NEWBOLD— THE SYRIAC DIALOGUE " SOCRATES." 107 



One may note in passing that the word here used to denote the 

 planets, which I have translated "Governors" (madhbcrdne) , is 

 used in the same sense in the " Book of the Laws." 



The " Socrates," then, ascribes the organization and constitution 

 of the universe to the soul, not to the Logos. Ephraim ("Adv. 

 Haer.," IIL, lines 102-110, 125-134) rails bitterly against Bardaisan 

 for denying the orthodox doctrine that the Logos constructed the 

 universe and asserts that he represented Wisdom as acting as God's 

 agent in the work of creation. Thus the soul of the "Socrates" 

 corresponds to Wisdom in Bardaisan's system. 



The cosmology of the " Socrates " resembles, therefore, that of 

 Bardaisan in several important features, especially in denying the 

 orthodox doctrine of creation out of nothing (the words " create," 

 "creation," "creature" do not occur in it at all) and representing 

 the world as made out of eternally existing elements ; in recognizing 

 a fifth something. Darkness, which corresponds to the Aristotelian 

 First Matter; in describing the origin of chaos; in regarding the 

 world-process as essentially the resolution of chaos into cosmos ; in 

 regarding evil as nothing but the unregulated conflict of eternally 

 existing and opposed attributes. But the two systems differ in 

 other important features, and it is quite certain that the " Socrates " 

 is not the source from which Ephraim and Theodore drew their 

 information about Bardaisan's cosmology. 



Postscript. — In view of the uncertainty of accomplishment which 

 in these troubled times attaches to all activities not contributing to 

 the war, I have decided to add to the above paper a brief statement 

 of the conclusions which I had reached when it was written but 

 withheld in anticipation of the new evidence promised by Mr. 

 Mitchell. Limitations of space will permit only brief reference to 

 the sources, but those that are interested will have no difficulty in 

 verifying them. 



Bardaisan wrote dialogues against Marcion and others (Euseb., 

 " Hist.," IV., 30) and many other works, some of which may well 

 have been dialogues ; the " Socrates " is one of these. It is the 

 source from which Ephraim drew his knowledge of Bardaisan's 

 theory of soul; it manifests in conspicuous degree the "patience and 



