A Nasrani (also called as a Syrian - Malabar Christian) is a type of Christian from Kerala, South India who follows the earliest form of Christian-Jewish tradition of the early Christians. Much of the Jewish tradition has been forgotten, especially after the Portuguese invasion of Kerala in the early 1500s.
Nasranis today are also called as St. Thomas Christians or even as Syrian Christians and Mar Thoma Nasranis.
Origins
The passages of time and human progression leaves in its wake remnants of ethos and imprints from the past. Extant in fragments and pieces, largely forgotten by the original people, and sometimes obscured by official versions of historical narration. One such is the fragment of the nasrani tradition of Kerala.
The Southern coast of the Indian subcontinent (called Ophir in the Old Testament), inevitably became the gateway for the Mediterranean world to the Far East. The people there traded in teak, ivory, spices and Censored pages, and the area was endowed with a magnificient coastline full of ports from Mangalapuram to Kodungalloor, (originally known as Cranganore and also called Muziris).
The trade routes brought with it not just riches but also stateless nations and nascent worldviews. Cranganore, became one of the earliest settlements of the Jewish diaspora from the later Old Testament period. They continued trade with the Mediterranean world, thus establishing a strong link between the southern coast of the Indian peninsula and the Judeo-Roman world. Laying the links or foundations for what would later be the early 'Judeo-Nazrani' diaspora. The early aramaic speaking 'Syriac' - Christians; who came to Kerala (which already had a Jewish settlement in Kodungulloor) were Jews. This is because the identity of being Jewish is not purely religious, but more so hereditary. That is, anybody who is of Hebrew descent is Jewish by origin, and anybody who is born of a Jewish mother is Jewish, regardless of whether the person follows Judaism or not.
The term Syrian-Malabar Nasranis, is a composite form of the elemental aspects of the ancient tradition. In it the term Syrian actually refers to the Aramiac speaking Jewish tradition rather than Syria, while the term Malabar is the ancient name of the present day state of Kerala in India. The term Syrian - Malabar Nasrani therefore means, people of Christian-Jewish tradition who Follow Jesus of Nazareth and are from the malabar coast in South India.
Christian Jewish tradition
These early Christian Jews believed in the Jesus as the Christ, but followed Jewish traditions and called themselves as Nazarenes or Nazrani (meaning Jews who followed the Messiah from Nazareth). The terms Nazarenes and Nasrani was first mentioned in the Bible in Acts 24:5. It was they who called themselves as Nasrani Katholikos Khristianos (Nasrani Catholic Christians) for the first time in Antioch to denote themselves as "Jewish followers of the universal Christ from Nazareth." (acts 11:26). The term nasrani was used essentially to denote Jewish followers of Jesus from Nazareth, while the term Khristianos or (christian) was initially used largely to refer to non-Jewish people who followed the Christ.
Until the advent of the Portuguese in the 1500s, the proto-Jewish-Nasrani ethos in Kerala thrived with Jewish customs and the Syrian-Antiochian tradition intertwined with South Indian customs. They preserved the original rituals of the early Jewish Christians, such as covering their heads while in worship. Their ritual services (mass) was and is still called as Qurbana, which used to be held on Saturdays in the tradition of the Jewish Sabbath. The Nasrani Qurbana used to be sung in the Suryani (Syrian) and Aramaic languages. They also believed that it was the Romans who killed Jesus because, historically, Jesus was crucified. The official form of execution of the Jews was typically stoning to death, while the official form of execution of the Romans was crucifixion.
Nasrani Menorah
The symbol of the Nasranis was/is based on the Jewish symbol of the menorah. The menorah is the ancient symbol of the Jewish people. It is a branched candle stand for seven candlesticks. The Nasranis keeping this symbol, elaborated the middle or central candle stick as the cross. The Nasrani menorah became a representation of the Christian Jewish tradition, and became the etched symbol with a central cross (on behalf of the first candle) and with branches, three on either side of the cross (on behalf of the 6 other candles of the Jewish symbol). This later came to be called as the Syrian Kuriz (cross) or the Mar Thoma cross. In Jewish tradition the central branch (represented by the cross in the Mar Thoma cross) is the main branch, from which the other branches or other six candles are lit. The Netzer is the Hebrew word for branch and is the root word of "Nazareth" or "Nazarene".
Persecution by Portuguese
The Judeo-Nasrani tradition of the Syro - malabar Nasranis was wiped out, when the Portuguese invaded Kerala, and denounced the Nasrani account of Christian faith as false. They imposed their rituals and liturgy and obliterated the Jewish legacy from the Nasrani tradition. Most of all they imposed the Roman Catholic idea that the Jews killed Jesus. In so doing the Nasranis, who were till then the "living fossils" of the Christian - Jewish tradition, lost the very ethos which defined them.
Nasrani tradition today
Most of the Nasranis in Kerala today belong to either the Syro Malabar Catholic Church which also includes the Knanaya community, the Marthoma Syrian Church , the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church and the Church of the East & Abroad .
External links
- http://www.drsusanjacob.jesusanswers.com/photo2.html (history of the Christian Jews in Asia)
- http://www.ghg.net/knanaya/history/ (knanaya Christians)
- http://www.indianchristianity.com/html/Books.htm (the cradle of Christianity in India)
- http://www.shelterbelt.com/KJ/khchristians.html (history of the Kerala Christians by Dr. Zacharias Thundy, Northern Michigan University)
Last updated: 02-07-2005 03:07:38
Last updated: 05-03-2005 17:50:55
