Joseph Hazzaya

Joseph Hazzaya (; born ) was an 8th-century Syriac Christian writer, ascetic and mystic. The nickname Hazzaya means 'the seer' or 'the visionary'. He belonged to the Church of the East.

The main source of biographical information on Joseph is the Book of Chastity of Isho'dnah of Basra, written a century or so after his death. He was born to a Persian family of Zoroastrian religion in the village of Nimrud about 710. During the reign of the Caliph Umar II (717–720), the villagers rebelled and the seven-year-old Joseph taken captive by the caliph. His brother also converted to Christianity and took the name Abdisho. but only ten were extant in Abdisho's time. He belonged to the same theological family as Isaac of Nineveh, Simon of Taibuteh and John of Dalyatha. He was the first to synthesise the three contemplations of the Hellenistic scholar Evagrius Ponticus (4th-century) with the tripartite division of the Syriac John of Apamea (5th century). Among his other works are the treatise On the Divine Essence, the Chapters of Knowledge and the Book of Questions and Answers. the Patriarch Timothy I condemned Joseph Hazzaya and two other ascetic authors, John of Dalyatha and John the Solitary, for heresy. According to Timothy, Joseph rejected prayer and the divine office as impediments to receiving the charismatic gifts. He also supposedly slipped into Messalianism, claiming that a (person who had achieved perfection) did not need prayer, the office, scripture reading or manual labour. These charges are not substantiated by any of Joseph's surviving writings, but David Wilmshurst considers them unsurprising if Joseph claimed to be a "privileged recipient of divine revelation" as his nickname implies.

The date of Joseph's death is unknown. Karl Pinggéra believes he was alive at the time of the synod, but Micheline Albert believes he was already dead by then.