Syr. n^ •pi'^ri'i"an ■(■'b-^xb n"it:i \-ni35' 'iin^D.
Without increasing the number of such passages, we will adduce some in which both versions entirely give up the Masoretic text and follow another reading: thus Prov. i, 2-1, for IDX'am the Chaldee reads irtSXP xbl, fur the translation is ■)'in2'2''n xbl, and so also the Syriac, sbl ■,in3"ain : v,9, the Chaldee reads "J31il instead of ~"nn, for the translation is "b'^n, and so in the Syriac, "bTI : ix, 11, for '''Z'^D the Chaldee reads nn"^:, for the trans- lation is nil bvji-^, and in the Syriac nm h'J'2. These examples, which could be increased greatly (comp. iii, 27 ; V, 4, 9, 19, 21 ; vii, 22, 23 ; viii, 3 ; ix, H ; x, 4 ; xi, 26; xii,4, 19, 21, 28; xiii, la, 19; xiv, 14; xv, 4; xix, 19,23; XX, 4, 14, 20; xxi, 4, 30; xxii, 11, 10; xxiv, 5, 22; XXV, 20, 27; xxvi,5,7, 10; xxviii,5, 11; xxix, 18,21; XXX, 31 ; xxxi, 6), leave no doubt that the Chaldee and Syriac stand in a relation of dependence to each other.
But in speaking of a relation of these versions, it must not be understood as if they relate to each other as the original and copy, but this relation consists in that the author of the one version, in preparing the same, followed mostly the other without giving up his independence entirely. This we can see from the eighty- two passages in which the Chaldee follows the Masoretic text, while the Syriac deviates from it, as ii, 16; iii, 30; iv,3, 11,22, 25,32; vii, 7, 8, 10,22; viii, 7, 11,35 ; ix, 12, 18 ; X, 10, 12, 19, 24, 26 ; xi, 9. 10, 16, 19, 24, 29 ; xii, 17, 23 ; xiii, 1, 10, 23 ; xiv, 7, 17, 22, 23, 33, 35 ; xv, 10, 14, 16, 17, 22, 30; xvi, 7, 26; xvii, 4, 9, 15; xviii, 1, 3, 6, 15; xix, 1, 4, 22, 29; xxi, 14; xxii, 3, 19 ; xxiii, 2, 0, 30, 34; xxiv, 10, 26, 32, 33; xxv, 4, 11, 10, 13, 21, 22; xxvi, 2, 11-13, 17-19, 26; XXX, 15, 19; or from those passages in which the Syriac agrees with the Masoretic text against the Chaldee, as vi, 35; vii, 15; viii, 29; x, 29; xi, 4; xiv, 24; xv, 32; xvi, 5; xvii, 5, 16; xviii, 17; xix, 2, 13; xxiii, 28; xxiv, 9, 14; xxv, 9; xxviii, 1; xxxi, 3.
To these examples from the book of Proverbs we could also add a number from other books, but we be- lieve we have proved sufficiently our assertion. As this Ci/clopcedici, so far as we know, is the only one in which this question has been treated to such length, future in- vestigations based upon these must show the tenabilitj' or otherwise of our assertion. See also Schonfelder, Oii- Jcelos unci Peschito (Miinchen, 1869) ; Maybaum, Ueber die Sprache des Tarrjnm zu den Sprilcken und dessen Ver- hdltniss zum Syrer, in ISIerx, Archie filr icissenschaft- liche Erforschunf/ des A lien Testaments, ii, 66 sq. ; Dathe, Opuscula, p. 106 sq. ; Frankl, SUidien iiber die Septuci- ginta und Peschito zu Jeremia, in Frankel-Grlitz, Monats- schrift, 1872, p. 444 sq. (B. P.)
Syr'ian ('^a'nx, Arummi, Gen. xxv, 20; xxviii, 5; xxxi,20,24; Deut. xxvi,5, 2Kings v, 20; fern. ITanx, Arammit/uh, 1 Chron. vii, 14, " Aramitess;" plur. masc. Ca^X, Aj-ammim, 2 Kings viii, 28, 29; xvi, 6 [where the text has C^aiTS, which the marg. corrects to C^aiTN, Edomites'\ ; 2 Chron. xxii, 5 ; but " Syrians" is elsewhere the rendering of DTK, Aram; 1,vpoQ, Luke iv, 27), an inhabitant either of Western Syria, i. e. on the Mediterranean (2 Kings v, 20), or of Eastern, i. e. Mesopotamia (Gen. loc. cit.). See Syria.
Syrian Churches, a general name for that portion of the Oriental Church which had its seat in Syria, and which was anciently comprehended in the patriarchate of Antioch and (after that of Jerusalem obtained a dis- tinct jurisdiction) in the patriarchate of Jerusalem. The Syrian Church of the early centuries was exceedingh' flourishing. Before the end of the 4th century it num- bered 119 distinct sees, with a Christian population of several millions. The first blow to the prosperity of the Syrian Church was the fatal division which arose from the controversies on the incarnation. See Eutychks; Jacobites; Monophysites; Nestoriaxs. The Eu-
tychian heresj', in one or other of its forms, obtained wide extension in Syria; and the usual results of divi- sion ensued in the corruption and decay of true religion. The Moslem conquest accelerated the ruin thus begun ; and from the 7th century downwards, this once flourish- ing Church declined into a weak and spiritless commu- nity, whose chief seat was in the mountains, and whose best security from oppressi<m lay in the belief on the part of the conquerors of their utterlv fallen and con- temptible condition. Under the head Maroxites has been detailed the most remarkable incident in the later history of the Syrian Church. This branch of the East- ern Christianity, although for the most part divided from the orthodox Greek Church by the profession of iNIonophysitism, took part with the Greeks in their sepa- ration from the West, under Michael Cerularius ; and the reunion of the Maronites to Kome had the remark- able result of establishing side by side, within the nar- row limits occupied by the Christians under the ^Moslem rule in Syria, two distinct communities, speaking the same language, using the same liturgy, and following the saine rites, and yet subject to two dift'erent patri- archs, and mutually regarding each other as heretics and apostates from the ancient creed of their country.