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A Priest Of Antioch In Syria Isaacus Antiochenus <ref name="term_14773" />
<p> <b> Isaacus (31) Antiochenus, </b> born at Amid (Diarbekir) in Mesopotamia, called "the Great" and "the Elder," a priest of [[Antioch]] in Syria, said to have visited Rome. His teacher was Zenobius the disciple of St. Ephraim, not (as Cave) [[Ephraim]] himself. The <i> Chronicle of [[Edessa]] </i> speaks of him as an archimandrite, without specifying his monastery, which was at [[Gabala]] in Phoenicia. He died <i> c. </i> 460. He is sometimes confused with Isaacus of Nineveh. Bar-hebraeus ( <i> Hist. Dynast. </i> p. 91) unjustly brands him as a heretic and a renegade. He was author of numerous works in Syriac, of which the chief were polemics against the [[Nestorians]] and Eutychians, and of a long elegy on the overthrow of Antioch by the earthquake of 459. He also wrote a poem on the Ludi Seculares, held by [[Honorius]] in his sixth consulship (a.d. 404), and another on the sack of Rome by [[Alaric]] (a.d. 410). [[Jacobus]] of Edessa reckons him among the best writers of Syriac. His poems are extant in [[Mss.]] in the [[Vatican]] and other European libraries. Many of them are wrongly ascribed to St. Ephraim, and included amongst his works in the Roman edition. In discourse No. 7 Isaacus speaks of relic-worship and holy days. Besides Sunday, many [[Christians]] observed Friday, the day of the Passion. No. 9 attacks prevalent errors on the Incarnation. Here Isaacus seems to fall into the opposite heresies, failing to distinguish Nature from Person; but elsewhere he uses language unmistakably orthodox. [[Assemani]] thinks his words have been tampered with by Jacobite copyists. No. 24, Christ suffered as man, not as God. No. 50 touches on future retribution: "The fault is temporal, the punishment eternal." This aims at those [[Syrian]] monks who had adopted the opinion of [[Origen]] on this subject. No. 59 is a hymn asserting, against the [[Cathari]] or Novatianists, that fallen man recovers innocence not only by baptism, but also by penitence. No. 62 is a hymn of supplication, lamenting the disasters of the age, <i> e.g. </i> the inroads of [[Huns]] and Arabs, famine, plague, and earthquake. [[Johannes]] Maro quotes two discourses not found in the Vatican [[Mss.]] The first, on Ezekiel's chariot, clearly asserts two natures and one person in Christ: "duo aspectus, una persona; duae naturae, unus salvator." Similarly, the second, on the Incarnation. Bickell printed both, so far as he found them extant ( <i> [[S.]] Isaac. Op. </i> i. 50, 52). </p> <p> The library of the British Museum possesses about 80 of the discourses, hymns, prayers, etc., of St. Isaacus in [[Mss.,]] ranging from the 6th to the 12th cent. Dr. Bickell, in the preface to his edition of the works of Isaac, gives a list of 178 entire poems, and of 13 others imperfect at the beginning or end (179â€“191); three prose writings dealing with the ascetic life (192â€“194); five sermons in Arabic, on the Incarnation, etc. (195â€“199); and a sermon in Greek, on the Transfiguration, usually assigned to St. Ephraim (200). </p> <p> See <i> [[S.]] Isaaci Antiocheni opera omnia ex omnibus quotquot exstant codd. [[Mss.]] cum varia lectione Syr. Arab. </i> primus ed. [[G.]] Bickell, vol. i. 1873, ii. 1877; Gennadius, <i> Vir. Illustr. </i> 66; Assem. <i> Bibl. Orient. </i> i. 207â€“234; Cave, <i> Hist. Lit. </i> i. 434; Ceillier, x. 578; Wright's <i> Cat. Syr. [[Mss.]] Brit. Mus. General Index, </i> p. 1289. </p> <p> The poems of Isaac are important for the right understanding of the doctrines of the Nestorians, Eutychians, Novatianists, Pelagians, and other sects; besides being authorities for the events, manners, and customs of the writer's age. </p> <p> [[[C.J.B.]]] </p>

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<ref name="term_14773"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/a-dictionary-of-early-christian-biography/isaacus+antiochenus,+a+priest+of+antioch+in+syria A Priest Of Antioch In Syria Isaacus Antiochenus from A Dictionary of Early Christian Biography]</ref>
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