Jews and Others
In many ways, it might be more convenient to follow contemporary no-
menclature, and to use the expression ‘‘Syriac’’ for all of these different vari-
eties of the Semitic language concerned, keeping distinctive names only for
Hebrew and Arabic. The only reason for not doing so is that this usage would
tend to obscure three closely related parallel developments which are sig-
nificant, and which all show how ‘‘Syriac’’ (in the narrower sense), as both
a distinctive script and as a Christian language of culture, came to spread
slowly westwards from Mesopotamia across the Euphrates to northern Syria,
beginning ( just about) in the fourth century, and becoming more fully estab-
lished there in the fifth and sixth centuries. I refer to three different aspects.
Firstly, there is the composition of Christian literary works in Syriac, some-
thing which is not attested in Syria proper (the areas which the Romans called
‘‘Syria’’) until the first half of the fifth century.^20 Then there is the impressive
and very important series of dated Syriac manuscripts, already referred to
(n. above), which begins with one written in Edessa in.., and which
often indicates the place of writing also. The earliest surviving Syriac manu-
script attested as written west of the Euphrates seems to be one written at
Mabbug (Hierapolis) in../.^21 Finally, there are Syriac inscriptions on
churches. The earliest example seems to be represented by a small group of
Greek and Syriac inscriptions from Zebed, not far west of the Euphrates, and
dating to about , and the next comes from the limestone massif east of
Antioch, dating to : but this is a single transliterated Greek name, accom-
panying a Greek text.^22 There are some more cases from the fifth century,
butthemajoritybelongtothesixth.
It is important not to miss the significance of the westward spread of
Christian literary composition, manuscript copying, and epigraphy in Syriac
(in the narrow sense). But, that said, it is also relevant to look at what con-
temporary sources record of the currency of ‘‘the Syrian language,’’ in the
. The most systematic available survey of Christian writing in Syriac is still I. Ortiz de
Urbina,Patrologia Syriaca^2 (), which records no writers in Syriac whose place of origin
lay west of the Euphrates until (ff.) Balai or Balaeus, a Syriac poet of the first half of the
fifth century who came from near Beroea. For this point, note now also S. P. Brock, ‘‘Syriac
Culture, –,’’ in A. Cameron and P. Garnsey, eds.,CambridgeAncientHistoryXIII^2 :The
Late Empire,..–(), –, on .
. Hatch (n. ), no. VIII. Forthis extremely important topic, see now also M. M.
Mango, ‘‘Patrons and Scribes Indicated in Syriac Manuscripts, to ..,’’Jahrb. d.
Öst. Byz. Ges. (): ; and ‘‘The Production of Syriac Manuscripts, –..,’’ i n
G. Cavallo, G. de Gregorio, and M. Maniaci, eds.,Scritture, libri e testi nelle aree provincial di
BisanzioI (), .
.IGLSII, nos. – (Zebed); no. (Babisqa, in the limestone massif ).