SYRIAC CHRISTIANITY 1: Sources

There is no literary or archaeological final evidence dealing with the earliest period in the history of Syriac Christianity. There are many Syriac literary sources on the subject but they are late and are more theological than historical in nature. Three sources are of particular interest: The Acts of Saint Thomas the Apostle, founder of the Church in India; The Teaching of Addai, founder of the Church in Edessa (Upper Mesopotamia); The Acts of Mari, founder of the Church in Babylonia. The link between these three sources is as follows: While in India, Thomas sends Addai to Edessa for missionary activities, and in Edessa, Addai sends Mari to Babylonia, to preach Gospel there...

The Acts of Saint Thomas
In summary: Thomas left Palestine with an Indian merchant, arriving at the city of Sandaruk. Here, he was introduced to the king of India Gundaphar. He preached Christianity before the king, won the nobility to his side, but was then killed by the Hindu priesthood. This is a Syriac composition, perhaps dated to the end of the 3rd century, when the remains of Thomas the Apostle were transferred by merchants to Edessa from India.

There are some fact-sounding details: City of Sandaruk: may be the city of Sanatruk; the latter word is well-known as a personal name in Parthia. King Gondaphar: there is a king Godophares or Gundopharnes who struck money uncovered in archaeological sites; his name is for Parthian Windapharna, and he could have been a Parthian prince who ruled an empire that included North-West India

But the Acts of Thomas are a source highly theological, exposing a doctrine in the form of adventurous and symbolic stories and highly poetical hymns. It rejects marriage and sexual intercourse, not because the body is hateful, but for the sake of the heavenly bridegroom... The whole points to a theological trend in the East, rejected by the Orthodox church. The connection of Thomas with Edessa is based on the transfer of his bones to it, and on the fact that in the Teaching of Addai, the Apostle is said to have sent Addai to Edessa for missionary activities

The Teaching of Addai
There is also the Acts of Thaddaeus, perhaps a 3rd century Syriac composition. The Teaching discusses the christianization of Mesopotamia, beginning with the kingdom of Osrhoene, the capital of which was Edessa. It claims that Jesus corresponded with the ruler of Edessa, Abgar Ukama “the Black”. It also claims that it used archival sources found in the royal palace of Edessa... which became the core of this spiritual source. The same archives seems to have been used by Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 260- ca. 340), a Church Historian native of Palestine, who wrote in Greek his Ecclesiastical History. He claims that he extracted the correspondence “from the archives of Edessa” and translated it from Syriac into Greek. Or may be Eusebius used a Syriac tradition about the correspondence between Jesus and Abgar.

The Acts of Mar Mari
Summery: Addai asked Mari to christianize Babylonia, now under Parthian rule. Mari left Edessa his native city, along with some of his disciples, for missionary activities. On his way he converted the city of Nisibis to the East of the Tigris and its regions, then Arbela in Assyria (north of modern Iraq) and its surroundings, before reaching Babylonia. In the latter’s capital Seleucia-Ctesiphon he established what became later the cradle of Christianity in Mesopotamia.

Many later Christian sources acknowledge the missionary role of Mari in Babylonia: Babylonia is the seat of the East Syriac patriarchate (wrongly called Nestorian). In Babylonia, Kokhe witnessed the first Christian church-building. Many of these Christian sources consider Kokhe the “New-Seleucia” on the Tigris, and indeed Kokhe and Seleucia were close to each other, separated only by a dry valley, which was once the bed of the Euphrates. There is an archaeological evidence that strongly suggests that the activities of Mari in Babylonia took place before A.D. 116 and if this is true, we would have the same date for Addai’s activities in Edessa. Certain Christian native sources claim that Mari came first to Ctesiphon where Kokhe was located, and this reflects the topography of Babylon before A.D. 116. After that date, the Tigris shifted its bed, not only separating Ctesiphon from Kokhe, but associating the latter with Seleucia.

Other sources
Eusebius of Caesarea (4th century), Ecclesiastical History V xxiii-xxv, states that the churches of “Osrhoene and the cities there” agreed with the churches elsewhere in the world to celebrate Easter on Sunday. That agreement took place when Victor I was Bishop of Rome between 189-199.

The Chronicle of Edessa, based on archives in the royal palace of Edessa, states that river Daysan that passed through Edessa overflowed and destroyed “the church of the Christians” in A.D. 201. The account sounds historical.

Bardaysan “the Aramean Philosopher” and his book The Laws of the Countries (written by his disciple between A.D. 196-214), points to the existence of Christians in Mesopotamia, Persia, and elsewhere, where they bore a behavioral identity different from the local, non-Christian, populations:

What do we say about our new Christian congregation, which
Christ had established in every place and country? Wherever we are found we are
called Christians, in accordance with the only name of Christ ... The brothers
in Gallia do not have intercourse with males, nor do those in Parthia take two
wives or those in Judah divorce their wives. Our brothers in Gelas and Cuscianos
do not have intercourse with foreigners, and those in Persia do not take their
daughters in marriage. Those in Media do not abandon their dead, or bury
(people) alive, or give them for dogs to devour. Those in Edessa do not kill
their wives or their sisters who commit adultery, but avoid them, leaving them
to the judgment of God. Those in Hatra do not stone thieves…

The Diatessaron (the 4 Gospels in one), was composed by Tatian in Greek between 150 and 170. It was later translated into Syriac, and became widely used in Mesopotamia until the 5th century.

Socrates and Sozomen (both early 4th century), two Greek Church Historians, mention offerings made at the church of St Thomas in Edessa. According to Sozomen, Edessa accepted Christian faith “since the beginning”.

Other Syriac authors: Barhadbshabba `Arbaya (died 630), Thomas of Marga, Ishodnah of Basra (both 9th century), Michael the Syrian (died 1199), Mari son of Sulayman (12th century), Saliba son Yuhannan (14th century), Barhebraeus (died 1286): Consensus that Edessa knew Christian faith quite early in the Christian era. Barhadbshabba claims that the writings of Ephrem the Syrian (great poet, 4th century) are the transmission of the Teaching of Addai, founder of the first Christian community in Edessa.