Lebanon In History

As Aramean Christians adopted the Edessan dialect and made it the language of the church, of literature and of cultivated society, they all became known as Syriacs (Suryoye). Their earlier name, having by that time acquired in their minds a heathen connotation, became distasteful to them. Thus did the original Semitic name, Aramaic, come to be generally avoided and was replaced by the Greek “Syriac” for the people and “Syriac” for the language.