TDOT - A Brief History

THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE

OLD TESTAMENT EDITED BY

G. JOHANNES BOTTERWECK, HELMER RINGGREN, and HEINZ-JOSEF FABRY

VOLUME XVI ARAMAIC DICTIONARY EDITED BY

HOLGER GZELLA Translated by

MARK E. BIDDLE

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Grand Rapids, Michigan

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 4035 Park East Court, SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 www.eerdmans.com Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament Volume 16: Aramaic Dictionary Translated from Theologisches Wörterbuch zum alten Testament Band IX, Aramäisches Wörterbuch Published 2016 by Verlag W. Kohlhammer GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany English translation © 2018 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Volume 16 ISBN 978-0-8028-7281-4

CONSULTING EDITOR Holger Gzella, Leiden

PRIMARY CONTRIBUTORS †K. Beyer, Heidelberg S. Fassberg, Jerusalem †D. N. Freedman, San Diego A. Gianto, SJ, Rome I. Gluska, Ramat Gan V. Hug, Heidelberg †M. Z. Kaddari, Ramat Gan E. A. Knauf, Bern I. Kottsieper, Göttingen R. G. Kratz, Göttingen R. J. Kuty, Liège R. G. Lehmann, Mainz E. Lipiński, Louvain

C. Martone, Torino †H.-P. Müller, Münster G. W. Nebe, Heidelberg H.-D. Neef, Tübingen H. Niehr, Tübingen W. van Peursen, Amsterdam D. Schwemer, Würzburg D. Schwiderski, Heidelberg C. Stadel, Beersheba A. Steudel, Göttingen E. J. C. Tigchelaar, Louvain M. Waltisberg, Marburg H. G. M. Williamson, Oxford

Editor’s Preface This volume completes the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT) after almost a half century. This final volume situates the vocabulary of the Aramaic sections of Ezra and Daniel in the context of its linguistic and cultural history and, thereby, frees Biblical Aramaic from its role as an appendix to the Hebrew Bible. Instead, it appears as what it is: part of an overarching literary tradition that spread in the course of the first millennium b.c.e. from Syria to Mesopotamia, Palestine, Egypt, Arabia, Anatolia, and even to Central Asia and, in various local forms, survived in literature, administration, and daily communication on into late antiquity. Even more than Hebrew, Aramaic attests the incorporation of the Old Testament in its broad cultural framework.

Because of its ambitious objective, the Aramaic dictionary in TDOT has its own history. Klaus Beyer (1929-2014) was enlisted as the first editor in January 1986; he declined, however, for various reasons, including that the state of research at the time could be easily understood as quite unfavorable for such a project. Ingo Kottsieper, responsible for the first fascicle in 2001, announced the volume a mere decade later in the Zeitschrift für Althebraistik 8 (1995), 80f. Yet it proved difficult to find authors who both possessed the necessary philological mastery over all the several dialects, corpora, and academic specialties involved in the widespread Aramaic material through which one could lay open the various connotations and layers of meaning of Biblical Aramaic, and could combine this expertise to answer the exegetical and religio-historical questions that a theological dictionary must address.

After years at a standstill, the enterprise was entrusted to the undersigned. Inititially, the difficulties continued unabated. At the moment of transfer, only a handful of articles, or at least articles in publishable form, for the second fascicle were on hand. Despite every effort, additional acceptances came rarely and did not always lead to submitted manuscripts. Torn between the thankless task and the aversion to quitting, the editor finally brought himself to write all the outstanding articles himself and is, therefore, more present here than one would usually expect. In any case, a broad unity in approach and presentation could be attained in this manner and more recent research could be incorporated directly. Special value was placed on the consideration of advances in the classification of the individual phases of the Aramaic language with their varying interrelationships, both Semitic philology and linguistic analysis, and the many recently discovered sources: the other manuscripts from the Dead Sea, the Clermont-Ganneau ostraca, all the Samaria Papyri, many Neo-Assyrian commercial documents, and the documents from the Bactrian provincial archive.

The changes in editor and approach from the first fascicle led to a few alterations in the format, beginning with the article on ‫( בעי‬bʿī). With no change regarding theological relevance, efforts were made for greater philological depth of field through the examxix

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Editor’s Preface

ination of synonyms, the various nuances of grammatical constructions, and the various registers, and for tighter restriction to the varieties of Aramaic most closely related to Biblical Aramaic in linguistic and cultural terms, but within this framework, a presentation as complete and balanced as possible.

Thus, semantic fields and actual diction of older Aramaic find their first description on a broad basis. At the same time, a few essential transformations in the discipline of Old Testament since the first volumes of TDOT have received attention, especially the greater concentration on the immediate Syro-Palestinian environment of the literary tradition of ancient Israel, its transformation under Achaemenid rule, and its early reception mirrored in the documents from Qumran. In addition, references to the Aramaic of the Hellenistic-Roman period build a bridge to the environment of the New Testament and early Christianity. The selection of material could also be synchronized with the in-progress Theologisches Wörterbuch zu den Qumrantexten (ThWQ), whose editors have always willingly permitted insights into the current state of affairs.

The present English volume has introduced a few bibliographic additions but is other­ wise a straightforward translation of the German original. The German edition of this volume was originally published in seven fascicles. A change in editorship and long time lapse between the first and the remaining fascicles (between the ‫ בנה‬and ‫ בעי‬entries) resulted in some inconsistencies in transcription style, linguistic preferences, and focus of the entries. These inconsistencies remain in the English volume, as it was impossible to remove them all during the translation.

Since no assistant, sabbatical, or other convenience facilitated the work on this book, expressions of gratitude can be omitted. One cannot keep silent, however, about the angelic patience of the publishing house, the authors, and the editor of TDOT, Heinz-Josef Fabry. He and Christian Stadel have also assisted energetically with the correction of the galley proofs and, thus, contributed to a good outcome. The mighty manes of Klaus Beyer patronized the completion through all the contrary circumstances of an ignorant higher education policy. In the end, it has returned to the hands that he once showed many a new skill.

It is easier for the undersigner to dedicate a book to the dead than to the living, for “the ever-silent, ever-pale never promise and never deny.” On this point there must be an exception: The work is cordially dedicated to Georg Müller and Christian Wirz after more than fifteen years of true and deep friendship!

Holger Gzella Leiden, on the Feast of Saint Jerome 2018