JEWISH CHRISTANS IN KERALA: JEWISH CHRISTIANS IN KERALA
Curieux, à l'analyse d'événements dans l'histoire du Kerala (Inquisitive analysis of events in Kerala History)
Dr. Abraham Yeshuratnam...
...
I was intrigued by the statement in the New World Encyclopedia, “The apostle (St. Thomas) is said to have begun preaching the gospel to the already existing Jewish settlers on the Malabar Coast and to other local people. According to the Acts of Thomas, the first converts made by Thomas in India were Jewish people.”[1]So this paper is prepared to investigate whether there were Christian Jews in Kerala in the 1st century. Throughout the ages historians have been fascinated with Jewish history. Evolving out of a common religion, the Jewish people developed customs, culture, and an ethical system which identified them as Jews regardless of their individual religious attitudes. The rule of Israelites in the land of Israel starts with the conquests of Joshua (ca. 1250 BCE). The period from 1000-587 BCE is known as the "Period of the Kings". The most noteworthy kings were King David(1010-970 BCE), who made Jerusalem the Capital of Israel, and his son Solomon(Shlomo, 970-931 BCE), who built the first Temple in Jerusalem as prescribed in the Tanach (Old Testament). The Bible says that Solomon’s men and King Hiram’s experienced seamen “sailed to the land of Ophir, and brought back to Solomon more than fourteen thousand kilograms of gold.”[2] The exact locationof ‘Ophir’ is still under dispute. Logan attempts to link it with Beypore in Malabar and has observed, “But it may as well be pointed out that Beypore lies at the mouth of the river of the same name which brings down gold from the auriferous quartz region of South-East Wainad , their mines of which were well worked in pre-historic times……”[3] Logan’s claim about Ophir and the place ‘ophir’ in the Bible have prompted many writers, including Jewish, to claim that there were Jews in Kerala from the time of King Solomon. As Nathan Katz says: “The first Book of Kings 10:22 describes the opulence of the court of King Solomon, an opulence that the Bible suggests derived from Indian trade. Israeli philologist Chaim Rabin found evidence in the Book of Exodus of trade between ancient Israel and India,direct or indirect, in no less than four Hebrew words of Indic origin, the terms for cinnamon, emerald, sapphire, and topaz.”[4] Trade, of course,existed, but there were no Jewish settlers. Solomon had no plan to plant a Jewish colony in Malabar.. Most of the foreign writers did not go through primary sources to know about the time of the arrival of the Jews in Kerala.Some Jewish writers who came to Kerala gathered information from local Christians and some Jews who lived in Kochi. But verbal information may not be accurate. The credibility of oral statement can be established if the original witnesses are contemporary with the occurred events. How could they remember events that had happened several thousands of years ago? It is common knowledge that such statements are unreliable because the story might have undergone many changes as it had passed down and that there was no way of checking whether what it revealed was true. P. M. Jussay, for instance, wrote without citing evidences that the earliest Jews in Kerala were sailors from King Solomon's time, and this Indian author’s view is cited in the works of many foreign,especially Jewish, writers.[5] This antiquity in the existence of Jews as early as Solomon’s times is projected to make the claim that there were Jews when St. Thomas visited Kerala. This stance is also used to claim Jewish pedigree for some local Christians on the alleged ground that that they are the descendants ofthe Jews converted by St. Thomas. It is rather challenging to accept the view that there were Jewish settlements when St. Thomas came to Kerala and no credible scholar would recognize this screed as balanced without any documentary or inscriptional evidence. Solomon’s ships did not bring Jews to settle in Kerala. When Solomon had finished building the wonderful temple at Jerusalem, he turned his attention to other parts of his dominions. He had learned much from the Phœnicians. He noticed the wealth that poured yearly into Tyre, and he felt that a navy for his own people would greatly improve foreign trade and commerce. Led by Phœnician pilots, manned by Phœnician sailors,Phœnicians and Israelites sailed forth together on their mysterious voyages,into the southern seas. They sailed to India, to Arabia and Somaliland, and they returned with their ships laden with gold and silver, with ivory and precious stones, with apes and peacocks. As Cyrus Gordon says: “The nature of his empire was predominantly commercial, and it served him and friendly rulers to increase trade by land and sea.”[6]One particularly celebrated episode in the reign of Solomon is the visit of the Queenof Sheba, whose wealthy southern Arabian kingdom lay along the Red Sea route into the Indian Ocean. Solomon needed her products and her trade routes for maintaining his commercial network, and she needed Solomon’s cooperation for marketing her goods in the Mediterranean via his Palestinian ports. According to Jahn, “The fleets of Solomon stopped at the ports which are near Goa on the coast of Malabar. It has been thought that the country is the Ophir of the Scriptures, because it was called by the ancients Souppara, or as Josephus writes it, Sopheir. It contained no mines of gold, but the metal was found inthe sands of the rivers.The territories of the Great Mogul, which are situated near the province,abound in gold, ivory, apes and parrot.” [7] It is evident from these interpretations that Solomon sent only sailors to Kerala for commercial purpose and not to lodge Jewish settlers.The contention that there were Jews in Malabar at Solomon’s time is a clear instance of historical negationism. Historical record is distorted for political,ideological, cultural and ethnic purposes. Denial rejects the very foundation of historical evidence.[8] As for instance, Abraham Benhur asserts that families such as Sankarapuri, Pakalomattam, Kalli and Kaliyankal who were converted to Christianity by St Thomas were Jews.[9] He further asserts that the burial chambers found in the early Christian centers of Kerala go to prove that they were of the Jews whom St Thomas had converted when he arrived by sea to the trading port of Kodungallur.[10] What a ridiculous argument to claim Jewish descent from burial sites, for the dead were buried in Kerala by many communities, with the exception of, of course, cremation by some Hindu communities. Wilford says,“Evidence suggests that the Neanderthals were the first human species to practice burial behavior and intentionally bury their dead, doing so in shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones.”[11] On the other hand,Farrar, in his comprehensive and extensive research work on Solomon points out that Solomon’s ships did not carry Jewish settlers to India. Farrar observes," But the three years occupied by the voyage of Solomon's mariners from the Red Sea haven would have allowed ample time for the ships to visit the coasts of India; and although it is not of course impossible that the products named might have been obtained from nearer places whither the names of them might also have found their way, yet there is, to say the least, a strong probability that the fleets of Solomon, with their Phœnician and Jewish sailors,did get as far as the mouths of the Indus to which gold and gems might have been brought from the North, and sandal wood, apes, and peacocks from Southern and Central India.”[12] Another reason cited to claim the existence of Jewish Christians in Malabar is the Jewish Diaspora. Revisionist historians and communal writers use deceptive techniques to help achieve their parochial and insular goals. They use events in history to give a phony status to their group through bogus means. In doing so, they deceive the public into believing manipulated information about their community. As for instance, it is a fact of history that there was a Jewish Diaspora. The Jewish Diaspora occurred as a result of both voluntary and forced migrations of Jews out of their ancient homeland—Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel). But this historical Diaspora has been capitalized by sectarian writers by distorting history to claim Jewish status for indigenous local converts. In an article in Wikipedia it isstated: “Jews were living in Kerala from the time of Solomon. Later, large numbers of them arrived in 586 BC and 72 AD.”[13] The article would have been edited by ethnic writers. For one thing, as has been discussed earlier, Jewish settlers did not come in Solomon’s ships. There was no need for a Jewish Diaspora in Solomon’s time because they were living securely in their own country under their own famous king. With borders expanding from Egypt to Syria to Mesopotamia, it was a time of peace for the Jewish people, the climax of which was the building of the Temple in Jerusalem,ushering in an era of unparalleled prosperity and religious devotion. Solomon’s time is shown for the coming of Jews to Malabar by these chauvinistic writers is to claim antiquity and superiority for local Christian converts. Antiquity is publicized to establish the fact that the Jews who lived in Kerala at that time were converted by St. Thomas and that their descendants are the Christian Jews in Kerala. It is also a weird ploy to establish superior caste status for indigenous Christians of pre-colonial caste- contaminated society. The year 586 B.C. is projected to make a spurious link with the Jews of Babylonian exile for local converts. In 587, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem and deported the Jews to Mesopotamia. This period is called the exile (Golah).The Babylonian Jewish Diaspora served as a model because the Jews created therean “autonomous diasporic sociopolitical system,” in which the Diaspora, rather than the devastated homeland, became the national center and played the crucial role in the nation’s persistence, cultural development, and political influence.[14] Although Cyrus the Great, the Persian conqueror of Babylonia,permitted the Jews to return to their homeland in 538BCE, a large section of the Jewish community voluntarily remained behind. The Jews were allowed to live together in communities; they were allowed to farm and perform other sorts of labor to earn income. Many Jews eventually became wealthy. During captivity the Jews were encouraged by the prophet Jeremiah from Jerusalem to take wives,build houses, plant gardens and take advantage of their situation because they were going to be there for seventy years. Ignoring these historical facts backed by solid evidences, sectarian writers have invented the theory that large number of Jews came to Kerala during Babylonian Diaspora. Apparently this is also another fictitious postulation to substantiate the view that descendants of those Jews were converted by St.Thomas when he visited Kerala.But historical events lay bare that Jews of the Babylon Diaspora had never gone beyond the Middle East “Many scholars cite 597 bce as the date of the first deportation, for in that year King Jehoiachin was deposed and apparently sent into exile with his family, his court, and thousands of workers. Others say the first deportation followed the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 586; if so, the Jews were held in Babylonian captivity for 48 years. Among those who accept a tradition (Jeremiah 29:10) that the exile lasted 70 years,some choose the dates 608 to 538, others 586 to about 516 (the year when there built Temple was dedicated in Jerusalem)”[15] But there is nothing in Jewish archives to confirm the claim of some Kerala Christians that during Babylonian Diaspora (which lasted 48 or 70 years) Jews came to Kerala.
It was Dr. Buchanan who first assumed that the Black Jews of Cochin would have come to Kerala during the Babylonian exile. His view was not based on the statement of any foundation witnesses who know any foundation facts about the migration, but merely relying on generalizations. There is no documentary evidence to his proposition. He remarks that “it is only necessary to look at their countenance to be satisfied that their ancestors must have arrived many years ago before the white Jews. Their Hindoo complexion, and their very imperfect resemblance to the European Jews, indicate that they have been detached from the parent stock in Judea many ages before the Jews in the West.To this may be added as an additional proof of their very early separation from the Jewish nation, that they appear not to have had copies of the Prophetic Books among them originally, but to have been supplied with them, and other parts of the Scriptures by the White Jews. There seems, therefore, every reason to believe that the Black Jews of Malabar are a part of the remains of the first dispersion of the nation by Nebuchadnezzar; and that the text of the Pentateuch, preserved in the synagogues, is derived from those copies which their ancestors brought with them to India.”[16] He had merely gathered hearsay statements from some existing Jews to write about their ancestry. Every Jewish synagogue founded by migrants in Malabar and other places in India had the Pentateuch, and external generalization on the basis ofa book cannot be used to evaluate the reliability of proof. Buchanan’s findingson the basis of the color and appearance of the Black Jews are irrational. Anyargument relying on the inference "possibly, therefore probably" is fallacious. In the Wikipedia it is stated: “The 'black' Malabar component of the Cochin Jews, according to Shalva Weil, might have arrived in India together with Solomon's merchants. The Cochin Jews settled down in Kerala as traders.”It is only an assumption and Shalva Weil is not positive and therefore uses the phrase ‘might have.’[17] The historical existence of Jews in Cochin was exploited by ethnic groups to claim antiquity for their community by stretching the arrival of the Jews to a gargantuan length. Foreign writers and visitors are alsocarried away by their oral statements and without following the procedure of fact- checking, this misinformation is transmitted to research journals,.Wikipedia and encyclopedias. A manuscript in the Merzbacher Library,formerly at Munich,a document addressed to Tobias Boas on the 12 Ellul 5527(=1767) to R. Jeches Kel Rachbi of Malabar. “From this manuscript it appears that 10,000 exiled Jews reached Malabar A. D. 68 (i. e., about the time of the destruction of the second temple) and settled at Cranganor,” This information is shown in an article on the Beni-Israel of India by Samuel B. Samuel in The Jewish Literary Annual,1905."[18]Here also without in-depth fact checking, the year is shown as A.D.68. Unless a historical account can be traced by probable proof to the testimony of contemporaries, the credibility of that account is doubtful. Their views about both White Jews and Black Jews were based on the oral statements made by them to inquisitive historians and journalists. But if we verify contemporary historical events that happened in the Middle East at that time, it is easy to discover that their oral statements are fabricated stories. Exaggerated antiquity for the coming of Jews was also given by Christians who were fueled by the desire to have Jewish presence in Kerala at the time of the alleged arrival of St.Thomas. Needles to say that this is a surreptitious tactic to claim Jewish ancestry for local Christians. Historical evidence, like judicial evidence, is founded on the testimony of credible witnesses. Unless those witnesses had personal and immediate perception of the facts which they report,their evidence is not entitled to credit. There is no authentic evidence, literary, inscriptional, to confirm the exact date of arrival of both White and Black Jews. Biblical account and Jewish records are quite lucid that both the White and Black Jews had nothing to do with Babylonian Diaspora. It is also wrong to assume that the Black Jews came first. The claim of the Black Jews that their black coloring,as an acquired feature resulting from many centuries of life in the tropics, is biologically unacceptable. We have examples of Africa-Americans having black color and South African whites having white color in spite of living for many centuries in varied climates. White Jews apparently are the descendants of Joseph Rabban’s entourage and later migrants. In all probability, Black Jews were the children of the Malabar concubines or maids of White Jews.Without the White Jews there would not have been Black Jews. One solid fact that is to be stressed in this context is that there was absolutely no Jewish migration during Babylonian Diaspora, as falsely claimed by ethnic Christian writers. As the authors of Ancient Jewish History point out: “However, when Nebuchadnezzar deported the Judaeans in 597 and 586 BC, he allowed them to remain in a unified community in Babylon……. Thus, 597 is considered the beginning date of the Jewish Diaspora.”[19] So there is no reference of migration to Kerala. The salient feature of the exile, however, was that the Jews were settled in a single place by Nebuchadnezzar. While the Assyrian deportation of Israelites in 722 BCE resulted in the complete disappearance of the Israelites, the deported Jews formed their own community in Babylon and retained their religion,practices,and philosophies.[20] Overlooking these historical events, in research journals,blogs, encyclopedias and books, ethnic writers vociferously assert that there was a migration of Jews to Kerala during Babylonian captivity. These were shrewd and calculated attempts to affirm that there were Christian Jews in Kerala in the Ist century to sustain the bogus Jewish descent for local Christians. Hopefully, communal writers will learn to see through these kinds of dishonest claims and distorted propaganda and learn what the real truth is. Quite surprisingly, many foreign journals, encyclopedias and writers have also reproduced this view without verifying primary sources and other evidences. As Barbara Johnson says: “Varied traditions about the origin of the Cochin Jews appear in travelers’ accounts and in Hebrew chronicles from Malabar, some written as early as the seventeenth century. Some records say the first Jews sailed to South India on the ships of King Solomon; others say they came during the Babylonian exile; others that they fled to Malabar after the destruction of the Second Temple; and others refer to a fourth -century migration from Majorca.”[21] Jeremiah was a witness to the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar, the destruction of the city and the Temple. Nowhere has he said in his books that Jews escaped from Babylonian captivity and migrated to Kerala. The Jews, on the other hand,adjusted themselves to the existing stressful situation and created a highly organized separate nation within Babylon’s pagan culture. As Dell Markey says:“Before the Babylonian exile, Jewish religious life revolved around the Temple in Jerusalem. When the Babylonians expelled the Jews from Judea, they destroyed the Temple completely. Jewish law stipulated that certain important aspects of Jewish religious life -- most notably animal sacrifice -- could only be performed at the Temple in Jerusalem.Since the Jews now lacked both a temple and the ability to go to Jerusalem,changes were needed to retain their cultural and religious identity. The result was the rise of the synagogue among the Jews dispersed throughout the Babylonian Empire.”[22] The Babylonian Jewish Diaspora served as a model because the Jews created there an “autonomous diasporic sociopolitical system,” in which the Diaspora, rather than the devastated homeland, became the national center and played the crucial role inthe nation’s persistence, cultural development, and political influence. Recent textual and archaeological scholarship has shown that a Jewish presence in Jerusalem existed during the entire exilic period. In Babylon also, Jews did not want to leave the country but preferred to stay on and to improve their economic and occupational opportunities. As Jona Lendering says: “But many of them preferred to stay in wealthy Babylonia and refused to go home. This was the beginning of the Jewish community of Iraq and Iran, which existed until very recently.”[23] In these circumstances, the preposterous claim of sectarian writers that Jews came to Kerala at the time of Babylonian Diaspora and that their descendants were converted to Christianity by St. Thomas is just another flight of fancy.
There are also no evidences of Jewish migration to Kerala in the successive years of Jewish history. The Persian Emperor Cyrus conquered Babylon and let the Jews return home to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon.There were more than 40,000 Jewish people held in captivity in Babylon at the time. . The Jews built the second Temple on the ruins of Solomon's Temple on the Temple mount. In 333 BCE Alexander’s army conquered the region. During the rule of the king Antiochus IV, the Temple was desecrated. This brought about the revolt of the Maccabees, who established an independent rule. The establishments of the Persian Empire and later the Greek Empire, both of which controlled vast territories, facilitated both the permanent settlement of Jews and the establishment of communities in various parts of these empires and the communication between the various dispersed Jewish communities. Viewed against this historical backdrop, there were no migrations of Jews to Malabar during Persian and Greek rule. Jewish history during the fourth to first centuries BCE has no reference to Diaspora to Kerala. The documented Jewish Diaspora during this period extended from Cyrene and Rome in the west to the south coast of the Black Sea,and south to Yemen and Ethiopia, Morocco, Carthage (Tunis) and Spain.“By the first century BCE, the largest populations were in Syria, Babylon,Persia and Egypt, each of which probably held a population of one million or more.”[24] If there were Jews in Kerala at that time, it would have been recorded in Jewish archives. In the first century C.E., under the Roman Empire,Jews were mostly in the Middle East (concentrated in Judea and Galilee), and neighboring regions of Syria, North Africa, Greece and Asia Minor, totaling more than 2 million (with estimates as high as 4 million). Jews wanted to be within travel distance of the Temple in Jerusalem, the center for Jewish worship as prescribed in the Torah.
During the first 150 years CE the Jews twice rebelled against the Romans, both rebellions were brutally put down. The Roman army led by Titus conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple at 70 CE. Jewish people were then exiled and dispersed to the Diaspora. This put an end to Temple worship. Jews dispersed throughout northern Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. In the previous Diasporas, only Jews had to flee to other countries. But in the second destruction of the Temple, there were also Jewish Christians living in Jerusalem. Where did the Jewish Christians go? The fourth-century church historian Eusebius of Caesarea tells of the earliest Christians’ escape to Pella (in present-day Jordan) from Jerusalem just before the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. Pella is specifically mentioned as the place where Christian Jews found refuge, not Kerala. This view is confirmed by the discovery of a church at the time of excavation at Pella.“One of several Byzantine churches at the site seemed to hold promising evidence of the supposed Christian refugees.”[25] This archaeological evidence exposes the lie that Christian Jews came to Malabar after the destruction of the second Temple. In a blog of Asian American Press the writer says: “About the time of the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., as many as 10,000 Jews may have come from the Middle East to Kerala.[26] It is doubtful whether 10,000 Jewish Christians had ever lived in Jerusalem at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. Even before the fall of Jerusalem there was persecution of Christians by Jews. Later when the political climate in Jerusalem was becoming inflammatory, Christian leaders were urging Christians to leave Jerusalem warning them of the impending danger. Any discussion of Christianity in Jerusalem should take into account the existence of Christians who were native Jews and others from gentile backgrounds. After Stephen's death,the evangelization of Gentiles began in dead earnest. When Paul died about 66 C.E. the Church was largely composed of Gentiles. There were two distinct groups before the fall of Jerusalem. The pre-70 C.E. Christianity gives us a picture that in all probability both the Jewish and Gentile Christians would have fled to nearby Pella in Jordan and not to Kerala. Jewish archives of that period do not have any reference to the migration of Jews to Kerala. In his book The Jewish War, Josephus has given a first-hand account of the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. and there is absolutely no indication of Jews fleeing to Cochin. The fiction of the arrival of Jews in 70 C.E. was fashioned only in the nineteenth century after the colonial powers had elevated the local Christians to a higher status through education and made them wealthy through commercial enterprises. The claim for Jewish descent was a calculated strategy to keep them apart from other castes in a caste conscious society. This distortion of history is a tactic to claim Jewish bloodline for local converts.
Jewish and foreign writers are made to believe by some Christian sects that they are the descendants of Jews and to establish this phony claim some religious rituals, food habits and stray instances of lifestyle are cited instead of giving documentary, physical or material evidence. “To understand the Cochin Jews story” Nathan Katz says, “one has to view it in the context of their neighbors legends.”[27] So legends and marriage folk songs which were produced in the 19th century were disclosed to inquisitive foreign and Jewish writers to substantiate their Jewish descent. Edna Fernandes makes a sweeping statement:“The connection with Israel and the Jews continued and after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E, Kerala was one of the natural safe havens that the Israelites turned to in their renewed period of banishment and persecution.”[28] Even eyewitness Josephus has not mentioned the exodus of Jews in 70 C.E. to Kerala. Foreign writers were misled by the oral statements of local Christians about the exaggerated date of the arrival of the Jews. Apparently their arguments to authenticate Jewish ancestry are flimsy and frivolous. Twenty-first century technology confronts historians and students with a bewildering proliferation of information—some of it accurate and too much of it dubious. But in this case, the claim for Jewish ancestry for local Christians born and brought up in Kerala is dubious and flippant. Instead of producing solid evidences such as historic documents, inscriptions, coins and artifact, customs and beliefs are quoted which, quite surprisingly, are common to all caste groups in Kerala.Nathan Katz says:“The Knanai Christians share the Jews’ high-caste status as well as many customs,including taboos about women in their menses and a hereditary priesthood. The latter may well reflect their purported Hindu Brahmin pedigree or Jewish kohenite (priestly) origin and has been used as evidences for both. The Christians marry under a canopy, or pantal, analogous to Jewish chuppati. Prior to wedding, the bride immerses herself in a kuli,similar to the Jewish miqveh(ritual bath). The Christians sing folk songs very similar to those of the Jews, describing their arrival in India and referring to such observances as Yom Kappur. Virtually all of their home observances are preceded by the ceremonial lighting of a lamp, vilakku,and they eat unleavened bread at a special ritual meal held after nightfall on Maundy Thursday, during which the father ceremoniously washes his hand twice,as is done at a Passover seder. They also eschew any efforts at converting others to their religion, the apostolic original evangelical mission notwithstanding.”[29] This line of reasoning by Katz may probably due to his superficial understanding of the socio-cultural environment of Kerala. There exists a set of beliefs, customs,practices and behavior in Kerala society and they are common to all castes. His reference to ‘Brahmin pedigree’ and ‘Jewish origin’ is void of substance and truth. Logan, an authority on Kerala history, says: “The final Brahmin immigration seems to have occurred in or about the eighth century A.D.”[30] This view is corroborated by foremost Kerala historians such as Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai and M.G.S.Narayanan. But these Christians claim that they are the descendants of Brahmins converted by St. Thomas alleged to have come in the Ist century C.E.How could they claim ‘Brahmin pedigree’ when there were no Brahmins to be converted? In the same manner, the claim for ‘Jewish kohenite (priestly)/Jewish origin’ is idiosyncratic. Katz was informed about ‘taboos about menses.’In Hindu society there are many menstrual rituals. Menstruation is stigmatized in Hindu society. No wonder Christians are also observing some of these rituals because they are all Hindu converts. A menstruation ritual cannot link them to Jewish ancestry. The kuli (bath) quoted by Katz has no bearing on descent because even lower caste girls have to take a bath after the period and before wedding. The Cherumars are the lowest of the lowest castes in Kerala. Edgar Thurston, an authority on castes and tribes, tells about the menstruation ritual of a Cherumar girl: “At dawn, the mother of the girl gives oil to the seven Pulaya maidens, and to her daughter for an oil-bath. They then go to a neighboring tank (pond) or stream to bathe, and return home. The girl is then neatly dressed, and adorned in her best. Her face is painted yellow and marked with spots of various colors[31]” Marriage under a canopy (pandal) cited by Katz is not an evidence, for most marriages of all Christians and Hindus are conducted in a pandal because a house cannot accommodate all relatives and guests. Nowadays people prefer posh marriage halls in cities to have wedding functions. He has downplayed the folk songs of lower castes by giving importance to Christian songs. Pulayas, a lower caste, are also famous for their folk songs.“Their oral traditions include folk-songs sung by both men and women, to the accompaniment of percussion and string instruments. Both sexes participate in their folk songs.”[32] Pulayas also perform mangalamkali , a dance ritual, related to marriage functions as a form of entertainment. Christians of all denominations sing songs from hymnal during wedding ceremony, and this type of song is not something reserved exclusively for Knanai Christians. The Old Testament is the first of the two major sections of the Christian Bible. Christians of all denominations believe that God sent Moses, to lead the Hebrews out of captivity and into the Promised Land of Israel, and as Katz was made to believe that it is not an event reserved for Knanites to be remembered in church services.. And again, the Old Testament characters are remembered by all Christian denominations and there are hymns at the time of wedding ceremony linking the couple with them. Here is a stanza from a popular song sung in Protestant churches:
As Isaac and Rebecca gave
It was Dr. Buchanan who first assumed that the Black Jews of Cochin would have come to Kerala during the Babylonian exile. His view was not based on the statement of any foundation witnesses who know any foundation facts about the migration, but merely relying on generalizations. There is no documentary evidence to his proposition. He remarks that “it is only necessary to look at their countenance to be satisfied that their ancestors must have arrived many years ago before the white Jews. Their Hindoo complexion, and their very imperfect resemblance to the European Jews, indicate that they have been detached from the parent stock in Judea many ages before the Jews in the West.To this may be added as an additional proof of their very early separation from the Jewish nation, that they appear not to have had copies of the Prophetic Books among them originally, but to have been supplied with them, and other parts of the Scriptures by the White Jews. There seems, therefore, every reason to believe that the Black Jews of Malabar are a part of the remains of the first dispersion of the nation by Nebuchadnezzar; and that the text of the Pentateuch, preserved in the synagogues, is derived from those copies which their ancestors brought with them to India.”[16] He had merely gathered hearsay statements from some existing Jews to write about their ancestry. Every Jewish synagogue founded by migrants in Malabar and other places in India had the Pentateuch, and external generalization on the basis ofa book cannot be used to evaluate the reliability of proof. Buchanan’s findingson the basis of the color and appearance of the Black Jews are irrational. Anyargument relying on the inference "possibly, therefore probably" is fallacious. In the Wikipedia it is stated: “The 'black' Malabar component of the Cochin Jews, according to Shalva Weil, might have arrived in India together with Solomon's merchants. The Cochin Jews settled down in Kerala as traders.”It is only an assumption and Shalva Weil is not positive and therefore uses the phrase ‘might have.’[17] The historical existence of Jews in Cochin was exploited by ethnic groups to claim antiquity for their community by stretching the arrival of the Jews to a gargantuan length. Foreign writers and visitors are alsocarried away by their oral statements and without following the procedure of fact- checking, this misinformation is transmitted to research journals,.Wikipedia and encyclopedias. A manuscript in the Merzbacher Library,formerly at Munich,a document addressed to Tobias Boas on the 12 Ellul 5527(=1767) to R. Jeches Kel Rachbi of Malabar. “From this manuscript it appears that 10,000 exiled Jews reached Malabar A. D. 68 (i. e., about the time of the destruction of the second temple) and settled at Cranganor,” This information is shown in an article on the Beni-Israel of India by Samuel B. Samuel in The Jewish Literary Annual,1905."[18]Here also without in-depth fact checking, the year is shown as A.D.68. Unless a historical account can be traced by probable proof to the testimony of contemporaries, the credibility of that account is doubtful. Their views about both White Jews and Black Jews were based on the oral statements made by them to inquisitive historians and journalists. But if we verify contemporary historical events that happened in the Middle East at that time, it is easy to discover that their oral statements are fabricated stories. Exaggerated antiquity for the coming of Jews was also given by Christians who were fueled by the desire to have Jewish presence in Kerala at the time of the alleged arrival of St.Thomas. Needles to say that this is a surreptitious tactic to claim Jewish ancestry for local Christians. Historical evidence, like judicial evidence, is founded on the testimony of credible witnesses. Unless those witnesses had personal and immediate perception of the facts which they report,their evidence is not entitled to credit. There is no authentic evidence, literary, inscriptional, to confirm the exact date of arrival of both White and Black Jews. Biblical account and Jewish records are quite lucid that both the White and Black Jews had nothing to do with Babylonian Diaspora. It is also wrong to assume that the Black Jews came first. The claim of the Black Jews that their black coloring,as an acquired feature resulting from many centuries of life in the tropics, is biologically unacceptable. We have examples of Africa-Americans having black color and South African whites having white color in spite of living for many centuries in varied climates. White Jews apparently are the descendants of Joseph Rabban’s entourage and later migrants. In all probability, Black Jews were the children of the Malabar concubines or maids of White Jews.Without the White Jews there would not have been Black Jews. One solid fact that is to be stressed in this context is that there was absolutely no Jewish migration during Babylonian Diaspora, as falsely claimed by ethnic Christian writers. As the authors of Ancient Jewish History point out: “However, when Nebuchadnezzar deported the Judaeans in 597 and 586 BC, he allowed them to remain in a unified community in Babylon……. Thus, 597 is considered the beginning date of the Jewish Diaspora.”[19] So there is no reference of migration to Kerala. The salient feature of the exile, however, was that the Jews were settled in a single place by Nebuchadnezzar. While the Assyrian deportation of Israelites in 722 BCE resulted in the complete disappearance of the Israelites, the deported Jews formed their own community in Babylon and retained their religion,practices,and philosophies.[20] Overlooking these historical events, in research journals,blogs, encyclopedias and books, ethnic writers vociferously assert that there was a migration of Jews to Kerala during Babylonian captivity. These were shrewd and calculated attempts to affirm that there were Christian Jews in Kerala in the Ist century to sustain the bogus Jewish descent for local Christians. Hopefully, communal writers will learn to see through these kinds of dishonest claims and distorted propaganda and learn what the real truth is. Quite surprisingly, many foreign journals, encyclopedias and writers have also reproduced this view without verifying primary sources and other evidences. As Barbara Johnson says: “Varied traditions about the origin of the Cochin Jews appear in travelers’ accounts and in Hebrew chronicles from Malabar, some written as early as the seventeenth century. Some records say the first Jews sailed to South India on the ships of King Solomon; others say they came during the Babylonian exile; others that they fled to Malabar after the destruction of the Second Temple; and others refer to a fourth -century migration from Majorca.”[21] Jeremiah was a witness to the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar, the destruction of the city and the Temple. Nowhere has he said in his books that Jews escaped from Babylonian captivity and migrated to Kerala. The Jews, on the other hand,adjusted themselves to the existing stressful situation and created a highly organized separate nation within Babylon’s pagan culture. As Dell Markey says:“Before the Babylonian exile, Jewish religious life revolved around the Temple in Jerusalem. When the Babylonians expelled the Jews from Judea, they destroyed the Temple completely. Jewish law stipulated that certain important aspects of Jewish religious life -- most notably animal sacrifice -- could only be performed at the Temple in Jerusalem.Since the Jews now lacked both a temple and the ability to go to Jerusalem,changes were needed to retain their cultural and religious identity. The result was the rise of the synagogue among the Jews dispersed throughout the Babylonian Empire.”[22] The Babylonian Jewish Diaspora served as a model because the Jews created there an “autonomous diasporic sociopolitical system,” in which the Diaspora, rather than the devastated homeland, became the national center and played the crucial role inthe nation’s persistence, cultural development, and political influence. Recent textual and archaeological scholarship has shown that a Jewish presence in Jerusalem existed during the entire exilic period. In Babylon also, Jews did not want to leave the country but preferred to stay on and to improve their economic and occupational opportunities. As Jona Lendering says: “But many of them preferred to stay in wealthy Babylonia and refused to go home. This was the beginning of the Jewish community of Iraq and Iran, which existed until very recently.”[23] In these circumstances, the preposterous claim of sectarian writers that Jews came to Kerala at the time of Babylonian Diaspora and that their descendants were converted to Christianity by St. Thomas is just another flight of fancy.
There are also no evidences of Jewish migration to Kerala in the successive years of Jewish history. The Persian Emperor Cyrus conquered Babylon and let the Jews return home to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon.There were more than 40,000 Jewish people held in captivity in Babylon at the time. . The Jews built the second Temple on the ruins of Solomon's Temple on the Temple mount. In 333 BCE Alexander’s army conquered the region. During the rule of the king Antiochus IV, the Temple was desecrated. This brought about the revolt of the Maccabees, who established an independent rule. The establishments of the Persian Empire and later the Greek Empire, both of which controlled vast territories, facilitated both the permanent settlement of Jews and the establishment of communities in various parts of these empires and the communication between the various dispersed Jewish communities. Viewed against this historical backdrop, there were no migrations of Jews to Malabar during Persian and Greek rule. Jewish history during the fourth to first centuries BCE has no reference to Diaspora to Kerala. The documented Jewish Diaspora during this period extended from Cyrene and Rome in the west to the south coast of the Black Sea,and south to Yemen and Ethiopia, Morocco, Carthage (Tunis) and Spain.“By the first century BCE, the largest populations were in Syria, Babylon,Persia and Egypt, each of which probably held a population of one million or more.”[24] If there were Jews in Kerala at that time, it would have been recorded in Jewish archives. In the first century C.E., under the Roman Empire,Jews were mostly in the Middle East (concentrated in Judea and Galilee), and neighboring regions of Syria, North Africa, Greece and Asia Minor, totaling more than 2 million (with estimates as high as 4 million). Jews wanted to be within travel distance of the Temple in Jerusalem, the center for Jewish worship as prescribed in the Torah.
During the first 150 years CE the Jews twice rebelled against the Romans, both rebellions were brutally put down. The Roman army led by Titus conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple at 70 CE. Jewish people were then exiled and dispersed to the Diaspora. This put an end to Temple worship. Jews dispersed throughout northern Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. In the previous Diasporas, only Jews had to flee to other countries. But in the second destruction of the Temple, there were also Jewish Christians living in Jerusalem. Where did the Jewish Christians go? The fourth-century church historian Eusebius of Caesarea tells of the earliest Christians’ escape to Pella (in present-day Jordan) from Jerusalem just before the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. Pella is specifically mentioned as the place where Christian Jews found refuge, not Kerala. This view is confirmed by the discovery of a church at the time of excavation at Pella.“One of several Byzantine churches at the site seemed to hold promising evidence of the supposed Christian refugees.”[25] This archaeological evidence exposes the lie that Christian Jews came to Malabar after the destruction of the second Temple. In a blog of Asian American Press the writer says: “About the time of the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., as many as 10,000 Jews may have come from the Middle East to Kerala.[26] It is doubtful whether 10,000 Jewish Christians had ever lived in Jerusalem at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. Even before the fall of Jerusalem there was persecution of Christians by Jews. Later when the political climate in Jerusalem was becoming inflammatory, Christian leaders were urging Christians to leave Jerusalem warning them of the impending danger. Any discussion of Christianity in Jerusalem should take into account the existence of Christians who were native Jews and others from gentile backgrounds. After Stephen's death,the evangelization of Gentiles began in dead earnest. When Paul died about 66 C.E. the Church was largely composed of Gentiles. There were two distinct groups before the fall of Jerusalem. The pre-70 C.E. Christianity gives us a picture that in all probability both the Jewish and Gentile Christians would have fled to nearby Pella in Jordan and not to Kerala. Jewish archives of that period do not have any reference to the migration of Jews to Kerala. In his book The Jewish War, Josephus has given a first-hand account of the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. and there is absolutely no indication of Jews fleeing to Cochin. The fiction of the arrival of Jews in 70 C.E. was fashioned only in the nineteenth century after the colonial powers had elevated the local Christians to a higher status through education and made them wealthy through commercial enterprises. The claim for Jewish descent was a calculated strategy to keep them apart from other castes in a caste conscious society. This distortion of history is a tactic to claim Jewish bloodline for local converts.
Jewish and foreign writers are made to believe by some Christian sects that they are the descendants of Jews and to establish this phony claim some religious rituals, food habits and stray instances of lifestyle are cited instead of giving documentary, physical or material evidence. “To understand the Cochin Jews story” Nathan Katz says, “one has to view it in the context of their neighbors legends.”[27] So legends and marriage folk songs which were produced in the 19th century were disclosed to inquisitive foreign and Jewish writers to substantiate their Jewish descent. Edna Fernandes makes a sweeping statement:“The connection with Israel and the Jews continued and after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E, Kerala was one of the natural safe havens that the Israelites turned to in their renewed period of banishment and persecution.”[28] Even eyewitness Josephus has not mentioned the exodus of Jews in 70 C.E. to Kerala. Foreign writers were misled by the oral statements of local Christians about the exaggerated date of the arrival of the Jews. Apparently their arguments to authenticate Jewish ancestry are flimsy and frivolous. Twenty-first century technology confronts historians and students with a bewildering proliferation of information—some of it accurate and too much of it dubious. But in this case, the claim for Jewish ancestry for local Christians born and brought up in Kerala is dubious and flippant. Instead of producing solid evidences such as historic documents, inscriptions, coins and artifact, customs and beliefs are quoted which, quite surprisingly, are common to all caste groups in Kerala.Nathan Katz says:“The Knanai Christians share the Jews’ high-caste status as well as many customs,including taboos about women in their menses and a hereditary priesthood. The latter may well reflect their purported Hindu Brahmin pedigree or Jewish kohenite (priestly) origin and has been used as evidences for both. The Christians marry under a canopy, or pantal, analogous to Jewish chuppati. Prior to wedding, the bride immerses herself in a kuli,similar to the Jewish miqveh(ritual bath). The Christians sing folk songs very similar to those of the Jews, describing their arrival in India and referring to such observances as Yom Kappur. Virtually all of their home observances are preceded by the ceremonial lighting of a lamp, vilakku,and they eat unleavened bread at a special ritual meal held after nightfall on Maundy Thursday, during which the father ceremoniously washes his hand twice,as is done at a Passover seder. They also eschew any efforts at converting others to their religion, the apostolic original evangelical mission notwithstanding.”[29] This line of reasoning by Katz may probably due to his superficial understanding of the socio-cultural environment of Kerala. There exists a set of beliefs, customs,practices and behavior in Kerala society and they are common to all castes. His reference to ‘Brahmin pedigree’ and ‘Jewish origin’ is void of substance and truth. Logan, an authority on Kerala history, says: “The final Brahmin immigration seems to have occurred in or about the eighth century A.D.”[30] This view is corroborated by foremost Kerala historians such as Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai and M.G.S.Narayanan. But these Christians claim that they are the descendants of Brahmins converted by St. Thomas alleged to have come in the Ist century C.E.How could they claim ‘Brahmin pedigree’ when there were no Brahmins to be converted? In the same manner, the claim for ‘Jewish kohenite (priestly)/Jewish origin’ is idiosyncratic. Katz was informed about ‘taboos about menses.’In Hindu society there are many menstrual rituals. Menstruation is stigmatized in Hindu society. No wonder Christians are also observing some of these rituals because they are all Hindu converts. A menstruation ritual cannot link them to Jewish ancestry. The kuli (bath) quoted by Katz has no bearing on descent because even lower caste girls have to take a bath after the period and before wedding. The Cherumars are the lowest of the lowest castes in Kerala. Edgar Thurston, an authority on castes and tribes, tells about the menstruation ritual of a Cherumar girl: “At dawn, the mother of the girl gives oil to the seven Pulaya maidens, and to her daughter for an oil-bath. They then go to a neighboring tank (pond) or stream to bathe, and return home. The girl is then neatly dressed, and adorned in her best. Her face is painted yellow and marked with spots of various colors[31]” Marriage under a canopy (pandal) cited by Katz is not an evidence, for most marriages of all Christians and Hindus are conducted in a pandal because a house cannot accommodate all relatives and guests. Nowadays people prefer posh marriage halls in cities to have wedding functions. He has downplayed the folk songs of lower castes by giving importance to Christian songs. Pulayas, a lower caste, are also famous for their folk songs.“Their oral traditions include folk-songs sung by both men and women, to the accompaniment of percussion and string instruments. Both sexes participate in their folk songs.”[32] Pulayas also perform mangalamkali , a dance ritual, related to marriage functions as a form of entertainment. Christians of all denominations sing songs from hymnal during wedding ceremony, and this type of song is not something reserved exclusively for Knanai Christians. The Old Testament is the first of the two major sections of the Christian Bible. Christians of all denominations believe that God sent Moses, to lead the Hebrews out of captivity and into the Promised Land of Israel, and as Katz was made to believe that it is not an event reserved for Knanites to be remembered in church services.. And again, the Old Testament characters are remembered by all Christian denominations and there are hymns at the time of wedding ceremony linking the couple with them. Here is a stanza from a popular song sung in Protestant churches:
As Isaac and Rebecca gave
A pattern chaste and kind
So may this married couple live
And die in friendship joined.
So this Jewish wife, Rebecca, is seen as a model wife by all Christians, not exclusively to be shown for Knanites.
It is also claimed that the Knanaya Christians historically practiced endogamy, as the website says: “ Knananites did not intermarry with native Christians and maintained their endogamous Jewish tradition originating from Abraham. To this day, the Knananites continue as an endogamous community.”[33] But in the matrimonial column in the popular paper in Kerala, Malayala Manoroma, it can be seen proposals are being invited for Knanya Christians from all denominations. Katz refers to vilakku as an evidence for Jewish lineage claimed by Knanai Christians. The vilakku should not be linked with the Jewish nine lights of the Menorah. In Kerala the traditional light is Kuthuvilakku and this oil lamp can be seen in all Hindu houses even today. With the introduction of electricity, most Christian homes have dispensed with this oil lamp, although some people keep it as a part of interior decoration. Even low castes pulayas have Kuthuvilakku in their houses and the possession and lighting of it will not give Jewish or Brahmin status. Katz was made to believe that the unleavened bread eaten as “a special ritual meal held after nightfall on Maundy Thursday,”[34] is another evidence for their Jewish descent. The Bible says that the Jews observed the Passover to remember how God delivered His people from Egyptian bondage and they used unleavened bread because there was no time to put yeast into the bread dough before they swiftly left Egypt. To commemorate this event Jewish people today eat unleavened bread called Matzah. The Seder plate on the table consists of a lamb bone, a roasted egg, a green vegetable to dip in salt water, bitter herbs made from horseradish, Charoset (a paste of chopped apples, walnuts and wine). All these items are conspicuously absent in the Knayana Maundy Thursday communion, except the unleavened bread in a different form. The use of unleavened bread is the most ancient attested practice of the Church and it is being observed by most Christians.. The Council of Florence approved the use of either kind of bread in 1439, so the use of leavened or unleavened bread is a question of licitness, not validity. In the past it was easy to make unleavened bread for few people who attended Maundy Thursday service. But in most churches today there are hundreds of communicants queuing up to take part in the Lord’s Supper and there are two or three worship services on the same day. So to avoid a messy situation, in almost all churches today (catholic and protestant) wafers are made with unleavened paste, without yeast. Using unleavened bread cannot be cited as evidence for Jewish ancestry as it is being used in most of the churches. In this context Christians who claim Jewish ancestry should realize that Holy Communion is different from Jewish Passover because Christians observe this as commanded by Jesus; “Do this in remembrance of Me,” and Jews do not recognize this sacred celebration by Christians.To give additional proof to establish Jewish identity for local Christians, Katz writes: “Israel sociologist Shalva Weil, who studied Christian-Jewish parallels in Kerala cited several other similar customs, including ‘the position of the bride standing on the right of the bridegroom … the bridal veil … burial of the dead to face Jerusalem … the priest’s black velvet cap which is supposed to be similar to the Jews head gear .. and the ‘Kiss of Peace’ ceremony which … was copied from the Jews. … the ululatory sounds uttered by women known as kuruva, the unique Knanyi betrothal ceremony, and the symbolic six-pointed star which appears on the sleeve of the bridegroom’s long velvet coat’ On deathbed these Christians bless their children and grandchildren.”[35]Bride’s position, bridal veil and burial of the dead are all common features in a cultural group living in the same geographical sphere. In this age of feminism, Christian brides prefer a single layer transparent veil which makes their faces quite visible and thereby debunks the very rationale of wearing veils to cover faces. Dating back to Biblical times, the preference for Christians of all denominations has been earth burial, not cremation, and that custom remains strong today. Lower castes Pulayas and others make ululatory sounds at the time of family functions like marriage, attaining age and birth of a child. What is more, making of ululatory sound during family functions is a trait of lower castes and tribals in India, and many cultured and Westernized Christian families disgust it. Kiss of peace is not reserved exclusively for Knanai Christians. St. Paul used the kiss of peace as a sort of formula of farewell, "Salute one another in a holy kiss" ( en philemati hagio),for which St.Peter (1 Pet., v, 14) substitutes "in a kiss of love" (en philemati agapes). Kiss of Peace is observed in almost all churches. It is a ceremonial gesture, such as a handclasp,used as a sign of love and union during celebration of Eucharist. These extraneous factors cited by Shalva Weil are not scientific proof for establishing Jewish identity for local Christians. Katz has quoted “Hindu Brahmin pedigree or Jewish kohenite (priestly) origin” for these Christians to be termed Jewish Christians. ‘Hindu Brahmin pedigree’ in the absence of Brahmins in the first century makes the claim absurd. And again, the religious rite of having sacred thread (ponool) for Brahmins and the Brahmin food habit of eschewing beef deprive these Christians of ‘Hindu Brahmin heritage,’ because they have no poonool and most of them eat beef. As regards e claim of kohenite origin, the religious ritual of circumcision and revulsion for pork by Jews deny these Christians ‘Jewish kohenite origin,’because they are not circumcised and pork is liked by many. Attempts are being made to produce DNA tests to confirm this fake claim. Manipulated DNA database produced for a group cannot establish ethnic purity. As William C. Thompson says: “Errors in DNA testing occur regularly. DNA evidence has caused false incriminations and false convictions, and will continue to do so.”[36] Ethnographically itcan be proved phony on the basis of population because Christians are more in numbers than Jews in Kerala right from the beginning of the arrival of the Jews.
Thomas of Cana conundrum
Dr.A.Mingana in The Early Spread of Christianity in India says:"What India gives us about Christianity in its midst is indeed nothing but pure fables." Here is another fable about the much touted arrival of Jewish Christians under the leadership of one Thomas of Cana to Cranganore. There are no primary sources to know about Thomas of Cana. Most probably it was only after the Portuguese elevated the status of Christians by appointing them as army officers,administrators, commercial agents (brokers), planters and priests that the story about Thomas of Cana got wide circulation with the sole intention of appropriating Jewish ancestry for local Christians in a caste-conscious society. Knanaya Christians say that about the year 345 AD, Knayi Thomas, or Thomas of Cana brought to Cranganore a bishop, several priests, 400 laymen, or,as one of the accounts puts it more precisely, 472 families. Fictitious events such as the dream of Catholicos to instruct Kerala Christians who were not having priests and rampant idolatry among Christians are being cited for this deputation, although no documentary evidence in Edessa to support this claim is available.Conflicting dates are given for the arrival of Thomas of Cana and the dates suggested by sectarian writers do not correspond with the contemporary events in the eastern churches. The year 345 given by Knanaya Christians is historically wrong. In the website of the Archparchy of Kottayam, it is stated:“The Knanaya Community traces its origin back to a Jewish-Christian immigrant community.They migrated from Southern Mesopotamia to the Malabar (present Kerala) Coast of Cranganore ( Kodungalloor ) in AD 345 under the leadership of an enterprising merchant Thomas of Cana ( Knai Thomman )”.[37] But political events in the Middle East were not conducive at that time to send a deputation to Kerala. According to Bedjan- (” Acta Martyrum” ii, 296-303), Catholicos Shahdost was martyred in 342. Year 345 given by sectarian Christians is imaginary. Events at that time in eastern churches were turbulent. In 345 CE the Catholics of East was Barba- Shemin and he was in prison from February 345 to 9 January 346, in which he suffered martyrdom. After him, the See was vacant for twenty years. When the Roman emperor Jovian surrendered Nisibis to the Persians in 363 a flood of refugees, mainly Christians poured into Edessa. Among them was the poet Ephraim the Syrian, who helped to found a seminary popularly known as the “school of the Persians”. The patriarch of Apostolic Church of the East (Catholicos) had his see at the Persian capital Seleusia-Cttesiphon. The Apostolic Church of the East first surfaces in ecclesiastical and dogmatic history only in the fifth-century debates in the Roman Empire over Orthodox Christianity. The decision of the Synod of 410 under Grand Metropolitan Yahaballaha I which was held with the co-moderation of a Western bishop Akakios of Amd has absolutely no reference to the deputation of Thomas of Cana, a bishop and 72 families to Kerala. In 4th century CE the Edessian Episcopate was established which was part of the Metropolis of Thessaloniki. Both areas were part of the Roman Pope's authority. In the archives of Edessa also there is no reference to the dream of the Catholicos or to the deputation of Thomas of Cana. The major event of that period was the construction of the cathedral of Edessa by Bishop Qona, probably in 313.[38] A large deputation with a bishop is not mentioned in any of the documents in Edessa (Urfa,Turkey). To bring 72 families which would have included women in rickety ships in those days from Turkey to Kodungalloor (Cranganore) is like a fictitious tale and adventure. Even the Portuguese did not bring their wives in their sturdy ships.In these circumstances, the arrival of Jewish Christians along with Thomas of Cana and the events such as the grant of privileges by Cheraman Perumal depicted in some books, websites and journals appear to be a pure myth.In 1806, when Claudius Buchanan was visiting Travancore, the British Resident Colonel Macaulay recovered from Dutch Record Room at Cochin a number of plates.[39]The plates given to Maran Sabhr-Iso, the Persian priest, were found. But the alleged plate given to Thomas of Cana could not be traced. The plate given to the Jew, Joseph Rabban,was preserved in the synagogue. These Christians have only a copy of the plate allegedly given to Thomas of Cana. We have to deduce from this that no such plate was given to Thomas of Cana and the alleged plate and privileges given to him were all plagiarized from the plate given to Joseph Rabban. Probably this hoax was perpetrated by anew generation of the descendants of Thomas of Cana to wipe out the stigma of lower castes because one of his wives, according to tradition, was from a lower caste.
Historical inaccuracies.
This imaginary account has no historical relevance because the Persian king Shapur II forced the Archbishop Simeon to worship the Sun and when he refused, he ordered Simeon and others to be beheaded. “So on Good Friday, (but more likely on September 14), in the year 344, he was led outside the city of Susa along with a large number of Christian clergy. Five bishops and one hundred priests were beheaded before his eyes, and last of all he himself was put to death.” For the next two decades and more, Christians were tracked down and hunted from one end of the empire to the other. It was during this period the "cycle of the martyrs" began during which "many thousands of Christians" were put to death. “The martyrdom of Simon and the years of persecution that followed wiped out the beginnings of the central national organization the Persian church had only so recently achieved. As fast as the Christians of the capital elected a new bishop after Simon, the man was seized and killed.” Without a central organization, how could the Eastern Church send Thomas of Cana and others to Malabar? 
Persecution of Christians in Persia.
Knanya Christians claim that “in the group there were also priests, deacons and their bishop, Uraha Mor Ouseph (Bishop Joseph of Uraha/Urfa). Knai Thoma and his people were welcomed by Cheraman Perumal, the Emperor of Kerala, and were given permission to settle down in Kodungalloor”. This claim is historically inaccurate because Cheraman Perumal was not the ruler in 345 C.E. - With the ending of the progressive Sangam Age that was beamed with the literary advance in South Indian literature, the light faded and Kerala underwent a dark phase that lasted almost for four centuries. This epoch is known as 'Kalabhra Interregnum' and has been referred as the Dark Age in the history of Kerala. These bold Kalabhra Kings ruled with an upper hand, inexorably for almost three hundred years from 300 CE to 600 CE. The reign of Kalabhras of South India finally came to an end in the 8th Century CE when the Pallavas, Pandyas, Chalukyas and the Rashtrakutas extirpated them from South India. It is clear from these historical events both in the Middle East and Kerala that the alleged visit of Thomas of Cana and Jews was a mere figment of imagination. This fictitious history, which ignores all historical documentation and established historical methods, is based on systematic distortions of both ancient and modern history with the aim of appropriating Jewish lineage for local converts. This craze for appropriating another’s identity has made the perpetrators to steal historical events to glorify their communal ethos. As for instance the incident of Bhaskara Ravi Varma granting specific rights and privileges inscribed in copper plates to Joseph Rabban, the Jewish leader who came to Kochi with his followers, has been reproduced by inserting Thomas of Cana into this historical event. But the non-traceability of the copper plates cited by the authors who invented the story has exposed their lie. As has been pointed out earlier, in 1806 at the suggestion of Rev. Claude Buchanan, Colonel Macaulay, the British resident, ordered a careful search for them and they turned up in the record room of Cochin town. The tables then contained (1) the grant to Irani Cortton of Cranganore, and (2) the set of plates of the grant to Maruvan Sopi Iso of Quilon, but those of the grant to Thomas Cana were not among them. How could they find the tables when there was no Cheraman Perumal in 345 CE to give copper plates to fictitious Thomas of Cana? But the belief in the arrival of Thomas of Cana and that he was a Jew is so pervasive and ubiquitous, although this myth has been debunked by historical events.. From all available reports it may be surmised that Thomas of Cana was not a Jew but a wealthy Armenian merchant. Armenians accompanied the Greek invasion of India in 327 B.C., under Alexander the Great, for it is awell-known historical fact that he passed through Armenia, en route for India,via. Persia. There were Armenian settlements in India from very early times.Armenian churches and graveyards dot in Agra, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai,Mumbai, Surat and Kolkata. Thomas of Cana would have come most probably from the nearby Armenian settlement in Madras.Portuguese and Armenian archives confirm that Thomas of Cana was an Armenian.
From 638 to 1099 Palestine was part of the empires successively ruled by the Arab dynasties centered in Damascus and Baghdad. Jewish groups lived in both Muslim- and Christian-dominated areas. Local communities had distinct traditions, but the differences between those who came from Muslim areas and those who came from Christian areas were more pronounced. Jews who can trace their ancestry back to Central and Eastern European areas are now known as Ashkenazim and those who come from the Islamic world are now known as Sephardim. The earliest document bearing on the Jewish community in Kerala is the pair of copper plates which record a grant of rights and privileges to the leader of the Jews, Joseph Rabban. The Cochin Jews claim an exaggerated antiquity of 379 C.E, but the names of Bhaskara Ravi Varma and Govardhana Martanda, one of the witnesses,indicate that the grant was made probably at the end of the 10th century.This grant is the only strong evidence of the presence of Jews in Kerala in the last quarter of the 10th century.All other claims by local Jews and Christians about the arrival of the Jews to Kerala during Babylonian Diaspora and later after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E. are imaginary and they boil down to egoism. It is evident from the respect given by the local ruler to Joseph. Rabban that he was not a refugee but a wealthy merchant. In 1498 when Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut a local Jewish merchant served as an interpreter. Both India and China were sources of exotic spices, products valued for disguising the taste of rancid food and for preserving food in an era when refrigeration was absent. SriLanka (Ceylon), India, and southern China were the provenances of thevarieties of certain evergreen trees whose bark is stripped for flavoring food.There was a great demand for spices in European and West Asian countries.Joseph Rabban, as a wealthy merchant, would have taken the spice route tocome to India. It is only after Joseph Rabban had established a Jewish colony in Kerala that fresh waves of Jews began to migrate to Kerala.There were varying categories of Jews such as traders, migrants and refugees. Cochin Jews and a local Christian sect have bluffed curious foreign writers and visitors to believe that Jews from Spain and Yemen also came to Kerala to increase the existing Christian population. Alyssa Pinsker says that “in 1492, a group of Sephardic Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula came to Cochin; and since then the community has continued to assimilate incredibly successfully.”[40] Barbara C. Johnson says: “Beginning in the early 16th century there was a new migration of Jews to Kerala.Some of the newcomers were Sephardic Jews, direct and indirect refugees from the Spanish and Portuguese expulsions, who came to India by way of Aleppo, Constantinople, and the Land of Israel. Others were from Iraq, Persia, Yemen, and Germany.”[41] But statements without evidence are just opinions. Political events of that time do not show the Spanish Jews coming to Cochin. With Christian domination of Spain, the Spanish government and the Inquisition pressured Jews to convert to Christianity.Jews and their property were attacked, and they were finally expelled by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella from Spain in 1492.Estimates place the number of Jews who left Spain at anywhere from 50,000 to 250,000. Jewish records show .that they did not flee to Cochin but “to lands in what was then the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans),Portugal, and Italy (especially northern Italy).”[42] The claim by some chauvinistic writers that the arrival of Sephardic Jews augmented the number of Christian Jews in Kerala is ridiculous because they were fleeing Spain toavoid conversion.Jewish archives of that period do not tell about Sephardic Jews coming to Cochin. As Weiner says. “In the first Sephardi Diaspora, a large number of Jews settled in North Africa and in the Ottoman Empire, especially, Turkey and Greece.[43] But the story is different in Yemen. In the 4th and early 6th centuries C.E. Yemen was occupied by the Christian Abyssinian kingdom (Ethiopia). The Sephardic Jews who arrived assimilated to Yemeni culture and their children, aside from having European racial features, became Yemeni in every sense. In the 6th century CE, the Jews became especially numerous and powerful in the southern part of Arabia, a rich and fertile land of incense and spices and a way station on the routes to Africa, India, and the Orient. As Margaritisays: “From 4th/16th century onward, Aden served as a major entre pot on the main axis of the trade system that linked the Indian Ocean with the Mediterranean, the “India trade.”[44] .It was for “India Trade” that brought Joseph Rabban and his associates to Kerala and not to seek asylum as refugees. In 1000 C.E. (date contested),the then Chera Dynasty king, Bhaskara Ravi Varma, bestowed a gift of copper plates to Rabban and other Jews , giving 72 privileges to the community, including the freedom to practice their religion and tax exemption “as long as the world and the moon exist”. After the immigration of Joseph Rabban and his troupe , Kerala’s Jewish population steadily increased. Historically, the presence of Jews in Kerala can be traced only to the arrival of Joseph Rabban.‘
.My key findings in this dissertation are (1) the alleged missionary activity of St.Thomas did not produce Christian Jews in Kerala because Solomon did not plant a Jewish colony in Kerala (2) there was no migration of Jews during the earlier Diasporas which occurred when in 722 BCE the Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel and in 586 BCE when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon overthrew the kingdom of Judah, and again,(3) when in 70 C.E. the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed and looted by Roman legions, since there are no references to migration to Kerla in Jewish archives (4) there was no migration of Christian Jews from Jerusalem or Edessa to Kerala, since no document was found in Jerusalem and Edessa church and Synod minutes about migration to Kerala and (5) Jews came to Kerala only after the arrival of Joseph Rabban, and this event alone has documentary evidence in Kerala history. Yemenian records also show trade links between Yemen and Kerala, using the Aden port..
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[1] Saint Thomas Christians, New world Encyclopedia, http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Saint_Thomas_Christians
[2] I Kings 9:26-28
[3] Logan, William, Malabar
Manual, Government Press, Madras, 1951, pp. 245-46
[4] Katz, Nathan, Who are the Jews of India, University of California Press,
California, 2000,p.27.
[5] Slapek, Orpa (ed),The Jews of India, University Press of New England, London, 2003, p.79) ( Weil, Shalva. "Cochin Jews", in Carol R. Ember, Melvin Ember and Ian Skoggard (eds)Encyclopedia of
World Cultures Supplement, New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2002. pp.
78-80.)
[6] Gordon H.Cyrus, http://www.britannica.com/biography/Solomon)
[7] Johann Jahn, Hebrew Commonwealth, G & C Carvill, New York, 1828, p. 613
[8] Ronald J.Berger. Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems Approach, Aldine
Transaction, 2002, ISBN 0-202-30670-4, p. 154.
[9] Benhur, Abraham, The Jewish background of the India people, http://abrahambenhur.com/jewish_indian.html
[10] ibid
[11] Wilford, John Noble (December 16, 2013). "Neanderthals and the Dead” New York Times, December 17, 2013.
[12] Farrar, F.W, Solomon: His Life And Times, Ansond F. Randolph & Company, New York, 1886,p.122
[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Thomas_Christian_churches.
[14] Thomson Gale, Jewish Diaspora International Encyclopedia of the Social
Sciences | 2008http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Jewish_diaspora.aspx
[15] Babylonian Exile, Jewish history, The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/event/Babylonian-Exile.
[16] The Christian Observer, Whiting & Watson, 1814, p.173
[17] History of the Jews in India, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[18] The Jewish Literary Annual, 1905
[19] Ancient Jewish History, The Hebrews: A Learning Module ,
Washington State University,Richard Hooker –(
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Diaspora.html)
[20] Richard Hooker, The Babylonian Exile, The Hebrews: A Learning Module,
from Washington State University,
[21] Johnson, Barbara.C, The Cochin Jews of Kerala, MyJewishLearning,
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-cochin-jews-of-kerala/#
[22] Dell Markey, Encyclopedia of Diasporas, Immigrant and Refugee Cultures
Around Vol.1,Springer, New York, 2005, p.193
[23] Lendering, Jona, Livius, http://www.livius.org/
[27] Nathan Katz, Who are the Jews of India, University of California Press, California, p.9
[28] Fernandes Edna,The last jews of kerala, Skyhorse Publishing, New York, 2008, p.4
[29] Nathan Katz, ibid, p.19
[30] Logan, William, Malabar, Government Press, Madras, 1951,p201
[31]Thurston Edgar,Castes and Tribes of Southern India, vol.ii,
Government Press, Madras, 1909, p.45
[32] Singh, Nagendra kr.Ed. Global Encyclopedia of the South Indian Ethnography, vol.1,
Global Vision Publishing House, New Delhi, 2006,p.720
[39] Neill, Stephen, A History of Christianity in India, Cambridge university press, London,1984,P.46
[40] Alyssa Prinsker , View image of Only
one Paradesi synagogue remains in Cochin (Credit: Credit: Alyssa Pinsker)
[41] Barbara C, Johnson, The Cochin Jews of Kerala, http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-cochin-jews-of-kerala/2/#
[42] Ideals Institute for Jewish ideas and ideals. https://www.jewishideas.org/articles/diasporic-reunions-sephardiashkenazi-tensions-histo
[43] Weiner, Rebecca, Judaism:Sephardim,http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Sephardim.html
[44] Margariti, Roxani Edeni, Aden and the Indian Ocean Trade, University of North
Carolina Press, 2007, p.2
[2] I Kings 9:26-28
[3] Logan, William, Malabar
Manual, Government Press, Madras, 1951, pp. 245-46
[4] Katz, Nathan, Who are the Jews of India, University of California Press,
California, 2000,p.27.
[5] Slapek, Orpa (ed),The Jews of India, University Press of New England, London, 2003, p.79) ( Weil, Shalva. "Cochin Jews", in Carol R. Ember, Melvin Ember and Ian Skoggard (eds)Encyclopedia of
World Cultures Supplement, New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2002. pp.
78-80.)
[6] Gordon H.Cyrus, http://www.britannica.com/biography/Solomon)
[7] Johann Jahn, Hebrew Commonwealth, G & C Carvill, New York, 1828, p. 613
[8] Ronald J.Berger. Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems Approach, Aldine
Transaction, 2002, ISBN 0-202-30670-4, p. 154.
[9] Benhur, Abraham, The Jewish background of the India people, http://abrahambenhur.com/jewish_indian.html
[10] ibid
[11] Wilford, John Noble (December 16, 2013). "Neanderthals and the Dead” New York Times, December 17, 2013.
[12] Farrar, F.W, Solomon: His Life And Times, Ansond F. Randolph & Company, New York, 1886,p.122
[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Thomas_Christian_churches.
[14] Thomson Gale, Jewish Diaspora International Encyclopedia of the Social
Sciences | 2008http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Jewish_diaspora.aspx
[15] Babylonian Exile, Jewish history, The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/event/Babylonian-Exile.
[16] The Christian Observer, Whiting & Watson, 1814, p.173
[17] History of the Jews in India, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[18] The Jewish Literary Annual, 1905
[19] Ancient Jewish History, The Hebrews: A Learning Module ,
Washington State University,Richard Hooker –(
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Diaspora.html)
[20] Richard Hooker, The Babylonian Exile, The Hebrews: A Learning Module,
from Washington State University,
[21] Johnson, Barbara.C, The Cochin Jews of Kerala, MyJewishLearning,
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-cochin-jews-of-kerala/#
[22] Dell Markey, Encyclopedia of Diasporas, Immigrant and Refugee Cultures
Around Vol.1,Springer, New York, 2005, p.193
[23] Lendering, Jona, Livius, http://www.livius.org/
[25] Bible History Daily, http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites
[26] Paulose, Rachel, http://aapress.com/ethnicity/indian/minnesota-and-the-jews-of-india/
[28] Fernandes Edna,The last jews of kerala, Skyhorse Publishing, New York, 2008, p.4
[29] Nathan Katz, ibid, p.19
[30] Logan, William, Malabar, Government Press, Madras, 1951,p201
[31]Thurston Edgar,Castes and Tribes of Southern India, vol.ii,
Government Press, Madras, 1909, p.45
[32] Singh, Nagendra kr.Ed. Global Encyclopedia of the South Indian Ethnography, vol.1,
Global Vision Publishing House, New Delhi, 2006,p.720
33. http://www.stthomasnj.org/origin.php
[34] Katz, ibid
[35] Katz, Nathan, op.cited, p.19.
[36] Thompson C, William, Council For Responsible Genetics,
http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/GeneWatch/GeneWatchPage.aspx?pageId=57
http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/GeneWatch/GeneWatchPage.aspx?pageId=57
[38] Glenn,E. Hinson, . The Church Triumphant: A History of Christianity up to 1300, Mercer University Press, 1995,p.80
[40] Alyssa Prinsker , View image of Only
one Paradesi synagogue remains in Cochin (Credit: Credit: Alyssa Pinsker)
[41] Barbara C, Johnson, The Cochin Jews of Kerala, http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-cochin-jews-of-kerala/2/#
[42] Ideals Institute for Jewish ideas and ideals. https://www.jewishideas.org/articles/diasporic-reunions-sephardiashkenazi-tensions-histo
[43] Weiner, Rebecca, Judaism:Sephardim,http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Sephardim.html
[44] Margariti, Roxani Edeni, Aden and the Indian Ocean Trade, University of North
Carolina Press, 2007, p.2
