"East of the Euphrates: Early Christianity in Asia&quot

[Dan Gan]

Interesting link oozeaddai!

Here is another link that I would like to add to this thread:

A HISTORY OF ST. THOMAS CHRISTIANS OF KERALA

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.kerala.com/cristian.htm">http://www.kerala.com/cristian.htm</a><!-- m -->

It is about the Christians of Kerala, India

As the history goes, St. Thomas went to Sree Lanka (Ceylon) from Kerala and then to Poona in Maharashtra and from Poona he went to China to spread the Gospel. From China, he went back to Edessa and worked there.

(We can learn about his works, in the book of "Nadapadi Krama" and from the "Scrolls of Dead Sea" .) He came back to Kerala again. In 72 AD, he was assassinated by some Hindus in St. Thomas Mount in Madras. He was buried in Mylapore (Madras) in the Hebrew tradition. Later on, his remains were taken from Madras to Edessa (may be in 165 AD).

(According to the legends, the king of Edessa invited Jesus to Edessa to cure his disease and help him; and Jesus replied in writing that the king was blessed as he believed in Him without seeing him, and that He had responsibilities to fulfill at his home. It is said that later, after the resurrection of Jesus, Thomas went to Edessa and cured the king.) Thus St. Thomas became the founder of Christianity in Kerala. We believe that he built seven Churches in Kerala, Niranam, Nilackal, etc.

The language of the Jews was Abraya language. The fifth son of Shaem, Aram's descendants were in Persia (during 5th-6th century BC), and Aramaic was their official language. When Babylon conquered Judea, the Jews learned this language and took it back to their home-land, Palestine. Syriac is Aramaic. Since the beginning, Syriac is the language of worship for the St. Thomas Christians, and so, they are also known as Syrian Christians (Suriani Christian). Now many of the prayers and books are translated from Syriac to Malayalam. The Syrian Christians always had close relationship with the Orthodox churches of Alexandria, Antioch, Armenia, etc. Their representatives attended the synods of Nice (325 AD),etc

There is another link to an interesting article online that I would like to add but I am not so sure whether this link that is indexed by Google is meant for public viewing without having to pay any subscription fee.