Rabbula of Edessa

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Rabbula of Edessa (* about 350 in Chalkis , † 435 / 36 in Edessa ) was between 412 and 435/436 Bishop of Edessa in the Syrian border area of the Eastern Roman Empire against the Persian Empire , and one of the "Syrian Fathers " of the Syrian Orthodox Church .

Life

Rabbula was the son of a pagan priest who is said to have made sacrifices together with Emperor Julian . His mother was a Christian. Rabbula first became a civil servant, but also had contact with Christians. Rabbula had a conversion experience at the pilgrimage shrine of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Cyrus . The meetings with the hermit Abraham and the bishops Eusebios of Chalkis and Akakios of Beroia were also decisive for his conversion . He then went on a pilgrimage to Palestine, where he was baptized in the Jordan. From then on he led an ascetic life and actively sought martyrdom, which, however, was not bestowed on him.

In the spring of 412 Rabbula was elected Bishop of Edessa and consecrated in Antioch . He reorganized the diocese, and a collection of 59 canons from his pontificate gives an insight into his reform work towards priests, monks and ascetics. In addition, with his views of orthodoxy , Rabbula clearly distinguished himself from (Christian) heretics , of whom there were a number of groups in the Syrian region: Arians , Marcionites , Manicheans , Borborians , Audians , Messalians and , last but not least, the Nestorians .

At the end of his pontificate , perhaps even before the Council of Ephesus (431), Rabbula was involved in the question of the two natures of Christ in the wake of the patriarch Cyril of Alexandria († 444) for the Alexandrian conceptions of Christ against the patriarch Nestorios of Constantinople ( † 450/51) and his teacher Theodor von Mopsuestia (approx. 350–428). Rabbula was not only concerned with fighting the Nestorian doctrine in Edessa - the local theological school and Ibas of Edessa should be mentioned here - he also expressed his position in a letter to Bishop Andreas of Samosata and to the Armenian church leaders. Rabbula died on August 8, 435 or 436, perhaps he still witnessed the condemnation of Nestorios by the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II (408-450) on August 3, 435.

The main source of Rabbula's life is the biography of an anonymous author from Edessa, written in Syriac shortly after his death, probably between 436 and 457 .

expenditure

  • Gustav Bickell (ed.): Selected writings of the Syrian church fathers Aphraates, Rabulas and Isaak von Ninive . Kempten 1874 ( Library of the Church Fathers 38).
  • Robert R. Phenix Jr., Cornelia B. Horn (Eds.): The Rabbula Corpus. Comprising the Life of Rabbula , His Correspondence, a Homily Delivered in Constantinople, Canons, and Hymns ( Writings from the Greco-Roman World. Volume 17). SBL Press, Atlanta 2017, ISBN 978-1-58983-127-8 .

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Rabbula von Edessa  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tj. Baarda: The Gospel Text in the Biography of Rabbula. In: Vigiliae Christianae , Vol. 14, No. 2, June 1960, pp. 102–127, here p. 103
personal data
SURNAME Rabbula of Edessa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop of Edessa
DATE OF BIRTH at 350
DATE OF DEATH 435 or 436