This document contains a brief passage from a work of Elias bar Shinaya (CE 975-1050), translated from the Arabic original by Jack Tannous (Princeton University).
Elias bar Shinaya (CE 975-1050), known also as Elias of Nisibis, was born in modern-day Iraq and served as a bishop in the Church of the East until his death. Elias was a learned intellectual and prolific author, writing on topics as varied as medicine, philology, theology, mathematics, and philosophy. Elias was literate in both Syriac and Arabic and his works show a deep familiarity with Islamic theology.
In this brief excerpt from his On the Perpetual Orthodoxy of the Eastern Church, Elias makes a series of arguments for the primacy and purity of the faith of the Church of the East, over and against the Christianities of the west, whether in Constantinople or Rome.
