The Reception of the Canons of Nicaea by the East Syrians
At the Council of Nicaea, not only were fundamental matters of faith discussed and a creed established, but twenty ecclesiastical canons were also issued. These canons are found in the legal sources of both the Eastern and Western Churches. The adoption of these canons by the East Syrian Church is documented in various sources, though they do not permit definitive conclusions. Among these sources, the most significant are the Book of Synods, a compilation of East Syrian ecclesiastical assemblies and their canons, as well as a historical account of the Council of Nicaea attributed to Bishop Marutha of Maipherqat, a city in Roman territory near the Persian border. However, the historical reliability of this account is questionable. Nevertheless, Marutha undoubtedly played a significant role in the reception of Nicene canons. He participated in the East Syrian synod held in Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 410, during which the canons of Nicaea were read aloud. However, it remains uncertain whether these were the twenty authentic canons or the so-called 73 Canons of the 318 Fathers (of Nicaea), which Marutha is said to have translated. These pseudo-Nicene canons cover a wide range of regulations concerning ecclesiastical life in a rather haphazard order. They are also known in Arabic among the Melkites. In this version with significant variations, an additional introductory section incorporates the authentic Nicene canons and others, bringing the total number to 84. Since these texts likely originated in Antioch, it can be assumed that they reached the East even before the ecclesiastical schisms of the fifth century. A chronological collection of Greek synodal canons was translated into Syriac at the beginning of the sixth century and soon became known to the East Syrians. By 543/4, this collection was available to the Synod of Mar Aba. Later an extensive chronological compilation includes both the twenty canons of Nicaea and the 73 Canons of the 318 Fathers and has been transmitted through the manuscript Notre-Dame des Semences 169. The Arabic translation of this collection, which forms the first part of The Law of Christianity by Ibn al-Ṭayyib (eleventh century), contains the same material. By the ninth century, the East Syrian metropolitan Elias al-Jawharī had compiled an Arabic collection that included thirty canons of Nicaea, closely aligning with the first twenty-nine of the eighty-four Arabic canons. He also presented the seventy-four pseudo-Nicene canons. However, in the systematic works of canon law—such as the Nomocanon of Gabriel of Basra and the two legal treatises of ʿAbdishoʿ of Nisibis—the authentic Greek canons play only a minor role. By contrast, the 73 Canons of the 318 Fathers are well represented, indicating that they held far greater practical importance than the genuine Nicene canons in the East Syrian tradition.