Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

The Oldest Aramaic? - Part 2

tells the story of the covenant established between Jacob and Laban, when Jacob and his wives and children left for Canaan. Laban proposed the covenant, calling it a witness (ed) between them (v. 44). Jacob then set up a stone as a pillar (matsebah). This action forms an inclusio (parenthesis) with his action in 28:18, the narrator’s way of telling us that Jacob’s sojourn outside of the land is coming to an end. The Jacob tells his “brothers” to take stones and make “heap” (gal). Jacob’s brothers are not those of his family who are with him, but rather Laban and those with him. In other words, Jacob’s action and his request indicate his agreement to the establishment of the covenant. The covenant was then sealed by the actions that followed. The two sides shared a meal, then Laban named the pile in Aramaic and Jacob named it in Hebrew. This combination of covenant meal and mutual naming indicates the desire of both sides to enter into the covenant. Laban then reiterated Jacob’s Hebrew name for the pile, indicating his acquiescence to the covenant. Finally, Laban calls the place Mizpah, meaning watch-post, indicating that the Lord will be the one to see that the terms of the covenant are kept.

In all this, the reader should take note that Laban was the initiator of the covenant and Jacob was the respondent. It was Laban who set the terms of the covenant (v. 50), and Jacob who agreed to them. Laban had the final word of affirmation regarding the terms of the covenant. The whole ritual is completed by a sacrifice with which both Laban and Jacob swore by the God of their fathers, concluding with a second meal made from the remains of the sacrificed animal.

The use of the Aramaic name by Laban was important to the whole episode, because it showed Laban’s affirmation of Jacob’s naming of the pile of stones. The two related families—Jacob and Laban—each affirmed the covenant in their native tongues. Thus it is unlikely that the Aramaic was a later insertion into the story. Instead it was an essential part of the whole transaction.

An account of the episode may well have been written down at the time, with copies kept for the posterity of both sides. Such action was common in the Ancient Near East. The mention of two tablets of stone with regard to the Ten Commandments, for example, probably refers not to some of the commands being written on one tablet and some on the other, but rather two complete copies of the commands. One belonged to Yahweh, the other two the Israelites. That is, each party of the covenant had a copy of the covenant to preserve for posterity. The fact that the earliest examples of written Aramaic that have been found come from several centuries after this episode should not concern the reader.

The fact is that for all the ancient written records that have been recovered in the Near East in the last century or so, they are really only the tip of the iceberg. What these records indicate is that writing was common and widespread throughout the Ancient Near East, and that much of the writing was done on perishable materials. The Aramaic that has been found was written in Phoenician script. It may well be that prior to that time, Aramaic was written in a different sort of script. Or it may also have been that Aramaic did not become an important written language until the first millennium. In that case there would have been far fewer earlier records, most of which would not have survived. In any case, tells us that Aramaic was used in the early part of the second millennium BC, and unlike Akkadian, never ceased to be used, even though many changes in the language took place over the succeeding centuries.

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