Homilies and Hymns, Volume 2

INTRODUCTION

In studying the history of the Church within the Roman Byzantine Empire, as witnessed by the respective ecumenical councils (especially following the era of Emperor Constantine), the political intrigues which dominated them and the inconsistencies of their pronouncements are so obvious that one is gripped by a feeling of futility in trying to rationally analyze their actions when reviewed in the context of the Gospel.

One is often forced to question whether the political conversion of Emperor Constantine has really been to the benefit or the detriment of the Messianic faith.

Notwithstanding, in writing an introduction to a work such as the present, in order to understand fully the meaning of the text and the circumstances which motivated the author to commit to posterity his side of the case, one has to present, though briefly, all the facts from both sides, whether they coincide or differ.

As we have already mentioned in the introduction by Dr. Alphonse Mingana, which we have translated from Aramaic a Semitic language related to Syriac into English, he has given as vivid an account of the history of the period and the life of the author as is possible to glean from the scarce literature now available.

It is indeed one of the great tragedies of history that of the enormous literature of this Holy Church, dealing not only with the dispensation of Christ and the early history of the Messianic Church, but also with the knowledge of the ages whether in philosophy, science, literature, or the history of civilization, only a tiny portion should be extant today through the vicissitudes of history.

Among these is a small portion of the writings of our prolific author Mar Narsai, which is the subject of this introduction.

THE HISTORY OF THE PERIOD AND THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR

The conversion of Constantine (if we may call it so) marked the beginning of a great change for the Christian Church within the Roman Empire. The Christian faith, which hitherto had been a persecuted religion and very much a minority in the Western part of the Empire, now all of a sudden under the Imperial aegis became politically the dominant religion of the Empire.

Caesar was the incarnate God of the Latin mythology. Since the ruling Caesar, in the person of Theodosius II—the first Emperor to be baptized in the faith of the Holy Trinity, racially a Latin, and a champion of the Papal See—had now declared the Christian faith by Imperial Edict to be the official faith of the Empire, missionary enterprise was henceforth rendered