published a more satisfactory edition in Syriac with a French version.[1] The book begins with the Synod of Mâr Isaac in 410, and ends with a Synod of Ḥnânyeshu‘ II in 775. An appendix adds the Synod of Timothy I in 790. This book of the Sunhâdaus is the chief source of their canon law. The third source consists of all canons and laws made by Patriarchs and synods since the 8th century. These have not been codified authentically. In the 13th century, Barhebræus made an important collection of Jacobite canon law.[2] Fired by this example, ‘Ebedyeshu‘ Bar Barīkâ,[3] Metropolitan of Nisibis († 1318), undertook the same office for the Nestorians. So he compiled a text-book from the three sources described above. This is the Nomocanon of Ebedjesus, the completest collection of Nestorian canon law.[4] He quotes his sources, but is not always reliable, inasmuch as he sometimes tampers with the texts.[5]
3. The Faith of the Nestorians
The modern Nestorians have kept the faith of their fathers (since they first accepted their heresy) amid Moslems, Kurds, Yazīdīs loyally. For this they deserve all honour. We should wonder at it the more, were it not the common phenomenon among all these smaller Eastern Churches. Their conservatism, their fidelity to their traditions in all things, is their most remarkable characteristic.
Of the Nestorian faith, then, not much need be said. We have little against it, save the one point of their heresy as to our Lord's
- ↑ J. B. Chabot: Synodicon orientale (Notices et Extraits des MSS. de la Bibl. Nat. xxxvii.), Paris, 1902. It is printed from a MS. written at the monastery of Raban Hurmīzd for the Uniate Patriarch Mar ‘Ebedyeshu‘ Ḥayath, and given by him to the Bibliothèque Nationale, where it is No. 332.
- ↑ See p. 330.
- ↑ Commonly called Ebedjesus; an analysis of his Nomocan is given by Assemani: Bibl. Orient. iii. pt. i. pp. 332–351.
- ↑ The Nomocanon or Liber Directionum is published by Angelo Mai in his Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, tom. x., in a Latin version made by Aloysius Assemani. Assemani gives an epitome of it in the Bibliotheca Orientalis, iii. pars. i. pp. 332–351.
- ↑ For other collections of Nestorian canon law see Duval: Littérature syriaque, 171–183; Chabot: Synodicon orientale, 14–15.
