Theology Brief from the desk of Pastor Bennett

Aramaic as a Language Group and the Distinctively Hebrew Character of “Jehovah”

Aramaic is not a single language but a group (or branch) of Northwest Semitic languages and dialects. These include Old Aramaic, Imperial (Official) Aramaic, Biblical Aramaic (portions of Ezra and Daniel), Classical Syriac, Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, Mandaic, and the various Neo-Aramaic varieties still spoken today (such as Assyrian/Suret, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, and Western Neo-Aramaic dialects of the Maaloula area)

Hebrew, by contrast, belongs to the Canaanite subgroup of Northwest Semitic languages and is a separate though closely related language. The two share ancestry, vocabulary, and script history, but they developed independently and are not interchangeable.

The four-letter divine name of the God of Israel—the Tetragrammaton יהוה (transliterated YHWH or YHVH)—is a Hebrew name. It appears thousands of times in the Hebrew Scriptures. The pointed form יְהֹוָה (often rendered Jehovah or Yehovah in English) is the traditional Masoretic vocalization that combines the consonants of the Tetragrammaton with the vowels of Adonai (“Lord”), the word that was traditionally substituted when reading the name aloud.

This form is Hebrew; it is not native to Aramaic.Across Aramaic languages and dialects, the ordinary and liturgical term for “Lord” (especially when referring to God) is built on the root mrʾ and appears in forms such as:

• Classical Syriac: ܡܪܝܐ (Māryā / Marya), the standard equivalent used for the divine name in the Peshitta.
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (Suret) and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic: related forms such as māryā or mārā.
• Other historical and modern varieties: mār, mārē, or similar cognates.

None of these Aramaic varieties use “Jehovah” (or a direct vocalization of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton) as their native word for Lord. In the Peshitta and related Aramaic traditions, Marya functions as the respectful substitute or equivalent for the Hebrew divine name, much as Adonai or Kurios does in other traditions. The Tetragrammaton itself remains a Hebrew term.

Regarding the letter ו (vav/waw) that appears in the Tetragrammaton: In modern Israeli Hebrew the letter is pronounced as a “v” sound, and the form “Jehovah” reflects that contemporary (and medieval hybrid) pronunciation. Comparative Semitic evidence, Greek transcriptions from antiquity, and certain preserved reading traditions (notably Yemenite Hebrew) indicate that the letter originally represented a “w” sound (/w/), leading most scholars to reconstruct the ancient pronunciation of the name as something close to “Yahweh.” The form “Jehovah” is a later hybrid that became common in Christian usage. Both the consonants and the traditional pointed form יְהֹוָה belong to Hebrew, not to Aramaic.

On the language spoken by Jesus (Yeshua): The Gospels preserve a few Aramaic expressions attributed to him (for example, “Ephphatha” in Mark 7:34, meaning “be opened”). The scholarly consensus is that Aramaic was the everyday vernacular of Galilee in the first century, while Hebrew was the language of Scripture and formal religious life. Jesus would have known and used both, along with some Greek in a multilingual setting. The presence of individual Aramaic words does not erase the Hebrew character of the Old Testament Scriptures or the Tetragrammaton.

In short: Aramaic is a family of languages whose native and liturgical term for Lord is Marya (and related forms). Hebrew is the distinct language of the Hebrew Bible in which the name rendered “Jehovah” (from יהוה / יְהֹוָה) appears. The two languages are related but not the same, and their vocabulary for the divine name is not interchangeable.