IBAS (Hibā). — Bishop of Edessa, died on 28 October 457. He was Edessa (v.) under Bishop Rabbūlā, together with whom he attended the Council of Ephesus, but on the side of the Antiochenes. When Rabbūlā condemned the works of Theodore of Mopsuestia, I. was displeased. Once peace had been made between the Antiochenes and St. Cyril of Alexandria (433), I. was expelled from Edessa by his bishop, and it was probably then that he wrote his letter to Mārī, bishop of Rēwardašīr in Persia.
He also had Theodore of Mopsuestia’s works disseminated through Armenian translations, which obliged Rabbūlā and subsequently Proclus of Constantinople to warn the Armenians against Nestorian doctrines. In 435 I. was elected bishop of Edessa. As early as 445 he was accused of Nestorianism before the patriarch of Antioch, but he did not appear. Accused again in 448 and, by order of Theodosius II, I. appeared before the courts of Tyre and Berytus, where he denied being a Nestorian, but the accusers produced his letter. I. was able to return to Edessa; nevertheless, in 449 Theodosius II had him appear again at the “Robber Council of Ephesus,” inspired by the Monophysites, where he was deposed. But at the Council of Chalcedon (451), which he attended, he was rehabilitated after his letter had been read, though only following the condemnation of Nestorius. Nevertheless, at the Council of Constantinople in 553, one of the Three Chapters condemned was precisely I.’s letter.
This letter, undoubtedly written in Syriac, has been preserved only in Greek (E. Schwartz, Acta Conc., II, Berlin, 1, 3, pp. xxiii ff.). It has a certain Nestorianizing character, accuses the doctrine of St. Cyril of Apollinarianism, distinguishes between the Word and his temple born of Mary, and seems to ignore the communication of idioms in Christ.