Thursday, November 11, 2021

The Second Holy Tongue

 


An Introduction to Aramaic, Second Edition (Resources for Biblical Study) 2nd Edition, by Frederick E. Greenspahn is a lean and informative book about (mostly) Biblical Aramaic.  You will be reading the book of Daniel for about three fourths of this work.  Toward the end Greenspahn turns to some other interesting examples of Aramaic use outside the bible: the Jewish community/garrison on the island of Elephantine in Egypt, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and letters and texts from the Cairo Geniza.

I have never read such a clear exposition of Aramaic before.  This book is an excellent place to start learning to read the language, or brushing up on skills you already possess.  You will need an excellent comprehension of Biblical Hebrew to understand this work.


No comments:

Post a Comment