Nasrani

The Nasrani people are an ethnic community from Kerala, South India, who follow the early Hebrew-Syriac Christian tradition. Their heritage is Syrian-malabar, their culture South Indian, their faith St. Thomas Christian, and language Malayalam. Much of the Jewish tradition has been forgotten, especially after the Portuguese invasion of Kerala in the early 1500s.

The Nasrani people are also called as Syrian-Malabar Christians, Saint Thomas Christians or even as Syrian Christians and Mar Thoma Nasranis.

Contents

1 Origins 2 Christian Jewish tradition 3 Nasrani Menorah 4 Persecution by Portuguese 5 Nasrani tradition today 6 External links

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 (hypothesized by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus to be the place mentioned as 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 peacocks, and the area was endowed with a magnificent coastline full of ports from Mangalapuram to Kodungallur, 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 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 Aramaic 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 [Jesus]] as the Christ, but followed Jewish traditions and called themselves Nazarenes or Nazrani (meaning Jews who followed the Messiah from Nazareth). The terms Nazarenes and Nasrani were first mentioned in the New Testament in Acts 24:5. It was they who referred to themselves as Nasrani Katholikos Khristianos (Nasrani Catholic Christians) for the first time in Antioch to denote themselves as "Jewish followers of the universal assembly of 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 still is called as Qurbana (also spelled as Kurbana) which is derived from the Hebrew word Korban (קרבן) meaning Sacrifice. Their ritual service 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 is based on the Jewish menorah, the ancient symbol of the Jewish people. It is a branched candle stand for seven candlesticks. The Nasranis elaborated the middle 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. The six branches, (three on either side of the cross) represents God as the burning bush, while the central branch holds the cross, and the dove at the tip of the cross represents the Holy Spirit. This later came to be called as the Syrian Kuriz (cross) or the Mar Thoma cross. In Jewish tradition the central branch is the main branch, from which the other branches or other six candles are lit. 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 burned the Nasrani Aramaic Peshitta bible known today as the Lost Aramaic Bible, and introduced the teaching that the Jews killed Jesus. The Nasranis, who were,until then, the "living fossils" of the Christian-Jewish tradition, lost their very defining ethos.

Nasrani tradition today

Though much of the Jewish tradition was obliterated and wiped out, some of the important traditions lived on. The symbol of the Nasrani people is still the Nasrani menorah based on the Jewish menorah. Other surviving Jewish tradition still followed by the Nasranis is the tradition of Pesah appam. On passover night, the Nasrani people have Pesah-appam (unleavened passover bread) along with Pesah pal (passover coconut milk). This tradition of Pesah appam is observed by the entire Nasrani people until this day. The Knanaya people (a distinct group within the Nasrani people) have maintained much more of the Jewish traditions.

Nasrani people today belong to various christian denominations of the Mar Thoma Christian tradition. See: St. Thomas Christians for a detailed description of the various denominations.

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)