Christ's_Warrior
Newbie
Yes, as someone posted earlier in the thread, there seems to be a lot of closeness nowadays between the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Assyrian Church, especially among the lay people.
There has been an explosion of "ARAMEAN" activism on the internet of recent.
They say both the SOC and ACE are comprised of one racial-cultural-linguistic group known as the Arameans.
And that the name "Assyrian" is a British missionary invention, while "Chaldean" is a Jesuit invention. Both were divisory names, just meant to divide the Aramean people among the various western churches.
They say in reality, they are one people- the Aramean people mentioned in the Bible.
I cant post any links till i have made atleast 50 posts. But google "Aramean", "Aram Nahrin", etc and you will get some of these websites.
Most of them are of Human Rights Activist nature, but it seems to have evolved into a Cultural movement of sort.
Next part -
In praising several of the Church of the East Patriarchs Gevargis writes:
"Mar Mari the Assyrian (Aturaya) from the race of Illustrious name" was born in central Assyria and was a Patriarch 967 - 1000. "Odishu the Assyrian from a noble race." Odishu II (Bar Ars) Aturaya Born in Nineveh was bishop
of Nissivin before serving as Patriarch 1072 - 1090. (13 ) "Makikha the zealous a blessed and just man who was leader in Assyria". Makikha I (Bar Shlemon) (1092 - 1109)
"The Triumphant Elia, grew up among the educators in Assyria and was a vast source of knowledge". Elia II born in Mosul previously was a Bishop of Nineveh and Arbil before serving as Patriarch 1111 - 1132. (14)
The 14th century Odisho (d. 1318) wrote; 'Patriarch Papa (fl. 325) was the first patriarch to established the Metropolitans of Assyria [central Mesopotamia], Nissivin [northern Meso-potamia], Maishan [southern Mesopotamia] and Elam [the bet Khozayee region included Jundi Shapur in Persia presently known as Khozestan].'(15) In this case Metropolitan of Central Assyria included Arbil and Kirkuk and towns in between where Assyrians still live. Other references to Assyrians pertained not only to the inhabitants of central Assyria but to most of the Mesopotamia.After the 7th century Arab conquest the new rulers through heavy taxation , legal inequities, oppression, humiliation, and intimidation forced none-moslem subjects into Islam who by virtue of their new faith adopted the Arabic language and called themselves Arabs. Consequently religion became an important part of national identity in addition to language, ancestry, and culture. Due to the new reality it was natural for the Christian Assyrians to emphasis their differences in religion and language which set them apart from their moslem neighbors especially those who previously belonged to their faith.
The terms Suryaya and Suryoyo were better suited to express such sentiments but that did not diminish their being Assyrians. This is attested to by their continued identification as such by themselves and others. It was the increased contacts with the west during the 19th century which awakened the modern sense of nationalism not only among the Assyrians but also the rest of the people in the Middle East.The most gulling Joseph's claim is that the Armenian 'Asori' which Christians of Mesopotamia have been known by means 'Syrian' and according to him the correct Armenian name for Assyrian is 'Asorestantji'. This contradicts the classical, also contemporary Armenian documents and dictionaries where the ancient and present Assyrians are identified as 'Asori' or 'Asore'. The sixteenth century Armenian version of the story of Ahigar is a good example where transliteration of Assyria is termed 'Asorestan' but ancient Assyrians are called Asore.(16) 'Asore' a varied spelling of 'Asori' is the most important part of 'Asore-stantji' which Joseph claims to mean Assyrian. How is it that as part of 'Asore-stantji' it means Assyrian but by itself it does not? The terms, 'stan', 'estan', or 'ostan' in the Indo-European languages including the Armenian means land or province. The name of most countries in these tongues begin with the nationality of the people of the land. For example Pakistan is the homeland of the Paki, Hindustan is the country of the Hindu, or Hendi and Afghanistan is the country of the Afgans or Afgani. John Joseph's claim that Asori means Syrian and not Assyrian contradicts this logic. Though Armenians call their country Hyestan they refer to themselves as Hy. Asori has been used by the Persians and the Kurds for the contemporary and ancient Assyrians also.
Despite all the references equating Syrian, suryaya, Suryoye to Assyrians Joseph writes: "The Syriac documents which Wilmshurst had consulted refer to "Suraye Madenhaye" which he translates as 'East Syrians,' meaning Arameans [Joseph's interpretation] a usage established as far back as the third century B.C. when the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, and almost 1,000 years later, into Syriac." Contrary to Joseph's claim the term Syrian as a substitute for Assyrian had been in use since the 6th century B.C.. Because Christians of Mesopotamia could not read the Greek Old Testament it could not have mattered to them what was written in it. One can also argue that Greek's lack of mention of the Arameans may have been because the name was not in popular use.
Christian of Mesopotamia had access to the Jewish Bible which went out of its way to promote the Aramean name even when it did not apply. For instance it claims 'A wandering Aramean' was the father of the Jewish faith (17) Popularly interpreted to mean that Abraham and his family were Arameans yet such a people did not exist at that time and the first mention of Arameans in history was seven hundred years later. In addition it is well known that Jesus spoke the Aramaic language which would have been inspiring for the christians to call themselves by that name but it did not happen in Mesopotamia.
The idea that Assyrians vanished from the face of the earth after their famous defeat is a misunderstanding of what is written in the Old Testament. Even the early Assyrialogists because of such influence presumed that ancient Assyrians no longer existed which is evident form their use of Biblical quotations to support such conclusion, but later historical and archaeological discoveries have proven them wrong. Even Naham who rejoiced about the destruction of Nineveh conceded that Assyrian inhabitants of Nineveh were not wiped out instead they were 'scattered on the mountain'.
He writes:
"Your shepherds are asleep. O king of Assyria, your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountain with none to gather them." (18)
Most Christian zealot chose to ignore the last part of the statement. It was more comforting to believe that God had destroyed the mighty Assyrians for not obeying him. One needs only listen to the Christian's fire and brimstone preachers to realize how they revel in preaching Nahum's accounts of the destruction of Nineveh. Even now the wars in Iraq are interpreted by some as signs that the Bible prophecies are coming true.
Nonetheless documents dating back to early Christianity corroborate that "Assyrian" was the identity of the people of Mesopotamia. The fourth century Eusbius of Caesarea, about Teachings of Addai the Apostle concerning the spread of Christianity in Mesopotamia wrote:
" People of the east, in the guise of merchants, passed over into the territory of the Romans, ( so that) they might see the signs which Addaeus did. And ( became) disciples, received from him ordination to priesthood, and in their own country of the Assyrians they instructed the people of their nation."
A Homily about the town of Antioch underscores the same:
"To Simon was allotted Rome, and to John Ephesus; to Thomas India, and to Addaeus the country of the Assyrians." (19) [in footnotes "The text actually reads among the Assyrians"].[SIZE=-3]
Other historical and archaeological evidences attest to the survival of the Assyrians not only on the mountains but in many Assyrian cities towns and villages. Nabunid's mother, who died at the ripe age of 104 in 546 B.C. left behind an inscription in which she mentions the Assyrian kings whom she had served as priestess of the temple of Ishtar and writes about their descendants and officials who lived in Harran after the defeat.
[/SIZE][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]She writes:
" None of their children, none of their families and of their officials to whom- when they had been put in office, they had (were) given rich gifts, performed actually as much as a fumigation-offering (to their graves), whereas I brought monthly, without interruption-in my best garments offering to their souls, fat lambs, bread, fine beer, wine, oil, honey and all kinds of garden fruits, and established as perpetual offerings abundant fumigation (yielding) sweet smells for them." (20)
If the children of the Assyrian royalties and their official were still alive decades after the fall of Assyria there is no reason to believe that the ordinary assyrians of Harran and other cities were wiped out as some want to claim.
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