Severian of Gabala
Encyclopedia
Severian, Bishop of Gabala
Gabala
Gabala can be either of the following:* Gabala , a genus of nolid moths* Gabala, a town in Angola* The Spanish languageIt also is a variant spelling of:* Jabala, a Christian city in Syria during the Middle Ages...

 in Syria (* before 380; † after 408(?)) was a popular preacher in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

 at the end of the 4th century. He became the enemy of John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom , Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. He is known for his eloquence in preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and his ascetic...

 and helped condemn him at the Synod of the Oak
Synod of the Oak
The Synod of the Oak was a provincial synod, held in Constantinople in July of 403, which condemned and deposed John Chrysostom as Patriarch of Constantinople....

.

Details of his life are scanty, and are preserved in Socrates Scholasticus
Socrates Scholasticus
Socrates of Constantinople, also known as Socrates Scholasticus, not to be confused with the Greek philosopher Socrates, was a Greek Christian church historian, a contemporary of Sozomen and Theodoret, who used his work; he was born at Constantinople c. 380: the date of his death is unknown...

 and Sozomen
Sozomen
Salminius Hermias Sozomenus was a historian of the Christian church.-Family and Home:He was born around 400 in Bethelia, a small town near Gaza, into a wealthy Christian family of Palestine....

. There is a brief life in Gennadius. These tell us that he came to Constantinople around 398/399. He preached in a definite Syrian accent, and became a favourite of the empress Eudoxia
Aelia Eudoxia
Aelia Eudoxia was the Empress consort of the Byzantine Emperor Arcadius.-Family:She was a daughter of Flavius Bauto, a Romanised Frank who served as magister militum in the Western Roman army during the 380s. The identity of her father is mentioned by Philostorgius...

. He was initially a friend of Chrysostom, but was insulted by his staff. When Chrysostom backed his own men, the two became enemies. Quasten described him as "full of hate" for Jews and heretics.

Around 30 of his sermons are extant. A dozen were preserved in Greek among the works of his enemy Chrysostom, and others exist in Syriac, Coptic, and Arabic. A group of his sermons were published in Venice in 1827 in Armenian by J. B. Aucher. Almost none have been edited critically, some have never been published, and the list is not certainly complete. Details of his works can be found in the Clavis Patrum Graecorum
Clavis Patrum Graecorum
The Clavis Patrum Graecorum is a series of volumes published by Brepols of Turnhout in Belgium. The series aims to contain a list of all the Fathers of the Church who wrote in Greek from the 1st to the 8th centuries. For each it lists all their works, whether genuine or not, extant or not. Each...

 nos. 4185-4295. Many are edited by Migne in the Patrologia Graeca
Patrologia Graeca
The Patrologia Graeca is an edited collection of writings by the Christian Church Fathers and various secular writers, in the ancient Koine or medieval variants of the Greek language. It consists of 161 volumes produced in 1857–1866 by J. P. Migne's Imprimerie Catholique...

 65.

Severian belonged to the Antiochene school
School of Antioch
The School of Antioch was one of the two major centers of the study of biblical exegesis and theology during Late Antiquity; the other was the catechetical school of Alexandria...

 of exegesis
Exegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...

, and his interpretations can be very literal. He is notorious for his six sermons on the Creation
Creation
Creation may refer to:In religion and philosophy:*Creation myth, stories of the supernatural creation of the Earth and its inhabitants*Genesis creation narrative, The Biblical account of creationIn science and technology:...

, in which he expresses "absurdly literal" views including support for the Flat Earth
Flat Earth
The Flat Earth model is a belief that the Earth's shape is a plane or disk. Most ancient cultures have had conceptions of a flat Earth, including Greece until the classical period, the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations of the Near East until the Hellenistic period, India until the Gupta period ...

.

His Discourse on the Seals discusses the canon of scripture.

His biblical commentaries also contributed to Greek catenas.

He is sometimes confused with Eusebius of Emesa
Eusebius of Emesa
Eusebius of Emesa was a learned ecclesiastic of the Greek church, and a pupil of Eusebius of Caesarea....

 in manuscripts.

Literature

  • J. B. Aucher, Severiani sive Seberiani Gabalorum episcopi Emesensis Homiliae, Venice, 1827. Sermons in Armenian translation.
  • J.L.E. Dreyer, A History of Planetary Systems, (1906), p. 211-2.
  • Remco F. Regtuit, Severian of Gabala, Homily on the Incarnation of Christ (CPG 4204). VU University Press, Amsterdam, 1992
  • Cyril Moss, Homily on the Nativity of Our Lord by Severian, Bishop of Gabala, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 12, No. 3/4, Oriental and African Studies Presented to Lionel David Barnett by His Colleagues, Past and Present (1948), pp. 555–566 - Syriac text and English translation of text found in British Library Ms. Oriental 8606 and Vatican Ms. Syr. 369, fol. 15v-17v.
  • Johannes Zellinger, Die Genesishomilien des Bischofts Severian von Gabala. Aschendorff, 1916.
  • Henry Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography - article on Severian.
  • Robert C. Hill and Carmen S. Hardin, Commentaries on Genesis 1-3, IVP (2010), ISBN 978-0-8308-2907-1. English translation of Severian's Six sermons on Genesis, plus some sermons by Bede
    Bede
    Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...

    .

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