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STEPHEN BAR

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 887 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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STEPHEN See also:BAR SUDHAIL$, a Syrian mystical writer, who flourished about the end of the 5th See also:century A.D. The earlier See also:part of his career was passed at See also:Edessa, of which he may have been a native.' He afterwards removed to See also:Jerusalem, where he lived as a See also:monk, and endeavoured to make converts to his See also:peculiar doctrines, both by teaching among the community there and by letters to his former See also:friends at Edessa. He was the author of commentaries on the See also:Bible and other theological See also:works. Two of his eminent contemporaries, the See also:Monophysites See also:Jacob of Serugh (451–521) and See also:Philoxenus of Mabbogh (d. 523), wrote letters in condemnation of his teaching. His two See also:main theses which they attacked were (1) the limited duration of the future See also:punishment of sinners, (2) the pantheistic See also:doctrine that " all nature is consubstantial with the Divine essence "—that the whole universe has emanated from See also:God, and will in the end return to and be absorbed in him. The fame of Stephen as a writer rests on his See also:identification with the author of a See also:treatise which survives in a single See also:Syriac MS. (Brit. M us. Add. See also:MSS. 7189, written mainly in the 13th century), "The See also:book of Hierotheus on the hidden mysteries of the See also:house of God." The See also:work claims to have been composed in the 1st century A.D. by a certain Hierotheus who was the See also:disciple of St See also:Paul and the teacher of See also:Dionysius the Areopagite.

But, like the works which pass under the name of Dionysius, it is undoubtedly pseudonymous, and most Syriac writers who mention it attribute it to Stephen. An interesting discussion and See also:

summary of the book have been given by A. L. See also:Frothingham (Stephen bar Sudhaili, See also:Leiden, 1886), but the See also:text is still (1910) unpublished. From Frothingham's See also:analysis we learn that the work consists of five books; after briefly describing the origin of the See also:world by See also:emanation from the Supreme See also:Good it is mainly occupied with the description of the stages by which the mind returns to See also:union with God, who finally becomes " all in all." " To describe the contents in a few words: at the beginning we find the statement regarding See also:absolute existence, and the emanation from primordial essence of the spiritual and material universes: then comes, what occupies almost the entire work, the experience of ' He is described as " Stephen the Edessene " in the 8th-century MS. which contains the See also:letter of Philoxenus to See also:Abraham and See also:Orestes. the mind in See also:search of perfection during this See also:life. Finally comes the description of the various phases of existence as the mind rises into See also:complete union with, and ultimate absorption into, the See also:primitive essence. The keynote to the experience of the mind is its absolute identification with See also:Christ; but the son finally resigns the See also:kingdom unto the See also:Father, and all distinct existence comes to an end, being lost in the See also:chaos of the Good " (Frothingham, 92). One of the most curious features of the work is the misguided skill with which the See also:language of the Bible is pressed into the service of pantheistic See also:speculation. In this and other respects the book harmonizes well with the picture of Stephen's teaching afforded by the letter of Philoxenus to the Edessene priests Abraham and Orestes (Frothing-See also:ham, pp. 28-48). The Book of Hierotheus is probably an See also:original Syriac work, and not translated from See also:Greek.

Its relation to the Pseudo-Dionysian literature is a difficult question; probably Frothingham (p. 83) goes too far in suggesting that it was See also:

prior to all the pseudo-Dionysian writings (cf. Ryssel in Zeitschrift See also:fur Kirchengeschichte). The unique MS. in which the book of Hierotheus survives furnishes along with its text the commentary made upon it by See also:Theodosius, See also:patriarch of See also:Antioch (887-896), who appears to have sympathized with its teaching. A rearrangement and abridgment of the work was made by the See also:great Monophysite author Barhebraeus (1226-1286), who expunged or garbled much of its unorthodox teaching. It is interesting to See also:note that the identical copy which he used is the MS. which now survives in the See also:British Museum. (N.

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