The Wisdom

of the Pearlers
An Anthology of
Syriac Christian Mysticism

Translated, with an Introduction, by Brian E. Colless

K
CISTERCIAN STUDIES SERIES: NUMBER TWO HUNDRED SIXTEEN

Brian E. Colless

The Wisdom of the Pearlers

An Anthology of Syriac Christian Mysticism
 CISTERCIAN STUDIES SERIES: NUMBERTWO HUNDRED SIXTEEN

v\ ii
The Wisdom of the Pearlers
An Anthology of Syriac Christian Mysticism

Translated, with an Introduction,

by
Brian E, Colless
it

Cistercian Publications
Kalamazoo, Michigan
 © Copyright 2008, Cistercian Publications Inc.
All rights reserved.

The work of Cistercian Publications is made possible in part

by support from Western Michigan University
to the Institute of Cistercian Studies.

Library of Congress: Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The wisdom of the pearlers : an anthology of Syriac Christian mysticism /

translated, with an introduction, by Brian E. Colless.
p. cm. — (Cistercian studies series ; no. 216)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-87907-316-9
1. Mysticism—Syrian Church. I. Colless, Brian. II. Title. III. Series.

BX177.15.W57 2007
230'.14—dc22
2007047657

Printed in the United States of America

Dedicated to my mother and father
Irene and Edric Colless
true treasurers of the Pearl
 Table of Contents

Orientation ix

The Mystic Pearlers: An Introduction

The Mystic Pearlers 1
The Song of the Pearl 5
The Desert Ascetics 21
Evagrios Pontikos 22
Esaias of Sketis 24
Makarios the Great 25
Dionysios the Areopagite 36
Aphrahat the Persian 40
Ephrem the Syrian 46
The Book of Degrees 50
Adelphios of Edessa 56
John the Solitary 68
Philoxenos of Mabbug 74
Stephen bar Sudaili 79
Abraham of Nathpar 82
Gregorios the Hermit 83
Sahdona-Martyrios 83
Simon Taibutheh 86

Isaac of Nineveh 88

Dadisho Qatraya 92

Joseph the Visionary 93

John the Venerable 96

Abraham bar Dashandad 99

Gregory bar Hebraeus 102

vii
viii The Wisdom of the Pearlers

The Anthology
The Song of the Pearl 109

Aphrahat the Persian 1 16

Ephrem the Syrian 1 18

The Book of Degrees 121

John the Solitary 122

Philoxenos of Mabbug 126
Stephen bar Sudaili 127
Sahdona-Martyrios 128
Simon Taibutheh 130
Isaac of Nineveh 134
Dadisho Qatraya 139
Joseph the Visionary 141
John the Venerable 149
Abraham bar Dashandad 171
Gregory bar Hebraeus 172

Textual Sources 181

Reference Bibliography 189
Scriptural References 21 1
Glossary and Index 216
 ORIENTATION

When a book is completed, it is customary for the author to look back

over it and produce a preface (a foreword for the reader, an afterword
for the writer). In the present case, given the unfamiliarity of the ground
to be traversed by the reader, some guidance is needed from the writer
at the outset. The one who has found a way through the mazes of the
field should try to help others to get their bearings. This is a book about
eastern Christianity, more particularly the Syriac churches and their mo¬
nastic and mystical life; for such an inscrutable oriental subject, orientation
is required. Moreover, in all mystical traditions it is emphasized that the
novice should not set out along the path without the assistance of a guide
or a guru, to point out the landmarks and the pitfalls. Regrettably, the
present writer is not that kind of spiritual leader: I have broken the strict
ascetic rules, by having a wife, begetting offspring, and owning a house
and a gramophone. Nevertheless, I can at least tell you how this book
came about, and give you some practice in using its referencing system:

Roman numerals (XCIX) for the excerpts in the anthology,

plain Arabic numerals (99) for the paragraphs in the introduction,

bold Arabic numerals (99) for the items in the bibliography.

This tome has taken me several decades to put together, in the midst
of many other duties and activities. It all began in 1964, in the course of
my studies in Semitic languages and literatures, when I came across Jules
Leroy’s popularizing book on monks and monasteries of the Near East,
translated from French (19). He opened my eyes to the amazing mission¬
ary expansion of the Syriac and Armenian churches (the Church of the
East, the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Armenian Orthodox Church) into
the furthest parts of Asia, as documented in a magisterial series of studies
by Jean Dauvillier (now collected in a reprint volume). This topic, with
particular reference to South-East Asia, was pursued further in my doctor

IX
X The Wisdom of the Pearlers

of theology thesis, in the 1970s. Most of this work has been published
serially, under the title ‘TheTraders of the Pearl’, in the journal Abr-Nahrain
(1970-1978).
Secondly, Leroy introduced me to Syriac Christian monasticism and
mysticism, and in the late 1960s this became the subject of my doctor of
philosophy dissertation, on the eighth-century mystic named John Saba
of Dalyatha (193). After working for two years on this project, and being
assured by everyone that nobody else in the world could possibly be doing
the same thesis, I found that Robert Beulay in Paris was in fact editing
and translating the same set of discourses by this monk. This led to some
serious negotiation, in which I received the better bargain, and Beulay
had to change to editing the epistles; but he produced some very useful
results (I 90, 191, 195, 196, 200, 184, I 85), including a general survey
of Syriac Christian mysticism (I 95b), and a detailed study of the mystical
theology of John of Dalyatha (I 95a). My contribution to the dissemina¬
tion of knowledge about this wonderful mystic, whom we shall call John
the Venerable in this anthology (LVI-XCV), is gradually being published
(8-12, 197-199, 206).
The Syriac manuscripts that I used for this purpose were housed in
such places as the British Museum and the Vatican Library, but they had
originated from some of the monasteries visited and described by Leroy.
The most important documents that I had (on microfilm) were from the
Greek monastery of Saint Catherine in the wilderness of Sinai, and from
the Coptic monastery of the Syrians (Der es-Suriani) in the Egyptian
desert (Wadi en-Natrun, the ancient Sketis desert, south of Alexandria),
where monasticism flowered, early in the fourth century. In January 1988,
I went to both these monasteries as a tourist-pilgrim, with my wife Helen,
and other members of a New Zealand university group. We were shown
through the Syrian monastery, but did not see the monks’ cells or the
library, though we were taken to an empty but ‘furnished’ hermitage out
in the desert. There we experienced showers from heaven, even though
it ‘never’ rains in Egypt. It was a Friday when we presented ourselves at
the gate of Saint Catherine’s in Sinai, the day it is closed to visitors; so
we were not able to see inside it, except from above, when we were on
Mount Sinai.
The Sinai monastery stands at the foot of the mountain that is tradi¬
tionally identified as the one where Moses spent forty days and forty
 Orientation XI

nights fasting and communing mystically with God in the cloud of glory
(Exodus 24:15-18), and where Moses and the elders of Israel were vouch¬
safed a divine vision, which was imbued with the colour of sapphire and
of the clear sky (24:9-1 I). These two episodes became models for east¬
ern Christian mysticism. Moses’ experience in ‘the cloud of unknowing’
is the basis for The Mystical Theology of the sixth-century Syrian writer
who goes under the pseudonym Dionysios the Areopagite (par. 120
below), and the sapphire-blue vision is central to the spiritual teaching of
Evagrios Pontikos, a fourth-century monk in the desert of Egypt (par. 71).
These two mystical authors, Dionysios and Evagrios, were influential in
the development of Christian mysticism, eastern and western alike.
My personal exposure (with snow on the one and rain on the other) to
the mountains of Moses (Mount Sinai and Mount Nebo) was not of the
same order of spirituality; and everything seemed to happen in reverse.
Climbing Mount Sinai in the winter on an empty stomach was indeed an
ascetic exercise, because of the extreme cold in the early morning darkness,
though the ascent was not so much exertion as exhilaration, making me
plummet to the summit; and watching the unclouded sunrise, a beautiful
experience in itself, was not the true beatific vision (even though gazing at
the sun is Dante’s analogy for it in the Paradiso, at the end of The Divine
Comedy). Conversely, it was on top of Mount Nebo, where Moses viewed
the vast vista of the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 34), that I encountered
‘the cloud of unknowing’: neither the sun nor the scene came into view that
day, because the mountain was clouded over. And not a single Syriac mysti¬
cal manuscript was set before my eyes in any church or monastery I visited,
so I experienced no illuminations of any kind. I have only ever handled Syriac
manuscripts in the Mingana collection of the Selly Oak Colleges Library in
Birmingham. For the rest, it has been discs, microfilms, and photocopies;
we live and work in a sanitized, not sanctified, world.
The task of editing and translating the writings of Syriac Christian
mystics has been proceeding at a pace, rather than apace (4). Around
the turn of the twentieth century, Paul Bedjan edited books by Isaac of
Nineveh (153) and Gregory Bar Hebraeus (204), which were subse¬
quently translated into English by A. J. Wensinck, who provided useful
introductions to each, examining the place of Syriac mysticism in religious
history (I 55, 205). E. A. Wallis Budge’s labours in this field (he was also
working, among many other things, on Egyptian hieroglyphic and Akkadian
XII The Wisdom of the Pearlers

cuneiform) produced an edition and translation of the spiritual discourses

of Philoxenos of Mabbug (124), and also of the Syriac versions of books
relating to the Egyptian desert monks (40-42). J. Gwynn introduced the
English-speaking world to the ‘demonstrations’ of Aphrahat the Persian
Sage(81), previously edited by J. Parisot (80), and also the hymns on faith
by Ephrem the Syrian (88), later edited by Edmund Beck (86).
In 1926 Michael Kmosko presented the Latin-reading world with an
edition of the Syriac Liber Graduum, The Book of Degrees (96), an impor¬
tant example of early mysticism, which he regarded as emanating from
the sect known as the Messallians (or Messalians, or Eukhites), a group
stressing the power and importance of prayer. In my introduction (para¬
graphs 171-191)1 explore the hypothesis that it was written by Adelphios
of Edessa, a prominent Messallian; this could be one reason for its having
been transmitted anonymously in Syriac monasteries.
In 1927 F. S. Marsh issued an edition and translation of another some¬
what heterodox work, the remarkable Book of Hierotheos (135),
attributed to the teacher of Dionysios the Areopagite, but actually by
Stephen Bar Sudaili, a sixth-century mystic of Edessa.
In the 1930s, more of the treasures hidden in this field were brought
to light. Alphonse Mingana published his Early Christian Mystics (2, 1934),
with the Syriac text and English translation of discourses by four previ¬
ously obscure monks, of the seventh and eighth centuries, namely Simon
Taibutheh, Dadisho Qatraya, Joseph (Abdisho) Hazzaya, Abraham Bar
Dashandad.
In Sweden, Sven Dedering edited a dialogue on the human soul and
its passions, attributed to John of Lykopolis by the Syriac scribes (106,
1936). Irenee Hausherr published a French translation of it as being by
John the Solitary (107, 1939), and he went on to demonstrate that this
was the fourth-century Syrian mystic named John of Apamea (I 18-1 19).
In the following decades L.G. Rignell, another Swedish editor, added to
this corpus (108, 1941; 109, 1960). Werner Strothmann gave us another
collection of John’s dialogues and discourses in 1972, with German trans¬
lation (I 10); and Rene Lavenant prepared a French translation, which
came out in 1984 (I I I). All this Johannine meat is sandwiched between
two slices of spiritual bread: Wensinck’s publication of a small piece on
the spiritual state of the soul (112, 1923), and Sebastian Brock’s edition
of a tract on prayer (115, 1979).
 Orientation xiii

Hausherr also produced an edition and Latin version of a book on

holy contemplation by Gregorios the Hermit of Cyprus (143, 1937), and
a number of valuable articles, which have been collected in two volumes
(17-18). He was interested in the spiritual writings of Philoxenos of
Mabbug (126, 128), and he encouraged Rene Lavenant to publish an
edition of the letter to Patriq of Edessa (127), in the series Patrologia
Orientalis.
In the collection known as Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium,
Rene Draguet has issued the Syriac recensions of the Asketikon of Esaias
of Sketis (Abba Isaiah) (62), and also Syriac commentaries on it by Dadisho
Qatraya (172) and Joseph Hazzaya (or so it seems to me, 182). Andre
de Halleux has provided an edition and French translation ofThe Book
of Perfection by Sahdona-Martyrios (145). For the same series, Arthur
Voobus has written a history of asceticism in the Syrian Orient (25-27).
Joseph Hazzaya (so named in two previous paragraphs, and to be
known in this anthology as Joseph the Visionary) wrote numerous epistles
and discourses, but for various reasons they were not always transmitted
under his own name. Thus, in 1950 Gunnar Olinder published what he
believed to be a letter of Philoxenos of Mabbug on the three degrees of
the spiritual life (I 79), but this is now known to be a work of Joseph. The
search for lost works of Joseph the Visionary is now being conducted
with vigour (180-189), and in 1982 Gabriel Bunge published a German
translation of a goodly number of them (I 78).
Mention may now be made of syriacists I have met personally, who
have made a contribution to this area of research. Sebastian Brock and
I once had a short encounter at Selly Oak in Birmingham, and I have since
plied him with queries. Robert Beulay and I had a long correspondence
by mail, but unfortunately he was not among the happy company I met in
Paris at the 29th Congress of Orientalists in 1973. Francois Graffin, who
showed me great kindness during my stay, has produced French transla¬
tions of a number of relevant texts (87, 180, 183). Antoine Guillaumont
asked me some questions that I am still pondering; he gave me offprints
of many of his articles, which aided my understanding of The Book of
Degrees and its alleged Messallianism (see especially 100), and his studies
on Evagrios and other Egyptian monks are most enlightening (15, 54-58).
Paul Harb has shown that Joseph Hazzaya is the real author of the letter
on the three degrees attributed to Philoxenos (181). Louis Leloir has
XIV The Wisdom of the Pearlers

studied Tatian’s Diatessaron, and the spirituality of the desert ascetics, and
he has elucidated the monastic thought of Ephrem and Sahdona (Martyrios)
(94). Bernard Outtier, who studies Armenian translations of Syriac litera¬
ture, has given me insights into Ephrem’s mysticism.
In my doctoral study of Syriac mysticism, from 1966 to 1969 at the
University of Melbourne, I was greatly encouraged by my supervisor, John
Bowman, then Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, and also by John
Arthur Thompson, my first tutor in Hebrew and Aramaic. In 1965 Donald
Broadribb introduced me to the Syriac Song of the Pearl, or Hymn of the
Soul, which has become the first selection in this anthology (I—XIII). Twenty
years later I met Paul-Hubert Poirier, the author of an exhaustive study
of the various interpretations proposed for the poem (35). It is surely a
parable of the human condition, and since it is allegorical you can read
into it whatever you want to find there. A Buddhist might see the Buddha
in its hero (like Gautama, a prince who leaves his palace behind), and find
the Buddha’s enlightenment in the snatching of the pearl from the serpent,
and the Buddha’s attainment of Nirvana in the prince’s homecoming.
Manicheans could, and did, interpret it as the life of their prophet Mani.
However, while it is quite possible that Buddhism and Manicheism influ¬
enced Christian monasticism (par. 164-166, 205-208), and although the
poem is generally presumed to be Gnostic, a case can be made for its
orthodoxy (36). There is no difficulty in construing it as a symbolic pre¬
sentation of the Apostles’ teaching on the course of the Christian life,
constructed along the lines of the parable of the prodigal son (Luke
15:1 I -3 I), in combination with the parable of the pearl (Matthew 13:45-46);
this approach will be worked out in detail here (par. I 1-59). And since
Syriac Christian mystics saw themselves as putting the Apostles’ teachings
into practice, there should be considerable parallelism between the de¬
tails of the poem and the words of these monks. There may even be echoes
of the poem itself in the writings of Abraham Bar Dashandad (par. 271 -278),
John the Solitary of Apamea (par. 194-198), and the Syrian monk whose
spiritual homilies have been preserved in Greek (and also in Syriac trans¬
lation, 65) under the pseudonym Makarios the Great (par. 103-1 16).
A New Zealand monk did his doctoral dissertation on Pseudo-
Makarios, at the Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana, and through contact
with Syriac scholars (such as Jean Gribomont and Vincent Desprez) he
learned to his surprise that there was a syriacist named Brian Colless at
 Orientation xv

Massey University, not too many miles distant from his own Southern
Star Abbey, the Cistercian monastery of New Zealand. I had come from
Australia in 1970 to inaugurate religious studies (phenomenology of reli¬
gion) at Massey University in Palmerston North. When he returned from
Rome he made a point of looking me up. This was Anthony Paul Clarkson,
Father Benedict, and in the preface to his thesis (74) he says that “the
Spiritual Homilies attributed to Macarius the Egyptian” caught his interest
“because of the rich pneumatology contained in them and because John
Wesley, the founder of Methodism had been greatly influenced by them”.
I myself am a Methodist, and we both had an interest “in the history of
early monasticism, in ecumenical questions, and in the relationship be¬
tween dogmatic and spiritual theology”, all of which he had brought to
his thesis on early Christian spirituality. A few years later I was sitting on
the slopes of Mount Egmont (Maori name Taranaki, one of New Zealand’s
volcanic mountains), listening to the radio and looking at Taranaki’s sunny,
snowy peak (which had been hiding its glory under a cloud most of the
time), when Father Benedict’s death was announced on the national news.
I was deeply saddened by this loss of a kindred spirit.
In the published part of his dissertation (74), Anthony Clarkson con¬
siders the innumerable titles and metaphors applied to Christ by Makarios,
notably Master, Father, King, Physician, Savior, Redeemer, Pilot, Rider,
Charioteer, Farmer, Craftsman, Foundation, Rock, and Pearl. Such role
and metaphor theology has an abiding attraction for me. Robert Murray
has investigated its manifestations in early Syriac Christian literature, such
as the mysterious Odes of Solomon (not considered here), the Acts of
Thomas, the Book of Degrees, Aphrahat, and Ephrem (20, Symbols of
Church and Kingdom). In the present anthology, the pearl motif has pride
of place, and the treasure metaphor is also prominent. The index (which
also functions as a glossary) will lead the searcher to many others.
When I was wondering where to get a book such as this published,
it was Anthony Clarkson who told me about Cistercian Publications in
Kalamazoo. He informed the Editorial Director of my existence, and I
immediately found myself on her Christmas card list. Rozanne Elder has
since shown immense graciousness and forbearance towards me; I have
lost count of the Christmas cards she has sent me; to her fellow-workers
they serve as gentle reminder or stern rebuke. From Oxford’s great
Syriac scholar, Sebastian Brock, she has garnered an anthology of The
XVI The Wisdom of the Pearlers

Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life (I; Cistercian studies series,
101), and mine will be a companion volume to his. Many of the things
stated in his introduction have been left unsaid in mine; you might there¬
fore need to read both books at the same time to achieve a full stereo¬
scopic picture. A difference between these two anthologies is that one
has complete pieces expounding the same theme (prayer), whereas the
other has short excerpts to illustrate the use of the pearl symbol, and
also (together with many other extracts in the introduction) to show
the typical features of Syriac mysticism. One worrying aspect, to me, is
the apparent lack of humour in any of these excerpts. Laughter was,
however, not absolutely forbidden to these monks. In his rule for novices,
John the Venerable tells them not to show their teeth when laughing. The
laughter we encounter in Simon Taibutheh (‘Simon of his grace’) is deri¬
sory and directed at himself (XXVIII), but there must have been some
good-humoured chuckling amongst all the deadly seriousness. There was
surely wit amid the wisdom.
The book by Jules Leroy (19), which started me on this road, was
borrowed from a public library in Tasmania. Somewhere along the way
I looked at the French original of 1958. Here at the end of the journey
I possess my own copy of it, given to me by my colleague Renee Turner,
just before her death in 1988. Renee would have asked concerning that
book and mine: What about the nuns, Brian? (She had done a thesis on
Buddhist nuns). She would also have looked for a counterpart to Sufism’s
Rabi'a, the eighth-century woman mystic of Basra (23, 185-188, 218-225).
This book can only offer ‘the daughters of the covenant’ (par. I 32, 164)
and Shirin (par. 232). Note, however, that Syriac Christians regard the
Holy Spirit as Mother, as well as Paraklete (par. 19). But there are women
workers in this field: Margaret Smith (23), Margot Schmidt (22), Benedicta
Ward (39), Claire Guillaumont (57), and Micheline Albert. To my other
colleagues, Enid Bennett, Peter Donovan, Bronwyn Elsmore, I tender my
thanks for their listening ears. Sharon Cox, who tastefully typewrote most
of the manuscript (over a very long period in which the technology kept
changing), can claim the dubious privilege of being the first person to
have read this book.
There will be a fair measure of culture shock for those who enter this
treasury of pearls and peruse its introductory manual. This is unavoidable;
there is no ecstasy without effort, no mystical experience without ascetic
 Orientation XVII

labour. One indication that you are moving in a different world will be
the personal names: they are not in comfortingly familiar Latinized form
(Evagrius Ponticus) but are given in their eastern, Hellenized mode
(Evagrios Pontikos), and their Syriac originals (Patriq or Patrikios, not
Patricius or Patrick; Sahdona or Martyrios, not Martyrius). However, a
few Latinisms and Anglicisms have escaped through the net (Bar Hebraeus,
John, Joseph, Simon, Stephen).
This book is dedicated to my mother and father, Irene and Edric
Colless, who provided the resources for my secular and spiritual educa¬
tion. They have both passed on, but they firmly and faithfully believe that
they are still alive, so it is not a case of in memoriam.

Brian Colless
Shalom/Shelama/Salaam/Peace
Palmerston North, Aotearoa/New Zealand, 2007
 THE MYSTIC PEARLERS

A PEARLER is a pearl fisher or a pearl trader, a person who dives

for pearls or deals in pearls. The pearlers we shall meet in this book
were early monks of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia. They were
mystical pearl-divers and pearl-merchants who searched for spiritual
pearls. In the words of one of their number, John the Venerable, in
the eighth century: These precious pearls are gathered and stored
among the treasures of his mind by the merchant who is occupied
with prayer, the strenuous diver captivated with desire for the sea
that washes him’ (LXXVII). His contemporary in the eighth century,
Joseph the Visionary, spoke of the ascetic exercises of the solitary
monk as ‘the labour of the merchant up to the time when the pearl
of great price falls into his hands’ (XLVIII). And in the seventh cen¬
tury, Isaac of Nineveh said: ‘The diver plunges naked into the sea
to find a pearl; and the wise monk will go naked through the desert
places to find the Pearl, Jesus Christ himself’ (XXXIV).
Their quest thus led them out into the wilderness, to a state of
silent solitude in remote caves and hermitages. In their desert cells
these Syriac Christian monks sought to achieve purity of soul,
enlightenment of mind, and spiritual union with God by following
a typical mystical path of purification, illumination, and unification.
We call these Christian monks ‘Syriac’ because that is the name
of the language they spoke: Syriac is a Christian dialect of Aramaic,
the mother tongue of Jesus and his disciples, and it became the
literary and liturgical language of the churches of ancient Palestine,
Syria, Iraq, and Iran.
Long confined to their mountain seclusion or desert isolation,
many of these mystical pearlers never set eyes on the sea, nor ever
watched pearl divers plunging into the ocean, or observed merchants
embarking on ships to seek rare treasures on distant shores. Never¬
theless, in contrast to the ascetics of the Egyptian monastic tradition
2 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

of Saint Antony, Syriac Christian monks were not entirely averse

to travelling. Some became missionaries and carried their faith to
India and China. Some had been merchants before they put on
monastic garb: a seventh-century merchant named Bar Sahde was
miraculously rescued from the clutches of pirates while on a trading
voyage to India, and in gratitude to God he entered a monastery
on his return home. And the legendary founder of Persian Christian
monasticism, Eugenios of Nisibis or Mar Awgin, is portrayed as a
pearl fisher from Egypt. The story goes that for twenty-five years
he lived on an island in the Suez Gulf, diving for pearls and distrib¬
uting the proceeds to the poor; after visiting the monks of Sketis
in the desert of Egypt, and having been commissioned by Pakhomios
(Pachomius), he took seventy followers to Nisibis in Persia. There,
on neighbouring Mount Izla (or Izala), he founded a monastery.
4 If this story were true, Eugenios would have been a notable
exception to the stay-at-home rule that had long held sway in Egypt.
From time immemorial the ancient Egyptians had believed that the
valley of the Nile was the only place in which to live and die so as
to live anew for eternity. Thus in The Tale of Sinuhe an Egyptian of
the twentieth century bce flees to Syria, and there becomes the
leader of a nomadic tribe. But he abandons this unstable existence
and returns home to serve his pharaoh, who grants him a modest
pyramid-tomb to ensure everlasting life for him. The Egyptian ideal
was stability: staying in your appointed place in the kingdom of the
pharaoh during your lifetime, and abiding in your tomb to serve
the god Osiris in the afterlife. This model apparently passed over
into Egyptian Christian monasticism: its monks persisted in their
cells, expecting to take up eventual residence in a heavenly mansion
in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
5 This attitude contrasts with the mentality in the lands of the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where a peripatetic pattern had been
set in The Epic of Gilgamesh, dating perhaps from the twentieth
century bce. The hero, Gilgamesh, is stricken with grief at the death
of his friend Enkidu. Wrapping himself in an animal skin he roams
over the desert and across the ocean in quest of eternal life. His
long search brings him to a paradise called Dilmun, where the
Mesopotamian counterpart of Noah (here known as Utnapishtim
 The Mystic Pearlers 3

or Atrakhasis) dwells in everlasting bliss with his wife after having

survived the great flood. On the advice of Utnapishtim, Gilgamesh
ties some heavy stones to his feet and dives to the bottom of the
sea. There he obtains a plant which imparts renewed life to anyone
who eats it. Almost immediately Gilgamesh loses the elixir to a
snake, which consumes it and gains the power to slough its skin
annually. Dilmun is thought to be the Persian Gulf island now known
as Bahrain, where men still dive, in the manner of Gilgamesh, to
bring pearls up from the sea floor.
6 The teachings of The Epic of Gilgamesh are not compatible with
Christian doctrines. The admonition of a barmaid named Siduri
encapsulates one of its messages:

Gilgamesh, where are you hurrying to?

The life you are seeking you will not find.
When the gods created humankind,
to humans they allotted death,
but life they kept in their own hands.
Gilgamesh, let your belly be filled,
make merry by day and by night. . . .
Cherish the little one holding your hand,
and let your wife enjoy your embrace.

7 This bears a remarkable resemblance to Ecclesiastes 9:7-9, but such

exhortations to eat, drink, and be merry were not followed by
Christ’s apostles. Saint Paul affirmed in this regard that the resur¬
rection of Christ had set a new pattern: ‘for as in Adam all die, so
in Christ shall all be made alive’; but ‘if the dead are not raised then
let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’ (I Cor 15:22,32, quot¬
ing Is 22:13). In saying this, Paul was certainly not advocating
debauchery; nor was he suggesting strict asceticism, making the
Christian life a continual round of fasting, vigil, and austerity. Yet
as early as Tatian in the second century this became the typical
Syriac Christian attitude. Known in western church history as a
student of Justin Martyr and as the founder of a Christian school
in Rome, Tatian was abstemious in the extreme, banning marriage
entirely and forbidding the drinking of wine. His ascetic teaching is
called Encratism, and his famous Diatessaron (harmony of the four
4 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

Gospels) emphasizes Encratistic ideals of celibacy, poverty, and

homelessness.
8 This pattern of abstinence continued into the fourth century with
Julian Saba, who lived in a cave near Edessa, allegedly eating only one
meal a week to sustain him in his daily cycle of psalm-singing, medi¬
tation, and instruction of disciples. Furthermore, Julian’s followers
were expected to emulate him as a wanderer. He was constantly on
the move, journeying into the desert for periods of prayer, as far as
Mount Sinai, where he built a chapel.
9 The Syriac Christian life-style was apparently not derived from
the example of Jesus, who is portrayed in the Gospels as homeless
and poor, but also as one who ‘came eating and drinking’ to such
an extent that he was stigmatized as ‘a man gluttonous and wine-
bibbing’ (Lk 7:34). Rather, it found a more rigorous model in John the
Baptizer, who ‘came eating no bread and drinking no wine’ (Lk 7:33)
but lived on ‘locusts and wild honey’ in the wilderness (Mk 1:4-6).
(Tatian’s Diatessaron puts John on a vegetarian diet of milk and honey.)
By the same token the real paragon among the apostles was not
Paul, the libertarian hero of the Acts of the Apostles, who said ‘all
things are lawful’ (I Cor 6:12; 10:23), but Thomas, the austere and
abstinent hero of the Syriac world’s own hagiographic work. The
Acts of the Apostle Judas Thomas. No longer a ‘doubting Thomas’ but
someone who accepts Jesus as Lord and God (Jn 20:24-28), Thomas
the apostle is sent by Jesus to the East, to the Iranian and Indian
realms. The New Testament gives no hint of what Thomas did after
making his avowal of the sovereignty and divinity of Christ, but
these apocryphal Acts purport to fill this gap; and the indigenous
churches of India have long maintained the tradition of his martyr¬
dom in their land.
10 The Syriac ascetic ideal is admirably exemplified in the protago¬
nist of the Acts of Thomas. He goes about doing good, healing the
sick, driving out demons, giving alms to the poor, and imparting
instruction; above all it is observed that he engages in frequent
fasting and praying, eats only bread and salt, drinks only water, and
wears only one garment. At a wedding feast for a princess he refuses
to eat or drink, but he preaches that those who follow Christ will
receive the food and drink of light and life. The bridal pair are urged
 The Song of the Pearl 5

to preserve themselves from the ‘filthy intercourse’ of their mar¬

riage bed, and to prepare themselves for ‘the true wedding feast’
with the celestial Bridegroom, at which they will be ‘numbered with
those who enter into the bridal chamber’ (cp. John the Venerable,
LXXI below). It is not Judas Thomas himself who admonishes the
couple here, but ‘our Lord in the likeness of Judas’, who says to
them, ‘I am not Judas, but I am the brother of Judas’.

THE SONG OFTHE PEARL

I I The idea of being a brother of Christ and being one with him takes
us into the mystical realm, as does the image of entering the bridal
chamber in which the believer’s soul is seen as the beloved of the
Bridegroom. The notion of the believer’s kinship with the Son of
the King of kings is brought out exquisitely in a poem embedded
in one Syriac manuscript of the Acts of Thomas. This is The Song of
the Pearl, also known as The Hymn of the Soul (I—XI11 below).
12 The context of the song is the imprisonment of the apostle
Thomas in India. To comfort himself and his fellow-prisoners, Judas
Thomas chants this hymn, though its relevance to that situation is
not clear. One possibility is that just as the hero of the poem has
been sent into Egypt to perform the task of snatching a pearl from
the clutches of a sea monster, so the apostle has been sent into the
equally benighted land of India to rescue souls from the jaws of
death (cp. Ephrem, XVI). Notice in passing that India is in fact
mentioned in the poem as a source of rubies (I).
13 A commonly held opinion on The Song of the Pearl is that it
portrays the Gnostic redeemer myth: the hero-prince is the saviour
who himself needs to be saved (‘the saved saviour’), but he is able to
pass on his saving knowledge (gnosis) to those who turn to him.
14 To me it seems more appropriate to take the poem as referring to
Everyman, or more particularly everyone who comes to the knowl¬
edge of Christ. On this interpretation it is a parable of the Christian
way, a ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ from the City of Destruction to the
6 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

Celestial City. A prime difficulty with this theory, however, is that

the poem begins with a descent from the heavenly kingdom to the
material world, which are symbolized by Persia and Egypt respec¬
tively; and while this might fit the career of Christ (Jn I: I -14), it is
not readily applicable to the origin of an ordinary human soul. The
preexistence of the soul is not a biblical doctrine, although it gained
currency in Christian theology under the influence of Plato and the
Alexandrian theologian Origen. Even so, it is not necessary to see
a prior existence for the soul in this allegory, any more than in the
parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15:1 1-32); in each case the son
leaves his father’s home and receives a splendid garment on his
return. Given that ‘those whom God foreknew he also foreordained
to be conformed to the image of his Son’ (Rom 8:29), and that ‘God
chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world’ (Eph 1:4),
the Christian can in some sense be seen as already in the heavenly
kingdom with the Father from the beginning (cp. paragraph 195).
15 On the assumption that The Song of the Pearl is an allegory of
the Christian’s pilgrimage through life, an attempt will be made here
to identify its details with doctrines and persons in the Christian
Scriptures.
16 The hero of the poem lives as a child in his father’s luxurious
palace (I). The kingdom is clearly the Persian or Parthian empire,
established on ‘the heights of Hyrcania’ (X), and it represents the
kingdom of ‘our Father in Heaven’ (Mt 6:9-10), which is especially
concerned with children (Mt 19:14; Lk 18:16).
17 The father is ‘the King of kings’ (VI, XI), the Iranian emperor in
his ‘homeland the East’ (I), ruler over the realm of light (VIII, ‘the
light of our home, the East’). Likewise God, ‘the King of kings and
Lord of lords,. . . dwells in unapproachable light’ (I Tim 6:16). This
idea of God dwelling in a cloud of glory and in unapproachable light
will feature prominently in later Syriac mysticism (cp. John the
Venerable, LXIII, LXIV, LXXI, LXXII, LXXV, LXXXVIII).
18 The elder brother (II) is identifiable as Jesus, ‘the firstborn among
many brothers’ (Rom 8:29; cp. paragraph 104). He is also ‘viceroy’
(VI) and ‘second in rank’ to the king (II,VI,VIII), and he is hailed as
‘the splendour of my father’ (XIII); it is Christ who is seated ‘at the
right hand of the Majesty on high’ as ‘the effulgence of his glory’
(Heb 1:3; cp. John the Venerable, LIX and LXIII, ‘Christ the splen-
 The Song of the Pearl 7

dour of the Father’). Jesus Christ also appears as the prince’s com¬
panion in Egypt (IV), as will be shown below.
19 The mother is ‘Queen of the East’ (VIII) or ‘Mistress of the East’
(VI), who works with the father on the upbringing of the child (I, II,
V, X). In the early Syriac Christian world-view the Divine Mother
was the Holy Spirit of God (cp. paragraph 104). This imagery stems
from the fact that the Aramaic or Syriac word for ‘spirit’ (ruh) is of
feminine gender; in the Syriac versions of the Bible, ‘the Spirit herself
bears witness with our spirit that we are sons of God’ (Rom 8:17).
This femininity of the Holy Spirit (also called the ‘Spirit of Holiness’
in Syriac) has generated some remarkable images of suckling at
divine breasts (LVIII, XCI, John the Venerable; CXXXV, Gregory
Bar Hebraeus). In The Song of the Pearl, the Spirit also appears in a
male guise as the Paraklete, represented by an eagle (VII); on this
subject more will be said below.
20 The younger son enjoys the great wealth possessed by his parents
(I). On the spiritual plane this would refer to the riches of God’s
grace: ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly regions . . . has destined
us to sonship . . . according to the riches of his grace, which he
has lavished upon us’ (Eph 1:3-8). From his parents’ treasury the
child is given some of these riches to take with him on his perilous
journey (I). These would be spiritual gifts, ‘gifts bestowed by God’
(I Cor 2:12). These treasures (gold, silver, rubies, agates) are pre¬
sumably for his support and strengthening (adamant): ‘the Father
. . . grant that you be strengthened with power through his Spirit
in your being, out of the riches of his glory’ (Eph 3:14-17). The
girding with adamant is reminiscent of God making the forehead
of the prophet Ezekiel ‘like adamant, harder than flint’ to enable
him to confront his adversaries (Ezk 3:9). The equipping of the lad
is analogous to putting on ‘the whole armour of God, in order to
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil’ (Eph 6:10-17).
21 The load that the child carries is light and easy to bear (I). In
fact, the words for ‘load’ and ‘light’ here are the same as in Matthew
I 1:30 in the Syriac New Testament, where Jesus speaks of his yoke
being easy and his burden light.
22 The parents make a covenant with the lad and write its words
on his heart (II), a counterpart to the new covenant with God to
8 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

be inscribed on the hearts of the people of God so that they do

not forget it (Jer 31:31 -34; 2 Cor 3:2-6; Heb 10:15-16). The stipu¬
lation of the agreement is that the prince should acquire a pearl in
Egypt. The boy is to receive a reward for the performance of this
task; thus he will be ‘laying up treasure’ for himself, not on earth
but ‘in heaven, where moth and weevil do not spoil’ (Mt 6:19-21).
The destructive ‘moth’ is relevant here because the reward is a
specially tailored shining robe and a scarlet toga (II, VI, X, XI, XIII).
There is no actual word for ‘robe’ in the text, merely a single word
meaning ‘shining thing’ (zahitha); but it is obviously something worn
as a garment. It is a widely attested practice that kings give presents
of fine clothing to faithful servants. This is reflected in Isaiah 61,
where the Lord declares that he will ‘faithfully give their recom¬
pense and make an everlasting covenant with them’, and he clothes
them with ‘the robe of righteousness’ and ‘the garments of salvation'
(8,10). Peter tells his readers of‘an inheritance which is imperish¬
able and undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven’ for them (I Pt 1:4).
Christian martyrs ‘were each given a white robe’ (Rev 6:1 I). Jesus
affirms that in the end ‘the righteous shall shine forth like the sun
in the kingdom of their Father’ (Mt 13:43), a picture to be compared
with the pearl-hero returning to his father’s palace, wearing his
glistening robe and his lustrous toga (II, XIII; cp. paragraph 106).
23 The child is required to go down into Egypt. In biblical theology
Egypt had been viewed, from the time of the Exodus onwards, as
a place of bondage (Ex 2:23,13:3) and death (Ex 12:29-30); and
when the child arrives there, he does indeed fall into bondage under
an Egyptian king (V, VI) and into a death-like sleep (V). Egypt would
represent the world; ‘friendship with the world is enmity with God’
(Jm 4:4), and one should keep oneself ‘untarnished by the world’
(Jm 1:27). Speaking of his followers, Jesus says that ‘the world has
hated them because they are not of the world’ (Jn 17:14); the boy
in the poem is concerned about being hated by the Egyptians as a
stranger and an outsider (IV); the ancient heroes of faith were like¬
wise ‘foreigners and exiles on the earth’ (Heb I 1:13; cp. I Pt 2:1 I).
24 In Egypt the prince is to confront a hissing serpent (II, III, VIII);
the obvious biblical counterpart is ‘the great dragon, that ancient
serpent, who is called Devil and Satan’ (Rev 12:9). The serpent is
‘in the midst of the ocean’ (II), and of the many scriptural references
 The Song of the Pearl 9

to sea monsters, one seems very pertinent: ‘Behold I am against

you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon lying in the midst of
his streams’ (Ezk 29:3).
25 Having established the identity of the King of kings as God the
Father, the Queen of the East as the Holy Spirit, the elder son as
Jesus Christ, and the younger son as ‘Christian’ setting out on his
pilgrimage-quest, we now need to identify the other characters.
26 The child is accompanied on his journey to Egypt by two guardians
(III). The concept of‘guardian angels’ can be invoked here, as found
in the saying of Jesus on not despising ‘little ones’, for ‘in heaven
their angels continually behold the face of my heavenly father’ (Mt
18:10). Angels are ‘ministering spirits’ for those ‘who are to inherit
salvation' (Heb 1:14). In this instance the two guardians might be
the two archangels named in the Bible: Gabriel (Dn 9:21, Lk 1:19)
and Michael, who fights for the people of God (Dn 10:21, 12:1),
‘contending with the Devil’ (Jude 9) and ‘fighting against the dragon’
(Rev 12:7).
27 After the pearl has been won from the serpent, the shining robe
is brought by two treasurers (X-XI). These seem to be distinguished
from the two guardians, as special trustworthy treasurers (X), ‘two
yet one in likeness, for one sign of the king was marked on both’
(XI), who were commissioned to deliver the ‘bright ornamented
robe’. At the transfiguration of Jesus, when ‘his garments became
white as light’, Moses and Elijah were in attendance (Mt 17:1-8);
and they were perhaps ‘the two witnesses’, who are ‘the two olive
trees and the two lampstands standing before the Lord of the earth’,
and who confront the Beast from the abyss (Rev I I). Alternatively,
since the term ‘treasurer’ (gezabra) is used by Ephrem as a title for
Christ himself and also for bishops, it is possible that the picture
here is of the baptized neophyte being welcomed into the church
by his Lord and his bishop, or by Christ and the Spirit of Christ
(cp. paragraph 141). If we allow that the poem is to be interpreted
on more than one level, then various interpretations are applicable
here.
28 On arriving in Egypt, the child encounters a free-born person,
a fellow-countryman from the East (IV), who is described as ‘a
consecrated person’, literally ‘a son of unction’, from the Syriac root
(m-sh-h) which produces the word Messiah (‘anointed’), translated
10 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

into Greek as Christ (Khristos). The Epistle to the Hebrews has

some enlightening points here: ‘God has anointed you with an
anointing of gladness over your fellows’ (Heb 1:9, quoting Ps 45:7
[8], with reference to Jesus ‘the Son’. Note that the word for ‘fel¬
lows’ in the Syriac version is the same as for ‘partner’ in the poem).
This enigmatic figure would thus be Jesus the Christ, with whom
the believer is united: ‘a consecrated person, who came and joined
me’ (IV).
29 In the New Testament, Jesus goes to Egypt as an infant in his
birth story (Mt 2:14-15); and here in the poem Christ would be in
‘Egypt’, the material world, performing his work of salvation for his
brethren: ‘Here am I, and the children that God has given me’ (Heb
2:1 3, Is 8:18); ‘since therefore the children share in flesh and blood,
he himself likewise shared the same nature, so that through death
he might destroy the one who has the power of death, namely the
Devil’ (Heb 2:14, and here the Syriac term for ‘share’ is the same
as in ‘a partner to share in my pursuits’). Further, ‘he had to be
made like his brethren in everything, so that he might become a
merciful and faithful high priest’; and ‘because he himself has suffered
and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted’ (Heb
2:17-18). The mention of ‘high priest’ reminds us that the same
writer compares Jesus with a priest-king named Malkisedeq
(Melchizedek, Gen 14:17-20; Heb 7:1-10), who appears mysteriously
and then disappears from the scene, as does this enigmatic figure
in the poem (IV).
30 The hero gives his companion an admonition (or should it be the
other way round?) ‘against the Egyptians, against joining with the
unclean’ (IV). Similarly, the Hebrew Christians are warned against
‘falling away from the living God’ through ‘an evil unbelieving heart’,
for if they are to ‘share in Christ’, they must ‘exhort one another
every day’ not to be ‘hardened by the deceitfulness of sin’, as hap¬
pened to the Israelites who had lived in Egypt (Heb 3:12-18). A
typical apostolic exhortation runs: ‘Be aware of this, that no immoral
or impure person . . . has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ
and of God; ... do not associate with them’ (Eph 5:5-7).
31 If the ‘consecrated person’ (‘son of unction’) is the earthly counter¬
part of the heavenly Christ, elsewhere presented as the second in
rank to the king, and as elder brother of the prince (II, VI), then
 The Song of the Pearl

the younger brother’s failure to recognize him is perhaps to be

explained by people’s inability to recognize Jesus after his resur¬
rection (Jn 20:14, Lk 24:16); or simply by John’s assertion that ‘the
true light that enlightens everyone . . . was in the world . . . and
the world did not know him’ (Jn 1:9-10).
32 At this stage of the narrative (IV-V) the young prince certainly
becomes a man of ‘the world’, adopting the food and dress of the
Egyptians. The Israelites of the Exodus had a hankering for Egyptian
foods (Ex 16:3) and customs (Ex 32:1-6), which led them astray.
Moreover, Moses warned them that when they were settled in
Canaan and had plenty to eat, they might ‘forget Yahweh, their God,
who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house
of bondage’ (Dt 8:12-14). During the apostasy of ‘the golden calf’,
they ‘sat down to eat and drink, and then rose up to play’ (Ex 32:6,
I Cor 10:7).
33 For his part, the pearl prince falls into an oblivious sleep and
into bondage to a pharaoh (V-VI). He forgets his royal parents, as
Israel forgot ‘the Rock that begot’ him and ‘the God who gave birth’
to him (Dt 32:18). While people sleep the enemy does his evil work
in the dark (Mt I 3:25), and the sleeping prince needs the Apostle’s
exhortations: ‘Do not be conformed to this world (‘age’), but be
transformed, by the renewing of your mind’ (Rom 12:2), and ‘it is
now time for you to wake out of sleep’ (13:1 I).
34 Everything that happened to the prince was ‘perceived’ by the
king and queen, and they ‘grieved’ for him (V). The term translated
‘grieved’ (Syriac hash) is used in the New Testament for ‘suffered’,
particularly of the passion of Christ (Heb 2:9,18; I Pt 2:23; Lk 22:15).
The parents’ awareness signifies the omniscience of God: ‘God
knows everything’ (I Jn 3:20). What is more, ‘the Lord knows how
to save from tribulation those who revere him’ (2 Pt 2:9). The
parents drew up a plan and sent their son something to rouse him
from his death-like sleep, along these lines: ‘Awaken your heart to
righteousness and do not sin’ (I Cor 15:34, Syriac version; Greek
‘sober up’). ‘Awake and rise up from your sleep, and listen to the
words of your letter’, they say (VI).
35 The instrument of awakening is a letter of reminder from the
father, the mother, and the brother (V, VI, VII, IX). Compare the
apostle Peter’s statement: This is now the second letter that I have
12 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

written to you, beloved, in both of which I have aroused your

sincere mind by way of reminder’ (2 Pt 3:1); the reminder is of the
predictions of the prophets and the commandment of the Lord
and Saviour, through the apostles (3:2). In his first epistle Peter
speaks of the prophets foretelling the grace that would come to
Christians (I Pt 1:10), and the Gospel coming ‘through the Holy
Spirit sent from heaven, things that angels desire to look into’ (1:12).
The prophets, apostles, and angels might be related to ‘the kings
and princes of Parthia, and all the nobles of the East’, who took
part in the preparation of the letter for the prince (V). The letter
would be the Bible, transmitted by the Holy Spirit (cp. paragraph
I 14).
36 The coming of the letter as a bird, bringing a reminder of sonship,
is reminiscent of the descent of the Spirit of God, ‘as a dove’, at the
baptism of Jesus, and the heavenly voice saying, ‘This is my beloved
son’ (Mt 3:16-17). This possibly implies that we should look for
baptism as well as the Holy Spirit at this point in the hymn. Accord¬
ingly, given that the letter was the prince’s awakener (IX), that at
the sound of its voice he rose from his sleep (VII), that it awoke
him with its voice and led him with its light (IX), then what is be¬
lieved to be an early baptismal formula (Eph 5:14) offers a baptismal
connection for the letter of awakening and illuminating: ‘Awake,
you sleeper, rise up from the dead, and the Christ will give you light
(or: will shine upon you)’. This occurs as a quotation in a context
where Christians are described as formerly being ‘darkness’ but
now being ‘light in the Lord’ and walking as ‘children of light’ (Eph
5:8), and being ‘called to the one hope of your calling: one Lord,
one faith, one baptism’ (Eph 4:4-6).
37 This idea of calling has a counterpart in the call to return: the
son is commanded to remember his mission and to return to the
kingdom of his father (VI). In response he ‘snatched up the pearl
and turned to go home’, not unlike the prodigal son in the parable
(Lk 15:17-18). This summons compares with calling ‘sinners to
repentance’ (Lk 4:32): ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near’
(Mt 3:2,4:17); ‘Repent and be baptized’ (Acts 2:38).
38 Another pointer to baptism is the invocation over ‘the fearsome
hissing serpent’ to put him to sleep (VIII). This seems to correspond
 The Song of the Pearl 13

to the baptismal formula ‘in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit’ (Mt 28:19; and also Acts of Thomas, para¬
graphs 27, 49, 121,132, 157). No other order but Father, Son, and
Spirit seems possible or permissible, and that is what is found at
this point in the poem: ‘the name of my father . . ., and the name
of our second in rank, and of my mother the queen of the East’
(VIII). Notice, however, that in the letter of awakening, the order
is father, mother, brother (VI), which is a more natural sequence.
And since the prescribed order of the baptismal formula is found in
the invocation over the serpent at the point of awaking and grasp¬
ing the pearl, it is reasonable to suspect another connection with
baptism in this incident. (See also paragraphs 137-138 below.)
39 If the serpent is ‘in the midst of the ocean’ (II), then it would be
necessary to enter the water in order to snatch the pearl (VIII);
the sea would then represent the waters of baptism. If his body is
thus ‘washed with pure water’ and his heart ‘sprinkled clean from
an evil conscience’, then the prince is in a state of ‘full assurance
of faith’ (Heb 10:22). And if he now desires to return home he must
be ‘cleansed by the washing of water with the word’ (Eph 5:26),
for ‘unless one is born of water and the Spirit one cannot enter
the kingdom of God’ (Jn 3:5).
40 Coming out of the waters of baptism signifies being reborn.
Hearing the summons of his awakening letter, the hero feels his
freedom or ‘freeborn nature’ asserting itself, and he remembers his
royal birth (VIII). This is Paul’s concept of being ‘called to freedom’
(Gal 5:13; cp. 5:1), ‘the glorious freedom of the children of God’
(Rom 8:21). Paul also says that ‘where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom’ (2 Cor 3:17).
41 In the Johannine writings of the New Testament ‘the Spirit is
there to bear witness, because the Spirit is the truth’ (I Jn 5:7), and
‘you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’ (Jn 8:32);
‘the Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth’ (Jn 16:13); ‘the
Advocate whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of
truth’ (Jn 15:26), ‘will teach you everything and remind you of every¬
thing I say to you’ (Jn 14:26). This role of reminding is likewise the
function of the letter: ‘remember . . . call to mind ... be mindful’
(VI); ‘I remembered . . .’ (VIII). The prince finds that the testimony
14 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

of the letter tallies with what is written on his own heart; and it is
‘the Spirit’ that ‘bears witness with our spirit that we are children
of God’ (Rom 8:16).
42 At the baptism of Jesus the Holy Spirit took the form of a dove
(Mt 3:16), a feminine word in both Greek and Syriac; here it is an
eagle, ‘the king of all winged creatures’ (VII), a masculine figure.
This may be because the Advocate or Paraklete is deemed to be
masculine in the New Testament, in Greek and Syriac alike. Thus
in the Syriac Bible we see: ‘The Paraklete, the Spirit of holiness, he
who is being sent by my Father in heaven’ (Jn 14:26).
43 The seal placed on the letter by the right hand of the king for
protection against Babylonians and demons (VII) may mean the sign
of the cross, or the gift of the Holy Spirit: ‘He has put his seal upon
us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee’ (2 Cor 1:22);
and ‘you who have heard the word of truth . . . were sealed with
the promised Holy Spirit, the guarantee of our inheritance’ (Eph
1:13-14), ‘the Holy Spirit in whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption’ (Eph 4:30).
44 The letter is first the prince’s awakener and then his guide, draw¬
ing him on with love (IX). A passage in Galatians 5 has such a role
for the Holy Spirit: ‘You were called to freedom’ and ‘love’ (13),
therefore ‘walk in the Spirit’ (16) and ‘be led by the Spirit’ (18), for
‘the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace’ (22), and ‘those who belong
to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires’
(24). The awakened hero kisses the letter when it arrives, giving it
the Christian ‘kiss of love’ (I Pt 5:14). In this regard Evagrios
Pontikos (a fourth-century monk who had an enormous influence
in the Syriac world) may help us to establish the symbolic signifi¬
cance of the pearl and the shining robe; Evagrios says that ‘ faith is
the beginning of love, but the end [or goal] of love is knowledge of
God’ (see extract Lll, where Joseph the Seer has love engendering
faith).
45 The pearl certainly symbolizes faith in the pearl songs among
Saint Ephrem’s Hymns on Faith. ‘In you’, he says to the pearl, ‘faith
is depicted in types and symbols’ (Hymn 5.2; extract XVII.2 in the
selections below). The contest with the serpent for the precious
pearl (VIII) may therefore be compared with the following injunc¬
tion: ‘Fight the good fight of faith and take hold of eternal life, to
 The Song of the Pearl 15

which you were called’ (I Tim 6:12). This refers in Scripture to

victory over the passions and the things of the world; in the letters
of the apostle John, anyone who ‘is born of God overcomes the
world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith’
(I Jn 5:4), in the context of ‘the love of God’ (5:1 -3) and ‘the Spirit
as the witness’ (5:7). The pearl of the poem might thus be not only
the ‘one very precious pearl’ of the parable of the Kingdom (Mt
13:46), but also the ‘one faith’ of Paul’s ‘one Lord, one faith, one
baptism’ (Eph 4:5).
46 The saying of Evagrios on love, faith, and knowledge (cited above,
paragraph 44) leads us to suspect that the heavenly robe might
represent knowledge of God. In fact the robe not only shines but
it also grows and has ‘impulses of knowledge stirring all over it’ (XII),
perhaps in line with Daniel 12:3-4: The wise shall shine like the
brightness of the firmament. . . and knowledge shall increase’. The
robe also radiates love (XII), and the apostle Peter urges Christians
to add to their faith a number of virtues, including knowledge and
love, and more especially ‘the knowledge of the one who called us
to [or: by] his own glory and excellence, whereby he has granted
us his precious and very great promises, and through these you
may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of
passion, and become partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Pt 1:3-8).
The ‘precious and very great things promised’ (1:4) and the ‘abound¬
ing’ virtues (1:8) might be represented by the precious stones and
manifold colours with which the celestial garment was adorned and
embroidered (XI).
47 Taking the pearl (VIII) means receiving faith, and accepting the
robe (XIII) means receiving knowledge; these actions result in the
attainment of ‘the unity of faith and of knowledge of the son [or: Son]
of God’ (Eph 4:13), which constitutes ‘perfect manhood’, beyond
‘childhood’ and subjection to people’s deceitful wiles (Eph 4:13-14).
Similarly, the prince, the son of the king (I, VIII), is no longer a child
(I) or the young wayfarer (III) with whom the worldly Egyptians
‘dealt deceitfully’ (IV).
48 The prince describes his robe as his ‘deposit and wealth’ (XI).
This word deposit is used in this way in the New Testament: ‘I know
in whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to pre¬
serve my deposit for me for that day’ (2 Tim 1:12 and 14).
16 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

49 Their filthy abominable clothing I stripped off’, says the prince,

after seizing the pearl (VIII). The removal of the Egyptian garb goes
with Paul’s admonition: ‘Put off your old human nature [‘the old
person’], corrupted by deceitful passion . . . and put on your new
nature [‘the new person’], created after the likeness of God’ (Eph
4:22,24; cp. paragraph 107). This last phrase leads on to an expla¬
nation of another aspect of the robe, namely ‘the image of the king
of kings’ that it bore (XI).
50 ‘You have put off the old nature [‘person’] with its practices and
have put on the new one, which is being renewed in knowledge after
the image of its creator’, the Apostle affirms (Col 3:9-10), and ‘Christ
is all and is in all’, he adds (3:1 I). All this is reminiscent of the robe
as a mirror with an image: ‘it seemed like a mirror of myself; I beheld
its all in my own all, and I too encountered my own all in it; for
though we were two in distinction we were still one, in one likeness’
(X). Certainly the reference to the new nature ‘renewed in knowl¬
edge after the image of its creator’ (Col 3:10) equates with the
‘impulses of knowledge’ on the robe (XII) and ‘the image of the
king of kings’ embroidered over it (XI). Paul also declares; ‘Just as
we have borne the image of the man of dust (Adam), we shall also
bear the image of the heavenly one (Christ)’ (I Cor 15:49); more¬
over, ‘we all reflect the glory of the Lord as in a mirror and are being
transformed into his image’ (2 Cor 3:18). A connection between
a mirror and knowledge of God is made when Paul says, with ref¬
erence to speaking and thinking like a child because of imperfect
knowledge: ‘We now see in a mirror dimly, but eventually face to
face’ (I Cor 13:12); this will be the experience of the prince when
he is reunited with his father the king (XIII). The ‘mirror’ passage
in the Epistle of James is worth noting here: ‘If anyone is a hearer
of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his
natural face in a mirror . . . and forgets what he is like; . . . but a
doer of action shall be blessed in his doing’ (Jm 1:22-25). This may
throw light on the enigmatic speech of the robe itself: ‘I am his who
is diligent in doing . . . and my size has been growing with his labours’
(XII).
51 This growth of the robe (XIII) might be connected with the in¬
junction to ‘grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and
 The Song of the Pearl 17

Saviour’ (2 Pt 3:18). The descent of the shining garment (XII) may

be compared with a statement of James: ‘Every perfect gift is from
above, coming down from the Father of the lights’ (of heaven) (Jm
1:17). This gift is sent by the prince’s ‘parents’ from ‘the heights’
(X), but also by Christ: ‘the splendour of my father . . . had sent
it to me’ (XIII; cp. paragraph 141).
52 The original promise to the prince was: ‘with your brother . . .
you shall be heir in our kingdom’ (II,VI). Throughout the final scene
(XIII) the elder brother appears as the splendour of the father, who
welcomes him home. We have illumination on this point from John
the Venerable: he speaks of ‘Christ, the splendour of the Father’
(LXIII). In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the ‘Son’ whom God ‘ap¬
pointed as heir of all things’ is ‘the effulgence of his glory’ (1:2-3).
He is ‘superior to angels’ (1:4), and therefore ‘all God’s angels wor¬
ship him’ (1:6); these would be the servants who sing the praises of
the viceroy, the elder brother (XIII). Jesus Christ is ‘the light of the
world’ (Jn 1:9, 8:12, 9:5); and ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God’ is ‘in the face of Jesus Christ’ (2 Cor 4:6); thus, as ‘the
splendour of the father’ he provides the shining robe for the prince
(XIII). Another aspect of donning the robe can be seen here: it
means ‘putting on the armour of light’ (Rom 13:12), which is equiva¬
lent to ‘putting on the Lord Jesus Christ’ (13:14), and also being
‘conformed to the image of his son, the first born among many
brothers’ (8:29).
53 The King of kings had kept his promise: together with the mother
(the Holy Spirit) and the brother (Christ the Son) he had said, ‘you
shall be heir with your brother in our kingdom’ (II,VI), and the young
prince was now ‘with him (the splendour of the father) in his
kingdom’ and ‘would appear with him’ before the king (XIII). The
God who is King of kings says: ‘He who conquers shall have this
inheritance, and I will be his God and he shall be my son’ (Rev 21:8).
To Abraham he had made ‘a promise’ and ‘an oath’ (Heb 6:13, 17),
and likewise to ‘the heirs of the promise’ (6:17), ‘those who through
faith (symbolized by the pearl) and patience inherit the promises’
(6:12), and ‘enter into the inner chamber’ of the sanctuary, the
dwelling place of God (6:19). Notice that Christ, ‘the prince and
perfecter of faith’, who has ‘endured the cross’ and ‘taken his seat
18 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

at the right hand of the throne of God’ (Heb 12:2), is empowered

to bestow the inheritance on his brothers: ‘Come, you who are my
Father’s blest ones, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world’ (Mt 25:34), and this is the role played by
him at the end of the poem (XIII).
54 ‘I had carried out his commands’ (literally, ‘I had done his com¬
mandments’), says the prince (XIII), with reference to his elder
brother, who had been party to the covenant (VI). In the New Tes¬
tament there are allusions to ‘keeping’ the commandments of Christ
(]n 14:21,15:10; I Jn 2:4), but also two references to ‘doing’ his com¬
mandments: ‘Blessed are they who do his commandments’ (Syriac
version; or: ‘who wash their robes’) so that they may enter into
the city by the gates’ (Rev 22:14); and ‘Whoever shall do and teach
(them) shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven’ (Mt 5:19).
55 The eagle letter had promised that when the prince returned
victorious his name would be read in the honour roll, literally ‘the
book of the valiant’ (VI). This would refer to those who are ‘en¬
rolled in heaven’ (Heb 12:23) or ‘written in the book of life’ (Rev
21:27, 20:1 1-15; Phil 4:3); they alone could enter ‘the holy city, the
new Jerusalem’ (Rev 21:2, 27).
56 The three gate references fit into the familiar oriental picture:
‘The king sat in the gate (of Jerusalem). . . and all the people came
before the king’ (2 Sam 19:8). The hero’s arrival at an assembly of
princes and nobles and servants would correspond to the follow¬
ing scene in the Letter to the Hebrews: ‘You have come to Mount
Sion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and
to the myriads of angels, to the festal gathering, and to the assem¬
bly of the first-born enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of
all, and to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, and to Jesus
the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling’
(Heb 12:22-24). The celestial city of the King of kings is illuminated
by the glory of God and has the Lamb of God as its Lamp (Rev 21:22);
the city has twelve gates, and each portal is one pearl (21:21).
57 ‘And with my present and my pearl I would appear with him
before our king’, the poem concludes (XIII). The ‘present’ is pre¬
sumably the robe and the toga presented to the prince. The Syriac
term for ‘present’ is qurbana, found as ‘Corban’ in English Bibles
(Mk 7:1 I). In the Syriac Bible it means ‘an offering’, either a present
 The Song of the Pearl 19

made to the temple and the priests (Mt 5:23, 8:4), or an oblation
(Heb 10:10, 14). In the latter case it refers to ‘the offering of the
body of Jesus Christ’ (10:10); and ‘when he had offered one sacri¬
fice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, . . . for by one
offering he has perfected for ever those who are sanctified’
(10:12,14). The prince’s ‘present’ may accordingly have a connection
with the atoning death of Christ.
58 The scarlet toga can be interpreted in this light. Translaters have
invariably used the word ‘purple’ in preference to ‘scarlet’, possibly
because of‘scarlet woman’ insinuations in the word. Nevertheless,
‘scarlet’ and ‘purple’ are distinguishable in Syriac, notably in the
picture of ‘a woman sitting on a scarlet beast’, she being ‘arrayed
in purple and scarlet’ (Rev 17:3-4), and also ‘bedecked with gold
and jewels and pearls’ (17:4), all of which have good connotations
in The Song of the Pearl (I, II, XI). The rendering ‘scarlet toga’ is
therefore faithful and appropriate. Although there is a disagreement
over whether Jesus in his Passion wore a ‘scarlet robe’ (Mt 27:28)
or a ‘purple garment’ (Jn 19:2), it is conceivable that Matthew’s
‘scarlet robe’ is the model for the prince’s ‘scarlet toga’ (II), which
would then be a symbol of the Passion of Christ and the Atonement,
‘an eternal redemption’ secured ‘once and for all’, not with ‘the
blood of goats and calves but his own blood’ (Heb 9:12). This con¬
nection is reinforced in the context of the words just quoted, by
a reference to ‘the covenant’, if we bear in mind that in the poem
the scarlet toga is bound up with the covenant (II): ‘When every
commandment of the law had been declared to the people by Moses,
he took the blood . . . and scarlet wool. . .’ (Heb 9:19); and Christ
‘is the mediator af a new covenant, so that those who are called
may receive the promised eternal inheritance’ (9:15). It would ap¬
pear, therefore, that the ‘scarlet toga’ is related to the ‘scarlet wool’
of the old covenant (Lev 14:4; Num 19:6) and the ‘scarlet robe’ of
the new (Mt 27:28), and ultimately the ‘blood of the new covenant,
shed for many for the remission of sins’ (Mt 26:28). These last words
come from the institution of the Holy Communion, and if a reference
to the Eucharist is sought in the poem, then it may be found in the
fact that in the Syriac churches qurbana (‘offering’) signifies the
Eucharistic oblation, and marganitha (‘pearl’) means a morsel of
the eucharistic bread, as Saint Ephrem indicates (XVII.7 below).
20 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

59 The prince’s ‘present’ (XIII) consists of his shining robe and

scarlet toga, the latter representing the ‘one offering’ of Christ, the
‘one sacrifice for sins’ (Heb 10:10-14). It is remarkable how the main
themes of the poem converge in this same passage in the Epistle
to the Hebrews (10:10-23, above, 57). Thus, the writer speaks of
‘the covenant’ written on hearts and minds (10:16), as with the
prince’s covenant (II). Further, it is affirmed that the One ‘who
promised is faithful’ (10:23); and the prince acknowledges that his
royal brother ‘had done what he had promised’ (XIII). The writer
also declares that ‘through the blood of Jesus’ the brethren can
‘enter with confidence into the sanctuary’ (10:19), led by the Priest-
King who is ‘over the house of God’ (10:21); and the prince is to
be conducted by his elder brother ‘to the gate of the king of kings’
and into the presence of the king (XIII). Finally, the author tells the
readers to ‘draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith’
(10:22). The pearl of faith and the gift of redemption (the scarlet
toga) occur together here, since in Syriac the term ‘draw near’ is
from the same root as qurbana, and it has the connotation of bring¬
ing an offering to God. The consummation is achieved: the one
offering (the sacrificial death of the Redeemer) and the one pearl
(the perfected faith of the believer) combine to provide access to
the divine presence, and also to produce a solution to the problem
of the meaning of the poem.
60 The Song of the Pearl is thus ‘mystical’ in the sense of being
‘allegorical’, but is it mystical as in ‘mysticism’? Whether the author
intended it or not, the structure of the poem is analogous to the
classic mystical framework of three stages (below, paragraph 121:
purgation (I—VIII), illumination (IX—XII), and unification (XIII). On
this view, the protagonist departs for the desert (symbolized by
Egypt) and becomes a solitary (IV), a monk. He undergoes purgation
from corruption and sin, being washed in the sea when he dives
for the pearl (this is implied, not stated). Illumination comes with
the shining robe (X-XI). Unification with God takes place when
the son is reunited with the king (XIII). As in Dante’s Divine Comedy,
the hero descends to an Inferno, the realm of Satan (III—V); from
there he passes through a Purgatorio of instruction and catharsis
(VI—VIII); and achieves enlightenment and entry into a Paradiso
(IX—XIII) where the beatific vision is attained (XIII). Dante’s poem
 The Desert Ascetics 21

has four intended levels of meaning: firstly, literal or historical;

secondly, allegorical or spiritual; thirdly, tropological or moral;
fourthly, anagogical or mystical.
61 On this fourth level, we have already seen some similarities
between certain details of The Song of the Pearl and teachings of the
Syriac mystics. This process of comparison will continue through¬
out this introduction, without necessarily implying that the various
writers are making definite allusions to the poem. The fact that it
has survived in only one Syriac manuscript might suggest that it
was not widely known in the Syriac churches, but this could be
merely accidental. There was also a Greek version of the poem,
which was accorded an explanatory paraphrase by Niketas of
Thessalonika in the eleventh century (35), and this certainly shows
that the pearl poem moved westwards into the Grecian realm, as
did the writings of some of the Syriac mystics.
62 Dante put political overtones into his great allegorical trilogy:
the question of Church and State, and the role of the Holy Roman
Empire. In the Syriac poem it is clearly the Iranian empire that
provides the background. It presents an opposite point of view to
that found in The Tale of Sinuhe, where Egypt is the realm of light
and life, and the home to which the hero longed to return (para¬
graph 4 above). In The Song of the Pearl it is Iran in the East that is
the desired goal, and Egypt is presented as the place of darkness
and death.

THE DESERT ASCETICS

63 Egypt, or its western desert, became a veritable paradise for the

practice of asceticism. There spiritual athletes overcame the devil
and the demons, and subdued their emotions and passions. The
deserts of Sketis, Nitria, and Kellia were places in which monks,
nuns, and women disguised as monks could obtain solitude, stillness,
silence, mystical visions, and union with God.
64 The History of the Monks (Historia Monachorum), a work dating
from about the end of the fourth century and wrongly attributed
22 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

to Hieronymus of Dalmatia (Saint Jerome), has this to say on the

desert ascetics: ‘Some of them possessed divine vision, and others
works of ascetic excellence’. Unlike the Syrian monks, they did not
expect to receive visionary and ecstatic experiences as a matter
of course in reward for their ascetic labours. Johannes Cassianus
(John Cassian, 360—435) knew of the extremely severe mortifica¬
tion practised by Eastern monks, but, like the majority of Western
ascetics, he tended to suspect that their visionary experiences were
produced by demons.
65 Yet the Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Fathers) and the
Lausiakon (Lausiac History) of Palladios (Palladius, a contemporary
of Cassianus) give several examples of western monks going into
ecstasy, notably Arsenios, Silvanos, Pakhomios, and Evagrios (48).
These men were exalted as paragons by the Syriac mystics. Never¬
theless, Greek and Syriac fathers alike issued warnings that vision¬
ary experiences must be treated with caution. The criterion offered
by Pakhomios was that holy ecstasy is accompanied by a loss of
consciousness, whereby only the sanctity of God or the angels is
perceived. In visions brought on by evil spirits, Pakhomios points
out, the person maintains consciousness and thought, as when a
demon appeared (in the form of Christ) to Pakhomios himself.
66 In the next four sections we will meet two western fathers and
two Syrian authors whose writings were translated from Greek
into Syriac, and who became imposing figures in the history of
Syriac mysticism: Evagrios of Pontos (Evagrius Ponticus); Esaias
(Isaiah) of Sketis; Dionysios the Areopagite (Pseudo-Dionysius);
and Makarios the Egyptian (Pseudo-Macarius). The last-named is
accepted in the Eastern Orthodox and Syriac churches as a genuine
Egyptian author, but modern scholarship ascribes the Makarios
writings to the Syrian or Mesopotamian world.

EVAGRIOS PONTIKOS

67 Evagrios of Pontos (346-399), a disciple of Basil the Great and

Gregory the Theologian, was one among the fathers of the Egyptian
 Evagrios Pontikos 23

desert who advocated mysticism alongside asceticism. After his

death his writings were condemned as containing Origenism, teach¬
ings stemming from Origenes of Alexandria (Origen), a third-
century theologian who believed in the pre-existence of human
souls. The book of Evagrios on asceticism, the Praktikos, is preserved
in Greek; but, significantly, his mystical writings (entitled Gnostikos,
Antirrhetikos, and Kephalaia Gnostika) have survived only in Syriac
and Armenian. The Kephalaia Gnostika (Chapters of Knowledge)
consists of esoteric sentences arranged in six ‘centuries’ (a word
denoting one hundred, but actually groups of ninety). About one-
seventh are found in Greek, and there are two Syriac versions; one
of these attempts to purge the book of its Origenism. Some of his
important works, such as the treatises on prayer, on the various
evil thoughts, and on the eight spirits of wickedness, are extant
under his own name in Syriac, but in their Greek originals they are
ascribed to Nilos.
68 No extracts from the writings of Evagrios will be presented in
this collection, but his influence will be manifest at many points.
Gregory Bar Hebraeus names ‘Father Evagrios’ as one whose teach¬
ings had lifted him ‘out of the whirlpool of disintegration and de¬
struction’, when he was experiencing grave difficulties in his
spiritual life (XCIX).
69 In the mystical theology of Evagrios the purified intellect may
have a divine vision at the time of prayer: the intellect sees what
is euphemistically termed ‘the place of God’ or ‘the light without
form’, or ‘the light of the intellect’, or ‘the light of the Holy Trinity’.
These Evagrian ideas are echoed, for example, in one of the excerpts
from the discourses of John the Venerable (LXXII).
70 The influence of Evagrios is likewise discernible in the readings
from Joseph the Visionary. For instance, the fifth sign of the Spirit’s
operation is, for Joseph, ‘the illuminated vision of your mind’, which
is ‘the reception of the light of the Holy Trinity’, and which leads
successively to ‘the vision of the material natures’, and ‘the revela¬
tions and mysteries of Divine Judgement and Providence’ (LIN).
Here we have the five ‘contemplations’ of Evagrios, as set down in
his Kephalaia Gnostika (I, 27): contemplation of the Trinity, of incor¬
poreal beings, of corporeal beings, of Divine Judgement, and of
Providence.
24 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

71 The mention of ‘sapphire’ in this same passage of Joseph the

Visionary (LIN: ‘the illuminated vision of your mind, which is seen
in the firmament of your heart like sapphire’) can be explained by
consulting Evagrios:

At the time of prayer the intellect will see its state like sapphire
or the colour of the sky, which Scripture calls the place of God,
which was seen by the elders on Mount Sinai.

Behind this imagery of blueness lies a mystical passage in the Pen¬

tateuch (Ex 24:10): Moses and Aaron and the elders of Israel ‘saw
the God of Israel, and beneath his feet it was like a pavement of
sapphire (or lapis-lazuli), like the very brightness of the sky’. Evagrios,
however, follows the Septuagint, the Greek version, where the idea
of a direct vision of God is removed: ‘And they saw the place where
the God of Israel stood’. This, then, is the origin of the phrase ‘the
place of God’, as used by Evagrios: ‘When the intellect is in prayer’,
he says, ‘it is in the light without form, which is called the place of
God’. For Evagrios, the illuminated intellect, having attained the
passionless state and spiritual contemplation, sees itself as ‘the
place of God’; and what it sees is itself clothed in the light of God,
which is God himself.
72 Other Syriac mystics who were deeply indebted to Evagrios are
Stephen Bar Sudaili, Philoxenos of Mabbug, and Isaac of Nineveh.

ESAIAS OF SKETIS

73 Abba Esha‘ya or Esaias of Sketis (Isaiah of Skete) was a fifth-century

monk who lived among the Egyptian desert fathers in the genera¬
tion after Evagrios. He may have been the same person as Esaias
of Gaza, who died in 491.
74 Sayings of Esaias are included in the Apophthegmata Patrum and
in his own Asketikon, a book of discourses and aphorisms, apparently
compiled by a faithful disciple named Petros.
 Makarios the Great 25

75 Esaias presents the typical teachings of the Egyptian monks: firstly

hesychasm, the maintenance of hesukhia, the blessed quietude
needed for intimacy with God; meditation on the Scriptures; manual
labour, such as basket making; combatting evil spirits, thoughts, and
passions; discernment or discretion in one’s labours to ensure that
one is always walking in God’s way; humility, which involves casting
oneself upon the Lord, entrusting oneself to God’s care; renouncing
the world, the love of which separates one from the love of God.
76 One idea original with Esaias is that of mounting the cross.
Baptism identifies a person with Christ crucified, and so the Chris¬
tian climbs onto the cross with him and never comes down. The
mysticism of Esaias may be summarized thus: the monk’s quietude
and discernment lead to contemplation (theoria) for his purified
soul, and union with the Spouse of the soul, the true King, who
teaches the soul to pray and to adore him unceasingly, and who
gives the soul constant repose while revealing his ineffable glory
and grace.
77 The influence of Abba Esha’ya was profound in the Syriac mo¬
nastic world, mediated through Syriac translations of the Apophtheg-
mata and the Asketikon. Of the writers included in the present
collection, Isaac of Nineveh, Simon Taibutheh, Dadisho Qatraya,
Joseph the Visionary (Hazzaya) and John the Venerable (Saba) refer
and defer to him. His regulations for novices are echoed in the
monastic rule of John the Venerable, while Dadisho and Joseph
each produced a commentary on the Asketikon.
78 In the West, Father Isaiah appears in the Russian Orthodox
Philokalia. His Asketikon was translated into Latin by P.-F. Zino in the
sixteenth century, and it became an important text for spiritual
study by the Jesuits.

MAKARIOS THE GREAT

79 Abba Makarios the Egyptian, otherwise known as Macarius the

Great or the Elder, was a disciple of Antonios (Saint Antony). It was
26 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

Antonios who sent him to the remote sandy desert of Sketis. The
life of Makarios seems to have covered the greater part of the
fourth century (c.300-c.390). His sayings and doings have their place
in the Apophthegmata and the Lausiakon, and these carried his fame
to the East.
80 A remarkable collection of Spiritual Homilies has the name
Makarios attached to it, and these discourses have traditionally
been accepted as the work of Makarios the Egyptian. Modern
scholarship argues, however, that the Makarian corpus of writings
(the homilies and some extra epistles) belongs within the frame¬
work of the Messallian movement of the fourth century (75a). The
Messallians (Syriac mesalleyane, Greek messalianoi) or Eukhites
(from the Greek word for ‘prayer’) were ‘praying’ people, who
apparently believed in prayer absolutely. Messallians allegedly set
private mystical experience in opposition to ecclesiastical discipline,
and showed no interest in the sacraments.
81 Messallianism was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 43 I,
and its book of instruction, or Asketikon, was banned. The Makarian
Spiritual Homilies have been hypothetically identified as this offending
work, and their author is assumed to be Symeon of Mesopotamia,
one of the condemned leaders of Messallianism. Such theories are
rejected by the Eastern Orthodox Churches, which hold the Homilies
in high esteem and defend their traditional attribution to Makarios
the Egyptian. The Lausiakon of Palladios says of Makarios the Great
that he was constantly in a state of ecstasy, with his mind more
often on God than on the things under heaven. Such a person might
well have been capable of producing the Spiritual Homilies, but
neither Palladios nor his contemporaries mention any writings of
Makarios.
82 Even if we reject the Messallian hypothesis, there are in the Greek
text apparent Aramaisms and also such Syriac Christian ideas as
the motherhood of the Holy Spirit, which suggest an Eastern rather
than a Western origin for the Makarian Homilies. Indeed, their
author has been dubbed the first Syriac mystic (Quispel, 37).
83 Certainly, the Syriac world took these spiritual writings to its heart.
Isaac of Nineveh, in speaking of the varying states that the mystic
must go through, ranging ‘from peace to perturbation’, cites ‘the
 Makarios the Great 27

blessed Makarios’, alongside Evagrios, and even sets their testimony

over against the opinion of the Messallians.
84 Yausep Hazzaya (Joseph the Visionary) likewise brings Evagrios
and Makarios together. As we have seen (paragraph 70), the fifth
sign of the Holy Spirit’s operation (Llll) is based on the teachings
of Evagrios, in particular his ‘five contemplations’. The fourth sign
(LI I) is love, and ‘from this love there is engendered faith to see
hidden things’. This too has an Evagrian ring to it, and we have al¬
ready noted a saying of Evagrios on the relationship of love, faith,
and knowledge (paragraph 44). The first three signs of Joseph, how¬
ever, are traceable to the Makarian texts.
85 The first sign is when the thought of the love of God burns in a
person’s heart like a fire, producing ‘hatred for the world, renun¬
ciation, and love for the eremitic and ascetic life, which is the mother
and nurse of all virtues’ (XLIX). Joseph elsewhere speaks of the
coming of the Spirit as ‘the fiery impulse’, a sensation of fire burn¬
ing in the soul with such intensity that ‘one falls to the ground and
eats the dust on it as if it were bread, because of the ardour of
divine love and its burning hot blaze’.
86 The same phenomenon is described by Yohannan Saba (John
the Venerable), with reference to the coming of the Spirit or Grace
in the middle stage of mystical experience: ‘Sometimes it stirs up
hot fiery impulses in his heart in the love of Christ, and his soul is
set on fire, his limbs are paralysed, and he falls on his face. Some¬
times it works up a fervent heat in his heart, and his body and soul
are enkindled . . .’ (LXX).
87 In the Latin West, Bernard of Clairvaux also speaks of a fiery
‘sign’ (signum) associated with God’s love. The soul knows that its
Lord has come, he writes, when it feels itself inflamed by the divine
fire (Sermones super Cantica Canticorum, 3 1.4).
88 In the Makarian Homilies we read of the divine and heavenly fire
which the Lord came to send upon the earth (Lk 12:49), and those
who are aflame with this fire of the love of Christ’ consider all the
things of this world ‘contemptible and hateful’ (9:9). In another
place this Lukan allusion to divine fire is connected with ‘the en¬
kindling of the Spirit’ (25:9, purosis tou Pneumatos). Much of this
Homily 25 is found in the Syriac corpus of Makarios, though this
28 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

sentence is lacking in the Syriac manuscripts. The author goes on

to say that this is the fire that worked in the apostles when they
spoke in tongues at Pentecost; this same fire blinded the eyesight
of Paul on the road to Damascus, but also enlightened his mind; it
appeared to Moses in the burning bush; it caught Elias up from the
earth; it warmed the heart of Kleopas and his companion on the
road to Emmaus; it imparts its radiance to the ministering spirits
(cp. Heb 1:7); it drives away devils and destroys sin; in fact, this divine
fire consumes iniquity like thorns or stubble, trying souls like gold
in a furnace, and illuminating them (25:9).
89 In the same context (25:5; cp. 39:1,44:9; 49:3) Makarios refers
to Christians being made ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Pt 1:4).
The idea of hating the world and renouncing it, which Joseph the
Visionary connects with ‘the fiery impulse’, is found in another
passage from Makarios, which uses the analogy of metal being
purified in fire (4:14):

As iron, lead, gold, or silver, when cast into the fire, are melted
and change their natural hardness to softness, and so long as
they are in the fire continue to be molten and altered from that
hard nature by the hot force of the fire, in like manner also the
soul that has renounced the world . . . and has received that
heavenly fire of the Godhead and of the love of the Spirit. . . .

Makarios then has the soul ‘changed from the natural habit and
hardness of sin’ and enjoying ‘the fervent and ineffable love’ of the
heavenly Bridegroom (4:14), and ‘the ineffable mystical fellowship
of the heavenly King’ and of ‘that heavenly and beloved Spirit’,
completely ‘disengaged from all worldly love’ (4:15). Elsewhere it
is said that one whose soul has been brought under subjection can
be ‘deified and made a son of God, receiving the heavenly stamp on
his soul’ (15:35).
90 With regard to the metal-in-fire simile, in a short discourse by
‘John the Visionary’, who is presumably but not assuredly the same
person as John the Solitary, the dross-purging aspect appears (and
the fire consuming iniquity like thorns, 25:9), but the idea of unifica¬
tion becomes paramount:
 Makarios the Great 29

As iron when placed in a fire has the fire pass into it to become
one substance with it, the iron united with the fire assuming its
likeness and colour,. . . so it is when the love of Christ has come
into the soul as a living fire which burns away the thorns of sin
from the soul; it becomes one substance with him and he with
it . . . and the likeness of its own nature is changed into the
likeness of God; . . . and it becomes absorbed in love for all
humankind (XXII).

91 The same analogy is drawn by John the Venerable in a discourse

on the love of God and union with God:

Consider the fire that unites with the iron in the furnace: the
appearance of the iron is not perceived there any more, because
through its union it now has the likeness of the fire. . . . The sons
of God likewise see themselves in the likeness of their Father;
thus they all become gods by the grace of their Creator.

92 Incidentally, Bernard of Clairvaux brings together the same ideas

of mystical ‘deification’ and the union of iron and fire:

Certainly, being in this state means becoming deified (deificari),

for ... as a piece of iron, glowing and permeated by the fire,
divested of its proper original form, resembles the same fire
perfectly . . . (De diligendo Deo, 10).

93 Returning now to the five signs of Joseph the Visionary, and their
relation to Makarios, we find that the second sign is the birth of
humility in the soul, ‘whereby a person . . . considers himself dust
and ashes (cp. Abraham in Gen 18:27), a worm and no man (Ps 22:6);
all people are considered in his eyes as great and holy, and there
is no difference in his mind between good and bad, righteous and
sinner’ (L). And again, ‘while ever the solitary experiences this
operation of thoughts, this movement of humility, and these tears,
in his view there is no sinner in creation, but all people are deemed
righteous by him’ (XLVIII).
94 Makarios uses the ‘dust and ashes’ and ‘worm’ allusions at least
twice (12.3, 26.25). In the first instance (12.3) he is replying to the
question: how can one be ‘poor in spirit’ after having attained
30 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

mystical knowledge? This goes with the point made by Joseph (omit¬
ted from the quotation in the previous paragraph) that the person
feels humble ‘notwithstanding the great and wonderful things done
to him by the indwelling Spirit’ (L). The answer given by Makarios
is that until one reaches this stage, one cannot be poor in spirit,
because one has some opinion of oneself until this stage of progress
and state of grace has been attained (12,3). Those who wish to be
citizens of‘the heavenly city’, and be glorified with Abraham (‘dust
and ashes’) and David (‘a worm’), two paragons of humility, ‘ought
to have this humility of mind, and not to think they are anything’
(12,4). Makarios then states that Grace works differently in each
Christian (12,4).
95 In another place Makarios speaks of grace calming the heart, so
that the soul becomes like an innocent child, and the person no
longer condemns Greek or Jew, sinner or worldling, but rejoices
over the whole world (8.6). This is an important facet of the second
sign of Joseph (see XLVIII and L, quoted above).
96 The third sign of the Spirit’s operation, for Joseph the Visionary,
is the mercifulness or compassion that arises within the heart, a
feeling of universal charity, accompanied by a fountain of tears; ‘it
is as if all men are dwelling in your heart, and you lovingly embrace
them and kiss them, pouring your kindness over them all in your
thought’, and it becomes impossible to think ill of any person (LI).
97 Makarios has ideas similar to those in Joseph’s second and third
signs, in his account of ‘the dealings of grace in the heart’ (18:7), or
the various ‘operations of the Spirit’ (18:10). Sometimes, he says,
the children of God are ‘as if in weeping and lamentation for the
human race’ and ‘consumed by the love of the Spirit towards
humankind’. At other times, ‘if it were possible they would take
everyone into their own entrails, without distinguishing between
bad and good’. And sometimes, he continues, ‘they are so humbled
beneath all others in the humility of the Spirit, that they think they
are the last and least of all’ (18:8). Makarios is thus a possible source
for the ideas in Joseph’s first three signs (186).
98 In a discourse of John the Venerable there is a collocation of
various workings of the Spirit, or of grace (LXVII-LXXII), similar
to that of Makarios (18:7-1 I); but it seems to be a case of similarity,
not direct dependence, although the idea of such a listing (each
 Makarios the Great 31

prefixed with ‘sometimes’) may have been derived from Makarios.

In any case, the following statements from John’s section on the
first stage of the mystic path are relevant to the themes of humil¬
ity and compassion, discussed in the previous paragraphs: ‘Some¬
times grace sows humility in his heart and makes his thoughts lower
than dust and ashes. Sometimes it causes him to shed tears through
the remembrance of his sins. . . . Sometimes it will arouse in his
heart pity for the oppressed . . .’ (LXIX).
99 Makarios also mentions weeping, and he calls tears ‘precious
pearls’ (25.8), in the context of the ‘divine fire’ which has already
engaged our attention (paragraph 88).
100 Elsewhere Makarios calls the crucified Saviour ‘the Pearl’: ‘He is
the Way, the Life, the Truth, the Door, the Pearl, the living heavenly
Bread’ (17.15). The reference is probably to the pearl of the bibli¬
cal parable (Mt I 3:46), but its position next to the bread also sug¬
gests the ‘pearl’ of sacramental bread offered in the Syriac churches
(paragraph 58). Makarios is certainly alluding to the parable of the
pearl merchant (Mt 13:45-46) when he says that Christians who
have ‘the pearl of great price’ within them are to be compared with
a worn-out pouch, which is lowly and easily despised in its outer
form, but inwardly full of pearls (43:2). He also uses the figure of
the merchant: ‘Christians are like merchants trading for very great
gains’ (24:1); the merchant commits himself to the sea and the risk
of death ‘for the sake of gain’, whereas the Christian withdraws
from the affairs of this life and keeps himself free for ‘prayers and
supplications’, hoping for enlightenment and looking for the Lord
to manifest himself (14:1; cp. also 33:2).
101 Makarios also uses the metaphor of treasure to represent ‘spiri¬
tual treasures’, quoting Matthew 6:21: ‘where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also’ (I 1.7, twice; 27.18; and cp. 43.3, ‘where your
mind is, there also is your treasure’). The ‘treasure’ in a person’s
soul is the Holy Spirit (3.3); or ‘the heavenly treasure of the Spirit’
is ‘the Lord himself shining in the heart’ (18.1). Christians are like
those rare ‘pearls and precious stones’ which are suitable for a
king’s diadem; they are ‘built up into the crown of Christ’, and he
‘shines forth and manifests himself’ to them (38.2).
102 In the same vein, Makarios mentions the other kind of pearlers;
he calls them ‘traffickers’ (emporoi) but he surely means pearl divers;
32 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

they ‘go down naked into the deep of the sea, into the watery
death’, seeking pearls fit for a royal crown (cp. XVII). Those who
embrace the single life go naked out of the world and down into a
sea of evil and darkness ‘to bring up precious stones suitable for
the crown of Christ, for the heavenly church, for a new world, and
a city of light, and a people of angels’ (15.51).
103 This is somewhat reminiscent of the climax of The Song of the
Pearl, and it might be profitable to compare the allegorical details
of the poem with some of the main concepts in the Spiritual Homilies.
These Makarian writings abound in extended metaphors associated
with biblical allusions, and there are some striking correspondences
with the Syriac pearl poem, either because the author of the homi¬
lies knew the poem, or because both authors were deeply im¬
mersed in the metaphors and mystical ideas of Scripture.
104 Like the people of Egypt during the plague of three days of dark¬
ness (Ex 10:21-23), the sons of Adam no longer see their relatives
and friends under the darkness of sin, as with the pearl prince
(V-VI): the relatives (cp. paragraphs 17-19 above) are ‘the true
Father in heaven; the good kind Mother, the grace of the Spirit; the
sweet and desired Brother, the Lord’; and ‘the friends and kindred,
the holy angels’ (28.4). The Christian is a brother of Christ, one of
‘a new race, children of the Holy Spirit, shining brethren of Christ’
(16.8).
105 The pearl prince was to be heir in the kingdom with his elder
brother, when he brought back his pearl (II). Significantly, Makarios
says that ‘those who possess and wear the pearl, live and reign with
Christ forever’ (23.1). His illustration is based on a costly royal
pearl which only a king can wear on his crown; by the same token,
unless one is born of the Spirit of God and made a member of the
royal family of heaven, one ‘cannot wear the costly pearl of heaven,
the image of the inexpressible light, which is the Lord’ (23.1).
106 The prince in the pearl poem wears a shining robe (II); Makarios
speaks of a ‘shining garment’ which can be imparted in a mystical
experience similar to the transfiguration of Jesus (8.3; cp. Mk 9:2-3).
The garment which Christians wear is the Spirit (6.7); their ‘divine
and heavenly raiment is the power of the Holy Spirit’, and anyone
who is not ‘clad in the raiment of the Spirit’ is naked, covered only
with ‘vile affections’ (Rom 1:26); ‘God’s face is turned away from
 Makarios the Great 33

souls that are not clothed with the raiment of the Spirit, from
people who have not put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 13:14) in
power and reality’ (20.1). Furthermore (20.3), God clothes us with
the garment of salvation’ (Is 61:10), meaning ‘our Lord Jesus Christ,
the unspeakable light’, and in the resurrection the bodies of faithful
souls ‘shall also be glorified by the glory of the light’, for ‘he who
raised up Christ from the dead shall give life to your mortal bodies
also through his Spirit which is dwelling in you’ (Rom 8:1). All this
concurs with the interpretation given above (paragraphs 22, 46,
49-52) for the shining robe of the pearl prince.
107 There are other aspects to the shining robe. The prince first
adopts the manner of dress of the Egyptians (IV) and serves their
king (V, VI), but eventually he strips off the filthy Egyptian garb (VIII)
and puts on his new garment (XIII), which has the image of the king
of kings on it (XI), and is adorned with glorious colours and jewels
(XI). Makarios has ‘the evil ruler’ of‘the kingdom of darkness’ tak¬
ing humankind captive and clothing their souls ‘in the power of
darkness’ (2.1). He quotes Paul’s exhortation, ‘Put off the old man’
(Col 3:9). This ‘old man’, ‘polluted and unclean’, is what the evil one
has clothed souls and bodies with (2.2), corresponding to ‘the gar¬
ment of the kingdom of darkness, the garment of blasphemy, un¬
belief, unconcern, vainglory, pride, avarice, lust’, and other ‘unclean
and abominable’ things (2.4). The pearl prince strips off the ‘filthy
and abominable garb’ of Egypt (VIII; cp. paragraph 49). Makarios
has ‘the sons of light’ becoming no longer ‘children of the night or
of darkness’ (I Thess 5:5) by being ‘stripped of the clothing of the
kingdom of darkness’ and putting on ‘the new and heavenly man,
Jesus Christ, ... to be all pure, and wearing the heavenly image’
(2.4). This last point might account for the royal image on the
prince’s robe (XI; cp. paragraph 50), while its colours and jewels
(XI), representing virtues (paragraph 46), are explicable thus: ‘The
Lord has clothed them with the clothing of the kingdom of ineffable
light, the clothing of faith, hope, charity, of joy, peace, goodness,
kindness . . .’ (2.5).
08 The scarlet toga of the pearl poem (paragraphs 58-59 above)
seems to have no exact counterpart with Makarios, but atonement
through the blood of Christ is highlighted in his allegorical inter¬
pretation of the Passover and the Exodus (47.1-17). He speaks of
34 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

‘the lintels of the heart’ being ‘anointed with his blood, so that the
blood of Christ shed upon the cross might be to the soul for life
and deliverance, and to the devils of Egypt for woe and death ; it
is also ‘joy and gladness for the soul’ (47.8). Later in the same
homily, Makarios presents the children of Israel marching away from
Egypt after keeping the Passover; his interpretation is that the soul
moves onwards, when it has received the life of the Holy Spirit,
and has tasted of the Lamb, and been anointed with his blood, and
has eaten the true Bread, the living Word’ (47.1 I).
109 Then, in the same way as ‘a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud went
before the Israelites, protecting them’ (Ex 13:21), the Holy Spirit
strengthens the Christian, ‘warming and guiding the soul perceptibly
(en aisthesei)' (47.1 I). The Syriac version has altered this sentence
to read: ‘The Spirit of Holiness strengthens us and guides our souls
into the harbour of his will (or: desire)’. This would be an allusion
to Psalm 107 (I06):30, where God saves seafaring merchants
(107:23) from a violent storm, ‘and he brought them to the harbour
they desired’. (In the Syriac the word for ‘harbour’ or ‘haven’ is
borrowed from Greek limen.) Notice here that the pearl prince
was led by his eagle-letter (the Paraklete) to Maishan, ‘that haven
of the traffickers’ (IX), and this is where he received his two gar¬
ments (X). Elsewhere, in The Acts of Thomas (where the pearl poem
is preserved), the metaphor of ‘haven’ is used of Christ as the
saviour of those who are to be baptized (37 and 156). And in Syriac
Christian liturgies baptism is often linked with this harbour idea.
This might suggest that the pearl prince received baptism at this
point, at Maishan in Iran, rather than when he snatched the pearl
from the dragon, in Egypt (paragraph 39).
I 10 However, the ‘haven’ motif is also used eschatologically of death
and bliss, as is the case with Ephrem, for example. Isaac of Nineveh
uses it in this finality sense: he speaks of the monk voyaging across
a variable sea ‘right to the haven of his decease’ (XXXIX). Isaac also
has ‘the islands of the world to come’ (XXX), and ‘the dry land’
that is attained at the time of death (XXXII). The merchant-like
monk ‘reaches the haven rejoicing’, and ‘makes his way to the city
of truth’, where ‘the inhabitants no longer engage in commerce’
(XXXIII).
 Makarios the Great 35

I I I The ‘death and resurrection’ meaning of ‘harbour’ would be

suitable for the ‘haven of the traffickers’ of the pearl poem (IX),
for it is at this point that the royal robes arrive, and majestically
clothed in them the prince proceeds to the gate of the city (XIII).
It would be reasonable to see death as intervening before the hero
enters Paradise, but the giving of baptismal garments, as prefigura¬
tions of the celestial robes in the afterlife, is another possible
interpretation. Simon Taibutheh (paragraph 237) offers another
possibility: he uses the ‘haven’ metaphor for a stage somewhere
between baptism and death.
II2 In Homily 43, Makarios expresses ideas similar to those of Isaac
of Nineveh on the ‘harbour’, and his use of this metaphor adds
weight to the death interpretation of the ‘haven’ in the pearl poem
(IX, XIII), for they both connect the harbour with the heavenly city.
Makarios affirms that ‘Christians, when they have been baptized
into the Holy Spirit, are without experience of evil’, although ‘those
who have grace, but are still mingled with sin, are subject to fear’
(43.3) . ‘Merchants on a voyage’, even with a calm sea and a fair wind,
are afraid of storms arising before they reach the harbour (43.4).
Likewise, ‘Christians, even if they have in themselves a favourable
wind of the Holy Spirit blowing’ are still subject to the fear that
the adversary will ‘stir up turbulence and billows for their souls’
(43.4) . Makarios therefore counsels ‘great diligence, so that we
arrive at the haven of rest, at the perfect world, at the eternal life
and pleasure, at the city of saints, at the heavenly Jerusalem, at the
assembly of the firstborn’ (Heb 12:23).
I 13 Among other points of comparison between Makarios and the
pearl poem in the Acts of Thomas, three may be mentioned briefly.
Firstly, the prince endures bondage under the king of Egypt: ‘I forgot
that I was a son of kings, and I served a king of theirs’ (V); ‘look at
your bondage to the one you now serve’ (VI). This servitude was
brought about by the guile of the Egyptians: ‘I myself wore their
manner of dress. . . . They dealt with me deceitfully’ (V). In his
allegorical exegesis of the Exodus story, Makarios says in this con¬
nection: ‘Israel is interpreted as the mind beholding God; he is set
free from the bondage of darkness, from the Egyptian spirits
(47.5) . . . . His enemies by guile took away his glory, and clothed
36 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

him with shame; his light was taken away, and he was clothed in
darkness’ (47:6).
I 14 The letter that reminds the prince of his royal birth (V—VII) seems
to represent the Bible (paragraph 35 above). Makarios lends sup¬
port here (39.1): ‘God the King has sent the Sacred Scriptures as
his letters’, inviting people to ‘ask and receive a heavenly gift of the
substance of his Godhead, for it is written, that we should be made
partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Pt 1:4).
I 15 The freedom that the pearl prince realizes (paragraph 40 above)
would be for Makarios ‘freedom from passions’ (29.7), that is, being
‘set at liberty from all mischief of the passions’ (4.14); this leads to
‘ineffable mystical experience with the celestial King’ (4:15). Similarly,
‘deliverance from the passions’ brings about ‘the unspeakable mys¬
tical fellowship of the Holy Spirit, in the fulness of grace’ (10:2).
I 16 From all this it clearly emerges that Makarios is a Christian
mystic, and his teachings seem to be in accord with Syriac mystical
theology. The Spiritual Homilies and other Makarian writings, whether
their author was Makarios of Egypt or Symeon of Mesopotamia, were
of great importance in the Syriac world. Yet, strange to say, most
of the parallels we have drawn between Makarios and the Syriac
pearlers remain hypothetical because very few of these passages
are attested in the Syriac manuscripts of the Makarian corpus. For
instance, all the ‘pearl’ allusions (paragraphs 98-100 above) are
lacking in the Syriac collection.
I 17 Whatever the truth may be in these matters, the world-wide
influence of Makarios is beyond doubt. In the Orthodox Churches,
Symeon the New Theologian in the eleventh century approved of
these writings, and Greek monks still read Makarios before ordina¬
tion. In western Europe, Pietism’s Gottfried Arnold and Method¬
ism’s John Wesley were devoted readers of ‘Macarius the Great’.

DION YSIOS THE AREOPAGITE

I 18 Dionysios the Areopagite was a convert of Paul in Athens (Acts

17:34). Various Greek books appear under his name, but they are
 Dionysios the Areopagite 37

imbued with late Neoplatonism and mystical ideas derived from

Gregory of Nyssa. Clearly ‘Areopagite’ writings are pseudonymous
and must have been composed around the beginning of the sixth
century. They were accepted by the great Monophysite theologian,
Severos of Antioch (d. 538), and a Syriac translation was made by
Sergios (Sargis) of Resh'ayna (d. 536).
I 19 The Dionysian corpus consists of ten epistles addressed to
various personages of the first century, and four treatises dedicated
to Saint Paul’s friend Timothy. The author also mentions a work of
his entitled Outlines of Divinity. Four ‘Areopagite’ books have sur¬
vived: On the Heavenly Hierarchy (describing the different classes of
angelic beings): On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy (portraying the church
as the earthly counterpart of the celestial world); On the Divine
Names (a study of the names and titles of God in the Bible); and
On Mystical Theology (a summary of his mysticism).
120 The brief Mystical Theology is of chief interest to us here. The
theme is ‘the ascent of the soul’ by ‘the negative way’. The soul sets
aside the senses and all inward thoughts and reasonings; it then
passes into the ‘darkness of unknowing’ (or ‘the cloud of unknow¬
ing’) to receive enlightenment from ‘the ray of divine darkness’,
which is beyond all light and beyond all being.
121 In the first chapter, Dionysios warns Timothy not to disclose these
things to the uninitiated (a common admonition of Syriac mystics);
among these he includes philosophers and theologians, who know
only by human reason. He outlines the three stages of mysticism,
which later became categorized as (I) Purgation, (2) Illumination,
(3) Unification. He takes the experience of Moses on the Sinai moun¬
tain as his model (1.3).

Purification: Moses purifies himself and separates himself from

the impure.

Illumination: Moses hears trumpets and sees flashing lights; he goes

to the topmost pinnacle of the Divine Ascent, where he beholds
the place where the Divinity dwells.

Union: the true initiate is plunged into the Darkness of Unknowing,

in complete renunciation of self and of reason, and he is united
to the Unknowable. By rejecting all knowledge he comes to
possess a knowledge that exceeds his understanding.
38 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

122 Perfect unification implies deification. This idea has already ap¬
peared in Makarios (15.35; cp. paragraph 89), and later writers
brought the metaphor of the union of metal and fire into the picture
of unification and divinization (paragraphs 90-92). This collocation
of ideas also appears in the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. Dionysios says
that ‘by union with him’ God assimilates, ‘as by fire, things that have
been made one, in proportion to their aptitude for deification’.

123 In a tract purporting to be a commentary on Dionysios, Simon

Taibutheh discusses the Godhead and ‘the Divinity that is in us’,
together with a consideration of ‘spiritual theory’, which may owe
something to Evagrios (2, Mingana, 163a-167b).

124 Isaac of Nineveh quotes Dionysios by name in a discourse on

prayer, to show that names and words are superfluous when the
soul becomes the image of the Godhead through unification (153,
Bedjan, 169). And in a discussion of the classes of heavenly beings
(Bedjan, 187) he relies heavily on the Celestial Hierarchy (6-7).

125 Gregory Bar ‘Ebraya (Bar Hebraeus) makes frequent use of the
term ‘the cloud’ in his Book of the Dove (see below, Cl I, CIV, CVII—
CXII), and he sometimes mentions the name of Dionysios. In his
chapter ‘On the unification of the mind' (Dove 3.4, p. 569); and in the
Ethikon (4.15.8, p. 487) he has ‘the great Dionysios the Areopagite,
who says, The Divine Cloud is the inaccessible light, wherein God
is said to dwell’ (I Tim 6:16; cp. paragraph 17 above). In speaking
of the silent solitude of the mystic, he describes it as ‘a solitude
which makes gods’ (Ethikon 4.15.1 I, p. 492). This is the Dionysian
(and Makarian) idea of deification; and Gregory continues: ‘through
it the mind acquires complete unification and perfect mingling with
God, and vision and knowledge of him whose glory is exalted above
the world, without visible vision and knowable knowledge’ (492,
Wensinck’s translation). Gregory is echoing not only Dionysios
here, but also John the Venerable.

126 In one passage in the discourses of John the Venerable (John

Saba), grace is said to enlarge the mind of the solitary with visions
and revelations until ‘the cloud of essential light’ is attained
(LXVII):
 Dionysios the Areopagite 39

There the mind will look at and shine in the rays of light that
dawn upon it from the Essence. Thereby it ascends and pene¬
trates day by day . . . from glory to glory through the Lord the
Spirit, being transformed into the likeness without likeness, in
union and perfect commingling with God, and the sight and
knowledge of his glory are more sublime than worlds, for they
are seen and known by means of withdrawal of sight and knowl¬
edge.

In this excerpt we see such cardinal Dionysian doctrines as the

ascent of the mind, union and commingling; and the last phrase
echoes a point made by Dionysios in the Mystical Theology.

Unto this Darkness which is beyond Light, we pray that we may

come, and may attain unto vision through the loss of sight and
knowledge, and that in ceasing thus to see or to know we may
learn to know that which is beyond all perception and under¬
standing, for this emptying of our faculties is true sight and
knowledge (2.1).

Doubtless because they were attributed to a disciple of Saint

Paul, the writings of Pseudo-Dionysios made a considerable impact
on theological history. In the Syriac world, Joseph the Visionary
(Hazzaya) wrote a commentary on them. In the Greek world,
Maximus Confessor and John of Damascus studied them, and East¬
ern Orthodoxy has never rejected them. In the West, on the basis
of Erigena’s Latin translation (858), commentaries were written by
Hugh of Saint Victor, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Bona-
venture. European mystics were inspired by Dionysios, including
the English author of The Cloud of Unknowing, who was also, appar¬
ently, the translator of On Mystical Theology under the title Dionise
Hid Divinite.
Having examined four mystical writers (Evagrios, Esaias, Makarios,
Dionysios) whose works were translated from their original Greek
form into Syriac, we now return to the fourth-century Syriac world,
to look at some Syriac contemporaries of Evagrios who were un¬
touched by Evagrianism.
40 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

APHRAHATTHE PERSIAN

130 Aphrahat (Greek Aphraates, Persian Farhad) was a fourth-century

monk and bishop in Persia. During the period 337—345, Aphrahat
produced a collection of twenty-three Syriac discourses or ‘dem¬
onstrations’. These are arranged acrostically: each of the twenty-
three homilies begins with a successive letter of the Syriac alphabet
(which has twenty-two signs); the twenty-third sermon is an ap¬
pendix, commencing with the first letter of the alphabet (’alaph).
I3I Unaffected by Greek theological ideas, the Demonstrations deal
with a wide range of Christian beliefs and practices. The most
important of them, for our purposes, is the one relating to ‘sons
of the covenant’, because it covers monastic matters. Those per¬
taining to asceticism and spirituality are: I. Faith, 2. Love, 3. Fasting,
4. Prayer, 6. Sons of the Covenant, 7. Repentance, 9. Humility,
10. Virginity.
I 32 Aphrahat addresses his ascetic admonitions to ‘virgins’ (male or
female ascetics who have remained single and chaste), and also to
‘saints’ (pious men and women who are married but continent).
The ‘virgins’ are the ‘sons and daughters of the covenant’ (though
the Syriac term qyama can mean ‘resurrection’, as well as ‘cove¬
nant’). Aphrahat reminds ‘daughters of the covenant’ that they are
betrothed to Christ, and so each of them should reject any invita¬
tion to be a ministering companion to one of the ‘sons of the
covenant’, because her Betrothed would be angry and divorce her
(6.7). Women should live with women, and men should live with
men’ (6.4) so as to preserve their chastity. Like Tatian (paragraph
7 above) and the author of the Acts of Thomas (paragraph 10 above),
Aphrahat downgrades marriage; he sees it as virtually a betrayal of
God, in that anyone who ‘leaves father and mother’ (Gen 2:24, Mk
10:7) to enter into wedlock is really deserting ‘God his father and
the Holy Spirit his mother’ (Demonstration 18). Here again we see
the typical Syriac image of the Spirit as divine mother, as in the
Song of the Pearl (I, VI; see paragraph 19 above).
133 Aphrahat’s asceticism involves fasting (Demonstration 3), and in
his discourse on prayer (4) he refers to ‘the power of pure fasting’
 Aphrahat the Persian 41

alongside ‘the power of pure prayer’ (4.1). Prayer that is ‘pure’ is

associated with ‘purity of heart’ and ‘silence united to a mind that
is serene’ (4.1). Besides the well-known practice of ‘silence’ (Greek
hesukhia) we find here the spiritual terms ‘purity’ and ‘serenity’.
The distinction between these two states will play an important
part in the more complex mystical theology of such monks as John
the Solitary and Joseph the Visionary. ‘Serenity’ (shaphyutha) will
be assigned to a higher spiritual plane than ‘purity’ (moral purity).
As an adjective the word shaphya has various connotations: applied
to solid objects it means ‘planed’ (wood) or ‘plain’ (landscape, ‘the
rough places made plain’), clear of irregularities; referring to liquids
it means ‘clear’ of impurity or disturbance, and thus limpid, trans¬
parent, calm; used of the mind (as here) it would mean ‘unsullied’
and ‘serene’.
34 Demonstration 6 (on the sons and daughters of the covenant)
begins with the apostolic injunction: ‘Let us now awake from our
sleep’ (Rom 13:1 I). This is reminiscent of the call to wakefulness
in the Song of the Pearl (VI; see paragraph 33-34 above). Then the
purification process is announced (6.1): ‘Let us purify our heart of
iniquity, so that we may see the Lofty One in his glory.’ This is surely
an allusion to the sixth beatitude (Mt 5:8): ‘Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall see God.’
Other exhortatations in the immediate context (XIV) are cer¬
tainly based on beatitudes. For example, ‘Let there be peace among
us, so that we may be called brothers of Christ’ stems from ‘Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God’
(Mt 5:9; cp. paragraph 18, above, on brothers of Christ). In the
same vein Aphrahat says (6.1): Whoever cleanses his heart of de¬
ceits, ‘his eyes shall behold the King in his beauty’ (Is 33:17). Clearly
implied in this is the promise that ‘the pure in heart. . . shall see
God’. This beatitude constitutes the foundation of Syriac Christian
mysticism, and this point should be kept constantly in mind as we
follow the thread of purity through all the extracts in this book.
The purified heart or unsullied mind is where the divine vision is
perceived.
35 Aphrahat emphasizes the need for alienation from the world to
preserve one’s purity: ‘We should be strangers to this world, just
42 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

as Christ did not belong to this world’ (6.1). ‘Whoever wishes to

be like the angels must alienate himself from people’ (6.1). In the
Song of the Pearl, the hero is, initially, a stranger to the Egyptians,
among whom he lived (IV; see paragraph 23), but he contracts
impurity by ‘joining with the unclean’ (IV) and adopting their food
and dress (IV; see paragraph 32). The attainment of purity is stated
in his declaration: Their filthy abominable clothing I stripped off’
(VIII).
136 As we noted earlier (in paragraph 49), the removing of unclean
clothing and donning of new robes are to be connected with put¬
ting off the old person and putting on the new person (Eph 4:22-24).
Aphrahat uses this new-replacing-old pattern in a setting of purify¬
ing the body of all uncleanness (6:1):

Whoever casts off the old person, let him not turn back to his
former deeds. Whoever puts on the new person, let him keep
himself from all filthiness. Whoever has put on armour from the
water (of baptism), let him not put off his armour, so as not to
be condemned. Whoever takes up the shield against the evil one,
let him keep himself from the darts that he hurls at him.

The clothing to be put on, in this case, is Paul’s panoply, ‘the whole
armour of God’ (Eph 6:13-17), and with it ‘the shield of faith’. The
pearl prince confronts Satan as the sea-serpent, and faith is there
signified by the pearl, while baptismal water is implied in his pre¬
sumed dive into the sea to snatch the pearl from the serpent (VIII;
paragraphs 36-39). The pearl might also have overtones of purity:
Ephrem sees spotless purity and unsullied clearness in a pearl
(XV.3).
I 37 Aphrahat declares that the Christian’s armour comes from the
purifying water of baptism. At this point it would be profitable to
look at the Baptismal Liturgy of the Syrian Orthodox Church. This
liturgy is attributed to Severos of Antiokheia (Severus of Antioch),
who lived in the fifth and sixth centuries. The consecration of the
water includes the following statements and petitions:

You have given us the fountain of true purification, which purifies

from every sin, this water which is consecrated by the invocation
of you [or: of your Spirit], by means of which we receive the
 Aphrahat the Persian 43

purification that is given to us through the Holy Spirit. Grant,

O Lord, power to this baptismal water, you who through the
passion of your Christ has granted purification from every sin, in
preparation for the reception of your Holy Spirit. . . .To you we
offer up glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. . . . You broke the
heads of the dragons in the waters. ... I have invoked your great
and wonderful and glorious name . . . against the adversary. . . .
May the head of the man-slaying dragon be broken under the sign
of the cross. . . . Send your Holy Spirit on this water and sanctify
it, and make it the water of repose . . . for the forgiveness of
sins, the illumination of souls, the washing of rebirth, the gift of
adoption, the garment of incorruptibility. . . . Grant that those
who are being baptized in this water may strip off the old person,
corrupted by the lusts of error, and put on the new person, re¬
newed through the knowledge of him who created. . . . Through
baptism may they become participants in the resurrection, and,
preserving the gift of the Holy Spirit and increasing the deposit of
grace, may they receive crowns of the victory of the calling from
on high, and be numbered together with the firstborn written in
heaven. . . . Being gloriously renewed and filled with your grace
and strength may they preserve the deposit of your salvation . . .
and become partakers of the good things of heaven, which you
have promised to those who please (or: love) you.’ (6, Brock)

All these words have their origins in the Bible, of course, and
the italicized terms also have counterparts in the Song of the Pearl.
The invocation of the divine name consecrates the water and con¬
founds ‘the adversary’; similarly, invoking the names of the father,
mother, and brother puts the pearl-serpent to sleep (VIII; paragraph
38). The head of the dragon in the water is broken under the sign
of the cross, to be compared with the ‘enchantments’ worked over
the serpent (VIII). The passion of Christ, which brings cleansing from
sin, is symbolized by the scarlet toga (II, VI, X, XIII; paragraph 58).
The reception of the Holy Spirit is paralleled by the receiving of the
shining robe (XII), here called ‘the garment of incorruptibility’, and
this also involves stripping off the old person (cp VIII; paragraph 49)
and being renewed through knowledge (cp XII; paragraphs 46 and
50). The baptismal liturgy speaks of increasing a deposit of grace and
preserving a deposit of salvation, while the pearl-prince refers to his
robe as his ‘deposit and wealth’ (XI; paragraph 48), wealth being
44 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

identifiable as riches of grace (I; paragraph 20). If the increasing

deposit of grace corresponds to the richly adorned robe, which says
of itself, ‘my size has been increasing with his labours’ (XII), then
the deposit of salvation would be equivalent to the scarlet toga (II,
XIII). The calling from on high goes with the letter (V, VI, VII) from
the heights (X) in the land of light (I, VIII). The promise of inheritance
(cp II, VI, VIII; paragraph 53) is made to the firstborn written in
heaven (cp VI; paragraph 55). The illumination of souls may be com¬
pared with the prince’s letter leading him onwards with its light
(IX).
139 Illumination of souls is an important aspect of mysticism, and
Syriac mysticism basically means claiming this and the other bene¬
fits accruing from baptism. For Aphrahat, baptismal new birth pro¬
duces ‘children of light’, who are unafraid of the Evil One, ‘because
the darkness flees from the presence of the light’ (6.2). The armour
acquired through baptism, according to Aphrahat (as noted earlier),
would not only be ‘the panoply of God’ (Eph 6:1 3-17) but also ‘the
armour of light’, of which Paul says: ‘Let us cast off the works of
darkness and put on the armour of light’, that is, ‘put on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and make no provision for gratifying the desires of
the flesh’(Rom 13:12,14).
140 On the latter point, Aphrahat (6.2) shows the ways in which the
baptized, ‘clothed in panoply’, ‘stand up against the adversary’; ‘they,
being spiritual, see him when he attacks, and his panoply has no
power over their bodies’; ‘lust for food’: they ‘conquer him by fast¬
ing’; ‘lust of the eyes’: ‘they lift up their eyes to the height of heaven’;
‘sleep’: they remain wakeful and vigilant, they sing psalms and pray’;
‘possessions’: ‘they give them to the poor’; ‘sweetness’: ‘they do
not taste, knowing that he is bitter’; ‘desire of Eve’: ‘they dwell
alone, and not with the daughters of Eve’. At this point Aphrahat
cannot resist the temptation to compile a catalogue of women who
(in the Scriptures) led men into error or ruin (6.3).
141 With regard to Paul’s other injunction, ‘Put on the Lord Jesus
Christ’ (Rom 13:14, cited above), Aphrahat speaks of receiving ‘the
Spirit of Christ’ and of being ‘clothed’ in it at baptism, thereby
suggesting another aspect of the pearl-prince’s robe (X-XII; cp
Makarios, paragraph 107 above). Aphrahat affirms (6.14):
 Aphrahat the Persian 45

From baptism we receive the Spirit of Christ. In that hour when

the priests invoke the Spirit, the heavens open and it descends
and ‘moves upon the waters’ (Gen 1:2); and those that are
baptized are clothed in it; for the Spirit stays away from all who
are born of the flesh, until they come to the new birth by water,
and then they receive the Holy Spirit.

Aphrahat then declares that humans are born with an animal soul
at their first birth; and at their second birth, through baptism, they
receive the Holy Spirit. At death, the animal soul is lifeless and is
buried with the body; but the heavenly spirit that they receive goes,
according to its nature, to Christ. And if the person has kept ‘the
Spirit of Christ in purity’, this spirit reports to Christ: ‘The body
into which I went, and which put me on from the water of baptism,
has kept me in holiness’. The Spirit will ask Christ to raise that body
up in glory at the resurrection; the Spirit will then be joined again
to that body so that it may ‘rise up in glory’; and the Spirit shall be
within for the resurrection of the body, and the glory shall be
without for the adornment of the body; and by the power of the
Spirit that person shall fly up to meet the King, who will welcome
the person with joy, and Christ will ‘give thanks for the body that
has kept his Spirit in purity’ (6.14).
142 All this is reminiscent of the ‘bright ornamented robe, adorned
with glorious colours’ (XI), which spoke as a person (‘I am his who
is diligent in doing’), which was impatient to be reunited with the
body of the prince (XII), and which went with him (‘thus clothed
in it’) when he ascended to the gate of the king (XIII). This perhaps
implies that the reception of the robes by the prince takes place
(allegorically) after death, which would be represented by the arrival
at ‘the haven of the traffickers’ (IX; cp Makarios, paragraphs 109-1 12
above).
143 Finally, what use does Aphrahat make of the pearl as a symbol?
The figure of the merchant is set in a paradox (6.1): ‘Whoever loves
fields and merchandise shall be shut out of the city of saints. . . .
Whoever desires to become a merchant, let him buy for himself
the field and the treasure that is in it (Mt 13:44). . . . Let us sell all
our possessions and buy for ourselves the pearl, so that we may be
46 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

rich (Mt 13:46). Let us lay up our treasures in heaven, so that when
we come we may open them and have pleasure in them’ (Mt 6:20).
Christ is the Pearl, the Lamp, the Light; and many other names are
accorded to him (17.1, 17.1 I; cp Makarios, par. 100 above). And
‘the Word of God is like a pearl, having a beautiful appearance on
whatever side you turn it’ (22.26). A similar analogy is also ex¬
pressed by Saint Ephrem in his pearl-hymns (XV.3 below).

EPHREM THE SYRIAN

144 Ephrem (Syriac Aprem or Aphrem, Latin Ephraem Syrus) is honoured

as a saint in the eastern and western churches alike. He was born
at Nisibis in Persia, early in the fourth century (c. 305). Because of
persecution he moved from Nisibis to Edessa, and spent the last
decade of his life there, in a cave. He died in the year 373. A prolific
writer and revered teacher (he was made a doctor of the church
by Pope Benedict XV in 1920), Ephrem produced commentaries,
homilies, and hymns. Selections from his Hymns on Faith are pre¬
sented in this anthology (XV-XVII).
145 A story in the biographies of Ephrem has an angel descending
with a heavenly scroll, which neither Eugenios of Nisibis (the tra¬
ditional founder of Syrian monasticism, paragraph 3) nor Julian of
Edessa (the early paragon of Syrian asceticism, paragraph 8) were
worthy to receive; only Ephrem the Syrian of the mountain of
Edessa was worthy. Ephrem is portrayed as small in stature, bald
and beardless, solemn of countenance and never giving way to
laughter. His meagre diet consisted of barley-bread and water, with
a little pulse and vegetables, and his garments were rags; his flesh
was dried upon his bones. These details are, however, products of
late ascetic hagiography. Mortification of the body was part of the
teaching he gave and the example he set, but with moderation and
discretion.
146 Celebrated as ‘the harp of the Holy Spirit’, Ephrem was orator,
teacher, hymnwriter, choir-leader, and commentator. He is said to
have conducted a choir of ‘daughters of the covenant’. He extolled
 Ephrem the Syrian 47

the monk’s ideals of solitariness and virginity, but he himself was an

ascetic, not a solitary. He lived separate from the world, but re¬
mained at the service of the Church and the world. He was in the
world, but not of the world, and yet for the world. He harmonized
theology, poetry, asceticism, and spirituality. He wrote a commen¬
tary on Tatian’s Diatessaron (Harmony of the Four Gospels), but
he himself went beyond Tatian’s Encratism (paragraph 7 above).
Like Aphrahat (paragraph I 32) he distinguishes virginity from ‘sanc¬
tity’ (continence within marriage): virginity is superior to ‘sanctity’,
and the ‘saintly’ form of marriage is superior to a marriage in which
the partners follow the Apostle’s advice of not denying each other
their conjugal rights (I Cor 7:5). And in his Diatessaron commentary,
Ephrem points out that according to the Apostle (Heb I 3:4) mar¬
riage is an honorable estate. In the same work he says of John the
Baptizer, one of his models for the monastic life: ‘John went away
into the wilderness, not to become wild there, but to soften, in the
wilderness, the wildness of the inhabited earth’. John, like Elijah,
withdrew from the world but did not cease to influence the world.
And we may note in passing that Ephrem has an interesting expla¬
nation of John’s baptizing of Jesus: John was imparting prophethood
and priesthood to Jesus. Ephrem presumably had in mind that John
was a descendant of Aaron (Lk 1:5).
147 Monks go forth into the desert to do battle with their enemies
the demons, and Ephrem says of the anchorite that ‘on his going
out from the world the power of the Spirit goes out to him, and
anoints him as an athlete for combat with the strong one’, meaning
Satan. All wild and uninhabited places were considered to be the
haunts of the Devil and his armies of evil spirits, and in going out
to meet Satan the monk was merely following the example of his
Lord (Mk 1:12-13, Lk 4:1-2).
148 This confrontation with demonic forces is also depicted in pearl¬
fishing terms by Ephrem in the pearl section of his Hymns on Faith.
The divers are ‘unclothed men’ who are ‘symbolic of the poor’
(XVII); they ‘strip themselves, then put on oil, a symbol of the
Anointed Christ’, and ‘the sea-monster [Leviathan] is crushed’
when they grasp the pearl and ascend, ‘as Apostles would seize a
soul from the ferocious jaws’ [of demons] (XVI). Here is a remi¬
niscence of the pearl-prince stripping off the clothing of Egypt (VIII)
48 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

and snatching the pearl from the sea-serpent (VIII). For Ephrem the
pearl is a multi-faceted symbol: it has ‘faces on all sides’ (XV); in it
‘is depicted faith, in types and symbols’ (XVII); and ‘faith’ is probably
its main reference in the Song of the Pearl (paragraph 45 above).
But he also says, ‘in you and in your appearance your Creator is
portrayed’ (XVII), as well as the Son (XV) and the Kingdom (XV).
A typical Syriac Christian use of the term ‘pearl’ comes out thus:
he saw ‘in its purity the great mystery, the body of our Lord, which
is spotless’ (XV), ‘the medicine of life’ that is placed ‘in the hollows
of people’s hands’ (XVII), the morsel of eucharistic bread.
149 As with the pearl-prince and his eagle-letter (IX, and paragraphs
35,41,42), Ephrem was led by the Holy Spirit. Palladios says of him
(Lausiakon XL):

Ephraim the deacon of the church of Edessa . . . worthily com¬

pleted the journey of the Spirit, without being diverted from the
straight road, and was counted worthy of the grace of natural
knowledge and afterwards of the knowledge of God (theologia)
and ultimate blessedness.

In a homily, Ephrem himself declares that monks are such holy

temples of the Holy Spirit that they have no need of consecrated
buildings; they are their own priests, giving themselves absolution
through their tears, ‘their fasts being their offerings (qurban, eucha-
rist), and their vigils their libations; their prayers being their stew¬
ards, and their faith the sanctuary; their minds being the altars,
their virginity the perfect sacrifices, their chastity the curtain, and
their humility the censer’. Such charismatic independence from the
Church smacks of Messallianism (paragraphs 80, 179), but we have
already seen that Ephrem himself was firmly attached to the liturgy
and the sacraments.
150 Ephrem also speaks of monks being guided by angels; again com¬
pare the pearl-prince (III and paragraph 26). Angels impart mystical
knowledge to anchorites, Ephrem says, and this may throw some
light on the knowledge aspect of the prince’s shining robe (X-XI
and paragraphs 27, 46, 47). Furthermore, he sees the pearl as a sym¬
bol of Christ, the manifested light, who freely gives mystic enlight¬
enment (XVII). Ephrem is said to have experienced trance states,
 Ephrem the Syrian 49

as did his contemporary, Julian Saba of Edessa, who reputedly lived

in his visions day and night.
151 In closing, we may consider the thirty-second of Ephrem’s Hymns
on Faith, as a moving example of his mysticism, in which meditation
is depicted as commerce, producing a treasure to contemplate.

Turn me towards your teaching,

for I sought to turn myself away,
but I saw that I was impoverishing myself,
because the soul can only be rich
through commerce with you. . . .

Whenever I have meditated on you

I have received from you a treasure;
and wherever I have contemplated you
a spring has flowed from you,
and I have drawn as much as I was able. . . .

Your spring, O Lord, is hidden

from anyone who does not thirst for you;
and your treasure room is empty
for anyone who hates you;
love is the treasurer of your celestial treasure.

When I withdraw from your company,

your beauty arouses my desire;
and when I am in the presence of your majesty,
your glory fills me with fear;
whether I withdraw or approach,
I am conquered, in every way. . . .

I meditated, and I spoke of you,

without comprehending you;
then I was overcome, and I fell silent,
without losing you;
I became lost in you, and speechless.
Glory to you, hidden Being.

The spirituality of Ephrem achieves through purification and prayer

a climax of loving wonderment and silent adoration in the presence
of the beauty, and majesty, and mystery of the Beloved.
50 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

THE BOOK OF DEGREES

152 From the time of Aphrahat and Ephrem in the fourth century, or
shortly afterwards, comes the Book of Degrees (or Book of Steps,
Ketaba demasqata), a collection of thirty discourses on moral and
spiritual matters. This work is an important witness for the early
history of Syriac asceticism and mysticism. The anonymous writer
has produced an original composition, which has affinities with the
Spiritual Homilies of Pseudo-Makarios, but not literary dependence.
The originality of its theology consists in a tripartite view of the
Christian ekklesia: the visible church; an invisible church (of the
heart); and the celestial church. Each of these three levels has a
different degree of glory. Christians are divided into two main cate¬
gories (of the weaker and stronger brethren kind): the righteous
(ordinary good and faithful church-members); and the perfect (the
ascetics).
153 The ‘righteous’, or the ‘upright’, are the ‘disciples of faith’, and
they obey the ‘lesser commandments’ summed up in the golden
rule, which the author formulates both negatively and positively:
‘one should not do to anyone else what is hateful to oneself; and
what one wishes others to do to oneself, one should do to those
whom one meets’ (Discourse 1.4; cp Mt 7:12, Lk 6:3 I). The upright
thus practise active charity: they give food to the hungry; they give
drink to the thirsty; they welcome strangers; they clothe the unclad;
they visit the sick and the imprisoned. And for this they are called
‘blessed of the Father’, and they ‘inherit the kingdom’ (Mt
25:34-40).
154 The ‘perfect’ are the ‘disciples of love’; they perform the ‘great
commandments’ which prescribe complete renunciation of family
and property. The pattern for being ‘perfect’ is to give away every¬
thing one owns and expect ‘treasure in heaven’, meanwhile follow¬
ing Christ (Mt 19:21). Like their Lord, they ‘empty themselves’ (cp
Phil 2:7); they ‘fast from the world’, having become ‘strangers to
the world’. Having no possessions they are in no position to feed
the hungry or to take in strangers; what they have to offer to others
is their prayer and their instruction. The ‘perfect’ do not judge
 The Book of Degrees 51

others, but consider themselves inferior to everyone. Ultimately

‘the upright will have an inheritance this side of the city of the
perfect, while the perfect will be with our Lord in Eden and the
Jerusalem above, because they have imitated him’ (Discourse 14).
155 Whereas the upright have a ‘pledge’ of the Spirit, and experience
the Holy Spirit only partially, the perfect achieve the fulness of the
Spirit, namely, ‘baptism in fire and the Spirit’. The lower order
Christians are given ‘milk’ to nourish them (Heb 5:13), but those
at the higher level receive the solid food that is appropriate to the
‘mature’ or ‘perfect’ (Heb 5:14). This metaphor of milk versus soiid
food is developed in Discourse 12, ‘On the ministry of the hidden
and the manifest church’, from which a mystical extract is offered
in the anthology (XVIII). In this discourse the author articulates his
doctrine of the Church. Over and above ‘the visible church’ on
earth there is ‘the church on high’, the celestial church, in which
Christ officiates as great high priest. The perfect take part in the
liturgy of heaven, but the writer insists that to enter the heavenly
church one must first pass through the earthly church and receive
baptism by water at the hands of its priests, in order to prepare
for eventual baptism by fire and the Spirit (12.4).
156 The visible church is ‘the blessed mother who nurtures everyone
as children’ (12.2). By its altar and its baptismal rite, the church
here below ‘gives birth to men and women as children, and they
suck her milk until they are weaned’. When they are taken off
mother’s milk, they begin to consume solid food; they come to
true knowledge; their bodies become temples and their hearts
altars; they become perfect and feed on Christ in their hearts (cp
Jn 6:58); they attain to the church on high; they enter the city of
Jesus the King (12.3).
157 Like Aphrahat (paragraph I 34 above) the author of the Book of
Degrees bases his hope of the beatific vision on the dominical
beatitude which promises that ‘the pure in heart’ shall see God
(Mt 5:8). Purity of heart is achieved by defeating Satan and his
demonic hordes, and banishing evil thoughts. Those who have over¬
come Satan ‘become worthy of this church which is above all, upon
which our Lord shines openly, and they experience the glorious
light of his countenance’ (12.7; XVIII below).
52 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

158 Clarification on the question of the beatific vision is given in

Discourse 18, ‘On the tears of prayer’. When Christians are deliv¬
ered from sin, tears of sorrow, caused by compunction and repen¬
tance, are replaced by tears of joy inspired by love: ‘they weep with
joy as they encounter our Lord, just like a person seeing a dear
friend unexpectedly, and falling on his neck, and weeping over him
with sobs and tears of joy’ (18.2). Those who are ‘in Christ’ will
engage in prayer, shedding tears ‘in their love and yearning for our
Lord, waiting for when they shall come and see him face to face;
as it is written (Mt 5:8), “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God”, in this world, as Paul said (I Cor I 3:12), “as in a mirror”,
with the eyes of our hearts we behold our Lord, but in that world
“face to face’” (18.3). Here we have the familiar mirror motif: the
heart or soul, when purified of the dross of evil, becomes clear,
like a polished metal mirror, and reflects the glory of God shining
upon it; and the ecstatic mystic gazes on this with the interior eyes,
the eyes of the heart.
159 The mystical scheme of the Book of Degrees can be viewed as
having three stages equivalent to the purgation, illumination, unification
framework. The visible church provides the cleansing through bap¬
tism. In the church of the heart, after the demons and evil thoughts
have been vanquished, the illumination of ‘the glorious light of his
countenance’ is experienced (12.7; XVIII). Entry to the church on
high, after death, results in unification with God.
160 The author sets up a hierarchy of relative glory for the quality
of life (and afterlife) offered by ‘these three churches and their
ministries’ (12.4). Someone who dies while still at the level of the
visible church, is assured of salvation; such a person ‘departs from
this world without sins’. Anyone who has attained the level of the
church of the heart fares ‘even better’ on departing. Finally, someone
who ‘attains in his heart to the church on high and then passes away,
blessed is his spirit; he will become perfect and will go to see our
Lord face to face’. And here it is affirmed that ‘by striving in this
visible church’, a person can move up to the church of the heart,
and then to the church on high, in this life.
161 Other elements in this author’s mystical theology should also
be mentioned. The ‘perfect’ person is a complete renouncer (like
 The Book of Degrees 53

the sannyasin of Hinduism). The ‘perfect’ renounce property and

reject marriage. In Discourse 15, in which the subject of carnal
concupiscence is discussed, the author explains sexual desire as a
consequence of the fall of Adam. Sexuality, he avers, did not exist
in Adam before his fall from grace; and because ‘perfection’ is de¬
fined as a return to the adamic state, the ‘perfect’ abstain from sex
and marriage. In this they are like the angels (15.3; cp Mt 22:30).
162 To be perfect one must practice humility to the point of con¬
sidering oneself inferior to everyone else (6.2). Accordingly, one
does not distinguish between righteous and sinful persons, but
honours all humans equally, ‘kissing their feet’ out of love for them.
In this perfect state one would gladly die in the place of others in
order to save them, a sentiment also expressed by John the Solitary
(XXII). This kind of humility, combined with compassion, is also set
forth in the Makarian Homilies, and in later Syriac mystics (para¬
graphs 93-98).
163 This form of universal love is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the
Book of Degrees teaches that the Spirit, as the Paraklete, also imparts
perfect knowledge of the divine mysteries, leading disciples ‘into
all truth’ (John 16:1 3). This combination of love and knowledge was
noticed in connection with the robe of glory in the Song of the
Pearl (XII; paragraph 46). The robe gained entry for the pearl-prince
at the gate of the king’s city (XIII). In the Book of Degrees, when the
Paraklete reveals the truth to the perfect, they see the celestial
portals opening to them, and thenceforth, while remaining on the
earth, they live in the heavenly realm in spirit, and they continue
to grow until the Lord takes them, after their decease, into the
heavenly Jerusalem (6.2).
164 Clearly this Ketaba demasqata belongs to the category of ‘Syriac
Christian mysticism’, and it sets a number of patterns that recur in
the subsequent history of this subject. One basic question to be
asked before we proceed further is whether the author is laying
new foundations or merely affirming ancient fundamentals. It has
been said that in the Book of Degrees a time-honoured principle is
restated: the real church consists entirely of the company of the
ascetics (Voobus, 101). This is in line with the view that, in early
Syriac Christianity, ‘the sons and daughters of the covenant’ were
54 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

the only ones who received baptism, celibacy being a requirement

for entry into the covenant-community, the Church (Voobus, 25).
This case is improbable and not proven, but it can be compared
with Buddhism: the celibate monks constitute the ‘church’ (sangha),
the community of those who have formally vowed to follow the
Buddhist path, which entails renunciation of all family ties and per¬
sonal property, and devotion to austerity and meditation. This was
certainly the ideal of Tatian and the hero of the Acts of Thomas
(who did his missionary work in India, it should be noted): baptism
meant acceptance of asceticism and celibacy. But was this the
absolute rule and norm?
165 The possibility that Buddhism may have influenced the Judeo-
Christian tradition has not been seriously explored. But if Zoroas¬
trianism could influence Judaism with eschatological ideas like
resurrection and last judgement, then Buddhism could have pro¬
vided the Essenes of Judaism and the apostles of Christianity with
their monastic ideas of asceticism and renunciation of the world.
The trade routes by land and sea were available to missionaries of
the Buddha as well as emissaries of the Christ. Thus in the third
century before the Christian era, the Emperor Ashoka of India sent
messengers of Buddhism to the Iranian and Mediterranean worlds.
And in the third century of the current era, the Iranian prophet
Mani and his followers produced Manicheism, an amalgam of Judeo-
Christian and Indo-lranian religion. Like Buddhism, Manicheism was
a two-tiered system: the Elect were ascetic and celibate (like Bud¬
dhist monks and nuns); the Hearers were permitted to marry (like
Buddhist lay people). Incidentally, Manicheism could have mediated
Buddhist concepts to Iranian and Syrian Christianity.
166 Established religions tend to have a lower path and a higher way:
a basic course for beginners and ordinary believers, and a more
advanced course for the spiritual elite. As in the Book of Degrees,
the higher way leads to some kind of unification experience: in
Hinduism it is the union of atm an and brahman (the soul is united,
or ‘yoked’, by yoga to the ground of all being); in Buddhism it is en¬
lightenment and attaining Nirvana (transcendent bliss); in Islam it
is the Sufi union with God. Adepts of mysticism, who have been to
the centre or heart of their own particular religion, are inclined to
 The Book of Degrees 55

say that they have all been to the same ineffable place. This is the
characteristic ‘irenicism’ of the mystics, exemplified in the present
anthology by Bar Hebraeus (XCVIII; paragraph 280)
167 This irenical attitude is also found in the Book of Degrees, with
some interesting ramifications. In Discourse 30, the last chapter of
the book, the author notes that the ‘perfect’, as ‘disciples of love’,
have a peaceable and loving attitude towards all humans, including
heretics and pagans; in return, they are relatively safe from persecu¬
tion by non-Christians. By contrast, the ordinary church members,
the ‘disciples of faith’, are violently persecuted by outsiders. Ironi¬
cally, the ‘upright’ are prone to attack the ‘perfect’ Christians,
because they cannot understand their behaviour and their doctrine;
and church leaders are suspicious of the mystics’ ‘superior’ aspira¬
tions to ‘perfection’ (‘a more excellent way’, we may call it with
I Cor 12:31). The perfect accept this harassment in the spirit of
‘love bears all things’ and ‘endures all things’ (I Cor 13:7).
168 The author also speaks of the incompatibility of holding eccle¬
siastical office and treading the path of pefection. A bishop must
be harsh towards sinners and heretics, but the perfect must exer¬
cise universal love and compassion. To be perfect one must regard
oneself as inferior to everyone else, but the bishop (episkopos, ‘over¬
seer’) is by definition in a position of superiority. Here we should
note that in the eastern churches priests may marry, but bishops
must be unmarried. This means that if at any time no suitable candi¬
dates are available among the clergy for ordination to the episco¬
pacy, then bishops have to be recruited from monasteries. The
famous seventh-century mystic Isaac the Syrian (Isaac of Nineveh)
had this dignity thrust upon him, but he made a hasty retreat back
to the monastic life (paragraph 240).
169 Inevitably, suspicion and conflict arose between ecclesiastics and
mystics. In the eighth century, the great Nestorian Patriarch Timo¬
thy banned the mystical writings of Joseph the Visionary (Yausep
Hazzaya) and John the Venerable (Yohannan of Dalyatha); and their
works have been preserved through the subterfuge of attributing
them to other writers, such as Philoxenos in the case of Joseph, or
putting them under the vague designation ‘a holy old man’ in the
case of John. Accounts of their visions were considered heretical
56 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

by their church; they were deemed to be tainted with Origenism

(Evagrianism) and Messallianism.
170 The Book of Degrees is anonymous, though its foreword (not by
the author) suggests that it was one of the last disciples of the
Apostles who composed it; and the name of Evagrios (or else John
the Monk) is sometimes attached to the discourses by Syriac
scribes. What is the reason for this anonymity? Possibly its author
was writing from personal experience when he pointed out the
antipathy between the ‘upright’ and the ‘perfect’ (among whom he
numbered himself) and either he or someone else thought it ex¬
pedient to suppress his name. (Note, however, that anonymous
books are common enough in Syriac literature, sometimes because
the first and last pages of manuscripts have been lost.) There are
a number of names of mystics contemporary with this manual which
could be considered for its authorship, notably Julian Saba of Edessa,
who has been mentioned already as a fervent ascetic (paragraphs
8 and 145). Another candidate is Adelphios of Edessa.

ADELPHIOS OF EDESSA

171 Adelphios of Edessa was a disciple of Julian Saba, whom he accom¬

panied on a journey to Egypt sometime before 363. Philoxenos of
Mabbug (in his letter to Patrikios, I 27, 108-1 10) says that in Egypt
young Adelphios met some of the illustrious fathers, including
Antony the Great. From them he learned, according to Philoxenos,
‘that the intellect has contemplations after being purified, and that
the soul can through the grace of God be made worthy of impas¬
sibility, when it sheds its old passions and stands in the original
wholeness of its nature, and is as if in the kingdom of God, while
still having its habitation in this life’. Adelphios returned to Edessa,
and though still a young man he set himself up in a hermitage. There
he engaged in austerity and prayer, but without humility, Philoxenos
adds. This left him a prey to Satan, who appeared to him in the form
of light and claimed to be the Paraklete-Spirit sent by Christ to
 Adelphios of Edessa 57

reward his labours with the desired impassibility and contempla¬

tions. After being accorded adoration by the deceived solitary, the
disguised Devil filled Adelphios with demonic hallucinations. The
monk then ceased mortifying his body and struggling against his
passions. Adelphios thus became the founder of the Messallian
heresy, Philoxenos tells us.
172 Whenever the Book of Degrees is discussed, the question always
arises whether it is a Messallian work, to be placed alongside the
Spiritual Homilies of Pseudo-Makarios as another handbook of
Messallian spirtuality (an asketikon; see paragraphs 80-83). The
portrait of Adelphios that Philoxenos paints for us certainly bears
a resemblance to the anonymous author of the Book of Degrees.
Accordingly, as a matter of interest and as a means of confronting
the Messallian issues, let us call in a kind of devil’s advocate to argue
that the book was written by Adelphios. The first thing he would
bring to our notice is the scenario of Philoxenos, as a bishop,
attacking Adelphios as a Messallian (too charismatic by far). This
is precisely what the Book of Degrees describes: the mystic being
persecuted by the ecclesiastic (paragraphs 167, 169 above). From
another point of view, Philoxenos is like the modern church-based
charismatic who sees other people’s mystical experiences as Satan
working in them, but is convinced that his own spiritual experiences
occur through the inspiration and operation of the Holy Spirit.
Philoxenos was a mystic himself; but, as the Book of Degrees says, as
a bishop he must be severe where heresy is apparently in evidence;
he cannot be irenical like the spiritually perfect (paragraph 168).
Philoxenos has to keep pneumatism within orthodox bounds, under
ecclesiastical control. His own theology, eventually and ironically,
would bring the Church’s wrath upon his head (paragraph 209).
173 Although Philoxenos accuses Adelphios of lacking humility, in
desiring spiritual blessings that were above his station, and of being
under the power of the passion of vainglory and having a high idea
of himself, Adelphios would doubtless have denied this. Humility
is a cardinal characteristic of the perfect, according to the Book of
Degrees. In Discourse 20, ‘On the difficult degrees that there are
on the way to the City of our Lord’, the three principal degrees
are humility, poverty, and chastity.
58 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

174 To test the hypothesis that the Book of Degrees is Messallian, the
core doctrines of established Messallianism, as summarized by its
opponents, have been brought to bear on its contents. Here are
four basic propositions of Messallianism:

(1) the indwelling of the soul by a demon, from the time of one’s
birth;

(2) the inefficacy of the sacraments to purify the soul of this demonic
power;

(3) the exclusive efficacy of prayer to achieve this purification;

(4) the resultant impassibility, and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Differing ‘results’ have been obtained from this ‘experiment’. One

scholar finds no trace of these doctrines in the Book of Degrees.
Other scholars see them there in their germination stage. In my
opinion, this is essentially a Messallian book. This is not a value
judgement, condemning it as being full of vile heresy. My suggestion
is that these four statements are distorted versions of ideas that
actually appear in the book.
175 Heresy-hunting bishops have been known to misrepresent the
beliefs of the people they condemn: they find offending doctrines
in passing remarks, and they take words out of context. The
Katholikos Timothy could be accused of doing this to Joseph the
Visionary and John the Venerable in the eighth century (cp. para¬
graph 169). An examination of their writings shows that this kind
of misrepresentation has occurred.
176 We also have to take account of the phenomenon of expurgated
editions of banned books. Works can be purged of offensive matter
if they are otherwise considered to be of spiritual value, as hap¬
pened when Syrian Orthodox scribes edited and preserved the
writings of the aforementioned Joseph and John. In the case of John,
one of his discourses has been excluded from the major recensions
of his works. In Joseph’s case we have copies of East Syrian and
West Syrian editions of some of his treatises, which, when com¬
pared, show that alterations have been made by scribal editors.
Even more pertinent is the analogy of the two different Syriac
versions of the Kephalaia Gnostika of Evagrios. Remarkably, one of
 Adelphios of Edessa 59

these texts contains none of the proscribed evagrianisms. This

purged edition may well have been the work of Philoxenos, who
valued the mystical teaching of Evagrios—up to a point, as shown
by the allusions and quotations in his own spiritual writings (always
made, however, without naming Evagrios). Accordingly, there is a
real possibility that the extant copies of the Book of Degrees contain
alterations, omissions, and interpolations.
Consider now the first of the four Messallian ‘errors’: the doc¬
trine of the demon inhabiting the soul from the time of one’s birth.
The New Testament accepts that people can be possessed by
demons, but this pronouncement seems to imply that everyone is
indwelt by a devil that needs to be exorcized. Before seeking this
idea in the Book of Degrees, the way should be prepared with a few
clarifications. Syriac monks unanimously agree that demons attack
and invade them; furthermore, ‘demons’ and ‘passions’ and ‘sins’
are very closely related; the demon of pride stirs up the emotion
of pride and causes the sin of pride, for example. In his portrait of
Adelphios, Philoxenos says that this young monk had the passion
of vainglory burning inside him; Satan appeared to him in the form
of light; and the demon (shi’da) took control of him. Notice that
‘passion’, ‘demon’, and ‘Satan’ are almost interchangeable here.
These variations are also observable in the formulations of Mes¬
sallian tenets set down by Theodoret, Timothy of Constantinople,
and John of Damascus (75a, 244-279). Timothy of Constantinople
states that Messallians say that, as a result of the condemnation of
Adam, each person is united with a ‘demon’ from the time of birth;
Theodoret mentions an ‘indwelling demon’; while John of Damascus
speaks of ‘Satan’ dwelling with a person, or ‘Satan and the demons’
possessing the mind, or ‘Satan and the Holy Spirit’ dwelling together
in a person, or the nature of humans being in communion with
‘spirits of evil’. It therefore seems that the picture of a personal
made-to-measure demon need not be interpreted literally. And
what does the Book of Degrees say of evil inhabiting the soul? In
Discourse 3, the author extends Paul’s idea of the pledge (arrabon,
‘guarantee’) of the Spirit (2 Cor 1:22: ‘God has put his seal on us,
and given us a pledge, his Spirit, within our hearts’). He sets along¬
side ‘the pledge of the Spirit’ the concept of ‘the pledge of Satan’
60 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

or ‘the pledge of sin’ (3.1 I). This seems clear enough, but the Syriac
word used in the Book of Degrees (‘urbana) is not found elsewhere;
its root can mean either ‘to pledge’ or ‘to mix’, and so it might be
translated as ‘admixture’ or ‘commixture’, and this has been the
usual interpretation (75a, 198-203), hence ‘an admixture of sin’,
rather than ‘a pledge of sin’. In any case, those who are not at the
‘righteous’ stage, and who do not keep even ‘the lesser command¬
ments’, have no part in the Spirit, because anyone who is captive
to Satan cannot receive the Spirit of the Lord (3.10). The ‘righteous’
have a proportion of the pledge of the Spirit within them, together
with a proportion of the pledge of Satan (or sin). The ‘perfect’ have
by degrees attained the state of being filled with the Spirit, and so
sin and Satan have no place in them any more. The state of being
‘captive to Satan’ (and having the pledge of Satan within) may be
considered as reasonably equivalent to the first Messallian doctrine,
of ‘Satan cohabiting substantially with the person and controlling
him’ (John of Damascus).
178 The second Messallian error is the inefficacy of baptism or the
sacraments to remedy this situation. They say that ‘baptism does
not perfect the person, nor does reception of the sacred mysteries
(the Eucharist) purify the soul’; ‘and it is not through baptism that
the faithful receive the divine and incorruptible garment’ (John of
Damascus). This simply says that baptism and the Eucharist cannot
deal with this particular problem, but it has also been taken to
mean that Messallians are anti-ecclesiastical and anti-sacramental;
by contrast, the Book of Degrees respects the church, its priest¬
hood, and its sacraments.
179 As to the anti-ecclesiastical accusation, practising Messallians
certainly had a ‘hippy’ reputation in their day; they were unemployed
vagabonds, men and women mixing together freely and sleeping in
the streets. But perhaps the Messallians were only heretics and
sectarians because the bishops of the Church branded them as
such. Or if they were in fact a sect, they would probably (like most
Christian sects) claim to be the true church (as the first Christians
claimed to be the true Israel, but were cast out of the synagogues).
Yet the history of Messallianism seems to show that it was a move¬
ment within the Church, and its members did not deliberately seek
 Adelphios of Edessa 61

to break with the established Church. Initially the movement was

led by Adelphios, in the fourth century; it spread to Antioch, and
there the bishop condemned him. In the following century another
leader, Lampetios, succeeded in gaining ordination to the priest¬
hood, though his writings were refuted by Severos of Antioch and
he was placed under condemnation. The ordination of the leader
to the priesthood seems to show that the Messallians were not
seeking to supplant the Church but simply wanted their teaching
to be accepted by the Church. This irenic approach was also char¬
acteristic of Syriac Christian mystics, but they were frequently
under attack from the Church hierarchy. In their time Saint Francis
of Assisi and his followers were never above suspicion either.
If we invoke the Book of Degrees as a hypothetical source of
Messallian doctrine, we can see perhaps what the root of the
trouble was. Ecclesiastics could accept that that there is a church
on earth and a church in heaven, but they might well balk at the
idea of yet another church, namely the church of the heart, as
proposed in the Book of Degrees. This is obviously a mystical church:
it stands closer to the celestial church than does the established
‘visible church’, and its members are ‘the perfect’, who do not need
the ministry of the lower order church any more. That would surely
cause bishops considerable concern.
The Messallian attitude to the Church’s sacraments, according
to the testimony of the Book of Degrees (paragraphs 155-156 above),
is that baptism, administered by the clergy, produces the ‘children’
of the Church, ‘the blessed mother’, and that the Eucharist feeds
these children, preparing them for maturity, when they will have a
new baptism by fire and by the Spirit. (There is perhaps an analogy
to this in the present-day church, with ‘charismatics’ insisting on
the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a higher experience, but not
dispensing with water baptism as the means of entry to the church.)
As for the Eucharist, in the higher church the person’s body be¬
comes the temple and the heart becomes the altar (12.2), and there
the perfect ‘consume our Lord himself in truth’ (12.3). Remember
that the homilies of Ephrem express similar ideas about monks not
needing the Church, because their own bodies are temples of the
Spirit and they act as their own priests (paragraph 149 above).
62 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

182 If the sacraments cannot deal with the evil in the soul, what can
eradicate it? The answer is found in the third alleged error of the
Messallians. In the words of Timothy of Constantinople: They say
that only assiduous prayer can remove this demon’ (75a, 245). And
it is here that the so-called Messallianism of the Book of Degrees is
plainly manifested: ‘When we no longer have any external sins and
outward faults, we should offer up supplication and prayer; for until
we find ourselves in anguish in prayer, just as our Lord did (Lk 22:43)
... we will not be delivered from the sin that dwells in the heart, or
from the evil thoughts that it devises within us’ (18.3). As reported
by Timothy, Messallians believe that baptism does nothing towards
the expulsion of the ‘demon’, because it is incapable of removing
the roots of the sins ’ (75a, 247, 249). Here ‘demon’ and ‘sins’ are
virtually synonymous, as are ‘Satan’ and ‘sin’ in similar contexts in
the Book of Degrees, as we noted earlier (paragraph 177). Here we
are apparently told that the only way to uproot the sin that is
entrenched in the heart is to pray assiduously, like Jesus in the
Garden, shedding abundant tears and groaning forcefully. This is
surely the very essence of Messallianism, which by definition means
‘prayerfulness’.
183 It is not sufficient to retort that the Book of Degrees also advo¬
cates asceticism, notably fasting and vigils. It is in the visible church
that fasts and vigils are performed, in order to deal with the ‘ex¬
ternal sins and outward faults’ mentioned above (paragraph 182).
At the higher level the practice is known as ‘fasting from the world’,
that is, denying oneseif all material things and worldly pursuits (cp
paragraph 154); and there is also ‘mystical [concealed] fasting of
the heart’, which is ‘fasting from evil thoughts’ (12.1). As a conse¬
quence of this kind of dynamic prayer, ‘people who have struggled
and battled alone with evil spirits and have purified their hearts of
evil thoughts’, thereby becoming ‘pure in heart’ and therefore
worthy to ‘see God’ (Mt 5:8), have the experience of seeing the
Lord in his celestial church, in this life (12.7; XVIII).
184 In Discourse 18 (‘On the tears of prayer’) the ‘Messallian’ author
affirms that it is prayer that cleanses the heart and soul. Over and
over he declares that prayer is the only recourse we have. In order
to be ‘without any sins’ we must ‘ask our Lord to deliver us from
sin’ (18.2). He then restates this formula (18.3):
 Adelphios of Edessa 63

Once we have cut off those of our sins that are visible, we can
take up the struggle against the sin that dwells right inside us,
those evil thoughts which sin forges in our heart; and we can run
towards the contest that awaits us, engaging in it through prayer,
just as our Lord did before us. . . ‘with a mighty groan and many
tears’ . . . and he was made perfect (Heb 5:7, 9).

The same remedy is then reiterated:

The heart does not become pure unless hidden sin has dis¬
appeared from it and evil thoughts that had been hidden away in
it through the strength of the sin that dwells there have come to
a complete end. This sin will not be eradicated from our heart,
nor will the evil thoughts and the sin’s other fruits disappear
unless we pray as our Lord and all who preached him prayed
(18:4).

Notice the recurring phrase ‘the sin that indwells’. If we applied

the principle outlined above (paragraph 176), that heretical works
are frequently purged and altered, then we might read ‘the demon’
for ‘the sin’, in line with the formulation of the first Messallian error.
But this would be unwise, since the author is surely borrowing this
phrase from Paul (Rom 7:17): ‘it is no longer I that do it, but the sin
that dwells in me’.
The fourth alleged error is twofold: the achievement of impas¬
sibility (Greek apatheia) and the coming of the Spirit. The latter
phenomenon would be the ‘baptism in fire and in the Spirit’ of the
Book of Degrees, an experience which is available only to those who
have already been baptized with water in the visible Church (12.4).
This can be compared with ‘the enkindling of the Spirit’ and ‘the
fire of the love of Christ’ in the Makarian Homilies (paragraph 88
above), and similar images found in later Syriac mysticism (para¬
graphs 85-87, 89-91). This is followed by the state of being ‘filled
with the Spirit’ (cp paragraph 177). This is the state of the perfect,
who ‘have received the greatest of all gifts, the one known as the
Spirit, the Paraklete’ (3.12). Elsewhere it is said (20.7):

When we have ascended by these degrees [or steps], and have

removed the sin and its fruits from our heart, we will be filled
with the Spirit, the Paraklete; the Lord will dwell in us perfectly,
64 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

and we will eat freely of the tree of life, from which we were
excluded because of the transgressing of the commandment.

This divine spiritual gift restores the person to the adamic state,
the original innocence of Adam, before he sinned. The breath of
God that brought the created body of Adam to life (Gen 2:7) is
the Spirit that dwells in the perfect (28.1). Moreover, since the role
of the Paraklete is to lead the disciples into all truth (Jn 16:1 3), ‘as
soon as one receives the great gift, the Paraklete, one knows all
truth’ (28.2). As regards the gift of impassibility, freedom from
passions, the Book of Degrees has the perfected person returning
to the state of Adam before he sinned, and becoming I ike a little
child, with no concupiscence (15.3).
186 For additional clarification, we now look at what Theodoret of
Kyrrhos (Cyrrhus) said about Adelphios and his Messallian doc¬
trines. Theodoret was a native of Antioch; he was educated in its
monasteries early in the fifth century, and in 423 he became a
bishop of a town in its vicinity. His language was Syriac, but he wrote
in Greek. He was an expert on Syriac monasticism, as is shown by
his History of the Monks (biographies of three women and twenty-
eight men, including Simeon Stylites). His Ecclesiastical History has
a section (IV. 10) ‘on the heresy of the Messalianoi.1 He begins by
stating that they were known as Eukhites (Eukhitai, Greek eukhe
‘prayer’); they were also called ‘enthusiasts’, because they came
under the influence of a certain demon, which they supposed to
be the Holy Spirit. This is precisely what Philoxenos says about
Adelphios, whom he names as the founder of Messallianism (para¬
graph 171 above). Theodoret names Adelphios as one of the ring¬
leaders, alongside Dadoes, Sabbas, Hermas, Symeon, and others,
‘who did not separate themselves from ecclesiastical communion’.
It is not clear whether Theodoret included Adelphios in this state¬
ment about not seceding from the Church, but he goes on to single
him out as the eldest of the group that was called to account by
Bishop Flavianus of Antioch. This Messallian stance of attempting
to stay within the church is consistent with the position taken by
the author of the Book of Degrees (paragraph 155 above).
187 The bishop, Flavianus, won the confidence of the monk Adel¬
phios by saying that his accusers were slanderers and false wit-
 Adelphios of Edessa 65

nesses, and were too young to have discernment in spiritual matters;

but they themselves, being men of more advanced age, both under¬
stood the machinations of demons and the workings of divine grace.
On being asked to explain in what sense the opposing spirit retreats
and the grace of the Holy Spirit comes in, Adelphios (in the words
of Theodoret) ‘vomited out all his concealed poison’.

He [Adelphios] said divine baptism is of no use to those worthy

to receive it, but only earnest prayer drives out the indwelling
demon. Everyone who is born derives from his forefather [Adam]
not only his nature but also servitude to the demons, he said,
and when these are driven away through earnest prayer, the
All-Holy Spirit then comes in visitation with perceptible [‘sensible
and visible'] signs of personal presence, freeing the body from
the impulse of the passions, and ridding the soul entirely of its
inclination towards evil, so that there is no longer any need for
fasting to subdue the body, or for instruction to bridle it and to
train it to go the right way; and not only is the recipient liberated
from the wanton impulses of the body, but also clearly foresees
things to come, and with the eyes beholds the divine Trinity (75a,
244ff).

In defence of Adelphios, the Book of Degrees can be invoked on

all these points. Firstly, the inefficacy of baptism relates only to the
expulsion of the demon; Adelphios would not mean that baptism
is unnecessary and useless; the Book of Degrees has baptism as the
essential requirement for proceeding along the path to the celestial
city (12.4; see paragraph 155 above). Secondly, concerning slavery
to ‘the demons’, we have seen (paragraph 177) that ‘demon’,
‘demons’, ‘evil’, and ‘Satan’ seem to be fairly interchangeable in these
reports on Messallianism; and in the Book of Degrees we read of
‘those who are bound in spirit to Satan, and do not receive the
Spirit of the Lord, as it is written’ (3.10; I Cor 2:14). Thirdly, the idea
that only assiduous prayer can remove the evil entrenched in the
soul is frequently affirmed in the Book of Degrees (see paragraphs 182
and 184). Fourthly, the perceptible coming of the Holy Spirit cor¬
responds to the ‘baptism by fire and the Spirit’ of the Book of Degrees
(2.4; cp. Mt 3:1 I), and the fiery impulse of Joseph the Visionary and
of the Makarian Homilies (paragraphs 85-89 above); furthermore,
66 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

the full awareness of the spiritual experience doubtless goes with

the statement that ‘as soon as one receives the great gift, the
Paraklete, one knows all truth’ (28.2). Note that John of Damascus,
in his seventh proposition against Messallians, speaks of their ‘recep¬
tion of impassibility (apatheia) and perception of the Holy Spirit’s
presence with total awareness and complete certainty’ (75a, 251).
Fifthly, the lack of passions would follow logically from the idea that
‘the sin and its fruits’ have been removed from the heart when a
person is ‘filled with the Spirit, the Paraklete’ (20.7). The perfect
are without desire (15.1), in the state of original purity (15.3; para¬
graph 185 above). Sixthly, with body and soul freed from passions
and evil inclinations, ‘there is no longer any need for fasting to
subdue the body’; the emphasis needs to be placed on the ‘no
longer’ (meketi); the Book of Degrees has a whole chapter (29) on
the subjugation of the body (based on Paul’s dictum, ‘I buffet my
body and subdue it’: I Cor 9:27), but a distinction is made between
the fasting of the ‘upright’, from food and drink at set times, and
the mystical fasting of the ‘perfect’, which is ‘fasting from [or to]
the world’ (7.20; cp 2.4, 4.4, 15.16, 29.6) and ‘a mystical (hidden)
fasting of the heart, fasting from evil thoughts’ (12.1; cp paragraph
183). The seventh accusation is that there is no more need for edu¬
cation and training in correct behaviour, and this is to be explained
by the distinction between the ‘lesser commandments’ followed
by the upright and the ‘great commandments’ practised by the
perfect, the disciples of love (paragraphs 153-154). The apostolic
distinction between ‘milk’ for the immature Christian and ‘solid
food’ for the ‘mature’ or ‘perfect’ (‘who have their faculties trained
through experience to distinguish good from evil’, Heb 5.14) is
taken up in the Book of Degrees (12.3): if a suckling child went to a
house of evil men he would perish, but a mature person (one of
the impassible perfect) could go there without being affected, and
might even convert them, because the perfect are no longer learn¬
ers but instructors (12.6). Lastly, the visionary experiences are to
be connected with the ability of the perfect to see into the church
above and to behold the Lord in this life, not with the physical eyes
(as implied by Theodoret) but with the eyes of the heart, as in a
mirror (paragraphs 157-159 and 163; cp what Philoxenos says about
the mystical experience of Adelphios, paragraph 171).
 Adelphios of Edessa 67

89 Theodoret says of Messallians in general that ‘they shun all

manual labour as a vice’ (75a, 262); this has been fairly typical of
Syrian contemplative monks, knowing nothing of Saint Benedict’s
principle that work is a form of prayer (laborare est orare). In the
Book of Degrees, the perfect take up their ‘mystical cross’ and sepa¬
rate themselves from ‘the earth and its work and all its labour and
worry’. On their cross they will be lifted up above all the things of
this world (3.10). The labours of the perfect are contemplation
and instruction (14.2-3), and if they are to ‘admonish, pacify, exhort,
and teach’, and be shepherds (though not bishops) of Christ’s flock,
‘then they cannot follow the plough or labour on the visible land’
(12.6).
90 In the light of all these comparisons, it is reasonable to suggest
that the Book of Degrees might have been read or written by
Adelphios. Theodoret’s list of prominent Messallians runs: Dadoes,
Sabbas, Adelphios, Hermas, Symeones. The last-named, Symeon
(of Mesopotamia), was possibly the author of the Spiritual Homilies
transmitted under the name of Makarios (paragraph 81), and one
of the others may have produced the Book of Degrees; Adelphios
is the most likely candidate, but our extant sources do not attribute
any books to him.
91 The Book of Degrees, whether it had a Messallian author or not,
was considered worthy to be handed on in Syrian monasteries, as
the manuscript tradition shows. Its doctrine that a vision of God
is achievable in this life by those who have become pure in heart
through victory over demons, may have influenced the great Syriac
mystics of subsequent centuries, although they apparently never
quote from it or refer to it by name. However, there is possibly an
echo of its idea of the hidden church’ (Discourse 12) in Sahdona’s
Book of Perfection (2.8.57): ‘the soul becomes a hidden church where
the Godhead is ministered to in an excellent way’. Similarly, the
theme of prayer as an interior offering of the heart is developed
by Sahdona (2.8.19-20): when the heart’s sacrifice of prayer and
tears is accepted, ‘the fire of the Spirit’ descends and raises these
sacrifices and the mind of the offerer to heaven for divine revela¬
tions. And Isaac of Nineveh, who distinguishes himself from the
Messallians, could say in excusing himself from regular attendance
at congregational worship: ‘our work is not only that which is
68 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

accomplished before the eyes of men, but we also have a service

that is concealed from the eyes of men, one that is not known to
novices and lay folk’ (extract XXXVII).

JOHN THE SOLITARY

192 Nothing is known about John the Solitary (John of Apamea), apart
from the few things he reveals about himself in his writings. It seems
that he lived in the second half of the fifth century in Apamea, in
Syria. The oldest manuscript containing examples of his work is
dated 581. His influence was great among Nestorians and Jacobites
alike. His own theology seems orthodox but original, he shows no
real connection with Neo-Platonism or Evagrianism, even though
he obviously has a good knowledge of Greek philosophy and
medicine.
193 The mystical theology of John is one of hope, of longing for ‘the
new world’, the world to come. The present world is set in stark
contrast to the future world, but humans can comprehend the
dimensions of the upper realm by means of this very contrast. The
greatness of those above is an aid to human understanding, for it
gives us knowledge of a more excellent hope. The inferiority of
those below demonstrates the excellence of those above and the
omnipotence of God. The pearl appears in the course of the
author’s examples (Strothmann, I 10, IV, 38-39):

The sun and the moon are great because the stars are smaller.
Do we learn the richness of God because all the luminaries are
like the sun, or because there are in fact great differences in the
luminaries? Similarly, do we wonder at the richness of God’s
work because of the great variety of birds, or because there are
only eagles? . . . If all stones were pearls then amazement over
the divine workmanship would not be as great as when there
are great differences among stones. Also, pearls would not be
considered to be valuable if all things were pearls.
 John the Solitary 69

194 Christ is the supreme revelation of the mystic’s hope: ‘He is for
us the symbol of the new world, such that through him we can see
and grasp how great our hope is’ (Rignell, 108, 29*). As our light
he comes to awaken us who are under the dominion of wickedness
and passions (see extract XXI below). This is similar to the awaken¬
ing of the prince in the Song of the Pearl (V); he was under the rule
of ‘wickedness’ in the person of the king of Egypt, and he ate the
Egyptian foodstuffs which caused his ‘sleep’ and which correspond
to the ‘passions’ of John the Solitary.
195 Then comes a passage that is very enlightening for our under¬
standing of the Song of the Pearl. We have already seen that the
presence of the child (the Christian pilgrim) with the royal father
(God) in the kingdom (heaven) before his descent into Egypt (the
world) can be explained by the doctrine of predestination (para¬
graph 14), and John substantiates this hypothesis (Strothmann, I 10,
IX, 104):

‘Before the foundation of the world he chose us in him’ (Ephe¬

sians 1:4). Thus, before the heavens were separated and the
firmament was stretched out, before the earth appeared and
everything visible was set in order, he in his foreknowledge had
prepared and equipped us who are weak and small, had chosen,
renewed, sanctified, and formed us in the image and likeness of
his son, so that we who had lost and forgotten our greatness,
our honour, our excellence, and the glory we received at our
creation, should through Christ be renewed and perfected, and
be replete with life and truth, and a wealth of wisdom and of
mysteries of God in his holy realm.

‘We’ are ‘weak and small’ (or ‘inferior’), and the pearl child was so
‘young’ to set out on the road to Egypt (III), but his divine parents
had ‘equipped’ him (I), as God ‘prepared and equipped’ us; we had
‘forgotten’ our ‘greatness’ and ‘glory’, as the pearl prince, ‘forgot’
that he was of royal birth (V); the ‘wealth of wisdom’ relating to
divine mysteries can be compared to the ‘wealth’ of the prince,
namely his ‘bright ornamented robe’ (XI).
196 John concludes this part of his case for Christ as the manifesta¬
tion of the mystic’s eternal hope, in the following words (Stroth¬
mann, I 10, IX. 105):
70 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

When he is crucified and dies for our sake, we learn how we

are seized and bound by destructive passions, and how we
descend and sink into the darkness of error. When he rises up
from the dead in the majesty of his Father, he reveals and shows
to us our hope, our resurrection, and our true life.

197 This leads to the baptismal area of John’s mystical theology.

Through the gift of baptism Christ communicates the substance of
his revelation. Again we find comparisons with the Song of the Pearl,
where the prince is delivered from bondage to a foreign king
(Pharaoh, that is, Satan) and receives the mark of the true king who
saved him, and this guarantees him entry to the kingdom of light,
as son and heir with his elder brother (Christ).

Baptism is also an occasion for being separated and estranged

from the knowledge of demonic mysteries and for receiving
knowledge of the kingdom of heaven. And because through bap¬
tism we are made worthy to be sons and heirs of the kingdom
of God . . . and be freed from all this subjection, we receive from
the divine hand the gift of forgiveness for previous sins. For even
as people who have been subjected to a foreign kingdom, after
they are saved by their true king, receive the likeness of his image
. . . even so the human race, because through baptism it is freed
from this entire evil dominion, receives the likeness of Christ
and forgiveness of sins is given to it (109, 2, 19*).

198 The prince in the Song of the Pearl (XIII) wraps himself in his
scarlet toga (receives forgiveness of sins), and puts on his shining
robe (equivalent to putting on the new person or putting on
Christ), and he returns home to be reunited with his royal family
and the nobles of the realm. John declares that this experience
comes through baptism into Christ (109, 2, 22*):

You who have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ;
there is no Jew or Aramean, no slave or freeman, for all are one
in Christ’ (Gal 3:27-28). These freedoms, riches, felicities, joys,
blessings, and this truth, life, delight, kinship with God, divine
communion, fellowship with the angels, knowledge of the king¬
dom of heaven, undivided unity, everlasting life, these the human
race receives through the mystery of baptism.
 John the Solitary 71

199 Notice, however, that baptism only sets us on the path to at¬
taining the new world. It is only ‘a prefiguration (tupos) of the
resurrection from the dead’ (109, 2, 16*). Moreover, John speaks
of a twofold aspect in baptism: ‘By baptism I mean not only this
visible baptism, but that by which we are baptized in order to be¬
come totally removed from all participation in this world’. (I 10, X,
I 17*). Baptism, John of Apamea says, involves a new birth, without
which one cannot experience ‘contemplation of the sight of the
true world’.

If a person is not first born through baptism, one can not see the
kingdom of heaven, as indeed Christ said to Nicodemus (Jn 3:3);
but by seeing the kingdom he means that in one’s soul one ex¬
periences and knows the glorious riches of the wisdom of God.
(109, 2, 22*)

200 John insists, however, that a path of spiritual progress must be

followed after baptism, and he sets forth Christ as the model for
imitation:

After his baptism by John he applied himself to the labour of

fasting . . .; thus our Lord became a helpful model (tupos) for
the baptized, so that after their baptism they would not be
uncommitted to the labour of repentance. (109, 3, 38*).

201 The spiritual path is divided by John into three stages or orders
(taxis):

1. somatical (or corporeal), relating to the body

2. psychical, relating to the soul

3. pneumatical (or spiritual), relating to the spirit.

This bears a close resemblance to Paul’s three classes of Christians

in I Corinthians:

‘fleshly’ (3:3, sarkikos)

‘soulish’ (2:14, psukhikos)

‘spiritual’ (2:15, pneumatikos).

72 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

Paul also implies a tripartite division of a person when he says: ‘May

your spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless’ (I Thess 5:23). Here
the word ‘body’ goes with the ‘somatic’ or ‘corporeal’ category of
John’s three stages of spiritual development.
202 The writings of John the Solitary thus constitute another ‘Book
of Degrees’, with a similar tripartite set of churches (cp paragraph
152): the visible church is the assembly of people in their gathering
together; the true church is found in agreement of thought and of
understanding, one in faith; and the heavenly church has knowledge
of the truth and its members partake of the divine mysteries (106,
88*). But John insists that perfection is only attained on the other
side, after the resurrection of the dead, in ‘the new world’. He is
appalled at the audacity of those who claim to be ‘perfect’ in this
life, when all they have done is abandon their possessions (in accor¬
dance with the Lord’s command in Mt 19:21) (108, Letter 2.59-64).
He may have in mind here the ‘perfect’ of the Book of Degrees, but
they were expected to be humble (paragraph 162 above).
203 In John’s ascetical and mystical scheme of stages and states, the
‘somatical’ person achieves ‘purity’ (dakhyutha) and enters the ranks
of the ‘psychical’, who go on to a higher state of purity known as
shaphyutha (from a root meaning to ‘plane’ or ‘clear’; see paragraph
I 33), variously translated as ‘serenity’, ‘integrity’, ‘transparency’;
and the final goal is the attainment of ‘perfection’ at the end of this
‘spiritual’ (‘pneumatical’) stage. His analogy for this pilgrimage of
faith and hope is a traveller making his way over an uneven terrain
which is difficult and tiring; he eventually comes to a plain where
he finds journeying easier, towards the magnificent city which is his
destination. The perilous part of the journey represents the battle
with the passions; the plain is ‘serenity’; and the city is ‘perfection’
(108, Letter 2.58).
204 John is fond of categorizing the aspects of each of the three
levels. Thus the corporeal fasting is abstinence from food; the
psychical fast involves hunger and thirst for righteousness and
abstinence from evil deeds; the spiritual fast is complete absence
of remembering evil actions and odious things, but this happens
perfectly only after the resurrection. He declares that a few indi¬
viduals reach the ‘pneumatical’ order, some people enter the
 John the Solitary 73

‘psychical’ stage, but everyone experiences the ‘somatical’ stage

(106, 3.66).
205 The possibility that ascetical and mystical ideas were flowing
back and forth between India and the Syriac Orient receives appar¬
ent support from a comparison of John’s Letter to Hesykhios (Brock,
114: I, 81-98) with Buddhist meditation literature from the early
centuries of the current era (Edward Conze, Buddhist Scriptures,
1959, 103-1 16). Thus in the Saundaranandakavya of Ashvaghosha
(a Buddhist monk of first century ce), the basic step towards the
attainment of Nirvana is ‘mindfulness’, which means withholding
sense-objects from the senses. The Buddhist monk is told to apply
‘mindfulness’ to all activities; when walking, he thinks ‘I am walking’,
and so on; and if sight-objects appear before his eyes he must not
classify them as ‘man’ or ‘woman’, or ‘lovely’. John urges his reader
to be ‘fully aware’ in all his activities; when walking he should not
let his eyes wander, but look straight ahead, not ‘sating his eyes on
the faces of other people’ (114, paragraph 31-32).
206 John and Ashvaghosha both advocate seclusion and solitude (in
the monastery), and the ascetic practices of fasting and keeping
vigil. Ashvaghosha lays down the Buddha’s ‘middle way’ between
starving the body and stuffing it with excessive food. After spend¬
ing the day in keeping his mind collected, the monk should also
practice yoga meditation at night, and repeat long passages from
the Buddhist Scriptures before taking any rest. John sees usefulness
in fasting, in that it dispells cravings (‘craving’ is the root cause of
all suffering according to the Buddha, and Ashvaghosha reiterates
this fundamental doctrine here); but John rates ‘vigilance’ more
highly than fasting, because it makes the mind luminous, and alert,
and makes the body still; he also enjoins reading of the Scriptures,
not just standing in prayer, for the solitary will be illumined in prayer
as a result of his reading (114, paragraphs 23-24, 44, 65).
207 Both monks acknowledge the problem of distracting thoughts
which ruin concentration, and evil thoughts which, for the Christian,
invite God’s judgement if the mind takes pleasure in them (John, I 14,
42-43), and which, when nursed in the heart, will grow and breed
misfortune for the monk, and others too, and may well lead to
punishment in hell (Ashvaghosha). Detachment and non-attachment
74 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

are required; the Buddhist monk is told how to deal with thoughts
of family and homeland by those means; the Christian monk must
not be tied down by anything, but should release himself from the
yoke of the world by means of the freedom of the new life (29);
he should be friendly to everyone, by all means, but he should not
seek attachment to his loved ones, that is, his family (33).
208 The Buddhist is advised to be mindful of death and its inevitabil¬
ity (and rebirth into another life of suffering is the usual result of
death). Hesykhios is counselled constantly to hold the image of his
death before his eyes, so that his life will be preserved through
good works (114, 69). The Buddhist goal is the state of absolute
peace, the supreme place of rest where all worldly activity ceases,
and where the passions are stilled. For John the aim here and now
is peace (51-52), to be tranquil and serene (10), to come near to
perfection before we depart from the body (24, 59), and to attain
to an exalted state of glory when the Saviour is revealed at the
judgement (70).

PHILOXENOS OF MABBUG

209 Philoxenos (in Syriac: Aksenaya) was born of Persian parents at

Tahad in Beth Garmai, east of the Tigris and outside the Roman
Empire. He was educated at the famous theological college of
Edessa known as the Persian School, and he became a monk. He
rejected the school’s espousal of Theodore of Mopsuestia and
turned towards Cyril of Alexandria. He held the episcopate of
Mabbug (between Antioch and Edessa) from 485 to 5 19. Together
with Severos of Antioch, he was deeply involved in the Christo-
logical controversies of his age; as a result he was banished to
Philippopolis in Thrace, and subsequently to Gangra in Paphlagonia,
where he met his death in 522 or 523.
210 Besides Bible commentaries and doctrinal writings, Philoxenos
produced discourses and epistles on asceticism and spirituality
 Philoxenos of Mabbug 75

(I 24). He is revered by the West Syrian Church as one of their best

writers of Syriac language; his name is attached to a Syriac transla¬
tion of the New Testament, known as the Philoxenian version. He
is also regarded as a great teacher of mysticism. The problem is
that West Syriac scribes sometimes put notable works of East
Syriac mystics under the name of Philoxenos to make them accept¬
able and available to their own monks. One example of such false
attribution is an epistle on the three stages of the spiritual path, by
Joseph the Visonary, of which specimens are given in the anthology
(XLIII—XLVIII).
The letter to Patriq (Patrikios), a monk of Edessa, is thought to
be genuine. In its early Greek translation it was attributed to ‘Isaac
the Syrian’, an East Syrian mystic (see paragraph 240) whose writings
are accepted by the Orthodox churches, and the name of its re¬
cipient was changed to Simeon the Stylite, though Isaac lived in the
seventh century and Simeon in the fifth. The subject of the epistle
is the relationship of asceticism to mysticism. Patriq asks whether
there is a short route to the goal of spiritual contemplation, one
that would bypass all the ascetic hardships, which he sees as ob¬
stacles. For Philoxenos the spiritual life is inseparable from ascetic
‘practice’ (exercises of austerity and mortification), ‘keeping of the
commandments’, and ‘virtue’. Mysticism is the attainment of‘purity
of soul’: when the soul is purified of passions the result is ‘contem¬
plation’ (theoria). Typically, this idea stems from the beatitude of
‘the pure in heart’ (Mt 5:8).

He has commanded us to seek his revelation within ourselves,

as he said to the Jews: The kingdom of God is within you’ (Lk
17:21). This contemplation of spiritual things is not something
for our own will to decide whether we are worthy of it or not;
rather it is a gift of his grace. However, whether to keep his
commandments or not is the responsibility of our will; and that
we should keep the commandments which he has established
for us, he teaches us in all his sacred scriptures; but asking him
for spiritual contemplation is not there at all. In one of the
beatitudes he has given us, which are also commandments, he
has told us this: ‘Blessed are those who are pure in their heart,
for they shall see God’. By this word he has taught us what the
76 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

commandments give us when they are kept, namely purity of

heart; and purity of heart brings a person to vision of God. So
he has told us what comes of this, but he has not allowed us to
ask for it. (I 27, 122)

212 The spiritual theology of Philoxenos is baptismal in its emphasis,

another typical Syriac feature:

Even in our own day the Holy Spirit is given through baptism to
those who are baptized, and like the first believers, they truly
receive it (or her); but in none of them does it (or she) manifest
its operation visibly; for although it is in them it remains hidden;
and unless a person abandons the world, sets out on the path
of spiritual morality, keeps all the commandments given by Jesus,
and walks straitly and steadfastly in the narrow way of the gospel,
then the operation of the Spirit received at baptism is not mani¬
fested upon the person. (127, 120)

21 3 Philoxenos warns his reader to distinguish true visions from the

hallucinations of pagans (90-94) and the false revelations of heretics
(107). He relates a cautionary tale concerning ‘a certain Adelphios,
who was at one time in the city of Urhai (Edessa) and was the
inventor of the heresy called Messallianism’ (108; see above, para¬
graphs 171-173). Other heresiarchs named by Philoxenos (105)
are Valentinus, Marcion, Bardaisan of Edessa (Bardesanes), Mani the
founder of Manicheism, and ‘John the Egyptian’. The last of these
had appeared on the scene ‘recently’, and may have been John the
Solitary of Apamea.
214 Evagrios, who was condemned in 553, was apparently not con¬
sidered to be a heretic by Philoxenos. In the Epistle to Patrikios
there are quotations from his Praktikos (65 and I 33) and Gnostikos
(112, twice); Evagrios is not named, but is cited as ‘one of the
blessed’ (65), or ‘one of the fathers’ (133), or ‘one of the saints’
(I 12). That Philoxenos accepted some of the teachings of Evagrios
is shown in the following extract, in which the eight passions (or
passionate thoughts), as formulated by Evagrios, are set out in
pairs;
 Philoxenos of Mabbug 77

It is not only the desert which calms the passions, but the pas¬
sions themselves very often calm one another. Thus the passion
of vainglory calms that of lechery, and vice versa; the passion of
avarice (‘love of gold’) that of gluttony (‘love of the belly’), and
vice versa; the passion of sadness that of anger; and the passion
of acedia (‘torpor’) that of pride. (127, 18)

This procedure of applying opposites is already found in the Praktikos

and the Antirrhetikos of Evagrios.
215 Philoxenos also knows the five contemplations of Evagrios (Keph-
alaia Gnostika, 54, 1:27), contemplation of the Trinity, of bodiless
beings, of embodied beings, of Divine judgement, of Divine provi¬
dence:

The contemplations of the natures are three in number: two of

them are for the created natures, the rational and non-rational,
the spiritual and corporeal; and one is for the Holy Trinity. Be¬
sides these there is another order of contemplation: everything
that is incomprehensible has an intelligible contemplation, namely
the creation and providence of God, and the judgement on all
and the holy commandments that we are instructed to keep.
Moreover, the intellect has a contemplation of itself ('its soul’),
and all the words contained in the Scripture which are not com¬
mands but mysteries, as also the holy and divine mysteries cele¬
brated by us, all have a spiritual and intellectual contemplation.
(127, 74)

216 The paragon of mystics, for Philoxenos, is Saint Paul (127, 100-
107), who was made worthy of hearing the voice of Christ on the
road to Damascus (102); and after his baptism he received the Holy
Spirit, who ‘told him all the mysteries and the revelations of all the
hidden things’ (103). Thereupon, according to Philoxenos, Paul lay
on the ground for three days, while his intellect ascended to the
regions above the sky and experienced various contemplations
(103). For Philoxenos, this was the mystical experience that Paul
related ‘fourteen years later’ in his letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor
12:1 -4): ‘I know a man in Christ who, fourteen years ago, whether
in his body or out of his body I do not know, God knows, was
78 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

raptured to the third heaven . . . into Paradise . . . and he heard

things that cannot be told’. Philoxenos uses this as a supreme
example of Christian mysticism and its ‘spiritual contemplations’
(104-106).
217 In his thirteen Discourses (124, on faith, serenity, fear of God,
renunciation of the world, gluttony, abstinence, and mental fornica¬
tion) Philoxenos distinguishes two Christian ways of life: the way
of righteousness and the way of perfection. This is comparable to
the ‘righteous’ and the ‘perfect’ in the Book of Degrees, as two
classes of baptized Christians (paragraphs 153-154 above). For
Philoxenos, the righteous Christian who lives in the world can
obtain justification, but only the spiritual Christian, the monk, can
obtain perfection (Discourse 8). Philoxenos thus has three types
(Discourse 9):

1. the righteous, who have the wealth of the world and give it
to the needy;

2. the spiritual, who renounce the riches of the world for the
love of God;

3. the perfect, who have attained the stature of the knowledge

of the fulness of Christ, as Paul says.

The stages of the path to perfection are (Discourse 9):

1. avoidance of doing evil;

2. doing good, under the fear of the Law;

3. doing good willingly, beyond fear of the Law;

4. complete abandonment of the world;

5. labours of asceticism for eliminating the old self;

6. carrying the cross and attaining the fulness of the perfection

of Christ.

All these steps are based on commands of the Lord.

218 Philoxenos does not seem to allude to the parable of the mer¬
chant and the pearl in the Discourses or the Letter to Patriq; but in
 Stephen bar Sudaili 79

the Greek version of the letter, the pearl appears when these words
are put into the mouth of Paul: ‘I who am baptized in the Holy Spirit
and filled with grace wish to receive the precious pearl within me,
through Christ who dwells in me’. In Discourse 9 Philoxenos uses
the pearl to represent Christian discipleship, more particularly
monasticism; it is not to be sullied with unclean hands, by which he
means impure motives for becoming a monk (extract XXIII below).

STEPHEN BAR SUDAILI

219 A younger contemporary of Philoxenos of Mabbug in the first half

of the sixth century, Stephen Bar Sudaili was originally a monk of
Edessa. A letter of Philoxenos warns two priests of Edessa about
the heterodox ideas that Stephen was propagating: he had allegedly
imbibed the gnostic doctrines of John the Egyptian, who had studied
philosophy and medicine in Alexandria. Stephen moved to Palestine,
to the region of Jerusalem, and was there involved in the outbreak
of Origenism in the monasteries of Saint Sabas. He returned to
Edessa and died there sometime after 543.
220 No writings have survived under the name of Stephen Bar Sudaili,
but works of his were circulating in his own lifetime. A thirteenth-
century West Syrian scholar and mystic, Gregory Bar Hebraeus, knew
that Bar Sudaili was the author of The Book of the Holy Hierotheos.
The only copy of this work that was available to its modern editor
was the one in the British Library, and it was the very same manu¬
script that Bar Hebraeus had obtained for his own use after a long
search. The book purports to be by Hierotheos, the teacher of
Dionysios the Areopagite, and to have been translated from Greek
into Syriac. Both claims are improbable in the extreme, as critical
examination of the text has shown. Whether this fictional frame¬
work was devised by the author or an editor is not known. This
case is reminiscent of the editor of The Book of Degrees attributing
it to a disciple of the Apostles (when it was, perhaps, really com¬
posed by some suspect monk such as Adelphios of Edessa). It also
80 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

follows the pattern of the earlier mystical collection attributed to

Dionysios the Areopagite, but there is little or no connection be¬
tween the Hierothean and Dionysian books.
221 Hierotheos is an example of the Origenism of Evagrios taken to
extremes, and it may have helped fuel the fire to which Evagrianism
was consigned in 553 by the Council of Constantinople. The teach¬
ings of Bar Sudaili have been described as eschatological pantheism,
which went further than the idea of eschatological unity that was
running through the Eastern Christian tradition. In The Gospel of
Thomas an eschatological unity of male and female is urged. In the
last saying in this Gospel (I 12), Jesus declares to his disciples that
Mariham (Mary Magdalene) will be made like a man, so that she
will become ‘a living spirit’ like them, because ‘every woman who
makes herself a man will enter into the kingdom of heaven’. In an
earlier saying (23), in explanation of ‘little ones receiving milk’ being
like ‘those who enter into the kingdom’, Jesus states that dualism
must be transcended in unity to ensure entry to the kingdom: ‘make
the two one . . . the man and the woman a single one, so that the
man is not the man, and the woman is not the woman.’ It is ‘the
single ones’ who ‘enter into the bridechamber’ (75) who ‘will find
the kingdom’, because they come from it and will enter into it again
(50; cp Song of the Pearl l-ll); and it is like a wise man who ‘sold his
cargo and bought for himself the pearl alone’ (76). Similarly, in The
Acts of Thomas (129), there is an allusion to the Pauline assertion,
‘all one in Christ Jesus’ (Gal 3:20), when Mygdonia (one of the
Apostle’s converts who has given up ‘filthy intercourse’ with her
husband) looks forward to being in the presence of God, where
there is ‘neither male nor female’, but also ‘neither good nor bad’.
222 The next step is taken by Stephen Bar Sudaili, alias Hierotheos:
he moves from eschatological unification to eschatological monism
(in which the influence of Hinduism may be conjectured). His pan¬
theism is based on another of Paul’s pronouncements (taken out
of context): ‘God will be all in all’ (I Cor 15:8). For Stephen, every¬
thing is of a single nature with God, and at some point in the future
everything will become identified with God and identical to God.
All distinctions will vanish, the good and the evil alike will be united
in God, and hell will be no more. The word to describe this con¬
summation is not ‘union’ (hedayutha) but ‘commingling’ (hebikutha),
 Stephen bar Sudaili 81

because those that are united can be separated again, but not those
that are commingled (so that their identity is lost).
223 ‘Hierotheos’ states that he is revealing the things that Paul did
not dare to tell (2 Cor 12:4). And so he warns his reader that these
secret and mystical teachings are only to be communicated to the
purified minds of the initiated. This secretiveness can be seen in
the extract in the anthology (XXIV), which speaks of not casting
pearls before swine, and compares this secrecy with the necessity
for the oyster to be concealed within the ocean, or it will not
produce pearls.
224 The mystical system of Bar Sudaili begins with an ascent of the
mind through successive celestial levels, under attack from demonic
beings at each stage. The intellect undergoes a mystical crucifixion
at the hands of angels, for its purification. After three days in the
tomb, the mind experiences its mystical resurrection and becomes
reunited with its body and soul. A descent of the mind then takes
place, as it confronts evil in the form of a great tree, and in suffer¬
ing and in tears it journeys down to the roots of the tree of evil to
deal with the demons in the underworld, with the assistance of
Christ, ‘the great Intellect’. The next step is the second baptism,
administered to the mind on high, a baptism of spirit and of fire,
for union with the Good. The Spirit descends on the mind and it
is no longer called ‘intellect’ but ‘Christ’. Paul’s statement, ‘we have
the mind of Christ’ (I Cor 2:16) might be the doctrinal source
here. The intellect now reigns as Christ, entering the Holy of holies
to perform the mystical sacrifice and to distribute the mystical
bread of perfect knowledge to the angels. Descending again from
the spiritual Paradise with its Tree of Life, wielding the mystical
sword, he finds the demons pleading for mercy from him. Ultimately,
after reascending and redescending, the mind encounters the same
luminous Essence that he had seen on high, and thus there is now
neither height nor depth for the mind. The perfected intellect
passes beyond love, which supposes a distinction between the lover
and the beloved, and becomes absorbed, commingled, in the Unity.
All names disappear; there is no God, Christ, or Spirit; God has
become ‘all in all’.
225 The influence of this book cannot have been great; two West
Syrian prelates were impressed by it, but endeavoured to cover up
82 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

its heterodoxy. Theodosios wrote a commentary on it in the ninth

century, apparently accepting its first-century attribution; and in
the thirteenth century Bar Hebraeus removed some of the offen¬
sive material and rearranged the work.

ABRAHAM OF NATHPAR

226 Abraham, surnamed Nathperaya (‘of Nathpar’, near Mosul), flour¬

ished around 600. After three years of living in a cave as a hermit
in the mountains of Adiabene, he travelled to Egypt to visit the
Pakhomian monastic heartland. He returned to his own cave for
another thirty years of the solitary life. His disciple Job (Ayyob or
Ahob) established a monastery at this cave. This disciple had an
interesting background. As the son of a pearl trader he had fallen
sick while on a business trip; while being nursed in a monastery at
Nisibis, he vowed to take up the ascetic life.
227 Job translated Abraham’s writings from Syriac into Persian. The
surviving Syriac works attributed to Abraham of Nathpar are ten in
number: one of these is simply the Admonition on Prayer of Evagrios,
and another is the discourse On Prayer by John of Apamea, prefaced
by a few sentences from Aphrahat’s Demonstration on Prayer. One
therefore hesitates to include anything under his name in an anthol¬
ogy. But here is Abraham’s response to the purity beatitude (Mt 5:8),
in his own or borrowed words (141, 347):

Make your conscience resplendent with purity, and the Almighty

will impart pure thoughts to your soul, with rectitude. He will
illumine your conscience; he will be like the purifying cloud
before you; all the obstacles of life will be levelled ahead of you.
He will bring your little boat to the harbour. The life to come
will commence for you here and now: you will do the will of
God completely, on earth as in heaven. According to your way
of life, and also according to your wisdom, your joy will grow
and increase, and you will finally achieve the same vision as the
saints receive.
 Sahdona-Martyrios 83

GREGORIOS THE HERMIT

228 Gregorios the Hermit (the Syriac term translated ‘hermit’ denotes
a ‘desert-dweller’) seems to have belonged to the sixth or seventh
century. He was a Persian merchant who had visionary experiences.
He went to Edessa and studied in the theological school, subse¬
quently moving to Mount Izla near Nisibis to practise the solitary
life. For some reason he travelled to Cyprus, where he entered a
monastery, hence his other appellation, Gregory of Cyprus. Being
unable to speak Greek, he first worked as the monastery’s gardener,
but he eventually became the superior of the community. He re¬
turned to Mount Izla, died at an advanced age, and was buried in
the sepulchre of Mar Awgin, the reputed founder of Syriac monas-
ticism (paragraph 3 above).
229 Gregorios produced a book of discourses ‘On Holy Contempla¬
tion’ (theoria), and a collection of letters. His book owes something
to Evagrios Pontikos, and he employs John the Solitary’s framework
of corporeal, psychical, and spiritual stages. His starting point in
discussing ‘holy contemplation’ is the purity of heart that leads to
seeing God (Mt 5:8). He gives advice on defeating passions and
demons, such as gluttony, vainglory, and depression (akedia). The
goal, as with Evagrios, is ‘impassibility’ (apatheia). Then the Father
and Son, and even the whole Trinity, can come and dwell in him (cp
Jn 14:23). He says that when Paul reached the third stage, that of
‘spirituality’, he was transported to the third heaven, where he saw
and heard ineffable things (2 Cor 12); prayer then becomes speak¬
ing with God with ‘familiarity’ (parrhesia, ‘boldness’), a technical
term in Syriac mysticism.

SAHDONA-MARTYRIOS

230 The variant names Sahdona (Syriac) and Martyrios (Greek), given to
this seventh-century monk, carry the idea of ‘witnessing’ (or even
84 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

‘martyrdom’). It seems that he spent his last years in exile in a cave

near Edessa, after being hounded by his own East Syrian Church
for alleged heresy. He was born at Halmon in Persia, son of a pious
Christian woman whose prayers (like those of Monica for Augusti¬
nus) brought him into the monastic life, while he was still a young
man. He was apparently educated at the School of Nisibis, and was
accepted into the Mount Izla monastery of Beth Abey by its founder
Jacob. Around 635 he became a bishop, but at some time before
650 he was deposed by the Patriarch of the Church of the East,
and he left Persia.
23 I The Book of Perfection is his most important work, an ascetical
and spiritual book which, he claims, was written when he was
twenty-eight years old, though it reads like the wisdom of a person
with long experience. There are traces of the intellectual mysticism
of Evagrios in Sahdona, but his mentors are rather Saint Basil of
Caesarea and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus. He distinguishes ceno-
bitic monks, ‘who renounce marriage’, and solitary monks, who
are ‘strangers to the world and united to God’ (1.3.82); but he
rejects absolute eremitism in favour of semi-anchoritism, in which
contemplation and action are balanced.
232 Sahdona’s paragon of the solitary life is given an enthusiastic pen
portrait in his book. His mother had frequently taken him to visit
this holy hermit, who became an inspiring example to him, namely
Shirin, ‘blessed among women’ (Jdg 5:24-27); who was in her eighties
when he knew her:

Like Jael (cp Jdg 4:22) she plucked desire out of herself as a peg
from the tent of her body, wielded it, and laid out at her feet
the hidden enemy who fights against the saints; by outward
labours and by mystical prayer, she humiliated all his manly
strength and nailed his head to the earth. He, the evil one, is
thus put to shame: having originally been victorious and sown
his error through a woman, he is now defeated by women,
through him who was born of the virgin and who has made their
nature strong. She appeased the continual hungering of the belly
with a meagre ration, to sustain her body and not for the
demands of its desires. A small cake of lentil bread was her meal
each evening, with boiled vegetables; and although she sustained
 Sahdona-Martyrios 85

herself with this food only, and drinking only water, her face was
radiant with the grace of the Spirit who nourished her, so that
anyone would have imagined that she was regaling herself with
luxury foods; and yet mostly she was dining only once in every
four days, or even once a week. She was so diligent in prayer
and so vigilant in the lengthy office that it would not be a lie to
say that she was continually engaged in it. She spent most nights
without sleep, constantly singing psalms and praying; moreover,
by day she was also occupied with reading the Scriptures, stories
of righteous people, and instructional literature for reforming
morals and teaching reverence for God. She was so peaceful
and so gentle, so pure and so simple, generous with love and
charity to everyone, ever ready to receive strangers. (1.3.69-79,
abridged)

233 Martyrios bases his mysticism on Paul’s antithesis between the

outer and the inner person (2 Cor 4:16: ‘our outer person is wast¬
ing away, our inner person is being renewed day by day’), rather
than in the typical Syriac tripartite scheme of body, soul, spirit
(1.3.1 I -32). The outer practices include renunciation, repentance,
prayer, austerity, and struggling with passions and demons; these
produce in the interior person ‘the fruits of the Spirit’ (Gal 5:22),
of‘faith, hope, and love’ (I Cor 13:13).
234 The extract in the anthology (XXV) twice uses the metaphor
of pearls. Some of the imagery in the Song of the Pearl can also be
found in Sahdona’s Book of Perfection. There is the prospect of‘the
delights of the kingdom of heaven, endless repose, praise and
honour from God, and the sheen and beauty of the robe of glory,
sparkling with light’ (1.3.27; cp XI—XIII). Like John of Apamea (para¬
graph 203) Sahdona uses the analogy of a plain and a city as the
last stage of the path of perfection: the monk traverses a narrow
track, surrounded by sea and brigands; eventually he comes to a
broad plain, where peace and repose are enjoyed; finally he enters
the city of the kingdom and beholds the King on his glorious throne
and in his ineffable beauty (1.3.156-163).
235 In Part 2, Chapter 8, Sahdona treats prayers as an interior offering
of the heart, which must be pleasing to God. Perfect prayer without
blemish, purified of passions and accompanied by attentiveness and
86 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

tears, will be accepted by God, who will in return send the fire of
his Spirit to consume our sacrifice, and will raise our mind to heaven
in the flames of the sacrifice. Then we shall behold the Lord, to our
delight and not to our destruction’ (cp Ex 33:20, and Ex 24:9-1 I),
‘as the stillness of his revelation falls upon us, and the hidden things
of the knowledge of him are portrayed in us; our hearts will be
given spiritual joy, together with hidden mysteries which I am unable
to disclose in words to the simple’ (2.8.20; cp 2.8.55).

SIMON TAIBUTHEH

236 Shem’on de-Taibutheh or Simon the Gracious (literally ‘of his

grace’) was an East Syrian monk of the seventh century. He was
also a physician, and he produced a medico-mystical book, in which
he attempted to relate his medical ‘knowledge’ of the bodily organs
to his ascetical and mystical experience. He is, for example, very
technical about the workings of the heart: the right ventricle, he
says, receives the blood from the liver and purifies it, and sends it
on to the brain and the rest of the body; the left ventricle is under¬
stood as the seat of the animal spirit, which it subtilizes and sends
to the lobes of the brain, where rationality is created, together with
memory and understanding. If the ‘tablets of the heart’ are inscribed
with good (as a result of fulfilling commandments, victory over
passions, knowledge of divine things), then the heart radiates light,
peace, and life, and the memory and the understanding are thereby
purified and illuminated (152, I98a-I99a). He divides the mystical
path into seven stages (167b-168a):

1. novitiate, the struggle to show obedience to authority;

2. change, to a life of discipline;

3. warfare, against the passions, through fulfilling the command¬

ments, to achieve purity of heart;

4. mental labour, to discern the providence of God;

5. mental contemplation of the incorporeal beings;

 Simon Taibutheh 87

6. contemplation and ecstasy over the mystery of the Godhead;

7. divine grace works mystically and ineffably in the mind, some¬

times overwhelming it with love.

This scheme, with its contemplation of providence, incorporeal

beings, and the Trinity, owes something to Evagrios, who is in fact
named in another connection (169b).
237 Simon has another set of spiritual stations, in which he speaks
of ‘three ascents’ (174b-176a):

1. The novice makes his exodus from Egypt and proceeds across
the broad and restful plain of Egypt, unaware of the trials and
pitfalls that lie ahead of him; and when he encounters them, he
may turn back, or he may stop and mock those who go further,
or he will join them in their exertions.

2. The middle ascent involves mountains, seas, winds, darkness, de¬

jectedness, grief, and ‘the fourteen impediments of Abba Isaiah’,
as ‘they mount up to the heavens and go down again to the
depths’ (Ps 107:26). When they see the monks on the plains of
the first and third stages, they mistakenly rebuke them for their
seeming idleness. Eventually they become ‘illuminated’, and
worthy to enter the third realm.

3. In the stage of perfection, the ‘spiritual’ person rests on the plain

of serenity and reaches the harbour of peace, the haven of impas¬
sibility, and while still in this world his soul dwells in the next
world.

238 This last idea is developed in extract XXVI: a person from India
and China who lives in Syria has a different culture and does not
really belong to the Syrian world. Similarly the spiritual monk who
has experienced the mysteries of the New World (the next world)
is an alien in this world; he is in the world but not of the world. At
the same time (extract XXVIII) Simon reprimands himself: In my
garb (as a monk) I am a stranger to the world, but I keep a deposit
on it; I am stronger than it, yet I am caught in the snares of its
desires. Come and marvel, he says, at a merchant who trades with
a purse that has holes in it.
88 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

239 Simon does not use the pearl symbol in his book, but he has
musk as a metaphor for the essence of monasticism. Musk becomes
adulterated as it is passed on from person to person, and it loses
its precious qualities. The earliest monks obtained the gift of grace,
received spiritual knowledge, worked miracles, and experienced
the mystery of revelations. When the mystery was handed on, all
these things were lost in monasticism (XXVII). And Simon has the
treasure metaphor for the beauty and glory hidden in a person,
waiting to be brought to light through ascetic exercise (XXIX). He
also has a word of comfort for the non-achiever: he invokes a
blessing on the person who has not experienced the blissful opera¬
tion of grace, but who can (by knowledge, theory, and under¬
standing obtained through reading) investigate and learn about this
operation, which is performed on those who have been purified
(176a).

ISAAC OF NINEVEH

240 Isaac bishop of Nineveh, known in the Eastern Orthodox churches

as Isaac the Syrian, was born in Qatar, a peninsula on the Arabian
side of the Persian Gulf. After his monastic training in Mesopotamia,
he was ordained bishop of Nineveh (Mosul) by the Katholikos Mar
Giwargis (660-680). He lasted only five months in this office,
abruptly retreating to the solitary life in the mountains of Huzistan
in south-western Iran. He lived to a great age but eventually suffered
blindness, for which his ardent reading was blamed, and thereafter
he dictated his books to his disciples.
241 The writings attributed to him are: firstly, a collection of some
eighty-two discourses on spirituality which were translated from
Syriac into Greek in the ninth century by the monks Abramios and
Patrikios of the Laura of Saint Sabas in Palestine, and in this form
Isaac the Syrian was welcomed into the fold of Eastern Orthodoxy;
secondly, four ‘centuries’, sayings in groups of one hundred each;
thirdly miscellaneous epistles and discourses; fourthly, a work en-
 Isaac of Nineveh 89

titled The Book of Grace, in seven sets of ‘centuries’. Only the first
of these collections has had wide dissemination.
242 In Isaac’s mystical teaching four main streams meet: Evagrian,
Makarian, Dionysian, and Johannine (Apamean). Evagrios is fre¬
quently quoted by name in the eighty-two discourses. In Discourse
22 (Bedjan’s edition, 153, 163-175), for example, he is invoked more
than once as an authority on the highest forms of prayer, in opposi¬
tion to the Messallians who claim they can perform ‘spiritual prayer’
at will (171). And Isaac has the Evagrian image of ‘the light of the
Holy Trinity’ being like ‘sapphire or the colour of heaven, as the
place of God was called by the elders of Israel, to whom it appeared
on the mountain’ (174-175; cp paragraphs 69-71 above). And the
combined weight of Evagrios and Pseudo-Makarios is brought to
bear on the Messallians (495 and 500; cp paragraph 83). Isaac speaks
of ‘fiery impulses’ clothing the mystic, and this is a Makarian motif
(367, extract XL below; paragraphs 85-89 above). The Dionysian
contribution (cp paragraph I 24) is seen in Isaac’s use of Divine
Names 4.1 I (76) to show that names and words pass away when
mystical unification is achieved (169), and Celestial Hierarchy 6—7
(76) to distinguish the nine classes of heavenly beings (187). He also
follows Pseudo-Dionysios in designating the three stages of the
spiritual life as: novitiate, intermediate, and perfection, that is, firstly
the beginners or novices, secondly the intermediates, thirdly the
perfect (Discourse 12, 153, 121-123). But his main schema for
separating the three types is borrowed from John the Solitary of
Apamea, whom he apparently mentions once, as the blessed John
(334).
243 In speaking of the relationship between faith and knowledge in
Discourse 51, ‘On the three degrees of knowledge’ (360-377; cp
XL below), he uses John the Solitary’s ‘body, soul, spirit’ framework
(369-375). The first stage of knowledge is concerned with love for
the body (369-372). The second or intermediate degree involves
psychical love (372-373). The third is the degree of perfection and
spirituality. Isaac has thus combined the two systems of classification.
He also has the two goals, purity and serenity, for the somatical and
psychical stages respectively. In the first stage the monk defeats the
passions, which have their seat in the body, and it is purified of them.
90 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

The psychical stage involves the purification of mind and soul,

ridding them of thoughts that are foreign to the person’s true
nature. The result is serenity and impassibility. The distinguishing
feature of this second stage is the continual outpouring of tears;
such tears are absent from the corporeal stage because the mind
is immersed in passions. When the gift of tears comes, the monk
will find that they will be so constant and profuse that he will be
drinking them in with his meals (245). This is a sign that the soul
is moving into the spiritual stage where the flow of tears ceases,
where the integrity of the soul is restored, and where ecstasy
occurs, so that the person is rapt in wonderment, in a state of deep
spiritual inebration, and no longer in this world (174).
244 This spiritual state corresponds to the life in the new world
after the resurrection (304). There are temporary foretastes of it
through the intervention of the Holy Spirit, but the mystic must
wait patiently, with joy and hope, for the final consummation and
the unending bliss. The extracts in the anthology (XXX-XL) are
concerned with the voyage towards the harbour of rest and the
last mooring (XXX-XXXIII); the solitary life (XXXIV-XXXIX);
and faith (XL). The pearl acts as a metaphor for Christ (XXXIV),
treasures of grace (XXXVIII), and faith (XL). Isaac’s uniting of faith
and knowledge (XL) could be compared with the pearl and the
robe in the Song of the Pearl (paragraph 46M7). Isaac also uses
the pearl as a symbol for chastity, a pearl of great price which the
monk is ever in danger of losing (543).
245 Some of Isaac’s descriptions of mystical experiences are reveal¬
ing. Here is an example of the illuminations of the second stage,
experienced at the time of prayer, when the monk is on his knees.

When God opens your mind from within, and you give yourself
over to frequent genuflexion, do not give your heart up to anx¬
iety about anything, even though the demons secretly seek to
persuade you. Then gaze in wonder at what is generated in you
by this. . . . Sometimes a person will be on his knees at the time
of prayer, with his hands outspread or stretched heavenwards,
and his face gazing at the cross, and, so to speak, his whole at¬
tention and his whole mind directed towards God in supplica¬
tion, and while he is thus engaged in beseeching and groaning,
 Isaac of Nineveh 91

suddenly a fountain of delight will spring up from his heart, his

limbs will slacken, his eyes will be shut, his face will be bowed
down, and his thoughts will be interrupted, so that his knees are
just not able to rest on the ground, because of the exhilaration
from that act of grace, spreading through his whole body. Con¬
sider, man, what you are reading. Can such things be communi¬
cated through ink? Can the taste of honey be conveyed to a
reader’s palate through writing? (57-58)

The ascetic exercise of keeping vigil and foregoing sleep can bring
the reward of divine revelations, while the monk is standing.

It is said of one particular saint that because the demon of

lechery was waging war against him on all fronts, he committed
himself to the labour of vigil, and imposed on himself the rule
that he would not bend his knees at all, but would stand all night,
with his eyes open, not going down on his knees until morn¬
ing. . . . Through the labour of vigil, ascetics cast off the old
person, depraved with improper desires, and they put on Christ,
and are saved. Through this kind of labour performed with wis¬
dom, the saints become worthy of wondrous divine revelations,
higher than fleshly thought. When ascetics are enjoying such
things in their vigils, they pass the whole duration of the long
hours of the night without tiring, as their soul exults and rejoices
and forgets that it is wearing a coat woven of passions. And
because of the delight and the elation of their heart, they do not
think about sleep. They imagine that they have cast off their body
and are already in the state that comes after the resurrection.
Because of their great joy they sometimes leave off their psalm¬
ody, and fall on their faces, from the excitement of the joy
aroused in their soul. And the whole length of the night is like
the day to them, and the darkness like the sunrise, because of
the hope that lifts up their heart and intoxicates them with its
ideas, and through the blazing of their mind, enkindled by reflect¬
ing on things to come (549-550).

246 But illumination and ecstasy can also surprise the monk while
he is sleeping, as Isaac shows in describing what is apparently an
experience of his own (492):
92 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

I know a person who even during his sleep was caught up in

ecstasy with God through the contemplation of something he
had read in the evening. While his soul was stupefied in this
contemplative meditation, he perceived that he had been medi¬
tating for a long time, while going through the motions of sleep¬
ing, and observing the ecstatic vision. It was in the deep of the
night, when he suddenly woke from his sleep; tears flowed like
water, down onto his breast; his mouth was full of praises and
his heart meditated in contemplation protractedly, with in¬
exhaustible delight.

247 There is no doubt that Isaac is the most famous of the Syriac
mystics. His writings (translated into Greek with a few necessary
alterations) were and are admired in all the Eastern churches (cp
paragraph 259). In the West, in the Middle Ages, they were trans¬
lated from Greek into Latin under the title De contemptu mundi,
and there were also Spanish, French, and Italian versions. The
Slavonic translation found its way into the Russian edition of the
Philokalia.

DADISHO QATRAYA

248 Dadisho Qatraya was a contemporary and a compatriot of Isaac

of Nineveh: both lived in the second half of the seventh century,
and both came from Qatar (hence the surname Qatraya, ‘Qatarian’).
Two surviving works of Dadisho have been published: his com¬
mentary on the Asketikon of Abba Isaiah (Esaias of Sketis, paragraph
77 above); and a set of pieces making up a Discourse on Solitude
(shelyutha; solitude, stillness, silence; Greek hesukhia). The second
of these gives an insight into the life of the solitary monk. Dadisho
is speaking primarily to young monks who need guidance on their
obligatory seven-week retreat in a secluded cell.
249 The three great struggles that confront the solitary in the desert
are terror in the night, weariness in the daytime, and mental delu¬
sions caused by demons (169, Syriac text, folio 7ab). For the monk
who undertakes solitary seclusion, there are three requirements:
 Joseph the Visionary 93

right intention, faithful performance of his spiritual service in the

cell, and a guide (8a). This is where extract XLI comes in to em¬
phasize right intention. The performance of the services and prayers
in the cell will ward off the demons, and the monk will be rewarded
with spiritual understandings, divine consolations, and victory over
passions and demons (9a). For the young solitary, two major prob¬
lems will be dejectedness and passions aroused by demons, and he
will need an experienced leader to visit him on occasion, to console
him and admonish him through the aperture of the cell.
250 In extract XLII the benefits of solitude, the spiritual treasures,
are enumerated, notably the familiar ‘purity of heart’ which brings
divine vision, so that the solitary ‘sees in himself the holy light of
his mind’, and ‘the divine light of the glory of Christ shines in his
soul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit’ (I lab). In the section
on ‘pure prayer’ (34a-36b), Dadisho says that this is the means by
which passions are healed, sins are forgiven, and purity of heart is
acquired, leading to contemplation of God.
25 I Dadisho shows himself to have been a well-read scholar. Besides
the Holy Scriptures, the desert ascetics, and the Doctors of the
Church, he also quotes non-christian philosophers on the advan¬
tages of solitude (26b-29b). He is fond of quoting Evagrios, Esaias
of Sketis, and Mark the Hermit; he knows the Apophthegmata of
the Desert Fathers, the Makarian writings, and works of such earlier
Syriac writers as Ephrem.

JOSEPH THE VISIONARY

252 Yausep Hazzaya (Joseph the Seer) was born early in the eighth
century, of Zoroastrian parents, his father being a Magian priest.
At the age of seven he was captured and enslaved by Arabs. After
serving an Arab master for three years, he passed into the service
of a Christian. When Joseph received baptism he was released by
his master, and this left the young man free to enter a monastery in
the Qardu region of northern Iraq. Eventually Joseph took up the
solitary life, but returned to be the abbot of a monastery. A further
94 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

sojourn in the desert was followed by another period of abbacy in

a different community of monks. He died at an advanced age.
253 He was reputedly the author of many writings on mysticism, but
not all of them have survived; and those that are still extant are not
always under the name Joseph Hazzaya. We are told that he was
condemned at a synod in 786/787, along with John of Dalyatha and
John of Apamea, by the Patriarch Timothy I, head of The Church
of the East. This may be why some of his works have been trans¬
mitted under the name Abdisho (said to be the name of his brother,
who was also a monk). West Syrian scribes preserved his important
letter on the three degrees of the spiritual life, but they put it under
the name of their own illustrious teacher, Philoxenos. Joseph wrote
commentaries on the books of Evagrios, Pseudo-Dionysios, and
Abba Esaias, so we would expect to see their influence in his own
doctrine. His commentary on the Asketikon of Esaias has not sur¬
vived, though it is quite possible that the anonymous fragments of
such a commentary (published by R. Draguet, 182) belong to this
book, but Draguet does not accept Joseph as their author. The
writer refers to Mar Isaac (of Nineveh) as his teacher, and while it
is possible to fit such an encounter between Joseph and Isaac into
the time span of 650-750 (both lived long lives), in their biographies
there is no mention of them ever meeting. Joseph (Abdisho) does,
however, quote ‘Mar Isaac’ once in his published works.
254 Joseph’s basic framework of three stages of mysticism is bor¬
rowed from John of Apamea (John the Solitary): he relates them
to the body (corporeal), the soul (psychical), and the spirit (pneu-
matical) (paragraph 201), and sets forth the goals of purity, serenity,
and perfection (paragraph 203). In his letter on the three degrees,
Joseph draws an analogy with the Exodus of the Israelites. The
coming out of Egypt and the entering into Sinai is symbolic of
abandoning the world for the monastery. The Hebrews were placed
under the Ten Commandments as servants of God; likewise the
novice monk. In this first stage the goal is purity, so the body has
to be tamed and purified by the practices of fasting, vigil, prayer,
psalmody, and reading. This corresponds to the ‘practice’ of Evagrios
and the ‘purification’ of Dionysios. The second phase is the crossing
of the Jordan river and the entering of the promised land to con-
 Joseph the Visionary 95

quer the foreign nations, equivalent to entering the cell of solitude

and battling with the demons, to cleanse the soul of their evil influ¬
ence, and to achieve serenity. The status here is that of a worker
expecting his daily pay; and the solitary monk receives gifts of grace
as reward for his labor, the Dionysian ‘illumination’ and the Evagrian
‘natural contemplation’. The third level is the state of perfection,
entry into glorious Sion as son of God (cp Song of the Pearl, para¬
graphs 53-56), the stage of the spirit, with revelations of divine
mysteries (LV). This is the Dionysian ‘unification’ of ‘the perfect’, and
the Evagrian divine vision or contemplation of the Holy Trinity.
255 The remarkable thing about Joseph’s writing is his unexpected
willingness to talk about the experiences of the spiritual stage,
albeit in language that is both guarded and ecstatic. In the ‘sphere
of spirituality’, above the level of ‘serenity’, the experiences are
ineffable, and also ethereal; God is perceived as being formless,
without image (‘On the prayer that comes to the mind in the sphere
of serenity; and against those who claim that there is a material
image and likeness to the vision of the mind that has reached the
sphere that is above that of serenity ... in which God has no image
or likeness’; see LIV-LV).
256 When Joseph describes the mystical operations of the Holy
Spirit originally received at baptism, he relies on Evagrios and
Pseudo-Makarios, as we have seen (paragraphs 70-71, 84-85,
93-97). The first operation is the love of God burning like fire in
the heart and producing contempt for the world and desire for
asceticism (XLIX); this is already described in the Makarian Spiritual
Homilies (paragraphs 85-88 above). The second sign is true humility,
whereby all people are seen as ‘great and holy, and there is no dif¬
ference in his mind between good and bad, righteous and sinner’
(L; cp XLVIII); Makarios expresses the same idea (paragraphs 93-95),
and it is also affirmed in the Book of Degrees (paragraph 162 above).
The third sign is universal charity and compassion, for all human
beings (LI); this is also known to Makarios (paragraphs 96-98). The
fourth operation is divine love engendering mystical revelations (Lll);
here Evagrios is a likelier source (see paragraphs 70, 84). The fifth
is the reception of the light of the Godhead (LIU), and the other
four of the five contemplations of Evagrios (70-71).
96 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

257 Joseph is fond of the pearl metaphor; he does not shrink from
using it to describe one of his own books (XLIII). Like Sahdona
(XXV) he has a variation on the theme of ‘casting pearls before
swine’, whereby foolish people cannot discern the value of the
pearl (XLVII). The merchant-monk labours for the pearl, the ex¬
perience of divine mysteries (XLVIII, cp XLVI).

JOHN THE VENERABLE

258 A glance at the anthology will show that more pages are allotted
to this mystic than to any other person in this collection. The
bibliography for John the Venerable reveals that I have a particular
affection for this author; hence the special place he holds in this
book. Fortunately this bias can be justified on the valid grounds
that hardly anything of his work has been published in English
translation before this. And yet he is the most approachable of all
these mystical writers. He is less technical than Joseph the Vision¬
ary and more lyrical too. He uses metaphors and symbols in joyous
profusion, and he carries his reader on high with him in his ecstatic
descriptions of mystical experience (LXIII, LXXI-LXXII, LXXIII-
LXXIV, LXXV-LXXIX, LXXXI-XCIII).
259 A Syriac corpus of two dozen discourses (or homilies), ap¬
proximately fifty epistles, and some ‘chapters of knowledge’, have
been bequeathed to us, almost anonymously, ascribed simply to
‘the holy saba’ (old man) or (in their Arabic translation) ‘the spiri¬
tual sheikh’. But the manuscript tradition lets slip that the author’s
name was Yohannan, and so he has come to be known as Yohannan
Saba, that is ‘John the Old Man’, John the Elder (Sebastian Brock’s
designation for him), or John the Venerable, as we shall call him
here. One biography of this author, attributed to one ‘David the
Phoenician’, has John Saba identified with John bar Penkaye (or John
of Penek), who was also known as John of Dalyatha. However, the
best solution to the John Saba mystery is to distinguish the scho¬
lastic historian John of Penek from the mystical writer John of
 John the Venerable 97

Dalyatha, the author of the works attributed to John Saba. One

reason for concealing his identity was that John of Dalyatha was
condemned for alleged Messallianism by the East Syrian Patriarch,
Timothy I. No East Syriac manuscripts of his mystical writings are
known today, but his works were rescued from oblivion by West
Syriac scribes and were preserved in monasteries as far away as
Mount Sinai and the Egyptian Desert. They also passed into Arabic
and Ethiopic translations, and four of the pieces in the Greek ver¬
sion of Isaac’s discourses (paragraph 247), which was made in the
Saint Sabas monastery in Palestine, are actually by ‘the holy Saba’,
John of Dalyatha of the eighth century (not to be confused with
Saint Sabas, in Syriac Mar Saba, who died in 532).
Briefly, John Saba came from Beth Nuhadra. As a child he read all
the books in the local libraries, and as soon as possible he became
a monk. He had two brothers who also entered the monastery,
and when he moved on into the solitary life he sent his thoughts,
written on scrap materials, to his brothers; these writings were
eventually combined into books. He lived in the mountains of Beth
Dalyatha, and later in the hills of Qardu, where he set up a monas¬
tery. He died at a great age and was buried in the monastery.
Like Saint Francis he had a reputation for being at ease with
animals. Wild beasts would not harm him because they sniffed the
scent of their Creator on him, he being so close to God. And he
was an expert on how to overcome demons; he wrote discourses
on the demons of lechery, anger, distraction, distress, pride, and
blasphemy. Here is an example of his strategy against the demon
of blasphemy (Vatican Syriac ms 124, 289b-290a):

As the Lord showed me in a spiritual vision, we write the strata¬

gems of this blaspheming demon, for the consolation of those
who are tormented by him. I have seen this wicked demon; he
is fouler in odour and more hideous in appearance than all the
unclean demons. He will cling to a brother at any time, and
blaspheme while the brother is praying, chanting, reading, praising,
celebrating the life-giving mysteries, or partaking of them; . . .
the demon clings to him and blasphemes against their Maker,
producing his blasphemous voices in the soul, which becomes
troubled and distressed, thinking that these outrageous blasphemies
98 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

are impulses of its own. Far from it. . . . Give unceasing praise,
beloved soul, because your Lord has distinguished your pure and
lovely praises from the blasphemies of the deceitful one, for even
if they are mingled and coupled with them they are not confused
by him, but are pure and holy and without blemish.

262 The spiritual life starts with repentance, the mother that gives
new birth to the repentant soul (LVII-LVIII). Motherhood imagery,
including the comforting and nurturing maternal breast, is charac¬
teristic of John Saba (LVIII). The Holy Spirit is also the Genetrix who
gives suck (XCI). This is a natural motif in Syriac theology, as we
have seen (paragraph 19). And the vision of God depends on the
usual Syriac precondition, namely purity of heart (Mt 5:8): ‘He
whose heart is purified of passions sees God perpetually’ (LIX);
‘You who desire for yourself purity through which the Lord of all
may be seen, do not commit slander or listen to words of calumny
concerning your brethren. . . . Heaven is already within you if you
are pure, and there you see angels rejoicing, with their Lord among
them and within them’ (LX; cp LXIV).
263 The fiery impulse which Makarios saw as the motivating force
for renouncing the secular world (85-88) is known to John Saba.
The monk who returns to the world is like a fish leaving the water
to live on the land, only to be stifled; similarly ‘the fiery impulses
emanating from God vanish from the heart of the solitary who likes
worldly society and business’ (LXII). It is the demon of lechery who
cools the monk’s spiritual ardour and fills his soul with ‘fantasies
and vanities’ when he is asleep, ‘so that the beloved angels withdraw
because of its putrid odour’ (LXV). On the other hand, the pure
soul has resplendent beauty ‘a hundred times more glorious than
the orb of the sun’ (LXIII).
264 In isolation from the world, the ascetic sheds tears of compunc¬
tion (LXV), and in a moving prayer, a veritable meditation on the
Passion, he says:

You who wept and shed tears of sorrow over Lazarus, accept
my bitter tears. May my passions be allayed by your Passion;
may my wounds be healed by your wounds, my blood be blended
with your blood . . . (LXVI).
 Abraham bar Dashandad 99

Because this supplication passed to the West among the Isaac

discourses, in Greek and Latin translation, it is possible that it had
an influence in the Orthodox and Catholic churches, notably in the
Anima Christi prayer (201).
265 Besides Makarian motifs (paragraphs 86 and 98), John Saba refers
to such Dionysian concepts (126-127) as ‘the cloud of essential
light’ and ‘union and perfect commingling with God’ (LXVIII). He
has a system of three stages of spiritual development, which in its
features and terminology (first stage; intermediate stage; psychical
state; stage of perfection) is an amalgamation of ideas from John
the Solitary of Apamea (who was condemned along with John Saba
and Joseph Hazzaya), and from Dionysios, Makarios, and Evagrios
(LXIX-LXXII).
266 The pearl-merchant and the pearl-diver are at the forefront of
his imagery (paragraph I, LXXVII, LVI). The prayerful mystic has
access to all the divine treasures:

Through prayer the mind opens the door to the treasuries of

God and becomes his treasurer and the divider of his riches.
Through prayer it is made worthy to behold the glory of God,
and to abide in the Cloud of his majestic light, within the place of
the spirits, in stupefaction and silence, void of impulses, in ecstasy,
and wonderstruck at the beauty of the many-splendoured rays
of light dawning upon it (LXXV).

ABRAHAM BAR DASHANDAD

267 Known as ‘the Lame’, Abraham bar Dashandad lived in the eighth
century. He taught at the Christian school of Bashosh in Persia,
and two of his pupils became patriarchs of The Church of the East,
namely the Katholikos Timotheos I (780-823), and his successor
lsho‘ bar Nun (d. 828). As we have seen, the first of these was very
suspicious of some of the mystics under his jurisdiction: Joseph the
Visonary and John the Venerable were condemned by him (para¬
graphs 253, 259).
100 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

268 Only one mystical text by this writer has been published in
recent times: The letter of Mar Abraham bar Dashandad which
he wrote to his brother, who had gone forth to the itinerant ascetic
life’. The ‘brother’ (not necessarily a sibling) would have been fol¬
lowing the age-old Syriac pattern of ‘going forth’ to lead the life of
homeless wandering advocated in the Gospels; he was going to be
a ‘solitary’ (202, 61a).
269 The ascetic and devotional exercises recommended by Abraham
are: ‘silence, solitude, prudence, watchfulness’ (61a), reading in
silence, recitation of Psalms, prayers, labours of repentance (61a,
63b, 64a, 65b). He cautions his reader against excessive sleeping,
eating, and talking (60b); but vigil and fasting should be practised
with moderation (61a). ‘Victory over his passions’ should be the
monk’s goal, and this can be achieved by depicting before one’s mind
the sight of the rich man in Hell (Gehenna), suffering torments
because of the pleasures he enjoyed in this world (64b).

Do not possess anything but the love of God, in complete re¬

nunciation of this world and of all its possessions, because it is
in him that we live, move, and have our being (Acts 17:28). He
is the life of everything, and everything is from him; everything
is in him, and everything is for him (64b).

270 The basic remedy prescribed by Abraham, with repeated dosage,

is remembrance of death (202, 62a, 62b, 63b, 64a, 65a; cp paragraph
208 above). ‘Blessed is he who continually has the image of his
death before his eyes, and who prepares himself provisions that
will help him in the new world’ (63b).
271 The mystical objectives are neatly summarized in this statement:
‘Silence finds God; purity sees the living God’. In outlining the
spiritual path depicted by Abraham, who offers ‘the reward of
pearls’ to those who persist in meditation, virtues, good works,
and pure thoughts (XCVII), we shall note some remarkable com¬
parisons with The Song of the Pearl (I—XIII). This will serve to re¬
inforce the argument that this poem is simply based on the spiritual
teachings of the Bible; and the same is true of Syriac Christian
mysticism.
 Abraham bar Dashandad 101

272 The mystic monk has to be a solitary (61 a), as the pearl prince
was ‘solitary and alone, a stranger’ in the evil land of Egypt (IV).
The dedicated monk must not commune with men of loose con¬
duct or ‘anyone who does not care about the salvation of his life’,
who will dissuade him from communion with Christ (62b); similarly
the prince apparently spoiled his communion with his ‘anointed’
intimate friend, when he began to conform to the Egyptian way of
life (IV).
273 The solitary must realize that filling the stomach, sleeping exces¬
sively, and distracting the mind with thoughts of the outside world
separate one from eternal happiness (61b). Conforming to the
customs of the Egyptians (meaning worldlings) and eating their food
made the prince fall into heavy sleep, and he forgot his glorious
destiny (V-VI).
274 ‘You have been called to heavenly things; do not be bound to
earthly things’, says Abraham (66a). The prince is similarly reminded
of his bondage to the world of Egypt, and his forgotten task, and
the rewards awaiting him in the celestial realm of ‘the East’ (VI).
This reminder comes in the form of a letter (VII), representing the
Holy Scriptures (cp paragraph 35). The Bible, Bar Dashandad de¬
clares, ‘will teach you all that is helpful to your life’, on such matters
as faith, hope, and love (65a). This ‘holy reading’ is associated with
‘the hope of the promises’ and ‘the reward of your works’, in the
admonitions appended to the letter (67a); such ideas appear in the
pearl poem (promise, II, XIII; works or labours, XII).
275 ‘Remember that you are a son of kings . . . and that with your
brother our viceroy you shall be heir in our kingdom’ was the call
to the prince in Egypt (VI). Similarly Abraham affirms: ‘Remember
that you are the son of God and the brother of the Beloved of the
Father’ (67a), and he expounds ‘the inheritance of the saints’, in¬
cluding participation in ‘the glorification of the angels’, comparable
to the prince’s experience on his arrival home to join the ‘servants’
of the king in their praise and glorification (XIII).
276 ‘The pure children are the children of the Kingdom, and the
children of the new world despise everything in this world’ (64b).
The prince, after he remembered his ancestry, stripped off the
‘filthy abominable clothing’ of Egypt, and headed homewards to the
102 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

realm of light (VIII). Abraham says that social intercourse is ‘the

domicile of all the demons, and of straying, and complete separation
from God’ (61 a), and ‘Blessed is he who has not slumbered through¬
out his voyage, right to the haven of decease’ (65a), apparently
quoting Isaac of Nineveh (XXXIX). Unfortunately the prince did
fall asleep, but he awoke, performed his task of dealing with the
serpent, and proceeded past Sarbug, where the demons were
entrenched (VII), and arrived at the haven of Maishan (IX), with his
pearl intact (representing faith, and perhaps also purity; cp Isaac
XXXIX, and paragraph 244).
277 There the prince received his ornamented robes (X-XII) as the
reward of his labours (XII), and he arrived home to be reunited
with his brother (‘the splendour of my father’, paragraphs 18 and
52), who ‘rejoiced and welcomed’ him (XIII). ‘Adorn yourself with
good works and enter into the joy of your Lord’, and ‘inherit ever¬
lasting life’, Bar Dashandad exclaims (63b).
278 Finally, the donning of the shining robe (XI—XIII), with its allusions
to grace and love, faith and knowledge, and putting on the Lord
Jesus Christ (par. 46-50), finds a parallel in Abraham’s closing ad¬
monition (67b): ‘Let us pray sorrowfully at all times that grace will
shine in our heart. Truth is the measure of love, and works are the
knowledge of faith; but as for the soul that is far removed from these,
what profit has it gained in putting on Christ?
279 In the extract included in the anthology (XCVII; 66b), Bar
Dashandad refers to spiritual ‘pearls and precious stones’. He also
says: ‘Your soul is truly more precious to you than all the world
and everything in it. Blessed is he who has acquired the love of
God in his soul, and blessed is he who is continually kindled with
the love of Christ’ (65b).

GREGORY BAR HEBRAEUS

280 The last mystical writer to be mentioned in this book was a scholar
and a gentleman. He was the shining light of the silver age of Syriac
literature (thirteenth century), and a veritable polymath. He held
 Gregory bar Hebraeus 103

the highest office in the West Syrian church, and was so irenical
and ecumenical in spirit that he enjoyed excellent relations with
leaders of other religions. Grighor Abu’l-Faraj was his Arabic name;
he was born the son of a physician of Jewish descent, hence his
surname Bar ‘Ebraya (‘son of a Hebrew’); he was baptized under
the name John and became a bishop at the age of twenty. He died
in 1286, after a fruitful life of sixty years, and was laid to rest in the
monastery of Mar Mattai (Saint Matthew) at Mosul.
281 Bar Ebraya produced many books: on theology, ecclesiastical
history, philosophy, science, linguistics, and ethics. One of his works
in the field of mysticism has already been mentioned; he obtained,
with difficulty, a copy of The Book of the Holy Hierotheos (paragraph
220) and edited it along orthodox lines (225). We are fortunate in
having his own spiritual testament, in the fourth and final section
of his mystical manual, The Book of the Dove. His experience was
similar to that of Islam’s Al-Ghazali and Western Christianity’s
Thomas Aquinas: they all found that the production of weighty
theological tomes can leave a scholar spiritually unsatisfied. Ghaz-
ali found refreshment and repose for his soul in Sufism. Bar Ebraya
looked into the mystical writings of Evagrios and the whole Syriac
Christian tradition of mysticism, West Syrian and East Syrian alike,
and he was thereby lifted ‘out of the whirlpool of disintegration
and destruction’ (XCIX). He says that some of the scales covering
his eyes were taken away, and revelations came to him. These he
recorded in the hundred sentences with which the book ends, and
many of them are represented in the anthology (CII-CXXX).
282 He frequently invokes the Sinai cloud motif, borrowed from
Pseudo-Dionysios (paragraph 125). He uses the maternal metaphor:
he speaks of suckling at the breasts of Providence (paragraph 19;
CXXV). He also has the mirror of the mind image (Clll, CXIX,
CXXI). The pearl is not prominent in the Book of the Dove, but it
is combined with the mirror thus: ‘What profit is there ... in a
mirror decorated with pearls and gems if it is not cleansed of dross?
(Clll).
283 When he says in his introduction (Bedjan’s text, 204, 522) that
his book is divided into four chapters, small in extent but great in
power, we perhaps hear an echo of Joseph the Visionary’s Letter
on the Three Degrees, which is said to be of limited extent but
104 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

large in profit, like the Pearl of Majesty (XLIII). His book has the
same three levels as Joseph’s letter, namely the body, soul, spirit
framework of John the Solitary of Apamea:

(1) the bodily labour in the monastery;

(2) the psychical labour in the cell;

(3) the spiritual rest of the perfect.

In the third part, section nine, on varying states (204, 573-575),

Gregory has taken over the twelve operations of divine grace set
out by Joseph the Visonary in his Letter to a friend on the workings
of grace (2, 169-175, Ms 158a— 162b). This epistle is found in some
manuscript collections of the letters of John the Venerable, and
perhaps that is where Gregory saw it. Section two of part three
(204, 565-566) has been reworked from a similar passage in the
Ethikon (497) which is clearly based on John the Venerable’s dis¬
course on the three stages. The divine agent Grace, in John’s
original setting and also in the Ethikon, is changed to the Dove, in
conformity with Gregory’s unifying theme.
284 The Dove of The Book of the Dove is the Holy Spirit (cp paragraph
42 above), and also the dove of Noah’s ark. The four periods in
Noah’s life (Gen 6-9) are correlated with the stages of the mysti¬
cal path:

(1) performing works of righteousness, which made him pleasing

to God, corresponding to the monk’s corporeal labour in the
monastery;

(2) entering the ark, which saved him from destruction in the
flood; the ark represents the cell in which the monk per¬
forms his psychical exercises;

(3) leaving the ark, when the dove had announced that the waters
had receded; this signifies the spiritual rest that the consoling
Dove imparts;

(4) the revelations he received, the covenant established with him,

the planting of the vineyard, drinking the wine and becoming
intoxicated; the Dove elevates the perfect to royal rank, and
introduces them into the cloud where the Lord is said to
abide.
 Gregory bar Hebraeus 105

In section four of part three, Bar Ebraya speaks on ‘the unification

of the mind’ using Dionysian terminology, with echoes of John the
Venerable (paragraphs 125-126 above); ‘It sees itself in the likeness
of God, and because of the full cups it drinks in that room, it loses
its senses, and in this inebriation it says: I and my Father are one,
and my Father is in me and I am in him, together with other things
which should be kept secret, the Dove warns’ (Bedjan, 567).
On this sublime and mysterious note our introduction ends.
We are now invited to dive into the deeps of the anthology, in
quest of mystical pearls.
•*
THE ANTHOLOGY
 THE SONG OF THE PEARL

When as a little child I dwelt

in my father’s palace in my kingdom,
content I was with the luxury and riches
of those who saw to my upbringing.
Then from our homeland the East,
my parents sent me forth equipped;
from the riches in our treasure store
they made me an abundant load;
large it was and yet so light
I could carry it by myself:
there was gold from Beth-’Ellaye,
silver from noble Gazak;
there were rubies from the Indies,
agates from Beth-Kushan;
and they girded me with adamant,
which pulverizes iron.

II S’

They took my shining robe away,

which they in their love had made for me,
and likewise the scarlet toga,
measured and woven to my stature.
A covenant they made with me,
writing it on my heart lest it be forgotten:
If you will go down into Egypt
and bring out a certain pearl,
the one in the midst of the ocean,

109
 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

hard by the hissing serpent,

then you shall wear your shining robe again,
and the toga that goes over it,
and with your brother, our next in rank,
you shall be heir in our kingdom.

III s*

I left the East and wended my way down,

having two guardians with me,
for the journey was perilous and difficult,
and I so young to set out on it.
I passed through the borders of Maishan,
resort of the Orient’s merchants;
I arrived in the land of Babylon,
and entered the walls of Sarbug.
I went right down into Egypt,
and my guides then parted from me.
I made my way straight to the serpent
and lodged close by his lair,
waiting till he slumbered in sleep,
when I would take my pearl from him.

IV S’

I was solitary and alone,

a stranger to those I lived with.
Then one of my own kind, a freeman,
someone from the East, I saw there,
a comely and gracious lad,
a consecrated person, who joined me;
I made him my intimate friend,
and took him as partner in my pursuits.
I warned him against the Egyptians,
against joining with the unclean.
Yet I myself wore their manner of dress,
lest they abhorred me for coming from outside
 The Song of the Pearl

to take the pearl away,

and lest they stirred up the serpent against me.
But by some means or other they perceived
I was not a fellow-countryman of theirs.
They dealt with me deceitfully;
they gave me their food to taste.

~iV s*

I forgot I was a son of kings,

and I served a king of theirs;
I forgot as well the pearl
for which my parents had sent me.
With the heaviness of their foodstuffs,
I sank deep into sleep.
But all the things that befell me
my parents perceived, and grieved over me.
Proclamation was made in our kingdom,
that all should hasten to our gate,
the kings and princes of Parthia,
and all the nobles of the East.
They drew up a plan for my sake,
that I might not be left in Egypt;
and then they wrote a letter to me,
and each noble signed his name to it.

VI s-

From your father, the king of kings,

and your mother, mistress of the East,
and from your brother our second in rank,
to you, our son in Egypt, greeting!
Awake and rise up from your sleep,
and listen to the words of our letter.
Remember that you are a son of kings;
look at your bondage to the one you now serve.
Call to mind the pearl,
 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

for which you were sent into Egypt.

Be mindful of your shining robe,
and think of your splendid toga,
which you shall put on to adorn yourself,
when your name is called in the honour roll,
when you and your brother our viceroy
are together again in our kingdom.

-VII s.

My letter was an epistle

that the king sealed with his right hand,
to protect it from the wicked Babylonians
and the cruel demons of Sarbug.
It flew in the form of an eagle,
the king of all winged creatures;
it flew and alighted beside me,
and became entirely speech.
At its voice and the sound of its rustling
I started and rose from my sleep.
I took it up and kissed it,
I broke its seal and read it;
in line with what was inscribed on my heart
the words of my letter were written.

-VIII

I remembered I was a son of kings;

my free-born nature asserted itself.
I remembered too the pearl,
for which I had been sent into Egypt.
So I commenced to work enchantments
on the fearsome hissing serpent.
I hushed him and lulled him into slumber,
pronouncing my father’s name over him,
and the name of our second in rank,
and of my mother, queen of the East.
 The Song of the Pearl

I snatched up the pearl,

and turned to go home to my father.
Their filthy abominable clothing
I stripped off and left in their country;
I directed my course to bring me
to the light of our homeland, the East.

IX s>

My letter, which was my awakener,

I found ahead of me on the way;
and as with its voice it had woken me,
so now with its light it was leading me.
Enwrapped in silk as it was,
it shone before me with its form,
while with its voice and with its guidance,
it encouraged me to make haste,
and with its love it drew me on.
I went on my way beyond Sarbug,
and passed by Babylon on my left.
Then I came to Maishan the noble,
that haven of the traffickers
which sits on the shore of the sea.

My shining robe which I had taken off,

and my toga with which it was covered,
from the heights of Hyrcania
my parents had sent to me there,
by the agency of their treasurers,
whose honesty they could trust.
I had not remembered its fashion,
having left it with my father in childhood;
suddenly, as I encountered the garment,
it seemed like a mirror of myself.
I beheld its all in my own all.
I 14 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

and I encountered my own all in it;

for though we were two in distinction
we were still one, in one likeness.

XI s>

The treasurers too, who brought it to me,

I saw in the very same way,
that they were two yet one in likeness,
for one sign of the king was marked on both,
by his own hands, who returned through them
my deposit and my wealth,
my bright ornamented robe,
adorned with glorious colours,
with gold and beryls,
with rubies and agates,
and the sardonyx of varied hues,
it had also been fashioned on high;
and with stones of adamant
its every seam was fastened;
and the image of the king of kings
was all embroidered over it;
and like the sapphire jewel
were its manifold colours.

XII :-o

And now I saw that all over it

impulses of knowledge were stirring,
and I saw it preparing itself
to give forth utterance.
I heard the sound of its tones,
as it murmured on its way down:
I am his who is diligent in doing,
for whom I was brought up before my father;
truly I have been aware in myself
that my size has been growing with his labours.
 The Song of the Pearl 115

Moving in its regal manner

it was giving itself completely to me,
and on the hands of its presenters,
it was impatient for me to receive it.
For my part I was impelled by love
to run to meet it and take it.

XIII s.

I stretched out my hand and accepted it;

I decked myself out in its beauteous colours;
my toga with its lustrous colours
I wrapped right around myself.
Thus clothed I made my way up
to the gate of greeting and homage;
I bowed my head and made adoration
to its sender, the splendour of my father;
for I had carried out his orders,
and he had done what he had promised.
Standing at the gate of his princes,
I mingled with his noblemen,
for he rejoiced and welcomed me back,
and I was now with him in his kingdom.
With the voice of glorification
all his servants were praising him,
and he promised I would once again be brought
with him to the gate of the king of kings,
and with my present and my pearl,
I would appear with him before our king.
I 16 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

APHRAHAT THE PERSIAN

XIV S.

Profitable is the word I speak and worthy of acceptance.

Rom 13:11 Let us now awake from our sleep, and lift up our hearts
and our hands towards God in heaven, so that if the
Lord of the house comes suddenly, when he comes
Mk 13:35f he shall find us in watchfulness.
Let us observe the appointed time of the glorious bride¬
groom, so that we may enter with him into his bridal
chamber.
Mt 25:1-13 Let us prepare oil for our lamps, so that we may go forth
to meet him with joy. . . .
Let us put away and cast from us all uncleanness, and put
on wedding garments.
Mt 25:14-30 Let us trade with the silver we have received, so that we
may be called diligent servants.
Let us be constant in prayer, so that we may pass beyond
the place where fear dwells.
Mt 5:8 Let us purify our heart from iniquity, so that we may see
the Lofty One in his glory.
Mt 5:7 Let us be merciful, as it is written, so that God may have
mercy upon us.
Mt 5:9 Let there be peace amongst us, so that we may be called
brethren of Christ.
Mt 5:6 Let us hunger for righteousness, so that we may be
satisfied from the table of his kingdom.
Let us be the salt of truth, so that we do not become
food for the serpent. . . .
Mt 13:45-46 Let us sell all our possessions, and buy for ourselves the
pearl, so that we may be rich.
 Aphrahat the Persian

Let us lay up our treasures in heaven, so that when we Mt 6:19-20

arrive we may open them and have pleasure in them. . . .
Let us honour the Spirit of Christ, so that we may receive
grace from him.
Let us be strangers to the world, as Christ was not of it. Jn 17:14
Let us be humble and meek, so that we may inherit the Mt 5:5
land of life.
Let us be constant in his service,
so that he may let us serve in the abode of the saints.
Let us pray his prayer in purity,
so that it may have access to the Lord of majesty.
Let us be sharers in his suffering, 1 Pt 4:13
so that we may also rise up in his resurrection.
Let us bear his sign upon our bodies, so that we may
be delivered from the wrath to come. 1 Th 1:10
I 18 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

EPHREM THE SYRIAN

•x XV s.

Mt 13:45-46 Blessed be he who compared

the Kingdom of the Most High to a pearl.

On a certain day, my brethren,

heirs of the Kingdom, I picked up a pearl;
I saw in it symbols, images, and types
of that Majesty, and it became a well
wherein I drank symbols of the Son.

I placed it, brethren, in the palm of my hand

to consider it; I set to looking at it
from one side, but it had faces
on all sides; so it is with examining the Son;
both are unsearchable, being all light.

In its clearness I saw the Clear One

who is unsullied; and in its purity
the great mystery, the body of our Lord,
which is spotless; in its undividedness
I saw the truth that is undivided. . . .

When I asked the pearl if there were in it

yet other symbols . . .
it answered me saying: A daughter am I
of the immense sea; and vaster than that sea
from which I have risen is the treasure
of mysteries in my bosom; you may search the sea
but you can not search the Lord of the sea.
 Ephrem the Syrian

I have seen the divers who come down for me;

after a short time in the midst of the sea
they return to dry land in distress;
they can endure no longer; who then can expect
to search the depths of the Godhead?

- XVI s.

In symbol and truth is the sea-monster* crushed Iwytn

by mortals; the divers strip themselves, Leviathan
then put on oil, a symbol of the Anointed Christ;
they grasp you and ascend, as Apostles would seize
a soul from the ferocious jaws.

By nature, Pearl, you are like the silent lamb

in its gentleness; for if one pierces a pearl,
then lifts it up and hangs it on one’s ear,
as on Golgotha, it sheds more brightly
all its rays on those who gaze upon it.

XVII

O free gift that came up

with the diver, akin to that light,
the manifested one, which shines freely
upon human beings, you represent the mystic* one 'hidden'
freely giving mystic enlightenment.

The painter has painted you in a picture,

with colours; but in you is depicted
faith, in types and symbols, as with colours;
and in place of a picture, in you
and in your appearance your Creator is portrayed. . . .

You are uniquely great in your smallness;

O Pearl, diminutive is your size,
and small is your measurement and your weight.
120 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

but great is your splendour; solely on that diadem which

is beyond price are you set.

Anyone who does not perceive in your smallness

how great you are, who despises you
and loses you, will be censured
for their stupidity; but having seen you
on a king’s crown, they will be drawn to you. . . .

Unclothed men dived to bring you up,

O Pearl; kings were not the ones
who first presented you to human beings,
but the unclothed, symbolic of the poor,
and of fishermen and Galileans.

For they could not, with bodies clad,

come to you; but they came unclothed,
like new-born babes, entombing their bodies
and descending to you; you welcomed them
and took refuge with them, who so cherished you.

Their tongues gave tidings of you

before they opened their pockets; poor as they were
they brought forth and showed their new riches
in the house of the merchants; in the hollows
of the hands of people they placed you,
as the medicine of life.
 The Book of Degrees 121

THE BOOK OF DEGREES

XVIII s*

Blessed is the person who enters the celestial church,

upon which our Lord shines openly, as the visible sun
shines upon the visible church and upon these temples
that are our bodies. No matter how often the sun may
set on these, the church above never loses the light of the
countenance* of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Num 6:26,
Ps 4:6
Even though our Lord is in every place, he is only seen
openly in that church in heaven, and only by those who
have humbled themselves, and become peaceful, and
gentle towards everyone, who have struggled and en¬
gaged in single combat with evil spirits, and have purified
their hearts of evil thoughts. As the Apostle said*: Your Eph 6:12
struggle is not with humans of flesh and blood, but with
rulers and powers, with evil spirits, and with Satan the
destroyer.

Those who have fought with Satan and have overcome

him, become worthy of this church which is above all,
upon which our Lord shines openly, and they experience
the glorious light of his countenance. For our Lord said*: Mt 5:8
Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they shall
see God.
122 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

JOHN THE SOLITARY

XIX s>

At all times you should be offering to Christ constant

thanksgiving out of the fullness of the love in your soul;
for he has deigned to accomplish in you his glorious
parable: The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant who
sought fine pearls, and when he discovered a very precious
Mt 13:45f pearl he went and sold all he had, and bought it * So it is
with you, our dear friend. After you had set out to seek
much wisdom and had found the knowledge of the mys¬
tery of Christ, which is more glorious, more exalted, and
more abundant in great virtues than any other wisdom,
you then forsook all other knowledge and kept only the
knowledge of Christ within your soul. Through him you
have become rich, and you reign in his magnificent King¬
dom of God . . .

God almighty, perfect and complete in himself,

is himself the Kingdom,
the sheen of his splendour,
the majesty of his sway,
the honour of his glory,
the tranquillity of his person,
the immensity of his power,
the loftiness of his truth,
the fullness of his substance,
the vision of his loveliness,
the tabernacle of his joy,
the blessedness of his rest;
his riches are not present without him,
 John the Solitary 123

his secrets not without his wisdom,

his appearing not without his knowledge,
his likeness not without his fullness.
He himself is the appearing,
the secrets of his knowledge,
the wealth of his treasures,
the restfulness of his will,
the sphere of his being,
the realm of his glory.
He is in his perfection single and unique;
there is no duality in him . . .
His might is incomparable,
his beauty indescribable,
his love immeasurable,
his serenity inexpressible,
his worth incomprehensible.

XX

Anyone occupied in virtuous conduct and not ruled by

wickedness and passions is freed from the corruption
and darkness of this world and the tyranny of sin,
whereby a person serves the forces of deception, from
whose dominion he cannot escape. ... As a person
asleep is held captive by fear and terror in idle dreams
until waking comes and delivers him, so people are held
at the mercy of deception and evil passions until Christ,
our true dayspring and holy light, comes to rouse us and
bring us to ourselves, and from their power he saves and
delivers us. . . .

~ XXI

Although he worshipped with the Father,

he was sent as a messenger;
he put on our garment, to be seen by us;
walked as a servant,
124 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

appeared as a healer,
became as a brother,
served as a slave;
spoke as a teacher,
listened as a student;
fought as a mighty man,
succumbed as a vanquished one;
he was sold as a vassal,
he freed as a lord;
he reproved as a judge,
he was condemned as a malefactor.
With the needy he was needy,
with the almsgivers he gave to the poor;
with the fasters fasting,
with the diners dining;
with the persecuted he was persecuted,
with the fighters he fought;
with those subject to the law keeping the law,
with God a rewarder of those who labour;
with the sons an heir,
with the Father a giver of inheritance;
with the supplicaters entreating,
with the Father granting petitions;
with the envoys an emissary;
with the sinners a sacrificed lamb,
with the priests an atoning high priest;
with the departed slain,
with God raising the dead;
with the persecuted persecuted,
with God vindicating the persecuted;
with the reviled reviled,
with the wounded smitten,
with God healing,
with the sick as an invalid,
with the strong strong,
with the perfect perfect,
with the deprived as one deprived,
 John the Solitary 125

that he might perfect them;

with the redeemers a redeemer,
with the imprisoned a prisoner,
so that when he was subjected to death
he might redeem the captives.

XXII s>

As at the rising of the sun over the horizon the shroud

of darkness is removed from the face of the earth, so
that it shows itself in all its beauty, so likewise when the
love of Christ shines forth in the soul and the veil of the
old nature is taken away, the light of Christ shines forth
in it, and the hidden things that were not visible before
are now seen by it. And as iron when placed in a fire has
the fire pass into it to become one substance with it, the
iron united with the fire assuming its likeness and colour,
no longer appearing in its former aspect, but becoming
like the fire, because they have become absorbed in each
other and have become one, so it is when the love of
Christ has come into the soul as a living fire which burns
away the thorns of sin from the soul; it becomes one
substance with him and he with it; then the soul which
was old, becomes new; dead it comes alive; and the
likeness of its own nature is changed into the likeness of
God. And now everything it sees appears to it as the
likeness of God (for it is granted to created beings to
behold the works of God spiritually), and it becomes
absorbed in love for all humankind, so that if it could it
would let itself perish, so that all humans might live.
126 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

PHILOXENOS OF MABBUG

XXIII

If you intend to become a disciple, do as the will of your

Master requires; otherwise remain in the world. Do not
aspire to be honoured with a title you do not deserve;
do not take a pure pearl with unclean hands; do not put
on the purple of discipleship if you do not possess the
knowledge to keep it. Calculate for yourself what
discipleship demands of you, and then take its yoke upon
Mt 11:29-30 yourself*. . . .

Be a perfect disciple; otherwise remain in the world and

work within the righteousness of the Law, which is below
the spiritual life. . . .

So long as sin lives in you, whether in deed or in thought,

and corporeal care arises in you from the world, you are
an old bottle and cannot receive the new wine of the
wisdom of Christ. Abandon everything, as the Apostles
did, and then freely ask to become master of the spiritual
treasures.
 Stephen bar Sudaili 127

STEPHEN BAR SUDAILI

XXIV s>

I am in fear of those strict injunctions which have been

laid upon me .... that I should not expose the secret
and hidden mysteries before minds that are not pure,
thereby transgressing the word that says, Do not give
a holy thing to dogs, and do not throw pearls to
swine*. . . . Mt 7:6

My son, I have seen many men to whom there came a

rapid fall from heaven because they disclosed this divine
mystery; as with our Lord, I too have seen Satan and the
man who is like him fall from heaven.* Lk 10:18

Therefore, my son, honour with perfect and mystic

silence those things which give you life; and consider also
the ant* and learn from its ways, how it stores up its cp. Pr 6:6-8
bread and conceals its food; and the oyster, which if it
were not concealed within the deep, would not produce
pearls. . . . When the mind has been accounted worthy
to ascend above the firmament, it then becomes as a
babe that has just been born, that has just arrived out
of darkness into light.
128 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

SAHDONA-MARTYRIOS

- XXV
I think that it has already been revealed to you, my breth¬
ren, how glorious and excellent is this holy path of the
fear of God; it has been seen as resplendent, limpid, pure,
and filled with light. But bear with me a while yet, and you
will behold anew its magnificent beauty. For it becomes
much more attractive to us when we examine one by one
its spiritual beauties and its infinite virtues. We acquire
greater prudence by learning about the struggles and
athletic labours in it, and we do not stray from it as eas¬
ily as those who are not aware of its great glory and have
not even reached the outer portals of its knowledge.

How often, in their stupidity, they disdain and despise it

and account it as nothing, because they do not compre¬
hend the power of its knowledge. They are to be compared
with a child who has not yet acquired understanding,
who regards pebbles as equal in value with pearls, not
knowing their superiority and preciousness, and will lose
both with indifference while amusing himself with them;
or the stupid man who makes bronze equal with gold, or
emeralds and rubies equal with clay beads, or considers
tin to be silver; or like someone whose palate is ruined
and who cannot distinguish the sweetness of honeycomb
from the bitterness of wormwood.

So it is with these ignorant people: their sense of discern¬

ment being corrupted, they cannot appreciate the delicious
sweetness of that spiritual food which is the accomplish-
 Sahdona-Martyrios 129

ing of the will of God, which through its sweetness brings

back to life those who eat it with discernment.

And so the service of perishable food (which delights

their palate for a mere moment and is then gulped down
to become dung in those sewers of the belly, the intes¬
tines) is valued more highly by them than the spiritual
service of divine food, which remains alive for ever, such
as the Son of God has bestowed on us through the gift
of his Spirit.

They are in no way different from senseless youths who

prefer a tasty fig on their palate to a pearl set in a diadem.
130 TheWisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

SIMON TAIBUTHEH

- XXVI s>

The things that happen to those whose mind perceives

the mysteries of the New World, are like what befalls a
man who comes to our country from China or from
India: he goes in and out of the houses of many people,
he gives and takes, eats and converses with many people,
but although he performs his actions in his body, and is
seen here by all, yet in his mind and in his thoughts he
is in his own country and among his own people; his man¬
ner of life is just as it is in his own country, even though
he superficially displays the manners and customs of
those among whom he is now living; the manners and
customs of those with whom he is living are not accept¬
able to him, nor are his acceptable to them; he does not
know how to live with them, nor they with him; if he
meets a man of his own country and of his own lan¬
guage, he rejoices and sees his fellow-countrymen in his
imagination.
cp. IV
So it is with the man who becomes aware of the mysteries
of the New World: his mind is captive, and in his char¬
acter and thoughts he is an alien to the ways and customs
of the world in which he is sojourning.

XXVII

An old monk was asked what the monasticism of the

ancients, in relation to ours, might be likened to, and he
replied: There was a wise rich man who wished to ac-
 Simon Taibutheh 131

quire valuable musk, and, not finding the genuine article

of his desire, he traversed mountains, sea, and land, and
reached China. He presented gifts to the king of that
region to gain permission to cut the musk with his own
hands. He then returned and gave it to his sons, who
little by little introduced sham substances into it. They
adulterated it as they handed it down from one to an¬
other, until only the sham was left in place of the true
musk, with no odour or perfume remaining.

In the same way the early fathers, desiring what is true,

trod life and death underfoot, experienced all tribula¬
tions, endured all trials, delivered their very beings up
to spiritual sacrifice, and implored Christ with sorrow
and tears until they obtained the gift of grace, were found
worthy of spiritual knowledge, became an abode for God,
worked miracles, and perceived the mystery of revela¬
tions. And the mystery was handed down little by little
until we alone were left, having only the name and garb.* of monk

XXVIII
What am I to do? I hate evil deeds, but I zealously perform
them; and although I love good things, I do evil things.
I am zealous for the things that I hate, but lethargic about
what is of advantage to my being. I hate the passions, yet
I love their objects; I am distant from them, yet I embrace
them. In my garb I am a stranger to the world, but I keep
a deposit on it. I am stronger than it, yet I am caught in
the snares of its desires. I am upright, yet it teaches me
wiliness. I have not learned its craft, yet it requires it of
me. When I think I am moving forwards, I am really run¬
ning backwards.

Come and laugh at an able man who is entangled in

cobwebs and who labours in voluntary servitude.
132 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

Come and laugh at a rational man who forgets his own

resolutions and works in a retrograde manner.

Come and weep over a free man who has deliberately

turned his freedom into slavery under his enemies.

Come and marvel at a merchant who trades with a purse

that has holes in it.

Great is my shame, for when victory is set within my

grasp I run to my defeat. The world shows me a beautiful
flower, but puts thorns into my hands. It places enticing
bait in my mouth, but casts a snare round my neck. Why
do I not flee from it when I know about all these snares,
and not one of them could then overcome me?

Worst of all, I fail to notice my own foul sores, but I ob¬

serve other people’s tiny scratches. The foul festering of
my own wounds is not loathsome to me, but I abhor the
perspiration of others. The beam in my own eyes is not
too heavy for me, but I am assiduous in setting right the
Mt 7:3 specks in other people’s eyes*

- XXIX

A great and glorious treasure, without equal in the crea¬

tion, is hidden within you, O man. If you had become
aware of it, even by accident, you would have cried out
like the prophet: I will not give sleep to my eyes or
slumber to my being, until I find a place for this divine
treasure that is hidden in me.

Glory, glory, glory to you, merciful God, for you have

hidden in this clay from the ground and in this dust from
the earth (a substance which is always melting and dis¬
solving) an ineffably beauteous treasure that has no equal
in Heaven or Earth. Had you but known, O monk, what
 Simon Taibutheh 133

beauty is hidden within you, you would not have be¬

stowed blessing on the illustrious men of this world, but
you would have changed night for day in your pursuit of
the treasure hidden in you.
134 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

ISAAC OF NINEVEH

~ XXX S.

The mind that has found spiritual wisdom is like a man

who has found ready at hand in the midst of the ocean
a ship on which to embark, to take him from the ocean
of this world and bring him safely to the islands of the
world to come. Thus the apperception of things to come
in this world is like a small island in the midst of the
ocean, and whoever has attained to it will no longer be
agitated by the storms of transitory illusions.

~ XXXI

When the merchant has completed his season of busi¬

ness he makes haste to return home. While the monk
still remains in his time of service he is distressed about
departing from the body; but when he realises in his soul
that he has redeemed his time and has received his
pledge, he yearns for the world to come.

- XXXII s>

While the merchant is on the sea, apprehension takes

possession of him: a storm may rise and the gain he
hopes to make from his toil will be swallowed up. And
while the monk is in this world, anxiety reigns over his
service lest a tempest be stirred up against him to de¬
stroy what he has toiled for from his youth till his old
age. The merchant looks towards the dry land, the monk
towards the time of his death.
 Isaac of Nineveh 135

XXXIII s-

The mariner looks to the stars while he is sailing over

the sea, and he steers his ship by them as they point him
to the harbour. The monk looks to prayer, for it steers
him towards the haven to which his course is to be di¬
rected. Through prayer the monk is on the watch at all
times, to be shown the island where he may anchor his
ship free of anxiety and take on provisions to enable him
to voyage to yet another island.

Such is the course of the solitary while he is in this life;

he departs from island to island, or from knowledge to
knowledge; and like different islands he encounters dif¬
ferent stages of knowledge, until he leaves the sea behind
and makes his way to the city of truth, whose inhabitants
no longer engage in commerce, but everyone is content
with his riches.

Blessed is he whose voyage is not disrupted on this wide

ocean. Blessed is he whose ship is not wrecked and who
reaches that haven rejoicing.

~ XXXIV S’

The diver plunges naked into the sea to find a pearl, and
the wise monk will go naked through the desert places
to find the Pearl, Jesus Christ himself. When he has found
it he will not wish to acquire anything else. A pearl is
kept in an inner room; the solitary takes delight in silent
seclusion.

XXXV s>

A dog licking a file is drinking his own blood, but he does

not notice his injury because of the sweet taste. A soli¬
tary who stoops to lapping up glory is sapping his own
36 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

life without giving thought to his injury, because of the

momentary sweetness.

XXXVI s.
Glory from worldly people is like a rock hidden in the sea;
it is not perceived by the mariner until his ship strikes
against it, so that its bottom is holed and it fills with
water. Accordingly it is said by the Fathers that through
glory all the passions that have been overcome and dis¬
patched from the soul are now able to return to it.

XXXVII j~
It frequently happens at various hours of the day that a
brother, even if he were offered an earthly kingdom,
would not be persuaded to leave his ceil at that hour or
to answer the door when someone knocks. A time for
(spiritual) business has come upon him suddenly. So often
this can happen on days considered to be for relaxation
and for going out: suddenly grace visits him, with tears
beyond measure, or a lively affection moving the heart,
or gladness without cause, or delight in genuflexion.
I know a brother who put the key in the door of his cell
Qo 1:14 to lock it, as he was going out to feed on wind* in the
words of Scripture, and then and there grace visited him,
so that he went straight back in again. Well then, no one
should blame a brother if, on days when he does not have
to observe canonical solitude, he sometimes happens to
stay away from congregational worship.

You know, my brothers, that our work is not only that

which is accomplished before the eyes of men, but we
also have a service that is concealed from the eyes of
men, one that is not known to novices and lay folk. As
you are aware, the solitary is under indenture and is not
his own master. Accordingly, if any of one’s brethren
happens to call and receives no answer, he should turn
 Isaac of Nineveh 137

back immediately without blaming his brother. For he does

not know what the brother is doing at that moment.
The cell of a solitary is, in the words of the Fathers, the
cavern in the rock, where God spoke with Moses* Ex 33:22

XXXVIII
Sometimes a brother is suddenly confronted with some
unavoidable struggle, and with his hands laid on his heart
he is in danger of expiring. Falling down on his face he
beseeches God, and he is unable to hear the voice of
any person. Those who have done the crossing of this
ocean are aware of the winds that blow there. . . .

Many are the variations of this sea. Who knows its toils
and its multitude of merchandise, the wondrous pearls
in its deeps, and the creatures that rise up from within
it? Blessed is he who does not slumber during his voyage,
right to the haven of his decease.

XXXIX
No one can occupy himself with divine things unless he
renounces and scorns temporal things, becoming a
stranger to the pomp and pleasures of the world, cleaving
to the shame of the cross, every day drinking vinegar and
gall because of passions, devils, people, and poverty.

Be diligent, my brother, like a prudent merchant, carrying

your pearl as you roam through the world, lest its resplen¬
dent beauty be marred. Take care that it is not stolen
from you through your laxity, and as a result you go to
Hell in anguish.

- XL
Everything is possible to one who has faith*. . . . What Mk 9:23
unspeakable riches, a swelling ocean rich in wondrous
138 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

treasures, the overflowing power of faith! How full of

consolation it is, and how pleasant and reassuring its
course is; and its burdens, how easy they are; and how
pleasant its service is. Anyone who has been deemed
worthy to taste faith and who then turns back to psychi¬
cal knowledge is no better than someone who has found
a pearl of great price and exchanged it for a copper
penny, because he has given up absolute freedom and
turned to the meagre resources of fearful bondage.
Knowledge is not to be rejected, but faith is superior to
it. . . . When knowledge is united to faith and becomes
one with it, through faith it is clothed in fiery impulses,
and it glows spiritually; it acquires the wings of impas¬
sibility and is lifted up from the service of earthly things
to the place of its creator. . . . Knowledge is made per¬
fect by faith, so that it acquires the power to ascend and
to experience what is above all experience, and to be¬
hold the splendour of the one who is not attained by
the mind or by the knowledge of created beings. So
knowledge is a stair by which a person ascends to the
height of faith, and for which, when he has attained faith,
he has no further use.
 Dadisho Qatraya 139

DADISHO QATRAYA

XLI
Right intention is a necessary requirement for a monk,
because without it his virtuous work will all be accounted
worthless and unprofitable. As a high tower erected on
a base that is not right will fall down easily, so too a
tower of virtuous conduct which has a crooked intention
will rapidly lean over and fall down. Right intention con¬
sists in this, that a man lives in solitude solely for the sake
of God and for love of our Lord Jesus Christ, with ab¬
solutely no thought or expectation of reward for his
labours in anything of this world, whether bodily repose,
or personal gain, or primacy in leadership, or honour, or
commendation, or passing glory. Neither does he desire
or yearn or ask that it be granted to him by our Lord,
as a reward for his labours, to perform miracles and signs
or any of the gifts of the Spirit, for which he will be
recognized and honoured by men. Rather, his whole aim
and intention is to be deemed worthy of the perfect love
of our Lord Jesus Christ and the spiritual vision of him,
like a virgin princess, who is betrothed to a king and
does not look for or yearn for anything from the wealth
of her betrothed, but only the sight of him, and his love
and companionship. This is the praiseworthy kind of right
intention that a monk ought to possess in his cell in the
glorious exercise of solitude.

XLI I
When we make progress in this work of solitude, rejec¬
tion of evil thoughts, and praying without ceasing, we find
140 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

not only hope in God, but also true faith, sincere charity,
unmindfulness of evils, love for the brethren, abstinence,
patience, inner knowledge, deliverance from temptations,
spiritual gifts, gratefulness of heart, tears of compunction,
endurance of the vexations that befall us, guileless for¬
giving of our neighbour, knowledge of the spiritual com¬
mandments, recognition of the righteousness of God,
indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and gifts of spiritual treasures.
All these things are bestowed, through solitude and
prayer, on monks living in seclusion. For the acquisition
of these benefits one should therefore desire solitude.

Anyone who does not rid himself of all memories and

concerns, and does not withdraw from all business, to
be steadfast in solitude with right intention and love for
labours, will not remember his former sins, nor will he
see his daily failings; he will not be aware of his passions,
nor will he understand the provocations of the demons;
he will not be prepared for the struggle against the pas¬
sions and the demons, nor will he attain purity of heart;
he will not practise pure prayer, nor will he be worthy
of spiritual prayer; he will not see in himself the holy light
of his mind, nor will the divine light of the glory of Christ
shine within his soul through revelation by the Holy
Spirit.
 Joseph the Visionary 141

JOSEPH THE VISIONARY

XLIII s.
Among astute merchants who are expert in the art of
trading, whenever their commerce brings in multiple gain,
in order to avoid being overwhelmed by the great weight
of the cares of commerce and being agitated in mind by
the reckoning of their accounts (something that would
occasion losses to their purse-strings) it is customary
for them to give up the heavy load of secondary trading
ventures and concentrate in each affair on the essential,
of limited extent but of considerable profit; like the pearl
called Pearl of Majesty (shomarworid), small in dimension
but for commerical value extremely profitable.

Now just as Christ has said: The Kingdom of Heaven is

like a merchant who sought after many pearls, and having
found one of great price he went and sold everything he
had and purchased it* so, my very dear friend, having Mt 13:4:5/
looked around everywhere, I have perceived that the aim
of your thinking was that your commerce should bring
in a return several times above the investment. Like an
astute merchant you have asked me for something
limited as regards extent but large as regards profit. You
have said: Write to me by letter briefly on these subjects,
namely on silence and the solitary life in the cell, on the
temptations which come upon those who perform spiri¬
tual exercises in silence, and on the visitation of grace
that is bestowed on them through the mercy of Our
Lord, as well as other matters. . . .

XLIV s>
The first impulses prompting us to withdraw from the
world are the natural seeds of goodness sown by God in
142 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

us, in the nature of our first creation. Constantly springing

up within us, when they find a will that is slightly inclined
towards goodness they immediately provide an oppor¬
tunity for a guardian angel to approach the soul. When
he does, the first impulse he arouses in it is fear and
terror about the judgement to come, by depicting before
its eyes the bliss of the righteous and the torment of the
sinners. Standing between these two different states the
soul is sometimes tormented by fear and sometimes
exhilarated by joy, and then the guardian angel stirs up
in it a further impulse, which plunges it even deeper into
suffering and moves it nearer to repentance, by depicting
before the soul all the failings and weaknesses it has. And
the more it recognizes its weaknesses the more the
world, with all the passions and desires that belong to it,
becomes to the soul an object of contempt.

~ XLV s.
Just as darkness is dissipated by light, so love of the world
is dissipated by the impulse of which I speak. This impulse
infuses and instils into a person the desire to renounce
wealth and possessions, so that he gives all he owns to
the poor. . . . Then the guardian angel, wishing to strip
him completely of possessions, inspires in him the thought
of going out into the desert and living with animals, re¬
minding him of the great many people who, out of tender
love for Our Lord, have given away their possessions
and gone out into the desert, where their food was the
roots and herbs of the ground.

XLVI
When day is dawning the solitary should wash his hands
and make genuflections before the cross, until his
thoughts are gathered in from distractions and his heart
is on fire with love of Our Lord, when he will pray to
Our Lord amid tears of contrition, saying: O God, make
 Joseph the Visionary 143

my mind worthy to find delight in understanding the

dispensation of your beloved Son. O Lord, take away the
veil of passions that lies over my mind, and let your holy
light shine into my heart, so that my mind may enter into
the interior of the outward ink-written text, and that
with the enlightened eye of my soul I may behold the
sacred mysteries that are hidden in your Gospel. And by
your grace, Lord, grant that the thought of you shall not
depart from my heart by night or by day.

Having collected your thoughts with such words of sup¬

plication, salute the cross and take the Gospel in your
hands; place it on your eyes and on your heart. Then go
and stand on your feet before the cross, not sitting on
the ground. After reading each chapter you should place
it on its cushion and fall down before it up to ten times
while giving thanks. . . .

Truly I know a brother who, when one day he prostrated

himself before the divine Gospel with hands and eyes
directed to heaven, had his heart opened and filled with
an ineffable light. . . . That brother declared to me: For
two days I took neither food nor sleep; my thoughts
were carried away from this world and everything in it.
All I know is that my mind was lifted up and that I saw
and heard, but what I saw and heard I cannot express to
you, as these are mysteries that cannot be spoken by a
tongue of flesh, or cannot be written by pen and ink; for
they are the pledge of those ineffable rewards which
God the Lord of all will grant after the resurrection from
the dead; those things which Saint Paul contemplated,
as it were in ecstasy, saying: That which eye has not seen,
and ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart
of man, is what God has prepared for those who love
him.* 1 Cor 2:9

When you have read from the Gospel and have received
a blessing from it, one which sanctifies your soul through
144 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

the Holy Spirit hidden in the living words of Our Saviour,

the Lord Jesus Christ, then read from the Epistles and
9 am the Acts until the third hour* when you finish the office
of obeisance before the Gospel; for frequently in reading
these also you may find that life-filled pearl.

XLVII s-
When thoughts begin to move in your heart, differenti¬
ate, on the one side, those that come from serenity of
thinking, or from the guardian angel, or from the grace
of the Holy Spirit, or from perserverance in reading, or
those springing up from natural seeds in your heart, and,
on the other side, the thoughts that are sown in you by
an accursed demon.

Recognize that it is from the right-hand side that come

all the thoughts which, when they begin to stir in your
heart, draw your mind to composure of thought and fill
your soul with joy, affection, and tears, and plunge your
intellect into humility and abasement. All the while the
fountain of your heart wells up with them, give them the
opportunity to operate. Lock all the doors of your cell,
go into the inmost part, and sit in darkness and stillness,
where you cannot even hear the sound of a bird. If the
time for divine service comes, see that you do not rise
up at all, lest you be like a little child who in his ignorance
exchanges a talent of gold for a fig which sweetens his
palate for a mere moment. Rather, you should be like a
wise merchant: when a pearl of great price is presented
to you, do not change it for cheap things that are always
available to you.

XLVII I
While the solitary is experiencing this operation of
thoughts, this movement of humility, and these tears, in
his view there is no sinner in creation, but all men are
 Joseph the Visionary 145

deemed righteous by him. Blessed is he who is judged

worthy of this operation, and whose mental palate tastes
the delights of these divine mysteries.

Many a time from the vehement force of these opera¬

tions a person falls to the ground and remains there for
a day or two without being able to rise, since the body
cannot stand before this joy. He neither takes food nor
has his usual sleep, because body and soul alike are fed
on spiritual nourishment through the sweetness of these
thoughts.

While a person remains in this situation a light shines

over him by night and by day, because night and day are
identical to one who has merited this gift.

While the solitary continues under this operation there

is no need for him to perform the offices or the labour
of readings, for that is the whole labour of the merchant
up to the time when the pearl of great price falls into his
hands. At these times God asks of you no more than
the observance of solitude.

XLIX

The first sign of the operation of the Spirit’s visitations

is this: the thought of the love of God burns in a person’s
heart like a fire. This engenders in his heart hatred for
the world, renunciation, and love for the eremitic and
ascetic life, which is the mother and nurse of all virtues.

The second sign, through which you perceive that the

Spirit you received at baptism is working in you, comes
when true humility is born in your soul. I do not mean
humility of the body but rather the true humility of the
soul, whereby a person, notwithstanding the great and
146 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

wonderful things done to him considers himself dust and

Gen 18:27
ashes,* a worm and no man.* All men are considered in
Ps 22:6
his eyes as great and holy, and there is no difference in
his mind between good and bad, righteous and sinner.
And it is from humility that peace, meekness, and endur¬
ance of tribulations are born in the soul.

LI
The third sign of the operation of the Spirit in you is the
mercifulness that fashions within you the image of God,
so that when your thought is extended to all people,
tears are shed from your eyes like fountains of water. It
is as if they are all dwelling in your heart, and you lovingly
embrace them and kiss them, pouring your kindness over
them all in your thought. Whenever you remember them
your heart is kindled by the power of the Spirit working
in you like a fire. This engenders in your heart goodness
and kindliness, so that you cannot bring yourself to speak
any [unkind] thing to any person, nor does your imagi¬
nation think evil of anyone, but you do good to all, in
thought and deed.

LI I
The fourth sign by which you know that the visitation
of the Spirit is operating in you is true love, which does
not leave any other thing in your thinking save the re¬
membrance of God alone. This is the spiritual key by which
the inner door of the heart is opened, wherein is hidden
Christ our Lord, whose dwelling-place is spiritual and
spacious, and the sight of whom is light that is ineffable.
From this love there is engendered faith to see the hidden
things that the mind is not allowed to commit to parch¬
ment, and which the Apostle called the substance of
Heb 11:1 things hoped for* unknown to the eyes of the flesh but
clearly known to the eyes of the mind, in the inner room
of the heart.
 Joseph the Visionary 147

LIN

The fifth sign that the Spirit you received at baptism is

working in you is the illuminated vision of your mind,
which is seen in the firmament of your heart like sapphire,
namely the reception of the light of the Holy Trinity. It
is this sign that leads you to the vision of the material
natures, from which you rise further to the knowledge
of the intelligible natures, from which you then ascend
to the revelations and mysteries of Divine Judgement
and Providence.

This ascent by steps next brings you to commingling with

the holy light of the vision of Christ our Lord.

From this glorious and holy vision you will pass into
wonderment over that spacious world, the boons of
which are inexpressible.

From this wonderment you will derive a flow of spiritual

speech and knowledge of both worlds, of the one that
has been and the one that shall be, and also conscious¬
ness of the mysteries of future things, together with a
sanctified sense of smell and taste; the ethereal sounds
of the spritual intelligences: joy, jubilation, exultation,
glorification, psalms, hymns, and magnifying praise; com¬
munion with the spiritual hierarchies; seeing the souls
of the saints; beholding Paradise, eating from its tree of
life, and meeting the saints who dwell in it, together with
other things that are unutterable.

- LIV s>

We say that we see light in the sphere of spirituality; but

this is not like material light. We also say that we have
spiritual food there; but that food is not like what we
have here. We further say that our mind perceives there
the sound of the spiritual hosts and that it there has
speech and conversation; but that speech is not like the
148 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

speech that we have with one another. The sound heard

there by our mind is so ethereal that our senses are not
able to receive it, and a fleshly tongue is unable to speak
or tell that which is revealed there to the understanding.

LV s.

After a person has risen to the sphere of serenity and

has been recorded as an adopted son, he will constantly
take part in the revelation of God’s mysteries, and will
consequently see and hear everything there in a spiritual
Is 6:3 way, and his service and his sanctifying singing* will con¬
stantly be joined with that of the spiritual beings. Blessed
is the man who has been found worthy of this gift and
of this liberty, and has seen this glorious vision with the
eyes of his mind, and has heard with the ears of his heart
the ethereal sound which, above the level of serenity, is
revealed to a spiritual man. . . .

Even if the body is asleep, these faculties of the mind

have no rest, on account of their service with the spiri¬
tual beings. This is why night and day are alike to the
mind found worthy of this gift by the grace of our Lord.
 John the Venerable 149

JOHN THE VENERABLE

- LVI s-

Blessed is he who constantly dives into the endless sea

to gather up pearls from its treasures. His is happiness
beyond compare. Blessed is he who gazes within himself
and sees the glorious ineffable light of the Holy Trinity
and rejoices in it with infinite joy.

LVI I

O Mercy, how munificent you are. To us who were dead

in sins you have granted the holy womb of repentance,
giving birth to new sons for old, pure instead of unclean,
enlightened instead of benighted, pleasant and fragrant
instead of foul, desirable and comely like their Heavenly
Father instead of hateful and loathsome like their task¬
master Satan.

LVI 11

Glory be to you, O Father of all, for giving us repentance

as a new mother for a new birth; for though our infancy
pollutes us entirely with filthiness, she cleanses, purifies,
beautifies, and cherishingly shelters under her wing those
who are born of her, until they come through to you
enlightened and dearly loved, to be gods and kings, and
sons of your possession, to take their delight freely at
your breast, in the breath of the nostrils of your Holy
Spirit, to be made resplendent in your glory, to see your
likeness as their own likeness, and to be changed through
your Spirit into your glory.
150 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

~ LIX s-

He who holds his mouth back from talking preserves his

heart from passions.

Mt 5:8 He whose heart is purified of passions sees God perpet¬

ually.

He who perpetually meditates on God drives devils away

and destroys the seed of their evil.

He who fixes his gaze within himself continually, his heart

will exult in revelations.

He whose contemplation is collected within his mind

sees there the splendour of the Father.

He to whom all pleasures are contemptible will see his

Lord within his heart.

LX

cp. Mt 5:8 You who desire for yourself purity through which the
Lord of all may be seen, do not commit slander or listen
to words of calumny concerning your brethren. If a
quarrel is going on near you or if you hear angry words,
stop up your ears and flee away, lest your soul cease
from living. The heart of an irascible man is devoid of
the mysteries of God, but anyone who is innocent and
peaceable is a fountain of the mysteries of the New
World. Indeed, Heaven is already within you if you are
pure, and there you see angels rejoicing, with their Lord
among them and within them. Anyone who deserves to
receive glory lacks nothing; but if glory is sweet to a
person, then he labours without reward. The treasure
of a humble man is within him: it is the Lord.
 John the Venerable 151

LX I s.

Just as dolphins float about on the calm stillness of the

sea, so in the stillness of the sea within the heart that is
free from anger and wrath there are hidden mysteries
and divine revelations ever stirring for its delight.

LXII s>

What happens to a fish when it has an experience of dry

land is the same as what happens to the intellect when
it turns from the knowledge of God to be absorbed in
remembrance of the world, for as far as a man is removed
from human society and business, to that extent he is
deemed worthy of speaking freely with God in his mind.
In proportion as he resolves to cast off worldly comforts,
he is deemed worthy of rejoicing in God through the
Holy Spirit. And just as fish perish and die from depri¬
vation of water, so the fiery impulses emanating from
God vanish from the heart of the solitary who likes
worldly society and business.

LXIII S’

The habitat of the person whose soul is pure is within

him, and the sun that shines there is the light of the Holy
Trinity; the air breathed by its inhabitants is the Holy
Spirit the Paraklete; his fellow-dwellers are the holy spiri¬
tual natures; and their life, their pleasure, and their exul¬
tation is Christ, the splendour of the Father. Moreover,
this person is always exulting over the sight of his soul
and marvelling at its beauty, a hundred times more glori¬
ous than the orb of the sun. This is Jerusalem and the
Kingdom of God concealed within us* in the words of Lk 17:21
our Lord, this place which is the Cloud of God’s Glory,
which only the pure in heart may enter to behold the
face of their Lord, and to have their mind made resplen¬
dent in his dazzling light.
152 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

- LXIV s>

The passionate man, the irascible man, the lover of glory,

the miser, the glutton, the man engrossed in worldly
things, the self-seeking person, the gabbler, the vehement
man, the emotional person, all these grope about in the
darkness outside the place of light and life, because this
is the inheritance of the meek and the gentle and those
Mt 5:8 that are pure in heart.*

LXV s-

When we are moved to flee from the world and to

become strangers to the world, there is nothing that
keeps us so far removed from the world, so dead to
passions, so alive in God, and so stirred in spirit, so much
as weeping and heart-felt compunction, with discretion,
and a reverent attitude that imitates the humility of the
Beloved. Nor is there anything that makes us associates
of the world, vain foolish worldlings, strangers to God,
and bereft of God’s wisdom or God’s treasure of myster¬
ies, so much as amusement and diversion in licentious
pleasure.

This is the craft of the evil demon of lechery. That is why,

my dear friend, knowing your wisdom as I do, I urge you
lovingly to beware of the evil one’s guile, lest with words
of trumpery he cool your soul from the warmth of its
love for Christ, who for your sake drank bitterness on
the tree; and lest in place of a single-minded contempla¬
tion and a gaze fixed on God he fill it with great fantasies
and vanities when it is awake, and lest he subject it when
it is asleep to dreams that reek of dissoluteness, so that
the beloved angels withdraw because of its putrid odour,
and it becomes a stumbling-block to others and a thorn
in your own flesh.
 John the Venerable 153

- LXVI s»
You who wept and shed tears of sorrow over Lazarus,
accept my bitter tears.

May my passions be allayed by your Passion; may my

wounds be healed by your wounds, my blood be blended
with your blood, and the lifegiving fragrance of your holy
body be mingled with my body.

May the bitter drink that was given to you by your ene¬
mies soothe my soul, which has been made to drink
wormwood by the evil one.

May your body, which was stretched out on the tree,

stretch my mind out to you, for it has been shrunken by
demons.

May your head which was bowed down upon the cross
lift up my head, which has been buffeted by impure
men.

May your pure hands, which were transfixed with nails

by unbelievers, draw me up to you from the abyss of
evil, as your mouth has promised.

May your face, which has received spit of derision from

accursed men, cleanse my face, which has become odious
through its sins.

May your soul, which on the cross you committed to

your Father, bring me up to you by your grace.

LXVI I
I will now show you, my brother, how the grace of the
Spirit commences the purification of your soul through
the holy angels, if you will pay heed to it and persevere
54 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

in solitude, wrestling in labours and combats; how it is

purified and polished, how it is sanctified and illuminated,
for the reception of gifts and revelations, and the percep¬
tion of divine mysteries; and through what signs the mind
acquires perception and knowledge in its passage through
them; how it is absorbed in profound ecstasy in the vision
of light, and its perception and free will are cut off and
it forgets itself.

LXVIII

When Grace descends upon the solitary at the start it

produces unfamiliar sensations, pleasures, and consola¬
tions in him and gradually enlarges his mind with plea¬
sures, visitations, wondrous sights, and revelations, until
he reclines in the cloud of essential light without passing
thence. There the mind will look upon and shine in the
rays of light that dawn upon it from the Essence. Thereby
it ascends and penetrates day by day, in proportion to its
diligence and watchfulness, from glory to glory through
the Lord the Spirit, being transformed into the likeness
without likeness, in union and perfect commingling
with God.

LXIX

The visitations of the first stage.

cp. L Sometimes Grace sows humility in his heart and makes

his thoughts lower than dust and ashes.

Sometimes it causes him to shed tears through the re¬

membrance of his sins.

Sometimes it makes recitation of the Psalms sweet to

his heart, giving him facility and enjoyment in his lengthy
service.
 John the Venerable 155

Sometimes it makes him love frequent genuflection,

stirring up in him impulses of sorrow and humility, or of
joy and confidence.

Sometimes it consoles him with dreams; the solitary

should be wary about these, however wonderful they
may be, because of the Adversary.

Sometimes it stimulates him with the remembrance of

the saints and their labours and accomplishments, giving
him the fervent desire to emulate their labours.

Sometimes it reproaches him with the remembrance of

his faults and how Grace has borne him patiently like a
loving nurse, and in this recollection he will shed tears
of sorrow and of joy. Here, if Grace were not sustaining
the solitary’s heart, he would expire because of the
multitude of burning tears.

Sometimes it grants him constant praises and delight in

them.

Sometimes it causes him to love constant reading and it

mingles tears or delight with it.

Sometimes it brings the life of our Lord to his mind, and

he becomes humbled but joyful; or it portrays the Passion
to him and causes passionate tears to flow without mea¬
sure from his eyes.

Sometimes it inspires in him love of doing things for the

pleasure of his brethren.

Sometimes it will bestow stillness on him to quell the

impulses of the passions.

Sometimes it will arouse in his heart pity for the op¬

pressed and ministering to the sick.
156 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

By these things the Grace of the Spirit purifies and

polishes the soul of the novice solitary and of any one
who turns back from his heedlessness and vile actions,
and drawing near to it places himself under its yoke of
obedience.

LXX

The middle stage, which is the psychical state.

Henceforward the Spirit alters his operations in the soul

notably, so that it is thereby illuminated and sanctified
for the reception of gifts, for the vision of revelations,
and for the perception of hidden mysteries.

Sometimes Grace comes to rest upon him during his

service and stills his mind from wandering thoughts, and
even interrupts the service, sending his mind into ecstasy
over the understanding of some mystery.

Sometimes it interrupts his service with tears over the

love of his Lord.

Sometimes it imparts a stillness to his mind, and it makes

his chanting cease, without thought, memory of anything,
or meditation, though it sometimes holds back his service
for more excellent meditation.

Sometimes it stirs up hot fiery impulses in his heart in

the love of Christ, and his soul is set on fire, his limbs
are paralysed and he falls on his face.

Sometimes it works up a fervent heat in his heart, and

his body and soul are enkindled so that he supposes
every part of him is being consumed in the blaze, except
what is in his heart. Whenever you perceive such in only
one of your members or in only one of the places on
 John the Venerable 157

your body, then that comes from the Adversary. If he

scrapes your head as if with a hand, or if he clings to your
heart, breast, or belly, you have the feeling in your body
that you are being stung. Whereas the action of Grace
is associated with tranquillity and pleasure, that of the
Adversary is either with mental derangement and cold¬
ness of impulses, or else turmoil.

LXXI s>

The stage of perfection.

Here begins the entering into the treasury, the place of

glorious visions, the place of joy and exultation, the place
without shadow, the place of light where no mention of
darkness is made, the place of life and delight, the place
of peace, whose inhabitants are illuminated by the sight
of the beauty of the King.

Now their heart will rejoice, those who sought the Lord
in adversities, who thirsted for the sight of him, and to
whom he has shown his face. Enter now and take your
rest, you who were wearied and exhausted. Recline with
your Lord in the bridal chamber,* you who were weep¬ or: feast
ing at the door. The tears of sorrow have been stopped,
and the struggles and battles have been taken away; the
travail and conflict have ceased. Now is the time of rest.
Fear has been removed out of the way of ardent love.
The mind’s impulses are stayed in amazement at the
wondrous sights.

LXXI I s.

This is the place in which the inhabitants inhale the Spirit;

their mind stilled of impulses, the Spirit speaks his secrets
into it.
58 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

This is the place of serenity and beauty; it is called light

without likeness.

An invitation to enter it comes from the Spirit to the

energetic mind, the impulses of whose visionary powers
are wearied, to gaze, to behold the One who is in all
and in whom is everything. And when it comes to prayer
it sees its own glory, and upon the soul there dawns the
beauty of its nature and it sees itself as it really is, and
sees the divine light dawning in it and changing it into his
likeness, while the likeness of its own nature is taken
away out of its sight, and it sees itself as the likeness of
God, being united with the light without likeness, which
cp. X-XI is the light of the T rinity, shining forth in the soul itself*
It becomes immersed in the waves of its beauty and
remains in ecstasy for a long period.

LXXIII

O solitary, acquire for yourself charity by keeping the

commandments, that you may be deemed worthy to
receive love. The solitary taken up with charity hates
the world, together with everything in it, and desires to
perform the things to which he is called.

Love is a fire that inflames: it does not allow anyone in

whom it burns to carry out the rule laid down for him,
but it rises up and does not permit him to finish, staying
the service with gladness as it rises.

Love bursts forth within the heart, and the heart be¬
comes hot, so that it kindles and burns the whole body
with the force of love. So the person is not able to stand
upon his feet but falls on his face as if dead, and his cither
is broken, and he is in an absolute frenzy. He thinks that
he and everything around him is ablaze, from the living
fire that is blown by the One who lives eternally.
 John the Venerable 159

- LXXIV s>

The Lord bears me witness that I am not lying: I have

frequently heard one of the brethren crying out when
he was in the intoxication of Christ’s love and unable to
contain himself, because of the divine fire burning in his
heart, and the excitement of his heart at the shining forth
of God’s glory upon it.

He was crying out: O my God, how your love inflames.

O Lord, how my life is consumed by your love, and I
cannot endure.

Again he cried out: Blessed are they who are intoxicated

by your love many times.

And again: O your unspeakable beauty.

And without knowing himself or anything else he would

cry out time after time without number: Father, my
Father; and other things of an outspoken kind that should
not be passed on in writing, or else I will come under
censure from the Initiated for daring to reveal the un¬
written mysteries,:): while I will be considered by the %cp. XXIV

weak to be raving mad.

- LXXV s.

Whoever has tasted the sweetness of Christ will be

diligently occupied in prayer, which, more than any other
labour, brings one near to God; for in prayer the mind
is commingled with God and becomes the image of its
maker, and a recipient of his gifts, and a fountain of his
mysteries.

Through prayer the mind opens the door to the treasur¬

ies of God and becomes his treasurer and the divider of
his riches.
160 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

Through prayer it is made worthy to behold the Glory

of God and to abide in the Cloud of his majestic light,
within the place of the spirits, in stupefaction and silence,
void of impulses, in ecstasy, and wonderstruck at the
beauty of the many-splendoured rays of light dawning
upon it, stupefying the worlds at their sight, which are
the life and delight of the spiritual beings, stilling their
fiery impulses with their majestic beauty.

- LXXVI

These are the unspeakable blessings bestowed on those

who are engaged in prayer.

Through it they are called upon to be a dwelling for God,

and he will be their abode and their resting-place, void
of all painful passions. For through it the soul is united
with Christ and thus it sees the glorious splendour of
his majesty, and in his brilliance it sees the loveliness of
its nature and it exults.

Through the travail of prayer there blazes up in the soul

the fire of Christ’s love, and the heart becomes frenzied
with longing and sets all the members ablaze; it exults
with love and loses control of itself. The world, together
with its impulses, is obliterated from the heart, and it
awaits departure from it to abide in God and to behold
his face constantly for the delighting of its life.

Through constancy in prayer the mind is made worthy

of ecstasy in God, and ecstasy transports him to the
place of the spirits, which is ineffable light.

LXXVI I

These precious pearls are gathered and stored among

the treasures of his mind by the merchant who is oc-
 John the Venerable 161

cupied with prayer. For truly he is swimming in the sea

of life and cleansing himself in the mighty floods, to be
purified and beautified so as to become a garment of
purple for Christ the eternal King.

This is the strenuous diver captivated with desire for the

sea that washes him. He would be delighted if he never
had to come out of it.

LXXVIII s~

Blessed are you who circle in the waves of light and on

the wings of the Holy Spirit, and are enclosed in the
all-encompassing deep, whose limit is unsearchable.

Blessed are you who purge your foulness in the un¬

troubled sea, whose waves are light, and whose floods
are flame, consuming the sin of sinners who come to it.

Blessed are you who have disdained the country of your

birth and turned to plunge and rise in the lake of the
source of all worlds and natures.

Blessed are you who have detested the River Gihon’s

drinking water,* and always satisfy your soul with living Nile
waters, the drinkers of which do not die, for they flow
from the fount of blessings, which is Christ the splendour
of the Father.:): t cp. XIII

Blessed are you whose world is your Maker, whose

wealth is your Creator, whose food is the vision of him,
and whose drink is the working of his Spirit in your soul.

Blessed are you whose sun does not set and whose soul’s
eye does not see the night.
162 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

Blessed are you whose beauty does not fade, because it

shines in the rays of our Saviour’s light.

Blessed are you whose joy is in God and will never de¬
part from your soul.

Blessed are you who though on the earth have departed

from the earth, and dwell with the spirits in Heaven in
the company of your Lord.

Blessed are you with whose soul the sweetness of your

God is mingled in intimacy with him, having disdained all
victuals that return to corruption.

•x LXXIX s.

Blessed is the person who has acquired within his soul

the treasure of life, that is Christ, who reveals himself in
those who love him, for they are all riches of his.

Pen and ink are unable to set forth the wondrous beau¬
ties of our Saviour’s self-revelation to his seekers. He
dawns within them and makes the mirror of the soul
bright with his rays and excites it with his glorious
majesty; and it cries out involuntarily; he declares to
listeners its joy, its exultation, and its ecstasy.

He who has seen the Lord within him and whose soul
has been mingled with his light, will find his heartwarm¬
ing with joy at the sight of these lines, which speak of
his bliss.

LXXX s.

One of the brethren wrote this for himself and had it

constantly set before him, admonishing himself in these
words: You have spent your life foolishly, you shameful
man, worthy of all evils. However, take care now, on this
 John the Venerable 163

day that is left over to you from your days gone by, which
were devoid of virtues but replete with evils. Do not ask
about the world and its organizations, its affairs, and its
necessities; nor about individual persons and their condi¬
tion, and the enumeration of their possessions; do not
think about a single one of these things. You have de¬
parted mystically from the world and you are accounted
dead in Christ; do not live for the world and its own, so
that you may anticipate your inner resurrection and be
alive in God. Be ready and prepared for reproach, insult,
mockery, accusation, and complaint, from everyone;
accept them all joyfully as your own, because you truly
deserve them. Endure pain and torment, grief and afflic¬
tion, from the demons whose will you carried out, as
you acknowledge. Bear anguish and bitterness, and
natural accidents. Persevere in trust in our Lord, and in
deprivation of‘absolute necessities’ which only turn into
dung. Do all this with hope in God, not looking for relief
from anywhere else or consolation from anyone else,
but cast your anxiety only on the One who blesses. And
in all your afflictions find yourself guilty of being the
cause of these. Do not blame someone else or one of
your troublers for your having eaten of the forbidden
tree and contracted various diseases. Joyfully accept
bitterness for your purging. For you have left your own
soul without judgement, filled though it is with all iniqui¬
ties, and yet you have judged others in thought and in
word. Renounce your foul thinking. Enough, enough of
this swinish food that you have had until now. What have
you to do with men and women, you impure man? You
are not even afraid of intimacy with someone; you have
behaved towards your own as one who is not human,
and that is it. If you observe all these things with the help
of God and take care, you will doubtless be saved. But if
not you are going to a dark place to dwell with the de¬
mons whose wicked will you have done, to stand shame¬
faced. See now, I have testified all these things against
you. If God justly stirred men up to repay you for the
164 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

insults and accusations that you have thought and spoken

against people, the whole world would be attending to
this for a year. Therefore cease now and endure instead
everything that comes along.

Every day that brother would admonish himself thus, so

that whenever trial or tribulation fell upon him unexpect¬
edly he would not be unable to bear it thankfully, as being
to his advantage.

LXXXI

One brother said to me: When the memory of paradise

had suspended my reason, to ponder on it; and when in
a vision it had become like Adam and been enraptured;
and moreover, when by the power of the Spirit it had
been taken to wonder at the Paradise that is living and
life-giving, whose limit is unreachable and whose delight
I find within myself; then it was that I was very much
amazed at those strenuous labourers in whom is still
found, when they meditate on it, an impulse arousing
desire for a vision of that paradise of restricted horizons.

LXXXI I s.

Happy is he who gazes constantly at you, my Paradise

which is seen in me. The tree of life in my heart ever
Christ inflames me with desire for him* and changes my face
by the force of his love, and sets my mind in wonderment
at the rays of his beauty. Happy is he who at all times
cp. Jn 7:38 seeks you in himself, for it is from himself that life flows*
to him for his delight. Happy is he who at all times carries
in his heart the remembrance of you, for it is his own
soul which is intoxicated with your sweetness. Happy is
he who constantly gazes upon you within himself, for it
is his own heart which is enlightened to see secret things.
Happy is he who seeks you in his being, for his own heart
 John the Venerable 165

glows in your fire, and his flesh and bones blaze together
in its purifying force.

- LXXXIII s>

Happy is he whose thoughts are silenced by the thought

of you, for the Spirit causes rivers of life to well up in
him for his own delight, and for those who thirst for a
vision of you. Happy is he whose cheeks are burning from
the tears of your love, for its drops water the rational
lands which once burned with evil fire, so that they pro¬
duce the fruits of gladness whose eaters do not die.
Happy is he who combines thinking of you with his sleep¬
ing, for the demons that defile the slothful with fetid
fantasies withdraw in terror from him. Happy is he who
spreads out his mattress in unceasing admiration of your
mysteries and reposes on it in silence and in wonder¬
ment over them; from it issues, to rejoice the heart of
the diligent, the perfume of life produced by your Holy
Spirit, guardian of the purity of his lovers. Happy is he
who forgets the company* of the world in conversation or: affairs
with you, for through you his needs are all fulfilled.

LXXXIV s>

You are his food and his drink; you are his joy and his
exultation; you are his clothing and by your glory his
nakedness is covered.* You are his dwelling and his rest¬ 2 Cor 5:2-4

ing place, and he always enters you for shelter. You are
his sun and his day, and it is in your light that he sees
hidden things. You are the father who begot him, and
like a child he calls you Father.* You have placed the Rom 8:15

spirit of your son in his heart,* who has given him the Rom 5:5

confidence* to ask you for everything that is yours, as 1 Jn 5:14

a son to his father. He is in your company all the time,

since he knows no father apart from you.
166 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

LXXXV s>

You are united with his soul, you are joined to his mem¬
bers, you shine in his mind, and you capture it to make
it amazed at the sight of you. You still the impulses of
his soul by the impulse of your love, and you transform
the desire of his body by the intensity of your sweetness;
he smells your holy scent like a child breathing the scent
of his father, and the odour of your grace issues from
his body, like the odour of his nurse issuing from a child.
At every hour you console him with a vision of yourself;
when he eats, he sees you in his food; when he drinks,
you are resplendent in his drink; when he weeps, you
shine in his tears. Wherever he looks he sees you there,
so that everywhere you increase his blessings, and there
is no one who does not give him a blessing, except
someone who is completely devoid of blessing.

LXXXV I s.

My Lord and my Life, my mind has been set ablaze by

communion with you, there being no companion for me
besides you. What shall I do? My soul thirsts for you, my
Ps 63:2 flesh longs for you.* But ascension to you is found
through communion with you, and the sight of your face
is given through meditating on you.

LXXXVII

My right hand is incapable of setting your mysteries down

or: images in writing* Like a self-assured sage I apply myself to writ¬
or: images ing, and the outcome is that these lines* of mine show
me up as a feeble person who knows nothing. So it is to
you that I will apply myself and thereby find delight, since
I have not been able to impart your delight to others
through the pen. Who then shall ascend your holy moun¬
Ps 24:2 tain* to look upon your glorious beauty, O Light over-
 John the Venerable 167

flowing with many splendours of wondrous beauty,

stunning those who see you, leaving those who know
you speechless by your form which has no form, making
those marvellers who labour for a vision of you stand
motionless? Here are taken away the knowledge of the
knowing and the sight of the seeing, through the magni¬
tude of the knowledge and the marvellousness of the
true vision.

LXXXVIII s>

And because the eyesight cannot extend to this, being

prevented by the dazzling splendours, they say you are
Cloud and Darkness, and that bright clouds surround
you* preventing the eyesight of your overeager lovers cp. Ps 97:2
from gazing inordinately in an attempt to behold your
hidden nature. They also call you Sea, as the source of
all worlds and the sustainer of all that is, containing and
concealing all in your immense abyss, offering facilities
for bathers, allowing light people to float in its waves for
the purifying of their beauty. They also designate you Air,
Inspiration* of all life, and Breath; they come and go in Respiration
the midst of you with no obstruction to their progress,
though it is not that they are penetrating and passing
through you as the air, but that you are extended in them
unimpededly, and they move around without hindrance
this way and that in your extension within them.

LXXXIX s-

They also compare you to Fire, because it gives without

decreasing, it cleans without soiling itself, and although
present only partially with everyone everywhere, it is
there for everyone in its entirety with the force of its
whole nature; one gets from it everything one needs,
and if one gives it abundant scope it shows the potency
of the operation of its nature* in totality. or: power
168 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

XC

Thus it is with you in all your lovers, O Good One: you

are present with them in ineffable wonderment, in the
glorious loveliness of your beauty, in the potency of your
nature, in your absolutely supreme knowledge; and with
all your lovers you are present everywhere: in each one
of them you are entirely his, without deficiency, even
though none is capable of possessing you entirely. Glory
to the totality encompassing all totalities without being
limited by them.

XCI

You are also the Father of the rational beings born of

your Spirit. Therefore your Spirit is also styled Genetrix,
feminine gender, in that he has engendered all into this
world so that they may engender children into their
cp. Gen 3:20 world* But he is Progenitor, in that he shall engender
into his living world rational beings who will engender
cp. Lk 20:35-36 no more.* And just as infants are nourished by their
genetrix and grow up, so those who are born of your
Spirit suck life at your breast in the world without end.

XCII s>

And just as children resemble their progenitor, so chil¬

dren out of your Spirit are transformed into your like¬
ness, not in nature but in glory; and you make joint heirs
Rom 8:17 with your Son* those who have remained in your inheri¬
tance. Glory to you, the Omnipotent, Father of all, who
have made wise our ignorance by the wisdom of your
mysteries, for ever and ever. Amen.

- XCIII s~

What is this wonderful thing that this Unique Singular

One desires to show solely to his lovers, so that they
 John the Venerable 169

increase his delight even more? It pleases him well, as I

have learned from him, that those who behold his beauty
should be far removed from the vision of his image, so
that the cleanness of the mirror of their being may be
combined with the clarity of the vision of his face. It is
not for the intelligences that behold God to look upon
his image with desire and not stand in awe of gazing on
him openly, unless they contemplate him presumptu¬
ously. It is only obscurely* that holy things may be seen 1 Cor 13:12
by the holy, in concord.

-XCIVs.

As for the profane and the disturbed, let them depict

illusions on the outside of the entrance to the mysteries.
For your part, go into your inner room to pray, hidden
from all view, and there you will see your Father hidden,
the reward of your prayer* From whoever sees your Mt 6:5-6
prayers you receive your recompense; and from him
to whom you manifest your works you will also seek
presents * Mt 6:2, 5

XCV

One thing that pleases the Lord of all is the heart clear
of every spot. And who can achieve this in the company
of many people? The more numerous their number is,
the more things they pour over him which ruffle him,
strip him, and reclothe him in shame; things which are
seductive but defiling; which are beautiful but uglifying.
Happy the hearing that is closed to all those things; happy
the heart that is void of their memory; for in it our sweet
God reveals himself in his glory.

XCVI s>

Lord, who can give to desire the abundance of your

delight unless you are combined with it in the mystery
170 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

of union, i am amazed at this mystery. There is no gift

like that one for silencing the mind and making it stand
motionless under the effect of its sweetness, which goes
beyond force. There is also none that lends itself less to
being spoken of in figures of speech, and there is none
like it for putting the desire of the belly to shame.
 Abraham bar Dashandad 171

ABRAHAM BAR DASHANDAD

XCVII s-

Let the remembrance of your Lord, rather than your

breathing, be constantly in your thinking. Keep watch
and ward over your soul, lest some perishable thing
separates you from the love of Christ. Beware of contact
with carnal people, who will cause you to lose your soul
as well as your body. Let your psalm-recitation be done
with understanding, and your prayer and supplication
with discerning feeling. Let everything you have be for
Christ; let all your remembrance be of Christ; and let
all your thoughts be of Christ. . . .

Take care of your soul, because this world shall pass away
and everything in it shall end in destruction. All the
sounds and beings in this perishable world shall pass
away, and the wicked people and the evil demons shall
be put to shame; but the just will rejoice and the holy
will be elated. Meditate continually on the new world,
and despise the temporal world. . . .

Keep to the way of life that I am teaching you; do not

neglect it; do not leave it; and thereby, on thousands of
occasions, you will reap the reward of pearls and precious
stones, from your seed, from your glorious meditation,
in virtues, good works, and pure thoughts of wisdom.
Be patient of spirit and persist in them, and you will
receive the delights of the life that is eternal.
172 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

GREGORY BAR HEBRAEUS

XCVIII

From a tender age burning with a love for learning, I was

taught the Holy Scriptures with the necessary elucida¬
tion, and from an excellent teacher I heard the mysteries
contained in the writings of the holy doctors. When
I reached the age of twenty years, the Patriarch of the
time constrained me to receive the status of bishop.
I was then obliged to engage in disputation and discus¬
sion with the heads of other confessions, internal and
external. And when I had meditated and pondered over
this matter for some time, I became convinced that these
quarrels of Christians among themselves are not based
on facts but merely on words and definitions. For all of
them confess Christ our Lord to be wholly divine and
wholly human, without mixing, combining, or confusing
the natures. This conjoint form is called nature by some,
designated substance by others, and named person by
others. So I came to regard all Christian peoples, despite
their differences, as being in united undiffering agreement.
I therefore completely weeded the roots of hatred out
of the depths of my heart, and totally abandoned dispu¬
tation with anyone over doctrine.

XCIX

I then endeavoured to apprehend the force of the wisdom

of the Greeks, that is to say: logic, physics and metaphys¬
ics [and other sciences]. And because life is short and
scholarship is deep and wide, I had to read in every
pursuit whatever was most essential. In the course of
 Gregory bar Hebraeus 173

my studies in these teachings I resembled someone sink¬

ing in the ocean and waving his arms about in all direc¬
tions in his desire to be rescued. And because in all the
scholarship, internal and external, I did not find what I was
seeking, I almost ended up in complete disintegration.
I do not think it proper to describe the snares and nets
in which I was entangled, because hearing about them
might harm too many weaker persons. To put it briefly:
if the Lord had not sustained my failing faith at that criti¬
cal time, and if he had not led me to look into the writ¬
ings of the Initiated, such as Father Evagrios and others,
both western and eastern, and if he had not lifted me
out of the whirlpool of disintegration and destruction,
I would have already despaired of the life of the soul,
though not that of the body.

I meditated on these works for a period of seven years,

during which I despised other kinds of knowledge, though
I had to study some of them superficially, not for my
own sake but for the sake of others who wished to be
instructed by me. During this period many stumbling-
blocks laid me low and made me go wrong. Sometimes
I would fall into unbelief and say: How high the sound of
the bell of these monks is, and how lacking in flour their
mill is, meaning that their words contain silly thoughts
which do not come into effect. Sometimes, however, my
mind would admonish me and say: Do not talk nonsense,
and do not think that anything that is not known to you
is therefore not so, since what you do know is much less
than what you do not know.

- Cl s>

In this uncertainty of mine I was, so to speak, limping on

both legs, until some of the pure individual light rays
illuminated me, like fleeting lightning, and gradually the
174 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

scales covering my eyes fell off, and they were opened,

and I could see, though only partly. But I pray without
ceasing that I may see the unseen Beloved, no longer
dimly but distinctly. And the following few sentences
which I arrange here are part of what the lightning flash
revealed to me in the night darkness.

CM s»

The pure soul becomes expert in knowledge not for the

sake of the glory that the knowing acquire in the world,
but in order that its longing for the face of the Lord of
all may be increased and it may be enabled to go into
and be hidden in the divine cloud.

Clll

Those who immerse themselves in exoteric and esoteric

teachings without caring about purifying the heart, and
who think they have reached the stage of perfection, are
mistaken. For what profit is there in such a marvellous
piece of work as a mirror decorated with pearls and gems
if it is not cleansed of dross? But one which is cleaned, even
if it is of simple workmanship, will work beautifully.

~ CIV :•»

As hunger is not satisfied by water nor thirst by bread,

so too the initiated person who wishes to gaze into the
Sinai cloud has little to gain from reading books.

CV s.

As long as you think you can know God through proofs,

signs, and testimonies, you are forging cold iron; faith as
Mt 17:20 a grain of mustard seed is not in you yet*
 Gregory bar Hebraeus 175

- CVI s>

The vision of God comes by shutting off the senses,

opening the window of the heart, and removing the veil
from the eyes of the mind. As it has been said: close the
windows so that the dwelling-place may be lit up.

- CVII s>

Those who penetrate the cloud attain the depth and

riches of God’s wisdom without the intermediary of
complex thought.

CVIII s-

As the mind necessarily attains elementary knowledge

here (such as: the whole is greater than the part, one is
half of two), so when it has been admitted into the divine
cloud it will likewise of necessity know the hidden and
incomprehensible judgements of the Godhead.

CIX s.

As the senses are unable to apprehend non-material

images, so too the mind, when it has not yet loosed the
shoes of its body from its feet, is unable to apprehend
the images concealed in the cloud, seeing only dimly and
backwardly.* Ex 33:9-23

CX

Inside the cloud there is unspeakable delight for the mind

in seeing the All-Beauteous. This can also happen outside
the cloud, but only as hearing about the beauty of the
All-Beauteous, not seeing it.
176 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

~ CXI

When the eyes of the mind are opened, in proportion

to its aptitude grace is poured out upon it, and it is
illuminated by the glorious angelic rays; it becomes
familiar with the members of the kingdom, and is ranked
among their shining hosts; it rejoices and glorifies with
them, becoming a stranger to the world and everything
in it.

- CXI I s.

Anyone who reckons himself among the faithful without

having gazed through the doorway of the holy of holies
of the cloud is deceiving himself, even if he confesses
with his tongue and affirms with his heart.

CXI 11

A man blind from birth may affirm that colours exist

(white, black, green, red), and a deaf man may believe
that the sounds of concordant strings and harmonious
songs delight the ear, but their belief is nearer to unbelief
than to belief.

CXIV

Brother, if you do not have revelational faith then do not

give sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids until
you find the place of the Lord; there you will receive faith
and be baptized with fire and spirit, not with water.

- CXV ~

Revelational faith is found by the prophets and the

Luke 1:78 apostles in the manner of the day-spring from on high*
without labouring or searching; by the solitaries, however,
 Gregory bar Hebraeus 177

through searching, labouring, exertion, and training. They

thus proceed from shadowy faith towards revelational
faith.

- CXVI s~

It is not by bodily labours alone, but by the striving and

smuggling of a sound mind that perfection is obtained.
Accordingly, vary your physical service with spiritual
discernment, so that you understand that you work with
both mind and body.

CXVI I s>

When the mind understands that there are words which

it is not able to utter, and that there are things such as
eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have they entered
into any heart,* then it ascends above all the stages that 1 Cor 2:9
are outside the cloud and sets foot on the lowest step
inside it.

CXVI 11

When the mind hears unutterable words which no

mouth is able to explain, and when it sees things such as
eye has not seen, then it is already resting in the taber¬
nacle of the Lord and is abiding on his holy mountain.

CXIX

As a mirror is in itself devoid of all images and likenesses,

but, in proportion to its purity and cleanness, images of
things outside it appear in it, so too the mind is deprived
of images, and, in proportion to its purification from the
stains of matter, non-material images are reflected in it.
178 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

-t CXX s.
When the window of your heart is opened you will fly
towards the kingdom of God, and there you will see all
these things distinctly, and not need to hear them
described; and you will no longer be unbelieving but
believing.

CXXI j~
How long will you go on seeking a guide to open up for
you in the wall of your heart a window on the Kingdom?
Purify the mirror of your mind from stains and then it
will show you the images of the two kingdoms and the
paths that will lead you to that of heaven, then further
to that of God.

CXXI I
As long as the thirsty person is incapable of going up to
the fountain, the guide has no power to lead him or to
carry him; he can merely teach him the nature of his
journey and the manner of proceeding on it.

CXXI 11 s.
As a ship that has been holed cannot benefit from the
wind, even though it is favourable, so a heart in which
desires are entrenched cannot benefit from a guide, even
if he is of high degree.

CXXIV S'
A jug whose top is directed towards the earth does not
collect water; and the soul whose thinking is directed
to earthly things will not have the heavenly gift abiding
in it.
 Gregory bar Hebraeus 179

CXXV s.

This is what true life is: suckling at the breasts of supreme

Providence with the perfect. But in the teachers of the
Law and the Scriptures there is nothing of this life save
the description and the name.

CXXVI s~

Anyone who has not tasted, does not know. Anyone

who has not eaten is not satisfied by talking to someone
who has. Anyone who has not drunk does not have his
thirst quenched by being told about it by someone who
has. Anyone who has not experienced does not benefit
from another’s experience.

- CXXVI I s>

Some of the teachers who are competently trained in

the Holy Scriptures and their commentaries are not
willing to learn the ways of the kingdom from the initi¬
ated, who are not versed in their professional matters.
They do not realize that their knowledge, however
studious they may be, is by hearing, whereas that of the
initiated, however unsophisticated* they may be, is one 'bald'

of seeing.

CXXVI 11 s.

The initiated possess a special knowledge of their own,

which is acquired by purity of thought, emaciation of the
body, suppression of the senses, and severing of ties.
And when the tabernacle of their heart is illuminated
by it, the kingdom of God is represented in them and
exists within them and is not sought in this mountain or
in Jerusalem* Jn 4:21
180 The Wisdom of the Pearlers: Anthology

CXXIX -
When the sun of the Beloved rises for the lover on the
timeless day, and he sees the Solomonic bride in her
splendour, revealing herself unveiled to him and taking
Prov 9:1 him into her house with seven pillars* declaring him to
be beloved of all, and taming with him winged and fanged
creatures, because they sniff the scent of their Creator
on him; for even beings not endowed with senses perceive
God him,* so that demons are subdued and angels minister.

- CXXX s>
These sentences are only profitable to someone experi¬
enced in knowledge of divine and human things, who is
desirous of seeing by revelation what he has attained by
contemplation. Anyone who is without this longing should
redouble his meditation on this book, but with intelligent
discernment, not by mindless recitation; perhaps his
heart will be warmed.
 TEXTUAL SOURCES

THE SONG OF THE PEARL

Authorship unknown; a poem of Iranian origin (note the reference to

the King of Kings, which is the typical Persian title of royalty; Parthia and
Hyrcania as the hero’s homeland in the East; pearls and silk as two com¬
modities readily available to the Iranians from the Persian Gulf and China);
preserved in a Syriac book recounting the missionary journey of the
Apostle Thomas to the Indo-lranian regions. The poem is put into the
mouth of SaintThomas as a hymn he sings to himself while in a prison in
India. The Syriac text is available inT. Jansma, A Selection from the Acts of
Judas Thomas (Leiden 1952), 35^40. The translation of William Wright
(1871) is reprinted with introduction and commentary in A. F.J. Klijn, The
Acts of Thomas (Leiden 1962). The division of the poem into thirteen
stanzas is not in the original.

1(1): Jansma, 35; Klijn, 120 (1-8)

11(2): Jansma, 35; Klijn, 120f (9— 15)
111(3): Jansma, 35f; Klijn, 121 (16-22)
IV(4): Jansma, 36; Klijn, 121 (23-32)
V(5): Jansma, 36f; Klijn, 122 (33^10)
VI(6): Jansma, 37; Klijn, 122 (41 —48)
Vll(7): Jansma, 37f; Klijn, 122f (49—55)
VI11(8): Jansma, 38; Klijn, 123 (56-63)
IX(9): Jansma, 38; Klijn, 123f (64—71)
X(I0): Jansma, 38f; Klijn, 124 (72-78)
Xl(l I): Jansma, 39; Klijn, 124 (79-87)
Xll( 12): Jansma, 39f; Klijn, 124f (88—95)
Xlll( 13): Jansma, 40; Klijn, 125 (96-105)

APHRAHATTHE PERSIAN

Demonstration 6, On the Sons of the Covenant. Syriac text in J. Parisot,

Aphraatis Sapientis Persiae Demonstrationes. Patrologia Syriaca 1, 2 (Paris

181
 182 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

1894, 1907). English translation in J. Gwynn, A Select Library of Nicene and

Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, 13 (Oxford 1898, Grand Rapids 1979).

XIV(I4): Parisot, 240-241; Gwynn, 362-363

EPHREM THE SYRIAN

Hymns on the Pearl by Saint Ephraem Syrus, Numbers 81-85 of Hymns

on the Faith. Syriac text in Edmund Beck, Des Heiligen Ephraem des Syrers
Hymnen de Fide, in the series Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium,
154 (Louvain 1955), 248-262.

XV( 15): 1:1-3,9-11

XVI( 16): 2:10-11
XVII( 17): 5:1-2, 4-8

THE BOOK OF DEGREES

Discourse 12, On the Mystery of the Hidden and the Manifest Church.
Syriac text in M. Kmosko, Liber Graduum, Patrologia Syriaca 3 (Paris 1926),
with Latin translation.

XVIll( 18): Kmosko, 301-304

JOHN THE SOLITARY

Three discourses of John the Solitary of Apamea, in reply to a question

of Thomasios, On the Mystery of the Dispensation of Christ. Syriac text
in Werner Strothmann, Johannes von Apamea, PatristischeTexte und Studien,
Band I I (Berlin 1972).

XIX(I9): Strothmann, 94-96

XX(20): Strothmann, 102
XXI(2I): Strothmann, I 38-1 39

John the Visionary, On the Spiritual State of the Soul (in 20 sentences).
Syriac text, with English translation, in A. J. Wensinck, New Data concerning
Syriac Mystic Literature (see item I I 2 in the reference bibliography below).

XXII(22): Sentence 12
 Textual Sources 183

PHILOXENOS OF MABBUG

Discourse 9, On Renunciation of the World. Syriac text in E. A.W. Budge,

The Discourses ofPhiloxenus (London 1894), with English translation.

XXIII(23): Budge, 312, 314, 318

STEPHEN BAR SUDAILI

The Book of the Holy Hierotheos, Syriac text edited by F. S. Marsh (see item
135 in the reference bibliography).
XXIV(24): Marsh, I* 27* 34*

SAHDONA MARTYRIOS

The Book of Perfection. Syriac text in A. de Halleux, Martyrius (Sahdona),

Oeuvres spirituelles, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 200 (Louvain
I960).

XXV(25): Halleux, 29-30

S/MON TAIBUTHEH

Medico-mystical writings; A. Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies, Vol. VII, Early

Christian Mystics (Cambridge 1934), 281-320.

XXVI(26): On prayer and on the meaning of communion with

God; Mingana, 310 (folio 190b).
XXVII(27): On the division of the stages; Mingana, 293 (folio
173b)
XXVIII(28): The rebuke of my soul which loves vain things;
Mingana, 3 19f (folio 200 ab)
XXIX(29): On the faculties of our inner man and their working;
Mingana, 306 (folio 186b-187a)

ISAAC OF NINEVEH

Mystical discourses; P. Bedjan, Mar Isaacus Ninivita De Perfectione Religiosa

(Paris and Leipzig 1909) offers an edition of the Syriae text. For an English
184 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

translation see A. J. Wensinck, Mystic Treatises by Isaac of Nineveh (Amster¬

dam 1923); also D. Miller (item 156 on the reference bibliography).

XXX(30): Bedjan, 325; Wensinck, 217

XXXI(3 I); Bedjan, 325; Wensinck, 217
XXXII(32): Bedjan, 325; Wensinck, 2l7f
XXXIII(33): Bedjan, 325f; Wensinck, 218
XXXIV(34): Bedjan, 326; Wensinck, 218
XXXV(35): Bedjan, 328; Wensinck, 219
XXXVI(36): Bedjan, 328; Wensinck, 219
XXXVII(37): Bedjan, 177f; Wensinck, 120
XXXVIII(38): Bedjan, 179; Wensinck, 121
XXXIX(39): Bedjan, 179f; Wensinck, 121
XL(40): Bedjan, 365-7; Wensinck, 245f

DADISHO QATRAYA

On solitude; A. Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies, Vol. 7 (Cambridge 1934),

201-247.

XLI(41): Mingana, 205f (folio 8ab)

XLII(42): Mingana, 208f (folio I lab)

JOSEPH THE VISIONARY

Letter on the three stages of the monastic life, British Museum Manuscript
Add 14,728, folios 76b-125b. Other manuscripts of the work abridge it
and attribute it to Philoxenos of Mabbug, but it is now established that
its author was Joseph Hazzaya (the Visionary). The Syriac text of the
shorter version was published by Gunnar Olinder, A Letter of Philoxenus
of Mabbug sent to a friend (Goteborg 1951), with an English translation.
A French translation of the complete work was published by F. Graffin,
‘La lettre de Philoxene de Mabboug a un superieur de monastere sur la
vie monastique’, L’Orient syrien 6, 3 (1961), 3 17-352; 6,4 (1961), 455—486;
7,1 (1962), 77-102.

XLIII(43): British Museum Ms Add. 14,728, folios 76-77

XLIV(44): Olinder, 3f
XLV(45): Olinder, 4f
XLVI(46): Olinder, 20-22
 Textual Sources 185

XLVII(47): Olinder, 37f

XLVI11 (48): Olinder, 4 If

Book of Questions and Answers, by Abdisho (Joseph) Hazzaya; A. Mingana,

Woodbrooke Studies, Vol. VII (Cambridge 1934), 274-276.

XLIX(49): Mingana, 274 (folio 156a)

L(50): Mingana, 274 (folio 156a)
LI (5 1): Mingana, 275 (folio 156b)
Lll(52): Mingana, 275 (folio 156b)
Llll(53): Mingana, 275 (folio 157a)

On the prayer that comes to the mind in the sphere of serenity; Mingana,
269-272.

LIV(54): Mingana, 270 (folio 152a)

LV(55): Mingana, 272 (folio 153b)

JOHN THE VENERABLE

Discourses of John Saba (‘the old man’, ‘the venerable’), John of Dalyatha;
Brian E. Colless, The Mystical Discourses of John Saba (Department of
Middle Eastern Studies, University of Melbourne, 1969) (reference bibli¬
ography item 193, Vol. 1).

LVI(56): Preface; Colless, 1

LVII(57): Discourse on repentance; Colless, 6
LVIII(58): Colless, 7
LIX(59): Discourse on self-custody; Colless, 7
LX(60): Colless, 7
LXI(61): Colless, 8
LXI 1(62): Colless, 8
LXIII(63): Colless, 8
LXIV(64): Colless, 8
LXV(65): Discourse on flight from the world; Colless, 12
LXVI(66): Colless, 14
LXVII(67): Discourse on visitations; Colless, 20
LXVIII(68): Colless, 21
LXIX(69): Colless, 21
LXX(70): Colless, 22f
186 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

LXXI(71): Colless, 38
LXXII(72): Colless, 38
LXXII!(73): Discourse on the love of God; Colless, 48
LXXIV(74): Colless, 48f
LXXV(75): Discourse on prayer; Colless, 74
LXXVI(76): Colless, 74f
LXXVII(77): Colless, 77
LXXVIII(78): Colless, 77
LXXIX(79): Colless, 78
LXXX(80): Vatican Syriac Manuscript 124, folios 35 I b—352b

Letter 51, On the vision of God; Robert Beulay, La Collection des lettres de
Jean de Dalyatha (Turnhout, Belgique, 1978), 220-23 I (Patrologia Orientalis,
Tome XXXIX, Fascicule 3, No. 180, 472-483), Syriac text with French
translation.

LXXXI(81): Beulay, 220

LXXXII(82): Beulay, 220
LXXXIII(83): Beulay, 220, 222
LXXXIV(84): Beulay, 222
LXXXV(85): Beulay, 222
LXXXVI(86): Beulay, 224
LXXXVII(87): Beulay, 224
LXXXVIII(88): Beaulay, 224
LXXXIX(89): Beulay, 224, 226
XC(90): Beulay, 226
XCI(91): Beulay, 226
XCII(92): Beulay, 226
XCIII(93): Beulay, 226, 228
XCIV(94): Beulay, 228
XCV(95): Beulay, 228
XCVI(96): Beulay, 228, 230

ABRAHAM BAR DASHANDAD

Letter; A. Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies, 7, 248-255.

XCVII (97): Mingana, 253f (folio 65)

 Textual Sources 187

GREGORY BAR HEBRAEUS

The Book of the Dove, in P. Bedjan, Ethlcon, seu Moralia, Gregorii Barhebraei
(Paris and Leipzig 1898) to which is appended Liber Columbae seu direc-
torium monachorum Gregorii Barhebraei, 521-599; English translation in
A. J. Wensinck, Bar Hebraeus’s Book of the Dove together with some chapters
from his Ethicon (Leiden 1919).

XCVI11(98): Bedjan, 577f; Wensinck, 60

XCIX(99): Bedjan, 578; Wensinck, 60f
C(IOO): Bedjan, 578f; Wensinck, 61
CI(IOI): Bedjan, 579; Wensinck, 6If
Cll( 102): Sentence I; Bedjan, 579f; Wensinck, 62
Clll( 103): Sentence 2; Bedjan, 580; Wensinck, 62
CIV( 104): Sentence 7; Bedjan, 581; Wensinck, 63
CV(I05): Sentence 10; Bedjan, 581; Wensinck, 64
CVI( 106): Sentence I I; Bedjan, 581; Wensinck, 64
CVII( 107): Sentence 12; Bedjan, 581; Wensinck, 64
CVIII(I08): Sentence 13; Bedjan, 58If; Wensinck, 64
CIX( 109): Sentence 14; Bedjan, 582; Wensinck, 64
CX(I 10): Sentence 15; Bedjan, 582; Wensinck, 64
CXI (I I I): Sentence 16; Bedjan, 582; Wensinck, 64f
CXII(I 12): Sentence 17; Bedjan, 582; Wensinck, 65
CXIII(I 13): Sentence 18; Bedjan, 582f; Wensinck, 65
CXIV(I 14): Sentence 19; Bedjan, 583; Wensinck, 65
CXV(I 15): Sentence 20; Bedjan, 583; Wensinck, 65
CXVI(I 16): Sentence 22; Bedjan, 583; Wensinck, 65
CXVII(I 17): Sentence 26; Bedjan, 584; Wensinck, 66
CXVIII(I 18): Sentence 27; Bedjan, 584; Wensinck, 66
CXIX(I 19): Sentence 36; Bedjan, 586; Wensinck, 67f
CXX( 120): Sentence 41; Bedjan, 587; Wensinck, 68f
CXXI( 121): Sentence 58; Bedjan, 589; Wensinck, 71
CXXII( 122): Sentence 59; Bedjan, 590; Wensinck, 7If
CXXIII( 123): Sentence 60; Bedjan, 590; Wensinck, 72
CXXIV( 124): Sentence 61; Bedjan, 590; Wensinck, 72
CXXV( 125): Sentence 64; Bedjan, 590; Wensinck, 72
CXXVI( 126): Sentence 67; Bedjan, 591; Wensinck, 73
CXXVII( 127): Sentence 68; Bedjan, 591; Wensinck, 73
188 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

CXXVIII( 128): Sentence 74; Bedjan, 592; Wensinck, 74

CXXIX( 129): Sentence 96; Bedjan, 597f; Wensinck, 79f
CXXX( I 30): Sentence 98; Bedjan, 598; Wensinck, 80
 REFERENCE BIBLIOGRAPHY

MONASTICISM AND MYSTICISM

1. Brock, Sebastian, The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life. Kalamazoo
1987.
English translations of extracts from: Aphrahat, Ephrem, Book of Steps,
Evagrius, John of Apamea, Philoxenus of Mabbug, Babai, Anonymous I,
Anonymous II, Abraham of Nathpar, Martyrius (Sahdona), Isaac of
Nineveh, Dadisho, Joseph the Visionary (Abdisho), John the Elder (John
of Dalyatha).
2. Mingana, A., Early Christian Mystics. Woodbrooke Studies 7. Cambridge 1934.
Syriac text (reproduction of Mingana ms 601) and English translation
of extracts: Simon ofTaibutheh, Dadisho Qatraya, Joseph (alias Abdisho)
Hazzaya, Abraham bar Dashandad.
3. Baumstark, A., Geschichte der syrischen Literatur. Bonn 1922.
Provides a brief biography and list of writings for each author.
4. Brock, S., The Syriac Tradition’, in Jones, Cheslyn, Geoffrey Wainwright,
Edward Yarnold, The Study of Spirituality. London 1986. Pages 199-215.
Syriac spirituality: brief introduction and bibliography.
5. Brock, S., ‘Early Syrian Asceticism’, Numen 20 (1973) 1-19; reprinted in his Syriac
Perspectives on Late Antiquity. London 1984.
Brief survey, including John Chrysostom, Marcion, Tatian, Encratism,
the Diaterssaron, the Acts of Thomas, Aphrahat, Ephrem, Simeon the
Stylite.
6. Brock, S., The consecration of the water in the oldest manuscripts of the Syrian
Orthodox Baptismal Liturgy’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 37 (1971) 317-332.
Provides data for relating baptismal formulas to the Song of the Pearl
(par. 137 above).
7. Brock, S., ‘Clothing metaphors as a means of theological expression in Syriac
tradition’, 22, I 1—40.
8. Colless, Brian, The Place of Syrian Christian Mysticism in Religious History’,
Journal of Religious History 5/1(1968) 1-15.
Brief survey of modern study on the subject.

189
190 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

9. Colless, B., The Legacy of the Ancient Syrian Church, Evangelical Quarterly 40
(1968) 183-196.
10. Colless, B„ A Pot-pourri of Eastern Mysticism: Mingana Syriac Ms No. 86’,
Milla wa-Milla 6 (1966) 34—43.
I I. Colless, B., Education in the Ancient Syrian Church, Milla wa-Milla 7 (1967)
21-30.
Aspects of education in early Syriac schools and monasteries.
12. Colless, B., The Pearl and Grail Quests’, Milla wa-Milla 15 (1975) 27—35.
The pearl is a typically eastern symbol and the grail is western, but the
East has its grails and the West has its pearls.
13. Ellwood, R. S., Mysticism and Religion. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 1980.
A thorough study of the rich variety of human mystical experiences in
their religious and social contexts. He has only one Syriac mystic, ‘Saint
Isaac the Syrian’, and he has not studied him at first hand, but through
the eyes of Orthodox Christians; he says that Isaac’s three stages are
‘penitence, purification, and perfection’, but see also par. 243 above.
14. Frank, K. S„ Askese und Monchtum in der alten Kirche. Darmstadt 1975.
Collected studies by various scholars.
I 5. Guillaumont, A., Aux origines du monachisme chretien. Pour une phenomenologie
du monachisme. Spiritualite Orientale 30. Begrolles: Abbaye de Bellefontaine
1979.
Collection of articles in French, mainly on the Egyptian desert monks.
16. Hambye, E. R., The symbol of the “coming to the harbour” in the Syriac
tradition’, Symposium Syriacum 1972. Orientalia Christiana Analecta 197
(1974) 401 —41 I.
Data for elucidating the arrival at the haven in the Song of the Pearl
(par. 109-1 12 above).

17. Hausherr, Irenee, Hesychasme et priere. Orientalia Christiana Analecta 176.

Rome 1966.
Collected articles on eastern Christian spirituality.
18. Hausherr, I., Etudes de spiritualite orientale. Orientalia Christiana Analecta 183.
Rome 1969.
Collected articles on spiritual authors of the eastern churches.
19. Leroy, J., Monks and Monasteries of the Near East. London 1963.
A sympathetic introduction, translated from French by P. Collin.
20. Murray, R., Symbols of Church and Kingdom. A Study in Early Syriac Tradition.
Cambridge 1975.
Detailed study of early titles and symbols applied to Christ and his
church.
 Reference Bibliography 191

21. Pena, I., Castellana, P„ Fernandez, R., Les Reclus Syriens. Recherches sur les
anciennes formes de vie solitaire en Syrie. Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, Col-
lectio Minor 23. Milano 1980.
Ancient Syrian recluses, athletes of God; Syrian monasticism; the towers
of the recluses; the ascetic life; activities of the recluses. Types of monks:
stationary (standing constantly), dendrite (tree-dwelling), akoimete
(non-sleeping), grazer (grass-eating), vagrant (idle rover), stylite (pillar-
sitter), recluse (enclosed in a confined space), hupaithrian (living under
the open sky with no protection from the weather).
22. Schmidt, Margot, Typus, Symbol, Allegorie bei den ostlichen Vatern und ihren
Parallelen im Mittelalter. Eichstatter Beitrage 4. Regensburg 1982.
Includes S. Brock on clothing metaphors; H. Drijvers on the Alexius
legend; L. Leloir on the Devil and the Desert Fathers; E. Beck, P. Yousif,
and M. Schmidt on Ephrem.
23. Smith, Margaret, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East. London
1931.
Chapter 5 deals with Aphraates, Ephraim, John of Lycopolis (John the
Seer), Hierotheos, Isaac of Nineveh; Part II covers Islam and Sufism.
24. Underhill, Evelyn, Mysticism. London 1911.
Mysticism is a quest for truth and reality, knowledge of ultimate reality
without the mediation of the mind or the senses. There are five stages:
(I) Awakening or conversion, (2) Purgation or self-knowledge, through
discipline and morality, (3) Illumination, radiant ecstasy, but not true
union, (4) Surrender, or the dark night of the soul, a further purgation
of self, (5) Union with God, integration with ultimate reality; calm peace,
quiet joy.
25. Voobus, A., History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient. Vol. I: The Origin of Asceti¬
cism; Early Monasticism in Persia. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium
184. Louvain 1958.
26. Voobus, A., History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient. Vol. 2, Early Monasticism
in Mesopotamia and Syria. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium
197. Louvain 1960.
27. Voobus, A., History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient. Vol. 3. Corpus Scriptorum
Christianorum Orientalium 500 . Louvain 1988.
This volume covers the Syriac mystics.

EUGENIOS OF NISIBIS

28. Voobus, A., 25, 138-140, 217-220.

Considers the Eugenios legend to be a fabrication.
192 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

TATIAN THE ENCRATITE

29. Voobus, A., 25, 3 I -45.

Examines the role of Tatian the ‘Assyrian’ in the establishing of asceti¬
cism in the Syriac world; Encratism and the Diatessaron.
30. Quispel, G., Tatian, Enkratismus, 37, 5-17.
Encratism (Hellenistic, abstention from mariage, wine, meat) came from
the West to Edessa, before Tatian; it influenced Messallianism (a move¬
ment within the church), as found in Pseudo-Makarios and the Book of
Degrees.

THE ACTS OF THOMAS

3 I. Wright, W„ Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. Vol. 1:171-333. London 1871.

Syriac text and English translation of Acta Thomae.
32. Klijn, A. F. J„ The Acts of Thomas. Supplements to Novum Testamentum 5.
Leiden 1962.
The English translation of William Wright (1871), with introduction,
including a survey of the manuscript tradition of the Syriac text and
other versions (1-17), and commentary.
33. Jansma, T., A Selection from the Acts of Judas Thomas. Leiden 1952.
Syriac text, abridged, for student use; includes the Song of the Pearl.

THE SONG OF THE PEARL

34. Bevan, A. A., The Hymn of the Soul Contained in the Syriac Acts of St Thomas.
Texts and Studies 5, 3. Cambridge 1897.
Syriac text and English translation.
35. Poi rier, P.-H., L’Hymne de la Perle des Actes de Thomas. Homo Religiosus 8.
Louvain-la-Neuve 1981.
Syriac text, Greek version, and French translation, with bibliography
(17-26), comprehensive introduction surveying all previous interpreta¬
tions of the poem (31-167), and commentary (409-H38); also Greek
text and French translation of the paraphrase of Niketas of Thessalo-
nika.
36. Colless, B. E„ The Letter to the Hebrews and the Song of the Pearl’,
Abr-Nahrain 25 (1987) 40-55.
An interpretation of the poem as an allegory of the Christian life, in
accord with the teachings of the New Testament apostles; an English
translation is appended.
 Reference Bibliography 193

37. Quispel, G., Makarius, das Thomasevangelium, und das Lied von der Perle. Leiden
1967.
Finds connections between Pseudo-Makarios and the Song of the Pearl
(39-64).

THE DESERT ASCETICS

38. Migne, J. R, Apophthegmata Patrum. Patrologia Graeca 65 (Paris 1868) 71—440.

Greek text and Latin translation of the alphabetical collection of sayings.
39. Ward, Benedicta, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection.
Oxford-Kalamazoo 1975.
English translation of the Apophthegmata (Migne 38, 71 —440).
40. Budge, E. A.W., The Wit and Wisdom of the Christian Fathers of Egypt. Oxford
1934.
English translation of the Syriac version of the Apophthegmata.
41. Budge, E.A.W., The Book of Paradise, 2 vols. London 1904.
Syriac text and English translation of Ananisho’s seventh-century Syriac
recension of the Paradise (Lausiac History) of Palladios, the Life of Saint
Antony by Athanasios of Alexandria, the Asketikon (the Rule of Pakhomios
at Tabenna), History of the Monks attributed to Hieronymus (Jerome),
Sayings of the Fathers (non-alphabetical version).
42. Budge, E. A.W., The Paradise of the Holy Fathers, 2 vols. London 1907.
English translation of the Book of Paradise.
43. Butler, C., The Lausiac History ofPalladius. Texts and Studies 6, I -2. Cambridge
1898 and 1904.
The first volume contains a critical discussion, and the second an edition
of the Greek text of the Paradeisos of Palladios, also called the Lausiakon,
because it was written for the prefect Lausos.
43b. Draguet, R., Les formes syriaques de la matiere de Thistoire lausiaque. Corpus
Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 389-390, 398-399. Louvain 1978.
44. Draguet, R., La vie primitive de S. Antoine conservee en syriaque. Corpus Scrip¬
torum Christianorum Orientalium 417—418. Louvain 1980.
45. Guillaumont, A., ‘La conception du desert chez les moines d’Egypte’, 15,
67-87.
The desert is an ambivalent thing: the ideal place for hesukhia and union
with God, but also the abode of the demons with which the monk must
fight and defeat the passions that would turn him aside from his goal.
46. G uillaumont, A., Le depaysement comme forme d’ascese dans le monachisme,
15, 89-1 16.
194 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

The monastic concept of expatriation or voluntary exile (cp. the going

forth from home, family, and even homeland in Buddhism) involves
becoming a stranger to the world, the concept of xeniteia.
47. Guillaumont, A., ‘Le travail manuel dans le monachisme ancien: contestation
et valorisation’, 15, 117-126.
The question of manual labour as an ascetic exercise; contrasts the
perfect in the Book of Degrees and the Messallians (who “toil not, neither
do they spin”) with the Egyptian monks (“anyone who does not work
does not eat”), who produced food for their own sustenance and to
give away in charity, and also engaged in work to stave off accidie
(depression).
48. Guillaumont, A., ‘Les visions mystiques dans le monachisme oriental chretien’,
15, 136-147.
The visionary experiences of Arsenios, Silvanos, Pakhomios, and
Evagrios.

EVAGRIOS PONTIKOS

49. Migne, J. P., Evagrius Ponticus, Opera Omnia. Patrologia Graeca, 40:1213-1286.
Greek text and Latin translation.
50. Frankenberg, W„ Evagrius Ponticus. Abhandlungen der koniglichen Ceselischaft
der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen, 13, 2. Berlin 1912.
Includes the Syriac text of: Antirrhetikos (472-544, in eight parts,
corresponding to the eight kinds of ‘thoughts’, logismoi, by which the
demons arouse the passions), Gnostikos (546-553, in 53 ‘chapters’,
counsels for the ‘gnostic’, the initiated monk), Admonition on Prayer
(558-562), Epistles (564-634, a collection of 64 letters), the six collec¬
tions of Kephalaia Gnostika (8-421), and an additional group of sixty
sentences (422-470).
51. Brock, S., ‘Admonition on Prayer’, I, 64-75.
English translation of this short piece (Frankenberg 558-562).
52. Gressmann, H., Nonnenspiegel und Monchsspiegel des Euagrios Pontikos. Texte
und Untersuchungen 39/4:143-165. Leipzig 1913.
Greek text of two sets of metrical sentences, similar to the Biblical
Proverbs-, advice for novices; one set addressed ‘to monks living in com¬
munity’, the other’to a virgin’.
53. Bunge, G„ Evagrios Pontikos, Briefe aus der Wiiste. Trier 1986.
German translation of the letters.
54. Guillaumont, A., Les six centuries des “Kephalaia gnostica”d’ Evagre le Pontique.
Patrologia Orientalis 28, I. Paris 1958.
 Reference Bibliography 195

Syriac text and French translation of the two Syriac versions of the
Kephalaia Gnostika (‘Chapters of Knowledge’), mystical sentences
collected in six ‘centuries’ (actually groups of ninety sayings). Most of
the Greek text has been lost, because the works of Evagrios were
banned.
55. G uillaumont. A., Les 'Kephalaia Gnostica’ d’Evagre le Pontique et Thistoire de
TOrigenisme chez les grecs et les syriens. Paris 1962.
Studies the influence of Evagrios on the Syriac churches.
56. G uillaumont, A., ‘Un philosophe au desert: Evagre le Pontique’, 15, 185-212.
Concise introduction to Evagrios and his teachings.
57. Guillaumont, A. et C., ‘Evagre le Pontique’, Dictionnaire de Spiritualite 4 (I960)
1731-1744.
Survey of the writings of Evagrios.
58. G uillaumont, A., Evagre le Pontique. Traite pratique ou le moine. Sources
Chretiennes 170-171. Paris 1971.
Greek text and French translation of the Praktikos.
59. Bamberger, J. E., Evagrius Ponticus. The Praktikos, and Chapters on Prayer. Cister¬
cian Studies Series 4. Kalamazoo 1970.
English translation of the Praktikos (a work in a hundred brief chapters;
the most complete statement of his ascetic teaching), and the Treatise
on Prayer (in 153 sayings).
60. Hausherr, I., Les leqons d’un contemplatif. Le Traite de I’oraison d’Evagre le Pontique.
Paris I960.
French translation of Treatise on Prayer, with commentary.
61. Muyldermans, J., Evagriana Syriaca: Textes inedits du British Museum et de la
Vaticane. Louvain 1952.
Survey of Syriac mss containing writings of Evagrios (3-102); Syriac text
(104-142) and French translation (143-171) of fifteen pieces attributed
to Evagrios by the Syriac scribes (but note that the first of these, The
Just and the Perfect, is actually Discourse 14 of The Book of Degrees).

ESAIAS OF SKETE

62. Draguet, R., Les cinq recensions de TAsceticon syriaque d’Abba Isaie. Corpus
Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 289-290, 293-294. Louvain 1968.
Syriac text and French translation.
62a. Abba Isaiah of Scetis, The Ascetic Discourses. Cistercian Studies series, 150.
Translated with an Introduction and Notes by John Chryssavgis and
Pachomios (Robert) Penkett. Kalamazoo 2001.
196 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

63. Regnault, L., ‘Isaie de Scete ou de Gaza’, Dictionnaire de Spiritualite 7:2083-

2095.
64. Chitty, D. J., ‘Abba Isaiah’, Journal of Theological Studies 22 (1971) 47-72.

MAKARIOS THE GREAT

65. Strothmann, W., Die syrische Uberlieferung der Schriften des Makarios. Gottinger
Orientforschungen, 2 vols. Wiesbaden 1981.
Syriac text and German translation of the Syriac version of the Makar-
ian writings, much shorter than the Greek corpus, and including a
number of non-Makarian pieces; it begins with an abridgement of the
Great Letter.
66. Migne, J. R, Omnia Opera Sancti Macarii. Patrologia Graeca 34.
Greek text and Latin translation.
67. Dorries, H., Klostermann, E„ Kroeger, M., Die 50 Geistlichen Homilien des
Makarios. Berlin 1964.
Greek text of the Spiritual Homilies, known as Collection 2.
68a. Mason, A. J., Fifty Spiritual Homilies of St Macarius the Egyptian. London 1921.
English translation of Collection 2.
68b. Maloney, G. A., Pseudo-Macarius: The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great
Letter. New York 1992.
English translation of Collection 2.
69. Klostermann, E„ Berthold, H., Neue Homilien des Makarios/Symeon, I, aus Typus
III. Texte und Untersuchungen 72. Berlin 1961.
Greek text of Collection 3, except those pieces that already appear in
Collection 2.
70. Desprez, V., Pseudo-Macaire: CEuvres spirituelles, I, Homelies propres a la Collec¬
tion III. Sources Chretiennes 275. Paris 1980.
Greek text and French translation of the homilies in the Klostermann
and Berthold edition of Collection 3, except the eight that also appear
in Collection I.
71. Berthold, H„ Makarios/Symeon. Reden und Br/efe, Die Sammlung I des Vaticanus
Graecus 694 (B), 2 vols. Berlin 1973.
Greek text of Collection I, the largest, 64 homilies and epistles, beginning
with the Great Letter, the longest composition in the entire corpus.
72. Marriott, G„ Macarii Anecdota. Seven Unpublished Homilies of Macarius. Harvard
Theological Studies 5. Cambridge 1918.
Greek text of 7 homilies appended to 2 mss of Collection 2, some of
which also appear in Collection 3.
73. Jaeger, W., The Great Letter’, in Two Rediscovered Works of Ancient Christian
Literature: Gregory of Nyssa and Macarius. Leiden 1954.
 Reference Bibliography 197

74. Clarkson, A. R, Christ and the Christian in the Writings of Pseudo-Macarius: A Study
of an Early Christian Spirituality. Rome 1977.
75. Quispel, G., Makarius, 37, 9-63.
75a. Stewart, Columba, 'Working the Earth of the Heart: The Messalian Controversy
in History, Texts, and Language to AD 431. New York-Oxford 1991.
A study of Pseudo-Macarius and the Book of Degrees, with all the anti-
Messalian documents.

DIONYSIOS THE AREOPAGITE

76. Luibheid, Colm, Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works. The Classics of Western
Spirituality. New York 1987.
English translation of The Divine Names, The Mystical Theology, The
Celestial Hierarchy, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, The Letters. Greek text in
J. P. Migne. Patrologia Graeca 3.
77. Rolt, C. E„ The Divine Names and the Mystical Theology. London 1920.
English translation.
78. Sherwood, R, ‘Sergius of Resh'ain and the Syriac Versions of the Pseudo-
Denis’, Sacris Erudiri 4 (1952) 174-184.
79. Hornus, J-M., ‘Le corpus dionysien en syriaque’, Parole de TOrient I (1970)
69-94.

APHRAHAT THE PERSIAN

80. Parisot, J., Aphraatis Sapientis Persiae Demonstrationes. Patrologia Syriaca I, 2.

Paris 1894, 1907. 1-489.
Syriac text and Latin translation of the 23 Demonstrations.
81. Gwynn, J., ‘Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage’, A Select Library
of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, 13: 152-162, 345—412.
Oxford 1898; Grand Rapids 1979.
English translation of Demonstrations I, 5, 6, 8, 17, 21, 22.
82. Neusner, J., Aphrahat and Judaism. Leiden 1971.
Includes English translation of most of Demonstrations I 1-23.
83. Brock, S„ Aphrahat, I, 1-28.
English translation of Demonstration 4, On Prayer.
84. Hausherr, I., ‘Aphraate’, Dictionnaire de Spirituality I I (Paris 1937) 746-752.
85. Voobus, A., Treatises of Aphrahat’, 26, 173-178, 197-203.
Discusses their asceticism, and the ‘sons and daughters of the cove¬
nant’.
198 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

EPHREM THE SYRIAN

86. Beck, F., Des heiligen Ephraem des Syrers Hymnen de Fide. Corpus Scriptorum
Christianorum Orientalium 154-155. Louvain 1955.
Syriac text and German translation of the 87 Hymns on Faith, including
the 5 Pearl hymns, 81-85.
87. Graffin, F., ‘Les Hymnes sur la Perle, de Saint Ephrem', L’Orient Syrien 12 (1967)
129-149.
French translation of the Hymns on the Pearl.
88. Gwynn, J„ Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian, 81,120-15 1, 165-344.
Introduction and English transalation; includes the Pearl Hymns (291 —
304).
89. McVey, Kathleen, Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns. Classics of Western Spirituality
43. New York, 1989.
English translation.
90. Brock, S., Ephrem, I, 30—40.
English translation of Hymns on Faith, 20.
91. Lavenant, R., Graffin, F., Ephrem de Nisibe, Hymnes sur le Paradis. Sources
Chretiennes 137. Paris 1968.
French translation (by Lavenant) of the Hymns on Paradise (introduction
by Graffin).
92. Brock, S. R, The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of St Ephrem. Rome
1985-Kalamazoo 1992.
Introduction to Ephrem’s spirituality.
93. Voobus, A., Ephrem the Syrian, 26, 70-1 10.
Outlines Ephrem’s asceticism.
94. Leloir, L„ ‘La pensee monastique d’Ephrem et Martyrius’, Orientalia Christiana
Analecta 197:105-1 I 34. Rome 1974.

JULIAN SABA OF EDESSA

95. Voobus, A., Juliana Saba, 26, 42-51.
The chief sources of information are Ephrem and Theodoret.

THE BOOK OF DEGREES

96. Kmosko, M„ Liber Graduum. Patrologia Syriaca 3. Paris 1926.

Syriac text and Latin translation of the 30 discourses. It is considered
to be Messallian.
 Reference Bibliography 199

96a. The Book of Steps: The Syriac Liber Graduum. Translated with an Introduction
and Notes by Robert A. Kitchen and Maartien F. G. Parmentier, Cistercian
Studies Series 196. Kalamazoo 2004.
Downplays the role of the Liber Graduum in the Messallian contro¬
versy; it is probably not the missing Asketikon of the Messalians; but it
does demonstrate some Messallian tendencies, like the indwelling of
demons.
97. Brock, S., The Book of Steps, 1,42-61.
English translation of discourses 12 (On the ministry of the hidden and
the manifest church) and 18 (On the tears of prayer).
98. Murray, R., The Church visible, hidden and heavenly in the ‘Liber Graduum’
and related literature, 20, 262—271.
English translation and discussion of discourse 12.
99. G uillaumont, A., ‘Liber Graduum’, Dictionnaire de Spiritualite 9 (1976) 749-
754.
100. Guillaumont, A., ‘Situation et signification du “Liber Graduum” dans la spir¬
itualite syriaque’, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 197 (Roma 1974) 3 I 1-325.
The Book of Degrees was not composed by a Messallian, but it contains
the seeds of Messallianism.
101. Voobus, A, 25, 178-197.
The Book of Degrees is not a Messallian work.
102. Adam, A., Rezension von A. Voobus, History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient,
14, 230-254.
The Book of Degrees is clearly Messallian (238-244); it has the doctrine
of the evil Satanic spirit dwelling in the body; its doctrine of the two
grades of Christians (the just and the perfect) is not so much Manichean
as Marcionite; it has an exposition of Luke’s parable of the lost son,
which is to be compared with the Song of the Pearl.
102a. Stewart C„ 75a, 84-92 and passim.
The Liber Graduum is Messallian.

ADELPHIOS OF EDESSA

103. Lavenant, R., 127, 130-135.

Philoxenos recounts the story of the monk Adelph to Patriq of Edessa,
as a cautionary tale. Syriac text and French translation.
104. Kmosko, M„ 96, CXC-CXCVII.
Greek text and Latin translation of Theodoret’s account of Messallian¬
ism (Ecclesiastical History 4.10).
105. Voobus, A„ The Messalians, 26, 127-146.
200 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

JOHN THE SOLITARY OF APAMEA

106. Dedering, S„ Johannes von Lykopolis, Ein Dialog uber die Seele und die Affekte
des Menschen. Uppsala 1936.
S/riac text of four Dialogues with Eutropios and Eusebios, on the soul.
107. Hausherr, IJean le Solitaire (Pseudo-Jean de Lycopolis), Dialogue sur I’ame et
les passions des Hommes. Orientalia Christiana Analecta 120. Rome 1939.
French translation of the Dialogues (Dedering’s edition).
108. Rignell, L. G., Briefe von Johannes dem Einsiedler. Lund 1941.
Syriac text and German translation of two letters to Eutropios and
Eusebios, on the spiritual path, and on the true communion in the new
life.
Syriac text and German summary of a letter to Theodoulos, on the
mystery of the new life after the resurrection.
109. Rignell, L. G„ Drei Traktate von Johannes dem Einsiedler (Johannes von Apameia).
Lund I960.
Syriac text and German translation of (I) Letter on repose (perfection);
(2) Discourse on the mystery of baptism; (3) Letter to Theodoulos on
baptism.

I 10. Strothmann, W.Johannes von Apamea, Sechs Gesprache mit Thomasios, der
Briefwechsel zwischen Thomasios und Johannes und drei an Thomasios gerichtete
Abhandlungen. Berlin 1972.
Syriac text and German translation of (I) six dialogues with Thomasios,
(2) a letter to Thomasios, (3) three discourses (in response to a letter
from Thomasios) on Christ’s plan of salvation.
Also contains a survey of the published and unpublished writings of
John.

IN. Lavenant, R.Jean d’Apamee, Dialogues et traites. Introduction, traduction et notes.

Sources Chretiennes 311. Paris 1984.
French translation of Strothmann’s Syriac text.
I 12. Wensinck, A. J„ ‘New Data concerning Syriac mystic literature’, Mededeelingen
der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschapen, Afdeeling Letterkunde, Deel 55,
Serie A. Amsterdam 1923.
Syriac text and English translation of twenty sentences on the spiritual
station of the soul, by John the Seer.
I 13. Smith, M., ‘John of Lycopolis’, 23, 90-93.
Study of the twenty sentences on the spiritual station.
I 14. Brock, S., John of Apamea, I, 78-100.
English translation of the letter to Hesukhios.

I 15. Brock, S„ ‘John the Solitary, On Prayer’, Journal of Theological Studies 30

(1979) 84-101.
 Reference Bibliography 201

Syriac text and English translation of the discourse on prayer, also at¬
tributed to Abraham of Nathpar (see I, 188-196).
I 16. Bettiolo, P., ‘Sulla Preghiera: Filosseno o Giovanni?’, Le Museon 94 (1981)
75-89.
Discussion of the discourse on prayer, by Philoxenos or John?
I 17. Bradley, B., ‘Jean le Solitaire (Jean d’Apamee)’, Dictionnaire de Spiritualite 8
(1974) 764-77.
I 18. Hausherr, I., ‘Aux origines de la mystique syrienne: Gregoire de Chypre ou
Jean de Lycopolis?’, 17, 63-86.
The first inkling of the importance of John the Solitary, and his three-
stage framework.
119. Hausherr, I., ‘Un grand auteur spirituel retrouve: Jean d’Apamee’, 18, 181-216.
Further clarification on the identity of John the Solitary.
120. Lavenant, R., ‘Le probleme de Jean d’Apamee’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica
46 (1980) 367-390.
Returns to the position of Hausherr, there were three monks known
as John of Apamea: (I) John the Solitary in the 4th century; (2) John the
Egyptian, condemned by Philoxenos and Theodore Bar Koni; (3) the
Apamean condemned by Timothy the Patriarch along with Joseph
the Visionary and John the Venerable. However, this could be reduced
to two personages (3)=(l), or even one (Strothmann).
121. Harb, R, ‘Doctrine spirituelle de Jean le Solitaire’, Parole de I’Orient 2 (1971)
225-260.
122. Halleux, A. de, ‘La christologie de Jean le Solitaire’, Le Museon 94 (1981)
5-36.
I 23. Halleux, A. de, ‘Le milieu historique de Jean le Solitaire’, Orientalia Christiana
Analecta 221 (1983) 299-305.

PHILOXENOS OF MABBUG

124. Budge, E.A.W., The Discourses of Philoxenus, 2 Vols. London 1894.

Syriac text and English translation.
I 25. Lemoine, E„ Philoxene de Mabboug: Homelies. Sources Chretiennes 44. Paris
1956.
French translation of the Discourses.
126. Hausherr, I., Spiritualite syrienne: Philoxene de Mabbug en version franpaise,
18, 285-299.
Review of Lemoine’s translation of the Discourses.
I 27. Lavenant, R., La lettre a Patricius de Philoxene de Mabboug. Patrologia Orientalis
30, 5 (Paris 1963).
Syriac text and French translation.
202 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

I 28. Hausherr, I., Contemplation et saintete. Une remarquable mise au point par
Philoxene de Mabboug, 17, 13-37.
Study of the Greek version of the Letter to Patriq.
129. Tanghe, A., Memra de Philoxene de Mabboug sur I’inhabitation du Saint
Esprit, Le Museon 73 (1960) 39-71.
Syriac text and French translation.
130. Brock, S., Philoxenus of Mabbug, I, 102-133.
Translation of the discourse on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
131. Halleux, A. de, Philoxene de Mabboug, sa vie,ses ecrits, sa theologie. Louvain
1963.
132. Graffin, F., ‘Philoxene de Mabboug’, Dictionnaire de Spiritualite 12, 1392-
1297.
133. G rillmeier, A., ‘Zur Tauftheologie des Philoxenus von Mabbug und ihre
Bedeutung fur die christliche Spiritualitat’, Studies in honour of P. Smulders.
Assen 1981. Pages 137-175.

STEPHEN BAR SUDAILI

134. Frothingham, A. L., Stephen Bar Sudaili the Syrian Mystic and the Book of
Hierotheos. Leiden 1886.
135. Marsh, F. S„ The Book which is called The Book of the Holy Hierotheos, with
extracts from the Prolegomena and Commentary of Theodosius of Antioch and
from the “Book of Excerpts” and other works of Gregory Bar-Hebraeus. London
and Oxford 1927.
Syriac text and English translation.
136. Hausherr, I., ‘L’influence du “Livre de Saint Hierothee’”, 18, 23-58.
137. Guillaumont, A., ‘Etienne Bar Soudaili’, Dictionnaire de la Spiritualite, Tome 4,
1481-1488.
138. Guillaumont, A., ‘Etienne Bar Soudaili’, 54, 302-332.
139. Smith, M., The Book of the Holy Hierotheos’, 23, 94—97.

ABRAHAM OF NATHPAR

140. Penna, A., Abramo di Nathpar, Rivista degli Studi Orientali 32 (1957) 415-
431.

In Italian, a survey of the writings attributed to this author in the Syriac

manuscripts.
141. Tonneau, R„ ‘Abraham de Nathpar’, L’Orient Syrien 2 (1957) 337-350.
French translation of a biography and extracts from his ascetic tracts.
 Reference Bibliography 203

142. Brock, S., ‘Abraham of Nathpar’, I, 64-75, 188-196.

English translation of two tracts attributed to Abraham (by Evagrios
and John the Solitary).

GREGORIOS THE HERMIT

143. Hausherr, I., Gregorii Monachi Cyprii. De Theoria Sancta. Orientalia Christiana
Analecta I 10. Rome 1937.
Syriac text and Latin translation of the discourse On holy contempla¬
tion, by Gregory the Hermit, alias Gregory of Cyprus.
144. Kirchmeyer, J., ‘Gregoire de Chypre’, Dictionnaire de Spiritualite 6 (1967)
920-922.

SAHDONA-MARTYRIOS

145. Halleux, A. de, Martyrius (Sahdono), CEuvres spirituelles. Corpus Scriptorum

Christianorum Orientalium 200-201 (I960), 214-215 (1961), 252-253
(1965), 254-255 (1965).
Syriac text and French translation of The Book of Perfection, Letters to
solitaries, Maxims.
146. Brock, S., Martyrius (Sahdona), I, 198-239.
English translation of Book of Perfection 2.8.
147. Halleux, A. de, ‘Un nouveau fragment du manuscrit sinaitique de Martyrius-
Sahdona’, Le Museon 73 (I960) 33-38.
148. Brock, S. R, ‘A further fragment of the Sinai Sahdona manuscript’, Le Museon
81 (1968) 139-154.
I 49. Halleux, A. de, Un chapitre retrouve du Livre de la perfection de Martyrius,
Le Museon 88 (1975), 253-295.
150. Leloir, L„ ‘Martyrius’, Dictionnaire de Spiritualite 10 (1980) 737-742.
151. Leloir, L., ‘Martyrius’, 94, 124—131.

SIMON TAIBUTHEH

I 52. Mingana, A., Medico-Mystical Work, by Simon of Taibutheh, 2, 1-69, 281 —

320.
Syriac text (folios 163a-200b) and English translation.
204 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

ISAAC OF NINEVEH
I 53. Bedjan, P„ Mar Isaacus Ninivita de Perfectione Religiosa. Paris 1909.
Syriac text (in East Syrian script) of 82 discourses, and an appendix of
other works attributed to Isaac (but in one case actually by Dadisho,
601 -628), including a treatise on contemplation of the mysteries of the
cross (589-600).
154. Ploeg, J. van der, ‘Un traite nestorien du culte de la croix’, Le Museon 56
(1943) 115-127.
Latin translation of the treatise on the cross (Bedjan 589-600).
155. Wensinck, A. J., Mystic Treatises by Isaac of Nineveh (Amsterdam 1923; Wies¬
baden 1969).
English translation (inelegant) of the 82 discourses published by Bedjan
(153); it has Bedjan’s page numbers in the margin, for ease of reference
to the Syriac original.
156. Miller, D., The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian. Boston: Holy T rans-
figuration Monastery, 1984.
English translation of the Greek version (but with reference to the
Syriac original), with table of correspondences of the Greek and Syriac
numbering of the discourses. Also excerpts from The Book of Grace,
attributed rightly or wrongly to Isaac.
Note that Letter 4 of the printed Greek version is the Letter to Patriq
of Philoxenos of Mabbug, while 2, 7, 43, and 80 are by John of Dalyatha
(John the Venerable).
157. Touraille, J., Isaac le Syrien: CEuvres spirituelles. Paris 1981.
French translation of the Greek version of ‘the 85 ascetic discourses
and the letters’.
158. Kadloubovsky, E., Palmer, G. E. H„ Early Fathers from the Philokalia. London
1954.Pages 183-280.
English translation of the excerpts from Isaac’s discourses in the Russian
Philokalia, under the heading Directions on spiritual training.
159. Bettiolo, R, Gallo, M., Isacco di Ninive: Discorsi ascetici, vol. I. Rome 1984.
Italian translation of the first six discourses in Bedjan’s edition
(153,1-99).
160. Bettiolo, R, Isacco di Ninive: Discorsi spiritual'!. Magnano 1985.
Italian translation of the four Centuries (see 161).
161. Brock, S., ‘Isaac of Nineveh: some newly-discovered works’, Sobornost 8:1
(1986) 28-33.
An introduction to the projected publication of Oxford Bodleian ms
syr. e. 7, containing Part 2 of Isaac’s works: four Centuries of Chapters
on Knowledge, and numerous discourses, including two repeated from
 Reference Bibliography 205

Part I (54 and 55 in Bedjan’s edition, I 53), and the one on contempla¬
tion of the cross (Bedjan, I 53, 589-600).
161 a. Brock, S., Isaac of Nineveh (Isaac the Syrian), The Second Part, Chapters IV-XLI.
Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 554-555 (Scriptores Syri
224-225). Louvain 1995.
Text and translation of the manuscript mentioned in 161, except l-lll,
which include the four sets (‘centuries’) of sentences on spiritual knowl¬
edge.
162. Brock, S., ‘St Isaac of Nineveh and Syriac spirituality’, Sobornost TCI (1975)
79-89.
Concise introduction to Isaac’s mysticism.
163. Bunge, G., ‘Mar Isaak von Nineveh und sein “Buch der Gnade’”, Ostkirkliche
Studien 34 (1985) 3-22.
Accepts the Book of Grace (a collection of seven centuries of sayings)
as a late work of Isaac, but D. Miller (156, Ixxxi—Ixxxv) thinks they
belong to Simon Taibutheh.
164. Khalife-Hachem, E., Isaac de Ninive’, Dictionnaire de Spirituality, 7 (1971)
2041-2054.
Introduction and detailed bibliography.
165. Khalife-Hachem, E., La priere pure et la priere spirituelle selon Isaac de
Ninive’, in Memorial Mgr Gabriel Khouri-Sarkis. Louvain 1969. Pages 157-173.
Discussion of Isaac’s paradox that at the very height of prayer, prayer
is no more.
166. Khalife-Hachem, E., L’ame et les passions des hommes d’apres un texte
d’lsaac de Ninive’, Parole de TOrient 12 (1984-1985) 201-218.
French translation and analysis of Discourse 3 (Bedjan, 153, 20-31),
detecting influences of Evagrios and John the Solitary.
167. Smith, M., Isaac of Nineveh, 23, 97-102.
168. Chabot, J. B., De S. Isaaci Ninivitae Vita, Scriptis et Doctrina. Paris 1892.

DADISHO OF QATAR
169. Mingana, A., A Treatise on Solitude, by Dadisho Katraya, 2, 70-143, 201-247.
Syriac text (photo-reproduction, 201-247, folios 3b-55b) and English
translation.
170. Brock, S., Dadisho, I, 303-312.
English translation of a section (on pure prayer) from the Discourse on
Solitude.
171. Guillaumont, A., Albert, M„ ‘Lettre de Dadisho Qatraya a Abkosh, sur
I’hesychia’, Memorial A.-J. Festugiere. Geneva 1984. Pages 235-245.
206 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

172. Draguet, R„ Commentaire du livre d’Abba Isaie par Dadisho Qatraya. Corpus
Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 326-327. Louvain 1972.
Syriac text and French translation of his Commentary on the Asketikon
of Esaias of Sketis.
I 73. Guillaumont, A., ‘Dadisho Qatraya’, Dictionnaire de Spiritualite 2 (Paris 1957)
22-23.

JOSEPH THE VISIONARY

174. Mingana, A., Mystical treatise by Joseph Hazzaya, 2, 177-184, 256-261.
Syriac text (256-261, folios 85b-90a) and English translation of ‘the
fifth letter of Rabban Joseph’ on the shortest path that brings us to
God, through ‘pure prayer’.
175. Mingana, A., Mystical treatises by Abdisho Hazzaya, 2, 145-175, 262-281.
Syriac text (262-281, folios 143b—162b) and English translation of
5 pieces, by Joseph Hazzaya, published under the name of his brother
Abdisho. The last of these, on the operations of grace, is also found at
the end of the Epistles of John the Venerable (Beulay’s edition, Letter
49).
176. Brock, S., Joseph the Visionary (Abdisho), 1,313-325.
English translation of two short pieces from Mingana Syriac Ms 601:
On spiritual prayer (248b-249a) and On the stirrings of the mind during
prayer (both published and translated by Mingana, 2, 272-274, 163—
164).
177. Brock, S., Anonymous II, I, 179-185.
In this short discourse on prayer as a ladder leading up to God, Brock
sees a similarity of style with John of Apamea; nevertheless, the pres¬
ence of ‘the five contemplations’ of Evagrios indicates that this cannot
be a composition of John, since he apparently never refers to them;
the mention of the fragrance of the contemplative vision imparting
sweetness to the mind’s palette (183, 184) suggests Joseph Hazzaya
(cp. Mingana, 2, 149, 164, and Olinder 179, 41-42); also the ladder
metaphor (cp. Mingana, 2, 161, 179, 184).
I 78. Bunge, G., Rabban Jausep Hazzaya: Briefe uber das geistliche Leben und verwandte
Schriften, Ostsyrische Mystik des 8. Jahrhunderts. Trier 1982.
German translation of a selection of writings: the letter on the 3 degrees
(77-21 I), letter on the various operations of grace (213-221), letter
on the operation of grace (223-238), the fifth letter (239-261), dis¬
course on spiritual contemplation (263-268), 3 discourses on prayer
(269-287, 289-294, 295-298), excerpts from the chapters of knowledge
 Reference Bibliography 207

(299-324), extracts from the book of questions and answers (325-355),

3 prayers (357-367).
179. Olinder, G., A Letter of Philoxenos of Mabbug sent to a Friend. Goteborg’s
Hogskola’s Arsskrift 56. Goteborg 1950.
Syriac text and English translation of the abridged version of Joseph
Hazzaya’s letter on the three degrees, wrongly attributed to Philoxenos.
180. Graffin, E, ‘La lettre de Philoxene de Mabboug a un superieur de monastere
sur la vie monastique’, L’Orient Syrien 6 (1961) 3 17-352, 455—486, 7 (1962)
77-102.
French translation of the complete version of the letter on the three
degrees.
181. Harb, P„ ‘Faut-il restituer a Joseph Hazzaya la Lettre sur les trois degres de la
vie monastique attribute a Philoxene de Mabbug?’, Melto 4 (1968) 13-36.
Convincing demonstration of Joseph’s authorship.
181 a. Jausep Hazzaya, Lettre sur les trois etapes de la vie monastique, ed. Paul Harb,
Franqois Graffin, Micheline Albert, Patrologia Orientalis t. 45, fasc. 2 = no
202. Turnhout 1992.
Text and French translation of the discourse mentioned in 178-181.
182. Draguet, R., Commentaire anonyme du Livre d’abba Isai'e (fragments). Corpus
Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 336-337. Louvain 1973.
Syriac text and French translation of nine substantial fragments of a
commentary on the Asketikon of Esaias of Skete, which may well be
Joseph’s commentary on the Book of the Merchant (thought to be the
Isaiah Asketikon). Draguet rejects Joseph as the author of these fagments,
but they bear his characteristic marks; they are certainly later than
Isaac of Nineveh, who is quoted as the teacher of the writer.

183. Graffin, F., ‘Un inedit de I’abbe Isaie sur les etapes de la vie monastique’,
Orientalia Christiana Periodica 29 (1963) 449^454.
Syriac text and French translation of the eighth fragment of the anony¬
mous commentary edited by Draguet.

184. Beulay, R., ‘Des Centuries de Joseph Hazzaya retrouvees?’, Parole de /’Orient
3 (1972) 5-44.
Some of Joseph’s chapters on knowledge have been included among
the works of John the Venerable (John Saba of Dalyatha).

185. Beulay, R., ‘Joseph Hazzaya’, Dictionnaire de Spiritualite 8 (1974) 1341-1349.

Summary of Joseph’s life, writings, and teachings.

186. G uillaumont. A., ‘Sources de la doctrine de Joseph Hazzaya’, L’Orient Syrien

3 (1958) 3-24.
Evagrios and Makarios as important sources of Joseph’s doctrine.
208 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

187. Scher, A., ‘Joseph Hazzaya, ecrivain syriaque du Vllle siecle’, Rivista degli Studi
Orientali3 (1910) 45-63.
Surveys the biographies and manuscripts.
188. Sherry, E. J„ The Life and Works of Joseph Hazzaya’, The Seed of Wisdom.
Essays in Honour ofT.J. Meek. London 1964. Pages 78-91.
An introduction to Joseph and his mysticism.
189. Sims-Williams, ‘Syro-Sogdica I: An Anonymous Homily on the Three Periods
of the Solitary Life’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 47 (1981) 441-446.
English translation of an incomplete Sogdian text found in Turkestan,
presumed to be translated from Syriac; the author notes that it is
comparable to works of John the Solitary, Isaac of Nineveh, and Joseph
Hazzaya. Joseph is a likely candidate (there are comparisons with his
Letter on the Three Degrees, 122-124, such as the ‘sweetness’ mingled
with the monk’s solitary service in the middle stage, after a struggle
with passions, and the thoughts becoming collected; also the ladder,
as in 177).

JOHN THE VENERABLE

190. Beulay, R., La Collection des Lettres de Jean de Dalyatha. Patrologia Orientalis 39,
3. Turnhout 1978.
Syriac text and French translation of the epistles of John Saba (‘the
venerable’) of Dalyatha.
191. Beulay, R., ‘Jean de Dalyatha et sa lettre XV’, Parole de /’Orient 2 (1971)
261-279.
French translation and detailed study of one of the epistles.
192. Brock, S„ John the Elder, I, 327-338, 362-364.
English translation of Letters 5 and 12 (Beulay’s edition) and two prayers
(from Letters 15 and 42).
193. Colless, B. E„ The Mysticism of John Saba. Vol I, The Mystical Discourses
of John Saba. Vol. 2, John Saba and the Legacy of Syrian Christian Mysticism’.
Thesis: University of Melbourne, 1969.
Syriac text and English translation of most of the discourses.
194. Sherwood, P, ‘Jean de Dalyata: Sur la fuite du monde’, L’Orient Syrien I (1956)
305-312.

French translation of one of the discourses, on withdrawal from the

world.
195. Beulay, R„ ‘L’enseignement spirituel de Jean de Dalyatha’. These de 3e cycle,
deposee a I’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 5e Section. Paris 1974.
Exhaustive analysis of the works of John Saba.
 Reference Bibliography 209

195a. Beulay, Robert, L’enseignement spirituel de Jean de Dalyatha, mystique syro-

oriental du Vllle siecle, Collection ‘Theologie historique’ 83. Paris 1990.
This and the following volume constitute the published version of his
thesis.
195b. Beulay, Robert, La Lumiere sans forme. Introduction a I’etude de la mystique
chretienne syro-orientale, Collection ‘L’Esprit et le Feu’. Chevetogne 1987.
A masterly survey of Syriac Christian mysticism, concentrating on the
Nestorian mystics of the 7th and 8th century and the influence exerted
on them by Evagrios, Pseudo-Makarios, John the Solitary, Pseudo-
Dionysios, Gregory of Nyssa, and the Doctors of the Nestorian Church;
also includes four writers who do not appear in this book, namely
Henanisho of Beit Qoqa, John Bar Penkaye, Nestorius of Nuhadra, and
Berikhisho.
196. Beulay, R., ‘Jean de Dalyatha’, Dictionnaire de Spirituality 8 (Paris 1974)
449—452.
Brief introduction to his life and works.
197. Colless, B. E., The Mysticism of John Saba’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 39
(1973) 83-102.
Survey of some of the sources of his teaching, which must be read in
the light of Beulay’s publications on the subject.
198. Colless, B. E., ‘Le mystere de Jean Saba’, L’Orient Syrien 12 (1967) 515-523.
Problems in identifying John Saba; John bar Penkaye or John of Da¬
lyatha?
199. Colless, B. E.,‘The Biographies of John SabaParole de I’Orient 3 (1972) 45-63.
Conflicting traditions about the identity of John Saba.
200. Beulay, R., ‘Precisions touchant I’identite et la biographie de Jean Saba de
Dalyatha’, Parole de I’Orient 8 (1977-1988) 87-1 16.
John of Dalyatha (the mystic) is John Saba and quite distinct from John
bar Penkaye (the scholastic).
201. Munitiz, J., ‘A Greek ‘Anima Christi’ Prayer’, Eastern Churches Review 6 (1974)
170-180.
The ‘Anima Christi’ may have been influenced by John of Dalyatha’s
prayer in the discourse on flight from the world (see Sherwood, 194
above, and extract LXVI in the anthology).

ABRAHAM BAR DASHANDAD

202. Mingana, A., ‘Mystical treatise by Abraham bar Dashandad’, 2, 185-197,
248-255.
Syriac text and English translation of a letter on the solitary life.
210 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

203. Jansen, H. L., The Mysticism of Abraham bar Dashandad’, Numen, 4 (1957)
I 14-126.
Analysis of the piece published by Mingana (202).

GREGORY BAR HEBRAEUS

204. Bedjan, P., Liber Ethikon seu Moralia Gregorii Barhebraei. Paris 1898.
Syriac text of the Ethikon and Book of the Dove.
205. Wensinck, A. J., Bar Hebraeus’s Book of the Dove together with some chapters
from his Ethikon. Leiden 1919.
English translation with detailed introduction to the Book of Ethics and
Book of the Dove.
206. Colless, B. E., The Mysticism of Bar Hebraeus’, Orientalia Christiana Peri¬
odica 54 (1988) 153-173.
Sources of his mysticism, notably Joseph Hazzaya and John of Dalyatha.
207. Teule, Herman G. B„ ed., Gregory Barhebraeus, Ethicon, Memra I, Corpus
Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 534-535 [Scriptores Syri 218-219],
Louvain 1993.
Syriac text and English translation of the first section of the Book of
Ethics (204).
 Scriptural References

Arabic numerals refer to paragraphs in the introduction.

Roman numerals refer to excerpts in the anthology.

Genesis Judges
1:2 141 5:24-27 232
2:7 185
2:24 132 2 Samuel
3:20 XCI 19:8 56
6-9 284
14:17-20 29 Psalms
4:6 XVIII
18:27 93 L
22:6 93 L
24:2 LXXXVII
Exodus
45:7 28
2:23 23
63:2 LXXXVI
10:21-23 104
97:2 LXXXVIII
12:29-30 23
107:23 109
13:3 23
107:26 237
13:21 109
107:30 109
16:3 32
132:4 XXIX
24:10 71
32:1-6 32
Proverbs
33:9-23 CIX
6:6-8 XXIV
33:22 XXXVII
9:1 CXXIX

Leviticus Ecclesiastes
14:4 58 1:14 XXXVII

Numbers Isaiah
6:26 XVIII 6:3 LV
19:6 58 8:18 29
22:13 7
Deuteronomy 33:17 134
8:12-14 32 61:8-10 22
32:18 33 61:10 106
212 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

Jeremiah 13:45-46 45 143 XIV XV XIX

31:31-34 22 XLIII
17:1-8 27
17:20 CV
Ezekiel
18:10 26
3:9 20
19:14 16
29:3 24
19:21 154
20:1 1-15 55
Daniel 22:30 161
9:21 26 25:1-13 XIV
10:21 26 XIV
25:14-30
12:1 26 25:34-40 153
12:3-4 46 25:34 53
25:34 53
Matthew 26:28 58
2:14-15 29 27:28 58
3:2 37 28:19 38
3:1 1 188
3:16-17 36 42
Mark
4:17 37
1:4-6 9
5:5 XIV
1:12-13 147
5:6 XIV
7:1 1 57
5:7 XIV
9:2-3 106 XL
5:8 134 156 158 183 21 1
10:7 132
227 229 262 XIV XVIII
13:35-37 XIV
LIX LXIV
5:9 134 XIV
5:19 54 Luke
5:23 57 1:5 146
6:2 XCIV 1:19 26
6:5 XCIV 1:78 CXV
6:6 XCIV 4:1-2 147
6:9-10 16 4:32 37
6:19-21 22 XIV 6:31 153
6:20 143 7:33 9
6:21 101 7:34 9
7:1-10 29 10:18 XXIV
7:6 XXIV 12:49 88
7:12 153 15:1 1-32 14
8:4 57 15:17-18 37
1 1:29-30 21 XXIII 17:21 21 1
13:25 33 18:16 16
13:43 22 22:34-36 XCI
13:44 143 22:15 34
 Scriptural References 213

22:43 182 / Corinthians

24:16 31 2:9 XLVI CXVII
2:12 20
John 2:14 188 201
1:1-14 14 2:15 201
1:9 52 2:16 224
1:9-10 31 3:3 201
3:3 199 6:12 9
3:5 39 7:5 146
4:21 CXXVIII 10:7 32
6:58 156 10:23 9
7:38 LXXXII 12:31 167
8:12 52 13:3 233
8:32 41 13:7 167
9:5 52 13:12 50 I58XCIII
14:21 54 15:8 222
14:24 229 15:22 7
14:26 41 42 15:32 7
15:10 54 15:34 34
15:26 41 15:49 50
16:13 41 163 185
17:14 23 XIV 2 Corinthians
19:2 58 1:22 43 177
20:14 31 3:2-6 22
20:24-28 9 3:17 40
3:18 50
Acts 4:6 52
2:38 37 4:16 233
17:28 269 5:2-4 LXXXIV
12:1 -4 216 229
Romans 12:4 223
1:26 106
5:5 LXXXIV Galatians
7:17 184 3:20 221
8:1 106 5:1 40
8:15 LXXXIV 5:13 40 44
8:16 41 5:13-24 44
8:17 XCII 5:22 233
8:21 40
8:29 14 18 52 Ephesians
12:2 33 1:3-8 20
13:1 1 33 134 XIV 1:4 14 195
13:12 52 139 1:13-14 43
13:14 52 106 139 141 3:14-17 20
214 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

4:4-6 36 5:7-9 184

4:5 45 5:13 155
4:13-14 47 5:14 155
4:30 43 6:12-19 53
4:22-24 49 136 9:12-21 58
5:5-7 30 10:10-23 59
5:8 36 10:10-14 57 59
5:14 36 10:15-16 22 59
5:26 39 10:22 39 59
6:10-17 20 11:1 Lll
6:12 XVIII 1 1:13 23
6:13-17 136 139 12:2 53
12:22-24 56
Philippians 12:23 112
2:7 154 13:4 146
4:3 55
James
Colossians 1:17 51
3:9 107 1:22-25 50
3:9-1 1 50 1:27 23
4:4 23
1 Thessalonians
1:10 XIV / Peter
5:23 201 1:4 22
1:10 35
/ Timothy 1:12 35
6:12 45 2:1 1 23
6:16 17 2:23 34
4:13 XIV
2 Timothy 5:14 44
1:12-14 48
2 Peter
Hebrews 1:3-8 46
1:2-3 52 1:4 89 1 14
1:3 18 2:9 34
1:4 52 3:1-2 35
1:6 52 3:18 51
1:7 88
1:9 28 / John
1:14 26 2:4 54
2:9 34 3:20 34
2:14 29 5:1-3 45
2:17-18 29 34 5:4 45 LXXXIV
3:12-18 30 5:7 41 45
 Scriptural References 215

Jude 17:3-4 58
9 26 20:1 1 -15 55
21:2 55
Revelation 21:8 53
6:1 1 22 21:21 56
1 1:1-12 27 21:22 56
12:7 26 21:27 55
12:9 24 22:14 54
 GLOSSARY AND INDEX

Arabic numerals refer to paragraphs in the introduction.

Roman numerals refer to excerpts in the anthology.
Bold Arabic numerals refer to items in the reference bibliography.

Aaron, brother of Moses, and the first High Priest of Israel: 146
abbot, abbacy, head of monastery: 252
Abdisho (see also: Joseph the Visionary): 253
abode, dwelling (see also: indwelling): of God LXXVI; for God XXVII LXXVI;
Christ as soul’s abode LXXXIV
Abraamios, Abramios, 9th-century monk of Saint Sabas monastery: 241
Abraham, Hebrew patriarch: 53 93 94
Abraham bar Dashandad, 8th-century East Syrian mystic: 267-279 XCVII
195b 202-203
Abraham of Nathpar, 6th-century East Syrian mystic: 226-227 140-142 195b
abyss: of God LXXXVIII; of evil LXVI
acedia, accidie, Greek akedia, listlessness, one of the 8 passions of Evagrios:
214 (torpor) 229 (depression) 249 (dejectedness)
Acts of the Apostles: 9 XLVI
Acts of (the Apostle Judas) Thomas: 9 10 II 38 113 164 31-33
Adam: 7 50 104 185 187 LXXXI
adamant, diamond or other hard substance: 20 I XI
Adelphios of Edessa, 4th-5th century Syrian mystic: 171-191 213-220 103-105
Adiabene, region south of Mosul and east of the Tigris river: 226
admonition (in Song of the Pearl): 30
adoption: by God 137 LV
adoration: with bowed head XIII
advent: second coming of Christ 141 XIV
afterlife: Egypt 4; Babylonia 5-6; 159-160 (see also: world to come)
agate, a hard precious stone: I XI
air, atmosphere: LXXXVIII
Albertus Magnus, Saint Albert of Cologne, 13th-century scientist and theologian:
128
Alexandria, city of Egypt, ancient centre of Greek science and theology: 219
Al-Ghazali (d. I I I I), Muslim theologian and Sufi mystic: 281
all: all in all 222 224 X XC

216
 Glossary and Index 217

allegory: 14-15 60 108 113

almsgiving, charitable donation to the poor, as a Christian virtue: 10 140 XLV
altar, for offerings to God: heart 156 181 191; mind 149
angels, ministering spirits, celestial beings: 26 35 52 56 65 88 105 124 135 145
150 198 224 242 262 263 275 XLIV XLV XLVII LIN LIV LV LX LXV LXVII
CXI CXXIX
anger, one of the 8 passions of Evagrios: 214 LX LXI LXIV; demon 261
Anima Christi prayer: 264 201
animals: 261 XLV CXXIX
anointing, unction, anointed (Messiah, Christ): 28 3 I 148 272 (see also: oil);
with the blood of the Lamb 108
ant: XXIV
Antioch, Antiokheia, early Syrian centre of Christianity (now in Turkey) 179 186
Antonios, Saint Antony, 4th-century Egyptian monk: 3 79 171 41 44
anxiety: 245 XXXII
Apamea, Apameia, ancient Syrian city, south of Antiokheia: 192
Aphrahat, Aphraates, 4th-century Syriac Christian monk and bishop in Persia:
130-143 146 152 157 227 XIV 80-85 195b
Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Fathers), collected sayings of the Egyptian
monks: 65 74 77 80 251 38 39
apostasy, falling away from God: 30 32 (golden calf)
Apostles, the earliest Christian leaders and missionaries: XVI XXIII CXV
Aramaic, language of ancient Aram or Syria (see also: Syriac): 2 82 (Aramaisms)
ark, the vessel used by Noah to escape the Flood: 284
armour, panoply, provided by God: of light 20 52 I 36-140 (from baptism)
Arnold, Gottfried, German Pietist: I 17
Arsenios, early monk in Egypt: 65
ascent, ascension: diver 148 XVI; soul or mind 120 126 127 141 142 224 237
XXIV XL Llll LXVII I LXXXVI CXVII
ascesis, asceticism, austerity, practice of self-discipline and mortification: 17 10
63 64 85 131-133 145-146 152 164 165 171 183 205 206 21 I 217 226 227
233 236 245 246 254 (‘practice’) 268 269 XLIX CXV CXXVIII 25-27
Ashoka, emperor of India. 3rd century bce: 165
Ashvaghosha, Ist-century Buddhist author of India: 205-208
atman (Sanskrit, ‘soul’, ‘spirit’): 166
atonement: by the blood of Christ 58 108
Atrakhasis, or Utnapishtim, hero of the Babylonian Flood story: 5
attachment, to people and things: non-attachment 207 (Buddhism); (see also:
freedom, renunciation)
attention, attentiveness: whole mind directed towards God 245; (see also con¬
centration)
Augustinus, Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430), bishop in Roman Africa: 230
avarice, one of the 8 passions of Evagrios: 107 214 (love of gold)
awakening, from sleep: 36 134 194 VIVII IX XIV XX
218 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

bce: ‘before the common era’ (or ‘current era’, or ‘Christian era’)
babe: XVII XXIV
Babylon, Babylonia, ancient city and region of southern Mesopotamia (Iraq): III
VII IX
baptism: 27 36 37 38 39 40 109 I I I I 12 136 137 138 139 141 155 156 159
164 178 181 182 185 187 188 197-200 212 217 252 256 280 L
of Jesus 36 42 146; baptism into the Holy Spirit I 12 218; higher baptism 199;
baptism in fire and the Spirit 155 181 185 188 224 CXIV
baptismal liturgy 137-139 6
Bardaisan, Bardesanes of Edessa (154-222), early Syriac Christian writer: 213
Bar'Ebraya, Bar Hebraeus (see under Gregory)
Bar Sahde, 7th-century Syrian monk: 3
Bashosh, city in Persia, site of a Christian school: 267
Basil the Great, Saint Basil of Caesarea, 4th-century mystical theologian: 67 230
beauty, loveliness: of God 151 XIX LXXI LXXIV LXXV LXXXVII XC XCIII CX;
of Christ’s revelation LXXIX LXXXII; of soul 239 263 LXIII LXXII LXXVII
LXXVIII; of shining robe XIII; of earth XXII; of spiritual path XXV; of pearl
XXXIX; of new person LVII
Benedictus, Saint Benedict of Nursia, 6th-century abbot of Monte Cassino
monastery: 189
Berikhisho, 8th-century Nestorian monk, author of a book on the monastic life;
195b
Bernard, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, 12th-century Cistercian mystic: 87 92
beryl, a transparent precious stone: XI
Beth Dalyatha, region of northern Mesopotamia where John of Dalyatha lived:
260
Beth Nuhadra, region of northern Mesopotamia, north of Mosul, east of the
Tigris: 260
Beth Qatraye, Qatar, a peninsula of Arabia, jutting northwards into the Persian
Gulf: 240 248
birth, rebirth, new birth, being born again: 40 LVII-LVIII; born of the Spirit 105
XCI; by baptism 137 139 141 181 199; rebirth (Buddhism, reincarnation) 208
bishop, episcopacy: 27 168 172 175 179 186 189 209 240 280 XCVIII
blasphemy, impious utterance: 107; demon of blasphemy 261
blessings, boons: XLVI LI 11 LXXVI LXXVIII LXXXV
blindness: 240 CXIII
blood: 236; sacrificial 58-59; of Christ 59 108 265 LXVI
body: 201 206 208 216 236 243 245 XVII XLVIII XXXI LXX XCVII CXVI CXXVIII;
as tent 232; as temple 181 XVIII; of Christ XV LXVI; (see also: corporeal)
Bonaventura, Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274), Italian, Franciscan theologian: 128
bondage, servitude, to evil, demons, Satan: 33 II 3 187 188 197 273 V VI XXVIII
XL
Book of Degrees (or Steps), 4th-century treatise on spirituality: 152-170 172-191
202 220 XVIII 96-102
Book of the Dove, by Gregory Bar Hebraeus: 125 281-284 205
 Glossary and Index 219

Book of Grace, attributed to Isaac of Nineveh: 241 I 56, 163

Book of the Holy Hierotheos, by Stephen bar Sudaili: 220-225 281 135
Book of Perfection, by Sahdona: 23 1-235 145
brahman (Sanskrit), the universal essence, ground of all being: 166
brain: 236
bread: Christ 108 XXIV Clll; mystical bread 224; (see also: pearl)
breast, breasts: divine 19 262 282 LVIII XCI CXXV
breath, breathing: XCVII; of God LXXXVIII; of Holy Spirit LVIII LXIII LXXII
bridechamber, bridal chamber: 10 II 221 XIV LXXI
bridal feast, wedding banquet: 10 LXXI
bridegroom: Christ as heavenly bridegroom 10 I I 132 XIV; (see also: bride-
chamber)
bride: CXXIX
brother: of pearl prince IIVI; Christ II 18 38 52 104 134 275 XIV XV XX
Buddhism, religion of the Buddha (‘enlightened’): 164 165 166 205-208
business, commerce, trade: positive or figurative I 10 151 XIV XXXI XXXVII
XLIII; negative 263 XLII LXII

Canaan, the promised land: 32 254

calling, divine vocation: 36-37 137-138 274 LXXI 11
Catholic Church: 264
cave: 144 226 XXXVII
Celestial Hierarchy, or Heavenly Hierarchy, by Pseudo-Dionysios: 119 124 242
celibacy, abstinence from sex and marriage: 7 10 132 164 168 231; (see: chastity)
cell, monk’s secluded place: 4 249 254 283 284 XXXVII XL XLIII XLVII
cenobite, coenobite (Greek, ‘communal life’), member of a monastic community:
231
charismatics (ancient and modern): 172 181
charity, acts of kindness: 153 154 232
chastity, continence, abstinence: 132 149 173 217 244 (pearl)
child, children: 95 195 I; of church as mother 181; of light 36 I 39
China: 3 238 XXVI XXVII
Christology: controversies 209
Church: 146 149 164 179 186; three levels 152 159 160 167 202;
the visible church 152 156 159 160 183 185 XVIII;
the invisible church of the heart 152 156 159 160 181 191;
the celestial church on high 152 155 156 157 160 163 XVIII
city: metaphor of spiritual destination 203 234; celestial city 14 55 94 I I I 112
156 173 188 XXXIII; (see also: Jerusalem)
cleanse, cleansing: from sin 138; by washing 39 159; (see also: purification)
clothing: ascetic clothing 10 (one garment, Thomas) 145 (rags, Ephrem); monk’s
garb 238 XXXVII XXVIII; wedding garments XIV; body as garment XXI; put
on robes XIII; Christ as clothing LXXXIV; put on Christ 245 278; coat of
passions 245; ‘Egyptian’ clothing 32 49 107 113 136 276 IVVIII; prodigal son’s
splendid garment 14; clothing metaphors 7 (see also: robe, toga)
220 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

cloud: pillar of cloud 109; purifying cloud 227; cloud of glory, light, darkness,
unknowing 17 120 125 126 265 266 282 284 LXXIII LXVIII LXXV LXXXVIII
CM CIV CVII CVIII CIX CX CXVII
Cloud of Unknowing, 14th-century anonymous English book on mysticism: 128
colour, colours: 107 XIII XVII XXII CXIII
commands, commandments: XIII; divine 54 58 21 I 212 215 217 236 254 LXXXIII;
lesser commandments (the golden rule) 153 177 188; great commandments
154 188
commingling: perfect union with God 125 126 127 222 224 265 LXVIII LXXV;
(see also: unification)
communion, fellowship: 28-29 IV (partner); with God 89 LXXXVI
compassion, pity: 96 LXIX
composure: XLVII
compunction: 264, LXV; (see also: tears)
concentration: 207; thoughts collected XLVI; (see also: attention, mindfulness)
consecration: IV: baptismal water 137-138; (see also: sanctification)
consolation: XL LXVIII LXIX LXXX
constant, constancy: prayer XIV
contemplation (Greek theoria): spiritual contemplation of God 76 123 171 187
199 21 I 215 229 23 I 246 250 XLVI LIX LXV LXXXII XCIII CXXX; the five
contemplations of Evagrios (contemplation of the Trinity, of incorporeal
beings, of corporeal beings, of Divine Judgement, of Providence) 70 215 216
236 254 256 Llll
corporeal, somatic: 70 215;
first stage of the spiritual path 201 203 204 229 243 254 283 284
covenant: 22; new covenant 22 58 59; with Noah 284;
sons of the covenant 131 132 164; daughters of the covenant 131 132 164
creator, maker: God 148 215 XVII LXXV LXXVIII XCI-XCII ( progenitor)
cross: of Christ 53 108 LXVI; in monk’s cell 245 XLVI; sign of cross 43 137 138;
taking up the mystical cross, being lifted above the world 189; carrying the
cross 217; mounting the cross 76; mystical crucifixion 224; cleaving to the
shame of the cross XXXIX
crown, diadem: 101 102 105 137 (victory) XVII XXV
Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444), Saint, doctor of the church: 209

Dadisho Qatraya, of Qatar, 7th-century East Syrian mystic: 77 248-251 XLI-XLII

169-173 195b
Dadoes, 4th-century Syrian monk 186 190
Dante, Alighieri (1265-1321), author of The Divine Comedy: 60 62
darkness: XLV XLVII LXX; night 245 XXII LXXVIII Cl; of sin and error 36 62
102 107 I 13 139 196 237 XX XXIV LXIV LXXX; of the divine cloud of
unknowing 120 127 LXXXVIII
daughter: pearl XV; (see also: covenant, Eve)
David, king of Israel, psalmist: model of humility 94
David the Phoenician, 15th-century West Syrian author: 259
 Glossary and Index 221

death, decease: 5 6 7 23 29 62 102 I 10 II I I 12 141 142 159 160 276 XXI

XXVII XXXI XXXII XXXVIII XLVI LX; jaws of 12 XVI; meditation on 208 270;
dead in sins LVII; dead to passions LXV; dead in Christ LXXX
deceit, deception, guile; 30 (of sin) 47 49 (of passion) 113 134 IV XX XXVIII
CXII
degrees, steps, stages: of mysticism 185 236 (7 stages) CXVII;
3 stages (John ofApamea) 201 203 204 210 229 237 243 254 265 283
deification, partaking of the nature of God: 46 89-92 114 122 123 125 284
LVII I
demons, devils, evil spirits: 43 67 75 113 140 147 157 159 174 177 182 187
188 191 224 229 233 245 249 254 261 276 VII XVIII XXXIX XLII XLVII LIX
LXV LXV I LXXX LXXXIII XCVII CXXIX
departing: from the world, mystically LXXVIII LXXX
deposit: 48 137 138 238 XI XXVIII
descent: soul 14 XVII; mind 224; robe 51; gifts of God 5 I
desert, wilderness: I 2 3 60 146 147 214 252 XXXIV XLV 45
desert ascetics of Egypt: 63-66 38-48
desire, desires: craving, lust, concupiscence 107 139 140 185 188 206 232 238
245 XXVIII XLIV LXXXV; positive 151 XLV LX LXIX LXXVII LXXXI-
LXXXII
Diatessaron, harmony of the four Gospels, compiled byTatian: 7 146 29
diet, ascetic rations: 8 9 10 145 232 XLV
Dilmun, ancient Babylonian paradise, Bahrain island: 5
Dionysios the Areopagite, Athenian convert of Paul: I 18 220 (see Pseudo-
Dionysios)
discernment, discretion: XXV LXV CXXI CXXX (see 59, p. xliv)
discipleship: XXIII
dispensation: of Christ XLVI
disputation: over doctrinal differences XCVIII
distraction, distractions: XLVI; demon 261
distress: XXXI; demon 261
diver: I 3 5 102 136 148 266 XV XVI XVII XXIV LVI LXXVII
Divine Names, by Pseudo-Dionysios: I 19
doctrine, teachings: XCVIII XCIX Clll
dog, dogs: XXIV XXXV (licking a fie)
dolphins: LXI
door: 100 (Christ); of cell XXXVII XLVII; of heart Lll; of divine treasury LXXV;
of the holy of holies of the cloud CXII; (see also: gate)
dove: at baptism of Christ 36 42; of Noah 283 284
dragon: Satan 24 26 109 137 138
dreams: good LXIX; bad XX LXV
dust and ashes: humility 93-94 LXIX

eagle: 193; in Song of the Pearl 19 42 149 VII

ear, hear: XLVI; of heart LV; of mind CXVIII; (see also: sounds)
222 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

earth: XXII CXXIV; on earth but departed from the earth LXXVIII
east: I 7 274 I III IV V VIVIII
Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, by Pseudo-Dionysios: 119 122
ecstasy, rapture: 64 65 243 246 266 XXXXLVI LXVII LXX LXXII LXXVI LXXIX
(see also: wonderment)
Edessa, Urhai (now Urfa in Turkey), ancient Syrian city: 8 144 145 149 171 209
213 219; Persian school of Edessa 209
Egypt, Nile river valley and its desert: 3 4 29 63 259; symbolizing the material
world 12 18 22 23 24 28 29 32 47 108 113 148 194 195 237 254 272-276
II—VIII
election, chosen by God, predestination: 14 195; the elect 165 166
Elijah, Eliyahu, Elias, prophet of ancient Israel: 27 88 146
emerald, green precious stone: XXV
Encratism, early ascetic movement, connected withTatian: 7 146 29-30
Enkidu, companion of Gilgamesh: 5
enlightenment: see illumination
Ephrem, Aprem, Saint Ephraim of Nisibis and Edessa, 4th-century Syriac poet
and theologian: 12 45 58 I 10 136 143 144-151 152 181 251 XV-XVI 86-94
Epistles, letters of the Apostles: XLVI
Erigena, Eriugena, Johannes Scotus, 9th-century Irish philosopher-theologian: 128
eschatology, eschatological, concerning the last things: 221-222
Esaias of Sketis, Abba Isaiah, 5th-century monk in Egypt: 73-78 129 237 25 I
253 62-64 195b
essence: the luminous Essence 224 LXVIII
Essenes, sect of Judaism: 165 (see 15, 13-23)
ethereality: experiences 255; sounds Llll LIV LV
ethics, morals, morality: 232 281
Ethikon, Book of Ethics, by Gregory Bar Hebraeus: 125 281 204-206
Eucharist: 58 148 149 178 181 261
Eugenios of Nisibis, Mar Awgin, legendary founder of Syriac monasticism: 3 4 145
228 28
Eukhites (praying people): 186; (see also: Messallians)
Euphrates, the western river of Mesopotamia: 5
Evagrios Pontikos, Evagrius Ponticus, 4th-century mystic-monk in Egypt: 44 46
65 66 67-72 83 84 123 129 169 170 176 192 214 221 227 229 231 236 242
251 253 254 256 265 281 XCIX; Evagrianism 221 242 49—61 195b
Eve: daughters of Eve 140
evil, wickedness: 217 222 254 XX XXVIII LI LIX LXIX LXXX XCVII;
good and evil eventually united in God 222
exodus: of Israel from Egypt 23 32 108 109 113 237 254
exorcism, expulsion of demons: 10 88 177
experience: CXXVI (see also: ethereality, mysticism)
eye, eyes, eyesight: 188 XLVI Lll LXXXVII LXXXVIII; of mind Lll LV CVI CXI
CXVIII; of heart 188; of soul XLVI LXXVIII
 Glossary and Index 223

face: of the Lord LXIII (seen in the cloud) LXXI (seen in the bridal chamber);
of crucified Christ LXVI; of God LXXVI LXXXVI XCIII Clll; seeing God
face to face 158 160
faith: 36 39 44 46 53 59 84 107 13 I 202 217 233 243 244 274 278 XL XLII Lll
CV CXIV; revelational faith CXIV CXV; disciples of faith 153 167; pearl
symbolizing faith 45 47 136 149 XVII
familiarity, boldness, confidence, parrhesla: speak freely with God 229 LXII
LXXIV LXXXIV
family: family ties 207
fasting, abstinence from food as an ascetic exercize: 7 8 9 131 133 140 149 183
187 204 254 269 XXI (Christ) XLVI XLVIII; three levels of fasting 204;
fasting from the world 154 183 188; fasting of the heart (from evil thoughts)
183 188
father: God as Father 38 42 104 132 196 274 XXI LVII-LVIII LXVI LXXV LXXXIV
XCI XCII XCIV; in the Song of the Pearl 17 26 38 195 I IIV VIVIII X XII XIII
fear, fright, terror: 249 (in the night) XIV XX XLIV LXXI LXXXIII (demons afraid);
reverence, fear of God 217 232 XXV
fig: XXV XLVI I
fire: pillar of fire 109; fire of the Spirit, raises sacrifices to heaven 191 235;
fiery impulses, ardour of divine love 85-88 99 122 185 188 242 256 263
XXII XLVI XLIX LI LXII LXX LXXIII LXXIV LXXVI LXXXII; evil fire
LXXXIII; God as fire LXXXIX (see also: metal)
fish: out of water 263 LXII
fisher, fishermen: XVII
flood: Babylonian flood story 5; Noah 284
Flavianus, 4th-5th-century bishop of Antioch, who condemned Adelphios:
186-187
food and drink: XLVI (see also: fasting, gluttony, diet); figurative 19 (light and life)
32 I 36 194 206 IV V XXXIV XXIV LXXVIII; Christ as food and drink LXXXIV
LXXXV; solid food for the mature 155 156 188; spiritual food XXV XLVIII
LIV
forgetting: 195 V; forgetting self in ecstasy LXVII
forgiveness, pardon: forgiving others XLII; of sins, through baptism 137 197
198; through pure prayer 250
form: form without form LXXXVII (see also: image)
Francis of Assisi, Saint (I 182-1226): 179 261
freedom, freeborn nature, liberty: 40 41 115 187 197 198 207 VIII XX XXVIII
XL; freeman 28 IV XXVIII
friend: IV

Gabriel, archangel: 26
garment: see clothing
gate: of the (celestial) city 56 59 V XIII
gentleness: XVI XVIII LXIV
224 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

gift, present: XIII; of God 51 XVII XXV XXVII XLII LV LXVII LXX LXXV XCIV
CXXIV; of the Spirit XU
Gihon, river, the Nile (Gen 2:13): LXXVIII
Gilgamesh, Epic of Gilgamesh, 2nd millennium bce: 5 6

Giwargis (George), the Katholikos Mar Giwargis, 7th-century Patriarch of the

Church of the East: 240
glory: of God, revealed 52 76 106 125 15 I 158 266 XIV XIX XLII LXIII LXXV
LXXXIV XCV; of the soul 106 126 195 208 XXV LVIII LXXII
gluttony, one of the 8 passions of Evagrios: 140 (lust for food) 214 (love of the
belly) 217 229 273 LXIV
gnosis, esoteric spiritual knowlege: 13; Gnosticism 13 219
gold: I XI XXV XLVII
good, goodness: XLIV LI; doing good: 217; good works 271 277 278 284
XCVII; the Good 224 XC
Golgotha, place of Christ’s crucifixion (Mt 27:33): XVI
Gospel, the Four Gospels: XLVI
Gospel of Thomas, I 14 sayings of Jesus, in Coptic, possibly originally in Greek:
221
grace, unmerited favour from God: 51 77 86 94 97 104 112 115 126 137 149
171 187 21 I 232 236 239 245 254 278 283 XIV XXVII XXXVII XLII XLVI
XLVII LV LXVI CXI; of the Spirit LXVII-LXXII
Greek, Hellenic: language 186 218 228 240; philosophy 192 XCIX; medicine 192
Gregorios the Hermit, Gregory of Cyprus, 6th-century East Syrian mystic: 228
229 143-144
Gregory Bar’Ebraya, Bar Hebraeus, 13th-century West Syrian scholar and
mystic: 19 68 125 166 220 225 280-284 XCVIII-CXXX 204-206
Gregory of Nazianzus, Saint Gregory Nazianzen, called the Theologian,
4th century: 67 231
Gregory of Nyssa, Saint, 4th-century ascetic theologian, brother of Basil of
Caesarea: 118 195b
grief: 34 237 V
groaning: in prayer 182 184 245
growing, growth: XII; in grace 50 5 I 138
guardians: III; guardian angels 26 XLIV XLV XLVII
guide: leader 249 III CXX CXXII CXXIII; letter 44 IX; Holy Spirit 109

hallucinations, illusions: demonic 171 213 264 LXV LXXXIII

hand, hands: outstretched in prayer 245; lifted towards God XIV XLVI;
on heart XXXVIII; receiving the pearl (Eucharist) XVII; washed XLVI;
writing LXXXVII; of Christ LXVI
happiness: LVI 273 (eternal); (see also: joy)
harbour, haven: 109 I 10 I II I 12 142 227 237 244 276 IX XXXIII XXXVIII 16
healing, as Christian ministry: 10 (Thomas) XXI (Christ)
 Glossary and Index 225

heart: 156 181 191 245 246 256 262 XIV XVIII XXXVII XLII XLVI XLVII XLIX
LI Lll LIN LIX LX LXI LXIX LXX LXXIII LXXIV LXXVI LXXIX LXXXII
LXXXIV XCV Clll CXX CXXIII CXXVIII cxxx
heaven: sky 242; third heaven 216 229; abode of God XIV XXIV XLVI LXXIX
CXXI; within you LX
heir: IIVI XV; joint heirs with the Son XCII (see also: inheritance)
hell, Gehenna: 269 XXXIX
Henanisho of Beit Qoqa, 7th-century Nestorian abbot, letter on solitude: 195b
heresy, heretics: I 30 167 168 169 172 175 186 213 230
Hermas, 4th-century Syrian monk (Messallian): 186 190
hesychasm, hesukhia, quietude (solitude in silence and seclusion): 75 76 78 133
248
Hesykhios, recipient of a letter from John the Solitary: 205 208
Hieronymus, Saint Jerome, 4th-century scholar; not author of Historia
Monachorum: 64
Hierotheos, legendary teacher of Dionysios the Areopagite: 220
Hinduism, the main religon of India; 166 (yoga) 222 (monism)
holy, holiness; 141; holy of holies 224 CXII
home, homeland, homecoming: IVIII XXXI; rejection of native land LXXVIII
homelessness, as a Christian virtue: 7 8 269 46
honey, honeycomb: 245 XXV
honour roll, being enrolled in heaven: 55 (book of life) 56 137 138 VI
hope: 36 107 193 194 233 244 274 LXXX
hospitality, as a Christian virtue: 153 154 232
Hugh of Saint Victor (1096-1 141), Augustinian theologian and mystic: 128
humility, humbleness, self-abasement, as a Christian virtue: 75 93 94 95 97 98
131 149 154 173 202 256 XIV XVIII XLVII XLVIII L LX LXV LXIX
hunger: XIV (for righteousness)
Huzistan, Khuzistan, Beth Huzaye, region of south-western Persia: 240
hymn: 12 LI 11 (celestial)
Hyrcania, region of Parthia, eastern Iran: 16 X

identity, identification: with God 222; with Christ 224 (see also: image, unifica¬
tion)
illumination, enlightenment: 2 60 88 120 121 137 138 139 150 159 206 236
237 254 XVII XLVI LIN LVII LXVII LXX LXXI LXXXII CXI CXXVIII
image, likeness: in mirror 50 XCII I CXIX; non-material images CIX CXIX; two
yet one in likeness X XI; being conformed to the image of the Son 52 195
197 284 XXII; image of God 50 90 91 107 124 XI XIX XXII LI LVIII LXVIII
LXXII LXXV XCII XCIII; being transformed into the likeness without likeness
126; God has no image or form 255
imitation, emulation: of the saints LXIX; of Christ, following his example 147 154
200
impassibility, apatheia, passionless state: 71 171 185 188 229 237 243
 226 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

impediments: of Abba Isaiah 237

impulses: 261 266 XLIV XLV; of knowledge 46 XII; of humility LXIX; of the
passions LXIX; of the mind, stilled LXXI; of the soul LXXXV; fiery impulses
of spirits LXXV; fiery impulses of divine love 85-88 242 256 263 LXII LXX
impurity: 218 XXIV; (see also: uncleanness)
India, the Indies: 3 9 12 164 165 205 238 I XXVI (see also: Hinduism)
indwelling: by demon or Satan or sin 174 177 184 187 188; by Christ 218 Lll;
by the Father and the Son, or the Trinity 229; by the Spirit 94 101 188 XLII;
abode for God XXVII LXXVI; for all humankind in the mystic 96-97 LI
inebriation, intoxication, drunkenness: Noah 284; spiritual 243 284 LXXIV
LXXXII
ineffability, unspeakable, inexpressible: 76 89 105 107 115 166 234 236 255
XIX XLVI Lll Llll LIV LVI LXXVI XC CXVIII
inheritance, for heirs of the promise: 30 52 53 58 138 153 154 197 274 277
XIV XXI LXIV
iniquity: soul full of LXXX; heart purified from XIV (see also: evil, sin)
initiated: 223 LXXIV XCIX CIV CXXVII CXXVIII (see also: uninitiated)
ink: 245 XLVI LXXIX (see also: pen)
instruction: of disciples 8 10 154 188; ascetic 187; literature 232; Christ as
teacher and student XXI
intention: right intention XLI XLII (the second step on the Buddha’s eightfold
path)
intermediate, middle stage: 242 265 LXX
intimacy: LXXX; with God LXXVIII
invocation: over serpent 38; baptismal 38 137 138
Iran, Parthia: 2 9 62 165 (see also: Persia)
Iraq, Mesopotamia: 2
irenicism, intent on making peace: 166 167 XIV
iron: I; in fire XXII; forging cold iron CV (see also: metal)
Isaac of Nineveh, Saint Isaac the Syrian, Mar Isaac, 7th-century East Syrian mystic:
I 72 77 83 I 10 I 12 124 168 191 210 240-247 253 259 264 276 XXX-XL
153-168 195b
Isaiah, Abba Isaiah, see Esaias of Sketis
Isho Bar Nun, Katholikos of the Church of the East (823-828): 267
Izla, Mount, site of BethAbey monastery: 3 228 230 (see: 19, 158-163)

Jacobites, West Syrian Christians, of the Syrian Orthodox Church: 192 210
Jael (Judges 5:24-27), heroine of ancient Israel: 232
Jerusalem, capital city of ancient Judah: 219 CXXVIII; Jerusalem within LXIII;
new Jerusalem 55 56; heavenly Jerusalem 112 154 (see also: city)
Jesuits, Society of Jesus: 78
Jesus Christ: passim
Job (Ayyob), disciple of Abraham of Nathpar: 226-227
Johannes Cassianus, John Cassian, 5th-century Western monk: 64
 Glossary and Index 227

John, Saint, Apostle, Evangelist: 45

John the Baptizer, John the Baptist: ascetic model 9 146; baptism of Christ 146
200
John Bar Penkaye, John of Penek, author of a history of the world, and the
Book of the Merchant, a work of mystical theology, of which two ‘centuries’
survive: 259 195b 199 200
John of Damascus, Johannes Damascenus, Saint, doctor of the church,
8th-century monk of Mar Saba monastery (see: Sabas): 127 177 188
John the Egyptian (John the Solitary ofApamea?): 213 219 118-120
John the Monk (John the Solitary?): 170
John the Solitary ofApamea, 5th-century Syrian mystic: 192-208 227 229 234
242 243 253 254 265 XIX-XXII 106-123 195b
John the Venerable, John Saba, John of Dalyatha, 8th-century East Syrian mystic:
I 10 17 18 19 69 77 86 91 98 125 126 169 175 176 253 258-266 267 283
284 LVI-XCVI 190-201
John the Visionary (John the Solitary ofApamea?): 90 I 10, 112
Joseph the Visionary, Yausep Hazzaya, alias OAbdisho, 8th-century East Syrian
mystic: I 44 70 71 77 84 85 89 93 95 96 97 128 169 175 176 188 210
252-257 258 265 267 283 XLIII-LV 174-189 195b
joy, gladness, bliss, delight: 107 108 I 10 198 227 235 244 245 246 262 277 XIII
XIV XIX XXXVII XLIV XLVI XLVII XLVIII LI 11 LVI LX LXI LXII LXIX LXXI
LXXVIII LXXIX LXXXIII LXXXIV LXXXVII CX CXI
Judaism, the religion of the Jewish people: 165
judgement: of God 207 208 XLIV; contemplation of 215 Llll (see also: contem¬
plation)
jug: CXXIV
Julian Saba, 4th-century monk of Edessa: 8 145 150 170 171
justification, being accounted righteous: 217
Justin Martyr, Saint, 2nd-century Christian apologist, teacher ofTatian: 7

Kellia (‘Cells’), one of the desert monastic sites in Egypt: 63 (see 15, 151-167)
Kephalaia Gnostika, Chapters of Knowledge, esoteric sayings of Evagrios: 67 70
176 54
kindness: 96 107 LI
king, King of kings: IV VIVII XI XIII; Jesus Christ 156 LXXVII; God II I 7 50 53
56 76 107 I 14 134 142 234 275
kingdom: I IIVVI XIII; of God 14 16 30 53 107 148 171 195 197 221 234 275
276 XIV XV XIX CXI CXX CXXVI; within 21 I LXIII CXXVIII
kiss, embrace of love: 44 96 162 VII LI
kneeling, genuflexion, bending the knees, going down on the knees: 245
XXXVII XLVI LXIX
knowledge: XII XXIII C CXXVII; spiritual, divine, knowledge of God 44 46 47
50 51 121 125 137 138 149 150 156 202 217 224 235 236 239 243 244 278
228 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

XXV XXVII XXXIII XL Llll LXII LXVIII XC CV CXXVIII CXXX; medical 236
(see also: science)

labour, labours: ascetic 245 254 269 283 XII XXI XXV XLI XLII XLVIII LXVII
LXIX LXXV CXVI; manual work as religious exercise 75 (Esaias) 189
(Benedict) 47
lamb: Christ 108 XVI XXI
lamp: XIV
Lampetios, 5th-century Syrian monk (Messallian): 179
Lausiakon, The Lausiac History, by Palladios: 65 79 81 149 41-43
law, the Law: 217 XXI XXIII CXXV
laxity: XXXIX
Lazarus: 264 LXVI
lechery, fornication, one of the 8 passions of Evagrios: mental 217; passion 214;
demon 245 261 263 LXV
letter: of reminder 35 36 40 41 44 I 14 138 274VVIVII IX; guidance IX
Leviathan, sea-monster: XVI
life: 236; eternal, spiritual life 10 45 106 108 112 195 196 198 227 277 XXIV
XLVI LXIV LXXXII; land of life XIV; true life CXXXV; Christ 100; God 269
lift, lifting up: cross 189; hearts and hands XIV; pearl, as on Golgotha XVI;
mind, in rapture XLVI
light: XLV LXIV; of the heart 236; of the mind 250 XLII; of Christ 10 27 3 I 36
52 105 106 139 143 150 194 250 XV XVII XX XXII XLII XLVI Lll LXVIII
LXXV LXXVIII LXXXIV LXXXVII; of his countenance 157 159 XVIII; Father
of lights 51; Trinity 69 70 242 256 Llll LVI LXIII LXXII; cloud 120 121 126
265 266; light without form 71 LIV 195b; without likeness LXXII; children
of light 36 139; kingdom of light 17 107 276 VIII LXXI; path XXV; of the
robe of glory 233 IX; Satan (Lucifer) 171 177
lightning: Cl
liver, bodily organ: 236
load, burden: 21 I XL
love: 132 232 233 274 278 XIX; love of God or Christ 44 46 84-91 151 224
236 256 269 279 IX XII XIX XXII XLI XLVI Lll LXXI LXXIII LXXIV LXXV-
LXXXII XCVII; universal love, for all humankind, without discrimination 90
93 96 97 167 168 256 XXII LI; love for God 217 XLI XXLV XLIX; for Christ
LXV LXX; disciples of love 154 167; love for the world XLV
lover: lover-Beloved 224 LXV LXXXIII LXXXVIII XXC XCIII Cl CXXIX

Mabbug, Hierapolis, between Antioch and Edessa: 209

madness, mental derangement: LXX LXXIV
Magian, Zoroastrian priest: 252
Maishan, Mesene, ancient kingdom on the Tigris in southern Babylonia, with a
mercantile port (Kharax) on the Persian Gulf: 276 III IX
 Glossary and Index 229

Makarios the Great, Abba Makarios the Egyptian, 4th-century monk in Egypt:
79 81 (see also: Pseudo-Makarios)
Malkisedeq, Melchizedek, priest-king of Jerusalem (Gen 14): 29
Mani, founder of Manicheism, 3rd century: 165 213
Marcion, founder of Marcionism, 2nd century: 213
Mariham, Mary Magdalene, in The Gospel of Thomas: 221
mariner, sailor: XXXIII XXXVI
Mark the Hermit, 5th-century monk of Galatia: 251
marriage: 7 8 132 146; marriage without sexual intercourse 132 146
martyrdom: 9 (Thomas) 230 (Martyrios)
Martyrios: see Sahdona (145-1 5 I)
Mattai, Mar Mattai (Saint Matthew) monastery, near Mosul: 280 (see: 19, 172-177)
Maximus Confessor, Saint, 7th-century Byzantine monk and spiritual writer:
128
medicine: 236; of life (Eucharist) 148 XVII; elixir 5
meditation, as a religious exercise: 8 75 151 206 246 271 LIX LXXXI XCVII
CXXX
memory, remembering: 236 VIVIII X LXXXII XCVII
merchant: I 3 100 109 I 10 I 12 143 226 238 257 266 III IX XVII XIX XXVIII
XXXI XXXII XXXIX XLIII XLVII LXXVII; parable 100 218 257 XIX
mercy: XIV XXIX XLIV LI; personified LVII
Messallianism, Messallians (or Messalians), Syriac mesalleyane, Greek messalianoi
and eukhitai, ‘praying ones’: 80 81 82 149 169 172-191 213 242 259 75a
99-104 195b
metal: purified in fire 88-90; united with fire 90-92 122
Michael, archangel: 26
milk: food for weaker brethren, the immature 155, provided by the church as
mother 156 188; for little ones 221
mind, intellect, reason: beholding God, having mystical experiences 113 125
126 171 207 215 224 236 245 255 266 282 XXIV XXVI XXX XLVI XLVII Lll
LIN LIV LV LIX LXII LXIII LXVII LXVIII LXX LXXI LXXV LXXVII LXXXI
LXXXII LXXXV LXXXVI CVIII CIX CX CXVI CXVII CXVIII CIX CX CXI
CXVII CXVIII CXIX
mindfulness, awareness: Buddhist practice 205 (see also attention, concentration)
miracle: working miracles as a monk’s spiritual gift 239 XXVII XLI
mirror (made of metal, needing to be polished): 50 158 188 282 X CHI CXIX;
of the soul LXXIX XCIII; of the mind CXXI
missionary: 3 164 165
monachism, monasticism: 186 218 230 239 XXVII (see also: monk) 14 15 19
monastery: 252 260 280 283 284
Monica, mother of Augustinus: 230
monism, belief in only one ultimate principle or being: 222 (eschatological)
monk: 60 63 I 10 164 165 181 217 238 284 XXXI XXXII XXXIII XXXIV XLI
Monophysite, believing in only one nature in the person of Christ: 210
230 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

moon: 193
Moses, servant of God, prophet (13th century bce?): 27 32 58 88 121 XXXVII
Mosul, city (and province) on the west bank of the Tigris, opposite Nineveh: 240
280
moth, and weevil: 22
mother: I IIVVIVIII X; Holy Spirit 19 38 82 104 132 262 XCI; Providence 282;
the visible church 156 181; repentance 262 LVIII; asceticism 85 XLIX
mountain: 237; holy mountain LXXXVII CXXVIII
musk: metaphor 239 XXVII
mysteries, religious truths or rites: divine mysteries 202 215 235 236 238 254
257 XV XIX XXIV XXVI XXVII XLVI XLVIII Lll Llll LV LX LXI LXV LXVII
LXX LXXIV LXXXIII LXXXVII XCII XCVIII
Mystical Theology, by Pseudo-Dionysios: 119 120 121 127 128
mysticism, mystical experience, religious experience of a direct and non-rational
encounter with ultimate divine reality, imparting a sense of unity: 60 106
115 116 119 139 151 152 164 172 179 185 21 I 216 224 233 236 242 245
254 255 258 271 281 XVII XLVI 8 I 3 23 24 48 195b

nakedness, unclothed state: neutral LXXXIV; positive I 148 XVI XVII XXXIV;
negative 106
name, names: divine 38 119 137 138 242
nature: of God LXXXVIII XC; of Christ 29 XCVIII; original human nature
before sin 171 185 (Adamic state) 243 (original integrity); unregenerate
human nature (the old person) 49 107 136 137 217 245 XXII; new human
nature (the new person) 49 50 136 137; material natures, intelligible natures
Llll; holy spiritual natures LXIII
Neo-Platonism, Neoplatonism, Platonic ideas mixed with Oriental mysticism:
118 192
Nestorians, followers of Nestorius, name applied by outsiders to East Syrian
Christians; Nestorian Church, the Church of the East: 192
Nestorius of Nuhadra, 8th-century Nestorian monk, author of a letter on
divine grace, and a biography of Joseph the Visionary (Hazzaya); became
bishop of Nuhadra: 195b
Niketas ofThessalonika, I Ith-century commentator on The Song of the Pearl:
61 (see 35, 299-303, 363-375)
Nilos, Saint Nilus the Ascetic ofAncyra (Ankara), 4th-5th century: 67
Nineveh, ancient city of Assyria; its ruins lie across the Tigris from Mosul: 240
Nirvana, nirvana (Sanskrit), transcendent bliss attained by extinction of individ¬
uality and desires, in Buddhism and Hinduism: 166 205
Nisibis, city of Persia, west of the Tigris and east of Edessa: 3 144 227 230
Nitria, Nitrian desert, home of Egyptian monks, north of Kellia and Sketis: 63
Noah, survivor of the Flood: 5 284
novitiate, novices, beginners: 191 236 237 242 254 XXXVII LXIX
nun, female monastic: 63 165
nurse: LXXXV XLIX (asceticism) LXIX (Grace)
 Glossary and Index 231

obedience: to authority 236

obeisance, gesture of respect: to the book of the Gospels XLVI
odour, scent: perfume LXXXIII LXXXV; bad 261 263 LVII LXV; good LVII (new
person); scent of the Creator sniffed by animals 261 CXXIX
office, daily form of worship: 232 (see also: service)
oil: XIV for lamps; XVI symbol of the Anointed Christ
omnipotence, absolute power of God: 193 XIX XCII
omnipresence, ubiquitous presence of God XVIII XC
omniscience, infinite knowledge of God: 34
Origen, Origenes, 3rd-century scholar and ascetic of Alexandria: 14 67;
Origenism: 169 219 220 (see also:Evagrianism) (see 55)
Othodox churches, national churches of the East in communion with the Greek
Orthodox church (Russian, Romanian, Serbian, for example, but not Syrian
or Armenian): 211 241 264
Osiris, ancient Egyptian god of resurrection: 4
Outlines of Divinity, by Pseudo-Dionysios: I 19
oyster: 223 XXIV

painter, of pictures: XVII

Pakhomios, Pachomius, 4th-century monk in Egypt: 3 65 226
palate: 245 XXV XLVI I XLVI 11 (mental)
Palestine: 2 219 241
Palladios, Palladius, 4th-century author of the Lausiakon: 65 79 81 149 41-43
pantheism, God as everything and everything as God: eschatological 221 222
parable: prodigal son 14 37; pearl merchant 100 218 257 XIX
paradise: Dilmun 5; garden of Eden 154 LXXXI; celestial III 216 Llll; Christ as
paradise LXXXI-LXXXIII; symbolized by Persia (Parthia) 16-17
Paraklete (Greek parakletos, Latin advocatus, advocate, counsellor): the Holy
Spirit 19 41 42 171 185 188 LXIII
paralysis: of ecstasy 85-86 XLVI 11 LXX LXXIII
partner: 28 IV
passions, strong emotions: 34 44 45 46 106 115 171 177 185 187 194 196 208
211 214 233 236 243 249 250 264 269 XX XXVIII XXXVI XXXIX XLII
XLIV XLVI (veil) LIX LXVI LXIX LXXVI
the 8 passions of Evagrios, namely gluttony, lechery (fornication), avarice,
sadness, anger, acedia (torpor, sloth, depression), vanity (vainglory), pride
214 229 235
Passion, the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ: 34 58 137 138 196 264 LXVI
LXIX; sharing in his sufferings XIV
Passover, Jewish spring festival commemorating Israel’s redemption from Egypt:
108
patience, endurance, as a Christian virtue: 53 XLII L LXXX XCVII
pen: XLVI LXXIX LXXXVII (see also: ink)
Patriarch: the Maphrian, head of the Syrian Orthodox (West Syrian) church, a
position held by Bar Hebraeus, for example XCVIII; the Katholikos, head of
232 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

the Church of the East (East Syrian church), a notable example being
Timothy I (780-823) 267
Patrikios, 9th-century monk of Saint Sabas monastery: 241
Patriq, Patrikios, 5th-century monk of Edessa: 211 218
Paul, Saul of Tarsus, Saint and Apostle: 7 9 40 50 88 118 119 128 136 188 201
216 217 218 222 229 233; libertarian 9 40; mystic 216 223 229 XLVI Lll
peace, peacefulness: 107 134 167 208 234 237 XIV LXXI; person XXVIII XIX
L LX
pearl (Syriac marganitha, Greek margarites): I 5 56 58 99 105 192 221 223 226
234 239 266 271 279 282 XLIII CHI; symbol I 12 22 27 39 45 (faith) 47 57
105 I 16 136 143 148 218 244 257 276 283 II III IVVVIVIII XIII XIVXV-XVII
XIX XXIII XXIV XXV XXXVIII XXXIX XL XLVI XLVI I XLVI 11 LVI LXXVII
XCVII; Christ 100 143 148 218 244 257 276 283; morsel of Eucharist bread
58 100 148 XVII
Pentecost, Jewish harvest festival, Christian feast of Whit Sunday (Acts 2:1-4): 88
perfection, maturity: 152 154 155 156 157 161 162 163 167 168 172 173 181
184 188 202 203 208 217 224 234 XXIII CXVI; Christ XXI; God XIX;
3rd stage, of perfection 237 242 243 254 265 283-284 LXX Cl 11
peripateticism, going from place to place: 4 (see also: homelessness, travel)
persecution: 167 XXI
Persia, ancient Iran: 3 144 230 240 267; symbolic 14 16; language 227
person, outer person and inner person: 233 (see also: nature)
Peter, Simon, Saint and Apostle: 35 46
Pharaoh, title of kings of Egypt (‘Great House’): symbol 24 33 113 194 197
Philokalia, ‘Love of the Good and the Beautiful’, 18th-century Greek Orthodox
anthology of spiritual texts, including works of ‘Isaac the Syrian’; Slavonic
version entitled Dobrotolyubie: 78 247 158
philosophers, philosophy: 251 281
Philoxenos of Mabbug, Aksenaya (d. 523), Persian monk and bishop of the West
Syrian church: 72 169 171 172 173 176 188 209-218 219 220 253 XXIII
124-133
Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan: 14
pirates, sea brigands: 3 234
plain, even terrain: 203 234 237
Plato, Greek philosopher: 14 (see also: Neo-Platonism)
pleasures: negative XXXIX LIX LXV; positive LXVIII LXX
pledge, guarantee, arrabon: XXXI XLVI; of the Spirit 43 155 177; of Satan 177;
of sin 177
pneumatism, pneumatical: 172 (see also: spirituality)
possessions, property: 140 143 154 202 269; sell XIV; give away XLV
posture: in prayer or meditation: 245 XLVI XLVII
poverty, as a Christian virtue: 7 173 XXXIX; Christ XXI; the poor 140 148
XVII XLV
practice: ascesis 21 I 254 (Evagrios)
 Glossary and Index 233

praise, glorifying God: 246 262 275 XIII Lit LVIII LXIX CXI
prayer, praying, as a spiritual exercise: 10 100 131 133 140 149 154 206 232
235 249 261 269 278 XIV XXXIII XLII XLVI LXXXV LXXVI LXXVII XCIV
XCVII; higher form of prayer 71 76 124 242 250 255 266 XLII LXXII LXXV;
prayer for purification (Messallian) 174 182 184 187
predestination (see: election)
preexistence: 14 67
prefiguration, type, tupos: baptism and resurrection 199
pride, arrogance, one of the 8 passions of Evagrios: 107 173 174 214 261
priest: Christ 29 59 155 XXI; priests of the church 155 178 179 181; monks as
their own priests 149 181
prince, the younger son in The Song of the Pearl: 14-59 104 105 106 107 113
114 115 136 138 141 142 149 150 194 195 197 198 272-278
prison: 12; prisoner XXI
promises, things promised by God: 46 52 59 137 138 274; promised land 52 254
prostration, falling down on one’s face: XXXVIII XLVI
Providence: 215 LI 11 (see also: contemplation)
psalmody, chanting or reciting of the Psalms: 8 140 232 245 254 261 269 LI 11
LXIX XCVII
Pseudo-Dionysios, 6th-century Syrian mystic, writing in Greek rather than Syriac:
118-129 242 253 254 265 282 284 76-79 195b
Pseudo-Makarios, 4th-century Syrian mystic, writing in Greek rather than Syriac:
79-117 125 129 141 142 143 152 172 185 188 190 242 251 256 263 265
65-75 195b (see also: Symeon of Mesopotamia)
psychical, relating to the soul: 2nd stage of the mystical path 201 203 204 224
243 254 266 283-284 XL
purgation: 60 121 159 LXXVIII LXXX (see also: purification)
purification: 2 137 158 174 178 235 236 239 243 254 262 XIV XVIII LVIII LIX
LXVII LXIX LXXVII Clll CXIX CXXI; of body 136; heart 134 136 21 I;
soul 76 21 I; mind, intellect 69 171 223 224
purity, pure: 2 107 133 135 141 148 157 203 21 I 227 229 232 236 243 250
254 262 263 271 276 XIV XV XLII LVII LX LXIV LXXXIII CXIX CXXVIII
purple: garment 58 XXIII LXXVII
purse, pouch, bag for valuables: 100 238 XXVIII

Qardu, region of northern Mesopotamia, by the Tigris river: 252 259

Qatar: (see: Beth Qatraye) 240 248
queen: Holy Spirit 19 38 VIII
qurbana, corban, offering, Eucharist: XIII 57 58 59 149

rationality, reason: 121 236; rational beings XCI (see also: mind)
reading, recitation: of scriptures and other edifying literature 206 232 239 240
246 254 261 269 274 VII XLVI XLVII LXIX CIV
redeemer: Gnostic 13; Christ XXI
234 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

relaxation: XXXVII
renunciation: of family, property, the world, and withdrawal from society 75 85
88 89 100 154 161 164 183 199 212 217 23 I 233 256 263 XLIV XLV XLIX
LXV LXXIII XCVII; of self and reason 121
repentance, returning to God: 37 I 3 I 200 233 262 269 XLIV; personified LVII—
LVIII
rest, repose: as gift of God 76 137 234 284 LXXI
resurrection: of the dead 7 106 I I I 132 202 204 244 245 XLVI; of Christ 7 3 I
106 196 XIV; mystical 224 XIV LXXX
retreat, in monk’s cell: 248
revelation: of Christ 100 197 21 I LXXIX; divine revelations 126 235 239 245
256 281 284 XXVII XLII Llll LIV LV LIX LXI LXVII LXVIII LXX CXXX
reward: 271 274 277 XXI XLI XLVI LX XCIV XCVII
righteous, upright: 256 XLIV XLVIII L XCVII 152 153 154 155 177 217
righteousness: way of 217; works of 284; hunger for XIV
river: rivers of life LXXXIII
robe, robes: shining 22 27 46 47 50 5 I 52 57 59 106 107 I I I I 38 141 142 150
195 198 234 244 277 278 IIVI X—XIII; of incorruptibility 137 138 178
rock: of revelation (Mount Sinai) XXXVII; of shipwreck XXXVI
ruby, red precious stone: I XI XXV

Sabas, Saint Sabas, Mar Saba (d. 532), founder of a monastery in Palestine: 219
259
Sabbas, 4th-century Syrian monk (Messallian): 186 190
sacraments: inefficacy? (Messallians) 174 178 182
sacrifice, offerings: 149 (fasting) 191 (prayer) 224 (mystical) 235 (prayers)
XXVII (spiritual)
sadness, one of the 8 passions of Evagrios: 214
Sahdona, alias Martyrios, 7th-century East Syrian mystic: 191 230-235 260
XXV 145-151 195b
saints: abode of XIV; celestial Llll; as model LXIX
salt: of truth XIV
salvation, being saved: 137 (deposit) 160 197 245 272 LXXX
sanctification: of soul XLVI LXVII LXX; saying Holy, holy, holy LV
sapphire, transparent blue precious stone: XI; reference to Exodus 24:10 71 242
Lll
Sarbug, Greek laburinthos, unidentified place in Mesopotamia (see 35, 255-260):
place of demons in The Song of the Pearl III VII
sardonyx: onyx with layers of white sard: XI
Satan, the Devil, the adversary, the enemy, the evil one: 24 26 29 33 107 136
139 147 157 171 172 177 188 197 232 XVIII XXIV LVII LXVI LXIX LXX;
fall from heaven XXIV (see also: dragon, serpent)
saviour: XVIII XX XLVI LXXVIII; saved saviour I 3
scarlet: 58 I (see also: toga)
 Glossary and Index 235

science: 28 i XCIX
Scriptures, Bible: 35 I 14 215 232 251 271 274 XXXVII XCVIII CXXV CXXVII
sea, ocean: I 3 24 100 104 I 12 223 II IX XV XXIV LXI XCIX 24 39 234 237
XXX XXXII XXXIII XXXIV XXXVI XXXVIII XL LVI LXI; sea of life
LXXVII-LXXVIII; God LXXXVIII
seal: 43; letter sealed by king VII
seed, seeds: figurative LIX XCVII; natural seeds of goodness XLIV XLVII
senses: 120 205 CVI CIX CXXVIII CXXX: smell and taste Llll; hearing LIV LV
separation: from God 276; from the world (see: renunciation)
serenity (shaphyutha), clarity, evenness, limpidity, luminosity: 133 (definition of
the term) 208 217 237 243 254 255 XIX XLVII LV LXXII
Sergios of Resh'ayna, Sargis, 6th-century Syriac translator: I 18 78 195b
serpent, snake, sea monster: 5 XVI; personification of evil 24 27 39 45 136
137 138 148 II III IVVIII XIV
servant: of God XIV
service: of worship 191 XXXVII XLVII; spiritual service 249 XIV XXXVII LV
LXIX LXX LXXII I
Severos of Antiokheia, Severus of Antioch, 6th-century West Syrian bishop and
theologian: I 18 137 179 210
sex, sexual intercourse: 10 221 (see also: celibacy)
shield: I 36
shining, shedding rays of light, resplendent: 94 IX X XVI XVII XVIII XXV XLII
XLVI LVI 11 LXI 11 LXVIII LXXII XXIV LVIII LXIII LXVIII LXXII LXXIV LXXVIII
LXXIX LXXXV LXXXV CXI
ship: XXX XXXIII XXXVI CXXIII
Shirin, 7th-century holy woman in Persia: 232
Siduri: barmaid in Epic of Gilgamesh: 6
sign: of the king, stamped XI; his sign upon our bodies XIV; indication of divine
visitation XLIX-LIII LXVII
silence: 2 133 248 269 271 XXIV XLIII XLVII LXX LXXXIII
silk: IX
Silvanos, early monk in Egypt: 65
silver: I XIV (money) XXV
Simeon the Stylite, 5th-century Syrian pillar-ascetic: 186 21 I
Simon Taibutheh, 7th-century East Syrian monk: 77 I I I 123 236-239 XXVI-XXIX
152 195b
sin, rebellion against God: 30 58 59 I 12 177 182 184 188 197 250 XX XXII
XXIII XLII LVII LXVI LXIX; without sins 160; destroyed by ‘fire’ 88-90
LXX VI;
sinners: 168 256 XLIV XLVIII L LXXVIII
Sinai: 254; Mount Sinai 71 121 259 282; Sinai cloud CIV
single: 221; of God, without duality XIX; the Unique Singular One XCIII
Sinuhe, hero of The Tale ofSinuhe, ancient Egyptian story: 4 62
Sion, Mount Zion: 56 254
 236 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

Sketis, Desert of Sketis (Wadi Natrun), a monastic region in Egypt: 3 63

slander, calumny: 262 LX
sleep, sleeping, slumbering: 140 232 245 246 263 269 273 XX XXIX XXXVIII
XLVI LV LXXXIII; of forgetting 23 33 276 IV VIVII XIV; serpent III VIII
smallness: size of pearl XVII
society, social intercourse: 276 LXII
solitary, hermit: III; opposite of cenobite monk 2 126 206 228 23 I 232 240
244 248 252 263 268 272 XXXIII XXXIV XXXVII XLIII XLVI XLVIII XLIX
LXII LXVIII LXIX LXXIII
solitude, seclusion: 2 125 146 206 248-250 269 XXXIV XLI XLII XLIII LXVII
son: believer as son or child of God 19 41 91 134 254 275 LV LVII LVIII LXXXIV;
member of royal family of heaven 105 V VIVIII; Christ as Son of God 28 36
38 52 148 XV XXV XLVI
Song of the Pearl, or Hymn of the Soul, early Syriac poem found in The Acts of
Thomas: 11-62 103-115 132 134-136 148 194-198 221 234 244 254
271-278 I—XIII LXXII 34-37
soul: 2 11 12 14 108 120 201 203 233 254 237 278 279 283 XLIV XLVI XLVII
LX LXV LXXVIII LXXIX LXXXII LXXXV XCVII; rescued person 148 XVI;
soul of Christ LXVI; animal soul in humans until baptism 141; inhabited by
demon 174, 177; purified 76 171 254 263 XXII XXXVI XLII LXIX LXX (see
also: psychical)
sound, sounds: of a bird ( as a disturbance) XLVII; music CXIII; of the world
XCVII; ethereal Llll LIV LV
speech, talking: VII LIX; spiritual Llll LIV
speechless: refraining from talking LIX; stupefied 151 266 LXXXVII
spirit (feminine gender in Syriac): 19 201 233 254 283 LXV; animal spirit 236;
spirits, spirit beings 266; eight spirits of wickedness (Evagrios) 67; LXXV LXXVI
LXXVIII
Spirit, the Holy Spirit, Spirit of Holiness, Spirit of God, Sprit of Christ: 19 35 36
(dove) 40 41 42 43 44 94 97 101 106 108 I 12 126 137 138 146 149 172 177
185 187 188 212 224 232 233 244 256 262 284 XLII XLVI XLVII LXII LXIII
LXVII-LXXII LXXVIII LXXXIII XCI; of Christ 27 141 XIV XXV LXXXIV;
fulness of the Spirit 155 177 185 188; fellowship of I 15
spirituality, pneumatical, spiritual: 131 146 151 217 238 240 XXIII XXV; 3rd stage
of the mystical path: 201 203 229 237 243 244 254 255 283 284 LIV LV
splendour, effulgence: of God XVII XIX XL LXXV LXXXVII; Christ as the
splendour of God 18 52 277 LIX LXIII LXXVI LXXVIII LXXXVIII
stability: 4
stair: XL
stars: navigation by the stars XXXIII
states: varying states 283
Stephen Bar Sudaili, 6th-century mystic of Edessa, author of The Book of the Holy
Hierotheos: 72 219-225 XXIV 134-139 195b
stones: precious stones, gemstones, jewels 46 102 107 193 279 282 I XI XCVII
 Glossary and Index 237

storms: I 12 XXX XXXII

stranger, foreigner, alien: III; to the world 23 135 154 23 I 238 272 XIV XXVIII
XXXIX LXXXV CXI 46 (xeniteia); to God LXV
strength, strengthening: 20 109 137
stripping, removal of one’s clothes: XVI (see also: nakedness)
suckle (see: breast)
Sufism, Islamic mysticism: 166 281
sun: 193 263 XVIII LXIII LXXVIII LXXXIV (Christ) CXXIX; dawn XLVI
LXXIX; sunrise 246 XXII; sunset XXVIII
supplication: beseeching God 245 XXI XXVII XXXVIII XLVI XCVII
sustainer: God LXXXVIII
sweetness: honey 245; spiritual food XXV; worship LXIX; of God LXXVIII
LXXXV XCV; of Christ LXXV LXXXII; negative 140 XXXV XLVII LX
swimming: in mystical sea of life LXXVII
swine, pigs: XXIV; swinish food LXXX
sword: mystical sword 224
symbols, types: XV XVI XVII
Symeon of Mesopotamia, 4th-century Syrian monk, possibly the author of the
spiritual homilies attributed to Makarios: 81 I 16 186 190 (see also: Pseudo-
Makarios)
Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022), Orthodox saint and mystic: I 17
Syria, approximately the same territory as the modern state Syria: I 2 238
Syriac: language (Christian dialect of Aramaic): 2 42 186 210 226 240
Syriac Christian churches 2
Syrian, used in a wide sense to refer to Christians of the Syriac churches:
West Syrian (Syrian Orthodox ) 210 280
East Syrian (Church of the East) 210 230 253

table: food table in the kingdom XIV

Tatian, Tatianos, 2nd-century Christian scholar from Mesopotamia; teacher of
Encratism, and compiler of the Diatessaron in Syriac: 7 132 146 164 29-30
tears, weeping: 93 96 97 98 99 149 235 243 246 LI LXIX LXXXV; of com¬
punction, contrition 158 264 XXVII XLII XLVI LXV; of sorrow LXVI LXIX;
of joy 158 XXXVII XLVII XLVIII LXIX; of love LXX LXXXIII
temptation: 29 XLIII
thanksgiving, gratefulness: XIX XLII XLVI
Theodore of Mopsuestia, 4th-century theologian of Antioch, revered as the
Interpreter in the Church of the East: 209
Theodoret, bishop of Kyrrhos (in Syria), 5th-century monk and theologian,
author of History of the Monks and Ecclesiatical History: 186 188 190 104
Theodosios, 9th-century Patriarch of the West Syrian Church: 225
Thomas, Saint and Apostle: 9 10 132
Thomas Aquinas, Saint, 13th-century Catholic theologian: 128 281
thought, thoughts, thinking: humble LXIX ; complex CVII; about Christ XCVII;
wandering LXX; distracting 207 273 XLVI; interrupted 245; stilled LXXXIII;
238 The Wisdom of the Pearlers

evil 157 159 183 184 188 207 243 XVIII XXIII XLII XLVI; pure 271 XCVII
XLVI XLVI 11 XCVII; throne. 234
Tigris River, the eastern river of Mesopotamia: 5 209
Timothy, Timotheos I, Patriarch or Katholikos of the Church of the East (780-
823): 169 175 253 259 267
Timothy of Constantinople, 7th-century author: 177 182
toga, outer garment: scarlet toga 22 57 58 59 108 138 198 IIVI X XIII
tongue, organ of speech: LIV
tongues, speaking in tongues, glossolalia: 88 (Pentecost) (see also: speech)
torment: divine punishment XLIV; by demons LXXX
trance: 150
transfiguration: of Christ 27 106
travel: 3 8
treasure, treasures: I 3 20 22 101 143 151 239 250 XV XXIII LVI LXC LXV;
in heaven 154 XIV XIX XXIX XL XLII LXXVII LXXIX
treasurer: 27 266 X XI LXXV
treasury: 20 266 I LXXI LXXV
tree: the tree (the cross of Christ) LXV LXVI; forbidden tree LXXX; tree of evil
224; tree of life 185 224 LIN LXXXII (in heart)
Trinity, the Holy Trinity, the Godhead: 38 69 70 187 229 236 242 254 XV Llll
LVI LXIII CVIII
trumpet: 121
truth: 278 XV XVI XIX XXXIII; city of I 10; the word of 43; Christ 100; the Spirit
of 4; Paraklete 185 188; consume the Lord in truth 181

unbelief: 107 C CXIII CXX

unclean, uncleanness, pollution: 30 107 121 135 IV XIV XXIII LVII-LVIII LXVI
understanding: 236 239 249 XLVI LIV XCVII
unification, union, mystical identification with God: 2 60 76 90 91 92 121 122
124 125; united with Christ LXXVI
uninitiated: mystical teaching not to be disclosed to outsiders 121 XXIV
LXXIV
unity: in Christ 198 202 221; of male and female 221; of faith and knowledge
XL
unsearchability: of Christ; unfathomable mystical sea LXXVIII
Utnapishtim, alias Atrakhasis, hero of the Babylonian flood story: 5

vagabonds: Messallians 179

vainglory, vanity, one of the 8 passions of Evagrios: 107 173 214 229
Valentinus, 2nd-century Egyptian Gnostic: 213
victory: over passions and demons 249 269 (see also: warfare)
vigil, abstinence from sleep: 140 149 183 206 232 245 254 269 XLVI XLVIII
virgin, virginity (male and female): 131 146 149; Virgin Mary 232
virtue, virtues: 46 107 21 I 271 XIX XX XXV XLI XLIX LXXX XCVII
 Glossary and Index 239

visions, visionary experiences: 64 65 69 113 125 127 134 150 157 158 188 191
213 227 229 235 246 250 255 261 262 266 271 XIV XVIII XXII XU Lll Llll
LIX LX LXVII LXVIII LXXI LXXXIII LXXXV LXXXVII XCIII Cl CVI 48;
beatific vision, face to face 158 160
visitations: operations of the Holy Spirit XLIX-LIII LXVII-LXXII LXXVIII

warfare, combat: by demons 249 254 XVIII XUI LXVIII LXXI; against passions
236 249 XLII; against demons 249 254 XVIII XLII LXVII LXXI
wash: 137 LXXVII (see also: cleanse)
watchfulness, vigilance: 269 XIV XXXIII LXVIII
water, waters: 246 (tears); 248 (flood); baptism 39 40 102 136 137 141; living
waters LXXVIII
waves: of light LXXII LXXVIII
weaknesses, failings, faults: XLIV LXIX LXXXVII
wealth, riches: 217 XLV; of lovers of Christ LXX; of wisdom 195 199 CVII;
gifts of grace 20 48 138 15 I 195 198 266 I XI XIV XVII XIX XL LXXV
LXXVIII
weariness, tiredness: 249
wedding: 10 XIV
well, fountain, spring: 151 245 XV XLVII LI LX LXXV LXXVIII
Wesley, John, 18th-century founder of Methodism: I 17
will: 21 I; of God 227 XXIII XXV; of demons LXXX
wind: for sails CXXVIII
window: of heart CVI CXX CXXI
wine: 9 (Jesus) 284 (Noah); abstinence from 7 (Tatian); new wine of wisdom
XXIII
wings: of the Holy Spirit LXXVIII
wisdom, prudence: 227 245 XIX XXIII XXV XXX XXXIX XLVII XCII XCVII
wisdom of God LXV CVII
witnessing: 230
woman, women: 221 232 LXXX; negative 140 232
womb: of repentance LVII
wonderment: 243 245 Llll LXXXII LXXXIII XC (see also: ecstasy)
Word of God: Christ 108 143
work: see: labour 47
world, the material world and human culture: 14 31 33 45 146 147 189 199
21 7 238 243 254 256 263 264 269 273 276 279 XIV XXIII XXVIII XXX
XXXII XLIV XLV XLIX LXII LXV LXXIII LXXVI LXXX LXXXIII XCVII CXI;
symbolized by Egypt: 14 23 29 32 47 (see also: Egypt)
the new world, the next world, the world to come I 10 193 194 199 202
237 244 270 276 XXVI XXX XXXI Llll LXX XCI XCVII
worm: 93 94 L
wounds: 264 XXI XXVIII LXVI
wrath: divine XIV
933156
The Wisdom of the Pearlers

yoga, ‘yoking’: in Hinduism and Buddhism 166

yoke: easy (Mt I 1:29-30) 21; of discipleship 21 XXIII; of obedience LXIX; of the
world 207

Zoroastrianism, the ancient Iranian religion of the prophet Zoroaster: 165 252
date due
RENT UN V ERSITY

64 0561 470 6
 The pearlers we meet in this book were early monks of Syria,
Mesopotamia (Iraq), and Persia (Iran). They saw themselves as
pearl-divers and pearl-merchants searching—through asceticism
and prayer—for the precious pearl of mystical experience. Their
quest led them into the wilderness, to a state of silent solitude
in remote caves and hermitages.

Working from Syriac manuscripts in the British Museum, the

Vatican Library, the Greek monastery of Saint Catherine in the
wilderness of Sinai, and the Coptic monastery of the Syrians
(Der es-Suriani) in the Egyptian desert, Brian E. Colless has pro¬
duced a volume which draws modern readers into the spiritual
world of Christian spirituality little known in the West or in the
Chalcedonian East.

Australian born, Brian Edric Colless holds both a Ph.D. and a Th.D.
From 1970 until 2001 he taught religious studies at Massey University
of New Zealand. He continues to pursue his research into the syriac
religious tradition, and also studies ancient writing systems, concen¬
trating on the origin of the alphabet in the Bronze Age.

CISTERCIAN PUBLICATIONS
KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN

MONASTICISM / MEDIEVAL STUDIES

Cover illustration:The Transfiguration. From a Syriac

Lectionary produced in Mosul (Iraq), 1216-1220.
London, British Library MS Add. 7170, f 22Sv.
©The British Library Board. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Elizabeth King