The Syriac Orthodox Church: beliefs, history and sources

History & overview

Antioch's church, still praying in Aramaic.

The church of Antioch and All the East, which held to the one-nature confession after 451 and was rebuilt in the sixth century by Jacob Baradaeus, ordaining bishops on the run. Its liturgy is the Anaphora of Saint James in Syriac, its chant is catalogued in the Beth Gazo, and its heartland in Tur Abdin has been emptying since 1915.

DeitiesOne God in three persons; one incarnate nature of the Word. The single finger used to make the sign of the cross is meant to say exactly that.

Founded451 CE · Antioch

FounderSeverus of Antioch and Jacob Baradaeus, who kept the hierarchy alive after 451

AfterlifeResurrection and judgment; the dead are commemorated on the third, ninth and fortieth days and at the yearly memorial.

TextsThe Peshitta · The Anaphora of Saint James · The Beth Gazo — the treasury of chant

The map

The Syriac Orthodox Church’s corner of it — solid lines are descent; dotted lines are resemblance only, ideas held in common across unrelated faiths. Click a node to recenter; ✕ returns here. All 171 faiths →

c. 1000 BCE Judaism 30 CE Christianity 451 CE Oriental Orthodoxy 451 CE The Syriac Orthodox Church 1889 CE The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church 1912 CE The Jacobite Syrian Christian Church

Core Tenets

2 — a sample of the center, never the sum Enter →

One nature, and one finger to say it. Syriac Orthodox Christians cross themselves with a single finger, and are taught from childhood that the finger means the one incarnate nature of the Word. The doctrine is Cyril's and Severus of Antioch's: the humanity is complete, the divinity is complete, and the union is one. Go deeper — context & 1 source →

Jacobite is a word from outside. The church calls itself the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East. Jacobite comes from Jacob Baradaeus, the sixth-century bishop who travelled in disguise ordaining clergy after the imperial church deposed its hierarchy — a rescuer, not a founder. The church accepts him and rejects the label; in India, where the name became a legal designation, the argument is still live. Go deeper — context →

Figures

who it looks to — gods, spirits, ancestors; some rooms are empty on principle Enter →

M Mor Aphrem — theology in metre. He wrote nothing systematic and everything in verse: hundreds of madrashe on the incarnation, paradise, faith and the church, composed to be sung by women's choirs he trained himself. He worked in Nisibis until the Persians took it in 363 and then in Edessa, where he died in 373 after a famine relief effort. His Syriac has never gone out of liturgical use. Domain theology written as hymn, in Syriac and never in GreekStanding fourth-century deacon of Nisibis and Edessa whose hymns are still sung in the liturgy, and a Doctor of the Church in Rome as well Meet them — context →

Rites & Ritual

what its people do — and when Enter →

The Qurbono of Saint James. The West Syriac liturgy is chanted end to end and takes two to three hours, longer on feasts. Its anaphora is attributed to James the brother of the Lord and is the oldest complete eucharistic prayer still in regular use anywhere. The chant is catalogued in the Beth Gazo — the treasury — in eight modes that rotate week by week. When Weekly on Sunday, and daily in the monasteriesWho The parish; the deacons carry half the singing Go deeper — context →

Where next

the museum exit — every door leads deeper in

The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church — Eastern liturgy, evangelical reform, Anglican friends. The Jacobite Syrian Christian Church — The Malankara half that kept Antioch. Christianity — 12 shared ideas, a different faith Islam — 9 shared ideas, a different faith Sikhism — 9 shared ideas, a different faith The Assyrian Church of the East — 9 shared ideas, a different faith Branch The Syriac Orthodox Church — inherit everything, change what you must The library of ideas — what The Syriac Orthodox Church shares with every other faith A faith at random — somewhere you have never been

Sources

1 cited texts

Second Agreed Statement of the Joint Commission of the Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, Chambesy, Geneva, 1990 where it is cited →

These citations identify texts used in the linked passages. Follow each passage to read its quotation and context. A tradition’s own texts explain its teachings; historical claims may also require independent scholarship. Translations marked (rendered) are our own plain-English wording, not a standard edition; where a passage matters, read it in a full translation.