Syriac Christianity - Names and Ethnicity

Names and Ethnicity

The ancient Syrians (Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܝܐ, Arabic: سُريان), that is, Aramaic-speakers in Mesoptamia in the late 1st millennium BCE, adopted Christianity very early. The Syrian kingdom of Osroene was the first Christian kingdom in history.

In 431 CE the Council of Ephesus declared Nestorianism to be a heresy. The Nestorians, who were persecuted in the Byzantine Empire, sought refuge in Mesopotamia, then part of the Sassanid Empire, From there they spread Christianity to Persia, India, China, and Mongolia. This was the beginning of the Nestorian Church, the eastern branch of Syrian Christianity. The western branch, the Jacobite Church, appeared after the Council of Chalcedon condemend Monophysitism in 451 CE.

Most members of the Assyrian Church of the East, Ancient Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic church as well as some Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic Christians are ethnic Assyrians. This ethnic group speak Eastern Aramaic dialects and are indigenous to Iraq, south eastern Turkey, north eastern Syria and north western Iran. Many Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholics prefer an Aramean national identity while others adhere to a religious Syriac identity. A small number of Chaldeans have also adopted a Chaldean national identity. The Maronites in Lebanon are divided between those who claim Phoenician (see Phoenicianism) or Syrian national identity and those who claim Arab national identity (see Arab nationalism).

Assyrian has almost completely replaced the word Nestorian (which is seen by Assyrians as pejorative). However, the word Nestorian continues to be used in much Western academic literature.

The use of the word Syriac (which originally referred to the Syrian language, a north Mesopotamian dialect of Middle Aramaic) instead of Syrian became common after the establishment of the modern nation of Syria after World War I. The word 'Syrian' has become ambiguous in English since it can refer now to a citizen of Syria regardless of ethnicity. In Arabic, however, the word for a 'citizen of Syria' has a different form (سوري sūrī) from the traditional word for an ethnic Syrian (سُرياني suryānī).