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MIDDLE EAST: SOME ORIENTAL CHRISTIANSBy Joachim CollingDuring the end of the last century many refuguees from the Middle East came to Sweden and especially to our community Botkyrka. We knew very little about their backgkround at that time. Because I was active in local government during this period I wrote a few essays on different Middle East subjects to better understand their background. This is one. TABLE OF CONTENTS Oriental christians - Syrian-orthodox christians - Nestorian christians - Thomas christians - Coptic christians - Ethiopian christians - Maronites - How to surviveTo Headings - To Top Oriental christians After Jesus death the Christians split into Jewish Christian and Heathen Christian directions. The Jewish Christians vanished. The Heathen Christians split into groups based upon the two different centers of Antioch and Edessa. The Antiochians leaned more towards the Greek West and the Edesseans towards the East. The groups in the East are called Oriental Christians. This is, of course, a generalisation because detailed explanation would require a lifetime of studies. After the Concilium of Chalcedon 451 the forces fighting for a common interpretation of the Christian faith and the groups fighting for their own interpretation split definitely. One common denominator of the Eastern churches was that they based their believes much on the early Syrian version of the gospels. The Old Syrian language is Araméan. There is a.o. an Eastern and a Western dialect. The Western dialect was the language of Jesus and is close to Hebrew. The Eastern Christians later welcomed Islam as a defense against the catholic ambitions of the Western churches. This weakened them and only minor groups survived. Of these the Syrian-Orthodox and the Nestorians were the most important.To Headings - To Top Syrian-orthodox christians The Syrian-Orthodox church survived Islam and the Christian shisms. They had own monasteries with religious schools and a patriarch at Antioch (today at Damascus). The lithurgic language was Araméan, later limited to an old-syrian dialect which today in Sweden is called Syrian. The congreations often used Arabic as their common language. After the civil wars in the Middle East during the latter half of the last century a large number of Syran-Orthodox believers became refugees all over the world. Many came to Sweden. I came into contact with the Syrian-Orthodox groups when many refugees moved to our community in the 70th of the last century. They came from our neighbouring town of Södertälje which was the main center for Syrian-orthodox refugees in Sweden.To Headings - To Top Nestorian christians The Nestorians are followers of the patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople who came from Antioch. He believed that Jesus was human. Pulcheria, the sister of the emperor who was condemned by Nestorius for her immoral conduct, joined the anti-nestorian forces and Nestorius was driven away from his position in Constantinopel. The Nestorian moved further to the East and settled in Persia which removed them from the catholic sphere of influence. Their lithurgic language was kaldéan, an amaréan dialect. The Nestorian influence spread further East with the old caravan trading roads. Some Nestorian groups are now somehow united with Roman Catholicism. Other groups survived, independently with their old ideology, high up in the Persian mountains . Refugees from Iran in our communities in Sweden belong to the old Nestorian groups. Nestorians with different religious ideologies are today spread all over the world.To Headings - To Top Thomas christians The Thomas Christians are a very old group in India believed to have been founded by the Apostle Thomas. At first they were affiliated to the Nestorians. Later they were by united with the Catholics for a period. Now, they are mainly affiliated with the Syrian-orthodox Church. Though there are several independent groups.To Headings - To Top Coptic christians The Copts are the early Egyptian people. Their language is the language the hieroglyphes were written in. The Coptic language is not semitic like most other languages in the Middle East but a related hamitic language. The Coptic Christians are included in the group of Oriental Christians or better pre-Chaldeans. They have their own translation of the gospels.The first Coptic Christian converts were won by the apostle Mark who went to Alexandria. The Greeks were in the forefront of the catholic unification of the Western, Roman Christian Church and in Alexandria the Greeks had very much influence. But I believe that the independence of the Coptic Church was based upon a defense reaction of the local people against Greek dominance. The Coptic Church survived not only the Greek influence but later even the Islamic expansion and the fact that Arabic, a semitic language, became the offical language. Coptic remained the religious language of the Copts. One can note that Boutrus Gahli from Egypt, former General Secretary of the United Nations, is a Christian Copt.To Headings - To Top Ethiopian christians The Ethiopians became Christians about 300 years AC. The Ethiopians had very early, several hundred years before, contact with Jewish missionaries and possibly settlers. This explains a strong Jewish influence within the Christian church here. In our times many surviving Ethiopian Jews were repatriated to Israel. The Ethiopians are a people speaking a semitic language. The old semitic language Geez, however, remained only a liturgic church language after it was generally superseded by Amharic which is also a related semitic language. The Ethiopian Christian church was affiliated to the Coptic church. The Patriarch of Alexandria appointed the head of the Ethiopian Church without the Copts demanding strict adherence to all Coptic ideas. The Ethipian Church is now independent. There was a long down period for the Ethiopian Church even if the Islamic expansion did not succeed in Ethiopia. Around the year 1200 there was a renaissance which some explain by contacts with the Order of the Templars who are supposed to have been active even here. The catholic movement for consolidation and uniformity never got any way here even if attemps were made.To Headings - To Top Maronites The Maronites are another Oriental Christian Church. It is called after Maron, a Syrian, and its central point is the monastery of St Maron in Libanon. About 20% of the Libanese were Maronites before the recent civil wars and the influx of Palestinian refugees. Many Maronite refugees are in Europe and also in our community today. I do not want to try to explain their religious doctrines but they are based upon oriental rituals. The lithurgic language is Syrian (though not the Syrian of the Syrian-orthodox). Often Arabic is used. Since th 11th century they are united with the Roman Catholics. But the Pope has no absolute power over the Maronites who select their own bishops and archbishop.To Headings - To Top How to survive It is an interesting question how these small groups survived in an often hostile environment. I have tried to understand from what I have seen in our community. In order to survive in a larger primary culture these groups had to be based upon a very strong family and clan cohesion. The religion strengthened the groups integrity. The priests were often appointed from within the strongest family of a clan. One method for survival was the location in an isolated area. Another method was migration. They tried also not to disturb the dominant cultures political hierarchy. Migration followed a certain pattern. Even if the family was living in a peaceful area during peaceful times some individuals moved to a new place but kept close contact with their origin. If the situation became impossible in the old loacation the rest of the family moved to the new place. In the new area the different family and clan members helped one another practically and financially. We see this pattern even today.To Headings - To Top |