The Evolution of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the Pre-Islamic Period: From Greek to Syriac?

2013/03/01 by Fergus Millar · 4 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Archaeology and Historical Studies #Biblical Studies and Interpretation #Historical and Linguistic Studies

paper · doi:10.1353/earl.2013.0002

openalex publication_date 2013/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

This essay first sketches some issues of ethnic or religious identity and their possible relevance to the late Roman Near East, and then surveys the various labels attached by contemporaries to those within the Church who opposed the doctrines proclaimed at the Council of Chalcedon, and proclaimed instead a one-nature Christology. Its main purpose is to examine the very extensive and detailed contemporary evidence from the pre-Islamic period for the evolving role of Syriac in what would later become the Syrian Orthodox Church.

Citations

• Linguistic Co-existence in Constantinople: Greek and Latin (and Syriac) in the Acts of the Synod of 536 C.E.
• Christian Monasticism in Roman Arabia at the Birth of Mahomet

Cited by

• Perforating Kinship: Syriac Christianity, Ethnicity, and Secular Legibility
• Syriac Christianity [wikipedia]
• Syriac Orthodox Church [wikipedia]
• Syriac language [wikipedia]

Related

• Michael the Syrian and Syriac Orthodox Identity
• Syriac Historiography and Identity Formation
• Tradition and the Formation of the 'Nestorian' Identity in Sixth- to Seventh-Century Iraq
• The Syriac Church Denominations
• Reflections on Identity. The Suryoye of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries: Bar Salibi, Bar Shakko, and Barhebraeus