Ute Possekel: Exegetical Perspectives from the School of Nisibis: Michael Badoqa on the Pentateuch

In the sixth century, the School of Nisibis was a principal center of Christian learning within the Sasanid Empire and trained numerous theologians and church leaders. The scholar Michael, known as Michael Badoqa from his position as badoqa or instructor at the School, was an influential author whose writings addressed christology, exegesis, and philosophy, but unfortunately only fragments of his works have come down to us. Michael’s stature as an eminent exegete was such that his views were cited regularly by later East Syriac commentators including Ishoʿdad of Merv, Theodore bar Koni, the anonymous author of the so-called Diarbakir Commentary, and the commentary on the East Syriac lectionary known as Gannat Bussame. Michael’s surviving works have heretofore received little scholarly attention, and the exegetical fragments none at all. This paper will survey Michael’s exegetical fragments, most of which pertain to the Pentateuch, and attempt to situate his approach to Scripture within the East Syriac exegetical tradition more broadly.In particular, the paper will address how Michael’s exegesis compares to that of Theodore of Mopsuestia, the Interpreter par excellence for the Church of the East, and to other exegetical traditions prominent at the School, especially those represented by Henana, head of school in the time of Michael and a controversial figure on account of whom Michael and others are said to have left the School of Nisibis.