A Beast from the Sea Sits in Wait of YOU

My friends and pastors, let’s imagine for a moment that you are doing one of the things you love most about parish ministry: teaching Bible study. Ahh, what a privilege and joy it is to slowly and methodically walk through God’s Word with His flock. There’s no 15- 20 minute time limit like you have on your sermon. It is you and them and God’s Word. No, Bible study isn’t the Divine Service but darn-it-all if your preparation for it isn’t nearly as exciting and rewarding. Like a good Lutheran maybe you started out with a study on one of Paul’s Epistles. Like a good seminary trained scholar you’ve wowed them with your knowledge of the Greek language to the point where they are legitimately worried that the seminary will steal you right back!

After considering doing a Bible study on the liturgy (admit it, you want to), you decide to keep the Bible study hour in the Bible. Your Hebrew is a little rusty but you are faithful, bold, and completely against Marcionism. So you offer a study on Genesis or Psalms or Isaiah. Despite the difficulty of translating you still manage to throw in some “torahs,” “shaloms,” “zedeks,” and maybe even a “barith l’olam,” for good measure! Best of all you still have the tools to really track down an answer if the people ask the dreaded question, “What does the original language say here?”

Be glad for this question. They trust you. They have confidence in you. They have come to appreciate the education our seminaries require of their MDiv graduates. BUT… you see the storm clouds gathering in the distance. You know of a great sea beast lurking ahead, seeking to throw your good ship into tumult. The day comes. Sweat like drops of blood drip from your brow as grandma Bugenhagen and the faithful attendees ask you the question you’ve been dreading since your ordination….

“Pastor, would you do a Bible study on the Book of Daniel?” Lightning crackles all around your ship as the mighty sea beast known as Biblical Aramaic wraps his tail around your hull, intent on sinking your vessel. He knows you have just one chapter and four verses before he has you in his mighty jaws. For the next six chapters you will be his chew toy, left impotent and unable to thwart his continuous onslaught.

If only I had taken that elective!!

You gulp hard and agree to the Bible study. “How hard can it be? It all looks the same,” you say to yourself as you flip through the pages of your BHS. Eventually the Sunday rolls around when your congregation covers the second chapter of Daniel. You’ve put your hope in the ESV and having consulted Steinmann’s commentary you feel prepared. But the beast will not go down without a fight. A dispute rises up among those who have brought different versions. The ESVians are at the throats of the NIVers while the KJVists and The Messagonians flip over tables and attack one another. They appeal to your Solomon-like knowledge but you can only save face by asking them all to calm down and you will answer their question next week.

Monday morning your church secretary enters the office. “Pastor, what’s wrong?” she asks, startled to find her beloved pastor sobbing in the fetal position. “I’m a SHAM!” you exclaim. “I never learned Aramaic. I am unfit to handle the Word of God in Daniel, Ezra, one verse in Jeremiah, and one word in Genesis!” Helping you off the ground, your secretary assures you, “Pastor, it’s alright, really it is. Who cares about Aramaic? According to your Facebook profile you know Classical Greek, Koine Greek, Pauline Greek, Septuagint Greek, Hebrew, AND Pig Latin. That’s like SIX languages!”

Refusing to be comforted you look to her, wiping away your tears, and say, “No, no. I am not apt to teach.” Removing your clerical collar you walk out the door and into the eastern sunrise. It is day one of the search for a new calling. Off in the distance you hear the chortling laugh of the mighty sea beast.

Don’t let the sea beast win! Don’t resign your call and go job hunting! Learn Biblical Aramaic and slay that blasted dragon!!!!

Okay, the dramatic exaggerations are over. Please pardon my silliness. Here are the simple reasons you can and should learn Biblical Aramaic. Take them or leave them, I know you’ll be fine, faithful pastors either way.

1) The Books of Daniel and Ezra are deserving of thorough Bible study at some point in your service to your congregation. The Aramaic portions are found in Daniel 2:4b – 7:28, Ezra 4:8 – 6:18, 7:12-26, as well as the aforementioned Genesis 31:47 and Jeremiah 10:11.

2) It really isn’t very difficult once you’ve learned Hebrew. You cannot do it on the fly during a Daniel Bible study, but you can take a few months and do a lesson or two per week and you’ll be ready and able when the time rolls around.

3) With the books I’m recommending you can do it by yourself, without a professor, and come away with a good understanding of Biblical Aramaic and perhaps even a better understanding of Biblical Hebrew.

4) You can add another language to your Facebook profile ;-)

A Short Grammar of Biblical Aramaic (Andrews University Monographs) ; by Alger Johns, Berrien Springs, Mich: Andrews University Press, 1972. 108 pages - $14.99 

I am recommending Johns’ 20-lesson grammar for one main reason: the annotated answer key in an additional volume:

A Short Grammar of Biblical Aramaic: An Annotated Answer Key to Alger Johns's , by James Jumper, Berrien Springs, Mich: Andrews University Press, 2003. 111 pages - $14.99

The annotated answer key will explain every sentence of your exercises giving you the needed guidance that you would normally get from a professor. If you choose to learn Biblical Aramaic this key will be invaluable. It won’t be the easiest way to spend your time, but it is worthwhile. If you can find the time to do it I know you’ll be able to handle it. And you’ll be glad you did when you step up to teach Daniel or Ezra, even if no one asks you original language questions. You will benefit in your private study of the books in both of their original languages.