Syria in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE

sir'-i-a (Suria (Mt 4:24; Lk 2:2)): 1. Name and Its Origin 2. Other Designations 3. Physical (1) The Maritime Plain (2) First MoUntain Belt (3) Second Mountain Belt (4) Great Central Valley (5) The Eastern Belt (6) Rivers (7) Nature of Soil (8) Flora (9) Fauna (10) Minerals (11) Central Position 4. History (1) Canaanitic Semites (2) Sargon of Agade (3) Babylonian Supremacy (4) Hittite and Aramean (5) Hittites and Egyptians (6) Amarna Period (7) Rameses II (8) Philistines (9) Tiglath-pileser I (10) Aramean States (11) Peaceful Development (12) Shalmaneser II (13) Tiglath-pileser III (14) Shalmaneser IV and Sargon (15) Pharaoh-necoh and Nebuchadnezzar 1. Name and Its Origin: The name does not occur in the Massoretic Text nor the Peshitta of the Old Testament, but is found in the Septuagint, in the Peshitta of the New Testament and in the Mishna In the Septuagint it represents "Aram" in all its combinations, as Aram-zobah, etc. The name itself first appears in Herodotus vii.63, where he says that "Syrians" and "Assyrians" were the Greek and barbarian designations of the same people. Otherwise he is quite vague in his use of the term. Xenophon is clearer when he (Anab; vii.8, 25) distinguishes between Syria and Phoenicia. Syria is undoubtedly an extension of the name "Suri" the ancient Babylonian designation of a district in North Mesopotamia, but later embracing regions beyond the Euphrates to the North and West, as far as the Taurus. Under the Seleucids, Syria was regarded as coextensive with their kingdom, and the name shrank with its dimensions. Strabo, Pliny and Ptolemy give its boundaries as the Taurus Mountains, the Euphrates, the Syro-Arabian desert and the Mediterranean, and the territory within these limits is still politically designated Syria, though popularly Israel is generally named separately. 2. Other Designations: Homer (Iliad ii.785) and Hesiod (Theog. 304) call the inhabitants of the district "Arimoi," with which compare the cuneiform "Arimu" or "Aramu" for Arameans. The earliest Assyrian name was "Martu," which Hommel regards as a contraction of "Amartu," the land of the "Amurru" or Amorites. In Egyptian records the country is named "Ruten" or "Luten," and divided into "Lower" and "Upper," the former denoting Israel and the latter Syria proper. 3. Physical: (1) The Maritime Plain. Syria, within the boundaries...