c. 727 – 823

Timothy I

Worth knowing

Catholicos, or head, of the Church of the East from 780 to 823, based in Baghdad.
In 781 he answered the questions of the Caliph al-Mahdi about Christ and the Trinity over two days, and a written record of the conversation survives.
He sent missionaries along the trade routes of Central Asia as far as China.

In Scholar’s Dream, Timothy I has one book

Timothy’s ApologyTimothy I of Baghdad, Apology for Christianity before the Caliph al-MahdiTheology ProperHistory

Timothy I’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from Timothy I that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“And as the sun with its light and its heat is not called three suns but one sun, so also God with His Word and His Spirit is not three Gods but is and is called one God.”
Timothy I, Apology for Christianity (trans. Alphonse Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies 2, 1928, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Sun, Light and Heat

Theology ProperArgument · power 70 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe Caliph called it his favourite of Timothy’s illustrations. One sun, and nobody counts the light and the heat as two more suns.

Learned byTimothy’s Apology (Lv 1)

Strong against

×2"That’s Three Gods"an argument · why?

Timothy told the caliph that the sun, its light and its heat are not three suns but one. In the same way, God with his Word and his Spirit is one God.

“It is imperative that signs and miracles should be annulled by other signs and miracles… Since signs and miracles are proofs of the will of God, the conclusion drawn from their absence in your Book is well known to your Majesty.”
Timothy I, Apology (trans. Mingana, 1928, public domain). (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Signs and Miracles

RationalityArgument · power 66 · 100% accurate

In the gameAsk what would confirm a claim, then ask whether it happened. Timothy applies the same test to his own book first.

Learned byTimothy’s Apology (Lv 30)

Strong against

×3Al-Ajwiba al-Fakhiraan argument · why?

A reply is not the same as an answer. Timothy asks what would actually CONFIRM a claim, and applies that test to his own book before he ever applies it to yours.

“So far as Muhammad is concerned I have not received a single testimony either from Jesus Christ or from the Gospel which would refer to his name or to his works.”
Timothy I, Apology (trans. Mingana, 1928, public domain). He also said Muhammad walked in the path of the prophets; the two answers are one answer.public domain

“Muhammad is worthy of all praise, by all reasonable people, O my Sovereign. He walked in the path of the prophets, and trod in the track of the lovers of God.”
Timothy I, Apology (trans. Mingana, 1928, public domain). He also said no testimony of Christ or the Gospel names him; the two answers are one answer.public domain

How it works in the game: the move No Testimony Found

HistoryArgument · power 68 · 100% accurate

In the gameAsked directly, in the Caliph’s own hall, what he made of Muhammad. He answered twice and meant both answers.

Learned byTimothy’s Apology (Lv 40)

“No, our King, Jesus did go up to heaven a long time ago, and has been sent again alive, as your Book also testifies. If He went up it is obvious that He had died previously, and if He had died, it is known that He had died by crucifixion, as the Prophets had stated before His coming.”
Timothy I, Apology (trans. Mingana, 1928, public domain). The batch supplied this ending as “as the Prophets had said”; Mingana reads “had stated before His coming.”public domain

How it works in the game: the move He Went Up, So He Went Down

RationalityArgument · power 74 · 100% accurate

In the gameStart from what the other man already grants and follow it where it goes. He was taken up — so he had died, and the death was the one the prophets described.

Learned byTimothy’s Apology (Lv 43)

Strong against

×2.5Taken Up, Not Put to Deathan argument · why?

You cannot go up without first having gone. The ascension he grants requires the death he denies.

“O our victorious King, in this world we are all of us as in a dark house in the middle of the night. If at night and in a dark house a precious pearl happens to fall in the midst of people… every one would strive to pick up the pearl, which will not fall to the lot of all but to the lot of one only.”
Timothy I, Apology, close of the Second Day (trans. Mingana, 1928, public domain). (trimmed quote)public domain

“As the lustre of a pearl is somewhat visible even in the darkness of the night, so also the rays of the true faith shine to some extent even in the darkness and the fog of the present world.”
Timothy I, Apology (trans. Mingana, 1928, public domain) — the half that stops the parable becoming “everyone is equally right.”public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Pearl in the Dark House

FaithArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate

In the gameA pearl dropped in a dark room. Everyone is reaching, everyone is certain, and one of them has it. Said to the man holding the power in the room, on the last night of the debate.

Learned byTimothy’s Apology (Lv 47)

“The Christians never have had and will never have such deadly enemies as the Jews… No; the truth is that neither we nor the Jews have ever tampered with the Books. Our mutual hostility is the best guarantee to our statement.”
Timothy I before the Caliph al-Mahdī, Baghdad 781, trans. Alphonse Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies 2 (1928), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Our Mutual Hostility

RationalityArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameTurns two thousand years of enmity into a guarantee. If Christians and Jews had ever been capable of agreeing on anything, they might have agreed on a corrupted text. They were not, and they read the same one.

Learned byTimothy’s Apology (Lv 50)

Passages you can read in the game

Longer excerpts the Scriptorium holds on screen for a player to sit and read, word for word.

“And as the sun with its light and its heat is not called three suns but one sun, so also God with His Word and His Spirit is not three Gods but is and is called one God.”
Timothy I, Apology for Christianity (trans. Alphonse Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies 2, 1928, public domain).

from Timothy’s Apology

“It is imperative that signs and miracles should be annulled by other signs and miracles… Since signs and miracles are proofs of the will of God, the conclusion drawn from their absence in your Book is well known to your Majesty.”
Timothy I, Apology (trans. Mingana, 1928, public domain). (trimmed quote)

from Timothy’s Apology

“O our victorious King, in this world we are all of us as in a dark house in the middle of the night. If at night and in a dark house a precious pearl happens to fall in the midst of people… every one would strive to pick up the pearl, which will not fall to the lot of all but to the lot of one only.”
Timothy I, Apology, close of the Second Day (trans. Mingana, 1928, public domain). (trimmed quote)

from Timothy’s Apology

“As the lustre of a pearl is somewhat visible even in the darkness of the night, so also the rays of the true faith shine to some extent even in the darkness and the fog of the present world.”
Timothy I, Apology (trans. Mingana, 1928, public domain) — the half that stops the parable becoming “everyone is equally right.”

from Timothy’s Apology

Words Timothy I’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byTimothy’s Apology (Lv 10)

Who else was alive

Timothy I against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 450A.D. 700A.D. 950A.D. 1200A.D. 1450A.D. 1700A.D. 1950

Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window