Bardaisan of Edessa

Table of Contents ..................................................................................... v
Introduction to the present edition ..................................................... vii
Bibliography: Bardaiṣan of Edessa since 1966 .................................... xi
List of Abbreviations ............................................................................ xix
Chapter 1: Introduction. The Research and its Problems ................. 1
The First Period: 1855–1897 ......................................................... 3
The Second Period: 1897–1932 .................................................. 27
The Third Period: 1932 to the Present ...................................... 52
Chapter 2: The Book of the Laws of Countries ............................... 69
A. The Problem from the Point of View of Literary
History .................................................................................... 69
B. Bardaiṣan’s Conception of God, Man and the World,
According to the “Book of the Laws of the
Countries” .............................................................................. 88
Chapter 3: The Cosmology ................................................................. 109
The First Cosmological Tradition ............................................. 118
The Second Cosmological Tradition ........................................ 126
The Third Cosmological Tradition ........................................... 130
The Muslim, and the Remaining Christian Arabic
Traditions ............................................................................. 136
Chapter 4: Ephrem Syrus on Bardaiṣan ............................................ 143
A. Cosmology ............................................................................... 146
B. Bardaiṣan’s Hymns and Mythology ..................................... 160
C. Anthropology .......................................................................... 170
D. Fate and Astrology................................................................. 175
E. Bardaiṣan’s Personality, his Followers and his Writings .. 179
Chapter 5: The Other Traditions Regarding Bardaiṣan and the
Bardesanites .................................................................................. 185
A. The Greek Tradition .............................................................. 186
B. The Further Syriac Tradition ................................................ 207
C. The Arabic Tradition ............................................................. 222
D. The Armenian tradition ........................................................ 232
E. The Other Works Ascribed to Bardaiṣan ........................... 233
Chapter 6: Conclusions: Bardaisan and the Bardesanites in the
Setting of their Times ................................................................. 239
A. Edessa in the Second Century of our Era .......................... 240
B. Bardaiṣan’s Life ....................................................................... 243
C. Bardaiṣan’s Teachings ............................................................ 245
D. Bardaiṣan’s Relations to Marcion and Mani ...................... 252
E. The Fortunes of the Bardesanites ........................................ 254
Bibliography .......................................................................................... 257
Index of Subjects .................................................................................. 281
Index of Names .................................................................................... 295
Index of Modern Authors ................................................................... 299