Prof. Sebastian Paul Brock (Oxford University, UK)

The Creed of the Synod of 410 and the Quest for Terms to Describe the Event of the Incarnation

The Council of Nicaea, along with the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, was received by the Church of the East at the Synod of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 410, and the text is preserved in the Synodicon Orientale. In the Creed’s Greek original, there are two terms which could be said to represent the Church’s official choice of terms to describe the unprecedented event of the entry of the divine Word into the world of humanity. These two terms, esarkōthē ‘he was enfleshed’ and enanthrōpēsanta ‘having become human’ posed problems for translators into Syriac, and practices changed over the course of time, ending up, at the end of the fifth century, with two neologisms which mirror the Greek terms very closely, etbassar (‘was enfleshed’, based on besra ‘flesh’) and etbarnash (‘was inhominated’, based in barnasha ‘human being’). It so happens that the text of the Creed in the Synodicon Orientale has, at some stage, been updated to reflect later usage. The paper will discuss this matter, and will indicate what probably was the original translation, against the wider background of other terms used by early Syriac writers to describe the event of the Incarnation. Finally, the paper will examine the use of these two neologisms in the Synods and among the Church of the East’s writers during the sixth and seventh centuries, concluding with Babai the Great.

Curriculum Vitae

Prof. Sebastian Paul Brock is Emeritus Reader in Syriac Studies, Oxford University. Born in 1938, he studied Greek and Latin, followed by Hebrew and Aramaic for his BA at Cambridge University, followed by his PhD at Oxford University. He taught at Birmingham University from 1964 to 1967, then at Cambridge University from 1967 to 1974, and finally at Oxford University from 1974 until is retirement in 2003.

Publications and Works

- The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of Saint Ephrem, Rome: Center for Indian and Inter-Religious Studies, 1985; 2nd ed., Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1992 (Cistercian Studies, 124). - The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life, Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1987. - Bride of Light: Hymns on Mary from the Syriac Churches, Kottayam: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute (SEERI), 1994 (Moran 'Etho, 6); 2nd ed., Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2010. - Isaac of Nineveh (Isaac the Syrian): ‘The Second Part,’ chapters IV–XLI, Leuven: Peeters, 1995 (Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 554–5, Scr. Syri 224–5). - A Brief Outline of Syriac Literature, Kottayam: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute (SEERI), 1997 (Moran 'Etho, 9); 2nd revised ed., 2009. - Fire from Heaven: Studies in Syriac Theology and Liturgy, Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006 (Variorum Collected Studies, 863). - The Bible in the Syriac Tradition, 2nd revised ed., Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006. - An Introduction to Syriac Studies, Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006; 3rd ed., 2017. - Treasure-house of Mysteries: Explorations of the Sacred Text through Poetry in the Syriac Tradition, Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2012 (Popular Patristics, 45). - Singer of the Word of God: Ephrem the Syrian and his Significance in Late Antiquity, Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2020 [Collected articles on Ephrem]. - (with George Anton Kiraz), Gorgias Illustrated Learner’s Syriac-English, English-Syriac Dictionary, Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2020. - Saint Isaac of Nineveh, Headings on Spiritual Knowledge: ‘The Second Part,’ Chapters 1–3, Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2022.