have been called also "Sabeans," or worshippers of the heavenly host, from the Semitic root צבא. Mar Abd Yeshua uses it in the same sense; thus he writes: "Gawrièl, Bishop of Hormuzdshir, wrote a work against Manes, and another against the Chaldeans;" and again: "Daniel, of Reish Aina, wrote poems against the Marcionites, Manichees, heretics, and Chaldeans."[1]
But if it be maintained, that the modern Nestorians are descendants of the ancient Chaldeans, and may therefore justly lay claim to the title, no valid objection can be urged against the assumption; but in this national acceptation of the term, the Nestorian proselytes to Rome, the Jacobites, Sabeans, Yezeedees, and many of the Coords of this district, may with equal right take to themselves the appellative, there being as much proof to establish their descent from the Chaldeans of old, or rather the Assyrians, as there is in the case of the Nestorians. It is evidently in this sense that Assemanni uses the term in the following extract, which Mr. Layard adduces in support of his theory, but which in reality militates against it: "Chaldeans or Assyrians; whom, from that part of the globe which they inhabit, we term Orientals; and from the heresy which they profess, Nestorians." There can be no doubt but that the Chaldeans were of the same family with the Assyrians, who were also called Syrians, by which name, as we have seen, the mountain Nestorians, and the Papal Chaldeans of the plains, who speak the vulgar Syriac, still designate themselves. This, however, is not the subject of dispute; but whether the term "Chaldeans" was or is used of the Nestorians by themselves or others. I have proved that it is not. They call themselves Soorâyé, Nestorâyé, and sometimes Christiané and Meshihayé, but never Chaldâyé or Chaldâni. Dr. Grant's testimony goes to establish the above statements; his words are these: "Chaldean is a name commonly used to designate the papal, but it is seldom applied to the orthodox [!] Nestorians; and, when so applied, it is used to express their relation to Abraham, who was from 'Ur of the Chaldees.'"[2]
The origin of the term "Chaldean" as applied to a Christian sect, is correctly given in the following extract from Smith and Dwight's "Researches in Armenia:"—"The present Chaldean
- ↑ See Vol. II. Appendix A. Part IV.
- ↑ The Nestorians; or, the Lost Tribes, p. 170.
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