In today's world, Biblical Aramaic is a topic that generates great interest and debate. For decades, Biblical Aramaic has captured the attention of experts in various fields, as well as the general public. Its impact on society, the economy and culture makes it a relevant topic worthy of analysis. In this article, we will explore different perspectives on Biblical Aramaic and its influence in different areas. From its origin to its possible future consequences, we will delve into an exhaustive analysis of Biblical Aramaic, providing a comprehensive view of the topic and its relevance today.
Variety of Aramaic used in the Hebrew Bible
This article is about the Aramaic portions of the Hebrew Bible. For the use of Aramaic in the New Testament, see Aramaic of Jesus.
Biblical Aramaic is the form of Aramaic that is used in the books of Daniel and Ezra in the Hebrew Bible. It should not be confused with the Targums – Aramaic paraphrases, explanations and expansions of the Hebrew scriptures.
As Imperial Aramaic had served as a lingua franca throughout the Ancient Near East from the second half of the 8th century BC to the end of the 4th century BC,linguistic contact with even the oldest stages of Biblical Hebrew, the main language of the Hebrew Bible, is easily accounted for.
Biblical Aramaic's relative chronology has been debated mostly in the context of dating the Book of Daniel. In 1929, Harold Rowley argued that its origin must be later than the 6th century BC and that the language was more similar to the targums than to the Imperial Aramaic documents available at his time.
Others have argued that the language most closely resembles the 5th-century BC Elephantine papyri, and so is a good representative of typical Imperial Aramaic, including Jongtae Choi's doctoral dissertation at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.Kenneth Kitchen takes an agnostic position and states that the Aramaic of the Book of Daniel is compatible with any period from the 5th to early 2nd century BC.
Aramaic and Hebrew
Biblical Hebrew is the main language of the Hebrew Bible. Aramaic accounts for only 269 verses out of a total of over 23,000. Biblical Aramaic is closely related to Hebrew, as both are in the Northwest Semitic language family. Some obvious similarities and differences are listed below:
Similarities
Hebrew and Aramaic have simplified the inflections of the noun, adjective and verb. These are more highly inflected in classical Arabic, Babylonian and Ugaritic.
Differences
The definite article is a suffixed -ā (א) in Aramaic (an emphatic or determined state), but a prefixed h- (ה) in Hebrew.
In Aramaic, the preposition dalet functions as a conjunction and is often used instead of the construct to indicate the genitive/possessive relationship.
Sound changes
Proto-Semitic
Hebrew
Aramaic
ð, δ
ז
ד
z
ז
t
ת
θ
שׁ
ת
ś
שׂ
š
שׁ
s
ס
θ̣
צ
ט
ṣ
צ
ṣ́
צ
ק, ע
In the Hebrew Bible
Undisputed occurrences
Genesis 31:47 – translation of a Hebrew placename, Jegar-Sahadutha (Strong's #H3026)
Proverbs 31:2 – the Aramaic word bar is used instead of the usual Hebrew ben, both meaning "son"
Jeremiah 10:11 – a single sentence denouncing idolatry occurs in the middle of a Hebrew text.
Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26 – quotations of documents from the 5th century BCE on the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Other suggested occurrences
Genesis 15:1 – the word במחזה (ba-maħaze, "in a vision"). According to the Zohar (I:88b), the word is Aramaic, as the usual Hebrew word would be במראה (ba-mar’e).
Numbers 23:10 – the word רבע (rôḇa‘, usually translated as "stock" or "fourth part"). Joseph H. Hertz, in his commentary on this verse, cites Friedrich Delitzsch's claim (cited in William F. Albright' JBL 63 (1944), p. 213, n.28) that it is an Aramaic word meaning "dust".
Job36:2a ("כַּתַּר־ לִ֣י זְ֭עֵיר וַאֲחַוֶּ֑ךָּ") – Rashi, in his commentary on the verse, states that the phrase is in Aramaic.
Psalm 2:12 – the word בר (bar) is interpreted by some Christian sources (including the King James Version) to be the Aramaic word for "son" and renders the phrase נשקו-בר (nashəqū-bar) as "kiss the Son," a reference to Jesus. Jewish sources and some Christian sources (including Jerome's Vulgate) follow the Hebrew reading of בר ("purity") and translate the phrase as "embrace purity." See Psalm 2 for further discussion of the controversy.
Chaldean misnomer
For many centuries, from at least the time of Jerome of Stridon (d. 420), Biblical Aramaic was misnamed as "Chaldean" (Chaldaic, Chaldee). That label remained common in early Aramaic studies, and persisted up to the nineteenth century. The "Chaldean" misnomer was consequently abandoned, when further research showed conclusively that the Aramaic dialect used in the Hebrew Bible was not related to the ancient Chaldeans and their language.
^Rowley, Harold Henry (1929). The Aramaic of the Old Testament: A Grammatical and Lexical Study of Its Relations with Other Early Aramaic Dialects. London: Oxford University Press. OCLC67575204.[page needed]
^Choi, Jongtae (1994), "The Aramaic of Daniel: Its Date, Place of Composition and Linguistic Comparison with Extra-Biblical Texts," Ph. D. dissertation (Deerfield, IL: Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) 33125990 xvii, 288 pp.
^Van Pelt, Miles V (2011). Basics of Biblical Aramaic: Complete Grammar, Lexicon, and Annotated Text (2nd ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan. pp. x. ISBN9780310493914.
^The following information is taken from: Alger F. Johns, A Short Grammar of Biblical Aramaic (Berrien Springs: Andrews University Press, 1972), pp. 5-7.