The ''Book of Secrets'', fully the ''Book of Hierotheus on the Hidden Mysteries of the House of God'', is a Syriac treatise which survives in a single manuscript copied in the 13th century (now

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

, Add MS 7189). The work is

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

ous and its author is conventionally known as Pseudo-Hierotheus. He has been tentatively identified with Stephen bar Sudayli.

Date and authorship

The work claims to have been composed in the 1st century AD, by a certain Hierotheus who was the disciple of

Saint Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

and the teacher of

Dionysius the Areopagite Dionysius the Areopagite (; ''Dionysios ho Areopagitēs'') was an Athenian judge at the Areopagus Court in Athens, who lived in the first century. A convert to Christianity, he is venerated as a saint by multiple denominations. Life As rel ...

. But, like the works which pass under the name of Dionysius, it is undoubtedly pseudonymous, and most Syriac writers who mention it attribute it to Stephen.Stephanus Bar Sudhaile, ''The Book which is called The Book of the Holy Hierotheos, with extracts from the prolegomena and commentary of Theodosius of Antioch and from the Book of Excerpts and other works of Gregory Bar-Hebraeus'', ed. and trans. by F. S. Marsh (APA-Philo Press, 1927). The author of the ''Book of Hierotheus'' is sometimes referred to as Pseudo-HierotheusInge, William Ralph. Christian Mysticism, The Brampton Lectures, London: Methuen, 1899. p 102 as his follower, Dionysius the Areopagite, is called

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (or Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite) was a Greek author, Christian theologian and Neoplatonic philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century, who wrote a set of works known as the ''Corpus Areopagiticum'' ...

to differentiate them from the biblical figures.

Summary

A discussion and summary of the book were given by Arthur Frothingham (''Stephen bar Sudhaili'', Leiden, 1886), but the text was not edited until F. S. Marsh's edition of 1927. From Frothingham's analysis we learn that the work consists of five books; after briefly describing the origin of the world by emanation from the Supreme Good it is mainly occupied with the description of the stages by which the mind returns to union with God, who finally becomes all in all. To describe the contents in a few words: at the beginning we find the statement regarding absolute existence, and the emanation from primordial essence of the spiritual and material universes: then comes, what occupies almost the entire work, the experience of the mind in search of perfection during this life. Finally comes the description of the various phases of existence as the mind rises into complete union with, and ultimate absorption into, the primitive essence. The keynote to the experience of the mind is its absolute identification with Christ; but the son finally resigns the kingdom unto the Father, and all distinct existence comes to an end, being lost in the chaos of the Good (Frothingham, p. 92). One of the most distinguishing features of the work is the skill with which the language of the Bible is interpreted along the lines of his pantheistic theology. In this and other respects the book harmonizes well with the picture of Stephens teaching afforded by the letter of Philoxenus to the Edessene priests Abraham and Orestes (Frothingham, pp. 28–48). The ''Book of Hierotheus'' is probably an original Syriac work, and not translated from Greek. Its relation to the Pseudo-Dionysian literature is a difficult question; probably Frothingham (p. 83) goes too far in suggesting that it was prior to all the pseudo-Dionysian writings (cf. Ryssel in ''Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte'').

Surviving manuscripts

The unique manuscript in which the ''Book of Hierotheus'' survives furnishes along with its text the commentary made upon it by Theodosius, Patriarch of Antioch (887–896), who appears to have sympathized with its teaching. A rearrangement and abridgment of the work was made by the great

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. It differs from the Dyophysitism of the ...

author

Bar Hebraeus Gregory Bar Hebraeus (, b. 1226 - d. 30 July 1286), known by his Syriac ancestral surname as Barebraya or Barebroyo, in Arabic sources by his kunya Abu'l-Faraj, and his Latinized name Abulpharagius in the Latin West, was a Maphrian (region ...

(1226–1286), who expunged or garbled much of its unorthodox teaching. The copy that he used is the manuscript which now survives in the

References

{{reflist Texts in Syriac Christian mystical texts