Tatian The Assyrian

The Church in Iran

By: Teymour Shaheeni*

Her Past (Part I)

The history of the church in Iran stretches back almost to the days of Jesus; the language spoken by the first Iranian Christians was certainly the same as Jesus's.

There is a noble tradition that the Magi were the first to bring the good news of Jesus to Iran1. This might well be legend, but we do know that Parthians, Medes, and Elamites were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost2, and probably brought news of Peter's preaching to Iran. We also know Christianity was established in Edessa, a trading post on the north-west border with Iran, as early as 150AD as there are crosses on the coins. Edessa came under the patriarch of Antioch, whose liturgy was in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus. The literary language is known as Syriac which was used later by Christians in Iran.

Further East than Edessa, near the Tigris, the much disputed 'Chronicle of Arbela' traces its line of bishops back to 104AD and claims that in 117/118 its second Bishop Semsoun was martyred by the Zoroastrians3 who were outraged at his evangelistic success. More reliable is the inscription on a monument4, possibly erected in the mid 2nd Century, in honour of Bishop Abercius of Hierapolis. The inscription refers to a journey the bishop had made across the Iranian plateau. The Bishop had written - 'Everywhere I found people with whom to speak’ (i.e. Christians).

'Tatian The Assyrian', (pupil of the church father Justin Martyr), set up a Bible School between the Euphrates and Tigris in the early 170's. Though trained in the West, Tatian was unashamedly Asian, and the whole thrust of his 'Address to the Greeks'5 is the superiority of the East over the West. Tatian's outstanding contribution to Persian Christianity was his 'Harmony of the Gospels' in Syriac which was the common languages for people in the villages. With this translation, Christianity spread much faster in Asia. Tatian was also a radical ascetic, even hinting that sex in marriage was corrupt. This deeply affected the character of the Eastern church.

After Tatian, the Persian church grew rapidly, and by the late 200's there is clearly a national Persian Church organised around the Sassanid capital of Seleucia-Ctestphon, with an arch-bishop and bishops. Such is the importance of the Persian Church, she is represented at the Council of Nicaea of 325 by Jacob of Nisibis.

*Teymour Shaheeni is a Bible College lecturer who specialises in Church History

1 See R. Waterfield 'Christians in Persia'

2 Acts 2: 9

3 See S. Moffett, 'A History of Christianity in Asia', page 72.

4 This monument was discovered by W.M. Ramsey in 1883.

5 See S. Moffett, page 74