Mar Isho-Yab III

Ishoʿyahb III of Adiabene was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 649 to 659.

Brief accounts of Ishoʿyahb's patriarchate are given in the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of the Jacobite writer Bar Hebraeus (thirteenth-century), and the ecclesiastical histories of the Church of the East writers Mari (twelfth-century), ʿAmr (fourteenth-century) and Sliba (fourteenth-century). There are also the works he penned himself.

Ishoʿyahb was the son of a wealthy Persian Christian named Bastomagh, of Kuphlana in Adiabene, who was a frequent visitor to the monastery of Beth ʿAbe. He was educated at the School of Nisibis, became bishop of Nineveh, and was afterwards appointed metropolitan of Adiabene. As metropolitan of Adiabene he hindered the Jacobites from building a church in Mosul, despite the fact that they were supported by all the weight and influence of the Tagritians from Tikrit. Bar Hebraeus declares that he bribed right and left to effect this. He was one of the members of the delegation of the Church of the East which met the Roman emperor Heraclius in Aleppo in 630, and took away a very costly and beautiful casket, containing relics of the apostles, from a church at Antioch. Many argue the casket was stolen similar to how relics were often stolen during the Crusades. He donated the casket to the monastery of Beth ʿAbe.

On Maremmeh's death in 647, the Church of the East in what is now Iraq elevated Ishoʿyahb to the Catholicate. However Metropolitan Shemʿon of Rev Ardashir did not recognise this.

Ishoʿyahb maintained good relations with the Arabs - whom he called variously Tayy, Muhajirs, and Hanifs - but never did heal the schism in his own Church.

Ishoʿyahb died in 659.

Ishoʿyahb wrote a Refutation Of Opinions on behalf of John, Metropolitan of Beth Lapat, several other tracts and sermons, some hymns, a vita of the martyr Isho-sabhran, and an exhortation to novices. He is also known for making substantial improvements to the liturgy of the Church for the daily office and for various sacraments. The Chronicle of Seert, Pt.1.1, pg.85 (295), also credits him with choosing the three eucharistic anaphoras that are currently in use in the Assyrian Church of the East.

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