Aramaic StudiesPub Date : 2021-06-29DOI: 10.1163/17455227-bja10021
J. Lund
{"title":"Did the Syriac Translators of the Old Testament Peshitta Regard ܫܡܝܐ as Singular or Plural?","authors":"J. Lund","doi":"10.1163/17455227-bja10021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-bja10021","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In recent literature, the noun ܫܡܝܐ has been described as a singular in the book of Isaiah, ostensibly on the basis of the lack of syame. I will argue to the contrary, demonstrating that it should be described as a plural in this corpus. The key to proper interpretation of the form is agreement with other clausal and phrasal constituents, not the presence or absence of syame.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42572208","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aramaic StudiesPub Date : 2021-06-17DOI: 10.1163/17455227-bja10020
Aziz Emmanuel Eliya Al-Zebari
{"title":"The Morphology of Adjectives in the Neo-Aramaic Dialects of ʿAqra","authors":"Aziz Emmanuel Eliya Al-Zebari","doi":"10.1163/17455227-bja10020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-bja10020","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The present article presents a synchronic description of the morphology of adjectives in the highly endangered Neo-Aramaic dialects of ʿAqra in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. It discusses the morphology of adjectives in these dialects as used in the sixties of the last century. In particular, the article highlights adjectival patterns, inflectional features, and the adaptation of loanwords from Kurdish, Arabic, and Turkish. The article contributes to the description of the grammar of some 150 North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) dialects in the Kurdistan region that are gradually falling into disuse, due to internal disputes, wars, economic crises, and globalisation.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47923512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aramaic StudiesPub Date : 2021-05-17DOI: 10.1163/17455227-BJA10019
Leeor Gottlieb
{"title":"Towards a More Precise Understanding of Pseudo-Jonathan’s Origins","authors":"Leeor Gottlieb","doi":"10.1163/17455227-BJA10019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-BJA10019","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Many have assumed that Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (TgPsJ) is the product of first millennium Palestine. This study presents evidence suggesting that TgPsJ is neither from the first millennium, nor from Palestine. TgPsJ displays an unawareness of some basic facts with regard to the geography of the land of Israel, which makes the argument for its author being a native of Palestine unpersuasive. Excerpts from Even Bochan, a twelfth-century Hebrew lexicon written by Menachem ben Shelomo, the author of Sekhel Tov, exhibit textual similarities to statements found elsewhere only in TgPsJ. The nature of these statements lead to the conclusion that Even Bochan precedes TgPsJ and not vice versa. This suggests that the origins of TgPsJ are to be found in twelfth-century Italy.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":"104-120"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42206508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aramaic StudiesPub Date : 2021-04-21DOI: 10.1163/17455227-BJA10018
Gavin Mcdowell
{"title":"The Date and Provenance of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: The Evidence of Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer and the Chronicles of Moses","authors":"Gavin Mcdowell","doi":"10.1163/17455227-BJA10018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-BJA10018","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The date of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan has been the occasion of much controversy, with propositions ranging from the Second Temple period to the time of the Crusades. Related to the Targum is the late midrashic work Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer (eighth century), but the nature of this relationship is disputed. The present article proposes that the Targum depends unilaterally on PRE, based on two principal arguments: 1. PRE does not refer to common Targumic traditions in Pseudo-Jonathan; and 2. Pseudo-Jonathan uses sources that post-date PRE, namely the Chronicles of Moses, which was written around the eleventh century. The Targum’s use of late sources places its redaction long after the conclusion of the first millennium. The author proposes a twelfth-century Italian origin, which corresponds to the earliest evidence for the Targum.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":"121-154"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42986725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aramaic StudiesPub Date : 2021-04-12DOI: 10.1163/17455227-BJA10009
Gary A. Rendsburg
{"title":"Targumic Parallels to Variant Readings of the Book of Samuel amongst the Cairo Geniza Manuscripts","authors":"Gary A. Rendsburg","doi":"10.1163/17455227-BJA10009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-BJA10009","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The Cairo Geniza has yielded 650+ manuscripts (all fragmentary, of course) of the book of Samuel. A survey of those documents reveals a number of places with variant readings, especially when compared to the great medieval codices: Aleppo (A) and St Petersburg (L). The present article demonstrates that many of these variant readings are reflected in Targum Jonathan and in the Peshitta.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46332138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aramaic StudiesPub Date : 2021-04-07DOI: 10.1163/17455227-BJA10017
P. B. Hartog
{"title":"The Qumran Pesharim and Targum Jonathan to the Prophets","authors":"P. B. Hartog","doi":"10.1163/17455227-BJA10017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-BJA10017","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that the Qumran pesharim and TgJon originate from a common, though internally varied, elite intellectual traditionwith a priestly character. This tradition developed particular interests, e.g. messianism and eschatology, and transmitted individual textual and interpretative traditions. As it appears, this tradition has pre70ce roots, but continued after the destruction of the temple. Both the Qumran commentaries andTgJon reflect the interests of this priestly tradition and incorporate some of its textual and exegetical traditions, though not through literary dependence.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":"1-16"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45036791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aramaic StudiesPub Date : 2021-03-15DOI: 10.1163/17455227-BJA10016
A. Berkovitz
{"title":"Parallelism and Beyond: The Relationship between Targum Psalms and Rabbinic Literature","authors":"A. Berkovitz","doi":"10.1163/17455227-BJA10016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-BJA10016","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This study examines six manners in which rabbinic literature and Targum Psalms interact. 1. An earlier rabbinic tradition provides the backdrop against which the Targum’s translation must be understood. 2. The Targum applies a tradition it uses to translate one part of a psalm towards translating another verse in that same psalm. 3. The Targum revises earlier rabbinic traditions to suit its own ideological and literary concerns. 4. The Targum adapts interpretations that were originally generated well beyond the confines of the psalm being translated and even the Psalter as a whole. 5. The Targum inserts itself into popular late antique exegetical discourses of particular psalms. 6. It rejects a widespread interpretive trend attested to in rabbinic literature. Overall, by moving beyond the mere notation of parallelism, we gain a clearer portrait of the translator’s relationship with rabbinic literature, his working methods, and the ideologies that impelled his creative endeavours.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":"1-35"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48918353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aramaic StudiesPub Date : 2021-02-24DOI: 10.1163/17455227-BJA10015
S. Fassberg
{"title":"Jewish Palestinian Aramaic: Chronology, Geography, and Typology","authors":"S. Fassberg","doi":"10.1163/17455227-BJA10015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-BJA10015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Jewish Palestinian Aramaic was the language of the Jews of Palestine and is identifiable from around the third or fourth centuries CE until the last centuries of the first millennium, by which time it was completely displaced in speech by Arabic. This article surveys its origins and subsequent stages of development, chronologically from Palestinian Targumic to Palestinian Talmudic to Late Jewish Literary Aramaic. Geonic and post-Geonic scribes were not kind to manuscripts written in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic since they did not know the language and were influenced by the more prestigious Babylonian Aramaic. As a result, they sometimes inserted Aramaic forms they knew from non-Palestinian texts. It is probably these scribes who are responsible for the ‘gemischtem Sprachtypus’ of the late targumim.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":"1-20"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47433558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aramaic StudiesPub Date : 2020-11-17DOI: 10.1163/17455227-bja10013
A. Al‐Jallad
{"title":"The Month ʾdr in Safaitic and the Status of Spirantisation in ‘Arabian’ Aramaic","authors":"A. Al‐Jallad","doi":"10.1163/17455227-bja10013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-bja10013","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article discusses the status of spirantisation in the Aramaic of Arabia based on transcriptions in Safaitic and other ancient Arabian languages. I suggest that ‘Arabian’ Aramaic pronunciation stems from an archaic variety of the language introduced by the Babylonians and Achaemenids in the mid-first millennium BCE. This variety lacked post-vocalic spirantisation and formed the basis for the local pronunciation of later Aramaic varieties, accounting for the archaic phonology of Aramaic loans into Arabian languages.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"18 1","pages":"147-170"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49371988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}