Product Code Database
Melkite () or Melchite churches are various Eastern Christian churches of the Byzantine Rite, and their members. The name comes from the Central Semitic Semitic root m-l-k 'royal', referring to the loyalty to the Byzantine emperor, and became a denominational designation for Christians who accepted imperial religious policies, notably the Council of Chalcedon (451).
Originally, during the Early Middle Ages, Melkites used both Koine Greek and Aramaic (Syriac language & Syro-Palestinian)"JACOB BARcLAY, Melkite Orthodox Syro-Byzantine Manuscripts in Syriac and Palestinian Aramaic" quote from the German book Internationale Zeitschriftenschau für Bibelwissenschaft und Grenzgebiete, p. 291"However, in contrast to what went on in northern Syria and Mesopotamia, where Syriac competed well with Greek to remain a great cultural language, Syropalestinian was in a weak position with regard to Greek and, later, to Arabic." quote from the book The Fourth International Conference on the History of Bilād Al-Shām During the Umayyad Period: English section, p.31"Some Chalcedonians of Palestine and the Transjordan chose to write in Christian Palestinian Aramaic (CPA) rather than Syriac." quote from the book A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography, p.68 (2017). 9781463238933, Gorgias Press. ISBN 9781463238933 language in their religious life, and initially employed the Antiochian rite in their liturgy, but later (10th–11th century) accepted the Constantinopolitan rite, and incorporated Christian Arabs in parts of their liturgical practices.
In modern times, there are two denominations called Melkite: Orthodox Melkites, the Greek Orthodox Christians of the Near East, and Catholic Melkites, members of the Melkite Catholic Church. Melkites can be of various ethnic origins, and Melkite can be the denominational component of ethnoreligious classifications.
The emergence of Christological controversies in the first half of the 5th century gave rise to divisions among Eastern Christians in various regions of the Near East. Official state support, provided by the Byzantine Empire imperial government to adherents of Chalcedonian Christianity (451), provided the base for a specific use of Aramaic language terms that designated those who were loyal to the empire, not just in regard to their political loyalty, but also in relation to their acceptance of imperial religious policies. Throughout the Near East, all Christians who accepted state-backed Chalcedonian Christianity, became known as Melkites, a term derived from the Hebrew word melekh (similar to Aramaic malkā or malkō, meaning "ruler", "king" or "emperor"), thus designating those who are loyal to the empire and its officially imposed religious policies.
The very term ( Melkites) designated all loyalists, regardless of their ethnicity (Greeks, Copts, Hellenized Jews, Arameans (Syriacs), Arabs,...), thus including not only Greek-speaking Chalcedonians, but also those among Aramaic-speaking and Arabic-speaking Christians and who were followers of Chalcedonian Christianity. All pro-Chalcedonian Christians throughout Byzantine Syria, Byzantine Phoenicia, Byzantine Palestine and Byzantine Egypt thus became commonly known as Melkites. Since Melkite communities were dominated by Greek episcopate, position of Aramaic-speaking and Arabic-speaking Melkites within the wider Melkite community was somewhat secondary to that of Greek Melkites. That led to the gradual decline of Syriac-Aramaic traditions. Syriac language was originally the liturgical language of the Syriac Melkites in Antioch and parts of Syria Prima, while some other Aramaic-speaking Melkites, predominantly of Jewish descent, used the Syro-Palestinian dialect in Palestine and Transjordan instead. (2017). 9781463238933, Gorgias Press. ISBN 9781463238933"JACOB BARcLAY, Melkite Orthodox Syro-Byzantine Manuscripts in Syriac and Palestinian Aramaic" quote from the German book Internationale Zeitschriftenschau für Bibelwissenschaft und Grenzgebiete, p. 291"However, in contrast to what went on in northern Syria and Mesopotamia, where Syriac competed well with Greek to remain a great cultural language, Syropalestinian was in a weak position with regard to Greek and, later, to Arabic." quote from the book The Fourth International Conference on the History of Bilād Al-Shām During the Umayyad Period: English section, p.31"Some Chalcedonians of Palestine and the Transjordan chose to write in Christian Palestinian Aramaic (CPA) rather than Syriac." quote from the book A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography, p.68 The Syriac Melkites changed their church's West Syriac Rite to that of Byzantine Rite in the 9th-11th centuries, requiring new translations of all their Classical Syriac liturgical books."I found among them many Syriac manuscripts; but they were unable to read or understand them." quote from the book Maaloula (XIXe-XXIe siècles). Du vieux avec du neuf, p.95"The west Syriac tradition covers the Syriac Orthodox, Maronite, and Melkite churches, though the Melkites changed their Church's rite to that of Constantinople in the 9th-11th centuries, which required new translations of all its liturgical books.", quote from the book The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, p.917
The decline of Syriac-Aramaic traditions among Melkites was enhanced (since the 7th century) by gradual Arabization, that also affected Greek-speaking Melkite communities, since under the Islamic rule Arabic became the main language of public life and administration.
Chalcedonian (Melkite) patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem remained in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. On the other side, among miaphysite non-Chalcedonians, parallel patriarchates emerged in Alexandria (miaphysite Coptic Church) and Antioch (miaphysite Syriac Church).
In Byzantine Palestine, the pro-Chalcedonian (Melkite) party prevailed, as well as in some other regions, like the Nubian kingdom of Makuria (in modern Sudan), that was also Chalcedonian, in contrast to their non-Chalcedonian Ethiopian Tewahedo neighbours, from until c. 710 and still had a large Melkite minority until the 15th century.
Main Melkite Orthodox Churches are:
Some typically Greeks "ancient synagogal" rites and have survived partially to the present, notably in the distinct of the Melkite and Greek Orthodox communities of the Hatay Province of Southern Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. Members of these communities still call themselves , which literally means "Romans" in Arabic language (that is, those of the Eastern Roman Empire, what English speakers often call "Byzantines"). The term is used in preference to , which means "" or "" in Classical Arabic and Biblical Hebrew.
The Orthodox Saint, Raphael Hawaweeny, reports that:
"There is a local tradition which says that when the Caliph Umar Ibn Al-Khattab wanted to write the document of guardianship to Patriarch Sophronius, after he had heard that Christians were divided into different groups such as Jacobites, Nestorians, Armenians, Maronites, and so forth, he asked him: "What is the name of your branch of Christianity?" Sophronius entreated him to give him some time so that he could find a good name pleasing to the Caliph. While he was absorbed in praying fervently, he was inspired to call his people by the first word he would hear in the service. Then listening attentively, he heard the Deacon reading the fifth Psalm from the first hour: "Oh my King and my Lord." Then he knew that he should call his people "the Royal People, or the Kingly People." Upon finishing his prayer he told the Caliph that they should be called "Royal People," or "Melkites." The Caliph approved this name and ... From that time till the end of the Arabic period, the Orthodox people of Palestine and Syrian came to be called the Royal People."
This local tradition has been interpreted by some members of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre to argue that Patriarch Sophronius was Greek, and therefore claim that the term Melkite refers specifically to the Greek nation and ethnicity as a "Royal People", often as justification for racial discrimination against non-Greeks, which Saint Raphael argues against.
The newly elected Pope Benedict XIII (1724–1730) also recognised the legitimacy of Cyril's claim and recognized him and his followers as being in communion with Rome. From that point onwards, the Melkite Church was divided between the Greek Orthodox (Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch), who continued to be appointed by the authority of the patriarch of Constantinople until the late 19th century, and the Greek Catholics (Melkite Greek Catholic Church), who recognize the authority of the pope of Rome. However, it is now only the Catholic group who continue to use the title Melkite; thus, in modern usage, the term applies almost exclusively to the Arabic-speaking from the Middle East.
|
|
