Syria

Syria, called Aram in the Old Testament, was the broad region northeast of Israel stretching toward the Euphrates, home to a number of small Aramean kingdoms before coming under Assyrian, then Persian, then Greek and Roman control. In the New Testament, Syria's chief city Antioch became the base for the earliest Gentile church and the starting point of Paul's missionary journeys; Luke notes that Jesus was born during a census taken while Quirinius governed Syria, and Paul passed through the province repeatedly on his travels.