Aramaic Word Study

More about the book

If Jesus and the Apostles spoke Aramaic, why not study their words in that language? Aramaic was the everyday language of Israel during their time, while Hebrew was used for reading the Torah. The Sermon on the Mount and all of Jesus' parables were delivered in Aramaic. When He shared prophetic insights with His disciples, it was also in this language. If Christians regard every word of the Bible as sacred, shouldn’t the actual words spoken by Jesus, in His native tongue, be explored as well? Ancient languages scholar Chaim Bentorah invites readers to delve into the New Testament's language. However, translating the New Testament from Aramaic poses challenges. Scholars generally agree that Jesus and His disciples spoke a dialect known as Old Galilean Aramaic, part of the Western Aramaic family. While modern Eastern Neo-Aramaic dialects exist, the Western dialect is considered extinct, with only a few villages in Syria retaining a related dialect. The understanding of Old Galilean is limited, with no original documents available. The theory that the New Testament was originally written in Aramaic suggests that scribes translated Jesus' words into Greek, although some believe these were dictated in Old Galilean Aramaic, influencing the Syriac language that led to the Peshitta New Testament.