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Milestone Documents of World Religions, Second Edition

Book of the Bee: Document Analysis

by Dale A. Hueber

ca. 1200–1300 ce

“No one who does not obtain remission (of sins) in this world can be free from the penalty of examination in that day.”

Theodosius welcomes the relics of John Chrysostom. Miniature from the early 11th century.

MDWR_Book_of_the_Bee.jpg

Overview

The Book of the Bee was written in the thirteenth century ce by the Nestorian Christian bishop Solomon (Shelemon), a metropolitan bishop of Basra (al-Basrah), in what is now Iraq. Bishop Solomon wrote the Book of the Bee during the Pax Mongolica, the era when the Mongols’ four great khanates stretched from China to Persia and into eastern Europe, controlling the Silk Road and ruling vast lands that were home to many of the world’s religions. During this time, the learned Nestorians occupied many administrative positions within the Mongol Empire, enjoying a time of relative peace for their church. As a general history spanning the time before Creation to Judgment Day, the Book of the Bee represents Bishop Solomon’s commentary on elements of the Old and New Testaments as well as theological speculations on such matters as good and evil and the afterlife.

The Book of the Bee actually raises more theological and philosophical questions than it answers, as readers can find a multitude of seemingly contradictory statements. However, the bishop’s purpose was to recount earlier discussions held with his friend and peer, not necessarily to provide definitive answers to these questions. The book evokes the highly symbolic nature of Catholicism and serves as a record of the historical circumstances from which the Nestorian Church evolved in the Near East.

Context

The Nestorian Church, also called the Church of the East, has its origins in the first century after the Crucifixion of Jesus. After the visitation of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus’s apostles on Pentecost, several of the apostles, including Thomas, Bartholomew, and Andrew—along with perhaps many of the Persian Jews converted at the event—are believed to have spread the gospel not just to the Roman Empire but as far as the Persian Empire to the east and beyond to India and Central Asia.

Nestorius, a monk from Antioch, was elected patriarch of Constantinople in 428. Nestorius’s beliefs were influenced by previous fathers of Antiochene theology, who believed that Christ had two natures, human and divine, and that human nature was the subject of Jesus’s suffering on earth, thus keeping the divine nature (Logos) from being diminished. Thus, Jesus, perfect and complete as human, is consubstantial with God, perfect and complete in divinity; the two are united as one person. Accordingly, the Nestorian formula for the nature of Christ held that there are two real natures united in a single person without confusion or change. In the ensuing theological and political rivalries of the time, Nestorius’s beliefs were deemed heretical, and he was exiled to Egypt. The Church of the East, however, eventually adopted his theology, setting it at odds with the Catholic Church in Rome.

The Nestorian Church, with its home originally in Syria, used the Syriac language—the Christian name for Aramaic—throughout its history. Unlike the Catholic Church in Rome, it was never to become the state religion of any particular empire. Under a variety of rulers to include Persians (who favored Zoroastrianism) and Muslims, the Nestorian Church, while usually occupying a respected position because of its learning and tax revenues, was often viewed with suspicion, particularly after Rome adopted Christianity as its state religion. This resulted in periods of persecution, sometimes entailing hundreds of thousands of deaths. In India, where the apostle Thomas established churches in both the northern and southern parts of the subcontinent, Christianity became a permanent, though minority, feature of the overwhelmingly Hindu urban areas. In the millennium after the fall of Rome in the West, the Nestorian missionary effort would take the church south to the Arabian Peninsula and east to China, where thriving Nestorian communities remained well into the thirteenth century.

For much of its history, the Nestorian Church was more highly organized and had a much greater membership than either the Roman or Greek Orthodox churches of the West. The Nestorian Church was noted for its theological and medicinal studies. Nestorians worked with Muslim scholars to translate Greek and Roman learning into Arabic and were often found in positions of power, including as court officials and physicians to the caliphs. The church spread farther eastward through the efforts of monks, traders, and artisans, and monasteries were established in episcopal sees along with schools, libraries, and hospitals.

With the Mongol conquest of the Islamic Persian Empire in the thirteenth century, the Church of the East found itself in a favorable situation. The Nestorians flourished among the religiously tolerant Mongols, whose empire reached from China to Persia. During the Mongols’ reign, as with the caliphs, Nestorians found themselves installed in positions of administration and as physicians to the various khans. At perhaps its height in the late thirteenth century, the Church of the East boasted metropolitan sees throughout Asia, including the Middle East, India, Turkestan, and China, and had churches as far away as Siberia and possibly Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia. It was around this time that Bishop Solomon wrote the Book of the Bee.

About the Author

Not much is known about the author, Mar Shelemon, or Bishop Solomon. He was a native of Akhlât, in Armenia, and was the Nestorian metropolitan bishop of Basra in the thirteenth century ce. He was present at the consecration of the Nestorian patriarch Sabrisho’ IV bar Qayyoma, who as patriarch bore the title of “Catholicos,” in 1222. In catalogs of ecclesiastical works he is stated to have written, besides the Book of the Bee, a treatise on the heavens and the earth, various short discourses, prayers, and poems.

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

The Book of the Bee contains an introduction with an apology and sixty chapters, most of which are twenty-five lines or fewer in length. The purpose of the book, as noted by the author, is to provide information gleaned from the Old and New Testaments “concerning God’s dispensation in the two worlds.” The chapters generally follow the chronology of the Christian Bible with some diversions as well as theological discussions concerning the nature of the afterlife and Judgment Day. As a trained scholar, Bishop Solomon uses many sources outside the Christian Bible in constructing his arguments. The excerpted chapters provide a sense of the Nestorian viewpoint at a time when Christian theological discussion was mature with centuries of discourse, not only within the Church of the East but also with the Roman and Greek churches, Judaism, Islam, and to a lesser extent Asian religions. Wording in parentheses are the editor’s clarifications of the text.

♦ Introduction and Apology

The apology to the Book of the Bee contains information regarding the author and the book’s purpose and a discussion of why and how religious texts are studied. The author, Bishop Solomon, indicates that he is writing to a lifelong friend as a means of summarizing their theological discussions. Solomon uses both the Christian Bible and the teachings of “the Fathers and the Doctors” to formulate his discourses. In a fascinating metaphor, he describes the process of building religious arguments as equivalent to the life of a bee. Just as the bee goes from source to source to gather pollen and then turns it into honey and wax, so, too, has Bishop Solomon drawn on various sources to form a worldly foundation and a spiritual roof for his arguments. He then shifts the metaphor to relate theological research to the work of a gardener who plants and tends his garden. The author warns that if the fruits of his garden are too few, then the visitor should seek out the roots to be further satisfied, thus enjoining the reader to go to the source material to inquire further if his explanations seem inadequate. As a final warning, Solomon notes that just as eating too much honey can cause one to vomit, delving too far into the meaning of sacred texts robs them of their sweetness, implying that one can also “vomit” up one’s beliefs.

Time Line 150 ▪ The earliest Christians are living in Edessa, a region that is now part of Turkey. 196 ▪ Christian communities are established in the Persian Empire. 225 ▪ The Sassanid Dynasty assumes power in the Persian Empire. 313 ▪ Constantine issues the Edict of Toleration, which legalizes Christianity in the Roman Empire. 340 ▪ The Sassanids begin persecution of the Persian Church, which lasts until early in the next century. 428 ▪ Nestorius is ordained patriarch of Constantinople. 431 ▪ Nestorius is condemned as a heretic by the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus. 636 ▪ The armies of Islam begin to conquer the Middle East and North Africa. 850 ▪ The Abbasid Dynasty removes the Nestorian patriarch and begins to persecute Christians. ca. 1200–1300 ▪ The Book of the Bee is written by Mar Shelemon, or Bishop Solomon, of Basra. 1258–1401 ▪ The Mongols effectively rule over Persia (Il-Khanate).

♦ Creation

Bishop Solomon’s initial commentaries expound upon elements of the creation story found in Genesis. In chapter 1, he notes that there was no single time when God thought of creating the universe, that it was always in his mind, an image reinforcing the eternal nature of God. Humans have seniority over the other species of the world because the idea of the human being was thought of first in the mind of God, even though the other creatures were created first. And while the other creatures were created by God in the silence of the universe with a spoken word, Adam was formed directly by God’s hands, and it was the actual breath of God that infused life into him, making Adam a living soul with knowledge of good and evil. This makes the human body a temple for God to dwell in, a position very close to other religious views that the soul or spark of the human being’s nature is part of the divine. When Adam perceived that he was a created being and that there was a creator, the idea of God formed in his mind—an awareness very similar to what the angels experienced (as noted in chapter 7).

In chapters 2 and 3, the bishop comments on the nature of the divine power to create the universe. The original substances from which the universe is formed were created strictly through the will of God; heaven, the elements, the angels, and darkness came into being from nothingness. Each of these substances was separate, with unformed earth under the waters, air above the waters, and fire above the atmosphere, and with each described using the fundamental concepts of hot, cold, moist, and dry. The bishop refutes the notion that the “Spirit” mentioned in Genesis 1:2 refers to the Holy Spirit, insisting it refers only to the air.

Where Genesis does not mention angelic beings in its opening chapters, chapters 5 and 7 of the Book of the Bee, discussing angels, are based on tradition and learning carried down through the centuries since even before the birth of Jesus. Bishop Solomon’s discourse mirrors the angelic hierarchies of the Catholic Church and can be compared to discussions of angels found in Judaism, Islam, and Zoroastrianism, of which the author would have been well aware. The angels are in the presence of God and perform services for God based on their class. The lower order, the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels, are “ministers who wait upon created things,” essentially supernatural guides for humanity, including the guardian angels, who are assigned to a person from birth through to the final resurrection. Angels are above humankind in that they have a greater intellect, allowing them to understand more of the nature and design of the universe. Human beings, however, have stronger desires; this inclination is both negative and positive, in that desires, which tie people to the material world, lead them to sin but also to want to be more godlike. The demons, on the other hand, have greater anger than that of other rational beings, which by the nature of emotion—selfish and introspective—leaves them constantly in a sinful state.

Because the angels were not spoken into being but were created directly from the will of God, they believed that they were self-sufficient, that is, godlike. When God created light by not only willing it but also commanding it vocally, the angels became aware of the presence of God, and through their knowledge of his power they began eternal praise and worship of him. The bishop notes that light has no warmth, light being disassociated from fire and established as a separate element. Like philosophers from the Greeks on, Solomon speculates on the nature of light and its association with the divine; unlike the Platonists or Neoplatonists, he sees light as a created thing separate from God and not as emanations of God.

♦ Concerning the Afterlife

The last five chapters of the Book of the Bee deal with the afterlife. Chapters 56, 59, and 60 are of interest because of the manner in which the bishop discusses various beliefs concerning the soul, God’s mercy, the afterlife, and resurrection. To begin, the bishop states one of the core beliefs of the Church of the East even today: that death is God’s gift to humankind. While on the surface this would seem a contradiction, the majority religions today—Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—view the physical time the human being spends on earth as only a temporary state, one that contains conditions for distraction from the divine will (sin, karma, and so on). Thus the end of life, if one has lived in accordance with God’s will, leads one not to dismay but instead to a state in which one is in the divine presence. In discussing this end state, the bishop is compiling both church thought and traditional speculations, so the text sometimes seems contradictory.

In the opening paragraph of chapter 56, the bishop notes that humans die in five ways: naturally, voluntarily, accidentally, through violence, and through divine punishment (such as the Flood). Of these, only the first is “natural.” The others involve some act of will—even accidents, which are caused by an agency connected with the person’s actions. However, all of these reasons for dying are interwoven into God’s will, which cannot be understood by either humans or angels until resurrection, when all rational beings will understand it. When a person dies, the soul goes out of the body, and angels escort it. The angels do not defend the soul as devils examine it; the deeds a person performed in life become the determinant for whether the devils seize the soul and take it to Gehenna (Hell) or whether the soul proceeds on its way to the divine presence. In God’s presence, the soul forgets its earthly existence—although in the very next sentence the bishop notes that “the soul knows everything that it has done whether of good or evil.”

In the next paragraph, five different viewpoints on where the soul goes are listed, including to heaven or Paradise if good or to the “abyss of Eden outside Paradise” (Gehenna) if bad, while various traditions indicate that the soul somehow remains with or near the body. Souls, and hence humankind, may have knowledge of the truth, but it is a baby’s knowledge; true knowledge will come only with resurrection. As with other Catholic faiths, the Nestorians believe in the power of prayer and the intercession of saints. The prayers of the righteous, both living and deceased, are heard by God and can affect the living. Moreover, the souls of those who lived good lives “hold spiritual conversation with each other,” implying an afterlife that is engaging and active.

Chapter 59 concerns the consequences in the afterlife for both sinners and the righteous. In the first paragraph, Bishop Solomon uses a short logical discussion to argue that there must be punishment for sinners in order for there to be happiness for the godly. However, unlike the usual vision of hell as fire, molten rock, and physically agonizing torments, the bishop explains that the real torment of sinners is mental. The punishment of the sinner is tied to human intelligence, which is refined and made more acute at resurrection. Thus, the joy of the righteous and the anguish of the sinner are beyond anything the living can comprehend. The importance of intelligence is a consistent theme in the Book of the Bee. From the angels to the human soul, the bishop believes that rationality is the foundation of what the world is all about. Intelligence allows humankind to make decisions in earthly life, and intelligence continues into the afterlife to one’s great joy or torment depending upon what kind of decisions were made in life.

The second paragraph of chapter 59 describes the afterlife for the godly. The “light” of the righteous is not the elemental light but is instead some of the “light” of God, continuing the argument that as temples of God, humans share God’s light. There follows a note about the proportionality of that light for the righteous and of torment for the sinners, each according to how they lived. For the righteous, the more holy they were in life, the brighter the light. Yet in the next part of the chapter, the bishop makes the argument that all will be resurrected equally in the sight of God. There will be no names and no social distinctions, whether gender, class, nationality, ethnicity, age, or any other condition. All will arise as did Jesus, as a perfectly formed human, thirty-three years of age. Presumably, the proportional light distinguishing the most righteous ceases to be so after the final resurrection.

Chapter 60 provides a further interesting, though somewhat contradictory, look at the afterlife. In this chapter, Bishop Solomon argues for the mercy of God, but the arguments are not complete; he never truly answers the questions of whether torment for sinners is eternal or whether God’s mercy is complete. The bishop draws on the lost Book of Memorials and on the writings of three early Christian scholars in this chapter: Isaac, bishop of Nineveh, Assyria (in modern-day Iraq), in the late seventh century, a prolific ascetic author whose works were a foundation of Nestorian piety for several centuries; Theodore the Expositor, bishop of Mopsuestia (now Yakapinar, Turkey) from about 392 to 428 and author of the Book of Pearls (also since lost); and Diodorus, or Diodore (ca. 330–390), bishop of Tarsus (in modern-day Turkey) and teacher of Theodore of Mopsuestia.

Solomon begins the chapter with an observation about religious teaching, noting that those teachers who preach warnings of fire and brimstone terrify and cause despair—which is good for those who cannot think for themselves or control their lives—while other teachers encourage by expounding on God’s mercy. As quoted, the Book of Memorials indicates that humans should repent of sins in this world or suffer retribution in the next, which will be exacted “to the uttermost farthing.” To exact punishment to such a degree indicates there will be nothing left to exact, which means that there will be an end to punishment. Thus, once that retribution is carried out, the soul will be purified, and God will be satisfied.

The quotations cited by the bishop illustrate the universalist position that God’s intent is to dispense grace, not justice, which is a human motive. Divine punishment makes no sense without eventual divine mercy because, as the bishop indicates, what would be the point of eternal torment if the purpose behind the agony is to elicit understanding of one’s mistakes and sins and regret for them? If immortality is humankind’s eventual reward, it makes more sense for punishment to conclude, so that the immortal life of the soul is one of unending joy in the presence of God. In closing, Bishop Solomon quotes Diodorus’s Book of the Dispensation at length, affirming that God allots punishments and rewards according to what each soul deserves. The cited text reiterates that the punishment for sinners is really the mental anguish of having failed in life. Punishment for the body is “perhaps in proportion to the degree of sin,” and God shows mercy by lessening it according to his will, but punishment of the mind is forever, and “the judgment is for ever.” In keeping with the sense of recording the flavor of his philosophical and theological conversations with his friend from long before, the bishop leaves several thoughts open-ended. For example, punishment of the mind is said to be forever, but since intelligence is what defines humanity in this life and the afterlife and God intends to show mercy to humankind, then does God’s mercy extend even to mental punishment or not? Or will perhaps the greater truth to be revealed at resurrection allow the soul to fully understand and forgive itself?

Audience

According to the author, Bishop Solomon, the Book of the Bee was written by him as a form of personal correspondence with a longtime friend and peer, Bishop Narses. As the text roughly notes, Bishop Narses was located in Khoni-Shabor, also called Beth-Wazik, a town on the Little Zab River near its junction with the Tigris River, in present-day Iraq. Almost nothing else is known about Bishop Narses or what he actually did with the text. Copies were ultimately made, a number of which survived to the present day.

Essential Quotes

“‘When thou findest honey, eat (only) so much as is sufficient for thee, lest, when thou art sated, thou vomit it;’ that is to say, do not enquire (too closely) into the divine words.”

(Section 1)

“As the natural child in the womb of his mother knows not her who bears him, nor is conscious of his father, who, after God, is the cause of his formation; so also Adam, being in the mind of the Creator, knew Him not. And when he was created, and recognised himself as being created, he remained with this knowledge six hours only, and there came over him a change, from knowledge to ignorance and from good to evil.”

(Section 1)

“The foundation of all good and precious things, of all the greatness of God’s gifts, of His true love, and of our arriving in His presence, is Death.”

(Section 1)

“No one who does not obtain remission (of sins) in this world can be free from the penalty of examination in that day. Not that there is torture or pleasure or recompense before the resurrection; but the soul knows everything it has done whether of good or evil.”

(Section 1)

“The penalty of Gehenna is a man’s mind; for the punishment there is of two kinds, that of the body and that of the mind. That of the body is perhaps in proportion to the degree of sin, and He lessens and diminishes its duration; but that of the mind is for ever, and the judgment is for ever.”

(Section 1)

The modern audience for the text includes the contemporary congregation of the modern equivalent of the Nestorian Church. Although it is not a large sect, the Church of the East signed an agreement with the Roman Catholic Church in 1994 and is now considered part of that church order. Syriac (or Aramaic), the language that Jesus would have spoken, is still the official language of the Church of the East, and many of their beliefs are still practiced.

The history of Christianity has typically focused on its spread to the West, through Greece and the Roman Empire and then into the nations of Europe and the British Isles and onward to the New World. Less emphasis tends to be placed on the spread of the Christian Church to the East, largely because the Eastern versions of Christianity are less “orthodox” (from the perspective of the West) and because the cultures and the historical records are complex and incomplete. The Book of the Bee, however, provides the modern reader with insight into a different version of Christianity as it was practiced in a region of the world with a complex, diverse religious history that too often remains unfamiliar to Western readers.

Impact

The Book of the Bee has had little impact outside the Nestorian Church, except perhaps among seminarians, biblical scholars, and historians of religion. The most complete translation of the book from its original Syriac was made by Ernest A. Wallis Budge in 1886. For his translation, Budge used elements from four editions of the manuscript, each of which dates to three or more centuries after the original was written. While the historical presence of the Book of the Bee is mentioned in many sources, there are no readily available analytical references. Thus, while it is accessible to the public, the document is mostly of interest to audiences with immediate concerns as to the content. But with additional historical research in the process of being published about the Nestorian Church and its importance to history, the fascinating Book of the Bee may in the future receive richer attention and analytical focus.

Although the Nestorian Church no longer exists as such today, an understanding of the Book of the Bee is helpful to the modern student of religion in several ways. First, the Book of the Bee provides insight into the argumentation of religious doctrine as practiced in the early and middle ages of Christianity. The Nestorians had direct relationships with scholars of many faiths that most Europeans at the time would not have bothered with or did not even know about—primarily Jews and Muslims but also Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, and others—and had access to a far greater body of knowledge than did western Europeans. The influence of these faiths is evident in the Book of the Bee. Second, the book gives insight into a church that, while at its peak influence politically, was struggling to survive and would, after the downfall of the Mongol khanates, undergo persecution and internal corruption that would essentially seal its fate. Finally, the author’s intriguing commentary on Christian doctrine certainly remains relevant. Modern science has not uncovered the “physical” truths behind much of what is discussed in the Book of the Bee, so from a metaphysical perspective the discourse presented by Bishop Solomon can still be considered pertinent almost eight hundred years later.

Further Reading

▪ Books

1 

Baum, Wilhelm, and Dietmar W. Winkler. The Church of the East: A Concise History. New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.

2 

Foltz, Richard C. Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.

3 

Jenkins, Philip. The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—and How It Died. New York: HarperOne, 2008.

4 

Kim, Sebastian, and Kirsteen Kim. Christianity as a World Religion. London: Continuum, 2008.

5 

Moynahan, Brian. The Faith: A History of Christianity. New York: Doubleday, 2002.

♦ Web Sites

6 

Dickens, Mark. “The Tarsakan Pages: Syriac Christianity in Central Asia.” Oxus Communications Web site. www.oxuscom.com/nestpage.htm.

7 

“History of the Nestorian Church.” Nestorian.org Web site. www.nestorian.org/history_of_the_nestorian_churc.html.

8 

“Nestorius and Nestorianism.” Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent Web site. www.newadvent.org/cathen/10755a.htm.

Questions for Further Study

  • 1. The Nestorian Church flourished in the Middle Ages but then largely (but not entirely) disappeared. Why? What historical factors might have accounted for the rise and decline of Nestorianism?

  • 2. Few people would probably regard death as “God’s gift to humankind,” as the entry states. Why did the Church of the East hold this belief? How did the Nestorian view of death differ from that of another culture, such as that reflected in, for example, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Egyptian “Great Hymn to the Aten,” or Lucretius’s On the Nature of Things?

  • 3. The Book of the Bee reflects a wide range of cultural and religious influences, including those from Jews, Muslims, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Buddhists, among others. What cultural and geographical factors contributed to this? In what ways is the Book of the Bee different from more insulated medieval European documents on religion, for example Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Creatures”?

  • 4. A fundamental Nestorian belief—that Christ had “two real natures united in a single person without confusion or change”—was regarded as heretical by the Christian Church in Rome? Why? What did the Church in the West find so outrageous about this view?

  • 5. Does it surprise you to learn that “the Nestorian Church was more highly organized and had a much greater membership than either the Roman or Greek Orthodox churches of the West”? Why or why not? What factors might have accounted for this organization and membership?

Document Text

Book of the Bee: Document Extract

1200–1300 ce

—Mar Solomon

TRUSTING in the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, we begin to write this book of gleanings called “The Bee,” which was composed by the saint of God, Mar Solomon, metropolitan of Perath-Maishan, that is Bassorah (al-Basrah), one of His companions. O Lord, in Thy mercy help me. Amen.

FIRST, THE APOLOGY.

“The children ought not to lay up treasures for the parents, but the parents for the spiritual children,” saith the blessed Paul; therefore we are bound to repay thee the debt of love, O beloved brother and staff of our old age, saint of God, Mar Narses, bishop of Khoni-Shabor Beth-Wazik. We remember thy solicitude for us, and thy zeal for our service, which thou didst fulfil with fervent love and Christ-like humility. And when we had loving meetings with each other from time to time, thou wert wont to ask questions and to make enquiries about the various things which God hath wrought in His dispensation in this material world, and also as to the things that He is about to do in the world of light. But since we were afflicted with the Mosaic defect of hesitancy of speech, we were unable to inform thee fully concerning the profitable matters about which, as was right, thou didst enquire; and for this reason we were prevented from profitable discourse upon the holy Books. Since, then, God has willed and ruled our separation from each other, and the sign of old age, which is the messenger of death, hath appeared in us, and we have grown old and come into years, it has seemed good to us, with the reed for a tongue and with ink for lips, to inform thee briefly concerning God’s dispensation in the two worlds. And, behold, we have gleaned and collected and gathered together chapters and sections relating to this whole universe from the garden of the divine Books and from the crumbs of the Fathers and the Doctors, having laid down as the foundation of our building the beginning of the creation of this world, and concluding with the consummation of the world to come. We have called this book the “Book of the Bee,” because we have gathered of the blossoms of the two Testaments and of the flowers of the holy Books, and have placed them therein for thy benefit. As the common bee with gauzy wings flies about, and flutters over and lights upon flowers of various colours, and upon blossoms of divers odours, selecting and gathering from all of them the materials which are useful for the construction of her handiwork; and having first of all collected the materials from the flowers, carries them upon her thighs, and bringing them to her dwelling, lays a foundation for her building with a base of wax; then gathering in her mouth some of the heavenly dew which is upon the blossoms of spring, brings it and blows it into these cells; and weaves the comb and honey for the use of men and her own nourishment: in like manner have we, the infirm, hewn the stones of corporeal words from the rocks of the Scriptures which are in the Old Testament, and have laid them down as a foundation for the edifice of the spiritual law. And as the bee carries the waxen substance upon her thighs because of its insipidity and tastelessness, and brings the honey in her mouth because of its sweetness and value; so also have we laid down the corporeal law by way of substratum and foundation, and the spiritual law for a roof and ceiling to the edifice of the spiritual tower. And as the expert gardener and orchard-keeper goes round among the gardens, and seeking out the finest sorts of fruits takes from them slips and shoots, and plants them in his own field; so also have we gone into the garden of the divine Books, and have culled therefrom branches and shoots, and have planted them in the ground of this book for thy consolation and benefit. When thou, O brother, art recreating thyself among these plants, those which appear and which thou dost consider to be insipid and tasteless, leave for thy companions, for they may be more suitable to others (than to thee); but, upon those which are sweet, and which sweeten the palate of thy understanding, do thou feed and satisfy thy hunger. If, however, owing to their fewness, they do not fill thee, seek in succession for their roots, and from thence shall thy want be satisfied. Know also, O brother, that where there is true love, there is no fear; and where there is freedom of speech, there is no dread; and we should not dare to be so rash as to enter upon these subjects, which are beyond the capacity of our simple understanding, unless we relied upon thy immaculate love; because, in the words of one of the inspired, “When thou findest honey, eat (only) so much as is sufficient for thee, lest, when thou art sated, thou vomit it;” that is to say, do not enquire (too closely) into the divine words.

CHAPTER I. OF GOD’S ETERNAL INTENTION IN RESPECT OF THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE.

IT is well for us to take the materials for our discourse from the divine Scriptures, that we may not stray from the straight paths of the way of truth. The blessed David saith, “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations, before the mountains were conceived.” David, the harpist of the Spirit, makes known thereby, that although there was a beginning of the framing of Adam and the other creatures when they were made, yet in the mind of God it had no beginning; that it might not be thought that God has a new thought in respect of anything that is renewed day by day, or that the construction of Creation was newly planned in the mind of God: but everything that He has created and is about to create, even the marvellous construction of the world to come, has been planned from everlasting in the immutable mind of God. As the natural child in the womb of his mother knows not her who bears him, nor is conscious of his father, who, after God, is the cause of his formation; so also Adam, being in the mind of the Creator, knew Him not. And when he was created, and recognised himself as being created, he remained with this knowledge six hours only, and there came over him a change, from knowledge to ignorance and from good to evil. Hence, when Divine Providence wished to create the world, the framing of Adam was first designed and conceived in the mind of God, and then that of the (other) creatures; as David saith, “Before the mountains were conceived.” Consequently, Adam is older than the (other) creatures in respect of his conception, and the (other) creatures are older than Adam in respect of their birth and their being made. And whereas God created all creatures in silence and by a word, He brought forth Adam out of His thoughts, and formed him with His holy hands, and breathed the breath of life into him from His Spirit, and Adam became a living soul, and God gave him the knowledge of the difference between good and evil. When he perceived his Creator, then was God formed and conceived within the mind of man; and man became a temple to God his maker, as it is written, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” And again, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them.”

CHAPTER II. OF THE CREATION OF THE SEVEN NATURES (SUBSTANCES) IN SILENCE.

WHEN God in His mercy wished to make known all His power and His wisdom, in the beginning, on the evening of the first day, which is Sunday, He created seven natures (substances) in silence, without voice. And because there was as yet none to hear a sound, He did well to create them in silence, that He might not make anything uselessly; but He willed, and heaven, earth, water, air, fire, and the angels and darkness, came into being from nothing.

CHAPTER III. OF EARTH, WATER, AIR, AND FIRE.

THE earth was toh we-boh, that is to say, was unarranged and unadorned, but plunged in the midst of the waters. The waters were above it, and above the waters was air, and above the air was fire. The earth is by nature cold and dry. Dry land appeared on the third day, when the trees and plants were created; and the waters were separated therefrom on the second day, when the firmament was made from them. Water is by nature cold and moist. As touching the “Spirit which was brooding upon the face of the waters,” some men have ignorantly imagined it to have been the Holy Spirit, while others have more correctly thought it to have been this air (of ours). Air is by nature hot and moist. Fire was operating in the upper ether, above the atmosphere; it possessed heat only, and was without luminosity until the fourth day, when the luminaries were created: we shall mention it in the chapter on the luminaries. Fire is by nature hot and dry.…

CHAPTER V. OF THE ANGELS.

THE Angels consist of nine classes and three orders, upper, middle and lower. The upper order is composed of Cherubim, Seraphim, and Thrones: these are called “priests” (kumre), and “chief priests,” and “bearers of God’s throne.” The middle order is composed of Lords, Powers and Rulers: these are called “priests” (kahne), because they receive revelations from those above them. The lower order consists of Principalities, Archangels and Angels: and these are the ministers who wait upon created things.…The Angels are a motion which has spiritual knowledge of everything that is on earth and in heaven. With each and every one of us is an angel of this group—called the guardian angel—who directs man from his conception until the general resurrection.…The fathers, when they have been deemed worthy at any time to see our Lord in a revelation, have seen Him in heaven, surrounded by the Cherubim and Seraphim. Hence some say that there are angels above the heavens. All these celestial hosts have revelations both of sight and of hearing; but the Cherubim have revelations by sight only, because there is no mediator between them and God. The angels have an intellect superior to that of the rest of rational beings; man has stronger desire, and the demons a greater degree of anger.…

CHAPTER VII. OF EFFUSED (CIRCUMAMBIENT) LIGHT.

WHEN the holy angels were created on the evening of the first day, without voice, they understood not their creation, but thought within themselves that they were self-existent beings and not made. On the morning of the first day God said in an audible and commanding voice, “Let there be light,” and immediately the effused light was created. When the angels saw the creation of light, they knew of a certainty that He who had made light had created them. And they shouted with a loud voice, and praised Him, and marvelled at His creation of light, as the blessed teacher saith, “When the Creator made that light, the angels marvelled thereat,” etc.; and as it is said in Job, “When I created the morning star, all my angels praised me.” Now by nature light has no warmth.…

CHAPTER LVI. OF DEATH AND THE DEPARTURE OF THE SOUL FROM THE BODY.

THE foundation of all good and precious things, of all the greatness of God’s gifts, of His true love, and of our arriving in His presence, is Death. Men die in five ways. Naturally; as David said, “Unless his day come and he die,” alluding to Saul. Voluntarily; as when Saul killed himself in the battle with the Philistines. By accident; such as a fall from a roof, and other fatal accidents. By violence, from devils and men and wild beasts and venomous reptiles. By (divine) chastisement; as the flood in the days of Noah, and the fire which fell upon the Sodomites, and other such like things. But (side by side) with all these kinds of fatalities runs the providence of God’s government, which cannot be comprehended by the creatures, restraining (them) where it is meet (to restrain), and letting (them) loose where it is fitting (to let loose). This government is not comprehended in this world, neither by angels nor by men; but in the world which is to come all rational beings will know it. When the soul goes forth from the body, as Abba Isaiah says, the angels go with it: then the hosts of darkness go forth to meet it, seeking to seize it and examine it, if there be anything of theirs in it. Then the angels do not fight with them, but those deeds which the soul has wrought protect it and guard it, that they come not near it. If its deeds be victorious, then the angels sing praises before it until it meets God with joy. In that hour the soul forgets every deed of this world. Consequently, no one who does not obtain remission (of sins) in this world can be free from the penalty of examination in that day. Not that there is torture or pleasure or recompense before the resurrection; but the soul knows everything that it has done whether of good or evil.

As to where the souls abide from the time they leave their bodies until the resurrection, some say that they are taken up to heaven, that is, to the region of spirit, where the celestial hosts dwell. Others say that they go to Paradise, that is, to the place which is abundantly supplied with the good things of the mystery of the revelations of God; and that the souls of sinners lie in darkness in the abyss of Eden outside Paradise. Others say that they are buried with their bodies; that is to say, as the two were buried in God at baptism, so also will they now dwell in Him until the day of the resurrection. Others say that they stand at the mouth of the graves and await their Redeemer; that is to say, they possess the knowledge of the resurrection of their bodies. Others say that they are as it were in a slumber, because of the shortness of the time; for they point out in regard to them that what seems to us a very long time is to them as a momentary nod (or wink) in its shortness.…Those who say that they are like an infant which has no knowledge, shew that they call even the knowledge of the truth ignorance in comparison with that knowledge of the truth which shall be bestowed upon them after the resurrection.

That the souls of the righteous pray, and that their prayers assist those who take refuge with them, may be learned from many…Therefore it is right for those who have a holy man for a friend, to rejoice when he goes to our Lord in Paradise, because their friend has the power to help them by his prayers. Like the blind disciple of one of the saints mentioned in the Book of the Paradise, who, when his master was dying, wept bitterly and said, “To whose care dost thou leave the poor blind man?” And his master encouraged him, and said to him, “I believe in God that, if I find mercy in His sight, at the end of a week thou wilt see;” and after some days he did see. The souls of the righteous also hold spiritual conversation with each other, according to the Divine permission and command which moves them to this by necessary causes. Neither those who have departed this life in the flesh are hindered from this (intercourse), nor those who are still clad in their fleshly garments, if they live their life in them holily.…

CHAPTER LIX. OF THE HAPPINESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE TORMENT OF SINNERS, AND IN WHAT STATE THEY ARE THERE.

IT is right for us to know and explain how those suffer, who suffer in Gehenna. If they do suffer, how can we say that they are impassible? And if they do not suffer, then there is no torture for sinners; and if there be no torture for sinners in proportion to their sins, neither can there be happiness for the righteous as a reward for their labours. The suffering wherewith the Fathers say that sinners will suffer in Gehenna is not one that will pain the limbs, such as the blows of sticks, the mutilation of the flesh, and the breaking of the bones, but one that will afflict the soul, such as grief for the transgression of what is right, repentance for shameful deeds, and banishment from one to whom he is bound in love and for whom his affection is strong. For in the resurrection we shall not be without perception, like the sun which perceives not his splendour, nor the moon her brilliancy, nor the pearl its beauty; but by the power of reason we shall feel perfectly the delight of our happiness or the keen pain of our torture. So then by that which enables the righteous to perceive the pleasure of their happiness, by that selfsame thing will the wicked also perceive the suffering of their torment; (that is) by the power capable of receiving pleasure, which is the intelligence. Hence it is right for us to be certain that intelligence will not be taken away from us, but it will receive the utmost purification and refinement.…The pleasure of that world is something beyond all comparison more glorious and excellent and exalted than those of this world; and the torment of yonder is likewise something beyond all comparison more severe and more bitter than any that is here.

…The light of the righteous is not of a natural origin like this elemental light (of ours), but some of the light of our Lord—whose splendour surpasses ten thousand suns—is diffused and shed upon them. Each saint shines in proportion to his purity, and holiness and refinement and sincerity.…So also with the sinners in Gehenna; their sentence will not be alike, for in proportion to the sin of each will be his torment.…In the new world there will be no distinctive names for ranks and conditions of human beings; and as every name and surname attributed to God and the angels had its origin from this world, and names for human beings were assigned and distributed by the government of this world, in the world of spiritual and intellectual natures there will be neither names nor surnames among them, nor male nor female, nor slave nor free, nor child nor old man, nor Ethiopian nor Roman (Greek); but they will all rise in the one perfect form of a man thirty-three years of age, as our Lord rose from the dead. In the world to come there will be no companies or bands but two; the one of the angels and the righteous, who will mingle and form one Church, and the other of the devils and sinners in Gehenna.

CHAPTER LX. WHETHER MERCY WILL BE SHEWN TO SINNERS AND THE DEVILS IN GEHENNA, AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN TORMENTED AND SUFFERED AND BEEN PUNISHED, OR NOT? AND IF MERCY IS TO BE SHEWN TO THEM, WHEN WILL IT BE?

SOME of the Fathers terrify us beyond our strength and throw us into despair; and their opinion is well adapted to the simple-minded and trangressors of the law. Others of them encourage us and bid us rely upon Divine mercy; and their opinions are suitable and adapted to the perfect and those of settled minds and the pious. In the “Book of Memorials” it is thus written: “This world is the world of repentance, but the world which is to come is the world of retribution. As in this world repentance saves until the last breath, so in the world to come justice exacts to the uttermost farthing. And as it is impossible to see here strict justice unmingled with mercy, so it is impossible to find there strict justice mingled with mercy.” Mar Isaac says thus: “Those who are to be scourged in Gehenna will be tortured with stripes of love; they who feel that they have sinned against love will suffer harder and more severe pangs from love than the pain that springs from fear.” Again he says: “The recompense of sinners will be this: the resurrection itself will be their recompense instead of the recompense of justice; and at the last He will clothe those bodies which have trodden down His laws with the glory of perfection. This act of grace to us after we have sinned is greater than that which, when we were not, brought our nature into being.” Again he says: “In the world which is to come grace will be the judge and not justice.” Mar Theodore the Expositor…would never have said, “Until thou payest the uttermost farthing,” unless it had been possible for us to be freed from our sins through having atoned for them by paying the penalty; neither would He have said, “he shall be beaten with many stripes,” or “he shall be beaten with few stripes,” unless it were that the penalties, being meted out according to the sins, should finally come to an end.…

So also the blessed Diodorus, who says in the “Book of the Dispensation”: “A lasting reward, which is worthy of the justice of the Giver, is laid up for the good, in return for their labours; and torment for sinners, but not everlasting, that the immortality which is prepared for them may not be worthless. They must however be tormented for a short time, as they deserve, in proportion to the measure of their iniquity and wickedness, according to the amount of the wickedness of their deeds. This they will have to bear, that they suffer for a short time; but immortal and unending happiness is prepared for them.…”

Again he says: “God pours out the wages of reward beyond the measure of the labours (wrought), and in the abundance of His goodness He lessens and diminishes the penalty of those who are to be tormented, and in His mercy He shortens and reduces the length of the time. But even thus He does not punish the whole time according to (the length of) the time of folly, seeing that He requites them far less than they deserve, just as He does the good beyond the measure and period (of their deserts); for the reward is everlasting. It has not been revealed whether the goodness of God wishes to punish without ceasing the blameworthy who have been found guilty of evil deeds (or not), as we have already said before. But if punishment is to be weighed out according to sin, not even so would punishment be endless.…The penalty of Gehenna is a man’s mind; for the punishment there is of two kinds, that of the body and that of the mind. That of the body is perhaps in proportion to the degree of sin, and He lessens and diminishes its duration; but that of the mind is for ever, and the judgment is for ever.”…To Him be glory and dominion and praise and exaltation and honour for ever and ever. Amen and Amen.

Glossary

Before the mountains were conceived: quotation from the Old Testament book of Psalms, chapter 90, verse 2

Book of Memorials: a lost work by Isaac, bishop of Nineveh

The children ought not to lay up treasures for the parents…: quotation from the New Testament book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 14

David: the second king of the Israelites and founder of the royal line from which Christ descended

Diodorus: bishop of Tarsus and teacher of Theodore the Expositor

Gehenna: the place where children were sacrificed to the god Moloch

I will dwell in them, and walk in them: quotation from the New Testament book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 16

Isaac: bishop of Nineveh in the latter half of the seventh century

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God…: quotation from the New Testament book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 16

Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place…: quotation from the Old Testament book of Psalms, chapter 90, verse 1

Mar: in Syriac, “my lord,” a title of respect given to bishops

Mosaic: pertaining to the Old Testament patriarch Moses

Saul: the first king of the Israelites

Spirit which was brooding upon the face of the waters: quotation from the Old Testament book of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 2

Theodore the Expositor: Bishop of Mopsuestia from 392 to 428 and author of The Book of Pearls, now lost

Unless his day come and he die: quotation from the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel, chapter 26, verse 10

When I created the morning star, all my angels praised me: quotation from the Old Testament book of Job, chapter 38, verse 4

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Hueber, Dale A. "Book Of The Bee: Document Analysis." Milestone Documents of World Religions, Second Edition, edited by David M. Fahey, Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=MDWR2_0063.
APA 7th
Hueber, D. A. (2016). Book of the Bee: Document Analysis. In D. Fahey (Ed.), Milestone Documents of World Religions, Second Edition. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Hueber, Dale A. "Book Of The Bee: Document Analysis." Edited by David M. Fahey. Milestone Documents of World Religions, Second Edition. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2016. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.