Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

Aramaic Epistles - Part 2 - The Praescriptio

Letters have a formal order, though in this day of e-mail, the elements of this order seem to be getting fewer and fewer. Further, the formality of writing seems to have disappeared with the widespread use of e-mail. However, the surviving Aramaic epistles tend to follow a set formal order containing the same elements, though of course the details vary from one to another.

The first element of the order is called the praescriptio. This term is sometimes used to refer to the entire greeting, such as James 1:1, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings." This statement includes the name of the sender, the name of the addressee, and the greeting. Fitzmyer (p.188) prefers to separate the praescriptio from the greeting, and limit the praescriptio to the names of the sender and the addressee. This is due to the fact that in the surviving Aramaic letters, the greeting is sometimes missing, or is quite elaborate. This organization of these elements may be compared with modern English letter writing. In business, or in formal correspondence, the addressee's name and address are given before the body of the letter, with the sender's name and title following the letter. In informal correspondence, the addressee's name is given before the body of the letter, while the name of the sender appears afterwards. In Aramaic epistolary style, the two names come together at the beginning of the letter.

Certain variations occur in the style of the praescriptio of those letters that have survived. Some follow the form "to N, (from) M, your servant." This may be compared to the old English style, where the sender of the letter will conclude, "your humble/obedient servant." This is pretty clearly from letters that are more formal. Another variation is the simple "to N from M" or with the order of sender and addressee reversed. A final variation is the simple "to N" with the sender's name omitted.

One note regarding Aramaic vocabulary may be made at this point. In older Aramaic, the preposition 'el (the first consonant being an aleph) was the ordinary preposition for "to" or "for." As Aramaic developed, the preposition 'el was replaced by the preposition 'al (the first consonant being an ayin). However, the original 'el has been retained in the preascriptio of the letters to indicate the addressee.

As for titles used in the addresses, "lord" and "servant" are common, and indicate either a difference of social rank, or a difference in level of authority. In a similar fashion, the word "brother" is used not only in the case of relatives (established from the content of the letter) but also in the case of those who were equals, either in social status or in rank. Obviously, in family correspondence family titles occur with regularity, though there does seem to be a curious mixing of terms. In one letter (Fitzmyer, p. 190) the external address indicates brother to brother, but the content makes it clear that it is a father writing to a son. The use of "brother" in such a context probably indicates that the son is an adult, and was essentially being addressed as an equal by his father.

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