Barḥadbshabba ʿArbaya (late 6th – early 7th century) was a teacher, historian and biblical commentator of the

Church of the East The Church of the East ( ) or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church, the Chaldean Church or the Nestorian Church, is one of three major branches o ...

. A native of Beth ʿArbaye, Barḥadbshabba was the chief instructor (''bādūqā'') at the

School of Nisibis The School of Nisibis (, for a time absorbed into the School of Edessa) was an educational establishment in Nisibis (now Nusaybin, Turkey). It was an important spiritual centre of the early Church of the East, and like the Academy of Gondishapur ...

during the directorship of Ḥenana of Adiabene. He wrote the ''History of the Holy Fathers Persecuted for the Sake of Truth'', gives the Syriac as ''Teshʿītā da-bāhātā qadīshē de-trdefū meṭūl shrārā''. a history of the Church of the East from the beginning until the death of Abraham of Beth Rabban (569), the third director of Nisibis. It was probably written not long after 569. Its focus is on the 4th and 5th centuries, making it an important source for the

Arian controversy The Arian controversy was a series of Christian disputes about the nature of Christ that began with a dispute between Arius and Athanasius of Alexandria, two Christian theologians from Alexandria, Egypt. The most important of these controversies c ...

and the dispute between

Cyril Cyril (also Cyrillus or Cyryl) is a masculine given name. It is derived from the Greek language, Greek name (''Kýrillos''), meaning 'lordly, masterful', which in turn derives from Greek (''kýrios'') 'lord'. There are various variant forms of t ...

and

Nestorius Nestorius of Constantinople (; ; ) was an early Christian prelate who served as Archbishop of Constantinople from 10 April 428 to 11 July 431. A Christian theologian from the Catechetical School of Antioch, several of his teachings in the fi ...

. It is the oldest extant history from the Church of the East. Although his perspective is that of an East Syrian, Barḥadbshabba made use of

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

sources. In the last chapters he outlines the history of the School of Nisibis and the

School of Edessa The School of Edessa () was a Christian theology, Christian theological school of great importance to the Syriac language, Syriac-speaking world. It had been founded as long ago as the 2nd century by the kings of the Abgarid dynasty, Abgar dynasty. ...

. Besides his ''History'', Barḥadbshabba wrote commentaries on the ''

Gospel According to Mark The Gospel of Mark is the second of the four canonical Gospels and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to his death, the burial of his body, and the discovery of his empt ...

'' and the ''

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

''. Only fragments of the former survive. According to ʿAbdishoʿ of Nisibis, writing in the 14th century, he also wrote "a book of treasures in three parts, and disputes (''drāše'') with all religions (''deḥlān'') and their refutation ... and a

cause Causality is an influence by which one event, process, state, or object (''a'' ''cause'') contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an ''effect'') where the cause is at least partly responsible for the effect, ...

of the followers choolof Diodore." Barḥadbshabba ʿArbaya is possibly the same person as Barḥadbshabba of Ḥulwān.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * {{refend 6th-century Christian theologians 6th-century historians Christians in the Sasanian Empire Syriac writers Church of the East writers