MARK SANTER, a former Bishop of Birmingham who died last year (Gazette, 6 September 2024), used to say that we had a distorted view of ancient Christianity, because we focused exclusively on Greek and Latin theology while ignoring the Syriac tradition. This was regrettable, because ancient Syrian Christians spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus himself.
We still have a tendency to ignore Syrian Christians. In recent weeks, there have been reports of massacres by supporters of the new Islamic government (News, 14 March). Along with members of the Alawite community, Christians have become targets of prejudice and violence.
The UK has given sanctuary to many migrants from Syria over recent decades, but successive governments have done no particular favours to Syrian Christians. When Theresa May was the Home Secretary, I was part of a conversation between her and a parish priest in her constituency, in which he attempted to plead their cause; but it had no effect.
Yet the Syrian Christians of today are the descendants of a theologically vibrant community that embraced parts of present-day Syria, Turkey, and Iraq, and sent missionaries into what is now Iran — and even as far as India. Some of the earliest Christian hymns were in Syriac, preserved in a collection known as The Odes of Solomon. Syrian Christians were among the first to revere Mary as the Virgin Mother of Christ. They also referred to the Holy Spirit in the feminine, a practice that was later reversed.
Their greatest theologian was the fourth-century poet Ephrem, who was recognised as a doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict, in 2020. Ephrem’s hymns are full of biblical allusions, but they also weave profound and even playful insights into the life of faith. One of his Hymns on Paradise reflects on the image of Christ as the Door, or Gate, as in John 10.7. Ephraim describes the Door to Paradise as a door of judgement, welcoming all who approach it, and then shrinking and growing according to the spiritual state of those who desire to enter. It is a powerful metaphor enhanced by the chorus: “Blessed is he who was pierced and so removed the sword from the entry of paradise.” We are judged by who we are, and, though sinners are condemned, there is always the chance to repent.
Ephrem understood God as the one who “put on names” for the sake of our salvation, enabling us to understand the divine by human metaphors. The incarnation is the ultimate revelation, as God took on our nature, fulfilling creation’s desire to manifest God’s glory.
The Syrian Church is the strongest link that we have with Semitic Christianity. When we ignore Syrian Christians, we are in danger of losing the language of Jesus, with the breadth of a different kind of Christianity, while closing the gate of hope to our persecuted brothers and sisters.
