Biblical Languages: Aramaic Resources

In 1924, Professor Sperber graduated from Bonn University with a dissertation on "Das Propheten-Targum in seinem Verhaltnis zum masoretischen Text". He was then invited to prepare a critical edition of the Targum. Thus Professor Sperber began an immense task. The Bible in Aramaic is the fruit of more than forty years of study, during which he made innumerable trips to various countries in order to visit libraries and examine manuscripts. The first part of The Bible in Aramaic appeared in 1959. Needless to say this work is indispensable for students of the Old Testament.

"An abbreviated English form of KB ...; it used as much of HALAT as was available at the time and supplied the rest from KB. It is intended for students beginning their study of biblical Hebrew and Aramaic and is well suited for that purpose." (Fitzmyer)

Spoken and written by Jews in Palestine during the Byzantine period, Jewish Palestinian Aramaic is found in the Palestinian Talmud, texts dealing with religious law, and other texts. Entries provide English definitions of all Aramaic words appearing in an Aramaic context, as opposed to Aramaic loanwords appearing in Hebrew texts. Each entry provides the most basic form of the lexeme, the part of speech, the English gloss, the etymology, the various morphological forms, and references to works discussing the word's form and meaning.

Lindenberger presents an anthology of better-preserved letters in the two languages, excluding those found in the Hebrew Bible, down to the time of Alexander the Great, along with one each in Edomite, Ammonite, and Phoenician. He has expanded the 1994 first edition with nine new texts that have been subsequently published or recognized as letters, or that were overlooked previously. Originals are followed by English translations within sections the number. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The literature embraced in this Dictionary covers a period of about 1000 years, and contains Hebrew and Aramaic elements in about equal proportions.

This book is written for those who wish to study Biblical Aramaic without having first mastered Biblical Hebrew. It clearly explains the alphabet, the phonology (sound system), pronouns, nouns, numerals, prepositions, conjunctions, negation, adverbs, particles, the existential copula and verbs. The final chapter goes over the many loan words in Biblical Aramaic that come from different languages in use at the time. Following the chapters of the book are paradigms for different kinds of verbs, a brief bibliography, and a glossary of the entire vocabulary of Biblical Aramaic (but with only brief glosses, not full definitions). The book closes with an index of biblical citations.

This update of the 1999 edition introduces the language allegedly spoken by Adam and Jesus. The primary focus for students familiar with biblical Hebrew is on Aramaic passages in the Old Testament. Includes a glossary and exercises with an answer key. Greenspahn's credentials are not stated. The Society of Biblical Literature publishes the book and distributes the paperbound edition; Brill distributes the clothbound edition. Annotation 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Syriac is the Aramaic dialect of Edessa. Today it is the classical tongue of the Nestorians and Chaldeans of Iran and Iraq and the liturgical language of the Jacobites and the Maronites.

This combined edition reprints the text of two works, A wandering Aramean, originally published in 1979 by Scholars Press and Essays on the Semitic background of the New Testament, originally published in 1971 by Geoffrey Chapman Ltd.

This standard grammar book of biblical Aramaic, used by students at many seminaries and universities, is the only one to include graded exercises at the close of each of its twenty lessons.

A Student's Vocabulary for Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic provides the student with a vocabulary list by word frequency for words appearing ten times or more in the Hebrew text. Unlike other vocabulary lists, this work combines all word forms in a single list, simplifying the student's task of learning all words of a given frequency. Words are given in groups of thirty or fewer in order to provide the students with short, manageable learning blocks. The vocabulary list also gives the basic meaning of each word, a phonetic pronunciation guide, key information about the word's part of speech, and the number of times each word appears in the Hebrew text. A separate section of the vocabulary list contains all Aramaic words appearing in the Old Testament. A Student's Vocabulary for Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic is a tool that will be welcomed and used by all students of Hebrew.

In English, with Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac examples. In this groundbreaking study, the author challenges the long-held assumption that the ancient Aramaic version of Job found at Qumran belongs to the genre of Targum.