RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES
Legend:
BETH ARBHAYE 1UI.roN :~!?,~~: BiMoprie
~ rM'Ilopo/ilan See
TAKRIT :'~!:~.SITE:
Cilia! and tOWI"l$
2.000·h labovestll cantour ..... 1i line
Fig. 7. Christian Bishoprics
THEAItABS
... 4"
CHRISTIAN BISHOPRICS
Approximate scale:
;:0 =:2~O==~ll"';:;::::::;'!:,:;O go ,60 Kilometers Miles
44' .,. 44' 47'
surprising, then, to find the image of the head and the body used to
justify the authority of the catholicos,19 or the symbolism of shepherd
and sheep to describe the lower clergy.20 Nestorian patriarchs also
adopted Sasanian-style hierarchic titles patterned after the King of
Kings or Mobadhiin-mobadh. As early as 484, Bar Sawma addressed
the patriarch Mar Acacius as "Father of Fathers,"21 and sixth-century
patriarchs called themselves "Father of Fathers," "Shepherd of Shep-
19 Ibid., pp. 160, 420.
20 Ibid., pp. 96, 97, 106, 353, 355, 363. Priests are called the physicians of souls
(ibid., pp. 174,434).
21 Ibid., pp. 527, 534.