Ancient Chinese Historian Describes The First Christians (635 AD) // The Nestorian Stele

--------------
Taken from the text of the Nestorian Stele:
Translation of the Nestorian Inscription by Jingjing, translated by Alexander Wylie

Music from Epidemic Sound and Artlist

Image Credits:

[drraoulmclaughlin]

Brilliant! For historical context I recommend the chapter by Professor Samuel Lieu, ‘Nestorian Christians and Manichaeans as Links between China and Rome’ in Kim, Lieu & McLaughlin, ‘Rome and China: points of Contact’ (2021).

[mjr_schneider]

"The new religion of the silent operation of the pure spirit of the triune" has got to be the Chinesest possible way to describe Christianity.

[aquiifer]

I’m honestly amazed at how the Tang were impressed by Christianity. I’m also perplexed that they keep mentioning Syria as if it’s independent, when it was likely still a part of Eastern Rome by the time the missionary left for China.

[MM-vset]

The Tang basically did the missionaries' job. They were like "Cool book, tell you what, you build a temple or whatever you guys call it right down the street there and get like 20 of your priests to man it. Ohh and we'll be making copies and spread it across our territories. Have a nice day"

[AdrienneJung.M]

I have a history degree from a public university and I am often dissappointed in the modern "historical" works we were given to study. The authors rarely present the historical texts in a straightforward way. They seem more interested in presenting their thesis to you than allowing their readers to simply view the original source material themselves. Modern historians are taught to quilt together fragments of history in order to construct whatever narrative, thesis, or hot take they are interested in. But this channel offers no commentary, they simply let these documents speak for themselves. Thank you for your work.

[nocomment]

“It’s principals will survive when the framework is forgotten”
Now that is brilliant. Not always the case, but we have seen a shift in this direction 1500 years later

[jaromgregson]

"Without holy men, principles can not be expanded. Without principles, holy men can not become magnified. But with holy men and right principles united as the two parts of a signet, the world becomes civilized, and enlightened."

This wisdom from my brethren in Christ in China gives me an amazing joy.

[amadeusasimov]

Interesting.
As a Christian, that sounded like quite the eloquent and epic description of Jesus and Christianity.
And it was surprising to hear them have such favor towards Christianity at the time.

[MihanTheNoob]

"... Its principles will survive when the framework is forgotten. It is beneficial to all creatures. It is advnatageous to mankind .." These words speak volumes!!

[leadcloud]

The original ancient Chinese text is even more epic. Ancient Chinese is elegant, succinct and during this period, highly highly stylized (the verbal rhythmic, the pairing of words etc). Just glorious glorious writing.

[andyzhang]

As a Christian Chinese my mind is blown. I’ve known about the stele for some time but never expected the text to be so otherworldly and beautiful…

[ryane]

I just took a history of Christianity class at university and I’m upset that these kind of accounts weren’t presented

[chrunchy-burrito]

The Nestorian Stele is my favorite archeological artifact. It is simply fascinating, it contains information about the Church of the East, one of the most interesting Christian sects, and shows the vast geographical distance that Christianity crossed. Christianity is generally seen as a Western religion, one propagated mainly by the colonial empires of the 19th century, which prior to that period it was only popular in Europe. This Stele stands in contrast to that, it’s from the 600s, almost a millennium before the Jesuits arrived, and the missionaries weren’t sent by the Catholic pope or even the Orthodox Patriarch in Constantinople but by the Asian Church of the East, a Christian sect unknown nowadays that has sadly declined over the centuries, but at its height it’s metropolitans and dioceses stretched from China to Alexandria and its Catholicos was even having theological discussions with Sultans. Oh yeah, the Church of the East became so geographically extensive largely during centuries of Islamic rule. Which during the first 6 centuries of was relatively peaceful.

[DrewPicklesTheDark]

"It’s principals will survive when the framework is forgotten"

Dude was prophetic.

[HerculesMays]

This is so fascinating, honestly. Some people may sigh with minor disappointment at how the Chinese got a few things wrong about Christianity, but it's truly far more accurate than I would have imagined considering the great distance, both culturally and geographically, that China was from Israel.

It really does make one wonder just how much history of the church in China is lost and will never be known when we only know all this from ONE inscription.

[ParagonPKC]

VERY fascinating to me that at the event of Christ's birth, the Chinese reconstruction is correct. The wise men were from the area that constitutes Persia at the time, currently Iran. The Bible also never mentions just 3 wise men, only 3 gifts. For the Chinese to record that there were 24 and more accurately narrate the tradition based on Syrian telling better than how we interpret it today is astounding.

[kevinwahl]

The Nestorian Monks from Syria were Assyrians. Their Church, the Assyrian Church of the East (ACOE) still exist to this day

[pola]

As a Christian this struck me very deeply, these men crossed into the unknown where they could easily lose their lives for the sake of telling others the good news...where do we see such faith now? we must be humble and seek to re-establish God at the centre of our lives at all times so His goodness and redemption will shine in our hearts for the world to see and believe. The peace and belonging God manifests in the hearts of those who truly believe is undeniable. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

[msb]

In case anyone is wondering; the non-Chinese script and language written on the stele and the transcripts is Syriac-Aramaic, written using the classical Estrangela Syriac script (one of 3 used Syriac-Aramaic scripts)… Syriac-Aramaic is still spoken to this day among Syriac Christians in the Middle East and their subdivisions; Syriacs (Arameans), Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Maronites. There are currently 3 mainly surviving forms of the language; 1. Classical Syriac-Aramaic (kthobonoyo), 2. west-Syriac-Aramaic dialect (Turoyo) [Syria, south-west Turkey, Lebanon, Palestine], 3. east-Syriac-Aramaic dialect (Sureth / madinkhaya) [Iraq, Iran, south-east Turkey]…

[TheSaneHatter]

The Chinese-style breakdown of Christianity and its workings is so eloquent that, even as I watched, I was trying in my mind to compose my own, more elaborate exposition in the same tone.