Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

Resources available for the study of the Aramaic - Part 3

Carmignac found in the Greek of the New Testament frequent Semitisms of various types that, to his mind, could only be explained by the idea that the gospels especially had been translated from Hebrew (or Aramaic) originals. He divided these Semitisms into various categories which he then evaluated for their significance for his thesis.

The first category of Semitisms he classified as "the Semitisms of borrowing." What he meant by that was simply the appearance in Greek of words transliterated from Hebrew and Aramaic. These include such words as amen, abba, and alleluia. The first and last are transliterations of Hebrew words, while the middle is Aramaic. As Carmignac noted, the use of such words really demonstrates nothing about the origins of the gospels, any more than our modern use of the same words in English does. It is simply the adoption by one language of fitting, or well-known, words into another language.

The second category of Semitisms he classified as "Semitisms of imitation." By this he meant Semitisms that originated with the Septuagint that were then imitated by the NT authors. That is, he assumes that the Septuagint contains many phrases or constructions that reflect the Hebrew original, and which the Septuagint expresses in good, but perhaps not standard Greek. The further assumption is that the NT authors may have, consciously or unconsciously, attempted to imitate the Septuagint style in their own writing. This attempt at imitation may have then resulted in Semitisms that originated in the Septuagint being reflected in the language and style of the NT. This would be a particularly difficult kind of thing to identify, and Carmignac himself offers no examples.

The third category of Semitisms he classified as "Semitisms of thought." He gave two general examples of what he meant. The first is the fact that Hebrew and Aramaic both are paratactic in expression, while Greek is syntactic. To explain those two terms, paratactic style is that in which connected clauses are not subordinated one to another, but rather coordinated. Hence, in Aramaic as well as in Hebrew the most common conjunction is "and." What subordination there might be after the main clause is left to the reader to infer. Though Carmignac does not mention it specifically, the regular use of kai (Gk and) to connect clauses in the gospels is typical of this sort of Semitism. His second example of this type is what he calls "a certain fullness" of expression (p. 22). An example of this would be Matthew 4:4, "he answered and said." There the speaking is presented in two aspects, which is normal Semitic style, but not Greek. Many of the recent English translations have omitted this kind of "redundancy," but the reader can readily see it in the older English versions. Another example of this sort of fullness of expression is found in the constructions "that a person begins to do such or such a thing" (p.22). This may be compared to the use of "fixing" commonly found in modern Southern English: I am fixing to go to the store. Carmignac admits that these "Semitisms of thought" can only point to the cultural context of the author but cannot indicate "the original language of a work" (p. 23).

Next week we will move to some of the more interesting of Carmignac’s types of Semitisms.

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