ARISE, WALK THROUGH THE LAND

Yizhar Hirschfeld (19502006)

 Arise,
walk through the land

Studies in the Archaeology and History of

the Land of Israel
in Memory of Yizhar Hirschfeld
on the Tenth Anniversary of his Demise

Editors

Joseph Patrich, Orit Peleg-Barkat, Erez Ben-Yosef

The Israel Exploration Society

JERUSALEM 2016
English Cover photos:
Aerial view of ancient Tiberias urban center. Photo: Skyview, courtesy Yizhar Hirschfelds
Tiberias Excavations.
Panther head, Ramat HaNadiv Excavations. Photo: A. Avital.
Group of dwellings in the Arab village of Deir Samit. Photo I. Shtulman.

ISBN 978-965-221-110-1

2016
All rights reserved to the editors, authors and the Israel Exploration Society

Hebrew Style editing: Hanah Hirschfeld, Israel Ronen

English Style editing: Susan Gorodetski
Cover design: Nitsa Bruck
Printing and binding by Old City Press, Jerusalem
 Table Of Contents

List of Authors and Their Institutional Affiliation ix

Map of sites and Geographical Regions addressed in the book x
Introduction
In Memoriam: Yoram Tsafrir (Hebrew), Leah Di Segni (Hebrew and English), Joseph xi
Patrich (Hebrew), Michele Piccirillo
Yizhar Hirschfelds List of Publications

A. Between text and archaeology: Settlement history, historical geography and

Talmudic archaeology
Israel Shatzman From Iudaea to the three provinces of Palaestina: The Framework
of the Roman Administration in the Land of Israel from the First to the Early Fifth
Century CE pp. 116 in the Hebrew section
Israel Finkelstein The Southern Steppe in the Early Phases of the Iron Age: A
Framework for Territorial History pp. 1728 in the Hebrew section
Tal Ulus, Giordana Moscati Mascetti, and Ronnie Ellenblum Affluence
The Beginning of the Roman Optimum and the Founding of Cities in the
Mediterranean Basin During the Fourth and Third Centuries BCE pp. 2950 in
the Hebrew section
David Ohana Herods Return pp. 5162 in the Hebrew section
Kennet G. Holum Caesarea Palaestinae: City and Countryside in Late Antiquity 1*
Shimon Dar Archaeological Evidence of the Presence of the Roman Army on Mount
Carmel pp. 6374 in the Hebrew section
Yaron Z. Eliav From Realia to Material Culture: The Reception of Samuel Krauss 17*
Talmudische Archaologie
Yigal Tepper and Yotam Tepper Mavoy, Mavoa and Sabbath Boundary
Alongside Jewish Communities in the periods of the Second Temple, the Mishnah
and the Talmud pp. 7588 in the Hebrew section
Este Dvorjetski The Medicinal Properties of the Thermo-Mineral Baths in the 29*
Levant in Ancient Times

B. Longing for the desert: En Gedi, Masada, the Dead Sea, the Judean Desert, and
the Negev
Gideon Hadas Dwelling Houses near the Synagogue of Ein Gedi Village in the
Byzantine Period pp. 8992 in the Hebrew section
Yoav Farhi A Bronze Ring from a Cave in En Gedi and the Coins of Mattathias
Antigonus (40-37 BCE) pp. 93102 in the Hebrew section
Uri Davidovich, Roi Porat, Rachel Bar-Nathan, Ruth E. Jackson-Tal, Yoav Farhi,
Nimrod Marom, Guy D. Stiebel The Road from the Judean Highlands to Masada
and the Excavations of Badar and Zfira Fortlets pp. 103128 in the Hebrew section
Chaim Ben-David, Uri Davidovich and Roi Porat Naqb Sfai (Ascent of Luhith?): A
Roman-Period Road from the Lisan Peninsula to the Moabite Plateau pp. 129148
in the Hebrew section
Orit Shamir Mixed Wool and Linen Textiles (Shaatnez in Hebrew) from a Nabatean 53*
Burial Cave at En Tamar
Rona-Shani Evyasaf The Design of the Private Gardens of the Ruling Class in Judea
during the Hellenistic Period Traditions, Influences and Innovations pp. 149162
in the Hebrew section
Erez Ben-Yosef The Building Stones of Byzantine Shivta: Their Types, Sources and
Contribution to the Study of the Site and its Surroundings pp. 163182 in the
Hebrew section

C. The evidence of the architectural elements and the small finds

Orit Peleg-Barkat and Yotam Tepper Hellenistic and Roman Stone Furniture and
Architectural Decoration from Horvat Eleq at Ramat HaNadiv pp. 183196 in the
Hebrew section
Jrgen K. Zangenberg A Basalt Stone Table from the Byzantine Synagogue at 61*
orvat Kur, Galilee: Publication and Preliminary Interpretation
Mordechai Aviam Another Reading Table Base from a Galilean Synagogue: Some 79*
Comments on the Stone Table from orvat Kur
Baruch Brandl The Byzantine Period Glass Pendant from Tiberias: Frog or Sea-Turtle? 83*
Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom and Yehiel Zelinger Application-decorated Pottery
from Mount Zion, Jerusalem 89*
Alexander Onn, Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah and Leah Di Segni A Byzantine Stamp
Seal of Theodotos the comes from Gane-Hammat (Tiberias) 101*
Anna de Vincenz Chibouk Smoking Pipes: Secrets and Riddles of the Ottoman Past
111*
D. The dwelling house in the Land of Israel
Yuval Gadot, Efrat Bocher and Shatil Emmanuilov The Open Court House during
the Iron Age and Persian period in Light of the Excavations at Kh. er-Ras (Nahal
Refaim) pp. 197210 in the Hebrew section
Zeev Weiss Houses of the Wealthy in Roman and Late Antique Tiberias pp. 211220
in the Hebrew section
Alexander Onn, Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, Jon Seligman and Yehudah Rupeano 121*
Two Interpretations of the RomanByzantine Peristyle House on the Shufat Ridge
(Ramat Shelomo), North of Jerusalem
E. Urbanism: Tiberias, Beth Shean, Jerusalem and Jaffa
Shulamit Miller The Urban Plan of Tiberias from its Foundation until the Islamic
Conquest in Light of New Discoveries pp. 221232 in the Hebrew section
Yosef Stepansky The Well of Miriam Preserved in the Lake Kinneret? An Attempt
at Identifying a Holy Site in the Galilee pp. 233240 in the Hebrew section
Walid Atrash and Gabriel Mazor Theater and Arena in Tiberias and Nysa- 137*
Scythopolis
Yoram Tsafrir On the Location of the Hippodrome Built by Herod in Jerusalem
pp. 241248 in the Hebrew section
Shimon Gibson and Alla Nagorsky On the So-Called Head of Hadrian and a 149*
Hypothetical Roman Triumphal Arch on the North Side of Jerusalem
Yoav Arbel The Jews of Jaffa in the Roman Period: The Archaeological Evidence 173*

F. Monasteries and monasticism

Leah Di Segni On the Contribution of Epigraphy to the Identification of Monastic 185*
Foundations
Joseph Patrich Monasticism in Caesarea and its Region 199*
Boaz Zissu, Boaz Langford, Ayelet Dayan, Roi Porat and Amos Frumkin
Archaeological Survey of the Caves of Wadi Shiban Monastery, Eastern Benyamin
pp. 249264 in the Hebrew section
Lorenzo Perrone Friendship in Ancient Monasticism: Ideal and Practice in 215*
Byzantine Palestine
Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony Perfection, Imperfection and Stillness in Late Antique 227*
Syriac Christianity

G. Christian architecture; Churches

Katia Cytryn Tiberias Places of Worship in Context 235*
Nurit Feig A Byzantine Church in Ozem: Its Architecture and Regional Context
pp. 265272 in the Hebrew section
Lihi Habas The Mosaic Floors of the Church at Ozem pp. 273290 in the Hebrew
section
Lihi Habas Imported Liturgical Furniture and Vessels from the Island Church at
Ostrakine, North Sinai pp. 291310 in the Hebrew section

English abstracts of the Hebrew articles 249*

List of Authors and Their Institutional Affiliation
Yoav Arbel, Israel Antiquities Authority
Walid Atrash, Israel Antiquities Authority
Mordechai Aviam, The Kinneret College on the
Sea of Galilee
Rachel Bar Nathan, Israel Antiquities Authority
Haim Ben David, The Kinneret College on the
Sea of Galilee
Erez Ben-Yosef, Tel Aviv University
Brouria Bitton-Ashkelon, Hebrew University
Efrat Bocher, Tel Aviv University
Baruch Brandl, Israel Antiquities Authority
Katia Cytryn, Hebrew University
Shimon Dar, Bar Ilan University
Uri Davidovich, Hebrew University
Leah Di Segni, Hebrew University
Este Dvorjetski, University of Haifa and
Brookes University, Oxford
Yaron Z. Eliav, University of Michigan
Ronnie Ellenblum, Hebrew University
Shatil Emmanuilov, Tel Aviv University
Rona S. Evyasaf, Technion
Yoav Farhi, Tel Aviv University
Nurit Feig, Israel Antiquities Authority
Israel Finkelstein, Tel Aviv University
Yuval Gadot, Tel Aviv University
Shimon Gibson, The University of North Carolina
at Charlotte
Lihi Habas, Hebrew University and Shenkar College
Gideon Hadas, Hebrew University
Kenneth G. Holum, University of Maryland
Ruth E. Jackson-Tal, Hebrew University
ix
Nimrod Marom, University of Haifa
Gabriel Mazor, Israel Antiquities Authority
Shulamit Miller, Hebrew University
Giordana Moscati, Hebrew University
Alla Nagorsky, Israel Antiquities Authority
David Ohana, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Alexander Onn, Israel Antiquities Authority
Joseph Patrich, Hebrew University
Orit Peleg-Barkat, Hebrew University
Lorenzo Perrone, University of Bolonia
Roi Porat, Hebrew University
Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom, Israel Antiquities
Authority
Yehudah Rupeano, Israel Antiquities Authority
Jon Seligman, Israel Antiquities Authority
Orit Shamir, Israel Antiquities Authority
Israel Shatzman, Hebrew University
Guy D. Stiebel, Tel Aviv University
Yosef Stepansky, Israel Antiquities Authority
Yigal Tepper, Kibbutz Yagur
Yotam Tepper, Israel Antiquities Authority and
University of Haifa
Yoram Tsafrir, Hebrew University
Tal Ulus, Hebrew University
Anna de Vincenz, The W. F. Albright Institute of
Archaeological Research, Jerusalem
Zeev Weiss, Hebrew University
Shlomit Wexler-Bdolah, Israel Antiquities Authority
Jrgen K. Zangenberg, University of Leiden
Yehiel Zelinger, Israel Antiquities Authority
Boaz Zissu, Bar Ilan University
Map of sites and geographical regions addressed in the book.

x
 PERFECTION, IMPERFECTION AND STILLNESS
IN LATE ANTIQUE SYRIAC CHRISTIANITY
B rouria B itton -A shkelony
In memory of the perfect poetic lover of the desert stillness
While I was working on this essay on Perfection and
Imperfection, a scene from a movie continually came
to mind: Jack Lemmons cry in the movie Some Like
It Hot, Nobody is perfect! More seriously, yet in the
same vein, unattainable perfection was an intrinsic
notion in late antique Christian discourse that reflects the
tension generated by the ascetic and monastic ideals and
their quotidian realization. However, at the end of the
fourth century Pseudo-Macarius, probably in the region
of Mesopotamia, showed no hesitation in using the
Greek term teleios, perfect, mature or complete,
to denote a Christian who cultivated his ascetic self and
received grace of the Spirit. In those perfect (teleioi)
and spiritual ones (pneumatikoi) who succeeded in their
ascetic struggle, he elucidated, the intellectual light
shines actively in the hearts (I 59.2).1 For him the goal of
Christian life is perfection, a dynamic spiritual progress
that requires the performance of the commandments
and an inner struggle leading to liberation from sin and
receiving knowledge of heavenly mysteries (I 58.2.5).
There are twelve steps a person has to pass to reach
perfection, he said, and at times one may have reached
the stage of perfection. But again grace may recede
somewhat and he descends to the next lower level,
now standing on the eleventh step. Pseudo-Macarius,
however, was well aware of the tension inherent in such
spiritual progress and in the practical dimension of the
interplay of grace and sin, stating: Truly, I have never
seen a Christian who is perfect or free [from sin]Yes,
even I have from time to time, and to some measure,
reached that level, and I have learned that no one is
perfect (II 8.5). Thus when his disciples asked him in
what measure of perfection he was, he answered: After
receiving the experience of the sign of the cross, grace
acts in this manner: It quiets all my limbs and my heart
(II 8.6).2 According to this view, perfection is perceived
as grace to be felt, as a state of stillness of the body and
the heart or the mind, yet not necessarily as a state of
physical stillness. Nevertheless, not all the prominent
ascetic authors in ancient Christianity advocated
the notion of perfection or viewed it as the ultimate
monastic goal. Ascetic authors who developed theories
of spiritual progress did not essentially use the notion of
perfection, and some of them even stressed the notion of
imperfection (for example, Diadochus Photik, Gnostic
Chapters, pp. 151152). However, one might expect
that the contemporary of Pseudo-Macarius, Evagrius
Ponticus (d. 399), who developed a tripartite theory of
ascetic progress (praktik, gnostik, theologik), would
frame his teachings in terms of perfection; after all, he
provided the most developed and influential ascetic
and epistemological theory in late antiquity and had
an everlasting impact on Eastern monastic culture. But
it is rather surprising that perfection and perfect
monk (teleios monachos) are terms that rarely occur
in his writings.3 Furthermore, even in his detailed
philosophical theory of contemplation, to which he
devoted his major treatise, the Kephalaia Gnostica, he
did not frame his schema in such terms. Additionally,
while Pseudo-Macarius used the language of mixing
and unification with the divine at the summit of spiritual
progress, Evagrius theory of asceticism did not include
in its spectrum of experience the notion of unification or
mingling with the divine.4
However, at approximately the same time that
Evagrius was writing in the Egyptian desert and Pseudo-
227*
228* BROURIA BITTON-ASHKELONY
Macarius in Mesopotamia, the anonymous author of the
Syriac Book of Steps, also known as Liber Graduum (=
LG), who was probably also from Mesopotamia, offered
in the late fourth century the earliest and best-known
theory of perfection (gmirutha). Sebastian Brock has
recently discerned two basic paradigms of perfection in
late antique Syriac Fathers: the bipartite theory described
in the Book of Steps and the tripartite theory of John of
Apamea, who wrote in the first half of the fifth century
(Brock 2011). The aim of this essay is to offer a glimpse
into the legacy and the impact of these two theories on
later Syriac Christianity. To what extent did leading
monastic authors adhere or deviate from these models,
and what, in fact, is the substance of perfection in late
antique Syriac Christianity?
The author of the Book of Steps discerns two
Christian lifestyles, divided according to their level of
virtuous life: the Upright (kine), one who follows the
minor commandments, and the Perfect (gmire), one
who adheres to the major commandments (for example,
LG 11.2). Thus the author devoted a considerable part
of his treatise to answering the question of how one can
distinguish Perfection from Uprightness (LG 1.12). In a
series of dichotomies he characterized the Upright and
the Perfect (LG 14) and stressed that when the Upright
practiced virginity they matured greatly, but they were
not perfected (LG 15.13). Perfection in the Book of
Steps consists of ascetic behavior, renunciation of the
world and all possessions, fasting every day, continuous
prayer, humility and becoming a stranger to the world
(LG 3:7). Additionally, the author drew an explicit
boundary between the Perfect and the Upright's social
obligations (LG 13). As Brock has pointed out, a basic
practical difference between the two lifestyles concerns
their respective occupations: whereas the Upright work
and earn a living, the role of the Perfect, who do not
work but live off charity, is to teach and to pray for all
people (Brock 2011:81; Argrate 2014:156172). It
is always possible for an Upright to become a Perfect
(LG 14.20): The only thing necessary is a deliberate
effort of the will to empty and lower oneself, and then
one can reach the highest level of Perfection (LG 3:16).
The idea of self-emptying (msarrqutha) goes back to the
New Testament, in Phil. 2:7, where it is said that Christ
emptied himself.5 Self-emptying of the Perfect has two
levels: the stripping away of the world in the form of
possessions and detachment, and an internal stripping off
of the self: Their hearts should be emptied out of all
the hateful thoughts of sin, become sanctified, and they
should imitate our Lord and take up his cross and go after
him, and become perfected in his love (LG 30.25).
And in another passage we read: If he desires to become
Perfect he [must] empty himself, become celibate, and
abandon everything and become attached to our Lord
(LG 13.5).
The Book of Steps reflects a proto-monastic reality
in which the Perfect was described as a mature and
pietistic Christian who renounced his society, and not as
a monastic or mystical elite adhering to a specific way
of life, whether anchoritic or coenobitic. This reality had
been radically and rapidly changed in many regions of
the Eastern and Sasanian empires in the fifth century.6
Yet only a few authors adopted the ascetic terminology
and theory of the Book of Steps. Philoxenos of Mabbug
(d. 523) a powerful theologian, erudite biblical
commentator and ardent polemicist and defender of the
Miaphysite stance is considered the most important
author to follow the bipartite theory of the Book of Steps
(Kitchen and Parmentier 2004:xxvii; Brock 2011:83).7
This is most apparent in his writings from an early
stage of his career, mainly in the Discourses, his most
popular ascetic exhortations, which he wrote during his
episcopate in Mabbug, most probably between 485 and
498.8 Although there is no clear indication that he himself
received a monastic education or lived in a monastery,
Philoxenos was a monastic leader whose close relations
with the central monasteries in Syria, Mesopotamia and
Palestine are well traced.9 A considerable part of his
epistolary uvre was intended for a monastic audience,
including both monastic communities and individuals.
In his Discourses, Philoxenos adhered to the
categories of the Upright and the Perfect inherited
from the Book of Steps, and he explained: I am not
saying that those who are in the world are not able to
become righteous, but it is not possible that they can
attain perfection because the world is the opposite
of perfection another road of perfection has been
trodden that is above the world (Discourses 8.223). He
emphasized here that it is impossible to attain perfection
(gmirut), or as he termed it the rank of the perfect,
without withdrawing from the world, renouncing
even the thought of wealth and adopting self-denial
(Discourses 8.225233). Likewise, in one of his earliest
letters, entitled: A Letter of Exhortation Sent to Someone
Who Left Judaism and Came to the Life of Perfection,
Philoxenos perceived the very notion of monastic life
 PERFECTION, IMPERFECTION AND STILLNESS IN LATE ANTIQUE SYRIAC CHRISTIANITY
in terms of perfection (Bitton-Ashkelony and Minov
forthcoming). But what is the substance of the life of
perfection?
In the Letter of Exhortation sent to the converted
monk, Philoxenos restricted his ascetic teaching and
language to several elementary practices that he could
easily cast in the context of conversion, thus presenting
the monastic lifestyle as a rebirth, and its main goal as
being knowledge leading toward perfection (gmirut).
He did not use here the terminology of the Book of
Steps, but framed his ascetic progress in bipartite terms
that is, two ways, two roads: corporeal labor and
spiritual thoughts. Philoxenos combined this bipartite
scheme with Matt. 7:14: The gate is narrow and the
way is small, that is, the narrow road of bodily labor,
and the thin path of spiritual thoughts. This notion was
not new in the fifth century. The author of the Book
of Steps, in one of his longest discourses (Mmr 19),
addressed to the one who wishes to become a solitary,
already depicted the ascetic lifestyle as a narrow and
difficult road of perfection by drawing on Matt. 7:14.
Philoxenos appreciated this metaphor in his Discourses
as well, and discussed there the imagery of the narrow
door, relating it to the notion of tasting the way of
Christ (Discourses 11.1).
In the letter to the converted monk, Christ figures as
knowledge and the spiritual progress is from knowledge
to wisdom: The one who considers thoroughly and
begins with knowledge, at the end will attain wisdom,
that is God (2). According to him, one should eliminate
from himself every sensation of the worlds tastes and
uproot evil. In this context he used the Pauline imagery
of the old and new person for denoting the transitory
stage from lust to the death of vices, perceiving the
ascetic transition as a rebirth (Discourses 11.422 and
9.258, with Brock 2011:83). Through asceticism, he
expounded in his Discourses, the scars of the old person
are cleansed and scoured. The beginning of asceticism is
bitter and harsh, he said, but its conclusion is pleasant
and sweet it is the narrow door that escorts one into the
expansive realm of the spiritual (Discourses 11.423).
Philoxenos believed that unless one has departed from
the world, shed the entire corporeal way of life, and
emptied himself of everything in it, he is not able to
attain this knowledge in order to become aware of the
majesty of these things given mysteriously by Christ
(Discourses 9.268). As he puts it: Nothing is full unless
at first it has been emptied (Discourses 8.18). In line
229*
with the author of the Book of Steps, Philoxenos, in
his Discourses and the letter to the converted monk,
displays no reticence about the substance of perfection
the perfect conversation with Christ, leading toward
that vision which is face to face (1 Cor. 13:12) and
he did not express any hesitation about the possibility of
attaining this stage in this life.
It is worth stressing, however, that Philoxenos
discourse on perfection changed in his later writings, and
his adherence to the terminology and theory of the Book
of Steps faded. For example, in his Letter to Patricius
written sometime around 500505 (Halleux 1963:259),
in which the topic of the observance and nature of
the commandments is central, he did not employ the
idiosyncratic concepts and language used in the Book
of Steps on the commandments, as one might expect.
In that period a new literary dynamic ensued in Syriac
Christianity that seemed to dominate the monastic scene,
as well as Philoxenos writings: the Syriac translations
of Evagrius Ponticus writings, which circulated widely
in the Syriac monastic milieu, nourished and reshaped
its discourse from the end of the fifth century on. Most
recently, Robin Darling Young and David Michelson
have enriched the picture of Philoxenos appropriation
and reconfiguration of Evagrius soteriological legacy
and epistemology (Young 2011; Michelson 2014). In
the Letter to Patricius it was Evagrius contemplative
system, rather than the theory of perfection of the Book
of Steps, that proved to be attractive for Philoxenos (LP
35:63). He stressed that the commandments purify the
intellect and render it worthy for contemplation, all the
while using the typical Evagrian contemplative doctrine
and terminology (LP 72:99; 3031). His prime interest
here is the dynamic performance of the intellect in each
contemplative stage; how it progresses, reaches the
summit of the spiritual life and senses the knowledge
of Christ by its spiritual senses [of the intellect] (for
example, LP 61:8889). All these he described without
using the terminology of perfection but displayed in
Evagrian dress.
In his letter to the converted monk, Philoxenos
praised the monastic ideal of stillness (ely), depicted
the way to perfection as a gradual system of stillness
and perceived three sorts of stillness: exterior stillness,
stillness of the mind (8) and stillness of thoughts
(16). Exterior stillness, he said, leads to stillness
of the mind, which raises a person up to conversing
with God. Philoxenos stressed: As long as the mind
230* BROURIA BITTON-ASHKELONY
does not become silent from all agitations of the
worldly commotion, it will not begin to stammer in the
conversation with God (8). Needless to say, there is
nothing unique about integrating the ideal of stillness
in late antique ascetic discourse, nor in perceiving the
practice of stillness as the beginning of the monastic life.
However, in the letter to the converted monk Philoxenos
accentuated the imperative of stillness, stressing that
one can discover the seal of spiritual image only in
stillness (5, 6, 8). This occurs once the corporeal image
is removed from the persons mind and it becomes silent
from all agitations, assuming that each one of us is by
nature a person of silence (9).
It is unclear what Philoxenos means by the phrase
by nature a person of silence. Yet one can gain a
glimpse of the perception of the self in terms of silence
and stillness from the writings of John of Apamea, who
provided another theory of perfection in the first half of
the fifth century (Brock 2011:8487). He identified three
successive states: the level of the body (pagrnut), the
level of the soul (napnut) and the level of the spirit
(runut). In each stage stillness is important. For
example, John developed in his Discourse on Perfection
a rich typology of stillness, recognizing that stillness
is greater than any other way of life, perceiving the
weapon of stillness as a device for the eradication
of passions and wandering thoughts. By stillness," he
explained, "all the virtues are accomplished. Stillness
of the body is the restriction of the body from wandering
about; the stillness of knowledge is the distance from
uninstructed people; by stillness of the mind a man
becomes collected within himself and begins to be
enlightened; and continual stillness is an idyllic state
(Discourse on Perfection, pp. 312, trans. pp. 461466).
In his treatise On Prayer he distinguished between the
just and the spiritual person, explaining how the
performance of silent prayer transformed the entire self
and enabled one to move from one degree to another and
to become a spiritual being (OP 3 and 6: Brock 1979;
Bettiolo 1981; Bitton-Ashkelony 2012).10
Unlike Philoxenos, who adopted in his early writings
the bipartite theory of perfection, the majority of Syriac
authors on spiritual life employed various tripartite
schemes. The most influential scheme was the one
developed by John of Apamea, about whose historical
context we know almost nothing (Brock 1979; Hunsbury
2013:viixxv). Syriac authors, however, from the end of
fifth century on tended to merge various systems, such
as Evagrius theories of eradication of the passions, or
the eight logismoi as he terms it, and the ascent of the
mind and seeing the light without form, as well as the
three stages developed by the influential fifth-century
author Pseudo-Dionysius: purification, illumination and
unification. Thus the discourse on perfection in Syriac
Christianity turned out to be much more complex than
in Greek monastic literature of the late fourth century. I
cannot go into this complexity here, but underscore that
whatever schema the Syriac authors reconstructed, the
centrality of the ideal of stillness and the silent self is
well attested.
For example, in the seventh century Isaac of
Nineveh, the most profound mystical author in this
milieu, valued the life of stillness or, as he termed it, the
ship of the way of life of solitude (Part I/18, p. 154,
trans., p. 104; Part II/18.19, p. 91, trans., p. 101).11 In the
sea of stillness, he explained, the mind swims about in
such places during the time of prayer places where it
is not easy for everyone to swim (Part II/ 34.5, p. 137,
trans., p. 148; Part I/66, p. 467, trans., p. 313). Following
John of Apamea, Isaac discerned that one of the major
transformative effects of the way of life of stillness is in
silencing thoughts, a decisive stage in spiritual progress
(Part I/39, p. 297, trans., p. 198). Isaac imagined the
silence of the entire self, moments in which a person
is reduced to silence in wonder and remains filled with
delight from head to toe (Part II/18.18, p. 90, trans., pp.
100101). This state, he explained, does not come about
from human will: For those who, at the time of prayer,
or it may be at other times, are stirred by an intellect
which yearns for God, are reduced to a state of silence
and dismay by the spiritual vision and by the mysteries
[they behold] (Part II/35.2, p. 140, trans., p. 151). In
another passage Isaac elucidated: Whenever a person is
held worthy of that knowledge, his limbs all of a sudden
cease [to function] and there falls upon him a stillness
and silence (ely and etq) (Part II/13.2, p. 55, trans.,
p. 65).12 It is important to stress, however, that Isaac, like
his master Evagrius Ponticus, did not frame his thought
in terms of perfection, even though he occasionally used
the term. As Brock has observed, although he was aware
of the tripartite schemas of John, Evagrius and Dionysius
the Areopagite, Isaac has narrowed down and limited
the tripartite classification to the monastic life (Brock
2011:87). Yet Isaac stretched the inner progress to its end,
namely, to the state in which the self is reduced to silence
in wonder, without describing this highest activity as
 PERFECTION, IMPERFECTION AND STILLNESS IN LATE ANTIQUE SYRIAC CHRISTIANITY
perfection. This was done, for example, at the end of the
seventh century and in the eighth century, in the region of
northern Iraq, by John of Dalyatha and Joseph Hazzaya,
who belonged to the East Syriac mystical school (Beulay
1990; Chial 2011).
John of Dalyatha described the degree of
Perfection as follows: From here he said, it is the River (Jos. 5:3) for describing the circumcision of the
entrance to the place of visions, a place of joy and light
without form; the movements of the mind are stilled
in the wonder caused by the marvelous visions; the
soul sees itself, and the mind is guided by angels and
by the Spirit and stays with spiritual beings. All these
things are given to those that persevere in solitude and
put to death their passions, he said. Perfection in human
beings, he concluded, is love for God and love for a
person (Homily 6:13-45, trans. pp. 162189). Elsewhere
he stated that the monk who continues to pray by means
of stirrings a sort of inner movement still stays below
the level of perfection, since perfection is a wonder
caused by God, and not something that one get through
continued stirrings of prayer (Letter 12.1, trans. pp.
5456). Although he offered a detailed description of the
various stages of wonder, he did not bother himself with
the question whether perfection is attainable in this life
or not. This is a question handled by his contemporary
Joseph Hazzaya.
Joseph Hazzaya (The Seer) was born into a
Zoroastrian family (ca. 710), converted to Christianity
and became a monk and an abbot in the region of northern
Iraq. In his Letter on Three Steps he provided one of the
most detailed theories of perfection, in which he fused in
a creative way John of Apameas tripartite scheme and
Evagrius ascetic system, whom he mentioned by name
(Brock 2011:8788). The first stage, Hazzaya explained,
is a bodily stage of renunciation of the world, for which
he used the metaphor of Moses, the Exodus from Egypt
and the entrance to the Promised Land namely, the
monastery (Letter on Three Steps 20:51, 60:79).13 It
consists of obedience, humility and observance of the
commandments, exercise of silence and avoidance
of speech. The bodily stage is a composite experience
with the senses, and all the knowledge that the intellect
receives is corporeal. (Letter on Three Steps 132:154,
134135:154156). The transition from communal life
to solitary life marks the second stage, the stage of the
soul (nafnut), for which Hazzaya used the metaphor
of crossing the Jordan River that is, a departure from
the coenobium to living by oneself in a cell, in solitude
231*
(ely), while keeping the silence of the body and the
silence of the soul. At this stage the monk struggles
against the seven sins, symbolized by the Israelites
fight against the seven nations of Canaan. Hazzaya used
as well the image of the second circumcision of the
Children of Israel by Joshua after crossing the Jordan
heart from the seven sins, which is, he explained, the
stage of the soul (Letter on Three Steps 135:156).
This is also an epistemological stage in which the
knowledge of the intellect differentiates from all others;
all the ascetic exercises are mental and the knowledge is
beyond the senses. In this second stage the monk attains
the degree of limpidity of the mind (shafyt d-hwn),
and his intellect, purified of all passions, can arrive at
the vision of the two worlds (Letter on Three Steps
140:162). This limpidity is a transitory stage between
the second stage and the beginning of the third, that of
the spirit (runut). This is an experience he described
as fire that envelops the soul and lasts a short time
(Letter on Three Steps 106:128130). He offered a
subtle description of the movement of the intellection
in the heart, accomplished in solitude, and leading to
wonder (tehr) something, he specified, that cannot
be studied from books. The wonder captures and arrests
the tongue and prevents him from speaking. One should
hold his intellect like a stone without sensation, like a
dumb creature that does not speak. Hazzaya provided
two indications that one has reached this stage: while
reading the Scriptures, the heart is filled up with wonder
and speech ceases from the mouth; a sort of flame of fire
descends on the heart. This is the first sign. The second
sign is that there will be no moment at which the intellect
of the monk will cease from remembrance of God, and
the tongue of the monks intellect will stammer, without
ceasing, the hidden prayer in the heart (Letter on Three
Steps 141:164166). This is an indication that the monk
has reached the summit of the second stage, in which,
he said, the mind can be in wonder (tehr) for one or
two hours, or even the whole day (Letter on Three Steps
136:158). This intensive mystical stage is additionally
characterized by recollection of thought, and the monks
thinking is reduced to one thought and fixing his gaze
on the divine. Through this technique of recollection of
thoughts, mysteries are revealed in the monks soul. His
tears flow without his will, making him taste the sweet
flavor of the spirit. These tears he named the Promised
Land. Needless to say, this stage is given only to the few
232* BROURIA BITTON-ASHKELONY
monks who have purified their passions of the body and
the soul, and reached limpidity of the mind and the spirit,
far from any forms, a sort of contemplative knowledge
(Letter on Three Steps 137139:158162). Above this
stage of limpidity of the mind is the sphere of the spirit
(runut), in which the mind is constantly occupied in
glorifying the angels of light. It is precisely at this point,
in the third stage, that the author exhibits his endeavor
to explain what seems at first glance perplexing and
ineffable. In this stage the monk finds himself in a
natural state (the stage before Adams sin) and has access
to spiritual contemplation, but his intellect no longer has
self-control (Letter on Three Steps 144:168); the mind
can see only spiritual substances and will plunge in
the light of the Holy Trinity (Letter on Three Steps
142:166). This could be described as an ecstatic state of
the apophatic self, in which one does not know whether
he is in his body or outside it. Human language will be
replaced by the singing of spiritual beings; all distinctions
will be null and void (paraphrasing Col. 3:11); the mind
that ascends to this spiritual sphere has lost its own
control, cannot see itself and loses its own self, since its
spirituality is mixed with the light that has enveloped it
and cannot distinguish itself; it has lost its subjectivity.
The mind dwells in wonder in a passive state (Letter on
Three Steps 145146:168170), yet the mind looks at all
the contemplations that are shown to it and moves from
one to another. Here again Hazzaya evokes the notion of
the apophatic self by drawing on the paradigm of Paul, II
Cor. 12:2: I know a man in Christ above fourteen years
ago, whether in the body, I cannot tell, or whether out of
the body, I cannot tell, God knows; such one caught up
to the third heaven.
After describing this intricate step he then states
very emphatically that the accomplishment of perfection
is possible only in the next world (Letter on Three Steps
147), because all the mysteries that will be revealed to
the mind at this step belong to the new world. Thus this
whole delicate state that he has described belongs, in fact,
to a pre-perfection stage. What we have seen here is the
road to a perfection unattainable in this life, in which the
ENDNOTES
1 On Pseudo-Macarius vocabulary of perfection and
spiritual experience, its roots in earlier traditions and the
anti-Messalian context, see Stewart 1991:8084, 96154.
2 On the religious experience in Late Antiquity, see Bitton-
monk travels from a corporeal care of his self, through
the dynamic activity of the mind, woven in the person of
silence, until he reaches the degree of an apophatic self,
no longer I, in which the main actor of the spiritual
progress, the mind, reaches its limit and becomes a
passive viewer. Hazzaya prays: May I grow in a hidden
way and attain the measure of the Hidden Person, may
I become someone perfected, made complete in all my
spiritual limbs, my head crowned with the crown of the
perfection of all the spiritual limbsMay I intermingle
with you (trans. Brock 1987:360361).
The late antique Syriac discourse on perfection was
a tense one that rendered the self unsaid and unknown
to itself. The everlasting quest for perfection on the one
hand, and the inherent assumption that it is in fact an
unattainable goal on the other, created a religious tension
in the Syriac Church for many generations. However,
this tension was also a creative impulse. It nourished
the Eastern Syriac mystical school in the seventheighth
centuries and continually furnished new systems of
thought, which negotiated with the psychology of the
monastic culture and with its literary legacy. It is a long
way from Pseudo-Macarius statement that he never met
a perfect Christian and the clear model of perfection
shaped by the author of the Book of Steps. Eastern Syriac
authors continued to ponder about perfection, yet they
could not accommodate it in their actual life. The ultimate
stage of the self that they could imagine on the way to
perfection was reducing the self to silence, becoming
a person of silence, as Philoxenos termed it. Authors
like Dalyatha and Hazzaya stretched the discourse on
perfection to its limit, enhanced the Pauline paradigm of
no longer I to include also the passive mind. Hazzaya
and Dalyatha represented the ecstatic tendencies in the
East Syriac mystical school, an inclination distant from
Evagrius and Philoxenos understanding of the life of
perfection, the monastic life. It is good to recall that John
of Apamea, John of Dalyatha and Joseph Hazzaya were
condemned by the synod of the Church of the East in
786/7. They had probably gone too far in their travel
toward perfection!14
Ashkelony 2013a.
3 See, however, Evagrius contrast between the secular,
novices and the perfect monk (teleios monachos) in
Chapters of Evagrius Disciples 179, pp. 246247. See
 PERFECTION, IMPERFECTION AND STILLNESS IN LATE ANTIQUE SYRIAC CHRISTIANITY
also his paradoxical statement: The perfect one (teleios)
does not practice abstinence since perseverance is
for the person subject to passions, in Praktikos 68, pp.
652653.
4 On the mixing language in Pseudo-Macarius with a
comparison with Syriac writers, see Stewart 1991:169203.
5 For the ascetic ideal of self-emptying, see Brock
2011:84. See also the Book of Steps 12.285: Brethren,
since we believe that there is a hidden self-emptying of
the heart it is right that we should empty ourselves in
the body too of our possessions and inheritance.
6 For an updated study on Syriac monasticism with
thematic bibliography, see Jullien 2010. See also Jullien
2008 and Kessel and Pinggra 2011.
7 On Philoxenos, see Halleux 1963. For a bibliographic
guide to Philoxenos works, see Michelson 2010. See also
the bibliography provided by Kitchen 2013.
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233*
8 The date of the Discourses is uncertain. This is Halleuxs
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9 For the ascetic theology of Philoxenos, see Michelson
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10 On the author, the text and his concept of silent prayer,
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11 A good orientation to the various collections of Isaac of
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12 On the importance of stillness, see also Part I/66, pp.
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13 In section 79:99 he recommended also manual labor for
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14 On this condemnation and its Messalian context, see
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M. Hansbury, The Letters of John of Dalyatha (Texts
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234* BROURIA BITTON-ASHKELONY
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