“The king [Nebuchadnezzar] answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. But if ye shew the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour: therefore shew me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.”
– The Hebrew Bible, “The Book of Daniel,” Chapter 2, Verses 5 and 6 (as translated by the King James Version of the Bible) – one of the few parts of the Hebrew Bible to be written in Aramaic, rather than Hebrew
Religious schools are among the most prominent schools (usually at the college level) to offer entire programs in Bible Studies. For example, BYU has a major in “Ancient Near Eastern Studies” (more about that here), which is basically the same thing. Usually, such programs require you to take either Greek, or Hebrew, or both. Hebrew is the primary language of the Old Testament, while Greek seems to be the original language of the New Testament. Many of them will offer a class or two in Aramaic. However, very few of these programs will require their Bible Studies students to take such classes. I should acknowledge that this is perfectly understandable – and maybe even reasonable. This is because Aramaic makes up only 1% of the Old Testament – and far less than 1% of the entire Christian Bible. This, it is often offered as an elective, but is seldom required.
Aramaic inscription from Tayma, containing a dedicatory inscription to the god Salm
The Hebrew alphabet comes from the Aramaic alphabet, which is why they’re so similar
I did another blog post explaining what Aramaic is, and why it was used by the Jews for the writing of certain parts of the Bible. (That blog post, incidentally, is available here.) Thus, I will only say here that the Jews picked up this language when they were slaves in the Persian Empire. One of the ethnic groups in that empire was the Arameans, the group that gave us the Aramaic language. Like Hebrew and Arabic, Aramaic is a Semitic language. This means that it is somewhat related to Hebrew. You might already know that English and Spanish have essentially the same alphabet as each other, with minor differences like the letter ñ. In a similar way, Hebrew and Aramaic have essentially the same alphabet as each other, with some minor differences. That is, the Biblical Hebrew alphabet (not to mention the Modern Hebrew alphabet) come from the Aramaic alphabet. Notably, this was not always the case. This is because there was an earlier Hebrew writing system called the “Paleo-Hebrew script.” (More about that at this Wikipedia page.) But, by Biblical times, the Aramaic alphabet had already been adopted (and slightly modified) for use in the Hebrew language. This is why the “Biblia Hebraica” is written with this kind of Aramaic script, even for the earliest material in the Book of Genesis. And some parts of the Bible (notably certain chapters in Daniel and Ezra) were even written in the Aramaic language. This makes Aramaic into one of only two languages to be used in the Hebrew Bible. Furthermore, it is one of only three languages to be used in the larger Christian Bible.
Paleo-Hebrew signet ring discovered in Jerusalem’s City of David
Only a small portion of the Bible was written in Aramaic, but Jesus spoke Aramaic
This is the main reason why I have (at times) thought seriously about learning Biblical Aramaic. I have resisted this, because I currently have five other languages under my belt. Just maintaining these five languages can be a little challenging, as you might expect. But, if I were to learn a sixth language, Aramaic is the one toward which I am currently the most inclined. It’s similar to the Biblical Hebrew that I already know somewhat. Thus, in terms of grammar and vocabulary (and, as mentioned earlier, the writing system), it would be relatively easy for me to learn. Hebrew and Greek have already afforded me the chance to access the great majority of the Christian Bible. But Aramaic would allow me to get that last 1% of the Old Testament, if I were to choose to pursue this goal. This would also help me somewhat with the New Testament, in part because Aramaic still remained the language of the Jews then. The scholarly consensus seems to be that the native language of the mortal Jesus … was likely Aramaic. The mortal Jesus may have known enough Hebrew to study some prior Biblical texts in the original, possibly including Isaiah. It’s even possible that He knew enough Koine Greek to converse with the various ethnic groups of Roman Judea, including the Romans themselves. But His native language was most likely Aramaic. The language of most of his early disciples was probably Aramaic as well. This means that Aramaic is also important (albeit to a lesser degree) for the New Testament. At times, the New Testament makes an effort to use the original Aramaic words, before translating them into Koine Greek. A few examples may be helpful here.
My favorite painting of Jesus Christ
Some Aramaic words and phrases that appear in the (otherwise Greek) New Testament
First, let’s start with some of the Aramaic words that are used in the New Testament. These include the words “abba,” “corban,” “ephphatha,” “hosanna,” “mammon,” “maranatha,” “rabbuni,” “raca,” and “sikera.” They also include entire phrases like “talitha kum,” “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani,” and even the Hellenized “iota hen e mia keraia” (which just means “jot and tittle”). “Hellenized,” by the way, is just a word that means “adapted to the Greek language” – in the same way that Anglicized just means “adapted to the English language.” For a Greek audience, Hellenizing things was sometimes necessary, to make words somewhat easier for their audience to pronounce. This explains, for example, why the Hebrew name “Elijah” is written as “Elias” in the New Testament. It also explains why the Hebrew name “Isaiah” is written as “Esaias” in the New Testament. The Greek alphabet can also be very different from that used by Hebrew or Aramaic. Thus, spelling things out in the Greek alphabet … could be an imprecise (but still helpful) enterprise in this time.
Carpentras Stele, the first ancient inscription ever to be identified as “Aramaic”
Aramaic personal names and Aramaic place names also appear in the New Testament
I might also mention here that there are some Aramaic personal names in the New Testament (more about those here), as well as some Aramaic place names (more about those here). Many of the previously-enslaved Jews had adopted Aramaic personal names during and since their captivity. This may be similar to how many African Americans have adopted British names during and since their captivity, forcibly and otherwise. This explains, for example, the contemporary names of Will Smith and Morgan Freeman – among many, many others. These names tend to be somewhat different from those of one’s ancestors from way back in Africa. And there are other interesting parallels. That is, Aramaic place names were also quite common in the Holy Land region. One might compare this to how the American Southwest includes many Spanish place names, because the region was once controlled by Mexico. In California alone, this would include the major cities of San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles – among many, many others. In the Holy Land, local place names often had Aramaic origins in a similar way, which were often used by the local populations – regardless of their native language. This is part of why the Greek text of the New Testament seldom bothered to translate these words.
Greek and Aramaic inscription by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka – Kandahar, Afghanistan
These are among the many reasons that I (sometimes) seriously consider learning Aramaic
For me, the main downside of learning Biblical Aramaic … would be that it grants access to only a small portion of the Hebrew Bible. It grants access to an even tinier portion of the larger Christian Bible. Nonetheless, I’m glad that there are still people who learn Biblical Aramaic. We need some people out there in society to help us with these chapters in Daniel and Ezra, and with the Aramaic influence in the New Testament. Regardless of exact numbers and percentages, there is still enough Biblical influence to make Aramaic into one of the most important languages in history. I hope that Bible Studies programs will continue to offer Biblical Aramaic – as an elective, at least. I’m still ambivalent about adding a sixth language to my current mix. But, if I were to eventually do so at some point, Aramaic would be a cool language to add to my repertoire. In the meantime, I’ll keep working on my Hebrew and my Greek, so that I can study the other 99% of the Bible in the original.
“The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret. Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.”
– The Hebrew Bible, “The Book of Daniel,” Chapter 2, Verses 47 through 49 (as translated by the King James Version of the Bible) – one of the few parts of the Hebrew Bible to be written in Aramaic, rather than Hebrew
If you liked this post, you might also like:
Part of a series about
My own experiences
Why I would like to learn Biblical Aramaic
Note: These posts do not have to be read in any particular order. Since time periods overlap, there isn’t much chronological order to observe here.
See also this series about
Modern languages
Note: These posts do not have to be read in any particular order. Since time periods overlap, there isn’t much chronological order to observe here.
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