Thomas of Harqel was a

miaphysite Miaphysitism is the Christological doctrine that holds Jesus, the " Incarnate Word, is fully divine and fully human, in one 'nature' ('' physis'')." It is a position held by the Oriental Orthodox Churches and differs from the Chalcedonian posi ...

bishop from the early

7th century The 7th century is the period from 601 (DCI) through 700 ( DCC) in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Common Era. The spread of Islam and the Muslim conquests began with the unification of Arabia by Muhammad starting in 622. After Muham ...

. Educated in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

at the monastery of

Qenneshre Qenneshre (also ''Qēnneshrē'' or ''Qennešre'', Syriac for "eagle's nest"; Arabic ''Qinnisrī'') was a large West Syriac monastery between the 6th and 13th centuries. It was a centre for the study of ancient Greek literature and the Greek Fath ...

, he became bishop of

Mabbug Manbij ( ar, مَنْبِج, Manbiǧ, ku, مەنبج, Minbic, tr, Münbiç, Menbic, or Menbiç) is a city in the northeast of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria, 30 kilometers (19 mi) west of the Euphrates. In the 2004 census by the Cen ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. He was deposed as bishop by the anti-miaphysite metropolitan

Domitian of Melitene Domitian ( la, Domitianus, gr, Δομιτιανός; c. 550 – 602) was the nephew of the Roman emperor Maurice and the archbishop of Melitene in Roman Armenia from around 580 until his death. He was renowned as a diplomat and is regarded as a ...

before 602.William H. P. Hatch, "The Subscription in the Chester Beatty Manuscript of the Harclean Gospels", ''The Harvard Theological Review'' 30, 3 (1937), p. 143. He and

Paul of Tella Paul, in Syriac Pawlos (fl. early 7th century), was the Syriac Orthodox bishop of Tella and an important translator of Greek works into Syriac. Paul was a native of Tella. By 615 he was a bishop. At some point before 613, he fled Syria for Egypt. ...

lived as exiles in the Coptic monastery of the

Enaton The Enaton (or Ennaton, Hennaton) was a monastic district in Egypt during the Middle Ages. It lasted into the 15th century, but it was at its height between the 5th and 7th centuries. It takes its name, which means "ninth" (Greek ἔνατον), fr ...

near

Alexandria, Egypt Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

. At the request of Athanasios I, they worked on a

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 ...

translation of the Greek Bible. Translation of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...

, known as the Harclensis was completed in 616. At this time, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and Revelation were added to the

Syriac Bible Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic. Portions of the Old Testament were written in Aramaic and there are Aramaic phrases in the New Testament. Syriac translations of the New Testament were among the first and date from the 2nd century. The whole Bible ...

. Until then they were excluded.

References

{{authority control 7th-century Syriac Orthodox Church bishops 7th-century deaths Year of birth missing Greek–Syriac translators 7th-century Byzantine writers People of Roman Syria 7th-century Byzantine bishops