Post by Funk Monk on Jan 29, 2007 7:43:22 GMT -5
Language of Jesus alive in Syria
Matthew FISHER reports from the village of Maaloula, where 5.000 people ? both Christians and Muslims ? fight to save an ancient tongue.
There are few places on Earth today where Jesus might be more at home at Christmas than in this tranquil village of clay houses and stone grottos etched into the side of a cliff on the eastern slope of Al-Qalamoun Mountain. Here, overlooking an arid valley of Al-Qalamoun Mountain. Here, overlooking an arid valley of olive groves a few kilometers off the heavily traveled main road between Damascus and Aleppo, the 5.000 residents of Maaloula are among the last 18.000 speakers of Aramaic, the ancient Semitic language that Jesus used to preach to the apostles.The language is also spoken in two smaller villages nearby and in isolated communities in Iraq, Turkey and Iran.
Maaloulians begin festivities to commemorate the birth of Jesus at dusk on Dec.9 with special chants. This marks the beginning of a 15-day fast during which is usually bitterly cold, there is a complete fast to represent Christ?s sacrifice, followed by an evening feast at which presents are3 given to all the village children, followed by a night of praying and dancing.Christmas is one of the most treasured times for Rana Wahbe, who greets visitors to Maaloula?s Byzantine Convent of St. Serge and St. Bacchus.After chanting the Lord?s Prayer for a small group of visitors, Ms. Wehbe sang a hauntingly beautiful song the funeral of Jesus.?Jesus of life, you have been put in a tomb. The angels of heaven keep wondering,? was how 23-year old student translated the words into English after conducting a tour of the Byzantine convent, which was built between AD 315 with Syrian cedar trees and marble imported from Italy. It has what is believed to be the oldest surviving altar in all Christendom.?Sometimes, when I am chanting, the people start to cry. It is at such moments that I really feel as if I am close to Jesus,? Ms. Wehbe said.
One of the ironies of life in a village that makes a modest livelihood out of its Christian connections is that by a margin of nearly two-to-one, more Muslims than Christians still speak the language of Christ, although churches outnumber mosques by eight-to-two. The Christians of Maaloula are further divided between Greek Catholic believers such as Ms. Wehbe, and those who follow Greek Orthodox teachings. And unlike most of the world, the various faiths here have generally got along well for many centuries.?As kids, I participated in Christmas every year. I even used to do the Christian chants,? said Amas Kamar Mallwola 23, a Muslim who grew up attending the same Arab-language school as Ms. Wehbe.?I have no problem with this because Jesus Christ was a prophet just as Muhammad was. I am happy to speak a language so few speak, and to speak a language of the prophet, Jesus Christ.?
Although Maaloula is Aramaic?s strongest redoubt, and the dialect spoken here is believed by German scholars to be the most closely related to that which was spoken by Jesus of Nazareth, it is a subject of intense debate whether Jesus would actually understand the Aramaic spoken in the village today.
Residents such as Ms. Wehbe and the village?s mayor, Azar Sikris Barkil, are convinced they could have spoken with the Al Masih as the Messiah is known in Aramaic. The convent superior, Father Toufik Eid, who is from Lebanon, is not so sure.?The difficulty with saying that Jesus would understand this is that every language evolves, and this one has had 2.000 years to evolve,? said Father Eid. ?We believe that Jesus spoke Aramaic, but he also spoke Hebrew, and possibly Greek and Latin.?
The Aramaic spoken by Jesus in Mel Gibson?s controversial film The Passion of the Christ, was written by a catholic priest and academic from California. Nobody in Maaloula has apparently seen the film. How ever, those who had seen brief clips from it said they could not understand any of what was said to be Aramaic.
Written texts in Aramaic have been found from the eastern Mediterranean to China. It was at one time the lingua franca of the Persian Empire, and the language of the Jews of Palestine. Over the centuries, it gradually succumbed as a spoken language to Persian, Turkish, Hebrew and, especially, Arabic.
Preserving Aramaic, which nobody in Maaloula has written for tens of generations, has become something of a cause for Syrian president Bashaar Assad his government supported the establishment of an Aramaic language school in 2003.about 150 students between the ages of seven and 50 are now taught there by staff of 10 teachers.
There are also plans for a website in Aramaic, and plans attract more tourists to maaloula from Europe because, as well as providing employment, they often take a keen interest in the language.
Laughing conspiratorially along with her old school chum, Amas kamar Mallwola, ms. Wehbe said, ?we speak this language so that nobody can understand us. If we stay in this village, we will still be speaking Aramaic too years from now.?
www.syriatourism.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=367&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Videos: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od5JT-8CWyw
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ8O6S6MVng
Matthew FISHER reports from the village of Maaloula, where 5.000 people ? both Christians and Muslims ? fight to save an ancient tongue.
There are few places on Earth today where Jesus might be more at home at Christmas than in this tranquil village of clay houses and stone grottos etched into the side of a cliff on the eastern slope of Al-Qalamoun Mountain. Here, overlooking an arid valley of Al-Qalamoun Mountain. Here, overlooking an arid valley of olive groves a few kilometers off the heavily traveled main road between Damascus and Aleppo, the 5.000 residents of Maaloula are among the last 18.000 speakers of Aramaic, the ancient Semitic language that Jesus used to preach to the apostles.The language is also spoken in two smaller villages nearby and in isolated communities in Iraq, Turkey and Iran.
Maaloulians begin festivities to commemorate the birth of Jesus at dusk on Dec.9 with special chants. This marks the beginning of a 15-day fast during which is usually bitterly cold, there is a complete fast to represent Christ?s sacrifice, followed by an evening feast at which presents are3 given to all the village children, followed by a night of praying and dancing.Christmas is one of the most treasured times for Rana Wahbe, who greets visitors to Maaloula?s Byzantine Convent of St. Serge and St. Bacchus.After chanting the Lord?s Prayer for a small group of visitors, Ms. Wehbe sang a hauntingly beautiful song the funeral of Jesus.?Jesus of life, you have been put in a tomb. The angels of heaven keep wondering,? was how 23-year old student translated the words into English after conducting a tour of the Byzantine convent, which was built between AD 315 with Syrian cedar trees and marble imported from Italy. It has what is believed to be the oldest surviving altar in all Christendom.?Sometimes, when I am chanting, the people start to cry. It is at such moments that I really feel as if I am close to Jesus,? Ms. Wehbe said.
One of the ironies of life in a village that makes a modest livelihood out of its Christian connections is that by a margin of nearly two-to-one, more Muslims than Christians still speak the language of Christ, although churches outnumber mosques by eight-to-two. The Christians of Maaloula are further divided between Greek Catholic believers such as Ms. Wehbe, and those who follow Greek Orthodox teachings. And unlike most of the world, the various faiths here have generally got along well for many centuries.?As kids, I participated in Christmas every year. I even used to do the Christian chants,? said Amas Kamar Mallwola 23, a Muslim who grew up attending the same Arab-language school as Ms. Wehbe.?I have no problem with this because Jesus Christ was a prophet just as Muhammad was. I am happy to speak a language so few speak, and to speak a language of the prophet, Jesus Christ.?
Although Maaloula is Aramaic?s strongest redoubt, and the dialect spoken here is believed by German scholars to be the most closely related to that which was spoken by Jesus of Nazareth, it is a subject of intense debate whether Jesus would actually understand the Aramaic spoken in the village today.
Residents such as Ms. Wehbe and the village?s mayor, Azar Sikris Barkil, are convinced they could have spoken with the Al Masih as the Messiah is known in Aramaic. The convent superior, Father Toufik Eid, who is from Lebanon, is not so sure.?The difficulty with saying that Jesus would understand this is that every language evolves, and this one has had 2.000 years to evolve,? said Father Eid. ?We believe that Jesus spoke Aramaic, but he also spoke Hebrew, and possibly Greek and Latin.?
The Aramaic spoken by Jesus in Mel Gibson?s controversial film The Passion of the Christ, was written by a catholic priest and academic from California. Nobody in Maaloula has apparently seen the film. How ever, those who had seen brief clips from it said they could not understand any of what was said to be Aramaic.
Written texts in Aramaic have been found from the eastern Mediterranean to China. It was at one time the lingua franca of the Persian Empire, and the language of the Jews of Palestine. Over the centuries, it gradually succumbed as a spoken language to Persian, Turkish, Hebrew and, especially, Arabic.
Preserving Aramaic, which nobody in Maaloula has written for tens of generations, has become something of a cause for Syrian president Bashaar Assad his government supported the establishment of an Aramaic language school in 2003.about 150 students between the ages of seven and 50 are now taught there by staff of 10 teachers.
There are also plans for a website in Aramaic, and plans attract more tourists to maaloula from Europe because, as well as providing employment, they often take a keen interest in the language.
Laughing conspiratorially along with her old school chum, Amas kamar Mallwola, ms. Wehbe said, ?we speak this language so that nobody can understand us. If we stay in this village, we will still be speaking Aramaic too years from now.?
www.syriatourism.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=367&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Videos: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od5JT-8CWyw
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ8O6S6MVng
