Best Aramaic
The Syriac Sinaiticus, also called the Sinaitic Palimpsest, is a manuscript containing an early Syriac translation of the four canonical Gospels. The Gospel text, generally dated to the late 4th or early 5th century, was erased and overwritten with a later religious text, but much of it remains reco...
The Tel Dan Stele is a basalt stone slab bearing an ancient Aramaic inscription dating to the 9th century BC. Discovered in northern Israel, it’s notable for being one of the earliest extra-biblical references to the House of David. The stele provides valuable insight into the political landscape an...
The Elephantine Papyri represent a significant group of ancient papyrus texts dating to the 5th century BCE. These Aramaic inscriptions originate from Elephantine, an Egyptian town inhabited by a Jewish military settlement. They offer invaluable insights into the daily lives, religious beliefs, and...
The Deir Alla inscription is an Iron Age text painted in ink on plaster fragments discovered at Deir Alla in the Jordan Valley. Its surviving passages describe visions and pronouncements associated with Balaam son of Beor, a figure also named in the Hebrew Bible, while presenting him in a distinct l...
Marcus Jastrow was a Prussian-American rabbi and lexicographer who significantly influenced Jewish scholarship in the United States. After immigrating to America, he served as a rabbi in Philadelphia while dedicating years to compiling his magnum opus. His comprehensive 1903 dictionary of the Targum...
Nathan ben Jehiel was a Jewish scholar and lexicographer active in medieval Rome. He compiled the Arukh, a dictionary of difficult words and expressions found in the Talmud, Midrash, and related rabbinic literature, completing it around 1101. Drawing on Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Persian, Latin, and ot...
Found in the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria, these bilingual Aramaic and Greek texts document the extensive trade networks of the Palmyrene Empire.
The Zakkur Stele is a royal basalt inscription composed in Aramaic and associated with Zakkur, king of Hamath and Lu'ash in ancient Syria. Generally dated to the late ninth or early eighth century BCE, it recounts how a coalition of neighboring kings besieged Zakkur and how he credited the god Baals...
Carved on a basalt stele in ancient Sam'al in Turkey, this Aramaic text commemorates the 8th-century BCE official Kuttamuwa and mentions the soul separate from the body.
These Aramaic texts from the ancient city of Hatra in modern-day Iraq provide valuable insight into the religious and political life of this Parthian vassal state.
