| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
"Aramean" was a term used by the Israelites to distinguish these closely related ArpachshadArpachshad or Arphaxad or Arphacsad "Healer; releaser", Standard Hebrew Arpašad Tiberian Hebrew Arpaša / Arpaš was one of the five sons of Shem, the son of Noah ( Genesis 10:22,24;12:12,13; 1 Chronicles 1:17,18). His brothers were Elam, Aite so-called " Children of EberThe Sons of Ever or Bnei Eyver a synonym for the earliest cultural Hebrews, are first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 10:21. In orthodox circles the term is understood to refer to the wider family of Hebrew (commonly identified as Habiru) peoples" tribes from their more distant cousins to the east known as AramThe term Aram can refer to: Aram is a popular Aramaic personal name. Aram or just "ram" is the Aramaic word for "Powerful", "Strong", "High" or "Great". Aram the ancient empire included Lebanon, Syria, parts of Israel, Jordan and Mesopotamia ( Aramaic " A. However, Arameans are not a unified people, rather they are defined as speaking the Aramaic languageAramaic the language of the Arameans has been spoken in the Levant and Mesopotamia, (Aramaic " Aram Beth-Nahreen" or " Aram-Naharaim") from perhaps 700 BC until the present day. It is a member of the Semitic languages group. Today Aramaic is spoken among, which was written with the Phoenician alphabetThe Phoenician alphabet dates from around 1000 BC and is a direct descendant of the Proto-Sinatic alphabet. It was used by the Phoenicians to write Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language. Modern alphabets thought to have descended from the Phoenician inc. Originally HurrianHurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians, a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian is an agglutinative language which belongs to neither the Semitic nor the Indo-European l speakers, they soon adopted a form of AkkadianAkkadian language city of Akkad or Agad Akkadian Empire Sargon of Akkad. from which descended the Aramaic language (which replaced Hebrew as the Jewish vernacular tongue in the early centuries of the common era) as well as the modern Chaldean.
Arameans entered Syria in the 14th century BC, where they were organized by family houses, or "Bet," such as Bet Adini: The house of Adin (now Tell Ahmar) or Bet Agusi (north of Aleppo). There were also small Aramean kingdoms, such as Aram Damascus (now just " Damascus") and Hamath, however the Arameans never became a true unified empire. These kingdoms were subjugated by Adad-nirari II , Ashurnasirpal II, and his son Shalmaneser III, which destroyed many of the small tribes and gave control of Syria and local trade and natural resources to the Assyrians. Some Assyrian kings even took Aramean wives. Araemeans were also present in Babylonia and Mesopotamia, where they were assimilated into the local societies.
Modern Arameans, also known as Syriacs, are mostly Christians. To adopt the genealogical terms of antiquity one could consider them descendants of Abraham's brother Nahor through his son Kemuel , the father of Aram, who gave them their name.
Modern Arameans/Syriacs are the original Syrians, but because of the large present Arab population, the term Syriacs is used to refer to the Aramaic-speaking people. These people are also called Assyrians or Chaldeans. The original word for Syriac in Syriac Aramaic is Suryoye/Suryaye/Suroye/Suraye.
See also: