Homilies and Hymns, Volume 2

for Syria and Lebanon respectively, in the Church of Mar Gewargis in Beirut, Lebanon, on July 20, 1968. . . . "Indeed, as witnessed by Eusebius (Caesaria), we find that the gentile Church within the Roman Empire, namely, Greek and Latin, from the time of the devastation of Jerusalem, falling under the influence of secular authorities, namely, the pagan Roman Government which in the place of the Hebraic bishops (fourteen in all that sat upon the apostolic see of Jerusalem) now appoints a gentile bishop by the name of Markos (Mark) whom Edward Gibbon asserts to have been a Latin by race, and this event marks the beginning of falling away of Western Christianity from the Apostolic source and, hence, of the endless heresies and divisions which arose in the Church (and with which Christianity is plagued to this day) culminating in the interpretation of the divine revelation of the Christian faith on the basis of the pagan Platonic philosophy and which eventually dominated the Western theological thinking through the influence of the Platonic School of thought in the city of Alexandria."

SCHOOL OF ANTIOCH AND ALEXANDRIA

The school of Urhai, N'siwin and Antioch, were sister schools, and in full accord in their interpretation of the scriptures. We have already heard that the school of Urhai was founded by Mar Addai himself, and the School of N'siwin claimed an equally ancient foundation. This was, however, transferred during the great persecution which befell the Church in the Persian Empire during the fourth century from N'siwin to Urhai.

However, the schools of Antioch and Alexandria obtained wider fame during the controversies of the fourth and fifth centuries because of their political and commercial importance within the Byzantine Empire.

All of these schools made use of the Greek philosophical vehicle in their metaphysical theological interpretations.

In the first three schools, as we learn from Narsai's homilies, the Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy were the only vehicle made use of while in the school of Alexandria other Greek philosophers were also used. But as we see from the history of the period, the Church of the East, did not rely wholly on Greek science, but it also produced many original thinkers to whom the Arabs in the golden era of Islam owed their knowledge, and which they in turn gave to the West during their several centuries conquest of Spain, thus, handing the torch of learning to Europe of the dark ages and which is still illuminating one country after another.

The Nestorian school of Jundi-Shapur (Beth Lapat), near Cteisiphon, says Dawson, which was an offshoot of the school of N'sibis (N'siwin) had inherited the tradition of the Syriac Scholars and translators of the sixth century and was a centre of scientific as well as theological studies. It was