Language atlas of 1st Century Palestine

From: Brian E. Wilson (brian@twonh.demon.co.uk)
Date: Thu Dec 18 1997 - 07:31:45 EST


Neil wrote - SNIP :
>I have always understood (on the authority of people like J Jeremias
>and T W Manson) that the mother-tongue of Jesus was a Galilean version
>of western Aramaic, and that the evidence lies in the Aramaic preserved
>in the logia of Jesus -- TALIQA KOUM (Mark 5.41); HLWI HLWI LEMA
>SABACQANI (Mark 15.34); ABBA (Mark 14.36); BAR (Matt 16.17); KHFAS
>(John 1.43) etc. Does that argument no longer carry weight?

The transliterated Aramaic in Mark could be original to Jesus. On the
other hand, Jesus could have spoken Mishnaic Hebrew, and his words could
have been Aramaicized at some time between Jesus and the writing of the
synoptic gospels. In Mk 15:34, Jesus's cry from the cross begins with
the Aramaic ELOI, ELOI. In Mt 27:46 the same cry begins with the Hebrew
ELI, ELI. Was the Aramaic Hebraized, or was the Hebrew Aramaicized? We
do not know. More generally, the transliterated Aramaic in Mark could
be transliterated Aramaicized Hebrew, or it could be transliterated
Aramaic. Either is feasible. The possibilities are still being
investigated by people like Shmuel Safrai.

What we do know is that the Papias tradition concerning a man named
Matthew is MATQAIOJ MEN OUN hEBRAIDI DIALEKTW TA LOGIA SUNETACATO
hHRMHNEUSEN DE AUTA hWJ HN DUNATOJ hHEAKTOJ - ** Matthew, then, compiled
the LOGIA in the Hebrew/Aramaic language, and each translated these as
best he could. ** Unfortunately for us, the phrase hEBRAIDI DIALEKTW
can mean either Hebrew or Aramaic. I think if we take this tradition
seriously, however, it means that the disciple Matthew compiled notes in
either Hebrew or Aramaic of what Jesus said and did and what happened to
him during his ministry. In this case, Jesus and his disciples, and
therefore probably most of the natives of Galilee, spoke either Mishnaic
Hebrew or Aramaic. I would suggest more investigation needs to be done
to settle the issue.
BRIAN WILSON



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