| Arlie | Hello Ewan. When the New Testament writers penned their books and quoted passages from the Old Testament, did they quote from the Aramaic translation OT, or did they translate from the Hebrew OT? |
| Ewan MacLeod | Feel free to leave comments or questions here! |
| Andrew Ter-Grigoryan | Shlama Ewan. To learn the Aramaic effectively I really think I need a print concordance. Do you recommend the one by Light of the Word publications? |
| Derick George | I would like to have clear transalation of the first aramaic bible..i find this website very helpfull. |
| Christopher Murphy | Hi There. What came first, the Hebrew old testament or the Aramaic old testament? Thanks for this great website!!! |
| Andrew Ter-Grigoryan | You presented the message very well on 1onOne with Damon Davis. |
| Ewan MacLeod | Hi Derick, I have started producing a translation of the Aramaic New Testament which should be available later this year. In the meantime, a number of other good translations are available, such as AENT by Andrew Roth, Janet Magiera's translation, and Rev. Bauscher's Plain English Translation. |
| Katrina King | Very excited about unveiling the truth so people will be stimulated and eager to read and possibly learn to speak Aramaic. Beautiful Website...great job! |
| Andrew Ter-Grigoryan | Hi Ewan. How would you address the criticisms of the primacy of the Peshitta in this web article?: http://aramaicnt.org/articles/problems-with-peshitta-primacy/ |
| Ewan MacLeod | Hi Arlie, That's an excellent question... when the writers of the NT quoted the OT, what were they quoting from? I think it needs every passage to be looked at individually... In some cases, they are merging quotes from different passages, in some cases perhaps expanding with new inspired insights, in some cases words/phrases from the Aramaic Targums seem to be referenced, but in most cases the Hebrew OT is being quoted. It is a complex question and it is difficult to generalise, because it also depends on whether you are looking at the Greek NT or the Aramaic NT. |
| Ryszard Stanislaw ZIOLKOWSKI | Dear Ewan MacLeod, according to Dead Sea Scrolls Jewish archeologist YIGAR YADIN, Aramaic was the language of Hebrews until Simon Bar Kokhbar's Revolt (132 AD to 135 AD). Yadin noticed the shift from Aramaic to Hebrew in the documents studied, which had been written during the time of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Note that the HISTORY OF ARAMAIC is much older that that of the Hebrew. OLD ARAMAIC dates 1100 BC - 200 AD and this includes the Biblical Aramaic of the Hebrew Bible and the Aramaic of Jesus. Then follow the MIDDLE ARAMAIC period from 200 AD to 1200 AD and this includes Literary Syriac, the Aramaic of the Talmud, Targumin and Midrashim and Mondaic. Finally, the MODERN ARAMAIC period exists from 1200 AD to present with various modern vernaculas
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| Ewan MacLeod | Hi Christopher, The Hebrew Old Testament came first and the Aramaic Old Testament was translated from it. Not only is this true from historical evidence, but (equally importantly) comparing the two texts shows that the Aramaic Old Testament is a translation from the original Hebrew. For example, the Hebrew contains things like poetry, interesting Gematria, plays on words, and so on - all of which only happen with an ORIGINAL language text, and NOT a translation. If we apply the same tests to the New Testament (and look at the Aramaic Peshitta and the Greek NT) we find that the Aramaic Peshitta NT has all the poetry, plays on words, puns, etc. that you could wish for... What does that tell you about the originality of the Aramaic Peshitta New Testament? |
| Ewan MacLeod | Hi Andrew, The concordance and other works by Janet Magiera of Light of the Word Ministry are excellent - I used them myself in the early days, and learned Aramaic primarily through them, as well as the Aramaic Module in BibleWorks. |
| Joachim Bromet | I was made aware of your website by Bro. Ted Sleeper (S.F. Peninsula Ecclesia). He emailed me because I've been studying transliterations of the Aramaic New Testament for some time. My project is to discern what the 1st Century disciples believed and wrote before translations into other languages blurred the Gospels and Paul's letters. I would love to communicate with you and share in our common interests. My email address is jbromet@directcon.net
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| Dan Nazar | Learn Aramaic |
| Ewan MacLeod | Hi Andrew, I don't pay any attention to the Peshitta criticisms. They are a few examples which are easily disprovable from recorded history, and are like aiming a pea-shooter against a firehose of evidence. The video lessons throughout the website disprove them, with more evidence being added regularly. |