January 8, 2024 | Daniel L. Segraves, PhD

Today I began a formal study of the Aramaic language as it is used in Scripture. As I have worked on the second volume of my commentary on the Book of Psalms, it has become clear to me that it is necessary for me to achieve a working knowledge of Aramaic in order to accomplish this task.

Aramaic is found in a variety of places in the Old Testament, with a substantial portion of Daniel and Ezra originally written in the language. Small portions of other Old Testament texts include Aramaic. Jesus spoke Aramaic, the common conversational language of Israel in the first century, and the language is also discovered in a variety of New Testament writings.

In addition, the Aramaic Targums, paraphrases of the Hebrew Scriptures which were read in first century synagogues to help the people understand the meaning of the texts, can give us insight today into how the early Christian believers understood the Messianic content of the Old Testament. For instance, I will present a paper at the upcoming symposium sponsored by Urshan Graduate School of Theology titled, “Aramaic and LXX Influences on Messianic Psalms 80 and 81.” This symposium will convene on the campus of UGST on February 15-16, 2024.

The course of study I have undertaken is available from Zondervan Academic Online Courses. The professor who teaches the course is Miles V. Van Pelt. Van Pelt earned his Ph.D. at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is the Alan Hayes Belcher, Jr. Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages and the director of the Summer Institute for Biblical Languages at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, where he has served for more than twenty years. The course materials include a textbook written by Van Pelt and published by Zondervan Academic, titled Basics of Biblical Aramaic: Complete Grammar, Lexicon, and Annotated Text. This book is now in its second edition. Van Pelt has studied the biblical languages for more than thirty years.

The course lectures are delivered by video. I have found them to be professionally produced. Van Pelt is an expert in his field. His presentations are clear and easy to follow.

At the beginning of the course, students are informed that they will need to have completed at least one year of Biblical Hebrew before embarking on the study of Aramaic. The two languages share the same alphabet and a variety of other linguistic characteristics. Those who have successfully completed the Hebrew will have a good foundation for the study of Aramaic, but if their Hebrew is “rusty,” they will need to take the time to overcome that deficit. The Aramaic course is designed to be completed within one year.

As I begin what I know will be a challenge, I am grateful for the way our Lord has directed my steps up until this time. When five of our professors at Christian Life College enrolled as students in Western Seminary in 1990 to fulfill the requirements to maintain the state approval of the school, four of us enrolled in Hebrew and completed three semesters of the language. At the same time, I arranged for the director of education at a local Jewish synagogue to come to our campus weekly and tutor us in the Hebrew language. This was a great help to us. After graduating from Western with my first master’s degree — the Master of Arts in Exegetical Theology — I took advantage of Western’s policy of allowing graduates to return to the classroom to sit in on classes they had already taken and successfully passed for refreshment in the course content. This second exposure to Hebrew was with a professor who had lived in Israel for twenty years and who was a professional archaeologist.

As time went by, I taught Biblical Hebrew at Christian Life College. In view of the importance of having a solid foundation in Hebrew in order to begin the study of Aramaic, I’m thankful for how God has directed my steps to this moment.

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