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The many countries in which Syriac was spoken
#2
Part 2 of "The many countries in which Syriac was spoken"

{Quoting from William Norton}

Dr. Grant says also, "Nazareans is a term very commonly employed by themselves and others to designate the Nestorians. It is never applied to other Christian sects. The term Nazareans has been well defined to mean Christians converted from Judaism,.....who adhered to the practice of the Jewish ceremonies...... Jerome speaks of them as Hebrews believing in Christ. We have good reason from Acts xv. 5, to believe that the Gentiles never adopted the rites of the Jews, nor the name of Nazareans, to whom these rites were peculiar. It must then have been applied exclusively to the Jewish converts. Hence the conclusion that the Nestorians must have been Jews," (pp. 153-4.) By Jews, he clearly means Israelites. Mosheim, in his "Christianity before Constantine," Cent. ii, chap. xxxix., says, "A small band of Christians who joined Moses with Christ, divided into two sects called Nazareans and Ebionites. The ancient Christians did not class the Nazareans with heretical sects." Dr. Grant says, "It is the simple fact, that the Nestorians are what they profess to be--the children of Israel," (p. 113.)
Concurring proofs seem to make it certain that these Nestorian Christians received the gospel from some of the apostles; that there has been a succession of them from that time to this; that their copies of the Peshito-Syriac Scriptures are derived from copies received at a very early date; that they have been carefully made and preserved, and are of great value in determining the true text and meaning of God's word.

A like settlement to that in Coordistan, of Christians and Hebrews dwelling near to each other, has also existed from the time of the apostles until now, in Travancore and the Malabar Coast of India. These Christians, as well as those of Coordistan, use the ancient Peshito-Syriac Scriptures in their worship at the present day. They believe they have had these Scriptures from before A. D. 325, in which year their bishop signed his name at the council of Nicaea. There is ancient testimony that the Gospel of Matthew in Syriac was left with them by the apostle Bartholomew, and that the apostle Thomas preached the gospel among them. The Hebrews, to whom these Apostles preached, must have been settled there at a still earlier period. Dr. Asahel Grant said of the Christians of Travancore, "They may be, in part at least, a branch of the present Nestorians of Media and Assyria. We have good evidence that they were formerly of the Nestorian faith, though they have more recently become connected with the Jacobite Syrians. It is worthy of inquiry whether they have not traditions, rites, customs, or other evidence of Jewish origin," (p. 155.) "That the apostle Thomas preached in India, we have the testimony of numerous Greek, Latin, and Syrian authors quoted by Asseman in his Bibliotheca Orientalis, vol. iv., pp. 5--25, 435." Grant, p. 156, note.
Dr. Claudius Buchanan of the Church of England, in 1806-8, visited the Christians of St. Thomas in India, and also the Israelites who dwell near them. He found that the Israelites "are divided into two classes, called the Jerusalem or White Jews; and the ancient, or Black Jews." He saw and conversed with some of both classes. The White Jews delivered to him a narrative, in the Hebrew language, of their arrival in India. It stated that their "fathers, dreading the conquerer's wrath, departed from Jerusalem, a numerous body of men, women, priests, and Levites, and came into this land after the second temple was destroyed," which took place A. D. 70. This narrative states that other Hebrews afterwards joined them from Judea, Spain, and other places, (pp. 200-2.)
He says of the Black Jews, "It is only necessary to look at their countenance to be satisfied that their ancestors must have arrived in India many ages before the White Jews.....The White Jews look upon the Black Jews as an inferior race, and as not of a pure caste, which plainly demonstrates that they do not spring from a common stock in india. The Black Jews recounted the names of many other small colonies of the ancient Israelites resident in northern India, Tartary and China; and gave me a written list of sixty-five places. I conversed with those who had lately visited many of these stations." Dr. Buchanan seems to have regarded the Black Jews as part of the ten tribes. Those to whom the apostle Thomas preached must have been settled there before his arrival, which probably was many years before the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70, and the arrival of the White Jews; so that there is a strong probability that those to whom he preached were a migratory part of the ten tribes. Dr. Buchanan says, "I inquired concerning their brethren the ten tribes. They said that it was commonly believed among them that the great body of the Israelites is to be found in the very places whither they were first carried into captivity; that some few families had migrated into regions more remote, as to Cochin and Rajapoor in India, and to other places yet further to the East, but that the bulk of the nation, though now much reduced in number, had not to this day, removed two thousand miles from Samaria." (pp. 206-7.)
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The many countries in which Syriac was spoken - by Larry Kelsey - 02-02-2004, 02:10 AM
....... - by Larry Kelsey - 02-02-2004, 03:17 AM
......... - by Larry Kelsey - 02-02-2004, 05:31 AM
Re: - by Larry Kelsey - 02-21-2004, 10:19 PM

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