India, Its Biblical Past and Future, Part I: Any Witness?

By COGwriter

India has long been one of the world's largest countries. In the past several decades, its economic impact has began to grow, hence increasing its influence around the world. Furthermore, when other ethnically Indian countries (like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka) are included, those with Indian ancestory make up around 1/4 of the world's population.

Does the Bible give any mention of those who are Indian or what might affect many of the Indians in the future? Does Indian history in any way support the early Biblical narratives? Was there ever any Church of God influence in India itself? Is there now?

This series of articles will attempt to provide some answers to these questions.

Shared Heritage

The Bible teaches that all peoples descended from Adam and Eve:

And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living (Genesis 3:20, NKJV throughout unless otherwise noted).

This would include those now considered to be Indian, as well as all other groups and races of humans.

Furthermore, all humans are descendants of Noah as he and his family were the only humans to survive the great flood:

7 So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood...
13 On the very same day Noah and Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark...
23... Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive...
9:18 Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan.
19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated (Genesis 7:7,13,23;9:18-19).

Some of early the genealogy is mentioned in the Bible:

6 The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. 7 The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. 8 Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth (Genesis 10:6-8).

Richard Ames of the Living Church of God has observed:

The Hebrew word for Ethiopia is Cush, the eastern branch of which is identified with India. The Hebrew word for Libya is Put (Put was the third son of Ham, according to Genesis 10:6), whose eastern branch, like Cush, is also identified with India (Ames R. The Middle East in Prophecy. LCG Booklet).

The Bible specifically teaches that all peoples, including those now considered to be Indian, were together and of the same language until after the tower of Babel:

Now the whole earth had one language and one speech...

And the LORD said, "Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:1,6-9).

Thus, until God confused human language and scattered people abroad, all humans were together and spoke the same language. They then dispersed around the world and settled in various places.

By the name "India", India is mentioned twice in the Bible in the Book of Ester:

Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this was the Ahasuerus who reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia) (Esther 1:1).

So the king's scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day; and it was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews, the satraps, the governors, and the princes of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all, to every province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language (Esther 8:9).

Hence there are several biblical connections with the peoples of Indian ancestory.

Possible Clues in as To Original Christian Influence

It is believed that Christianity came to India in the first century.

Jesus named twelve men to be apostles and commissioned them to take the gospel to the world (Matthew 28:19-20). One of those was Bartholomew, and another was Thomas who was called "the twin" (John 20:24).

In the early third century, Hippolytus wrote about Bartholomew and Thomas:

Bartholomew, again, preached to the Indians, to whom he also gave the Gospel according to Matthew, and was crucified with his head downward, and was buried in Allanum, a town of the great Armenia...

And Thomas preached to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, Bactrians, and Margians, and was thrust through in the four members of his body with a pine spears at Calamene, the city of India, and was buried there (Hippolytus. On The Twelve Apostles).

This may be the earliest reference to any form of Christianity coming to India. Thus, apparently at least two of the original apostles made it to India.

The 4th century historian Eusbius wrote:

Pantænus was one of these, and is said to have gone to India. It is reported that among persons there who knew of Christ, he found the Gospel according to Matthew, which had anticipated his own arrival. For Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached to them, and left with them the writing of Matthew in the Hebrew language, which they had preserved till that time (Eusebius. The History of the Church History, Book V, Chapter X, Verse 3.  Translated by A. Cushman McGiffert.  Digireads.com Publishing, Stilwell (KS), 2005, p. 105).

Probably because they were Christians who held more in common with the true Christians in Asia Minor, Pantænus left and returned to Alexandria as he was NOT a Judaeo-Christian (Ibid, verse 4).

And that seems to be the view of a modern Catholic scholar, who also apparently believes that the type of Christianity to first make it to India was that of the Judaeo-Christians:

At the end of the 2nd century the Alexandrine Pantanaenus went to India to preach the Gospel. The inhabitants already had the Hebrew text of the Gospel of St. Matthew, which they received from St. Bartholomew (HE 5,10,3). Recapitualting these short notices on the Judaeo-Christians...

(Bagatti, Bellarmino.  Translated by Eugene Hoade.  The Church from the Circumcision.  Nihil obstat: Marcus Adinolfi. Imprimi potest: Herminius Roncari. Imprimatur: +Albertus Gori, die 26 Junii 1970.  Franciscan Printing Press, Jerusalem, p.29).

Judaeo-Christians kept the Sabbath, observed the Passover on the 14th of Nisan, did not eat pork, etc. (Ibid, pp. 13-14,34).

One legend, that was written down in the late 1800s, but has been questioned, concerns Thomas:

The Rabban Song, which has been passed down orally by generations of Indian Christians, recounts Thomas' career in India in some detail. It states that the apostle arrived in India in late A.D. 49, stayed briefly then went to China. This generally agrees with Indian traditions. Such a trip would have occurred shortly after Thomas's arrival in South India. Farquhar and Garitte believe that it is unlikely that Thomas actually went to China proper--certainly not Peking--within the short space of perhaps a year alotted by the Indian narratives. They believe that he did evangelize in what are now Burma and Malaysia for a short time before returning to South India. According to the Rabban Song, between A.D. 52 and 59 Thomas founded seven churches and baptized one king...In A.D. 69, Thomas settled permanently in Mylapore...According to most Indian traditions, Thomas died of stab wounds on July 3, A.D. 72. The Braham priests of Mylapore feared that Christianity would eclipse Hinduism (Ruffin C.B. The Twelve: The Lives of the Apostles After Calvary. Our Sunday Visitor, Huntington (IN), 1997, pp. 132-134).

"St. Thomas Christians" are claimed to be an ancient body of professing Christians on the east and west coasts of India. They claim spiritual descent from the Apostle Thomas and also claim various versions of the Ramban Pattu (Rabban Song). While none that I am aware of still keep the same faith that the Apostle Thomas kept, as they eventually accepted Roman dominance, it is probable that the Apostle Thomas was there and that there have been Christians in India since the times of the apostles (it should also be noted that there is, however, a congregation in the South-east coastal region of India in the area of Bhimavaram that does practice true Christianity--it is just that they do not refer to themselves as "St. Thomas Christians".

The Catholic Encyclopedia mentions this about the "St. Thomas Christians":

St. Thomas Christians An ancient body of Christians on the east and west coasts of India, claiming spiritual descent from the Apostle St. Thomas...

Theophilus (surnamed the Indian) -- an Arian, sent by Emperor Constantius (about 354) on a mission to Arabia Felix and Abyssinia -- is one of the earliest, if not the first, who draws our attention to them...The people referred to were the Christians known as a body who had their liturgy in the Syriac language and inhabited the west coast of India, i.e. Malabar...

Gregory of Tours (Glor. Mart.), before 590, reports that Theodore, a pilgrim who had gone to Gaul, told him that in that part of India where the corpus (bones) of Thomas the Apostle had first rested (Mylapur on the east or the Coromandel Coast of India) there stood a monastery and a church of striking dimensions and elaboratedly adorned, adding: "After a long interval of time these remains had been removed thence to the city of Edessa." The location of the first tomb of the Apostle in India is proof both of his martyrdom and of its Apostolate in India. The evidence of Theodore is that of an eyewitness who had visited both tombs -- the first in India, while the second was at Edessa. The primitive Christians, therefore, found on both coasts, east and west, witness to and locate the tomb at Mylapur, "St. Thomas", a little to the south of Madras; no other place in India lays any claim to possess the tomb, nor does any other country. On these facts is based their claim to be known as St. Thomas Christians...

There is one incident of the long period of isolation of the St. Thomas Christians from the rest of the Christian world which they are never tired of relating, and it is one of considerable importance to them for the civil status it conferred and secured to them in the country. This is the narrative of the arrival of a Syrian merchant on their shores, a certain Mar Thoma Cana -- the Portuguese have named him Cananeo and styled him an Armenian, which he was not. He arrived by ship on the coast and entered the port of Cranganore. The King of Malabar, Cheruman Perumal, was in the vicinity, and receiving information of his arrival sent for him and admitted him to his presence...

It was only after the conversion of Sulaka in 1552 that the Chaldeans in part returned to the unity of faith. The truth is that the Malabar Church remained from A.D. 496 up till then in heresy....

During the centuries that these Christians were isolated from the rest of Christendom, their sole intercourse was limited to Mesopotamia...But from the close of the thirteenth century Western travellers, chiefly missionaries sent out by the popes, sent to the West occasional news of their existence (Medlycott, A.E. Transcribed by Mary and Joseph P. Thomas. St. Thomas Christians. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIV. Published 1912. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat, July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York).

Whether or not Thomas Cana was completely Syrian or part Armenian, the religion that his followers embraced was not one that allowed them to accept the authority of the Roman Church. Thomas Cana is believed to have died around 346 A.D. But eventually (after 1552) the bulk of the "St. Thomas Christians" accepted Roman authority--hence would no longer have some of the characteristics of the early Christian church.

A once eminent church historian, Michael Geddes, wrote of some in Malabar who claimed to come from Armenia:

"The three great doctrines of popery, the pope's supremacy, transubstantiation, the adoration of images, were never believed nor practiced at any time in this ancient apostolical church. . . . I think one may venture to say that before the time of the late Reformation, there was no church that we know of, no, not that of the the Vaudois, . . . that had so few errors in doctrine as the church of Malabar." He adds concerning those churches "where never within the bounds of the Roman Empire," "it is in those churches that we are to meet with the least of the leaven of popery." (Preface to: Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Diamper. Cited in Andrews J.N. History of the Sabbath and the First Day of the Week. 3rd edition, 1887. Reprint Teach Services, Brushton (NY), 1997, p. 430).

J.W. Massie further describes them:

"The creed with which these representatives of an ancient line of Christians cherished was not in conformity with papal decrees, and has with difficulty been squared with the thirty-nine articles of the Anglican episcopacy. Separated from the western world for a thousand years, they were naturally ignorant of many novelties introduced by the councils and decrees of the Lateran; and their conformity with the faith and practice of the first ages, laid them open to the unpardonable guilt of heresy and schism as estimated by the church of Rome. 'We are Christians and not idolators,' was their expressive reply when required to do homage to the image of the Virgin Mary. . . . La Croze states them at fifteen hundred churches, and as many towns and villages. They refused to recognize the pope, and declared they have never heard of him; they asserted the purity and primitive truth of their faith since they came, and their bishops had for thirteen hundred years been sent from the place where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians." (Continental India, vol. 2, pp. 116,117. Cited in Andrews J.N. History of the Sabbath and the First Day of the Week. 3rd edition, 1887. Reprint Teach Services, Brushton (NY), 1997, p. 430).

J.N. Andrews wrote:

The Sabbatarian character of these Christians is hinted by Mr. Yeates. He says that Saturday "amongst them in a festival day, agreeable to the ancient practice of the church."

"The ancient practice of the church," as we have seen, was to hallow the seventh day in memory of the Creator's rest. This practice has been suppressed wherever the great apostasy has had power to do it. But the Christians of the East Indies, like those of Abyssinia, have lived sufficiently remote from Rome to be preserved in some degree from its blasting influence. The same fact is further hinted by the same writer in the following language:

"The inquisition was set up at Goa in the Indies, at the instance of Francis Xaverius [a famous Romish saint] who signified by letters to Pope John lll., Nov. 10, 1545, `That the JEWISH WICKEDNESS spread every day more and more in the parts of the East Indies subject to the kingdom of Portugal, and therefore he earnestly besought the said king, that to cure so great an evil he would take care to send the office of the inquisition into those countries."

"The Jewish wickedness" was doubtless the observance of Saturday as "a festival day agreeable to the ancient practice of the church" of which this author has just spoken. The history of the past, as we have seen, shows the hatred of the papal church toward the Sabbath. And the struggle of that church to suppress the Sabbath in Abyssinia, and to subject that people to the pope which at this very point of time was just commencing, shows that the Jesuits would not willingly tolerate Sabbatic observance in the East Indies, even though united with the observance of Sunday also (Andrews J.N. History of the Sabbath and the First Day of the Week. 3rd edition, 1887. Reprint Teach Services, Brushton (NY), 1997, pp. 430-431).

A Church of England clergyman named Buchanan reported:

"The history of the Armenian church is very interesting. Of all the Christians in Central Asia, they have preserved themselves most free from Mahometan and papal corruptions. The pope assailed them for a time with great violence, but with little effect. The churches in lesser Armenia indeed consented to an union, which did not long continue; but those in Persian Armenia maintained their independence; and they retain their ancient Scriptures, doctrines, and worship, to this day. `It is marvelous,' says an intelligent traveler who was much among them, `how the Armenian Christians have preserved their faith, equally against the vexatious oppression of the Mahometans, their sovereigns, and against the persuasions of the Romish church which for more than two centuries has endeavored, by missionaries, priests and monks, to attach them to her communion. It is impossible to describe the artifices and expenses of the court of Rome to effect this object, but all in vain.'

"The Bible was translated into the Armenian language in the fifth century, under very auspicious circumstances, the history of which has come down to us. It has been allowed by competent judges of the language, to be a most faithful translation. La Cruze calls it the `Queen of Versions.' This Bible has ever remained in the possession of the Armenian people; and many illustrious instances of genuine and enlightened piety occur in their history. . . .

"The Armenians in Hindoostan are our own subjects. They acknowledge our government in India, as they do that of the Sophi in Persia; and they are entitled to our regard. They have preserved the Bible in its purity; and their doctrines are, as far as the author knows, the doctrines of the Bible. Besides, they maintain the solemn observance of Christian worship throughout our empire, ON THE SEVENTH DAY, and they have as many spires pointing to heaven among the Hindoos as we ourselves. Are such a people then entitled to no acknowledgment on our part, as fellow Christians? Are they forever to be ranked by us with Jews, Mahometans, and Hindoos?" (Buchanon’s Christian Researches in Asia, pp. 159,160 as cited in Andrews, pp.432-433).

Hence, this group originally kept the seventh day Sabbath, but apparently by the time Buchanan found out about them, they adopted some non-Church of God practices like spires.

This sadly, has been the case with the Church of God throughout history--eventually many who become associated with it adopt non-COG practices. This happened relatively early as even the Apostles Peter (e.g. Simon Magus) and John (see Doctrines of Antichrist) had this occur. Also, there were relatively soon apostasies in Alexandria and Rome in the first and second centuries respectively (please see the article on Apostolic Succession).

More on Church history can be found on the History of Early Christianity page.