© 2 0 1 4 – N a z a r a n i F o u n d a t i o n – A l l R i g h t s R e s e r v e d

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A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO

THE RULE OF MÂR RABBULA

BY HADRIAN MÂR ÉLIJAH BAR ISRAËL

© 2016 – All Rights Reserved by Righteous Endeavour

ISBN 9781312348219

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INTRODUCTION

For more than fifteen hundred years, the Rule of Mâr Rabbula has been the

monastic rule followed by the monastics of Syria and throughout the Middle

East, China and India and elsewhere that Christian monasticism thrived. It

is a guide for the ascetic life and practice, which is both simple and yet

sufficiently advanced so as to bring monastic ism into the present age. It has

been suggested that the Rule of Mâr Rabbula may have even been the basis

for Saint Benedict's "Rule"[i], which is the basis of most of the monastic

rules, which have been written in the west.

RABBULA IN CONTEXT

Mâr Rabbula ܪܒܘܐܠ ܡܪ was by all accounts a radical ascetic, who after

converting to Christianity, abandoned his wife and family and travelled to

Baalbek in western Lebanon (Phoenicia Libanensis), where it was still

possible to seek martyrdom by provoking the pagans to violence.[ii]

Returning home badly beaten but very much alive, he lived for some time

in a monastery and even possibly as a hermit in the desert. In 411 A.D. he

was elected metropolitan (i.e. archbishop) ofܐܘܪܗ (“Urhoy”, which was

later to be called Edessa, and is now known as Şanlıurfa in modern Turkey);

and served for twenty four years in that post until his death in August of

435 A.D.[iii]

According to the “Life of Rabbula, a biography of the Monophysite Tyrant

of Edessa” which was composed shortly after his death, his biographer states

that he didn’t bother with the customary refusals upon being nominated

bishop, but instead accepted the post straight away.

Theodore of Mopsuestia had been his mentor, but Rabbula turned against

him after a public rebuking of Rabbula at a synod. And even though his

diocese in Edessa was strongly supportive of the Nestorian position [iv],

Rabbula was among the first to denounce the doctrine of Nestorius of

Constantinople, even going to so far as to smacking him in the face at the

council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. [v]

Rabbula also expressed his personal dislike of the Diatessaron, which was

the primary scripture in use at that time throughout Mesopotamia. He

instead translated the Greek’s gospel redaction into the Syriac of his a ge,

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thus creating the “Evangelion de Mepharreshe”, or “separated gospels” in

what is now known as the “Old Syriac” version of the Peshitta. Arthur

Vööbus, and others have now successfully shown that the original text of

the Aramaic Peshitta predates both the Greek redactions which were almost

certainly translated from it, and also the Old Syriac version, which itself

was transcribed directly from the Greek translation of the Aramaic Peshitta.

[vi] Rabbula ordered that all other versions of the scriptures wh ich could be

found should be burned; which produced a mighty fire which he himself

oversaw. [ v i i ]

Rabbula believed that men in all levels of life, required rules to protect and

guide them, even in the desert. Up until his time, there had been no monastic

rule for the monks of Edessa. Rabbula sought to institutionalise the customs

of these humble monastics in a way that hadn’t been done before in Edessa

by introducing his own version of the cenobitic rule of Pachomius, which

he had received from his new friend Cyril of Alexandria.

All of this of course exists in juxtaposition of the monasticism of

Mesopotamia, where the Beth Qayim, the Sons and Daughters of the

Covenant practiced a radical form of urban monasticism, known for living

the life of Saint John the Baptist, as true Nazarani with unshorn hair, and

long white robes, often subsisting by begging for their sustenance, et cetera.

Whether or not it was this practice that Rabbula desired to do away with by

creating his Admonitions for Monks cannot be known.

ADMONITIONS TO MONKS BY MÂR RABBULA

The following are adapted from the translation of R.H. Connolly [v i i i ]

1. Before all things let the monks see to it that on no account women enter

their monasteries.

2. Let not the brethren of the monastery enter the villages, except the

Visitor of the monastery only, [and let him] observe the rules of decorum.

3. The Visitor who enters a village or a city shall not go about from house

to house; and he shall not lodge with lay folk, but at the church, or at a

monastery, if there be one at hand.

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4. Let not the monks be drinking wine, lest they fall to blaspheming; rather

let them avoid buying [wine] to drink.

5. Let not the monks grow their hair long; and let them not wear or hang

iron [upon their persons], except only those who are recluses, and do not go

abroad anywhere.

6. Visitors who go abroad on the business of the monastery shall not wear

garments of hair: nor any of the monks, [when] outside the monastery, lest

they bring their venerable [monastic] habit into contempt.

7. Let none of the monks perform the anointing (i.e. of the sick), especially

for women. If, however, there is one who is held in general esteem, let him

give the anointing to men. And if there are any women who are suffering,

let it (i.e. the oil) be sent to them through their relations.

8. Let not the commemorations [of the martyrs] be celebrated with large

gatherings of people, but by the monks of the monastery only.

9. Let not the monks have possessions of sheep and goats, or of horses

and mules or of other cattle, - unless it be a mule, for those who require one,

or a single yoke of oxen, for those who sow [the fields].

10. Books, other than [those dealing with] the Faith of the Church shall not

be kept in the monasteries.

11. Let there be no traffic of buying and selling in the monasteries; save

only what is sufficient for their need, without avarice.

12. Let no one of the brethren who are in the monasteries acquire anything

as his private property, apart from what is common to the brotherhood and

under the control of the superior.

13. Let not the superiors of the monasteries allow the brethren to have

interviews with their relations, or to go out and pay them visits, lest they

become demoralised.

14. Let not the brethren, on the plea of sickness, leave their monasteries and

wander about in the cities or villages; but let them bear their sufferings

inside their monasteries for the love of God.

15. Let not the monks leave their own locality and, under an assumed

personality, obtain judgments by bribery. And let them not go into the cities

or to the judges.

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16. The monks shall not, on the plea of [other] occupation or work, neglect

the seasons fixed for [divine] service by day and night,

17. Let them receive strangers lovingly: and let them not shut th e door in

the face of any of the brethren.

18. No one of the brethren shall dwell as a solitary except such a one that

has given proof of his manners for a considerable time.

19. Let no monk take an oracle out of a book for any one.

20. Let not any brother who is not a priest or a deacon dare to give the holy

thing [“the Sacrament”].

21. Those who have been made priests and deacons in the monasteries, and

have been entrusted with churches in the villages, shall appoint as superiors

in the monasteries those who have shown proof [of their capacity] and are

able to rule the brotherhood; and they themselves shall remain in charge of

their churches.

22. Let not any bones of the martyrs be found in the monasteries; but

whosoever has any such, let him bring them before us, and if they are

genuine they may be venerated in the chapel of the Martyrs;13 otherwise let

them be buried.

23. Those of the monks who wish to make for themselves urns for the dead

must bury them in the ground so that they cannot in any wise be se en.

24. If a brother, or a superior of one of the monasteries, departs this world,

let only the brethren of the same monastery bury him, and that quietly. If

they are not enough, let them invite with them the brethren of a neighbouring

monastery; but let them not assemble to the funeral lay people from the

villages.

25. If anyone is buying corn for the use of the monastery, let him not re ceive

anything over and above; but according to the current charge of the

threshing-floor, so shall he buy, and not be acting avariciously in the name

of the monastery.

26. Let no one receive a brother who moves about from one monastery to

another, without the permission of the superior with whom he was [before].

The end of the Admonitions to Monks.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

[i] Dale A. Johnson, Did Saint Benedict Know the Rule of Rabbula?,

Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 37:3 2002, pages 273 -277.

[ii] Jan Willem Drijvers, "The Protonike Legend, the Doctrina Addai and

Bishop Rabbula of Edessa," Vigiliæ Christianæ 51, 1997, pages 298 -315.

[iii] This “Mâr Rabbula” should not be confused with a similarly named

monk of the monastery of ܒܝܬ ܙܓܒܐ (Saint John of Zagba), who during the

mid-seventh century copied the now famous Syriac language gospel book

known as the “Rabbula Gospels”.

[iv] Francis Joseph Bacchus, "Rabbulas" in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol.

12. New York, Robert Appleton Company, 1911, retrieved from

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12619a.htm on June 8th 2014.

[v] Han J. W. Drijvers, Journal of Early Christian Studies, 4.2, John s

Hopkins University Press, 1996, pages 235-248

[vi] Arthur Vööbus, Investigations into the text of the New Testament used

by Rabbula of Edessa, Pinneberg, Baltic Univ., 1947

[vii] Theodore Zahn, Forschungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentlichen

Kanons, i. (1881), p. 105

[viii] R.H. Connolly, Rabbula, Admonitions to Monks, Some early rules for

Syrian monks, Downside Review 25 (NS 6), 1907. Pages 152 -162, retrieved

from http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/rabbula_some_early_rules.htm on

June 8 t h 2014.