K4L_2007 wrote:How nice, a source that comes from a forum.. trustworthy...
you seem to be narrowminded
I wrote that, the statments which are in the text have always a source from where they are taken....
here are some example:
The Nagshe Rostam inscription by Darius (512-48) which lists the national types of the Persian Empire includes the Assyrians . A reference to them reads as: "Iyam Asuryah", "this is an Assyrian" which is very similar to the term "Suryah" a name christian Assyrians have identified themselves by.
(Sukumar Sen, "Old Persian Inscriptions of the Achamenian Emperors," University of Calcutta 1941 p. 107)
Those who question the identity of the contemporary Assyrians justify it by saying "they have been known primarily as Syrians and Surai during most of the christian Era." They seem not to realize that the region west of Euphrates was Called Syria becuase it did not have a known national identity and was part of the Assyrian empire.
A new bilingual inscription in Hieroglyphic Luwian and Phoenician
discovered in Turkey at Çineköy, in the vicinity of Adana by Recai Tekoglu and André Lemaire provides incontrovertible evidence that 'Surai' i.e, Syrian meant Assyrian to the Luwians the ally of the Assyrians long before Greeks used the term.
This one is the newst thing to be found about the name Syrian and Assyrian
The third century Roman historian Justinus also attests to this fact. He wrote: "The Assyrians, who were afterwards called Syrians, held their empire for thirteen hundred years." (Marcus Junianus Justinus Epitome of the Philippic, "History of Pompeius Trogus", translated by Rev. John Selby Watson.
(London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853)
The second century Tatian identified himself as Assyrian. He wrote, "I was born in the land of the Assyrians.."
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-02/anf02-36.htm
His contemporary Lucian of Samostosa, in his "Goddess of Syria" wrote : "I that write [this] am "Assourious" [Assyrian]".
(Lucian, Translated by A.M. Harmon, Vol. IV, "The godesse of Surrye", London 1925 p.339.)
The Armenians who have lived side by side with the Assyrians have always called them Assori, i.e Assyrian as have other nationalities. Following is an early century Armenian document "perhaps the earliest original writing in Classical Armenian. This reading is taken from Books V and VI." which describes how an Assyrian bishop was instrumental in inventing the Armenian alphabet in 420 AD.
This is evident in the writings by writers whose knowledge of the Christian Assyrian history is limited. Gavin Menzies in his "1421 The Year China Discovered America" rightly credits the Church of the East, otherwise known as Nestorian, for having taken Christianity to China, but he claims that the church thrived in Syria during the sixth century. (Kevin Menzies, "1421 The Year China Discovered America", Harper Collins 2003 p.115) In fact the Church of the East was outlawed in the Byzantine empire including Syria. It prospered in Mesopotamia under the Persian rule and it was from Assyria that missionaries went to China, India and Japan, among other places.
Thimithy I (770-823), patriarch of the Church of the East in a letter to the monks of Mar Marun declares that Babylonia, Persia and Assyria, all the countries of the East, such as India and China were under his jurisdiction. (William G. Young, "Patriarch, Shah and Caliph", Christian Study Center, Rawalpindi, Pakistan 1974, p.152)
The Vatican documents indicate that when the Chaldean Church was established by Sulaga in 1553, Pope Julius III proclaimed him patriarch of "Mosul and Athur" on Feb. 20, 1553. (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Chaldean Rite ", 1967, Vol. III, pp.427-428) Roman documents originally refer to Sulaga as the elected patriarch of "the Assyrian Nation". (Xavier Koodapuzha, "Faith and Communion in the Indian Church of Saint Thomas Christians, Oriental Institute of Religious Studies, Kerala, India, p.59)
According to the Chronicle of the Carmelites Sulaga was proclaimed "Patriarch of the Eastern Assyrians" but on 19, 4, 1553 he was redefined as the "Patriarch of the Chaldeans". Perhaps the change of mind was intended to distinguish between those who joined the Catholic Church verses those who did not or may be it was a matter of associating these new Catholics with the Nestorians of Cyprus who were labeled Chaldeans by Pope Eugene IV on August 7, 1445 after they joined the Roman Catholic church. (George V. Yana (Bebla), "Myth vs. Reality" JAAStudies, Vol. XIV, No. 1, 2000 p. 80)
now you might have understood, that those are not biased statments...and that they are trustworthy!!!