Traces de controverse religieuse dans la littérature syriaque des origines : peut-on parler d’une hérésiologie des « hérétiques » ? in Flavia Ruani (éd.), Les controverses religieuses en syriaque (Etudes syriaques 13), Paris, Geuthner, 2016, pp. 9-66 (original) (raw)
A research on the “notion of heresy in the Syriac culture” is a long-felt desideratum. This paper suggests to start by investigating the religious controversies attested in the early Syriac writings (including the Gospels’ versions) and also the later heresiological reports. The goal is to perceive whether a theory of heresy was conceived of by the intellectuals of the first centuries, before Constantine, and whether some of the arguments developed in the controversies of the second and third centuries were tacitly reused by “Catholic” authors of the fourth century, despite the fact that their origin was already considered heretic. The first part of this paper suggests that the Book of the Laws of the Countries, attributed to Bardaisan or his school, has been influenced by the Syntagma against all the Heresies composed in the second century by Justin Martyr, now lost. This hypothesis is based on the recent reconstruction of Justin’s work by Enrico Norelli using the writings of Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Justin himself. The paper argues that the Syntagma reached Edessa through Tatian, Justin’s disciple, thus marking the beginning of a dialogue between Rome and Mesopotamia which continued for several centuries. The paper claims next that the Diatessaron and the Vetus syra were composed as reactions to Marcion and his teachings. The third and the fourth centuries witness indeed an intense debate among movements that were later on labelled as heretic: the Marcionite Prepon polemicized against Bardaisan’s critiques, Mani refuted Bardaisan’s psychological doctrines, the pseudo-Clementine literature included a book against Marcion, and Ephrem’s Commentary to the Diatessaron attests of cosmological and exegetical differences between Marcion and Bardaisan. Among them, Manichaeism and the pseudo-Clementine literature seem to have elaborated a theory of heresy: the universalist perspective of the former required the development of dialectical tools of propaganda which led to the formulation of a heresiology sui generis; the latter, based on a Judeo-Christian core, built its own heresiological discourse which could precede or be contemporary to the more sophisticated heresiology of Ephrem the Syrian, who in turn shows to draw polemical arguments from Bardaisan’s works.
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Des différentes formes de croyance qui composent le christianisme syriaque des ii e et iii e siècles (le système de Bardesane d'Édesse, les diverses écoles gnostiques, le marcionisme, l'encratisme, etc.), l'une en particulier prit le dessus au iv e siècle et à partir de là, toutes les autres furent perçues comme déviantes et qualifiées d'hérétiques, ce qui changea irrévocablement la configuration théologique et identitaire de la chrétienté syriaque. Il s'agit de la communauté connue sous le nom de « paluṭiens » (d'après Paluṭ, évêque d'Édesse au début du iii e siècle), et son porte-parole, celui qui réalisa ce changement, fut Éphrem de Nisibe (vers 306-373) 1 . C'est avec lui que naît une conception articulée de l'hérésie, une hérésiologie à proprement parler en contexte syriaque. Par le terme moderne d'« hérésiologie » on désigne habituellement le discours sur l'hérésie, à savoir la pratique théologique et littéraire qui crée des représentations de la déviance religieuse, visant par là à établir une séparation nette entre un « nous », les « orthodoxes » ou détenteurs de la vérité, et un « vous », ou « ils », les autres, les courants divergents, les hérétiques 2 . En ce sens, les oeuvres d'Éphrem marquent un tournant dans l'histoire du christianisme syriaque, dans sa façon de * Je souhaite remercier le European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant, Grant Agreement 337344, projet « Novel Saints », Université de Gand) d'avoir subventionné ces recherches. 1. Éphrem rejetait en réalité l'appellation de « paluṭiens » dont sa communauté avait été affublée par les courants religieux contemporains adverses : voir Éphrem de Nisibe, Hymnes contre les hérésies XXII, 5-6. 2. Sur la naissance de l'hérésiologie chrétienne, voir l'étude fondamentale de Le BouLLuec 1985.
Judging from the contents of the large West Syriac dogmatic florilegia from the 8th-10th centuries, there were four main doctrinal controversies that defined the theological profile of the Syrian-Orthodox Church: the Chalcedonian question of one-or-two natures in Christ; the debate about the corruptibility of the body of Christ prior to the resurrection; the "Agnoetic" controversy about whether Jesus was subject to ignorance; and the "Tritheist" debate about the precise relationship inhering between the persons of the Trinity. Focusing on all but the first of these four controversies, this paper shows that while all arising within the span of only three decades in the mid-sixth century, it was only the incorruptibility debate that did not fizzle out by the beginning of the seventh century. On the contrary, this controversy about the corruptibility of the body of Christ continued to split the Miaphysite community well into the ninth century. This paper offers an explanation as to why this was the case.
La Rhétorique. Tradition syriaque et arabe
Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques, vol. I, 1989
Éditions anciennes. Editio princeps : 31 Alde Manuce, « édition Aldine », Venise 1508 ; 32 J. B. Camot, (« editio Camotiana », dite « Aldine minor »), Venise 1551 ; 33 Édition de Bâle : Aristotelis de Arte Rhetorica libri tres, Bâle 1546, 240 p. ; 34 Petrus Victorius, Commentarii in tres libros Aristotelis de Arte dicendi, Firenze 1548 ; 35 M. A. Muret, Aristotelis Rhetoricorum libri duo, Roma 1585. Sur la tradition médiévale, voir Schneider 23. (Cette notice a mis à contribution une bibliographie aristotélicienne préparée par Françoise Caujolle-Zaslawsky.) ANDRÉ WARTELLE.
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