Aramaic square script: Difference between revisions

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*{{cite book|chapter=Giants, Book of the|first=John C.|last=Reeves|year=2000|editor=Lawrence H. Schiffman & James C. VanderKam|title=Encyclopaedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Volume 1)|publisher=Oxford University Press, 2000 |pages=309–311|url=https://www.academia.edu/4676469/Giants_Book_of_the}}

*{{cite book|chapter=Giants, Book of the|first=John C.|last=Reeves|year=2000|editor=Lawrence H. Schiffman & James C. VanderKam|title=Encyclopaedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Volume 1)|publisher=Oxford University Press, 2000 |pages=309–311|url=https://www.academia.edu/4676469/Giants_Book_of_the}}

*{{cite journal|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/text/34/1/article-p1_1.xml?language=en&srsltid=AfmBOoqnlg37qFvLiEjAkiBnZORw5zpK-Yz5vjg6FKlVGvNTaPjtLW14|last=Tov|first=Emmanuel|year=2025|title=Scribal Habits of the Aramaic Qumran Texts|journal=Textus|volume=34|issue=1|pages=1–14}}

*{{cite journal|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/text/34/1/article-p1_1.xml?language=en&srsltid=AfmBOoqnlg37qFvLiEjAkiBnZORw5zpK-Yz5vjg6FKlVGvNTaPjtLW14|last=Tov|first=Emmanuel|year=2025|title=Scribal Habits of the Aramaic Qumran Texts|journal=Textus|volume=34|issue=1|pages=1–14}}

*{{cite journal|RECONSIDERING PALAEOGRAPHIC AND RADIOCARBON DATING OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS|first=Rick|last=Van De Water|journal=Revue de Qumrân|volume=19|issue=3 (75)|date=June 2000|page=423-439|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24663113}}

*{{cite journal|RECONSIDERING PALAEOGRAPHIC AND RADIOCARBON DATING OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS|first=Rick|last=Van De Water|journal=Revue de Qumrân|volume=19|issue=3 (75)|date=June 2000|page=423-439|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24663113}}

[[Category:Abjad writing systems]]

[[Category:Abjad writing systems]]

Page from a Hebrew Bible with Onkelos (Aramaic language translation), Hebrew language on the left, Aramaic on the right

Aramaic square script is the 22-letter consonantal alphabet and script that developed to write the Aramaic language beginning in the 5th BC. The earliest Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls dating to the mid-third century BC are written using Aramaic square script.[1] It is this script that was adopted to write Late Biblical Hebrew, and thus called Ktav Ashuri by Jewish scribes, and it is nearly identical in form to the Hebrew alphabet script used for Modern Hebrew.

The Neo-Assyrian empire had adopted use of the Aramaic language and script (at the time a derivative of the Phoenician alphabet script) alongside their native Akkadian language after conquering the Aramaean city-states and kingdoms in the 9th and 8th centuries BC.[2] Imperial Aramaic became the language of administration during the period of Achaemenid (Persian) rule over Palestine (6th – 4th centuries BC) and the wider region, as they inherited the Aramaic language used by the administrative bodies of the Neo-Assyrian empire. Aramaic had also become a common spoken language among the people of Syria-Palaestina, persisting under Roman rule.[1] Under Persian rule, the written Aramaic language transitioned from using the Phoenician alphabet script to developing and using a highly standardized Aramaic square script sometime between the 5th and 4th centuries BC.[3]

Son of God manuscript, one of the Qumran scrolls written in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic using square script

At the time of the writing of the Hebrew Bible, Jewish authors of the text used Hebrew primarily as a liturgical and literary language, which had up to then been written using the Phoenician alphabet script (also known as Paleo-Hebrew). Sacred texts written in Hebrew needed to be translated into Aramaic to be understood and were known as targumim (singular: targum).[4][better source needed] Imperial Aramaic (or Biblical Aramaic) square script also came to be adopted as the new alphabet for writing Biblical Hebrew,[1][3] likely in the Babylonian exile where Aramaic was also the language of daily life.[5]

Aramaic alphabet scripts charted at top, Samaritan alphabet at bottom
Western Neo-Aramaic Square alphabet chart with its Arabic alphabet letter equivalents
“Damascus”, the capital of Syria written in Western neo-Aramaic square script at top, followed by the names of Syrian towns that continue to speak and write Western neo-Aramaic dialects: Maaloula, Al-Sarkha (Bakhah), and Jubb’adin

This new script for writing Hebrew was called “Jewish square script” or k’tav ashuri (“Assyrian script”) by the Jewish scribes who used it, and the old Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew script Ktav ‘Ivri.[6] This particular “square” variant of Aramaic used by Jewish scribes eventually developed into the Hebrew alphabet proper during the Second Temple period, in a process that was not complete before the 1st century CE; for example, the letter samekh developed its closed or circular form only in the middle Hasmonean period, around 100 BCE, and this variant becomes the standard form in early Herodian hands, in the 1st century CE.[7]
Only the Samaritans in Palestine continued using a form of Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew for their written language.[6]

Study of the early development of the square Aramaic script, and its Hebrew counterpart, is important to categorizing, analyzing and dating the many thousands of Aramaic and Hebrew inscriptions made in the Middle Aramaic period, including those of the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, as William Albright notes: “…there has been only one systematic
study of the early development of the square Aramaic and Hebrew script
published since the discovery of the Nash Papyrus, followed by the Edfu Papyri and many graffiti, dipinti, and lapidary inscriptions in Palestine and Egypt — and this is my own…”[8]

While most of the Hebrew Bible was written in Hebrew, there are hundreds of verses that were composed in Biblical Aramaic. The first six chapters of the Book of Daniel, for example, are written mostly in Biblical Aramaic while chapters 7–12 are written mainly in Late Biblical Hebrew.

Aramaic was the common spoken language in Roman Palestine at the time of Jesus.[1] Among the Dead sea scrolls discovered in the caves of Qumran were many manuscripts and fragments written in Aramaic using the square script, such as the Son of God and the Book of Giants.[10][11] Discovery of the Aramaic square script fragments for the Book of Giants with the names of Gilgamesh and Hombabish, “attests to the vitality of Mesopotamian literary traditions among literate circles of the ancient Near East, probably transmitted via Aramaic versions.”[12]

One Aramaic manuscript found in Qumran (4Q243) uses the square script throughout with one exception: the name El(ohim), which is written using Paleo-Hebrew characters. In contrast, another manuscript in the square script (4Q244) twice uses it to record Elohim (‮אלוהין‬‎).[13]

The Aramaic square script was used to inscribe incantation bowls which are written in an Aramaic koine language with in some cases a Mandaic context and prototype.[14][15]

Other square scripts and cursive counterparts

[edit]

One of the alphabets for writing Western neo-Aramaic that is still spoken and written in Maaloula, Al-Sarkha (Bakhah) and Jubb’adin in Syria, uses Aramaic square script and is called Maalouli square script.[16]

Several other alphabets were born out of Imperial Aramaic that resemble the Aramaic square script, yet exhibit differences in the letter shapes tending towards being more rounded or cursive. Among these are Hatran Aramaic, Palmyrene Aramaic and Nabataean Aramaic.[2]

  1. ^ a b c d Newson et al., 2018, p. 2247.
  2. ^ a b Byrne, 2005.
  3. ^ a b Mansoor, 1978, p. 26.
  4. ^ Moyer, Clinton J. (2025-04-07). “What Is Aramaic?: Exploring the rich legacy of a biblical language”. Biblical Archaeology Society.
  5. ^ Mitchell, 1998, p. 32.
  6. ^ a b Berlin and Brettler, 2004, p. 2063.
  7. ^ Frank Moore Cross, Leaves from an Epigrapher’s Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (2018), p. 30 Archived 2023-09-03 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ^ Van der Water, 2000, p. 434.
  9. ^ “Enoch, Book of Giants”. The Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. Retrieved 2026-01-03.
  10. ^ Meyer, 2022.
  11. ^ Reeves, 2000.
  12. ^ Tov, 2025.
  13. ^ Kessler, 2012.
  14. ^ Harviainen, Tapani (1981-02-01). “An Aramaic Incantation Bowl from Borsippa. Another specimen of Eastern Aramaic “koiné”. Appendix: A Cryptographic bowl text or an original fake?”. Studia Orientalia. 51: 28 p.–28 p. ISSN 2323-5209.
  15. ^ “الأبجدية المربعة | PDF”.

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