Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

Resources available for the study of the Aramaic - Part 1

A number of works have appeared over the years, some scholarly some not so scholarly, that suggest that all, or at least parts of the New Testament originated as Semitic documents, either in Aramaic or in Hebrew. The most thorough, and most scholarly of them is Matthew Black’s An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts. This work first appeared in 1946. A second edition appeared in 1954. The third edition appeared in 1967. This third edition was reprinted in 1998 by Hendrickson Publishers with a new introduction by Craig Evans. The work was pretty thoroughly critiqued by Joseph Fitzmyer, and at least a summary of the main points of Fitzmyer’s critique may be found in his essay "The Study of the Aramaic Background of the New Testament," which was reprinted in the collection of Fitzmyer’s essays titled A Wandering Aramean in 1979. This collection has been recently republished by Eerdmans (1997) along with another collection of essays originally titled Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament. The combined volume is titled The Semitic Background of the New Testament.

Going from the most scholarly to the least brings us to the works of George Lamsa. His translation of the Bible from the Syriac Peshitta, and his voluminous essays on related topics give his work a greater appearance of substance than they actually deserve. Though a certain cult seems to have grown up around the writings of Lamsa, the foundation on which it is based is pretty rickety. Those, such as Black, who argue for more Semitic in the origins of the New Testament than is usually admitted, avoid any reliance on the work of Lamsa.

Two other works also deserve some note here. The first of these is Jean Carmignac’s The Birth of the Synoptic Gospels (1987). It is an English translation of the French, which first appeared in 1984. As the title indicates, it deals specifically with the gospels, and mostly ignores the rest of the New Testament. The second work is Claude Tresmontant’s The Hebrew Christ: Language in the Age of the Gospels. This is also a translation of a French original. The French text appeared in 1983, with the English version appearing in 1989.

Early in the spring of 2006, another work on the subject appeared by Andrew Gabriel Roth, entitled Ruach Qadim: Aramaic Origins of the New Testament. I have not yet had the opportunity to evaluate this work, but plan to do so in the next month or so.

It is my intent over the next few weeks to set forth extended reviews of Carmignac, Tresmontant, and Roth. I should note at this point that my conclusions are primarily negative, but I intend also to highlight the helpful aspects of these works. Just because a man is wrong, does not mean he is absolutely wrong.

As a foretaste, Carmignac’s work makes one very helpful contribution. He gives an annotated list of the most important Hebrew translations of all or part of the New Testament. These range from the translation by Simon Atoumanos (about 1316) to that of Franz Delitzsch (10th edition 1890) to the United Bible Societies translation of 1976. Check in next week for more on Carmignac.

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