[GipperGal]

I have been to the British Museum in London, and among the displays of the time are HEBREW carvings of letters that were etched in stone, to represent the people of Israel, and not any in Aramaic that I saw at all. In fact, in the book they published in 1991, "THE BIBLE IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, I dont remember any Aramaic discoveries that were included at all. Certainly the British Museum would have doen so if it was a genuine Biblical language of the Jews at that time.

I knew it! I knew that Mel Gibson guy was full of it! See, nobody spoke Aramaic back then. He just made that language up for his movie! It's just like how those guys that made Star Trek invented Klingon so that they could make lots of money teaching seminars to trekkies everywhere.

[Titanites]

Certainly the British Museum would have doen so if it was a genuine Biblical language of the Jews at that time.

Just don't tell him about the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[NYer]

I have been to the British Museum in London, and among the displays of the time are HEBREW carvings of letters that were etched in stone, to represent the people of Israel, and not any in Aramaic that I saw at all. In fact, in the book they published in 1991, "THE BIBLE IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, I dont remember any Aramaic discoveries that were included at all. Certainly the British Museum would have doen so if it was a genuine Biblical language of the Jews at that time.

Guess we'll all have to toss our Bibles. When Jesus cried out on the cross 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani), He was speaking Aramaic. Many words in the New Testament are transliterations from the Aramaic. Peter's name Cephas is from 'kepha' (rock); Thomas is from 'toma' (twin). 'Bar' the Aramaic word for (son) occurs in such names as Bartholomew, Bar- Jonas, Barabbas and Bartimaeus. (The Hebrew word for son is 'ben' ). Golgotha is from 'golgolta' (skull); and Maranatha comes from 'maran' (our Lord) and 'eta' (come).

Some time after the exile of the Jews to Babylon, Aramaic translations and paraphrases of the Hebrew Scriptures, called TARGUMS, were made for those who understood Aramaic better than Hebrew. We have targums for all the Old Testament books except Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. The earliest extant targums are from Qumran on the Dead Sea. An extensive targum on portions of Job came from one cave and dates from 150-100 BC

[InterestedQuestioner]

I knew it! I knew that Mel Gibson guy was full of it! See, nobody spoke Aramaic back then. He just made that language up for his movie! It's just like how those guys that made Star Trek invented Klingon so that they could make lots of money teaching seminars to trekkies everywhere.

ROTF LOL.