Old Syriac

The Old Syriac represents the earliest stage in development of the language, that emerged by the beginning of the first century AD as the main Aramaic dialect in the region of Osroene, centered in Edessa, and continued to develop during the next two or three centuries, gradually gaining wider regional significance.

Old Syriac
𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡕
Era	Initally 90 BC, and develop in 1st century AD; The language became Classical Syriac; Dramatically declined as a vernacular language after the 14th century; Developed into Northeastern Neo-Aramaic and Central Neo-Aramaic languages after the 12th century.
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Northwest Semitic Aramaic Eastern Aramaic Old Syriac
Writing system	Aramaic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	arc-SY

Manuscripts

The Old Syriac Aramaic versions of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John exist in two ancient manuscripts:

• Codex Sinaiticus, dated mid- or late-fourth century, discovered by Dr. William Cureton who transcribed and published it in 1858.

• Codex Curetonianus, dated early fifth century, discovered in 1892 in Egypt by two British scholars, Dr. Agnes Lewis, and her sister Margaret, who were then visiting St. Catherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai.