Showing posts with label aramaic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aramaic. Show all posts

Tuesday 4 April 2017

The language of Jesus and the title of God

English: psalms in Aramaic
English: psalms in Aramaic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The last few days I had some heavy discussions with Americans who found that Allah is a demon and could not believe that Jesus would ever have used that word. Though Allah is not only used by Arabs. This word is also used in many more languages to denote the singular God. Remarkable, to notice, is that the word has no plural from, like English, where you have God, god and gods.

Jesus is not the real name of the Messiah, like lots of English speaking believe and do not want to accept the Biblical characters had not the English names they are used to.

Lots of people either do not know or do not want to know, that by the beginning of the Common Era, Aramaic had replaced Hebrew as the spoken language of Palestinian Jews. The Essene Jew born in Bethlehem also was a Palestinian who spoke, like his worldly parents Aramaic.

We should remember that the causes of Hebrew’s decline could be hastened by the Babylonian exile in 587 B.C.E. and the continued foreign rule of Palestine during the Second Temple period. Though we must see and hear that there are many similarities between the two, both being a Semitic language.

Lots of people also do forget that for a long time it has been the second most important Jewish language — though it was spoken by non-Jews as well. The Talmud is written in Aramaic, as is the Zohar, the great medieval mystical text. One of the best-known Jewish prayers, the Kaddish, also is written in Aramaic. During the talmudic era, Hebrew illiteracy was so high that the Torah reading was recited along with a verse-by-verse translation into Aramaic.
We even find a conjugation of the word "Allah" when rabbi Jeshua cries unto his heavenly Father asking Him why He has abandoned him.

To the dismay of many English-speaking and Muslim haters, the world must realize that Allah is a title used by several people and even by Jesus to describe the only true God.

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Find also

A 1st reply to the 4th Question Who is God 1 A Creating Being to be worshipped

More on Aramaic and other languages spoken by Jews, like the in Belgium often heard Yiddish:

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Tuesday 27 May 2014

Jesus spoke Hebrew and Aramaic


Pope Francis and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traded words on Monday over the language spoken by Jesus two millennia ago.
"Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew," Netanyahu told Francis, at a public meeting in Jerusalem in which the Israeli leader cited a strong connection between Judaism and Christianity.
"Aramaic," the pope interjected.
"He spoke Aramaic, but he knew Hebrew," Netanyahu shot back.

We should compare it to today where many people speak their mothertongue and speak an other language for business matters and to be able to have a good conversation with others who speak a different language. As such many today speak English, Spanish or Mandarine to communicate with foreigners or business partners.

Jeshua was a palestinian Jew, from the Essene sect, who spoke Aramaic.
Israeli linguistics professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann told Reuters that both Netanyahu, son of a distinguished Jewish historian, and the pope, the spiritual leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, had a point.

"Jesus was a native Aramaic speaker,"
 he said about the largely defunct Semitic language closely related to Hebrew.
 "But he would have also known Hebrew because there were extant religious writings in Hebrew."
Zuckermann said that during Jesus' time, Hebrew was spoken by the lower classes - "the kind of people he ministered to"
But we should know that by those speaking Aramaic were also people who had studied and who had better positions in life and as such were not of the 'lower class'.

Additional reading > Pope, Netanyahu spar over Jesus' native language

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Friday 2 December 2011

November 2011 Articles to read

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In the
Weekly World Watch 30th Oct - 5th Nov 2011‏ Preparations are under way to attack Iran. What will Israel and America do? > CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEKS WWW

6th - 12th Nov 2011‏ Still not sure if Israel attack Iran ... Speculation mounts that they will.... CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEKS WWW

13th - 19th Nov 2011‏ It's all talk of war - even nuclear.... CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEKS WWW

20th - 26th Nov 2011‏
Syria threatens Israel...
CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEKS WWW

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The last few weeks we can see that more social workers do come under attack and that older people do become more fragile in their environment. In several countries the home carers are independent, voluntary, or working in the not-for-profit and statutory sectors who are under grated and not as such respected for what they have to do. A model for monitoring the supply and demand of social workers in England was been made public at the National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCAS) in October > Home care industry not valued.
The financial markets got out of hands and pulled down many countries.Several people felt it in their pocket and found it high time to react.  Many got panicking over the state of the economy and the effect it might have on their money if the country’s banking system would collapse and went to collect their money, which made it worse. collapses While some people thought it best to transfer their money to an other bank, an Occupy Movement came as a virus over the world and is obviously growing into a bigger social revolution. But those acting upon their desire for significant, positive change in a broken system were being physically attacked for their non-violent resistance. The world got a 'New Spring' revolt in the Arabic countries and undignified ‘Los Indignados’ went from Portugal and Spain to Belgium to let Europe hear that it could not go on like this. People questioned if they could belong to one or an other group but saw that there is a major group of 99% against 1% or another 53% (Tot de 99% of de 53% behorende +Oprukkende armoede in Noord Amerika  Onderbroeken, vreemdelingen en rechtsstaat + Occuppy Acties en Sociaal Engagement)

With all those problems people wondered who could bring them safety. The world could also wonder how far they want to go in their solidarity.When we look at President Obama how he has to fight against a brick wall to get some social measure to protect the fragile you can wonder.
> Voice for the plebs + Oproep van president Obama om stem te laten horen +

Steering captain Obama + Occuppy Acties en Sociaal Engagement + Violence or an other way to win + Justififiable anger or just anarchism + Banktransfer to one bank bad idea + Shame on American police
In a certain way people can find solutions to have an reasonable good life. Some crisis brought the country were people were living in such danger that it either broke down and became part of an other country or it grew stronger and became more united. But at the moment the world should note that several people are deprived of the necessary materials to stay in life. too many people are dying from bad conditions created by other human beings.

Kwetsbare mens in het Europa van morgen #1 Colloquium +

Kwetsbare mens in Europa van morgen #2 Te veel mensen gaan kapot aan deze samenleving +

Nearly 50 milion poor North Americans + Ecological economics in the stomach #1 Alarmbell + Ecological economics in the stomach #2 Resources + Ecological economics in the stomach #3 Food and Populace + Ecological economics in the stomach #4 Water + Ecological economics in the stomach #5 Right to food + Stimulating ideas on how to re-engineer our monetary systems + Ability for a community to come back from a crisis +


Sense or nonsense of “Human Fragility” should make us think about the situation now and about the future. As Christians we should be aware that we do have to take the right attitude in all of this.


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In November we looked at the language of the Holy Scriptures and looked forward to celebrations people hold to remember the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

Another way looking at a language #1 New Year, Books and Words

Posted on November 13, 2011
Another way looking at a language 1. New Academic Year = New books Every new academic year we go over to use another Bible translation in our ecclesia, to keep the minds going and to give opportunities to hear another voice or see another angle of lightning. It is a way of broadening the horizon. [...]

Another way looking at a language #2 Meanings

Posted on November 15, 2011.
Another way looking at a language 4. Changing meaning In Dutch we could find that when we would take a translation of the 1970ies the same word would have just the opposite meaning in the 2010′s. It can happen that at a certain time one word can have the opposite meaning depending whom it is [...]

Another way looking at a language #3 Abraham

Posted on November 17, 2011.
Another way looking at a language 8. Proverbs and verbatim As today in Dutch ( Nederlands), and probably also in other languages as in English, we can find a lot of words which got a totally different or new extra meaning, so it happened in the early centuries of our Contemporary Timetable as well. Though [...]

Another way looking at a language #4 Ancient times

Posted on November 18, 2011.
Another way looking at a language 11. Misreading in early times Already in early centuries of our current time we got some misreadings in the most ancient Greek manuscripts (Second and Third Centuries of the Common Era) could only have happened by misunderstanding a Peshitta-exclusive reading. How careful translators and readers of translations have to [...]

Another way looking at a language #5 Aramic, Hebrew and Greek

Posted on November 20, 2011
Another way looking at a language 13. Aramaic Aramaic is to believed to be originated in what is modern-day Syria. Between 1000 and 600 BCE it became extremely widespread, spoken from the Mediterranean coast to the borders of India. Its script, derived from Phoenician and first attested during the 9th century BCE, also became extremely [...]

Another way looking at a language #6 Set apart

Posted on November 22, 2011
Another way looking at a language 18. The Church The second biggest teaching in Scripture is that our Creator and Saviour are building a “Set Apart Nation” (“church” never occurs in Scripture!) never heard of in modern Christianity before, called “YAsarel” (Almighty YAH Reigns)! It may be a chock to some not to find anywhere [...]

Another way looking at a language #7 Lingua Franca

Posted on November 23, 2011
Another way looking at a language 20. Aramaic or Greek Lingua Franca All of Rav Shaul’s epistles (with the possible exception of Philemon since it was sent through a Roman contact, then to the assembly) were sent to Synagogues that contained Jewish and Gentile believers whose halakha (legal faith practices) were governed by Ya’akov HaTzadik [...]

Jesus begotten Son of God #1 Christmas and Christians

Posted on November 28, 2011
The Anointed begotten Son of God 1.     Jesus and Christians All Christians think they do know Christ Jesus. We as Christians can only do hope that those who want to become a Christian and those who call themselves Christian sincerely would be willing to investigate who that Jesus from Nazareth, who was called the Messiah, [...]

Jesus begotten Son of God #2 Christmas and pagan rites

Posted on November 29, 2011
6. Interweaving with heathen or pagan rites We as sincere Bible Students and followers of Christ should take the Words of God into account and should know that God does not like us to interweave with heathen happenings and idolatrous things. Christmas time is not a season of revival and up-building in the Church of [...]

Jesus begotten Son of God #3 Messiah or Anointed one

Posted on November 30, 2011
The Anointed begotten Son of God   9. Messiah or Anointed one As Christians we do speak about Jesus Christ the Messiah. The term Messiah is derived from the Hebrew root word mashiach. The verb is used when an object, an altar for example, was consecrated for a sacred purpose. The noun mashiach is used [...]

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Hebrew, Aramaic and Bibletranslation

Every academic year we do like to swap Bibletranslation to keep our minds alert to what is written and meant in the Holy Scriptures.

Most of us do not speak Hebrew or even do not know to speak or read the language. Having no knowledge of the language in which most of the Books of the Bible are written does not make it easy to come to the full understanding of those Hebrew words.

We do have to depend on translations which can be very strict in their translation or take a lot of freedom to translate what is written with a few words but gives a whole (long) meaning. Having no vowels or "the" "a" or "an" at certain places can create a certain confusion.


The Hebrew language  (/ˈhbr/) (עִבְרִית, Ivrit, About this sound Hebrew pronunciation ) is a Semitic language of the Northern Central (also called Northwestern) group or Afroasiatic language family, closely related to Phoenician and Moabite, with which it is often placed by scholars in a Canaanite subgroup.
Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such as the Samaritans. Most of the Samaritans went to use modern Hebrew or Arabic as their vernacular.

Spoken in ancient times in Palestine, Hebrew was sup­planted by the western dialect of Aramaic which Jeshua (Jesus) also spoke, during the 3rd century BCE; the language con­tinued to be used as a liturgical and literary language, however. It was revived as a spoken language in the 19th and 20th centuries CE and is the official language of Israel.

The history of the Hebrew language is usually divided into three major periods:
 1.Biblical Hebrew is often looked at as a dialetic form of Classical Hebrew The Biblical Hebrew according to scholars flourished around the 6th century BCE, around the time of the Babylonian exile. Classical Hebrew was used until c. 3rd century BCE, in which most of the core of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) or Old Testament is written. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon HaKodesh (לשון הקודש), "The Holy Language", since ancient times.
 2. Mishnaic or rabbinic Hebrew, the language of the Mishna (a collection of Jewish traditions), written c. CE 200 (this form of Hebrew was never used among the people as a spoken language);
 and 3. Modern Hebrew, derived from the word "ʕibri" (plural "ʕibrim") one of several names for the Jewish people, the language of Israel in modern times.

In the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit (יהודית) because Judah (Yәhuda) was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation, late 8th century BCE (Isaiah 36, 2 Kings 18). In Isaiah 19:18, it is also called the "Language of Canaan" (שְׂפַת כְּנַעַן).

Scholars generally agree that the oldest form of He­brew is that of some of the Old Testament po­ems, especially the "Song of Deborah" in chapter 5 of Judges. The sources of borrowed words first appearing during this period include the other Canaanite languages, as well as Akkadian and Aramaic. Hebrew also con­tains a small number of Sumerian words borrowed from an Akkadian source. Few traces of dialects exist in Biblical Hebrew, but scholars believe this to be the result of Masoretic editing of the text. In addition to the Old Tes­tament, a small number of inscriptions in He­brew of the biblical period are extant; the earliest of these is a short inscription in Phoenician characters dating from the 9th century BC. During the early Mishnaic period, some of the guttural consonants of Biblical Hebrew were combined or confused with one another, and many words, among them a number of adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions, were borrowed from Aramaic. Hebrew also borrowed a number of Greek, Latin, and Persian words. Use of the language declined from the 9th century until the 18th century. Modern Hebrew, based on the biblical lan­guage, contains many innovations designed to meet modern needs; it is the only colloquial speech based on a written language. The pronunciation is a modification of that used by Jhe Sefardic (Hispano-Portuguese) Jews rather than that of the Ashkenazic (East European) Jews. The old guttural consonants are' not clearly distinguished or are lost, except by Oriental Jews. The syntax is based on that of the Mishna. Characteristic of Hebrew of all stages is the use of word roots consisting of three consonants, to which vowels are added to derive words of different parts of speech and meaning. The language is written from right to left in a Semitic script of 22 letters.

Hebrew alphabet, either of two distinct Semitic alphabets-the Early Hebrew and the Classical, or Square, Hebrew. Early Hebrew was the alphabet used by the Jewish nation in the period before the Babylonian Exile -i.e., prior to the 6th century BCE - although some inscriptions in this alphabet may be of a later date.

Several hundred inscriptions exist. As is usual in early alphabets, Early Hebrew exists in a variety of local variants and also shows development over time; the oldest example of Early Hebrew writing, the Gezer Calendar, dates from the 10th century BCE, and the writing used varies little from the earliest North Semitic alphabets. The Early Hebrew alphabet, like the modern Hebrew variety, had 22 letters, with only consonants represented, and was written from right to left; but the early alphabet is more closely related in letter form to the Phoenician than to the modern Hebrew. Its only surviving descendant is the Samaritan alphabet, still used by a few hundred Samaritan Jews.

Between the 6th and 2nd centuries BCE, Classi­cal, or Square, Hebrew gradually displaced the Aramaic alphabet, which had replaced Early Hebrew in Palestine. Square Hebrew became established in the 2nd-1st centuries BCE and developed into the modern Hebrew al­phabet over the next 1,500 years. It was ap­parently derived from the Aramaic alphabet rather than from Early Hebrew but was nonetheless strongly influenced by the Early Hebrew script.

Classical Hebrew showed three distinct forms by the 10th century CE: Square Hebrew, a formal or book hand; rabbinical or "Rashi-writing," employed by medieval Jewish scholars; and various local cur­sive scripts, of which the Polish-German type became the modern cursive form.

Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, corresponding to the Hellenistic and Roman Periods before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and represented by the Qumran Scrolls that form most (but not all) of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Commonly abbreviated as DSS Hebrew, also called Qumran Hebrew. The Imperial Aramaic script of the earlier scrolls in the 3rd century BCE evolved into the Hebrew square script of the later scrolls in the 1st century CE, also known as ketav Ashuri (Assyrian script), still in use today.

The son of Myriam (Mary/Maria) and Joseph (Josef/Jozef) from the tribe of Daniel, also known as Jeshua, Jesus Christ the Messiah, spoke the Aramaic language which also belongs to the Semitic languages of the Northern Central or Northwestern group or to the Afroasiatic language phylum.The name of the language is based on the name of Aram,  an ancient region in central Syria.(Oxford English dictionary, http://oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/10127)

During its 3,000-year written history, Aramaic has served variously as a language of administration of empires and as a language of divine worship. It was the day-to-day language of Israel in the Second Temple period (539 BCE – 70 CE) The difficulty with this language is that Aramaic's long history and diverse and widespread use has led to the development of many divergent varieties which are sometimes called as dialects, though they are quite distinct languages. Therefore, there is no one singular Aramaic language.

In the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, it gradually supplanted Akkadian as the lingua franca of the Near East and later became the official language of the Persian Empire. Aramaic replaced Hebrew as the language of the Jews; portions of the Old Testament books of Dan­iel and Ezra are written in Aramaic, as are the Babylonian and, Jerusalem Talmuds.

Jesus and the Apostles also spoke this language. Its period of greatest influence extended from c. 300 BC until c. AD 650; it was supplanted by Arabic.

In the early Christian era, Aramaic divided into East and West varieties. West Aramaic dialects include Nabataean (formerly spoken in parts of Arabia), Palmyrene (spoken in Palmyra, which was northeast of Damascus), Palestinian-Christian, and Judeo-Aramaic. West Aramaic is still spoken in a small number of villages in Lebanon. East Aramaic includes Syriac, Mandaean, Eastern Neo-Assyrian, and the Aramaic of the Babylonian Talmud.

One of the most important of these is Syriac, which was the language of an extensive literature between the 3rd and 7th centuries. Mandaean was the dialect of a Gnostic sect centred in lower Mesopotamia. East Aramaic is still spoken by a few small groups of Jacobite and Nestorian Christians in the Middle East.

Modern Aramaic is spoken today as a first language by many scattered, predominantly small, and largely isolated communities of differing Christian, Jewish and Mandean ethnic groups of West Asia. (Heinrichs 1990: xi–xv; Beyer 1986: 53.)
Today we can find it by the Assyrians (also known as Chaldo-Assyrians) in the form of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic.

File:Syriac Sert book script.jpg


Looking into those ancient languages we do want to follow their way of thinking, understanding how the thoughts are blended into words and phrases full of verbatim and proverbs which we do have to try to see and understand in the light of the way of thinking at that time.

To give a simple example, a few weeks ago when somebody said he was "mad about his apartment" the American listener thought he had become crazy or out of mind because of his apartment. Though the speaker meant just the opposite, namely that he was in love with his apartment. He did not detest it in such a way that he became insane of it, but he came into the clouds living there. (Not meaning that he really went up into the clouds, high in sky.) I use this simple example in the hope everyone can understand how we have to follow the way of saying and have to be careful not to take a proverb literally. Because that happens a lot today when folks read the Bible. As Bible readers we have to transpose ourselves in the time when it was written and how the people thought at that time.

Further we have to take into account how we are going to or how Bible-translators did  translate the The Hebrew alphabet (Hebrew: אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי‎‎, Alephbet 'Ivri).

By using the Jewish script, square script, block script, or more historically, the Assyrian script, it has to be taken into account how it is spoken out and how one word is written against an other. Best it can be compared to other Jewish languages, most notably Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic.

There have been two script forms in use. The original old Hebrew script is known as the paleo-Hebrew script (which has been largely preserved, in an altered form, in the Samaritan script), while the present "square" form of the Hebrew alphabet is a stylized form of the Aramaic script, which has its alphabet adapted from the Phoenician alphabet and became distinctive from it by the 8th century BCE. The letters all represent consonants, some of which are matres lectionis, which also indicate long vowels.
The Aramaic alphabet is historically significant, since virtually all modern Middle Eastern writing systems use a script that can be traced back to it, as well as numerous Altaic writing systems of Central and East Asia. This is primarily due to the widespread usage of the Aramaic language as both a lingua franca and the official language of the Neo-Assyrian, and its successor, the Achaemenid Empire. Among the scripts in modern use, the Hebrew alphabet bears the closest relation to the Imperial Aramaic script of the 5th century BCE, with an identical letter inventory and, for the most part, nearly identical letter shapes.
Aramaic alphabet, major writing system in the Near East in the latter half of the 1st mil­lennium BC. Derived from the North Semitic script, the Aramaic alphabet was developed in the 10th and 9th centuries BC and rose into prominence after the conquest of the Aramaean states by Assyria in the 9th and 8th centuries BC. The Aramaic language and script were used as a lingua franca over all of the Near East, and documents and inscriptions in the Aramaic alphabet have been found in Greece, Afghanistan, India, northern Arabia, and Egypt. The oldest inscription in Aramaic script yet discovered dates from approximately 850 BC.
The Aramaic alphabet is a writing system of 22 letters, all indicating consonants, and it is written from right to left. It is ancestral to Square Hebrew and the modern Hebrew al­phabet, the Nabataean and modern Arabic scripts, the Palmyrene alphabet, and the Syriac, as well as hundreds of other writing sys­tems used at some time in Asia east of Syria. Aramaic also has been influential in the devel­opment of such alphabets as the Georgian, Armenian, and Glagolitic.
Various "styles" (in current terms, "fonts") of representation of the letters exist. There is also a cursive Hebrew script, which has also varied over time and place.

When we want to use names of persons and places we should carefully look how they are written and spoken. When we transfer certain letters into our language into a consonant we should do that for all the words the same way. In English translations we can often find irregularities in that. For example do we not find Yona, but Jonah, Joshua, and Jeruzalem for Yerusalem, but for Yeshua they write Jesus and for Yahuhwah they suddenly go from three syllables to two syllable and write for the Yod an Ypsolom giving God the Name Yahweh instead of the better translation, keeping to the three original syllables, Jehovah and speaking it better not as Americans with an "Dzee" but with an "Yea".

This year we shall become more confronted with those Aramaic names and also will see that in the original writings of the Scriptures they used different words for slightly different things. In such a way we shall wonder if we not better take those different meanings also in our language as different words so that we clearly shall be able to see if there is been spoken off of a direct pupil of Jeshua (Jesus),  or one of the many disciples or the special pupils or sent ones (Shlichim) or one of the seventy.

By checking if the Beth, Daleth, Gimel Heth, Kaf, Qof and the vowels tërë and bireq are translated into the other languages we shall see where there was no consistency and which one we better should follow.

We do know that within a Hebrew name the aleph represents a smooth breathing, and for practical purposes may be considerd a 'silent' letter, but because it gives a softer sound than without putting the 'h' on top of it we do prefer to use the 'h' as well in Dutch, though the Language Commision gives it without an 'h'. The Governemental Dutch language regulation, by the Dutch Language Union and the Spellingraad (Spelling Committee and Dutch Spelling Council) indicate that we should write Jehova in Dutch for the Hebrew Name of God, but there we prefer to use the International used form of Jehovah to have uniformity on our websites in the different languages (and giving more possibilities to have it spoken out as in Hebrew with the soft h-ending. )


For this article is made use of the Encyclopaedia Britannica where you can find more:

Encyclopaedia Britannica Macropaedia: Major re/. 1:621 b ·alphabetical order antiquity 1:619d . Semitic calligraphy development 3:662b . signs and English equivalent, table 3 8:594 . vowel indication methods 19: 1038c; table 1035 . Yiddish adaptation 8:26c

 alphabet origins and standardization 1:621 b; table 620 . alphabet and English equivalent, table 3 8:594 'alphabetical order antiquity 1:619d ·English vocabulary borrowings 6:879a ·Hamito-Semitic languages map 8:590 ·Israel's revival of common language 9: 105ge ·Jewish liturgical use and status 10:297c . Karaite impetus to 9th-century studies 10:318f ·medieval belief in aboriginality 10:643h ·naming patterns 12: 818f ·origins, development, and literary use 10: 196d 'preservation and educational respect 6: 322f 'punctuation and pointing since 800s 15:276g 'relationships, writing, and phonology 8:592d passim to 595c . sacral status as biblical language 7:60h 'U.S. parochial education curriculum 6:42ge ·Yiddish formative influences 8:25h
 
See also Syriac language. 'ancient spread and influence 17:942g +
 Major re/. 1:619h . calligraphy style and development 3:662b ·Iranian varieties and adaptations 9:456d . origins, spread, and influence 17:942g ·vowel indication methods 19: 1038c; table 1035

RELATED ENTRIES in the Ready Reference and Index: Armenian alphabet; Brahml; Georgian alphabets; Greek alphabet; Hebrew alphabet; Kharo~!l; Klik Turki alphabet; Nabataean alphabet; Pahlavi alphabet; Palmyric alphabet; Samaritan alphabet; Syriac alphabet

Monday 19 September 2011

Some Restored Name Versions

While the HalleluYah Scriptures is based on the 1993 version of Dr. Chris Kostner "The Scriptures", the IRS or Institute for Scripture Research in 2009 updated their 1998 version of the same basic work.They tried to have some Improvements to the text - seeking a yet closer equivalent to the literal meaning of the original language. Hebrew names of Book Titles they now placed on right hand pages with corresponding traditional English names on the left hand pages - making it easier for you to find the place, and easier to learn the Hebrew titles. (Hebrew names are also used where possible for annual festival days, as well as being used, minimally, for ambiguous words).
The books in the Tanakh are arranged according to the original order of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings.Words and names, as far as possible, have been corrected in order to eliminate any names of idolatrous origin.

The Hebraic Roots Version Scriptures HRV => The HRV Scriptures formerly known as the Hebraic Roots Version Complete Messianic Study Bible is published by the Institute for Scripture Research.

The new Messianic Bible

"The Ketuvim Netzarim" ("Writings of the Nazarenes") => a Messianic Sacred Name Edition  translated from the original Aramaic and Hebrew.

The Word of Yahweh <= The basic text of the Word of Yahweh is based upon standard English language versions of the scriptures, which in turn are built upon the oldest available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek manuscripts. This version has retained much of the old English grammatical structure used by many English translations.
The personal name of the Heavenly Father, Yahweh, was inspired into the Hebrew and Aramaic texts of the Old Testament nearly 7000 times. This includes 134 instances where the Masoretic scribes admittedly changed Yahweh to the more common Hebrew adonai. In all instances where Lord, or God was substituted for the Sacred Name in the English text they have properly inserted Yahweh. In addition to the many times the Father’s name is rendered as Lord or God, there are many more instances where these terms were used as translations of the Hebrew words elohim and adonai. Because there is no accurate translation of elohim they have transliterated that title into the English. As for adonai, sovereign or master serves as an adequate translation in most cases.

The Scriptures is by some presented as an exciting new literal translation of the Bible in English. This translation differs significantly from most common English translations in that it has restored the original book order of the Tanakh (Old Testament) and arranged them according to the original order of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings.
The traditional rendering of the word "Law" has been restored with "Torah" throughout the translation, retaining the richness and full meaning of this word in the Hebrew language.
Words and names, as far as possible, have been corrected in order to eliminate any names of idolatrous origin.
The Names of all the books in the Tanakh and the Messianic Scriptures are now restored to the original Hebrew names, including the books of the Torah: Bereshith (Genesis), Shemoth (Exodus), Wayiqra (Leviticus); the books of the Nevi'im: Yeshayahu (Isaiah), Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah), Zakaryah (Zachariah); the books of the Kethuvim: Tehillim (Psalms), and Mishle (Proverbs); and last but not least the books of the Messianic Scriptures: Mattithyahu (Matthew), Yohannan (John), Kepha (Peter), and many more.
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In the article I go deeper in on the difficulties of using the Hebrew signs and wonder how far we do have to go in a Bible translation to stay true to the original.

Do you think we have to use all the Hebrew names everywhere for all the persons and book-names? Do we also have to go so far to take out all the heathen or describing words when there is the one Hebrew word? To use Ruah for Spirit looks all right but Shabbatoth for weeks?


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2016 linkupdate 

Thursday 23 December 2010

Revival of Jesus’ language at Oxford


Christ's endangered language gets new lease of life in Oxford

Jim Caviezel plays Jesus Christ in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which is in Aramaic An Aramaic course offered by Oxford University is drawing scores of scholars from as far afield as Liverpool and London .
Some 56 scholars are now studying the Aramaic language there, outpacing the number of those currently studying classical Greek.It is the language that Christ spoke, but is regarded as "endangered" with ever fewer scattered groups of native speakers.
David Taylor has previously taught the language to groups of two or three people in his study, and was astounded by the turnout for his first public lesson. Though a few fell by the wayside, more than 40 stayed the course until the classes ended in time for Christmas.
John Ma, an Oxford classicist and one of the leaders of Project Arshama which organised the lessons, said: "You would probably have to go back 2,000 years to find a room so full with people speaking Aramaic – the time when Jesus would have been speaking the language."
Dialects of Aramaic – a 3,000-year-old language once spoken by millions across the Mediterranean and near east, from Syria to the borders of India – are still spoken, but Taylor believes the war may push it to the verge of extinction in Iraq.
His students were learning imperial Aramaic, from his own newly devised grammar, which is intended to be easier to learn as a beginner. They were not entirely convinced. Boris Chrubasik, an Oxford classics graduate, said: "Getting used to a semitic language is all but easy, and when the radicals start dropping one gets upset." However, he insisted staunchly: "Learning Aramaic is fun."
Most of the students were postgrad classicists like Chrubasik, but some theologians and biblical scholars came too.
Ma, a fellow and tutor at Corpus Christi, took the lessons himself and is beginning to dream in Aramaic. Very dull dreams, he admits. "Mostly verb paradigms (since there's some rote learning, as with other languages) and once saying to someone, 'Mindeam la avdeth anah' … I didn't do anything."
And he ruefully quotes a fellow student on mastering a particular vowel sound, "a guttural throat sound not unlike incipient vomiting".
However, after two lessons he could read in the original the words spoken by Christ on the cross: "My God, my God why did you forsake me." After eight, he realised to his surprise that he could understand the Aramaic dialogue in Mel Gibson's 2004 film The Passion of the Christ.
"It was very satisfying, it's not always like that when you learn a new language," he said.
The lessons were organised by Oxford University's classics faculty and faculty of oriental studies as part of Project Arshama, a collaboration between the universities of Oxford and Liverpool, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project is focused on one of the treasures of the vast Bodleian library, the 13 Arshama letters, written on leather in the Persian empire in the 5th century BC – priceless to scholars because so many documents on parchment or clay have not survived. There will be a seminar and an exhibition on the letters next summer.
Ma has supplied some useful Aramaic phrases for the season (with a nervous eye on his tutor, because he's not quite sure he's got all his vowels right):
• "Shelam biznah qodemay, ap tamah qodemayk shelam", from a letter written 2,500 years ago, translates as "Peace here before me, and also peace over there before you", but colloquially means "I am well, and hope you're well too".
• "Anah rahem leki" (from a man to a woman) and "Anah rahmah lak" (from a woman to a man), which means "I love you".
• "Shelam we sherarat saggi hawseret leki" for "I have sent you peace and much strength".

Wednesday 3 March 2010

Murdock or Murdoch Bible

James Murdock (or Murdoch) (1776-1856) studied theology under Timothy Dwight at Yale and went on to become a minister, seminary professor, and author on church history, oriental languages, and philosophy. He was professor of Ancient Languages at the University of Vermont, and four years later was called to the chair of Sacred Rhetoric and Ecclesiastical History in Andover Theological Seminary. He was one of the founders of the American Oriental Society. He translated a number of works from the German, and was well known as a linguistic scholar. His translation of the Peshito New Testament is considered a faithful rendering from the Syriac, and one of his most important works.
The 1851 book is an octavo, and the text covers 471 pages. The author tells us he commenced his translation early in August, 1845, and completed it on the 16th of June, 1846.
Though in 1850 we find a publication published by Ruther Roby. On the 1851 version Murdock shows his vast knowledge of Christianity and of the Syriac language, which was the primary language used by Christian people in Northern Mesopotamia (now Iraq) before Arabic became the dominant language in the area. Unlike Younan and Lamsa, Murdock was not an Aramaic-speaking Assyrian, nor a Peshitta primacist. (Find :
Murdock pedigree + Murdoch Genealogy)

> James Murdock, The New Testament; or, the Book of the Holy Gospel of our Lord and our God, Jesus the Messiah. A literal translation from the
Syriac Peshito version.. New York: Stanford and Swords, 1851.

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852 James Murdock Translation of the Aramaic Peshitta

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Download the 1852 James Murdock Translation of the Aramaic New Testament (Peshitta) Today!