Joseph Hazzaya (
Syriac Syriac may refer to:
*Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic
*Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region
* Syriac alphabet
** Syriac (Unicode block)
** Syriac Supplement
* Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
: ''Yawsep Ḥazzāyā''; born c. 710×713) was an 8th-century
Syriac Christian
Syriac Christianity ( syr, ܡܫܝܚܝܘܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ / ''Mšiḥoyuṯo Suryoyto'' or ''Mšiḥāyūṯā Suryāytā'') is a distinctive branch of Eastern Christianity, whose formative theological writings and traditional liturgies are expr ...
writer, ascetic and mystic. The nickname Hazzaya means "the seer" or "the visionary". He belonged to the
Church of the East
The Church of the East ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ, ''ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā'') or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian C ...
.
[.]
The main source of biographical information on Joseph is the ''Book of Chastity'' of
Isho'dnah of Basra, written a century or so after his death. He was born to a
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
family of
Zoroastrian
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic on ...
religion in the village of
Nimrud
Nimrud (; syr, ܢܢܡܪܕ ar, النمرود) is an ancient Assyrian city located in Iraq, south of the city of Mosul, and south of the village of Selamiyah ( ar, السلامية), in the Nineveh Plains in Upper Mesopotamia. It was a majo ...
about 710. During the reign of the Caliph
Umar II
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz ( ar, عمر بن عبد العزيز, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz; 2 November 680 – ), commonly known as Umar II (), was the eighth Umayyad caliph. He made various significant contributions and reforms to the society, and ...
(717–720), the villagers rebelled and the seven-year-old Joseph taken captive by the caliph.
[ He was sold as a slave to an ]Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
in Sinjar
Sinjar ( ar, سنجار, Sinjār; ku, شنگال, translit=Şingal, syr, ܫܝܓܪ, Shingar) is a town in the Sinjar District of the Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. It is located about five kilometers south of the Sinjar Mountains. Its p ...
, who later sold him to a Christian from Qardu. There, Joseph became familiar with the ascetic life of the monks of the monastery of John of Kamul. He requested to be baptized and was freed by his owner in order to enter the monastery of Abba Sliba as a novice. His brother also converted to Christianity and took the name Abdisho.
At the end of his novitiate, Joseph moved back to Qardu and lived as a hermit
A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions.
Description
In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...
for some years. He then became the abbot of the local monastery of Mar Bassima, before moving to Mount Zinai in Adiabene
Adiabene was an ancient kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, corresponding to the northwestern part of ancient Assyria. The size of the kingdom varied over time; initially encompassing an area between the Zab Rivers, it eventually gained control of Ni ...
to resume the life of a hermit. Again, he was persuaded to become the abbot of the local monastery of Rabban Bakhtisho. He continued in this office until his death.[
]Abdisho bar Berika
Abdisho bar Berika or Ebedjesu ( syc, ܥܒܕܝܫܘܥ ܕܨܘܒܐ) (died 1318), also known as Mar Odisho or St. Odisho in English, was a Syriac writer. He was born in Nusaybin.
Abdisho was first bishop of Shiggar (Sinjar) and the province of Bet 'Ar ...
claimed that Joseph wrote 1,900 treatises, but only ten were extant in Abdisho's time.[ He is generally regarded as a systematizer of the mystic and ascetic practices of the Church of the East. His most systematic work, ''A Letter on the Three Stages of the Monastic Life'', is misattributed to ]Philoxenus of Mabbug Philoxenus of Mabbug (Syriac: , ') (died 523), also known as Xenaias and Philoxenus of Hierapolis, was one of the most notable Syriac prose writers and a vehement champion of Miaphysitism.
Early life
He was born, probably in the third quarter of ...
in the manuscripts.[ Like Philoxenus, Joseph taught that the ]monastic life
Christian monasticism is the devotional practice of Christians who live ascetic and typically cloistered lives that are dedicated to Christian worship. It began to develop early in the history of the Christian Church, modeled upon scriptural ex ...
fosters the charismatic gifts
A spiritual gift or charism (plural: charisms or charismata; in Greek singular: χάρισμα
''charisma'', plural: χαρίσματα ''charismata'') is an extraordinary power given by the Holy Spirit."Spiritual gifts". ''A Dictionary of the ...
. He belonged to the same theological family as Isaac of Nineveh
Isaac of Nineveh (; Arabic: إسحاق النينوي ''Ishaq an-Naynuwī''; grc-gre, Ἰσαὰκ Σῦρος; c. 613 – c. 700), also remembered as Saint Isaac the Syrian, Abba Isaac, Isaac Syrus and Isaac of Qatar, was a 7th-century Church o ...
, Simon of Taibuteh
Simon may refer to:
People
* Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon
* Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon
* Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...
and John of Dalyatha John of Dalyatha (c. 690 – c. 780), commonly known as John Saba ("the Elder") and in Syriac language, Syriac Yoḥannan, was a Christian monasticism, monk and Christian mysticism, mystic of the Church of the East. He sp ...
. He was the first to synthesise the three contemplations of the Hellenistic scholar Evagrius Ponticus
Evagrius Ponticus ( grc-gre, Εὐάγριος ὁ Ποντικός, Georgian: ევაგრე ქართველი), also called Evagrius the Solitary (345–399 AD), was a Christian monk and ascetic from Heraclea, a city on the coast of ...
(4th-century) with the tripartite division of the Syriac John of Apamea
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
(5th century). Among his other works are the treatise ''On the Divine Essence'', the ''Chapters of Knowledge'' and the ''Book of Questions and Answers''. Many of his works, such as the ''Treatise on the Workings of the Grace of God'', are erroneously transmitted under his brother's name.
At a synod
A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''wikt:synod, synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin ...
held in 786–787[ or 790,] the Patriarch Timothy I Timothy I may refer to:
* Pope Timothy I of Alexandria, Pope of Alexandria & Patriarch of the See of St. Mark in 378–384
* Timothy I of Constantinople, Patriarch of Constantinople in 511–518
* Timothy I (Nestorian patriarch), Catholicus-Patria ...
condemned Joseph Hazzaya and two other ascetic authors, John of Dalyatha and John the Solitary, for heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
.[ According to Timothy, Joseph rejected ]prayer
Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified a ...
and the divine office as impediments to receiving the charismatic gifts. He also supposedly slipped into Messalianism The Euchites or Messalians were a Christian sect from Mesopotamia that spread to Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) and Thrace. The name 'Messalian' comes from the Syriac , ''mṣallyānā'', meaning 'one who prays'. The Greek translation is , ''euchit ...
, claiming that a ''gmirā'' (person who had achieved perfection) did not need prayer, the office, scripture reading or manual labour.[ These charges are not substantiated by any of Joseph's surviving writings,][ but David Wilmshurst considers them unsurprising if Joseph claimed to be a "privileged recipient of divine revelation" as his nickname implies.]
The date of Joseph's death is unknown. Karl Pinggéra believes he was alive at the time of the synod, but Micheline Albert believes he was already dead by then.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Joseph Hazzaya
710s births
8th-century Iranian people
Iranian slaves
Converts to Christianity from Zoroastrianism
Iranian hermits
Christians from the Umayyad Caliphate
Nestorians in the Abbasid Caliphate
8th-century Christian monks
8th-century Christian mystics
Syrian Christian mystics
Patristic mystics
Monks of the Church of the East
Christian abbots
Syriac writers
Church of the East writers
8th-century Persian-language writers
Slaves from the Umayyad Caliphate