Joseph Hazzaya

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Joseph Hazzaya (Syriac: Yawsep Ḥazzāyā; born c. 710×713) was an 8th-century Syriac Christian writer, ascetic and mystic. The nickname Hazzaya means "the seer" or "the visionary". He belonged to the Church of the East.[1]

The main source of biographical information on Joseph is the Book of Chastity of Isho'dnah of Basra, written a century or so after his death. He was born to a Persian family of Zoroastrian religion in the village of Nimrud about 710. During the reign of the Caliph Umar II (717–720), the villagers rebelled and the seven-year-old Joseph taken captive by the caliph.[1] He was sold as a slave to an Arab in Sinjar, who later sold him to a Christian from Qardu. There, Joseph became familiar with the ascetic life of the monks of the . He requested to be baptized and was freed by his owner in order to enter the as a novice.[1][2] His brother also converted to Christianity and took the name Abdisho.[2]

At the end of his novitiate, Joseph moved back to Qardu and lived as a hermit for some years. He then became the abbot of the local monastery of Mar Bassima, before moving to Mount Zinai in Adiabene to resume the life of a hermit. Again, he was persuaded to become the abbot of the local . He continued in this office until his death.[1]

Abdisho bar Berika claimed that Joseph wrote 1,900 treatises,[3] but only ten were extant in Abdisho's time.[1] He is generally regarded as a systematizer of the mystic and ascetic practices of the Church of the East. His most systematic work, A Letter on the Three Stages of the Monastic Life, is misattributed to Philoxenus of Mabbug in the manuscripts.[1] Like Philoxenus, Joseph taught that the monastic life fosters the charismatic gifts.[4] He belonged to the same theological family as Isaac of Nineveh, and John of Dalyatha.[5] He was the first to synthesise the three contemplations of the Hellenistic scholar Evagrius Ponticus (4th-century) with the tripartite division of the Syriac (5th century).[6][7] Among his other works are the treatise On the Divine Essence, the Chapters of Knowledge and the Book of Questions and Answers.[7] Many of his works, such as the Treatise on the Workings of the Grace of God, are erroneously transmitted under his brother's name.[1][2]

At a synod held in 786–787[1] or 790,[8] the Patriarch Timothy I condemned Joseph Hazzaya and two other ascetic authors, John of Dalyatha and , for heresy.[1] According to Timothy, Joseph rejected prayer and the divine office as impediments to receiving the charismatic gifts. He also supposedly slipped into Messalianism, claiming that a gmirā (person who had achieved perfection) did not need prayer, the office, scripture reading or manual labour.[1] These charges are not substantiated by any of Joseph's surviving writings,[1] but David Wilmshurst considers them unsurprising if Joseph claimed to be a "privileged recipient of divine revelation" as his nickname implies.[8]

The date of Joseph's death is unknown. Karl Pinggéra believes he was alive at the time of the synod,[6] but Micheline Albert believes he was already dead by then.[7]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k Robert A. Kitchen (2011), "Yawsep Ḥazzaya", in Sebastian P. Brock; Aaron M. Butts; George A. Kiraz; Lucas Van Rompay (eds.), Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage, Gorgias Press.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Sebastian P. Brock (1997). A Brief Outline of Syriac Literature. Kottyam: St Ephrem's Ecumenical Research Institute. pp. 61–62.
  3. ^ Scher, Addai (1910). "Joseph Hazzaya". Revista degli Studi Orientali. 3: 45.
  4. ^ McDonnell, Kilian; Montague, George T. (1990). Christian Initiation and Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press. ISBN 0-8146-5009-0.
  5. ^ Vesa, Benedict (2017). "Joseph Hazzaya and the Spiritual Itinerary". Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai - Theologia Orthodoxa. 62 (2): 105–118. doi:10.24193/subbto.2017.2.08. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Pinggéra, Karl (2018). "Joseph Hazzaya". In Oliver Nicholson (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. p. 836. |volume= has extra text (help)
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c Albert, Micheline (2005) [2002]. "Joseph Hazzaya (the Seer)". In André Vauchez (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. James Clarke & Co.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b Wilmshurst, David (2011). The Martyred Church: A History of the Church of the East. East and West Publishing. p. 137.
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