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72 Aramaic Language

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ararat matter,

is

Aramaic

extant in the "

Book

of the

"

Alphabet of Ben Sira. " The Hasmonean House, " also en-

titled "

Antiochus' Roll," contains a narrative of the Maccabeans' struggles, and was known in the early gaonic period. A " Chaldaic " Book of Tobit Was utilized by Jerome, but the Aramaic Book of Tobit found by Neubauer, and published in 1878, is a later revision of the older text. addition to Esther is the Palestinian origin.

An

Aramaic Apocryphal

"Dream

of Mordecai," of

Megillat Ta'anit, the Fast Roll, is a list of the memorable days, " drawn up in almanac form. It was compiled before the destruction of the Second Temple, edited in the Hadrianic period, and later on augmented by various Hebrew annotations mostly of the tannaitic age. (5) The Palestinian Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi), completed in the beginning of the fifth century. (4)

historically "

(6)

The Babylonian Talmud (Talmud

Babli),

com-

72

service, the introductory sentences of the Passover

Haggadah, and certain older portions of the liturgy The Aramaic poems introducing certain Targumic selections from the Pentateuch have been mentioned above. for penitential days.*

The

Literature:

(11) Cabalistic

revival of Ara-

maic as the literary language of the Cabala by the Zohar has already been mentioned. (12) Rabbinical Literature The Aramaic coloring of a large proportion of the works commenting upon the Babylonian Talmud, as well as of other productions of halakic lore continuing the literature of the gaonic age, was derived from the Babylonian Talmud, from which the terminology and phraseology were adopted at the same time as the contents.

Bibliography

Th. Noldeke, Die Semitisehen Spraclwn, 3d G. Dalman, Einleltung zu einer GramJttdisch-PaMstinensischen Aramttlsch, Leipsic,

ed., Leipsic, 1899

matik

cles



idem, Die Worte Jesu, pp. 60 et seq., Leipsic, 1898 A. Biichler, Die Priester und der Cultus, Vienna,1895 S. Krauss, 1894







pleted at the end of the fifth century. The Aramaic contents of both Talmuds are the most important and also the most abundant remains of the Aramaic idiom used by the Jews of Palestine and Babylonia respectively. The numerous stories, legends, anecdotes, conversations, and proverbs reveal faithfully the actual language of the popular usage. Neither Talmud is, however, entirely an Aramaic work. As the utterances of the Amoraim and their halakic discussions retain a great deal of the New Hebrew idiom of the tannaitic literature, both idioms were employed in the academies. Moreover, a large proportion of the material contained in the Talmud is composed of the utterances of tannaitic tradition that were couched only

Hebrew. The Midrash Literature: Of this branch the following are especially rich in Aramaic elements: Genesis Rabbah, Leviticus Rabbah, Lamentations Rabbati, the Midrash H az ita upon the Song of Songs, and the old Pesikta. The Rabbot Midrashim on Ruth, Esther, and Ecclesiastes, and the Midrash on the Psalms, contain also much Aramaic. The younger Midrashim, especially those belonging to the Yelamdenu (or Tanhuma) group, are, in part, the Hebrew revisions of originally Aramaic portions. The Aramaic parts of the older Midrashim are linguistically allied most closely to the idiom of the Palestinian Talmud. (8) The Masorah. The terminology of the Masorah, in

(7)

which, in

its

beginnings, belongs to the amoraic

and the language of the oldest Masoretic annotations and statements, are Aramaic. period,

The legal decisions of (9) The Gaonic Literature the Geonim were for the greater part written in Aramaic, in harmony with the language of the Babylonian Talmud but they possessed this advantage, at least in the first few centuries, that this was likewise the living language of the people. The same is true concerning those two works of the older gaonic period, the "She'eltot" and the "Halakot Gedolot," which contain some material not found in the vo:



Jew. Qua/rt. Rev.

Upon

the liturgical erature, see Zunz, Literaturgesch. pp. 18-23; Monatsschrift, 1873, xxii, 330-328. viii.

67.

Aramaic

W.

a.

ARAMAIC VERSIONS. ARANDA, PEDRO DE

lit-

Bacher, in

B.

See Bible- TRANS-

LATIONS AND TARGDMIM.



and president of the council of part of the fifteenth century



Bishop of Calahorra Castile in the latter

was a victim

of the

Marano persecutions. His father, Gonzalo Alonzo, who was one of the Jews that embraced Christianity in the period of Vicente Ferrer's missionary propa-

ganda during the early years of the fifteenth century, adopted the life of an ecclesiastic. Aranda's brother, too, earned episcopal honors, being placed at Montreal, Sicily.

Torquemada, the inquisitor-general, in the course of the Marano persecutions, brought against Pedro the charge that his father had died a Marano. similar accusation was made at the same time against another bishop, Juan Arias Davila, of Segovia. The inquisitor-general demanded, therefore, not only that the bones of the deceased suspects

A

should be exhumed and burned, but that their sons, should be disgraced and deprived of their estates. Sixtus IV. however, resented such summary degradation of high ecclesiastics, fearing that it would lead to the dishonor of the Church. He further set forth in a letter directed against Torquemada's exaggerated zeal, that, in accordance With an old tradition, distinguished personages of the Church could only be tried for heresy by specially appointed apostolic commissions. It was ordered that specifications of the charges against Davila and Aranda be forwarded to Rome; and an extraordinary papal nuncio, Antonio Palavicini, was sent to Castile to institute investigations. As a result, both bishops were summoned to Rome, where subsequently several distinctions were accorded to Davila, who during the remainder of his life enjoyed high too,

,

honors.

cabulary of the Talmud. (10) Liturgical Literature In addition to the Kaddish already mentioned, several liturgical pieces originating in Babylon received general acceptance throughout the diaspora. Such were the two prayers beginning " Yekum Purkan " in the Sabbath-morning

quantity ol Aramaic than the Siddurim ol other countries. A unique Targum of the 'Amidah (Teflllah) is to he found in a Yemen MS. (Gaster, No. 61) of the seventeenth or eighteenth century it has been printed in the " Monatsschrift," xxxix. 79 et seq.—G.
 * It is curious to note that the Yemen Siddur contains a larger