RABBÛLÂ. — Syrian bishop of Edessa, born in Berea near Antioch in the second half of the 4th century, elected bishop ca. 415 and died on 7 August 435 (according to Peeters, 436). According to his biography, written in Syriac by a contemporary, R., the son of a pagan father and a Christian mother, converted to Christianity ca. 400, came to Palestine, and was baptized in the Jordan.
Upon returning to his homeland, he left his family and employment to become a monk. Elected bishop, he attended at Ephesus (431) the gathering of the Antiochenes and signed the condemnation of St. Cyril of Alexandria. But after returning to Edessa he went over to Cyril’s side, translated some of his dogmatic works into Syriac, and maintained an epistolary relationship with him. He also had the works of Theodore of Mopsuestia burned, thereby arousing the indignation of the teacher of the Edessan school, Ibas, who appealed to Bishop John of Antioch. The latter forbade the Antiochene bishops to communicate with R.; but after the peace agreed upon between St. Cyril and the Antiochenes (433), R. expelled Ibas from Edessa, whereupon Ibas stirred up the Armenians. R. consequently sent them a writing warning them against Nestorian errors.
R.’s few writings (letters, instructions to monks, and several translations), as well as his biography, were edited by J. J. Overbeck, S. Ephraemi Syri, Rab-
bulae... (Oxford 1865, pp. 159-238; German translation by G.
Bickell [Bibliothek de Kirchenväter, Ausgewählte Schriften
der syrischen Kirchenväter], Kempten 1874, pp. 166-271).
Burkitt’s thesis—that R. had the Syriac version of the separate Gospels composed in order to replace the Diatessaron—is today being effectively challenged.
Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina