An eastern dialect of the Aramaic language, Syriac was the vernacular of "the Parthians, Medes and Elamites," residents of Mesopotamia who were in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:9). They represented the millions of Jews descended from those who had been exiled from both the 8th Cent Assyrian (722 BC) and the Babylonian (596/586 BC) exiles from Israel and Judah. Jewish missionary activities in the region had been so fervent, Josephus tells us, that the royal house of the kingdom of Adiabene, with its capital in Arbela, had converted to Judaism about 40 AD. Though the details remain sketchy, this may have paved the way for the propagation of the gospel in the region later, for we know that Christianity had established itself firmly in the its norther region by the end of the 1st Cent. A century later the city of Edessa had become the center of Syriac Christianity. Their influence, however, was not confined to the region; a highly active missionary ethos carried the gospel from there into Central Asia, China, and India (a hint of this is easily evident in the name of the Mar Thoma Church in south India; 'mar' is the Syriac title for a person of high honour). Syriac remains the language of this vast network of the Eastern Churches.
In modern times, Syriac is often confused with Aramaiac, and assumed to be identical (a mistake evident, e.g., in The Passion Translation). They are not quite the same thing.
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