Classical Syriac for Hebraists

by Takamitsu Muraoka

Classical Syriac for Hebraists is intended for people who already have a basic knowledge of Biblical Hebrew and want to study Syriac, an important ancient Semitic language, a dialect of Aramaic. Syriac is the official language of the Syriac-speaking churches and has a vast amount of literature representing diverse areas of human ancient translations of the Bible and related early documents, biblical commentaries, theological treatises, ecclesiastical histories, legends about saints, scientific texts covering philosophy, natural sciences, grammar, translations from Greek documents and many others. With previous knowledge of Hebrew assumed and related phenomenon in Hebrew frequently mentioned, the student can be expected to acquire reading knowledge of Syriac with reasonable ease and speed. The chrestomathy presents a selection of eleven documents including not only passages of the Bible, but also biblical commentaries and theological discussions, humorous fables and a grammatical treatise, all original Syriac compositions. The texts are fully or partly vocalised, provided with grammatical annotations with constant cross referencing to the appropriate sections of the grammar. A glossary to facilitate studying of these texts is appended.

131 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Language and Literature, Israelite Antiquities, and Ugaritic at the State University of Leiden, The Netherlands. His past publications deal with the Hebrew/Aramaic/Syriac linguistics and the ancient versions of the Old Testament.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good concise grammar of Syriac for the first section followed by a Chrestomathy in the second part with biblical texts and classical Syriac texts from patriotic sources. A useful introduction for Syriac studies that has a useful chrestomathy to train your Syriac with actual texts. The vocabulary in the Chrestomathy is contained in the footnotes and glossary.