Apostle Letters, Early Reference, Indian Tradition, Thomas the Apostle

Dear George I see a slight change in you. …

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Comment posted Letters of St. Thomas the Apostle to Edessa from India by Admin.

Dear George

I see a slight change in you. In all your recent postings, there was no mention of Messianic Jews. It is good that at least you stopped comparing Nasranis with Cults. Now you harp on Yehudis of Malabar in first century. Your comments and various statements actually show that you don’t even have a basic understanding about Christianity in Kerala. All the other posts, especially the one by TKV, presented the non homogenous nature fairly well. You should keep in mind that we have fairly ( not very fair) documented history from end of fifteenth century onwards.

I have been a very supporter to a possible conversion of Jews in first century and as you know even have used many of the junk statements available to support the claims. I don’t think that there is anything wrong in making wrong observations or conclusions based on the faulty data you have but when people guide you to proper sources, repeatedly harping on faulty sources and observations is not a good approach. For some time, I have been going back to each article and correcting all the wrong statements. There is no need of any silly misrepresentations when we have many documentary evidences.

John has already examined your comments. I would like to know about the sources you use and here are few questions to you so that we can analysis the sources if any you use. We already know what you have to say on this but please provide reference.

1. What is the proof that Jews were in Kerala in first century. You said Namputhiris were not there so it leaves only to Jews now. What is the general opinion of scholars about the original inhabitants of Kerala in first century? Does the scholars who leave out Namputhiris include Jews in their list ?

2. We does have many references from early church fathers as well as visitors and from other MSS until sixteenth century about Christianity in Malabar. Are there any reference which implies any form of Jewish Christianity in Kerala ? Does any of these reference point to anything other than Syriac Christianity in Kerala.?

3. Can you quote some scholars who said Nasrani means Jewish Christians with page numbers of their studies published ? What are your thoughts about origin of the term Nasrani ? Any insights about the root word analysis and opinions from scholars on this ?

4. What is the first document we are aware which calls Christians of Saint Thomas as Nasranis ? What other names were they known ?

5. Was there any Jewish Christianity in Kerala or India ? Any documentary evidence that Jewish Christianity ever existed in any forms in India ?

6. You state that West Syrians had no role in Malabar, especially in comparison to this mythical Jewish Christianity which has no evidence. Did the Patriarch of Antioch claimed Malabar prior to sixteenth century ?. We all know that the evidence is from seventieth century with the arrival of Mar Gregorios. After all West Syrians and East Syrians have many things in common. What are the documentary evidences on this prior sixteenth century ?

7. What evidence you have to claim that we had hereditary priesthood ? What was the situation in end of fifteenth century or early sixteenth century? How priests were selected in Malabar ? Were they selected from any specific families ? Any references about the number of churches/ priests in fifteenth or sixteenth century( This being our documentary evidence starts with this period )

8. You say a fierce anti Semtism swept over Malabar at some point in time. Please provide some reference about when this happened. There are many studies published in detail about Jewish history in India. ( I know you have problems with scholars !!)

9. “Arch Deacons’ or ‘Deacons’ are words coined by the Portuguese to name our Malabar ‘priests’ prior to AD 1599.” – Reference please ?

10. Any evidences that Archdeacons were indeed from Pakallomattom prior to sixteenth century end ? What documentary evidence we have on this subject except the mere reference from Patriarch Thimothy in Eight century?

11. You have repeated ‘Nathan Katz’ ramblings in a couple of posts. Have you ever compared what he wrote with the history written by Indian Jews themselves and with other scholarly wroks ? Are you sure that ‘Nathan Katz’ has not revised what he concluded based on his studies ? I don’t consider Katz’s as a Scholar in this subject.

12. “We in Malabar were in very friendly terms with the Jews”- Please provide some evidences? ( I have recently added what was mentioned by Penteado in 1518 in the Southist article )

13. What was the Caste situation in Malabar inferred from sixteenth century writings ? What was the social order ? Who were the high caste and where was Christians positioned in the structure in this period ?

Finally, what motivates you to make many odd statements, like ( just some) “These good people like Adi and Cyril have nothing to do with us nor shaped our thoughts”, “We Nasranis were INDEPENDENT” is not due to the fact that there is any lack of historical evidences or that they have not shaped our thoughts but this is just due to the influence ( Protestant) you got from middle of nineteenth century. If I remember correctly in your own words, it’s your baggage problem.