Basics of Biblical Aramaic
Overview
There are 269 verses in the Old Testament written in Aramaic, not in Hebrew. Most of the verses are found in Daniel and Ezra. Basics of Biblical Aramaic follows the same easy-to-understand style found in the widely used Basics of Biblical Hebrew and includes everything you need to learn biblical Aramaic. This book is designed for those who already have a working knowledge of biblical Hebrew.
In the Logos edition, this valuable volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Scripture citations link directly to English translations, and important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.
- Includes an Aramaic-English lexicon
- Presents only the essentials so the language can be learned and retained
- Utilizes the best of deductive and inductive learning styles
- Aramaic Phonological System
- Aramaic Nominal System
- Aramaic Verbal System: Peal
- Aramaic Verbal System: Derived Stems
- Charts and Paradigms
- Annotated Biblical Aramaic Text
Top Highlights
“Every syllable must begin with one consonant and have only one vowel.” (Page 14)
“The Daghesh in a begadkephat is a Forte if preceded by a vowel. If it is not preceded by a vowel, it is a Lene.” (Page 16)
“In Aramaic, the definite article is spelled Qamets Alef, and it is suffixed to the word it determines.” (Page 26)
“Note that, in biblical Aramaic, there is no Waw Consecutive or consecutive verbal forms with the Perfect” (Page 76)
“a determined Aramaic noun is roughly equivalent to an English or Hebrew noun with the definite article.” (Page 26)
- Title: Basics of Biblical Aramaic: Complete Grammar, Lexicon, and Annotated Text
- Author: Miles Van Pelt
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Print Publication Date: 2011
- Logos Release Date: 2013
- Pages: 256
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Aramaic language › Grammar; Bible. O.T. › Language, style
- ISBNs: 9780310493990, 0310493994
- Resource ID: LLS:BASICBBLARAVP
- Resource Type: Grammar
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T22:03:00Z
Reviews
2 ratings
CSL
3/12/2018
All of the typos in this Logos edition really lowers the quality of this is otherwise great introductiory grammar to Biblical Aramaic. Sometimes the errors are obvious so you can spot them, but you are still left without the correct information that you bought the book to learn. Others are essentially undetectable unless you already know Aramaic, so it is a mind field for beginners who might waste their time learning wrong forms/vocabulary and then have to do double the work going back unlearning the errors and relearning the correct forms from another book. This really should be corrected.
Brandon
6/29/2014
I have been using this grammar for self-study, and am basically satisfied with its presentation of the grammatical concepts. The explanations and clear and easy to understand, although I sometimes wished the book had a bit more depth. I was able to go through the grammar lessons and exercises in about a month on my own, and am currently working through the annotated text of the 269 Aramaic verses found in the appendix. Since this book is my first introduction to Aramaic, I can't compare it to other Biblical Aramaic textbooks. Because of its conciseness, I think I made the right decision in choosing this book as my introduction to Biblical Aramaic, but it hasn't given me as solid a foundation as I hoped for. (I felt that I had a much more solid foundation in Hebrew after finishing my first Hebrew grammar). I sense this might be due partly to the nature of Aramaic and the limited amount of Aramaic in the Bible, but also partly due to the limited amount of practice the textbook requires. The exercises for each chapter are few and only review the concepts introduced in that chapter. So, for example, in the chapter that introduces the pael imperfect, all the parsing exercises are for verbs in the pael imperfect with no review of other verb stems or forms previously learned, and after that you will not have to parse another peal imperfect verb for the rest of the book. The result is that the I didn't get much practice identifying and distinguishing verb forms and stems, and the book didn't assist with keeping previously learned concepts fresh in mind. My biggest complaint is that there are numerous errors in the Aramaic (both in the vowel points and consonants) throughout the textbook. I'm assuming these errors are unique to the digital version and do not appear in the paperback edition. Whenever I didn't understand an example or translation exercise, I found myself wondering if there is something wrong with me, or if there is something wrong with the book. Although my comments seem mostly negative, I still give it a four star rating, because I think the book basically accomplished its purpose of introducing the basics of Biblical Aramaic. I'm also confident that after finishing this textbook I will be better prepared to study more in depth Biblical Aramaic grammars.
