The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-30
NEW BOOKS.
u,s, Language Did Jesus Speak:

cus,af Dalman, professor Of theology in the
I-,iversity OF Leipzig. The author. who
:, one of the most distinguished Oren-
,olists in Europe. begins by setting forth
Mo reason, for believing that Jesus spoke
40 Galean dialect of the Aramaic Ian
arooe. and then proceeds to discuss from
his point Of view the meaning Of the utter
onces attributed to Jesus in the synoptic
Gcsnels The evidence for the primary
tvrothcsis is Of several kinds. Prof.
noman adduces, for example, the custom
which in the second century after Christ
wss represented as very ancient, Of translat-
inc into Aramaic the text of the Hebrew
pentacuch in the synagogues Of the He
hrss,s of Palestine. BY Hebraists the
suhor desires To distinguish from the
uenenistic Jews who spoke Greek, those
who spoke, not Hebrew, but Aramaic. At
,ention is next directed to the Aramaic title
for classes Of the people in Palestine, and
FOR feasts-titles that are attested by DO
senhus and the New Testament. Thus
tbe words for pharisee, priest, high priest
Passover, Peltecost and Sabbath used by
,I5seoh,ls and by the authors of the New
Testament are not Hebrew, but Aramaic.'
Then, again, there are traditions dating
from a period considerably antecedent to
Christ that John Hyrcanus heard in the
.o.ctuarv divine voice speaking in the
irarlaic language and that in the temple
The legends on the tokens for the drink
Offering, ali on the chests in which the
Contributions of the faithful were deposited
were in Aramac Moreover, there are old
official documents in the Aramaic language.
-l..-l Dali l'gt,,0
ing Fasts catalogue Of days on which
fasting was forbidden, first co implied in
the time of the rising against the Romans,
ef.7O A. D., and, secondly, the Epistles OF
Gamael H. (about ITO A. d. to the Jews
of South Judea, Galilee and Babylon Both
If these documents were destined for the
Jewish people, and, primarily, indeed,
for those of Palestine. A like inference
A. TO the Use of Aramaic In Palestine may
be drawn from the language OF the pub
lie documents relating to purchase, lease
tenure debt conditional betrothal, refusal
of marriage, marriage contract, divorce
and remuneration Of levirate marriage.
The Mishna gives the decisive formuls
of these documents, which were important
for securing legal validity for the most
part, though not always in Aramaic, thus
implying that this was the language COM
monty in use. Cumulative testimony Is
furnished by the unquestioned adoption,
In the time of Jesus, of the Aramaic char
acters in place of the old Hebrew in copies
Of the Bible text, The change of character
naturally presupposes change of language
Stress is laid by Prof Dalman on the facts
that the Judaism OF the second century
ha ia
"Assyrian,' i. e.. Aramaic handwriting
and that even the Alexandrian or Sep
tuasint translation had been based upon
Hebrew texts in this character. 1t has
further been observed by students OF the
Talmud that the syntax and the vocabulary
Of the Hebrew Of the Mishna prove them
selves to be the creation of Jews who thought
in Aramaic. We observe, finally, that 1t
was customary in the first century of our
era for writer's to call the Aranaic Hebrew
Josephus, indeed, showed himself quito
capable Of distinguishing the language and
written character of the "Syrians' from
those of the Hebrews" Nevertheless.
between Hebrew and Aramac words he
makes no difference. The Hebrew in
which Josephus addresses the people Of
Jerusalem-the incident is recounted in
his history of the Jewish war against the
Romans-is even called by him his paternal
tongue, though in the circumstances moth
ing but Aramaic ca n hav We been used. Again,
in the Johannine Gospel, the Aramaic terms
Bethesda Golgotha and Rabbouni are
called Hebrew Aramaic. too, must be
meant by the Hebrew tongue in which
Paul spoke to the people Of Jerusalem
Acts, xxi, 40: xii, y. and in which Jesus
spoke to Paul (Acts, XVI. ll. Hellenistai,
and Hebraioi were the names, according
10 Acts, vi, /, OF the two parts of the Jewish
PEOPLE as divided by language. But, II it
we're possible to characterize Aramaic as
Hebrew, it is clear that Aramaic was the
everyday speech of the Jewish people in
the first century of our era; in so far, at least,
as it was not Greek.
In Prof. Dalman's opinion the facts adj
duced do not justify us in drawing dis
tinction between Judea and Galilee, as If
Hebrew was at least partially spoken
language in the former region. That Ara
maic had at least distinct predominance
in Judea may be inferred with certainty
from the place names in Jerusalem and its
envrons. The author Of this book can
find no ground for the belief expressed by
another Orientaist that Hebrew was the
language OF the mother Of Jesus, mas
much as she belonged to South Palestine.
There is even less ground for supposng
that Hebrew was the vernacular in Gali)ee.
During the rising of the Maccabees the
Jewish population in Galilee was 80 incon-
siderable that Simon. about 1853 B. c., had
~ other means of protecting them from
their ill-disposed neighbors than by trans
porting them to Judea. John Hyrcanus
CB C. 3s-l05l appears later to have con-
quered Galilee and to have forced its in
habitants into conformity to Judaism;
but, under the circumstances, the Hebrew
language was not to be looked for What
u true Of Gailee in general is true Of little
Nazareth in particular, to which has been
wrongly attributed an isolation from inter-
course with the outer world. AS matter
Of fact, Nazareth had on the one side
sippor (Sepphoris). the then capital of
Galilee, and on the other, in close prox-
unity the cities Of Yapha and Kesaloth,
and it lay on the important highway OF
commerce that led from Sepphoris to the
plain Of Megiddo and onward to Cesarea'
Our author points out that the actual dis
courses of Jesus In no way give the i'm
preston that He had grown up in solitude