Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>]

On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 8:01 AM, Kimmo Huovila
<kimmo.huovila AT kolumbus.fi> wrote:
> Randall,
>
> To what degree was Aramaic in active use?

Aramaic was still in wide use from the Indus to the Nile. It had
been the official, legal language throughout the Middle East.

>Do you think that some families
> might have spoken low Hebrew at home whereas others Aramaic?

Of course.
If you expand your question and ask who would primarily
be a monolingual family, or bi-lingual with Greek and without
Hebrew, then the answer would be pagans. We have Meleager of
Gadara's testimony (of 1st century Greek poetic fame),
that he spoke Aramaic in the Decapolis city of Gadara, Phoenician
in Tyre (dialectically quite close to Hebrew), and Greek, of course,
throughout, since he moved to Kos and became a famous Greek
poet and collector of poetry.

> I notice that a
> Galilean used Aramaic among Galileans in Mark. 5:41.

Absolutely. That needs to be incorporated in the overall picture.
In addition, its function in the healing story is a long story dealing
with literary purposes of Mark and beyond a discussion of
"High Hebrew vs. Low Hebrew".

>What do you think of a
> hypothesis that Aramaic was more predominant in Galilee (as linguistic
> influence from the north) than in Judea?

Definitely possible. However, too many NT people read the question
monolingually instead of within a multi-lingual environment. And we
don't have hard data on the situation between pagan usage and Jewish
usage.
(A big problem with many histories is the mythical 'Judaization' of
the Galilee [Idumea in the south received forced conversion Jos.Ant
13.257-258], but the Galilee was already Jewish, though with pagan
populations, too.
It was the Golan and Hermon land of the Arab-Itureans that
Aristobulous conquered and who were Judaized Jos.Ant 13.318. See
discussion in Sacred Bridge, pp 329-331, convincingly backed up
archaeologically and through historical testimony. Incidentally, the area
between KefarnaHum and Magdala may have been Ganneiha-sar
"gardens of the Prince [שר =Hasmonean title for rulers before 'King
Janneus']." Cf. Lake Gennosar. And possibly a Hebrew-speaking
region where Janneus was raised.)
I hope to be camping there this coming weekend. It's a nice section
around the lake.

blessings
Randall

-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicallanguagecenter.com
Biblical Language Center
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