Ancient Language Source Index

Ancient Language Source Index

The languages and scripts behind the witnesses

The witnesses gathered in this project come down to us in many ancient languages. This index sets out the chief ones, that the reader may know in what tongue each body of text was first written or preserved.

Hebrew — the language of most of the Old Testament, of many Dead Sea Scrolls, and of Sirach and other works; written in the square Aramaic script, and, in the Samaritan and some Qumran texts, in the old paleo-Hebrew script.

Aramaic — the language of parts of Daniel and Ezra, of many Qumran texts (the Genesis Apocryphon, the Aramaic Levi Document, the Visions of Amram), of the Targums, and of the incantation bowls; the common speech of the land in the time of Jesus.

Greek — the language of the Septuagint, of the New Testament, and of much of the apocrypha, the pseudepigrapha, and the Hellenistic-Jewish writers.

Syriac — a dialect of Aramaic; the language of the Peshitta and of a rich Christian literature, including the apocryphal Syriac psalms.

Coptic — the last form of the Egyptian language, in Greek letters; the language of the Nag Hammadi library and the Manichaean and Coptic Christian texts.

Geez (Classical Ethiopic) — the language in which Enoch, Jubilees, the Meqabyan, and the Ethiopian canon are preserved.

Latin — the language of the Old Latin versions and the Vulgate, and of some apocrypha preserved only in the West.

Akkadian and Sumerian — the languages of the Mesopotamian wisdom background, written in cuneiform on clay.

Egyptian — the language of the Egyptian wisdom and hymn background, in hieroglyphic and hieratic script.

Mandaic and Middle Persian — among the languages of the Mandaean and Manichaean witnesses.