The Centrality of Syriac in the Maronite Tradition: The Role of the Patriarchs (2/7)

Having examined the emergence of the Maronite Church in the aftermath of the Council of Chalcedon, we must now turn to the role of language in the formation of the nation. It is particularly noteworthy how fully the Maronite ecclesiastical hierarchy grasped the importance of this issue and how deliberately it sought to act upon it.

For the Maronite patriarchs, beginning with St. John Maron, language was the expression of their culture, spirituality, faith, and identity. This conviction found particularly clear expression in the seventeenth century through Patriarch Estephanos Douaihy. He referred to Syriac as la nostra lingua syriaca (“our Syriac language”) and attributed to it an almost mystical quality, comparable to the mysteries of the Christianity. By this, he meant that no translation could ever replace the Syriac original or fully convey its meaning. Words, after all, possess a memory of their own, and every culture establishes a unique relationship between the signifier and the signified.

By the eighteenth century, as Syriac came under growing threat, the Maronite Synod convened at Louaizeh in 1736 found itself compelled to prohibit the translation of liturgical books into Arabic. Less than a decade later, in 1744, Maronite Patriarch Chémoun Awad convened another synod, which ruled that translating Maronite books into Arabic without the explicit authorization of the ecclesiastical authorities was strictly forbidden⁽¹⁾. Even then, permission was granted only under two conditions: the Arabic text had to be printed in Syriac script – commonly known as Garshuni – and the Syriac original had to appear alongside the translation⁽²⁾.

Patriarch Chémoun Awad reaffirmed these provisions at another synod held in 1755. The following year, the newly elected Patriarch Tobia Khazen incorporated them in their entirety into the synod he convened in 1756. More specifically, Article 10 of the 2005 Maronite Synod called for the preservation and revival of the Syriac language and culture in all Maronite schools and universities.

The patriarch who devoted himself most resolutely to safeguarding the Syriac language was Antonios Pierre Arida. Confronted with the challenges facing the newly established State of Greater Lebanon, which had adopted Arabic as its national language, he insisted that Syriac remain part of the curriculum in all Christian schools. His letter of June 25, 1946, drafted by Father Raphaël Bar Armalet, clearly articulated his vision of modern Lebanon.

The Worldview

Language is a foundational element in the formation of a collective identity, as Johann Fichte argued. But above all, it carries a spiritual vision. As early as the eighteenth century, the philosopher Johann Gottfried von Herder maintained that the spirit of a people finds expression through its language⁽³⁾.

A culture can fully express itself only in its own language, whose vocabulary has been shaped by its historical experience and molded by its beliefs. The very word “culture” is etymologically derived from cult, around which a civilization’s modes of expression are organized: language, literature, writing, music, art, and architecture. “The nature of a civilization is what coalesces around a religion,” André Malraux wrote⁽⁴⁾. Language, therefore, is by no means merely a means of communication. It is the matrix through which the sociocultural paradigms from which it arose are transmitted.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of linguistic relativity holds that the structure of a language shapes its speakers’ cognition and their relationship to the world⁽⁵⁾. Ludwig Wittgenstein expressed the same idea when he wrote, “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”⁽⁶⁾ Language thus shapes, in a reciprocal relationship, both one’s worldview and the way it is expressed. This sociolinguistic complementarity exists between the idea and its expression, between the signified and the signifier.

From this perspective, Wilhelm von Humboldt wrote in 1820 that “the diversity of languages is not a diversity of sounds and signs, but a diversity of worldviews.” He further argued that every language embodies a distinct Weltansicht (worldview)⁽⁷⁾. Replacing a community’s language therefore means transforming the way it understands the world, perceives itself, and relates to the transcendent.

Uprooting Through Linguicide

“Language is the house of Being,” Martin Heidegger wrote⁽⁸⁾. When faith leaves its “house,” it becomes alien to itself.

Language plays a central role in the transmission of cultural heritage. A faith rooted in a particular language preserves a symbolic richness, historical depth, and a fertile polysemy that opens up possibilities for interpretation, fruitful ambiguity, and hermeneutic depth.

The language of one’s ancestors, especially when it is also a liturgical language, far exceeds the mere function of communication: it becomes an embodiment of faith and a mystery in itself. It is precisely this dimension that disappears through linguicide: mystery fades away as symbols and metaphors are forgotten.

As Paul Ricoeur has shown, the symbol creates a space for interpretation⁽⁹⁾. Its disappearance results in the closure of meaning. The elimination of ambiguity and semantic richness requires a single, fixed reading. This process is characteristic of ideology, which favors literal reading, reduces the message to a slogan, suppresses interpretation, and imposes certainty.

(1) – Ray Jabre Mouawad, “A Different Approach to the Arabic Language Among the Melkites and Maronites of Lebanon According to a Poem by Ibn al-Qala’i (15th Century),” in PDO, vol. 34, 2009, pp. 345–359.

(2) – Ibid.

(3) – Johann Gottfried von Herder, Treatise on the Origin of Language, 1772, and Treatise on the Origin of Languages, Allia, 2010.

(4) – André Malraux, Notes on Islam, June 1956.

(5) – Benjamin Lee Whorf, Language, Thought, and Reality, MIT Press, 1956.

(6) – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1921; French edition, Paris, Gallimard, 2001.

(7) – Wilhelm von Humboldt, On the Diversity of Human Language Construction, 1836, and Anne-Marie Chabrolle-Cerretini, Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Worldview, Lyon, ENS Éditions, 2007.

(8) – Martin Heidegger, Being and Time (1927); French translation, Paris, Gallimard, 1986, §34.

(9) – Paul Ricoeur, The Symbolism of Evil, Paris, Aubier, 1960.

Also read on the same subject

The centrality of the Syriac language in the Maronite tradition (1/7)