Geneza chrześcijańskiej kultury syryjskiej

Abstract

The present article deals with problems connected with ethnogenesis of the Christian Syriac culture and its beginnings as well as the early development of the Syriac Churches up to the Islamic invasion. The continuity of Aramaic ethnos of the antiquity and Syriac one of Middle Ages is emphasized. As a proof of this continuity in spite of the change of ethnonyms a short history of Aramaic language is given of which the Syriac is one of the dialects. A brief character of the Syriac writing is added. The following part of the article concerns the historical background of the Aramaic people beginning from their appearance in Near East, the period of their expansion and linguistical diffusion among other Near East peoples (mostly of Semitic origin) up to the end of the I millenium B.C. when several Aramaic principalities were created. Out of them Osroene proved to be the most important as its dialect raised to the literary language of the whole Aramaic speaking Christianity. Osroene, of which Edessa was a capital, was ruled by the dynasty of Abgarids and period of its independence covers the years 132 B.C.-214 A.D. when it was incorporated directly to the Roman Empire. This situation lasted to the Arab conquest. Next the most probable period and way of introducing of Christianity to Edessa is discussed. The Christianization of Edessa should be ascribed rather to the activity of Judeochristians than that of Hellenochristians. This conjecture is made probable thanks to such premises like similarity or identity of languages used by Judeochristians and the people beeing christianized, Jewish-tincted character of the early Syriac Christianity, the role played by the Jews in Syriac semilegendary accounts concerning the introducing of the Christianity into Edessa, the patterns the Judeochristians might have adopted following the proselytizing Jewish movement of the period, etc. Thereafter the most important facts of the early Christian Syriac culture are given e.g. translations of New Testament, literary activity being mainly the product of the school of Edessa, monastic movement. The christological controversies of the 5th century are treated as most bearing for the further history of Syriac Christianity. In connection with Nestorian controversy a short history of the Christianity in Mesopotamia is given. The persecuted in Roman Empire Nestorians who fled to Mesopotamia, then under Persian rule, exerted so great impact on the theology of the Persian Church (also Syriac speaking) that it turned to Nestordaniem. The Nestorians were very active in missionary enterprises especially in Central Asia, some of Turkish and Mongol tribes were converted to Christianity. The fortunes of the adherents of the Monophysitism, who were numerous in Syria depended on the attitude towards them taken by the emperors. In the middle of the 6th cent, however an independent Monophysite hierarchy was established, mostly due to the activities of Jacob Baradai and after him this Church is called Jacobite. The division of Syriac Christianity into three Churches (Nestorian, Jacobite and Orthodox, i.e. that of the followers of Chalcedon) proved to be stable also under Muslim rule. The Syriac culture though not entirely the original one was the medium by which the Arabs got acquainted with the cultural legacy of antiquity.