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Biblical Aramaic is the form of the Aramaic language
Aramaic language

Aramaic is a Semitic languages with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship....
 that is used in the books of Daniel
Book of Daniel

The Book of Daniel is a book in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Originally written in Hebrew language and Aramaic language, it is set during the Babylonian Captivity, a period when Jews were deported and exiled to Babylon following the Siege of Jerusalem of 597 BC....
, Ezra
Book of Ezra

The Book of Ezra is a book of the Bible in the Old Testament and Hebrew language Tanakh. It is the record of events occurring at the close of the Babylonian captivity....
 and a few other places in the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible

The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic....
 and should not be confused with the later Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible

The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic....
 known as targum
Targum

A targum is an Aramaic language translation of the Hebrew Bible written or compiled from the Second Temple period until the early Middle Ages ....
im . For the use of Aramaic in the Christian Bible
New Testament

The New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christianity Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, see the article on the Aramaic of Jesus
Aramaic of Jesus

Most scholars claim that the historical Jesus primarily spoke Aramaic language. It is generally agreed that Aramaic was a common language of Israel in the first century A.D., but the situation is more complex than non-specialists realize....
.

Aramaic and Hebrew
Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 is the main language of the Hebrew Bible. Aramaic only accounts for about 250 verses out of a total of over 23,000.






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Biblical Aramaic is the form of the Aramaic language
Aramaic language

Aramaic is a Semitic languages with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship....
 that is used in the books of Daniel
Book of Daniel

The Book of Daniel is a book in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Originally written in Hebrew language and Aramaic language, it is set during the Babylonian Captivity, a period when Jews were deported and exiled to Babylon following the Siege of Jerusalem of 597 BC....
, Ezra
Book of Ezra

The Book of Ezra is a book of the Bible in the Old Testament and Hebrew language Tanakh. It is the record of events occurring at the close of the Babylonian captivity....
 and a few other places in the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible

The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic....
 and should not be confused with the later Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible

The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic....
 known as targum
Targum

A targum is an Aramaic language translation of the Hebrew Bible written or compiled from the Second Temple period until the early Middle Ages ....
im . For the use of Aramaic in the Christian Bible
New Testament

The New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christianity Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, see the article on the Aramaic of Jesus
Aramaic of Jesus

Most scholars claim that the historical Jesus primarily spoke Aramaic language. It is generally agreed that Aramaic was a common language of Israel in the first century A.D., but the situation is more complex than non-specialists realize....
.

Aramaic and Hebrew


Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 is the main language of the Hebrew Bible. Aramaic only accounts for about 250 verses out of a total of over 23,000. Biblical Aramaic is closely related to Hebrew being that both are in the Northwest Semitic
Northwest Semitic languages

The Northwest Semitic languages form a medium-level division of the Semitic languages. The languages of this group are spoken by approximately eight million people today....
 language family (perhaps a bit like Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
 and Portuguese
Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
). Some obvious similarities and differences are listed below.

Similarities

  • Same Aramaic square script.
  • Verb systems are based on triconsonantal roots.
  • Similar functions of the verbal conjugations.
  • Nouns have three states: the absolute, construct, and emphatic.


Differences

  • Aramaic attaches the definite article
    Definite Article

    Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on video and CD. The video/DVD and CD performances were both recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, England....
     at the end of a substantive.
  • He and alef are interchangeable for the article.
  • Aramaic uses different letters to represent the same sounds.
  • Aramaic is not a Canaanite language
    Canaanite languages

    The Canaanite languages or Hebraic languages are a subfamily of the Semitic languages, which were spoken by the ancient peoples of the Canaan region, including Canaanites, Israelites, Phoenicians, and Philistines....
     and thus did not experience the Canaanite vowel shift from a to o.
  • The preposition dalet functions as a conjunction and is often used instead of the construct to indicate the genitive relationship.


Phonology


Proto-SemiticHebrewAramaic
ð, d
z
t
?
s
š
s
?'
?
ð', d'

History


During the eighth century BCE
8th century BC

The 8th century BC started the first day of 800 BC and ended the last day of 701 BC....
, Aramaic became the lingua franca
Lingua franca

A lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues....
 of the Near East
Near East

Near East today is an ambiguous term that covers different countries for archeologists and historians, on one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other....
. Before that period, it had been the native language of the Aramaean city-states to the east. In 701 BCE, King Hezekiah
Hezekiah

Hezekiah was the 13th king of independent kingdom of Judah.His reign has been dated from 715 – 687 BC or 716 – 687 BC. Under either of these chronologies, Hezekiah ruled the southern kingdom of Judah during the forced resettlement of the northern kingdom of Israel by Sargon II's Assyrians and the invasion and siege of Jerusale...
 of Judah negotiated with King Sennacherib
Sennacherib

Sennacherib Rise to power As a crown prince, Sennacherib was placed in charge of the empire while his father Sargon II was on campaign....
 of Assyria, as his army besieged Jerusalem. The account in 2 Kings 18:26 sets the meeting of the ambassadors of both camps just outside the city walls. Hezekiah's envoys pleaded that the Assyrians make terms in Aramaic so that the people listening could not understand. Thus, Aramaic had become the language of international dialogue, but not of the common people. In 586 BCE, King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and exiled many of the people of Judah to the east. During the exile, Aramaic became the language of necessity for the Israelites and the Aramaic square script replaced the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet
Paleo-Hebrew alphabet

The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, also known as Ktav Ivri, is an offshoot of the ancient Semitic alphabet . At the very least it dates to the 10th century BCE....
. After the Persian Empire
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
's capture of Babylon, it became the language of culture and learning. King Darius I declared that Aramaic was to be the official language
Aramaic language

Aramaic is a Semitic languages with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship....
 of the western half of his empire in 500 BCE, and it is this Imperial Aramaic language that forms the basis of Biblical Aramaic.

Aramaic in the Hebrew Bible


Undisputed Occurrences


  • Ezra
    Book of Ezra

    The Book of Ezra is a book of the Bible in the Old Testament and Hebrew language Tanakh. It is the record of events occurring at the close of the Babylonian captivity....
     4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26 quotations of documents from the 5th century BCE concerning the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem
    Temple in Jerusalem

    The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to a series of structures located on the Temple Mount in the old city of Jerusalem. Historically, two temples were built at this location, and a The Third Temple features in Jewish eschatology....
    .
  • Daniel
    Book of Daniel

    The Book of Daniel is a book in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Originally written in Hebrew language and Aramaic language, it is set during the Babylonian Captivity, a period when Jews were deported and exiled to Babylon following the Siege of Jerusalem of 597 BC....
     2:4b–7:28 five tales about Daniel
    Daniel

    Daniel is a figure appearing in the Hebrew Bible and the central protagonist of the Book of Daniel. The name "Daniel" means "Judged by El ". "Dan" = judge and "i" = a suffix conjugating the verb such that its action applies to the speaker....
     and his colleagues
    Fiery furnace

    The fiery furnace is a story from the Book of Daniel in the Tanakh . The story is well-known among Jews and Christianity.In the story, Hananiah , Mishael , and Azariah , defy Nebuchadrezzar II's order that they bow down and worship a golden idolatry, a cult image of Nebuchadnezzar....
    , and an apocalyptic vision.
  • Jeremiah
    Book of Jeremiah

    The Book of Jeremiah, or Jeremiah , is part of the Hebrew Bible, Judaism's Tanakh, and later became a part of Christianity's Old Testament....
     10:11 a single sentence denouncing idolatry
    Idolatry

    Idolatry is usually defined as worship of any cult image, idea, or Object , as opposed to the worship of a monotheistic God. It is considered a major sin in the Abrahamic religions whereas in religions where such activity is not considered as sin, the term "idolatry" itself is absent....
     occurs in the middle of a Hebrew text.
  • Genesis
    Genesis

    Genesis or Breishit is the first book of the Bible used by Judaism and Christianity, and the first of five books of the Pentateuch or Torah....
     31:47 translation of a Hebrew place-name.


Other suggested occurrences


  • Genesis
    Genesis

    Genesis or Breishit is the first book of the Bible used by Judaism and Christianity, and the first of five books of the Pentateuch or Torah....
     15:1 the word ????? (, "in a vision"). According to the Zohar
    Zohar

    The Zohar is widely considered the most important work of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism. It is a mystical commentary on the Torah , written in medieval Aramaic language....
     (I:88b), this word is Aramaic, as the usual Hebrew word would be ????? ().


  • Numbers
    Book of Numbers

    The Book of Numbers, , is the fourth book of the Torah, the Tanakh, and the Old Testament. In the Greek language Septuagint it is called Arithmoi, or Numbers....
     23:10 the word ??? (, usually translated as "stock" or "fourth part"). Rabbi J.H. Hertz
    Joseph H. Hertz

    Early lifeRabbi Dr Joseph Herman Hertz, Doctor of Laws, Order of the Companions of Honour was born in Rebrin, Hungary , and emigrated to New York City in 1884....
    , in his commentary on this verse, cites an unnamed scholar's claim that this is an Aramaic word meaning "dust."


  • Job
    Book of Job

    The Book of Job is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. It relates the story of Job , his trials at the hands of Satan, his theological discussions with friends on the origins and nature of his suffering, and finally a response from God....
     36:2a Rashi
    Rashi

    Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, , better known by the acronym Rashi , , was a rabbi from France, famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, and Jewish commentaries on the Bible....
    , in his commentary on this verse, states that this phrase is in Aramaic.