The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> Dr Joseph.....confirmed.....new book...a REAL one.

Dr Joseph.....confirmed.....new book...a REAL one.
Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Saturday, August 29 2015, 16:25:42 (UTC)
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The title is "Revival and Awakening" and is written by Adam H. Becker. Mr Becker is associate professor of religious studies and classics at New York University. The book is published, not printed, by The University of Chicago Press in 2015. For my tastes this book is a little too much about Christianity and the Church of the East, but what it reveals about missionaries sent among our communities is most interesting.....Becker reads various dialects of Aramaic and had access to the writings of not only the main missionary players but their native-born assistants whose letters and diaries he was able to read in the original.

I was surprised and disappointed, at first, not to find any reference to Dr Joseph's writings since they discuss many of the same issues but then I thought it was better this way because it shows Becker used original sources, as did Joseph, and did not merely reference the works of other authors with whom his research coincides....it is among us that Aprim quotes Rosie, and the two quote Shmuel, and the three quote each other...in actual scholarship direct research is best, not "me too" writings.

There are several interesting sections about the appearance of the name "Assyrian" in the modern era and how it was used to set apart a sect of Christians...and by whom this was done and why and how.

"...in 1897 the same year that we have evidence for the first explicit claims that the Syrians (Suraye) were descendants of the ancient Assyrians." p. 258

...the thing to note here is that contrary to what our nationalists claim, the use of the name Assyrian to mark Nestorians and others did NOT come before the invention of the Chaldeans....we, Assyrians, are a much more modern invention.

...also, if I tried to include this book and its findings on Wikipedia under "Assyrians", the moderator or editor of that site would remove it as being "unproven"...even though it is written by an actual professor of THIS topic and published by one of the more prestigious publishers in America...such is Wikipedia.

Again...

"The name 'Assyrian' as used for the contemporary ethnoreligious community of Assyrians is an 'invented tradition', a retrieval of an ancient appellation that had fallen into disuse for over two thousand years. Invented traditions 'are responses to novel situations which take the form of reference to old situations, or which establish their own past by quasi-obligatory repitition.' The use of "Assyrian" derives from Western sources, not from a continuity of identity between ancient Assyrians and the modern ones. European and American missionaries, diplomats, and archaelogists used the term 'Chaldean' and 'Assyrian' to refer to a region, as well as to the Christian community of upper Mesopotamia, and even of Urmia, and the usage eventually led to the appropriation of the name by the East Syrian (modern/Jacobite Syria, mine)community itself." p 299

The book traces just how, when and why, this appropriation took place...to sum up, it was for political reasons....same core reason which led the old Church of the East dwelling in the Persian Empire to adopt Nestorious as their leader, also for political reasons...had nothing to do with religious beliefs but because if the Church of the East converted to the "heresy" of Nestorious, the Shah might be reassured that his Christian subjects would not side with Rome, recently turned Christian, in their several hundred years battles....becoming Nestorians was the sensible thing to do...just as becoming "Assyrians" was a wise move, politically, or so they thought. It meant the Christians at least had a semblance of "nationhood" as they demanded the return of "their" ancient empire...or a small, oil-rich, part of it....nice try, but it cost untold suffering among our people.



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