Timothy’s Apology

Timothy I of Baghdad, Apology for Christianity before the Caliph al-Mahdi

Timothy I, Patriarch of the Church of the East

“Amen, O King. But may God grant us that we too may share it with you.” The last line of two days, and he gave the King the sentence before it.

Catch rate: 24 / 255
Base research: 200
Stat total: 312

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina74

Contend88

Defend72

Popularity78

Total312

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Stamina 74

Two days of debate, written down. A record rather than a treatise, and it survives entire.

Contend 88

Timothy argues from what the other man already grants and follows it where it goes — the sharpest of them reasons from the ascension backwards to the crucifixion.

Defend 72

Fairly high. Timothy was the guest, not the host, and he gave every answer in front of the man who held power in the room. Arguments made under that pressure are made carefully.

Popularity 78

A real conversation rather than a system, and it reads fast because it is one.

Cited for this book

In Baghdad in 781, Timothy I, patriarch of the Church of the East, answered the caliph’s questions for two days, and someone wrote it down. He ends with a story of a pearl dropped in a dark house. Everyone reaches for it, and only one holds it. He would not let that mean everyone is equally right.

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	Sun, Light and Heat	Theology Proper	Argument	70	100%	15
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
10	Affirm	—	Status	—	—	1
30	Signs and Miracles	Rationality	Argument	66	100%	15
34	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
40	No Testimony Found	History	Argument	68	100%	10
43	He Went Up, So He Went Down	Rationality	Argument	74	100%	10
47	The Pearl in the Dark House	Faith	Argument	80	100%	5
50	Our Mutual Hostility	Rationality	Argument	88	100%	10

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“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

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.

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.

“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.

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.

“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

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.

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

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.

“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

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.

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

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.

“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

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.

Read it: The Pearl in the Dark House

The passages the Scriptorium holds on screen, word for word from a public-domain translation.

“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).

“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)

“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)

“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.”

Notes

Baghdad, 781: the Patriarch of the Church of the East answered the Caliph al-Mahdi’s questions for two days, and somebody wrote it down.

He closes with a pearl dropped in a dark house — everyone reaching, one of them holding it — and then refuses to let that become “everyone is equally right,” because a pearl still catches what light there is.