No source gives CPA a name as a distinct dialect or language; all such names are modern scholarly suggestions. Names like "Palestinian Syriac" and "Syro-Palestinian Aramaic" based on the modified Esṭrangēlā script.[7] Additionally, in later Rabbinic literature, Aramaic was recognized as Syriac.[8]Egeria, in the account of her pilgrimage to Palestine at the end of the 4th century, refers to Syriac,[9] which was probably what is now Christian Palestinian Aramaic.[10]
The term syrica Hierosolymitana was introduced by Johann David Michaelis based on the appearance of the Arabic name of Jerusalem, al-Quds,[b] in the colophon of a Gospel lectionary of 1030 AD (today Vat. sir. 19).[12] It was also used in the first edition by Miniscalchi Erizzo.[13]
The terms "Christian Palestinian Aramaic" and "Melkite Aramaic"[c] and refers to the Christian group in Palestine deploying this dialect for their written sources.
CPA is preserved in inscriptions, manuscripts, mostly palimpsests in the early period, and amulets. The history of CPA writing can be divided into three periods: early (5th–7th/8th centuries), middle (8th–9th) and late (10th–13th). The existence of a middle period has only recently been suggested.[3]
Only inscriptions, fragmentary manuscripts and the underwriting of palimpsests survive from the early period. Of the inscriptions, only one can be dated with any precision. The fragments are both Biblical and Patristic. The oldest complete (non-fragmentary) manuscript dates to 1030.[14] All the complete manuscripts are liturgical in nature.[15][7]
CPA declined as a spoken language because of persecution and gradual Arabization following the early Muslim conquests. From the tenth century onwards it was mainly a liturgical language in the Melkite churches; the Melkite community mostly spoke Arabic.[1][7] Even as a written language, it went extinct around the fourteenth century and was only identified or rediscovered as a distinct variety of Aramaic in the nineteenth century.[16]
The only surviving original texts in CPA are inscriptions in mosaics and rock caves (lavras),[17][18]magical silver amulets[19][20][21] and a single short magical booklet.[22] All other surviving manuscript compositions are translations of Greek originals.[23]
The manuscripts include a short letter on papyrus from Khibert Mird[40] and at least one wooden board.[41] The parchment manuscript fragments are Biblical (mostly in the form of lectionaries), Patristic, theological (e.g. the catecheses by Cyril of Jerusalem and homilies by John Chrysostom), hagiographic (mostly martyrs' lives) or apocryphal (e.g., the Transitus Mariae). There are only three dated manuscripts, the Gospel lectionaries of 1030, 1104, and 1118.[14]
CPA can be distinguished from JPA and SA by the lack of direct influence from Hebrew and new Hebrew loanwords, its Hebrew loanwords being retained from an earlier symbiosis of Hebrew and Aramaic.[23] It is also distinguished by the presence of Greek syntax (by partial retention in translation).[1] Also, unlike JPA and SA, CPA is attested only in primary texts (mostly in palimpsests). There was no transmission of manuscripts after the language itself went out use as liturgical language. In comparison with its counterparts, therefore, the CPA corpus represents an older, more intact example of Western Aramaic from when the dialects were still living, spoken languages.
Manuscripts
Jan P. N. Land, Anecdota Syriaca IV (Leiden, 1875), pp.177–233 [Latin], pp.103–224 [Syropalestinian], pls. I–VI.
James Rendall Harris, Biblical Fragments from Mount Sinai (Cambridge, 1890), pp.65–68.
Paul de Lagarde, Evangeliarum Hierosolymitanum (Bibliothecae syriacae; Göttingen, 1892), pp.257–402.
George H. Gwilliam, The Palestinian Version of the Holy Scriptures (Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic Series Vol. I Part V; Oxford, 1893).
George H. Gwilliam, Francis Crawford Burkitt, John F. Stenning, Biblical and Patristic Relics of the Palestinian Syriac Literature, (Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic Series Vol. I, Part IX; Oxford, 1896).
G. Margoliouth, The Liturgy of the Nile, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1896, pp.677–727, pls. I–II.
Agnes S. Lewis and Margaret D. Gibson, The Palestinian Syriac Lectionary of the Gospels (London, 1899).
Agnes S. Lewis and Margaret D. Gibson, Palestinian Syriac Texts from Palimpsest Fragments in the Taylor-Schechter Collection (London, 1900).
Agnes S. Lewis and Margaret D. Gibson, An Appendix of Palestinian Syriac Texts (Studia Sinaitica XI; London, 1902), pp.XXVIII–XXIX, XLVII.
Friedrich Schulthess, Christlich-palästinische Fragmente, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 56, 1902, pp.249–261.
Friedrich Schulthess, Christlich-palästinische Fragmente aus der Omajjaden-Moschee zu Damaskus (Berlin, 1905).
Pavel K. Kokowzoff, Nouveaux fragments syropalestiniens de la Bibliothèque Impériale Publique de Saint-Pétersbourg (St. Petersburg, 1906).
Hugo Duensing, Christlich-palästinisch-aramäische Texte und Fragmente (Göttingen, 1906).
Charles Perrot, "Un fragment christo-palestinien découvert à Khirbet Mird," Revue Biblique 70, 1963, pp.506–555, pls. XVIII–XXIX.
Moshe Goshen-Gottstein with the Assistance by H. Shirun (ed.), The Bible in the Syropalestinian Version. Part I. Pentateuch and Prophets (Publications of the Hebrew University Bible Project Monograph Series; Jerusalem, 1973).
Christa Müller-Kessler and Michael Sokoloff, The Christian Palestinian Aramaic Old Testament and Apocrypha (Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic I; Groningen, 1997). ISBN90-5693-007-9
Maurice Baillet, "Un livret magique en christo-palestinien à l’Université de Louvain," Le Muséon 76, 1963, pp.375–401.
Sebastian P. Brock, A Fragment of the Acta Pilati in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Journal of Theological Studies N.S. 22, 1971, pp.157–158.
Sebastian P. Brock, Catalogue of the New Finds (Athens, 1995).
Alain Desreumaux, "Une inscription araméenne melkite sous une peinture copte du musée du Louvre. Le texte araméen melkite," Oriens Christianus 86, 1996, pp.82–97.
Christa Müller-Kessler and Michael Sokoloff, The Christian Palestinian Aramaic New Testament Version from the Early Period. Gospels (Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic IIA; Groningen, 1998). ISBN90-5693-018-4
Christa Müller-Kessler and Michael Sokoloff, The Christian Palestinian Aramaic New Testament Version from the Early Period. Acts of the Apostles and Epistles (Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic IIB; Groningen, 1998). ISBN90-5693-019-2
Sebastian P. Brock, Fragments of PS-John Chrysostom, Homily on the Prodigal Son, in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Le Muséon 112, 1999, pp.335–362.
Christa Müller-Kessler and Michael Sokoloff, The Catechism of Cyril of Jerusalem in the Christian Palestinian Aramaic Version (A Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic V; Groningen, 1999). ISBN90-5693-030-3
Christa Müller-Kessler, Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus. A Collection of Christian Palestinian Aramaic Manuscripts, Le Muséon 127, 2014, pp.263–309.
Alin Suciu, "An Addition to Christian Palestinian Aramaic Literary Corpus: Logos XV of Abba Isaiah of Scetis," Journal of Semitic Studies 61, 2016, pp.449–461.
Christa Müller-Kessler, "Three Early Witnesses of the «Dormition of Mary» in Christian Palestinian Aramaic: Palimpsests from the Cairo Genizah (Taylor-Schechter Collection) and the New Finds in St Catherine's Monastery," Apocrypha 29 (2018), pp. 69–95.
Laurent Capron, Deux fragments d’épittres pauliniennes (1 Thess. et 1 Cor.) en araméen christopalestinien, Semitica 61, 2019, 117–127.
Christa Müller-Kessler, "An Overlooked Christian Palestinian Aramaic Witness of the Dormition of Mary in Codex Climaci Rescriptus (CCR IV)," Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 16, 2019, pp.81–98.
C. Müller-Kessler, "The Unknown Martyrdom of Patriklos of Caesarea in Christian Palestinian Aramaic from St Catherine's Monastery (Sinai, Arabic NF 66)," Analecta Bollandiana 137, 2019, pp.63–71.
Inscriptions
M. Halloun and R. Rubin, "Palestinian Syriac Inscription from ‘En Suweinit," Liber Annuus 31, 1981, pp.291–298, pls. 59–62.
This period may be described as Middle Aramaic or Late Aramaic.[3][4]
This itself was a correction of adquds by the editors Assemani.[11]
Arabic in Context. Brill. 6 June 2017. p.338. ISBN9789004343047. For the Aramaic-speaking Christian communities of Sinai, Palestine or Trans-Jordan, Christian Palestinian Aramaic was the dominant language in local churches; for Syria and Mesopotamia, it was rather Syriac.…
Christa Müller-Kessler, "Christian Palestinian Aramaic and Its Significance to the Western Aramaic Dialect Group" (review article), Journal of the American Oriental Society 119, 4 (1999), pp. 631–636.
Christa Müller-Kessler, Grammatik des Christlich-Palästinisch-Aramäischen. Teil 1: Schriftlehre, Lautlehre, Morphologie (Texte und Studien zur Orientalistik 6; Hildesheim, 1991), p. 6.
Contours in the Text. Bloomsbury Academic. p.64. …Suristi, "Syria", and "Syrian" – the Greek names for Aram, Aramaean or Aramaic. Aramaic was also known as 'Syriac' in later Rabbinic literature…
Sebastian P. Brock, "Christian Palestinian Aramaic", in Sebastian P. Brock, Aaron M. Butts, George A. Kiraz and Lucas Van Rompay (eds.), Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition (Gorgias Press, 2011 [print]; Beth Mardutho, 2018 [online]).
Émile Puech, "Notes d’épigraphie christo-palestinniene de Jordanie", in C. Dauphin and B. Harmaneh (eds.), In Memoriam Fr. Michele Piccirillo, OFM (1944–2008) (BAR International Series 248; Oxford, 2011), pp. 75–94, figs. 205–236.
Jean-Baptiste Humbert and Alain Desreumaux, Khirbet es-samra I Jordanie (Bibliothèque de l'anquité tardive; Turnhout, 1998), pp. 435–521 (script samples).
E. Puech, "Deux amulettes palestiniennes une en grec et une bilingue en grec-christo-palestinien," in H. Gasche and B. Hrouda (eds.), Collectanea orientalia. Histoire, arts de l’espace et industrie de la terre. Etudes offertes en hommage à Agnès Spycket (CPOA 3; Neuchâtel, 1996), pp. 299–310.
Christa Müller-Kessler, Grammatik des Christlich-Palästinisch-Aramäischen. Teil 1: Schriftlehre, Lautlehre, Morphologie (Texte und Studien zur Orientalistik 6; Hildesheim, 1991), p. 8.
Müller-Kessler, Christa (January 2018). "Three Early Witnesses of the "Dormition Of Mary" in Christian Palestinian Aramaic from the Cairo Genizah (Taylor-Schechter Collection) and the New Finds in St Catherine's Monastery". Apocrypha. 29: 69–95. doi:10.1484/J.APOCRA.5.116638.
Müller-Kessler, Christa (18 July 2019). "An Overlooked Christian Palestinian Aramaic Witness of the "Dormition of Mary" in Codex Climaci Rescriptus (CCR IV)". Collectanea Christiana Orientalia. 16: 81–98. doi:10.21071/cco.v16i0.1101. hdl:10396/19203. ISSN2386-7442.
Müller-Kessler, Christa (January 2019). "The Unknown Martyrdom of Patriklos of Caesarea in Christian Palestinian Aramaic From St Catherine's Monastery (Sinai, Arabic NF 66)". Analecta Bollandiana. 137 (1): 63–71. doi:10.1484/J.ABOLL.4.2019024.
Estēe Dvorjetski, Christa Müller-Kessler, Michael Eisenberg, Adam Pažout, Mechael Osband, “Christian Palestinian Aramaic Inscription from the Rural Territory of Sussita-Antiochia Hippos”, ARAM 34, 2022, pp. 138–151
M.-H. Rutschowscaya and A. Desreumaux, "Une peinture copte sur un bois inscrit en araméen christo-paestinien au Musée du Louvre," Compte rendue de séances l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres 1992, pp. 83–92.
Black, Matthew (1941). "The Palestinian Syriac Gospels and the Diatessaron". Oriens Christianus. 36: 101–111.
Brock, Sebastian P. (2012a). "Sinai: A Meeting Point of Georgian with Syriac and Christian Palestinian Aramaic". Caucasus between East and West: Historical and Philological Studies in Honour of Zaza Aleksidze. Tbilisi: National Center of Manuscripts. pp.482–494.
Sebastian P. Brock, "Ktabe mpassqe: Dismembered and Reconstructed Syriac and Christian Palestinian Aramaic Manuscripts: Some Examples, Ancient and Modern", Hugoye, Journal of Syriac Studies 15 (2012), pp.7–20.
Creason, Stuart (2008). "Aramaic"(PDF). The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.108–144.
Philothée du Sinaï, Nouveaux manuscrits syriaques du Sinai (Athens, 2008).
Émile Puech, "Notes d’épigraphie christo-palestinienne de Jordanie", in Memoriam: Fr Michele Piccirillo, ofm (1944–2008) ed. by Claudine Dauphin and Basema Hamarneh, BAR International Series 248 (Oxford, 2011), pp.75–94.
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