CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MON~HLY
Preserve the Unity of the Spirit I
RICHARD R. CAEMMERER SR.
The Secret of God's Plan - Studies in Ephesians - Study Four
MARTIN H. SCHARLEMANN
Theological Observer
A Response
Homiletics
Brief Studies
Book Review
Vol. XLI July-August 1970 No. 7 (: 1 BRIEF STUDIES J
EDITORIAL NOTE: early Aramaic-speaking Church of the East This brief study is one of a series of articles was under Parthian rule until 226, when the on religious organizations and denominations in Sassanian or Persian period began. Because America. It was prepared by Arthur Carl Piepkorn, graduate professor of systematic the of the Sassanians' endemic and inveterate ology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. hatred of the Roman Empire, the converSIon THE CHURCH OF THE EAST of Constantine to the Christian faith imme AND OF THE ASSYRIANS diately made the loyalty of the Christians of (THE HOLY AND ApOSTOLIC CATHOLIC the eastern regions suspect, just as by the CHURCH OF THE EAST) same token the persecution of Christianity as an illicit religion by the Roman emperors Among the church bodies of North Amer had won for the Christians of the East at ica the most ancient schism is that which least a limited measure of toleration. For a divides the Church of the East from the century, from Sapor II in the 330s to Yezde church of the fifth-century Roman Empire gerd II the Wicked in the 440s, the perse and its modern descendants. cutions went on intermittently. One of the The existence of a Christian community in martyrs under Sapor was the Catholicos (as Urfa (Edessa) is historically demonstrable the metropolitans of Seleucia-Ctesiphon had in the second century. Traditions coD.lmiUed called themselves from 280 on) Shimun to writing in the fourth centlCry have Chris bar-Sabbai, while under Yezdegerd tradition tianity brought to Urfa by SS. Peter, Thomas, has 150,000 Christians executed at one time and Bartholomew, as well as by St. Addai at Kirkuk in modern Iraq. and his disciple St. Mari. Some of the fathers of the Church of the East describe both The third ecumenical council (Ephesus, SS. Addai and Mari as members of the com 431) decided against the Byzantine patri pany of 72 disciples that Christ sent out, arch Nestorius because he rejected the title while others identify the former with Saint of theatakas ("Mother of God") for the Thaddeus the Apostle. In the official "Table Blessed Virgin Mary - although he was or Tree of Life of Apostolic Succession of willing to concede to her the title of "Mother the Catholicos-Patriarchs of the East," the of Emmanuel" - and because he insisted first name after St. Mari's is that of Abris, that she be called nothing more than chris "relative of the virgin Mary," while the third tatakas ("Mother of Christ"). It also un is that of James (Yaqob) I, "relative of justly charged him with having taught that Yosip [that is, Joseph} the Carpenter," there are two persons in Jesus Christ as well Christ's foster father.1 as two natures. The Church of the East was Politically the territory occupied by the not represented at the Council of Ephesus because of the political conditions of the 1 Iskhaq Rehana, "Table or Tree of Life of time. It subsequently refused to condemn Apostolic Succession of the Catholicos-Patriarchs Nestorius, and it protected his disciples who of The Church of the East, Namely, Those Who Served on the See of Khuky in Seleucia-Ctesi fled into Persian territory. This was espe phon, Babylon," in (Mar) O'dishoo, The Book cially true after the emperor Zeno closed the 0/ Marganitba (The Pearl) on the Truth 0/ famed Christian college at Urfa in the 480s Christianity, translated by Eshai Shimun XXIII and the teachers fled to Nusaybin [Nisibis}, (Ernakulam, Kerala, India: Mar Themotheus Memorial Printing and Publishing House, where they established a no-less-influential 1965), pp. 109-110. center of learning. For this reason the 436 BRIEF STUDIES 437
Church of the East came to be known to sus. The Muslim conquest in the early sev Christians in the Roman Empire as Nesto enth century made further efforts at recon rians. ciliation between the Church of the East and In 484 Barsoma, one of the teachers at the church in the Roman Empire impossible. Nusaybin, succeeded in committing the The unparalleled missionary expansion of Church of the East to the formula that re the Church of the East that ultimately car solved the Christological problem by affirm ried it across all of Asia from Arabia to the ing the eternal and inseparable union in Pacific Ocean is traceable back at least as far as the beginning of the fourth century, Christ of the two natures (kyane) J the divine and the human, in two hypostases (qnume), when the catholicos sent Bishop David of and in one person (parsupa}.2 This dis Basra to India as a missionary. The persecu association from the Christology of the tions of the fourth and fifth centuries helped church in the Roman Empire had the merit scatter the members of the Church of the East. By the middle of the sixth century of emphasizing to the Persian overlords the their congregations were found in Ceylon, difference between the Christianity of their India, Burma, Thailand, and Indochina. By subjects and the Christianity of the Roman the early seventh century the Church of the imperial church. But at the same time it East penetrated China, where the stone stele evoked a reaction that looked toward recon at Hsian-Fu, erected in the late eighth cen- ciliation, even to the extent of formal ac tury shortly after the catholicatc of I
During the catholicate of Dadisho in the conqueror; then it moved to Maraghe in fifth century the catholicos of Seleucia Iran, finally to Al-Qosh, near AI-Mawsil Ctesiphon took the title Catholicos-Patriarch (Mosul). The Catholicos Eshuyo Shimun of the East. The monastic life of the Church VIII,5 who ruled from 1538 to 1551, trans of the East was placed on a firm foundation ferred it first to Azerbaijan, then to Qud especially through the efforts of Auraham of shanes. It was about this time that political Kashkar (491-596), founder of the great developments cut off communication be monastery on Mount Izla near Nusaybin, tween the metropolitan of Malabar and the and of Bawai the Great (569-628). Ba Catholicos-Patriarch of the East. wai's great theological work, The Book of About this time too the course of events the Union, is the definitive statement of the began that finally diverted all the St. Thomas Christo logy of the Church of the East dur Christians of the Malabar Coast to Roman ing this period. After the completion of the Catholicism or to the Syrian Orthodox Arab conquest of Persia in 651 the Chris Church of Antioch. In 1553 a segment of tians of the Church of the East received rea the Church of the East in the Middle East sonably good treatment at the hands of the accepted the authority of the Bishop of Muslims most of the time, punctuated by Rome 6 and thereby paved the way for the periods of persecution. With the removal ultimate establishment in 1828 of the Ro of the catholicatial see from Seleucia-Ctesi man Catholic Chaldean Rite as a Roman phon to Baghdad in the catholicate of Catholic community parallel to the Church Khnanishu II, the catholicoi-patriarchs be of the East. Its prelate, who resides at Mosul, came political figures of considerable prom has the title of Patriarch of Babylon. Prose inence for a number of centuries. During lytization of members of the Church of the the early Mongol period, before the Mon East by other denominations was under gols had decided definitively for Islam and taken on a considerable scale during the were disposed to be friendly toward Chris 19th century. Between 1874 and 1907 a tianity, the Church of the East achieved the segment of the Roman Catholic Malabarese zenith of its extent and influence. But it Rite in India withdrew from papal authority shared in the general decline and eclipse of and placed itself under the Catholicos-Patri Asiatic civilization that followed in the wake arch of the East, who is represented in India of the Tatar invasions of the late 13th and by a metropolitan. Since World \Y/ ar I the 14th centuries. Church of the East and the "Assyrian" 7 na- The East Syrian core of the Church of the East survived precariously in the mountains 5 Since the catholicate of Shimun III (1369 to of Kurdistan and Azerbaijan and around the 1392), all but two of the acknowledged catho shores of Daryacheh-ye Reza'iyeh (Lake Ur licoi-patriarchs have borne the name Shimun (Simon); since the 16th-century catholicate of mia). After the sack of Baghdad by Hulagu Eshuyo Shimun VIII each catholicos-patriarch Khan the seat of the catholicate was estab has prefixed Shimun with another name. The lished at first within the headquarters of the present catholicos-patriarch, Eshai Shimun XXIII, began his rule in 1920; he is accounted Christianity. For a general survey and apprecia the 119th catholicos-patriarch. tion of the missions of the Church of the East, 6 Some members of the Church of the East see John Stewart, Nestorian Missionary Enter had gone to Cyprus and there had accepted the prise: The Story of a Church on Fire (Edin authority of the Bishop of Rome and the Latin burgh: T. and T. Clark, 1928). The tradition Rite in 1340. of the Church of the East places the penetration 7 This designation, popularized by Anglicans, of China in the fifth century. became common only in the 19th century. BRIEF STUDIES 439 rion of which it is the religious embodiment man, and was conceived and born of the Vir have been the victim of Near Eastern power gin Mary; He suffered and was crucified in politics. the days of Pontius Pilate; He was buried and He rose again on the third day as it is Individual "Assyrians" began to come to written and ascended into heaven and sat the United States as early as the mid-1700s, down on the right hand of His Father; and but immigration in fairly large numbers did He shall come again to judge the dead and not begin until after W orld War I. Those the living. And in one Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, the who had belonged to Russian Orthodox, Ro life-giving Spirit, and in one holy [and} apos man Catholic, or Presbyterian congregations tolic catholic church; and we confess one bap in the Middle East were usually absorbed in tism for the remission of sins; and the resur to the counterpart communities in North rection of our bodies, and the life for ever s America. Until 1940 immigrant members of and ever. Arnen. the Church of the East maintained their re The Church of the East continues to af ligion as best they could with the minimal firm its traditional Christology. A typical episcopal supervision that the church could liturgical formulation occurs in the matins supply. In that year the Catholicos-Patriarch hymn by Bawai the Great that is sung from of the East moved his "patriarchal cell" to Advent to the Epiphany, Brikh khannana the United States; he established himself first ("Blessed is the Compassionate One"): in Chicago, then in Modesto, California, and One is Christ, the son of God, finally in San Francisco. In addition to the Worshipped by all in tw"o natll!CS, congregations in the United States and the In His Godhead begotten of the Father, congregations on the Malabar Coast of India, Without beginning, before all time, In His manhood born of Mary, there are organized congregations of the In the fulness of time, united in a body. Church of the East in Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Neither the Godhead is of the nature of the Iraq, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Re mother publics. The worldwide membership of the Nor the manhood of the nature of the Father. The natures are preserved in their qnumas Church of the East is estimated at 60,000. In one person of one sonship.9 Since the early fifth century the Church of the East has recognized the ecumenical The Church of the East rejects the desig councils of N icaea ( 325 ) and Constan - nation "Mother of God" (yaldath alaha) for tinople (381). the Blessed Virgin Mary and insists on "The Creed of the 318 Fathers who as "Mother of Christ" (yaldath mshikha) in 10 sembled in the city of Nicaea, in the days stead. of King Constantine, because of the blas 8 The Liturgy of the Holy Apostolic and phemy of Arius" - in reality the Niceno Catholic Church of the Bast, translated by Eshai Constantinopolitan Creed - reads in the Shimun XXIII (Chicago: The Patriarchate of form that the Church of the East confesses it: the East, 1949), pp. 9-10. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, 9 Cited in V. K. George, The Holy Apostolic Maker of all things, visible and invisible. and Catholic Church of the Bast and Mar Nes And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of torius (Ernakulam, Kerala, India: Mar Themo God, the only-begotten and first-born of all theus Memorial Printing and Publishing House, created, begotten of His Father before all 1960), p. 46. On the meaning of qnuma in the worlds and not made, very God of very God, second-last line, see note 2 above. of one essence with His Father; by whose 10 The Church of the East nevertheless holds hands the worlds were established and every the Blessed Virgin Mary in high honor, affirms thing was created; who for us men and for her perpetual virginity, and calls her by such our salvation came down from heaven and titles as Second Heaven, the Arc of Light, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and became the Mother of Light and Life (Messianic Teach- 440 BRIEF STUDIES
Since the 13th century at least it counts episcopate and teaches that apart from the seven sacraments: " ( 1 ) The priesthood, apostolic succession "there are no sacraments, which is the ministry of all the other sacra no church, and no operation of the Holy ments; (2) holy baptism; (3) the oil of Spirit." 14 Since the sixth century celibacy unction; (4) the oblation of the body and is expected of those in bishop's orders. blood of Christ; ( 5) absolution; ( 6) the Baptism is administered by threefold im holy leaven, namely, the 'King'; [and} mersion, usually 40 days after birth, and is ( 7) the sign of the life-giving cross." 11 followed by the "seal," or chrismation The priesthood has nine ranks that cor ("drawing the sign of the living cross [with} respond to the angelic hierarchies: Patri the holy ointment on the forehead of the archs, metropolitans, and bishops are the recipient of baptism"),15 and the first Holy counterparts of the cherubs, seraphs, and Communion. The church is conceived of as thrones (in that order); archdeacons, vicars the company of all baptized persons. general (or episcopal visitors or arch Individual confession in the presence of priests),12 and priests are the counterparts the priest alone is permitted but not gener of virtues, dominions, and powers; deacons, ally practiced. Individual absolution is im subdeacons, and lectors are the counterparts parted on request or when the priest deems of principalities, archangels, and angels. it necessary, and a general absolution is im The patriarch is above human judgment.13 parted to the whole congregation before the The Church of the East holds rigorously to administration of the Holy Com..~union. the doctrine of apostolic succession of the The Church of the East teaches that in the sacrament of the Holy Communion the ings of the Holy Apostolic and Catholic Church true body and blood of Christ are received 0/ the East {Yuipana m'shikhay d'eta qaddishta through faith 16 under the form of leavened washlikhayta o'qathuliqi d'mathnkha}, translated from Malayalam by M. P. Francis [Ernakulam, 14 Sermon Delivered by His Holiness, Mar Kerala, India: Mar Themotheus Memorial Print Eshai Shimun XXIII, Catholico! Patriarch of the ing and Publishing House, 1962}, p. 31). East, on Sunday, August 22, 1954, in the Ca 11 O'dishoo, p.45. thedral of Mar Sargis, Chicago, Illinois (Chi 12 The Syriac is piryadota, that is, the Greek cago: The Patriarchate of the East, 1954) (16- periodeutes ("once called Corepiscopa," that is, page multilithed document), p. 7. Nevertheless the Greek chOrepiskopos). "He may do all the the Church of the East belongs to the W orId services that a priest does. In addition to these Council of Churches. he may visit the villages as the representative of 15 Messianic Teachings, p. 76. his bishop and preach to them. He could also 16 This formulation probably reflects 19th direct and send priests to other places where century Anglican influence. In the 13th century necessary" (Messianic Teachings, p. 64). The Mar Odishu wrote: "Through this divine com Adam who erected the Hsian-Fu stele was a mand [Christ's words of institution] the bread "presbyter and chorepiscopos, and pope (papas) is changed into His Holy Body and the wine of China" (legge, p. 3). into His Precious Blood and they impart to all 13 "Under no circumstances maya man say who receive them in faith and without doubting that the Catholicos of the East can be judged by the forgiveness of sins, purification, enlighten those under him or by patriarchs like himself. ment, pardon, the great hope of the resurrection He will be the judge of all those under him and from the dead, the inheritance of heaven and the his own judgment will be reserved to Christ" new life" (O'dishoo, pp.56--57). The trans ("Decree from the Synod of Mar Dadishu the lator glosses the word changed with this foot Catholicos [424 A. D.]," quoted in Rules Col note: "The change which the author refers to, lected from the Synhados {Canonical Law} 0/ however, is not physical, but rather [refers] to the Church 0/ the East and Patriarchal Decrees the power inherent in this Holy Sacrament for [San Francisco, Calif.: The Holy Apostolic and the remission of sins of them that partake it in Catholic Church of the East, 1960}, p. 7). true faith." (P. 56, note) BRIEF STUDIES 441 bread and wine. Communicants fast before version of the Bible, which contemporary receiving the Holy Communion. They drink scholarship assigns to the fourth century but the sacramental blood of Christ directly which the Church of the East regards as the from the chalice. As an oblation the sacri original from which the Greek Bible was fice of the Eucharist is identical with the translated, is used; the Old Testament apoc sacrifice of the cross and not a repetition rypha are accounted noncanonical. The pri of it. mary liturgy is the fourth-century rite named The holy leaven (malka, that is, "King") after SS. Addai and Mati and attributed by reflects the tradition that SS. Addai and Mari the Church of the East to St. James of Jeru brought with them to the East a portion of salem. Anchorites and hermits observe seven the original bread that Christ consecrated at periods of prayer daily, but the common the Last Supper in the cenacle. By leavening people are obligated to only four: at early the flour from which the sacramental bread dawn, just before sundown, after supper (or is made with a part of a loaf consecrated at before retiring) and at night; women are a previous celebration, the Eucharists cele excused from the obligation of the night brated in the Church of the East today are prayer. Fasts play a prominent role in the seen as in a continuous material succession calendar of the Church of the East: The 25 with the first Eucharist. days of Advent, the 3-day Ninevite Fast In the sign of the cross the thumb and (which begins 21 days before the First the first two fingers are joined to represent Sunday in Lent), the 50 days of Lent, the the Trinity. Touching his mouth the wor 50 days after Pentecost, the 50 days of the shiper says, "Glory"; touching his forehead "Prophet Elijah's Fast" (September 8 to Oc he says, "to the Father"; touching his breast tober 20), the 15 days of St. Mary's Fast he says, "to the Son"; and touching in suc (August 1-15), and all Wednesdays and cession his right and left shoulders he says, Fridays throughout the year. Advent, Lent, "and to the Holy Spirit." and the Ninevite Fast are especially insisted The Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints on. The faithful whose health permits are (among them Nestorius) are venerated and expected when fasting to refrain from all their intercessions solicited. The faithful de flesh meat, fish, milk products (including parted are remembered in prayer. Images ghee), eggs, and similar food of animal ori and icons are forbidden, and the only licit gin; during the periods of fasting they are object of veneration is a simple cross. The restricted to one vegetarian meal a day. decalog is divided into four and six com The international headquarters of the mandments, the Our Father (at the end of Church of the East are at 554 Arballo Drive, which the doxology is always said) into San Francisco, California. There are 12 three or ten sections. churches and missions in the United States The Eastern Syriac form of the Peshitta with an estimated 5,000 members (1970). ARTHUR CARL PIEPKORN