The Library
1774 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
501–600
5 works
c. 500–510
Syriac
Philoxenus of Mabbug · c. 440–523
Thirteen instructions for monks on faith, simplicity, the fear of God, gluttony and lust, written in a Syriac of unusual clarity and almost no polemic.
512–538
Syriac
Severus of Antioch · c. 465–538
The correspondence and preaching of the greatest Miaphysite theologian, surviving almost entirely in Syriac translation after the Greek was destroyed.
c. 550–569
Syriac
Pseudo-Zachariah of Mytilene
A Syriac compilation covering the fifth and sixth centuries from a Miaphysite standpoint, incorporating an earlier Greek history now lost.
c. 552; survives in Syriac
Greek, surviving in Syriac
Diaitetes
John Philoponus · c. 490 – c. 570
An attempt to settle Chalcedon by defining the terms philosophically: nature means a particular thing, not a general kind, so two natures would mean two individuals. Pressed to its conclusion by his opponents, the same logic made the Trinity three particulars.
c. 585–588
Syriac
John of Ephesus · c. 507 – c. 588
Church history by a bishop who was both Justinian's missionary to the pagans of Asia Minor — he claims seventy thousand baptisms — and a Miaphysite imprisoned under a later emperor. The third part was written in confinement and says so.
5 of 1774 works