PREFACE.

form an idea of their content through the summary that Sahdona makes of them at the beginning of the second part. Now, these chapters had no connection with the dogma of the Incarnation, the subject of the dispute. The suppression, in an expurgated copy, should have concerned the second chapter of the second part, which contains the profession of the Catholic faith. One must therefore admit that the mutilation of Sahdona's manuscript had no other object than to prevent its publication. One can also suppose that the author, in speaking of holy personages, had approved those who condemned Nestorius. (See p. 12, 147).

Sahdona was twenty-eight years old when he composed his treatise (see hereafter pp. 478–479). The embassy of Jesuyab or Ichoyab of Gdala to Heraclius took place in 630. Sahdona wrote this treatise shortly thereafter. His birth would therefore date back to the first years of the 7th century. The date of his death is unknown.

Repelled and persecuted by his friends, Sahdona led from then on a life of misery and tribulation. After having left his episcopal see, from which the Patriarch Mar-Emmeh had deposed him, he retired, it is reported, into the mountains to live as a hermit; but the solitary life could not satisfy his ardent apostolic nature. He recognizes in the final pages of his treatise that he could not detach himself from the sight of the world. It is perhaps from this mountain that he sent his response to Brother Bar-Schaba, who was asking him to indicate his dwelling so that he might go and join him. He advises the latter to remain in the world where one can achieve salvation by rendering services to one's fellow men (2nd letter, p. 501 hereafter).