Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

> On Sat, 19 Jun 1999, Jim West wrote:
> > I dont know about the mandeans- but I do know that they are not the only
> > folk who speak aramaic today.  Syrian Christians do to some extent as do
> > others.  Syriac texts always use elohey and not alaha or whatever.  
> > 
> > Dont know about this site either.  Dont know who is the originator or what
> > their background or training is.  So I really cant say anything about 
> > their
> > ideas.
> > I guess you will have to decide- Kohler and Baumgartner or a web site.
> 
> Thre should be a common standard answer and not all of this mystery. 
> 
> Perhaps if you read the website a little further you would learn of the
> originators...
> 
> http://www.aramaic.org/lamsa.html
> 
> "Dr. George M. Lamsa, The founder of the Aramaic Bible Society in 1943. He
> also translate the Aramaic Bible into an English version called the
> Peshitta.

Uh-huh.  In my edition of his New Testament, in the introduction, 
he said flatly that Aramaic was the original language in the land of 
Shinar before the confusion of tongues at Babel.  What a lot of 
people don't seem to take into account is the fact that languages, 
and especially sound patterns, change over time.  So how 
somebody pronounces a word today may or may not have any 
resemblance to how the word was pronounced 2,000 years ago.  
Just look at Greek (or English, for that matter).  A speaker of 
Hellenistic Greek wouldn't be able to understand one word out of 
ten spoken by someone speaking modern Greek.  Ever try to read 
Chaucer-era English?  Or Beowulf?  How something is pronounced 
in Aramaic today is meaningless for understanding what Jesus 
said.

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
A Bible that's falling apart means a life that isn't.