Bardaisan

Bardaisan (bar Daiṣān "son of the Daysan") was a Syriac author born on 11 July 154 in Edessa, Osroene, which, in those days, was alternately under the influence of both the Roman Empire and the Parthian Empire. To indicate the city of his birth, his parents called him "Son of the Daysan", the river on which Edessa was situated. He is sometimes also referred to as "the Babylonian" (by Porphyrius); and, on account of his later important activity in Arsacid Armenia, "the Armenian", (by Hippolytus of Rome), while Ephrem the Syrian calls him "philosopher of the Arameans". Some sources refer to his high birth and wealth; according to Michael the Syrian, Bardaisan's parents had fled Persia and Sextus Julius Africanus reports that he was of the Parthian nobility. His parents, Nuhama and Nahshiram, must have been people of rank, for their son was educated with a prince of Osroene, possibly the later Abgar VIII. Africanus says that he saw Bardaisan, with bow and arrow, mark the outline of a boy's face with his arrows on a shield which the boy held. Owing to political disturbances in Edessa, Bardaisan and his parents moved for a while to Hierapolis (now Manbij), a strong centre of Babylonianism. Here, the boy was brought up in the house of a priest named Anuduzbar. In this school he learnt all the intricacies of Babylonian astrology, a training that permanently influenced his mind and proved the bane of his later life. At the age of twenty-five he happened to hear the homilies of Hystaspes, the Bishop of Edessa, received instruction, was baptized, and even admitted to the diaconate or the priesthood. "Priesthood", however, may merely imply that he ranked as one of the college of presbyters, because Bardaisan remained in the world and had a son called Harmonius, who according to Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History, was "deeply versed in Grecian erudition, and was the first to subdue his native tongue to meters and musical laws; these verses he delivered to the choirs". When Abgar VIII ascended the throne (179), Bardaisan took his place at court. While a sincere Christian, he was clearly no ascetic, but dressed in finery "with berylls and caftan", according to Ephrem, one of his critics.

Bardaisan had an important share in Christianizing the city and possibly converted Abgar VIII to Christianity (probably after 202, i.e. after his visit and honourable reception at Rome). Both king and philosopher laboured to create the first Christian state. He showed great literary activity against Valentinus (of whom Eusebius of Caesarea says Bardaisan was once a follower) and Marcion. Alternatively, Epiphanius of Salamis and Bar Hebraeus assert that he was first an orthodox Christian and only afterwards became an adept of Valentinus, even creating his own heterodox Christian dogma (Bardaisanism) by mixing its doctrines with Babylonian astrology. Bardaisan has often been described as a Gnostic who denied the resurrection of the body, and the works of Ephrem the Syrian suggest that he explained the origin of the world by a process of emanation from the supreme God whom he called the Father of the Living. As a result, his teachings would form the basis of the Manichaeism and later of the batini sects of Shia Islam. Bardaisan and his movement were subjected to critical polemics that claimed, probably falsely, that he became a Valentinian Gnostic out of disappointed ambitions in the Christian Church. In particular, he was vigorously combated by Ephrem the Syrian who mentioned him in his hymns: • And if he thinks he has said the last thing • He has reached heathenism, • O Bar-Daisan, • Son of the River Daisan, • Whose mind is liquid like his name! This view has come under criticism as these sources likely quote later Bardaisanites, whereas Eusebius and Porphyry are known to quote directly from authentic fragments of Bardaisan's work. Sozomen specifically reports that Bardaisan taught about palingenesis (παλιγγενεσίας), that is the rebirth of physical bodies, and in his authentic fragments (which includes a treatise on the resurrection) Bardaisan affirms the resurrection of the body but believed it to be a transformation from a corruptible body into an incorruptible body, which is what he meant by "spiritual bodies" elsewhere. While some Bardaisanites after the rise of Manichaeism considered the creation of bodies to be necessarily evil, Bardaisan himself only considered bodies to be sinful if they were mortal and that "the body of resurrection and the body humans had prior to the fall is a body created from pure matter without any mixture with darkness". Bardaisan himself was not dualistic but monistic, in that he considered God to exist and evil not to, "and those who are in evil are in weakness and not in force". Nevertheless, criticism about Bardaisan's belief in seven ousiai (ουσιαι) or ʿitye (substances) that pre-existed Creation, from which God fashioned everything, was more accurate and may have put Bardaisan beyond the bounds of mainstream orthodoxy. "Bardaisan refers only to the elements as ʿitye, not to plants or animals", though he also uses the term to refer to the seven planets. Even so, Bardaisan clearly described these celestial beings as created beings subordinate to God.

Porphyry states that on one occasion at Edessa, Bardaisan interviewed an Indian deputation of holy men ("śramaṇas") who had been sent to the Roman emperor Elagabalus or another Severan emperor, and questioned them as to the nature of Indian religion. The encounter is described in Porphyry De abstin., iv, 17 and Stobaeus (Eccles., iii, 56, 141): Porphyry De abstin., IV

Eventually, after 353 years of existence, the Osrhoenic kingdom came to an end by the Romans under Caracalla. Taking advantage of the anti-Christian faction in Edessa, the Romans captured Abgar IX and sent him in chains to Rome. Though he was urged by a friend of Caracalla to apostatize, Bardaisan stood firm, saying that he feared not death, as he would in any event have to undergo it, even though he should now submit to the emperor. At the age of sixty-three he was forced to take refuge in the fortress of Ani in Armenia and tried to preach there, but with little success. He also composed a history of the Armenian kings. He died at the age of sixty-eight, either at Ani or at Edessa. According to Michael the Syrian, Bardaisan had besides Harmonius two other sons, called Abgarun and Hasdu.

Various opinions have been formed as to the real doctrine of Bardesanes. As early as Hippolytus (Philosophumena, VI, 50) his doctrine was described as a variety of Valentinianism, the most popular form of Gnosticism. Adolf Hilgenfeld in 1864 defended this view, based mainly on extracts from St. Ephrem, who devoted his life to combating Bardaisanism in Edessa. However, it has been argued that the strong and fervent expressions of St. Ephrem against the Bardaisanites of his day are not a fair criterion of the doctrine of their master. The extraordinary veneration of his own countrymen, the very reserved and half-respectful allusion to him in the early Fathers, and above all the "Book of the Laws of the Countries" suggest a milder view of Bardaisan's aberrations. Like the Early Christians, Bardaisan believed in an Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth, whose will is absolute, and to whom all things are subject. God endowed man with freedom of will to work out his salvation and allowed the world to be a mixture of good and evil, light and darkness. All things, even those we now consider inanimate, have a measure of liberty. In all of them the light has to overcome the darkness. Al-Shahrastani states: "The followers of Daisan believe in two elements, light and darkness. The light causes the good, deliberately and with free will; the darkness causes the evil, but by force of nature and necessity. They believe that light is a living thing, possessing knowledge, might, perception and understanding; and from it movement and life take their source; but that darkness is dead, ignorant, feeble, rigid and soulless, without activity and discrimination; and they hold that the evil within them is the outcome of their nature and is done without their co-operation". He apparently denied the resurrection of the body, although he believed Christ's body was endowed with incorruptibility as with a special gift. Bardaisan postulated that after six thousand years this Earth would have an end, and a world without evil would take its place. Bardaisan also thought the sun, moon and planets were living beings, to whom, under God, the government of this world was largely entrusted; and though man was free, he was strongly influenced for good or for evil by the constellations. According to St. Ephrem, Sun and Moon were considered male and female principles, and the ideas of heaven amongst the Bardaisanites were not without an admixture of sensuality (or "obscenities"). Led by the fact that "spirit" is feminine in Syriac, Bardaisan might have held unorthodox views on the Trinity. Bardaisan's cosmology and commentary on it only survives in much later sources, but can be outlined as follows. The world began with the four pure and uncreated elements of light, wind, fire, water, respectively located in East, West, South, North (and are each able to move throughout their own, individual regions). Above the plane on which these four pure elements rest is the Lord, and below is the darkness. At one time and by chance, the four pure elements exceeded their boundaries and began to mix. Taking up the opportune chance, darkness also mixed with them. Distressed, the elements appeal to God to separate the darkness from them, but God is only partially successful in this procedure. The Lord uses the mix to create the world, but the remaining darkness in the mix acts as the cause of evil in the world since then and until today. The world is allotted a period of 6,000 years to exist. Purifications through conception and birth take place, but at the end of the allotted period for the Earth, a definitive purification will take place that will expunge darkness from the world. Patristics scholar Ilaria Ramelli has argued that Bardaisan may have been one of the first Christian supporters of apokatastasis (universal restoration), citing especially the following passage in Bardaisan's Book of the Laws of Countries as evidence for his belief in this doctrine: There will come a time when even this capacity for harm that remains in [mankind] will be brought to an end by the instruction that will obtain in a different arrangement of things. And, once that new world will be constituted, all evil movements will cease, all rebellions will come to an end, and the fools will be persuaded, and the lacks will be filled, and there will be safety and peace, as a gift of the Lord of all natures.

The authorities additionally record the heading Bardesaines. His recorded languages were Arabic and Syriac. One child is recorded: Harmonius.