Simeon of Beth Arsham: Difficulties of Confessional Identification in the Christian Orient

Abstract

Simeon of Beth Arsham, a priest and later bishop of the Church of the East, the main Christian community in Sasanian Iran, was one of the most prominent figures in the Syriac tradition. Simeon’s activity began at the turn of the 5th — 6th centuries, when this community was under the strong influence of the extreme dyophysite Christology of the Antiochene school, which prepared the East Syrian tradition for the subsequent reception of Nestorianism. Being a supporter of Christological views diametrically opposed to Antiochene theology, Simeon actively fought against the “Nestorianization” of his native tradition. On the basis of sources dedicated to the “Persian debater”, as well as Simeon’s own writings, the author clarifies the relative and absolute chronology of his life, the confessional status of Simeon’s doctrine within Nicene Christianity, and also considers his struggle with the “Nestorians” not as a set of disparate measures, but as a system of strategies aimed to narrow down the influence of extreme Antiochene theology in Iran.