Aram, son of Shem (Genesis 10:22-23),
founded the nation of Aram, which was later known as Syria. The language that
developed among these people was Aramaic (Heb. אֲרָמִ֔ית or ‘Araamiyt; rendered “Syrian” in the KJV),
a Semitic language closely related to Hebrew, having a similar alphabet but
spoken differently (cf. 2 Kings 18:26; Isaiah 36:11). Abraham’s immediate
descendants spoke Hebrew, whereas Aramaic was used by Laban, the grandson of
Abraham’s brother (Genesis 31:47). A form of Aramaic came to be the common language of
the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Persians (cf. Ezra 4:7; 2 Kings 18:17,
26), viz. East Semitic in contrast to the Northwest Semitic that developed among the Jews.
Aramaic-speaking Jews
Prior to their exile, the soon-to-be Jewish captives were to learn the following statement in the Aramaic tongue in order
to communicate it to their Babylonian captors: “The gods that have not made the
heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens”
(Jeremiah 10:11).1 The more capable Judean prisoners were taught to
speak Aramaic (Chaldean) immediately (Daniel 1:4), and during and after the 70-years' Babylonian exile the Jews adopted the Aramaic tongue as their own. While the
majority of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, large portions of Ezra
(4:8–6:18; 7:12-26) and Daniel (2:4b–7:28) appear to have been written in Aramaic.2
By the time of Christ, although Hebrew
continued to be used among the rabbis in Jerusalem, Aramaic had replaced pure
Hebrew as the everyday vernacular of the Palestinian Jews (cf. Acts 1:19). Jesus
could read and understand Hebrew (Luke 4:16-21), but he apparently spoke
Aramaic (cf. Mark 5:41; 7:34; 15:34; Acts 26:14). When Hebraisti (“the Hebrew language”) is mentioned in the New Testament,
it most likely refers to Aramaic as the spoken language of the Hebrew people at
this time (John 5:2; 19:13, 17, 20; Acts 21:40; 22:2; 26:14; Revelation 9:11;
16:16).
Aramaic in the New Testament
Though written in koinē Greek, the respective Gospels of Matthew,
Mark, and John employ Aramaic expressions.3 Mark and John go on to translate
the words into Greek, which indicates both evangelists were communicating to non-Aramaic-speaking audiences. Matthew, on the other hand, mostly leaves these
words untranslated, which suggests his readers were (or at least included) Aramaic-speaking Jews.4 Luke, however, omits most of the Aramaic terms
altogether,5 and his third-person reference to Aramaic as “their own
language” (Acts 1:19) implies that neither he nor his readership were Aramaic
speakers.
The apostle Paul was bilingual,6
fluent in both Aramaic (the heart language of his ethic kinsmen) and Greek (the
lingua franca of the Roman Empire)
(Acts 21:37, 40; 22:2; cf. 26:14). In Paul’s extant writings, Aramaic
expressions are occasionally employed (Romans 8:15; 1 Corinthians 16:22; Galatians 4:6), and he almost always refers to Peter by the Aramaic name Cephas
(1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:11; 9:5; 15:5; Galatians 1:18; 2:9, 11, 14) – textual
variation notwithstanding.7
Post-New Testament Aramaic
Syriac, an Aramaic dialect, was the
language of the inhabitants of eastern Syria and northern Mesopotamia. Not only
were there Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and Mesopotamians present on the Day of
Pentecost (Acts 2:9), the Lord’s church was well established in Syria before
the mid-first century (Acts 9:19; 11:19-26; 13:1-3). According to tradition,
the apostles Thomas and Thaddeus took the gospel beyond the eastern borders of
the Roman empire,8 and under King Abgar IX (ca. 190-206)
Christianity became the official religion of the Parthian kingdom. By 225
churches were established throughout the Tigris-Euphrates valley, from the Caspian
Sea to the Persian Gulf.
Syriac-Aramaic was the first language into
which the Greek New Testament was translated, and Tatian, an Assyrian convert
who studied under Justin Martyr in Rome, produced a harmony of the four Gospels
known as the Diatessaron in the Syriac
language (ca. 150-170). In fact, Syriac became the common language among
Christians in eastern Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, and eventually India,
Mongolia, and China. The Nestorian Monument, erected in 781, commemorates the
arrival of Christianity into the capital of China in 635 and contains both Syriac
and Chinese inscriptions. Two Christian cemeteries in Kyrgystan, dating from
the eighth to the thirteenth centuries, have inscriptions on tombstones in both
Syriac and Turkish.
Conclusion
While God is omnilingual, a variety of
languages have been used through the ages to communicate and accomplish the
divine will among God’s human creation. Most students of the Bible are aware of
the significance of Hebrew and koinē Greek, but Aramaic has also played a crucial role. It functioned as a suitable conduit of God’s revelation and the original teachings of
Christ, as well as an effective evangelistic tool among pre-Christian Jews,
Jewish Christians, and later Eastern Christians. “There are, it may be, so many
kinds of languages in the world, and none of them is without significance.
Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner
to him who speaks, and he who speaks will be a foreigner to me” (1 Corinthians 14:10-11).
As we continue the monumental task of taking the gospel into all the world, may we exercise diligence in contextualizing the message and clearly communicating it so that God's will can most effectively be accomplished in the lives of all who receive it (Isaiah 55:11).
As we continue the monumental task of taking the gospel into all the world, may we exercise diligence in contextualizing the message and clearly communicating it so that God's will can most effectively be accomplished in the lives of all who receive it (Isaiah 55:11).
--Kevin L. Moore
Endnotes:
1 All scripture quotations are
from the NKJV.
2 Aramaic is also the primary
language of the Jewish Talmud. The Dead Sea Scrolls reveal that Jewish Aramaic
was unique and related to the Hebrew script.
3 Matthew 5:22; 6:24; 16:17;
27:33, 46; Mark 3:17; 5:41; 7:34; 14:36; 15:22, 34; John 1:42; 20:16.
5 For example, the place of
Jesus’ execution is referred to by its Aramaic name Golgotha in Matthew, Mark and John, whereas Luke simply uses the
Greek designation Chranion (“Skull”).
Note that it was the Latin calvaria that
influenced the KJV’s rendering “Calvary.” Besides Acts 1:19, Luke's only other employment of an Aramaic (Syriac) term is "mam[m]on" in his record of Jesus' speech in Luke 16:9, 11, 13.
6 Technically, with his
miraculous gift of tongue-speaking (1 Corinthians 14:18), Paul would have been
multilingual as circumstances necessitated. See Speaking in Tongues.
7 In the Corinthian correspondence, the Aramaic "Cephas" is used exclusively. In Galatians Paul alternates between the Aramaic and Greek names, but texts vary among the manuscripts in 1:18 and 2:7-14 ("Cephas" 1x/"Peter" 5x in NKJV vs. "Cephas" 4x/"Peter" 2x in NASB).
7 In the Corinthian correspondence, the Aramaic "Cephas" is used exclusively. In Galatians Paul alternates between the Aramaic and Greek names, but texts vary among the manuscripts in 1:18 and 2:7-14 ("Cephas" 1x/"Peter" 5x in NKJV vs. "Cephas" 4x/"Peter" 2x in NASB).
8 See Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. 1.13.4-22; 3.1.1. The early
third-century Acts of Thomas, telling
of the missionary journey of Thomas to India, was written in Syriac and first
circulated in Edessa before it was translated and more widely distributed.
Image credit: http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3170/3047100194_173a99a534_o.jpg
