Revised: 23-Aug-2015
Aramaic and Hebrew are sisters, both were Semitic languages that existed in close proximity in the time of Jesus in the lands at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Aramaic was as similar to Hebrew as Swedish is to Norwegian, or Portuguese is to Spanish.
Aramaic and Hebrew shared much of their vocabulary, and despite the fact that idioms are usually unique to each language, first-century Hebrew had many idioms in common with Aramaic. Aramaic speakers freely borrowed vocabulary from the Hebrew language, and Hebrew speakers likewise freely borrowed words from the Aramaic language. Abba, for instance, is an Aramaic word, but it is also a bona fide Hebrew word, used frequently by native Hebrew speakers of Jesus’ day.
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For the transliteration system used in this series, click here.
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