Surviving Centuries of Hiding

By K R N Swamy

Mel Gibson’s new film The Passion of Christ, shot entirely in Aramaic (the language spoken by Christ) and Latin, has turned out to be a great box office success. With this, it is hoped that there will be a renewed interest in the dying language of Aramaic!

It may be unknown to many that Kerala is one of the very few places in the world, where, even today, Syriac (a dialect of Aramaic) is still used in the rituals of the local Syrian-Malabar Church, reputedly established by St Thomas in AD 52.

In fact, universities in Kerala offer courses in Syriac-Aramaic! In this context, the history of the ‘Lost Aramaic Bible’ in 16th century Kerala and how it survived centuries of ‘hiding’ during the Portuguese era of Christianity in India, is quite interesting.

The original copies of the Bible, with the exception of the Dead Sea Scrolls, are the Codex Vaticanus at the Vatican Library and the Codex Siniaticus at the British Museum. But the Anglican Church obtained in the 19th century, copies of the Aramaic Bible from Kerala, which are supposed to have been as old as the copies at the Vatican and in London. These Indian national treasures are now at the Cambridge University in the UK.

The Bible was originally in Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek, and early in the fifth century AD, St Jerome translated it entirely into Latin. While this version of the Bible, known as the Vulgate Bib-le, is the main authoritative version used by the Roman Catholic (RC) Church, there is another version held by a branch of Christianity that had established itself at Antioch in Syria. Its version of the Bible is supposed to have been brought to Malabar in India, as Christianity dates back to first century AD here, following the arrival of St Thomas, one of the twelve apostles of Christ.

The archbishops of the Malabar Church had been nominated by the Patriarch (Head of the Eastern Orthodox Church) from Antioch and the Syrian Christian sacrament of Malabar forms one of the most ancient liturgies in the world. The Syrian version of the Bible differs from the RC version and is considered to be the original Bible, as it was brought to India before AD 325, the year when the Christian Council at Nicea, decided to codify the Bible according to the RC version.

The Indian Christian community in Malabar, however, continued to follow the Syrian version. In 1498, the Portuguese came to India, bringing with them the tenets of the RC Church. While they were happy to find an indigenous Christian community in Malabar, the Portuguese were determined to remove the influence of the Patriarch of Antioch from the Indian Church and wanted the Indian Christians to transfer their allegiance to the Pope in Rome. This caused frequent strife between the Portuguese and the Indian Christian community in Malabar. Finally, in 1599 AD, Archbishop Menezes of Goa, as the representative of the Pope in India, decided, that the main cause of the obstinacy of the Indian Christians was their interpretation of the Bible, with its differences from the RC version. So he thought the ‘Syrian Aramaic Bible’ must be destroyed.

Employing methods of intimidation and cajolery, along with demonstrations of armed might, he compelled the Syrian Christian clergy of India to bring all their theological literature to Udayamperoor (known to the Portuguese as Diamper) in Malabar. There he convened a Synod, the purpose of which was to remove ‘errors’ from the Syrian Bible. At this Synod, which lasted for a week, all Syrian Aramaic manuscripts, which did not agree with the Roman Catholic version of the bible were burned together with other documents, that would have sustained the Syrian Christians in their beliefs. At one stroke, the Portuguese obliterated all manuscripts and documents relating to Syrian Indian Christianity prior to 1599 AD. Further, the complete library of the Syrian Archbishop at Angamale was destroyed. These acts of literary ruination have been considered by historians as vandalism, comparable to the burning of the Great library of Alexandria by Caliph Omar in AD 643.

The Syrian clergy had not suspected such wicked intent by the Portuguese and it was too late for their shocked leaders to rescue any of the theological books. But providentially, the Portuguese Archbishop’s message to bring the theological volumes to Uday-amperor, had not reached one of the remote mountain churches of central Malabar and one copy of the Syrian version of the Bible escaped destruction! Later, this copy became the most treasured volume of the Syrian Church in India and a veil of secrecy surrounded this Bible, which was ‘lost’, its whereabouts known only to very few at the topmost echelons of the Syrian Church.

Two centuries later, a British missionary called Dr. Claude Buchanan came to Malabar and was interested in the history of the Syrian Christians which won him many friends here. He also managed to win the heart of Mor Dionysius, the head of the Syrian Christian Church. In 1807, Mor Dionysius showed him the ‘Lost Bible’. To quote Dr. Buchanan, “The volume contained the Old and New Testaments embossed in strong vellum in large folios, having three columns to a page and was written with beautiful accuracy. The characters were of Estrangelo Syriac and the words of every book are numbered. But the volume has suffered injury from time and neglect. In certain pages, the ink has been totally obliterated from the page, leaving the paper in its natural whiteness, but the letters can in general be distinctly traced from the impress of the pen or from the partial corrosion of the ink.”

Dr. Buchanan discussed with the Archbishop the brittle condition of the volume and told him that in case the book was entrusted to him, he would have it printed and thus preserved for posterity. Although it was a very difficult decision for the Archbishop as the volume had been preserved for over a thousand years, he knew that the British were fast becoming masters of India and that they, compared to the Portuguese, were more broadminded when it came to religious convictions. More importantly, the Archbishop was unsure as to how many more years the Syrian Church would be able to preserve the ‘Lost Bible’. Scarcely a decade earlier, the destruction of Indian Churches by Tipu Sultan had erased many landmarks and even the famous Mission at Verapoly had lost all its manuscripts, as the boat carrying the fleeing treasures sank in deep water. Hence the Archbishop felt that once printed, this ancient version would be safe forever. So he gave the volume of the manuscripts to Dr. Buchanan.

Dr. Buchanan, in turn, gifted these 1000-year-old volumes and many other Syrian manuscripts to the Cambridge University, where they are still preserved at the University Library. In 1815, this ancient Bible was printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Christian theologists found to their pleasant surprise that this Syrian version was free of many of the ‘later insertions’ that are prevalent in the modern Bible, and thus it proved to be a valuable reference volume.

For India, it is a matter of great pride that this country, whose major religions include Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, and is the last refuge of Zoroastrianism and Jewish faith in Asia, was also the country where such rare copies of the Bible were successfully preserved for centuries, even before Europe accepted Christianity.

NOTICE to VISITORS ABOUT OUR E-MAIL POLICY

At:

Apostle1.com, Apostle1.org and Apostle1.net

We are an educational, News-informational and research Web Site dedicated to providing such as befits those who seek those things pertinent to the Orthodox Catholic Christian Faith and life.

There are unscrupulous people on the internet these days. Some of them are not who they claim to be and in order to disrupt honest spiritual pursuits, they are known to send out e-mail under someone else's name or the name of another church or jurisdiction with attachments. Anyone can do this, if they want.

If you should ever receive an e-mail with an attachment purporting to be from anyone at "apostle1.com" - "apostle1.org" or even "apostle1.net" - - - know that our policy is to not send out e-mail from any of our domain names with an attachment. Therefore, don't open it!

Unless we know exactly from whom an e-mail comes... nothing is clicked on or opened, not even attachments! You would be surprised from whom 'hate' e-mail arrives and what attempts and extremes they go to make their e-mails "look" official when it is a lone person or persons who hate TRUTH and love lies, hate anything from being posted that involves TRUTH because they may be affected with exposure to the LIVING TRUTH of Jesus Christ's Love. They HATE some of the news, quotes, and such as to inform the general public. Some of them pose as clergy, while a few are actually clergy from various "other" offshoot AMERICAN ORTHODOX CHURCH jurisdiction(s) of the same name of which we are their former MOTHER CHURCH; and/or "Independent" churches who have nothing to do with us, but seek to go out of their way to character assassinate and disparage religious web sites who do not meet their own brand of standardization which is evidence of their being not truly "Orthodox" "Christian" or even "Catholic" no matter what their nomenclatured corporate name may be.

Remember, anything that is a HALF TRUTH is not truth but a lie! Many there are that you may know who fit those descriptions... pray for them. Pray that God will send his Spirit of Truth upon them and lead them to Salvation through tears of Repentance, conversion of their cold and calculating hearts toward seeking forgiveness from God and those whom they attempt to harm.

Those who receive e-mail from us, know who we are and from where we send mail.

If you are of another jurisdiction, you too could find that your parishioners, clergy and faithful might become subject to the same as we have recently found.

Let this be a warning to visitors so as to be safeguarded against unscrupulous e-mails which contain viruses, worms and unsavory material from person(s) organizations or institutions that are more self-serving than uplifting and informatively news worthy.

For ourselves, we have, as in the past, so once again, acquired the assistance of those who are able and capable of tracing e-mails back to their source and taking appropriate action in North America.

We have learned that the organization we subscribe to, whose members come from various legal and law enforcement backgrounds amongst other areas of society, are committed to the faith even though they may hold different theologies. Yet, in their monitoring of electronic communications of various persons or people, they do not always make haste to bring perpetrators to justice until after enough evidence has been gained in order to build a solid case. We do not always know what information they have gained, but we do know the organization, whom we've been asked not to name, has had a 97% success rate in bringing to justice and obtaining a conviction against individuals, people, and sometimes even religious organizations of a persona that gives the appearance of both secular and religious bearing but who abuse and misuse technology. The organization views those who abuse and misuse the internet and other technologies as nothing more than a form of "domestic terrorism" - - - - and, it would seem to appear that the courts are in agreement!

Those kinds of people, organizations, etc. who misuse and abuse communication technologies are no different than those who attempt to use coercive measures, and in some instance, even blackmail for the same idea is involved... to cause havoc and wreckage, to destroy the spirit and activity of those who struggle in the faith out of pain of heart for the Orthodox Church which is TRUTH. The degree that some have been known to go to, as seen by other jurisdictions, is to take advantage of questionably mentally challenged or those who have a lack of education and understanding to get them to make statements, even outright lies, in writing, in order to destroy.

Yes, our Metropolitan Archbishop, +Joseph Thaddeus, SSJt., Ph.D. strongly defends the Seals of the Confessional for such leads to true Repentance in thought, word and deed whereby the penitent is required to make amends, where possible, to seek forgiveness of those harmed by his actions whether real or imagined, and to give his forgiveness to those who have harmed him before taking the Holy Body and Blood in the Eucharist. The reality of this understanding is bound in and with the findings for which cause he, himself, had been character assassinated by his detractors who claim the courts prevented him from breaking the Seals of the Confessional which is not the truth at all.... Click here to see what another bishop's findings are...

The workings of Holy Spirit will not be daunted by those who attempt to cause disruption! It is for these and other reasons that you are urged to read what true repentance and forgiveness means for real "Christians".

For further information about how spammers, hackers and those who are angry with you can or will attempt to do damage, we offer the following link as regards the computer - internet problem:

http://msn.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,116258,00.asp

+About Monastic Holy Orders: a basic

+ Our Monastic Community

+Society of St. Jude Thaddeus (SSJt.)

+Orthodox Order of Friars Minor (OOFM)

+Benedicinte (OSB)

+Servants (In Service) to Christ (SC)

A Message from Our metropolitan Archbishop - UPDATED

Keep Up-To-Date by clicking on:

Quotes from Metropolitan Archbishop +Joseph Thaddeus, SSJt., Ph.D. Continuously updated

If You have a question that you wish to ask, please feel free to submit it. However, may it be suggested that you review all previous questions for the Month and also the Archive of questions previously asked for your question may have already been answered.

Click Here For Archive Quotes

Click Here for AOC HISTORY PAGES