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Chaldean Christians (), or Chaldo-Assyrians,〔Mar Raphael J Bidawid. The Assyrian Star. September–October, 1974:5〕〔Parpola, Simo (2004). "National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Identity in Post-Empire Times" (PDF). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies (JAAS) 18 (2): pp. 22.〕 adherents of the Chaldean Catholic Church, originally called ''The Church of Assyria and Mosul'',〔George V. Yana (Bebla), "Myth vs. Reality" JAA Studies, Vol. XIV, No. 1, 2000 p. 80〕 which was that part of the Church of the East which entered communion with the Catholic Church between the 16th and 18th centuries. In addition to their ancient Assyrian homeland in northern Iraq, northeast Syria, northwest Iran and southeast Turkey, (a region roughly corresponding with ancient Assyria) migrant Assyrian or Chaldo-Assyrian Catholic communities are found in the United States, Sweden, Germany, France, Canada, Lebanon, Jordan and Australia. The terms ''Chaldean'' and ''Chaldo-Assyrian'' are sometimes used to describe those Assyrians who broke from the Assyrian Church of the East and entered communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Rome initially named this new diocese ''The Church of Assyria and Mosul'' in 1553, and only some 128 years later, in 1681, was this changed to ''The Chaldean Catholic Church'', despite none of its adherents having hitherto used the name "Chaldean" to describe themselves or their church,〔“A difficulty now arose; the new converts styled themselves 'Sooraye' and 'Nestornaye' . The Romanists could not call them 'Catholic Syrians' or 'Syrian Catholics' for this appellation they had already given to their proselytes from the Jacobites, who also called themselves 'Syrians'. They could not term them 'Catholic Nestorians,' as Mr. Justin Perkins, the independent American missionary does, for this would involve a contradiction. What more natural, then, than that they should have applied to them the title of 'Chaldeans' to which they had some claims of nationality, in virtue of their Assyrian Descent.” - Asshur and the Land of Nimrod” by Hormuzd Rassam〕〔Qaryaneh Jobyeh" - Mar Toma Audo. 1906〕〔Arabs and Christians? Christians in the Middle East” by Antonie Wessels〕 or having originated in the region in the far south of Mesopotamia which had long ago once been Chaldea. The term ''Chaldean'' in reference to followers the Chaldean Catholic Church is thus properly taken as only a denominational, theological and ecclesiastical term and not an ethnic one, and is a misnomer in relation to ancient Chaldea and its inhabitants, both of which disappeared from history during the 6th century BC at the exact opposite end of Mesopotamia, Chaldean Catholics instead being regarded ethnically and historically as Assyrians, and as a part of the Assyrian continuity.〔Rassam, H. (1897), Asshur and the Land of Nimrod London〕〔Soane, E.B. To Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in Disguise John Murray: London, 1912 p. 92〕〔Rev. W.A. Wigram (1929), The Assyrians and Their Neighbours London〕〔Efram Yildiz's "The Assyrians" Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, 13.1, pp. 22, ref 24〕〔Assyrians After Assyria, Parpola〕〔“The Eastern Christian Churches” by Ronald Roberson. “In 1552, when the new patriarch was elected, a group of Assyrian bishops refused to accept him and decided to seek union with Rome. They elected the reluctant abbot of a monastery, Yuhannan Sulaqa, as their own patriarch and sent him to Rome to arrange a union with the Catholic Church. In early 1553 Pope Julius III proclaimed him Patriarch Simon VIII “of the Chaldeans” and ordained him a bishop in St. Peter’s Basilica on April 9, 1553〕〔Aqaliyat shimal al-‘Araq; bayna al-qanoon wa al-siyasa” (Northern Iraq Minorities; between Law and Politics) by Dr. Jameel Meekha Shi’yooka〕〔Mar Raphael J Bidawid. The Assyrian Star. September–October, 1974:5.〕 Similarly, Chaldean Catholics should not be confused with the Saint Thomas Christians of India (also called the Chaldean Syrian Church), who are also sometimes known as "Chaldean Christians" or ''Assyrian Christians''. ==History== It is believed that the term ''Chaldean Catholic'' arose due to a Catholic Latin misinterpretation and misreading of the Hebrew ''Ur Kasdim'' (according to long held Jewish tradition, the birthplace of Abraham in ''Northern Mesopotamia'') as meaning ''Ur of the Chaldees''.〔Biblical Archaeology Review May/June 2001: Where Was Abraham's Ur? by Allan R. Millard〕 The Hebrew ''Kasdim'' does not in fact mean or refer to the ''Chaldeans'', and Ur Kasdim is generally believed by many to have been somewhere in Assyria, north eastern Syria or south eastern Anatolia. The 18th century Roman Catholic Church then applied this misinterpreted name to their new diocese in northern Mesopotamia, a region whose indigenous inhabitants had always previously been referred to ethnically as ''Assurayu'', ''Assyrians'', ''Assouri'', ''Ashuriyun'', ''East Syrian'', ''Athurai'', ''Atoreh'' etc., and by the denominational terms ''Syriac Christians'', ''Jacobites'' and ''Nestorians''. Thus the term ''Chaldean Catholic'' is historically, usually and properly taken purely as a denominational, doctrinal and theological term which only arose in the late 17th century AD, and not as an ethnic identity or designation.〔a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Travis, Hannibal. Genocide in the Middle East: The Ottoman Empire, Iraq, and Sudan. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2010, 2007, pp. 237-77, 293–294〕〔http://conference.osu.eu/globalization/publ/08-bohac.pdf〕〔 The modern Chaldean Catholics are in fact Assyrians〔Nisan, M. 2002. Minorities in the Middle East: A History of Struggle for Self Expression .Jefferson: McFarland & Company. Jump up ^ http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14225.html〕 and originated from ancient Assyrian communities living in and indigenous to the north of Iraq/Mesopotamia which was known as Assyria from the 25th century BC until the 7th century AD, rather than the long extinct Chaldeans/Chaldees, who in actuality were 9th century BC migrants from The Levant, and always resided in the far south east of Mesopotamia, and disappeared from history circa 550 BC. However, despite this, a minority of Chaldean Catholics (particularly in the United States) have in recent times confused a purely religious term with an ethnic identity, and espoused a separate ethnic identity to their Assyrian brethren, despite there being absolutely no historical, academic, cultural, geographic, archaeological, linguistic or genetic evidence supporting a link to either the Chaldean land or the Chaldean race. Raphael Bidawid, the then patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church commented on the Assyrian name dispute in 2003 and clearly differentiated between the name of a church and an ethnicity: : “''I personally think that these different names serve to add confusion. The original name of our Church was the ‘Church of the East’ … When a portion of the Church of the East became Catholic in the 17th Century, the name given was ‘Chaldean’ based on the Magi kings who were believed by some to have come from what once had been the land of the Chaldean, to Bethlehem. The name ‘Chaldean’ does not represent an ethnicity, just a church… We have to separate what is ethnicity and what is religion… I myself, my sect is Chaldean, but ethnically, I am Assyrian.''” In an interview with the Assyrian Star in the September–October 1974 issue, he was quoted as saying: : “''Before I became a priest I was an Assyrian, before I became a bishop I was an Assyrian, I am an Assyrian today, tomorrow, forever, and I am proud of it''.''”〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chaldean Christians」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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