Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Aramaic and Hebrew in the prayer book

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Peter Kirk <peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Aramaic and Hebrew in the prayer book
  • Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 09:08:42 -0700

Yigal Levin wrote:

... Interesting to note that despite the fact that many
Jews knew Greek and that many synagogue inscriptions are in Greek, it was
Aramaic that became the common Jewish language. ... Maybe because Greek
was identified... with Christianity...


<snip>

This one seems unlikely. Christians in the eastern parts of the Roman empire and further east spoke Aramaic/Syriac, not Greek. In fact they still do today, in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. There were Greek speaking Christians in Antioch from quite early, see Acts 11:19-21, but the Syriac speaking church seems to have been dominant in the region in the early centuries CE.

--
Peter Kirk
peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com
http://web.onetel.net.uk/~peterkirk/






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page