Many Nestorian and some Seventh Day Adventist scholars assert that the New Testament was originally written in Aramaic (such as Paul Younan and George Lamsa). What scholarly arguments exist that would refute this claim?
I am not looking for a refutation of the Q theory, but rather against the argument that entire books or even the entire New Testament was originally written in Aramaic.
My impression is that Aramaic primacy is not taken very seriously among experts, so there's not much in the way of scholarly works debunking it. (This is not unusual, compare to say mythicism or the theory that Jesus and Mary Magdaline were married, neither of which had scholarly debunkings until recently.) So rather than citing experts, I'm just going to give a few arguments that seem pretty solid to me (though I'm not an expert).
On the other hand, it's certainly plausible that some parts of the New Testament used sources that were originally Aramaic. It's likely that the author of Mark was a native Aramaic speaker, and he may be drawing on Aramaic sources. It's possible that Q had an Aramaic original, although it appears that Matthew and Luke shared a Greek version (or that Luke had access to Matthew). There may have been a lost early written account of the passion, which could very well have been in originally in Aramaic and used by Mark and John.
Noah has given an excellent answer, but I would like to give other issues with Aramaic primacy.
Aramaic Primacists claims that Titus and Timothy are Aramean gentiles based on that word being used in the Peshitta. However, the New Testament teaches that Timothy is of Jewish descent (Acts 16:1). His mother being a Jewess made Timothy a Jew (2 Chron. 2:13-14; Mishnah Kiddushin 3:12; 4:2, 4, 7, 10, 11; BT Kiddushin 68b; Yevamoth 45b). For that reason, Paul circumcised him (Acts 16:3). However, Paul refuses to have Titus and Trophimus circumcised because they are Greeks (Acts 21:29; Galatians 2:3).
The early Christians do not mention all of the originals being in Aramaic. Instead, Papias, as quoted by Eusebius, points out the Matthew wrote in the Hebrew language but says nothing about the language of the other books:
And this the Presbyter used to say [this is in the plural implying John the Elder would employ this argument multiple times in defense of Mark's Gospel]: "Mark, being the recorder of Peter, wrote accurately but not in order whatever he [Peter] remembered of the things either said or done by the Lord; for he [Mark] had neither heard the Lord nor followed him, but later, as I said, Peter, who used to make teachings according to the cheias, [a special kind of anecdote] but not making as it were a systematic composition of the Lord's sayings; so that Mark did not err at all when he wrote certain things just as he had recalled [them]. For he had but one intention, not to leave out anything he had heard, nor to falsify anything in them". This is what was related by Papias about Mark. But about Matthew's this was said: "For Matthew composed the logia [sayings] in Hebrew style; but each recorded them as he was able" (Eusebius, Church History, Book 3, Chapter 39.15-16)
One may reasonably infer from the fact that Papias does not mention the other books' language, that Matthew was unique in this regard. Thus, the other Gospels would have been written in a more common language such as Greek, the lingua franca of the day.
The point of the New Testament was to spread the Gospel as quickly as possible to as many people as possible. To do this, you need to use the lingua franca. In the first century, this was Greek. Greek was the commerce language of the Roman Empire which spread from Spain, through northern Africa, across the Tigris/Euphrates rivers, over Constantinople, and most of the European continent. Aramaic (any flavor) had ceased to be the commerce language centuries before when Alexander the Great conquered the Medio-Persian empire (ca 330 BC) and forcing the inhabitants to learn Greek (which they spoke alongside their Aramaic). The Aramaic that it supplanted was not even the Syriac Peshitta Primacy advocates hold up. Alexander defeated the Royal/Imperial Aramaic (sometimes called Chaldee in older works), not the later dialect of the Peshitta. That dialect was never a lingua franca. And the differences between Royal and Syriac are obvious to even the rawest beginner.
No flavor of Aramaic, be it Royal/Imperial Aramaic, Syriac, Palestian Aramaic, or any language from the Northwest Semitic family is going to fulfill that qualification (including Mishnaic Hebrew). Indeed, it is the commandment given by Jesus in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). The language to choose to fulfill this command would be Greek. Even those who postulate that Matthew wrote first in Hebrew say it was quickly translated into Greek so that more communities could read it.
A geographical analysis of the ancient world by language shows that Greek had the land mass and people. Aramaic, no dialect of, no longer reached as many or as far.
Aramaic primacists claim that Hebrew was not a living language in use among the common people of the Land. Instead, they claim it was a scholarly or liturgical language. However, more and more evidence is coming to light that this is not so. That Mishnaic Hebrew was in use by the common people is a difficult problem for Aramaic primacy as they repeatedly claim it was not.
(Please note that I am not arguing that Aramaic did not exist in the Land in the time of Jesus. On the contrary, it was there and spoken alongside Mishnaic Hebrew.)
New Testament scholars have for years translated the Greek Ebraios into "Aramaic" when it appears in the NT instead of "Hebrew." They do this because the prevailing theory for many years was that Hebrew was only used by religious people and scholars. However, the weight of evidence says otherwise.
From the return from Exile onward, there was a concerted effort to restore Hebrew as the national language. It had been lost among most of the people during the Exile. Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are all written exclusively in Hebrew (Ezra has a few Aramaic sections, but these are correspondence with a foreign King). Daniel's middle section is in flawless, Imperial Aramaic (from 2:4a to the end of ch 7), but the rest of the book is in Biblical Hebrew (and it's good Hebrew). Those middle sections needed to be in Aramaic to reflect the original language of the decrees and events.
During the Hasmonean/Maccabeen Revolt, even more emphasis was placed on Hebrew. Coins from this period (and other bilingual periods) are Greek/Hebrew and not Greek/Aramaic (with one exception in the middle). Literature from the period and place is almost never Greek or Aramaic but Hebrew.
That literature includes: 1 Macabees (originally in Hebrew), the Dead Sea Scrolls (almost exclusively Hebrew), all of the Palestinian apocrypha and pseudopigrapha, all Palestinian rabbinic literature (the Mishnah, the Tosefta, the Jerusalem Talmud, all the Midrash). The Midrash can be compared to sermon illustrations that would be used in a preaching environment. Note that they were to be told to the common people and were in Hebrew.
The only collections of rabbinic literature in Aramaic is the Babylonian Talmud. This should not be surprising because it was compiled in Babylon where Aramaic was spoken. However, even this Talmud preserves its Mishnah in Hebrew. The commentary on the Mishnah (called Gemerah)is in Aramaic, but the Mishanh remains in Hebrew. In addition, whenever a later, Palestinian rabbi is quoted in the Gemerah, the quote will be in Hebrew while the discussion of the quote is in Aramaic. Parables are also preserved in the Gemerah in Hebrew. Parables were intended to be taught to the common people. They were far from academic exercises. Not one parable in the Talmud or anywhere else is in Aramaic.
The Targumim (Aramaic paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible) date to the second and third centuries after Christ and came about because of an Aramaic-speaking Jewish immigration from Babylon to Israel.
The early rabbis forbade the teaching of Greek to one's sons and insisted that only Hebrew be used for religious instruction. The forbidden nature of Greek applied only to religious matters as commerce with the west required Greek.
The New Testament includes Hebrew idioms that do not exist in Aramaic and makes wordplays that only work when a Hebrew source is considered. It also never uses the word Suristi to describe the language used. It only uses Ebraios.
Even though modern scholarship is admitting that Hebrew existed in the academies and temple, the rabbinic literature says that even children and women (who were not allowed to obtain formal, rabbinic instruction) spoke Hebrew.
A very important piece of evidence here is the Letter of Aristeas 11, "The Jews are supposed to use Syrian [Aramaic] language, but this is not so, for it is another form [of language]." The author of the letter clearly states that the Jews do not use Aramaic. While some claim that he is speaking of the script used, this cannot be. Mishnaic Hebrew shared a script with Aramaic. Both languages used the Aramaic Square Script for writing. Paleo Hebrew writing had fallen into disuse during and after the Exile.
The Bar Cochva Letters proved conclusively that Hebrew was still a living language and was used as the primary means of communication among Jews in Israel a century after Jesus. Scholars do not divide the letters into Early and Late. They all came from the same period. There were 26 letters uncovered: 2 are in Greek, 8 are in Aramaic, 3 could be either Aramaic or Hebrew (the text is too short too conclude), and 13 are unambiguously Hebrew. These letters are not all religious (some discuss items needed for religious observance) but are of military conquests and other non-religious matters.
The parable was one of the most common tools of rabbinic instruction from the second century B.C.E. until the close of the amoraic period at the end of the fifth century C.E. Thousands of parables have been preserved in complete or fragmentary form, and are found in all types of literary compositions of the rabbinic period, both halachic and aggadic, early and late. All of the parables are in Hebrew. Amoraic literature often contains stories in Aramaic, and a parable may be woven into the story; however the parable itself is always in Hebrew (b. Baba Qam. 60b; or b. Sotah 40a). There are instances of popular sayings in Aramaic, but every single parable is in Hebrew.
“Spoken and Literary Languages in the Time of Jesus,” in Jesus’ Last Week: Jerusalem Studies in the Synoptic Gospels, Vol. 1 [ed. R. S. Notley, M. Turnage and B. Becker; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2005], 238; see also Randall Buth and Brian Kvasnica, “Temple Authorities and Tithe Evasion: The Linguistic Background and Impact of the Parable of the Vineyard, the Tenants and the Son,” in Jesus’ Last Week, 58, n. 17.
Epigraphical material from the Second Temple Period is more often in Hebrew than Aramaic. A recent sarcophagus contained these words: ben hacohen hagadol, that is, "son of the high priest." While some may say that this shows it was a religious language (being on a priest's son's tomb), it should be noted that this was on a tomb and meant for the common person to know who was interred within.
Josephus (War 5:269-272) points out that Jewish soldiers used a play on words that only makes sense in Hebrew. In 272, whenever a stone was on its way (being thrown from ballistea), the watchmen would shout "in their native language, 'The Son Cometh!'" While translators are confused by the Greek text, the answer makes sense in Hebrew. The translator even admits how the words could be confused in Hebrew but not Aramaic. The watchmen would have shouted, in Hebrew, Ha-even ba’ah ("the stone is coming!"). Hwoever, because of urgency, the words would be clipped to ben ba ("son comes!"). They reduced the syllables due to time constraints. This pun is known in Hebrew and even appears in the NT (Matthew 3:9 and Luke 3:8) "God is able from these avanim [stones] to raise up banim [sons] to Abraham."
This wordplay is unambiguously Hebrew. In Aramaic, the phrase would be kefa ate ("the stone is coming") or the more literary avna ata. Neither sounds like bara ate ("the son is coming"). Another option for Aramaic would be to use the word aven, which is related to the Hebrew. However, aven would change the gender of the verb and still not work to make a pun on "son," bar/a.
Obviously, a warning of dire straits needs to be quick and in the common language. (American soldiers would yell, "INCOMING!" to warn of mortar fire.) That the pun works in Hebrew but not Aramaic means the soldiers spoke in Hebrew.
During the Hasmonean period, Alexander Jannai (78 BC) minted one set of coins that had Armaic on them (oddly enough, in the Paleo Hebrew script). However, at other times (before and after) he minted coins in Hebrew.
We should not speak of one language predominating over another. Both Aramaic and Hebrew were in use in the Land at the time of Jesus. However, while we cannot say one predominated, we can say that Mishnaic Hebrew was very much a living language used by people of all walks of life in Judea and Galille.
David Biven, Hebrew as a Spoken Language in First-century Israel, posted November 18, 2008.
Waverly Nunnally, Hebrew as the Primary Language of Jesus, an email exchange.
________. Peshitta Primacy, an email exchange.
Baltes, Guido. "Hebrew or Aramaic? Some Evidence from Inscriptions," Jerusalem Perspective Online, November 28, 2008.
There are two primary pieces of linguistic evidence that can be used to refute Peshitta primacy: the dialect used in Peshitta, and the use of geyr and deyn throughout the text of Peshitta.
First, regarding the dialect of Peshitta: In Peshitta all verbs in the 3rd person Masculine Imperfective form use the n'- prefix. The only Aramaic dialect that used that prefix was spoken in the 4th to 8th centuries in the area around Edessa and is referred to as Classical Syriac. Most other Aramaic dialects, including First Century Syriac (aka Old Syriac) as well as the dialects of Aramaic spoken in 1st Century Palestine used the y'- prefix for the same verb form. The fact that Peshitta uses the n'- prefix for this verb form is linguistic proof that Peshitta was written sometime during the 4th to 8th centuries in Edessa, and could not possibly have been written by the disciples. It's like trying to claim that Shakespeare wrote To Kill a Mockingbird: the language used in the novel shows it was written in the wrong time and wrong place to have been written by Shakespeare.
You can refer to Muraoka, Takamitsu, Classical Syriac: A Basic Grammar with a Chrestomathy, 2ed, 2005, p. 48 for evidence of the n'- prefix in Classical Syriac, and to Brown, Charles Rufus, An Aramaic Method: Elements of grammar, p. 54 for evidence of the y'- prefix in Palestinian Aramaic.
Regarding geyr and deyn: The particles “geyr” (ܓܝܪ) and “deyn” (ܕܝܢ) occur quite a number of times in Peshitta. The problem is that these words are not Aramaic at all, but rather borrowed from Greek. They only appear in Christian literature that has been translated from Greek. They are translations of the corresponding Greek words “gar” (γὰρ) and “de” (δὲ). In Greek these two particles generally occur as the second word of a phrase. In Peshitta they also show up mostly as the second word of a phrase. Thus, their presence is direct linguistic evidence that Peshitta is a translation from a Greek original.
For details, see van Peursen, Wido and Falla, Terry. “The Particles geyr and deyn in Classical Syriac.” Foundations for Syriac Lexicography II. Georgias Press. 2009. pp. 63-98.
A full list of verses that use geyr can be found here:
A full list of verses that use deyn can be found here:
Possible Answer 1: Because of the evident use of Syriac / Aramaic in the Early Church, and the sheer number of extant manuscripts available, Aramaic was probably the highest priority and utilized for audiences within Israel and in other Semitic populations, (like Hebrews, James; and not like Romans, Galatians, etc).
The greatest quantifiable evidence for Aramaic Primacy, (other than what has been given), is from the Armenian Church archives, and the evident - prolific - colloquial use of Syriac in Israel - during the Earliest Church :
http://www.welcomearmenia.com/armenia/ancient_manuscripts
There are thousands of these ancient Aramaic manuscripts from the time of the Earliest Church. These manuscripts are incredibly valuable in textual criticism.
There seems to be no evidence of either Hebrew or Greek used colloquially to the extant that Syriac was, (such as letters, etc).
Arguments that "Biblical / Hebrew" was used colloquially in Israel, during the time of the earliest Church are entirely unsubstantiated by any historical record - and explicitly refuted by the Jewish Encyclopedia :
The Jewish Encyclopedia, Hebrew Language - The correctness of the view that Aramaic was the international language of anterior Asia as early as the eighth century B.C. is not certain (comp. A. Ehrlich's commentary to II Kings xviii. 26), but there is no doubt that this was the fact after the Babylonian exile. Gradually Aramaic gained predominance in the Persian empire, displacing local forms of speech, and Hebrew, like other languages, had to succumb to its influence and ceased to be spoken.
No Aramaic / Syriac Manuscript made it into Canon. However, the Textus Receptus appears to have relied on Syriac texts, in part, as the basis for its Greek text.*
There is a large consensus that Luke, Acts, Romans, Galatians, etc, were originally authored in Greek - evident by structure, etc - and because their target audiences were immersed in the Greek language.
However, there is another argument for Aramaic AND Greek Duality, not just Primacy.
It is the case that both Syriac and Greek, were spoken commonly - and certainly not the Mosaic Hebrew dialect, (which had become a dead language; see Wikipedia, Hebrew Language).
It is the case that Paul was fluent in both, Greek and a Hebraicized dialect of Aramaic - that rose during the Babylonian exile.
Acts 21:40, NASB - When he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the stairs, motioned to the people with his hand; and when there was a great hush, he spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect, saying, ...
Also, See Hermeneutics.SE - Does "Hebrew" refer to the language or the language family?
It is the case that Early Church writers were keenly aware of issues of translation, evidenced Israel's prolific reliance on Aramaic translations of Scripture - for centuries - following the Babylonian exile, (and even the Septuagint Greek translation of Scripture, see Targumim).
Possible Answer 2: Therefore, it is very plausible that when early Church writers penned their writings, they likely used scribes to have dual translations written side by side.
I would contend that the simplest refutation of Aramaic supremacy is the language of the Greek Text. If whole books of the New Testament were written in Aramaic and then translated to Greek, we would have much worse Greek and/or more hold overs from the Aramaic (Eloi, Eloi?). A reading of the LXX is a great example, as the language is slightly stilted because of the Hebrew foundation. The New Testament displays more homogony, and thus an Aramaic supremacy is passed over by most scholars.
Suggest you read the new translation of the peshitta by D Bauscher in which he demonstrates in hundreds of examples of how the theory of aramaic primacy thoroughly explains discrepancies and phrases and words that don't make proper sense in the greek. it also gives a really good explanation as to the differences between the different text type/manuscript types such as byzantine text-type manuscripts and alexandrian text type manuscripts. Revelation is particularly very very interesting. My understanding is that the Greek Orthodox Church has always held that the bible was originally written in aramaic and Greek - a mixture ref the different canonical NT scriptures. From a logical point of view, bearing in mind that the apostles were galileean jews speaking aramaic not greek, why would they even be able to write in greek? do we not also have writings from the church fathers that suggest that aramaic documents were translated immediately into greek. considering that the church was multi-lingual from the start with Hellenist Jews and Hebrew/aramaic speaking Jews, plus latin being spoken in Rome.... my perspective is that some or many of the manuscripts were originally written in aramaic and translated straight away for the Hellenist Christians and I recommend the above book as very interesting and detailed information.
