the second half of the second century, the need was felt for a rendering of the Scriptures into the mother tongue of the populace. This was Syriac, a branch of Aramaic that was akin to Hebrew, though using a different script (called Estrangela; later, other forms were used). From a very early date, the center of Syriac-speaking Christianity was Edessa (now Urfa in southeast Turkey). The church there, destroyed in 201 during a flood, may be the oldest known Christian edifice. The town soon became the