Luke the Assyrian or Syrian?

[Paul Younan]

Shlama Akhi Chris,

Man, that I don't get that Babylonians are Assyrians. Why then have Assyria as 2nd world empire and Babylon as 3rd? Why not just say the Assyrians were in between Egypt and Persia?

When talking of Assyrians and Babylonians, it's like talking about the Athenians and the Spartans.

Assyrians and Babylonians are the same exact ethnic people (like Spartans and Athenians), the technical name for them both is Akkadians (from the city of Akkad, their first political center.)

Both spoke the Akkadian language before they made the switch to Aramaic. The Assyrians, in fact, were a Babylonian colony that headed north from Babylon in Southern Iraq into what is now Northern Iraq, and founded their own dynasty - first in Ashur, then later in Nineveh.

When Nineveh fell in 612 BC to the Medes, Babylon became the new political center of the Akkadian people. 70 years later Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians.

But if you say so... So when Peter was in Babylon, he was among Assyrians?

Of course. And when Jonah was in Nineveh, he was among Babylonians. Same people. Two different cities that fought each other a whole lot.

When speaking of "Babylonians" or "Assyrians", you are speaking geographically and not ethnically. Ethnically, these are the same people.

As for Arab, they definitely spoke Aramaic in Jesus time yeah?

The Arabs in places like Nabatea and Palmyra spoke and wrote in Aramaic. The other 99% in the deserts of Arabia spoke Arabic and wrote nothing.

Then I heard around 300-400 AD Arabic came in.

Arabic is a very ancient spoken language, probably from the time of Ishmael's children and their interaction with Egyptians and others. In time, their Aramaic evolved into what we now recognize as Arabic.

Written Arabic, the first example being the Quran, didn't come until much later in the 7th century.....Arabic was the last of the Semitic languages to be written down in an alphabet. Its alphabet was based on the Aramaic script used in Nabatea.