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15 - The earliest Syriac literature

from A - LITERARY GUIDE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Sebastian Brock
Edited by
Frances Young ,
Lewis Ayres  and
Andrew Louth
Assisted by
Augustine Casiday
Frances Young
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Lewis Ayres
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Andrew Louth
Affiliation:
University of Durham
Augustine Casiday
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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Summary

Although Jesus and his apostles undoubtedly used Aramaic as their main language of communication, nevertheless we know singularly little about the early spread of Christianity among the Aramaic-speaking population of the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire (covering approximately modern SE Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel) and of the Parthian Empire further east. In view of this lack of information particular interest is attached to the earliest surviving Syriac literature, most of it belonging to the third and fourth centuries, since this offers the best evidence for the distinctive character of Aramaic-speaking Christianity in a milieu that was for the most part still comparatively unHellenized.

It is likely that some time before the end of the second century AD a large proportion of Aramaic-speaking Christians came to adopt as their literary language the local Aramaic dialect of Edessa, known today as Syriac. Inscriptions in this dialect, which has its own distinctive script, are already known from the first century AD, and from the mid-third century there survive three legal documents from Edessa (modern Urfa in SE Turkey) and its vicinity. As will be seen, it is likely that Syriac had already been adopted as a literary language by local Jews as well as by pagans before it was taken up by Aramaic-speaking Christians.

Keywords

New TestamentChristianityActs of ThomasEdessaTeaching of AddaiSyriac literaturePeshittaOld Testament
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The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature , pp. 161 - 171
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

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