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The Church of the East at Three Critical Points in Its History THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA The Church of the East at Three Critical Points in its History A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literature School of Arts and Sciences Of the Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy © Copyright All Rights Reserved By Andrew Thomas Platt Washington, DC 2017 The Church of the East at Three Critical Points in its History Andrew Thomas Platt, Ph.D. Director: Sidney Griffith, S.T., Ph.D. Abstract This dissertation seeks to examine changes in the identity of the Church of the East over a span of several centuries particularly in relation to events and experiences undergone by this church body in its own milieu. It aims to do this through the analysis of key texts by or about prominent church figures and secondary texts which establish the context for these men in each of three separate time periods. The figures under investigation are Mar Babai the Great at the turn of the 7th century during the last years of the Sassanid Empire, Catholicos Timothy I in the height of Abbasid Culture at the turn of the 9th Century, and Mar Yaballaha III during the Pax Mongolica at the end of the 13th century. This dissertation asserts that these men acted as representatives of their churchmen in their day, and that said representation, judging by the esteem in which they were held, extended to subsequent generations. Because of this, an analysis of their milieu and their responses to it provided in their writings grants insight into their corporate identity in their respective time periods, and what variations exist can be described as identity shifts. In this way, this dissertation establishes that the Church of the East in the Sassanid period was working to establish an identity as the Church of the Persian Empire, in distinction from that of the Romans, and furthermore, due to their lofty connections, they were highly anticipating the acceptance of their faith by the leadership of their empire. By the time of Timothy, a century and a half later, due to the religious inclinations of their new political masters, such aspirations were at least in part abandoned locally, but at the further extents of the church’s reach, a greater degree of freedom was granted its members. This freedom contributed to the state of the Church of the East in the final period, where distant unexpected church members came home at the head of an army to establish a kingdom, and Church of the East leadership understandably interpreted this to mean that they might finally have a Christian king. Such aspirations proved short lived. This dissertation shows that there were a number of Church of the East identity points that shifted over the centuries, but two stand out as prominent: 1. their relationship with their political rulers including the role their ecclesiastical group played in society, and 2. the role of missionary outreach in the life of their church. This dissertation by Andrew Thomas Platt fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literature approved by Sidney H. Griffith, S.T., Ph.D., as director, and by Shawqi N. Talia, Ph.D., and Monica J. Blanchard, Ph.D., as readers. ___________________________________ Sidney H. Griffith, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Shawqi N. Talia, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Monica J. Blanchard, Ph.D. ii To my wife, Whose unwavering support made this possible, My boys, Who have only known a Dad who is “finishing his dissertation,” My family, Who have been great encouragement, And my mom, Who is dearly missed and to whom this would have meant a great deal. iii Contents Chapter ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………................vi INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………..1 ONE ORTHODOXY……………...........................................................................8 Life of Babai………………………………………………………...9 Babai’s Writings and Contributions to his Church…………………14 Historical Background………………………………………………31 Conclusions…………………………………………………………55 Chapter 1 Appendix The Book of the Union, Section 5, Chapter 18………………….......57 Translation…………………………………………………………..65 TWO CHANGING MISSION AT HOME AND ABROAD……………………...75 Timothy’s Early Life and Election………………………………….77 The Islam Question………………………………………………….86 Timothy’s Writings………………………………………………….90 Historical Background………………………………………………104 The “Interior” and the “Exterior”…………………………………...114 The Mission to the Interior………………………………………….121 Conclusion…………………………………………………………..131 Chapter 2 Appendix Rules of Ecclesiastical Judgement and Inheritance…………………133 Translation…………………………………………………………..136 THREE THE END OF AN AGE……………………………………………………..141 Yaballaha (Given of God)…………………………………………...143 The History (The First Half)……………………………………........146 The Colophon………………………………………………………..150 The History (Part 2)……………………………………………….....153 Historical Background……………………………………………….158 The Inner House……………………………………………………..159 From Friends of the Caliphs to Pariahs……………………………...164 The Outer House……………………………………………………..179 The Church of the East in China……………………………………..181 Central Asian Christianity…………………………………………....186 Mongol Hordes……………………………………………………….195 iv CHAPTER Mongol Religious Policies and Christianity in the Mongol Empire...202 Mongol Brutality and Its Effect on Christian-Muslim Relations……212 Christianity’s Decline………………………………………………..217 Conclusion…………………………………………………………...221 Chapter 3 Appendices A: Excerpts from the History…………………………………………223 Translation…………………………………………………………....234 B: The Colophon of the Gospel of Karmelesh……………………….240 Translation…………………………………………………………....243 CONCLUSIONS……………………………………………………………...248 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………….256 v Acknowledgements I have had much advice over the years concerning what a dissertation is. Descriptions have ranged from “the culmination of an idea,” to “a hurdle,” to strange metaphors of pillars and darkness, to “the closest a man can come to giving birth, but generally requiring many more than 9 months to bring to light.” There is truth in all of these. If I may be so bold, however, I would add one. I would compare this to a journey, which may be a bit clichéd, but that does not make it any less relevant. The journey of this dissertation has all the hall-marks of an adventure, the adrenaline and perils, the miry drudgery and pinnacle views, the heights and the depths. The journey itself has, despite its agonies, proven of great value in my own development as a person and a scholar and for that I am grateful. As with any journey, it would not come about without others. I owe a great deal to those who have helped me along the way; my director, Fr. Sidney Griffith, whose expertise has been invaluable and for whom I continue to have great respect despite at times vigorous disagreements; my readers, Dr. Shawqi Talia whose encouragement was a blessing as was his at times unwanted eye for detail, and Dr. Monica Blanchard, who could always recommend a source and whose assistance in sending excerpts and the like enabled my study of this material from a distance. All three of these teachers have done just what their title implies, taught me which I appreciate, though at times it may not have seemed I was learning much. These pages undoubtedly contain errors of research or judgement that might have slipped past all of our eyes, or which they might have grudgingly permitted me to voice. Any such gaffes are, of course, wholly mine and should be treated as such. vi Colleagues in the department have also been a blessing and honed aspects of my research, Paul Stevenson and Joshua Hood, my Arabic and Syriac classmates whose discussions informed much in the direction of this study and Nathan Gibson, who beyond sharing and developing ideas has proven a trusted friend and extraordinary encouragement. Other academics whose support has contributed to or directed this are my undergrad advisor, Dr. George Pickens, whose love of culture and prompting to pursue a Ph.D. gave birth to the idea, Dr. Mark Williams and Professor Isaac Li, both of whom provided much needed encouragement at Jiang Da, and Dr. Joel Walker, who answered an unsolicited email that steered me towards CUA and later provided much advice on research and direction. I also need to acknowledge my church in Virginia, The Journey. They provided room for a struggling young academic to both work and study in the DC Metro area and gave and continue to give extraordinary support even after my time there has come to an end. I need to also acknowledge my family. My parents and in-laws have been tireless encouragement and support. Grandpa Joe even gave us a roof once we left the East Coast. But the greatest encouragement has been my wife and sons. Annie has sacrificed again and again to see this happen and I do not know that my appreciation can ever be truly stated, and my boys will finally get to know a father who is not writing a dissertation. Finally, I want to thank God, who lent me the strength to see this through and the skill to carry it out. vii Introduction “I have told these things to you, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33, NIV)” There are few confessions in the Christian world for whom this message might more readily apply both as a prophecy and a comfort than the Church of the East (by which is meant the confession that for much of its history was called Nestorian, bringing to mind heresy and dissociation. Fortunately, the last century has more or less exonerated the Church of the East regarding the charge of heresy. As such, the term Nestorian will from hereon be avoided except in quotation1). The Church of the East and Church of the West, to use a very imprecise dichotomy, both began on the same footing, somewhere in the vicinity of Jerusalem in Rome’s far-flung province of Judea in the mid-first century. Perhaps the only really noteworthy designator of difference between confessions at that point was that one was under the political auspices of Rome and one was not.
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