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The Qumran Pesharim and Targum Jonathan to the Prophets: Rethinking Their Relationship Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2021-04-07 Pieter B. Hartog
This article argues that the Qumran pesharim and TgJon originate from a common, though internally varied, elite intellectual tradition with 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 pre-70 CE roots, but continued after the destruction of the
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Parallelism and Beyond: The Relationship between Targum Psalms and Rabbinic Literature Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2021-03-15 Abraham Jacob Berkovitz
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
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Jewish Palestinian Aramaic: Chronology, Geography, and Typology Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2021-02-24 Steven E. Fassberg
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
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Hippocrates and Galen in Turfan: Remarks on SyrHT 1 and SyrHT 388 Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2020-11-17 Lijuan Lin
This article presents a full edition, with translation and detailed commentary, of SyrHT 1 and SyrHT 388, the only two Syriac medical fragments found in Turfan. Based on a re-examination of the original text, this article shows that the Turfan fragments have parallels in Galen’s De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos and contain elements of Hippocratic recipes as well. This adds further evidence
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The Month ʾdr in Safaitic and the Status of Spirantisation in ‘Arabian’ Aramaic Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2020-11-17 Ahmad Al-Jallad
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
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Preservation or Correction?: On the Peculiarities of Ms Paris 110 and Current Trends in Targumic Studies Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2020-11-17 Hsin-Chih Perng
The manuscript Heb. 110 of the National Library in Paris (=Ms Paris 110) has long been considered by many targumic scholars to be the best manuscript for the Aramaic targums to the Hagiographa, mainly due to its many prominent and consistent Palestinian linguistic features. This article discusses the peculiarities of Ms Paris 110 in comparison with many other earlier manuscripts, and shows that many
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The Verb yhb in Aramaic Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2020-11-17 Samuel Ethan Fox, Steven E. Fassberg
On the whole, the verb yhb ‘give’ occurs in suppletion with ntn in Pre-Modern Aramaic: the former is found in the perfect, participle, and imperative, and the latter in the imperfect and infinitive. There are exceptions in some corpora. Only yhb, however, has survived into Neo-Aramaic, where it is attested in all varieties of the language. This article traces the use of both roots in the history of
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‘Whoever Is Hungry, Come and Eat’: On the Origins and Winding Reception of a Puzzling Passover Passage Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2020-11-17 Simcha Gross
The provenance of the opening Aramaic portion of the Passover Haggadah has confounded practitioners and scholars for centuries. Little evidence has come to light to explain the origins of this passage or the fluctuations in its attending practices over time. This article argues that additional evidence, found in some neglected Talmudic manuscripts and in incantation bowls, reveals that the core recitational
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The Zuqnin Chronicle as Evidence of Vernacular Aramaic in Eighth-Century Northern Mesopotamia Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2020-11-17 Julia Furman
This article examines a Syriac historiographical writing of the late eighth century—the so-called Zuqnin Chronicle, or the Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell Maḥre—and certain lexical features that are found at the end of the work. It is argued that these lexical items were drawn into the chronicle from a colloquial Aramaic language spoken in the vicinity of Amid, and that this colloquial variant
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Targum Jonathan to the Prophets and the Masoretic Cantillations Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2020-10-07 Miriam Kahana
This article compares the Targum with Masoretic cantillations. The comparison between the different reading traditions shows agreement in everything concerning the division between one verse and the next. Usually, there is agreement in the division within each verse as well, particularly when both the cantillations and the Targum respond to an ideological or exegetical problem in the text. Juxtaposing
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Are Literary Languages Artificial? The Case of the Aramaic of the Zohar Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2020-05-08 Elitzur A. Bar-Asher Siegal
Few studies have focused on the Aramaic of the Zohar, and to this day, only one of these presents a completed grammatical analysis. Scholars have dealt at large, however, with the question of whether the Aramaic of the Zohar is artificial or not. I briefly review the history of the literature around this question, then propose my own criteria to examine whether a language of a given text is indeed
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The First Book of Maccabees in Syriac: Dating and Context Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2020-05-08 Philip Michael Forness
Syriac literature exhibits interest in narratives associated with the Maccabees by the fourth century. Seventh-century manuscripts preserve two different Syriac translations of 1 Maccabees. The translation of this book into Syriac is not part of the Peshitta Old Testament translated from the Hebrew Bible in the second century CE. Its dating and the possible context for its production have not yet been
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Interjections in Biblical Aramaic: A Radial Model Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2020-05-08 Alexander Andrason, D. Allen Hutchison
This article examines the lexical class of interjections in Biblical Aramaic through the framework of an interjectional prototype and its functional (semantic and pragmatic) and formal (phonetic, morphological, and syntactic) characteristics. The authors analyse eight interjectional lexemes or constructional patterns, attested in twenty-four uses, for their compliance to the canonical prototype. The
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Serto before Serto: Reexamining the Earliest Development of Syriac Script Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2020-05-08 Michael Penn, R. Jordan Crouser, Philip Abbott
Scholars have traditionally categorised early Syriac manuscripts as either Estrangela or Serto. The same categories dominate the prevailing narrative of how Syriac script is thought to have developed. Most see Estrangela as the earliest strata of Syriac and Serto as a later development. More recent scholarship explores how early manuscripts support neither this stark division between script styles
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What is the Relationship between the Two Ancient Syriac Peshitta Versions of 1 Maccabees? A New Proposal that Challenges the Classical Explanation Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2020-05-08 Ignacio Carbajosa
The Syriac version of 1 Macc. that is preserved in Codex Ambrosianus (7a1) is very different from the one attested in the rest of the manuscripts of the Peshitta. This double attestation is typically explained by a hypothesis first put forward by G. Schmidt in 1897 that sees the version of 7a1 (Syr-2) as a revision of the original Syriac translation (Syr-1), which is the one attested in the majority
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Call and Response: Antiphonal Elements in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Poetry Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2019-12-09 Laura S. Lieber
In this essay, the varieties of refrain structures used in the body of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic poetry from late antiquity provide a laboratory for examining the intersection of acclamation structures and piyyutim. The fact that these poems were written in the vernacular of the community rather than in Hebrew complicates our understanding of their performative setting but at the same time may make
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‘May You Redeem the Nation That Completes the Book of Psalms’: An Aramaic Poem and Its Linguistic, Literary and Historical Contexts Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2019-12-09 Abraham Jacob Berkovitz
This article examines in detail an Aramaic poem from M. Sokoloff’s and J. Yahalom’s magisterial Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Poetry from Late Antiquity (SYAP) (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1999). It begins by offering a translation of the entire poem along with an overview of some of the poem’s key linguistic features. It then moves to an analysis of the poem’s literary artistry
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Reading an Aramaic Qina Framed by a Biblical One Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2019-12-09 Moshe J. Bernstein
The author of the first poem of a manuscript from the Cairo Geniza, CUL T-S H14.64, used the verses in Lamentations 1 as a technical device to frame his poem, while he found a variety of ways to connect the stanzas of the poem with verses from Lamentations and other biblical verses. He linked the stanzas of the poem forward and backward through themes and language that are significant in the poem as
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Singing in the Vernacular: Response Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2019-12-09 Michael D. Swartz
One of the most significant themes shared by the studies in this issue is intertextuality. Several authors conduct systematic analyses of the relationship between Aramaic poems and their biblical antecedents, while one study argues that the repetition of refrains in Jewish Aramaic poetry has much in common with the practice of public acclamation in the Greco-Roman world. Each of these studies also
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Three Aramaic Piyyutim for Purim: Text, Context, and Interpretation Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2019-12-09 Eliav Grossman
This article presents a critical edition of three Aramaic piyyutim for Purim. The piyyutim are unique in that they were not written in Hebrew, the overwhelmingly dominant language of classical piyyutim, but in a biblicizing register of Aramaic. This puts these piyyutim in conversation with other forms of Jewish Aramaic poetry, namely poems written in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic (JPA). The article includes
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The Aramaic Bible in the East Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2019-05-24 Philip S. Alexander
This article challenges the assumption that insofar as the Jewish communities of Babylonia were a ‘people of the book’, their book was a Hebrew Bible. Functionally the Bible that most people would have known was the Aramaic Targum of Onqelos and Jonathan. The Bible’s content—its law, narrative, and prophecy—was culturally mediated through Aramaic. Even in Rabbinic communities, where some had competence
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Dating the Aramaic Stele Sefire I Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2019-05-24 Jan Dušek
Based on palaeography and the supposed relative chronology of the three Aramaic steles from Sefire, various dates in the first half of the 8th century BCE have been proposed for the stele Sefire I. In this article, I propose a new reading in the inscription of part of the name of Aššur-dān III, one of the kings of Assyria from the first half of the 8th century BCE. This new reading, together with other
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Fluctuations in State and Number among Nouns and Adjectives with the Gentilic Suffix in Samaritan Aramaic Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2019-05-24 Alina Tarshin
In Samaritan Aramaic we find the gentilic suffixes -’Cā:y, -’Cā: and -Cāʔi. Originally these suffixes signified different grammatical categories, but eventually they became interchangeable. This article examines all the forms with a gentilic suffix that are documented in the oral tradition of Samaritan Aramaic along with additional data derived from the manuscripts. It is suggested that fluctuations
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Neo-Mandaic in Early Mandaean Colophons. Part 2: Texts, Translations and Conclusion Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2019-05-24 Matthew Morgenstern
The first part of this article examined the features that distinguish the language of the earliest Mandaean colophons from Classical Mandaic and demonstrated that many of these features are shared with the contemporary Neo-Mandaic dialects recorded in the research literature since the 20th century. Part 2 presents editions and translations of the source texts with some brief philological notes and
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Sennacherib’s Successor: Titus and Anti-Roman Rhetoric in TgJon to Isa. 10:32 Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2019-05-24 Samuel L. Boyd
As recent research in the study of manuscripts has demonstrated, variations in the phrasing of a text not only reveal scribal error or play but also indicate how changes to a given passage in different manuscripts convey important interpretive traditions. In this article, I explore one such case in TgJon to Isa. 10:32. First, I examine how key features (or the lack thereof) in the biblical text of
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The Story of Susanna in Syriac: A Preliminary Survey of Diversity Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2019-05-24 Bradley John Marsh
This pilot study outlines the diverse and at times interwoven textual traditions of the story of Susanna in the Syriac Bible. There are three different versions of the story aside from the Syrohexapla and the revision of Jacob of Edessa, namely the ‘Peshitta’ version, another here dubbed ‘Sinai Susanna’, and finally the so-called ‘Harklean’ version. This paper seeks to describe the kinds of relationships
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The Aramaic Šap̄ˁel in Its Semitic Context Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2018-11-19 Aaron Michael Butts
In Aramaic, the productive causative (= C) stem can be reconstructed as *hapˁil- (suffix-conjugation) ~ *yVhapˁil- (prefix-conjugation) with *h as the causative morpheme. There are, however, also traces in Aramaic of what seems to be a non-productive C-stem in which the causative morpheme is š (< Proto-Semitic *s1). This šap̄ˁel, as it is called, was traditionally thought to result from contact with
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Folk Etymology in the North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2018-11-19 Hezy Mutzafi
Although folk etymology is a common linguistic phenomenon, it has hitherto hardly been touched upon in lexicological and other works related to varieties of Neo-Aramaic. The present article concerns twelve cases of folk etymology selected from some of the dialects of North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA), the largest and most variegated division of modern Aramaic. Among these are three folk-etymological
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Greek Loanwords in Samaritan Aramaic Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2018-11-19 Christian Stadel, Mor Shemesh
For the first time, we provide a comprehensive and annotated list of 74 certain, likely, and possible Greek loanwords in Samaritan Aramaic, paying due attention to the variegated distribution of the loans in the different textual genres and chronological stages of the dialect. Greek loanwords in Jewish and Christian Palestinian Aramaic as well as Rabbinic Hebrew are compared throughout. The study provides
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Paronomastic Infinitives in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic: A Typological Approach Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2018-11-19 Alessandro Mengozzi, Emanuele Miola
In the present article we aim to describe the distribution and functions of preposed and postposed paronomastic infinitives in literary and spoken varieties of North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA). In the first part, the syntax and the function(s) of constructions involving a paronomastic infinitive will be described from a typological point of view. Syntactic and functional variation of NENA paronomastic
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Remarks on the Historical Development and Syntax of the Copula in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2018-11-19 Geoffrey Khan
This paper examines some aspects of the morphology and syntax of the copula in the North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) dialects. The first part proposes a possible pathway for the diachronic development of the morphology of the copula, with particular attention to the innovative inflection of the 3rd person. It is argued that this originated in deictic constructions that were reanalysed as deictic copulas
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Three Generations of Jilu Speakers Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2018-11-19 Samuel Ethan Fox
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.
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Neo-Mandaic in Early Mandaean Colophons. Part 1: Linguistic Features Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2018-11-19 Matthew Morgenstern
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
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The Ethical Dative in Aramaic Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2018-11-19 Steven E. Fassberg
The ethical dative (dativus ethicus) has been attested without interruption in Aramaic dialects from the Official Aramaic period down through Neo-Aramaic. The extent and durability of this linguistic feature is discussed. Though its frequency differs from corpus to corpus, it is alive in some Neo-Aramaic dialects and its distribution in Modern Aramaic suggests that it was more widespread in pre-Modern
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An Apparent Contradiction in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis 25:20–26: Was Rebekah Barren for Twenty or Twenty-Two Years? Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2018-05-24 Iosif J. Zhakevich
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
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The Use of the Peshitta of Isaiah in Rendering Isaiah Quotations in the Old Syriac and Peshitta Gospels Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2018-05-24 Attila Bodor
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
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Scribal Correction Dots on an Unpublished Elephantine Aramaic Papyrus Fragment Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2018-05-24 James D. Moore
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.
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Rashbam’s Approach to Targum Onqelos in His Commentary to the Torah Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2018-05-24 Jonathan Jacobs
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
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Early Mandaic and Neo-Mandaic: Some Points of Connection Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2018-05-24 Ohad Abudraham
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
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A (New) Old Iranian Etymology for Biblical Aramaic אֲדַרְגָּזַר Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2018-05-24 Benjamin J. Noonan
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 אֲדַרְגָּזַר (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
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Syriac Medicine: Introduction Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Matteo Martelli
A growing interest in Syriac science and medicine can be observed in scholarship published over the last decades.1 An impressive wealth of new textual discoveries and studies has been produced, often in the framework of important European research projects, which has facilitated fruitful collaborations between scholars.2 Inspired by this vibrant exchange, the present issue was conceived after the conference
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Galen in Syriac: Rethinking Old Assumptions Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Siam Bhayro
This article challenges a series of common assumptions regarding the Syriac translations of Galen: first, about the quality of the sixth-century Syriac translations; second, about the status and role of Syriac as a scientific language; and, third, about economic forces and the motivation for excellence in translation. Finally, the circumstances that produced so many incorrect assumptions, and permitted
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A Hitherto Unknown Medical Fragment in Syriac. Evidence of Recipes and Prescriptions from the Qubbet el-Ḫazne of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Emiliano Fiori
This paper presents the first edition of two leaves with medical content discovered at the beginning of the 20th century in the Qubbet el-Ḫazne of the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. The bifolium contains fragments of pharmaceutical recipes in Syriac that are not known from any previously published work. A brief commentary appended to the critical edition situates these fragments in the Syriac medical
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Archaic Verbal Conjugations in Exod. 15.2–18, 21 and Deut. 32.1–43: Their Rendering in the Targums Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Dmytro Tsolin
Rendering Hebrew archaic verbal forms was a challenging task for the targumists who translated biblical poetry into Aramaic. Their translational technique reveals at least three aspects of morphosyntax of the verbs in the poetical discourse in Middle and Late Aramaic: a) diachronic shifts in the use of suffix (qtl) and prefix (yqtl) conjugations; b) an influence of the interpretation and the practice
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From Son of Man to Son of Adam—the Prophet Ezekiel in Targum Jonathan Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Alinda Damsma
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
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Comparing Interpretative Notes in the Syriac and Arabic Translations of the Hippocratic Aphorisms Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Taro Mimura
Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France MS Arabe 6734 contains a bilingual Syriac-Arabic text of the Hippocratic Aphorisms. Whereas the Arabic lemmata are clearly taken from Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq’s translation of Galen’s Commentary on the Hippocratic Aphorisms, the Syriac translator has not been identified conclusively. In the Syriac translation, there is a long note on lemma iv. 47 in which the annotator
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Transliteration versus Translation of Greek Plant Names in the Syriac Medical Writings of Sergius of Reš ʿAynā: On the Tables of Contents in BL Add. 14,661 Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Irene Calà, Robert Hawley
This article explores some of the translational choices made by Sergius of Res ʿAynā in translating the Greek plant names found in Books VI–VIII of Galen’s treatise On simple drugs into Syriac, and especially as found in the “tables of contents”—or pinakes—which preface these books. These latter took the form of alphabetically ordered lists of Greek phytonyms transliterated into Syriac characters,
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The Lexicon of Targum Song of Songs and Aramaic Dialectology Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Andrew W. Litke
Targum Song of Songs contains words from several Aramaic dialects which seemingly should not coexist. This paper is an analysis of the Targum’s lexicon with particular attention given to the dialectal status of each word, and by extension the text as a whole. It is argued that the targumist primarily draws upon words from Targums Onqelos and Jonathan. A second layer of influence includes words from
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Hippocrates in Two Syriac Alchemical Collections Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Matteo Martelli
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
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Neo-Mandaic as a Source of Hitherto Unattested Mandaic Words Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Hezy Mutzafi
Neo-Mandaic (NM) is the least known Neo-Aramaic language, despite recent progress in investigations of its grammar and lexicon. Lexicographical coverage of NM is still particularly replete with lacunae, as many of the language’s lexical items and lexical peculiarities remain beyond common scholarly knowledge. The present contribution discusses several hitherto unknown or misrepresented NM lexemes.
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An Aramaic Magic Bowl for Fertility and Success in Childbirth: Lisboa, Museu da Farmácia (Lisbon, Pharmacy Museum), Inv. No. 10895 Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Siam Bhayro
This article presents the editio princeps of an Aramaic magic bowl housed in the Pharmacy Museum (Museu da Farmácia), Lisbon. It contains a spell that seeks to grant success in conception and childbirth for Mihranahid daughter of Aḥat. The spell includes what may be the earliest attested quotation of Gen. 30.22, as well as the often-quoted Zech. 3.2. It also contains an unambiguous rendering of the
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‘Aram’ in the Aramaic Inscriptions from Sefire Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Jan Dušek
Over many decades the references to ‘Aram’ in the Aramaic inscription Sefire I A, 5–6 have been interpreted as referring to a geographical location. Various scholars have proposed different solutions for the identification of this region. Nevertheless, a parallel formula, which appears in some Neo-Assyrian adê-texts, sheds new light on the meaning of ‘Aram’ in the Sefire inscription.
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On the Medical Works of Barhebraeus: With a Description of the Abridgement of Ḥunain’s Medical Questions Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Hidemi Takahashi, Naohide Yaguchi
While the Syriac polymath Gregory Barhebraeus (1225/6–86) is better known for his contributions in other fields, his original training was probably in medicine, and he is known to have written a number of works on the subject. No Syriac work on medicine by Barhebraeus is known to have survived, but four such works written in Arabic have, and references to matters related to medicine are also to be
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The Hebrew Vorlage of Targum Chronicles Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2016-01-01 Leeor Gottlieb
Careful study of the Aramaic text of Targum Chronicles reveals several apparent differences between the Hebrew source text upon which the targumist relied and the Masoretic text of Chronicles. This article is an attempt to identify and document these differences, resulting in four categories: differences in consonantal orthography, differences in vocalization, differences in syntactic division and
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An Analysis of the Syro-Hexapla of Job and Its Relationship to Other Ancient Sources Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2016-01-01 John D. Meade
The Syro-Hexapla is a valuable witness to the text of Origen’s Hexapla. This article describes the marginal material in the Syro-Hexapla of Job under the following headings: (1) hexaplaric notes, (2) longer scholia (from patristic works), (3) textual variants and other versions, (4) Greek words, and (5) exegetical notes / glosses. By examining all of the materials within the manuscript more insight
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Eusebius’ Historia Ecclesiastica in Syriac and Latin: A First Comparison Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2016-01-01 Carla Noce
The contemporary fifth-century Latin and Syriac translations of Eusebius’ Historia Ecclesiastica provide a great opportunity for a close comparison which both highlights the different linguistic and cultural patterns underlying the translations produced by Rufinus and the Syriac translator and also reveals many similarities between them. This article is not concerned with using the translations to
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Joseph’s Two Garments. The Reception of Joseph in Targum Neofiti Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2016-01-01 Tomasz Niedźwiedzki
Biblical characters underwent certain ‘transformations’ as they were received in targumic literature. Although previous studies of Joseph have considered his image in the extant Targums, it seems that scholars have passed over some of his salient features present in Targum Neofiti, such as his relationship with his father, his brothers, Esau, and the Egyptians, along with a detailed and overall evaluation
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Human Weakness in Isaac of Nineveh and the Syriac Macarian Corpus: A First Investigation Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2016-01-01 Valentina Duca
This article explores some ideas of the Syriac Macarian corpus which influenced Isaac of Nineveh’s conception of what he calls ‘weakness’, a condition which, for him, indicates an original frailty inscribed in creaturality. Three concepts deriving from different Macarian writings are analysed and placed side-by-side with some reflections of Isaac: the idea of ‘weakness’ as something proper to the human
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Syriac Christological Dialogues and the Transmission of Theodotus of Ancyra’s Contra Nestorium Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2016-01-01 Luise Marion Frenkel
This article analyses the context of the Syriac translation of a refutation of Nestorian excerpts attributed to Theodotus of Ancyra and preserved (with lacunae) in Ms. British Library Add. 17,148, and compares the work with the transmission and translation of the texts attributed to him. The article examines the reception of Cyrillian dialogues as a form of anti-Nestorian invective in Greek, Syriac
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Resolving Genealogical Ambiguity: Eusebius and (ps-)Ephrem on Luke 1.36 Aramaic Studies Pub Date : 2016-01-01 Matthew R. Crawford
The earliest formal New Testament commentary in Syriac is the so-called Commentary on the Diatessaron attributed to Ephrem. This commentary is thoroughly at home in the world of Syriac Christianity, as seen not least in the fact that it focuses on Tatian’s idiosyncratic gospel version. Nevertheless, portions of the commentary also exhibit awareness of exegetical traditions shared with contemporary
Contents have been reproduced by permission of the publishers.