The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

WlLCOX The Aramaic Background of the New Testament 363
particular was that of the ordinary people. Clearly, a proper understanding
both of the history of Jewish society in that period (and of
Jesus and his movement within it), and of the Aramaic evidence,
requires that the two be considered together.
Furthermore, unlike so many other issues in the study of the New
Testament, Aramaisms do permit of objective verification. This point
was put very well by J.A. Fitzmyer in a valuable essay on the
methodology of the subject: the study of the Aramaic problem is 'an
aspect or facet' of New Testament studies 'that exposes itself to outside
control and that can reflect new gains'. 1 Those 'new gains', once
treated and established, can materially affect our understanding of
Jesus' life, thought and work. On occasion they can also throw exciting
new light on the Gospel tradition and on the more shadowy parts
of the history of the primitive Church.
The aim of this paper is first, to examine critically the methodological
basis for the search for Aramaisms in the New Testament and,
secondly, to show how seeing them in relation to the life, thought and
history of first century Jewish society enriches the picture of Jesus and
his earliest followers. Indeed, the philological and historical enquiries
are mutually supportive and correcting. As a bye-product of this discussion
we hope to be able to suggest some revisions of the so-called
criteria of language, coherence and dissimilarity familiar to us from
redaction criticism of the New Testament.
1. The Search for Aramaisms
That Jesus spoke Aramaic is clear from a number of examples of
words attributed to him and preserved in the Gospels in Aramaic but
expressed in Greek characters. We have dealt with these in detail
elsewhere. 2 Probably the most significant of these is the so-called 'Cry
from the Cross', 'Eloi Eloi lema sabachihanei 1 (= 'My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?') (Mk 15.34; cf. Mt. 27.46). 3 As these
1. 'Methodology in the Study of the Aramaic Substratum of Jesus' Sayings in
the New Testament', in Jesus aux origines de la Christologie (BETL 40; Gembloux:
Duculot, 1975), pp. 73-102 (101-102).
2. M. Wilcox, 'Semitisms in the New Testament', ANRW 11.25.1 (ed.
W. Haase; Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1984), pp. 978-1029.
3. Mk 15.34 = Mt. 27.46 = Targ. Ps. 22.1a. See Wilcox, 'Semitisms',
pp. 1004-1007.