Aramaic - Judaism's Second Holy Language

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In many other lessons in this series on the history and background of Aramaic, we have seen the close connection that Aramaic has not just with the nations surrounding Israel, but with the Jewish people themselves. We have seen that Aramaic has a close cultural connection with the Jewish people.

This is a really important point to understand. Just as Hebrew is bound up with the Jewish people, so too Aramaic is also bound up with Judaism and the Jewish people.

In this lesson, we explore these issues in more detail. We take a look at how important Aramaic is to Judaism, and how Aramaic is Judaism's second Holy Language.

We find that Aramaic is used extensively not just in the Hebrew Bible itself, but in many texts which are essential to Judaism - including the Talmud, the Book of Zohar and other Kabbalistic writings, in prayers, in the Passover Haggadah, and much more besides.

With that in mind, it should come as no surprise to find that the New Testament was written in Aramaic. The New Testament is, after all, a continuation of the Old Testament, it was written by faithful Jews, and Jews were an important audience, in addition to the Gentiles. It is therefore entirely appropriate for the New Testament to have been written in Aramaic.

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