Syriac Christianity

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Syriac Christianity (Syriac: ܡܫܝܚܝܘܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ, Mšiḥoyuṯo Suryoyto or Mšiḥāyūṯā Suryāytā) is a branch of Eastern Christianity of which formative theological writings and traditional liturgies are expressed in the Classical Syriac language, a variation of the old Aramaic language.[1][2][3] In a wider sense, the term can also refer to Aramaic Christianity in general, thus encompassing all Christian traditions that are based on liturgical uses of the Aramaic language and its variations, both historical and modern.[4][5][6]

Along with Greek and Latin, Classical Syriac was one of the three most important languages of Early Christianity.[7] It became a vessel for the development of a distinctive Syriac form of Christianity which flourished throughout the Near East and other parts of Asia during Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval period, giving rise to various liturgical and denominational traditions, represented in modern times by several churches which continue to uphold the religious and cultural heritage of Syriac Christianity.[8][9]

Syriac Christianity comprises two liturgical traditions: the East Syriac Rite and the West Syriac Rite.[10] The East Syriac Rite (also known variably as the Assyrian, Sassanid, Babylonian or Persian Rite),[11] whose main anaphora is the Holy Qurbana of Saints Addai and Mari, is the rite of the Assyrian Church of the East (including its offshoot, the Chaldean Catholic Church and the component Chaldean Syrian Church), the Ancient Church of the East, and the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. The West Syriac Rite (also called Antiochian Syriac Rite), which has the Divine Liturgy of Saint James as its anaphora, is the rite of the Syriac Orthodox Church (including the component Jacobite Syrian Christian Church), the Maronite Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, and the Indian Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, and Malabar Independent Syrian Church. Protestant forms of this rite are used by the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church and the St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India.

In India, indigenous Eastern Christians (Saint Thomas Christians) of both liturgical traditions (East and West Syriac) are called Syrian Christians. The traditional East Syriac community is represented by the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and the Chaldean Syrian Church of India. The West Syriac liturgical tradition was introduced after 1665, and the community associated with it is represented by the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church (a part of the Syriac Orthodox Church), the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (both of them belonging to the Oriental Orthodoxy), the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (an Eastern Catholic church in the Catholic Church), the Mar Thoma Syrian Church (part of the Anglican Communion), and the Malabar Independent Syrian Church (an independent Oriental Orthodox Church not part of the Oriental Orthodox Communion).[12]

The Syriac language is a variety of Aramaic language, that emerged in Edessa, Upper Mesopotamia (Assyria) during the first centuries AD.[13] It is related to the Aramaic of Jesus, a Galilean dialect.[14] This relationship added to its prestige for Christians.[15] The form of the language in use in Edessa predominated in Christian writings and was accepted as the standard form, "a convenient vehicle for the spread of Christianity wherever there was a substrate of spoken Aramaic".[1] The area where Syriac or Aramaic was spoken, an area of contact and conflict between the Roman Empire and the Sasanian Empire, extended from around Antioch in the west to Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Sasanian capital, in the east and comprised the whole or parts of present-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Iraq, and parts of Turkey and Iran, with its speakers being largely Semitic Assyrians, Arameans, Phoenicians and Judeans.[2][1]

  1. ^ a b c Rompay 2008, pp. 365–386.
  2. ^ a b Murre van den Berg 2007, p. 249.
  3. ^ Kitchen 2012, pp. 66–77.
  4. ^ Simmons 1959, p. 13.
  5. ^ Aufrecht 2001, p. 149.
  6. ^ Quispel 2008, p. 80.
  7. ^ Brock 2005, pp. 5–20.
  8. ^ Winkler 2019, pp. 119–133.
  9. ^ Hunter 2019, pp. 783–796.
  10. ^ Varghese 2019, pp. 391–404.
  11. ^ John Hardon (25 June 2013). Catholic Dictionary: An Abridged and Updated Edition of Modern Catholic Dictionary. Crown Publishing Group. p. 493. ISBN 978-0-307-88635-4.
  12. ^ Perczel 2019, pp. 653–697.
  13. ^ Brock 1998, p. 708-719.
  14. ^ Allen C. Myers, ed. (1987), "Aramaic". The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans. p. 72. ISBN 0-8028-2402-1. "It is generally agreed that Aramaic was the common language of Palestine in the first century A.D. Jesus and his disciples spoke the Galilean dialect, which was distinguished from that of Jerusalem (Matt. 26:73)."
  15. ^ Montgomery 2002, p. 27.