Discussion on how-to-prevent-knanaya-going-to-pentacost
Here are some facts and figures, which may not be acquired from our Sunday schools. I gathered them through my newfound hobby on learning of the Syrian Christians of Kerala.
§ First of all, the places Antioch, Edessa, Mardin and Tur- Abdin are not in present day Syria but in Turkey! Antioch is where the first converts called themselves Christians. Tur-Abdin is supposedly the ancestral native place of Parumala Thirumeni .
§ Syriac like Sanskrit is more ecclesial but rarely spoken. It is of the family of Aramaic and it is said to be the mother tongue of Jesus. There are two types of Syriac: West-Syriac, which I think is also known as Maronite; and East-Syriac, which is known as Chaldean. West Syriac is or rather was used in places nearing the Mediterranean Sea ( Turkey, Lebanon, North Iraq) and East Syrian was used in places nearing India (South Iraq, Iran).
§ Jesus' disciple 'the doubting' Thomas ( St. Thomas) is said to have brought Christianity to Kerala and elsewhere in South East Asia. His possible primary objective was to convert the Jews scattered for ages in this region. He is supposed to have landed near Kodungalloor in 52 AD. But the landing and his martyrdom in Madras are not fully agreed by many historians and Christians.
§ But if the Thomas legend can be proven true, then the SyrChrs community in Kerala would be as old as Christianity itself. To highlight this fact: There were churches in Kerala, India, and Christians living peacefully here then when Europeans were still barbaric and when the Americas weren't even discovered!!
§ Ethnically, most SyrChrs maybe composed of a dash of Jewish, Babylonian and Persian genes in a bowl of Keralite chromosomes. The Namboothiri connections are true but not the only truth; there were converts from most other castes too.
§ True, most SyrChrs must have enjoyed very high status and royal privileges in the past but this had more to do with them being enterprising, learned and affluent than for caste reasons.
§ SyrChrs are sometimes called Nazaranis (Nazarenes). They are in some places also called Mapillas because of their honorary titles and maybe because of their Middle Eastern (Jewish) connection. They maybe who were referred to as Issanis (Essenes) in one of the oldest literature: the Manimekalai.
§ As per some historians, in the early first millennium there was 'Mani' flow with the words Manimekalai, Mani, Manigrammam, and Manivachakkar littering the still surviving pointers. Some say that many SyrChr were influenced back into paganism during this time. This paganism I believe could be some sort of Buddhism, maybe.
§ Many of the original seven and a half churches established by Saint Thomas do not exist today. The Kodungalloor church was probably washed off in the floods of 1341; Pandian bandits and elephants destroyed the Nilackal church; The Quilon church is now somewhere 2 km into the sea!
§ For at least 50 years (between 1599 and 1653) almost ALL churches in Kerala were (forcibly) latinized' by the Portuguese!
§ The Portuguese ordered the burning of all the SyrChr 'heretical' texts, so we are left with blanks and confusions about SyrChr history prior to 1599.
§ The coonen cross satyam of 1653 held by the SyrChrs at Mattancherry maybe the very first show of Indian-ness in India. And maybe even the first revolt against foreign rule in India. Here, it was against the Parankees (Portuguese). BTW, The coonen (bent) cross is actually straight now! :-)
§ The chain reaction of the many splits to happen in the Malankara/Malabar sabha was triggered from this point in time onwards. Also migrations southwards after many churches were lost in the Malabar (North) region to Catholic loyalists.
§ What represents the Syrian-ness here today are: 1 Nestorian ( Assyrian Church of the East), 1 Protestant (Marthoma church), 3 Catholic (Syro-Malabar, Syro- alankara & Knanaya Catholic) and 4 Orthodoxies (Jacobite, Indian Orthodox, Knanaya Jacobite & Thozhiyoor). One of the Syriacs is used at least in some part of their liturgy.
§ Each of the above factions believes they are the original and the others broke off from them! In fact NO faction today is like the pre-Portuguese period. Too complex to explain here which church did the SyrChrs ancestors belonged to; I will put in another post.
§ In 1784, our hero Tippu Sultan went on a trip into the Malabar region, destroying many ancient temples and churches and forcibly converting many Christians and Hindus to Muslims. This led to another wave of large migrations to the mid and south Kerala.
§ So now we can understand why there are more Orthodoxes southwards and Syro-Malabar Catholics Northwards. So it's also easy to understand why there are only 2 orthodox seven-and-a-half churches, Niranam and Thiruvancode, and both of these in the south.
§ The Mar-Thoma cross or Sleeba (jokingly called Klaver- kurish) maybe a Manichean cross. The SyrChrs would have adopted it when the Mani followers merged with them in order to avoid Portuguese persecution. Some say it's Nestorian in origin. Both Manicheanism and Nestorianism are considered to be heretical by the mainstream Christianity; however this cross is currently the only linking identity among the SyrChr factions.
§ Kadamattom Kathanar was not a Capuchin monk as portrayed in that Chandrakanda styled serial on Asianet channel.
§ In spite of Jewish roots and in spite of being endogamous, the Knanaya (Canaanites) look more Malayali than the rest of SyrChrs :-)) Punnose chetta my friend, no hard feelings.
§ There are in Kerala 20 times the Syrian Christian population in Antioch and surrounding regions. There is almost zero Syrian Christian population in Persia (Iran) now. In fact Kerala is the one of the very few places in the world where the dying language, Syriac-Aramaic, is still being used in liturgies and taught at Universities here.
§ Kerala also has a unique place in the Christian world for being one place where there are 4 different types of Catholics: Latin,Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara and the Knanaya.
§ And I am sure that NONE of the above facts are known to 99% of the current SyrChr population!
What do you mean by Talmud?
Talmud is the practices of Jews and Mishna is the oral interpretation of Talmud. Have you read Jewish laws and leave by it? You have written that I have not read Talmud. Why should as a Christian I read Talmud? i don't follow Jewish rabbis but scriptures written down by Apostles of Jesus Christ.I will be glad enough if you can clarify the exact meaning of Talmud as you mean. Anyways, in my opinion, Our people should not go to Pentecost which is relatively a new school of thought. But our preachings, our traditions and our prayers are as old as Christianity. Cutting short the whole discussions what I say is: “we don’t have to jump ships. But in your reply to my article you have mentioned so many things which are not synchronized. You have told that Romans look down upon us. But who are Romans? Historically the patriarchs (Pope was also a Patriarch equally powerful as Antioch patriarch) later he became powerful because of the prevailing political equations present during 10th century (After Kustontinopolis Sunnahadose). But that doesn’t mean that Pentecost is an alternative solution. Our prayers, our traditions and our customs are based on the teachings from Jesus and his disciples. St.Peter himself was the founding father of apostolic churches where as Pentecost denominations have no apostolic roots. Our prayers are deeply rooted in theology. We don’t want to out-sermon any body. Jesus told – "If any one is not attracted by MY FATHER he cannot be saved by any one." So, only His Father can save A SOUL.
Those who are destined to go to heaven cannot be distracted and disrupted and attracted to the newly founded sects. And mind you Christianity was formed in Antioch and not in the USA. Any body who would like to see the original practices, original forms of prayers, and QURBANA has to obviously look EAST.
2. Regarding endogamy and sticking to knanaya practices it should not be confused with Christianity & Theology. Knanaya practices are social practices. We have decided not to racially mingle with other races. That has nothing to do with apostolic preaching and doesn’t mean that we look down upon other Christians, who also do follow the same principals. Endogamy is something our forefathers have reserved for us. For eg: you may not give your daughter to any one you see in your church. He might be following the same social practices as you do, believe in the same god as you do believe. But you have so many other criteria to marry off your daughter. Just because some one is attending the same church as you do, you will not give her away to
him. Same policy applies as a whole community. It has nothing to do with theology. Endogamy is a social practice.
Thank you – Sajan!