Religion and ethnicity are somewhat intertwined in the region of the Middle East. Many Christian religious groups are, in fact, not only religious but ethnoreligious and ethnolinguistic in nature, with their usually non-Arab ethnic identity typically being of greater antiquity than the stage of Arabization in the history of the region. For example, among the ethnic Copts of Egypt, the liturgical language is Coptic, a latter form of the Egyptian language; among the ethnic Assyrians of Mesopotamia is Syriac; among the Maronites of Lebanon, the liturgical language is Aramaic, the language Jesus likely spoke most.