Friday, March 19, 2010
There were three languages prevalent in Jesus' time: Aramaic, Greek and Latin. We know Jesus spoke Aramaic, which was the Native language of His day. He probably spoke Greek and maybe some Latin as well. Actually, I believe Jesus could have spoken any language He wanted to. On our recent trip to Israel, I learned that there was an ancient language called Syriac Aramaic. The owner of the store we were visiting claims that this was the language that Jesus spoke. Many others have claimed this throughout the centuries as well. In this video, our host quotes the Lord's Prayer in Syriac Aramaic. Perhaps this is exactly the way Jesus would have spoke it.
The language that Jesus spoke may be controversial, but there is no disputing He understands every language.
The language that Jesus spoke may be controversial, but there is no disputing He understands every language.
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Most individuals don't realize that Aramaic is not one language, but a family of closely-related languages. As such, this gentleman's rendition of the Lord's Prayer isn't in *the* Aramaic that Jesus knew (i.e. Old Galilean Aramaic). Like you said, it's in Syriac Aramaic, a dialect that truly crystalized as a literary language 200 years after his death.
In critiquing Victor Alexander's translation of the "ancient Aramaic" Bible, I went over a quick "litmus test" to quickly tell apart Syriac from what Jesus would have spoken based on a few prominent features to look out for. It can be found here:
http://aramaicdesigns.blogspot.com/2010/03/victor-alexanders-aramaic-bible.html
I also currently teach a course on the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic that goes over a number of extant Aramaic traditions, as well as scholarly reconstructions of the Prayer in Jesus' own dialect. It's a fun case of linguistic archeology. Some time in the future, I'll actually post my own reconstruction efforts on The Aramaic Blog with a full explanation and sourcing for each decision made putting it together.
Peace,
-Steve
In critiquing Victor Alexander's translation of the "ancient Aramaic" Bible, I went over a quick "litmus test" to quickly tell apart Syriac from what Jesus would have spoken based on a few prominent features to look out for. It can be found here:
http://aramaicdesigns.blogspot.com/2010/03/victor-alexanders-aramaic-bible.html
I also currently teach a course on the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic that goes over a number of extant Aramaic traditions, as well as scholarly reconstructions of the Prayer in Jesus' own dialect. It's a fun case of linguistic archeology. Some time in the future, I'll actually post my own reconstruction efforts on The Aramaic Blog with a full explanation and sourcing for each decision made putting it together.
Peace,
-Steve
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