From: yochanan bitan-buth (ButhFam@compuserve.com)
Date: Fri Jun 30 2000 - 03:08:50 EDT
abuna grekoff ketav: (RE: Reasons Not:--Aram/Gk)
>And the primary reason NOT to study Greek is........
>
>BECAUSE THE ENTIRE NEW TESTAMENT WAS WRITTEN IN ARAMAIC!
Now that's style! Bold and unambiguous.
Yet...
I wonder which dialect? the foreign one with nextov 'he will write'? or one
in which they learned to avoid the standard Aramaic narrative style of the
1st century and create 'Hebrew' Aramaic in order to confuse our Greek
gospels? with "rabbinic Hebrew" Aramaic idioms (what be commandment big ...
that I establish/teach ... for their binding and loosing ... with blessings
BEFORE partaking of 'fruit of vine' unleavened 'artos' ... in which
'everything came into being thru his word'?) The one in which Paul wrote to
all his Greek churches? Do you like a local dialect like: 'avunen divgo
shomayya, yitqaddash shmax ... a translation from Greek (of a translation
from Hebrew)?
I'm all for Aramaic as long as one gets a good grounding in Koine Greek and
2nd-temple/mishnaic Hebrew. All three were in wide/interactive use in the
Jewish culture of the 1st century. You need all three to evaluate, sift and
mesh material with the correct and fuller cultural/linguistic background.
On a simple closing note: I find Greek and Hebrew about equally valuable
for the gospels. Greek as the encoded language, Hebrew as the
depository/language of the background-culture/events/religious-dialogue to
much of the gospels and primary influence on the Greek style of the
gospels. Aramaic is useful but plays a noticably secondary role in
reconstructing the background of the gospels in the light of qumran and
tannaitic sources.
Bottom line for younger students: learn all three and learn them well.
yisge shlamxon
ERRWSQE
hevu shalom
Randall Buth
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