Aramaic anyone?

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SemperEruditio

Puritan Board Junior
Studies in the Book of Daniel in Hebrew and Aramaic.
As some of you may know, large portions of Daniel are in Aramaic as well as Hebrew. Therefore, the following classes will be prerequisites:
  • Hebrew 1
  • Hebrew 2
  • Exegesis- with a grade of B or above.
The course will start with a brief introduction to Biblical Aramaic, in order to read and understand the Aramaic sections of Daniel. Emphasis will be in exegesis as preparation for using this text in the ministry of the church.

Anyone taken Aramaic? Anyone wish they had?
 
Yes, I took a semester of it in seminary. And yes, I'm glad that I did. I try to preach occasionally on Daniel just to keep it up. Structurally it's quite similar to Hebrew -- but the vocabulary is quite different.
 
I took it! Just last fall, in fact. It was fun and well worth the effort. Admittedly, I am in that group of people who thinks that Hebrew (and Aramaic) are easier and more fun than Greek.

We read the Aramaic portions of Daniel (so 2:4b-7:28). Since Hebrew III was a pre-req, we basically did the whole thing inductively. Dr. Estelle gave us a couple of lectures at the beginning of the term in order to let us get our footing, but we read aloud and translated from day 2 of class. It ended up working really well, and it helped that he had us on belay the whole time. :) Of course, now I want to audit Prophetical Books so that I can hear all the things that he told us he'd cover in Prophets...
 
I took it, and was glad I did. We translated the entirety of the Aramaic of the OT. It's basically Hebrew with an attitude.
 
I am taking it this semester. I am enjoying it, however I wish there were and intermediate grammar or syntax book for it. Miles Van Pelt is teaching it and if any of you love his Hebrew Grammar, like I do, we are guinea pigs for his Aramaic Grammar. Not sure when it will be our but he is going on sabbatical next semester so maybe sometime next year. Personally I can't wait for it, the three grammars out there are not the most user friendly. We also are translating the entire Aramaic text which includes not only the portion of Daniel mentioned but two words in Genesis, one verse in Jeremiah, and Ezra 4:8-7:26.
 
SemperEruditio,

Anyone taken Aramaic? Anyone wish they had?

I have taken Biblical Aramaic and Old Aramaic and I am now working with Syriac, which is a language very close to Aramaic [the transition from Aramaic to Syriac is easier than the transition from Hebrew to Aramaic according to my professor]. The hardest part in transitioning from Hebrew to Aramaic is getting all of the oddities of Aramaic out of the way, such as the emphatic aleph that is placed on the end of nouns, the different verbal stems, and oddities in the way perfect and imperfect are formed, as well the weird things that happen with the plurals of nouns. I have found that, if you just do lots of translation, you start recognizing the forms, and it becomes second nature. If you have a choice, I started out with Biblical Aramaic, and I think that is the best, since it is pointed, and it also has a very small vocabulary.

Yes, Aramaic is a fascinating language, and so much excellent material is written in Aramaic, both Biblical and extrabiblical.

God Bless,
Adam
 
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