Ein nestorianisches Bruchstück zur Kirchengeschichte des 4 und 5 Jahrhunderts

The narrative of ecclesiastical history in Western scholarship has traditionally focused on the development of the Church in its European context primarily because the resources available to scholars were limited to the geographic and linguistic confines of Western culture. Noting the paucity of sources available for the ecclesiastical history of the “Nestorian” church, Emil Goeller finds among the Syriac manuscripts in the Vatican collection and published by Assemani a unique historical resource for expanding the narrative of ecclesiastical history to include the Oriental Orthodox traditions. The text itself is not written as a history. Rather, it is a compendium of historical sources compiled presumably for apologetic purposes. Two of the sources used in the production of this text are known historical sources: the Ecclesiastical Histories of Socrates and Theodoret. A third apparent source, however, is the most important component of this collection because it includes historical information about Nestorius not found in either of the previously known sources. Moreover, based on parallel sources, Goeller asserts that this third source can possibly be dated to the lifetime of Nestorius himself. Goeller provides a brief introduction to this resource and presents the Syriac text along with a Latin translation.