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A creaturely wisdom: Suffering, compassion and grace in Isaac of Nineveh
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2020
Abstract
In the writings of Isaac of Nineveh, a seventh-century East Syriac solitary, one finds a profound compassion for every created being, including wild animals, heretics and demons. This article shows that this compassionate attitude towards external negative entities is rooted in the creature's relationship with its own condition of vulnerability. This vulnerability is distinctive of the human condition. Isaac conceives of the passions as attempts to remove this ontological condition, proposing that one can instead learn to deal with it and to ‘take it on’. This occurs through a demanding exercise of relationship with one's suffering self, and only once this relationship has been discovered does grace reveal itself to the creature. Grace, therefore, emerges from Isaac's writings as something that never removes one's creaturely poverty, but reveals itself only to the person who has the courage to experience, ‘bear’ and ‘take on’ this poverty.
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References
1 As an introduction to Isaac, see Brock, S., ‘Isaac the Syrian’, in Conticello, C. G. (ed.), La théologie byzantine et sa tradition, vol. I/1 (Brepols: Turnhout, 2015), 327–72Google Scholar; Alfeyev, H., The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2000)Google Scholar; Chialà, S., Dall'ascesi eremitica alla misericordia infinita: Ricerche su Isacco di Ninive e la sua fortuna (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2002)Google Scholar. See also Hagman, P., The Asceticism of Isaac of Nineveh (Oxford: OUP, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kavvadas, N., Isaak von Ninive und seine Kephalaia Gnostika: Die Pneumatologie und ihr Kontext (Leiden: Brill, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Scully, J., Isaac of Nineveh's Ascetical Eschatology (Oxford: OUP, 2017)Google Scholar; Vesa, V., Knowledge and Experience in the Writings of St. Isaac of Nineveh (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2018)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. At present, we have three ‘collections’ of Isaac's writings regarding the authenticity of which there is scholarly consensus. These are often called ‘parts’ by scholars (pālgutā means ‘part’ in Syriac, and this is how the manuscript tradition labels the various ‘collections’). These ‘parts’ are mostly composed of discourses dealing with spiritual themes, but also include letters addressed to fellow solitaries and questions and answers clarifying aspects of the solitary life. In addition, Isaac's Centuries of Knowledge also survive. This material, which is included in his Second Part, constitutes Isaac's most speculative writings. It consists of four groups of gnomic sentences of different lengths (each group comprised of c.100 sentences) dealing with the profoundest aspects of the inner life. Several East Syriac spiritual writers composed centuries, drawing inspiration from Evagrius’ Kephalaia Gnostika, the first work of this kind. Isaac's First and Third Part have been edited in full, while the Second Part is only partially edited. For the First Part, see Mar Isaacus Ninivita De Perfectione Religiosa, ed. Bedjan, P. (Paris/Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1909)Google Scholar. For the edited portion (discourses 4–41) of the Second Part, discovered in 1983 by Sebastian Brock (manuscript syr. e 7, Bodleian Library, Oxford), see Isaac of Nineveh (Isaac the Syrian). ‘The Second Part’, Chapters IV–XLI, ed. S. Brock (Leuven: Peeters, 1995). For an English translation of the first two discourses, see ‘St Isaac the Syrian: Two Unpublished Texts’, trans. Brock, S., Sobornost 19 (1997), pp. 7–33Google Scholar. For a partial English translation of the third section (the Centuries) see Kessel, G., ‘Isaac of Nineveh's Chapters on Knowledge’, in Kozah, M., Abu-Husayn, A., Al-Murikhi, S. S. and Thani, H. Al (eds), An Anthology of Syriac Writers from Qatar in the Seventh Century (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2015), pp. 253–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the Third Part, see Isacco di Ninive. Terza Collezione, ed. Chialà, S. (Leuven: Peeters, 2011)Google Scholar. All the translations from Syriac of Isaac's passages in this article are mine, taking into account the available translations in modern European languages.
2 On East-Syriac christology, see Brock, S., ‘The Christology of the Church of the East’, in Afinogenov, D. E. and Muravjev, A. (eds), Traditions and Heritage of the Christian East: Proceedings of the International Conference (Moscow: Indrik, 1996), pp. 159–79Google Scholar; Brock, , ‘The “Nestorian” Church: A Lamentable Misnomer’, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 78/3 (1996), pp. 23–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 As an introduction to these writers, see Beulay, R., La lumière sans forme: Introduction à l'étude de la mystique chrétienne syro-orientale (Chevetogne: Éditions de Chevetogne, 1987)Google Scholar. See also Chialà, S., ‘Les mystiques syro-orientaux: Une école ou une époque?’, in Desreumaux, A. (ed.), Les mystiques syriaques (Paris: Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 2011), pp. 63–78Google Scholar. For a bibliography on these writers, see Kessel, G. and Pinggéra, K., A Bibliography of Syriac Ascetic and Mystical Literature (Leuven: Peeters, 2011)Google Scholar; Kessel, G., ‘Syriac Ascetic and Mystical Literature: An Update (2011–2017)’, Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 20/2 (2017), pp. 435–88Google Scholar.
4 Evagrius, disciple of the Cappadocians and later of Macarius the Egyptian and Macarius the Alexandrian, wrote extensively on the inner life. Condemned by the Fifth Ecumenical Council (553), some of his works survive only in Syriac (esp. his Kephalaia Gnostika). For a bibliography on Evagrius, see http://evagriusponticus.net. On his influence on the Syriac tradition, see Guillaumont, A., Les ‘Képhalaia Gnostica’ d’Évagre le Pontique et l'histoire de l'Origénisme chez les Grecs et chez les Syriens (Paris: Éditions de Seuil, 1962)Google Scholar. On Evagrius’ role in Isaac's writings, see Brock, S., ‘Discerning the Evagrian in the Writings of Isaac of Nineveh: A Preliminary Investigation’, Adamantius 15 (2009), pp. 60–72Google Scholar; Chialà, S., ‘Evagrio il Pontico negli scritti di Isacco di Ninive’, Adamantius 15 (2009), pp. 73–84Google Scholar; Géhin, P., ‘La dette d'Isaac de Ninive envers Évagre le Pontique’, Connaissance des Pères de l’Église 119 (2010), pp. 40–52Google Scholar.
5 For an introduction to John, see: Halleux, A. de, ‘Le milieu historique de Jean le Solitaire: Une hypothèse’, in Lavenant, R. (ed.), IIIo Symposium Syriacum, 1980: Les contacts du monde syriaque avec les autres cultures (Goslar 7–11 Septembre 1980) (Rome: Pont. Institutum Studiorum Orientalium, 1983), pp. 299–305Google Scholar; Harb, P., ‘Doctrine spirituelle de Jean le Solitaire (Jean d'Apamée)’, Parole de l'Orient 2 (1971), pp. 225–60Google Scholar; Bradley, B., ‘Jean le Solitaire (d'Apamée)’, Dictionnaire de spiritualité, ascétique et mystique, doctrine et histoire, vol. 8 (Paris: G. Beauchesne et ses fils, 1974), cols 764–72Google Scholar; for John's influence on Isaac, see: Khalifé-Hachem, É., ‘La prière pure et la prière spirituelle selon Isaac de Ninive’, in Graffin, F. (ed.), Mémorial Mgr Gabriel Khouri-Sarkis (1898–1968) (Leuven: Impr. Orientaliste, 1969), pp. 157–73Google Scholar; Chialà, Dall'ascesi, pp. 109–13; Scully, Isaac of Nineveh, pp. 48–51; for John's tripartite scheme of the spiritual life, see Brock, S., ‘Some Paths to Perfection in the Syriac Fathers’, Studia Patristica 51 (2011), pp. 77–94Google Scholar.
6 In the late eighth–early ninth century, at the Chalcedonian monastery of Mar Saba near Jerusalem, the monks Patrikios and Abramios produced a Greek version of this ‘part’ (first printed edition: Τοῦ ὁσίου πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἰσὰακ ἐπισκόπου Νινɛυῒ τοῦ Σύρου, τὰ ɛὑρɛθέντα Ἀσκητικά, ed. N. Theotokis, Leipzig, 1770); recently critically edited: Ἀββᾶ Ἰσαὰκ τοῦ Σύρου, Λόγοι Ἀσκητικοί, ed. M. Pirard (Ἱɛρὰ Μονὴ Ἰβήρων: Ἅγιον Ὅρος, 2012). On Isaac's writings at Mar Saba, see Brock, S., ‘Syriac into Greek at Mar Saba: The Translation of St. Isaac the Syrian’, in Patrich, J. (ed.), The Sabaite Heritage in the Orthodox Church from the Fifth Century to the Present (Leuven: Peeters, 2001), pp. 201–8Google Scholar.
7 See Brock, S., ‘Syriac into Greek at Mar Saba’; Brock, ‘Crossing the Boundaries: An Ecumenical Role Played by Syriac Monastic Literature’, in Bielawski, M. and Hombergen, D. (eds), Il monachesimo tra eredità e aperture (Rome: Studia anselmiana, 2004), p. 223Google Scholar; Brock, ‘From Qatar to Tokyo, by Way of Mar Saba: The Translations of Isaac of Beth Qatraye [Isaac the Syrian]’, ARAM 11–12 (1999–2000), pp. 475–84; on the versions of Isaac's works, see Chialà, Dall'ascesi, pp. 325–62.
8 See Salvestroni, S., ‘Isaac of Nineveh and Dostoyevsky's Work’, in Alfeyev, Metropolitan H. (ed.), Saint Isaac the Syrian and his Spiritual Legacy: Proceedings of the International Patristics Conference, held at the Sts Cyril and Methodius Institute for Postgraduate Studies, Moscow, October 10–11, 2013 (Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2015), pp. 249–58Google Scholar.
9 See n. 1.
10 See Brock, S., ‘Some Prominent Themes in the Writings of the Syriac Mystics of the 7th/8th Century AD (1st/2nd cent. H)’, in Tamcke, M. (ed.), Gotteserlebnis und Gotteslehre. Christliche und islamische Mystik im Orient (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2011), pp. 49–60Google Scholar; Brock, , ‘Isacco il Siro: Giustizia e misericordia in Dio’, in Valva, L. D'Ayala, Cremaschi, L. and Mainardi, A. (eds), Misericordia e perdono: Atti del XXIII Convegno ecumenico internazionale di spiritualità ortodossa, Bose, 9–12 settembre 2015 (Magnano: Edizioni Qiqajon, 2016), pp. 169–90Google Scholar; Chialà, S., ‘Trois thèmes majeurs de l'enseignement d'Isaac de Ninive’, Collectanea Cisterciensia 69/4 (2007), pp. 321–40Google Scholar; Chialà, , ‘Le péché de l'homme et la miséricorde de Dieu dans l'enseignement d'Isaac de Ninive’, Buisson Ardent: Cahiers Saint-Silouane l'Athonite 16 (2010), pp. 67–79Google Scholar; Louf, A., ‘Pourquoi Dieu se manifesta, selon Isaac le Syrien?’, Connaissance des Pères de l’Église 80 (2000), pp. 37–56Google Scholar.
11 See I 2 14: ‘Cover the sinner …; sustain the weak and the distressed with your word … so that the right Hand which supports everything might sustain you’. Or I 5 79: ‘Love sinners but reject their works. Do not treat them with contempt because of their faults, lest you also be tempted by the same. Remember that you share the stink of Adam and that you also are clothed with his weakness.’
12 See I 74 507.
13 I 74 507. Isaac also writes (507–8): ‘At their remembrance and sight, his eyes let tears fall, due to the vehement mercy that is pressing on his heart. For because of [his] great compassion, his heart is brought low, and he cannot bear to hear or observe any damage or small suffering of anything in creation. For this reason, he offers prayer with tears continually even for irrational [animals], for the enemies of truth (i.e. the heretics), and also for those who harm him, that they be protected and strengthened – even for the reptiles [he prays], because of the great compassion that is poured out in his heart without measure, in the likeness of God’.
14 The first author to notice the importance of the theme of suffering in Isaac was Irenée Hausherr, who compared Eastern Christian views on this theme with John of the Cross’ concept of ‘night’. See Hausherr, I., ‘Les Orientaux connaissent-ils les “nuits” de saint Jean de la Croix?’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 12 (1946), pp. 5–46Google Scholar. For a first analysis of this theme in Isaac and its relationship to his understanding of the figure of Christ, see my ‘La passione secondo Isacco di Ninive’, Adamantius 21 (2015), pp. 341–52Google Scholar.
15 II 10 34 40 (Syr.); 49 (ET): ‘Nobody has ever been able to draw near to the luminous love for human beings without having first been made worthy of the sweet and inebriating love of God.’
16 See I 66 467.
17 I 24 178. Isaac adds ‘according to the word of the fathers’. This might refer, as Bettiolo and Gallo note (Isacco di Ninive. Discorsi ascetici 1, trans. M. Gallo and P. Bettiolo (Rome: Città Nuova, 1984), p. 217, n. 3), to a saying of Anthony: ‘Abba Anthony said that the cell of the solitary is the furnace of Babylon (cf. Dan. 3:49–50), where the three young men found the Son of God, and the pillar of clouds [from] where God spoke with Moses (cf. Exod. 40:34–38)’. See P. Bedjan Acta martyrum et sanctorum, tomus septimus vel Paradisum Patrum (Paris/Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1897), p. 463, no. 54.
18 I 3 38. Cf. Dan 3:49–50.
19 See I 36 279.
20 See I 35 233.
21 I 24 182.
22 I 3 38–9.
23 I 77 532.
24 Centuries I 30 25r.
25 I 35 242.
26 I 66 468.
27 Centuries IV 45 91v.
28 I 30 209.
29 Centuries I 64 51v.
30 Centuries II 33 40v–41r, 40v.
31 In III 13 24 110 (Syr.); 152 (IT).
32 See I 66 467.
33 See II 34 4 136 (Syr.); 148 (ET).
34 See II 34 12 137–8 (Syr.); 149 (ET). In II 34 4 136 (Syr.); 148 (ET), Isaac writes: ‘If the diver found a pearl in every oyster, everyone would easily become rich; if he brought [a pearl] up as soon as he dived, … pearls would be more frequent and numerous than pebbles.’ Isaac came from the Persian Gulf, where pearl diving was an important activity. ‘To dive’, in Syriac, also means ‘to be baptised’, and this use recurs in Ephrem, where is also found the idea of Christ as the Pearl, which Isaac also uses; see Brock, Sebastian, The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of St Ephrem (Rome: CIIS, 1985), pp. 106–8Google Scholar.
35 Cf. Centuries IV 41 90v; I 66 467.
36 See e.g. Centuries IV 55 94v–95r, 94v.
37 See e.g. Centuries II 29 40r–40v, 40r and II 34 1 134 (Syr.); 146 (ET).
38 Cf. Centuries IV 23 86r.
39 See e.g. Centuries III 86 78v–79r. On this theme, see my ‘Pride in the Thought of Isaac of Nineveh’, Studia Patristica 92 (2017), pp. 137–47.
40 I 2 16.
41 Cf. I 53 386.
42 I 51 365.
43 Cf. I 53 386.
44 I 5 75.
45 See Solignac, A., ‘Passions’, DS 12/1 (Paris, 1984), cols 339–48Google Scholar.
46 I 67 472: ‘While natures are things which are intermediate, distinguishable for vision by the light [of the mind], passions are like dense substances which, when placed between the light and that which is seen, prevent it from discerning things. Purity is the cleansing of the noetic air, in whose bosom the spiritual nature [which is] in us takes wing’.
47 That is, from encounter with God. On ‘knowledge’ in Isaac, see especially I 51 360–77. See Bettiolo, P., ‘Povertà e conoscenza. Appunti sulle Centurie gnostiche della tradizione evagriana in Siria’, Parole de l'Orient 15 (1988–9), pp. 107–25Google Scholar; Chialà, Dall'ascesi, pp. 119–41; Alfeyev, The Spiritual World, pp. 217–68; Seppälä, S., ‘The Idea of Knowledge in East Syrian Mysticism’, Studia Orientalia 101 (2007), pp. 265–77Google Scholar; Hagman, Asceticism, pp. 181–9: Kavvadas, Isaak von Ninive, pp. 77–138.
48 See Centuries IV 77 102r–v; Centuries II 35 41r; Centuries II 36 41r.
49 See Chialà, Dall'ascesi, 169–70. Hagman also stressed the role of fear in Isaac in Asceticism, pp. 112–19.
50 The idea that the human being has been created mortal is already present in Theodore of Mopsuestia, who is considered the highest theological authority in the Church of the East: see Macomber, W. F., ‘The Theological Synthesis of Cyrus of Edessa, an East Syrian Theologian of the Mid Sixth Century’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 30 (1964), pp. 14–23Google Scholar; Chialà, Dall'ascesi, pp. 95–9; Kavvadas, N., ‘Some Observations on the Theological Anthropology of Isaac of Nineveh and its Sources’, Scrinium 4 (2008), pp. 150–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kavvadas, ‘On the Relations between the Eschatological Doctrine of Isaac of Nineveh and Theodore of Mopsuestia’, Studia Patristica 45 (2010), pp. 245–50.
51 Centuries III 2 59v. See also Centuries III 78 103v.
52 I 35 267.
53 Isaac often highlights the fact that the aim of the solitary life is not ‘virtue’ in itself, which can remain merely exterior, but one's access to a state more inner and higher than ‘virtue’ (‘becoming dead also to virtue’). See Centuries II 43, 43r–v.
54 Isaac does not speak of the expiation of guilt through suffering, but interprets the solitary life, which implies suffering, as the choice to undergo an exigent process of education. On this ‘pedagogical’ understanding of difficulties, see e.g. Centuries III 71 75r–v: ‘If God is truly a Father … rational beings his children, this world the type of a school in which he instructs our childishness [in] knowledge and corrects [it] in proportion to [its] folly, the world to come the inheritance for the time of the fulfilment of the stature [of maturity], and there will be [a time] when those children will become [adult] men, [then] by all means the Father will also transform the outer aspect of correction into happiness, in the world of [adult] men.’ This conception is influenced by Theodore of Mopsuestia; see Chialà, Dall'ascesi, p. 96.
55 See e.g. I 59 416 and I 65 448.
56 I 60 424. I discussed this issue in my ‘La passione secondo Isacco’, pp. 345–6.
57 I 59 416.
58 Cf. I 60 423.
59 I 59 416.
60 Cf. Centuries IV 74 101r–102r. ‘Those who mourn’ – the Greek οἱ πɛνθοῦντɛς – in Syriac reads abile; and abilā (‘mourner’) is the word that also indicates the monk in the Syriac tradition, because the monk is devoted to eblā, which has the same meaning as the Greek πένθος, ‘mourning’ (still another variant, abilutā, indicates the entire monastic life). Isaac reads the Gospel's saying with these resonances in mind. For ‘mourning’ and repentance in eastern Christianity, see Hausherr, I., Penthos: La doctrine de la componction dans l'Orient chrétien (Rome, 1944)Google Scholar. For a perspective on Isaac, see Hunt, H., ‘The Soul's Sorrow in Syrian Patristic Thought’, Studia Patristica 33 (1997), pp. 530–33Google Scholar; Humt, , Joy-Bearing Grief: Tears of Contrition in the Writings of the Early Syrian and Byzantine Fathers (Leiden: Brill, 2004), especially pp. 129–59Google Scholar; Hunt, ‘The Monk as Mourner: Isaac the Syrian and Monastic Identity in the Seventh Century and Beyond’, in Alfeyev, Saint Isaac the Syrian and his Spiritual Legacy, pp. 147–54.
61 See e.g. I 8 105.
62 See e.g. I 48 339; 340.
63 Cf. 2 Cor 12:7–10: ‘So that I might not boast of the abundance of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in my flesh, a messenger from Satan, to buffet me so that I might not be exalted. Concerning this, I asked the Lord three times, that it might depart from me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is accomplished in weakness [krihutā; Harklean: mḥilutā]” … For, when I am weak [krih; Harklean: mḥil], then I am strong.’
64 I 61 428: ‘Then they learn the weakness of [human] nature and the assistance of the divine Power, when God first withholds his Power from them, when they are amidst trials. [In this way], they will perceive the weakness of [human] nature, the strength of temptations, and the wickedness of the Adversary … Through all of these things, they acquire humility … From where could they have acquired all of these things if they had not received the experience of the myriad of evils that God allowed to be in their midst? As it is written: “So that I might not exalt myself due to the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger from Satan (cf. 2 Cor. 12:7)”’.
65 I 8 104.
66 See I 8 104.
67 For a discussion of the relationship between ‘humiliation’ and ‘humility’ in crucial places of the Christian reflection on the inner life (including desert monasticism, the rule of St Benedict, Bernard of Clairvaux, and the writings of Christian de Chergé OCSO), see Foulcher, J., Reclaiming Humility: Four Studies in the Monastic Tradition (Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2015)Google Scholar.
68 The original meaning of the root mak, from which mukākā derives, is in fact ‘to lay flat, to lower or humble oneself’.
69 I 8 105.
70 On this theme, Alfeyev draws a parallel with the experience of Abba Anthony, left alone by God so that, alone, he might struggle with the demons. God, however, was secretly there. Cf. Athanasius’ Life of Anthony in The Book of Paradise, Being the Histories and Sayings of the Monks and Ascetics of the Egyptian Desert, ed. Budge, E. A. W. (London: W. Drugulin, 1904), II 18 (Syr); I 21 (ET)Google Scholar. See Alfeyev, The Spiritual World, p. 101.
71 Isaac often uses the verbs ṭ‘en and sbal, which mean ‘to bear’, but he also employs other verbs, such as ܚܡܣܢ, ‘to endure, hold fast, persevere’, and saibar, ‘to endure’.
72 Centuries IV 23 85v–86r.
73 Makikutā, like mukākā, derives from the mak. On humility in Isaac, see Alfeyev, The Spiritual World, pp. 111–28; Chialà, Dall'ascesi, pp. 236–43; Mansour, G., ‘Humility According to St. Isaac of Nineveh’, Diakonia 28 (1995), pp. 181–6Google Scholar; Hagman, Asceticism, pp. 189–96; Bettiolo, ‘Avec la charité’, pp. 331–6.
74 I 58 413.
75 I 2 16.
76 Cf. I 58 413.
77 I 58 408–9.
78 See II 5 26 13–14 (Syr.); 17–18 (ET): ‘And to those who are engaged in difficult battles with the demons, … send succour, Lord, and overshadow them with the cloud of your grace … and clothe them in the armour of humility …’
79 See A. Louf, Isaac le Syrien. Oeuvres Spirituelles-II (Bégrolles en Mauges: Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 2003), pp. 25–6, 33–4, 56–60. It should be noted, here, that Louf did not focus on the ontological nature of ‘weakness’, but tended to interpret it as moral insufficiencies and failures in askesis. However, his allusions detect a fundamental aspect of Isaac's thought, and were a source of inspiration for my research.
80 See Chialà, Dall'ascesi, pp. 159–60.
81 Ibid., p. 236.
82 I 34 224.
83 See Chialà, Dall'ascesi, pp. 241–2.
84 I 82 577–8. Isaac's understanding of a ‘humility’ which, by placing itself below all to ‘bear’ it, discovers a relationship with all, can be read together with this Apophthegm: ‘A brother asked Abba Timothy and said: “I can see myself that I continually remember God [lit: that my continual remembrance is before God]”. The old man said to him: “It is not a great thing that your thought is with God. This, instead, is great: if you see yourself below every creature”’. Budge, The Book of Paradise, 477, I 570 (Syr.); II 751 (ET).
85 I 65 457.
86 I 8 105.
87 I 8 105.
88 Cf. Centuries III 18 62v.
89 Isaac quotes Evagrius in I 22 174: ‘The stability of the intellect is the summit of intelligible realities; it resembles the colour of the sky upon which rises (ܕܢܚ), in the time of prayer, the light of the Holy Trinity’. Cf. Pseudo-Supplement 4, in Frankenberg, W. (ed.), Euagrius Ponticus (Berlin: Weidmann, 1912), pp. 426–7Google Scholar. The Syriac verb dnaḥ, ‘to rise’, indicates the rising of the sun, and can also mean ‘to shine through’, ‘to appear’. Isaac uses it as a technical term to indicate the revelation of something new, other, coming from elsewhere: ‘theoria’ (Centuries I 29 24v); ‘grace’ (Centuries III 44 66v–67r, 67r); ‘faith’ (I 51 376).
90 II 34 2–3 135 (Syr.); 146–7 (ET). The last sentence follows Brock's elegant translation.
91 I 8 104.
92 Isaac often describes this experience. See especially Centuries II 63 51r–v: ‘Some of the martyrs were seeing this [power] in a perceptible way, and at the time of the vehemence of the torments, it was appearing openly to many of them. … At this sight, not only were they acquiring courage, but they were [also] becoming completely insensible to all of the torments … Many times, also, the suffering of the body was taken away from them, as one of them said, when they were amputating and throwing away most of the limbs of his body. As every limb was torn asunder from him, he was filled with exultation, and was raising a hymn of joy to God … When it happened that they amputated one of his inferior limbs, which was the knee, in this limb he suffered. And when they asked him why, during their amputation of all of [his other limbs], he was quiet and exultant, [but] at this he raised [his] voice … he told them something which is true: “You should know that, when you were amputating all of my other [limbs], I did not suffer, and my mind was wholly in heaven, but for this [limb], I was allowed to suffer now, so that I may know that I am a human being, and [that] it was not a power of [my] nature which [supported me] up to now”.’