The same prelate addresses, in glowing words, the Emperor who had shown interest in Theodore's memory: " Iste ille est Flaviani magni Antiochensium sanctae Dei Ecclesiae pontificis amantissimus discipulus, et beati Joannis Constantinopolitani episcopi condiscipulus, cujus memoriam redivivam fecistis, maximam hunc gloriam pietatis vestrae imperio facientes ."
A glimpse of the early life of Theodore is supplied by the writings of his bosom friend John Chrysostom who testifies that his days were spent in reading and his nights in prayer, that his fasts were long and |3 his bed was the bare ground, that he indulged in every form of asceticism and self-discipline. [Greek omitted]
A letter from Chrysostom to Theodore shows that the former's affection and admiration for the friend of his childhood remained till the end of his days. The letter was written while Chrysostom was in exile at Cucusus (a.d. 404-407). In it the exiled Patriarch testifies that "he can never forget the love of Theodore, so genuine and warm, so sincere and guileless, a love maintained from early years," and thanks him for the efforts that he had made to obtain his release, and ends his correspondence with the memorable sentence: "Exile as I am I reap no ordinary consolation from having such a treasure, such a mine of wealth within my heart as the love of so vigilant and noble a soul." As the late Dr. Swete points out, higher testimony could not have been borne, or by a more competent judge.
Death did not put a stop to the fame of Theodore. It is recorded in Tillemont that Meletius, Theodore's successor to the see of Mopsuestia, asserted that he would have endangered his own life if he had uttered words detrimental to his predecessor. Even Cyril of Alexandria whose views on the Incarnation were not in harmony with those of Theodore was obliged to avow that in the Churches of the East one often heard the cry: "We believe as Theodore believed; long live the faith of Theodore!" The same Cyril of Alexandria informs us that when a party of bishops was found ready to condemn him, the answer of the bishops of Syria to them was: "We had rather be burnt than condemn Theodore." Leontius Byzantinus informs us also that Cyril of Alexandria advised against the condemnation of Theodore because all the bishops of the Eastern Church considered |4 him an eminent Doctor, and if he were condemned there would be serious disturbance in that Church. The famous Church historian, Theodoret, was pleased to call him "Doctor of the Universal Church." This title is also ascribed to him by a much later Greek author, Nicephorus Callistus, who calls him "Doctor of all the Churches."
There is no need to emphasise the fact that Theodore's memory and especially his writings have always been considered as the most esteemed treasures of the East Syrian Church. They were gradually translated after his death; and their authority among the innumerable adherents of the Eastern Church, which for a long time stretched from the eastern Mediterranean shores to Manchuria and from the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean, was only one degree below that of Paul. With them he was the "interpreter" par excellence. The only discordant note seems to have been struck towards the end of the sixth century by individual teachers of no great importance in the councils of the Church, but the Synod held in a.d. 596 by the Patriarch Sabrisho` rose vehemently against them: "We reject and anathematize all those who do not adhere to the commentaries, the traditions and the teaching of the eminent Doctor, the blessed Theodore the interpreter; and who endeavour to introduce new and foreign doctrines saturated with errors and blasphemies, which are in contradiction to the true and exact teaching of this saint and of all the orthodox Doctors, heads of the schools, who have followed in his steps, corroborated his doctrine and taught the true faith of the incorruptible orthodoxy in our eastern regions."
In the Synod of Gregory I, held in a.d. 605, all the eastern archbishops and bishops bound themselves to abide by the teaching of Theodore: "We all assembled in this Synod have decided that each of us should receive and accept all the commentaries and works written by the blessed Theodore the interpreter, bishop of Mopsuestia, a man by the grace of God set over the treasures of the two Testaments: the Old and the New, and who like a river of abundant floods watered and nurtured the children of the Church in his lifetime and after his death with the true meaning of the sacred Books in which he was instructed by the Holy Spirit. ... No one, who in these days wishes to perform the office of teaching in the Church, is allowed to deviate |5 from the works of this eminent and divine man. . . . All our venerable Fathers who have handed down this true faith to us, in their teaching, from his day to our own, have studied his writings and adhered to his statements."
I will also refer to two of the earliest East Syrian historians: "He (Theodore) did not astonish the world in his lifetime only, but also astonished every one with his books after his death. Who is able to narrate the good works of this sea of wisdom, or who is in a position to describe the prodigies which the Spirit worked in him! When other bishops came near him, they considered themselves as mere pupils; and philosophers, subtle in reasoning, were before him as students. Every knotty and difficult problem stopped with him and never went beyond him, and he explained it before inquirers and made it as clear as the light of the sun."
"At that time shone in all branches of knowledge the truly divine man St. Theodore the interpreter, who was the first to explain philosophically and rationally the economy of the divine mysteries of the birth and the passion of our Lord."
In the West the only writer who before the fifth Council dared to speak openly against Theodore was Marius Mercator, who died about 450. As early as the year 431 he accused him of being the real author of Pelagianism: " Quaestio contra Catholicam fidem apud nonnullos Syrorum et praecipue in Cilicia a Theodoro quondam episcopo oppidi Mopsuesteni jamdudum mota. . . ." This hostile note is also clearly found in his Latin translations of some of Theodore's treatises, in which he denounced him as the master of Nestorius and Nestorianism: ". . . Pravum ejus de dispensatione Dominica, et a fide Catholica alienum, ac satis extorrem sensum, quo Nestorium Constantinopolitanae urbis quondam episcopum secum male decepit. . . . "
An anti-Theodorian party, however, was steadily gaining ground in Egypt where Cyril of Alexandria held sway. Towards the middle of the sixth century the Alexandrian Doctors, followers of Cyril, counted many adherents in the Metropolis, who were powerful enough |6 to influence the Emperor Justinian and induce him to summon a Council and condemn Theodore.
Given free rein the outbursts of the Cyrillian Bishops of the Council knew no bounds. Expressions such as "impious," "blasphemous," "heretical" were continuously hurled against a man dead one hundred and twenty-five years previously. The following phrases reveal the spirit which permeated the Fathers of the fifth Council:
Isti sunt thesauri impietatis Theodori. Sceleratum symbolum impii Theodori. . . . Et postquam lectae sunt blasphemiae Theodori Mopsuesteni et impium ejus symbolum. . . . Et post acclamationes sancta synodus dixit: Multitudo lectarum blasphemiarum, quas contra magnum Deum et Salvatorem nostrum Jesum Christum, imo magis contra suam animam Theodorus Mopsuestenus evomuit,justam ejus facit condemnationem .
The condemnation of a dead man gave satisfaction to his adversaries in the Cyrillian camp, but rent asunder the Catholic Church of the time and caused a deep wound in the spiritual body of the faithful. The evil effects of that wound are to some extent felt even in our days, in which the theological admirers of Theodore are, more than one thousand and five hundred years after his death, still counted in thousands.
The condemnation of the works of the great Antiochian theologian decreased their influence on Western thought, and the MSS. containing them were either burnt or underwent a gradual process of slow disappearance from the shelves of ecclesiastical libraries. Fortunately, however, his works were translated shortly after his death by his admirers in the East, and the Catalogue of `Abdisho` registers almost all of them. When `Abdisho` wrote his Catalogue in about a.d. 1298 all the works of Theodore were found in the churches and monasteries of his day, and probably also in his own library at Nisibin. The numerous persecutions inflicted since that date on the eastern Christians by Mongols, Turks and Kurds have, however, resulted in their complete disappearance even in East Syrian lands, and the only complete treatises known to have survived are: ( a ) his commentary on the Gospel of John which was edited in 1897, |7 according to a MS. of our Lady near Alkosh, by J. B. Chabot who, however, did not venture to give any translation of it; ( b ) his short controversial treatise against the Macedonians which was edited and translated in 1913 by F. Nau, from a recently acquired MS. of the British Museum.
(ii) The Present Work.
The work of which I give an edition and translation in the following pages is in form of catechetical lectures, and is the one called "The Book on Faith" by `Abdisho` in his Catalogue, while the Chronicle of Seert calls it more accurately "The interpretation of the faith of the three hundred and eighteen," i.e., of the Council of Nicea. In a letter of the Pope Pelagius the work is referred to as "De interpretatione symboli trecentorum decem et octo Patrum," and the Acts of the fifth Council mention it also once under the same title: "De interpretatione symboli trecentorum decem et octo sanctorum Patrum." Nicephorus Theotokes has doubtless this work in mind when he writes: ἑπμηνεία εἰς τὸ Νικαίᾳ σύμβολον , "An explanation of the Nicene Profession of faith."
From the extracts that I give below it will be seen that the work is more frequently referred to under the title "Liber ad baptizandos." The Acts of the fifth Council quote it once under the title " Interpretatio symboli trecentorum decem et octo sanctorum Patrum" and eight times under the title of "Liber ad baptizandos." Facundus also quotes it under the slightly modified title of "Liber ad baptizatos."
This "Liber ad baptizandos" is divided into two distinct parts which embrace all the Christian doctrine which the Catechumens had to learn before their baptism. The first part deals with the explanation of the Nicene Creed, as above, and the second part, which constitutes a book by itself, contains a commentary on the Lord's Prayer, on the sacrament of baptism in general, and the Greek liturgy used in his day. |8
I will give now the quotations from the present work found in the Acts of the fifth Council, in the synodical letter of the Pope Pelagius, in the works of Facundus and in those of Marius Mercator.
[Material in Latin and Syriac omitted, pp.8-14] |15
From the above quotations we may infer that the official Latin translator of the Acts of the fifth Council was not always a good translator. Extenuating circumstances may be pleaded in his favour from the fact that he was dealing with stray quotations and isolated extracts culled from their context without any regard to the sequence of events, but when every allowance is made under this head there still remain some imperfections in his work. Let us take as examples two sentences from the first and the fourth quotations as given above. In the first quotation Theodore says: "Nobody believes that he who is from the Jews according to the flesh is God by nature, nor that God who is above all is from the Jews by nature." This simple and clear sentence has received the complicated and inaccurate rendering: Nemo igitur neque eum qui secundum carnem ex Judaeis est, dicat Deum qui est super omnia, secundum carnem ex Judaeis. The sentence is somewhat better translated in the Synodical letter of the Pope Pelagius as follows: Nemo igitur, neque eum qui secundum carnem ex Judaeis est, dicat Deum: nec iterum Deum qui est super omnia r secundum camem ex Judaeis.
In the second quotation the translator of the Council does not seem to have understood the meaning of some words in Theodore's sentence. Theodore says: "But He (God) remained with him (Christ) until He by (His) help assisted him to loose the pains of death. And He delivered his soul from bonds which were indissoluble; and raised him from the dead and transferred him to immortal life, and made him immortal and incorruptible, and caused him to go up to heaven where he is now sitting at the right hand of God." The Latin translation of this sentence is given as follows: Permanens autem, donec secundum suam creaturam et virtutem solvens mortis dolores, liberavit eum ineffabilibus illis vinculis etc. The Latin translator seems here to have misread a possible Greek word ἄρρηκτος unbroken as ἄρρητος unspeakable, ineffable.
So far as Marius Mercator is concerned, we may point out that he seems to have deliberately omitted to translate two sentences of Theodore. The first sentence is: "And the separation of natures does not preclude their being one" [Syriac omitted] |16
The second sentence reads: "It is known that here he (Paul) calls "Son" the one made of the seed of David in the flesh."
Mercator deliberately omits also to translate the adjective "close" when Theodore uses it to express the " close union " between God the Word and man. The Syriac expression used in this connection is [omitted]