Page 29 - New English Book L
P. 29
28
It will be noticed that the Greek form of the genitive
case “Theou,” i.e. “God’s” [1] was corrupted into “Theos”;
[1] 1. Concerning the Logos, ever since the second century a very fierce controversy
about it arose among the “Fathers” of the Church, especially in the East, and it
continued until the Unitarians were utterly crushed and their literature destroyed.
To-day, unfortunately, there remains hardly any portion intact or an unaltered
fragment from the “Gospels” and ‘Commentaries” as well as the controversial
writings belonging to the Unitarians, except what has been quoted from them in the
writings of their opponents, such as the learned Greek Patriarch Photius and those
before him.
Among the “Fathers” of the Eastern Christians, one of the most distinguished is St.
Ephraim the Syrian. He is the author of many works, chiefly of a commentary on
the Bible, which is published both in Syriac and in Latin, which latter edition I had
carefully read in Rome. He has also homilies, dissertations called “madrashi” and
“contra Haeretici,” etc. Then there is a famous Syrian, author Bar Disan (generally
Written Bardisanes) who flourished in the latter end of the second and the first of the
third century A.D. From the writings of Bar Disan, nothing in the Syriac is extant
except what Ephraim, Jacob of Nesibin and other Nestorians and Jacobites have
quoted for refutation, and except what most of the Greek Fathers employed in their
own language. Bar Disan maintained that Jesus (pbuh) Christ was the seat of the
temple of the Word of God, but both he and the word were created. St. Ephraim, in
combating the “heresy” of Bar Disan, says:
(Syriac):
“Wai lakh O, dovya at Bar Disan
Dagreit I’Milta eithrov d’ Allaha.
Baram Kthabha la kthabh d’akh hakhan
Illa d’Miltha eithov Allaha.”
(Arabic):
“Wailu ’I-laka yá anta’ s-Safil Bar Disan
Li-anna fara’aita kána ’I-kalámo li ’I-Láhi
Lá-kina ’l-kitábo má kataba kazá
Illa ’l-kalámo kána ’l-Láh.”
(English translation):
“Woe unto thee O miserable Bár Dísán,
That thou didst read the “word was God’s”!
But the Book [Gospel] did not write likewise,
Except that, “the Word was God.”
Almost in all the controversies on the Logos the Unitarians are “branded” with the
heresy of denying the eternality and divine personality of it by having “corrupted”
the Gospel of John (pbuh), etc. these imputations were returned to the Trinitarians
by the true Nasára -Unitarians. So one can deduct from the patristic literature that
the Trinitarians were always reproached with having corrupted the Scriptures.