Syr'ia, a province and kingdom of Western Asia, the name, extent, and boundaries of which have been subjects of no little difficulty to both sacred and clas- sical geographers. (Tlie following article is based upon those found in the dictionaries of Kitto and Smith.)
I. Name. — 1. The word Syria does not occur in He- brew ; but in the A. V. it is the usual, though not the uniform, rendering of the word Aram (C^X). Thus in Gen. x, 22, A rum. the youngest son of Shem, is men- tioned as the founder of the Arani;ean nation, from whom the whole country colonized by his descendants took its name. The country is therefore rightly called "Aram'' in Numb. xxiii,7; but the very same Hebrew word is rendered Mesopotamia in Judg. iii, 10, and Syria in X, 6.
Aram was a wide region. It extended from the Med- iterranean to the Tigris, and from Canaan to Mount Taurus. It was subdivided into five ])rincipalities: 1. A 7-am-Dammesek (called in the A. V. " Sj-ria of Damas- cus") ; 2. A ravi-Mauchah ; 3. A i-am-Betk-Rechob ; 4. Arum-Zohah ; and 5. Ai-am-Naharaim (Mesopotamia in the A. V.). These have already been described. See Akam. When the kingdom of Damascus attained to great power under the warlike line of Hadad, it was called by way of distinction .4 ?•«//?, which unfortunately is rendered "Syria" in the A. V. (2 Sam. viii, 5, 12; 1 Kings X, 29 ; xv, 18 ; 2 Kings v, 1 ; xxiv, 2, etc.). This lax method of translation was borrowed from the Sept. and Vidg. versions. The Targums retain Aram; and it would tend much to geographical accuracy' and dis- tinctness were the Hebrew proper names uniformly re- tained in the A. V.
The region comprehended by the Hebrews under the name Aram was not identical with that which the Greek writers and the authors of the New Test, in- cluded under Syria. It embraced all ]\Ieso]K)tamia and Assyria, while it excluded Phoenicia and the whole ter- ritory colonized by the Canaanites. See Canaan. In the New Test, the name Syria (Siipi'a) is not em- ployed with great detiniteness. In fact, it is doubtful if ever the Greek geographers were agreed as to the exact boundaries of the country so called. Matthew, after men- tioning the mighty works and wondrous teachings of our Lord in Galilee, says : " His fame went throughout all Syria," alluding apparently to the coimtry adjoining Galilee on the north (iv, 24). Luke applies the name to the Roman province of which Cyreniiis was governor, and which did not include Palestine (ii, 2). In the same re- stricted sense the word is used in Acts XV, 23. The apostles in Jerusalem wrote
SYRIA
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SYRIA
"unto the brethren of the (lontiles in Aiitioch, and Syria, and Cilicia ;" and afterwards it is said that Paul, settini; out from Antiofli, " went tliroutih Syria and Cilicia" (ver. 41 ; coinp. (ial. i, 21). A wider siii- niticalion seems to be attaehecl to the name in other passaices. It is said of Paul, when going to Jerusalem, "that he sailed thence (from (irecce) into Syria" — giv- ing this general name to Palestine as well as the coun- try north of it (Acts xviii, 18; xx,3). In one passage taken from the Sept. the name is em()loyed as an equiv- alent of the Hebrew A ram (Luke iv, 27 ; comp. 2 Kings V, 20).
2. The origin of the word is not quite certain. Some make it a contraction or corruption of Assi/ria (Scylax, Peripl. p. 80; Dionys. Perieg. 970-975; Eustath. Com- ment, ad Inc., etc.). Herodotus says, " The people whom the Greeks call Sjirians are called Agsyvinns b\' the barbarians" (vii, G3) ; and these names were frequently confounded by the later (ireek writers (Xenoph. Q/n vi, 2, 19; viii, 3, 24); and apparently' also by some of the Latins (Pliny, //. A", v, 13). A much more probable etymology is that \vhich derives Syria from Tsur ("iiri), the Hebrew name of the ancient city of Tyre. The distinction between Syria and Assyria is very great in Hebrew. The (ireek form of the name derived from Tsur would be Tsuria ; but as this could not be expressed by Greek letters, it was softened down to '2vpia. Asst/ria is in Hebrew "IH'i'X, and in Greek 'Aarrvfjia, and sometimes 'Arovpia. "A still greater distinction between the names is found in the Assj-rian inscriptions, where Assyria is called As-sur, while the
Tyrians are the Txiir-ra-i/a. the characters used be- ing entirely dilierent" (Hawlinson, Herod, i, (iS, note). Tyre was the most important city along the Mediter- ranean coast. AVith it and its enterprising merchants the (Jreeks soon became familiar; and they gave to the country around it the general name Syria — that is, " region of Tyre."
It is interesting to observe that the connection be- tween Syria and Aram is noticed by Strabo when com- menting on a stanza of Pindar: "Others understand Syrians by the .I?//'//, who are now called Aramd'i^ (xiii. ()2t», and xvi,78,')); and again, "Those whom we call Syrians (^vpovc) are by the Syrians themselves called Armenians and Ai-ummceans" (Apaj^ifiaiovi;; i, 2, 34).
The name Syria was thus of foreign origin. It was never ado|)ted or acknowledged by the peo|)le them- selves; nor was it ever employed by native authors ex- cept when writing in Greek for (ireeks. At the pres- ent day it is unknown in the country. It has been seen that in ancient times the name A ram was spe- cially applied to Damascus and its kingdom. There is something analogous to this in modern usage. Esh- S/iam is the name now commonly given to both city and country, though in more correct language the for- mer is styled Jjimishk esh-Sham.