Narsai

Narsai of Nisibis ( * after 410, † 503 ) was a late ancient teachers of the Church in Edessa and Nisibis, and one of the " Syrian church fathers " of the " Nestorian " " Church of the East ".

Probably Narsai of Nisibis was born after the year 410, and experienced as a student, the persecution of Christians in the Sassanid Empire to 420 (see Bahram V ). When his parents' death, his uncle Emmanuel, abbot of the monastery in Kefar Mari Beth Zabdai, education Narsais, Narsai worked as a teacher at the monastery and studied at the famous theological school of the Persians at Edessa. The school was represented at - despite the Alexandrian bishop Rabbalu set of Edessa ( 412-435/36 ) - the antiochienische church doctrine of Theodore of Mopsuestia (c. 350, † 428). Under Rabbalus successor Ibas of Edessa ( 437-457 ) thus the " Nestorian " trained Narsais was the theological school of which he was at least twenty years after the 451 ladder. Under Bishop Qura ( 471-498 ) was the antiochienische faith in the Christian " orthodoxy " in the Eastern Roman Empire again and further into disrepute, Narsai fled to Persia, after Nisibis, and was determined by Bishop Barsauma of Nisibis to the head of the newly founded there a theological college. The school in Nisibis took over after the Emperor Zeno ( 474-491 ) in 489 prompted closure of the school in Edessa the training of theologians and priests of the East Syrian Church in Reading, Writing, liturgy, song, rhetoric, philosophy and exegesis. The work Narsais in Nisibis was interrupted only by a confrontation with Bishop Barsauma; Narsais returned for six years back in the monastery Kefar Mari, but found afterwards again in a Nisibis.

Narsai was the most important poet - theologian of the East Syrian Church. 360 Vershomilien, of which 80 are obtained, attributed to him, including the Vershomilie to the Persian Empire, the Narsai 503 wrote to show his loyalty to the Persian Great King Kawad I. ( 488-531 ). As Bibelexeget Narsai prepared as the biblical materials in his poetry on, themed events from the Old Testament such as the Tower of Babel, or from the Christian history of salvation as resurrection and ascension of Christ. In his homilies Narsais acted as an important representative of the East Syrian Church after many centuries.