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An Introduction to Aramaic, Second Edition (Resources for Biblical Study)

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Greenspahn's new grammar is a welcome and long overdue addition to the field. Until now, the standard work for students trying to get a grasp on the Aramaic of the Bible has been Franz Rosenthal's grammar of Biblical Aramaic. In point of fact, to call Rosenthal's work a "grammar" is a bit generous. Neither a learning grammar, nor really a comprehensive technical grammar, it reads more like a string of notes taken by one of the 20th century's great semitists--which is what it is. A student trying to teach himself Aramaic without a teacher would be lost. That is the great strength of Greenspahn's work.

"An Introduction to Aramaic" is a wonderfully, refreshingly student-oriented approach to the language. It is a beginner's grammar--although it does make the explicit claim that one does need a knowledge of Biblical Hebrew before using this work to dive into the Bible's Aramaic (ironically enough, precisely the opposite claim is made in Rosenthal's grammar!). Not only are the Aramaic portions of Ezra and Daniel covered, but the transliterated Aramaic of the New Testament, and the other snippets of Aramaic from the Hebrew Bible are as well. In addition, the grammar introduces students to extra-biblical Aramaic, including that of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Targumim.

For most of the world, Aramaic classes are hard to come by. If you've had biblical Hebrew and want access to the rest of the Bible's text, this is the grammar for you. Students would most benefit from using a more technical grammar, such as Rosenthal's, in conjunction with Greenspahn's.

This Introduction is structured as a workbook with room left to fill in grammatical and translation exercises. The introductory material about the history of Aramaic is useful and succinct, and the book overall is very user-friendly. Students enjoyed using this workbook and seemed to have a good sense of the basics of biblical Aramaic when they were done. There are problems, however. There are many typos in the work, perhaps one for every 2-3 pages. Further, some of the exercises are unnecessary and annoying even, and should be skipped, such as the many places where the student is told to translate from English to Aramaic. Further, when Greenspahn presents the student Aramaic passages from the Bible, he does so in simplified form, and some times he really ruins the flow and distinctive quality of the biblical text. Also, it's a little pricey. Again, students enjoyed this work and profited from it.

First of all, this book is massively overpriced. Fifty dollars plus for a keep paperback. The number of errors is ridiculous so much so that a special errata section is contained in the back. Furthermore, the explanations of the grammer are weak at best. This book is more of a workbook that a text. This of course does you no good unless you have a teacher who knows the answers. Also don't even think about buying this book unless you already have an extremely solid basis in Biblical Hebrew as the author assumes that you do(In all fairness if you are considering buing this book you probably already know Hebrew).

The coterie of Northwest Semitic dialects that we abbreviate as 'Aramaic' are collectively a staple of biblical and other historical research. Yet even though Aramaic is the second language of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and arguably the first language of Jesus, English-language teachers and learners have suffered from the absence of a pedagogically designed *teaching* grammar of Aramaic.

Until now. Fred Greenspahn has solved the problem. (Full disclosure: I am the translator of the Spanish edition of this work and have used it for several years to good effect at Seminario ESEPA, San José, Costa Rica).

In thirty-two chapters, the author introduces the student who already knows Biblical Hebrew to the biblical Aramaic texts in full, as well as selections from inscriptions, the Elephantine and Bar Kochba letters, Midrash, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan.

The text is well formatted with lots of white space, a psychological help to the student of no small import. Though errors bedevil the Aramaic of even this second edition, they have been identified and will doubtless disappear in a third.

The exercises are derived from the texts under study, which in the biblical portions are mostly Daniel and Ezra-Nehemiah passages that have been scrubbed of their most troublesome features. A full answer key appears in the back of the book.

This work is a gift to teachers and students of Aramaic. The ever essential works of Alger Johns, Franz Rosenthal, and others are now liberated to play their proper role as brief but invaluable reference works.

It's enough to make you doubt the decline of Western civlization.

Aramaic is not as well-served by modern grammar books as Hebrew. Other than Alger John's Grammar of Biblical Aramaic(which I don't have yet), this is the only beginner's grammar of note that I could find.

It is easy to read, but knowledge of Biblical Hebrew is a prerequisite because almost every chapter takes off from comparisons with the morphology of Hebrew words and inflections. The closing chapters are devoted to Aramaic beyond its biblical incarnation and are very interesting. The print is easy on the eyes and the key to the exercises is included. All in all, this is a good introduction.

I only wish it had more

1. explanatory content which would be useful to a self-learner - every chapter leaves you wanting for more (I had to refer to Franz Rosenthal's reference grammar in several instances)

2. exercises to aid retention of what you've learned (I'm thinking of Nava Bergman's Cambridge Biblical Hebrew Workbook which is excellent in this regard)

The author acknowledges the work's limitations in his preface and has suggestions for further study at the end. I think he should take the opportunity and expand this work, including the latter extra-biblical portions. The Aramaic content of the Tanakh is slim and one objective of trying to learn Aramaic is presumably to gain facility to read other works, e.g. the targums. Though the audience for this work may be relatively small, it fills a gap for those wanting to take a further leap. I'm not aware of any other comparable beginner's grammar available with such a scope.

There are too many errors. I would advise teachers of Aramaic not to use this handbook in the present edition, but to wait for a thoroughly corrected edition (Taken from A. Shoors)

This is a great beginner's guide to Aramiac; it is clear and progresses at an appropriate pace. The layout is attractive which makes it easy on the eye and therefore easy to absorb the material. The use of actual Biblical text makes it interesting rather than purely abstract.

I would not call it a grammar, or a study guide, but a rich compilation of Aramaic sentences and references. However, to the beginners, -An Introduction to Aramaic- is a sort of grammar.

The author most be recognized for this honorable effort.

The transliteration is well noticed.

Linguistically, it is refreshing.

The public will now realize and understand the differences and similarities between the Hebrew and the Aramaic.

This is an important tool for learning and teaching as well.

I've just started the book. Aramaic gives an interesting perspective on Hebrew and the author provides it in full. It starts right away from the real biblical texts (simplified) and I like its big format and the good print. The explanation on aramaic-hebrew cognates is kind of confusing because it is not clear when the letters are meant and when the sounds.

A short introduction to the language for divinity students who have studied a little biblical Hebrew. Aramaic was originally the language of a Semitic people who lived in modern-day Syria. It became the lingua franca and a co-official language of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and later of the Persian Empire. Aramaic was also the spoken language of the Jews during the Second Temple period; about 1% of the Hebrew Bible is written in the language: parts of Ezra and parts of Daniel; also, a single sentence in the middle of Jeremiah - possibly, a gloss on the margins of a manuscript that was copied into the main text by mistake, and a place-name in Genesis. It was also the language of several non-literal translations of the Bible, of the Talmud and of rabbinical elites into the modern era; it was also spoken by Jewish and Christian communities in Iraq, Turkey and Syria; most of these people have moved into Israel or the United States during the second half of the last century. Aramaic is very similar to Hebrew, but has some phonetic, lexical and grammatical differences. Its verb system is more orthogonal than that of Hebrew; it has analogues of binyanim pa'al, pi'el and hiph'il, but whereas Hebrew has passive counterparts only of the last two, Aramaic also has a passive counterpart of the analogue of binyan pa'al. The Hebrew binyan hitpa'el is a sort of binyan pi'el with a reflexive prefix; in Aramaic, this prefix can apply to all three main binyanim; there is no analogue of binyan niph'al.