The old cities of Egypt have disappeared from the face of the earth.
Nineveh and Babylon are deserted mounds of dust and brick. The ancient
temple of Jerusalem lies buried beneath the blackened ruins of its
own glory.
One city alone has survived the ages.
It is called Damascus.
Within its four great gates and its strong walls a busy people has
followed its daily occupations for five thousand consecutive years and
the "Street called Straight" which is the city's main artery of
commerce, has seen the coming and going of one hundred and fifty
generations.
Humbly Damascus began its career as a fortified frontier town of the
Amorites, those famous desert folk who had given birth to the great King
Hammurapi. When the Amorites moved further eastward into the valley of
Mesopotamia to found the Kingdom of Babylon, Damascus had been continued
as a trading post with the wild Hittites who inhabited the mountains of
Asia Minor.
In due course of time the earliest inhabitants had been absorbed by
another Semitic tribe, called the Aramaeans. The city itself however had
not changed its character. It remained throughout these many changes an
important center of commerce.
It was situated upon the main road from Egypt to Mesopotamia and it was
within a week's distance from the harbors on the Mediterranean. It
produced no great generals and statesmen and no famous Kings. It did not
conquer a single mile of neighboring territory. It traded with all the
world and offered a safe home to the merchant and to the artisan.
Incidentally it bestowed its language upon the greater part of
western Asia.
Commerce has always demanded quick and practical ways of communication
between different nations. The elaborate system of nail-writing of the
ancient Sumerians was too involved for the Aramaean business man. He
invented a new alphabet which could be written much faster than the old
wedge-shaped figures of Babylon.
The spoken language of the Aramaeans followed their business
correspondence.
Aramaean became the English of the ancient world. In most parts of
Mesopotamia it was understood as readily as the native tongue. In some
countries it actually took the place of the old tribal dialect.
And when Christ preached to the multitudes, he did not use the ancient
Jewish speech in which Moses had explained the Laws unto his fellow
wanderers.
He spoke in Aramaean, the language of the merchant, which had become the
language of the simple people of the old Mediterranean world.