The Hebrew Origin of the English (Latin) Alphabet By Jeff A. Benner

Most are aware that our English language uses the Latin alphabet which has evolved out of the Greek alphabet. What most are not aware of is that the Greek alphabet evolved out of the Ancient Hebrew Alphabet. Below is a chart comparing our own English letters (slightly altered to see the similarities) with the original Hebrew letters.

Have you ever wondered

Have you ever wondered where our numbers originated? Take a look at the numbers we use everyday today; 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Now take a look at the first nine Hebrew letters as they were written about 3,000 years ago; Do you notice any similarity and can you notice one major change? (Hint: Look at the sixth and ninth letters)

אדם (ADM - Adam)

We are all familiar with the name "Adam" as found in the book of Genesis, but what does it really mean? Let us begin by looking at its roots. This word/name is a child root derived from the parent דם meaning, "blood". By placing the letter א in front of the parent root, the child root אדם is formed and is related in meaning to דם (blood).

By examing a few other words derived from the child root אדם we can see a common meaning in them all. The Hebrew word אדםה (adamah) is the feminine form of אדם meaning "ground" (see Genesis 2:7). The word/name אדום (Edom) means "red". Each of these words have the common meaning of "red". Dam is the "red" blood, adamah is the "red" ground, edom is the color "red" and adam is the "red" man. There is one other connection between "adam" and "adamah" as seen in Genesis 2:7 which states that "the adam" was formed out of the "adamah".

In the ancient Hebrew world, a persons name was not simply an identifier but descriptive of one's character. As Adam was formed out of the ground, his name identifies his origins.

דור (DOR)

דור (DOR) This Hebrew word is used 167 times in the Hebrew Bible and usually translated as "generation". While the Hebrew word דור and the English word "generation" are similar in meaning, it is important to understand the differences in order to have a clearer picture of the authors understanding of the word which may impact how the passage is understood.

A generation is time from one birth to the birth of the next generation. While the word דור has the same meaning, there are differences. In our Greco-Roman culture we see time as a line with a beginning and an end while the Eastern mind sees time as a continuous circle. While we may see a generation as a time line with a beginning and an end, the Hebrews saw a generation as one circle with the next generation as a continuation of the circle. There is no beginning and no end.

The word דור is a child root derived from the parent root דר (meaning generation in Aramaic). In the ancient pictographic script this word is written as . The is a picture of a tent door and has the meaning of an in and out or back and forth movement. The is the head of a man meaning man. When combined these mean "the movement of man", a generation is the movement through the circle of one man while the next generation is the movement of man through the following circle.

In the ancient Hebrew mind the circle is the symbol for "order". Note the possibility of the ancient Semitic word DOR in the word orDER. This circular order can also be seen in the creation/destruction of the world. In our Greco-Roman mind we see the creation as the beginning of a time line and its destruction as the end of that timeline. But remember the ancient Hebrews see time as a circle. Genesis 1:1 says "in a beginning" (bereshiyt means in "a" beginning, not "the" beginning). This world was destroyed at the fall of man (a full circle). The world begins a-new with the new order of things and is destroyed again at the flood, another circle. The world begins a-new and will be destroyed again (as prophesied by the prophets). Were there circles of time prior to Genesis 1:1 and circles of time after the destruction to come?

There are three Hebrew roots (each are adopted roots) that have the meaning of order. Within each of these is the DR parent root meaning "order" or "circle". In the following issues we will examine each of these words.

Inspiration: In order to read the text correctly we must be willing to learn the unique styles of writing employed by the original authors, learn how the authors thought and percieved their world and the words of the text must be interpreted according to the authors understanding. Our own beliefs, prejudices and preconcieved theologies can cause a biaseness when reading the text eliminating the discovery of truth.

Preservation: Whenever a text is copied by hand, letters, words and even whole sentences can accidently be forgotten, repeated or even altered. When later copies are made these mistakes are found and corrected. Knowing that mistakes exist, the copier may come across a passage which he assumes to be incorrect as the stated passage does not make sense, and therefore, he alters the text in order to correct it. But, unknown to him the text no longer makes sense because he does not understand the context in which it was originally written in.

Translation: There are many factors that go into a translation of the Bible which are invisible and unknown to the reader of a translation. Many people read a translation of the Bible believing that they are reading a perfect translation of the original Hebrew words as originally recorded. There are many problems with this assumption. One Hebrew word can mean many different things in English and the translator will use a word that he believes the author was attempting to convey. This of course allows for personal biaseness on the part of the translator. At other times the Hebrew is very ambiguous or completely unknown at which point the translator attempts to fill the holes in, again allowing for personal biaseness.

Interpretation: Over the years I have heard that the Bible will always interpret itself and no outside source is necessary to understand it and that the Bible was written to stand on its own. If this were true, we would have no need for Bible dictionaries and commentaries to aid us with explaining the culture in which the authors of the Bible livied in. Yet, every student of the Bible uses books outside of the Bible to help explain the various tools, people, animals and customs within the Bible. When we read that Lot offered his virgin daughters to the crowd rather than the strangers, we are shocked at this behavior. We are not aware that eastern customs regarding strangers is very different from our western view. If modern Bible dictionaries and commentaries can help us to better understand the Bible, why not more ancient books such as Josephus' writings, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the book of Enoch and others. These books often reveal more truths about ancient culture aiding us with better Biblical understanding.

This book is meant to give a brief overview of the transmission process from the original writer to you, the reader. An entire lifetime could be devoted to the study of one part of this process and I encourage you to find one area that interests you and begin your own search.

The SuperSlave Androgyny

UBERMENSCH, the penultimate triphibian inter-planetary SuperSlave, is yetto come. To complete the PO-HUN experiment and bring on the SuperSlave each of the currently existing races must be eliminated in turn, once its assigned task has been completed and only after the planet has cleansed itself over time.
See 1000 years of peace.





This sculpture of a breasted Hermaphrodite male is located at THE LOUVRE Museum in Paris France. It is a copy of a 5000 year old sculpture which was reportedly destroyed in Pompeii (Bay of Naples) during the violent eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

The SculPTor

Etymology vs Linguistics

When it comes down to "overstanding" who it was who set out to confuse world "language", and when that occurred, the AUthorized verSION of the Bible lays it out as clearly as any allegory can, in ChaPTers 10/11.

The Sons of Noah (Noe) were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Japheth's family were the middle-East's first "immigrants" sent to populate "the isles of the Gentiles".

Ham's family was "the builder" whose first construction was Babel.

The sons of Shem are now known as Semites and this family includes -- Arabs, Arameans, Babylonians, Cartheginians, Ethiopians, Hebrews and Phoenicians.

Remember, these seven nationalities are all originally from the same family. Their specific assignment is to "altar", or alter, "the way" things were at the time.

XI-I : "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech."

XI-VII : "Go to, let US go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

So here we have it, out of Babylon (IRAQ) came the seven families of Shem...
"2 altar the way" ("By the way" ...please note that "Atar" was the main hijacker on 9/11).)

AN EMPTY SEA (DRAWER) MEANS IMMINENT TSUNAMI WATCH

Departing radically from classical physics

A tool or other device for imparting a desired shape, form, or finish to a material is called a die. It is held in place by an escott jig. It is also known as A. barbouri bush viper.

Disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. "The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways--I to die, and you to live. Which is better Hindu-Persia's Skull and Bones society only knows." ....Washington-Socrates-Gibran

Mizpah, name of several places in Israel; most important Mizpah of Gilead, where Jacob erected heap of stones and made covenant of peace with Laban: "The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another" (Bible, Gen. xxxi, 49). So "Mizpah" or "Mis Pi Ritual" is used as a parting salutation and inscription on jewelry.

In compiling his dictionary Webster had in mind the special needs of his own countrymen. He followed the best American usage of his time, sometimes departing slightly from British forms and choosing the simpler of two spellings whenever he felt warranted in doing so. He spelled wagon, for instance, instead of waggon; develop rather than develope; theater, miter, and center in place of theatre, mitre, and centre; color, labor, and honor instead of colour, labour, and honour.

Catastrophism (or Velikovsianism), the belief that a sudden cataclysmic event brought about changes that resulted in the Earth's geologic features. The concept was developed by psychoanalyst Emmanuel Velikovsky, whose 1950 book 'Worlds in Collision' proposed that a collision between Earth and a giant comet in 1500 BC led to floods, fires, the creation of mountains and other land formations, and the biblical parting of the Red Sea.

Khalil Gibran

Khalil Gibran (born Gibrān Khalīl Gibrān bin Mikhā'īl bin Sa'ad; Arabic جبران خليل جبران بن ميکائيل بن سعد), (born January 6, 1883 in Bsharri, modern day Lebanon, which was part of Ottoman controlled Syria at the time; died April 10, 1931 in New York City, United States) was a Lebanese American artist, poet, writer, philosopher and theologian. He is the third-best-selling poet in history, after William Shakespeare and Laozi.

In Lebanon

Gibran was born in the Christian Maronite town of Bsharri in modern day northern Lebanon. His maternal grandfather was a Maronite Catholic priest.^[2] His mother Kamila was thirty when Gibran was born; his father, also named Khalil, was her third husband.^[3] As a result of his family's poverty, Gibran did not receive any formal schooling during his youth. However, priests visited him regularly and taught him about the Bible, as well as the Arabic and Syriac languages.

Gibran's father initially worked in an apothecary but with gambling debt he was unable to pay he came to work for a local Ottoman-appointed administrator^[4] or local warlord.^[5] Because of extensive complaints by angry subjects the administrator was removed and his staff came under investigation circa 1891^[6] and the elder Gibran went to prison for alleged embezzlement,^[1] and Ottoman authorities confiscated his family's property. Without a home, Gibran's mother decided to follow her brother and emigrate to the United States. Though the authorities released Gibran's father in 1894, Kamila Gibran remained resolved and, along with Khalil, his younger sisters Mariana and Sultana, and his elder half-brother Peter(/Bhutros/Butrus) all left for New York on June 25, 1895.^[4]

In the United States

Khalil Gibran, Photograph by Fred Holland Day, c. 1898

The Gibrans settled in Boston's South End, at the time the second largest Syrian/Lebanese-American community^[7] in the United States. His mother began working as a seamstress^[6] peddler, selling lace and linens that she carried from door to door. Gibran started school on September 30, 1895. School officials placed him in a special class for immigrants to learn English. Gibran also enrolled in an art school at a nearby settlement house. Through his teachers there, he was introduced to the avant-garde Boston artist, photographer, and publisher Fred Holland Day,^[1] who encouraged and supported Gibran in his creative endeavors. A publisher used some of Gibran's drawings for book covers in 1898.

Gibran’s mother and elder brother Peter wanted him to absorb more of his own heritage rather than just the Western aesthetic culture he was attracted to.^[6] So at the age of fifteen, Gibran went back to Lebanon to study at a Maronite-run preparatory school and higher-education institute in Beirut. He started a student literary magazine with a classmate, and was elected "college poet". He stayed there for several years before returning to Boston in 1902 coming through Ellis Island on May 10th.^[8] Two weeks before he got back, his sister Sultana died of tuberculosis at the age of 14. The next year, his brother Bhutros died of the same disease, and his mother died of cancer. His sister Marianna supported Gibran and herself by working at a dressmaker's shop.^[1]

Art and poetry

Gibran held his first art exhibition of his drawings in 1904 in Boston, at Day's studio. During this exhibition, Gibran met Mary Elizabeth Haskell, a respected headmistress ten years his senior. The two formed an important friendship that lasted the rest of Gibran's life. Though publicly discreet, their correspondence reveals an exalted intimacy. Haskell influenced not only Gibran's personal life, but also his career. In 1908, Gibran went to study art with Auguste Rodin in Paris for two years. This is where he met his art study partner and lifelong friend Youssef Howayek. He later studied art in Boston.

Juliet Thompson, one of Gibran's acquaintances, reported several anecdotes of Gibran. She recalls Gibran met `Abdu'l-Bahá, the leader of the Bahá'í Faith at the time on his visit to the United States circa 1911-1912. Barbara Young, in This Man from Lebanon: A Study of Kahlil Gibran, records Gibran was unable to sleep the night before meeting `Abdu'l-Bahá who sat for a pair of portraits. Thompson reports Gibran saying that all the way through writing of Jesus, The Son of Man, he thought of `Abdu'l-Bahá. Years later, after the death of `Abdu'l-Bahá, there was a viewing of the movie recording of `Abdu'l-Bahá - Gibran rose to talk and in tears, proclaimed an exalted station of `Abdu'l-Bahá and left the event in tears.

While most of Gibran's early writings were in Arabic, most of his work published after 1918 was in English. His first book for the publishing company Alfred Knopf, in 1918, was The Madman, a slim volume of aphorisms and parables written in biblical cadence somewhere between poetry and prose. Gibran also took part in the New York Pen League, also known as the "immigrant poets" (al-mahjar), alongside important Lebanese-American authors such as Ameen Rihani, Elia Abu Madi and Mikhail Naimy, a close friend and distinguished master of Arabic literature, whose descendants Gibran declared to be his own children, and whose nephew, Samir, is a godson of Gibran.

Much of Gibran's writings deal with Christianity, especially on the topic of spiritual love. His poetry is notable for its use of formal language, as well as insights on topics of life using spiritual terms. Gibran's best-known work is The Prophet, a book composed of twenty-six poetic essays. The book became especially popular during the 1960s with the American counterculture and New Age movements. Since it was first published in 1923, The Prophet has never been out of print. Having been translated into more than twenty languages, it was one of the bestselling books of the twentieth century in the United States.

One of his most notable lines of poetry in the English-speaking world is from "Sand and Foam" (1926), which reads : "Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you". This was plagiarised by John Lennon and placed, though in a slightly altered form, into the song Julia from The Beatles' 1968 album The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album).

Political thought

Gibran was a prominent Syrian nationalist. In a political statement he drafted in 1911, he expresses his loyalty to Greater Syria and to the safeguarding of Syria's national territorial integrity. He also called for the adoption of Arabic as a national language of Syria and the application of Arabic at all school levels. When Gibran met `Abdu'l-Bahá in 1911-12, who traveled to the United States partly to promote peace, Gibran admired the teachings on peace but argued that Syrian lands should be freed from Ottoman control.

When the Ottomans were finally driven out of Syria during World War I, Gibran's exhilaration was manifested in a sketch called "Free Syria" which appeared on the front page of al-Sa'ih's special "victory" edition. Moreover, in a draft of a play, still kept among his papers, Gibran expressed great hope for national independence and progress. This play, according to Kahlil Hawi"defines Gibran's belief in Syrian nationalism with great clarity, distinguishing it from both Lebanese and Arab nationalism, and showing us that nationalism lived in his mind, even at this late stage, side by side with internationalism."

Death and legacy

Kahlil Gibran memorial in Washington, D.C.

Kahlil Gibran memorial in Boston, MA

Kahlil Gibran memorial in Boston, MA

The Gibran Museum and Gibran's final resting place, located in Bsharri, Lebanon

Gibran died in New York City on April 10, 1931: the cause was determined to be cirrhosis of the liver and tuberculosis. Before his death, Gibran expressed the wish that he be buried in Lebanon. This wish was fulfilled in 1932, when Mary Haskell and his sister Mariana purchased the Mar Sarkis Monastery in Lebanon which has since become the Gibran Museum.these words are written next to Gibran's grave "a word I want to see written on my grave: I am alive like you and I am now at your side. Closed your eyes, look around you, and going to see me .... "

Gibran willed the contents of his studio to Mary Haskell. There she discovered her letters to him spanning twenty-three years. She initially agreed to burn them because of their intimacy, but recognizing their historical value she saved them. She gave them, along with his letters to her which she had also saved, to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library before she died in 1964. Excerpts of the over six hundred letters were published in "Beloved Prophet" in 1972.

Mary Haskell Minis (she wed Jacob Florance Minis in 1923) donated her personal collection of nearly one hundred original works of art by Gibran to the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia in 1950. Haskell had been thinking of placing her collection at the Telfair as early as 1914. In a letter to Gibran, she explained, "...I am thinking of other museums...the unique little Telfair Gallery in Savannah, Ga., that Gari Melchers chooses pictures for. There when I was a visiting child, form burst upon my astonished little soul." Haskell's gift to the Telfair is the largest public collection of Gibran’s visual art in the country, consisting of five oils and numerous works on paper rendered in the artist’s lyrical style, which reflects the influence of symbolism. The future American royalties to his books were willed to his hometown of Bsharri, to be "used for good causes", however, this led to years of controversy and violence over the distribution of the money; eventually, the Lebanese government became the overseer.

Works

In Arabic:

• Nubthah fi Fan Al-Musiqa (1905)
• Ara'is al-Muruj (Nymphs of the Valley, also translated as Spirit Brides, 1906)
• al-Arwah al-Mutamarrida (Spirits Rebellious, 1908)
• al-Ajniha al-Mutakassira (Broken Wings, 1912)
• Dam'a wa Ibtisama (A Tear and A Smile, 1914)
• al-Mawakib (The Processions, 1919)
• al-‘Awāsif (The Tempests, 1920)
• al-Bada'i' waal-Tara'if (The New and the Marvellous,1923)

In English, prior to his death:

• The Madman (1918) (downloadable free version)
• Twenty Drawings (1919)
• The Forerunner (1920)
• The Prophet, (1923)
• Sand and Foam (1926)
• Kingdom Of The Imagination (1927)
• Jesus, The Son of Man (1928)
• The Earth Gods (1931)

Posthumous, in English:

• The Wanderer (1932)
• The Garden of the Prophet(1933)
• Lazarus and his Beloved (1933)
• Prose and Poems (1934)
• A Self-Portrait (1959)
• Thought and Meditations (1960)
• Spiritual sayings (1962)
• Voice of the master (1963)
• Mirrors of the Soul (1965)
• Death Of The Prophet (1979)
• The Vision (1994)
• Eye of the Prophet (1995)

Other:

• Beloved Prophet, The love letters of Kahlil Gibran and Mary Haskell, and her private journal (1972, edited by Virginia Hilu)

Maron

St. Maroun also known as Saint Maron, was a 5th century Syriac Christian monk who after his death was followed by a religious movement that became known as the Maronites.^[1] The Church that grew from this movement is the Maronite Church. St. Maroun was known for his missionary work, healing and miracles, and teachings of a monastic devotion to God.

Saint Maroun
Saint Maroun
Died	423, Kefar-Nabo, Ol-Yambos, Lebanon
Venerated in	Maronite Church, Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church
Feast	February 9th

St. Maroun, born in the middle of the 4th century in Syria, was a priest who later became a hermit, retiring to a mountain of Taurus in the region of Cyrrhus, near Antioch.^[2] His holiness and miracles attracted many followers, and drew attention throughout the empire. St. John Chrysostom sent him a letter around AD 405 expressing his great love and respect, and asking St. Maron to pray for him.

The Maronite movement

Maroun is considered the Father of the spiritual and monastic movement now called the Maronite Catholic Church. This movement had a profound influence in Lebanon. St. Maroun spent all of his life on a mountain in Syria. It is believed that the place was called "Kefar-Nabo" on the mountain of Ol-Yambos, making it the cradle of the Maronite movement.

The Maronite movement reached Lebanon when St. Maroun's first disciple Abraham of Cyrrhus who was called the Apostle of Lebanon, realised that there were many non-Christians in Lebanon, so he set out to convert them to Christianity by introducing them to the way of St. Maroun. The followers of St. Maroun, both monks and laity, always remained faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church. St. Maroun's feast day is celebrated on February 9th.^[3]

Spirituality

Maroun's way was deeply monastic with emphasis on the spiritual and ascetic aspects of living, contrasted by the fact that the 'Khoury,' or, 'priest' of the Maronite rite can marry. For St. Maroun, all was connected to God and God was connected to all. He did not separate the physical and spiritual world and actually used the physical world to deepen his faith and spiritual experience with God.

St. Maroun embraced the quiet solitude of the mountain life. He lived his life in open air exposed to the forces of nature such as sun, rain, hail and snow. His extraordinary desire to come to know God's presence in all things allowed St. Maroun to transcend such forces and discover that intimate union with God. He was able to free himself from the physical world by his passion and fervour for prayer and enter into a mystical relationship of love with God. He was also a holy man.

Mission

St. Maroun was a mystic who started this new ascetic-spiritual method that attracted many people in Syria and Lebanon to become his disciples. Accompanying his deeply spiritual and ascetic life, he was a zealous missionary with a passion to spread the message of Christ by preaching it to all he met. He sought not only to cure the physical ailments that people suffered, but had a great quest for nurturing and healing the "lost souls" of both non-christians and Christians of his time.

This missionary work came to fruition when in the mountains of Syria, St. Maroun was able to convert a temple into a Christian Church. This was to be the beginning of the conversion to Christianity in Syria which would then influence and spread to Lebanon. After his death in the year 410, his spirit and teachings lived on through his disciples and today he lies in "brad" village to the north of Aleppo.

Maronite Church

Maronites (Arabic: الموارنة‎, transliteration: Mawārinah, Syriac: ܡܪܘܢܝܐ, Latin: Ecclesia Maronitarum) are members of one of the Syriac Eastern Catholic Churches, with a heritage reaching back to Maron in the early 5th century. The first Maronite patriarch, John Maron, was elected in the late 7th century. Although reduced in numbers and estimated to have lost their status as a majority in Lebanon itself, today, Maronites remain one of the principal ethno-religious groups in the country and they continue to represent the absolute majority of Lebanese people when the Lebanese diaspora is included.

Before the conquest by Arabian Muslims reached Lebanon, which resulted in the Arabization of both those Lebanese who would become Muslim and the majority which would remain Christian, the Lebanese people, including Maronites, spoke a dialect of Aramaic.^[2] Since at least the 15th century, however, the Lebanese people, be they Muslim, Christian, Jewish or other, have been Arabic-speaking.^[3][4] Syriac (Christian Aramaic) still remains the liturgical language of the Maronite Church.^[5]

It was in Antioch that the followers of Jesus Christ were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). Antioch, especially after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70, became a center for Christianity. According to Catholic tradition, the first Bishop was Saint Peter before his travels to Rome. The third Bishop was the Apostolic Father Ignatius of Antioch. Antioch became one of the five original Patriarchates (the Pentarchy) after Constantine recognized Christianity.

St. Maron, a contemporary and friend of St. John Chrysostom, was a monk in the fourth century who left Antioch for the Orontes River to lead an ascetic life, following the traditions of Anthony the Great of the Desert and Pachomius. He soon had many followers that adopted his monastic life. Following the death of Maron in 410, his disciples built a monastery in his memory and formed the nucleus of the Maronite Church.

The Maronites held fast to the beliefs of the Council of Chalcedon in 451. When 350 monks were slain by the Monophysites of Antioch, the Maronites sought refuge in the mountains of Lebanon. Correspondence concerning the event brought papal and orthodox recognition of the Maronites which was solidified by Pope Hormisdas on February 10, 518.

Maronites الموارنة ܡܪܘܢܝܐ
Maronite villagers building a church in Mount Lebanon, 1920s.

The martyrdom of the Patriarch of Antioch in 602 left the Maronites without a leader, a situation which continued because of the final and most devastating war between the Byzantine and Persian Empires of the early 7th century. The chaos and utter depression which followed led the Maronites to elect their first Maronite Patriarch, John Maroun, in 685. This however was seen as a usurpation by the Orthodox church. Thus, at a time when Islam was rising on the borders of the Byzantine Empire and a united front was necessary to keep out the Islamic infiltration, the Maronites were focused on a struggle to retain their independence against Roman imperial power. This situation was mirrored in other Christian communities in the Byzantine Empire and helped facilitate the Muslim conquest of the most of Eastern Christendom by the end of the century.

Now under Arabic rule after the Muslim conquest of Syria, the Maronites' relationship with the Byzantine Empire improved. The imperial court, seeing its earlier mistake, saw an advantage in the current situation. Thus, Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV provided direct ecclesiastical, political and military support to the Maronites. The new alliance soon coordinated devastating raids on Muslim forces, providing a welcome relief to the besieged Christians throughout the East. Some of the Maronites relocated to Mount Lebanon at this time and formed several communities that became known as the Marada. That is from the view of Patriarch Doueihi, a renowned patriarch and historian. Another view is of Ibn al-Qilaii, a Maronite scholar from the 16th century who proposed that Maronites fled Muslim persecutions of the Umayyads, late 9th century.

The most widely accepted theory stipulates that the Maronites fled Jacobite monophysite persecution, because of Monothelite heresy as advanced by Sergius of Tyr a scholar of the 10th century. It is most probable because nearly all the sects became Monothelite after that Patriarch Sergius I of Constantinople introduced it. The Maronite migration to the mountains was over a long period. But a main migration must had occurred between the 7th and the 11th century CE.

Very little is known about Maronite history before the 11th century. Mainly because of the lack of references written at that time. So nothing can be conclusive except that some of them originally inhabited the Orontes Valley (today Syria), while most of them were Lebanese mountaineers who were converted by Maronite monks.

Maronite monk and pilgrims, Mount Lebanon.

Therefore, since 685 the Maronites have found themselves isolated from Christians of the Byzantine Empire and European powers. In turn, they have appointed their own Patriarch, starting with John Maron, who had been a bishop of Batroun, Mount Lebanon. Through him, the Maronites of today claim full apostolic succession through the See of Antioch. Nonetheless, a source of controversy surrounds the Maronites, as some of them have been accused of having fully adopted and embraced the Monothelite heresy, which led to many civil wars (ex: 1282 and 1499).

Following the conquest of Eastern Christendom outside of Anatolia and Europe by the Muslims, and the establishment of secured lines of control between Islamic Caliphs and Byzantine Emperors, little was heard from the Maronites for 400 years. Secure in their mountain strongholds, It was not until the Crusader Raymond of Toulouse on his way to conquer Jerusalem in the Great Crusade that the Maronites were re-discovered in the mountains near Tripoli, Lebanon. Raymond later returned to besiege Tripoli after his conquest of Jerusalem and relations between the Maronites and European Christianity were re-established.

During the Crusades in the 12th century, Maronites assisted the Crusaders and affirmed their affiliation with the Holy See in Rome in 1182. Consequently, at least from this point onwards, the Maronites have upheld an unbroken ecclesiastical orthodoxy and unity with the Catholic Church. To commemorate their communion, in 1100 Maronite Patriarch Youseff Al Jirjisi received the crown and staff marking his patriarchal authority, from Pope Paschal II. In 1131 Maronite Patriarch Gregorious Al Halati received letters from Pope Innocent II in which the Papacy recognized the independence of the Patriarchate.

Maronite nun from Mount Lebanon, painting from 1779.

However, connection to Rome was arduously maintained and through diplomatic threats and maneuvering, European Christian powers helped keep the Maronite community from destruction. Eventually, a Maronite College was established at Rome on July 5, 1584. From this college, the Maronite community obtained some valuable assistance in maintaining and buttressing their Christian identity. In 1610, the Maronite monks of the Monastery of Saint Anthony of Qozhaya imported one of the first printing presses in what is known as the Arabic-speaking world, however that press was printing in the Syriac language and not Arabic. The monasteries of Lebanon would later become key players in the Arabic Renaissance of the late 19th century as a result of developing Arabic, as well as Syriac, printable script.

Following the defeat of the Mamelukes by the Ottoman Empire, and to reward their new Druze ally who fought with them in the battle of Marj Dabek (1516), the ottomans rewarded Prince Fakher el Din al Maani the First, with the Principality of Lebanon, where he will establish a Druze-Maronite alliance lasting for hundred of years and resulting in the estbalishment of a prosperous principality which will be the bases of the Modern Lebanese Republic. The Maronites were partners in governing the new Principality, often the post of Moudabbir (sort of Prime Minister) and the post of Army Commander were given to a Maronite, mainly a Khazen or a Hobeich of Kesserwan. During the rule of the Principality (1516-1840) the Maronites started emigrating back from Northern Mount Lebanon to Southern Mount Lebanon where they lived before they were almost exterminated by the Mamelukes in 1307 due to their alliance with the Crusaders. Thus repopulating the Historics Kesserwan and all the Druze mountain. It was this love and affection between the Maronites and Druze that helped establish the Lebanese identity.

In 1638, France declared that it would protect the Catholics within the Ottoman Empire, including the Maronites.

Organization

The head of the Maronite Church is the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, who is elected by the bishops of the Maronite church and now resides in Bkerké, close to Jounieh, north of Beirut (the Maronite Patriarch resides in the northern town of Dimane during the summer months). The current Patriarch (since 1986) is Mar Nasrallah Cardinal Boutros Sfeir. When a new patriarch is elected and enthroned, he requests ecclesiastic communion from the Pope, thus maintaining their communion with the Catholic Church. As an Eastern patriarch, if he chooses to join the College of Cardinals, the patriarch is enrolled in the order of Cardinal Bishops, and does not receive a suburbicarian see, since he is a head of a sui iuris Church.

Maronites share the same doctrine as other Catholics, but they retain their own liturgy, theology, spirituality, discipline and hierarchy. Strictly speaking, the Maronite church belongs to the Antiochene Tradition and is a West Syro-Antiochene Rite. Syriac is the liturgical language, instead of Latin which is a tradition of the Roman Church. Nevertheless, they are considered, along with the Syro-Malabar Church, to be among the most latinised of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Cardinal Sfeir's personal commitment accelerated liturgical reforms in the 1980s and 1990s, bearing fruit in 1992 with the publication of a new Maronite Missal. This represents an attempt to return to the original form of the Antiochene Liturgy, removing the liturgical latinisation of past centuries. The Service of the Word has been described as far more enriched than in previous Missals, and it features six Anaphoras (Eucharistic Prayers).

Celibacy is not required for deacons and priests with parishes (though they may not re-marry after the death of a spouse); monks must remain celibate, as well as bishops who are normally selected from the monasteries. Due to a long-term understanding with their Latin counterparts in North America, Maronite priests in that area are expected to remain celibate. The bishops who serve as eparchs and archeparchs of the eparchies and archeparchies (the equivalent of diocese and archdiocese in the Roman Catholic Church) are answerable to the patriarch.

The exact worldwide Maronite population is not known, although it is at least 8 million according to CNEWA (Catholic Near East Welfare Association).^[6] It is estimated that 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 remain in Lebanon where they constitute up to 30% of the population. According to a Lebanese agreement celebrated among the various religious leaders, the president must be a Maronite. Syrian Maronites total 40,000 and they follow the archdioceses of Aleppo and Damascus and the Diocese of Latakia. There is also a Maronite community in Cyprus which speaks Cypriot Maronite Arabic.^[7] They are a recognized religious minority on the island and the community elects a representative to sit in the house of representatives (parliament) to voice their interests. They are descended of those Maronites who accompanied the crusaders there, although more recent Lebanese and Palestinian Christian immigrants are often included as part of the community. A noticeable Maronite community also exists in northern Israel.

Maronite Patriarch and bishops in Rome, 1906.

The two residing eparchies in the United States have issued their own "Maronite Census". The Census is designed to estimate approximately how many Maronites reside in the United States due to their emigrations to that country. Many Maronites have been assimilated into American culture, often taking on Roman Catholicism as there were no Maronite parishes or priests available. The Census was designed to locate those people. There is also an eparchy in São Paulo, Brazil.

Modern Maronites often adopt French or other Western European given names (with biblical origins) for their children like Michel, Marc, Marie, Georges, Carole, Charles, Chris, Antoine and Pierre.

Given names of Arabic origins identical with those of their Muslim neighbors are also common, such as Khalil, Samir, Salim, Jameel, or Tawfik. Other common names are strictly Christian and are Aramaic, or Arabic, forms of biblical, Hebrew, or Greek Christian names, such as Antun (Anthony, also Tanios, Antonios or Tannous), Butros (Peter), Boulos (Paul), Semaan or Shamaoun (Simon), Jergyes (George), Elie (Ilyas or Elias), Iskander (Alexander) and Beshara (literally Good News in reference to the Gospel). Other common names are Sarkis (Sergius) and Bakhos (Bacchus), while others are common both among Christians and Muslims, such as Yousseff (Joseph) or Ibrahim (Abraham).

Some Maronite Christians are named in honour of Maronite saints, including the Aramaic names Maroun (after their patron saint, Maron), Nimtullah, Charbel and Rafqa.