12 - Narsai, Selections from the Metrical Homilies on the Nativity and on the Epiphany

Summary

In what follows, the fifth-century Syriac writer Narsai considers several moments from biblical stories in order to understand their significance for how Christians should think about Christ. Each of the vignettes Narsai discusses – the creation of humanity, an angel’s visit to Mary to announce her pregnancy, Jesus’s circumcision, and his baptism by John – offers a way to consider the purpose and nature of Christ as the Word of God. Throughout Narsai affirms the immutability of the Word even in the incarnation and stresses that it was the human being who was the subject of these biblical events, not the immutable Word of God. Narsai holds that the immutable Word did not literally became flesh in the incarnation (since that would be impossible for the Word), but rather indwelt the human being for the purpose of revealing knowledge of God. Narsai’s ideas about these situations and others frequently reflect the teachings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, a writer and church leader who died in 428 and whom Narsai revered. That said, his ideas also go beyond Theodore’s teachings, and show us the development of Christian thought about Christ from one generation to another.