Macarios III Zaim's "Nazarenes"

[Paul Younan]

Hi again Kefa,

Here is one quote:

And afterwards, when Bahram, the king of kings, the son of Shapur, died, Bahram,the king of kings, the son of Bahram, the generous, the just, the friendly, the beneficent and pious in the empire, came to reign. And for love of Ohrmazd and the gods,and for the sake of his own soul, he raised my rank and my titles in the empire ?And in all the provinces, in every part of the empire, the acts of worshiping Ohrmazd and the gods were enhanced. And the Zoroastrian religion and the Magi were greatly honoured in the empire. And the gods, ?water?, ?fire? and ?domestic animals? attained great satisfaction in the empire, but Ahriman and the idols suffered great blows and great damages. And the [false] doctrines of Ahriman and of the idols disappeared from the empire and lost credibility. And the Jews [yahud ], Buddhists [paman], Hindus [braman], Nazarenes [nasra], Christians [kristiyan], Mandaeans [makdag] and Manichaeans [zandik] were smashed in the empire, their idols destroyed, and the habitations of the idols annihilated and turned into abodes and seats of the gods

From "Ancient Persia" (Josef Wiesehofer):

In his inscriptions, the Zoroastrian high priest, Kirdir, states that thanks to his efforts under Shah Bahram II (AD 276-293), Zoroastrianism was promoted in the empire and other religious communities were persecuted. For us this report is particularly revealing because first of all, it refers to the different religious persuasions in the empire by name, and secondly, it points to a specific phase in the political approach to religious minorities, a phase that must be ex-amined in its historical context.

Terms referring to the ethnic, or rather geographical?cultural origin of the Christians are nasraye (the native) and krestyane (the erstwhile deported Christians and their descendants), corresponding with Kirdir?s nasra and kristiyan, while in narratives about the Passion, the word nasraye is almost exclusively put into the mouths of the persecutors. The Christians at this period referred to themselves as mshihaye, i.e. ?those who believe in the Messiah = Christ?, and later apparently as krestyane. It should be noted that their linguistic identity ? like the Manichaeans,the majority spoke Syriac, and the deported people and their successors must also have continued speaking Greek for quite a long time ? did not mark Christians as outsiders or a minority group. For one thing, Syriac was very widespread, and for another, Middle Persian, the language of the kings and priests, was not imposed as a state language in the multilingual Sasanian empire, indeed it was not even a lingua franca. In this respect, too, the Sasanians adhered to the successful Arsacid model. It is not to be ruled outthat in everyday life the Christians also considered themselves as inhabitants of a city or region or even as people of Eranshahr, but in the martyrologies,the world was not divided between ?Romans? and ?Persians?, but between the?people of God? and the ?outsiders? or ?non-believers?.

You can read the entire book here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/46955890/Ancient-Persia

Another great resource is "The Church of the East, a Concise History" (Baum & Winkler): http://www.peshitta.org/pdf/CoEHistory.pdf

An additional factor contributing to the development of Christianity
in Persia was the expanding movement of refugees. Wartime
deportations are reported up to the sixth century. With the
strengthening of the Persian empire under the Sassanians (224), a
state of perpetual conflict arose between the Persians and the
Roman empire. This situation had consequences for the spread of
the gospel above all during the reign of Shapur I (240?72). Shapur I
and his army advanced far into Roman territory and finally reached
Antioch in 260. Many Christians from Antioch, Cappadocia, Cilicia,
and Syria were deported to Persian provinces and established as
tradesmen and artisans in Babylonia, Persia, Parthia, and Susiana.
Among them was Bishop Demetrius of Antioch, who subsequently
served as the first bishop of Beth Lapat (Gundeshapur). These
deported Christians, to the extent that they belonged to Greek speaking
communities, appear not to have integrated themselves
into the local Christian population before the fifth century, since
separate churches and two hierarchies, with Greek and Syriac-
Aramaic as liturgical languages, are reported. The inscription of the
Zoroastrian magician Kartir (Kerdir) ? who occupied an important
position under Shapur I, Hormizd I (273), Bahram I (276), and
especially Bahram II (293) ? speaks of ?Nazarenes? (nasraye) and
?Christians? (krestyane). This could be a significant indication of
the double community. Although an exact interpretation of the
inscription of Kartir remains to be determined, it can be assumed
that the first term denotes the local Aramaic Christian congregation
and the second designates those Greek-speaking Christians
deported from Syria under Shapur I.

In 1289 the Dominican Ricoldo of Montecroce traveled to the
Orient, where he remained for ten years. In his Liber peregrinationis
(before 1291) and the Libellus ad nationes orientales he
described his experiences with the East Syriac church. The king of
Mosul was a ?Nestorian,? for whom ritual played a greater role
than dogma. The liberal marriage rules with the possibility of
divorce and remarriage did not please him. They also occasionally
practiced circumcision ? even of women! ? as he himself had
observed. They accepted the eucharist, which they received under
both kinds, in their hands, and they did not recognize the anointing
of the sick. They practiced abstinence and rejected the consumption
of meat. Catholicos Yahballaha III had renounced their ?heterodoxy?
and in 1290 permitted him to preach in Baghdad. The elite
appeared prepared to accept union with Rome, though mostly for
political reasons. In the Libellus Ricoldo emphasized that the East
Syriac Christians did not want to be called ?Nestorians,? as they
were not such and did not emulate Nestorius. They referred to
themselves as ?Nazantarei? or ?Nazareni.?