Bishop Solomon: The Book of the Bee

Impact

The Book of the Bee has had little impact outside the Nestorian Church, except perhaps among seminarians, biblical scholars, and historians of religion. The most complete translation of the book from its original Syriac was made by Ernest A. Wallis Budge in 1886. For his translation, Budge used elements from four editions of the manuscript, each of which dates to three or more centuries after the original was written. While the historical presence of The Book of the Bee is mentioned in many sources, there are no readily available analytical references. Thus, while it is accessible to the public, the document is mostly of interest to audiences with immediate concerns as to the content. But with additional historical research in the process of being published about the Nestorian Church and its importance to history, the fascinating Book of the Bee may in the future receive richer attention and analytical focus.

Although the Nestorian Church no longer exists as such today, an understanding of The Book of the Bee is helpful to the modern student of religion in several ways. First, The Book of the Bee provides insight into the argumentation of religious doctrine as practiced in the early and middle ages of Christianity. The Nestorians had direct relationships with scholars of many faiths that most Europeans at the time would not have bothered with or did not even know about—primarily Jews and Muslims but also Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, and others—and had access to a far greater body of knowledge than did western Europeans. The influence of these faiths is evident in The Book of the Bee. Second, the book gives insight into a church that, while at its peak influence politically, was struggling to survive and would, after the downfall of the Mongol khanates, undergo persecution and internal corruption that would essentially seal its fate. Finally, the author’s intriguing commentary on Christian doctrine certainly remains relevant. Modern science has not uncovered the “physical” truths behind much of what is discussed in The Book of the Bee, so from a metaphysical perspective the discourse presented by Bishop Solomon can still be considered pertinent almost eight hundred years later.