The Syriac/Aramean People
In the early centuries of the Christian era, the Syriac[i]
Christians were disconnected from each other. First along geopolitical demarcations
and soon after along religious lines as well. Those Syriacs that resided
in the Roman (later Byzantine) Empire were termed ‘West-Syriacs’,
whereas their congeners who lived under Parthian (later Sassanide) hegemony
were dubbed ‘East-Syriacs’.[ii]
This traditional distinction, albeit roughly, between ‘Easterners’
and ‘Westerners’ has remained until the present day. Accordingly,
the Syriac people can be classified as follows.[iii]
The rich history of these immediate heirs of the ancient Aramaic heritage
has superbly been portrayed by Prof. Sebastian P. Brock (Professor Emeritus
at Oxford University) et al. in The
Hidden Pearl; this recommendable project portrays the distant past of
the Aramaic churches until 2001.
Theodor Nöldeke, one of the greatest Orientalists ever, commenced
his illustrious Syriac Grammar from 1880 with these words: “From the
time the Greeks came to have a more intimate acquaintance with Asia, they
designated by the name of ‘Syrians’ the people who called themselves
‘Aramaeans’.”[v]
The first century historian Flavius Josephus,[vi]
for instance, confirms that “Aram,” the son of Sem, the son
of the Biblical Noah (Genesis 10:22), “had the Arameans, which the
Greeks called Syrians.”
In addition, there are numerous references in the early works of eminent
Syriac writers from both traditions who explicitly affirmed their ancient
Aramean ancestry.[vii] We
can illustrate this by means of two quotations taken at random from the
wealthy Syriac literary corpus.
• West-Syriac: Michael, a 12th century Syriac-Orthodox Patriarch
(d. 1199 A.D.), wrote in his voluminous Chronicle about “the kingdoms
which have been established in Antiquity by our race, (that of) the Aramaeans
[oromoye], namely the descendants of Aram, who were called Syrians
[suryoye].”[viii]
• East-Syriac: The lexicographer Bar Bahlul from Baghdad
(fl. 963 A.D.) recorded in his lexicon under the lemma ‘Syria’
that “the Syriacs [suryoye] were formerly called Arameans
[oromoye].”[ix]
Regarding the proper name, Prof. Nöldeke[x]
argued already in 1871 that the sole scholarly correct name for the Syriac
people and their language really is ‘Aramean’.
Since the originally Greek calques ‘Syriacs’ and ‘Syriac’
entered the Aramaic vocabulary, the Syriac Universal Alliance (SUA) frequently
employs the former native appellations ‘Arameans’ and ‘Aramaic’
as well when referring to the Syriac people and language respectively.
To be sure, SUA cherishes both these blessed names without discrimination
as an indispensable part of the ancient-old, glorious history of the Syriac/Aramean
people.[xi]
Endnotes:
i Given
that the term ‘Syrians’ can generate a misunderstanding between
the Aramaic-speaking Christians who originate from different countries
in the Middle East and the chiefly Muslim inhabitants of the “Syrian
Arab Republic,” the Syriac Universal Alliance had introduced the
word ‘Syriacs’ in 1983 in order to distinguish both entities;
a Syriac-Orthodox synod http://sor.cua.edu/SOCNews/2000/00040301.html
followed suit in April 2000.
Further it can be noted in this context that already the late Syriac-Orthodox
Patriarch and scholar, Aphrem I Barsoum (1887-1933-1957), declared that
in Western countries and languages “the present ambiguity would
disappear if we add ‘Aramaic’ to the Syrian language, and
‘Aramean’ to the Syrian Church” (A. Barsoum, The
Syrian Church of Antioch: Its Name and History [1952; reprinted by
the Syriac/Aramaic organizations in Middle Europe and Sweden in 1983],
p. 43).
ii Cf. (e.g.) W.S. McCullough,
A Short History of Syriac Christianity to the Rise of Islam (Scholars
Press, 1982) and S.P. Brock, “Christians in the Sassanian Empire:
A case of divided loyalties,” in Studies in Church History
18 (1982), pp. 1-19.
iii We
have left out the relatively small - essentially protestant - converts
among these religious communities from the end of the 20th century onwards.
iv The religious name ‘Nestorians’
truly is, in the words of Prof. Sebastian Brock, a lamentable misnomer.
See his “The ‘Nestorian’ Church: A Lamentable Misnomer,”
in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library of Manchester 78:3 (1996),
pp. 23-36. Regarding the politically motivated adoption of the pre-Christian
name ‘Assyrians’ after the first World War by members of this
community, note the excellent discussion of J. Joseph, The Modern
Assyrians of the Middle East: Encounters with Western Christian missions,
archaeologists, and colonial powers (Studies in Christian Mission,
26; Leiden: Brill, 2000), pp. 1-32.
v Th. Nöldeke, Compendious
Syriac Grammar (translated from the second and improved German edition
by J.A. Crichton) (London, 1904), p. XXXI. Th. Nöldeke, Kurzgefasste
Syrische Grammatik (Leipzig, 1880), p. XXIX: “Mit dem Namen
‘Syrer’ bezeichneten die Griechen, seit sie Asien näher
hatten kennen lernen, die Nation, welche sich selbst ‘Aramäer’
nannte.”
vi Jewish Antiquities
(93 A.D.), Book I, chapter 6 and par. 4 of the English translation by
http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-1.htm (1895); read, however, for the English rendition of
the Greek word aramaious ‘Arameans’ instead of ‘Aramites’.
See also Book I.143 of the Greek source, edited by B. Niese (1892; available
at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=J.%2BAJ%2Btoc).
vii Cf. J.
Messo, “The Arameans of Aram-naharaim or The Ancient Syrians
of Mesopotamia,” in Bahro Suryoyo 25/2 (2004), p. 22: “A
self-awareness of their Aramean descent is even clearly present in the
early writings of famous writers like Ephrem the Syrian (†373),
Jacob of Serugh (†521), Jacob of Edessa (†708), Yeshudad from
Haditha (†853), Bar Bahlul from Baghdad (fl. 963), Dionysius Bar
Salibi (†1171), Bar ‘Ebroyo (†1286), Michael the Great/Elder
(†1199) and many others. This Aramean self-reflection also continued
in the writings of the early 20th century nationalists like Naoum Fayeq
(†1930), and the late Patriarchs of the Syriac-Orthodox of Antioch
Aphrem I Barsaum (1887-1933-1957) and Ya‘qub III (1912-1957-1980)
until even the current Patriarch Zakka I Iwas (1932-1980-present).”
viii Cited and translated
by L. Van Rompay, “Jacob of Edessa and the early history of Edessa,”
in G.J. Reinink & A.C Klugkist (eds.), After Bardaisan: Studies
on Continuity and Change in Syriac Christianity in Honour of Professor
Han J.W. Drijvers (Groningen, 1999), p. 277.
ix R. Duval (ed.), Lexicon
Syriacum (Paris, 1888-1901). About this early writer one recalls
the words of the French scholar J.B. Chabot in the http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14408a.htm under the ‘S’ of “Syriac Language
and Literature”: “Abu' l' Hassan, known as Bar Bahlul, compiled
his famous ‘Lexicon’, a small encyclopedia in which he collected,
together with the lexicographical works of his predecessors, numerous
notices on the natural sciences, philosophy, theology, and Biblical exegesis.”
x Th. Nöldeke, “Die
Namen der aramäischen Nation und Sprache,” in Zeitschrift
der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 25 (1871), p. 131:
“Von den Namen dieser Nation und ihrer Sprache ist im Grunde der
ursprüngliche ‘aramäisch’ auch der einzige, der
noch für den Gebrauch der heutigen Wissenschaft streng passt.”
English translation: “Regarding the name of this nation and its
language is the original ‘Aramean’ in essence also the only
one [sic], that for the employment of the present-day scholarship as yet
strongly fits.”
xi For more on Syriac Christianity,
cf. P.S. Russel, “http://www.mari.org/JMS/january01/Syriac_Christianity.htm,” in MARI
(Januari, 2001).
