The Book of the Bee

The Book of the Bee (Syriac Ktaba d-Debborita), a compendium of biblical history and Christian doctrine by Solomon, Nestorian bishop of Basra (Perath Maishan), written about AD 1222; the "bee" is the author's image for gathering flowers from many older writers. In sixty short chapters it runs from the seven natures made in silence at the Creation, through Adam, the patriarchs, the judges, kings and prophets (drawing on the Cave of Treasures), to the life of Christ, the apostles, the church, the resurrection and the last judgment; its last chapter asks whether the torments of Gehenna are endless. This is E.A. Wallis Budge's English of 1886, made from Syriac manuscripts in London, Oxford and Munich. His footnotes (variant readings, Syriac quotations and cross-references) are not reproduced, and each chapter's title is the first verse. Not scripture in any tradition.