christians

 
			Christianity in Iraq
Early beginnings                                			        By Dr.Suha Rassam
Christianity took root in Iraq very early indeed. Christian tradition tells us that those who brought the good news to Mesopotamia were the apostles Toma, one of the twelve, Addai one of the seventy-two disciples of Jesus and his pupils Mari and Aggai. The source of this tradition comes mainly from the father of church history, Esabius of Caesarea who wrote at the end of the third century and the beginning of the fourth.

Although the very early beginnings are shrouded in mystery, there are many indications that the Christian message reached Mesopotamia in the first

Christian century. The early Christians were Jews who worshipped in the Synagogues and had the Hebrew Bible as their book. They differed from their fellow Jews by faith in Jesus of Nazareth as the saviour in whom the promises of the prophets were fulfilled. They remained a sect within Judaism until the Jews expelled them from their Synagogues in 70AD. The Acts of the Apostles give the first indications of how his disciples preached the Christian message. Peter on Pentecost day told the crowds who were amazed at seeing the disciples speaking different languages that this Jesus who was crucifies, God raised him to life and that he is the promised saviour (Acts 2:14-36).

Acts goes on to tell us that there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and among these were people from Mesopotamia (Acts

2:5- 13). After the preaching of Peter on Pentecost day 3000 were baptised in the name of Jesus.

Jews were exiled to Mesopotamia twice, in the eighth century BC by the Assyrians and in the sixth century by the Babylonians. When Cyrus allowed the

Exiled Jews to return to their land in 539BC, not all of them returned to Palestine, thus the big Jewish community in Mesopotamia and their presence on Petecost day.

Available historical evidence which that prove the introduction of Christianity to Iraq occurred from the first Christian century are the following:

1. The writings of Tatian:

Tatian was born in Arbella (present day Erbil) from a noble family, and converted to Christianity from paganism in the second century AD. He traveled to Rome and returned to Mesopotamia in 170AD. His most important writing the Diatessaron or Gospel Harmony. This Gospel which is a conflation of the

Four canonical Gospels was in common use amongst Syriac speaking Christians for about three hundred years. Its replacement by the official four Gospels

In the fifth century was resisted strenuously. In addition Tatian had many other philosophical and theological writings in both the Greek and Syriac

Languages.

2. The writings of Bardaisan

Bardaisan was born in 154AD in Edessa from noble parents and who converted to Christianity in his youth. He established a school in Edessa and had

Many disciples. He wrote theology and philosophy in both Syriac and Greek languages.

3. The conversion of king Abgar VIII

King Abgar VIII was the king of Edessa and a friend of Bardaisan. He converted to Christianity in 170AD under the influence of Bardaisan.

3. The stone of Aberkios:

Aberkios was the bishop of Herapolis at the end of the second century wrote about churches and Christians beyond the Euphrates.

4. The history of Edessa mentions that the church in Edessa that was destroyed by the flood of 201,was rebuilt in 202AD.

5. In a document available of the first ecumenical council in 325AD,Mesopotamia was represented by two bishops.Although Tatian and Bardaisan were later condemned as heretics by the establishment, their importance is tremendous. The conversion of intellectuals and a king to Christianity in the second century, and the presence of a bishop and a church building, all point to a well established Christianity by then.

The Third Century

By the third century we have evidence of an organised community with an Episcopal structure and church buildings.

Iraq was then under the rule Persians, part of a larger area then called Mesopotamia. Their capital was Seleucia-Ctesiphone, situated about thirty kilometers south west of Baghdad. The Persian rulers were Zoroastrians while the majority of the population was pagans.

One of the earliest Churches of Iraq, the church of Kokhe, dates back to this period. Tradition attribute it’s building to the apostle Mari, who had

Established a community there. After curing the sister of king Artaban he was given a small site in Kokhe, an area south to Ctesiphone where the

farmers and servants of the king of the capital lived, thus the name Kokhe which means huts. From a small original house church in which believers gathered, a big church was built early in the third century.

The number of Christians increased markedly not only due to local evangelisation but also because many Christians fled the persecution of Roman emperors to Persian territories. In addition, the wars between the Persians and the Romans led to captives of war being brought from the Roman Empire to the Persian Empire. The most famous was the sacking of Antioch by Shapur I, who exiled a large number of Christians to Mesopotamia.

By the end of the third century we find evidence of ell defined centres in many areas (Arbella (Erbil), karka Beth Slokh (Kirkuk), Nisibis, Bet Lapat (Gundeshapur), and the capital Seleucia-Ctesiphone). Moreover, there was a conflict over primacy claimed by the bishop of the capital Seleucia-Ctesiphone, Papa, over other bishops of Mesopotamia.

Christianity had also permeated all walks of life within the Persian Empire and had started to threaten the religion of the establishment,

Zoroastrianism. Shapur I executed his wife Anastasia under the influence of the Zoroastrian priesthood and banished his sister Shiraran to Khurasan where she met Bar Saba and helped him to evangelise.

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Fourth Century

The fourth century witnessed fierce persecutions of Christians within the Persian Empire. It was started by King Shapur II, in 339AD and continued till he died in379AD. The bishop of the capital, Shimon Bar Subba’e (Shimon I), was summoned and asked him to levy a double tax from the Christians. When the bishop refused complaining that his people were poor and should not be subjected to such heavy taxes, the king called all the bishops and priests and killed them in front of the Patriarch who was later also executed. The records of the martyrs give the names16000 executed during this period.

Persecution followed failure of negotiations between the Roman and the Persian empires and since the Roman Empire had become Christian after the conversion of emperor Constantine, Christians were commonly accused of being collaborators with the Romans. Since it lasted forty years it is commonly called the forty years persecution.

Fifth Century

With the cessation of persecution following the death of Shapur II, the Christians started to organise themselves. Yezdegird I negotiated peace

With the Byzantines and welcomed their envoy bishop Marutha. The bishops within the realms of the Persian empire met in a synod in the capital Seleucia Ctesiphone under the leadership of the bishop of the capital Isaac in 410AD(The Synod of

Isac). The Christian community was acknowledged by Yezdegird I as an independent self-ruling community with responsibilities and rights. No sooner

Than this recognition was granted than the Church within the realms of the Persian Empire announced its independence from the Western Churches. In a synod convened in 424AD (The Synod of Dadisho) the Church of Iraq became self-ruling with the bishop of the capital as the leader and the final judge.

At this point theologies were not defined and since it thrived within the realms of the Persian Empire it was often called ‘The Persian Church‘ or ‘The Church of the East‘.

It leader, the bishop of the capital assumed the title patriarch came to be called ‘Patriarch of the Church of the East’ Free from the complexities that followed the debacles amongst theologians within the Roman empire, it started expanding eastwards to Iran, Central Asia, India, China, the Arabian peninsula and as far as Socotra.

The sixth century

Following the Councils of Ephesus and of Chalcedon, in 431AD and 451AD consecutively, a new community emerged that followed a different theology ‘The Syrian Orthodox Church’ mainly in areas of Tikrit and Der Mar Mattai.

Its leader, the Mephrian, continued to followed the leadership of Antioch and resided in Tikrit. It was recognised as independent community by Persian authorities as in 629AD.

Both Churches within Iraq were highly cultured and had many centers of learning. Their mainstay was the Syriac language, a dialect of the Aramaic language. Although they had absorbed Greek culture and philosophy and included it in their theology, the language of the liturgy and learning continued to be Syriac. Another characteristic of these churches was asceticism and monasticism. Numerous solitaries lived in caves and many monasteries were

Built, from the north to the south of Iraq. Some these monasteries are still functioning, the most famous are the monasteries of Mar Mattai, Mar Behnam and Mar Georgis.