Changes

**Note: Where this Jewish Christian community of Jews lived was either Edessa (Urhai), the capital of the ancient kingdom of Osrhoene, or Arbela (Arba'a Ilu - the four gods, but now the Iraqi city of Irbil), the capital of [[Adiabene]] (Syriac: ܚܕܝܐܒ‎, Ḥaḏy’aḇ or Ḥḏay’aḇ). Adiabene was the very last province of the ancient and much feared Assyrian Empire (Jonah was sent by God to Assyrian capital of Nineveh) . In the first century, the queen of Adiabene, Helene, became Jewish with her son, the prince Izetes, and many of her nobles. According to the 1st century Jewish general and historian, Josephus, Adiabene was the only country to send in fighters to fight alongside the Palestinian Jews in their revolt against the Romans in the first century. This queen of Adiabene was much honored by the Jews because of this and her charitable works during the same famine that Paul writes about in the New Testament. She is called in Hebrew , Shlomzion Ha Malka - Queen Peace of Zion. Her many chambered tomb, once thought to be the burial place of the Kings of Israel, is on Salaheddin street in East Jerusalem. The Israeli archaeologist, Michael Avi Yona, who designed the model of 1st century Jerusalem now found in the Israel Museum has accorded a full half of the 1st century City of Zion to her palace complex. Adiabene itself, having become partly Jewish, due to the evangelization of Addai (Thaddeus) from Caesarea Phillippi in the Galilee, became the home of the Aramaic Jewish Christians (as well as the probable home of the Aramaic/Syriac version of the Old and New Testaments, the Peshitta) and the sending mission station for the Aramaic missions to Persia, Afghanistan, possibly India, and China, the missions of the "Church of the East". Adiabene, the center for the earliest bishops of the Aramaic Church of the East is considered by that Church to have been initially evangelized and/or brought into the "Apostolic" sphere by one of the seventy Adai (Thaddeus), who had been sent to nearby Edessa by the Apostle Thomas who himself would go on to India to found the Church in the southern Kerala region. While in Edessa, Adai sent his disciple, Mari, like himself one of the seventy, to Persia. Mari is considered as the founder of the Persian Church. These three, then - the Apostle Thomas, Addai, and Mari (along with another, possibly not historical, evangelizing member of the Seventy by the name of Aggai) are considered by the Church of the East, if not strictly the founders, then the "continuers" of the Jewish Apostolic community of believers in Jesus in the spread of the [[Aramaic Church]] from Jerusalem to the Far East. In the early 4th century, the bishop of Adiabene consecrated a bishop, Papa bar Gagai, for the southern portion of Mesopotamia, for the city of Seleucia-Ctesipon, and from that time, the centrality for the Aramaic church shifted from the northern center of Adiabene with its capital city of Arbela, to the southern center of Seleucia-Ctesipon (near Babylon).  

**Note: Where this Jewish Christian community of Jews lived was either Edessa (Urhai), the capital of the ancient kingdom of Osrhoene, or Arbela (Arba'a Ilu - the four gods, but now the Iraqi city of Irbil), the capital of [[Adiabene]] (Syriac: ܚܕܝܐܒ‎, Ḥaḏy’aḇ or Ḥḏay’aḇ). Adiabene was the very last province of the ancient and much feared Assyrian Empire (Jonah was sent by God to Assyrian capital of Nineveh) . In the first century, the queen of Adiabene, Helene, became Jewish with her son, the prince Izetes, and many of her nobles. According to the 1st century Jewish general and historian, Josephus, Adiabene was the only country to send in fighters to fight alongside the Palestinian Jews in their revolt against the Romans in the first century. This queen of Adiabene was much honored by the Jews because of this and her charitable works during the same famine that Paul writes about in the New Testament. She is called in Hebrew , Shlomzion Ha Malka - Queen Peace of Zion. Her many chambered tomb, once thought to be the burial place of the Kings of Israel, is on Salaheddin street in East Jerusalem. The Israeli archaeologist, Michael Avi Yona, who designed the model of 1st century Jerusalem now found in the Israel Museum has accorded a full half of the 1st century City of Zion to her palace complex. Adiabene itself, having become partly Jewish, due to the evangelization of Addai (Thaddeus) from Caesarea Phillippi in the Galilee, became the home of the Aramaic Jewish Christians (as well as the probable home of the Aramaic/Syriac version of the Old and New Testaments, the Peshitta) and the sending mission station for the Aramaic missions to Persia, Afghanistan, possibly India, and China, the missions of the "Church of the East". Adiabene, the center for the earliest bishops of the Aramaic Church of the East is considered by that Church to have been initially evangelized and/or brought into the "Apostolic" sphere by one of the seventy Adai (Thaddeus), who had been sent to nearby Edessa by the Apostle Thomas who himself would go on to India to found the Church in the southern Kerala region. While in Edessa, Adai sent his disciple, Mari, like himself one of the seventy, to Persia. Mari is considered as the founder of the Persian Church. These three, then - the Apostle Thomas, Addai, and Mari (along with another, possibly not historical, evangelizing member of the Seventy by the name of Aggai) are considered by the Church of the East, if not strictly the founders, then the "continuers" of the Jewish Apostolic community of believers in Jesus in the spread of the [[Aramaic Church]] from Jerusalem to the Far East. In the early 4th century, the bishop of Adiabene consecrated a bishop, Papa bar Gagai, for the southern portion of Mesopotamia, for the city of Seleucia-Ctesipon, and from that time, the centrality for the Aramaic church shifted from the northern center of Adiabene with its capital city of Arbela, to the southern center of Seleucia-Ctesipon (near Babylon).  

It is thought that the reason that Jewish Christianity prevailed in the Aramaic speaking east while it did not in the Greek west is related to these facts. Christianity until the 4th century was an illicit and often persecuted by the pagan Roman Empire, while the enemy of the Roman Empire, the Parthian Empire of Aramaic speaking lands, though also pagan, were more tolerant of their minorities. After the destructions of Jerusalem and prohibitions against Judaism of the two rebellions of the Jews agains the Romans - 66 AD and 135 AD - many Jews fled Palestine, and fled, not west to Roman lands, but to the East of Jerusalem to the Aramaic speaking Parthian Empire. Thus the Jewish influence in the Kingdom of Adiabene. Among the Jewish stream into the Parthian Kingdom, were also the Jewish Christians. Thus, the early Church of the East engaged in occasional disputes with other Jews about the identity of the Messiah, the disputes were not vitriolic, and the Church of the East itself retained its Jewish roots and coloration. That is why the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, (the Peshita) retains some of the same readings as Jewish interpretive material commonly known by the term Agaddic. Of all the Christian Eucharistic liturgies, the Aramaic one used by the Church of the East, now known as the Korbana of Mar Addai and Mari, retains the most Jewish elements in its prayers. As the Church of the East Mission to India, spread to India, it also spread the language of its homeland -[[Aramaic]], the language of Jesus and the language of the Jewish Talmud (Gemara) which developed in Babyon. This resulted in the startling phenomenon of the Christians of South India (Kerala), the so-called St. Thomas Christians, though speaking in their native Indian dialect, pray in the language of Aramaic, and the language akin, though not identical, to that of the Jewish Talmud. The language of the Aramaic Christians in particular, also at the core Aramaic, has been come to be called Syriac, due to the nomenclature of the area of origin. When the Church of the East in India received an influx of new people from Mesopotamia in the 5th and 6th century, the Indian Church of the East came to be popularly known as the Syro-Chaldean Church, that is; the Church of the People from Syria and Chaldea. Abraham, was from Ur of the Chaldeas. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the Syro-Chaldean Church in India, launched two missions. One was to the north of India among the Hindus. The other was to the West, through England and then the United States. That latter mission, had as its purpose the bringing of the Aramaic way as a sort of bridge church, neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant, but by being what it was to the core, a third way of approach - Apostolic, Catholic/Sacramental, and Evangelical/Biblical. The daughter of that western movement of the Aramaic Indian church, the [[Syro-Chaldean Church of North America]], is also charismatic.  

It is thought that the reason that Jewish Christianity prevailed in the Aramaic speaking east while it did not in the Greek west is related to these facts. Christianity until the 4th century was an illicit and often persecuted by the pagan Roman Empire, while the enemy of the Roman Empire, the Parthian Empire of Aramaic speaking lands, though also pagan, were more tolerant of their minorities. After the destructions of Jerusalem and prohibitions against Judaism of the two rebellions of the Jews agains the Romans - 66 AD and 135 AD - many Jews fled Palestine, and fled, not west to Roman lands, but to the East of Jerusalem to the Aramaic speaking Parthian Empire. Thus the Jewish influence in the Kingdom of Adiabene. Among the Jewish stream into the Parthian Kingdom, were also the Jewish Christians. Thus, the early Church of the East engaged in occasional disputes with other Jews about the identity of the Messiah, the disputes were not vitriolic, and the Church of the East itself retained its Jewish roots and coloration. That is why the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, (the Peshita) retains some of the same readings as Jewish interpretive material commonly known by the term Agaddic. Of all the Christian Eucharistic liturgies, the Aramaic one used by the Church of the East, now known as the Korbana of Mar Addai and Mari, retains the most Jewish elements in its prayers. The Jewish orientation of the early Church of the East can also be shown in its self understanding as to its founding and early leadership under its bishops. Aside from its understanding that its earliest founders were Jewish apostles and their disciples (Thomas, Addai-Thaddeus, Mari, Aggai-Haggai), the three next bishops directing the church are also considered to be both Jewish and, what is more, in the blood line the Messiah Himself (Abris = "Ivri = Hebrew", a relative of Jesus' mother Mary, Avraham, a relative of James, and Yaakob, a relative of Joseph). This physical descent from the family of Jesus, perpetuating the seed and dynasty of David in the Churches leadership, is startling different than the outworkings of the "Gentile Church" within the Roman Empire.  As the Church of the East Mission spread to India, it also spread the language of its homeland -[[Aramaic]], the language of Jesus and the language of the Jewish Talmud (Gemara) which developed in Babyon. This resulted in the startling phenomenon of the Christians of South India (Kerala), the so-called St. Thomas Christians, though speaking in their native Indian dialect, pray in the language of Aramaic, and the language akin, though not identical, to that of the Jewish Talmud. The language of the Aramaic Christians in particular, also at the core Aramaic, has come to be called Syriac, due to the nomenclature of the area of origin. When the Church of the East in India received an influx of new people from Mesopotamia in the 5th and 6th century, the Indian Church of the East came to be popularly known as the Syro-Chaldean Church, that is; the Church of the People from Syria and Chaldea. Abraham, was from Ur of the Chaldeas. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the Syro-Chaldean Church in India, launched two missions. One was to the north of India among the Hindus. The other was to the West, through England and then the United States. That latter mission, had as its purpose the bringing of the Aramaic way as a sort of bridge church, neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant, but by being what it was to the core, a third way of approach - Apostolic, Catholic/Sacramental, and Evangelical/Biblical. The daughter of that western movement of the Aramaic Indian church, the [[Syro-Chaldean Church of North America]], is also charismatic.  

==See Also==

==See Also==