tradition that the family of Gamaliel possessed the exclusive privilege of teaching Greek, is perhaps nothing farther than an individualization of the historical proposition, that in the age when this family, who were distinguished for their acquirements, flourished, the knowledge of Greek in Palestine was exceedingly

rare.

2. The Aramaic Targums were prepared merely because the people understood no other language than the Aramaic.t For this same reason the people were occasionally permitted to make use of Aramaic forms of prayer, " (for those borrowed from the Old Testament, and often composed from a number of passages selected out of it, were always to be said by

u

s Bava kama fol. 82. 2. Permiserunt familiae Rabban Gamalielis sapientiam graecam, quoniam illi cognati erant sanguini regio.

t R. Asarias in Meor Enajim c. 9. Servatus est mos, interpretandi legem vulgo lingua Aromaea () toto tempore templi secundi, mansitque ista lingua semper inter eos (Hebraeos) usque ad captivitatem Hierosolymitanam.

" Berachoth fol. 3. 1. Sunt, qui dicant precatiunculam istam, cujus initium, ideo lingua Aramaea proferri, quod sit lingua nobilis et summae laudis. And further on, In more fuit, orationem recitare post concionem ; adfuit autem ibi vulgus, qui linguam Hebraeam non intellexit, ideoque in lingua Targumistica eam instituerunt, ut intelligeretur ab omnibus; nam haec eorum lingua.

the Jews in the original ancient Hebrew tongue,) and the learned having great reverence for the Hebrew language, and probably taking great pains to bring it again into circulation among the people, as before the exile, were prohibited to depreciate the Aramaic tongue. Nay, according to the Talmudists, it was raised to honour by the prophets who lived at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, prophesying in it, and by the voice of heaven' having therein manifested itself.

3. In some passages of the Talmud, and of

Hieros. Sota f. 21. 3. Beresch. Rabba f. 83. 4. Ne vilescat lingua syriaca (DD) in oculis tuis. Nam ecce honorem tribuit ei Deus in lege (Gen. 31, 47.) in prophetis (Jerem. 10, 11.) et in hagiographis (Dan. 2, 4.) As these passages are altogether Babylonian Aramaic D signi

ארמי fies the same as

y Hieros. Sota fol. 24. Samuel parvus in articulo mortis dixit: Simeon atque Ismael ad gladium, atque omnis reliquus populus ad spolium et calamitates plurimae futurae sunt. Lingua Aramaea loquebatur, sed non intellexerunt verba ejus h. e. verum praedictionis sensum. In Lightfooti hor. hebr. ad Matth. 1, 23. this passage is inaccurately translated: atque ideo, quod haec loqueretur lingua Syriaca, non intellexerunt, quid esset locutus.

z Sota. Gemarae c. VII. 2. p. 689, ed. Wagens. Extat traditio, Jochananem, summum pontificem audivisse vocem ́e sacratissimo penetrali prodeuntem et

dicentem: vicere juvenes, qui iverant ad proelium commit

בצחו טליא דאזלו לאגחא קרבא) tendum Antiochiae

the writings of the Rabbins, the current language in Palestine is called Syriac (0) and distinguished from the Babylonian Aramaic.a The former is, according to more modern Jewish commentators, somewhat more corrupt than the latter; but since the Talmud in other places expressly declares Syriac and Aramaic to be the same language, I suppose that these interpreters only speak of the latter ages of the third and fourth centuries, when the Jews, of Babylon in particular, piqued themselves on the purity of their language; and that we would by no means be justified in supposing, during the age of Christ and his Apostles, such a difference between the Aramaic of Palestine and that of Babylon as would oblige us to assign different names to these dialects. § 11. The QUALITY of the language of Pa

N.) Another voice heard by Simon the just, in the Temple, is likewise immediately after given in the Babylonian Aramaic language.

a Bava kama fol. 83. 1. Sota fol. 49. 2. R. Jose dixit: Lingua Syriaca (DD) in terra Israelitica quare cum potius adhibenda aut lingua sancta aut lingua graeca. In Babylonia Aramaea () quare? cum potius adhibenda vel lingua sancta vel lingua Persica.

.Confr לשון סורסי חוא ארמי .Pesachin fol. 61. i •

Note m.

Confr. Buxtorf. Lex. chald. s. v. p. 1554. Lightfoot, hor. hebr. ad Act. vi. 1.

lestine in the age of Christ and the Apostles, which is a point of very great moment for the interpreters of the New Testament, can be determined with accuracy and certainty. Its character remained unchanged, and the same as it had been in preceding ages, i. e. it still was in every essential, with regard to substance and form, the selfsame Babylonian Aramaic (modern Chaldean) language, which is known to us from the most ancient relics of this language in Daniel and Ezra. The stock of the language still consisted of genuine Aramaic words, and its outward form had not undergone any material alteration, any more than its previously subsisting syntax. The imported exotic, chiefly Greek words, continued in circulation, and under the dominion of the Romans, when strict purity of the language had long been abandoned, there were superadded many new and even Latin words, of which at an earlier period no vestige is found. But the language of the country was not, by this incorporation of foreign expressions, which is admitted by every nation that lives not quite isolated, by any means circumscribed or confined within narrower limits than it had hitherto been. For the foreign expressions which it had received, for

F

the most part denoted objects with which the Palestinians had through means of foreigners become acquainted, and for which they wanted proper names; and the reception of such words could accordingly, by no means occasion the expulsion and setting aside of any number of the hitherto prevailing native words. It was much more a real enrichment of the language of the country, which continued its course accompanied by these outlandish vocables and undisturbed, maintained itself in possession of its ancient domain.

That such really was the character of the language of Palestine at the time of Christ and his Apostles, can be demonstrated :

1. From the few relics of this language d which we find in the New Testament written with Greek letters. We will here parallel the principal of these, because they in a manner support our position by intuitive demonstration, with the corresponding modern Chaldaic words:

d Confr. A. Pfeifferi loca ebraica et exotica N. T. in f. Opp. omn. philolog. p. 467, sq. Cheitomaei graeco-barbara N. T. in Rhenferdi Dissertat. de stylo N. T. syntagm. Leorard. 702. 4, p. 325 sq. u a.