HOW DO WE KNOW THAT GALILEAN ARAMAIC WAS THE LANGUAGE OF JES JESU US? By Hadrian Mâr Élijah Bar Israël http://www.marelijah.org
© 2016 – All All Rights Reserved by Righteous Endeavour http://www.righteousendeavour.com
2
INTRODUCTION By this monograph, we demonstrate the essential proof that Jesus and His apostles spoke the Judean / Galilean dialect of Aramaic, rather than Greek, Hebrew, Latin or any other language or dialect as demonstrated by the original Peshitta and confirmed by the later Greek manu manuscr scripts ipts of the scriptures. There is i s a scholarly s cholarly consensus co nsensus of o f the t he fact that, "A "Aramaic ramaic was the common language of Palestine in the first century AD” and that “Jesus and his disciples spoke the
Galilean dialect, which was distinguished from that of Jerusalem"1
1 Allen
EerdmansBibleDictionary ansBibleDictionary . Grand Rapids, MI: C. Myers, ed., "Aramaic" in The Eerdm William William B. Eerdmans, 198 7, ISB ISBN N 0-8028-24020-8028-2402-1 1 , page 72
3
WHAT IS ARAMAIC? Aramaic is a language branch of the Northwest Semitic family, and of which Syriac is an amalgamated dialect. Over the ages, Aramaic has broken into literally hundreds of dialects based on socio-geological factors, not the least of which were the rise and fall of empires, eras of Jewish thought and more, and covers Old, Middle and Modern variants in both Eastern and Western dialects. In the biblical era alone, which spans nearly five thousand years, we have Achaemenid, Hasmonean, Babylonian, Galilean, Nabataean, Syrian, Samarian, Edessan (Old Syriac), Jordanian, Caessarian, Judean (also referred to as Yerushalmi), Damascene, Imperial, Samaritan and many, many more. In Biblical times, dialect was an extremely important factor in a person’s
status. For instance, the Gileadites killed the Ephraimites based on how they pronounced the word 2.
2 See: See:
Judges Judges 12
4
JES J ESUS US WAS A GALIL G ALILEAN EAN
In Jerusalem (Judea) where Judean (Yerushalmi) Aramaic was spoken, Jesus and his followers did not fit in due to their accent or, because it was a regional dialect of Aramaic foreign to the Judean region... In fact “when He entered into Jerusalem, all of the city was stirr sti rred ed up u p aski as king ng,, "Who is this thi s man?" man? " And the th e crowds were saying, "This is Yeshua the Prophet, who is from Nazare Naza reth th in i n Galilee Gali lee.."3
This can have two meanings, the first is someone from the city ci ty of Nazareth Nazareth in the the low lo wer Ga Galil lilee ee,, and and the seco se cond nd is a member of the Nazarite sect which thrived in that region. Either way, He was most particularly a Galilean.
3 Matthew Matthew
21:10 -11
5
PETER WAS A GALILEAN Shimum was a fisherman from Galilee, whose brother Andrew knew John the Baptist and had heard from him that the Messiah was born in the person of Yeshua (“ Jesu Je suss”).4 Thus it follows that they would speak their own language and dialect, and not the language and dialect of other people. After Jesus’ arrest,
“a servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.”5
4 John 1 5 Luke
22:56 NIV
6
After a little while, those who were standing by drew near, and said to Kepha, "Surely also you are with them, for your accent exposes you. Then he began to curse, and to say, "I do not know that man! And in that hour the cock coc k crow cro wed."6
But he again denied it, and after a little while those who were standing there said to Kepha, "Truly you are one of them, even as you are from Galilee, and your speech is lik li ke theirs! theirs !"7
6 Matth Matthew ew
26:73 -74 * *, see see also also Luke 22 :58-60 :58 -60
7 Mark 14:70
7
THE OTHER APOSTLES WERE all GALILEANS Then the Acts of the Apostles records that at the time of Pentecost:
Which translates as: … there were many Jewish Jewish men who feared feare d God God from fro m all al l natio na tions ns unde un derr heav he aven en,, and an d when that th at soun so und d occurred, occurre d, peop pe ople le gathe ga there red d and an d were rioting because they were hearing each man spea sp eaki king ng in their the ir own lang la ngua uage ge… … Now they th ey were were all astonished and wondered aloud to one another saying, "Behold, weren’t all of these who are speaking Galileans? For how do we
8
hear each of them in the language to which we were born?”8
Thus we have clear contextual evidence from the scriptures that Christ and his Disciples spoke Galilean Aramaic; and understand that the dialect of the Galileans differed from that of the Judeans, which although are remarkably similar and mutually intelligible, preserve many subtle and distinguishing differences. The Galilean dialect of Aramaic has very distinct grammar and pronunciation and is maybe one of the least understood of the many Aramaic dialects which exists. This language was virtually wiped out after the ascension of the Caliphate in the 7th Century, when Arabic rabic beg began an to replace Aramaic ramaic in the Galilee. Galilee .
8 Acts
2:5-8 *
9
Aram Aramaic aic not n ot Hebrew? Hebrew was not the commonly spoken language of first century Israel, though it was used liturgically in the Temple and in synagogues. The lingua franca of Jesus’s time was in fact Aramaic. Few people spoke Hebrew, and then only in liturgical situations, much like Old Slavonic to-day, a language spoken almost exclusively by priests. pries ts. According to the Dead Sea Scrolls archaeologist Yigael Yadin, Aramaic was the spoken language of Jews until Simon Bar Kokhba tried to revive Hebrew and make it as the official language of Jews during the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-135 AD). Yigael notes.9,10 "It is interesting that the earlier documents are written in Aramaic while the later ones are in Hebrew. It is possible that the change was made by a decree of Bar-Kokhba who wanted to restore Hebrew as the official language of the state"11 . He notes there that his decree was most likely made as part of his messianic ideology.
9 Sigalit
Ben-Zion, A Roadmap to the Heavens: An Anthropological Study of Hegemony among Priests, Sages, and Laymen, in Judaism and Jewish Life, Academic Studies Pr, Brighton, Brighton, 2008, ISBN 10: 193484 3148, Page Page 155 10 Yigael Yadin , Bar Kokhba: The rediscovery of the legendary hero of the last Jewish Revolt Against Against Imperial Rome, Random House~trade, 19 71, ISBN 10: 0394471849 0394471849,, page 181 11 K imberly B. Stratton Strat ton , Naming the Witch: Magic, Magic, Ideology, and Stereotype in in the Ancient Ancient World, Columbia University Press, 2007, ISBN 10: 10: 02311383 0231138369 69,, page 232
10
There are also a number of scriptural texts which back up this claim. For instance, in Acts 1:19, it says "And it became kn know ownn to all the inhab inhabitants itants of Jerusalem, Je rusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood." "Akel dama" is Greek transliteration of Aramaic words "Akh’qel Dama." "Field of Blood" If Aramaic words "Akh’qel
Dama" are translated into Hebrew, the words in the Hebrew tongue would be "Shadeh Hadam." If Hebrew was used as a spoken language in first century Israel, then "Shadeh Hadam" would have been mentioned rather than "Akh’qel Dama" Through this verse it is
confirmed that all the inhabitants of Jerusalem spoke in their "own" language in first century Israel which was Aramaic. Other strong scriptural proofs of the use of Aramaic in first century Israel are found in the very names of the people mentioned. "Bar" Bar"tholomew (Bartholomew), "Bar"abbas (Barabas), "Bar"nabbas (Barnabas), "Bar" Jesus, Shimun "Bar" Younas (Apostle Peter), "Bar"sabbas, and "Bar"timaeus are a few of the many examples of names which use the Aramaic word “ Bar ” meaning 'Son' rather than “ Ben” Ben” in Hebrew or υιο in Greek. When Jews say " Hebrew Hebr ew" in the New Testament,
they were referring to the language spoken by the Hebrews which was unmistakably Aramaic.
11
Not GREEK? Some people have claimed that Jesus and His Apostles must have spoken Greek as well as Aramaic, and give a number of reasons for this. None of them seem to be compelling (that it was the language of trade, that there were Greeks living among them, et cetera)…
Many of the words mentioned in the New Testament, such as "Golgotha " in John 19:17 are Greek transliterations of Aramaic words. In Hebrew, Golgotha would have been named Ha 'Ha Gulgol Gulg oleth eth' ' . Even the words spoke on the cross by Christ are recorded in Aramaic. Now for fo r some so me source so urcess beyon beyondd the Bible from fro m the t he same era; we turn to the Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus who wro wrote te:: "I have also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and understand the elements of o f the Greek languag lan guage, e, although althou gh I have so long accustomed myself to speak our own tongue, that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness; for our nation does not encourage those that learn the languages of many nations, and so adorn their discourses with the smoothness of their periods; because they look upon u pon this sort of accomplishment accomplishment as as common, not only to all sorts of free-men, but to as many of the servants as please plea se to learn them. But they give gi ve him the th e testi te stimony mony of bein be ing g a wise wis e man who is i s fully fu lly acquainted acquainted with our laws, and is able to interpret their meaning; on which account, as there have been many who have done their endeavours with great patience patience to
12
obtain this learning le arning,, there have h ave yet hardly been so many as two or three that tha t have h ave succeede succeeded d therein, therein , who were immediate immediately ly well rewarded for their pains." pa ins."
Jose Jo seph phus us states; states ; "I hav have proposed propos ed to myse myself, lf, for f or the sake sake of such as live under the government of the Romans, to translate those books into the Greek tongue, which I formerly composed in the language of our country, and sent to the Upper Barbarians. Joseph, the son of Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, a priest also, and one who at first fought against the Romans myself, and was forced to be present at what was done afterwards, [am the author of this work]." In Antiquities of Jews Book 3, Josephus points out that Hebrews called Pentecost " Asartha Asart ha ", which is Aramaic. We know that because Aramaic places Aramaic definite article "tha th a " at the end of a feminine noun in an emphatic state. Thus " Asartha Asar tha " in Aramaic becomes " Ha Ha Atzeret Atzer et " in Hebrew. Unlike Aramaic, Hebrew place placess the definite article artic le (" Ha Ha") at the beginning of a word rather than at the end. In the preface to the Jewish Wars, Josephus states that Aramaic was a widespread language and "understood accurately" by Parthians, Babylonians, the remotest Arabians, and those of his nation beyond Euphrates with Adiabeni.12 Josephus differentiates Hebrew from both his language and the language of the first century Israel
12 See
both bo th t he Jewish Jewish Wars and Ant iquities iquities of the Jews Jews
13
which is Aramaic. Josephus calls Hebrew as Hebrew tongue while he calls Aramaic as "our tongue" or "our language" in both of his works.13 This is agreed upon by Yigael Yadin who points out that Aramaic was the lingua franca of this time period. perio d. Even now, there are only three dialects of Hebrew, and Galil Ga lilean ean has has nev never er been one of o f them. The The extant extant diale dialect ctss are: European (i.e. Ashkenazi), Spanish (i.e. Sephardic) and Middle Eastern (i.e. Yemenite). It is clear enough from this that Hebrew was not the language which was being spoken in the Biblical na narr rrativ ative. e. Jesus and His apostles certainly were not speaking Greek in the course of the Biblical narrative, because the Greek that is recorded is unquestionably a redaction of an original Aramaic source, preserving the original Aramaic poetry, acrostics, split words, et cetera. Furthermore, if they had been speaking Greek, the difference of regional accents mentioned above would not have occurred.
13 Yigael
Yadin , Bar Kokhba: The rediscovery of the legendary hero of the last Jewish Revolt Against Against Imperial Rome, Rando Random m House~trade, House~trade, 1 971, 97 1, ISBN 1 0: 0394471849 0394471849,, page 234
14
THE FATE OF THE LANGUAGE The sad fate of Galilean was partly because eastern Syriac scholars “corrected” many of the original
Galilean Galil ean manu manusc scripts, ripts, as demonstr demonstrated ated by the nu numb mber er of acrostics found in the Peshitta which show that the scriptures were probably originally written in Galilean. Also the finds of the Cairo genizah which dated from around 870 A.D. onward, contain a number of Galilean manuscripts, which have helped scholars to rebuild a working knowledge the language. To be sure, the entire New Testament was originally written in Aramaic, in the Western Yerushalmi (sometimes also known as “Judaean”) dialect of
Aramaic which was prevalent in the early 3rd Century. This dialect of Aramaic is most closely akin to Syriac, so similar simil ar in fact that that the t he Peshitta Pe shitta is refe re ferr rred ed to as ha havving been writ written ten in “Sy “Syriac”. riac”. The The one who recor rec orded ded it likely likel y
heard Christ speak it clearly, but translated it into this dialec dialectt for the t he sake sake of o f his own own readers readers.. The fact remains that there is exactly no evidence from any source that shows that Jesus ever spoke any langu languag agee other ot her than than the Galilean Galile an dialec dialectt of Arama Aramaic. ic.
15
