Audi

AUDI. - Heretic, born in Mesopotamia, according to Theodoret "a Syrian by origin and language," A. in the 4th century was archdeacon of the Church of Edessa. In the times of Constantine he came into conflict with the Church by refusing to accept the paschal computation prescribed by the Council of Nicaea. A. retained the ancient custom of his country of celebrating Easter together with the Jews, basing himself on an apostolic ordinance ("diàtaxia"), that is, an old — by then lost — recension of the Syriac Didascalia (v. Ed. Schwartz, Christliche und jüdische Ostertafeln, in Abhandlungen der kgl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Philologisch-Historische Klasse, new series, 8 [1905], p. 110). His exaggerated ascetic zeal estranged him ever more from the true Church, which he reproached for the usury and lust of the priests (Epiphanius, Panarion, 70, 1; Theodore bar Kōnaj, Book of Scholia, XI, p. 195). According to Theodoret (Hist. eccl., IV, 10, 4), however, these accusations were only a pretext. Confined to Scythia, he worked, down to the times of Athanaric, as a missionary among the Goths, founding "monasteria" for anchorites.

The spread of the sect in the second half of the 4th century is indicated by Epiphanius, according to whom the number of adherents in his time was small. It is false, however, to say that the Audians had almost disappeared around 375 (thus G. Krüger, in A. Hauck, Realenc. für prot. Theol. u. Kirche, 3rd ed., II, p. 217, 30); the Life of Rabbāld demonstrates instead the continuity of the sect in the 5th century.

According to Epiphanius, A. would have been orthodox, though schismatic. Audian fanaticism did not permit common prayer with members of the Church. Apart from this, the only doctrine to be reproached in A. would be his anthropomorphism, that is, the thesis that the image of God in man is the human body (Gen. 1, 26) and that therefore God too has a body (Epiphanius, 70, 2, 3; 70, 6, 1; cf. Theodore bar Kōnaj, op. cit., p. 195). This indulgent judgment of Epiphanius is explained by his struggle against Origen. According to St. Jerome (Contra Johann. Hieros., 11: PL 23, 364), Epiphanius, accused of anthropomorphic heresy, would have condemned their doctrine. Epiphanius's assessment influenced later authors. In Philoxenus of Mabbug (Epistle to the Monks) too, the Audians are regarded as schismatics and not as heretics, but the judgment of St. Ephrem is more severe; Theodoret, moreover, considers A. a true heretic. According to him, the Audians professed secret doctrines (Hist. eccl., loc. cit., pp. 228, 14) and taught, like the Manichaeans, that God created neither fire nor darkness. Later tradition in the Syriac Church attributes Gnostic doctrines to A. and his adherents (cf. the texts collected by H. C. Puech, Fragments de l'Apocalypse d'Allogène, in Mélanges Cumont, Brussels 1936; Annuaire de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire orientales et slaves, IV, II, p. 935). The question arises whether Gnosticism was introduced later into the sect or had formed part of A.'s doctrine from the very beginning. Puech is of the opinion that the introduction among the Audians of non-canonical apocalyptic books, writings also used by the Sethian Gnostics, such as the Apocalypse of Abraham, the Apocalypse of John, the Book (or Apocalypse) of the Strangers, the Book of Questions (perhaps of Mary? cf. Puech, op. cit., p. 951, n. 5) and the Acts of John, would have transformed A.'s schism into a true heresy (id., op. cit., p. 962). Our opinion, on the other hand, is that A.'s doctrine underwent no transformation. His central anthropomorphic idea has connections not only with the Jewish exegesis of Gen. 1, 26 (v., on this, Aptovitzer, in Revue des études juives, 75 [1922], p. 1 ff.), but — and this is more important — also with the anthropomorphic doctrine of the Pseudo-Clementines (v. Am. Struker, Die Gottesbeihildlichkeit des Menschen in der christl. Literatur der ersten zwei Jahrhunderte, Münster 1913, p. 60 ff.), that is, with a Judeo-Christian speculation that had contacts with the Gnosis of the aforementioned apocalyptic books.

Erik Peterson