Saving an ancient language

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, April 3rd.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: keeping an ancient language and heritage alive.

For centuries, Christian communities thrived in Turkey’s southeast region of Tur Abdin . It’s home to the Syriac Orthodox Church—also known as the Arameans. They’ve practiced their faith there for more than 1500 years.

Their spiritual roots go back to the church at Antioch—the place the book of Acts tells us where “the disciples were first called Christians.”

REICHARD: But waves of persecution drove most from their homeland. Today, nearly all of the world’s five million Syriac Orthodox Christians live in diaspora—scattered far from where their story began.

WORLD’s Grace Snell visited an Aramean community keeping that story alive. She met a teacher working to pass on faith to the next generation.

AUDIO: [Students chanting the Lord’s Prayer]

GRACE SNELL: In a classroom in southern Germany, two dozen students stand beside their desks—facing East and chanting the Lord’s Prayer in unison.

AUDIO: [Students chanting the Lord’s Prayer]

They’re speaking Aramaic—the language most scholars agree Jesus spoke.

It’s the language Mark used to record Jesus’ anguished last cry from the cross.

And it’s the language Syriac Orthodox Christians still use in their liturgical worship. But, Aramaic is in danger of dying out as believers raise their children far from their original homeland.

GÜVEN: Okay, meine lieben Schüler…

Linda Güven is on a mission to change that. Güven is Germany’s first state-approved high school teacher of Syriac Orthodox theology, and she’s fighting to keep her students’ language—and their faith—alive.

GÜVEN: The most important thing in teaching is to make the students understand why. If they don’t understand the meaning behind the thing or the intention of then it’s always difficult to live it, to feel it.

AUDIO: [Students pulling their chairs back]

At the front of the room, Güven directs her students to take their seats.

AUDIO: [Students open their textbooks]

Today, they’re learning about Jesus, the Bread of Life from John chapter six.

GÜVEN: Das Brot des Lebens…

Güven’s students mostly come from Turkey and Syria. Most of their parents or grandparents moved to Germany decades ago. But some arrived with their parents as toddlers.

Before that, their roots run deep in one special corner of southeast Turkey.

GÜVEN: Originally, we are all from Tur Abdin, Turkey.

Tur Abdin is a mountainous plateau whose name means, “Mountain of the servants [of God].” And it’s the historic homeland for Syriac Orthodox Christians. Monasteries and churches here date back to at least the 6th century.

After the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D., the Syriac Orthodox Church split from the Greek and Latin churches. They disagreed over the nature of Christ—whether Jesus had two distinct, united natures: divine and human—or one incarnate divine-human nature.

GÜVEN: Weiss ist immer Gottheit, Reinheit. Und die Farbe Rot…

In 1915—the same year as the Armenian genocide—the Ottoman empire carried out a sweeping massacre of Syriac Orthodox Christians.

It’s a time Arameans remember as the “Sayfo” —literally, the “sword.” Although exact numbers are not known, historians estimate Ottoman troops murdered over 90% of the Christian population in some places.

After that, the remnant of Syriac Orthodox believers started leaving in search of a better life. Today, only about 25,000 still remain in Turkey. The rest are scattered abroad.

An estimated 100,000 live in Germany. And Güven said the community is growing.

GÜVEN: The Christians in the Middle East are still suffering. So there’s a growth in the community, like people from Syria are coming and Iraq.

In 2022, she started teaching a class of about 50 students. Since then, the student body has doubled.

Güven’s students say they’re grateful for the country’s religious freedom…

ELENA: I think we are very lucky to live here in Germany that we can live our religion, our faith and like we want to and don’t like have problems with that.

But Güven says her students still have to navigate life between two cultures.

GÜVEN: Migrating splits your heart in half, makes you foreign for the country you left, and you’re too foreign for the country or homeland you found. You’re in between.

Güven’s students are hungry to understand who they are and where they came from.

ELENA: Frau Güven tells us very beautiful parts about our traditions and something like that, and we can hold on to them.

RAHM: I get to learn things about my background and about my ancestors, and, yeah, I really enjoy it.

AUDIO: [Dismissing students]

After class, Güven dismisses her students and dashes off to an evening prayer service.

AUDIO: [Hurrying footsteps]

On her way in, she tugs a lacey white veil over her dark curls. Syriac Orthodox women cover their heads during service as a sign of reverence.

AUDIO: [Responsive prayer]

Under the church’s high ceiling, the congregation worships as their ancestors have for more than a millennium.

AUDIO: [Choral chanting]

Two groups of men stand chanting at the front. Afterwards, everyone files by and kisses an ornately decorated Bible.

Numan Acar is the church’s former chairman.

ACAR: [Congregant speaking German]

He says he’s thankful for a teacher like Güven. And he hopes the next generation will stand firm in their faith.

Standing in the church annex, priest Saliba Dag agrees.

DAG: [Speaking German]

Dag says if the church loses their language, they lose their children.

Güven says that’s the reason she does this job.

GÜVEN: Since we don’t have a country, a homeland, we the only thing we have is the church and our faith. I just want to give them a place where they can grow and find their identity. And as I said, language is a part of their identity.

She says that’s something she wants the wider Christian community to know.

GÜVEN: There is a little minority speaking the language of Jesus, preserving their ancient tradition…

And that’s the way Güven intends to keep it.

AUDIO: [Choral chanting]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Grace Snell in Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany.

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