Simeon of Beth Arsham
Simeon of Beth Arsham (Template:Lang-syr)[1][2] was a Syrian bishop who spreaded his teachings at the beginning of the sixth century. He was the bishop of Beth Arsham (House of Arsames), which was located near Seleucia-Ctesiphon.[3]
Life
Simeon was an eloquent and passionate disputant, and devoted to his Orthodox faith. He used to argue with Nestorians, Manicheans and Eutychians in which he earned the title 'The Persian Disputant'. He spent most of his life in Mesopotamia and Persia to preach Christianity, where many pagan Arabs and Persian Magians started to convert and be baptized by him. Shortly before 503, the bishops of the East rewarded Simeon to be the bishop of Beth Arsham situated on the Tigris near Seleucia. He fought to support of the Orthodox believers, but was detained in Nisibin for seven years. After his release, he continued traveling in which he visited Constantinople. Later on, the Emperor Anastasius chose him to be a delegate to the Persian King Kavadh I, to discuss with him easing the restrictions on the believers.[4]
In 526 a war between Byzantine Empire and Persia began, and the king of the Lakhmids "Al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man" attacked Syria, ravaging it. Two Roman high-ranking commanders were captured, Timostratus and John. This caused Justinian I to send al-Mundhir an embassy to Al-Hira for peace consisting of Abraham son of Euphrasius (his son is Nonnosus the historian) and Simeon of Beth Arsham.
Simeon's last journey was to meet Empress Theodora in Constantinople, but he died there at around 540.[5]
Letters
In a letter concerning the heresy of the Nestorians, and the Catholicos Babai, Bishop Simeon writes:[4]
In the days of Babai the Catholicos, this Mari emerged (as) the teacher of the heresies of the followers of Paul of Samosata and Diodorus [of Tarsus] in Beth Aramaye. And Babai the Catholicos, the son of Hormizd who was the secretary of Zabercan the Marzban of Beth Aramaye, received the doctrine from him. Anyone who does not confess that Mary is Theotokos, let him be anathema!
— Syriac Manuscripts from the Vatican Library. Fol.27a
Then, he traveled to Najran to interview eyewitnesses and write a report about the massacre of Christians, perpetrated by the Jewish Himyarite "Dhu Nuwas", on November 25, 523. He described what happened in a letter to "Simeon of Gabbula":
The Jews amassed all the martyr’s bones and brought them into the church where they heaped them up. They then brought in the priests, deacons, sub-deacons, readers, and sons and daughters of the covenant…they filled the church from wall to wall, some 2,000 persons according to the men who came from Najran; then they piled wood all round the outside of the church and set light to it, thus burning the church with everyone inside it.
— The letter is given by J. S. Assemani
Bibliography
- Syriac Manuscripts from the Vatican Library; Volume 1, VatSyr 135, number 6: A letter by Bishop Simeon of Beth Arsham concerning Barsauma and the heresies of the Nestorians. Fol. 25b.
- The letter is given by Assemani, B.O. vol. i. p. 359 seq. A letter of Jacob of Serugh, and a hymn by Johannes Psaltes, translated into Syriac by Paul of Edessa, have been published by Schroeter in Z.D.M.G. 31, p. 363 ff. See also Procopius, De bello Persico, i. 20.
References
- ^ Barsoum, Ignatius Afram (1991). Berule bdire d-ʿal yulpone suryoye hdire, trans. Philoxenos Yuḥanon Dolabani, 2nd ed. Holland: Bar Hebraeus Verlag. p. 277.
- ^ Van Rompay, L. (2011). The Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. p. 376.
- ^ Saint James of Sarug born 451, Curtam (now Qurtman, Syria)
- ^ a b Simon of Beth Arsham (d. 540)
- ^ Barsoum, Ignatius Afram (2003). The Scattered Pearls: A History of Syriac Literature and Sciences, trans. Matti Moosa, 2nd rev. ed. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. p. 290.