Antiochian Greek Christians

Antiochian Greek Christians
الروم الأنطاكيون
Ρωμιοί της Αντιοχείας
	Founders of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America (left to right: then-Archdeacon Anthony Bashir, Metropolitan Gerasimos Messara, and Archimandrite Victor Abo-Assaley)
Total population
	Estimated 4.3 million
Religions
	Christianity (Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and Melkite Greek Catholic Church)
Languages
	Vernacular:; Majority Arabic (Levantine Arabic), Western Neo-Aramaic in Maaloula; Liturgical:; Koine Greek, Classical Arabic and Classical Syriac (historical)

Antiochian Greek Christians (also known as Rūm) are an ethnoreligious Eastern Christian group native to the Levant.^[5]^[6] They are either members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch or the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, and they have ancient roots in what is now Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, the southern Turkish province of Hatay, which includes the city of Antakya (ancient Antioch)—one of the holiest cities in Eastern Christianity, and Israel.^[7] Many of their descendants now live in the global Near Eastern Christian diaspora. They primarily speak Levantine Arabic, with Maaloula near Damascus being one of the few places where a Western Aramaic dialect is still spoken.

^ Cite error: The named reference oikoumene.org was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East Archived 30 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine at World Council of Churches
^ Arman Akopian (11 December 2017). "Other branches of Syriac Christianity: Melkites and Maronites". Introduction to Aramean and Syriac Studies. Gorgias Press. p. 217. ISBN 9781463238933. Another community of Aramaic-speaking Melkites existed in the vicinity of Antioch and parts of Syria. These Melkites used Classical Syriac as a written language, the common literary language of the overwhelming majority of Christian Arameans.
^ "OVERVIEW OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF SYRIA". Archived from the original on 18 October 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
^ Gorman, Anthony (2015). Diasporas of the Modern Middle East: Contextualising Community. Edinburgh University Press. p. 32. ISBN 9780748686131.
^ Gorman, Anthony (2015). Diasporas of the Modern Middle East: Contextualising Community. Edinburgh University Press. p. 32. ISBN 9780748686131.
^ "The mixture of Roman, Greek, and Jewish elements admirably adapted Antioch for the great part it played in the early history of Christianity. The city was the cradle of the church." — "Antioch," Encyclopaedia Biblica, Vol. I, p. 186 (p. 125 of 612 in online .pdf file. Warning: Takes several minutes to download).

Total population
Founders of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America (left to right: then-Archdeacon Anthony Bashir, Metropolitan Gerasimos Messara, and Archimandrite Victor Abo-Assaley)
Estimated 4.3 million^[1]^[2]
Religions
Christianity (Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and Melkite Greek Catholic Church)
Languages
Vernacular: Majority Arabic (Levantine Arabic), Western Neo-Aramaic in Maaloula Liturgical: Koine Greek, Classical Arabic and Classical Syriac (historical)^[3]^[4]