From Arameans to Syriacs

"At Edessa, in the west of Mesopotamia, the native " dialect had already been used for some time as a literary language, and had been reduced to rule through the influence of the schools (as is proved by the fixity of the grammar and orthography) even before Christianity acquired power in the country in the 2d century. At an early period the Old and New Testaments were here translated, with the help of Jewish tradition. This version (the so-called Peshitta or Peshito) became the Bible of Aramaean Christendom, and Edessa became its capital. Thus the Aramaean Christians of the neighbouring countries, even those who were subjects of the Persian empire, adopted the Edessan dialect as the language of the church, of literature, and of cultivated intercourse. Since the ancient name of the inhabitants, "Aramaeans," just like that of Ἕλληνες, had acquired in the minds of Jews and Christians the unpleasant signification of " heathens," it was generally avoided, and in its place the Greek terms " Syrians " and "Syriac" were used. But "Syriac "was also the name given by the Jews and Christians of Palestine to their own language, and both Greeks and Persians designated the Aramaeans of Babylonia as "Syrians." It is therefore, properly speaking, incorrect to employ the word "Syriac" as meaning the language of Edessa alone; but, since it was the most important of these dialects, it has the best claim to this generally received appellation"