Aramaic StudiesPub Date : 2018-08-15DOI: 10.1163/17455227-01602002
M. Morgenstern
{"title":"Neo-Mandaic in Early Mandaean Colophons. Part 1: Linguistic Features","authors":"M. Morgenstern","doi":"10.1163/17455227-01602002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-01602002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Neo-Mandaic [NM] is a direct descendant of a dialect very close to its classical predecessor. By the time the earliest surviving Mandaean manuscripts were copied, spoken Mandaic already showed many of the developments that distinguish the modern vernaculars from the classical language. This article, the first of two, identifies those features. The second article presents the texts and a brief assessment of the sources of change.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2018-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/17455227-01602002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44286862","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 : 2018-08-08DOI: 10.1163/17455227-01602001
Samuel E. Fox
{"title":"Three Generations of Jilu Speakers","authors":"Samuel E. Fox","doi":"10.1163/17455227-01602001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-01602001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 A language such as Neo-Aramaic, the use of which has tended to diminish with each generation since World War I, is liable to undergo rapid change. This article presents and analyses some of the differences in the speech of three successive generations of a family of speakers of the Jilu dialect of Neo-Aramaic.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2018-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/17455227-01602001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42863303","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 : 2018-05-24DOI: 10.1163/17455227-01601004
J. Jacobs
{"title":"Rashbam’s Approach to Targum Onqelos in His Commentary to the Torah","authors":"J. Jacobs","doi":"10.1163/17455227-01601004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-01601004","url":null,"abstract":"The Targum of Onqelos was the principal pentateuchal targum on which medieval Jews in northern France relied. When Rashbam referenced Onqelos, he used a consistent format composed of four elements. His use of the targum is varied: in most instances, his purpose was lexical. In about one-third of cases, his purpose was exegetical. In three cases, Rashbam cited the targum in order to consider its precise intention (while finding fault with the conclusion reached by Rashi in that regard), an indication of the great importance that Rashbam ascribed to the targum. Nevertheless, despite the high esteem in which he held the targum, Rashbam occasionally allowed himself to disagree with it in his quest to uncover the simplest sense of Scripture. Targum Onqelos is the work most often quoted in Rashbam’s commentary to the Torah, and his use of it demonstrates extensive knowledge of this targum to the Torah.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"64-77"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2018-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/17455227-01601004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43839332","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 : 2018-05-24DOI: 10.1163/17455227-01601002
Benjamin J Noonan
{"title":"A (New) Old Iranian Etymology for Biblical Aramaic אֲדַרְגָּזַר","authors":"Benjamin J Noonan","doi":"10.1163/17455227-01601002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-01601002","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the many advances that have taken place in our understanding of the Hebrew Bible’s Old Iranian terminology, the donor terms of several words have remained elusive. Among them is Biblical Aramaic אדרגזר (Dan. 3:2–3). Proposed Old Iranian etymologies for this word suffer from various phonological and semantic difficulties, rendering them unlikely. This paper proposes that Biblical Aramaic אדרגזר is best derived from *ādrangāžara - ‘announcer of financial obligation’, a compound of *ādranga - ‘financial obligation’ and *āžara - ‘announcer’. A derivation from Old Iranian *ādrangāžara - adequately explains the form of Biblical Aramaic אדרגזר. Furthermore, this etymology also suits the context well in that אדרגזר occurs just prior to גדבר ‘treasurer’ and therefore falls logically within the progression from political administration to finances to law evident in the lists of Nebuchadnezzar’s officials (Dan. 3:2–3).","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"10-19"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2018-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/17455227-01601002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45141449","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 : 2018-05-24DOI: 10.1163/17455227-01601005
A. Bodor
{"title":"The Use of the Peshitta of Isaiah in Rendering Isaiah Quotations in the Old Syriac and Peshitta Gospels","authors":"A. Bodor","doi":"10.1163/17455227-01601005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-01601005","url":null,"abstract":"Previous research has argued that the Old Syriac and Peshitta Gospels tend to follow the Old Testament Peshitta to render Old Testament quotations, a practice that supposedly goes back to Tatian’s Diatessaron. This article argues that this conclusion should be reconsidered. At least in the rendering of the Isaiah quotations, the Old Syriac, and especially the Peshitta version of the Gospels, tends not to depart from the Greek text, but rather to render its sense as faithfully as possible. Even in the few cases where the dependence on the Peshitta of Isaiah appears to be verifiable, the phenomenon does not need to be explained as a result of influence from Tatian’s harmony.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"20-41"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2018-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/17455227-01601005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41710327","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 : 2018-05-24DOI: 10.1163/17455227-01601001
Iosif J. Zhakevich
{"title":"An Apparent Contradiction in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis 25:20–26: Was Rebekah Barren for Twenty or Twenty-Two Years?","authors":"Iosif J. Zhakevich","doi":"10.1163/17455227-01601001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-01601001","url":null,"abstract":"While the Hebrew Bible does not specify the duration of Rebekah’s barrenness, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (TgPsJ) Gen. 25:21 introduces a comment that Rebekah was barren for twenty-two years. This appears to produce an inconsistency, both between the Hebrew Bible and TgPsJ, and within the TgPsJ narrative itself. Two references to Isaac’s age—in the context of his relationship to Rebekah—seem to suggest that Rebekah was barren for twenty years: At 25:20, Isaac marries Rebekah when he is forty; and at 25:26, Esau and Jacob are born when Isaac is sixty. This twenty-year gap presumably reveals the twenty years of Rebekah’s barrenness. Indeed, scholars have suggested that TgPsJ’s ‘twenty-two years’ be emended to ‘twenty years’. This article, however, contends that TgPsJ’s ‘twenty-two years’ should be retained, and that the text of TgPsJ proves to be a coherent text when read in the greater context of biblical and Jewish tradition about Isaac and Rebekah.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"42-63"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2018-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/17455227-01601001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45711729","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 : 2018-05-24DOI: 10.1163/17455227-01601003
Ohad Abudraham
{"title":"Early Mandaic and Neo-Mandaic: Some Points of Connection","authors":"Ohad Abudraham","doi":"10.1163/17455227-01601003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-01601003","url":null,"abstract":"The present article presents four new linguistic features that link Early-Mandaic and Neo-Mandaic: 1. Diphthongisation and fortition of long vowels ū / ī (ࡈࡁࡅࡊࡕࡀ ṭbukta instead of ࡈࡀࡁࡅࡕࡀ ṭabuta “grace”, ࡀࡓࡁࡉࡊࡕࡉࡍࡊࡉࡀ arbiktinkia instead of ࡀࡓࡁࡉࡕࡉࡍࡊࡉࡀ arbitinkia “four of you [f.pl.]”); 2. Apheresis of y in the gentilic noun יהודיא (ࡄࡅࡃࡀࡉࡉࡀ hudaiia “Jews”); 3. Assimilation of z in the root ʾzl (ࡕࡏࡋࡅࡍ tʿlun “you [m.pl.] will go”); and 4. Internal analogy in the system of cardinal numbers (ࡕࡀࡓࡕࡀ tarta “two”). The presence of these forms in the two extreme phases of the language as opposed to their almost total absence in the canonical collections of Mandaic scriptures prove not only the ancient origin of some Neo-Mandaic peculiarities but also the wide range of varieties of Mandaic that flourished in Mesopotamia in Late Antiquity.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"78-96"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2018-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/17455227-01601003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48945289","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 : 2018-05-24DOI: 10.1163/17455227-01601006
James D. Moore
{"title":"Scribal Correction Dots on an Unpublished Elephantine Aramaic Papyrus Fragment","authors":"James D. Moore","doi":"10.1163/17455227-01601006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-01601006","url":null,"abstract":"In a box of unpublished Aramaic papyri from the 1906–1907 German excavations of Elephantine there is a small fragment (p. 23141) that uses scribal marks in a margin or vacat to identify a textual edit. This is the first example of Aramaic editorial marks of this type from the Persian period, and demonstrates a previously unidentified scribal practice.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2018-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/17455227-01601006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43326149","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 : 2017-01-01DOI: 10.1163/17455227-01502002
Matteo Martelli
{"title":"Hippocrates in Two Syriac Alchemical Collections","authors":"Matteo Martelli","doi":"10.1163/17455227-01502002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-01502002","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I will explore the fortune of Hippocrates in the Syriac alchemical literature. I will investigate a so far unedited Syriac text (MS Cambridge University Library, Mm. 6.29, ff. 133r–134v) that presents Hippocrates as the founder of alchemy and medicine. This text is edited here for the first time, translated into English, and compared with other alchemical writings (both in Syriac and in Arabic) attributed to the ancient physician from Cos.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":"230-251"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/17455227-01502002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64594549","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 : 2017-01-01DOI: 10.1163/17455227-01501001
A. Damsma
{"title":"From Son of Man to Son of Adam—the Prophet Ezekiel in Targum Jonathan","authors":"A. Damsma","doi":"10.1163/17455227-01501001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455227-01501001","url":null,"abstract":"The ubiquitous vocative expression בן־אדם (literally ‘son of man’) in the Book of Ezekiel seems to underscore the prophet’s status as a mere mortal. In contrast to the other ancient versions, Targum Jonathan to the Prophets interprets the word אדם as a proper noun, and renders the phrase accordingly as בר אדם ‘son of Adam’. This translation runs counter to the Targum’s conventional practice of rendering בן־אדם with בר אנש(א). In the absence of a satisfactory grammatical explanation for the divergent rendering, this article examines the possibility that the Targumist’s eschewal of בר אנשא was motivated by doctrinal concerns. On the strength of the findings it is argued that בר אדם was a clever and subtle alternative for בר אנשא because, depending on the context, the latter phrase could evoke associations with the Danielic Son of Man figure and the Son of Man Christology.","PeriodicalId":41594,"journal":{"name":"Aramaic Studies","volume":"15 1","pages":"23-43"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/17455227-01501001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64594587","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}