Caution fake: "literal" translation of the Lord's Prayer from Aramaic. Aramaic alphabet Aramaic alphabet letter meaning

Literal translation of the Our Father prayer from Aramaic, read and feel the difference:

Oh Breathing Life,
Your name shines everywhere!
Free up space
To plant Your presence!
Imagine in your imagination
Your "I can" now!
Clothe Your desire in every light and form!
Sprout through us bread and
Insight for every moment!
Untie the knots of failure that bind us
As we free the rope ropes
by which we restrain the misdeeds of others!
Help us not to forget our Source.
But free us from the immaturity of not being in the Present!
Everything comes from you
Vision, Power and Song
From meeting to meeting!
Amen. May our next actions grow from here.

****
When and why did the mention of the evil one (Satan) appear in the prayer "Our Father"?
In ancient Church Slavonic there is no evil: "... and do not lead us into attack, deliver us from enmity." Who added "onion" to the main prayer of Jesus Christ?

The Lord's Prayer, known to every Christian since childhood, is a concentrated presentation of the entire Christian doctrine. At the same time, it is one of the most perfect literary works ever recorded in writing.

This is the accepted view of the short Lord's Prayer that Jesus taught His disciples.

How is this possible? After all, many volumes were needed for a complete presentation of religious teachings in other religions. And Jesus didn't even ask His disciples to write down her every word.

Just during the Sermon on the Mount He said (Matthew 6:9:13):

"Pray like this:

Our Father, who art in heaven!



And leave us our debts,
like we leave our debtor.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.”

But this is not the only way to translate the Lord's Prayer into Russian. In the edition of the Gospel of 1892 that the author has, there is a slightly different version:

"Our Father, who art in heaven!
hallowed be thy name; let your kingdom come;
may Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;
give us our daily bread for this day;
and forgive us our debts;
our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;

In the modern, canonical edition of the Bible (with parallel places), we find almost the same version of the translation of the Prayer:

"Our Father who art in heaven!
hallowed be thy name; Let your kingdom come;
may Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;
give us our daily bread this day;
and forgive us our debts;
just as we forgive our debtors;
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;

In the Old Church Slavonic translation, the Prayer (if written in the modern alphabet) sounds closer to the first version:

"Our Father, who art in heaven!
May your name be hallowed! Let your kingdom come;
May Your will be done as in heaven and on earth.
Give us our daily bread today.
And leave us our debts,
as if we leave our debtor.
And do not lead us into misfortune,
but deliver us from the evil one.”

These translations use different words to refer to the same concepts. “Forgive us” and “leave us”, “attack” and “temptation”, “who art in heaven” and “who is in heaven” mean the same thing.

There is no distortion of the meaning and spirit of the words given by Christ to His disciples in any of these options. But comparing them, one can come to the important conclusion that the literal transmission of the Words of Jesus is not only impossible, but not mandatory.

AT English translations The gospels can be found in several different versions, but all of them can be considered authentic, because in them the meaning of the Prayer and its spirit are adequately conveyed.

The Lord's Prayer became widespread immediately after the crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus. This can be seen at least from the fact that it was found in such remote points as the city of Pompeii (that is, it was there before Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.)

At the same time, the original text of the Lord's Prayer has not come down to us in its original form.

In translations into Russian, the Lord's Prayer sounds the same in the Gospels of Matthew (6:9-13) and Luke (11:2-4). We find the same text in the Gospels KJV (King James Version) in English.

If we take the Greek source, we will be surprised to find that the words familiar to us “who are in heaven”, “Thy will be done as in heaven and on earth” and “deliver us from the evil one” are absent in the Gospel of Luke.

There are many versions explaining the reasons for the disappearance of these words in the Gospel of Luke and their appearance in translations, and later in modern Greek editions of the Gospel. We will not dwell on this, for what matters to us is not the letter, but the spirit of the great Prayer.

Jesus did not command us to pray by memorizing His words literally. He simply said "Pray like this:" that is, "pray like this."

Konstantin Glinka

"Our Father" in Aramaic

Today in the morning I dreamed that I was walking with someone unfamiliar through the rocky desert and looking into the sun-drenched sky. Suddenly I noticed that either a carved gilded casket or a book in the same binding was rapidly approaching us.

I didn’t have time to tell my friend that it’s just like objects falling from the sky in the desert, and it’s good that it’s not on my head, when I realized that the object was flying straight at me. A second later, he crashed to my right, where my friend should have been. I was so stunned that I woke up before I looked in the direction of the unfortunate comrade.

The morning began unusually: on the Internet I came across “Our Father” in the language of Jesus. The translation from Aramaic shocked me so much that I was late for work, checking if it was fake. ".

That is, as far as I understand, the Greek primary source used to be the dominant authority in theological disputes, but absurdities were noticed in it that could arise when translated from the original language. In other words, the Greek version is not primary.

The Aramaic version of the Gospel ("Peshitta", in the Edessa dialect of Aramaic) exists, but it is a translation from Greek.

True, as it turned out, not complete. And not only in the sense of the absence of some parts: there are places in it that have been preserved in more ancient form because they were already written in Aramaic.

This also applies to the famous main prayer of Christians "Our Father".
*******
And if you translate literally:

Abwoon d "bwashmaya
Nethqadash shmakh
Teytey malkuthakh
Nehwey tzevyanach aykanna d "bwashmaya aph b" arha.
Hawvlah lachma d "sunqanan yaomana

Wela tahlan l "nesyuna ela patzan min bisha.
Metol dilakhie malkutha wahayla wateshbukhta l "ahlam almin.
Ameyn.
Abwoon d "bwashmaya (Official translation: Our Father!)

Literal: Abwoon translates as Divine parent (fruitful emanation of light). d "bwashmaya - the sky; the root shm - light, flame, the divine word that arises in space, the ending aya - indicates that this radiance occurs everywhere, at any point in space

Nethqadash shmakh (Official translation: Hallowed be thy name)

Literal: Nethqadash translates as purification or an object for sweeping rubbish (clear a place for something). Shmakh - spreading (Shm - fire) and letting go of inner fuss, finding silence. The literal translation is the cleansing of the space for the Name.

Teytey malkuthakh (Official translation: Thy Kingdom come)

Literal: Tey is translated as come, but the double repetition means mutual desire (sometimes - a marriage bed). Malkuthakh is traditionally translated as a kingdom, symbolically a fruitful hand, gardens of the earth; wisdom, purification of the ideal, making it personal for oneself; come home; Yin (creative) hypostasis of fire.

Nehwey tzevyanach aykanna d "bwashmaya aph b" arha. (Official translation: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven)

Literal: Tzevyanach translates as will, but not strength, but the desire of the heart. One of the translations is naturalness, origin, the gift of life. Aykanna means constancy, embodiment in life. Aph - personal orientation. Arha - earth, b "- means living; b" arha - a combination of form and energy, spiritualized matter.
Hawvlah lachma d "sunqanan yaomana (Official translation: Give us our daily bread for this day)

Literal: Hawvlah translates to give (gifts of the soul and gifts of the material). lachma - bread necessary, vital for maintaining life, understanding of life (chma - growing passion, growth, increase). D "sunqanan - needs, what I can own, how much I could carry; yaomana - necessary to maintain the spirit, life force.

Washboqlan khuabayn aykana daph khan shbwoqan l "khayyabayn.
(Official translation: And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors)
Literal: Khuabayn translates as debts, internal accumulated energies that destroy us; in some texts, instead of khuabayn is wakhtahayn, which is translated as unfulfilled hopes. Aykana - letting go (passive voluntary action).

Wela tahlan l "nesyuna (Official translation: And do not lead us into temptation)

Literal: Wela tahlan translates to "don't let us in"; l "nesyuna - illusion, fluctuation anxiety, gross matter; symbolic translation - wandering mind.

Ela patzan min bisha. (Official translation: but deliver us from the evil one)

Literal: Ela – immaturity; symbolic translation - inappropriate actions. Patzan - untie, give freedom; min bisha - from evil

Metol dilakhie malkutha wahayla wateshbukhta l "ahlam almin. (Official translation: For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever.)

Literal: Metol dilakhie is translated as the idea of ​​owning something that bears fruit (ploughed land); malkutha - kingdom, kingdom, symbolic translation - "I can"; wahayla - the concept of life force, energy, tuning in unison that supports life; wateshbukhta - glory, harmony, Divine power, symbolic translation - generating fire; l "ahlam almin - from century to century.

Ameyn. (Official translation: Amen.)

Ameyn - manifestation of the will, affirmation, swearing an oath. Instills strength and spirit in everything created

While surfing the Internet, I came across one interesting note: "The literal translation of the Our Father in Aramaic." I was interested in the name itself and, having opened the link, I began to look for this prayer. To my surprise, I found something that I was not looking for, something that, in my opinion, went beyond the truth.

The translation of the Lord's Prayer from Aramaic into Russian was as follows:

"Oh Breathing Life,
Your name shines everywhere!
Free up space

Your "I can" now!
Sprout through us bread and



Everything comes from you
Vision, Power and Song
From meeting to meeting!

I could not believe my eyes, my spirit resisted reading this, I will not be ashamed of expressions - nonsense that the author passed off as a literal translation of a prayer from Aramaic into Russian. I looked at various links on the Internet and was amazed at how many links say the same thing. People ignorantly copying the text, share it with others, passing it off as some kind of secret truth. Reading this “translation”, for some reason, I immediately remembered the Gnostics (a heretical sect of the 1st-2nd centuries AD), who propagated some secret teaching of Christ, giving enlightenment to man and understanding of all things and pantheism (heresy of the 4th century AD, exists to this day).

One of the authors who posted this nonsense on the Internet claimed that it was the Aramaic language that was the dominant and primary version of the written text of the New Testament. The Peshitta (Syriac translation of the Bible, Aramaic dialect), was based on the translation of the Aramaic Targum, which means that the Greek version of the New Testament was later than the Peshita, and was only a translation from Aramaic, the same language that was native to Jesus Christ and the apostles. In other words, the Greek version is not primary. Assuring readers, the author shares a false "translation from the original language" into Russian.

Before moving on to the direct separation of the "flies from the cutlets", let me recall a little from the Christian story:

There are several ancient translations Holy Scripture into various languages: Septuagint - Greek translation Old Testament, Targums is a common name for translations of the Old Testament into Aramaic, Vulgate is a translation of the Bible into Latin, and Peshita is one of the translations of the Bible into Syriac (Edessa dialect of Aramaic). The author's hypothesis, according to which the Peshitta was based on a translation of the Aramaic Targum, does not stand up to criticism and does not pass the support of theologians, scientists, history. However, there are elements of Targum influence in the text of the Syriac Old Testament (especially in the Pentateuch of Moses and Chronicles). But the style and level of Peshitta translation of the Old Testament books varies quite a lot in different parts of Scripture. Some parts of it may have been translated by the Syrian-speaking Jews before the rise of the Christian Church, while others may have been reworked by the first baptized Jews.

Speaking about the Aramaic language, it should be noted that in the Hellenistic era and up to the Arab conquest, he successfully competed with Greek, leaving the role of local dialects to all other Semitic languages. But since the 2nd century, the ancient Aramaic language, which was spoken by the entire Middle East, including Egypt, has undergone changes and strong modifications under the influence of various cultures and after the conquest of the Arabs (7th century AD).

Historically, it should be noted that the books of the Old Testament were translated into Syriac in the last quarter of the 2nd century CE. e., the New Testament books were translated by the beginning of the 5th century AD. and, apparently, were grouped and reworked by the Bishop of Edessa, Rabbula. That is, by the 5th century AD, the Peshita as such had already been formed (the very name "Peshitta", in relation to the standard (generally accepted) Syriac Bible, appeared only in the 9th century AD).

But refuting historicity, there are still people who claim that all the teachings of Christ and the apostles were taught only in Aramaic, and it was Aramaic, being the language of the original text, that preceded the text of Scripture in the Koine Greek dialect. It is also surprising that this position is mainly taken by the separating views of Nestorianism (the heresy of the 4th century, dividing Christ into a simple man before baptism and the Son of God after that, i.e. rejecting one single person and hypostasis).

When studying biblical studies, we remember that there is a synoptic problem (similarity and differences in the Gospels). And today there is no firm conviction as to why it exists, there are only various hypotheses, each of which has its pros and cons. Today, one of the most realistic hypotheses is that Matthew and Luke, when writing the gospel, used a certain source "Q", from the German "Quelle" (source), whether this source was part of the sayings of Jesus Christ in Aramaic or not, It is not known, although some sayings of Jesus in the Gospels are translations from the Aramaic language, but be that as it may, it is believed that the text of the Gospel in its current form was compiled precisely in Greek, like other texts of the New Testament. In addition, the Greek language of the books of the New Testament is accepted by the Fathers of the Church as the language of the original texts, without any discussion. There is a lot of other evidence that, after all, it was Koine (dialect Greek) and was the original text of the New Testament. I would also like to note that to this day not a single manuscript of fragments of the books of the New Testament in Aramaic has been found, the text of which would be dated earlier than the Koine Greek of the New Testament.

Recalling a little history, we understand that no “original text in Aramaic” has been found (according to my convictions, it does not exist, because God allowed the Scripture to form in the form in which we see Him, have, and with the language found in ancient manuscripts). Now about the prayer "Our Father" and the author of this "translation". To do this, let's turn our attention again to the "literal translation from Aramaic" presented to us:

"Oh Breathing Life,
Your name shines everywhere!
Free up space
To plant Your presence!
Imagine in your imagination
Your "I can" now!
Clothe Your desire in every light and form!
Sprout through us bread and
Insight for every moment!
Untie the knots of failure that bind us
As we free the rope ropes
by which we restrain the misdeeds of others!
Help us not to forget our Source.
But free us from the immaturity of not being in the Present!
Everything comes from you
Vision, Power and Song
From meeting to meeting!
Amen. May our next actions grow from here.”

To begin with, it should be noted that the prayer "Our Father" was written in ancient Greek, and this translation is only a kind of "crooked reconstruction of the meaning" with a deliberate misleading of the reader. We know that there are fragments, as part of the sayings of Christ, translated from Aramaic, one of such fragments is the prayer of Christ on the cross of Golgotha, but among all the fragments known to us, there is not a single mention of the "prayer of our Father" in Aramaic.

In addition, in ancient Aramaic, as well as in Hebrew and Ancient Greek, the appeal to God always went in a bunch of masculine personal pronouns, but not as feminine or neuter. Is it possible to imagine that a patriarchal culture, where the leading and dominant role in the family, the state and politics belonged to a man, suddenly allows an appeal to God, as to some unknown feminine power that has no personality? Of course not! More than one Jew of a monotheistic religion, brought up in a patriarchal culture, knowing the books of the Law, will never allow himself to turn to God the Creator, as the author of this “translation” of the Our Father prayer offers us.

We say and understand that Scripture is interpreted by Scripture alone. Jesus, in his teaching, repeatedly drew the attention of his disciples to the Father, from whom he descended and to whom he is going again. He spoke about the Father's love in deeds, parables, in the history of the people, in Scripture. He emphasized His oneness with the Father, but the Person of the Father, as presiding over the Trinity. He never taught that the Father can be addressed as some unknown power. Russian word"Father (parent)", in Aramaic, as well as in Hebrew, sounds like "Aba (Abba)", in Greek "Pater". Addressing God the Father as "Our Father" in Hebrew sounds like "Avinu", in Aramaic "Avvun". But it is surprising that the author of the so-called “translation” of the Our Father prayer never used the word Father, and it is precisely this word that is the main and central one in this prayer. On the contrary, I believe that the word "father" was deliberately omitted to show the false "greatness" of a literal prayer devoid of any meaning and power of the Spirit, passing it off as a secret truth! Based on the teachings of Christ, we see how this “translation” destroys the essence of God the Father as a Person, passing him off as some kind of power, thereby undermining relations within the Trinity and with people. Presented to the masses for review, the so-called "translation" of the Lord's Prayer is nothing more than a heresy, a fusion of Gnosticism and pantheism, a heresy that the Church has struggled with for centuries. You can currently see this fusion in movements such as the New Age. New Age”), which with all its might declares the syncretism of religions, the destruction of true Christianity, and the rejection of the Christian idea of ​​a personal Creator God, opposing to it the idea of ​​an impersonal deity.

Now, as for the author himself who made this “translation” and threw it into the world: The author of this “translation” is Doctor of Religion and Somatic (Bodily-Oriented) Psychology Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz (Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti). His main interests lie in the area of ​​combining ancient meditation techniques with modern psychology and body science. He is a specialist in the field of Middle Eastern mysticism, the author of several books devoted to the study of the so-called authentic message contained in the primary sources of world religions - "Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditation on the words of Jesus, spoken in Aramaic" (by the way, it is likely that this presented "translation" is an excerpt from the same book), "Wisdom of the Deserts", "The Hidden Gospel", "The Sufi Book of Life".

Murshid Saadi (Neil Douglas-Klotz) - is one of the senior teachers of the Sufi order Ruhaniat (Sufi Ruhaniat International), follows the so-called "Sufi path" for about 30 years. In Russia he is known as one of the founders of the World Peace Dance Network. Using the Sufi technique - Zikr (the practice of remembering one's true nature, using meditation and singing) and dancing using the mantras of various religious and national traditions, he proposes "to establish a real contact of a person with himself, both with his depths and with his heights ... ".

God is a Just Judge, He will judge everyone who rejects Christ as a Savior and personal Lord. God will judge anyone who leads a person astray by presenting a lie as the truth. But from us, as from Christians following the Lord, no one removed the responsibility for our salvation, regardless of who or what we met on our way. Satan has not stopped walking around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour!

Studying the “literal translation of the Lord's Prayer” offered for everyone to see, I also noticed that it is distributed mainly not on Christian resources, but on various heretics that have their own affiliation to the New Age or share views with it - sites on mysticism , esotericism, meditation, parapsychology, talking about some secret teachings and truth. Someone distributes these texts, copying them on the pages of their websites and blogs, someone through statements in the statuses of social networks. It is surprising that Christians, reading these texts, without delving into the very essence of what they read, themselves continue to spread this nonsense on the Internet, passing it off as the truth, while others, echoing them, send it further. A spreading infection settles not only on the Internet, but also in the minds of many people. Some Christians, reading the text, manage to leave flattering comments on it like: “It's cool”, “Amen. Truly so”, “Thank you for the literal translation, now I will know.” What to know? Why shout Amen? What's cool? They read and shout, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God! It's a shame to eat everything, not understanding what they feed you! (sorry for the directness of the expression).

Now, knowing a little about the history of translations of Scripture and the author of this “translation” of the Lord’s Prayer, I think it’s not difficult to understand that the so-called “literal translation of the Our Father” distributed on the Internet has nothing to do with the real prayer of Christ, but is only heresy, deliberately aimed at undermining the Christian doctrine and the destruction of Christianity as a whole!

Due to the fact that the ancient Aramaic language is considered dead (Aramaic (a new Aramaic dialect) is spoken only in Syria), an approximate translation of the Lord's Prayer in it will look like this:

“Avvun dbishmaya! nitkaddah shimmuh; aunt boy; neve sovyanukh eychana dbishmaya ab para; Ha la lahma dsunkanan yumana; Vushyuh lan hobain, eychana dap akhnan shuklan hayavin; vula taalan lnisyuna, ella pasan min bishya. Mudtul diluh chai malchuta, uheila, utishbukhta l’alam allmin. Amine". (Our Father, who art in heaven! hallowed be Thy name; Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us our daily bread this day; and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive debtors ours, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.)

Summing up what has been said, I would like to call everyone to comprehend everything we read. Dear friends, on the Internet, a lot of things are spreading, both good and bad, watch what you read and spread. Do not distribute the so-called "literal translation of the Lord's Prayer" on the net, or in any other way, do not pass it off as a lost truth, it has neither depth nor the power of the Spirit! After all, there are those who are weak, who do not understand, who read everything in a row and swallow everything they read, who cannot separate the wheat from the tares, those who will be tempted, who will believe, and as a result may fall away, because. allow doubts to settle in your heart. And the Lord will ask us for it.

Everything that we need, Christ left in the Scripture, transmitted through the patriarchs, prophets, apostles! Do not mislead weak sheep, do not think that there is some hidden meaning where there is none. When analyzing sermons, references, texts, statements of people, check them with Scripture, is it exactly the way it is presented? Remember at least fragments of the New Testament: “These were more prudent than Thessalonica: they received the word with all diligence, daily examining the Scriptures, whether this is exactly so” (Acts 17:11), “Dig into yourself and into the doctrine; do this constantly: for by doing this you will save yourself and those who hear you” (1 Tim. 4:16).

Knowing the truth, let us hold fast to the Scriptures, neither deviating to the right nor to the left!

A short self-instruction manual for the Hebrew language

The Hebrew language belongs to the Semitic group of languages, which also includes (Phoenician, Aramaic, Arabic, etc.). Subsequently, the Greeks borrowed the letter from the Phoenicians, and the Latin and Cyrillic / Glagolitic alphabets originated from the Greek alphabet. Writing in Hebrew is one of the first on earth. It is assumed that the first texts included in the Old Testament were dated 1200 BC. The first writing in this language originated in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC.

Due to the fact that they wrote then mainly on stone by knocking out signs with some pointed object held by the left hand and hammer blows clamped in the right hand, it was easier to write not from left to right, but from right to left. There was no division into capital and lower case. Also, given the imperfection and complexity of the letter, only letters corresponding to consonant sounds were knocked out. For example, the word “Man” with such a writing system would be written as “KVLCH”, and the words “House”, “House”, “Lady” would be written in the same way - “MD”. The skill of reading texts correctly was transmitted orally.

From the middle of the 1st millennium AD. Jewish scholars (masoretes - from the Hebrew word “masorah”, which means tradition) began to designate vowels with the help of special diacritical marks affixed in the biblical text. The Tiberias vowel designation system became generally accepted, which got its name from the city of Tiberias on the shores of Lake Gennesaret, where the most famous Masoretes lived (VIII-X centuries).

Until the end of the 1st century AD, as the Dead Sea Scrolls show, different manuscripts of the Bible were very different from each other. From the end of the 1st century AD all Jewish communities, wherever they were, began to use Bible lists almost identical to each other - at least as far as consonants are concerned.

When in the XVI century, under the influence of humanism and the Reformation, among the scientists of Christian Europe arose interest in the Hebrew language, they had to face a serious problem. It turned out that in Jewish communities scattered all over the world, traditions of reading sacred texts differed from each other. Ashkenazi and Sephardi dominated at that time. Based on the Sephardic tradition, the pronunciation of Hebrew sounds (Reuchlin's reading) has become generally accepted in European universities. The same phonetics was also the basis of the phonetics of the revived 20th century Hebrew.

The designation of consonants in a letter (in brackets is indicated the spelling of the character at the end of the word):

Writing	Pronunciation
בּ
גּ
דּ
ךּ) כּ)
ך) כ)
ם) מ)
ן) נ)
	-
ףּ) פּ)
ף) פ)
ץ) צ)
שׂ
שׁ
תּ

The designation of vowels in writing on the example of a letter בּ . In an effort to keep the main text of Scripture unchanged, the Masoretes denoted vowels by various combinations of dashes and dots below and above the letters:

Writing	Pronunciation
בִּ
בֵּ
בֶּ
בַּ
בָּ	A or O
בֹּ
בֻּ
בְּ
בֱּ
בֲּ
בֳּ

Reading rules are quite cumbersome and, unfortunately, cannot be covered in detail in such summary. At the same time, in the texts of the interlinear and attached symphonies, for all words written in Hebrew, a facilitated transliteration into Russian is given.

Aramaic writing, like Greek, also developed from, formed the basis of the Aramaic branch of the alphabets of the East - just as the Greek alphabet served as the basis for the alphabets of the West.

The Aramaic script with its vowels and matres lectionis gave rise to a number of the most important alphabets of the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, including the Arabic and modern Hebrew alphabets, as well as various scripts of India (Brahmi and further Devanagari) and their descendants, the alphabets of the Southeast and Central Asia(including Thai and Mongolian writing).

The prevalence of Aramaic writing is due to the fact that the Aramaic language and writing, being from the end of the VIII century. BC e. means of international correspondence and communication in the Middle East, during the conquests of the Achaemenids received the status of diplomatic language and writing.

In the Aramaic language environment, pagan cults continued to exist; Thus, the religious sect of the Mandaeans that still exists today (modern Iran and Iraq; several hundred Mandaeans also live in the USA and Australia) have preserved sacred books written in the Mandaean dialect of the Aramaic language, this dialect is also used as the language of worship, and its more modern form, according to some reports, is used in everyday communication by about 1 thousand people in Iran; other Iranian Mandaeans speak Farsi, while Iraqi Mandaeans speak Arabic.

After the Arab conquests of the 7th c. and the creation of the caliphate, Syriac-Aramaic dialects were forced out Arabic; This process, however, was long and basically ended only by the 15th century. The current heirs of the Aramaic language, in addition to the Assyrian and Mandean dialects, are the dialects of several villages in Syria (see Maalula, Saydnaya), where several thousand people live, mostly Christians.

Syriac-Aramaic literature is very extensive and has a large historical meaning: the brilliant era of medieval Islamic thought became possible at one time precisely thanks to the translation into Aramaic - and from it into Arabic - of the works of ancient Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle.

Alphabet

Imperial Aramaic alphabet.

letter name	Letter shape		Equivalent Jewish	Equivalent Arabic	Equivalent Syrian	Sound Meaning
Alaf			א	أ	ܐ	/ʔ/; /aː/ , /eː/
Beth			ב	ب‎	ܒ	/b/ , /v/
Gamal			ג	ج	ܓ	/ɡ/ , /ɣ/
Dalat			ד	د‎	ܕ	/d/ , /ð/
Heh			ה	ﻫ‎	ܗ	/h/
wav			ו	و‎	ܘ	/w/ ; /oː/ , /uː/
Zain			ז	ز‎	ܙ	/z/
Het			ח	خ,ح	ܚ	/ħ/
Tet			ט	ط	ܛ	emphatic /tˤ/
Yod			י	ي	ܝ	/j/ ; /iː/ , /eː/
cafe			כ ך	ك	ܟܟ	/k/ , /x/
Lamad			ל	ل	ܠ	/l/
Mime			מ ם	م‎	ܡܡ	/m/
Nun			נ ן	ن	ܢܢ ܢ	/n/
Semkat			ס	س	ܣ

Aramaic alphabet - ... Wikipedia

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Aramaic Damascus - This term has other meanings, see Aram. Arameans Aramaic language Aramaic alphabet Aramaic kingdoms Aramaic Damascus Paddan Aram Aram Rehob Aram Soba ... Wikipedia

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Aramaic language - (Aramaic)Aramaic, lang. us. ancient Syria (biblical name Aram), which belongs to the Semitic group. From the 6th century BC. was used in the countries of the Middle East and gradually replaced Hebrew as a language. Jews in these parts. He was... ... Countries of the world. Vocabulary

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About the name

The traditional designation of the language of written monuments that have come down to us from the territory of historical Palestine and date back to the period from the 10th century. BC e. according to the II century. n. e., in Russian Hebraic literature is the "Hebrew language". The less cumbersome term "Jewish language", identical to the common European usage, in Russian and Soviet linguistic terminology was more often associated with the spoken language of Eastern European Jews (Yiddish), but recently the use of the combination "Jewish language" in relation to the Yiddish language is found only occasionally. In scientific and popular literature recent years Hebrew is sometimes referred to as "Hebrew" (also "Biblical Hebrew" - tracing paper from the English Biblical Hebrew).

The language of late antique, medieval and later monuments, in the Russian Hebraic tradition, is usually also called Hebrew, with the corresponding definition: Mishnaic Hebrew, Medieval Hebrew.

self-name

The oldest designation for the Hebrew language found in the Bible is ŝəpat kənáʕan ‛language of Canaan’.

More often, the adjective yəhudit 'Jewish' (feminine form, in agreement with ŝåpå or låšon 'language') is used as a lingvonim. This designation, apparently, was used by the inhabitants of the southern part of Palestine - Judea (heb. yəhudå). The dialect that existed in the northern (Israeli) area, apparently, was designated by its speakers differently, but information about this has not come down to us.

The designation of the Hebrew language by the term ʕibrit (a relative adjective of obscure etymology) has a complicated history. In the Old Testament, the adjective ʕibrit does not appear as a language designation. Within the framework of the Jewish tradition, the use of the term ʕibrit as a designation of the Hebrew language is first recorded in the Mishnah and the Talmud. Characteristically, examples of this kind in the Mishnah and Talmud are rather few: the designation ləšon ha-ḳḳódäš 'sacred language' was more common in the rabbinical era. The linguonym ʕibrit is widely used in the works of Hebrew grammarians of the Middle Ages, beginning with Saadia Gaon (882-942), where it is used as an equivalent of the Arabic designation ʔal-luγatu l-ʕibrāniyyatu.

AT modern timesʕibrit functions as the primary designation for Hebrew in modern Hebrew (in Israeli pronunciation; mikra'it 'biblical' can be used for the language of the biblical corpus).

In other languages

Outside of Jewish tradition, Hebrew has almost always been denoted by terms related to ʕibri(t) in one way or another. Numerous evidence of this kind is noted in the Greek-language works of the 1st century BC. n. e., for example, hebraicos, hebrais dialectos, hebraisti in Josephus and in the Gospel of John. At least in some places, the authors could also have in mind the Aramaic language, but already in the prologue to the Greek translation of the Hebrew book of the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach (III-II centuries BC), the expression en heautois hebraisti “in Hebrew ” undoubtedly refers to Hebrew (the author, describing his translation work, notes: “since the words pronounced in Hebrew, but translated into another language, do not have the same power”).

To the Latin terms hebraitas, lingua hebraica, in one way or another, the designations of the Hebrew language in modern European languages ​​(English Hebrew, German Hebräisch, French l’hébreu) ​​go back. In relation to the language of the biblical period in linguistic literature clarifying definitions can be used (for example, English Biblical Hebrew, Classical Hebrew, Ancient Hebrew).

Linguistic geography

Range and abundance

In historical and geographical terms, the Hebrew language occupied an area bounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Sinai Peninsula and the Red Sea in the southwest and south, r. Jordan, Lake Tiberias, the Dead Sea and the Arava Valley in the east; on the political map of modern times, this territory basically corresponds to the modern borders of the State of Israel, including the West Bank of the Jordan River.

Epigraphic finds show that until the fall of the kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. e. the Hebrew language was more or less distributed throughout its territory, from Hatzor and Dan in the north to the southern regions of the Negev desert. After the fall of the kingdom of Israel and the deportation of its population, the existence of the Hebrew language on its territory, apparently, ceased. Within the boundaries of the Kingdom of Judah, the greatest concentration of epigraphic monuments in Hebrew is characteristic of the interior regions (Jerusalem, Lachish, Arad), but there is some evidence of its existence in the Mediterranean coast (Metsad Khashavyahu, Ashdod, Khirbet en-Nebi Hudj).

According to biblical tradition, at certain periods the Hebrew language was also spread east of the river. Jordan (see below about the “Shibboleth episode”), however, external evidence confirming this is scarce (see, for example, the mention of the Israelites from the Gad tribe living in Transjordan in the inscription of the Moabite king Mesha).

Several brief and fragmentary Hebrew inscriptions have been discovered outside of Palestine: during excavations at the sites of Nimrud in northern Mesopotamia (the capital of the Assyrian Empire, Kalhu; the objects on which the inscriptions were made came there as part of the booty taken out by the Assyrians after the capture of Samaria) and Susa (ancient the capital of Elam). It is obvious that such finds do not testify to the spread of the Hebrew language in the respective regions. In general, the possibility of the existence of the Hebrew language outside of Palestine (for example, in Egypt or Mesopotamia) can hardly be documented.

Sociolinguistic information

There is practically no direct evidence of the functional status and rank of the Hebrew language in the biblical period. Epigraphic monuments allow us to assert that in the era of the existence of the Israeli and Jewish kingdoms, the Hebrew language was the main language of the military-administrative and business correspondence and economic accounting, that is, apparently, it served as the official language. This conclusion is also supported by the very high level standardization of the language of Hebrew prose, evident in both biblical and epigraphic monuments.

Dialects

Traditionally, the Hebrew language is postulated to have two dialects, southern (“Jewish”, or “Jerusalem”) and northern (“Israeli”), however, consideration of the linguistic features that oppose these dialects is possible only in the broad context of the chronological, geographical and genre stratification of the Hebrew language.

There are no explicit references to the existence of Hebrew dialects in the Bible. The only exception is the famous “episode of Shibboleth” (eng. Shibboleth Incident), described in the Book of Judges (12:5): the word for “ear” (according to another interpretation, “stream”) was pronounced šibbolet by the inhabitants of Gilead (Jordan), at that while the Ephraimites (northern Palestine) pronounced it sibbolät (the phonetic and phonological meaning of this distinction has been repeatedly considered in the specialized literature, but there is no generally accepted solution to this problem).

Writing

The oldest form of writing used to write texts in Hebrew is the so-called Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, similar in form to the alphabets of other Canaanite languages ​​of the 1st millennium BC. e. (Phoenician, Moabite). This alphabet (in the Jewish tradition denoted as kətåb ʕibri ‛Hebrew letter’) recorded the epigraphic monuments of the Hebrew language (in addition, the Samaritan script goes back to Paleo-Hebrew, which, in particular, the Samaritan Pentateuch is recorded).

In the last centuries of the 1st millennium BC. e. the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet falls out of use in the Jewish environment, being replaced by the so-called "square" or "Assyrian" script (kətåb mərubbåʕ, kətåb ʔaššuri), which was widely used during this period for writing texts in Aramaic. The vast majority of Hebrew manuscripts that have come down to us are written in square writing; various types of cursive writing, as well as printed fonts, are based on it.

Both Paleo-Hebrew and Square are consonantal alphabets with relatively extensive use of the letters W (ו), Y (י) and, in final position, H (ה) as matres lectionis. Although the scope of the matres lectionis in the history of the Hebrew language gradually expanded, the text written in the consonantal alphabet left the opportunity for numerous readings and interpretations. In the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. for the consistent transmission of vowel phonemes of the biblical text, a system of superscript and subscript characters was developed. In addition, another system of superscript and subscript characters (accents, or cantillation marks) serves to designate stressed syllables, large and small pauses, and other intonational characteristics.

In this article, the examples are rendered in traditional Semitic phonological transcription.

Linguistic characteristic

Phonetics and phonology

There are 23 phonemes in the consonantism of the Hebrew language (proto-Semitic interdental, emphatic lateral, uvular are lost; the non-emphatic lateral ŝ is preserved). All consonants except guttural and r can be doubled. Voiceless and voiced stop phonemes (p, t, k, b, d, g) have spirant variants with a tendency to turn them into independent phonemes.

There are 7 full-voiced phonemes in vocalism (å, a, ä, e, i, o, u) and 4 reduced ones (ə, ă, ä̆, o), the phonological status of reduced vowels (in particular, the nature of the opposition "ə - zero sound") not quite clear.

The stress is phonologically significant (cf. bǻnu 'in us' - bånú 'they built'), although most word forms are stressed on the last syllable. The mobility of stress during inflection led to the emergence of a complex system of vocal alternations.

Morphology

In nominal morphology - opposition of masculine (not marked) and feminine (with indicators -å, -Vt), units. and many others. numbers (indicator of masculine gender -im, feminine - -ot). Some types of names in the formation of pl. h. ablaut is observed (cf. mäläk ‘king’ - pl. məlåk-im). The dual indicator -ayim is attached to a limited circle of lexemes.

Case relations are expressed analytically (the direct object is formed by the preposition ʔеt; belonging - by juxtaposing the vertex and the dependent name, sometimes with phonetic changes: dåbår ‘word’, dəbar dawid ‘word of David’). There is an ending -å with a directional meaning (yámm-å ‘to the sea’). The definite article has the form ha-.

In verbal morphology, a reduced system of breeds (5), an “internal” (apophonic) passive, suffixal (perfect) and prefixal (imperfect) conjugations expressing past and future tenses (cf. kåtab 'he wrote' - yiktob 'he will write' ). The meaning of the present tense is expressed by the active participle (hu koteb ‘he writes’). In a narrative text, combinations of the perfect and imperfect forms with the conjunction wə/wa ‘and’ have the opposite meanings of these forms without this conjunction: cf. wəkåtab ‘he will write’ (wə with the perfect) - wayyiktob ‘he wrote’ (wa with the imperfect); the interpretation of this phenomenon remains controversial. There are moods: imperative (kətob 'write'), cohortative (only in the 1st person: ʔäšmər-å 'yes I will keep'), some verbs have jussiv (cf. imperfect yåʕum 'he will get up' - jussiv yåʕom 'let him get up'). 2 infinitives - conjugate (kətob), absolute (kåtob).

Syntax

The neutral word order is "subject + predicate" in a nominal sentence, "predicate + subject + (direct object)" in a verb. Dependent words follow the vertex ones.

Vocabulary

In the vocabulary there are Arameisms, borrowings from the Akkadian language, the ancient Egyptian language, the ancient Persian language, in the Mishnaic monuments - Greekisms and Latinisms.

Notes

1. (Jes 19.18: ba-yyom ha-hu yihyu ḥåmeš ʕårim bəʔä́räṣ miṣráyim mədabbərot ŝəpat kənáʕan ‛that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan’, a prophecy about the conversion of the Egyptians to Christianity)
2. In 2R 18.26, 29 (= Jes 36.11, 13 = 2Chr 32.18) and in Ne 13.24
3. In general, in the text of the Old Testament, the adjective ʕibri ‛Jew(sky)’ (female ʕibrit) is rare and has a specific usage, as a rule, denoting the Israelites in situations of contact with representatives of other peoples. The greatest concentration of this kind of usage is noted in the books of Genesis (Joseph in Egypt), Exodus (exodus of the Jews from Egypt) and the first book of Samuel (Philistine wars), see also Jon 1.9 (Jonah and the sailors) and Gn 14.13 (Abraham and the Canaanites). The predominance of passages that are direct speech, both of foreigners and of the Israelites themselves, is characteristic.
4. For example, Mishnah Yadaim 4.5 (targum šä-kkåtəbu ʕibrit wə-ʕibrit šä-kkåtəbu targum<…>ʔeno məṭamme ʔät-hayyšådayim ‛Aramaic (Bible text) written in Hebrew (i.e. translated into Hebrew) and Hebrew (Bible text) written in Aramaic (i.e. translated into Aramaic)<…>does not defile hands (that is, it does not have a sacred character)’, Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1.8 (4 ləšonot nåʔim šä-yyištammeš båhem håʕolam<…>láʕaz ləzämär romi liḳråb sursi ləʔilyå ʕibri lədibbur 'there are four languages ​​suitable for people to use: Greek for singing, Latin for war, Aramaic for mourning, and Hebrew for conversation').
5. bəbåbäl låšōn ʔărammi ləmå? ʔällå ʔo ləšon ha-ḳḳódäš ʔo låšon parsi ‛Why (use) Aramaic (language) in Babylonia? No, or the sacred language, or the Persian language!’ (Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 49.2

> see also

• Jewish languages
• Hebrew