Communities whose origins reflect both Judaism and early Christianity[edit] Role of Hellenistic Judaism[edit] Both Early Christianity and Early Rabbinical Judaism were far less orthodox and less theologically homogeneous than they are today; and both were significantly influenced by Hellenistic religion and borrowed allegories and concepts from Classical Hellenistic philosophy and the works of Greek-speaking Jewish authors of the end of the Second Temple period... before the two schools of thought eventually firmed-up their respective norms and doctrines, notably by diverging increasingly on key issues such as the status of purity laws, the validity of Judeo-Christian messianic beliefs, and, more importantly, the use of Koine Greek and Latin as sacerdotal languages replacing Biblical Hebrew[51]...etc. Certain Christian communities of India, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel/Palestinian Territories have traditionally been associated with some 1st-century Jewish Christian heritage. The Syriac Orthodox Church, the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, and the Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Antioch are churches with known Jewish Christian membership that dates as far back as the 1st century. All three churches had common origins in terms of membership, where the majority of adherents was a mix of Greeks and Hellenized Jews and Syrians from Antioch and the rest of Syria who adopted the new faith. The Syriac Orthodox Church follows the Antiochene rite that celebrates liturgy in Syriac and still carries some particular customs that are considered today as purely Judaic in nature. Beyond Antioch, Alexandretta and Northwestern Syria, the main centers of Hellenistic Judaism in the Levant before the destruction of the Second Temple, the opening verse of Acts 6 points to cultural divisions between Hellenized Jews and Aramaic-speaking Israelites in Jerusalem itself: “it speaks of Hellenists and Hebrews. The existence of these two distinct groups characterizes the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem. The Hebrews were Jewish Christians who spoke almost exclusively Aramaic, and the Hellenists were also Jewish Christians whose mother tongue was Greek. They were Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora, who returned to settle in Jerusalem. To identify them, Luke uses the term Hellenistai. When he had in mind Greeks, gentiles, non-Jews who spoke Greek and lived according to the Greek fashion, then he used the word Hellenes (Acts 21.28). As the very context of Acts 6 makes clear, the Hellenistai are not Hellenes.[52] Some historians believe that a sizeable proportion of the Hellenized Jewish communities of Southern Turkey (Antioch, Alexandretta and neighboring cities) and Syria/Lebanon eventually converted to the Greco-Roman branch of Christianity that eventually constituted the “Melkite” Churches of the MENA area: “As Jewish Christianity originated at Jerusalem, so Gentile Christianity started at Antioch, then the leading center of the Hellenistic East, with Peter and Paul as its apostles. From Antioch it spread to the various cities and provinces of Syria, among the Hellenistic Syrians as well as among the Hellenistic Jews who, as a result of the great rebellions against the Romans in A.D. 70 and 130, were driven out from Jerusalem and Palestine into Syria ”[53] Surviving Byzantine and Syriac communities in the MENA area[edit] Some typically Grecian Ancient Synagogal priestly rites have survived partially to the present, notably in the distinct church service of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and the Melkite Greek Catholic communities of the Hatay Province of Southern Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. The unique combination of ethnocultural traits inhered from the fusion of a Greek-Macedonian cultural base, Hellenistic Judaism and Roman civilization gave birth to the distinctly Antiochian “Middle Eastern-Roman” Christian traditions of Cilicia (Southeastern Turkey) and Syria/Lebanon: The mixture of Roman, Greek, and Jewish elements admirably adapted Antioch for the great part it played in the early history of Christianity. The city was the cradle of the church.[54] Members of theses communities still call themselves Rûm which literally means Eastern Roman, Byzantine or Asian Greek in Turkish, Persian and Arabic. The term Rûm is used in preference to Ionani or Yāvāni which means European Greek or Ionian in Classical Arabic and Ancient Hebrew. Most MENA area Melkites or Rûms, can trace their ethnocultural heritage to the Greek and Macedonian settlers and Southern Anatolian Hellenized Jewish communities of the past, founders of the original Antiochian Greek communities of Cilicia and Northwestern Syria. Counting members of the surviving minorities in the Hatay Province of Turkey, in Syria, Lebanon, Northern Israel and their relatives in the diaspora, there are more than 1.8 million Greco-Melkite Christians residing in the Northern-MENA, the US, Canada and Latin America today i.e. Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic Christians under the ancient jurisdictional authority of the patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem (Orthodox in the narrow sense) and/or their Uniat offshoots (Catholic or united with Rome). Today, certain families are associated with descent from the early Jewish Christians of Antioch, Damascus, Judea, and Galilee. Some of those families carry surnames such as Youhanna (John), Hanania (Ananias), Sahyoun (Zion), Eliyya/Elias (Elijah), Chamoun/Shamoun (Simeon/Simon), Semaan/Simaan (Simeon/Simon), Menassa (Manasseh), Salamoun/Suleiman (Solomon), Youwakim (Joachim), Zakariya (Zacharias) and others.[55] Contemporary movements: Jewish Christians, Messianic Jews[edit] Jewish Christians are ethnic Jews who have converted to Christianity. They are mostly members of Protestant and Catholic congregations, usually are not strict about observing the Laws of Moses, including Jewish dietary laws and the Sabbath, and are generally assimilated culturally into the Christian mainstream, although they retain a strong sense of their Jewish identity. Some such Jewish Christians also refer to themselves as Hebrew Christians, many of whom have intermarried with non-Jews and embraced a mixed culture and identity. One example of this is the Isaric Christians (Bnei Makir) of Indonesia. Another example, the Nasrani (Saint Thomas Christians) of India, is farther removed from Judaism, but does historically have strong Jewish ties and still retains certain Jewish practices. The Hebrew Christian movement of the 19th Century was a largely Anglican led, and largely integrated initiative, with figures such as Michael Solomon Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem 1842-1845. Though figures such as Joseph Frey were more assertive of Jewish identity and independent. Messianic Jews are people who adhere to Messianic Judaism, a syncretic religion that combines evangelical Christian belief with some Jewish ritual. Adherents, many of whom are ethnically Jewish, worship in congregations that include Hebrew prayers and use of a Torah scroll. They circumcise their sons and often observe Kosher dietary laws and Saturday as the Sabbath. Many do not use the label Christian to describe themselves, but they do recognize the Christian New Testament as holy scripture. The two groups are not completely distinct; some adherents, for example, favor Messianic congregations but freely live in both worlds, such as theologian Arnold Fruchtenbaum, the founder of Ariel Ministries.[56]
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 15:09:05 +0000
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