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Codex Climaci Rescriptus I Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-08-23 Kim Phillips
This article presents a fresh transcription of Codex Climaci Rescriptus I, a Christian Palestinian Aramaic manuscript from the Early Period (ca. 6th century), containing parts of Matthew’s Gospel and Mark’s Gospel. The transcription has been made from high resolution multi-spectral images. In addition, an extended introduction examines the codicology of the manuscript and its paratextual features.
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Free Indirect Discourse in Neo-Aramaic Narrative Folktales Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-08-23 Eran Cohen
Free indirect discourse (FID) is a literary, or narrative device which allows access to the thoughts and feelings of a protagonist, from his or her own perspective. FID is formally viewed as lying on the scale between indirect discourse (ID) and direct discourse (DD). It is non-embedded, consisting of a blend of features, few intrinsic to ID, while the rest are associated with DD. The paper aims to
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Poems on Mār Qūryāqōs by ʿAḇdīšōʿ of Gāzartā Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-08-23 Anton Pritula
This article examines poems dedicated to the martyr Qūryāqōs by the eminent East Syriac poet and patriarch ʿAḇdīšōʿ of Gāzartā (d. 1570). For the first time the peculiarities of these works and their place in the development of Syriac poetry are examined. Additionally, a critical edition and translation of one of the poems, the turgāmā, is given, based on available manuscripts. A special place in the
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Targum Chronicles Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-08-23 Shlomi Efrati
In this article I describe two manuscripts of Targum Chronicles that, for different reasons, were not used in editions and studies of this rare Targum. First, manuscript Berlin, SB Or. fol. 4, Bible with a complete set of Targums. I analyse its textual character and point out its resemblance to manuscript Berlin, SB Or. fol. 1210–1211 (a.k.a. Erfurt 1). And second, manuscript Dresden, SLUB, A.46. Thought
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The Liturgical Targum to Pesach Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Jeroen Verrijssen
This paper presents the Targum text to Exod. 13:17–15:26 (the reading for the seventh day of Pesach) in the form that it is preserved in mahzorim (or festival prayerbooks). These liturgical manuscripts are witnesses to a textual tradition, hereafter named the “Liturgical Targum” (LTg), that is genealogically related to the broader Palestinian Targum tradition (PalTg), sharing a common source with other
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The Many Quarrels of Cain and Abel Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Shlomi Efrati
Various Targums to the Pentateuch include an expansion to the biblical story of Cain and Abel, where the two brothers engage in a debate concerning divine justice and providence. The contents and form of the targumic debate vary widely, and its textual problems and possible theological and historical contexts have been discussed extensively. In this paper, I reconsider the relationships between the
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An Unpublished Anti-Jewish Syriac Dialogue from Turfan Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Sergey Minov
This article presents the unpublished Syriac text of an anonymous anti-Jewish dialogue preserved fragmentarily in the manuscript SyrHT 94 [T II B 50 = 1682] from the Berlin Turfan-Collection. The dialogue, which combines scriptural and rational polemical arguments, is an important witness to the development of the adversus Judaeos literary tradition among Syriac Christians during the Islamic period
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The Western Aramaic Context of a Famous Lullaby Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Anna Bromirskaya, Charles G. Häberl, Sergey Loesov
The present text concerns a traditional lullaby, sung throughout the Levant in various versions, of which the most famous was produced by the Rahbani brothers and sung by Fairouz. The framing story surrounding the lullaby, which is only implicit in the Rahbani version, concerns themes such as kidnapping and the age-old conflict between transhumant pastoral groups and sedentary agriculturalists. Despite
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‘As Far as the East Is from the West, and the North Is from the South’ Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-06-09 Anna Cherkashina
This article continues a series of studies dedicated to Syriac love magic as attested by texts found in Syriac magical codices dated to the 18th–20th century. Here I address five Syriac recipes that I consider to belong to the category of separation spells. Four of them are titled ‘For Hatred’ and are edited for the first time. Another one can be found in The Nestorians and Their Rituals and exists
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A Jewish Aramaic Circus Curse Tablet from Antioch Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-06-09 Margaretha Folmer, Rivka Elitzur-Leiman
In this contribution we publish a lead circus curse tablet written in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic (Princeton Art Museum excavation no. 3608-I57). The tablet was found in 1935 during excavations near the first turning-post at the hippodrome of Antioch on the Orontes (modern-day Antakya, Turkey). The use of Greek and Latin defixiones agonisticae (agonistic binding spells) in chariot races was a wide-spread
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A Previously Overlooked Manuscript of Fragment Targum (EVR II A 371, National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg) Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-06-09 Hector M. Patmore
The Fragment Targums contain selections of verses from the Pentateuch and form a distinct textual family within the Palestinian Targum tradition. To date, our understanding of their textual tradition has been based on nine manuscripts (excluding those copied from printed texts). This article introduces another manuscript of Fragment Targum that has been previously overlooked. The article describes
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Taming Nature and Gaining Authority—Rabbinic Decrees Reconsidered Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-06-09 Avigail Manekin-Bamberger
The root gzr, in nominal and verbal forms, is prominent in rabbinic literature and is usually translated ‘legislation’ or ‘decree’. However, attention to the numerous rabbinic accounts in which rabbis employ this root demonstrates that it was not merely a term used for human legislation. Rather, in rabbinic Amoraic narratives, the root gzr was often used by the rabbis to gain control over their surroundings
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Who Were the Gods of Panamuwa I? Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2023-06-09 Jan Dušek
Panamuwa I, king of Samʾal/Yʾdy, commissioned a statue of Hadad in approximately the second quarter of the eighth century BCE. The inscription on the statue, written in the Samʾalian language, contains four lists of gods. In lines 2–3 and 18–19, these gods are Hadad, El, Rešef, Rākib-El, and Šamaš. The list in line 11, however, contains a theonym that is not attested in the other three lists; it is
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An Aramaic Ritual for Burning Straw in Sefire IA:36–37 Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-12-26 Jessie DeGrado, Madadh Richey
The Old Aramaic inscription Sefire I (KAI 222) includes, in a series of mimetic curses, a debated clause that has been read by most previous scholars to involve a mysterious {gnbʾ} gannābaʾ(?) ‘thief’, which (or who?) is symbolically burned (Sefire IA:36–37). The present article argues that there are lexicographic (cognates in later Aramaic dialects) and phonological (geminate prenasalization) grounds
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‘Binding of a Husband’ Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-12-26 Anna Cherkashina, Nikita Kuzin
This article examines a Syriac erotic binding spell, ‘Binding of a Husband’. We provide a text-critical edition of this spell based on three manuscripts and reconsider previous editions and translations. We also try to establish the aim of the text and its place in the Syriac magical tradition. For this purpose, the evidence from modern Syriac magic manuscripts as well as from other pieces of Syriac
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Of Men and Dogs Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-11-28 Sergey Minov
This article contains the unpublished Syriac text of the Story of the Dog Who Talked. Put down in writing by the West Syrian monk ʿAzīz bar Ṣlīḇā bar Bassūs in the year 1503, the Story is, arguably, the earliest datable specimen of the fairy tale genre of folklore attested in the Syriac language. The text of the Story, published on the basis of manuscript Mardin, Church of the Forty Martyrs, 350, is
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Who Killed Osman Xate? Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-10-05 C.G. Häberl, K. Kashintseva, S. Loesov
The grammar of the village dialects of Ṭuroyo remains poorly described apart from that of Midən, and within the documentation there is a dearth of spontaneous conversations. Consequently, much about Ṭuroyo pragmatics and sociolinguistics in general also remains undescribed. We therefore present two short conversations between three residents of Kfarze in Tur Abdin, concerning a significant event in
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לכל שלטניה—A New Edition of the Wolfe Golden Amulet in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-10-05 Matthew Morgenstern
The article presents a new edition of the Wolfe Golden Amulet based upon a close examination of new RTI images and its interpretation in light of related Aramaic and Hebrew sources. New readings and translations are presented for many parts of the text.
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Biblical Aramaic Passive Stems Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-04-20 Emmanuel Mastey
Perfect verbs in the Passive-Qal (qetil) and Hufʿal (huqtal or hoqtal) stems are attested in both Biblical (BA) and Middle Aramaic. This paper contests the claim of BA grammars that the Hufʿal imperfect is unattested in BA. Moreover, some scholars have doubted the authenticity of the Masoretic vocalisation of some Hufʿal and Passive-Qal occurrences, postulating that the Hufʿal preformative vowel was
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The Development of Interdental Consonants in the Neo-Aramaic Dialects of the Aqra Region Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-04-20 Aziz Emmanuel Eliya Al-Zebari, Geoffrey Khan
This paper is a study of the reflexes of historically interdental consonants in the Neo-Aramaic dialects spoken in the region of Aqra in northern Iraq. These dialects can be classified broadly into those of the villages lying to the north of the Aqra mountain and those of the inhabitants of the region to the south of the mountain. It is shown that there are a wide range of reflexes in the various dialects
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More Syriac Graffiti at the Southern Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-04-06 Christian Locatell
This article presents nine Syriac graffiti which until now have been overlooked in the literature on the well-known inscriptions at the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. These additional graffiti attest to known and unknown Syriac pilgrims who visited the church. Some can be located within the Ottoman period while the date of others is less clear. Several of the graffiti are of particular
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Another Look at the Curse in Sefire I A 24 Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-03-03 Edward M. Cook
The curse found in the Sefire Treaty inscription I A 24 (KAI 222) has resisted a consensus interpretation. A recent study by J. Dušek points the way to a more accurate understanding. Further refinement yields a coherent curse, focused on the reversal of the masculinity of the treaty-breakers’ army and the consequent neutralisation of its martial effectiveness.
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Syriac samminē (pl) ‘Pomace (?)’ and an Akkadian Cognate Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2022-03-03 Aaron Michael Butts
The word samminē (pl) appears to be a hapax legomenon in Syriac, being attested only in Mēmrā 10 ‘On Stephen’ of Narsai (d. ca. 500), where it seems to refer to grapes and perhaps, more specifically, to pomace. Though the available manuscripts are unanimous in transmitting samminē (pl), Brockelmann emended the word to yasminē ‘jasmine’. This emendation is, however, contextually difficult. In addition
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The Fable of the Beetle in Contemporary Aramaic and Kurmanji Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-09-20 C.G. Häberl, S. Loesov
The fable of an insect and a mouse (or some other animal), who marry and embark on a life together, only to end in tragedy, is widely disseminated from the Mediterranean region to India. One version involving a beetle (Ṭuroyo keze, Kurmanji kêz) circulates throughout Anatolia and Iraq. The following Ṭuroyo and Kurmanji version was recorded during the 2020 summer field season of the Russian expedition
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The Morphosyntax of Embedded Clauses in Western Neo-Aramaic: Arabic Influence or Retention from Older Aramaic? Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-08-06 Ivri J. Bunis
The article asks whether the morphosyntax of embedded direct object clauses and purpose clauses in Western Neo-Aramaic reflects retention from older stages of Aramaic, or innovation under the influence of contact Arabic. To this end, direct object clauses and purpose clauses are analysed in Western Neo-Aramaic, in older stages of Aramaic, namely, Old, Official, Biblical and Qumran Aramaic, as well
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Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Syriac Story of the Mystery Hidden in the Eucharistic Offering Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-07-14 Sergey Minov
This article contains the unpublished Syriac text of the Story of the Mystery Hidden in the Eucharistic Offering, an anonymous hagiographical composition that tells the story of the conversion of a Muslim king. The text of the Story, published on the basis of two manuscripts (Birmingham, Cadbury Research Library, Mingana Syr. 71, and Manchester, John Rylands Library, Syr. 59), is accompanied by an
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Pulling a Yoke through the White Field: East Syriac Poetic Paraphrases of Scribal Rhetoric Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-07-14 Anton Pritula
As shown in recent studies, East Syriac colophons were rather standardised, at least in the Ottoman period, and they incorporated into the main colophon body not only prose passages, but also poetic ones. The current article discusses one such passage that occurs in both prose and poetic forms in various manuscripts, namely the topos of ‘the five twins that pulled a yoke from the forest through the
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Banned and Branded: The Mesopotamian Background of Šamata Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-07-05 Yakir Paz
The verb √šmt and noun šamata, attested in the dialects of Eastern Aramaic in the Sasanian period, would seem at first to be synonymous with the Palestinian term nidui, ‘excommunication’. However, a closer examination reveals that šamata has a different semantic value. It is not simply conceived as a social sanction of excommunication but is understood as a curse involving divine violence; is closely
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The Past Time Uses of the Imperfect in the Aramaic of Daniel Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-06-30 Daniel E. Carver
In the Aramaic of Daniel, the imperfect expresses past situations 29 times. Scholars have long wrestled with these past time uses, and although important contributions have been made along the way, one of the most salient semantic issues that arise with these uses—the semantic intersection of imperfective aspect and telicity—has been overlooked. This study addresses this issue directly by providing
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Did the Syriac Translators of the Old Testament Peshitta Regard ܫܡܝܐ as Singular or Plural? Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-06-29 Jerome A. Lund
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.
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Towards a More Precise Understanding of Pseudo-Jonathan’s Origins Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-05-17 Leeor Gottlieb
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
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The Date and Provenance of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: The Evidence of Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer and the Chronicles of Moses Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-04-21 Gavin McDowell
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:
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The Morphology of Adjectives in the Neo-Aramaic Dialects of ʿAqra Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-06-17 Aziz Emmanuel Eliya Al-Zebari
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
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Introduction: Targum Studies in London, IOTS 2018 Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-05-17 Willem F. Smelik
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Targumic Parallels to Variant Readings of the Book of Samuel amongst the Cairo Geniza Manuscripts Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2021-04-12 Gary A. Rendsburg
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.
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The Qumran Pesharim and Targum Jonathan to the Prophets: Rethinking Their Relationship Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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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Introduction, ‘Singing in the Vernacular’ Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) Pub Date : 2019-12-09 Moshe J. Bernstein
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Call and Response: Antiphonal Elements in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Poetry Aramaic Studies (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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 (IF 0.4) 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