This Part 2 is the continuation and conclusion to “Aramaic in the Bible (1) – Old Testament”. Material covered in (1) won’t be repeated here in (2); I suggest you read Part 1 first.
Prior to being taken captive by Assyria (721 BC) and Babylon (586 BC), Israelites & Jews had spoken Old Hebrew or Judahite (Jehudíth Strongs h3066) in the Land of Canáan. But when Jews returned to the Land from captivity in the days of Zerubabbél (530s BC), and with Ezra & Nehemiah (c 450 BC), they spoke the Aramáic language. They’d learned it in the East, during the time of the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian (Chaldéan), and Persian empires. Aramaic was the língua fránca of those empires.
Most Israelites & Jews no longer spoke Judahite ‘Hebrew’, the old “lip of Canaan”. Ne.13:24 “As for their children…none of them was able to speak in the language of Judah [Jehudith h3066].” Benson Commentary Ne.13:24 “The language which the [common] Jews then spoke was Cháldee; this language they learned in their captivity, and after their return never assumed their ancient Hebrew tongue.”
The returnees and their descendants spoke Aramaic. Some of the later chapters in the Old Testament (OT) timeline were written in Aramaic: Da.2:4b–7:28, Ezr.4:8–6:18, 7:12-26. see Part 1.
Then Greek became the language of commerce for the Grecian and Roman empires. Most historians say that at the New Testament (NT) time of Jesus/Yeshúa, Aramaic (also called Chaldee and Sýriac) was still the language spoken by the majority of common Jews in Judea. In most Judean synagogues, the OT scriptures were read from Hebrew scrolls, and interpreters (meturganim) translated them into Aramaic for the hearers. cf. Ne.8:8. But there was no Aramaic text of the entire OT (there was an old Greek text). So the Aramaic Tárgums were written.
The Targums are OT paraphrases. They were written in Aramaic, beginning in the 1st century AD. With them, Aramaic-speaking people could understand the OT text. The Targum of Ónkelos (the Law) and the Targum of Jonathán (the Prophets) were composed prior to 200 AD. They are official. Another Targum of the Law/Torah/Péntateuch is the Jerusalem Targum (also known as the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan). There’s also the Targum Neofití, for the Pentateuch. And a few others.
Perhaps the Aramaic Targums wouldn’t have been necessary if most Jews still knew Hebrew. But most no longer knew Hebrew. They spoke Aramaic or Greek. Bruce Metzger The Jewish Targums “Such versions were needed when Hebrew ceased to be the normal medium of communication among Jews.”
Whenever the Targums came to passages where YHVH was anthropomorphized or seen (appearing human), or where plural YHVHs are indicated…Targums substituted the “Word of YHVH” for “YHVH”! The Aramaic term for “Word” is Mémra. In Greek, “Word” is Lógos g3056, e.g. Jn.1:1. The Targum Neofiti was written in Palestine before 200 AD. Targ Neofiti Ge.1:1 “From the beginning with Wisdom the Memra [Word] of the Lord created and perfected the heavens and the earth.” (Of note also is Targ Jonathan Is.52:13, “Behold My Servant the Messiah…!” Disbelieving medieval rabbis claim “My Servant” here was the nation of Israel…but this earlier Targum indicated Is.52–53 refers to the Messiah an individual.)
Again, a few chapters of the OT were written in Aramaic. Ezr.5 is in Aramaic. Ezr.5:2 “Yeshúa the son of Jozadák.” Yeshua (a common male name) is also Messiah Jesus’ name in Aramaic.
The gospel writers record Jesus speaking Aramaic in red-letter text of our Bible, and they record places in Judea with Aramaic names. Following are some of the Aramaic words in the NT:
Jesus called the brothers in Mk.3:17, “Boanergés, that is, ‘Sons of Thunder”. Expositor’s Greek Testament “As pronounced by Galileans, in Syrian.” Jesus said to the dead girl in Mk.5:41, “Taleetháh koómee (which translated means ‘Little girl, arise!’)”. JFB Commentary “The words are Aramaic, or Syro-Chaldáic, the then language of Palestine.” Jesus said to the deaf man in Mk.7:34, “Éffathah!’, that is, ‘Be opened!” Cambridge Bible “The actual Aramaic word used by our Lord.” Jesus prayed in Mk.14:36, “Abbáh! Father!” Geneva Study Bible “The word Abba is a Syrian word.” (The Hebrew word for Father is Awb h1, the Aramaic is Ab h2, also Abbah g5.) Abbah is also seen in Ro.8:15 and Ga.4:6 of Paul’s epistles. The above verses reflect (Western) Aramaic words.
Luke wrote, Ac.1:19 “In their own language that field was called Hakeldamáh, the Field of Blood.” Luke recorded the Aramaic name of the field at Jerusalem purchased by Judas…“in their language”! Poole Commentary Ac.1:19 “The Syriac language then in use after the Babylonish captivity.”
The Jewish historian Josephus (37-100 AD) was a priest born in Jerusalem. His language was Aramaic. Wikipedia: Language of Jesus “Josephus differentiated Hebrew from his language and that of 1st century Israel. Josephus refers to Hebrew words as belonging to ‘the Hebrew tongue’ but refers to Aramaic words as belonging to ‘our tongue’ or ‘our language’ or ‘the language of our country.”
John recorded places at Jerusalem with Aramaic/Syriac names. Jn.5:2 Bethesdáh. Ellicott Commentary “Bethesda means ‘house of mercy’. The ‘Hebrew tongue’ is…what we ordinarily call Aramaic, or Syro-Chaldaic.” Jn.19:13 ESV “A place called the Stone Pavement, which in Aramaic [Hebraistí g1447 adverb] is Gabbatháh.” Gill Exposition “The Jews, who at this time spoke Syriac.” Jn.19:17 CSB “The Place of the Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotháh.” The NASB center margin notes the (bold) above terms as “Jewish Aramaic”…not Hebrew. Strong’s Dictionary of terms, and the commentaries quoted above, say these NT words are Aramaic/Syriac/Chaldaic…not Hebrew.
Wikipedia: Aramaic “The Christian New Testament uses the Koine Greek phrase Ἑβραϊστί Hebraïstí to denote ‘Aramaic’, as Aramaic was at that time the language commonly spoken by the Jews.”
Jesus said to Peter, “Blessed are you Simon BarJonáh” (Mt.16:17). Bar-Jonah means ‘son of Jonah’. Cambridge Bible “Bar is Aramaic for ‘son.” bar h1247. But the Hebrew term for “son” is ben h1121. So here Matthew records Jesus speaking Aramaic, not Hebrew. The Aramaic BarAbbás = son of Abbáh (Mt.27:16). Wikipedia op. cit. “Barabbas is a Hellenization of the Aramaic Bar Abba, literally ‘son of the father.” Also: BarTholomew = son of Tolmai/Ptolemy (Lk.6:14); BarTimaeus = son of Timaeus (Mk.10:46); BarSabas = son of Sabas (Ac.1:23 & 15:22 – two men); Barnabas = son of encouragement (Ac.4:36); Barjesus = son of Yeshua (Ac.13:6). Wikipedia ibid “The most prominent feature in Aramaic names is bar, meaning ‘son of’. Its Hebrew equivalent, ben, is conspicuous by its absence.” Those NT personal names are strong internal evidence that Aramaic language use was predominant!
Aramaic too is a language used by God! Stephen Missick The Language of Jesus, p.60 “Jesus is God incarnate and He spoke Aramaic.” The hand from God wrote in Aramaic the “handwriting on the wall” in 539 BC…‘MÉNE, MÉNE, TÉKEL, UPHÁRSIN’ (Da.5:24-28)!
{Sidelight: We don’t know what language Jesus wrote at the scene of the woman taken in adultery, writing on the ground with His finger (Jn.8:6). Jesus could’ve written in the common Aramaic, or perhaps He quoted the OT Hebrew or old Greek version. Jn.8:6 “Jesus with His finger wrote on the ground.” Maybe Jesus quoted or referred to Je.17:13 as He wrote the names of her accusers? Je.17:13 “Those who depart from Me shall be written in the dirt.”}
Jesus and 11 of His 12 disciples were from Galilee (Judas Iscariót likely was from Keriot in Judea). Galileans had a noticeable accent in their Aramaic dialect. ccaugusta.org “Jesus principally spoke a Galilean dialect of Aramaic.” A dialect of regional Western Aramaic. aramaicnt.com “Early Galilean Aramaic, the mother tongue of Jesus.” Ac.2:7 “Are not all these which speak Galileans?” Pulpit Commentary Ac.2:7 “The Galilean accent was peculiar and well known.” It is thought that their accent was more guttural or the gutterals (throat articulations) were blurred. One of the bystanders said to Peter in Mt.26:73 NET, “You really are one of them; even your accent gives you away”. Meyer NT Commentary Mt.26:73 “The natives were unable to distinguish especially the gutterals properly.”
Jn.11:1 the NT name Lázarus was Eleázar in Hebrew and Alázar in Aramaic. The ‘A’ was dropped and the Latin declension ‘us’ was added, resulting in Lazarus in our NT. Comparably, Englishmen today pronounce ‘Henry’ as ‘Enry’ (dropping the ‘H’). An older occasion of pronunciation difference in Israel is in Jg.12:6, where the Ephraimites said sibbóleth, but couldn’t say shibbóleth (with the ‘h’).
Aramaic is called a metallic-sounding language. The Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic (Mt.6:9-13):
“Abwoon d’Bwashmaya, Neet Kah Schmaakh
Teh Teh Malkutah, Neyweh Tzevyanah Aikhanah,
d’Bwashmayah Aph Buh Arh Ah Howlahn Lakhmah d’Soonkhanan Yaow Manah,
Wash Boh Klahn Kaow Behn, Wahktahehn,
Aikhanah Daph Knanahn Soobwoh-Khan Lahkhai Ah-Ben
Welah Tahlah Le Nesyunah, Elah Patzan Min Bishah
Metohl Delakhih Malkutah, Whyallah Wateshbuktah, Lah-Allam, Allmin.”
It is said that Jesus’ red-letter words in the gospel accounts are powerful when they’re retroverted from Greek manuscripts into Aramaic! But that they don’t back-translate as well into Hebrew. John’s gospel is thought to have the strongest Aramaic flavor or substratum (underlying layer) of any gospel account, especially Jesus’ sayings.
In the gospel quotes above, Jesus spoke Aramaic words. Also He likely spoke Greek in “Galilee of the gentiles” (Mt.4:15), and with Greek-speaking business clients there. In the Nazareth synagogue (Lk.4:16-21), Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah, either from the Hebrew OT or the old Greek version.
Ac.21:40-ff Paul, in making his own defense, chose to address the crowd of Jews in Jerusalem in Aramaic (not Greek). The NASB center margin notes the language Paul spoke here as “Jewish Aramaic” (Hebraís g1446 noun). Robertson’s NT Word Pictures Ac.21:40 “The Araméan which the people in Jerusalem knew better than the Greek.”
Interestingly, the OT never refers to the ancient language of the Israelites or Jews as the ‘Hebrew language’! Rather, in the OT their tongue was called the “language of Canaan” (Is.19:18) or Judahite (Jehudíth: 2Ki.18:26-28, Is.36:11-13, 2Ch.32:18, Ne.13:24). see Part 1.
Wikipedia op. cit. “A small minority believes that most of the New Testament was originally written in Aramaic.” The Aramaic Primacy view. At this point, that is speculation.
The Tálmud of rabbinic Judaism was written in Aramaic (200–500 AD). Yehuda Shurpin Why is the Talmud in Aramaic? “The Western Aramaic languages were used largely in the area that was under Roman (and later Byzantine) rule. The Jerusalem Talmud, composed in Israel, is written in a Western Aramaic dialect. The Eastern Aramaic languages flourished in the Persian Empire, and as a result the Babylonian Talmud, written in Persian-dominated Babylon, is in Eastern Aramaic. The Talmud was written in Aramaic, the language of the masses, so that it would be accessible to all. ”
Aside from the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) religious community, to date most surviving inscriptions of Jesus’ period on artifacts, tombs (Caiáphas’ tomb too), ossuáries/bone boxes, etc. in the Holy Land…are in Aramaic or Greek. Some are in Hebrew. Pieter van der Horst Jewish Funerary Inscriptions “In Jerusalem itself about 40 percent of the Jewish inscriptions from the first-century period (before 70 CE) are in Greek.” (cf. Ac.6:1-5 Stephen was a Greek-speaking Jew in Jerusalem.)
Breakdown of DSS text scripts: Old/Paleo Hebrew 1%, Hebrew/Áshuri square 78%, Aramaic square 17%, Greek 3%, other 1%. Historians say that some Hebrew language usage was redeveloping in Christ’s day in pocket areas (e.g. the DSS at Qumrán). Some was known by the educated and priests. Shurpin op. cit. “Hebrew was used for ‘holy’ matters, such as prayer, and not for ordinary activities.”
Wikipedia: Language of Jesus “According to DSS archaeologist Yigael Yadin, Aramaic was the language of Hebrews until Simon Bar-Kókhba’s revolt [132-135 AD in Judea]. Yadin noticed the shift from Aramaic to Hebrew in the documents which had been written during the time of the revolt. Yadin said, ‘It seems that this change came as a result of the order that was given by Bar Kokhba, who wanted to revive the Hebrew language and make it the official language of the state’. Yadin points out that Aramaic was the lingua franca [common language] at the time.”
Both Aramaic and Hebrew are classed as NW Semític Áfro-Asiátic languages; Hebrew is sub-classed a Canaanite language. Much later, c 800 AD, vowel points were added to the Hebrew language.
Prior to 1948, (Ashkenázi) Yíddish was the language of most Jews. The national language in modern Israel today is called ‘Hebrew’. It’d been near 2,500 years since Judahite/Hebrew was the language of common people (am-harétz) in the Land! But Modern Hebrew (Ivrít) has been influenced by Yiddish. Yiddish is classed a Germanic Indo-European language, not a Semitic. The tongue spoken today in Israel isn’t the ancient Canaanite/Hebrew “language of Canaan” (Is.19:18). Amir Zeldes wrote, “Modern Hebrew is a hybrid language. Modern Hebrew never was exactly Biblical Hebrew, and in many ways it has been a very different language for as long as it has existed.” Jewish Agency Jewish Languages “Only a minority of the Jewish people today can speak Hebrew…It is more common to use English.”
Aramaic was gradually superceded by the Semitic sister language Arabic during the Moslem conquest (c 700–1300 AD). Arabic is the liturgical language of Íslam.
Very few Aramaic dialects are spoken today. It is an endangered language. Some Christian groups in areas of Iraq, Syria, Iran, SE Turkey, speak an Aramaic dialect called Syriac. Churches in the East still use Aramaic as their liturgical language. Some refer to themselves as Assyrians or Chaldeans.
The prophecy of Zep.3:9 NASB, “I will give to the peoples purified lips [h8193], that all of them may call on the name of the Lord. From beyond the rivers.” Including heathens too, outside the Holy Land. Ge.11:9 the penalty for the sin at Babel was the confusion of the language/lip/shore (h8193). But eventually there’ll be no more ‘idol’ tongues speaking idolatry. Zec.14:9 “The Lord will be King over all the earth in that day.”
In the tongues miracle of Ac.2:1-11, pilgrim visitors at Jerusalem heard them speaking in their own languages. In many dialects. v.11 “We hear them speaking the mighty deeds of God.” In a sense, this heals the breach which occurred back in Ge.11! The penalty is removed. Words may be spoken from a pure heart/lips in any language. Ps.22:27 “All the ends of the earth will turn to the Lord. All the kindreds of the nations will worship before Thee.” Praise the Lord!
Bible Topic Exposition 