Biblical Aramaic for Biblical Interpreters

This textbook, Biblical Aramaic for Biblical Interpreters, extends learning patterns already established through a student's study of Biblical Hebrew and cuts an efficient path toward the interpretation of Biblical Aramaic Scripture. It employs a fresh approach that significantly facilitates learning Biblical Aramaic vocabulary and grammar. The motivating goal throughout is to enable interpreting biblical passages written in Biblical Aramaic, namely, Genesis 31:47, Jeremiah 10:11, Ezra 4:8-6:18 and 7:12-26, and Daniel 2:4b-7:28. Review of fundamental concepts like the alphabet, Masoretic vowel pointing, prose cantillation marks, and the use of scholarly printed editions of the biblical text is unnecessary, because this knowledge carries over directly from previous biblical language study. Instead, review of Biblical Hebrew grammar is part and parcel of the comparative method of this book. Whenever this book places Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic words and concepts side-by-side for comparison, the arrangement is generally Biblical Hebrew on the left (review material) and Biblical Aramaic on the right (new information).