Page 58 - Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01, by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970). Chapters 1-3

RELIGION 45
they may hope. . . . But [God] exalted [man] by Freewill above many things and made
him equal with the angels.. .. The nature of man is ... that he should be born and grow
up and beget children and grow old . . . and that he should die. But that everything is
not in our will is apparent.. . . Rubies and honour and health and sickness and children
and various objects of desire are subject to Fortune and are not in our own power.
But . . . just as we see that Fortune crushes Nature, so we can also see the Freewill of
men repelling and crushing Fortune itself; but not in everything. For it is proper that
the three things, Nature, Fortune, and Freewill should be maintained in their lives
until . . . the measure and the number be fulfilled, as it seemed good before Him who
ordained how should be the life and perfection of all creatures and the state of all Beings
and Natures.
Bardaisan denied the resurrection of the body. Like the followers of
Elkesai, he held that the body has some admixture of impurity; it would not
be recreated by a holy God. St. Ephraim considered this doctrine heretical.
Bardaisan, however, believed in the resurrection of the soul. He was philoso-
pher and astrologer rather than theologian; and he sought to reconcile
Christian beliefs with the Hellenized astrology of the 'Chaldeans' and his
own philosophical speculations.1 His individualistic outlook could not but
clash with orthodox dogma. Nevertheless, the heretical views ascribed to
him by Christian theologians at a later date may be little more than the
projection of their own arguments in defence of orthodox doctrine; the fact
that these arguments were bitter may indicate that the followers of Bardaisan
at his native Edessa at one time outnumbered those who professed 'orthodox'
Christianity.
The philosophy of the Gnostics could, however, appeal only to an elect
few. It did not provide the framework of ritual observance that would retain
the loyalty of the populace. Before we assemble the evidence for the religious
beliefs and practices of pagan Edessa we must consider, however summarily,
those of cult centres with which Edessa had direct contact.
Mention has been made of the association between Edessa and Palmyra. At
Palmyra a prominent role in the pantheon was occupied by astral deities—
principally Bel, the ancestral solar god, and Malakbel, Yarhibol and 'Aglibol,
who were, respectively, solar and lunar deities, Beltis, the consort of Bel,
Shemesh, the sun god, Nabu (Mercury), Be'elshamin, god of the heavens,
and also 'Athar'atha (Atargatis), perhaps 'Athar with the attributes of 'Atha,
who was regarded as the deity of the sea or lake or as the Tyche, the 'palla-
dium' of the city. Palmyra had its triads of gods: Bel, Yarhibol, and 'Aglibol;
or Be'elshamin, 'Aglibol, and Malakbel. At Harran, too, which lay at no
great distance from Edessa, it was a planet deity, Sin the moon god, that
ruled the pantheon; he is mentioned in records as far back as the nineteenth
century B.C. and his emblem is found over a wide area. But Sin was also the

1 Contact between the Book of the Laws of been established by T. H. Nissen, ZNW, ix,
Countries, and later Christian writings has 1908, 190, 315.

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