On the Syrian ‘Book of Hieroteus’ and Stephen Bar Sudayli: a radicalized ‘apokatastasis’
On the Syrian
‘Book of Hieroteus’ and Stephen Bar Sudayli: a radicalized ‘apokatastasis’
In this post,
I’ll present the case of Stephen Bar Sudayli (fl. 5th -6th
centuries) and his likely authored work, the Syrian ‘Book of Hieroteus’ (also
known as the ‘book of Secrets’). The presence of this work and Stephen provide
concrete evidence to back up, for instance, the testimony later Syrian theologian
West-Syrian (or Syrian Orthodox) John of Dara (fl. 9th century) of
the presence of two distinct groups of ‘universalist’ Christians that he
opposed: the first affirms an ‘end to judgment’ and the latter also, instead, affirms
that, at the end, all distinctions will cease (On the Resurrection of Human
Bodies, 4, chapter 20, 4-5)[1].
Later on, he ascribes a generic position of positing an end of judgment to four
different people, i.e. Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Gregory of
Nyssa and Stephen Bar Sudayli (identified as the author of the ‘book of Hieroteus’):
“[1] Diodore of Tarsus wrote in his book On
Providence, and his disciple Theodore [of Mopsuestia] who is Nestorius’
teacher, states in many passages that there is an end to judgment. The same
interpretation is also taken in the Book of Hierotheus (ܣܘܐܬܘܪܝܐܕ), which is not authentically his,
but someone else composed it in his name, and he is Stephen bar Sudayle.
[2] Likewise, also, Gregory of Nyssa, in his
homily On Exhortation ( ܘܗ ܐܪܡܐܡܒ
ܐܢܝܬܪܡ), and in his [writing] to his
sister Macrina[2],
and in other writings, presents the dogma of apokatastasis ( ܣܝܣܐܛܣܐܛܩܘܦܐ, ἀποκατάστασις), i.e. restoration (ܫ ܝܪܕܢܡܕ ܐܝܢܘܦ), and states that there is an end
to the torture to come.” (On the Resurrection of Human Bodies, book 4, chapter
21:1-2, edited and translated by Aho Shemunkasho)
The
testimony of Jacob of Serugh and Philoxenus of Mabbug
Let me
start from two opponents of Stephen bar Sudayli, two fellow Syrian
Christians and contemporaries: Jacob of Serugh and Philoxenus of Mabbug, both
revered as saints in the West-Syrian Church. While the former mentions and
criticizes Stephen’s view that damnation will end in a letter that was directed
to Stephen himself, the latter goes on to attribute to him also a rather radical
teaching that all beings will become ‘consubstantial’ with the Godhead:
“These things may be known, he says, by the
mystery of the first day of the week, when, as he says, God will be all in all:
one nature, one substance, one divinity. If then it is possible that men should
become consubstantial with the Divinity, then the dispensation of the flesh and
the Incarnation were superfluous. From misunderstanding, therefore, this saying
of the apostle , “that God may be all in all", he has foolishly imagined
and produced this impious and foolish doctrine, which perhaps would not even be
accepted among demons; for I think they would tremble simply to hear that they
were to become consubstantial with God; for also concerning them, as well as
all the angelic host which, did not fall, does he assert, that they will become
consubstantial with the Divinity and Godhead.” (Philoxenus of Mabbug, Letter to
Abraham and Orestes, presbyters of Edessa, translated by A. Frothingham in
“Stephen Bar Sudaili the Syriac Mystic, source: https://www.academia.edu/127740228/Stephen_Bar_Sudaili_the_Syrian_Mystic_and_the_Book_of_Hierotheos_A_L_Frothingham_Jr_Unraveling_the_Mystical_Union_of_Divinity_and_Creation_in_the_Shadows_of_Early_Christian_Thought_Exploring_the_Pantheistic_Traditions_of_Egypt_and_Syria_and_Revealing_the_Legacy_of_a_Forgotten_Theologian_Lost_Work
; Fronthigham also quotes the letter of
Jacob)
The
textual evidence of the ‘book of Hierotheus’
In book 5,
the author of the ‘book of Hierotheus’ writes (from the translation of F.S.
Marsh):
“The sin
which is after knowledge, which is without expiation[3],
will be upon thee, my son, if thou expose this mystery. As for me, my son,
henceforth I am prepared for suffering, and the time has arrived that I should
be rejected, on account of these things which I have handed on; but this is the
friendship of the friend, that he lay down his life for the sake of his friend;
(this is the proof) of my love towards thee, that for thy sake I should be
rejected by everyone. Do thou, then, my son, know that All Things! are destined
to be commingled in the Father; nothing perishes and nothing is destroyed,
nothing is annihilated; All returns, All is sanctified, All is made One, All is
commingled, and the Word is fulfilled which was said, “God shall be all and in
all.”[4]?
Hells shall pass, and torments shall be done away; prisoners shall be released;
for even reprobates are absolved, and outcasts return, and those that are far
off are brought near; and chastisement ceases, my son, and the Scourger
scourges not, and the Judge shall judge no more, and the Officer shall not
condemn, and the last farthing is given, and the prisoner who was bound is
loosed[5]?
[but he who has repented before the imprisonment has given the last farthing];
for Demons receive grace, and men receive mercy; and Angels minister not, and
Seraphs consecrate no more,’ and Thrones keep not their primacy; for the Orders
that are above pass away, and the Distinctions that are below are abolished,
and Everything becomes One Thing: for even God shall pass, and Christ shall be
done away, and the Spirit shall no more be called the Spirit,— for names pass
away and not Essence; for if distinction pass, who will call whom? and who, on
the other hand, will answer whom? for One neither names nor is named. This is
the limit of All and the end of Everything; and do thou take heed.” (Book of
Hierotheus, discourse 5, chapter 2, translated by F. S. Marsh, p. 132-133,
source: https://archive.org/details/bookofholyhierot0000unse/page/n147/mode/2up
)
A
comparison with the 553 anathemas against Origen
Interestingly,
the doctrine that is presented about the final state of creation here parallels
the anathemas 11-14 of the Fifteen Anathemas Against Origenism that are
associated with the Fifth Ecumenical Council (accepted by the Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox churches):
“11. If anyone says that the coming judgment
means the total destruction of bodies and that the end of the story will be an
immaterial nature, and that thereafter nothing that is material will exist but
only pure mind, let him be anathema.
12. If anyone says that the heavenly powers,
all human beings, the devil, and the spirits of wickedness will be united to
God the Word in just the same way as the mind they call Christ, which is in the
form of God and emptied itself, as they assert, and that the kingdom of Christ
will have an end, let him be anathema.
13. If anyone says that there will not be a
single difference at all between Christ and other rational beings, neither in
substance nor in knowledge nor in power over everything nor in operation, but
that all will be at the right hand of God as Christ beside them will be, as
indeed they were also in their mythical pre-existence, let him be anathema.
14. If anyone says that there will be one henad
of all rational beings, when the hypostases and numbers are annihilated
together with bodies, and that knowledge about rational beings will be
accompanied by the destruction of the universe, the shedding of bodies, and the
abolition of names, and there will be identity of knowledge as of hypostases,
and that in this mythical restoration there will be only pure spirits, as there
were in their nonsensical notion of preexistence, let him be anathema.” (From
Richard Price, The Acts of the Council of Constantinople, II:284-286; source: https://afkimel.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/fifteen-canons-against-origenism.pdf
)
We can note
the point that among other things, the thesis presented here speaks of an end
of the Kingdom of Christ and the abolition of bodies and distinctions. So, given
that Stephen bar Sudayli lived not much before than this Ecumenical Council,
his attributed teachings and the content of his likely work, the ‘book of
Hierotheus’, provides evidence of the presence of a radical form of ‘apokatastasis’
that actually did endorse even the most ‘extreme’ doctrines that are
condemned in the canons quoted above.
Later reception
of the book in the West-Syrian Church (to be revised…)
The book
was commented on by the Patriarch of the West-Syrian Church Theodosius Romanus
(fl. later 9th century) who perhaps was sympathetic to its contents.
However, the book and Stephen, identified as its author, were condemned by a
synod of an earlier patriarch of the West-Syrian Church, Quariaqos of Targit (fl.
early 9th century)[6].
*Edit 05/07: Attestation of the presence of two forms of 'universalism' in Palestine in the 6th century
I think that it is pertinent to this post the following possible attestation of two forms of universalism in Palestine in the 6th century, near the time in which Stephen lived. It is from the Letters of Barsanuphius and John in which there is a distinction to two forms of universalism. The first is similar to the one of Stephen bar Sudayli above and was attributed also to Origen of Alexandria, Didymus the Blind and Evagrius Ponticus (except perhaps a bit less radicalized as there is no mention of a loss of all distinctions). The other, instead, was attributed to Gregory of Nyssa. See below (quotes taken from this link: https://classicalchristianity.com/2016/03/01/ss-barsanuphius-and-john-on-universalism/ ):
"A
brother asked the holy Old Man, Abba Barsanuphius, saying: “Father, I do not
know how I came upon the books of Origen and Didymus, as well as the Gnostic
Chapters of Evagrius and the writing of his disciples. These books say… that
the future hell must have an end and that human beings, angels, and demons can
return to the state they first enjoyed as naked intellects, something they call
apokatastasis… Therefore, my soul is afflicted, falling into doubt as to
whether these things are true are not. Master, I entreat you to show me the
truth so that I may hold to this and not perish. For nothing is said about
these things in sacred Scripture. As Origen himself affirms in his Commentary
on the Letter to Titus (Fragments in PG 14.1303-1306), this is neither of the
Apostles nor of the Church… Evagrius, too, bears witness to this in his Gnostic
Chapters, that no one has spoken of these things, nor has the Spirit Itself
explained them. For in his sixty-fourth chapter of the second century of his
Gnostic Chapters, he writes: ‘On the former, no one has spoken to us; on the
latter, only the one on Mt. Horeb has explained to us.’… That there is no
apokatastasis or end to hell, the Lord Himself revealed to us in the Gospel,
saying: ‘These will go away into eternal punishment (Mt. 25:46); and again:
‘Where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.’ (Mk. 9:48)
Therefore, master, how could these people expound such teachings, when the
Apostles have not passed them down to us and the Holy Spirit has not explained
them to us, as they themselves bear witness and the Gospels contradict? Be
merciful, then, with my weakness, since you are a father of compassion, and
show me clearly what these doctrines are about.”
Response by St. Barsanuphius the Great ca. 6th cent.
The heavens tremble over the preoccupations of human beings. The earth shakes
over how people want to scrutinize the incomprehensible. These are the
doctrines of the [heathen] Greeks; they are the vain talk of people who claim
to be something (cf. Acts 5:6)… Avoid these things, brother, so that their word
may not be established in your heart. They dry tears, blind the heart, and
quite simply destroy those who pay any attention to them. Do not dwell on them;
do not study them; for they are filled with bitterness and produce fruit unto
death. As for knowledge about things to come, do not be deceived. Whatever you
sow here, you will reap there (cf. Gal. 6:7-8). It is not possible for anyone
to make progress after leaving this place. God will not labor to recreate the
soul after anyone’s death… Brother, here is the place for labor; there is the
place for reward. Here is the place of struggle; there is the place for crowns.
Brother, if you want to be saved, do not preoccupy yourself with these things.
For I bear witness before God that you have fallen into a pit of the devil and
into ultimate death. Therefore, avoid these things and follow in the footsteps
of the fathers. Acquire humility and obedience for yourself, as well as
mourning, ascetic discipline, poverty, not reckoning yourself as anything, and
other such virtues, which you will find in their Sayings and in the Lives. Bear
“fruits worthy of repentance” (Lk. 3:8); and do not pay any attention to me,
who talk but do not practice." (Letter 600)
"Question from the same person… “in regard to the subject of
apokatastasis, the holy Gregory of Nyssa himself clearly speaks about it, but
not in the manner in which they say he does, namely: ‘When hell ceases,
humanity will return to its original condition, namely, that of pure
intellects’; rather, he does in fact say that hell will cease and assume an
end. (On the Soul and on the Resurrection, PG 46.108) Therefore, father, tell
us why such a person does not speak correctly, as befits a holy person who has
been counted worthy of speaking for the Holy Spirit. For some of the fathers
and teachers even disagree about Paradise, saying that is not material but
spiritual. And on other chapters of Scripture, one finds disagreements among
some of them. So clarify this for us, master, we implore you, in order that we
may be illumined by you and give glory to God, and so that we may not doubt our
holy Fathers.”
Response by St. Barsanuphius
May all the fathers who have pleased God, the saints and the righteous and
genuine servants of God pray for me. Do not think that, because they were
saints, they were able actually to comprehend all the depths of God. For the
Apostle says: “We know only in part.” (1 Cor. 13:9) And again: “To one is given
through the Spirit such and such, and not all of these gifts to one and the
same person; but to one person it was given in this way, to another in that
way, and al of these gists are activated by one in the same Spirit (cf. 1 Cor.
12:4-11). Knowing then, that the [mysteries] of God are incomprehensible, the
Apostle cried out: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments, and how inscrutable His ways! For who has
known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?” (Rom. 11:33-34),
and so forth. Applying themselves, therefore, to becoming teachers of their own
accord, or else obliged by others to come to this point, they achieved great
progress, sometimes even surpassing their own teachers. Moreover, they were
assured about the truth in developing new doctrines, while at the same time
remaining faithful to the traditions of their teachers.
In this way, there are also some [brothers] here who have received
certain doctrines from their teachers, which are not, however, correct.
For after achieving progress and themselves becoming spiritual teachers,
nevertheless, they did not pray to God about their teachers, in order to learn
whether what they said was spoken through the Holy Spirit. Rather, trusting
that their teachers possessed wisdom and knowledge, they did not in fact bother
to discern their teachings. And so the teachings of their teachers became
mingled with their own teachings, and they spoke sometimes from the doctrines
learned from their masters, while at other times from the brilliance of their
own intellect. Thus, even the words of their teachers were ascribed to their
name. For while they received these words from others, they progressed and
improved more than their teachers, and they spoke through the Holy Spirit; that
is to say, they were assured by the Spirit and spoke from the doctrines of
their teachers who proceeded them, but they did not actually examine these
words in order to discern whether they needed to be assured by God through
supplication and prayer in regard to their truth. So the teachings [of the two]
were mingled together. Thus, since it was they who spoke the words, it was to
their names that they were ultimately ascribed. Therefore, when you hear that
one of them received from the Holy Spirit whatever he speaks, then this is
clear assurance that we ought to trust him. When, however, this person speaks
on those matters, it does not seem that he refers to the same kind of
assurance, but rather to the teachings and tradition of those who preceded him.
In this way, while paying attention to their knowledge and wisdom, nonetheless,
they did not ask God about these matters, as to whether or not they are true.
There then! You have heard all my foolishness. So be calm, and commit
yourselves to God, ceasing from such idle talk and paying attention to your
passions, about which you will be asked to give account on the Day of Judgment.
For you will not be asked about these matters, why you do not understand them
or why you have not learned them. Therefore, weep and mourn. Follow in the
footsteps of our fathers, of Poemen and all the other like him, and “run in
such a way that you may win” (1 Cor. 9:24) in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom be
the glory to the ages. Amen." (Letter 604)*
[1] “[4] Some people state: God
is just, and therefore He will define the time of torture there
according to the amount of our sin committed here. If this is true, then
there is an end to judgment. We answer that God’s justice is based on
His will and not because He is forced. This can be confirmed by two [facts]:
For God created all created beings out of nothing. He made the angels as
spiritual beings passionless and immortal, but man knowledgeable and rational.
He made some of them kings, others slaves, others lords, others servants, some
rich and some poor. The animals and the rest are irrational. Thus, where is
God’s justice that produces such a great discrimination? Is it not His will?
But if it had been His justice in contrast as you state, then man is supposed
to obey the animals, as they obey him; and he should fear them, as they fear
him; and the lords should become servants and the servants lords. Since God
does not do this, we know that justice belongs to His will. It is like a king
who honoured one of his servants and rejected the other one, the justice comes
from him. Also, every human being donates his wealth to the one he wishes, and
he does not oppress the one to whom he has not donated. Therefore, God’s
justice is based on His will, and He acts according to His will. For He wishes
to have mercy on the penitents in this world and not judge them justly and give
them time for penitence, [but] the sin of others remains and they are tortured
endlessly: their fire is unquenchable (cf. Matt 3:12) and their worm does not
die (cf. Mark 9:44–48).
[5]
Some others state: The evil and wicked are punished for a certain time,
and then the whole coming world will dissolve and all created beings
resolve into nothing, as it was at the beginning, and ‘God becomes all in
all’ (1 Cor 15:28).We answer: With what you are saying you are
removing God’s wisdom (ܗܬܡܟܚ), His kindness (ܗܬܘܒܛ) and His care (ܗܬܘܝܛܒ): His wisdom, for creating the world as a game; His kindness for you
are saying the kindness of good people will cease; if so the good people do not
exist, then also those who usually benefit from the good deeds would not
receive help any more, and consequently His care and concern will cease. For
how should He be concerned and about whom, and how should He care and for whom
should he provide help? But if he who is in need is not deprived of care, then
also those who care do not vanish into nothing. Secondly, the angels, souls and
first elements are of a simple substance and not a compound. How can what has
not been compounded be dissolved? And what does not dissolve, does not vanish
into nothing.” (On the Resurrection of Human Bodies, book 4, chapter 20:4-5,
edited and translated by Aho Shemunkasho)
[2] This is the dialogue ‘On the
Soul and Resurrection’, in which Macrina appears as the Teacher.
[3] A probable reference to
Hebrew 10:26: “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received
the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left” (NIV; https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2010%3A26&version=NIV
)
[4] This is a reference to 1
Corinthians 15:28: “ When all things are subjected
to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things
in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.” (NIV translation: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2015%3A28&version=NIV
)
[5] This is a probable reference
to Matthew 5:25-26: “25 “Settle matters quickly with
your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together
on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may
hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly
I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.” (NIV
translation: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%205%3A25-26&version=NIV
) and Luke 12:58-59: “58 As you are going with your
adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled on the way, or your
adversary may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the
officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59 I
tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”” (NIV
translation: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2012%3A58-59&version=NIV
)
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