This is very interesting: Nestorian Christians (this is what Syrian Christians in India were before some of then were converted to Catholicism) are not supposed to revere Mary or consider her mother of gawd:
( From http://freetruth.50webs.org/A4c.htm - section on China)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Mary was introduced with Catholicism in China</b>
It is to be noted that Nestorians, who were the early (non-Catholic) Syrian Christians, cannot have brought the concept of reverence for Mary to China or anywhere else.
<i>The History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science</i> by John William Draper states that with regard to Mary, the Nestorians:
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->could never be brought to an acknowledgment of the perpetual virginity<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->and that they considered her:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->not as the Mother of God, but as the mother of the human portion of Christ<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->the Nestorians ... denied that God had "a mother."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->[St] Cyril was determined that the worship of the Virgin as the Mother of God should be recognized, Nestor was determined that it should not.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->See the section on Nestorius for more.
Therefore, they did not revere her nor did they waste time making images of her. It was only much later, <b>after Catholic missionaries converted many of the small Syrian Christian groups in Asia to Catholicism, that reverence for Mary as the Mother of God entered their now-Catholic beliefs.</b><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->So they are not only claiming Hindu traditions as having Christo origins, but also trying to appropriate Chinese religious beliefs by claiming they were influenced by or originated in Christianism.
That section on Nestorius which the paragraph above refers to ( http://freetruth.50webs.org/A2a.htm#Nestorius ) allows us to find the earliest date for the arrival of the Syrian Christians in India:
It says Nestorius was denounced in 431 and died in 451. So Syrian christians came to India around or after this time and not earlier. They have nothing to do with apostle thomas. They don't have anything to do with the gospel of thomas either, as is already known (the gospel of thomas was the book of the gnostic christians, not of India's Syrian christians who were Nestorians).
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Nestorian heresy: a closer look</b>
<b><i>Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431):</i></b> denounced the teachings of Nestorius (d. 451), who argued that Christ had completely separate human and divine natures.
Link has more: the <i>Three Chapters</i> dispute, <i>Monophysitism</i> troubles and dealing with <i>Monotheletism</i>.
Like Arianism and Priscillian's followers, the Nestorian sects would in time be persecuted as heretics too.
<i>The History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science</i> by John William Draper briefly recounts the argument about Mary between Nestor(ius), the Bishop of Antioch, and Bishop Cyril of Alexandria:
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Cyril was determined that the worship of the Virgin as the Mother of God should be recognized, Nestor was determined that it should not. In a sermon delivered in the metropolitan church at Constantinople, he vindicated the attributes of the Eternal, the Almighty God. "And can this God have a mother?" he exclaimed. In other sermons and writings, he set forth with more precision his ideas that the Virgin should be considered not as the Mother of God, but as the mother of the human portion of Christ, that portion being as essentially distinct from the divine...<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->For this, Nestor and his followers were persecuted and fled:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The overthrow and punishment of Nestor, however, by no means destroyed his opinions. He and his followers, insisting on the plain inference of the last verse of the first chapter of St. Matthew, together with the fifty-fifth and fifty-sixth verses of the thirteenth of the same gospel, could never be brought to an acknowledgment of the perpetual virginity of the new queen of heaven. ...While their leader was tormented in an African oasis, many of them emigrated to the Euphrates, and established the Chaldean Church. Under their auspices the college of Edessa was founded. From the college of Nisibis issued those doctors who <b>spread Nestor's tenets through Syria, Arabia, India, Tartary, China, Egypt.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->So only after their migration to the Euphrates (this is while Nestorius was being tormented for heresy, which is after 431 ce) and only after they had established the Chaldean Church and founded that college of Edessa, did Nestorians spread out and eventually reach India and those other places.
The words 'doctor' and 'college' above are not the same in meaning as the words we use today. The meaning here is 'doctor of the Church' - like the title of saint Thomas Aquinas. And a Christian college was a theological congregation, not a school of real studies.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><i><b>"Ecumenical" Council of Ephesus (A.D. 431):</b></i> St. Cyril, the Pope of Alexandria, bribed enough bishops to be able to convene the Council before the arrival of the Patriarch of Antioch, whose opposition he feared. Without opposition from the delegation from Antioch it was a simple matter to condemn one Nestorius as a heretic, and to proclaim the Virgin Mary to be theotokos, or "mother of god."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->link
That means Mary first came to be officially considered mother of Christo-god in the early half of the 5th century, although some sects had already done so before (Collyridians and Marionites) whereas others had vehemently opposed it. The pro-Mary groups were from places which had formerly worshipped Hera, Cybele and other ancient Goddesses. (see Virgin birth and Reverence for Mary )
( From http://freetruth.50webs.org/A4c.htm - section on China)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Mary was introduced with Catholicism in China</b>
It is to be noted that Nestorians, who were the early (non-Catholic) Syrian Christians, cannot have brought the concept of reverence for Mary to China or anywhere else.
<i>The History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science</i> by John William Draper states that with regard to Mary, the Nestorians:
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->could never be brought to an acknowledgment of the perpetual virginity<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->and that they considered her:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->not as the Mother of God, but as the mother of the human portion of Christ<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->the Nestorians ... denied that God had "a mother."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->[St] Cyril was determined that the worship of the Virgin as the Mother of God should be recognized, Nestor was determined that it should not.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->See the section on Nestorius for more.
Therefore, they did not revere her nor did they waste time making images of her. It was only much later, <b>after Catholic missionaries converted many of the small Syrian Christian groups in Asia to Catholicism, that reverence for Mary as the Mother of God entered their now-Catholic beliefs.</b><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->So they are not only claiming Hindu traditions as having Christo origins, but also trying to appropriate Chinese religious beliefs by claiming they were influenced by or originated in Christianism.
That section on Nestorius which the paragraph above refers to ( http://freetruth.50webs.org/A2a.htm#Nestorius ) allows us to find the earliest date for the arrival of the Syrian Christians in India:
It says Nestorius was denounced in 431 and died in 451. So Syrian christians came to India around or after this time and not earlier. They have nothing to do with apostle thomas. They don't have anything to do with the gospel of thomas either, as is already known (the gospel of thomas was the book of the gnostic christians, not of India's Syrian christians who were Nestorians).
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Nestorian heresy: a closer look</b>
<b><i>Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431):</i></b> denounced the teachings of Nestorius (d. 451), who argued that Christ had completely separate human and divine natures.
Link has more: the <i>Three Chapters</i> dispute, <i>Monophysitism</i> troubles and dealing with <i>Monotheletism</i>.
Like Arianism and Priscillian's followers, the Nestorian sects would in time be persecuted as heretics too.
<i>The History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science</i> by John William Draper briefly recounts the argument about Mary between Nestor(ius), the Bishop of Antioch, and Bishop Cyril of Alexandria:
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Cyril was determined that the worship of the Virgin as the Mother of God should be recognized, Nestor was determined that it should not. In a sermon delivered in the metropolitan church at Constantinople, he vindicated the attributes of the Eternal, the Almighty God. "And can this God have a mother?" he exclaimed. In other sermons and writings, he set forth with more precision his ideas that the Virgin should be considered not as the Mother of God, but as the mother of the human portion of Christ, that portion being as essentially distinct from the divine...<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->For this, Nestor and his followers were persecuted and fled:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The overthrow and punishment of Nestor, however, by no means destroyed his opinions. He and his followers, insisting on the plain inference of the last verse of the first chapter of St. Matthew, together with the fifty-fifth and fifty-sixth verses of the thirteenth of the same gospel, could never be brought to an acknowledgment of the perpetual virginity of the new queen of heaven. ...While their leader was tormented in an African oasis, many of them emigrated to the Euphrates, and established the Chaldean Church. Under their auspices the college of Edessa was founded. From the college of Nisibis issued those doctors who <b>spread Nestor's tenets through Syria, Arabia, India, Tartary, China, Egypt.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->So only after their migration to the Euphrates (this is while Nestorius was being tormented for heresy, which is after 431 ce) and only after they had established the Chaldean Church and founded that college of Edessa, did Nestorians spread out and eventually reach India and those other places.
The words 'doctor' and 'college' above are not the same in meaning as the words we use today. The meaning here is 'doctor of the Church' - like the title of saint Thomas Aquinas. And a Christian college was a theological congregation, not a school of real studies.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><i><b>"Ecumenical" Council of Ephesus (A.D. 431):</b></i> St. Cyril, the Pope of Alexandria, bribed enough bishops to be able to convene the Council before the arrival of the Patriarch of Antioch, whose opposition he feared. Without opposition from the delegation from Antioch it was a simple matter to condemn one Nestorius as a heretic, and to proclaim the Virgin Mary to be theotokos, or "mother of god."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->link
That means Mary first came to be officially considered mother of Christo-god in the early half of the 5th century, although some sects had already done so before (Collyridians and Marionites) whereas others had vehemently opposed it. The pro-Mary groups were from places which had formerly worshipped Hera, Cybele and other ancient Goddesses. (see Virgin birth and Reverence for Mary )