Text
A Syriac sermon for conversion of the pagan Harranians.
Prophecies of the Pagan Philosophers 1 (Syriac):
Since a person is likely to believe testimonia from his own background rather than anything alien or from outside, we have diligently taken care to introduce, lay before you and show you testimonia from certain wise men and philosophers who belong to the same religion as you (= Harranians); for they too, in no less a manner spoke, as it were in prophecy, about the holy Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, about the birth of the Son of God from a virgin, about his passion and death, and about his resurrection and ascension to heaven. Even the true prophets did not speak in any more informed or distinct way than they did concerning (trinitarian) theology (or) the economy of Christ. We shall now lay before you each individual one who made an utterance, so that you will be totally without excuse and stand condemned for not even believing those who belong to your own tradition and who are authorities for your religious beliefs - men who, had they been left alive in the body up to the advent of Christ, would have been the first to believe in him and be baptized, inasmuch as they had made predictions concerning him. Indeed they were not left in a hopeless state by him, for when he descended to Sheol in his own person he preached to the souls that had been bound there of old ever since the first generations, as Peter, chief of the apostles, said. (Thus) their souls too were saved and delivered from bonds by means of his preaching to them.
Source (list of abbreviations)
Prophecies of the Pagan Philosophers 1 (Syriac)
Bibliography
| Brock 1992, VII 227-228 | Brock, Sebastian. Studies in Syriac Christianity, History, Literature and Theology. London: Variorum Reprints 1992. |
Links (external links will open in a new browser window)
Cf. A sermon against Harranians (2)
Amar Annus
URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000478.php
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