Qumran Aramaic, Corpus Linguistics, and Aramaic Retroversion

Full title
Qumran Aramaic, Corpus Linguistics, and Aramaic Retroversion
Updated By
Research notes

NR\Reader Checked\17/12/2014

Reference type
Author(s)
Cook, Edward M.
Year
2014
Journal / Book Title || Series Title
Dead Sea Discoveries
Volume
21
Issue / Series Volume
3
Abbreviated Series Name
DSD
Publisher
Brill
Pages
356-384
Work type
Label
12/01/2015
Abstract

The Aramaic of Qumran is sometimes claimed to be the best or only Aramaic dialect to use for understanding the Aramaic background of the New Testament. In fact, although it has its uses, the corpus of Qumran Aramaic is very small, and it is not a sufficient source on its own for the purposes of back-translating portions of the New Testament into “authentic” first-century c.e. Palestinian Aramaic. A consideration of the difficulties of retroversion when the translation technique of the Greek writer is unknown, combined with inadequate control of Aramaic among retroverters, suggests that largescale Aramaic retroversion of New Testament passages has no chance of reconstructing the original Aramaic of the Gospels.