Christian Palestinian Aramaic was a Western Aramaic dialect used by the Melkite Christian community, predominantly of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

descent, in

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

Transjordan Transjordan may refer to: * Transjordan (region), an area to the east of the Jordan River * Oultrejordain, a Crusader lordship (1118–1187), also called Transjordan * Emirate of Transjordan, British protectorate (1921–1946) * Hashemite Kingdom o ...

and Sinai between the fifth and thirteenth centuries. It is preserved in

inscription Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

s (mostly

palimpsest In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off in preparation for reuse in the form of another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid ski ...

s, less

papyri Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can ...

in the first period) and

amulet An amulet, also known as a good luck charm or phylactery, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word , which Pliny's ''Natural History'' describes as "an object that protects a perso ...

s. All the medieval Western Aramaic dialects are defined by religious community. CPA is closely related to its counterparts,

Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Jewish Palestinian Aramaic also known as Jewish Western Aramaic was a Western Aramaic language spoken by the Jews during the Classic Era in Judea and the Levant, specifically in Hasmonean, Herodian and Roman Judaea and adjacent lands in the ...

(JPA) and

Samaritan Aramaic Samaritan Aramaic was the dialect of Aramaic used by the Samaritans in their sacred and scholarly literature. This should not be confused with Samaritan Hebrew, the language of the Samaritan Pentateuch. Samaritan Aramaic ceased to be a spoke ...

(SA).Christa Müller-Kessler, ''Grammatik des Christlich-Palästinisch-Aramäischen. Teil 1: Schriftlehre, Lautlehre, Morphologie'' (Texte und Studien zur Orientalistik 6; Hildesheim, 1991), p. 6.

Matthew Morgenstern Matthew Morgenstern, also known as Moshe Morgenstern (; born 1968 in London, United Kingdom), is an Israeli linguist and religious studies scholar known for his work on Eastern Aramaic languages, especially Mandaic. He is currently Full Professor ...

"Christian Palestinian Aramaic"
in Stefan Weninger (ed.), ''The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook'' (De Gruyter Mouton, 2011), pp. 628–37. Friedrich Schulthess, ''Grammatik des christlich-palästinischen-Aramäisch'' (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1924), pp. 1–2. CPA shows a specific vocabulary that is often not paralleled in the adjacent Western Aramaic dialects.

Name

No source gives CPA a name as a distinct dialect or language; all such names are modern scholarly suggestions. Names like "Palestinian Syriac" and "Syro-Palestinian Aramaic" based on the modified Esṭrangēlā script. Additionally, in later

Rabbinic literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire corpus of works authored by rabbis throughout Jewish history. The term typically refers to literature from the Talmudic era (70–640 CE), as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic ...

, Aramaic was recognized as Syriac. Egeria, in the account of her pilgrimage to Palestine at the end of the 4th century, refers to Syriac, which was probably what is now Christian Palestinian Aramaic. The term ''syrica Hierosolymitana'' was introduced by

Johann David Michaelis Johann David Michaelis (27 February 1717 – 22 August 1791) was a German biblical scholar and teacher. He was member of a family that was committed to solid discipline in Hebrew and the cognate languages, which distinguished the University of ...

based on the appearance of the Arabic name of Jerusalem, ''al-Quds'', in the colophon of a Gospel lectionary of 1030 AD (today Vat. sir. 19). It was also used in the first edition by Miniscalchi Erizzo. The terms "Christian Palestinian Aramaic" and "Melkite Aramaic" and refers to the Christian group in Palestine deploying this dialect for their written sources.

History

CPA is preserved in inscriptions, manuscripts, mostly

s in the early period, and amulets. The history of CPA writing can be divided into three periods: early (5th–7th/8th centuries), middle (8th–9th) and late (10th–13th). The existence of a middle period has only recently been suggested.Christa Müller-Kessler, "Christian Palestinian Aramaic and Its Significance to the Western Aramaic Dialect Group" (review article), ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' 119, 4 (1999), pp. 631–636. Only inscriptions, fragmentary manuscripts and the underwriting of palimpsests survive from the early period. Of the inscriptions, only one can be dated with any precision. The fragments are both

Biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

and

Patristic Patristics, also known as Patrology, is a branch of theological studies focused on the writings and teachings of the Church Fathers, between the 1st to 8th centuries CE. Scholars analyze texts from both orthodox and heretical authors. Patristics em ...

. The oldest complete (non-fragmentary) manuscript dates to 1030. All the complete manuscripts are

liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

in nature. Sebastian P. Brock
"Christian Palestinian Aramaic"
in Sebastian P. Brock, Aaron M. Butts, George A. Kiraz and Lucas Van Rompay (eds.), ''Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition'' (Gorgias Press, 2011

rint C mathematical operations are a group of functions in the standard library of the C programming language implementing basic mathematical functions. Different C standards provide different, albeit backwards-compatible, sets of functions. Most of t ...

Beth Mardutho, 2018 nline. CPA declined as a spoken language because of

persecution Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...

and gradual

Arabization Arabization or Arabicization () is a sociology, sociological process of cultural change in which a non-Arab society becomes Arabs, Arab, meaning it either directly adopts or becomes strongly influenced by the Arabic, Arabic language, Arab cultu ...

following the

early Muslim conquests The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests (), also known as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the founder of Islam. He established the first Islamic state in Medina, Arabian Peninsula, Arabia that ...

. From the tenth century onwards it was mainly a liturgical language in the Melkite churches; the Melkite community mostly spoke

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. Even as a written language, it went extinct around the fourteenth century and was only identified or rediscovered as a distinct variety of Aramaic in the nineteenth century.

Corpus

The only surviving original texts in CPA are inscriptions in mosaics and rock caves (

lavra A lavra or laura (; Cyrillic: Ла́вра) is a type of monastery consisting of a cluster of cells or caves for hermits, with a church and sometimes a refectory at the center. Lavra monasteries operate within the Orthodox and other Eastern Chri ...

s),

Émile Puech Émile Puech (born 9 May 1941, at Cazelles de Sébrazac, Estaing, Aveyron, France) is a French Catholic priest, epigrapher and editor in chief of ''Manuscrits de la mer Morte.'' He is a government employed director of research at Paris' Centre na ...

, "Notes d’épigraphie christo-palestinniene de Jordanie", in C. Dauphin and B. Harmaneh (eds.), ''In Memoriam Fr. Michele Piccirillo, OFM (1944–2008)'' (BAR International Series 248; Oxford, 2011), pp. 75–94, figs. 205–236.Jean-Baptiste Humbert and Alain Desreumaux, ''Khirbet es-samra I Jordanie'' (Bibliothèque de l'anquité tardive; Turnhout, 1998), pp. 435–521 (script samples). magical silver amulets and a single short magical booklet. All other surviving manuscript compositions are translations of

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

originals. Many of the palimpsests come from

Saint Catherine's Monastery Saint Catherine's Monastery ( , ), officially the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Catherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, is a Christian monastery located in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. Located at the foot of Mount Sinai ...

in the

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai ( ; ; ; ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and Afri ...

(e.g., the ''

Codex Climaci Rescriptus Codex Climaci Rescriptus is a collective palimpsest manuscript consisting of several individual manuscripts underneath, Christian Palestinian Aramaic texts of the Old and New Testament as well as two apocryphal texts, including the Dormition of t ...

''), but some also from

Mar Saba The Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas, known in Arabic and Syriac as Mar Saba (; ; ; ) and historically as the Great Laura of Saint Sabas, is a Greek Orthodox monastery overlooking the Kidron Valley in the Bethlehem Governorate of Palestine, in th ...

(e.g., part of the ''

Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus, mostly originating in Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, is a collection of nineteen Christian Palestinian Aramaic palimpsest manuscripts containing Old Testament, Gospel and Epistles pericopes of diverse Lectionaries ...

''), the

Cairo Genizah The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled the Cairo Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the '' genizah'' or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Ol ...

and the

Umayyad Mosque The Umayyad Mosque (; ), also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus, located in the old city of Damascus, the capital of Syria, is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world. Its religious importance stems from the eschatological reports ...

in Damascus. They often transmit rare texts lost in the Greek transmission (e.g. the ''

Transitus Mariae The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it on 1 November 1950 in his apostolic constitution as follows: It leaves open the question of whether Mary died or whether she was ra ...

''; the hitherto unknown martyrdom of Patriklos of Caesarea, one of the eleven followers of

Pamphilus of Caesarea Saint Pamphilus (; latter half of the 3rd century – February 16, 309 AD), was a priest of Caesarea and chief among the biblical scholars of his generation. He was the friend and teacher of Eusebius of Caesarea, who recorded details of his ...

; and a missing quire of Codex Climaci Rescriptus), or offer valuable readings for the textual criticism of the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

. Inscriptions have been found in Palestine at ʿEn Suweinit, near ʿAbūd, at ʿUmm er-Rūs, in the Church of Saint Anne in Jerusalem, in the vicinity of

Hippos A hippo or hippopotamus is either of two species of large African mammal which live mainly in and near water: * Hippopotamus * Pygmy hippopotamus Hippo or Hippos may also refer to: Toponymy * The ancient city of Hippo Regius (modern Annaba, Alg ...

at Uyun el-Umm in

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

, and at Khirbet Qastra near

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

. In the

, inscriptions have been found on

Mount Nebo Mount Nebo (; ) is an elevated ridge located in Jordan, approximately Height above sea level, above sea level. Part of the Abarim mountain range, Mount Nebo is mentioned in the Bible as the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised L ...

(''ʿAyūn Mūsa''), in the vicinity of

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

(''Khayyān el-Mushrif'') and on tombstones in Khirbet es-Samra. The manuscripts include a short letter on

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can a ...

from Khibert Mird and at least one wooden board.M.-H. Rutschowscaya and A. Desreumaux, "Une peinture copte sur un bois inscrit en araméen christo-paestinien au Musée du Louvre," ''Compte rendue de séances l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres'' 1992, pp. 83–92. The

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...

manuscript fragments are Biblical (mostly in the form of

lectionaries A lectionary () is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Jewish worship on a given day or occasion. There are sub-types such as a "gospel lectionary" or evangeliary, and an epistolary wit ...

), Patristic, theological (e.g. the catecheses by

Cyril of Jerusalem Cyril of Jerusalem (, ''Kýrillos A Ierosolýmon''; ; 386) was a theologian of the Early Church. About the end of AD 350, he succeeded Maximus as Bishop of Jerusalem, but was exiled on more than one occasion due to the enmity of Acacius of ...

and homilies by

John Chrysostom John Chrysostom (; ; – 14 September 407) was an important Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and p ...

hagiographic A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an wiktionary:adulatory, adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religi ...

(mostly martyrs' lives) or

apocrypha Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to ...

l (e.g., the ''Transitus Mariae''). There are only three dated manuscripts, the Gospel lectionaries of 1030, 1104, and 1118.

Features

CPA can be distinguished from JPA and SA by the lack of direct influence from

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and new Hebrew loanwords, its Hebrew loanwords being retained from an earlier symbiosis of Hebrew and Aramaic.Christa Müller-Kessler, ''Grammatik des Christlich-Palästinisch-Aramäischen. Teil 1: Schriftlehre, Lautlehre, Morphologie'' (Texte und Studien zur Orientalistik 6; Hildesheim, 1991), p. 8. It is also distinguished by the presence of Greek syntax (by partial retention in translation). Also, unlike JPA and SA, CPA is attested only in primary texts (mostly in palimpsests). There was no transmission of manuscripts after the language itself went out use as liturgical language. In comparison with its counterparts, therefore, the CPA corpus represents an older, more intact example of Western Aramaic from when the dialects were still living, spoken languages.

Editions of texts

Manuscripts

* Jan P. N. Land, ''Anecdota Syriaca'' IV (Leiden, 1875), pp. 177–233 atin pp. 103–224 yropalestinian pls. I–VI. * James Rendall Harris, ''Biblical Fragments from Mount Sinai'' (Cambridge, 1890), pp. 65–68. * Paul de Lagarde, ''Evangeliarum Hierosolymitanum'' (Bibliothecae syriacae; Göttingen, 1892), pp. 257–402. * George H. Gwilliam, ''The Palestinian Version of the Holy Scriptures'' (Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic Series Vol. I Part V; Oxford, 1893). * George H. Gwilliam, Francis Crawford Burkitt, John F. Stenning, ''Biblical and Patristic Relics of the Palestinian Syriac Literature'', (Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic Series Vol. I, Part IX; Oxford, 1896). * G. Margoliouth, The Liturgy of the Nile, ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'' 1896, pp. 677–727, pls. I–II. * Agnes S. Lewis and Margaret D. Gibson, ''The Palestinian Syriac Lectionary of the Gospels'' (London, 1899). * Agnes S. Lewis and Margaret D. Gibson, ''Palestinian Syriac Texts from Palimpsest Fragments in the Taylor-Schechter Collection'' (London, 1900). * Agnes S. Lewis and Margaret D. Gibson, ''An Appendix of Palestinian Syriac Texts'' (Studia Sinaitica XI; London, 1902), pp. XXVIII–XXIX, XLVII. * Friedrich Schulthess, , ' 56, 1902, pp. 249–261. * Friedrich Schulthess, ' (Berlin, 1905). * Pavel K. Kokowzoff, ' (St. Petersburg, 1906). * Hugo Duensing, ' (Göttingen, 1906). * Agnes S. Lewis
''A Palestinian Syriac Lectionary: Containing Lessons from the Pentateuch, Job, Proverbs, Prophets, Acts, and Epistles''
(Cambridge, 1897). * Agnes S. Lewis, ''Supplement to a Palestinian Syriac Lectionary'' (Cambridge, 1907). * Agnes S. Lewis, ''Codex Climaci Rescriptus'' (Horae Semiticae VIII; Cambridge, 1909). * Agnes S. Lewis, ''The Forty Martyrs of the Sinai Desert and the Story of Eulogios'' (Horae Semiticae IX; Cambridge, 1912). * Matthew Black, ''Rituale Melchitarum. A Christian Palestinian Euchologion'' (Stuttgart, 1938). * Matthew Black, "A Palestinian Syriac Palimpsest Leaf of Acts XXI (14–26)," ''Bulletin of the John Rylands Library'' 23, 1939, pp. 201–214, pls. 1–2. * N. Pigoulewski, "Fragments syro-palestiniens des Psaumes CXXIII–IV," ''Revue Bibilque'' 43 (1934), pp. 519–527, pl. XXX. * Hugo Duensing, ', NAWG, phil.-hist. Kl. 9 (Göttingen, 1944). * Matthew Black, ''A Christian Palestinian Syriac Horologion'' (Texts and Studies N.S. 1; Cambridge, 1954). * Hugo Duensing, ', NAWG, phil.-hist. Kl. 5 (Göttingen, 1955). * Charles Perrot, "," ''Revue Biblique'' 70, 1963, pp. 506–555, pls. XVIII–XXIX. * Moshe Goshen-Gottstein with the Assistance by H. Shirun (ed.), ''The Bible in the Syropalestinian Version. Part I. Pentateuch and Prophets'' (Publications of the Hebrew University Bible Project Monograph Series; Jerusalem, 1973). * Christa Müller-Kessler and Michael Sokoloff, ''The Christian Palestinian Aramaic Old Testament and Apocrypha'' (Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic I; Groningen, 1997). * Maurice Baillet, "," ''Le Muséon'' 76, 1963, pp. 375–401. * Sebastian P. Brock, A Fragment of the Acta Pilati in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, ''Journal of Theological Studies N.S.'' 22, 1971, pp. 157–158. * Sebastian P. Brock, Catalogue of the New Finds (Athens, 1995). * Alain Desreumaux, ''Codex sinaiticus Zosimi rescriptus'' (; Lausanne, 1997). * Alain Desreumaux, "," ''Oriens Christianus'' 86, 1996, pp. 82–97. * Christa Müller-Kessler and Michael Sokoloff, The Christian Palestinian Aramaic New Testament Version from the Early Period. Gospels (Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic IIA; Groningen, 1998). * Christa Müller-Kessler and Michael Sokoloff, The Christian Palestinian Aramaic New Testament Version from the Early Period. Acts of the Apostles and Epistles (Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic IIB; Groningen, 1998). * Sebastian P. Brock, Fragments of PS-John Chrysostom, Homily on the Prodigal Son, in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, ''Le Muséon'' 112, 1999, pp. 335–362. * Christa Müller-Kessler and Michael Sokoloff, The Catechism of Cyril of Jerusalem in the Christian Palestinian Aramaic Version (A Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic V; Groningen, 1999). * Christa Müller-Kessler, Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus. A Collection of Christian Palestinian Aramaic Manuscripts, ''Le Muséon'' 127, 2014, pp. 263–309. * Alin Suciu, "An Addition to Christian Palestinian Aramaic Literary Corpus: Logos XV of Abba Isaiah of Scetis," ''Journal of Semitic Studies'' 61, 2016, pp. 449–461. * Christa Müller-Kessler, "Three Early Witnesses of the «Dormition of Mary» in Christian Palestinian Aramaic: Palimpsests from the Cairo Genizah (Taylor-Schechter Collection) and the New Finds in St Catherine's Monastery," ''Apocrypha'' 29 (2018), pp. 69–95. * Laurent Capron, , ''Semitica'' 61, 2019, 117–127. * Christa Müller-Kessler, "An Overlooked Christian Palestinian Aramaic Witness of the Dormition of Mary in Codex Climaci Rescriptus (CCR IV)," ''Collectanea Christiana Orientalia'' 16, 2019, pp. 81–98. * C. Müller-Kessler, "The Unknown Martyrdom of Patriklos of Caesarea in Christian Palestinian Aramaic from St Catherine's Monastery (Sinai, Arabic NF 66)," ''Analecta Bollandiana'' 137, 2019, pp. 63–71.

Inscriptions

* M. Halloun and R. Rubin, "Palestinian Syriac Inscription from ‘En Suweinit," ''Liber Annuus'' 31, 1981, pp. 291–298, pls. 59–62.