'Ancient History': Codex 'Malabaricus'? Did you know????
JPR:
In case you are interested in this sort of thing.
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'...All this prompted Dionysius to pass on the Bible to Buchanan for safe custody. It is now in the Cambridge University library....'
Well there goes another one of the 'Indian antiquities' into the hands the damn British.
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Concise history of Kerala 'orthodox' Christians.
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Story of the lost Bible
(P. Raman-The Hindustan Times)
THE RSS parivar has raised a hue and cry over the Pope?s visit to India. They want the Pope to make a public apology for the forced conversions in Goa and all the alleged cruelties committed during the reign of the Portuguese Catholics.
Various RSS outfits have flooded the cities and towns with "hate" material about the inquisition. But few know about the intense tussles between the Catholic colonisers and other churches for domination on Indian soil.
The Portuguese colonisers indulged in all sorts of deceit and treachery to convert the native Christians into the Roman Catholic church. They resorted to crude use of force and often burnt the Bibles of the native Christians. With this, there is also a story of the narrow survival of the world's most ancient Bible. It all began soon after Vasco da Gama landed at Kozhikode in 1498. The Europeans were pleasantly surprised to see a flourishing Christian community along the Malabar coast. But they also felt upset when they realised that the local Christians were not Catholics, and were following a Bible different from theirs. For about a century the Portuguese tried all sorts of intimidation and physical force to get them into the Roman Catholic Church.
It is believed that Christianity was brought to the Malabar coast in 52 AD by St Thomas, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ. (Some, however, maintain that St Thomas had never visited India, and it was an Arab sailor named Thomas who had introduced Christianity in the south). The native Christians owed allegiance to Antioch in Syria. Their archbishops had been nominated by the Patriarch (head of the Eastern Orthodox Church) from Antioch and the Syrian Christian liturgy of Malabar is one of the most ancient Christian liturgies in the world. The Syrian Bible is the oldest. It was brought to Malabar much before 325 AD .
The existence of an ancient Bible irritated the Portuguese so much that they put pressure on the local rajas to force the local Christians into the Catholic Church. The rajas refused to help saying that it was for the Syrian Christians to decide their faith. The incensed Syrian Christians were defending their faith. At times they fiercely fought back the Portuguese. In 1599 AD, Archbishop Menezes of Goa, as the representative of the Pope in India, decided to call a synod of the local Christian priests to sort out the theological differences. The native priests were requested to bring along all their Bibles and other religious texts. At the end of the seven-day synod, Portuguese troops suddenly surrounded the church and burnt all native Bibles and scriptures. Not satisfied, the Portuguese troops also destroyed the library of the Indian archbishop at Angamali. Historians compare this vandalism with the burning of the Great Library of Alexandria by Caliph Omar in 643 AD. But as luck would have it, torrential rain had delayed the arrival of one native priest from the high ranges on the Western Ghats. The shocked natives rushed to the priest and salvaged their Bible from destruction. For 208 years, this Bible, which was believed to have been lost to the world, was concealed and protected by the Syrian Church from the European fanatics.
Two centuries later a British missionary Dr. Claude Buchanan, got wind of the existence of this rare Bible. After great persuasion, Buchanan was able to convince Mar Dionysius, head of the Syrian Church, to part with the 1,000-year old treasure for publication and preservation. After initial hesitation, Mar Dionysius relented. He knew that the British were fast emerging as the masters of India and there was no point in letting the Bible be damaged further. Just a few years before, Tippu Sultan too had his share of destruction. Many manuscripts belonging to the Mission at Verapoly had sunk in deep water while being taken to safety from Tippu?s soldiers.
All this prompted Dionysius to pass on the Bible to Buchanan for safe custody. It is now in the Cambridge University library. In 1815, it was printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society. The 1,000-year old Bible contained the Old and New Testaments embossed in strong vellum in large foils.
The earliest copies of the Bible, with the exception of the Dead Sea Scroll, are the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Siniaticus at the British Museum. The earliest Bibles were in Greek, Arabic and Hebrew. Early in the 15th century St Jerome translated the whole Bible into Latin from the original languages. This Bible known as the Vulgate Bible forms the main authoritative version for the Roman Chatolics. The lost Malabar Bible belongs to the second branch at Antioch in Syria. This November marks the 400th year of the Portuguese vandalism and the miraculous salvaging of the only Bible.
hindustantimes.com |
