[1][2][3] When the Catholicos Giwargis I of the Church of the East (661–680), visited Beth Qatraye in 676 to attend a synod, he ordained Isaac bishop of Nineveh far to the north in Assyria.

[10] The administrative duties did not suit his retiring and ascetic bent: he requested to abdicate after only five months, and went south to the wilderness of Mount Matout, a refuge for anchorites.

There he lived in solitude for many years, eating only three loaves a week with some uncooked vegetables, a detail that never failed to astonish his hagiographers.

Eventually blindness and old age forced him to retire to the Assyrian monastery of Rabban Shabur in Mesopotamia, where he died and was buried.

Semi-Autonomous: Isaac is remembered for his spiritual homilies on the inner life, which have a human breadth and transcendent theological depth.

[13] Isaac stands in the tradition of the eastern mystical saints and placed a considerable emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit.

His melancholic style as well as his affinity towards the sick and dying exerted considerable influence on Eastern Orthodoxy.

Moreover, Isaac's conviction that the notion of God punishing men endlessly through the mystery of Gehenna (the lake of fire, or hell) is not compatible with his all encompassing love can likely be seen as the central thematic conflict in his second treatise of mystical teachings.

Many of the texts have been translated into Italian by Sabino Chialà [it], and into English by Sebastian P. Brock, Mary T. Hansbury, the Holy Transfiguration Monastery, and others.

Arent Jan Wensinck [nl] (1923) translated the text into English and published it as Mystic Treatises.

e. 7, originally donated by the Assyrian priest Yaroo Michael Neesan (1853–1937) to the Bodleian Library on 29 June 1898, in fact contained writings of Isaac the Syrian that were hitherto unknown to Western scholars, even though they were regularly read by Syriac readers.

It was copied during the 10th or 11th century in the Monastery of Mar ‘Abdisho‘ of Kom by the scribe Marqos for Rabban Isho‘ of the village of Beth B‘DY.

It was discovered by Monsignor Yuhannan Samaan Issayi, the Chaldean archbishop of Tehran, at an antiquarian Jewish bookshop and was kept in his private library.

"[50] Many other relevant passages throughout the corpus of Isaac's writings could be cited in demonstration of his belief in eventual universal salvation.