Syriac Christianity

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Syriac Christianity

Syriac Christianity is a culturally and linguistically distinctive community within Eastern Christianity

Eastern Christianity

Eastern Christianity refers collectively to the Christianity traditions and churches which developed in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Christianity in Africa and southern India over several centuries of religious antiquity....
. It has its roots in the Near East

Near East

Near East today is an ambiguous term that covers different countries for archeologists and historians, on one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other....
, and is represented by a number of Christian denominations today, mainly in the Middle East

Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
and in Kerala

Kerala

Kerala is a Indian Union States and territories of India located in the southwestern part of India. With an Arabian Sea coastline on the west, it is bordered on the north by Karnataka and by Tamil Nadu on the south and east....
, India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
.

ac Christian heritage is transmitted through the Syriac language

Syriac language

Syriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from the 4th to the 8th centuries, the classical language of Edessa, Mesopotamia, preserved in a large body of Syriac literature....
, a dialect of Aramaic

Aramaic language

Aramaic is a Semitic languages with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship....
. Unlike the Greek Christian culture, Syriac culture borrowed much from early Rabbinic Judaism

Rabbinic Judaism

Rabbinic Judaism or Rabbinism is the mainstream religious system of post-Jewish diaspora Judaism. It evolved after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE by the Roman Empire, when it became impossible to practice the religious customs and Korban that were at that time central to Jewish observance....
and Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khuzestan Province of southwestern Iran....
n culture.

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History

Syriac Christian heritage is transmitted through the Syriac language

Syriac language

Aramaic language

Rabbinic Judaism

Mesopotamia

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
and Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
Christian cultures became protected by the Roman

Roman Empire

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
empires respectively, Syriac Christianity often found itself marginalised and persecuted. Antioch

Antioch

Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the nearer East and was a cradle of gentile hi...
was the political capital of this culture, and was the seat of the patriarchs

Patriarch of Antioch

Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title carried by the Bishop of Antioch. As the traditional "overseer" of the first gentile Christian community, the position has been of prime importance in the church from its Early Christianity....
of the church. However, Antioch was heavily Hellenized, and the Mesopotamian cities of Edessa

Edessa, Mesopotamia

Edessa is the historical name of a Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people town in northern Mesopotamia, refounded on an ancient site by Seleucus I Nicator....
, Nisibis

Nisibis

Nusaybin is a city in Mardin Province, southeastern Turkey populated by Kurdish people, Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people, Arabs.It is the ancient Mesopotamian city, which Alexander's successors refounded as Antiochia Mygdonia and is mentioned for the first time in Polybius' description of the march of Antiochus I against the Molon...
and Ctesiphon

Ctesiphon

Ctesiphon was one of the great cities of the Persian Empire, located on the east bank of the Tigris.Ctesiphon was an imperial capital of the Arsacids and of their successors, the Sassanids....
became Syriac cultural centres.

The early literature of Syriac Christianity include the Diatessaron

Diatessaron

The Diatessaron is the most prominent Gospel harmony created by Tatian, an early Christian apologist and ascetic,. Tatian combined Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke, and Gospel of John into a single narrative....
of Tatian

Tatian

Tatian the Assyrian was an early Christianity writer and theologian of the second century.Tatian's most influential work is the Diatessaron, a harmony of the four gospels that became the standard text of the four gospels in the Syriac-speaking churches until the 5th-century, when it gave way to the four separate gospels in the Peshitta ve...
(most probably), the Peshitta

Peshitta

The Peshitta is the standard version of the Christian Bible in the Syriac language.The Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated from the Hebrew , probably in the second century....
Bible, the Doctrine of Addai

Doctrine of Addai

The Doctrine of Addai is a controversial book about Saint Addai.The story of how Abgar V of Edessa and Jesus had corresponded was first recounted in the 4th century by the church historian Eusebius of Caesarea in his Church History and it was retold in elaborated form by Ephrem the Syrian....
and the writings of Aphrahat

Aphrahat

Aphrahat was an Assyrian people author of the fourth century from Persia, who composed a series of twenty-three expositions or homilies on points of Christian doctrine and practice....
and the hymns of Ephrem the Syrian

Ephrem the Syrian

Ephrem the Syrian was a Roman Syria deacon, prolific Syriac-language hymnographer and theologian of the 4th century. He is venerated by Christianity throughout the world, and especially among Syriac Christians, as a saint....
.

The first division between Syriac Christians occurred in the 5th century, when Christians of the Sassanid Persian Empire

Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire. It was one of the two main powers in Western Asia for a period of more than 400 years....
were separated from those in the west over the Nestorian Schism

Nestorian Schism

The Nestorian Schism was the split between the Byzantine Empire church of the West and the Assyrian church of the East in the 5th century.Nestorius was a student of Theodore of Mopsuestia at the middle School of Antioch before he became bishop of Constantinople ....
. This split owed just as much to the politics of the day as it did to theological orthodoxy. Ctesiphon

Ctesiphon

Ctesiphon was one of the great cities of the Persian Empire, located on the east bank of the Tigris.Ctesiphon was an imperial capital of the Arsacids and of their successors, the Sassanids....
, which was at the time the Sassanid capital, became the capital of the Church of the East

Church of the East

Church of the East may refer to the Church centered in modern Syria and Iraq named Nestorianism in the Western world before it was divided into the three bodies below....
.

After the Council of Chalcedon

Council of Chalcedon

The Council of Chalcedon is believed to have been the fourth ecumenical council by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. It was held from 8 October to 1 November 451 at Chalcedon , today the district of Kadik?y on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, incorporated into the city of Istanbul....
in 451, many Syriac Christians within the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
rebelled against its decisions. The Patriarchate of Antioch was then divided between a Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian communion. The Chalcedonians were often labelled 'Melkites' (Emperor's Party), while their opponents were labelled as Monophysites (those who believe in the one rather than two natures of Christ) and Jacobites (after Jacob Baradaeus

Jacob Baradaeus

Jacobus Baradaeus or James Baradaeus , was ordained by the Miaphysitism bishop of Edessa, Mesopotamia , with ecumenical authority over the members of their body throughout the East....
). The Maronite Church found itself caught between the two, but claims to have always remained faithful to the Catholic Church and in communion with the bishop of Rome, the Pope.

Over time, some groups within each of these branches have entered into communion with the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
, becoming Eastern Catholic Churches. The Mar Thoma Church

Mar Thoma Church

The Mar Thoma Church is a Christianity Christian denomination from Kerala, the south-western state of India. It claims that the original Malankara Church was established by Thomas the Apostle at the same time as Saint Paul established the church in Corinth....
is in full communion with the Anglican Communion

Anglican Communion

The Anglican Communion is an international association of national Anglican churches. There is no single "Anglican Church" with universal juridical authority as each national or regional church has full autonomy....
.

Some Syriac Christian denominations no longer use the Syriac language in their worship. This is particularly true of the Chalcedonian churches.

Churches of the Syriac tradition

West Syrian Rite
West Syrian Rite

The West Syrian Rite is the rite used by certain Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholic churches. It is in its origin simply the old Antiochene Rite in the Syriac language....

The Syriac Orthodox Church
Syriac Orthodox Church

The Syriac Orthodox Church is an autocephaly Oriental Orthodox church based in the Middle East, with members spread throughout the world. It schism with Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism over the Council of Chalcedon, which the Syriac Orthodox Church rejects....
(Non-Chalcedonian Oriental Orthodox Church of Antioch and all the East)

The Malankara Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church; (Non-Chalcedonian Oriental Orthodox Church of India within the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate)

The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (Autocephalous; Non-Chalcedonian Oriental Orthodox Church of India)
The Syriac Catholic Church
Syriac Catholic Church

The Syriac Catholic Church, or Syrian Catholic Church, is a Christian church in the Levant having practices and rites in common with the Syriac Orthodox Church....
, an West Syrian Rite
West Syrian Rite

The West Syrian Rite is the rite used by certain Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholic churches. It is in its origin simply the old Antiochene Rite in the Syriac language....
Eastern Catholic church.
The Maronite Church, a West Syrian Rite
West Syrian Rite

The West Syrian Rite is the rite used by certain Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholic churches. It is in its origin simply the old Antiochene Rite in the Syriac language....
Eastern Catholic Church.
The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
Syro-Malankara Catholic Church

The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church is an Antiochian Rite, Major Archiepiscopal sui iuris Eastern Catholic Church in the Catholic Communion, in union with the Pope of Rome, historically linked to the Syrian Church....
, a West Syrian Rite
West Syrian Rite

The West Syrian Rite is the rite used by certain Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholic churches. It is in its origin simply the old Antiochene Rite in the Syriac language....
Eastern Catholic Church based in Kerala, India.
The Malankara Marthoma Syrian Church. (Mar Thoma Church
Mar Thoma Church

The Mar Thoma Church is a Christianity Christian denomination from Kerala, the south-western state of India. It claims that the original Malankara Church was established by Thomas the Apostle at the same time as Saint Paul established the church in Corinth....
), a reformed church in Communion with the Anglican Church based in Kerala, India.

East Syrian Rite
East Syrian Rite

The East Syrian Rite is also known as the Assyro-Chaldean Rite, Assyrian Rite, Chaldean Rite or Persian Rite although it originated in Osroene....

Churches of the East:

The Assyrian Church of the East
Assyrian Church of the East

The Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East , currently presided over by Mar Dinkha IV, is a Christian particular church and one of the earliest to separate itself from communion with the Catholic Church ....
(sometimes incorrectly called Nestorian
Nestorianism

Nestorianism is the doctrine that Christ exists as two ,persons the man Jesus and the divine Son of God, or Jesus Christ the Logos, rather than as two natures of one divine essence....
).
The Chaldean Catholic Church
Chaldean Catholic Church

The Chaldean Catholic Church or the Chaldean Church of Babylon is an Eastern Catholic Churches Particular_church#Autonomous_particular_Churches_or_Rites of the Catholic Church, maintaining full communion with the Bishop of Rome and the rest of the Catholic Church....
, an East Syrian Rite
East Syrian Rite

The East Syrian Rite is also known as the Assyro-Chaldean Rite, Assyrian Rite, Chaldean Rite or Persian Rite although it originated in Osroene....
Eastern Catholic church.
The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church
Syro-Malabar Catholic Church

The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is a Chaldean Catholic Church or East Syrian Rite, Major Archbishop Church in Full communion with the Roman Catholic Church....
, an East Syrian Rite
East Syrian Rite

The East Syrian Rite is also known as the Assyro-Chaldean Rite, Assyrian Rite, Chaldean Rite or Persian Rite although it originated in Osroene....
Eastern Catholic Church based in Kerala, India.

Syriac Christians were involved in the mission to India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, and many of the ancient churches of India are in communion with their Syriac cousins. These Indian Christians are known as Saint Thomas Christians

Saint Thomas Christians

The Saint Thomas Christian denominations are a number of Syriac Christian churches, adhered to by the Syrian Malabar Nasrani of Malabar coast in Southern India....
.

In modern times, various Protestant denominations began to send representatives among the Syriac peoples. As a result, several Protestant groups, including the "Assyrian Pentecostal Church" have been established. However, such groups are not normally classified among those Eastern Churches to which the term "Syriac Christianity" is traditionally applied.

Syriac Christianity

History

Churches of the Syriac tradition

See also

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