Arameans

Aramean relations with Israel go back into the proverbial mists of Israelite prehistory. In 1961 the German scholar Martin Noth argued that Israel's own origins went back to "proto-Arameans" of the Middle Bronze Age (based on supposed references at Mari and biblical texts such as "My father was a wandering Aramean" [Deut. 26:5]). But now it seems that Arameans do not appear on the historical stage this early (Noth's particular thesis was disproven as early as 1964). The earliest Arameans appear on the desert fringe of northern Mesopotamia around 1400 BCE, and more likely the date should be two centuries later. a

After the Hittite Empire disintegrated in about 1200 BCE, Aramean groups swallowed up western Semitic tribes, gained the caravan routes, and formed two zones of Aramean concentration, one along the Khaibur River and another south of the Orontes, around Damascus. More seminomadic Arameans who crossed the Euphrates around 900 BCE conquered remaining Neo-Hittite states and assimilated the culture. b

The Aramaic language has the distinction of being the Semitic language spoken today with the longest continuous written tradition, spanning three millennia. The language of the Iron Age Arameans and of Aramaic passages in the Bible (Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Dan. 2:4-7:28; and a few other verses) belongs to the Old Aramaic stage."

The heartland of the Philistine settlement was the Gaza Strip, but extending about twelve miles farther north than today: Gaza, Gath, Ashkelon. But within a generation or two they had extended their control northward along the coast almost as far as Mount Garmel, and across the Jezreel Valley to Beth Shean.“ They conquered the Ganaanite cities on the coast, built new cities, and dominated those in the Jezreel Valley They prevented the expansion of the Israelites to the north and west. By the end of the lAl period, they probably effectively ruled the Israelites as well. We might note the presence of forty-seven Philistine bichrome sherds at lAl Mizpah—two painted kraters and other body sherds manufactured at Ashdod, but an additional six painted kraters of similar typology, along with more body sherds, made in Benjamin. This

Aramaic, with Canaanite, is a West Semitic language that by 800 BCE became the lingua franca of the Middle East. Examples of the geographic distribution of Aramaic documents in the late eighth century range from the Bukan Stela at ancient Mannea in northwestern Irand to the Adon Papyrus from Egypt. e There is even a one-line Aramaic inscription on a seventh-century Olympian bowl from Greece. f From the sixth century BCE, the Aramaic script replaced the Old Hebrew script for writing Hebrew itself. g

A.  K. Lawson Younger Jr., "The Late Bronze/Iron Age Transition and the Origins of the Arameans," in Ugarit at Seventy-Five: Proceedings of the Symposium "Ugarit at Seventy-Five," Held at Trinity International University Deerfield, Illinois, February 18-20, 2005, under the Auspices of the Middle Western Branch of the American Oriental Society and the Mid-West Region of the Society of the Biblical Literature (ed. K. Lawson Younger Jr.; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2007), 133-34.

B.  For detailed history, see Edward Lipihski, The Aramaeans: Their Ancient History Culture, Religion (OLA 100; Leuven: Peeters, 2000).

C.  For discussion, see Otto Jastrow, "Old Aramaic and Neo-Aramaic: Some Reflections on Language History," in Aramaic in Its Historical and Linguistic Setting (ed. Holger Gzella and Margaretha L. Folmer; VOK 50; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2008), 1-10.

D.  Ingo Kottsieper, "Eine altaramaische Inschrift aus Bukan," in Staatsvertrage, Herrscherinschriften und andere Documente zurpolitischen Geschichte (vol. 2 of Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testaments; ed. Michael Lichtenstein; Gutersloh: Mohn, 2005), 312-13.

E.  Dirk Schwiderski, ed., Texte und Bibliographie (vol. 2 of Die alt - und reicharamaischen Inschriften [= The Old and Imperial Aramaic Inscriptions]; FSBP 4; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2004), 2.1.

F.  Ibid., 336.

G.  Klaus Beyer, The Aramaic Language: Its Distribution and Subdivisions (trans. John F. Healy; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986), 10.