A Dictionary of Judean Aramaic.

• Author: Kaufman, Stephen A.
• Position: Book Review

A Dictionary of Judean Aramaic. By MICHAEL SOKOLOFF. Ramat-Gan: BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2003. Pp. 88.

This short volume reviews the attested vocabulary of the non-literary (i.e., excluding Qumran Aramaic) Judean Aramaic texts "between the Maccabean Period and the Tannaitic Period (ca. 165 B.C.E.-200 C.E.)." As such it includes material from inscriptions (mostly from ossuaries--the "James" ossuary being a noteworthy exclusion!) and "Dead Sea" area documents, i.e., from such places as Muraba'at the Nahal Hever. Much of the latter material is only now handily available in the work of Ada Yardeni (A Textbook of Aramaic, Hebrew and Nabataean Documentary Texts from the Judaean Desert and Related Material [Jerusalem, 2000]). It also includes Aramaic sayings quoted in Tannaitic Hebrew documents (i.e., Mishnah and Tosefta) and, apparently taking "nonliterary" quite loosely, Megillat Ta'anit.

The physical presentation of the material follows the format standardized by Sokoloff in his two large, major works on Jewish Palestinian and Jewish Babylonian, respectively. As in the case of his Palestinian dictionary, however, the hasty lexicography here practiced often leaves a great deal to be desired. A good editorial hand is sorely lacking as well; inconsistencies of all kinds abound. Unlike the large dictionaries, there are no indices of textual passages or other material here. This...