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Latin but in the Greek. Before the Nicene Council in 325
A.C., the Canon of the books of the New Testament was
not completed, or rather established. There were dozens
of Gospels and Epistles bearing the names of different
Apostles and other companions of Jesus (pbuh) , which were
held by various Christian communities as sacred, but they
were rejected by the Nicene Council as spurious.
As the seat or centre of the Syriac language and
learning was Orhai, i.e. Edessa, and never Antioch, it was
here that the books of the New Testament were translated
from the Greek, after the notorious Assembly of Nicea.
As the seat or centre of the Syriac language and learning
was Orhai, i.e. Edessa, and never Antioch, it was here that
the books of the New Testament were translated from the
Greek, after the notorious Assembly of Nicea.
A profound examination and study of the early Christian
literature and history will show that the first preachers
of the Gospel were Jews who spoke Aramaic or the old
Syriac language. Whether this “Gospel” was written
document, or an unwritten doctrine or religion taught
and propagated orally, is a question for itself and lies
outside the sphere of our present subject. However,
one thing is certain and does really fall within the
periphery of our subject - namely, the early Christians
conducted their religious services in the Aramaic
language. That was the common language spoken by
the Jews, the Syrians, the Phœnicians, the Chaldeans,
and the Assyrians. Now it is but clear that the Christians
belonging to the Aramaic-speaking nationalities would
certainly prefer to read and pray in their own language,
and consequently various Gospels, Epistles, prayer
books, and liturgies were written in the Syriac. Even the
Armenians, before the invention of their alphabet in the
fifth century, had adopted the Syriac characters.