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Bardaisan (Syriac: ܒܪܕܝܨܢ, Bardaiṣān; 154–222; also Latinized as Bardesanes) was an Assyrian gnostic,[1] founder of the Bardaisanites, and an scientist, scholar, astrologer, philosopher and poet, also renowned for his knowledge of India, on which he wrote a book, now lost.[2]
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Bardaisan was born on 11 July 154 (164?), in Edessa, a metropolis of Osroene in Assuristan (Assyria), of wealthy Assyrian parents. To indicate the city of his birth his parents called him "Son of the Daisan", the river on which Edessa is situated. On account of his foreign extraction he is sometimes referred to as "the Parthian" (by Sextus Julius Africanus), or "the Babylonian" (by Porphyrius); and, on account of his later important activity in Armenia, "the Armenian", (by Hippolytus of Rome), while Ephrem the Syrian calls him "philosopher of the Arameans" (Syriac: ܦܝܠܘܣܘܦܐ ܕܐܖ̈ܡܝܐ, Filosofā d-Aramayē). His parents, Nuhama and Nah 'siram, must have been people of rank, for their son was educated with the crown-prince of the Osrhoenic kingdom, at the court of Abgar VIII bar Manu. Sextus Julius Africanus says that he saw Bardaisan, with bow and arrow, mark the outline of a boy's face with his arrows on a shield which the boy held.
Owing to political disturbances in Edessa, Bardaisan and his parents moved for a while to Hierapolis (Mabug), a strong centre of Babylonianism. Here the boy was brought up in the house of a priest Anuduzbar. In this school he learnt all the intricacies of Babylonian astrology, a training that permanently influenced his mind and proved the bane of his later life. At the age of twenty-five he happened to hear the homilies of Hystaspes, the Bishop of Edessa, received instruction, was baptized, and even admitted to the dioconate or the priesthood. "Priesthood", however, may merely imply that he ranked as one of the college of presbyters, for he remained in the world, had a son called Harmonius, and when Abgar IX, the friend of his youth, ascended the throne (179) he took his place at court. He was clearly no ascetic, but dressed in finery "with berylls and caftan", according to Ephrem the Syrian.
According to tradition, during his youth he shared the education of a royal prince who afterwards became King of Edessa, perhaps Abgar X bar Manu (reigned Osroene 202-217). He is said to have converted the prince to Christianity, and may have had an important share in Christianizing the city.
Epiphanius of Salamis and Barhebraeus assert that he was first an orthodox Christian and afterwards an adherent of Valentinus.
Perhaps owing to the persecutions under Caracalla, Bardaisan for a time retreated into Armenia, and is said to have there preached Christianity with indifferent success, and also to have composed a history of the Armenian kings.
Bardaisan tried to create a synthesis of Christian and occult beliefs, in a way similar to Origen. As a gnostic, he certainly denied the resurrection of the body; and so far as we can judge by the obscure quotations from his hymns furnished by Ephrem he explained the origin of the world by a process of emanation from the supreme God whom he called the Father of the living. He and his Bardaisan movement were considered heretic by the Christians, and he was subjected to critical hymn, particularly by Ephrem:
His acceptance of Christianity was perfectly sincere; and later stories, that he left the Catholic Church and joined the Valentinian Gnostics out of disappointed ambition, do not deserve much credit. His royal friend became (probably after 202, i.e. after his visit and honourable reception at Rome) the first Christian king; and both king and philosopher laboured to create the first Christian State. Bardaisan showed great literary activity against Marcion and Valentinus, the Gnostics of the day. Bardaisan mixed his Babylonian pseudo-astronomy with Christian dogma and originated a Christian sect, which was vigorously combated by St. Ephrem. The Romans under Caracalla, taking advantage of the anti-Christian faction in Edessa, captured Abgar IX and sent him in chains to Rome. Thus the Osrhoenic kingdom, after 353 years' existence, came to an end. Though he was urged by a friend of Caracalla to apostatize, Bardaisan stood firm, saying that he feared not death, as he would in any event have to undergo it, even though he should now submit to the emperor. At the age of sixty-three he was forced to take refuge in the fortress of Ani in Armenia and tried to spread the Gospel there, but with little success. He died at the age of sixty-eight, either at Ani or at Edessa. According to Michael the Syrian, Bardaisan had besides Harmonius two other sons, called Abgarun and Hasdu.
Porphyry states that on one occasion at Edessa, Bardaisan interviewed an Indian deputation of holy men (designated as Σαρμαναίοι, Sramanas) who had been sent to the Roman emperor Elagabalus or another Severan dynasty Roman Emperor, and questioned them as to the nature of Indian religion. The encounter is described in Porphyry De abstin., iv, 17 [3] and Stobaeus (Eccles., iii, 56, 141):
Bardaisan apparently was a voluminous author. Though nearly all his works have perished, we find notices of the following:
Various opinions have been formed as to the real doctrine of Bardesanes. As early as Hippolytus (Philosoph., VI, 50) his doctrine was described as a variety of Valentinianism, the most popular form of Gnosticism. Adolf Hilgenfeld in 1864 defended this view, based mainly on extracts from St. Ephrem, who devoted his life to combating Bardaisanism in Edessa.
The strong and fervent expressions of St. Ephrem against the Bardaisanites of his day are not a fair criterion of the doctrine of their master. The extraordinary veneration of his own countrymen, the very reserved and half-respectful allusion to him in the early Fathers, and above all the "Book of the Laws of the Countries" suggest a milder view of Bardaisan's aberrations. He cannot be called a Gnostic in the proper sense of the word. Like the Early Christians, he believed in an Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth, whose will is absolute, and to whom all things are subject. God endowed man with freedom of will to work out his salvation and allowed the world to be a mixture of good and evil, light and darkness. All things, even those we now consider inanimate, have a measure of liberty. In all of them the light has to overcome the darkness. After six thousand years this earth shall have an end, and a world without evil shall take its place.
However, Bardaisan also thought the sun, moon and planets were living beings, to whom, under God, the government of this world was largely entrusted; and though man was free, he was strongly influenced for good or for evil by the constellations. Bardaisan's catechism must have been a strange mixture of Christian doctrine and references to the signs of the Zodiac. Led by the fact that "spirit" is feminine in Syriac, he seems to have held unorthodox views on the Trinity. He apparently denied the Resurrection of the Body, but thought Christ's body was endowed with incorruptibility as with a special gift.
The followers of Bardaisan of Mesopotamia, the Bardaisanites were a sect of the 2nd century, deemed heretical by the Catholic Church, who added other notions into their beliefs. Even Bardaisan's son, Harmonius, strayed farther from the path of orthodoxy. Educated at Athens, he added to the Chaldee astrology of his father Greek ideas concerning the soul, the birth and destruction of bodies and a sort of metempsychosis.
A certain Marinus, a follower of Bardaisan and a dualist, who is refuted in the "Dialogue of Adamantius", held the doctrine of a twofold primeval being; for the devil, according to him is not created by God. He was also a Docetist, as he denied Christ's birth of a woman. Bardaisan's form of gnosticism influenced Manichaeism.
According to St. Ephrem, the Bardaisanites of his day were given to many puerilities and obscenities. Sun and Moon were considered male and female principles, and the ideas of heaven amongst the Bardaisanites were not without an admixture of sensuality.
St. Ephrem's zealous efforts to suppress this powerful heresy were not entirely successful. Rabbula, Bishop of Edessa in 431-432, found it flourishing everywhere. Its existence in the seventh century is attested by Jacob of Edessa; in the eighth by George, Bishop of the Arab tribes; in the tenth by the historian Masudi; and even in the twelfth by Shashrastani. Bardaisanism seems to have devolved first into Valentinianism and then into common Manichaeism. The last-named writer states: "The followers of Daisan believe in two elements, light and darkness. The light causes the good, deliberately and with free will; the darkness causes the evil, but by force of nature and necessity. They believe that light is a living thing, possessing knowledge, might, perception and understanding; and from it movement and life take their source; but that darkness is dead, ignorant, feeble, rigid and soulless, without activity and discrimination; and they hold that the evil within them is the outcome of their nature and is done without their co-operation."