THE DOCTRINE OF THE SYRIAN CHURCH

TNDL: "THE DOCTRINE OF THE SYRIAN CHURCH"

The faith of the Syrian Orthodox Church can be summarized as follows: The Church believes in one composite person of the Lord Jesus, and one composite nature that consists of two natures: divine and human, which cannot be mixed, separated or transformed. In other words, the two natures are united into one nature with no mixing, no blending no changing no transformation, and no confusion. This applies to all divine and human attributes. Based on this definition, divinity was united with humanity, or the body, when Jesus was nailed on the cross, and never departed the body, not even for a moment. Therefore, it is wrong, and a departure from the universal Christian faith to say that: "Christ was crucified in flesh". It must rather be said: "God the Incarnate the Lord of glory was crucified"; however, we do say "He suffered and died in flesh", because divinity is never subject to suffering or death. As a consequence, Mary is "the mother of God", and the phrase "Thou who was crucified for us" stands true in the Trisageon which is directed to the second person, i.e., Christ. To this faith adhered the Antiochian Syrians and the Alexandrian Copts who rejected the council of Chalcedony and the document of Leo of Rome (The tome of Letter of Pope Leo) adhering to the faith defined in the three holy ecumenical councils of Nicea 325 A.D., Constantinople 381 A.D., and Ephesus 431 A.D. From here, the name "Orthodox" was coined to mean "True faith" which is common to Syrians, Copts, Armenians and Ethiopians. These Churches are called "sister Churches". They endured together severe sufferings and violent persecutions waged against them by the Chalcedonian Byzantine Empire.

4- THE SYRIAC LITURGY

It is an established fact that the language spoken by Jesus and by many generations B.C. and early Christianity, and until the 5th century A.D. was Aramaic. Furthermore, Jews Wrote some of their holy books in Aramaic or in Aramaic characters, as evidenced by the dead sea scrolls discovered in 1974 by His Eminence Mar Athanasius Yeshu Samuel, then Archbishop of Jerusalem (Archbishop of the United States and Canada at present). Thus, it becomes evident that the disciples and their early successors spoke Syriac. Therefore, it is only common sense that their worship be conducted in Syriac. Since the evangelists who preached the Gospel in Antioch came from Jerusalem where worship was in Syriac, it would only be natural that Syriac be the Liturgical language of the church of Antioch, and that she uses the Syriac liturgy of St. James the brother of the Lord and first bishop of Jerusalem. It is well known that the church of Jerusalem used St. James's Liturgy until the days of the last of the first fifteen Syrian bishops. However, when envoys from Constantinople started assuming its leadership, they replaced, St. James's Liturgy with that of Baselios of Caesaria 379 A.D. and St. John the Chrysostom 407 A.D. translated into Syriac. St. James's Liturgy, nevertheless, remained in the church of Antioch. That is why the Syriac Liturgy is called the Liturgy of Antioch. To this Liturgy are traced all church Liturgies. The church of Antioch, therefore, is proud that her Liturgy is in Syriac, the language made holy by the Lord's divine tongue, and honored by the tongue of His mother Mary and his Apostles. In this language, St. Mathew wrote his Gospel, and in this language evangelical events were proclaimed first in Judea, Syria and neighboring regions.