Babai the Great

Life events

1. Born — 551

   Babai was born c. 551 in Beth Ainata, a town in Beth Zabdai on the west bank of the Tigris near Nisibis, to a family of humble means.

2. Educated — 571

   Babai studied at the Christian School of Nisibis under Abraham of Beth Rabban; around 571, when the Origenist Henana of Adiabene became headmaster, Abraham the Great of Kashkar founded a new monastery on Mt. Izla above Nisibis.

3. Tonsured — 588

   After teaching at the Xenodocheio of Nisibis, Babai joined Abraham's monastery on Mt. Izla; when Abraham died in 588, Babai departed and founded a new monastery and school in his home region of Beth Zabdai.

4. Other — 604

   In 604 Babai became the third abbot of Abraham's monastery on Mt. Izla, immediately enforcing strict monastic discipline: he expelled monks who lived with women on the fringes of the monastery and insisted on prayer and solitude, triggering a mass exodus of the married monks.

5. Other — 608

   When Catholicos Gregorius died c. 608, Khosrau II refused to permit a new election; the bishops appointed Archdeacon Mar Aba for the south and Babai as inspector-general of the monasteries of the three northern provinces — Nisibis, Beth Garmai, and Adiabene — acting as de facto patriarch though he could not ordain or consecrate.

6. Wrote

   During the 17-year patriarchal vacancy, Babai produced some 83 or 84 volumes of Syriac writing, including the Book of Union in seven memre covering more than 200 folios, a commentary on Evagrius Ponticus, hagiographies of Christina and George of Izla, and the ascetic work On the Life of Excellency.

7. Died — 628

   After Khosrau II was murdered in 628, Babai was unanimously elected Catholicos but declined the office; he died shortly afterward in his monastic cell on Mt. Izla, aged approximately 75 or 77.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Babai teaches two qnome (natures/essences) unmingled but everlastingly united in one parsopa (person) — a formulation Jaroslav Pelikan attributed to the greater terminological precision of Syriac over Greek. (likely)
• Babai composed the Teshbokhta (Hymn of Praise), still sung in the Assyrian Church of the East, whose lines 'the natures are preserved in their Qnumas, in one person of one Sonship' condense his dyophysite Christology into Syriac liturgical verse. (likely)
• To counter Origenist influence, Babai wrote a commentary on Evagrius Ponticus presenting him as opposed to Origen; an 8th-century manuscript survives with both texts, though it is an abridgement of Babai's larger, now-lost original. (likely)
• Babai governed the northern Church of the East as de facto patriarch for 17 years without episcopal rank, unable to ordain or consecrate, because Khosrau II — influenced by his Miaphysite wife Shirin and court physician Gabriel of Shiggar — blocked all elections from 608 to 628. (likely)
• Babai's principal theological authority was Theodore of Mopsuestia, yet there is no evidence he could read Greek; his entire engagement with the Antiochene tradition was conducted through Syriac translations. (likely)