Ancient afterlife beliefs

  Sources of Isaac of Nineveh quotes in the Book of the Bee Solomon of Basra in the last chapter of his ‘book of the Bee’, quoted in support for his ‘universalist’ thesis Isaac of Nineveh alongside Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodore of Tarsus: “Mâr Isaac says thus: 'Those who are to be scourged in Gehenna will be tortured with stripes of love; they who feel that they have sinned against love will suffer harder and more severe pangs from love than the pain that springs from fear.' Again he says: 'The recompense of sinners will be this: the resurrection itself will be their recompense instead of the recompense of justice; and at the last He will clothe those bodies which have trodden down His laws with the glory of perfection. This act of grace to us after we have sinned is greater than that which, when we were not, brought our nature into being.' Again he says: 'In the world which is to come grace will be the judge and not justice.'  ” (Libro dell’Ape, Capito...

 Two famous passages of Isaac of Nineveh's First Part and their translation In this post, I'll discuss two passages of Isaac of Nineveh's First Part (or 'First Collection')  as they appear in an Italian and an English translation. Excerpt from Homily 27 The Italian translation reads: “ Io dico, infatti, che anche quanti saranno castigati nella geenna, saranno tormentati dalle piaghe dell’amore. Le piaghe che provengono dall’amore, cioè quelle di quanti sentono di aver mancato nell’amore, sono dure e amare! Più dei tormenti che vengono dal timore! La sofferenza che sibila nel cuore perché si è mancato all’amore è più acuta di tutti i tormenti che vi possono essere. È assurdo pensare che i peccatori nella geenna saranno privati dell’amore per il Creatore. L’amore, infatti, è figlio della conoscenza della verità, che noi confessiamo che sarà concessa all’universo intero. Ma l’amore, con la sua forza, agisce in modo duplice: tormenta coloro che hanno mancato, come accad...

  John of Dara: discussion against Universalism In this post, I'll report the arguments made by John of Dara (fl. 9th century), a Syriac Orthodox theologian, against universalism providing philosophical, theological and scriptural arguments.  From ‘On the resurrection of human bodies, 4, 20-21’: 20. Chapter: It demonstrates that there is no end to the Kingdom and Gehenna. [1] In this world there is a beginning for every deed that is performed here, and  there is also an end, because the opposites are in battle with each other, and there is victory and defeat, and the particles leave their position and their connection with each other. And this leads to an end. However in the world to come, where there is no opposition leading to battle, there is also neither defeat nor victory, and therefore, there is also no departure of the particles from their common setup, but one unity and equality without fight, and without defeat or victory. Thus, the particles do not separat...

  Hope vs Justice III: the ‘Apocalypse of Peter’, intercessions and later Ethiopian developments with a note on Origen of Alexandria In this post, I’ll cite the analysis of the scholar Eric J. Beck provided in Chapter 8 of the book “ Beyond Canon: Early Christianity and the Ethiopic Textual Tradition ” [1]  that discusses some texts that seem to allow the possibility of post-mortem salvation via either intercessions or God’s mercy. The first text is the Rainer fragment , a quotation of an early version of the Apocalypse of Peter [2] , which narrates the journey of Peter the Apostle into the realms of the dead (both hell and Paradise). This Rainer fragment speaks of the possibility of post-mortem salvation of sinners in hell via the intercession of the saints (to, however, a lower degree of blessedness). After that, a quotation of the Sybilline Oracles is provided that closely resembles the Rainer fragment. After that, the later Ethiopian legacy of the Apocalypse of Peter i...

  Latin fragments and English translation via Google of the Latin fragments of Theodore of Mopsuestia's book “Contra defensores peccati originalis”   In this post, I’ll provide a translation via Google translate of the text of the Latin fragments of Theodore of Mopsuestia’s work “Contra defensores peccati originalis” preserved in the Patrologia Latina, a work also attested by the Greek theologian Photius of Constantinople (fl. 9 th century) and the East-Syrian theologian Isaac of Nineveh (fl. 7 th century) [1] under the title “Against those who say that men sin by nature”. I’ll quote from this link: https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Fragmenta_(Theodorus_Mopsuestenus) Fragment 1 “ I. On the second codex of the fourth book, folio ten, against Saint Augustine defending original sin, and arguing Catholically that Adam became mortal through transgression. " With so many things existing which show that Adam was formed from the earth in such a way that he was completely...