The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism By Franz Cumont
The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism By Franz Cumont SYRIA. The religions of Syria never had the same solidarity in the Occident as those from Egypt or Asia Minor. From the coasts of Phoenicia and the valleys of Lebanon, from the borders of the Euphrates and the oases of the desert, they came at various periods, like the successive waves of the incoming tide, and existed side by side in the Roman world without uniting, in spite of their similarities. The isolation in which they remained and the persistent adherence of their believers to their particular rites were a consequence and...
Read MoreHISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR INSIDER MOVEMENTS Christopher Flint1
Re-imagining Tatian: The Damaging Effects of Polemical Rhetoric NAOMI KOLTUN-FROMM Tatian, a second-century Christian apologist, is best known on the one hand for his much admired and only extant text, the Oratio ad Graecos, and on the other for heresy. Starting with Irenaeus, Tatian develops a reputation particularly among the western Fathers for heresy and extreme asceticism—including sexual renunciation, vegetarianism, and abstention from alcohol. In the late fourth century Tatian reappears as the reputed (and heretical) author of the Diatessaron, possibly the gospel harmony most popular...
Read MoreHymns and homilies of Ephraim the Syrian
Hymns and homilies of Ephraim the Syrian Hymn III. Fix thou our hearing, that it be not loosed and wander! 1. Fix thou our hearing, that it be not loosed and wander! For it is a-wandering if one enquire, who He is and what He is like. For how can we avail, to paint in us the likeness, of that Being which is like to the mind? Naught is there in it that is limited, in all of it He sees and hears; all of it as it were speaks; all of it is in all senses. R., Praise to the One Being, that is to us unsearchable! 2. His aspect cannot be discerned, that it should be portrayed by our understanding:...
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Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian Hymn II. This day are opened, our mouths to give thanks 1. This day are opened, our mouths to give thanks. They who opened the breaches, have opened my sons’ mouths. Thank the Merciful, who has delivered the men of our city, nor thought at that time of exacting the debts that were due by us. When they rose up they that took us captive, the worlds in our deliverance, tasted of Thy graciousness. R. From all that have mouths, glory be to Thy grace! 2. He has saved us without wall, and taught us that He is our wall: He has saved us without king and...
Read MoreAphrahat the Persian Sage / Second Part
Aphrahat the Persian Sage Second Part Aphrahat the Persian Sage. 1. Name of Author of Demonstrations long Unknown.—The author of the Demonstrations, eight of which appear (for the first time in an English version) in the present volume, has a singular literary history. By nationality a Persian, in an age when Zoroastrianism was the religion of Persia, he wrote in Syriac as a Christian theologian. His writings, now known to us as the works of Aphrahat, were remembered, cited, translated, and transcribed for at least two centuries after his death; but his proper name seems to have been...
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