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Scrap Notes
"Schism, in the sense of establishing a rival church with its own hierarchy, was far from the minds of Timothy and his supporters. They were entirely loyal to the empire politically, but they aimed at persuading the emperor and his advisers to abandon the tome of Leo and the Council of Chalcedon in favor of their one-nature interpretation of the theology of Cyril." p. 6153 "Monophysitim" Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed. author: W. H. C. Frend (1987)

Oriental Orthodoxy Introduction Sample
Oriental Orthodoxy, also known as Old Oriental, Pre-Chalcedonian , Non-Chalcedonian , Miaphysite , and Monophysite Christianity , is the communion of churches in Eastern Christianity that recognizes only the first three ecumenical councils – the First Council of Nicaea in 325, the First Council of Constantinople in 381 and the Council of Ephesus in 431. This communion is composed of six autocephalous churches: the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, and the Syriac Orthodox Church. Oriental Orthodoxy has approximately 84 million adherents worldwide.

These churches rejected the Chalcedonian Definition of the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and, one-by-one, slowly discontinued their communion with the churches that recognize the Definition, now known as "Chalcedonians" (represented by Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism). The Non-Chalcedonians did not participate in any of the later councils that the Chalcedonians held and recognize as ecumenical: the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, the Third Council of Constantinople in 680, and the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. This eventual bifurcation of communions represents the second and last conciliar-based schism in Nicene Christianity (the first conciliar-based schism being the Nestorian Schism following the First Council of Ephesus of 431, thus forming the Assyrian Church of the East). Slow dialogue towards restoring communion between Oriental Orthodoxy and the rest of Christendom is underway.

The Chalcedonian Definition was the wedge issue of the Council of Chalcedon and addressed differences in Christology. Athanasius of Alexandria The First Council of Nicaea (325) declared that Jesus Christ is God, that is to say, "consubstantial" with the Father; and the Council of Ephesus declared that Jesus Christ, though divine as well as human, is only one being, or person (hypostasis). Thus, the Council of Ephesus explicitly rejected the Nestorian heresy, which held that Christ was two distinct beings, one divine (the Logos) and one human (Jesus), who happened to inhabit the same body. The churches that would later be called Oriental Orthodox were intensely anti-Nestorian, and therefore strongly supported the decisions made at Ephesus.

Oriental Orthodoxy is not to be confused with the Assyrian Church of the East which only participated in the first two ecumenical councils. While, some historians tend to classify the Assyrian Church of the East as part of Oriental Orthodoxy, this definition is not based on the state of communion between both groups. Slow dialogue towards restoring communion between Oriental Orthodoxy and the rest of Christendom is underway.

Twenty years later, the Council of Chalcedon reaffirmed the view upheld at Ephesus (that Jesus Christ was a single person), but at the same time declared that this one person existed 'in two complete natures', one human and one divine. Those who opposed Chalcedon saw this as a concession to Nestorianism, or even as a conspiracy to convert the Church to Nestorianism by stealth.

At times, Chalcedonian Christians have referred to the Oriental Orthodox churches as being Monophysite – that is to say, accusing them of following the teachings of Eutyches (c. 380 – c. 456), who argued that Jesus Christ was not human at all, but only divine. Monophysitism was condemned as heretical alongside Nestorianism, and to accuse a church of being Monophysite is to accuse it of falling into the opposite extreme from Nestorianism. However, the Oriental Orthodox themselves reject this description as inaccurate, having officially condemned the teachings of both Nestorius and Eutyches.

This communion is not to be confused with the Eastern Orthodox Church which participated in and recognized the four additional ecumenical councils, nor with the Assyrian Church of the East which only participated in the first two ecumenical councils; thus, neither group has been in full communion with Oriental Orthodoxy. (While, some historians tend to classify the Assyrian Church of the East as part of Oriental Orthodoxy, such categorization is not based upon communal status. )

To go to a different section

While being in communion with one another, the Oriental Orthodox churches are hierarchically independent, and they each have their own unique rites and practices, which show significant differences from one another. Some recognize the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria as "first among equals" of the Oriental Orthodox bishops. Unlike the Roman Pope who, in the context of Catholicism, is supreme to all other bishops, the Coptic Pope is given the title only because he is leader of the Oriental Orthodox Council. He is called father, and the title "Pope" indicates affection and respect, but does not carry any special authority. It is also significant to note that Pope Dionysius of Rome (in office 259-268) referred to Heraclas of Alexandria (in office 232-246) as "pope" in a letter written to Philemon. The leaders of the other five Oriental Orthodox churches also carry specific honorary titles (such as the Abuna of the Orthodox Tewahedo or the Catholicos of All Armenians).

Scriptural Culture
Timothy Beal

The Rephaim
Genesis 14:5; 15:20

Deut. 2:11, 20; 3:11, 13

Josh. 12:4, 13:12, 17:15

1 Chron. 20:4

Possible Migration pattern of the Rephaim people group.

The Valley of the Rephaim (Josh. 15:8, 18:16; 2 Sam. 5:18, 22; 23:13; 1 Chron. 11:15; 14:9; Isa. 17:5)

A vacant, fertile valley marking the "battleground of David and the Philistines," (2 Sam. 5:18, 22; 23:13; 1 Chron. 11:15; 14:9) later becoming the "boundary between the territories of Judah and Benjamin" (Josh. 15:8; 18:16) finally used as a grain-producing harvesting ground for the Israelites (Isa. 17:5). The Rephaim people are not mentioned in any of the eight Biblical references to this valley, which suggests that the Rephaim once inhabited the area prior to the arrival of the Israelites. The Rephaim encountered by Biblical figures were located in the Transjordan plain due East of this valley. It is probable that the Rephaim people once inhabited the valley prior to the Israelite conquest of Canaan, and, for reasons unknown, migrated East across the Jordan River and settled along the King's Highway in Transjordan. The Rephaim population residing in the Transjordan were attacked by an ancient Persian (Elamite) confederation (Gen. 14). There remained a remnant population of Rephaim in this area, and by the time the Israelites invaded Canaan via the Transjordan, they encountered the "last of the remnant of the Rephaim," Og, King of Bashan

A Transjordanian people group

Attacked by an ancient Persian confederation

The Remnant

Og, King of Bashan, the last of the Remnant

A people group in the Old Testament Word usage

Valley of Rephaim

Valley of Rephaim Vacant valley which must have once been inhabited by the Rephaim. The Rephaim are not mentioned as contemporaneously dwelling in that valley during any Old Testament narrative. Vacant valley which must have once been inhabited by the Rephaim.

Verse References:

Josh. 15:8; 18:16

2 Sam. 5:18, 22; 23:13

1 Chron. 11:15; 14:9

Isaiah 17:5

Monasticism
"At an early date in Christian history men and women withdrew from the fixed patterns of society to devote themselves to prayer and service to God. By creating an alternate social structure within the Church they laid the foundations for one of the most enduring Christian institutions: monasticism.  It was not until the fourth century, however, that [Christian] monasticism comes clearly into view, and when it does it seems to have sprung up spontaneously in different, though similar, forms in various parts of the Christian world."

p. 101 "The decision to seek a more severe solitude in the "great desert" was his innovation, and the image of a monk alone in a cave deep in the desert inspired many men and women to follow his example."

Coptic
Robert Louis Wilken The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity

pp. 100-102 - St. Anthony

pp. 102-103 Pachomius - "Pachomius was one of several leaders who set about the task of organizing the monks into communities. He was not the first to do so, but he was the most successful."

The Early Church: Origins to the Dawn of the Middle Ages pp. 254-258 The rapidly increasing flow of hermits to certain parts of the Egyptian desert assured that they would not remain in isolation from one another very long. Associations of hermits developed at different locations. The first was a Pispir, not far from the Red Sea, where Anthony had fled to escape the crowds who wanted to imitate his holy life. Anthony left the privacy of his "Inner Mountain" about every five to twenty days to give them help and advice (Life of Anthony 89). Anthony's disciples included Hilarion, the founder of monasticism in Palestine (ca. 310); Macarius the Egyptian, who initiated a settlement at Scete (ca. 330); as well as others who remained at Pispir.

Associations sprang up elsewhere. At Chenoboskion, where the famous Gnostic library was discovered in 1947, a monk named Palaemon headed a group of hermits who lived nearby, shared his style of life, sought his advice, and cared for him in illness. The most famous of his pupils was Pachomius, usually regarded as the father of cenobite, or communal, monasticism. Pachomius remained at Palaemon's side until the latter died. After burying him, Pachomius founded the monastery at Tabennesis.

Huge bands of monks gathered in a valley about sixty miles south of Alenxandria and established three communities. Monasticism at Nitria was initiated by Amoun, who wealthy and cultured parents died when he was twenty-two. Already married, he persuaded his wife to lead a life of continence from the day of their marriage. After eighteen years they separated, and Amoun went to Mount Nitria (ca. 320-330), where he spent the remainder of his life. By the end of the fourth century, about five thousand monks, according to Palladius, inhabited the area. Monks here still lived under no rule and pursued the solitary life, working and praying alone but gathering on Saturdays and Sundays in the large church. They supported themselves by weaving linen, but they included physicians, confectioners, wine-sellers, and bakers. They attached great importance to memorization of scriptures, and some reputedly could quote all of both the Old and the New Testaments. They valued work and obliged even guests to join them in it after a limited time there.

Not far from Nitria, six hundred monks lived in a place called Cellia, "the cells" (Sozomen Church History 6.31). Like the hermits at Nitria, they also assembled on Saturdays and Sundays for worship, but they did not maintain close contact otherwise. They built their huts far enough apart that they could not see or hear one another. Among the most famous monks to reside there was Macarius the Alexandrian, who had cells also in Scete, Libya, and Nitria. He astonished even other monks by his fasting and lived to be nearly a hundred (d. ca. 393). Evagrius of Pontus in Cappadocia spent two years in Nitria and fourteen in Cellia. His writings on prayer influenced markedly Eastern theology and practice of prayer.

At Scete, a monastic colony sprang up under the leadership of Macarius the Eguptian, or the Great, about 330. A disciple of Anthony until that time, Macarius dug a tunnel a half mile long between his cell and a cave in order to escape visitors (Palladius Lausiac History 17). Many of his sermons, letters, and saying have survived. Like monks at Nitria and Cellia, those at Scete attended faithfully on Saturdays and Sundays one of the four churches in the community. Life was harsh not only because of self-imposed austerities, but also because of lack of water and food. The community maintained a strict discipline. Like the monks at Nitria, they combined work and prayer, trying to memorize all of the scriptures. Cassian gained much of the material for his Conferences and Institutions at Scete from such famous monks as Paphnutius and Serapion.

Other colonies of hermits formed near Alexandria, Rhinoccorura, Babylon and Memphis, Heracleopolis, Phoenice, Oxyrhynchus, Achoris, the Arsinoite regions, and the Thebaid. Some of these numbered in the thousands. Palladius, for instance, counted two thousand in a colony near Alexandria (Lausaic History 7). All subsisted on simple diets, usually one meal a day, which they varied according to individual age and strength (Cassian Conferences 2.22). They trie dto avoid extremes in asceticism. They slept only a short time before dawn (Ibid., 7.34). Younger monks confessed faults to older, more experienced monks.

Associations like these evolved naturally into the cenobite monasticism of Pachomius. A monk named Aotas had tried to establish a community but failed (Life of Pachomius 77). Pachomius, born about 292 of pagan parents in the Upper Thebaid, first came in contact with Christians while servicing in the army raised by Constantine. There he witnessed the application of Christian charity in food and drink brought to soldiers by Christians, and thus he decided to become a Christian. Upon release from the army, he went to Chenoboskion to receive instruction in the faitth and to be baptized in the village church. Hearing about Palaemon, Aoas joined him, sharing his dwelling and working with him. One day, he went to Tabennesis on the eastern bank of the Nile, where a celestial voice instructed him to remain and build a monastery (Life 7). With Palaemon's assistance, he built a cell there. His brother, John, soon joined him, but he wished to live as a hermit. Others, however, followed, and within a short time the community numbered a hundred. When the monastery at Tabennesis overflowed, he built another at Pabau or Proou, which also grew rapidly. Not only individuals but also colonies of monks came. Pachomius directed some of them to set up new communities at Chenoboskion, Monchosis, Thebeu, Tase, Tismenae, Panopolis, and Pachnoum. Pachomius himself changed his residence from Tabennesis to Pabau, which then became the head monastery of the Pachomian system. In 346, disease ravaged the monasteries, claiming the lives of over a hundred monks, including Pachomius. Before he died, Pachomius named Petronius, superior of Tismenae, to succeed him, but he died two months later. Petronius appointed Orsisius, superior of Chenoboskion, to succeed him. Under him, the Pachomian communities thrived, but their material prosperity led to controversy over management. In 350, Orsisius solved the problem by appointing Theodore as his coadjutor and leaving the control to him. Theodore ruled the complex of monasteries wisely for eighteen years. Little is known of the monasteries after Theodore's death except that they evidently continued to prosper and spread. According to Palladius, there were 3,000 monks during Pachomius's life and 7,000 when he wrote (around 420; Lausiac History 7 ).

Pachomius gradually developed rules for his monks that became more and more precise as the communities overflowed. At the beginning, Pachomius evidently admitted new monks after a preliminary examination. In time, however, he required a three-year probation and admitted strange monks with some caution. Pachomian communities consisted of numerous buildings within a walled enclosure: church, assembly hall, dining hall, library, kitchen, food pantry, bakery, infirmary, various workshops, and houses for members of the community. According to Jerome, they numbered from thirty to forty. Each dormitory housed twenty-two to forty monks in individual cells and contained a common meeting room. Near the monastery gate was a hospice for visitors, who included women.

A Superior-General, or Archimandrite, held supreme

Syria
The Early Church: Origins to the Dawn of the Middle Ages

p. 259

"Monasticism sprang up in Syria during the last quarter of the third century, evidently without direct connection with Egypt. The earliest known figure was Jacob, consecrated Bishop of Nisibis around 300, who took up the anchorite life about 280 or shortly before in the mountains of Nisibis.  Still more famous was Juliana Saba, whose fift-year career Ephrem Syrus celebrated with a poem.  Since Saba died in 367, he must have taken up the life of a hermit about 317.  Syrian monks lived in both Roman and Persian territories in Mesopotamia.

Syrian monasticism distinguished itself from monasticism elsewhere in its severity, primitivism, mortification, and individualism. Gregory of Nazianzus spoke with astonishment about Syrian monks who fasted for twenty days at a time, wore iron fetters, slept on the bare ground, and stood motionless with hands outstretched in prayer in the rain, wind, and snow (Historic Poems, col. 1455). Theodoret of Cyrus recorded that Jacob of Nisibis dwelt in the solitude of the highest mountaintops and in the thickets of the forests. During the summer, he sought no shelter; in the winter he lived in a cave. He wore no clothing, lit no fires, and built no dwelling. He rejected work and ate no food earned by work, sustaining himself by eating herbs and fruits (Religious History, col. 1293f.; Voobus, 1:151). A letter of Ephrem depicted a monasticism whose devotees abandoned their communities and assumed a life not far removed from that of animals. They lived with animals, ate grass, and perched on rocks like birds. They shunned work and spent their time exclusively in prayer. Contemptuous of life, they took no precautions against savage animals and snakes. A poem of Ephrem depicted emaciated persons as looking more like eagles than like human beings. In another writing, he noted several groups of monks unwilling to die a natural death and seeking either to starve themselves or to kill themselves by some kind of hideous torture.

When coenobitism reached Syria is uncertain. An inscription attests the existence of a monastery at al-Hit in Hauran in 354, and Ephrem Syrus (ca. 306-373 left hints of others in his poems. Manichaeism also had something to do with the founding of cenobite communities.  According to Jerome, Hilarion, a discipline of Anthony, settled in Majuma about 306 (Life of Hilarion).  Syria did not have any monasteries before that.

Ephrem Syrus deserves considerable credit for the shape and influence that monasticism took in northern Mesopotamia. Hearing the call in youth, he spent much of his life in the vicinity of Nisibis, moving to Edessa about ten years before he died. An admirer of Jacob of Nisibis, he favored anchoritism over coenobitism and a severe form over the milder Egyptian form. Through poems, sermons, and other writings he promoted the anchorite model vigorously. After him, however, the flux of youth toward solitude changed the character of the movement. Hermits established residences and moderated the wild features of Syrian monarchism. The churches exerted pressures here, too, for many did not regard animalistic practices of some monks to be Christian. Even the government stepped in to put a stop to excesses. An inward consolidation gradually brought the monks into closer contact with Christian communities and effected further changes. Many monks became bishops.

Despite reservations of the earlier generations, therefore, coenobitism gradually increased. According to the Acts of Ephrem (10), Edessa had already become something of a center of monasteries before Ephrem arrived there around 357. The Pilgrimage of Etheria, however, shows that monasteries did not dominate the mountains around Edessa. Coenobite communities would have been small; Syrians established predominantly coenobitic communities in Armenia. When Theodoret composed his Religious History around 444, he reported that there were thousands of cenobite monasteries not only in Syria but in all of the East as well. By this time, the size of the communities also increased

Biblical Canons
The Oriental Orthodox community has inherited several different Biblical canons while maintaining the same communion of faith. It is unique in that it is the only communion of Christianity that seems to possess this feature. While the other Christian communions (Assyrian Christianity, Roman Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodox) maintain different biblical canons from one another, they only have a single canon within each respected communion. (Even though Protestantism is not technically considered a communion in the same sense as the other four groups and has myriads of denominations, it still only possesses one canon that is distinct from those of the four other communions.)

"The fact that a 'grey' area existed in the development of a formalized canon therefore can be attributed mainly to an expected variability in textual utilization among local churches, and the presence of a hierarchy of textual importance among circulating material."

Why in Oriental Orthodoxy there is a plurality of canons may be compared to the Encyclopedia of Religion's explanation provided for the "plurality of churches [within all of Middle Eastern Christianity], bearing witness to the rich cultural and religious life and the historical evolution of the Christian communities of the early centuries." Specifically, reasons for a plurality of canons may be attributable to the following historical circumstances: the limited availability of certain texts and Scriptures during the earliest centuries of Christianity, the geographical separations dividing many Christian communities of this era , the resulting nature and role that sacred texts played in early Christian scriptural culture , and a lack of a need to formalize a canon as opposed to later Chalcedonian Christianity with the Second Trullan Council in 692 (Eastern Orthodox) and the Council of Trent in 1546 (Roman Catholicism).

". . . the Bible alone was never viewed as the exhaustive revelation of God, since it emerged at a time when an already robust Christian liturgical life was in full force, and an extensive body of interpretive literature was circulating among Christian communities across the globe." p. 10.

Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria
While the books we currently consider to be “scripture” were all written in the first century, the fact is that the Church – for 4 centuries – operated without voluminous copies of those scriptures, and without consistency between churches:

From the beginning of the Church to at least 397 AD, the church at Antioch quoted and treated The Didache and 1st Clement as “scripture,” and rejected 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, Jude, and Revelation. The Church at Alexandria also rejected most of those books, but accepted Jude and also Barnabas. from http://lacopts.org/orthodoxy/our-faith/the-holy-bible/the-canonization-of-scripture/

The Coptic canon

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Joshua

Judges

Ruth

1 Samuel

2 Samuel

1 Kings

2 Kings

1 Chronicles

2 Chronicles

Ezra

Nehemiah

Tobia

Judith

Esther

Job

Psalms

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Song of Solomon

Wisdom of Solomon

Sirach (a.k.a. Wisdom of Sirach, Ecclesiasticus)

Isaiah

Jeremiah

Lamentations

Ezekiel

Daniel

Hosea

Joel

Amos

Obadiah

Jonah

Micah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Zephaniah

Haggai

Zechariah

Malachi

1 Maccabees

2 Maccabees

Armenian Apostolic Church
Armenian theologian Rev. Dr. Vahan Hovhanessian says that, "'' is the title given by the Church to a collection of books, letters and prophetic oracles that reveals God's will, love and salvific plan to His people." An Armenian journal, The Treasury, explains:

"As would be expected, not every local church had access to the totality of this circulating material. . . . This reality created much variability in how pre-Bible texts were utilized by the growing church. . . . Over the course of the first millennia AD, the particulars worked themselves out within each specific church group (Armenian Apostolic, Roman, Byzantine, etc). Ultimately, details involving the inclusion of certain texts or their sequence when trying to formalize an 'official' canon differed widely among the ancient churches, even though disagreements never surfaced regarding the Gospels or other core scriptural material. This is why we continue to see such variability among different modern Bibles in print today."

Prolific textual critic and Bible scholar Bruce M. Metzger points out:

Among noteworthy features of the Armenian version of the Bible was the inclusion of certain books that elsewhere came to be regarded as apocryphal. The Old Testament included the History of Joseph and Asenath and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and the New Testament included the Epistle of the Corinthians to Paul and a Third Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians.

Many other uncanonical writings of the Old Testament are preserved in Armenian manuscripts. These include The Book of Adam, The History of Moses, The Deaths of the Prophets, Concerning King Solomon, A Short History of the Prophet Elias, Concerning the Prophet Jeremiah, The Vision of Enoch the Just, and The Third Book of Esdras (being chapters 3-14 of Second Esdras in the Apocrypha of the King James Version and including in chapter 7 the lost section of verses 36 to 105).

In 2009 the Armenian Church Edition of the New Revised Standard Version (with prefatory notice addressed "To the Reader" by Bruce M. Metzger) proudly proclaimed it "contain[s] the books of the Bible and their sequence as preserved in the ancient Armenian manuscripts of the Bible. . . . This English version is based on the Armenian canon of the Bible, which comprises a greater breadth of sacred writings that are not found in many contemporary western versions (or if included, termed 'apocrypha'). The Armenian Church has preserved these books for the faithful as spiritually beneficial to read." For the Old Testament, 49 texts are listed as follows:

Genesis; Exodus; Leviticus; Numbers; Deuteronomy; Joshua; Judges; Ruth; 1 Samuel (1 Kingdoms in Greek); 2 Samuel (2 Kingdoms in Greek); 1 Kings (3 Kingdoms in Greek); 2 Kings (4 Kingdoms in Greek); 1 Chronicles (1 Paralipomenon in Greek); 2 Chronicles (2 Paralipomenon in Greek); Ezra; Nehemiah (2 Esdras in Greek); Tobit; Judith; Esther (The Greek Version); Job; Psalms; Proverbs; Ecclesiastes; Song of Solomon; Wisdom of Solomon; Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach; Isaiah; Jeremiah; Lamentations; Baruch; The Letter of Jeremiah (=Baruch ch. 6); Ezekiel; Daniel; Hosea; Joel; Amos; Obadiah; Jonah; Micah; Nahum; Habakkuk; Zephaniah; Haggai; Zechariah; Malachi; 1 Maccabees; 2 Maccabees; 3 Maccabees; The Prayer of Manasseh

The New Testament lists the same 27 books as in Chalcedonian Christianity.

Syriac
The Syriac Orthodox Church, like the rest of Syriac Christianity, uses the Peshitta – the Bible written in Syriac Aramaic. The language of Jesus.

The Peshitta's Old Testament is unique in that it is the only known extant direct translation from the original Hebrew Bible besides the Greek Septuagint.

The New Testament

The Diatessaron, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Pauline epistles.

At one point, the Diatessaron was replaced by the separated Gospels. What are the separated Gospels? When did this happen? Where did it happen? Was it received everywhere with the same level of reception? etc.

The Gospel - Tatian's Diatessaron, named for the Greek musical term, is a four-fold Gospel harmony of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. date 170 the when it was used. how wide spread it was used. when and where it was discontinued this is just a summary of the diatessaron.

the Gospel of John passage about the woman caught in adultery. the Church of the East

The Old Syriac version

Matthew, Mark, John, Luke

The Peshitta version (common version)

The Philoxenian version

The Harclean version

The Palestinian Syriac version