The Sleep of the Soul in the Early Syriac Church
1920; American Oriental Society; Volume: 40; Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/593409
ISSN2169-2289
Autores Tópico(s)Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies
ResumoIN SYRIAC CHRISTIANITY, from the fourth century on, there appears with more or less consistency and in much the same outline a curious teaching as to the state of the dead. As the earliest example of the sort that is available in Syriac authors is Aphraates, the 'Persian sage,' I shall quote him first. 'The Spirit is absent from all born of the body until they come to the regeneration of baptism. For they are endowed with the soulish spirit (from) the first birth,-which (spirit) is created in man, and is immortal, as it is written, Man became a living (Gen. 2. 7, cf. I Cor. 15. 45). But in the second birth-that is, of Baptism-they receive the Holy Spirit, a particle of the Godhead, and it is immortal. men die the soulish spirit is buried with the body and the power of sensation is taken from it. Heavenly Spirit which they have received goes back to its own nature, to the presence of Christ. Both these facts the Apostle teaches, for he says :1 The body is buried soulish, and rises (I Cor. 15. 44). Spirit returns to the presence of Christ, its nature, for the Apostle says: When we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord (II Cor. 5. 7). Christ's Spirit, which the spiritual have received, goes back to the Lord's presence; the soulish spirit is buried in its own nature, and is deprived of sensation.' (293. 2-24, Parisot's edition.) In the above quotation several points are worthy of notice: (a) the 'soulish spirit,' or soul ( 1b--3 j..3h-i or Lci) is the principle of natural life, or lvx'; (b) the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit, is the 7rvcvi4a; (c) the text of I Cor. 15. 44 does not read as in the Greek. Instead of, 'The body is sown (arvEperat), a natural-or psychic -body,' the Syriac of Aphraates reads: 'The body is buried soulishly, or psychically, ' e. g. 4Aa,,Ojxc 'Ia,&1 -ma j4 i o' Peshitto reads instead
Referência(s)