The Canon · No. 042
Church of the East
Nestorian Church; Assyrian Church of the East
431 CE – present · Abrahamic · Living · Iraq, Iran, India, historically to China and Mongolia
IV. THE CLASSICAL & IMPERIAL WORLD — c.200 BCE – 500 CE
How many
Roughly 500,000, split between the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East, plus the Chaldean Catholic Church which reunited with Rome.
Who began it
No founder; the Christian community of Mesopotamia, outside the Roman empire, which separated after the Council of Ephesus condemned Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople.
What it is for
Ordinary Christian ministry, conducted for most of its history as a minority under Zoroastrian, then Muslim, then Mongol rule.
What it worships
The Trinity; Christ. The disputed point was how to describe the union of divine and human in him.
What it holds
The church rejects the title Theotokos, God-bearer, for Mary, preferring Christ-bearer, on the grounds that Mary bore the human nature. Its critics called this two persons in Christ; the church has always denied teaching that, and the 1994 Common Christological Declaration signed by Patriarch Dinkha IV and Pope John Paul II concluded that the two churches had in fact been professing the same faith in different vocabularies for 1,563 years.
What it does
East Syriac Rite in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic close to the language Jesus spoke. The Holy Leaven — a portion of dough held to descend from the original Last Supper bread, renewed annually and mixed into every Eucharist. Married clergy permitted. Historically an intense missionary and educational tradition.
After death
Standard Christian resurrection and judgment.
Its texts
The Peshitta Syriac Bible; the East Syriac liturgies of Addai and Mari, among the oldest in continuous use; the works of Isaac of Nineveh, a 7th-century mystic widely read in Orthodox and Catholic circles too.
Its branches
Assyrian Church of the East; Ancient Church of the East (split 1968, largely over the calendar); Chaldean Catholic Church; the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala, who were historically under its jurisdiction.
Of note
For roughly eight hundred years this was geographically the largest Christian church in the world, and almost no one in the West has heard of it. Its near-erasure is a result of conquest and genocide, not of doctrine.
Its timeline
- 431 CE Council of Ephesus condemns Nestorius; the Persian church, already administratively separate, declines to accept it.
- 410, 424 CE Synods of Seleucia-Ctesiphon establish independence from the western churches.
- <strong>635 CE</strong> Alopen reaches Chang'an, the Tang capital, and is received by Emperor Taizong. Christianity is preached in China for the first time.
- 781 CE The Xi'an Stele is erected, recording 150 years of the Luminous Religion in China in Chinese and Syriac. Rediscovered in 1625, it is one of the most remarkable documents in Christian history.
- c.780–823 CE Under Patriarch Timothy I the church stretches from Egypt to China and has more territory than any other Christian body on earth.
- 845 CE Tang persecution ends the Chinese mission.
- c.1200–1300 CE Substantial Mongol adherence; several Mongol royal women are members. Rabban Bar Sauma travels from Beijing to Rome and Paris as a Mongol envoy in 1287.
- 1368 CE Ming dynasty; the Central Asian church collapses under Timur's campaigns.
- 1552 CE Schism; one line unites with Rome as the Chaldean Catholic Church.
- 1915–1918 CE The Sayfo, the Assyrian genocide, alongside the Armenian genocide. Perhaps 250,000 killed.
- 1933 CE Simele massacre in Iraq.
- 2014–2017 CE ISIS drives the remaining community from the Nineveh plains; ancient churches and manuscripts destroyed.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.