Early Christianity outside the Roman Empire

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Early Christianity outside the Roman Empire (1899)
by Francis Crawford Burkitt

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Early Christianity outside the Roman Empire is a short set of lectures describing a number of important texts in early eastern Syriac Christianity, that is, the form of Christianity that emerged in Mesopotamia and Persia beyond the limits of the Roman Empire. The texts discussed are the Homilies (or Demonstrations) of Aphrahat, a treatise on fate ascribed to Bardaisan, and the apocryphal Acts of Thomas.

2787147Early Christianity outside the Roman Empire1899Francis Crawford Burkitt

Early Christianity outside the Roman Empire

Two Lectures delivered at Trinity College, Dublin, by F. CRAWFORD BURKITT, M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge.

CAMBRIDGE, at the University Press, 1899.

CONTENTS.

Introduction

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1

The Creed of Aphraates

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

27

The Sacraments in Aphraates

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

46

'Bardesanes' De Fato

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

55

The Acts of Judas Thomas

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

63

I dedicate this Book
to the Rev. GEORGE SALMON D.D.
Provost of Trinity College, Dublin,
in grateful acknowledgment
of his kindness to myself
and in admiration of the unfailing acuteness
of his critical judgment.

"With matter of Heresie the West hath beene often and much troubled; but the East part neuer quiet, till the deluge of miserie wherein now they are, overwhelmed them, the chiefest cause whereof doth seeme to haue lien in the restlesse wits of the Grecians, euermore proud of their owne curious and subtile inuentions, which when at any time they had contriued, the great facilitie of their language serued them readily to make all things faire and plausible to men's understanding. Those graund hereticall impieties therefore, which most highly and immediatly touched God and the glorious Trinitie, were all in a manner the monsters of the East."

Hooker, Ecclesiasticall Politie v iii.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1935, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 88 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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