Jews have been translating the Bible, primarily for other Jews, for more than 2,300 years. Some of these versions have themselves become the subject of intense study within Judaism, while others have sustained a decidedly less favorable reception from Jewish authorities. Although only a few of...

The Syriac particle LAM has been assumed to be a marker of direct speech by grammarians and linguists. Several scholars has traced its history to an infinitive of the verb to say in Aramaic. In this talk I will take a fresh look at the function of the particle in Syriac texts of various genres...