ‘without matter’ and yet experienced ‘by means of
the bodily senses’—like the appearance of the three men to
Abraham or Jacob’s ladder. Revelation through physical sight
occurred, for example, when Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on
a high throne with seraphs around him.41 ‘Rapture in spirit’
is what happened to Paul when he was taken up to the third
heaven, yet whether this was in or out of the body, he did
not know.42 Revelation ‘by the rank of prophesy’ refers to ‘the
things that happened unto the Prophets, who foretold future
events many ages before they took place’. Revelation ‘in some
intellectual way’ gives a certain insight into the Divine Nature
or the resurrection of the dead or the age to come or some
other key dogma of the Christian faith. Finally, the revelation
‘by dream’ is one given to someone during his sleep.43
Isaac claims that revelations take place both ‘by means of
images’ and ‘without images’. Those with images are given by
God to instruct many people and give them ‘a small insight’
into truth. Those ‘without images’ are usually given to a single
person, to instruct, comfort, and console him.44 However, Isaac
emphasizes, such revelations should not be taken as equal to the
whole truth and perfect knowledge, as they are only insights
into this truth and reveal it according to the strength of the
human nature.45

40. This is Chapter XIX of Bedjan’s edition (missing from D. Miller’s translation).
41. Cf Is 6:1.
42. Cf 2 Cor 12:2-4.
43. PR 20 (156-159) = Mystic Treaties, pp 106-108.
44. PR 20 (159-160) = Mystic Treaties, p 108.
45. Ibid.

233
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

The term ‘insights’ (sukkale) is therefore semantically close

to the term ‘revelations’: it, too, is used in the plural and can
serve as a description of sudden and bright contiguity with the
reality of the other world. Insights differ from revelations by
their more swift, impetuous character; they are instantaneous,
but leave a deep trace on a person’s soul. Insights can take place
at various stages of a Christian’s spiritual life:

There is the person who has reached perfection on the

level of the soul, but who has not yet entered the mode
of life of the spirit: only a little of it has begun to stir
in him. While he is fully in the mode of life of the soul,
every now and then it happens that some stirrings of the
spirit arise indistinctly in him, and he begins to perceive
in his soul a hidden joy and consolation: like flashes of
lightning . . . particular mystical insights arise and are set
in motion in his mind. At this his heart at once bursts
with joy. ... I know a person living in the vicinity46 who
experiences these lightning flashes. But even though in¬
sight into mysteries momentarily passes through his mind
and then departs, nevertheless the outburst of joy at the
experience lasts a long time, and then after it goes, serenity
resulting from it is poured over the mind for a considerable
period. Furthermore, the condition of the body and the
limbs becomes one of peace, and they feel great rest, while
the enjoyment of the sweetness of its wondrous character
is marked at the supreme moment on the mind’s palate.47

‘Insights’ are such spiritual boosts which suddenly arise in a

person during prayer or reading. A person’s intellect then enters
into the Holy of Holies and communicates with God. At that
moment, as in the case with ‘stillness of mind’, prayer ceases:

The word ‘prayer’. . . refers to a period of standing or a

particular act of worship; for while engaged in his reading,

46. Isaac is probably alluding to himself (cf 2 Cor 12:1).

47. 11/20,19-20.

234
 Visions, revelations, insights

an ascetic is never for one moment devoid of the upsurges

of prayer. For no reading of Scripture which has engaged
in this spiritual concern will be empty of the fountain of
prayer, seeing that for the most part this person will be ine¬
briated by the mysteries he encounters. Profound prayers
will appear unawares in him in a wondrous way, without
his having prepared or willed them. And why do I call
‘prayer’ his frequently being inebriated by some insight,
seeing that no place is to be found there any longer for the
stirring or recollection of prayer? This is something much
more excellent—insofar as this can be said—even than the
level of prayer. Prayer, however, is lower in rank than being
stirred in spirit: on this there is no dispute, for prayer is
inferior to this mystery. Frequently, when the intellect is
stirred by some insight produced by events either in the
natural world or in the Scriptures as it perceives their spir¬
itual intention and then peers, with the help of the grace
which accompanies it, into the Holy of Holies of their
mysteries, then there is not even the strength to pray. . . .
When the intellect is given permission and accorded the
strength to enter therein, no strength or movement or
activity is left remaining in the senses during these periods.
There is someone from among those who are gathered
here48 who has always experienced these things: I know
that his heart immediately leaps up when he encounters
this kind of reading which comes from the experience and
from indications of the things just mentioned.49

Visions, revelations, and insights can therefore be spoken of

as different aspects of the same phenomenon: a human person’s
encounter with the realities of the immaterial world. ‘Visions’
refers to encounters with personal beings (angels, saints) who
dwell in that world and who appear in visible form; ‘revela¬
tions’ denotes spiritual penetration into the Divine Being or the

48. Isaac is probably again speaking of himself.

49. 11/30,8-11.

235
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

eschatological, renewed created world; ‘insights’ signifies mys¬

tical flashes within a person’s intellect, when suddenly, during
prayer or reading, the mysteries of the other world are opened
to him.

4. ‘Overshadowing’ and ‘illumination’

Two other mystical terms in Isaac the Syrian point to an action

of divine grace upon a human person. They are ‘overshadow¬
ing’ and ‘illumination’. Connected with illumination is Isaac’s
mysticism of light, which we will also consider here.
The term maggnanutaf0 which can be translated as ‘over¬
shadowing’ or ‘tabernacling’, refers to a specific action by a
higher power upon a lower. In Isaac, ‘overshadowing’ refers.to
the influence of the Holy Spirit over a person.51 Isaac begins by
defining the term and indicating its use in the Bible:

‘Overshadowing’ is a term indicating help and protection,

and also the receiving of a heavenly gift; for example, ‘The
Holy Spirit shall come and the power of the Most High
shall overshadow you’.52 The former kind is involved in
‘Cause your right hand, Lord, to overshadow me’,53 which
is a request for help; this is like ‘I will overshadow this town
and deliver it’.54 Thus we understand two kinds of action
in the ‘overshadowing’ over human beings that comes
from God: one is mysterious [sacramental] and spiritual
[noetic], the other practical.55

The first kind of overshadowing, continues Isaac,

50. See Brock, ‘Maggnanuta’.

51. This is discussed in Chapter XVI of Part II = Chapter LIV of Part I.
52. Lk 1:35.
53. Ps 138 (137):7—8.
54. 2 Kgs 19:34 = Is 38:6.
55. 11/16,2-3 = PR 54 (390).

236
 ‘Overshadowing' and ‘illumination ’

consists in the sanctification which is received through

divine grace; in other words, when, through the operation
of the Holy Spirit, someone is sanctified in his body and
soul, as was the case with Elisabeth, John the Baptist, and
the holy Mary, blessed among women—although in her
case it was unique, going beyond the case of other created
being.

A similar overshadowing happens to every saint who is deem¬

ed worthy of divine revelation and the action of the Holy Spirit:

The mysterious variety of overshadowing such as takes

place with any holy person is an active force which over¬
shadows the intellect, and when someone is held worthy of
this overshadowing, the intellect is seized and dilated with
a sense of wonder, in a kind of divine revelation. As long as
this divine activity overshadows the intellect, the person
is raised above the movement of the thoughts of his soul,
thanks to the participation of the Holy Spirit. . . . This is
one mysterious kind of overshadowing: when this power
overshadows a person, he is held worthy of the glory of
the New World by means of revelation. This is the partial
overshadowing which has been the lot of the ‘saints in
light’, as the blessed Paul said,56 of which those are held
worthy who have received from the Spirit sanctification of
the intellect through their holy and excellent way of life.57

In the second kind of overshadowing, divine activity becomes

known to a person by experience, and it is

a spiritual power which protects and hovers over someone

continuously, driving from him anything harmful which
may happen to approach his body and soul. This is some-

56. Cf Col 1:2.

57. 11/16,5-6 = PR 54 (390-391).

237
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

thing which is perceived invisibly by the illumined intel¬

lect that has knowledge by means of the eye of faith. . . .58

Both the first and the second overshadowings have then a

mystical character. The second is accompanied by the ‘invisible
vision’—that is, the experience of contemplating the invisi¬
ble reality which is accessible to the ‘illumined intellect’—
and the term is therefore semantically akin to ‘vision’ and
‘contemplation’.
The term nahhiruta, ‘illumination’, also refers to the in¬
fluence of divine grace over a person. Derived from nuhra,
‘light’, it points to an action of God within a person which is
accompanied by the presence of light. Isaac develops the theme
of illumination in Chapter VI of Part II:

I will give you two genuine signs, my brother, and at

the time when God holds you worthy to be illumined
inwardly, you will, thanks to them, be aware of the light
of your soul. They are the following, and are sufficient
to indicate the truth which has begun to shine out in
your soul. When, through the grace and mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that illumination of mind of which
the Fathers speak has begun to shine in you, there are
two signs which will give you confirmation of this. . . .
Now one of the signs is this: once this hidden light starts
shining in your soul you will have the sign, that whenever
you leave off the reading Scripture or prayer, the mind
will be caught up with certain verses or with the con¬
tent of these, and it will meditate on, examine and probe
of its own accord into their spiritual significance; it will
be so bound up with them that it will not depart from
them and be distracted by anything else in creation. . . .
The second sign, which is as precise as the first, is the
following: when the soul leaves the darkness and becomes

58. 11/16,7 = PR 54 (391).

238
 ‘Overshadowing’ and ‘illumination'

light from within, then prolonged kneelings are granted to

the solitary, and tarrying in them will prove so delightful
that he may be three days kneeling on the ground in
prayer, without his knowing any fatigue as a result of the
delight, . . . and the delightfulness of prayer has become
so strong in him, that his tongue stands still and his heart
becomes silent. In this way a delightful stillness takes hold
of his heart and his limbs to such an extent that he does not
even conceive, one might say, of the kingdom of heaven as
being comparable in its delightfulness to this stillness in
prayer. . . . Accordingly, in measure with the manner and
extent to which someone enters illumination of mind, so
will he be held worthy of delight in kneeling.59

In speaking here of an illumination that occurs in a rather

leisurely and invisible manner and is recognized by external
signs rather than by internal feeling, Isaac clearly points to the
nature of the light of which he speaks: it is ‘the light of the soul’,
or ‘the soul which becomes light’. The soul exits from darkness
and begins to see its own natural light.
The term ‘light’ (nuhra) is frequently encountered in Isaac’s
writings, but it usually refers not to a visible and concrete light,
nor is it the divine light seen by mystics. If Isaac knew the
experience of the vision of the divine light spoken of by syriac
and byzantine mystical writers—-John of Dalyatha, Symeon
the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas, and many others—
he never described it in detail. Isaac cannot in this sense be
considered a predecessor of byzantine hesychasm. Readers ac¬
customed to the greek text of Isaac or translations from it
will immediately remember phrases like ‘the light of the Holy
Trinity’, which shines, like the sun, in a person’s soul, and
‘contemplation of the Holy Trinity’. None of them, however,
occurs in authentic writings of Isaac, but are found either in
works ofjohn of Dalyatha and Philoxenus ofMabbug attributed
to him, or in Isaac’s quotations from Evagrius.

59. H/6,1-4.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

In authentic texts, the phrase ‘divine light’ (nuhra alahaya)6Q

does not carry the specific and concrete character which it
receives in hesychast literature. The same is true of the phrases
‘the light of theoria\6X ‘the holy light’,62 and the like. All these
expressions refer to an inward experience of spiritual vision,
that is, the ascetic’s vision of the light of his own soul as a
result of illumination from above which has taken place in his
intellect. This is the content of the passage on illumination
quoted above. The notion of the natural light of the human soul
was known to Evagrius: he speaks of the ‘inner man’ who has
become a ‘gnostic’ contemplating ‘the light of the beauty of his
soul’ {nuhra' d-supra d-napseh).63 Evagrius distinguished between
the divine light—which is the light of the Eloly Trinity—and
the natural light of the human soul which is contemplated by
ascetics during prayer. Isaac does quote Evagrius’ texts con¬
cerning the vision of the light of the Holy Trinity, but in his
own writings he speaks more regularly of the inner and hidden
light of the human soul.
The sources of spiritual illumination and of the radiance
of the light within the soul are prayer and ascetical activi¬
ties. Reflection ‘on the ministry of righteousness’ is also a
source of spiritual illumination,64 as are the memory of God
and night vigil:

Good soil which gladdens its husbandman by bringing

forth fruit an hundredfold is a soul that is made radiant
by the remembrance of God and unsleeping vigil both
day and night. The Lord establishes on her steadfastness
a cloud that overshadows her by day and with a flaming
light he illumines her by night: within her darkness a
light shines.65

60. Cf PR 19 (156); PR 67 (472); 11/11,29.

61. 1/77 (368) = PR 75 (550).
62. 11/9,7.
63. Pseudo-Supplementa 50.
64. 11/10,4.
65. 1/6 (54) = PR 6 (82-83).

240
 Wonder

Kneelings with contrition may also contribute to inner illu¬

mination:

At whatever time God may open up your thinking from

within, give yourself over to unremitting bows and pros¬
trations. . . . Then light will dawn within you, and your
righteousness will quickly shine forth, and you will be like
a paradise of burgeoning flowers and an unfailing fountain
of waters.66

The radiance of the light in one’s own soul is a source of

constant spiritual joy:

Until someone loses the faith which is in his heart—by

this I mean the certain knowledge of this divine care
which will prevent him from falling into darkness of mind,
from which comes anxiety and anguish—for otherwise his
soul is filled all the time with light and joy, and it exults
continually—that person dwells as though in heaven in the
illumination of his thoughts which the faith of his heart
instills in him; and from this point on he is also held worthy
of the revelation of insights.67

The theme of spiritual joy brings us to a discussion of mystical

‘wonder’, another important feature of Isaac’s mysticism.

5. Wonder

One of the most characteristic spiritual states to be described

by mystical writers is ecstasy, commonly accompanied by a
feeling of spiritual elevation and compunction, tears and, not
infrequently, loss of self-consciousness, weakening of the bodily
members, and withdrawal of the mind from the body. The

66. 1/4 (38-39) = PR 4 (58). Cf Is 58:10-11.

67. 11/8,25.

241
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

greekword ekstasis—which literally means ‘separation’ or ‘with¬

drawal’—does not have a direct counterpart in Syriac: the clos¬
est equivalents are the terms temha and tehra, both of which are
translated as ‘wonder’, ‘astonishment’, or ‘amazement’. Temha
is more frequent in Isaac , who uses it to refer to the same
mystical state that was called ekstasis by the greek mystical
authors; in the greek version of Isaac both temha and tehra are
normally translated as ekstasis.
The state of wonder is closely linked in Isaac to the states of
the ‘stillness of mind’ and ‘spiritual contemplation’, described
above. ‘When someone receives all the time an awareness of
these mysteries’, Isaac writes,

by means of that interior eye which is called spiritual

contemplation (te'orya d-ruh), which consists in a mode
of vision provided by grace, then the moment he becomes
aware of one of these mysteries, his heart is at once ren¬
dered serene with a kind of wonder. Not only do the
lips cease from the flow of prayer and become still, but
the heart too dries up from all thoughts, because of the
amazement that overcomes it; and it receives by grace
the sweetness of the mysteries of God’s wisdom and love
by means of the mode of vision which has knowledge of
events and natural beings.68

Wonder may stem from various sources. It can be a fruit of

withdrawal from the world and a solitary life: ‘The soul’s separa¬
tion from the world and her stillness naturally move her towards
the understanding of God’s creatures. And by this she is lifted up
toward God; being astonished, she is struck with wonder, and
she remains with God’.60 Wonder/astonishment can be born
of prayerful meditation: ‘For stillness and . . . meditation . . .
kindle great and endless sweetness in the heart and swiftly draw

68. 11/35,4.
69. 1/3 (16) = PR 3 (20).

242
 Wonder

the intellect to unspeakable astonishment’.70 Wonder/ecstasy

may come from the reading of Scripture.71 It can also emerge
from the recollection of God: ‘From long continuance in his
recollection, a man is transported at times to astonishment and
wonder’.2 Isaac points to the action of the Holy Spirit as a cause
of wonder:

just as with certain species of trees, sweetness comes upon

them as a result of the sun, likewise, when the Spirit shines
out in our hearts, then the movements of our meditation—
which is called ‘spiritual conduct’—are brought close to
luminosity; then our intellect, not through any act of
will on its part, is drawn up, by means of some kind of
reflection, in wonder towards God.73

We find several kinds of wonder in Isaac’s writings. They

differ from one another by the intensity of the ascetic’s mystical
experience. The first kind of wonder is a spiritual amazement
which occurs during prayer or while reading Scripture. A per¬
son does not lose a self-control, though his mind may be entirely
‘captured’ by God:

... he forgets even himself and his nature. He becomes like

a man in ecstasy, who has no recollection at all of this age.
With special diligence he ponders and reflects upon what
pertains to God’s majesty. . . . And so the ascetic, being
engrossed in these marvels and continually struck with
wonder, is always drunken as he lives, as it were, in the life
after the resurrection. . . . When he becomes intoxicated
with these things, he is once again translated from thence
hither by his divine vision concerning this age in which he
still abides and he says, stricken with astonishment: ‘O the

70. 1/37 (182) = PR 35 (259).

71. 1/37 (179) = PR 35 (254).
72. 1/5 (48) = PR 5 (73).
73. 11/10,2.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

depth of the riches of the wisdom, knowledge, insight,

prudence and economy ofthe inscrutable God!’. . . .Then
as one in ecstasy he muses and says: ‘How long will this age
continue? When will the future age commence? . . . How
will that mode of life come to be? In what form will this
nature be resurrected and framed? In what manner will it
undergo a second creation?’. . . . Then he stands up, bends
his knees, and with many tears offers up thanksgiving and
glorification to the God who alone is wise ...74

The second kind of wonder is accompanied by a weakening

of bodily members:

It often happens that when a man bends his knees in prayer

and stretches his hands to the heavens, fixing his eyes upon
the cross of Christ and concentrating all his thoughts on
God during his prayer, beseeching God all the while with
tears and compunction, suddenly and without warning a
fountain springs up in his heart gushing forth sweetness:
his members grow feeble, his eyesight is veiled, he bows
his head to the earth, and his thoughts are altered so that
because ofthe joy which surges throughout his entire body
he cannot make prostrations. '

The third kind of wonder is characterized by a loss of the

sense of one’s corporeality, loss of self-consciousness, and with¬
drawal of the mind from the body. Isaac speaks of the state of an
ascetic when ‘ecstasy, awestruck wonder and stillness overcome
him and his perception of his corporeality is stolen away, and
for a long time he abides in silence’/6 There are ancient saints
known to have spent several hours or even days in this state:

For we see that when Saint Anthony was standing at the

prayer of the ninth hour, he perceived that his intellect

74. 1/37 (179-181) = PR 35 (254-257).

75. 1/4 (39) = PR 4 (58).
76. 1/37 (181) = PR 35 (257-258).

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 Wonder

was taken up.7 And when another Father stretched out his
hands while standing at prayer, he entered an ecstasy for
the period of four days. And likewise many others through
prayer were taken captive by their strong recollection of
God and their love for him, and thus came to ecstasy.78

Isaac tells us of a contemporary who told him: ‘When I wish

to get up for my office, I am permitted to say a single marmita\
but as for the rest, if I stand for three days, I am in awestruck
wonder with God, and feel no weariness at all’.79
A special kind of wonder is described by Isaac in a homily in
Part I which was included neither in the west-syrian recension
nor in the greek translation. It is a wonder which begins in sleep,
causes the sleeper to awake, and continues after he has risen.
Isaac is probably describing his own experience here. He uses
the third person singular, but this is a convention in such cases:

I myself know a man80 who even during sleep was seized

with awestruck wonder at God through theoria on some¬
thing from the material of his evening’s reading. And while
his soul was astonished at the meditation of this divine
vision, he perceived as it were that for a long time he
was dwelling upon the thoughts of his sleep and delving
into the marvel of that vision. It was, indeed, in the very
deep of night when suddenly he awoke from his sleep, his
tears flowing like streams and falling even to his chest.
His mouth was filled with glorifications and his heart
mused long upon that divine vision with sweetness that
knew no satiety. From the abundance of his tears, which
without measure spilled from his pupils, and from the
stupefaction of his soul, whereby all the members of his
body became limp, and of his heart, wherein a certain

77. Athanasius of Alexandria, The Life of Saint Antony 62.

78. 1/37 (183) = PR 35 (260-261).
79. 1/54 (272) = PR 53 (388).
80. Cf 2 Cor 12:2.

245
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian_

sweetness throbbed, he was not even able to perform his

usual liturgy of night prayer. Only with difficulty could he
utter a psalm at daybreak, so overwhelmed was he by the
multitude of his tears which gushed involuntarily from the
fountains of his eyes. ...81

Isaac often speaks of the joy which rises up in a person in a

state of wonder. It is a supernatural and divine joy that comes
from a feeling of freedom and love of God, and it is accompanied
by a liberation from fear:

So once a person has been raised up above the ministry on

the level of the soul in his reflection and understanding . . .
and is being raised up to the mode of the life of the
spirit, . . . immediately a state of wonder at God (tehra db-
alaha) attaches itself to him, and he becomes serene and
tranquil after the stirrings of his former thoughts, as his
entire mind vibrates with spiritual stirrings, accompanied
by love. In this state of understanding, fear is removed
from a person, and after the manner of that New World,
the mind is stirred with freedom from thoughts concern¬
ing any fear or suffering incurred in reflection. . . . He is
in a state of joy of soul, and in his reflection and thoughts
he is quite unlike those who belong to this world, for he
exists henceforth in freedom from thoughts, a freedom
which is filled with stirrings of knowledge and wonder at
God. And because he exists in a state of understanding
which is more lofty than the soul, and exalted above fear,
he is in a state of joy at God in the stirring of his thoughts
at all the times—as befits the rank of children.82

Joy and wonder at God can become an abiding experience.

Even so, as Isaac emphasizes, joy in mystical experience is
intermingled with suffering. The joy derives from a sense of the

81. I/App. A III (392-393) = PR 71 (492-393).

82. 11/20,10-11.

246
 Wonder

fervent love of God and the unspeakable closeness of God to

the person; the suffering, from the impossibility of remaining in
this state uninterruptedly. In this sense, Isaac claims, ‘there is no
suffering more burning than the love of God’. And immediately
adds: ‘O Lord, hold me worthy to taste of this fountain!’83 The
closer a person is to God, the more his thirst for communion
with God increases, and it is thirst that cannot be slaked. This
is why joy and suffering are lived through simultaneously; they
are two different aspects of one and the same experience:

. . . through that sweet suffering that takes place in the

mind for the sake of God at the life-resorting sorrow of
which the Apostle spoke84 the following are born in the
mind in accordance with the various directions its medi¬
tating takes: grief for the sake of God or joy at him; and a
heart that is dilated with the hope for which it continually
peers out. With their sharp warmth this suffering and joy
burn and scorch the body, drying it up at the seething
infusion of blood which provides heat and spreads through
the veins; for the flame of the mind’s stirrings as a result
of the fervour of the hidden ministry heats up the body’s
constitution. This hidden ministry causes a wondrous sort
of transformation to erupt all the time, which either gives
joy to both soul and body or anguishes it with a sharp
suffering.85

The state of wonder which ascetics experience during their

lifetime is a symbol of that wonder in which the saints live in
the age to come; it is ‘a taste of the kingdom of heaven’ and ‘a
revelation of the New World’.86 To support his teaching, Isaac
draws on Evagrius:

83. 11/18,16.
84. Cf 2 Cor 7:10.
85. 11/24,2.
86. n/8,1^1.

247
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

And this is what Evagrius, recipient of boundless spiritual

revelations, names ‘the hundred-fold reward which our
Lord promised in his Gospel’.87 In his wonder at the
greatness of this delight he did well to call it ‘the key to the
kingdom of heaven’.881 say in truth, as before God, that
the body’s limbs are incapable of holding up before this
delight, and the heart is incapable of receiving it because
of the magnitude of its pleasure. What more is there to
say, seeing that the saints name it ‘the apperception of
the kingdom of heaven’. For it is a symbol of that future
wonder at God, . . . when the intellect is raised up, as
though on a ladder, to him who is the kingdom of the
saints, and it abides in wonder. Well has this apperception
been called ‘the mystery of the kingdom of heaven’,89 for
we are, during these mysteries, in a state of knowledge of
him who is the true kingdom of all.90

6. ‘Inebriation’ with the love of God

To the term ‘wonder’, ‘inebriation’ ('rawwayuta) is semantically

close and it is used by Isaac to describe an especially strong expe¬
rience of the love of God, and the joy and spiritual elevation of
a state of mystical ecstasy. ‘Sober inebriation’ is a central theme
in the Christian mystical tradition from Origen and Gregory of
Nyssa onwards.91 In the syriac tradition, this theme is oudined
as early as Ephrem and John of Apamea, and it was developed
by Dadisho and Symeon d-Taibutheh.92 For Isaac the Syrian,
the theme of spiritual inebriation constitutes a synthesis of the
whole system of his mystical theology: by analyzing it, we can
perceive the most characteristic traits of his mysticism.

87. Kephalaia gnostika IV, 42. Cf Mt 19:29.

88. Kephalaia gnostika IV, 40.
89. This phrase is characteristic of John of Apamea.
90. 11/35,12-13.
91. See a systematic analysis of this theme in the patristic tradition in Lewy, EWietas.
92. See Brock, Note 3 to 11/10,35.

248
 ‘Inebriation ’ with the love of God

In one of the chapters of Part II, while speaking of the state of

wonder which begins beyond the borders of prayer, Isaac uses
the image of wine to describe the spiritual exaltation which
grips a person:

Sometimes . . . while prayer remains for its part, the in¬

tellect is taken away from it as if into heaven, and tears fall
like fountains of waters, involuntarily soaking the whole
face. All this time such a person is serene, still and filled
with a wonder-filled vision. Very often he will not be
allowed even to pray: this in truth is the state of cessation
above prayer when he remains continually in amazement
at God’s work of creation—like people who are crazed by
wine, for this is ‘the wine which causes the person’s heart
to rejoice’. ...93 Blessed is the person who has entered
this door in the experience of his own soul, for all the
power of ink, letters and phrases is too feeble to indicate
the delight of this mystery.94

Isaac most frequently uses the symbol of inebriation in speak¬

ing of how the love of God seizes someone’s soul. According
to Isaac, love is a gift which cannot be acquired by human
effort. Ascetical activity, including the reading of Scripture, is
conducive to the attaining of love, but love cannot appear in a
person unless it is given from above. To taste love by reading
books is impossible: one can only eat or drink it oneself. ‘Love
of God’, Isaac writes,

. . . cannot be stirred up in someone solely as a result of

knowledge of the Scriptures; nor can anyone love God
by forcing himself. What is possible is for the mind to
receive, from the reading and recounting of Scripture
and knowledge of it, a sense of reverence which stems
from a recollection of the majesty of God. . . . Not even

93. Ps 104:15.
94. 11/35,1; 4; 6.

249
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

as a result of the law, or commandment which He gives

concerning love,95 is it possible to love God: from the law
there comes a sense of awe, but not one of desire. For
until a person receives the Spirit of revelation and his soul,
with its impulses, is united to that wisdom which is above
the world and he becomes aware in his own person of
God’s lofty attributes, it is not possible for him to come
close to this glorious savour of love. Someone who has
not actually drunk (esti) wine will not be inebriated as a
result of being told about wine; and someone who has not
been himself held worthy (estwi) of a knowledge of the
lofty things of God cannot become inebriated with love
for him.96

The symbolism of wine and inebriation opens to Isaac the

possibility of describing phenomena of the mystical life which
are otherwise difficult to express in words. The thirst for God
which is characteristic of periods of abandonment, for example,
is symbolized by the alcoholic thirst of a drinker deprived
of wine:

With a laudable ecstasy the heart soars up toward God and

cries out: ‘My soul thirsted for thee, the mighty, the living
God! When shall I come and appear before Thy face, O
Lord?’1’' Only the man who drinks deeply of this wine and
afterward is deprived of it, only he knows to what misery
he has been abandoned, and what has been taken away
from him because of his laxity.98

Isaac likens the weakening of the limbs characteristic of

certain kinds of ecstasy to the similar weakness in a state of
intoxication:

95. Cf Jn 13:34.
96. 11/18,2.
97. Ps 41:2.
98. 1/19 (99) = PR 16 (131).

250
 Inebriation’ with the love of God

Through such zealous and divine diligence ... a man be¬

gins to be stirred to divine love and straightway he is made
drunk by it as by wine; his limbs become limp, his mind
stands still in awestruck wonder, and his heart follows
God as a captive. He becomes, as I said, like a man drunk
with wine."

The obliviousness to the cares and sorrows of this world

brought on by inebriation with the love of God is compared
with the forgetfulness of sorrows brought on by a state of
intoxication by wine:

As a man who drinks wine and becomes inebriated on a

day of mourning forgets all the pangs of his sorrow, so the
man who in this world—which is a house of lamentation—
is drunk with the love of God, forgets all his sorrows and
afflictions and becomes insensible of all sinful passions
through his inebriation’.100

In the mystical life, a person’s spiritual state changes as he

becomes capable of experiences which were previously inacces¬
sible to him. Instead of a contrite sorrow, a person lives through
joy in God and to him another vision of the world opens,
another perception of reality. This change of spiritual state is
symbolized by a distorted apperception of reality characteristic
of drunkenness:

Rightly directed labours and humility make man a god

upon earth. Faith and mercy speed him on the way to
limpid purity. Fervency and contrition of heart cannot
dwell simultaneously in one soul, even as drunken men
cannot have control of their thinking. For when the soul
is given this fervour, the contrition of mourning is taken
away. Wine has been given for gladness, and fervour for

99. 1/49 (239) = PR 47 (337-338).

100. 1/74 (363) = PR 78 (543).

251
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

the rejoicing of the soul. The former warms the body,

and the word of God, the understanding. Those who are
inflamed by fervour are ravished by hope’s meditations and
their mind is caught away to the future age. Just as men
drunken with wine imagine diverse hallucinations, even
so men drunken and made fervent by hope are conscious
neither of afflictions nor of anything worldly.101

When speaking of that unearthly sweetness and delight char¬

acteristic of mystical experience, when even the body rejoices
with the soul, Isaac emphasizes that these feelings cannot be
described in words:

Does there blaze up within you a sudden joy that com¬

pletely stills the tongue? Does a certain sweetness, which
by reason of its delightfulness is beyond comparison, con¬
stantly well up from your heart and does it draw the whole
man altogether after it? And at times does there imper¬
ceptibly descend into the whole body a certain delight
and gladness—things which a tongue cannot express . . . ?
But whenever the delight which surges through his whole
body sojourns within a man, at that hour he thinks that
nothing save this is the kingdom of the heavens.102

Again, the language of inebriation comes to Isaac’s aid, helping

him to describe the indescribable:

When the soul is drunk with the joy of hope and with the
gladness which is in God, the body, even if it be feeble,
becomes insensible to tribulations. . . . And it enjoys and
works together with the soul in her spiritual delight. So it
is when the soul enters into spiritual joy even though the
body may be weak.103

101. 1/6 (60) = PR 6 (95).

102. 1/68 (333) = PR 70 (486).
103. 1/48 (236) = PR 46 (334).

252
 ‘Inebriation' with the love of God

The feeling of spiritual lightness during mystical experience,

as well as the contact with the divine fire which penetrates the
whole of a human person, is also described by analogy with
intoxication:

Question: Why is hope so sweet, her discipline and her

labors so light, and her works so easy for the soul?
Answer: Because hope awakens a natural longing in the
soul and gives men this cup to drink, straightway mak¬
ing them drunk. Thenceforth they no longer feel the
wearisome toil, but become insensitive to afflictions, and
throughout the whole course of their journey they think
that they are walking on air, and not treading the path with
human footsteps. . . . For this hope so inflames them, as
with fire, that on account of their joy they cannot rest from
their incessant and headlong course. There comes to pass
in them what was spoken by the blessed Jeremiah, ‘I said,
I shall not remember Him nor speak His name. And there
was in my heart as it were a flaming fire and it entered into
my bones’.104 Such is the recollection of God in the hearts
of men who are drunk with hope on his promises.105

To the theme of inebriation, that of ‘divine madness’ or

‘divine foolishness’ is closely connected. This theme, also char¬
acteristic of many mystics, appeared as early as the epistles
of Saint Paul, who opposed the ‘foolishness’ of the Christian
message to the ‘wisdom’ of this world,106 and the ‘foolishness’ of
the Christian way of life to worldly honour.107 Mystical writers
frequently speak of madness and foolishness when they want
to emphasize the paradoxical, unutterable, and super-rational
character of an experience of communion with God. So it is that
Isaac compares the inebriation and intoxication with God’s love
which accompanies a state of wonder with foolishness:

104. Jer 20:9.

105. 1/71 (346-347) = PR 74 (511-512).
106. Cf 1 Cor 1:18-23.
107. Cf 1 Cor 4:10-13.

253
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Love is fervent by nature, and when it descends beyond

measure upon a man, it flings his soul into ecstasy. There¬
fore the heart of the person who has felt this love cannot
contain it or endure it. . . . This is the spiritual passion
with which the apostles and the martyrs were inebriated.
With it the first traveled the world over, toiling and being
reviled, while the second, although their members were
severed and although they shed their blood like water
and suffered the most dreadful torments, yet they did not
grow faint-hearted but endured courageously, and being
truly wise, were thought fools.108 Still others wandered in
mountains and caves and dens of the earth,109 and amid
disorder they were well ordered. . . . May God grant us
also to attain to such madness!110

Isaac speaks of mystical ‘foolishness’ as his own experience.

Foolishness and madness is that love of God and neighbour
which knows no bounds whatever and goes far beyond reason¬
able limits. The love one tastes is compared with honey which,
like wine, symbolizes sweetness:

Someone who has attained to the love of God no longer

wishes to remain in this life, for love abolishes fear.111
My beloved, I have become foolish, and I cannot bear
to guard the mystery in silence, but I am become a fool112
for the sake of my brothers’ profit. For true love is not
able to tarry in any mystery without her beloved. Often
when I was writing these things my fingers failed me in
setting down everything on paper and they were unable
to endure the sweetness that descended into my heart
and silenced my senses. . . .Joy that is in God is stronger

108. Cf 1 Cor 3:18.

109. Cf Heb 11:38.
110. 1/35 (158-159) = PR 33 (219-220).
111. Cf 1 Jn 4:18.
112. Cf 2 Cor 12:11.

254
 ‘Inebriation ’ with the love of God

than this present life. . . . Love is sweeter than life, and

understanding according to God,—from which love is
begotten—is sweeter than honey in a honeycomb. What
is this sweetness of love that is sweeter than life? It does
not seem grievous to love to undergo a bitter death for the
sake of her beloved.113

Isaac’s use of the symbolism of wine and inebriation is some¬

times transformed into a eucharistic symbolism which is charac¬
teristic of the syriac tradition from Ephrem onwards. According
to Isaac, love is food and drink, bread and wine, and these are
at every hour given to those who love God:

When we find love, we partake of heavenly bread and

are made strong without labour and toil. The heavenly
bread is Christ, who came down from heaven and gave
life to the world.114 This is the nourishment of the angels.
The person who has found love eats and drinks Christ
every day and every hour and is thereby made immortal.
‘He that eateth of this bread’, he says, ‘which I will give
him, shall not see death unto eternity.’115 Blessed is he who
consumes the bread of love which is Jesus! He who eats
love eats Christ, the God over all, as John bears witness
saying, ‘God is love’. ... 116 Love is the kingdom, where
the Lord mystically promises his disciples [they will] eat
in his kingdom. For when we hear him say, ‘Ye shall eat
and drink at the table of my kingdom’,117 what do we
suppose we shall eat, if not love? Love, rather than food
and drink, is sufficient to nourish a man. This is the wine
‘which maketh glad the heart of a man’.118 Blessed is he
who partakes of this wine! Licentious men have drunk

113. 1/62 (297-298) = PR 62 (430-432).

114. Cf Jn 6:50.
115. Jn 6:58.
116. 1 Jn 4:8.
117. Lk 22:30.
118. Ps 103:15.

255
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

this wine and became chaste;119 sinners have drunk it and

have forgotten the pathways of stumbling; drunkards have
drunk this wine, and became fasters; the rich have drunk
it and desired poverty; the poor have drunk it and been
enriched with hope; the sick have drunk it and became
strong; the unlearned have taken it and became wise.1-0

7. Faith and knowledge

The last theme we will consider in this chapter is Isaac’s gnose-

ology, his teaching on the different kinds and degrees of knowl¬
edge, as well as on the interrelation between knowledge and
faith.121 This constitutes, as it were, the theoretical background
to his mysticism and must, thus, be analyzed within the context
of his mystical teaching.
Faith and knowledge, Isaac claims, are two disparate paths.
Acquiring faith presupposes silencing knowledge, and the in¬
crease of knowledge contributes to the extinguishing of faith:

The soul that by the pathways of discipline journeys on

the road of faith often makes great progress therein. But
if the soul returns once more to the ways of knowledge,
she will straightway become lame in her faith and be
bereft of faith’s noetic force. . . .For the soul which in
faith has surrendered herself to God once and for all,
and has received through much experience the taste of
his help, will not again take thought for herself. Nay
rather, she is still in awestruck wonder and silence and has
no power to return to the modes of her knowledge. . . .
For knowledge is opposed to faith; but faith, in all that
pertains to it, demolishes laws of knowledge—we do not,
however, speak here of spiritual knowledge. For this is the

119. Or ‘felt shame’.

120. 1/46 (224) = PR 43 (316-317).
121. On Isaac’s gnoseology see also Popovits, ‘Gnoseologia’.

256
 Faith and knowledge

definition of knowledge: that without investigation and

examination it has no authority to do anything, but must
investigate whether that which it considers and desires is
possible. . . . But faith requires a mode of thinking that
is single, limpidly pure, and simple, far removed from
any deviousness. . . . See how faith and knowledge are
opposed to one another! The home of faith is a childlike
thought and a simple heart. . . . But knowledge conspires
against and opposes both these qualities. Knowledge in all
its paths keeps within the boundaries of nature. But faith
makes its journey above nature.122

Faith, according to Isaac, possesses an unlimited creative

potential, without being limited by the need to subject itself
to natural laws. Knowledge, on the other hand, cannot act
outside the limits of these laws. Knowledge, therefore, must
serve nature with fear, whereas faith boldly goes beyond the
limits of nature:

Fear accompanies knowledge, but confidence accompa¬

nies faith. The more a man journeys along the pathways
of knowledge, the more he is shackled by fear and he
cannot be found worthy of freedom from it. But a man who
follows faith straightway becomes a free man and a ruler of
himself, and a son of God with authority he freely weilds
all things. The man who has found the keys of faith wields
all the natures of creation even as God; for by faith comes
the authority—after the likeness of God—to create a new
creation. . . . And many times faith can bring everything
forth from non-existence. But knowledge is unable to do
anything without matter.123

In this sense faith presupposes the possibility of a miracle,

whereas knowledge excludes such a possibility as being outside

122. 1/52 (253-254) = PR 51 (360-362).

123. 1/52 (254) = PR 51 (362).

257
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

the boundaries of natural law. The supernatural and miraculous

character of faith is confirmed by the experience of Christian
martyrs and ascetics:

For it is by faith that men have entered into flames and

bridled the burning power of the fire, walking unharmed
through the midst thereof, and they have trodden upon
the back of the sea as upon dry land. All these are above
nature and opposed to the modes of knowledge. . . . The
modes of knowledge governed the world for a little more
or less than five thousand years,124 and man was not able in
any wise to raise his head from the earth and perceive the
power of his Creator. For this was not until our faith shone
forth and freed us from the gloom of earthly labours . . .
there is no knowledge that is not impoverished, however
rich it should be; but heaven and earth cannot contain the
treasures of faith.125

While Isaac comes to the conclusion that faith is higher than

knowledge,126 he concedes that faith and knowledge are not
mutually exclusive. On the contrary, knowledge leads us to the
threshold of faith, and faith draws knowledge to perfection:

Knowledge is perfected by faith and acquires the power

to ascend on high, to perceive that which is higher than
every perception and to see the radiance of him who is
incomprehensible to the intellect and to the knowledge
of created things. Knowledge is a step. By it a man can
climb up to the lofty height of faith; and when a man has
reached faith, he no longer has need of knowledge.127

In spite of his emphasis on the superiority of faith over knowl¬

edge, Isaac was neither an adversary of rational knowledge nor

124. Isaac calculates ‘from the creation of the world’, using the calendar which was
common in the early Church.
125. 1/52 (255) = PR 51 (363).
126. 1/52 (256) = PR 51 (366).
127. 1/52 (257) = PR 51 (367).

258
 Faith and knowledge

a preacher of blind and intuitive faith. He regarded the way to

God as a way passing not only from knowledge to faith, but also
from faith to knowledge. In the first and second instances, the
words ‘faith’ (haymanuta) and ‘knowledge’ (ida‘ta) bear different
connotations, however.
When Isaac speaks of the superiority of faith over knowledge,
he emphasizes that faith is not only a matter of confessing
certain dogmas: faith is an experience of encounter with divine
reality. ‘By faith,’ Isaac says,

we mean not that wherewith a man believes in the distinc¬

tions of the worshipful hypostases of the Divine Essence,
in the properties of his nature, and in the wondrous dis¬
pensation to humankind through the assumption of our
nature, though this faith, too, is very lofty. But we call faith
that light which by grace dawns in the soul and fortifies the
heart by the testimony of the mind, making it doubtfree
through the assurance of the hope that is remote from all
conceit. This faith manifests itself not by aural tradition,
but with spiritual eyes it beholds the mysteries concealed
in the soul, and the secret and divine riches that are hidden
away from the eyes of the sons of flesh, but are unveiled
by the Spirit to those who abide at Christ’s table. . . . The
soul then rushes forward, despising every danger because
of her trust in God, and on the wings of faith she soars
aloft, taking leave of visible creation. She becomes as one
drunken, in the awestruck wonder of her continual solic¬
itude for God; and by simple, uncompounded vision, and
by unseeing intuition concerning the Divine Nature, the
intellect becomes accustomed to attending to rumination
upon that nature’s hiddenness.128

The faith Isaac speaks of is an experiential awareness of God,

an experience of the divine presence which he expresses in the

128. 1/52 (262-263) = PR 51 (376-377).

259
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

terminology of ‘inebriation’, ‘wonder’ and ‘vision’—his most

characteristic mystical terminology. This faith is higher than
any rational knowledge and it leads one beyond the limits of
discursive reason. The term ‘knowledge’ in this context means
that ‘wisdom of this world’ which is ‘foolishness with God’.129
It is ‘worldly knowledge’ which leads one astray from God and
it is in consequence opposed to faith.
‘Worldly knowledge’ is the first of the three degrees of
knowledge described by Isaac. It is knowledge conducive to
the progress of human civilization, science, and the arts. It is
anthropocentric and atheistic knowledge. In its midst stands
the arrogance of the human person who sees himself as a ruler
of the universe:

When knowledge cleaves to the love of the body, it gathers

up the following provisions: wealth, vainglory, honour,
adornment, physical rest, special means of guarding the
body’s nature against adversities, assiduity in rational wis¬
dom such as is suitable for the governance of the world and
spews out the novelties of inventions, the arts, sciences,
doctrines, and all things which crown the body in this
world. Among the properties of this knowledge belong
those that are opposed to faith. . . . This is called shallow
knowledge, for it is naked of all concern for God. And
because it is dominated by the body, it introduces into the
mind an irrational impotence, and its concern is totally for
this world. ... It takes no account of God’s providential
governance, but, on the contrary, attributes every good
thing in him to a man’s diligence and his methods. . . .
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree that
uproots love, is implanted in this very knowledge. ... In
this knowledge are produced and are found presumption
and pride, for it attributes every good thing to itself, and
does not refer it to God.130
129. Cf 1 Cor 3:19.
130. 1/52 (258-259) = PR 51 (369-371).

260
 Faith and knowledge

Apart from ‘shallow knowledge’, however, there is a Christian

gnosis characterized by a striving to come to know God and to
draw near him by observing the commandments and practising
various forms of asceticism. This is the second degree of knowl¬
edge peculiar to a religious person who, in his ascent to God,
has not yet attained perfection. When a person has reached
this degree, he relies on ‘fasting, prayer, mercy, reading of the
divine Scripture, the modes of virtue, battle with the passions,
and the rest’. Christian gnosis is a knowledge within the human
soul which promotes faith but it is not itself the highest degree
of knowledge:

This knowledge makes straight the pathways in the heart

which lead to faith, wherewith we gather supplies for our
journey to our true world. But even so, this knowledge
is still corporeal and composite; and although it is the
road that leads us and speeds us on our way toward faith,
yet there remains the degree of knowledge still higher
than this.131

What, then, is this highest degree of knowledge? It is ‘the

degree of perfection’ which totally surpasses the limits of ra¬
tional knowledge and of ascetical efforts. It is that knowledge
which is so swallowed up in the mystical experience of faith as
to rise again with new capabilities:

When knowledge is raised above earthly things and the

cares of earthly activities, and its thoughts begin to gain
experience in inward matters which are hidden from the
eyes, . . . and when it stretches itself upward and follows
faith in its solicitude for the future age, in its desire for
what has been promised us, and in searching deeply into
hidden mysteries: then faith itself swallows up knowledge,
converts it, and begets it anew, so that it becomes wholly

131. 1/52 (260) = PR 51 (372-373).

261
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

and completely spirit. Then it can soar on wings in the

realms of the bodiless and touch the depths of the un¬
fathomable sea, musing upon the wondrous and divine
workings of God’s governance of noetic and corporeal
creatures. It searches out spiritual mysteries that are per¬
ceived by the simple and subtle intellect. Then the inner
senses awaken for spiritual doing, according to the order
that will be in the immortal and incorruptible life. For
even from now it has received, as it were in a mystery,
the noetic resurrection as a true witness of the universal
renewal of all things.132

The highest spiritual state, which is born of faith, is the

third degree of knowledge. Faith serves only as a way to this
knowledge. The true knowledge attained by means of faith is
the antithesis of‘worldly knowledge’: the latter leads us astray
from God; the former draws us closer to him; the latter is
rational, the former mystical; the latter entails pride, the former,
humility.

By humility true knowledge makes perfect the soul of

those who have acquired it, like Moses, David, Isaiah,
Peter, Paul, and the rest of the saints who have been
accounted worthy of this perfect knowledge to the degree
possible for human nature. And by diverse theorias and
divine revelations, by the lofty vision of spiritual things
and by ineffable mysteries and the like, their knowledge
is swallowed up at all times, and in their own eyes they
reckon their soul to be dust and ashes.133

Notice how the mystical terminology of theoria, ‘revelation’,

and ‘vision’ is now applied to knowledge, just as similar vocabu¬
lary was applied to faith in the passage quoted at the beginning
of this section.134

132. 1/52 (261) = PR 51 (373-374).

133. 1/52 (259) = PR 51 (371).
134. See above, page 257.

262
 Faith and knowledge

In the patristic tradition, the triple classification of knowl¬

edge is commonplace. Isaac himself refers to the teaching of
‘Fathers’ on natural, supra-natural, and contra-natural stages
of knowledge.13 '1 According to this classification, contra-natural
knowledge refers to the atheistic knowledge that leads us astray
from God, natural knowledge to the religious knowledge that
leads us to God, and supra-natural, to the mystical knowledge
that unites us with God.

The first degree of knowledge renders the soul cold to

works that go in pursuit of good things. The second
makes her fervent in the swift course on the level of faith.
But the third is rest from labour, which is the type of
the age to come, for the soul takes delight solely in the
mind’s meditation upon the mysteries of the good things
to come.136

Isaac does not always follow this traditional classification

strictly. Sometimes he calls ‘natural’ any knowledge of the
material world, ‘spiritual’, the knowledge of God, and ‘supra-
natural’, the knowledge of God and union with God. The
last surpasses the limits of the term ‘knowledge’ and can be
apophatically called ‘unknowing’, or ‘supra-knowledge’:

Knowledge that is occupied with visible things and re¬

ceives instruction concerning them through the senses, is
called natural. But knowledge that is occupied with the
noetic power that is within things and with incorporeal
natures is called spiritual. . . . But that knowledge which
is occupied with Divinity is called supra-natural, or rather,
unknowing and knowledge-transcending.137

135. 1/52 (261) = PR 51 (374). Cf e.g., Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Think
They are Made Righteous by Deeds 90. For the English translation from the Greek see:
The Philokalia. Volume One. Translated from the Greek by G. E. H. Palmer, Philip
Sherrard, Kallistos Ware (London, 1979) 132.
136. 1/52 (262) = PR 51 (375).
137. 1/53 (264) = PR 52 (377-378).

263
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

The last two terms derive from the theological system of the
Corpus Areopagiticum, where mystical knowledge of God is
called ‘unknowing’.138
Isaac also employs a double classification of knowledge by
distinguishing between ‘natural’ and ‘spiritual’ knowledge:

There is a knowledge that precedes faith, and there is a

knowledge born of faith. Knowledge that precedes faith
is natural knowledge; and that which is born of faith is
spiritual knowledge.139

Natural knowledge is a rational ‘knowledge from below’; spiri¬

tual is supra-rational ‘knowledge from above’. One should not
think, emphasizes Isaac, that this supra-rational knowledge,
this true communion with God, is accessible to philosophers’
discursive way of thought:

Many simple people imagine that the philosophers’ form

of meditation is a foretaste of this converse that conveys
the beauties of all of God’s mysteries. The blessed Bishop
Basil speaks of this in a latter to his brother, when he
makes a distinction between this perception of creation
that the saints receive—that is, the ladder of the intellect
of which the blessed Evagrius spoke140 and being raised
up above all ordinary vision—and the perception of the
philosophers. ‘There is’, he says, ‘a converse which opens
up the door so that we can peer down into knowledge
of created beings, and not up into spiritual meanings’.
He is calling the philosophers’ knowledge ‘downwards
knowledge’, for, he says, even those who are subject to the
passions can grasp this kind of knowledge; the perception
which the saints receive through their intellect as a result
of grace, however, he calls ‘knowledge of the spiritual

138. Cf Dionysius the Areopagite, On Mystical Theology 1,3-2; Epistle 1 et al.

139. 1/47 (226) = PR 44 (318).
140. Evagrius, Kephalaia gnostika IV, 43.

264
 Faith and knowledge

mysteries above’.141 Thus a person who is held worthy of

this is in this condition night and day, like someone who
has departed from the body and is already living in that
world of the righteous. And this is the divine sweetness of
which the pure-souled and wonderful Ammonius spoke:
‘It is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb’142—but
not many solitaries and monks143 have known it. This is
the entry into divine rest of which the Fathers spoke,144
and the crossing over from the regions of the passions to
luminosity and to the stirrings of freedom.145

Our attention is drawn in this passage by the abundance of

patristic texts which are intended to confirm Isaac’s ideas. In
another passage in which he speaks of the two kinds of knowl¬
edge, Isaac refers to Mark the Ascetic and places knowledge in
the context of ascetical practice:

There is one kind of knowledge, with its own strength,

when this knowledge is occupied with virtue; but there is
another kind of knowledge when this consists in the mind’s
reflection on God, just as the blessed Mark the Solitary
said: ‘There is one kind of knowledge which is concerned
with objects, and another which is a knowledge of truth.
Just as the sun is superior to the moon, so the second kind
of knowledge is superior to and more advantageous than
the first’.146 He calls ‘knowledge concerned with objects’
knowledge which is born from service and contests with
the passions. . . . Knowledge of truth, on the other hand,
is knowledge . . . resulting from the raising up of the in¬
tellect above everything, and from continual meditation

141. Basil, Letter 2 (identified by Isaac as being to Gregory of Nyssa).

142. Ammonius, Letter 2.
143. Literally, ‘virgins’ (masc).
144. Cf Ammonius, Letter 2 (on divine power which leads a person to the rest).
145. 11/35,7-11.
146. Cf Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Think They are Made Righteous by Deeds.

265
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

on God, and by hope alone the intellect is raised through

reflection to God.147

The first kind of knowledge corresponds to what Greek¬

speaking authors, particularly Evagrius, called praktike (prac¬
tice), while the second, to what they indicated by the term theo-
ria (contemplation), the mystical ascent of the intellect to God.
True knowledge, according to Isaac, is the sense of the pres¬
ence of God, a personal encounter with him, an experience of
communion with divine reality. It gives birth to love and is a
source of the highest sweetness:

Love is the offspring of knowledge, and knowledge is the

offspring of the health of the soul. . . .
Question: What is knowledge?
Answer-. The perception of life immortal.
Question-. And what is life immortal?
Answer: Consciousness in God. [For love comes from
knowledge, and] knowledge concerning God is king of
all desires and every sweetness of the earth is superfluous
to the heart that has received it. For there is nothing
which can be likened to the sweetness of the knowledge
of God.148

No one can obtain true knowledge until he reaches purity

of mind, childlike simplicity, and sanctity. To receive spiritual
knowledge, one has to renounce human knowledge:

Not only it is impossible for . . . spiritual knowledge to be

received by this merely human knowledge, but not even
an inkling of it can be perceived by those who are zealous
in training themselves in such knowledge. And if any of
these men should wish to approach the knowledge of the
spirit, then until they repudiate human knowledge . . . and

147. n/10,14-16.
148. 1/62 (298) = PR 62 (431). The words in brackets are absent from the Syriac.

266
 Faith and knowledge

establish themselves in a childlike manner of thought, they

will not be able to draw near it, not even by a little. . . .
Spiritual knowledge is simple and does not shine upon
human conceptions. Until our mind has been freed from
its many conceptions and enters the unified simplicity of
purity, it can never experience spiritual knowledge. ... A
man cannot receive spiritual knowledge except he be con¬
verted, and becomes as a little child.149 For only then does
he experience that delight which belongs to the kingdom
of the heavens. By ‘kingdom of the heavens’ the Scriptures
mean spiritual contemplation.150

Spiritual knowledge cannot be acquired through human ef¬

forts: it is a gift from God. It does not come as a direct conse¬
quence of virtuous living, nor is it derived from virtues, though
it is given as a reward for virtues. Spiritual knowledge leads
one to the highest degree of faith which is no longer a ‘faith by
hearing’,151 but ‘confidence of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen’.152 Spiritual knowledge is a gift which comes
from repentance, says Isaac.

Concerning this we have written, ‘That of which we have

received an earnest by baptism, we receive as a gift by
means of repentance’. ... 153 Spiritual knowledge is the
perception of what is hidden. And when a man perceives
these invisible and by far more excellent things, from
which it takes the name spiritual knowledge, then there
is begotten by the perception proper to this knowledge
another faith, not one which is opposed to the first faith,
but one which confirms it. And this is called ‘the faith
of divine vision (te'orya)1. Until then, hearing; but now,

149. Cf Mt 18:3.
150. 1/72 (352-353) = PR 77 (526-528).
151. Cf Rom 10:17.
152. CfHeb 11:1.
153. Cf 1/46 (223) = PR 43 (315).

267
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

divine vision.154 But contemplation is more certain than

hearing.155

By now it should be clear that by various ways Isaac comes

to the same conclusion: the pinnacle of the spiritual life is mys¬
tical experience, whatever name may be applied to it—spiritual
prayer, contemplation, revelation, vision, illumination, insight,
faith of contemplation, spiritual knowledge. The path to this
experience may be described as a way from praktike to theoria,
from hearing to vision, from darkness to illumination, from
rational knowledge to supra-rational faith, from intuitive faith
to spiritual knowledge, from ‘worldly knowledge’ to ‘divine
unknowing’ or ‘supra-knowledge’. The way is endless. It will
reach culmination only in the age to come, when one reaches
contemplation and the knowledge of God to the greatest extent:

. . . Before a man can approach knowledge he must ascend

and descend in his manner of life; but when he actually
draws nigh to knowledge, he is altogether raised on high.
However much he is exalted, his ascent in knowledge will
not be completed until the age of glory comes, and then
he will receive the full measure of his riches.156

154. Cf Rom 10:17; Job 42:5.

155. 1/47 (227) = PR 44 (320).
156. 1/48 (230) = PR 45 (324).

268
 Chapter VIII

THE LIFE OF THE AGE TO COME

I am of the opinion that he is going to manifest

some wonderful outcome,
a matter of immense and ineffable co?npassion
on the part of the glorious Creator . . .
11/39,6

God is not One who requites evil, but he sets evil aright.
11/39,15

The majority of humankind will enter the kingdom of heaven

without the experience of gehenna.
11/40,12

HE LAST THEME in our investigation into the thought

-L of Saint Isaac the Syrian is his eschatology. It is an integral
part of his theological system and derives from his conviction
that God is love. Although based upon his own mystical in¬
sights, Isaac’s eschatological ideas are confirmed by the author¬
ity of earlier Church Fathers.
The traditional monastic themes of the ‘meditation on the
future world’ and the ‘remembrance of death’ begin this chap¬
ter. In the second section we shall collect Isaac’s eschatological
opinions which are spread throughout the corpus of his writ¬
ings, excluding Chapters XXXIX and XL of Part II. As these
two chapters (together with Chapter XLI) contain a systematic
treatment of specifically eschatological themes, it seems appro¬
priate to analyze them in the two concluding sections of this
chapter.

269
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

1. Meditation on the future world

The monastic tradition of the Christian East assigns great

value to the ‘remembrance of death’. ‘Always remember your
departure and do not be forgetful of eternal judgment’, advises
Evagrius.1 ‘Each day have death before your eyes. . . . Prepare
yourself for the fearful day of answering on the Judgment of
God’, repeats Abba Isaias the Solitary.2 In the syriac tradition,
the themes of remembrance of death and the Last Judgment
are developed by Saint Ephrem,3 one of whose eschatological
texts Isaac quotes in the following passage:

So long as we are in this world, God does not affix his seal
either to what is good or to what is evil, even up to the
moment of our departure. . . . And as Saint Ephrem says,
we should make our soul like a ready ship that does not
know when a favourable wind will blow, or like a tenant
who does not know when the landlord will give the order
to depart. And if, he says, merchants are so well prepared
for the sake of a little gain, though they may perhaps return
soon from their voyage, how much more should we make
ourselves ready, and prepare ourselves in advance, before
the coming of that decisive day, that bridge and door into
the new age?4

The transitory character of human nature, according to

Isaac, is the first thought which descends from God into a
human person and creates in him a good foundation for the
way leading to profound contemplation.5 Every evening, before
sleeping, one should remind oneself of death, imagining that
this night may be his last:

1. Apophthegmata, Evagrius 4 [English translation, The Sayings of the Desen Fathers,

CS 59:64—ed].
2. Homily I.
3. Cf his Letter to Publius. There are also many eschatological texts attributed to
Ephrem which are preserved only in Greek.
4. 1/62 (301) = PR 62 (437). The text seems to be from a lost work by Ephrem.
5. 1/49 (238) = PR 47 (335-336).

270
 Meditation on the future world

When you approach to your bed, say to it, ‘This very night,
perchance, you will be my tomb, O bed; for I know not
whether tonight instead of a transient sleep, the eternal
sleep of death will be mine’.6

It is necessary always to remember the Last Judgment, and

to prepare oneself to encounter God:

What is concern over God’s Judgment? It is: a continual

quest after his rest; mourning at all times and a contrite
meditation on account of those things which always re¬
main imperfect because of the wretchedness of our nature;
constant sadness on their account which the mind retains
through powerful thoughts and which in prayer it offers
up before God as an offering with humble compunction;
and, inasmuch as it is possible and is within a man’s power,
to hold solicitude for the body in disdain. Such is the man
who carries in his soul the continuous memory of God.
As Saint Basil says, ‘Undistracted prayer is that which
produces in the soul a distinct reflection on God. And
God’s indwelling is this: to have God established in us by
unceasing memory of him’.7 In this manner we become
temples of God.8

Remembrance of death and the age to come helps us over¬

come our fear of death:

As long as a man chooses to be free of possessions, depar¬

ture from this life always arises in his mind. He makes the
life after the resurrection his continual study, and at all
times he contrives to make preparation that will be useful
yonder. . . . He does not even fear death itself, because his

6. 1/64 (314—315) = PR 65 (459).

7. Cf Basil, Letter 2.
8. 1/51 (248) = PR 50 (352-353).

271
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

attention is always upon it, as something that approaches

him, and he awaits it.9

Remembrance of the Last Judgment, which occurs to a per¬

son as a result of spiritual illumination, is conducive to his
progress to spiritual perfection. Remembering his last hour,
he becomes more collected and attentive to his deeds:

When the faculty of reason begins to become illumined

in us, fear of death is completely scorned, and a person is
continually stirred by expectation of the resurrection, . . .
concern over divine judgment is strong in that person, and
he begins night and day to examine his manner of life, his
words and his thoughts; and if he conducts himself in all
sorts of good ways and fine manners of labours, then this
concern and recollection is never far removed from him.10

‘Reflection upon the restitution to come’11 must be a constant

activity of an ascetic. Isaac cites as an example a monk who,
during his prayer, reflects upon eschatological matters:

How did God bring creation . . . out of non-being into

being? And how will he again cause creation to perish
from its wondrous harmony, the beauty of nature and the
well-ordered course of its creatures: times and seasons,
the union of night and day, the beneficial changes of the
year, the many-hued flowers of the earth, the beautiful
buildings of the cities, their magnificent palaces, the swift
course of men and their nature which endures hardship
from its beginning in life till its departure? How will
he suddenly abolish this wondrous order and establish
another age, wherein the memory of the former creation
will never again enter into the heart of any man, but a

9. 1/74 (360) = PR 79 (538).

10. 11/20,2.
11. 1/1 (3) = PR 1 (1).

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 Meditation on the future world

change of another thought will come to pass, and other

deliberations, other concerns?

And Isaac continues:

The human nature will in no wise remember the world of

the way of life which was therein. For the gaze of man’s
mind will be held in bondage by the vision of that state and
it will never again have time to turn back in recollection to
the conflict with flesh and blood. At the destruction of that
former age, the future age will commence straightway.12

This prayerful meditation leads the ascetic to the state of

wonder at the greatness of God:

Once someone has stood amazed, and filled his intellect

with the majesty of God, amazed at all these things he
has done and is doing, then he wonders in astonishment
at his mercifulness, how, after all these things, God has
prepared for them another world that has no end, whose
glory is not even revealed to the angels, even though they
are involved in his activities insofar as is possible in the
life of the spirit, in accordance with the gift with which
their nature has been endowed. That person wonders
too at how excelling is that glory, and how exalted is the
manner of existence at that time; and how insignificant is
the present life compared to what is reserved for creation
in the New Life. ... 13

Eschatological meditation on the things of the future age

is a source of spiritual rebirth and renewal. It gradually extin¬
guishes all bodily cares, replacing them with thoughts of the
age to come:

12. 1/37 (180-181) = PR 35 (256-257).

13. 11/10,19.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian _

The beginning of the renewal of the inner person consists,

then, in meditation and constant reflection on the things
to come. By this means the person is little by little purified
of customary distraction on earthly things: he becomes
like a snake which has sloughed off its old skin, and is
renewed and rejuvenated. Similarly, inasmuch as bodily
thoughts, and concern for these, diminish in the mind,
accordingly reflection on things heavenly, and the gazing
on things to come, increasingly springs up in the soul.
Delight in the ministry of these things overcomes and
proves stronger than the pleasure of the bodily thoughts.14

2. Life after death

To highlight the main elements of Isaac’s views on Christian

eschatology we shall look at the passages where he speaks of
death and the resurrection of the dead, of the separation of the
righteous from the sinners, and of the torment of gehenna and
the blessing of paradise.
By Isaac’s decription, death is that blessed Sabbath when
human nature rests on the eve of its final resurrection:

Six days are accomplished in the husbandry of life by

means of keeping the commandments; the seventh is spent
entirely in the grave; and the eight is in departure from
it. . . . The true Sabbath, the Sabbath that is not a simil¬
itude, is the tomb, which reveals and manifests perfect
repose from the tribulations of the passions and from the
toil against them. The whole man, both soul and body,
then keeps the Sabbath.15

Understanding the Sabbath as a symbol of death is very

traditional: we find it in both patristic literature and liturgical

14. 11/8,16.
15. 1/29 (142) = PR 28 (202-204).

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 Life after death

texts. No less traditional is the interpretation of the eighth

day as a symbol of the resurrection. According to Isaac, the
bodily resurrection of the age to come is also symbolized by
the resurrection of the body from sin during earthly life:

The true resurrection of the body is when it receives

that ineffable transformation in that future state, at the
stripping off of all fleshly refuse and what belongs to it.
The symbolic resurrection of the body is when it rises
from all the sin to which it was attached in its activity, and
applies itself to the excellent practice of service to God.16

The Last Judgment is the moment of the human person’s

encounter, not only with God, but also with the people with
whom he was linked during his earthly life. The sentence of the
Judge will mean that a person either enters into the kingdom of
Christ together with the righteous, or is separated from them.
This sentence will do no more than confirm the state reached
by that person during his life. Somone who was separated from
his fellows by his sinful life will be separated from them in the
life to come:

Woe to that monk who has proven false to his vow, who,
trampling upon his conscience, stretches forth his hand
to the devil! . . . With what countenance will he meet the
Judge when his companions who have attained purity will
greet one another? For he had parted ways with them
and walked the path of perdition. . . . But what is more
terrible, just as he has separated his path from theirs, so
Christ will separate him from them in that day when the
shining cloud will bear upon its back their bodies made
resplendent by purity and carry them through the gates
of heaven.17

16. 11/8,10.
17. 1/9 (73) = PR 9 (114).

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

The life of the age to come is, in Isaac, ‘a continual and

ineffable rest in God’.18 It is characterized by the absence of
‘bodily actions’, which are replaced by the mind’s reflection,
the ‘delightful gaze and vision without distraction’.19 The mind
of a person in the age to come will be occupied with the
contemplation of God’s beauty in the state of wonder:

There human nature never ceases from its awestruck won¬

der at God. . . . But since all the beauty of things to exist
in the newness to come is inferior to his beauty, how
can the intellect depart from the beauty of God in its
contemplation?20

In the future age, the hierarchical order of the universe

through which revelations devolve from God to the higher
ranks of angels, and from them to the lower ranks and to the
humankind, will no longer have any place:

In the future age . . . this order of things will be abolished.

For then one will not receive from another the revelation
of God’s glory to the gladness and joy of his soul; but
to each by himself the Master will give according to the
measure of his excellence and his worthiness, and he will
not receive the gift from his comrade as he does here.
Then there will be no teacher and no pupil, nor one whose
deficiency must be filled up by another. For one is the
Giver there, who gives without mediation to those who
receive; and those who win joy, procure it from him. . . .
There the order of those who teach and those who learn
ceases, and on One alone hangs the ardent love of all.21

Nobody can enter in future blessing by compulsion: every¬

one has to make his own choice for God. Once made, this choice

18. 11/18,3.
19. 11/8,2.
20. 1/43 (214) = PR 40 (304).
21. 1/28 (140) = PR 27 (201).

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 Life after death

is manifested in the present life in the rejection of the passions

and in repentance:

It is not a case of the created beings’ inheriting the glory to

come by compulsion or against a person’s will, without any
repentance being involved; rather, it so pleased his wisdom
that they should choose the good out of the volition of
their own free will, and thus have a way of coming to
him.22

Future blessing will be the lot of those who during their life
have reached ‘the land of promise’ and united themselves with
God. Yet Isaac does not exclude from the kingdom of heaven
those who, without having seen this land close at hand, died in
the hope of attaining it. Those who hoped to reach perfection,
but did not, will be added to the Old Testament righteous who
never saw Christ in their lifetimes, but died in the hope of seeing
him.23
Those who enter the kingdom of heaven will find themselves
in varying degrees of closeness to God, each in accordance with
his capacity for accommodating the light of the Godhead. Even
so, a difference in degree will not involve hierarchical inequality
among those who have been saved, and no one will be inferior
to the other:

The Saviour calls the ‘many mansions’ of his Father’s

house24 the noetic levels of those who dwell in that land,
that is, the distinctions of the gifts and the spiritual de¬
grees which they noetically take delight in, as well as
the diversity of the ranks of the gifts. But by this he did
not mean that each person yonder will be confined in
his existence by a separate spatial dwelling and by the
manifest, distinguishing mark of the diverse placement of

22. 11/10,20.
23. 1/12 (80) = PR 12 (123).
24. Jn 14:2.

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

each man’s abode. Rather, it resembles how each one of

us derives a unique benefit from this visible sun though
a single enjoyment of it common to all, each according
to the clarity of his eyesight and the ability of his pupils
to contain the sun’s constant effusion of light. ... In the
same manner, those who at the appointed time will be
deemed worthy of that realm will dwell in one abode
which will not be divided into a multitude of separate
parts. And according to the rank of his discipline each man
draws delight for himself from the one noetic Sun in one
air, one place, one dwelling, one vision, and one outward
appearance. He whose measure is less will not see the great
measure of his neighbour’s rank, lest he should think that
this arises from the multitude of his neighbour’s gifts and
the fewness of his own, and this very thing should become,
for him a cause of sadness and mental anguish. Far be it
that one should suppose such a thing to occur in that realm
of delights! Each man inwardly takes delight in the gift and
the lofty rank whereof he has been deemed worthy.2'

Though there are many mansions in the kingdom of heaven,

none is to be found anywhere except inside that kingdom.
Beyond its borders, there is only gehenna. Isaac was not aware
of any other intermediate state between these two realms:

In the future separation there will be no middle realm be¬

tween the state that is completely on high and the state that
is absolutely below. A person will either belong entirely to
those who dwell on high, or entirely to those below; but
within both the one state and the other are diverse degrees
of recompense. If this is true, which it most certainly is,
what is more senseless and more foolish than those who say
that ‘It is enough for me to escape gehenna, I do not seek
to enter into the kingdom’! For to escape gehenna means
precisely to enter the kingdom, even as falling away from

25. 1/6 (56) = PR 6 (86-87).

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 Life after death

the kingdom is entering gehenna. Scripture has taught us

nothing about the existence of three realms, but ‘When
the Son of God will come in his glory, he shall set the
sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left’.26 [Other
references to the Gospel follow at this point.]. ...27 How
have you not understood by these things that falling short
of the order on high is, in fact, the gehenna of torment?28

What, then, are paradise and gehenna in Isaac’s vision? The

blessing of paradise, according to him, is human persons’ par¬
ticipation in the love of God—itself ‘the tree of life’ and ‘the
heavenly bread’:

Paradise is the love of God, wherein is the enjoyment

of all blessedness, and there the blessed Paul partook of
supernatural nourishment. When he tasted there of the
tree of life, he cried out, saying, ‘Eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things which God hath prepared for them that love
him’.29 Adam was barred from this tree through the devil’s
counsel. The tree of life is the love of God from which
Adam fell away. . . . When we find love, we partake of
heavenly bread. . . . The heavenly bread is Christ, who
came down from heaven and gave life to the world. ...30
Therefore, the man who lives in love reaps the fruit of
life from God, and while yet in this world, he even now
breathes the air of the resurrection; in this air the righteous
will delight in the resurrection.31

The torment of gehenna, in Isaac’s vision, is constituted by

a human person’s inability to participate in the love of God.

26. Mt 25:31-33.
27. Namely, Mt 13:43; 25:41; 8:11-12.
28. 1/6 (56-57) = PR 6 (88).
29. 1 Cor 2:9.
30. Cf Jn 6:50.
31. 1/46 (223-224) = PR 43 (316-317).

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 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

This does not mean that sinners in gehenna are deprived of

the love of God. On the contrary, this love is given to everyone
equally, both to the righteous and to sinners. But for the former
it becomes a source of delight and blessedness in paradise; for
the latter it is a source of torment:

I also maintain that those who are punished in gehenna

are scourged by the scourge of love. Nay, what is so bitter
and vehement as the torment of love? I mean that those
who have become conscious that they have sinned against
love suffer greater torment from this than from any fear
of punishment. For the sorrow caused in the heart by sin
against love is more poignant than any torment. It would
be improper for a man to think that sinners in gehenna are
deprived of the love of God. Love ... is given to all. But
the power of love works in two ways: it torments sinners,
even as happens here when a friend suffers from a friend;
but it becomes a source of joy for those who have observed
its duties. Thus I say that this is the torment of gehenna:
bitter regret. But love inebriates the souls of the sons of
heaven by its delectability.32

While Isaac, following the Gospel text, believes that on

the Day of Judgment, the sheep will be separated from the
goats, and that the goats will be sent to gehenna, this belief
does not preclude hope in God’s mercy, which, in his view,
surpasses every human idea of a just requital. This hope in
God’s mercifulness leads Isaac to conclude that the torment of
gehenna cannot be eternal. If evil, sin, death, and gehenna do
not have their origins in God, how can one presume that they
will be eternal? If the devil and demons, as well as all evil people,
were created by God as good and sinless, but by their own free
choice fell away from God, how can one suppose that God will
eternally reconcile himself with this situation? These questions

32. 1/28 (141) = PR 27 (201-202).

280
 Life after death

were raised long before Isaac by several Fathers and teachers of

the Church, notably by Origen and Gregory of Nyssa.
One of the Homilies in Part I which was not translated into
Greek is entitled ‘Against those who say: If God is good, for
what reason has he made these things?’ In this homily Isaac
opposes a dualistic understanding of the co-eternal existence
of good and evil, God and the devil. In this dialectic, Isaac
bases himself on a teaching commonly accepted in Christian
tradition, that God is not the creator of evil and thus evil has
no substantial existence. ‘Sin, gehenna, and death do not exist
at all with God, for they are effects, not substances,’ Isaac says.

Sin is the fruit of free will. There was a time when sin did
not exist, and there will be a time when it will not exist.
Gehenna is the fruit of sin. At some point in time it had a
beginning, but its end is not known. Death, however, is a
dispensation of the wisdom of the Creator. It will rule only
a short time over nature; then it will be totally abolished.
Satan’s name derives from voluntary turning aside from
the truth;33 it is not an indication that he exists as such
naturally.34

Therefore, according to Isaac, sin, death, and gehenna will

be abolished by God, though the end of gehenna is a mystery
which goes beyond human understanding and also beyond the
dogmatic teaching of the Church. Isaac does not choose to
develop here the notion of a non-eternal gehenna, but simply
implies that at some time it will be abolished. His attention is
riveted not so much on gehenna as on the future existence of
the transfigured universe which will take place after gehenna’s
annihilation.
Isaac’s eschatological vision is replete with optimism. In this
it is close to the eschatology of Saint Paul, who speaks of the

3 3. This is the syriac etymology given to the word ‘Satan’ (from sta, ‘to turn aside’).
34. 1/27 (133) = PR 26 (189).

281
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian_

final transfiguration of the whole creation, when death will be

‘swallowed up by victory’35 and God will be ‘all in all’.36 Isaac
was thoroughly convinced that this promise will be fulfilled,
even though there will be a preceding period when sinners will
be tormented in gehenna. Hope in the final transfiguration of
all being evoked in Isaac a hymn of thanksgiving to God, whose
mercy has no limits:

O the astonishment at the goodness of our God and Cre¬

ator! O might for which all is possible! O the immeasurable
kindness toward our nature, that he will bring even sin¬
ners back into existence! Who is able to glorify him? He
raises up the transgressor and blasphemer. . . . Where is
gehenna, that can afflict us? Where is the torment that
terrifies us in many ways and quenches the joy of his
love? And what is gehenna compared with the grace of his
resurrection, when he will raise us from sheol and cause
our corruptible nature to be clad in incorruption,' and
raise up in glory what has fallen into sheol? Come, men of
discernment, and be filled with wonder! Whose mind is
sufficiently wise to wonder worthily at the bounty of our
Creator? His recompense to sinners is that, instead of a
just recompense, he rewards them with resurrection, and
instead of those bodies with which they trampled upon
his law, he robes them with the glory of perfection. That
grace whereby we are resurrected after we have sinned is
greater than the grace which brought us into being when
we were not, O Lord! Behold, Lord, the waves of thy grace
close my mouth in silence, and there is not a thought left
in me, not even for giving thanks to thee. . . . Glory be to
thee for the two worlds which thou hast created for our
growth and delight. ...38

35. 1 Cor 15:54.

36. 1 Cor 15:28.
37. Cf 1 Cor 15:53-55.
38. 1/51 (251-252) = PR 50 (358-359).

282
 Eternal punishment or universal salvation?

3. Eternal punishment or universal salvation?

The lot of human beings after death became an object of Isaac’s

special attention in the three concluding chapters of Part II.
In Chapter XXXIX, called ‘Contemplation on the theme of
gehenna, in so far as grace can be granted to human nature
to hold opinions on these mysteries’, he includes a detailed
discussion, with references to preceding Fathers, on the nature,
aim, and duration of the torments of gehenna. This is continued
in Chapter XL, where he develops the same sort of ideas while
laying special emphasis on the love of God. Finally, in Chapter
XLI, he presents the moral conclusions that derive from the
two preceding chapters.
The discussion begins in Chapter XXXIX with the question
of the purpose for the establishment of gehenna. Isaac empha¬
sizes that God does nothing out of retribution: even to think
this way about God would be blasphemous.39 This opinion
is all the more unacceptable in view of God’s foreknowledge
that humanity would sin and fall even before he created human
beings, yet still he created them:

To suppose that retribution for evil acts is to be found

in him is abominable. By implying that he makes use of
such a great and difficult thing out of retribution we are
attributing a weakness to the Divine Nature. We cannot
even believe such a thing can be found in those human
beings who live a virtuous and upright life and whose
thoughts are entirely in accord with the divine will—let
alone believe of God that he has done something out of
retribution for anticipated evil acts in connection with
those whose nature he has brought into being with honour
and great love. Knowing them and all their conduct, the
flow of his grace did not dry up from them: not even after

39. 11/39, 2-3. See Chapter I above.

283
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

they started living amid many evil deeds did he withhold

his care for them, even for a moment.40

Still worse is the opinion that God allows people to lead sinful
lives on earth in order to punish them eternally after death.

If someone says that [God] has put up with them here

on earth in order that his patience may be known—with
the idea that he would later punish them mercilessly—
such a person thinks in an unspeakably blasphemous way
about God because of his infantile way of thinking: he is
removing from God his kindness, goodness, and compas¬
sion: all the things because of which he truly bears with
sinners and wicked men. Such a person is attributing to
God enslavement to passion, imagining that he has not
consented to their being chastised here with a view to
a much greater misfortune he has prepared for them, in
exchange for a short-lived patience. Not only does such
a person fail to attribute something praiseworthy to God,
but he also calumniates him.41

‘A right way of thinking about God’, according to Isaac,

rejects the view that ‘weakness, or passibility, or whatever else
might be involved in the course of retribution’ has anything
to do with God. On the contrary, all of God’s actions ‘are
directed towards the single eternal good, whether each receives
judgment or something of glory from Him—not by way of
retribution, far from it!—but with a view to the advantage that
is going to come from all these things’.42
Within the context of God’s kindness and mercy, Isaac refers
to the biblical story of the damnation of Adam and Eve for the
sin they committed, and of their exile from paradise. Though
the establishment of death and exile were decreed under the
guise of damnation, it concealed a blessing:

40. 11/39,2.
41. 11/39,2.
42. 11/39,3.

284
 Eternal punishmen t or universal salvation ?

Just as [God] decreed death, under the appearance of a

sentence, for Adam because of sin, and just as he showed
by means of the punishment that the sin existed—even
so this punishment was not his real aim. He showed it
as something Adam would receive as a repayment for his
wrong, but he hid its true mystery, and under the guise of
something to be feared he concealed his eternal intention
concerning death and what his wisdom was aiming at.
Even though this matter might be grievous, ignominious,
and hard at first, nevertheless in truth it would be the
means of transporting us to that wonderful and glorious
world. Without it, there would be no way of crossing
over from this world and being there. . . . The Creator
did not say: ‘This will turn out to be the cause of good
things to come for you and a life more glorious than this’.
Instead, he showed it as something which would bring
about our misfortune and dissolution. Again, when he
expelled Adam and Eve from paradise, he expelled them
under the outward aspect of anger ... as though dwelling
in paradise had been taken away from them because they
were unworthy. But within all this rested the divine plan,
fulfilling and guiding everything towards what had been
the Creator’s original intention from the beginning. It was
not disobedience which introduced death to the house of
Adam, nor did transgression remove them from paradise,
for it is clear that God did not create Adam and Eve to be
in Paradise, just a small portion of the earth; rather, they
were going to subjugate the entire earth. For this reason
we do not even say that he removed them because of the
commandment which had been transgressed; for it is not
the case that, had they not transgressed the command¬
ment, they would have been left in paradise for ever.43

Therefore, contrary to widespread opinion, Isaac considered

death a blessing in that it intrinsically contains the potential

43. 11/39,4.

285
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

of future resurrection; and the exile from paradise as benefi¬

cial, since instead of receiving a ‘small portion of the earth’,
humankind was given all of creation as its possession. This
approach to the biblical text is based on the exegetical tradition
of Theodore of Mopsuestia, according to whom death was
profitable for human beings because it opened to them a way
to repentance and restoration.44
In the establishment of death, God’s ‘cunning’ was revealed:
he concealed his true intention under the guise of punish¬
ment for sin. The same ‘cunning’ explains the establishment of
gehenna as a punishment whose aim is the profit which humans
may derive from it:

You should see that, while God’s caring is guiding us all the
time to what he wishes for us, as things outwardly appear, it ‘
is from us that he takes the occasion to providing things,
his aim being to carry out by every means what he has
intended for our advantage. All this is because he knew
beforehand our inclination towards all sorts of wicked¬
ness, and so he cunningly made the harmful consequences
which would result from this into a means of entry to the
future good and the setting right of our corrupted state.
These are things which are known only to him. But after
we have been exercised and assisted little by little as a result
of these consequences after they have occurred, we realize
and perceive that it could not turn out otherwise than
in accordance with what has been foreseen by him. This
is how everything works with him, even though things
may seem otherwise to us: with him it is not a matter
of retribution, but he is always looking beyond to the
advantage that will come from his dealings with humanity.
And one such thing is the matter of gehenna.45

44. Fragments on Genesis (637).

45. 11/39,5.

286
 Eternal punishment or universal salvation?

Thus Isaac gradually arrives at his key idea: the final outcome
of the history of the universe must correspond to the majesty of
God, and the final destiny of human beings should be worthy
of God’s mercifulness. ‘I am of the opinion’, Isaac claims,

that he is going to manifest some wonderful outcome, a

matter of immense and ineffable compassion on the part
of the glorious Creator, with respect to the ordering of this
difficult matter of gehenna’s torment: out of it the wealth
of his love and power and wisdom will become known all
the more—and so will the insistent might of the waves
of his goodness. It is not the way of the compassionate
Maker to create rational beings in order to deliver them
over mercilessly to unending affliction in punishment for
things of which he knew even before they were fashioned,
aware how they would turn out when he created them—
and whom nonetheless he created. All the more since
the foreplanning of evil and the taking of vengeance are
characteristic of the passions of created beings, and do not
belong to the Creator. For all this characterizes people
who do not know or who are unaware of what they are
doing . . . for as a result of some matter that has occurred
unexpectedly to them they are incited by the vehemence
of anger to take vengeance. Such action does not belong
to the Creator who, even before the cycle of the depiction
of creation has been portrayed, knew of all that was before
and all that was after in connection with the actions and
intentions of rational beings.46

To confirm these ideas, Isaac refers to Theodore of Mop-

suestia’s teaching on the torment that is not unending,4" and to
Diodore of Tarsus’ ideas that torment will last only a short time,
whereas the blessing is for all eternity, and that ‘not even the

46. H/39,6.
47. 11/39,8. The quotation is from Theodore’s Against Those Who Say that Sin is
Ingrained by Nature. See reference in Clavis IV, 3860.

287
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

immense wickedness of the demons can overcome the measure

of God’s goodness’.48
‘These and similar astounding insights and opinions leading
us on to love of and wonder at the Creator’, Isaac comments
with enthusiasm,

belong to these very pillars of the Church. . . . Such opin¬

ions will cast away from our way of thinking the childish
opinion of God expressed by those who introduce evil and
passibility into his nature, saying that he is changed by
circumstances and times. At the same time these opinions
[of Theodore and Diodore] will teach us about the nature
of his chastisements and punishments, whether here or
there, instructing us concerning what sort of compassion¬
ate intentions and purpose he has in allowing these to
come upon us, what are the excellent outcomes resulting
from them, how it is not a matter of our being destroyed
by them or enduring the same for eternity, how he allows
them to come in a fatherly way, and not vengefully—which
would be a sign of hatred. Their purpose was that, by
thinking in this way, we might come to know about God,
and wonder at him would draw us to love of him, and as a
result of that love we might feel ashamed at ourselves and
set aright the conduct of our lives here.49

Isaac did not think that the end of torment would lead to
laxity and the loss of the fear of God. Quite the contrary. This
idea, according to him, incites within a person love of God and
the repentance that comes from the measureless mercy of the
Creator. The thought of God as a caring Father gives birth in
a person to a filial love for, and adherence to, him, whereas the
notion of God as a chastiser can only cause a slavish fear and
dread before him.

48. 11/39,11-13. The quotations are from Diodore’s book On Providence (Peri
pronoias) V-VI. See reference in Claris IV, 3820 (b).
49. 11/39,14.

288
 Eternal punishment or universal salvation?

All the afflictions and sufferings which fall to someone’s lot

are sent from God with the aim of bringing a person to an
inner change. Isaac draws an important conclusion: God never
retaliates for the past, but always cares for our future. ‘All kinds
and manner of chastisements and punishments that come from
him,’ Isaac suggests,

are not brought about in order to requite past actions,

but for the sake of the subsequent gain to be gotten in
them. . . . This is what the Scriptures bring to our atten¬
tion and remind us of,. . . that God is not One who re¬
quites evil, but who sets evil aright: the one is characteristic
of evil people, while the other is characteristic of a father.
Scripture shows him as if he were bringing good and evil
by way of requital, whereas his purpose is not in fact this,
but instilling in us love and awe. ... If this were not the
case, what resemblance does Christ’s coming have with the
deeds of the generations which were prior to it? Does this
immense compassion seem to you to be a retribution for
those evil deeds? Tell me, if God is someone who requites
evil, and he does what he does by means of requital, what
commensurate requital do you see here, O man?50

The idea of love contradicts the idea of requital, Isaac insists.

Besides, if we were to suppose that God will punish sinners
eternally, this would mean that the creation of the world was a
mistake, that God proved unable to oppose evil, which is not
within his will. If we ascribe requital to God’s actions, we apply
weakness to God:

So then, let us not attribute to God’s actions and his

dealings with us any idea of requital. Rather, we should
speak of fatherly provision, a wise dispensation, a perfect
will which is concerned with our good, and complete love.

50. n/39,15-16.

289
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian _

If it is a case of love, then it is not one of requital; and if

it is a case of requital, then it is not one of love. Love,
when it operates, is not concerned with the requiting
of former things by means of its own good deeds or
correction; rather, it looks to what is most advantageous in
the future: it examines what is to come, and not things of
the past. If we think otherwise than this, then according
to the resulting childish view the Creator will prove to
be weak . . . for after what he had established had become
corrupted against his will, he devised some other plan,
preparing ills in return for its corruption. Such are the
feeble ways of understanding the Creator!'’1

All of God’s actions are mysteries inaccessible to human

reasoning. Gehenna is also a mystery, created in order to bring
to a state of perfection those who had not reached it during
their lifetime:

In the matter of the afflictions and sentence of gehenna,

there is some hidden mystery whereby the wise Maker
has taken as a starting point for its future outcome the
wickedness of our actions and willfulness, using it as a way
of bringing to perfection his dispensation, wherein lies the
teaching which makes one wise, and the advantage beyond
description, hidden from both angels and human beings,
hidden too from those who are being chastised, whether
they be demons or human beings, hidden for as long as
the ordained period of time holds sway.52

Gehenna, then, is a sort of purgatory rather than hell: it

is conceived and established for the salvation of both human
beings and fallen angels. Yet this true aim of gehenna is hidden
from those who are chastised in it, and will be revealed only
after gehenna is abolished.

51. 11/39,17.
52. 11/39,20.

290
 Eternal punishment or universal salvation?

Isaac then returns to his earlier statement that requital does

not correspond to God’s goodness. In doing so he advances the
following logical considerations that oppose this idea:

One speaks of requital when he who is the requiter is

gradually instructed about the requital needed as a result
of, and corresponding to, the good and bad actions that
take place: along with actions which differ from day to
day, he acquires a different knowledge, and his conse¬
quent thoughts are subject to outside causes and take their
origin from temporal circumstances. If the kingdom and
gehenna had not been foreseen in the purpose of our good
God . . . then God’s thoughts concerning them would not
be eternal. But righteousness and sin were known by him
before they revealed themselves. Accordingly the king¬
dom and gehenna are matters belonging to mercy; they
were conceived of in their essence by God as a result of
his eternal goodness. It was not a matter of requiting, even
though he gave them the name of requital. That we should
further say or think that the matter is not full of love
and mingled with compassion would be an opinion laden
with blasphemy and an insult to our Lord God. By saying
that he will even hand us over to burning for the sake of
sufferings, torment, and all sorts of ills, we are attributing
to the Divine Nature an enmity towards the very rational
beings which he created through grace; the same is true if
we say that he acts or thinks with spite and with a vengeful
purpose, as though he were avenging himself.53

As we have seen, Isaac used every possible source to support

his teaching on the incompatibility of an eternal gehenna with
God’s love and goodness: Scripture, patristic writings, and fi¬
nally logical considerations. As we saw in Chapter I, the convic¬
tion that God is love was the driving force behind Isaac’s whole

53. 11/39,21-22.

291
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian_

theological system. Now we observe the seal this conviction

placed on his eschatology.

4. Divine love which reveals itself in

THE FINAL DESTINY OF THE WORLD

The theme of God’s boundless love, begun in Chapter XXXIX

of Part II, continues to be developed in Chapter XL, which
is dedicated to ‘the constancy, harmony and love of the divine
nature at both the beginning and at the end of creation’. Here
Isaac claims that the love God has for his creatures does not
change because of changes that happen with them.54 From very
eternity, God is one and the same in what belongs to him by
nature: ‘there exists with him a single love and compassion
which is spread out over all creation, a love which is without
alteration, timeless and everlasting’."'
The state of having turned away from God is unnatural,
according to Isaac, and God will not permit those who withdrew
from him to remain in this state for ever: he will bring to
salvation all those who have fallen away. But this salvation will
not be forced upon anyone: each person will turn to God of his
own free will when he reaches the state of maturity. The purpose
for which God brought creatures into the world remains the
same whatever way they have chosen for themselves; sooner
or later they will be brought to salvation. For Isaac, the final
salvation of those who have fallen, including all sinners and
demons, is a necessity:

It is clear that [God] does not abandon them the moment

they fall, and that demons will not remain in their demonic
state, and sinners will not remain in their sins; rather, he
is going to bring them to a single equal state of perfection
in relationship to his own Being—to a state in which the

54. See the full quotation in Chapter I above.

55. 11/40,1.

292
 Divine love which reveals itself in the final destiny of the world

holy angels now are, in perfection of love and a passionless

mind. He is going to bring them into that excellency of will
where it will be not as though they were curbed and not
free or having stirrings from the Opponent then; rather,
they will be in a state of excelling knowledge, with a mind
made mature in the stirrings which partake of the divine
outpouring which the blessed Creator is preparing in his
grace; they will be perfected in love for him, with a perfect
mind which is above any aberration in all its stirrings.56

All those who have fallen away from God will eventually
return to him because of temporary, short torment in gehenna
that has been prepared for them so that they may purify them¬
selves through the fire of suffering and repentance. Having
passed through this purification by fire, they will attain to the
angelic state.

Maybe they will be raised to a perfection even greater

than that in which the angels now exist; for all are going
to exist in a single love, a single purpose, a single will, and
a single perfect state of knowledge; they will gaze towards
God with the desire of insatiable love, even if some divine
dispensation [i.e. gehenna] may in the meantime be ef¬
fected for reasons known to God alone, lasting for a fixed
period, decreed by him in accordance with the will of his
wisdom.''7

God does not forget any of his creatures. Every human being
has a place reserved for him in the kingdom of heaven. For
those who are unable to enter immediately into the kingdom,
the transitory period of gehenna has been established:

No part belonging to any single one of all rational beings

will be lost, so far as God is concerned, in the prepara¬
tion of that supernal kingdom which is prepared for all

56. 11/40,4.
57. H/40,5.

293
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

worlds. Because of the goodness of his nature by which he

brought the universe into being and then bears, guides,
and provides for the worlds and all created things in his
immeasurable compassion, he has devised the establish¬
ment of the kingdom of heaven for the entire community
of rational beings—even though an intervening time is
reserved for the general raising of all beings to the same
level. And we say this so that we too may concur with the
magisterial teaching of Scripture. Nevertheless gehenna
is grievous, even if it is thus limited in its extent: who
can possibly bear it? For this reason the angels in heaven
rejoice at a single sinner who repents.58

If a genuine righteousness were required of human beings,

then only one in ten thousand would be able to enter the
kingdom of heaven, continues Isaac. This is why God gave
people repentance as a remedy, for it can heal a person from
sin in a short time. Not wishing human beings to perish, God
forgives everyone who repents with his whole heart. God is
good by nature, and he ‘wishes to save everyone by all sorts
of means’.59
Isaac resented the widespread opinion that the majority of
human beings will be punished in hell, while only a small group
of the chosen will delight in paradise. He was convinced that,
quite the contrary, the majority of people will find themselves
in the kingdom of heaven, and only a few sinners will go to
gehenna, and even they only for the period of time necessary
for their repentance and remission of sins:

By the device of grace the majority of humankind will

enter the kingdom of heaven without the experience of
gehenna. But this is apart from those who, because of their
hardness of heart and utter abandonment to wickedness
and the lusts, fail to show remorse in suffering for their

58. 11/40,7. Cf Lk 15:7; 10.

59. 11/40,8-11.

294
 Divine love which reveals itself in the final destiny of the world

faults and their sins, and because these people have not
been disciplined at all. For God’s holy nature is so good
and so compassionate that it is always seeking to find some
small means of putting us in the right: how he can forgive
human beings their sins—like the case of the tax collector
who was put in the right by the intensity of his prayer60 or
like the case of a woman with two small coins61 or the man
who received forgiveness on the cross.62 For God wishes
our salvation, and not reasons to torment us.63

Earthly life is given to everyone as a time of repentance. It

is enough for a person to turn to God to ask forgiveness for his
sins immediately to be forgiven.64 The token of this forgiveness
is the Incarnation of the Word of God, who, when all creation
had abandoned and forgotten God, came down to earth in order
to redeem humankind and the whole universe by his death on
the cross.

Isaac the Syrian’s explicit teaching on universal salvation

elicits an inevitable question: what is the sense of the whole
drama of human history, if both good and evil are ultimately to
be found on an equal footing in the face of God’s mercy? What
is the sense of suffering, ascetic labour, and prayer, if sooner
or later sinners will be equated with the righteous? In how far,
moreover, do Isaac’s opinions correspond to the general Chris¬
tian tradition and to the teaching of the Gospel, in particular,
to the Parable of the Last Judgment and its separation of the
‘sheep’ from the ‘goats’?
First, when Isaac speaks about the absence of a middle realm
between gehenna and the kingdom of heaven, he does not deny
the reality of the separation of sheep from goats, and he even

60. Cf Lk 18:14.
61. Cf Mk 12:42-43; Lk 21:2-3.
62. Cf Lk 23:40^43.
63. 11/40,12.
64. 11/40,13-14.

295
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

explicitly refers to it. But his attention is directed far beyond this
separation, which he does not regard as final or irreversible. The
Last Judgment is something which Isaac recommends people
ponder on every day, and the separation of a sinner from his
fellow human beings is an experience clearly depicted by Isaac
when he speaks of the Judgment. His main point, however, is
that the present life is the time when the separation takes place,
and the Last Judgment will only reveal what spiritual state a
person reached during his lifetime. Thus the Parable should
not be understood as a dogmatic statement on the final destiny
of the righteous and sinners, but as a prophetic warning against
not having and manifesting love for one’s fellows during this
earthly life.
Secondly, Isaac warns that the torment of gehenna, even
though limited in duration, is terrible and unbearable. He never
denies the awful reality of gehenna. Yet he understands it within
the context of the Gospel’s message of God’s unspeakable love
and boundless mercy. God, in Isaac’s teaching, is primarily the
householder who rewards equally those who worked only one
hour and those who have borne the burden and heat of the
whole day.65 A place in the kingdom of heaven is given to a
person, not on the basis of his worthiness or unworthiness,
but on the basis of God’s mercy and love for humankind. The
kingdom of heaven is not a reward, and gehenna is not a requital:
both are gifts of the merciful God ‘who desires all men to be
saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’.66
Thirdly, Isaac’s eschatological opinions stand in the line of
the teachings of such ancient Fathers as Theodore of Mopsues-
tia, Diodore of Tarsus, and Gregory of Nyssa.67 It would not be
just to say, however, that he simply borrowed the ideas of his

65. Cf Mt 20:1-15.
66. 1 Tim 2:4.
67. Isaac’s idea of universal salvation is not to be equated with Origen’s teaching on
the apokatastasis ton panton (restoration of all). In Origen, universal restoration comes
not as the end of the world, but is a passing phase from one created world to another
which will come into existence after the present world has come to its end. This idea
is alien to Christian tradition and unknown to Isaac.

296
 Divine love which reveals itself in the final destiny of the world

predecessors and inserted them into his own writings. Isaac’s

eschatological optimism and his belief in universal salvation
are ultimately the result of his personal theological vision, the
central conviction of which is that God is love. Around this idea
his whole theological system is shaped.
Finally, the theological system of Isaac the Syrian is based
on his direct experience of the mystical union with the love
of God. This experience precludes any possibility of envy of
other human beings, even those who have reached a higher
spiritual state and thus have a chance of receiving a higher place
in the kingdom of heaven. The experience of union with God
as love is in itself so filled with delight that it is not for the sake
of any future reward that a person prays, suffers, and toils in
ascetical labours: in this very suffering, in this very prayer and
ascetical labour, is concealed the experience of encounter with
God. The reason for praying, bearing afflictions, and keeping
the commandments is not to leave other persons behind by
one’s strivings or to obtain in the age to come a place that
is higher than theirs. The sole reason for all ascetic toil is to
experience the grace of God which is acquired through them.
An encounter with God, a direct mystical experience of the
divine love which one receives during one’s lifetime is, for Isaac,
the only justification for all struggles and efforts.

297
 CONCLUSION

THE ENDURING
INFLUENCE OF SAINT ISAAC

HIRTEEN YEARS AGO a young man fresh from his

X military service decided to join a small monastery in the
capital city of one of the Baltic states, then still a part of the vast
Soviet empire. Everything about the monastery was agreeable
except for one thing: there was no spiritual father. So the monks
and novices had to provide their own spiritual guidance.
Searching for answers to some questions concerning spiritual
life, our young novice came across the writings of Saint Isaac
the Syrian. Having started to read, he could not stop. He
was so captivated by the beauty and wisdom of Isaac’s words
that he began to write some of them down on the wall of his
cell. Gradually he added more sayings to his collection. In a
year or so the walls of his cell were completely covered with
texts from Saint Isaac. They became the novice’s daily spiritual
nourishment.
This is one of many examples of how important Isaac is in
contemporary monasticism. He is one of the most widely read
spiritual writers on Mount Athos. His name is known to every
monk in Russia and he is venerated as a saint in the Russian
Church. His writings have played a key role in the recent revival
of Coptic monasticism in Egypt.
Even outside the monastic world the writings of Isaac are
well known. We have seen ordinary believers, neither monks
nor theologians, who know entire pages of Isaac by heart and
are able to quote long passages from his discourses.

299
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Word of Saint Isaac has crossed not only the boundaries of

time, but also confessional barriers. As early as in the ninth
century, he was read by the Byzantine and Syrian Orthodox
Churches, as well as by the Church of the East; each group pro¬
vided its own recension of his writings. In the fifteenth century
Isaac broke into the Roman Catholic world while remaining at
the same time one of the most popular ascetical writers of the
Eastern Orthodox Church. In our day his writings continue
to draw the attention of Christians who belong to various
traditions but share a common faith in Jesus and are engaged in
the quest for salvation. During one scholary conference, after
I had delivered a paper on the practice of prayer in Saint Isaac,
three people came up to me, one after another: a cistercian
nun, a protestant layman, and a buddhist monk. All three were
wondering about how much of Isaac’s teaching of prayer, which
I had expounded, was consonant with their own tradition. Then
a franciscan friar informed me of the existence of Saint Isaac of
Nineveh’s retreat house in New Zealand: the house is run by
both Catholics and Anglicans.
One of the secrets of this ecumenical reception of Isaac lies
in his own universal vision: he was able to embrace the whole
world in his prayer while remaining faithful to his vocation as a
monk and solitary. His writings, which were initially addressed
to a very narrow circle of contemporary monastics, have proved
to be aproppriate for many people in various epochs right
down to our time. Every Christian who now reads Isaac can
find something appropriate to himself, in spite of the fact that
the entire context of Isaac’s life was strikingly different from
our own.
Another secret of Isaac’s broad reception lies in his repeated
emphasis on God’s love, which has no boundaries, which is
beyond any concept of justice or requital, which was crucified
for the salvation of the whole world, and which leads all cre¬
ated beings to salvation. In every epoch, the Christian world
needs to be reminded of this universal love of God for his
creation because in every epoch there is a strong tendency

300
 The Enduring Influence of Saint Isaac

within Christianity to replace the religion of love and freedom

taught by Jesus with a religion of slavery and fear. Isaac reminds
us that it is not out of fear of punishment or out of hope of future
reward that we are to keep God’s commandments, but out of
our love for God. Our vocation is not to be slaves, but to attain
to the freedom of the sons and daughters of God and to become
‘a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation. . .
It is appropriate to conclude our book by quoting Isaac’s
moral appeal to repentance, the conclusion to his lengthy es¬
chatological discussion in Part II. Though the torments of hell
are not endless, Isaac emphasizes, they are dreadful: and one
should make every effort to avoid them and to come close,
during one’s life-time, to the doors of the kingdom of God. Life
is given to each person, not to be spent on vain activities, but
to enable him to become worthy of God. Only then are divine
mysteries revealed; only then does a person receive the right
to speak about God. ‘Let us beware in ourselves, my beloved,’
Isaac warns,

and realize that even if gehenna is subject to a limit, the

taste of its experience is most terrible, and the extent of
its bounds escapes our very understanding. Let us strive
all the more to partake of the taste of God’s love for the
sake of perpetual reflection on him, and let us not have
experience of gehenna through neglect. Let us beware of
diffuseness over many things, and let us beware of idleness
in our recollectedness, so that by escaping from empty
occupations in secret and from idleness in public, we may
receive a perception of those mercies in ourselves. On the
subject of riches it is good that a rich man should speak,
and on the position of freedom it is good that someone
who enjoys it should speak; similarly, on the subject of
God, it is necessary that only someone worthy of God
because of his virtue should speak. . . . The beauty of truth

1. Cf 1 Pet 2:9.

301
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

befits a mouth that is beautiful. A holy thing befits the holy,

in their harmony; fire awaits fire, and it is for a holy heart
to keep holy the beauties of God.2

Every human person is called to become a ‘theologian’—

someone to whom the mysteries of God are revealed and to
whom has been granted the right to speak of them. Every person
is called to become a priest that he may at all times offer a
sacrifice on the altar of his heart, for himself, for his neighbour,
for the whole creation:

Adorn yourself with virtue, O feeble human being, so that

you may have the authority to act as priest to God in the
House of Mysteries, and so that you may be anointed by
the Spirit for sanctification as a result of the exceeding
purity with which you are adorned in the ministry of your
limbs without, and of your heart in secret within. Depict
in your soul the form of the allegorical Tent, outside and
inside. Collect together in your senses the assemblies of
virtue, and in your heart act as priest to God,3 offering
up a pure sacrifice; make propitiation for the sins of those
outside, because of their proximity to things by which they
are liable to fall into fault. And instead of the ‘metal plate’
there above the ark,4 place on your heart the contempla¬
tion of the mysteries of our Saviour, for by this God will
be revealed to you in wondrous revelations. ...5

2. 11/41,1.
3. Cf 1 Pet 2:5; 9; Liber Graduum 12.2: ‘the heart acts as priest inwardly’.
4. Cf Ex 25:17; 21-22.
5. 11/40,2.

302
 ABBREVIATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abbreviations used in the footnotes are followed with full bibliographical

references.

Translations of Isaac the Syrian’s writings

QUOTED IN THE PRESENT STUDY

Part I

I The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian,

D. Miller, trans. Boston, Massachusetts 1984.
Mystic Treaties Mystic Treaties by Isaac of Nineveh, translated from
Bedjan’s Syriac text with an introduction and registers
by A. J. Wensinck. Amsterdam 1923.

Part II

II Isaac of Nineveh [Isaac the Syrian], ‘The Second Part’,

Chapters IV-XLI, Sebastian Brock, trans. Corpus
Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 555,
Scriptores syri 225. Louvain 1995.
Gnost. Chapt. Gnostic Chapters. Unpublished.

Original (East Syrian) texts of Saint Isaac’s writings

PR Mar Isaacus Ninevita, De perfectione religiosa, quam

edidit Paulus Bedjan. Leipzig 1909.
Isaac, Part II Isaac of Nineveh [Isaac the Syrian], ‘The Second Part',
Chapters IV-XLI, edited by Sebastian Brock, Corpus
Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 554,
Scriptores syri 224. Louvain 1995.

303
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Other primary sources quoted

Abba Isaias, Homilies R- Draguet. Les cinq recensions de
TAsceticon syriaque d’Abba Isaie, Corpus
Scriptorum Christianorum
Orientalium 289-290, 293-294,
Scriptores syri 120-123. Louvain 1968.
Ammonius, Letters M. Kmosko. Ammonii eremitae
epistulae, Patrologia Orientalis 10,6.
Paris 1914. Pp. 407-419.
Aphrahat, Demonstrations I. Parisot. Aphraatis Sapientis Persae
Demonstrations, Patrologia Syriaca
1-2. Paris 1894-1907.

Apophthegmata Apophthegmata patrum, collectio

alphabetical Patrologia Graeca
65:71-440.

Asketika Isaak tou Syrou eurethenta asketika.

Leipzig 1792.
Athanasius of Alexandria, Athanase d’Alexandrie. La vie de saint
The Life of Saint Antony Antoine, ed. G. J. M. Barterlink,
Sources Chretiennes 400. Paris 1994.
Basil the Great, Letter 2 British Library, manuscript No. 17192.
(Syriac version)
Cyril of Alexandria, Letters to P. E. Pusey. Sancti Cyrilli epistolae tres
Nestorius oecumenicae. . . Oxford 1875. Pp. 2-11.
Dionysios the Areopagite. Corpus Dionysiacum II: Pseudo-
On the Celestial Hierarchy Dionysius Areopagita, De coelesti
On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy hierarchia, De ecclesiastica hierarchia, De
On Mystical Theology mystica theologia, Epistulae, ed. G. Heil
Epistles and A. M. Ritter, Patristische Texte
und Studien 36. Berlin 1991.
. On the Divine Names Corpus Dionysiacum I: Pseudo-
Dionysius Areopagita, De Divinis
nominibus, ed. B. R. Suchla,
Patristische Texte und Studien 33.
Berlin 1990.
Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on Der heiligen Ephraem der Syrers
Faith Hymnen defide, ed. E. Beck. Corpus
Scriptorum Christianorum
Orientalium 154, Scriptores syri
73-74. Louvain 1955.

304
 Abbreviations and Bibliography

. Hymns on the Nativity Der heiligen Ephraem der Syrers

Hymnen de nativitate, ed. E. Beck,
Corpus Scriptorum Christdanorum
Orientalium 186, Scriptores syri 82.
Louvain 1959.
-. Letter to Publius LeMuseon 89 (1976) 261-305.
Evagrius, Kephalaia gnostika A. Guillaumont. Les six centuries des
‘Kephalia gnostica’ d'Evagre le
Pontique’, Patrologia Orientalis 28
(1958).
. On Prayer De oratione capitula, Patrologia Graeca
79:1165-1200.
. Pseudo-Supplementa Pseudo-Supplement zu den Kephalaia
Gnostika, in W. Frankenberg, Euagrios
Ponticus. Leipzig 1912.
. Skemmata J. Muyldermans. Evagriana et
Nouveaux fragments inedits. Paris 1931.
Pp.38-44.

. The Gnostic Evagre le Pontique, Le gnostique, ed.

A. and C. Guillaumont, Sources
Chretiennes 356. Paris 1989.
Gregory Nazianzen, Gregoire de Nazianze, Discours 1-3, ed.
Oration 3 by Jean Bernardi, Sources Chretiennes
247. Paris 1978.
Isacco, Discorsi Isacco di Ninive, Discorsi spirituali,
trans. P. Bettiolo. Bose 1985.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on Sancti loannis Chrysostomi, archiepiscopi
Matthew Constantinopolitani, Homiliae in
Matthaeum, I-III. Ed. F. Field.
Canterbury 1839.

John Climacus, Ladder Scala paradisi, Patrologia Graeca 88:

631-1210.

John of Apamea (John the L. G. Rignell, Briefe von Johannes dem

Solitary), Epistles Einsiedler. Lund 1941.

Liber Graduum M. Kmosko, Liber Graduum,

Patrologia Syriaca 3. 1926.

Mark the Ascetic, On Those De his qui putant se ex operibus iustificari,

Who Think They Are Made Patrologia Graeca 65:929-965.
Righteous by Deeds

305
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Narsai, Homilies Homilies of Mar Narsai. San Francisco

1970.

Origen, On Prayer R Koetschau, Origenes Werke I,

Griechische Christliche Sriftsteller 3.
1899. Pp.297-403.

Palladius, Lausiac History Palladios, La storia lausaica, ed.

G. J. M. Bartelink. Florence 1974.

Rufinus, Historia monachorum Rufinus, Historia monachorum, ed.

E. Schulz-Fliigel, Patristische Texte
und Studien 34. Berlin-New York
1990. English trans. by Norman
Russell, The Lives of the Desert Fathers.
Kalamazoo 1981.
Symeon the New Theologian, Symeon le Nouveau Theologien,
Catechetical Discourses Catecheses, ed. B. Krivocheine and
J. Paramelle. I (Catecheses 1—5), II
(Catecheses 6-22), III (Catecheses
23—34), Sources Chretiennes 96, 104,
113. Paris 1963-1965.
The Life of Saint Mary of Egypt Vita Mariae Egyptiae, Patrologia Graeca
87/3:3697-3726. English trans. by
Benedicta Ward, The Harlots of the
Desert. Kalamazoo 1987. Pp. 35-56.
Theodore of Mopsuestia, R. Tonneau-R. Devresse, Les Homelies
Catechetical Homilies catechetiques de Theodore de Mopsueste.
Studi e Testi 145 . Vatican City 1949.
-. Fragments on Genesis Fragmenta in Genesis, Patrologia
Graeca 66:633-646.

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AbouZayd, Ihidayutha S. AbouZayd. Ihidayutha. A Study of the Life

of Singleness in the Syrian Orient from
Ignatius to Chalcedon 451 AD. Oxford 1993.
Assemani, Bibliotheca J. B. Assemani. Bibliotheca Orientals I-III.
Rome 1719.
Bettiolo, ‘Charite’ P. Bettiolo. ‘Avec la charite comme but:
Dieu et creation dans la meditation d’Isaac
de Ninive’, Ire'nikon 63 (Chevetogne 1990)
323-345.

306
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Brock, ‘Background’ Sebastian Brock. ‘The Syriac Background’,

in M. Lapidge, ed., Archbishop Theodore.
Commemorative Studies on His Life and
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Brock, ‘Iconoclasm’ S. Brock. ‘Iconoclasm and the
Monophysites’, in Iconoclasm: Papers given
at the Ninth Spring Symposium of Byzantine
Studies, University of Birmingham.
Birmingham 1977. Pp. 53-58.
Brock, Luminous Eye S. Brock. The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual
World Vision of St Ephrem, Cistercian
Studies 124. Kalamazoo 1992.
Brock, ‘Maggnanuta’ S. Brock. ‘Maggnanuta: A Technical Term
in East Syrian Spirituality’, in Melanges
Antoine Guillaumont, Cahiers
d’Orientalisme 20. Geneva 1988. Pp.
121-129.
Brock, ‘Metaphors’ S. Brock. ‘Clothing Metaphors as a Means
of Theological Expression in Syriac
Tradition’, in M. Schmidt, ed., Typus,
Symbol, Allegorie bei den ostlichen Vdtern und
ihren Parallelen im Mittelalter, Eichstatter
Beitrage 4. Regensburg 1982. Pp. 11-38.
Brock, ‘Misnomer’ S. Brock. ‘The “Nestorian” Church: A
Lamentable Misnomer’, inj. F. Coakley
and K. Parry, edd., The Church of the East:
Life and Thought, Bulletin of the John
Ryland’s Library, vol.78/3. Manchester,
1997.
Brock, Spirituality S. Brock. Spirituality in Syriac Tradition.
Kottayam 1989.
Brock, Studies S. Brock. Studies in Syriac Spirituality,
Syrian Churches Series, 13. Poona, India
1988.
Brock, ‘Theoria’ S. Brock. ‘Some Uses of the Term theoria in
the Writings of Isaac of Nineveh’, Parole de
POrient 20 (Paris 1995) 407-419.
Chabot, De sancti Isaaci J. B. Chabot. De sancti Isaaci Ninevitae.
Paris 1892.

307
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Chediath, Christology G. Chediath. The Christology of Mar Bahai

the Great. Kottayam 1982.

Clavis Clavis Patrum Graecorum, ed. M. Geerard,

4 volumes. Corpus Christianorum.
Louvain 1974-1983.

Dauvillier, ‘Images’ J. Dauvillier. ‘Quelques temoignages

litteraires et archeologiques sur la presence
et sur le culte des Images dans l’ancienne
Eglise chaldeenne,’ LOrient Chretien 3
(1956) 297-304.

Delly, ‘Images’ E. Delly. ‘Le culte de saintes Images dans

l’Eglise syrienne-orientale’, LOrient
Chretien 1 (1956) 291-296.
Florovsky, Vyz. Otcy Georges Florovsky. Vyzantiyskiye Otcy
V-V1II vekov [The Byzantine Fathers of the
Fifth to Eighth Centuries]. Paris 1933.
Griffith, ‘Asceticism’ Sidney H. Griffith. ‘Asceticism in the
Church of Syria: The Hermeneutics of
Early Syrian Monasticism’, in Asceticism,
Vincent Wimbush and Richard Valantasis,
edd. Oxford-New York 1995.
Griffith, ‘Monks’ Sidney H.Griffith. ‘Monks, “Singles”, and
the “Sons of the Covenant”: Reflections
on Syriac Ascetic Terminology’, in
Eulogema: Studies in Honor of Robert Taft, SJ,
Studia Anselmiana 110. Rome 1993. Pp.
141-160.
Guillaumont, A. Guillaumont. ‘Le depaysement comme
‘Depaysement’ forme d’ascese dans le monachisme ancien’,
Annuaire de TEcole Pratique des Hautes
Etudes, Section des sciences religieuses 7 6
(Paris 1968-1969) pp. 31-58.
Isho‘denah, Livre Isho'denah, Le Livre de la Chastete, ed. J.-B.
Chabot, Melanges d'archeologie et d'histoire
ecclesiastiques 16. Paris 1896. Pp. 63-64.
Khalife-Hachem, ‘Priere’ E. Khalife-Hachem. ‘La priere pure et la
priere spirituelle selon Isaac de Ninive’,
Memorial Mgr Gabriel Khouri-Sarkis.
Louvain 1969. Pp. 157-173.

308
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Lewy, Ebrietas H. Lewy. Sobria ebrietas. Untersuchmigen

zur Geschichte der antiken Mystik. Giessen
1929.
Licher, ‘Tears’ D. A. Licher. ‘Tears and Contemplation in
Isaac of Nineveh’, Diakonia 11 (Bronx,
New York 1976) 239-258.
Mascia, ‘Tears’ P. T. Mascia. ‘The Gift of Tears in Isaac of
Nineveh’, Diakonia 14 (Bronx, New York
1979).
Meyendorff, Christ John Meyendorff. Christ in Eastern
Christian Thought. Washington 1969.
Meyendorff, bnperial John Meyendorff. Imperial Unity and
Unity Christian Divisions. The Church 450—680.
New York 1989.
Miller, ‘Epilogue’ [D. Miller]. ‘Translator’s Epilogue’, in The
Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian.
Boston 1984. Pp. 481-515.
Miller, ‘Introduction’ [D. Miller]. ‘Translator’s Introduction’, in
The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the
Syrian. Boston 1984. Pp. LXIITCXII.
Mingana, Woodbroke A. Mingana. Woodbroke Studies, VII.
Studies VII Cambridge 1934.
Mundell, ‘Decoration’ Marlia Mundell. ‘Monophysite Church
Decoration’, in Iconoclasm: Papers given at
the Ninth Spring Symposium of Byzantine
Studies, University of Binningham.
Birmingham 1977. Pp. 59-74.
Nedungatt, G. Nedungatt. ‘The Covananters of the
‘Covenanters’ Early Syriac-Speaking Church’, Orientalia
Chriatiana Periodica 39 (1973)191-215;
419-444.
Popovits, ‘Gnoseologia’ J. Popovits. ‘He gnoseologia tou hagiou
Isaak tou Syrou’, Theologia 38 (Athens
1967.206-225, 386-407.

Sbath, Traites P. Sbath. Traites religieux, philosophiques, et

moraux, extraits des oeuvres d'Isaac de Ninive
par Ibn As-salt. Cairo 1934.

309
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Stewart, Working Columba Stewart. Working the Earth of the

Heart7: The Messalian Controversy in History,
Texts, and Language to AD 431. Oxford 1991.

Studia Syriaca I Studia Syriaca. 1.1. Rahmani, ed. Beirut

1904.
Vadakkel, Anaphora J. Vadakkel. East Syrian Anaphora of Mar
Theodore of Mopsuestia, Critical Edition,
English Translation and Study. Kottayam
1989.
Ware, ‘Pathos’ Kallistos T. Ware. ‘The Meaning of
“Pathos” in Abba Isaias and Theodoret of
Cyrus’, Studia Patristica XX. Louvain 1989.
Pp. 315-322.

Selected bibliography on the Syriac

TRADITION AND ON SAINT ISAAC

Atiya, Aziz S. A History of Eastern Christianity. Millwood 1968.

Attwater, Donald. The Christian Churches of the East, 2 volumes. London
1961.
Baumstark, Anton. Geschichte der syrischen Literatim Bonn 1922.
Beggiani, S. J. Early Syriac Theology with Special References to the Maronite
Tradition. Lanham, NY 1983.
-. Introduction to Eastern Christian Spirituality. The Syriac Tradition.
Lanham, NY 1983.
Beulay, R. L'enseignement spirituel de Jean de Dalyatha, mystique
syro-oriental du VHIe siecle. Paris 1990..
-. La lumi'ere sans forme. Introduction a Vetude de la mystique
chretienne syro-orientale. Chevetogne 1987.
Brock, Sebastian P. ‘Isaac of Nineveh: Some Newly Discovered Works’,
Sobomost/ Eastern Churches Review 8:1 (1986) 28-33.
-. ‘Lost—and found: Part II of the Works of St Isaac of Nineveh’,
Studia Patristica 19:4 (1990) 230-233.
-. ‘St Isaac of Nineveh’, The Assyrian 3:6 (London, 1986) 8-9.
-. ‘St Isaac of Nineveh’, The Way (January 1981) 68-74.
-. ‘St Isaac of Nineveh and Syriac Spirituality’, Sobomost 7:2
(1975)79-89.
-. Studies in Syriac Christianity. London 1992.
-. Syriac Perspectives on Late Antiquity. London 1984.

310
 Abbreviations and Bibliography

-. ‘The Prayer of the Heart in Syriac Tradition’, Sobornost/Eastem

Churches Review 4:2 (1982) 131-142.
-. ‘The Spirituality of the Heart in Syrian Tradition’, Harp 1:2-3
(1988) 93-115.
-. The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life, Cistercian
Studies 101. Kalamazoo 1987.
-. ‘The Syriac Tradition’, in The Study of Spirituality, ed. C. P. M.
Jones, Geoffrey Wainwright and E. Yarnold. London 1986. Pp.
199-215.
Bunge, G., ‘Mar Isaak von Ninive und sein “Buch der Gnade” ’,
Ostkirchlishe Studien 34 (1985) 3-22.
-. ‘Mar Isaac of Nineveh and His Relevance Nowadays’, Christian
Orient 7:4(1986) 193-195.
Canivet, P, ‘Theodoret et le monachisme syrien avant le concile de
Chalcedoine’, in Theologie de la vie monastique: etudes sur la tradition
patristique. Paris 1961. Pp. 241-282.
Chabot, J.-B., Litterature syriaque. Paris 1934.
Duval, R., La litter attire syriaque. Paris 1907.
Guillaumont, A., Aux origines du monachisme chretien, Spiritualite
Orientale 30. Bellefontaine 1979.
Khalife-Hachem, E., ‘Isaac de Ninive’, Dictionnaire de Spiritualite 7
(1971) coll. 2041-2054.
-. ‘Lame et les passions des hommes d’apres un texte d’Isaac de
Ninive, Parole de VOrient 12 (1984-1985) 201-218.
Murray, R., Symbols of Church and Kingdom. A Study on Early Syriac
Tradition. Cambridge 1975.
Ortis de Urbina, I., Patrologia Syriaca. Rome 1965.
Saint Isaac of Nineveh, On Ascetical Life, trans. by Mary Hansbury.
Crestwood, New York 1989.
The Heart of Compassion. Daily Readings with St Isaac of Syria, A. M.
Allchin, ed. London 1989.
Tsirpanlis, C. N. ‘Praxis and Theoria: The Heart, Love and Light
Mysticism in Saint Isaac the Syrian’, The Patristic and Byzantine
Review 6 (1987) 93-120.
Voobus, A., History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient, I-III, Corpus
Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 184, 197, 500 = Subsidia 14,
17, 81. Louvain 1959-1988.
-. History of the School ofNisibis, Corpus Scriptorum
Christianorum Orientalium 266 = Subsidia 26. Louvain 1965.
-. ‘Eine neue Schrift von Ishaq von Ninive’, Ostkirchliche Studien
21 (1972) 309-312.
Wright, W. A Short History of Syriac Literature. London 1894.

311
'
 INDEX OF SYRIAC TERMS

abila : mourner, monk 135 k'inuta : justice 41

aksenaya : stranger 123 : nature 22
aksenayuta : living as a stranger ratfz/Tz : understanding 192
(Greek xeniteia) 123 maggnanuta : overshadowing,
bnai qyama : ‘the sons of tabernacling 236
covenant’, ‘covenanters’ 82 makkikuta : humility 111
dayraya : monk 61 marmita (pi. marmyata)-.
‘enyana : converse 144 marmita (part of the Psalter)
‘enyana d-'am alaha : converse 187-189, 245
with God 144 mdabbranuta : providence,
ehi : to drink 250 economy (Greek oikonomid)
estwi: to be made worthy 250 88
gelyana : revelation 229 mestabqanuta : abandonment 101
hassa : passion 48 mliluta : reason (Greel logistikon)
bauna : mind 192 47
haymanuta : faith 259 mrahmanuta : mercifulness 41
hayye : life, salvation 130 ?nukkaka : humility 111
herga : meditation 208 msallyane : the Messalians 152
herga db-alaha : meditation on nahhiruta : illumination 238
God 208 nesyana : experience 92
hubba : love 41 nesyona : trial, temptation 91
hubba alahaya : divine love 7 5 nuhra : light 238-239
hubba sapya : luminous love 73 nuhra alahaya : divine light 240
hullala (pi. hullale): hullala (part nuhra d-supra d-napseh : light of
of the Psalter) 198 the beauty of one’s soul (of
hultana : mingling 59 oneself) 240
hzata : vision 229 pehya : wondering, distraction
hzata alahaya: divine vision 229 213
ida‘ta : knowledge 259 qaddise : saints 116
ihidaya : solitary, monk 61-62, qeryana : reading 105, 174
84, 135 qnoma (pi. qnome) : being,
kyanayta : natural 225 substance, hypostasis (Greek

313
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

hypostasis) 19, 22—24 te'orya d-ruh : spiritual

qyama : covenant 82 contemplation 242

te'orya mal'akayta : angelic
rahme : mercy 41
contemplation 227
rawzvayuta : inebriation 248
te ’orya ruhanayta : spiritual
re^yana : mind 192
contemplation 226
rehmta : desire (Greek
te'oryasbnayyanyata : heavenly
epithyrnitikon) 47
contemplations 227
renya : reflection, meditation 208
tehra : wonder, amazement
ruhanayta : spiritual 225
(Greek ekstasis) 242
selya : stillness 77, 219
tehra db-alaha : wonder at God
selyuta : silence, stillness 77
246
slot a dkita : pure prayer 213
tek : wonder, amazement 242
slota ruhanayta : spiritual prayer
tnana : zeal (Greek thymoiedes)
218 47
sukkale : insights 179, 215, 234 tyabuta : repentance 131
sta : turn aside 281 ‘uhdana : recollection,
tardta : thought, thinking 192 remembrance 208
tassa : a gold leaf on the ark of yammeh d-lalma : the sea of the
covenant 167 world 131
te'orya : contemplation, divine zaw ‘e : stirrings 218
vision (Greek theoria) 221,
223,267

314
 General Index

Abandonment 62, 91, 99, 101-109, Bettiolo, P. 31, 36

250, 294 Blasphemy 19, 37, 39, 93, 98, 103,
Abdisho1 front Nisibis 29 106, 176,282-284,291
Abraham 92, 233 Body 47, 48, 51-53, 63-64, 71,
Abraham, monk 30 76-78, 84-88, 97-98, 112, 115,
Adam 62,92, 102, 114,279,284-285 121, 138, 144, 146-147, 153-157,
Age to come 78, 137, 169, 171, 207, 161-162, 169, 175, 178, 186,
209,216,218,219,222,224,225, 190-192, 205, 207, 210-212,
226, 228, 233, 247, 263, 268, 221-222,226,233-234,237,241,
269-297 244-245, 247-248, 250, 252, 260,
Amazement 140, 242, 243, 249 265,271,274-275
Ammonius, Saint 265 Brock, S. 15, 22-24, 27, 31, 32, 35,
Ananias 92 45, 47, 54, 55, 58, 59, 62, 73, 75,
Angel 38, 39, 43-46, 51, 54, 56, 68, 95, 129, 131, 134, 163, 205, 223,
71, 84, 93, 113, 115, 125, 127, 224,236,248
132, 145, 170, 182, 185,202,205,
206, 212, 224-225, 227-232, 235,
255,273,276,290,293-294 Christ 18-22, 42, 47, 50, 51, 54-60,
Anthony the Great, Saint 191, 244 62, 67, 69, 75, 81, 86, 92, 112,
Anthropology 47 132, 151,163,167-169, 171-172,
Aphrahat 17, 32, 62, 82, 116, 129, 191,201,204-205,207,209,213,
160,223 224, 238, 244, 255, 275, 277, 279.
Apollinarius of Laodicaea 21 See also: Jesus
Ark 164-169, 171, 302 Christology, Christological 15,
Arsenius the Great, Saint 66, 78, 18-22,24-25,35,47,49,51,54,
191-192 56-57, 152, 168, 176-177
Assimilation (to God) 111, 112, 114 Conscience 69, 116, 119, 205, 275
Attention 80, 146, 149, 179, 183, Contemplation 45, 46, 50-51,
189 63-64, 88-89, 112, 118, 143, 147,
163, 168-169, 176, 212, 216-217,
Babai the Great 19, 20, 22, 32, 47, 219, 221, 223-231, 238-240, 242,
58 266-268,270,276,283,302
Basil the Great, Saint 80, 264, 265, Cornelius 145
271 Council 15-16, 18-22, 24, 33, 199
Bedjan, P.29, 31,233 Covenant 82-83, 164, 167-169, 171

315
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Cross 20, 49, 52, 54—55, 59, 84—85, 82, 91-94, 99, 101-102, 104-106,
115, 143, 151, 154, 156, 163-174, 108-109, 138, 140-142,157,172,
186, 195,204,244,295 174, 178-179, 183-184, 195, 202,
Cyril of Alexandria, Saint 15, 21-22, 204,215-217,222,226,230,232,
24 234-235, 238-240, 243, 245-249,
251-254, 256, 258-259, 261,
Dadisho* Qatraye 25, 31, 248 266-269,294, 296-297,301
Daniel Bar Tubanitha 26, 28
Darkness 46, 72-73, 79, 87, 97, 101, Faith 17, 19, 21, 23, 35, 92-94, 98,
103-109, 118, 144, 176, 184, 190, 100, 102, 104, 106, 109, 125, 137,
204, 238, 240-241, 268 149, 169-170, 178, 205-207, 217,
David 42, 262 224,233,238, 241,251,256-268,
Death 49, 52, 55, 56, 75, 85, 88, 106,
300
118, 124, 130, 165-166,204,255,
Fasting 85, 87-88,210,261,
269-274, 280-286, 295 Father (God) 38, 43, 50, 52, 53, 56,
Demon 37-39, 43-44, 46, 93, 101,
58,62, 115,200,207,277
114, 151, 153-154, 158, 160-161,
Fathers 64, 105-106, 155-158, 160,
196-197,202,280,288,290,292
167, 173, 175-176,189-190, 192,
Despondency 97, 103, 105-107,
197, 199, 201, 205, 213, 216,
109, 190-191
219-220, 226, 238, 263, 265, 269,
Devil 92-93, 97-100, 192, 203, 275,
281,283,296
279-281
Fear 42, 94, 104, 119-120, 131, 162,
Diodore of Tarsus 19-21, 24-25, 29,
166, 168, 173, 197,246,254,257,
33, 54,287,288,296
267,271-272,280,288,301
Dionysius the Areopagite 44, 220,
Foolishness 253-254, 260
222,223,264
Francis of Assisi, Saint 114
Diophysite 18, 22, 51, 54—55, 58
Freedom 34, 49, 67, 70, 97, 107,
123, 131, 145, 187, 193-197, 226,
Ephrem, Saint 17, 32, 54, 59, 124,
246,257,265,301
223,248,255,270
Eschatology, eschatological 207,
226,232,236,269-270,272,281, Gehenna 72, 103, 109, 269, 274,
292,296-297, 301 278-283, , 286-287, 290-291,
Evagrius 30, 32,47, 59, 86, 103, 144, 293-296, 301. See also: hell
146, 197, 221-224, 227, 239-240, Gerasimos of Jordan 114
247-248, 264, 266, 270 Giwargis, Catholicos 25, 27
Eve 92, 284-285 Glory 37, 45-46, 57, 59, 64, 84,
Evil 37, 41, 48, 65, 72, 76, 113, 120, 111-112, 115, 119, 125, 127-128,
150, 154, 191, 197,203,206,208, 148, 164, 169, 180, 182,202,207,
213-214,260, 269-270, 280-281, 212,214, 218, 224, 226, 229, 233,
283-284,287-289,295 237,268,273,276-277,279,282,
Experience 34, 62-63, 68-69, 78, 284

316
 General Index

Goodness 37, 41, 98, 122, 203, 282, 209-210, 217, 232, 236-241, 268,
284,287-288,291,294 272
Grace 33, 50, 78, 94, 96-97, 102, Incarnation 42, 49-59, 112, 133,
105, 107-108, 125, 132-134, 154, 166, 171,202,204,209,225,
136-137, 153-154, 157, 168, 171, 295
173, 179, 185-186, 193-194, Inebriation 74-75, 111, 190-191,
198-199, 202, 205, 207, 216, 222, 204,217,221,223,235,248-255,
226-227, 235-238, 242, 259, 264, 260, 280
282-283,291,293-294,297 Insight 36, 82, 101, 138, 141-142,
Gregory of Nazianzus, Saint 30, 70 147-148, 150, 159,172,174-175,
Gregory of Nyssa, Saint 80, 82, 248, 179-180, 184, 186, 194,204,211,
265,281,296 214-215, 219, 228-229, 232-236,
Gregory Palamas, Saint 239 241,244,268-269,288
Intellect 36, 45, 64, 70-71, 73, 77,
79, 81, 84, 89, 98, 100-101, 108,
Hanoun ibn Yuhanna ben As-salt 28
118, 133, 141, 144, 147, 169,
Heart 42-43, 63, 64, 66-68, 73-74, 172-175, 177-178, 182-183,
77-81, 83, 87-88, 92, 97-99, 185-187, 190-192, 208, 210-213,
102-104, 108, 112, 115, 118-120, 217-222, 225-238, 240, 243-244,
122, 124-125, 129-130, 133, 248-249, 259, 262, 264-266, 273,
135, 137-138, 140-142, 145-147,
276
149-151, 154-156, 158-159, Isaiah, prophet 233, 262
161-163, 170, 172-173, 179, Isaias, abba 32, 270
181-187, 190-193, 196, 201-206, Isho'denah 25-27
213, 215-216, 234-235, 239, Isho'yahb II, Catholicos 23
241-245,247-255,257,259,261,
266, 271-272, 279-280, 294, 299,
Jacob 233
302
Jacob Baradaeus 15
Hell 290, 294, 301
Jacob of Sarug 223
Henana 18, 19, 33
Jesus 17-18, 20-22, 47, 51, 54-57,
Hermit 71-72
59, 62,84, 92, 114-115, 121, 168,
Hope 64, 69, 71, 84, 86, 94-95, 97,
185, 187,201,204,209,227-228,
104, 107, 109, 116, 131, 134-135,
238,255, 300-301
145, 182, 190-191,204,209,211,
Job 99-100
247, 252-253, 256, 259, 266, 277,
John Chrysostom, St 121
280,282, 301
John Climacus, Saint 82, 84, 151
Humility 52, 97, 103, 109, 111-128,
John of Antioch 22
141-142, 146, 149, 159, 189,
John of Apamea 32, 47, 73, 75, 86,
196-197,251,262
129,218,248
Hypostasis 19, 21-22, 24, 259
John of Dalyatha 25, 30, 239
John the Baptist, Saint 145, 237
Illumination 106, 153, 191-193, John the Theologian, Saint 74, 255

317
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Joseph Hazzaya 25, 28 260,266,269,276,279-280,283,

Joy 39, 62, 74, 79, 101, 105, 108, 287-297, 300-301
120, 125, 135, 138, 146-147, 159,
182, 186, 189-191,215,229,231, Macarian Homilies 32, 73
234, 241, 244, 246-248, 251-255, Macarius of Egypt (Macarius the
276,280,282 Great), Saint 66, 197
Judgement 29, 99, 102, 270-272, Mark the Hermit, Saint 32, 227,
275, 280, 284, 295-296 263,265
Marmita (marmyata) 187-189, 245
Martyrius-Sahdona 25
Kingdom 38, 45, 52, 57, 60, 95, 121,
Meditation 87-88, 116, 135,
130, 148, 169,200,207,226,232,
143-144, 147-148, 150, 181-182,
239, 247-248, 252, 255, 267, 269,
185,189-190, 193, 208-216, 226,
275, 277-279, 291, 293-297, 301
242-243, 245, 247, 252, 263-265,
Kneeling 87-88, 150-151, 156, 159,
269-270,271-273
162-163, 172, 189, 194,238-239,
Mercy 36, 40-43, 67, 72-73,
241. See also: prostration
117-118, 125, 132-133, 138, 14.7,
Knowledge 36, 38-40, 42, 44-45,
149,238,251,261,280,282,284,
53, 55-57, 69, 74, 92, 115-116,
288,291,296
118, 121-122, 124, 129, 132, 146,
Messalians 152-155, 158-160, 162,
148, 159-160, 169-170, 175, 178,
181,195-196, 199
184, 198, 204, 207, 209, 211,
Miller, D. 17-20,27,29,31,44, 105,
216-217, 219, 222, 226, 230,
192,223,233
232-233, 238, 241-242, 244, 246,
Mind 23, 33, 37-38, 41, 61, 63-65,
248-250, 256-268, 283, 291, 293,
67-68, 71-72, 76-77, 79-81,
296
86-88, 92, 97-98, 100, 102,
Kyana 22
105-108, 116, 120, 122, 124, 130,
133,135-137, 139-140, 144-148,
Light 37, 44, 46, 50, 56-57, 59-60, 150, 153-154, 156, 159-161,
68, 72, 78, 84-85, 87, 95, 97, 175-185,188, 190-194, 197-198,
101, 104—106, 113, 128, 137, 144, 200-201, 203-206, 209-210,
158, 192, 194,203,204,220,222, 213-216, 218-223, 234, 238-239,
224, 228-229, 236-241, 253, 259, 241-244, 246-247, 249, 251-252,
277-278 259-260, 263, 265-267, 271,
Liturgy 104, 186-189, 193, 246 273-274,276,282,293
Love 35-43, 46, 49-53, 56, 58-60, Miracle 56, 128, 132, 164-165, 257
61, 63-64, 66-77, 88-89, 91, Monk 28, 30, 61, 65-68, 71-72,
93-94, 98, 100, 105, 113, 120, 78, 82-87, 128, 135, 139-141,
126, 131, 133-134, 136, 139-142, 146, 151, 153, 177-178, 181, 185,
147, 161, 164, 168, 173-174, 189, 198-199, 205, 265, 272, 275,
180-181, 195-196, 202, 206, 299-300
212-213,215,217,242,245-255, Monophysite 15, 30, 31, 51, 176

318
 General Index

Moses 50, 164—165, 168, 262 Paul the Simple, hermit 184, 191,
Moses the Black, abba 189, 197 197
Mystery 37, 52, 58, 78, 87, 114, Paul, Saint 54, 81, 121, 137, 233,
117, 141, 145, 150, 158-159, 237,253,262,279,281
163, 169-170, 174-175, 178, 202, Peace 61, 70, 77, 104, 119, 136-137,
204, 216, 224, 228-229, 232, 150, 193,206,218,227,234
234-237, 242, 248-249, 254, 259, People (of Israel) 164—165
261- 265, 281, 283, 285, 290, Perfection 50, 81-82, 87, 91, 114,
301-302 125, 127, 130, 136, 139, 153, 160,
Narsai the Great 18, 32, 167, 223 184,234,258,261,272,277,282,
Nature 19-24, 36-40, 42, 44, 46-48, 290,292-293
51,53-58,60,66,68,75,100-101, Persia, Persian 16-19, 22, 24—28
115-116,136,141-142, 154-155, Peter, Saint 80, 145, 262
158, 166-167, 170, 174, 180, Philoxenus ofMabbug 30, 49, 223,
186-187,198-200, 203, 212, 215, 239
219-220, 222, 224-228, 231-233, Prayer 43, 57, 59, 64, 67, 72,
239, 243-244, 254, 257-260, 79-80, 84-88, 104-106, 118, 122,
262- 263, 270-274, 276, 281-283, 131-132,135,139-140, 143-216,
288,291-292,294-295 217-224, 227, 234-236, 238-240,
Nestorius 15-16, 18-25, 27-28, 31, 242-246, 249, 261, 268, 271-272,
49, 58 295,297,300
New Testament 42, 49, 62, 165, Presence (of God) 62, 77, 101-102,
167-169 109, 117-118, 141, 163, 165-167,
Night vigil. See: vigil 171-172,202,259,266
Nilus of Ancyra, Saint 32 Prostration 146, 151-152, 156, 158,
161, 163, 165, 171, 173,186-187,
189, 195,203,216,241,244
Old Testament 41-42, 44, 50, 112,
Providence 29, 38, 42, 88, 93-94,
165-169,277
97,102-103, 109, 120-121, 133,
Origen 19, 160, 248, 281, 296
146, 148-149, 175,215
Overshadowing 59, 105, 206, 217,
Psalmody 88, 144, 147, 150-151,
236-240
161-162, 185-186, 188-190, 193,
210
Paradise 114, 131, 222, 241, 274,
279-280, 284-286, 294
Qatar 27, 95
Passion 48-49, 61, 63-65, 68-70,
Qnoma 19, 22-24
73, 81, 86-87, 105, 136, 139, 155,
177, 180, 187,204,210-212,251,
254-255, 261, 264-265, 274, 277, Reading 26, 79, 87, 88, 105-106,
284,287,293 143-144, 150-151, 157-158, 160,
Patience 93, 103, 117, 147, 149, 284 173-184, 187-190, 234-236, 238,
Patrikios, monk 24 243,245,249,261,

319
 The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian

Recollection 43,86, 105, 116, 133, 189, 203-204, 207, 275, 280-281,
140,150, 154, 170, 180-181, 183, 283-286,291-292, 294-295, 302
208, 213-214, 235, 243, 245, 249, Solitary 27, 32, 47, 61-63, 65, 68,
253,272-273 70, 73, 81, 83-84, 89, 106, 117,
Renunciation 61, 63-67, 83, 88, 124, 124, 129, 132, 137, 173, 197,202,
131 213,227,232,242,300
Repentance 65, 80, 115, 129-134, Solitude 25-26, 61-65, 73, 76,
136-137, 140, 142, 147, 189, 88-89, 135,202
203-204, 207, 267, 277, 286, 288, ‘Sons of the Covenant’ 83
293-295, 301 Soul 41, 47-48, 51, 62-63, 65,
Requital 41, 99, 269, 280, 289-291, 68-70, 72-73, 75, 77, 79-81,
296, 300 85-86, 93, 95-98, 102-105,
Rule (of prayer) 143, 146, 155, 158, 107-108, 114, 117, 127, 131-132,
160-161, 171-173, 176, 187-189, 135-137,139, 141, 145-149,
193-201 155-156, 161, 172, 174, 176,
178-181, 183-186, 190-191, 193,
197, 202, 204-205,211-212,.
Sabbas, Saint 30 218-220, 222-226, 229, 231, 234,
Sacrament 152, 158
237-242, 245-247, 250-254, 256,
Salvation 28, 40, 56-57, 59-60,
259, 261-263, 265-266, 270-271,
84, 88, 99, 130, 134, 144, 163,
274, 276, 280, 302
167-168, 170, 202, 205, 207, 283,
Spirit (Holy) 33, 92-93, 96, 114,
290, 292, 295-297, 300
117-118, 122, 148, 153, 159, 179,
Sapphira 86
183-184, 193, 199, 207, 214,
Sassanids 16
218-223,231,236-237,243,250,
Scripture 17, 23, 33, 42, 51, 87, 104,
259,267,302
106, 108, 143, 150, 154, 156, 158,
167, 174-184, 208, 214-215, 220, Stillness 26, 46, 61-62, 65, 67-68,
224,233,235,238,243,249,261, 70-71, 73-74, 76-81, 85, 88-89,
267,279,289,291,294 103, 106, 108, 119, 123, 127,
Seraphim of Sarov, Saint 114 135,140,143-144, 178, 180, 202,
Severus of Antioch 15, 22 218-223,225,234,239, 242,244
Shabur, Rabban 26 Stirring 101, 157, 159, 211, 213,
Shapur II 16 216, 218-219, 232, 234-235,
Shekhina 45,165, 167-168, 170-171 246-247, 265, 293
Sheol 282. See also: Gehenna Sweetness 75, 78-79, 85, 116,
Silence 44, 58, 77-81, 88-89, 118, 138-139, 141, 151, 180-181, 187,
124, 171, 178, 186, 189,202,219, 191, 234, 242-245, 252, 254—255,
222, 244, 254, 256, 282 265-266
Sin 31, 41, 46-48, 52-53, 65, 70, Symeon d-Taybutheh (the Graceful)
76-77,80, 99, 113, 115-116, 127, 25, 31,248
129,131-135, 137-138, 149, 165, Symeon of Emesa, Saint 127

320
 General Index

Symeon the New Theologian, Saint 245, 249, 251, 259, 262, 264,
151,239 267-268,273,276,278

Tears 43, 85, 93, 116-117,127-142, Wandering 103, 173, 182, 213-216,
146-147, 149,151-152,156-157, 219
Wine 48, 74, 111,249-256
189, 191, 227, 241, 244^246, 249
Wisdom 33, 37, 44-45, 52, 57, 62,
Temptation 69, 91-100, 102, 104,
64, 81-82, 93-94, 96, 98, 103,
109, 119, 130, 144, 149,200
106, 118, 121, 130, 148, 159, 174,
Theodore of Mopsuestia (the
199, 209, 211, 224, 242, 244, 250,
Interpreter) 15, 17-21, 24-25, 29,
253,260,277,281,285,287,293,
33, 49, 54, 58-59, 200, 206-207,
299
286-288, 296
Wonder 46, 53, 55, 62, 69, 79, 88,
Theology 16-18, 25, 32, 34, 59, 170,
141, 148, 150, 156, 165, 178-180,
217,223,248
182, 190, 202, 212,216-218,
Theoria 217, 219, 223-227, 240,
221-224, 226-227, 232, 237,
245, 262, 266-268,
241-249, 251, 253, 256, 259-260,
Trial 91-109, 117, 132,218
273,276,282,288
Trinity 46, 59, 202, 205, 222, 228,
World 35-39, 43-46, 50, 52-54,
239-240
57-59, 61-66, 68-74, 76, 78, 80,
Truth 23, 33, 43, 55, 84, 97,
82-83, 85, 88, 108, 112,118-119,
100-101, 137,146, 159-160,175,
121,123-124, 128, 131-132, 135,
178, 182, 205, 213,224—225,
137, 139, 143, 145, 147, 150,
232-233,238,265,281,296, 301
155, 164, 167, 169-170, 174-176,
182,201-214,218-219,222,224,
Universal salvation 207, 283, 226-227, 229-232, 234-237, 242,
295-297. See also: salvation 246-247, 250-251, 253-255, 258,
260-263, 265, 269-270, 273, 279,
282,285,289,292,294,300
Vigil 85, 122, 143, 173, 184-192,
227, 240
Virginity 83, 85 Yuhanna ibn Barsi, Catholicos 15,28
Vision 34, 46, 50-51, 57, 114, 132,
138, 145, 169, 185-186, 192,209, Zacharias 145
221-231, 235, 238-240, 242-243, Zeno, emperor 18

321
'
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 TRENT UNI ersity

0 11 64 0471 061 2
Isaac the Syrian, also called Isaac of Nineveh, lived and wrote
during 'the golden age of syriac Christian literature' in the seventh
century. Cut off by language and politics from the Churches of the
Roman Empire and branded 'Nestorian', the Church of the East
produced in isolation a rich theological literature which is only
now becoming known to outsiders. Yet over the centuries and in
all parts of Christendom, Isaac’s works have been read and recom¬
mended as unquestionably orthodox.

'Now, at last, to my great delight, we have at our disposal a single

book in English, offering us a balanced and comprehensive over¬
view of Isaac’s life, background and teaching. Wisely, Fr Hilarion
Alfeyev has allowed Isaac to speak for himself. The book is full of
well chosen quotations, in which Isaac’s true voice can be heard.

'Saint Isaac of Syrian was an ascetic, a mountain solitary, but his

writings are universal in scope. They are addressed not just to the
desert but to the city, not just to monastics but to all the baptized.
With sharp vividness he speaks about themes relevant to every
Christian: about repentance and humility, about prayer in its many
forms, both outer and inner about solitude and community, about
silence, wonder and ecstasy. Along with the emphasis that he
places upon “luminous love "-to use his own phrase-two things
above all mark his spiritual theology: his sense of God as living
mystery; and his warm devotion to the Saviour Christ.'

Bishop Kallistos [Ware] of Diokleia

CISTERCIAN PUBLICATIONS
Kalamazoo, Michigan-Spencer, Massachusetts-Coalville, Leicestershire

SPIRITUALITY ISBN 0 87907 775 X

On the cover
Icon 'Saint Isaac of Nineveh' by Archimandrite Teodor Zinon.

Cover design by Paola Pastore.

9 780879 077754