Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/109

71 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

71 In

Hebrew

was especially useHebrew words in the Bible

philology, Aramaic

ful in the explanation of

and

it served as the foundation for a comparative philology of the Semitic languages inaugurated by Judah ibn Koreish and Saadia. Nevertheless, Aramaic was never treated either grammatically or lexicographically by the Jews of Spain, in spite of the high development to which they otherwise carried philology. In Nathan ben Jehiel's Talmudical lexicon, the 'Aruk— which covers also the Targumini Aramaic naturally occupies the most prominent place. The first Aramaic lexicon limited to the Targumim was compiled by Elijah Levita. Among Jewish scholars of the nineteenth century, Aramaic grammars have been written by Luzzatto, Filrst, Blucher, and C. Levias Jacob Levy published a compendious lexicon of the Targums as well. as a large dictionary of the Talmudic and Midrashic literature, which distinguishes throughout between Hebrew and Aramaic G. Dalman has published a full glossary, and Marcus Jastrow has nearly completed a, similar work. The Hebrew word "Aramit," employed in the and elsewhere) Bible (Dan. ii. 4—" Syriac " in A. V. to designate the Aramaic language, is similarly used in later times, particularly in Babylonia while in Palestine as early as the tannaitic period, the Aramaic language is also called Sursi by reason of the Greek designation of the Arameans as Syrians. The second book of Maccabees calls it " the Syriac tongue " (?) y.vpiaK7j ipavfj) and the Septuagint translates " Aramit " (Dan. compare Yer. Ned. x. 42a, where ii. 4, etc.) by avpiari read pQD'IlD for ptWTiD- Among Christian Arameans, Syriac is the exclusive appellation for their language and the Arabic form of this term, " Suryani," was the usual designation for Aramaic among In addition to these two the Arabic-speaking Jews. chief names for Aramaic, other terms were also em;



—









ployed in Jewish

Names and

circles



Targum

(lit-

erally " translation " of the Bible, spe-

Dialects cifically the Aramaic version) denoted of Aramaic, the language of the Aramaic portions But the Syrian inhabiof the Bible. tants of the town lying below the monastery on Mount Sinai were described by Benjamin of Tudela as speaking the " Targum language " (leshon Targum). The Aramaic of the Bible (Daniel and Ezra) was called the Chaldaic language because of Dan. i. 4(Masora upon Onkelos Saadia) Jerome, too, calls it " Chaldaicus Sermo. " The term " Chaldaic " for the Biblical Aramaic, and indeed for Aramaic generally, is a misnomer, persisted in, moreover, until the present day. It is also called " Nabataan "—denoting, according to Bar-Hebraeus, the dialect of certain mountaineers of Assyria and of villagers in Mesopotamia— which is the term used by Saadia to denote Aramaic in his translation of Isa. xxxvi. 11. Likewise in his introduction to the book " Sefer ha-Galui " he complains that the Hebrew of his Jewish contemporaries had become corrupted by the Arabic and "Nabatsean." This designation is due to Arabic influence ("Jew. Quart.

Rev."



xii. 517).

Aramaic contributions to Jewish literature belong to both the eastern and the western branches of the language. West Aramaic are the Aramaic portions of the Bible, the Palestinian Targumim, the Ara-

Aramaic Language

maic portions of the Palestinian Talmud, and the Palestinian Midrashim. In Palestinian Aramaic the dialect of Galilee was different from that of Judea, and as a result of the religious separation of the Jews and the Samaritans, a special Samaritan dialect was evolved, but its literature can not be considered Jewish. To the eastern Aramaic, whose most distinctive point of difference is •' n " in place of " y " as the prefix for the third person masculine of the imperfect tense of the verb, belong the idioms of the Babylonian Talmud, which most closely agree with the language of the Mandamn writings. The dialect of Edessa, which, owing to the Bible version made in it, became the literary language of the Christian Arameans bearing preeminently the title of Syriac was certainly also employed in ancient times by Jews. This Syriac translation of the Bible, the so-called Peshitta, was made partly by Jews and was intended for the use of Jews; and one book from it has been adopted bodily into Targumic literature, as the Targum upon Proverbs. For detailed information concerning the Aramaic literature of the Jews, see the respective articles. Only a summary is proper here, as follows (1) The Aramaic portions of the Bible already

—

—

mentioned. (a) The two (2) The Targum literature includes Targums to the Pentateuch and to the Prophets

respectively,

which received the

official

sanction of

Both origthe Babylonian academic authorities. inated in Palestine, and received their final form in the Babylonian colleges of the third and fourth cenThat to the Pentateuch, owing to the misturies. understanding of a statement concerning the Bible

made by Akylas (Aquila), was denominated the Targum of Onkelos ('Akylas). That to the Prophets is ascribed by ancient tradition to a disciple of Hillel, Jonathan b.TJzziel: (b) The Palestinian Targum to the Pentateuch, the full text of which has translation

come down to us only in a late recension, where it has been combined with the Targum Onkelos. Instead of being called by its proper name, Targum Yerushalmi, this full text had erroneously been called by the name of Jonathan. A less interpolated form of the Targum Yerushalmi to the Pentateuch revealed numerous fragments that must have been collected an early period. There are also Palestinian fragments of the Targum to the Prophets. * (o) The Targums to the Hagiographa vary greatly in character. A special group is formed by those of Extent the Psalms and Job. According to of Aramaic well-founded tradition there was as Literature, early as the first half of the first cen-

at

tury of the common era a Targum to to Proverbs belongs, as already mentioned, to the Syrian version of the Bible. The Five Rolls had their own Targums; the Book of Esther several of them. The Targum to Chronicles was discovered latest of all.

Job.

The Targum

Aramaic Apocrypha: There was at least a parAramaic translation of the book of Sirach as early A portion of the Araas the time of the Amoraim. maic sentences of Sirach, intermingled with other (3)

tial

nal of Amer. Orient Soc. Proceedings," xiv. 43; " Jew. Quart. Rev." xi. 295 " Monatsschrift," xxxix. 394— G.]
 * [On a peculiar Targum to the Haftarot, see R. Gotthell, " JourAbrahams,