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85-580: It is not to be confused with " Targum Pseudo-Jonathan ," an Aramaic translation of the Torah . It is often known as "Targum Jonathan" due to a printer's error or perhaps because it is so stylistically similar to the Targum Jerusalem, which is named "Jonathan" to differentiate the two later translations. Like Targum Onkelos , it originated in the synagogue reading of a translation from the Nevi'im, which

170-954: A Latin script . Periodization of historical development of Aramaic language has been the subject of particular interest for scholars, who proposed several types of periodization, based on linguistic, chronological and territorial criteria. Overlapping terminology, used in different periodizations, led to the creation of several polysemic terms, that are used differently among scholars. Terms like: Old Aramaic, Ancient Aramaic, Early Aramaic, Middle Aramaic, Late Aramaic (and some others, like Paleo-Aramaic), were used in various meanings, thus referring (in scope or substance) to different stages in historical development of Aramaic language. Most commonly used types of periodization are those of Klaus Beyer and Joseph Fitzmyer. Periodization of Klaus Beyer (1929–2014): Periodization of Joseph Fitzmyer (1920–2016): Recent periodization of Aaron Butts: Aramaic's long history and diverse and widespread use has led to

255-636: A complex set of semantic phenomena was created, becoming a subject of interest both among ancient writers and modern scholars. The Koine Greek word Ἑβραϊστί ( Hebraïstí ) has been translated as "Aramaic" in some versions of the Christian New Testament , as Aramaic was at that time the language commonly spoken by the Jews . However, Ἑβραϊστί is consistently used in Koine Greek at this time to mean Hebrew and Συριστί ( Syristi )

340-482: A prestige language after being adopted as a lingua franca of the empire by Assyrian kings, and its use was spread throughout Mesopotamia , the Levant and parts of Asia Minor , Arabian Peninsula , and Ancient Iran under Assyrian rule. At its height, Aramaic was spoken in what is now Iraq , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Jordan , Kuwait , parts of southeast and south central Turkey , northern parts of

425-746: A prestige language. Following the conquest of the Sassanids by the Arabs in the 7th-century, the Aramaic-derived writing system was replaced by the Arabic alphabet in all but Zoroastrian usage , which continued to use the name 'pahlavi' for the Aramaic-derived writing system and went on to create the bulk of all Middle Iranian literature in that writing system. Other regional dialects continued to exist alongside these, often as simple, spoken variants of Aramaic. Early evidence for these vernacular dialects

510-522: A relatively close resemblance to that of the Achaemenid period, continued to be used up to the 2nd century BCE. By the end of the 2nd century BC, several variants of Post-Achaemenid Aramaic emerged, bearing regional characteristics. One of them was Hasmonaean Aramaic, the official administrative language of Hasmonaean Judaea (142–37 BC), alongside Hebrew , which was the language preferred in religious and some other public uses (coinage). It influenced

595-583: A verse-by-verse translation alternately with the Hebrew verses of the haftara in the synagogue . Thus, when the Talmud states that "a person should complete his portions of scripture along with the community, reading the scripture twice and the targum once", the passage may be taken to refer to the Targuma Jonathan and Onqelos. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (also known as

680-567: Is an emphasis on writing as words are pronounced rather than using etymological forms. The use of written Aramaic in the Achaemenid bureaucracy also precipitated the adoption of Aramaic(-derived) scripts to render a number of Middle Iranian languages. Moreover, many common words, including even pronouns, particles, numerals, and auxiliaries, continued to be written as Aramaic "words" even when writing Middle Iranian languages. In time, in Iranian usage, these Aramaic "words" became disassociated from

765-597: Is in the TPsJ. More specifically, this expansion includes the phrase 'My people, children of Israel' (‮עמי בני ישראל‬‎), which is known from Neofiti and the Cairo Geniza , as well as the phrase 'As I am merciful in heaven, so shall you be merciful on earth', only found in TPsJ. Flesher and Chilton take this to imply that the Jerusalem Talmud, which reached its form by the first half of the fifth century, has cited

850-427: Is known only through their influence on words and names in a more standard dialect. However, some of those regional dialects became written languages by the 2nd century BC. These dialects reflect a stream of Aramaic that is not directly dependent on Achaemenid Aramaic , and they also show a clear linguistic diversity between eastern and western regions. Babylonian Targumic is the later post-Achaemenid dialect found in

935-609: Is now called Syria, is considered the linguistic center of Aramaic, the language of the Arameans who settled the area during the Bronze Age c.  3500 BC . The language is often mistakenly considered to have originated within Assyria (Iraq). In fact, Arameans carried their language and writing into Mesopotamia by voluntary migration, by forced exile of conquering armies, and by nomadic Chaldean invasions of Babylonia during

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1020-456: Is often spoken of as a single language but is actually a group of related languages. Some languages differ more from each other than the Romance languages do among themselves. Its long history, extensive literature, and use by different religious communities are all factors in the diversification of the language. Some Aramaic dialects are mutually intelligible, whereas others are not, similar to

1105-551: Is sometimes cited with the introduction "Rav Yosef has translated", suggesting a tradition of authorship by Joseph bar Hama . The language of Targum Jonathan is Aramaic. Its overall style is very similar to that of Targum Onkelos, though it sometimes seems to be a looser paraphrase of the Biblical text. It is the result of a single redaction. Like Targum Onkelos, it gained general recognition in Lower Mesopotamia in

1190-405: Is sometimes used to argue for an early date. Aramaic Aramaic ( Jewish Babylonian Aramaic : ארמית , romanized:  ˀərāmiṯ ; Classical Syriac : ܐܪܡܐܝܬ , romanized:  arāmāˀiṯ ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia , the southern Levant , southeastern Anatolia , Eastern Arabia and

1275-506: Is still the main spoken language, and many large cities in this region also have Suret-speaking communities, particularly Mosul , Erbil , Kirkuk , Dohuk , and al-Hasakah . In modern Israel, the only native Aramaic-speaking population are the Jews of Kurdistan , although the language is dying out. However, Aramaic is also experiencing a revival among Maronites in Israel in Jish . Aramaic

1360-412: Is that the original title of this work was Targum Yerushalmi , which was abbreviated to ת"י (TY), and these initials were then incorrectly expanded to Targum Yonatan which was then further incorrectly expanded to Targum Yonatan ben Uziel . For these reasons, scholars call it "Targum Pseudo-Jonathan". TPsJ is known from two extant sources. One is a manuscript called British Museum Add. 27031, stored at

1445-481: Is the mixing of literary Hasmonaean with the dialect of Galilee . The Hasmonaean targums reached Galilee in the 2nd century AD, and were reworked into this Galilean dialect for local use. The Galilean Targum was not considered an authoritative work by other communities, and documentary evidence shows that its text was amended. From the 11th century AD onwards, once the Babylonian Targum had become normative,

1530-521: Is used to mean Aramaic. In Biblical scholarship, the term "Chaldean" was for many years used as a synonym of Aramaic, due to its use in the book of Daniel and subsequent interpretation by Jerome . During the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires, Arameans , the native speakers of Aramaic, began to settle in greater numbers in Babylonia , and later in the heartland of Assyria , also known as

1615-495: The Achaemenid (Persian) conquest of Mesopotamia under Darius I , Aramaic (as had been used in that region) was adopted by the conquerors as the "vehicle for written communication between the different regions of the vast empire with its different peoples and languages. The use of a single official language, which modern scholarship has dubbed Official Aramaic or Imperial Aramaic , can be assumed to have greatly contributed to

1700-544: The Achaemenid Empire (539–330 BC). Mediated by scribes that had been trained in the language, highly standardized written Aramaic, named by scholars Imperial Aramaic , progressively also became the lingua franca of public life, trade and commerce throughout Achaemenid territories. Wide use of written Aramaic subsequently led to the adoption of the Aramaic alphabet and, as logograms , some Aramaic vocabulary in

1785-580: The Anti-Lebanon Mountains in western Syria . They have retained use of the once-dominant lingua franca despite subsequent language shifts experienced throughout the Middle East. The connection between Chaldean, Syriac, and Samaritan as "Aramaic" was first identified in 1679 by German theologian Johann Wilhelm Hilliger . In 1819–21 Ulrich Friedrich Kopp published his Bilder und Schriften der Vorzeit ("Images and Inscriptions of

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1870-673: The Arabian Peninsula and parts of northwest Iran , as well as the southern Caucasus , having gradually replaced several other related Semitic languages. According to the Babylonian Talmud ( Sanhedrin 38b), the language spoken by Adam – the Bible's first human – was Aramaic. Aramaic was the language of Jesus , who spoke the Galilean dialect during his public ministry, as well as

1955-702: The Aramaic alphabet , a descendant of the Phoenician alphabet , and the most prominent alphabet variant is the Syriac alphabet . The Aramaic alphabet also became a base for the creation and adaptation of specific writing systems in some other Semitic languages of West Asia , such as the Hebrew alphabet and the Arabic alphabet . The Aramaic languages are now considered endangered , with several varieties used mainly by

2040-724: The Assyrians , Mandeans , Mizrahi Jews . Classical varieties are used as liturgical and literary languages in several West Asian churches, as well as in Judaism , Samaritanism , and Mandaeism . Aramaic belongs to the Northwest group of the Semitic language family , which also includes the mutually intelligible Canaanite languages such as Hebrew , Edomite , Moabite , Ekronite, Sutean , and Phoenician , as well as Amorite and Ugaritic . Aramaic languages are written in

2125-547: The Bible : Biblical Aramaic is a somewhat hybrid dialect. It is theorized that some Biblical Aramaic material originated in both Babylonia and Judaea before the fall of the Achaemenid dynasty. Biblical Aramaic presented various challenges for writers who were engaged in early Biblical studies . Since the time of Jerome of Stridon (d. 420), Aramaic of the Bible was named as "Chaldean" (Chaldaic, Chaldee). That label remained common in early Aramaic studies , and persisted up into

2210-816: The British Museum in London , and first published by M. Ginsburger in 1903 though provenanced in 16th century Italy . Due to the many errors in Ginsburger's edition, Rieder published a new edition of this manuscript in 1973. This manuscript bears the date 1598, though was written earlier, and was transcribed in an Italian hand. The second is the Venice edition first printed in 1591 and whose manuscripts were known earlier to Azariah dei Rossi (d. 1578), an Italian physician who discussed them in his work Meʾor ʿEynayim (1573–1575). Earlier scholarship once posited that

2295-656: The Carpentras Stele corresponded to the Aramaic in the Book of Daniel , and in the Book of Ruth . Josephus and Strabo (the latter citing Posidonius ) both stated that the "Syrians" called themselves "Arameans". The Septuagint , the earliest extant full copy of the Hebrew Bible, a Greek translation, used the terms Syria and Syrian where the Masoretic Text , the earliest extant Hebrew copy of

2380-533: The Euphrates , Tiglath-Pileser III made Aramaic the Empire's second official language, and it eventually supplanted Akkadian completely. From 700 BC, the language began to spread in all directions, but lost much of its unity. Different dialects emerged in Assyria, Babylonia, the Levant and Egypt . Around 600 BC, Adon, a Canaanite king, used Aramaic to write to an Egyptian Pharaoh . Around 500 BC, following

2465-490: The Jerusalem Targum , Targum Yerushalmi , or Targum Jonathan ) is an Aramaic translation and interpretation ( targum ) of the Torah (Pentateuch) traditionally thought to have originated from the land of Israel , although more recently a provenance in 12th-century Italy has been proposed. As a targum , it is not just a translation but incorporates aggadic material collected from various sources as late as

2550-603: The Midrash Rabbah as well as earlier material from the Talmud . So it is a combination of a commentary and a translation. It is also a composite text, involving the Old Palestinian Targum, Targum Onkelos , and a diverse array of other material. The original name of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan was Targum Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Targum). However, due to an error in the fourteenth century, it came to be known as

2635-533: The Pahlavi scripts , which were used by several Middle Iranian languages , including Parthian , Middle Persian , Sogdian , and Khwarezmian . Some variants of Aramaic are also retained as sacred languages by certain religious communities. Most notable among them is Classical Syriac , the liturgical language of Syriac Christianity . It is used by several communities, including the Assyrian Church of

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2720-624: The Phoenician alphabet , and there is a unity in the written language. It seems that, in time, a more refined alphabet, suited to the needs of the language, began to develop from this in the eastern regions of Aram. Due to increasing Aramean migration eastward, the Western periphery of Assyria became bilingual in Akkadian and Aramean at least as early as the mid-9th century BC. As the Neo-Assyrian Empire conquered Aramean lands west of

2805-644: The Sanhedrin , may have represented the result of his attempts to translate the Ketuvim. Jonathan ben Uzziel is named as Hillel's most prominent pupil, and the reference to his Targum is at least of historical value, so there is nothing to controvert the assumption that it served as the foundation for the present Targum to the Prophets. It was thoroughly revised, however, before it was redacted in Babylonia. In

2890-470: The Sasanian Empire (224 AD), dominating the influential, eastern dialect region. As such, the term covers over thirteen centuries of the development of Aramaic. This vast time span includes all Aramaic that is now effectively extinct. Regarding the earliest forms, Beyer suggests that written Aramaic probably dates from the 11th century BCE, as it is established by the 10th century, to which he dates

2975-672: The Sinai Peninsula , where it has been continually written and spoken in different varieties for over three thousand years. Aramaic served as a language of public life and administration of ancient kingdoms and empires, and also as a language of divine worship and religious study. Western Aramaic is still spoken by the Christian and Muslim Arameans (Syriacs) in the towns of Maaloula and nearby Jubb'adin in Syria . Other modern varieties include Neo-Aramaic languages spoken by

3060-492: The Targum Onqelos and Targum Jonathan , the "official" targums. The original, Hasmonaean targums had reached Babylon sometime in the 2nd or 3rd century AD. They were then reworked according to the contemporary dialect of Babylon to create the language of the standard targums. This combination formed the basis of Babylonian Jewish literature for centuries to follow. Galilean Targumic is similar to Babylonian Targumic. It

3145-437: The earliest languages to be written down . Aramaicist Holger Gzella  [ de ] notes, "The linguistic history of Aramaic prior to the appearance of the first textual sources in the ninth century BC remains unknown." Aramaic is also believed by most historians and scholars to have been the primary language spoken by Jesus of Nazareth both for preaching and in everyday life. Historically and originally, Aramaic

3230-600: The "Arbela triangle" ( Assur , Nineveh , and Arbela ). The influx eventually resulted in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC) adopting an Akkadian -influenced Imperial Aramaic as the lingua franca of its empire. This policy was continued by the short-lived Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Medes , and all three empires became operationally bilingual in written sources, with Aramaic used alongside Akkadian. The Achaemenid Empire (539–323 BC) continued this tradition, and

3315-464: The 3rd century BCE, Greek overtook Aramaic in many spheres of public communication, particularly in highly Hellenized cities throughout the Seleucid domains. However, Aramaic continued to be used, in its post-Achaemenid form, among upper and literate classes of native Aramaic-speaking communities, and also by local authorities (along with the newly introduced Greek). Post-Achaemenid Aramaic, that bears

3400-602: The Achaemenid-era use of Aramaic was more pervasive than generally thought. Imperial Aramaic was highly standardised; its orthography was based more on historical roots than any spoken dialect, and the inevitable influence of Persian gave the language a new clarity and robust flexibility. For centuries after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire (in 330 BC), Imperial Aramaic – or a version thereof near enough for it to be recognisable – would remain an influence on

3485-529: The Aramaic language and came to be understood as signs (i.e. logograms ), much like the symbol '&' is read as "and" in English and the original Latin et is now no longer obvious. Under the early 3rd-century BC Parthian Arsacids , whose government used Greek but whose native language was Parthian , the Parthian language and its Aramaic-derived writing system both gained prestige. This in turn also led to

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3570-656: The Assyrians of northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and northwest Iran, with diaspora communities in Armenia , Georgia , Azerbaijan , and southern Russia . The Mandaeans also continue to use Classical Mandaic as a liturgical language, although most now speak Arabic as their first language. There are still also a small number of first-language speakers of Western Aramaic varieties in isolated villages in western Syria. Being in contact with other regional languages, some Neo-Aramaic dialects were often engaged in

3655-589: The Babylonian Talmud it is quoted with especial frequency by Joseph, head of the Academy of Pumbedita , who writes concerning the two biblical passages Isaiah 8 :6 and Zechariah 12 :11, "If there were no Targum to it we should not know the meaning of these verses". This shows that as early as the beginning of the fourth century the Targum to the Prophets was recognized as of ancient authority. The targum

3740-532: The Bible, uses the terms Aramean and Aramaic ; numerous later bibles followed the Septuagint's usage, including the King James Version . This connection between the names Syrian and Aramaic was discussed in 1835 by Étienne Marc Quatremère . In historical sources, Aramaic language is designated by two distinctive groups of terms, first of them represented by endonymic (native) names, and

3825-647: The Biblical Aramaic of the Qumran texts, and was the main language of non-biblical theological texts of that community. The major Targums , translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic, were originally composed in Hasmonaean Aramaic. It also appears in quotations in the Mishnah and Tosefta , although smoothed into its later context. It is written quite differently from Achaemenid Aramaic; there

3910-882: The East , the Ancient Church of the East , the Chaldean Catholic Church , the Syriac Orthodox Church , the Syriac Catholic Church , the Maronite Church , and also the Saint Thomas Christians , Syriac Christians of Kerala , India . One of the liturgical dialects was Mandaic , which besides becoming a vernacular, Neo-Mandaic , also remained the liturgical language of Mandaeism . Syriac

3995-418: The Elder , fashioned an Aramaic translation of the Nevi'im . It makes no mention of any translation by him of the Torah. So all scholars agree that this Targum was not authored by Yonatan ben Uziel. Indeed, Azariah dei Rossi (16th century) reports that he saw two very similar complete Targumim to the Torah, one called Targum Yonatan Ben Uziel and the other called Targum Yerushalmi . A standard explanation

4080-438: The Galilean version became heavily influenced by it. Babylonian Documentary Aramaic is a dialect in use from the 3rd century AD onwards. It is the dialect of Babylonian private documents, and, from the 12th century, all Jewish private documents are in Aramaic. It is based on Hasmonaean with very few changes. This was perhaps because many of the documents in BDA are legal documents, the language in them had to be sensible throughout

4165-409: The Past"), in which he established the basis of the paleographical development of the Northwest Semitic scripts. Kopp criticised Jean-Jacques Barthélemy and other scholars who had characterized all the then-known inscriptions and coins as Phoenician, with "everything left to the Phoenicians and nothing to the Arameans, as if they could not have written at all". Kopp noted that some of the words on

4250-403: The TPsJ dated to the first century or earlier, although this approach has been widely abandoned. The Aramaic dialect used is late and TPsJ is likely the latest of the Pentateuchal Targums. Today, a wide variety of dates have been proposed for Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, ranging from the 4th to 12th centuries, although most date it to after the Islamic conquests and the upper boundary for the date of

4335-443: The TPsJ prior to the Islamic conquests, and these have included Robert Hayward, Paul Flesher, and Beverly Mortensen who place the text between the late fourth century to the early fifth century. A lower boundary for the date of TPsJ is given by references to certain external events, activities, and people. For example, TPsJ describes the six orders of the Mishnah , and the Mishnah dates to around 200. References can also be found to

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4420-416: The TPsJ. However, Leeor Gottlieb has retorted that this only provides evidence for the presence of a tradition acting as the common source for the Jerusalem Talmud and TPsJ Lev. 22:28. Instead, Gottlieb dates the TPsJ to the end of the 12th century in Italy on the basis of a textual relationship with a 12th-century Hebrew lexicon which Gottlieb argues has priority over it. Independently, Gavin McDowell reached

4505-412: The Targum "Jonathan" instead of "Jerusalem" in reference to Jonathan ben Uzziel . Due to the pseudonymous nature of this attribution, it is now also referred to as the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, although this is variously abbreviated as TPsJ or TgPsJ. There are editions of the Pentateuch that continue to call it Targum Jonathan to this day. The Talmud relates that Yonatan ben Uziel , a student of Hillel

4590-440: The adoption of the name ' pahlavi ' (< parthawi , "of the Parthians") for that writing system. The Persian Sassanids , who succeeded the Parthian Arsacids in the mid-3rd century AD, subsequently inherited/adopted the Parthian-mediated Aramaic-derived writing system for their own Middle Iranian ethnolect as well. That particular Middle Iranian dialect, Middle Persian , i.e. the language of Persia proper, subsequently also became

4675-428: The astonishing success of the Achaemenids in holding their far-flung empire together for as long as they did". In 1955, Richard Frye questioned the classification of Imperial Aramaic as an "official language", noting that no surviving edict expressly and unambiguously accorded that status to any particular language. Frye reclassifies Imperial Aramaic as the lingua franca of the Achaemenid territories, suggesting then that

4760-404: The best known is the Story of Ahikar , a book of instructive aphorisms quite similar in style to the biblical Book of Proverbs . Consensus as of 2022 regards the Aramaic portion of the Biblical book of Daniel (i.e., 2:4b–7:28) as an example of Imperial (Official) Aramaic. Achaemenid Aramaic is sufficiently uniform that it is often difficult to know where any particular example of the language

4845-421: The city of Constantinople which was constructed in 324–330. Later still, the rendering of Genesis 21:21 in the TPsJ contains a polemic reducing the status of Ishmael and against Khadija (called Adisha in the text), the first wife of Muhammad , and a daughter of theirs name Fatima. As such, the current form of the targum must date to the mid-7th century at the earliest, although some argue that this material

4930-535: The development of many divergent varieties, which are sometimes considered dialects , though they have become distinct enough over time that they are now sometimes considered separate languages . Therefore, there is not one singular, static Aramaic language; each time and place rather has had its own variation. The more widely spoken Eastern Aramaic languages are largely restricted to Assyrian , Mandean and Mizrahi Jewish communities in Iraq , northeastern Syria , northwestern Iran , and southeastern Turkey , whilst

5015-419: The development of the language from being spoken in Aramaean city-states to become a major means of communication in diplomacy and trade throughout Mesopotamia , the Levant , and Egypt . After the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, local vernaculars became increasingly prominent, fanning the divergence of an Aramaic dialect continuum and the development of differing written standards. "Ancient Aramaic" refers to

5100-431: The dividing line being roughly the Euphrates , or slightly west of it. It is also helpful to distinguish modern living languages, or Neo-Aramaics, and those that are still in use as literary or liturgical languages or are only of interest to scholars. Although there are some exceptions to this rule, this classification gives "Old", "Middle", and "Modern" periods alongside "Eastern" and "Western" areas to distinguish between

5185-459: The earliest known period of the language, from its origin until it becomes the lingua franca of the Fertile Crescent . It was the language of the Aramean city-states of Damascus , Hamath , and Arpad . There are inscriptions that evidence the earliest use of the language, dating from the 10th century BC. These inscriptions are mostly diplomatic documents between Aramaean city-states. The alphabet of Aramaic at this early period seems to be based on

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5270-502: The extensive influence of these empires led to Aramaic gradually becoming the lingua franca of most of western Asia, Anatolia , the Caucasus , and Egypt . Beginning with the rise of the Rashidun Caliphate and the early Muslim conquests in the late seventh century, Arabic gradually replaced Aramaic as the lingua franca of the Near East . However, Aramaic remains a spoken, literary, and liturgical language for local Christians and also some Jews. Aramaic also continues to be spoken by

5355-440: The history of Aramaic language. During the early stages of the post-Achaemenid era, public use of Aramaic language was continued, but shared with the newly introduced Greek language . By the year 300 BC, all of the main Aramaic-speaking regions came under political rule of the newly created Seleucid Empire that promoted Hellenistic culture , and favored Greek language as the main language of public life and administration. During

5440-460: The language of several sections of the Hebrew Bible , including parts of the books of Daniel and Ezra , and also the language of the Targum , the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible. It is also the language of the Jerusalem Talmud , Babylonian Talmud , and Zohar . The scribes of the Neo-Assyrian bureaucracy also used Aramaic, and this practice was subsequently inherited by the succeeding Neo-Babylonian Empire (605–539 BC) and later by

5525-399: The latter. Although Targum Jonathan was composed in classical antiquity , probably in the 2nd century , it is now known from medieval manuscripts, which contain many textual variants. The earliest attestation appears as citations of Jeremiah 2 :1–2 and Ezekiel 21 :23 on an incantation bowl found in Nippur . In Talmudic times, and still by Yemenite Jews , Targum Jonathan was read as

5610-478: The mutual exchange of influences, particularly with Arabic, Iranian, and Kurdish. The turbulence of the last two centuries (particularly the Assyrian genocide , also known as Seyfo "Sword" in Syriac, has seen speakers of first-language and literary Aramaic dispersed throughout the world. However, there are several sizable Assyrian towns in northern Iraq, such as Alqosh , Bakhdida , Bartella , Tesqopa , and Tel Keppe , and numerous small villages, where Aramaic

5695-454: The nineteenth century. The " Chaldean misnomer " was eventually abandoned, when modern scholarly analyses showed that Aramaic dialect used in Hebrew Bible was not related to ancient Chaldeans and their language. The fall of the Achaemenid Empire ( c. 334–330 BC), and its replacement with the newly created political order, imposed by Alexander the Great (d. 323 BC) and his Hellenistic successors, marked an important turning point in

5780-406: The older generations. Researchers are working to record and analyze all of the remaining varieties of Neo-Aramaic languages before or in case they become extinct. Aramaic dialects today form the mother tongues of the Arameans (Syriacs) in the Qalamoun mountains , Assyrians and Mandaeans , as well as some Mizrahi Jews . Early Aramaic inscriptions date from 11th century BC, placing it among

5865-407: The oldest inscriptions of northern Syria. Heinrichs uses the less controversial date of the 9th century, for which there is clear and widespread attestation. The central phase in the development of Old Aramaic was its official use by the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–608 BC), Neo-Babylonian Empire (620–539 BC), and Achaemenid Empire (500–330 BC). The period before this, dubbed "Ancient Aramaic", saw

5950-488: The other one represented by various exonymic (foreign in origin) names. Native (endonymic) terms for Aramaic language were derived from the same word root as the name of its original speakers, the ancient Arameans . Endonymic forms were also adopted in some other languages, like ancient Hebrew . In the Torah (Hebrew Bible), "Aram" is used as a proper name of several people including descendants of Shem, Nahor, and Jacob. Ancient Aram , bordering northern Israel and what

6035-428: The period from 1200 to 1000 BC. Unlike in Hebrew, designations for Aramaic language in some other ancient languages were mostly exonymic. In ancient Greek , Aramaic language was most commonly known as the "Syrian language", in relation to the native (non-Greek) inhabitants of the historical region of Syria . Since the name of Syria itself emerged as a variant of Assyria, the biblical Ashur , and Akkadian Ashuru,

6120-536: The same conclusion as Gottlieb, both for a provenance in the 12th century and for Italian origins, on the basis of his renewed argument for dependence of the TPsJ on the Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer composed in the 9th century, as well as the Chronicles of Moses dating to the 11th century. According to McDowell, a 12th-century Italian provenance also explains the absence of Arabic loanwords, which

6205-521: The severely endangered Western Neo-Aramaic language is spoken by small Christian and Muslim communities in the Anti-Lebanon mountains , and closely related western varieties of Aramaic persisted in Mount Lebanon until as late as the 17th century. The term "Old Aramaic" is used to describe the varieties of the language from its first known use, until the point roughly marked by the rise of

6290-620: The situation with modern varieties of Arabic . Some Aramaic languages are known under different names; for example, Syriac is particularly used to describe the Eastern Aramaic variety spoken by Syriac Christian communities in northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria, and northwestern Iran, and the Saint Thomas Christians in Kerala , India. Most dialects can be described as either "Eastern" or "Western",

6375-406: The text is the 13th century due to its citation in material from that time, specifically its repeated reference by Rabbi Menahem Recanati (1250–1310) in his Perush 'Al ha-Torah . Earlier citations to the TPsJ are not known, and none exist in the works of Nathan b. Yehiel of Rome who otherwise cited Palestinian Targums many times. A small number of academics in recent times have continued to date

6460-751: The third century, and from the Talmudic academies in Babylonia it was carried throughout the Diaspora. It originated, however, in Syria Palaestina but was adapted to Jewish Babylonian Aramaic , so it contains the same linguistic peculiarities as the Targum Onḳelos, including sporadic instances of Persian loanwords. In cases where the Palestinian and Babylonian texts differ, the Onqelos follows

6545-546: The various languages and dialects that are Aramaic. The earliest Aramaic alphabet was based on the Phoenician alphabet . In time, Aramaic developed its distinctive "square" style. The ancient Israelites and other peoples of Canaan adopted this alphabet for writing their own languages. Thus, it is better known as the Hebrew alphabet . This is the writing system used in Biblical Aramaic and other Jewish writing in Aramaic. The other main writing system used for Aramaic

6630-579: The various native Iranian languages . Aramaic script and – as ideograms – Aramaic vocabulary would survive as the essential characteristics of the Pahlavi scripts . One of the largest collections of Imperial Aramaic texts is that of the Persepolis Administrative Archives , found at Persepolis , which number about five hundred. Many of the extant documents witnessing to this form of Aramaic come from Egypt , and Elephantine in particular (see Elephantine papyri ). Of them,

6715-611: Was also the liturgical language of several now-extinct gnostic faiths, such as Manichaeism . Neo-Aramaic languages are still spoken in the 21st century as a first language by many communities of Assyrians , Mizrahi Jews (in particular, the Jews of Kurdistan / Iraqi Jews ), and Mandaeans of the Near East , with the main Neo-Aramaic languages being Suret (~240,000 speakers) and Turoyo (~250,000 speakers). Western Neo-Aramaic (~3,000) persists in only two villages in

6800-796: Was developed by Christian communities: a cursive form known as the Syriac alphabet . A highly modified form of the Aramaic alphabet, the Mandaic alphabet , is used by the Mandaeans . In addition to these writing systems, certain derivatives of the Aramaic alphabet were used in ancient times by particular groups: the Nabataean alphabet in Petra and the Palmyrene alphabet in Palmyra . In modern times, Turoyo (see below ) has sometimes been written in

6885-508: Was inserted into an earlier core of the TPsJ at a later date with respect to its original composition. Paul Flesher and Bruce Chilton have argued that all three major Targums, including Pseudo-Jonathan, should date to the fifth century or earlier because of a lack of Arabic loanwords, for one, and that the Jerusalem Talmud describes a variant containing an expansion of Leviticus 22:28 in y . Ber. 5.3 (9c) whose only similar witness

6970-527: Was part of the weekly lesson. The Talmud attributes its authorship to Jonathan ben Uzziel , a pupil of Hillel the Elder , in Megillah 3a:4. According to this source, it was composed by Jonathan ben Uzziel "from the mouths of Haggai , Zechariah , and Malachi ," implying that it was based on traditions derived from the last prophets. The additional statements that, on this account, the entire land of Israel

7055-403: Was shaken and that a voice from heaven cried: "Who has revealed my secrets to the children of men?" are legendary reflections of the novelty of Jonathan's undertaking and the disapprobation it evoked. The story adds that Jonathan wished to translate the Ketuvim, but a heavenly voice instructed him to stop. The Targum to the Book of Job , which was withdrawn from circulation by Gamaliel , nasi of

7140-476: Was the language of the Arameans , a Semitic-speaking people of the region between the northern Levant and the northern Tigris valley. By around 1000 BC, the Arameans had a string of kingdoms in what is now part of Syria , Lebanon , Jordan , Turkey , and the fringes of southern Mesopotamia ( Iraq ). Aramaic rose to prominence under the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC), under whose influence Aramaic became

7225-487: Was written. Only careful examination reveals the occasional loan word from a local language. A group of thirty Aramaic documents from Bactria have been discovered, and an analysis was published in November 2006. The texts, which were rendered on leather, reflect the use of Aramaic in the 4th century BC Achaemenid administration of Bactria and Sogdia . Biblical Aramaic is the Aramaic found in four discrete sections of

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