An Aramaic approach to the Gospels and Acts / [print]
by Matthew Black
- third edition.ition
- Peabody, Massachusetts : Hendrickson Publishers, (c)1998.
- xxv, 359 pages ; 22 cm
Originally published: Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1967.
Includes bibliographies and index.
PART I. THE APPROACH : -- Chapter I. Previous work on the Aramaic of the Gospels and Acts -- Chapter II. The linguistic and textual approach: The linguistic approach -- The textual approach -- Chapter III. Recent discoveries and developments in Palestinian Aramaic: The new discoveries -- The Aramaic targums and the language of Jesus PART II. SYNTAX, GRAMMAR, AND VOCABULARY: -- Chapter IV. Style and structure of the sentence: Order of words -- Casus Pendens and hyperbaton -- The distribution of Asyndeton in the Gospels and Acts -- The paratactic construction -- Chapter V. The Aramaic subordinate clause Chapter VI. Aramaic influence on grammar and vocabulary: The definite article -- The pronoun -- Temporal and inferential conjunction and adverb -- The preposition -- Comparative and superlative -- The interrogative particle -- Numerals and distribution -- The verb -- Vocabulary PART III. SEMITIC POETIC FORM -- Chapter VII. The formal element of Semitic poetry in the Gospels -- Parallelism of lines and clauses -- Alliteration, assonance, and paronomasia PART IV. TRANSLATION OF ARAMAIC -- Chapter VIII. A. Synoptic variants from Aramaic -- B. Mistranslation and interpretation of Aramaic -- Chapter IX. Aramaic as a caus of textual variants -- Greek textual variants due to Aramaic -- Old Latin variants due to Aramaic -- The variants and expansions of the Syriac versions and tradition -- The sources and antiquity of the old Syriac -- Distribution of variants from Aramaic -- Chapter X. Survey of results -- Aramaic Source-Criticism -- 'Translation Greek' -- Semitic poetic form -- The textual problem.
Publisher's description: The New Testament was preserved in Greek, but the events narrated in the Gospels and part of Acts took place in a largely Aramaic-speaking environment. Matthew Black therefore begins with the hypothesis that the material contained in these books was spoken or written in Aramaic. Black surveys the New Testament for Aramaic grammatical features (syntax, grammar, and vocabulary), poetic features (parallelism, alliteration), and other linguistic evidence that the New Testament text was translated from Aramaic. He uses this approach to shed light on difficult passages from the Gospels and Acts. Black's is enhanced by a new introduction from Craig A. Evans. Evans places Black's work in the context of related scholarly studies, provides extensive resources for further study of Aramaic and its significance for New Testament studies, and discusses the criteria best used when consulting the Targumim in New Testament interpretation.