Learn to read Biblical Aramaic
Parts of the Bible aren't in Hebrew at all. About half of the Book of Daniel and several chapters of Ezra are in Aramaic, the shared language of much of the ancient Near East.
Start reading Biblical Aramaic
No account needed. Your first line takes about three minutes.
What Biblical Aramaic is like
Aramaic is a close relative of Hebrew and is written in the same script, so the two look alike on the page, but it is a separate language. If you know some Hebrew, you will have a head start on the vocabulary.
The amount of text is small enough that you can realistically read all of it. That makes Biblical Aramaic an unusual thing: a language whose whole biblical text you can finish.
How Urling teaches it
- You start with a real line from a real text, in your first few minutes.
- Each lesson teaches the words that unlock more of a text you want to read.
- Short exercises rebuild real sentences, and words you miss come back later.
- Grammar comes as short notes when you meet it, not as a wall of tables first.
Famous texts to start with
- The writing on the wall, in AramaicDaniel 5, Belshazzar's feast and Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin, in the original Aramaic, with an English translation, word-by-word glosses and notes.
- Daniel in the lions' den, in AramaicDaniel 6, the story of the lions' den, in the original Aramaic, line by line, with an English translation, word-by-word glosses and notes.
New to the grammar? Read the short guide to Biblical Aramaic grammar.
The letters
It uses the same square script as Hebrew, written from right to left. Urling teaches the letters in a short script course.
Also in the course
The course has 11 texts in all, including:
- Jeremiah 10:11
- Letters to the Persian king (Ezra 4)
- The fiery furnace (Daniel 3)
- Tattenai's letter to Darius (Ezra 5)
- Darius finds the decree of Cyrus (Ezra 6)
- Artaxerxes commissions Ezra (Ezra 7)
- Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Daniel 2)
- The king who became a beast (Daniel 4)
- Four beasts and the Son of Man (Daniel 7)
Start reading Biblical Aramaic
No account needed. Your first line takes about three minutes.