Bar-cepha, Moses

Bar-Cepha, Moses a Jacobite bishop and author, who early in life entered the convent of Sergius, on the Tigris. He was afterward raised to the episcopal order under the name of Severus, and is sometimes called bishop of Beth-Ceno, sometimes of Bethraman. He is said to have died in 913. He composed a ''Commentary on Paradise" in Syriac, which was translated into Latin by And. Masius, and printed at Antwerp in 1569, 8vo (also in Bibliotheca: Patrum and in Critics; Sacri). This work is divided into three parts. Part I inquires whether there was both a terrestrial and a spiritual paradise, and concludes that there was but one. Part II gives the mystic signification of all the passages of Holy Scripture relating to the terrestrial paradise. Part III answers the objection of heretics, e.g. that of Simon Magus, who accused the Almighty of the want of power to preserve Adam from the fall. — Clarke, Sacred Literature, 2:555.