Aramaic Language
Hadrian Mar Elijah Bar Israel
By Hadrian Mâr Élijah Bar Israël
ARAMAIC itself came from the Sumerian language, which is the
oldest written language for which we have any evidence. As such, Aramaic belongs
to the Northwest Semitic language family, and is a close relative of Hebrew; originating
with a number of antecedents including Akkadian, Babylonian and Sumerian, which
makes it an entire millennia older than Chinese or Greek. In its present form
Aramaic is 3.000 years old and is therefore the oldest continuously spoken
language in the world. Aramaic is the source of the original phœnetic alphabet,
from which every other alphabet in the history of the world has come.
Parts of the Old Testament, were written in Aramaic, as were both the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds. The Jewish-Aramaic papyri, which were found in Egypt in 1900, have uncovered many passages in Biblical Aramaic. Ancient cuneiform tablets discovered in Nineveh has shown us that a number of the stories in the first five books of Moses (i.e. the “Torah”) were copied from ancient Babylonian legends. The discovery of the commentary on the Book of Habakkuk in the caves of Qumran in Jordan proves that Aramaic has been in constant use from the earliest times to the present day.
The New Testament was originally written in this language, as attested by the incredible poetry, rhythm, rhyme and prose contained in it, which does not exist in any other language version of the Scriptures. We know from the scriptures that Jesus and His apostles spoke the Galilean dialect of Aramaic, and that this dialect was different enough from that of Jerusalem that the Jews they encountered when Jesus was arrested, and when the Apostles were in the Upper Room knew that they were from Galilee.
Aramaic was the primary Semitic language, and the language of the patriarchs of Israel. It was also very much the lingua franca of the entire eastern world. It was the reason that the people of Nineveh understood the prophet Jonah. The Aramaic language survived the falls of Nineveh and Babylon, and remained the official language of the Persian dynasty of Achæmenian Dynasty (559–330 BC). Early Aramaic Inscriptions have been found in a large area that stretches from Siberia in the North, to Sri Lanka in the south, and from Egypt to Japan.
It was also the primary language of trade on the Silk Road, which brought both knowledge and goods from as far away as Japan, back to the Persian capital in Selucia-Çtiphon, now the modern day city of Isfahan, Iran. Aramaic writing known as Hudum was used by the Mongols to denote their language, and a similar script was used by the Silla kings of Korea, which later morphed into the Hangul script used in Korea today.
After the captivity, Aramaic became the vernacular of the Jewish people and is still used by them in the worship. The word “Hebrew” is derived from the Aramaic word “Abar “ עבר or “Habar”, meaning “to pass over”. This name was given to those who were protected at the time of the Passover.
There are a number of dialects of Aramaic which are still spoken today, including Suroyo (West Syriac) which is spoken in Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, Turoyo (East Syriac) which is spoken in Iraq and Iran. This split into two separate dialects occurred as the result of long standing hatred between the two communities of Aramæans, over the issue of the ‘nature of Christ’, on which they could not agree, and for which they continue to fight each other.
The importance of the Aramaic language as a necessary part of human history cannot be over stated.
Hadrian Mar Elijah Bar Israel teaches comparative linguistics at the Zeitoun University