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Arameans
Donald John Wiseman

Donald John Wiseman

Donald John Wiseman OBE FBA FSA [achievements] (25 October 1918 – 2 February 2010) was a biblical scholar, archaeologist and Assyriologist. He was Professor of Assyriology at the University of London from 1961 to 1982. Wiseman was born in Walderton, a hamlet just northeast of Emsworth, Hampshire in 1918.
Book
The Greek Origin Of "Syriac"

The Greek Origin Of "Syriac"

"It was, in fact, the Greeks who coined the name ‘Phoenicia’ and gave currency to the concept. Just as they named the Aramaeans ‘Assyrians’ (and then shortened it to Syrians), because they were the subjects of the Assyrian empire nearest and best known to them, so they appear to have translated the name Canaanite by ‘Phoenician’, and then restricted it to those Canaanites most familiar to them." The Greeks initially referred to all the subjects of the Assyrian Empire as "Syrians" without considering their ethnicity. Over time, this name became associated specifically with the northwestern Semitic regions, equating ‘Syrians’ with ‘Arameans’.