The 'book of Memorials' and its parallelism between the last breat and the last farthing

The 'book of Memorials' and its parallelism between the last breat and the last farthing

In the 'book of the Bee', the 13th century East-Syrian bishop Solomon of Basra quotes Isaac of Nineveh, Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia and a 'book of Memorials' (I never find it mentioned elsewhere). Of this book it provides two quotes. The second seems, prima facie, to be supportive of 'hell' (Gehenna) being a state of endless conscious torment. The first, however, reads as follows:

"This world is the world of repentance, but the world which is to come is the world of retribution. As in this world repentance saves until the last breath, so in the world to come justice exacts to the uttermost farthing. And as it is impossible to see here strict justice unmingled with mercy, so it is impossible to find there strict justice mingled with mercy." (Book of the Bee ch. 60, source: https://sacred-texts.com/chr/bb/bb60.htm )

I was struck by the parallelism between the 'last farthing', which refers to Matthew 5:26/Luke 12:59, and the 'last breath' and also by the fact that the author seems to invoke James 2:13 ("because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful") who likewise echoes the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18:21-35 (in which verse 18:34 - "In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed." - echoes Matthew 5:26).

So, to me the first quote of the 'book of Memorials', despite the harsh language ("strict justice"), which suggests a retributive view of justice rather than a restorative one, and the second seemingly infernalist quote (see the link), actually supports an end of punishment. If the sinner will never get to the point to pay the 'last farthing' the demands of justice will never be met! So, whether the author of the 'book of Memorials' that Solomon quotes was an universalist or not, his first quote actually supports the idea of a limit of punishments.

(As an aside, I managed to source the quotes of Isaac that Solomon provides: https://ancientafterlifebelifs.blogspot.com/2026/02/sources-of-isaac-of-nineveh-quotes-in.html )

Comments

  1. boundless93March 16, 2026 at 5:40 PM

    For reference, here is the second quote of the book of Memorials that Solomon provides in the same chapter:

    "I hold what the most celebrated of the holy Fathers say, that He cuts off a little from much. The penalty of Gehenna is a man's mind; for the punishment there is of two kinds, that of the body and that of the mind. That of the body is perhaps in proportion to the degree of sin, and He lessens and diminishes its duration; but that of the mind is for ever, and the judgment is for ever."

    Perhaps a way to reconcile these two quotations is to interpret the word 'forever' as meaning 'as long as it must last' or 'coextensive' with the status of being in debt. Once a sinner has paid the debt according to the sin, the punishments end and the punishments are not shortened but the sinner must 'repay in full'.

    Of course, this is speculative but, in my opinion, it is a way to reconcile these two apparent contradictory statements.

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