The Medes descended from an ancient kingdom. Jews were resettled in their cities by the Babylonians at one time. (2Kings 17:6) It became linked to Persia and is known as such within the Old Testament. Today, Medes is a part of modern day Iran (Persia).
According to the Greek historian, Herodotus, the Medes were originally six tribes, one of which was called the “Magi,” The Magi were a tribe of Zoroastrian priests. The position as priest was hereditary and they were allowed to serve in Media as well as Persia. The Magi priests were present in royal courts since the time of Darius I.
The Scriptures state that Magi came to see the Baby Jesus:
“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him. (Matthew 2:1-2)
When the Magi returned to their country, they would have taken the knowledge of the King with them—to Persia and Medes.
At Pentecost, those from Medes were present in Jerusalem:
“Now there were Jews residing in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and they were bewildered, because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, ‘Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia..’”(Acts 2:5-9)
The Apostle Andrew, the brother of Peter, took the Gospel to the people of Media.
Before the Medes lived in this geographic area, the Kurds were already settled there. The Apostle Andrew went to the Kurds.
By 651 AD, Media belonged to the Sassanid Empire, under which Christianity maintained a presence. Then the Sassanids, that is the Persian empire, fell to Islam, which came out of Arabia.
“At the time of the advent of Islam in the 7th century, central Kurdistan was predominantly Christian.” (Christianity, Kurdistanica)
“Since the Islamic conquest of Kurdistan, Christian Kurds isolated from the Muslim majority then developed better relations with non-Kurdish Christians such as Armenians, Georgians and Arameans.” (Kurdish People Org.)
To preserve themselves, many Kurdish believers became a part of the Church of the East. (Mark Sykes, “The Kurdish Tribes of the Ottoman Empire,” p. 453, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1908.)
The Lord prayed about the need for church unity while in the Garden of Gethsemane, shortly before his arrest.
“The glory which You have given Me I also have given to them, so that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and You loved them, just as You loved Me.” (John 17:22-23)
A united church was necessary for physical and spiritual preservation. It is the goal of the Lord. His words are eternal. He is the same yesterday and today.
As Jesus was getting ready to go to His death and suffering, He thought of His people, even the church today. How important unity is.
Because 1400 years ago Kurdish Christians joined themselves with other believers, even those from other ethnic backgrounds, they have survived. Yes, they were pushed into other regions to live. Yes, they had to adopt a new church language. Yes, they had to adapt to different ways of doing things within the worship. But, they have survived.
It is vitally important that the church today—every major branch, commit itself to the unity of the Lord, and with one another, rallying together around the Gospel of Jesus.
The Kurds today are a stateless people, residing predominantly in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. The Kurdish language is related to the Persian tongue, both of which are Indo-European. Some Kurds are the physical and spiritual descendants of the early church.
Kurdish was an early church language.
Kurdish is written in both the Latin and the Arabic scripts. The Kurdish Christians have adopted the local tongue of Jesus—Aramaic, because it is the church language of many Middle Eastern believers. (The Kurdish Project)
Remnants of these early church believers yet remain. There is the Bazyan Church, dated to 248-226 BC, during the Sassanid Empire. It was built by Syriac-speaking Christians. Today it is located in Northern Iraq where Kurdish is spoken.
Kurdish Christians number at about 500,000.
To honor the Lord and the witness of Jesus among the Kurds for 2,000 years, I have embroidered in Sorani Kurdish, “I’m Him” into this artwork titled “I AM.”
Listen to the story of Jesus in Kurdish (Sorani):