Aramaic Idiom and the Son of Man Problem: A Response to Owen and Shepherd

Abstract

Aramaic was a relatively stable language for centuries before and after the time of Jesus. This stable situation has been clarified by the Dead Sea scrolls. The Aramaic scrolls can safely be used to reconstruct sayings of Jesus. However, they do not form a whole language, and there was no firm barrier between the Aramaic of the time of Jesus and later Aramaic, nor between East and West. We must therefore make careful use of later sources too. Aramaic sources from before the time of Jesus provide evidence of the optional use of the emphatic state in generic expressions. This forms the cultural and linguistic context for the idiomatic use of [UNKNOWN][UNKNOWN][UNKNOWN][UNKNOWN][UNKNOWN] in either the emphatic or absolute state, as attested in later sources.