Aramaic square script

Page from the Kennicott Bible with Onkelos (Aramaic language translation), Hebrew language on the left, Aramaic on the right

Aramaic square script is the 22-letter consonantal alphabet script that developed during the rule of the Achaemenid empire to write the Aramaic language. Descended from the official script used to administer the empire, it is loosely called "square" because its letters can be fit into the shape of a square (rather than rectangle, etc). ^[1] . Some of the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls, with the earliest dating proposed as the mid-third century BC, are written in Aramaic square script. ^{[2] [3]}

Aramaic square script was also adopted and developed to write Late Biblical Hebrew by Jewish scribes. Called Ktav Ashuri ("Assyrian script"), it became the Hebrew alphabet script used for Modern Hebrew. ^{[2] [3]}

Background

The Aramaic language is not one language or script; rather, it is a group of languages, each a kind of dialect, each of which used and developed different scripts at different times in history. ^[4]

The Neo-Assyrian empire had adopted use of the Aramaic language and script - at that time a derivative of the Phoenician alphabetic script - alongside their native Akkadian language after conquering the Aramaean city-states and kingdoms in the 9th and 8th centuries BC. ^[5] The alphabetic script then used was simpler than their own cuneiform script, and first adopted in the provinces where Aramaic was widely spoken and then eventually in Assyria itself. ^[6]

Papyrus narrating the story of the wise chancellor Ahiqar. Aramaic script. 5th century BCE. From Elephantine, Egypt. Neues Museum, Berlin

During Achaemenid (Persian) rule over Palestine (6th - 4th centuries BC) and the wider region, Imperial Aramaic became the language of administration and diplomacy, already widely understood, less cumbersome than Old Persian and Elamite and Aramaic was already being used by the administrative bodies formerly run by the Neo-Assyrian empire. ^[2]

Aramaic had also become a common spoken language among the people of Syria-Palaestina, persisting under Roman rule. ^[2] Under Persian rule, the written Aramaic language transitioned from using the Phoenician alphabet script to developing and using a highly standardized Aramaic square script sometime between the 5th and 4th centuries BC. ^[7] Examples of this Aramaic square script, so called because the letters fit into the shape a square, are identified in the Elephantine papyri. ^[8]

Son of God manuscript, one of the Qumran scrolls written in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic using square script

At the time of the writing of the Hebrew Bible, Jewish authors of the text used Hebrew primarily as a liturgical and literary language, which had up to then been written using the Phoenician alphabet script (also known as Paleo-Hebrew). Sacred texts written in Hebrew translated into Aramaic were known as targumim (singular: targum), ^{[9] [2]}

Possibly as early as the late Persian or the Hellenistic Period, Jewish scribes, who like everyone else in the Empire were using Aramaic square script to write in Aramaic, began using it to write Hebrew as well. ^{[10] [11] [12]} This practice was in widespread use by the 3rd century BCE. ^[13] According to Leah di Segni, a distinctive "Jewish Aramaic square script" developed by the 1st century BCE, ^[4] as the Imperial Aramaic (or Biblical Aramaic) square script was adopted as the new alphabet for writing Biblical Hebrew. ^{[2] [7]} Some scholars attributed this shift to the influence of the Babylonian exile where Aramaic was also the language of daily life. ^{[14] [15]}

Aramaic alphabet scripts charted at top, Samaritan alphabet at bottom

Western Neo-Aramaic Square alphabet chart with its Arabic alphabet letter equivalents

"Damascus", the capital of Syria written in Western neo-Aramaic square script at top, followed by the names of Syrian towns that continue to speak and write Western neo-Aramaic dialects: Maaloula, Al-Sarkha (Bakhah), and Jubb'adin

This new script for writing Hebrew was called "Jewish square script" or k'tav ashuri ("Assyrian script") by the Jewish scribes who used it. ^[16] The Aramaic cursive script in general is called "Assyrian", ^[17] distinguishing it from the old Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew script Ktav 'Ivri ("Hebrew script"). ^[16] Only the Samaritans in Palestine continued using a form of Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew for their written language. ^[16]

Texts

See also: Elephantine papyri and ostraca

Study of the early development of the square Aramaic script (and its Hebrew counterpart), is important to categorizing, analyzing and dating the many thousands of Aramaic and Hebrew inscriptions made in the Middle Aramaic period, including those of the Dead Sea Scrolls. ^[18] There is a great deal of debate among paleographists over the terminology and typologies to be used in classifying the various texts that is complicated by the lack of definitively dated texts outside of this corpus from the late Hellenistic to early Roman periods. ^[19]

Biblical

While most of the Hebrew Bible was written in Hebrew, there are hundreds of verses that were composed in Biblical Aramaic. The first six chapters of the Book of Daniel, for example, are written mostly in Biblical Aramaic while chapters 7–12 are written mainly in Late Biblical Hebrew. ^[20]

Aramaic was the common spoken language in Roman Palestine at the time of Jesus. ^[2] Among the Dead sea scrolls discovered in the caves of Qumran were many manuscripts and fragments written in Aramaic using the square script, such as the Son of God and the Book of Giants. ^{[21] [22]} Discovery of the Aramaic square script fragments for the Book of Giants with the names of Gilgamesh and Hombabish, "attests to the vitality of Mesopotamian literary traditions among literate circles of the ancient Near East, probably transmitted via Aramaic versions." ^[23]

One Aramaic manuscript found in Qumran (4Q243) uses the square script throughout with one exception: the name El(ohim), which is written using Paleo-Hebrew characters. In contrast, another manuscript in the square script (4Q244) twice uses it to record Elohim (‮אלוהין‬‎). ^[24]

Jewish Middle Babylonian and Mandaic are both Southern Eastern Middle Aramaic languages that differ only in the scripts they use to write. Jewish Middle Babylonian, which is the language of the Aramaic portions of the Babylonian Talmud (composed between the 8th - 10th centuries) uses the square script. ^[25]

Immanuel Tremellius' 16th century Latin translation of the Peshitta, included the original Syriac language text but transcribed it into Aramaic square script. ^[26]

Magic bowl inscriptions

The Aramaic square script was also used to inscribe incantation bowls in various languages, and while many of these clearly reflect a Jewish religious or cultural milieu, there are several that do not. ^[27] Some are written in an Aramaic koine language with in some cases a Mandaic context and prototype. ^{[28] [29]} Several others use Aramaic square script for expression in Standard Literary Babylonian Aramaic, and display remarkable syncretism, with closing formula banning "the evil elements in the name of your God Sadday, YHWH, Jesus, Ruha Qaddista". ^[30] Ruha Qaddista is a feminized form for the Holy Spirit, reflecting the early Eastern churches transmission of Mesopotamian legacies which used qadistu as an epitaph of the goddess Ishtar. ^[30]

Other square and cursive counterparts

One of the alphabets for writing Western neo-Aramaic that is still spoken and written in Maaloula, Al-Sarkha (Bakhah) and Jubb'adin in Syria, uses Aramaic square script and is called Maalouli square script. ^[31]

Several other alphabets were born out of Imperial Aramaic that resemble the Aramaic square script, yet exhibit differences in the letter shapes tending towards being more rounded or cursive. Among these are Hatran Aramaic, Palmyrene Aramaic and Nabataean Aramaic. ^[5]

References

1. Akopian, 2017, p. 75.
2. Newsom et al., 2018, p. 2247.
3. Akopian, 2017, 110-116.
4. Di Segni, p. 36.
5. Byrne, 2005.
6. Bae, p. 7
7. Mansoor, 1978, p. 26.
8. Akopian, 2017, p. 73.
9. Moyer, Clinton J. (2025-04-07). "What Is Aramaic?: Exploring the rich legacy of a biblical language". Biblical Archaeology Society.
10. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Elsevier. 2005-11-24. ISBN   978-0-08-054784-8.
11. Coogan, Michael; Brettler, Marc; Newsom, Carol; Perkins, Pheme (2018-03-01). The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-027610-2.
12. Schniedewind, William M. (2013-11-26). A Social History of Hebrew: Its Origins Through the Rabbinic Period. Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-17668-1.
13. Berlin, Adele (2004). The Jewish Study Bible. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-529751-5.
14. Mitchell, 1998, p. 32.
15. Berlin, Adele (2011). The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-973004-9.
16. Berlin and Brettler, 2004, p. 2063.
17. Vanderhooft, 2021, p. 56.
18. Van der Water, 2000, p. 434.
19. Longacre, 2017: "Most of those manuscripts are written in a script descended from the official Aramaic cursive of the Persian imperial administration, which is commonly, but imprecisely, described as the Aramaic, Jewish, or square script."
20. Collins 2002, p. 2.
21. "Enoch, Book of Giants". The Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. Retrieved 2026-01-03.
22. Meyer, 2022.
23. Reeves, 2000.
24. Tov, 2025.
25. Akopian, 2017, p.490.
26. Akopian, 2017, p. 454-456.
27. Mueller-Kessler, 2005: "Despite the prevailing controversy among scholars concerning the religious background of magic text formulas in various Aramaic scripts and dialects, certain bowl texts show undoubtable Jewish contents and lore, although not all Aramaic square-script bowl texts contain Jewish themes."
28. Kessler, 2012.
29. Harviainen, Tapani (1981-02-01). "An Aramaic Incantation Bowl from Borsippa. Another specimen of Eastern Aramaic "koiné". Appendix: A Cryptographic bowl text or an original fake?". Studia Orientalia. 51: 28 p.–28 p. ISSN   2323-5209.
30. Mueller-Kessler, 2005.
31. "الأبجدية المربعة | PDF".

Bibliography

• Akopian, Arman (2017). Introduction to Aramean and Syriac Studies: A manual.
• Bae, Chul-hyun (2004). "Aramaic as a Lingua Franca During the Persian Empire (538-333 B.C.E.)". Journal of Universal Language. 5: 1–20. doi: 10.22425/jul.2004.5.1.1 .
• Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi (2004). The Jewish Study Bible. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-529751-5.
• Collins, John J. (2002). "Current Issues in the Study of Daniel". In Collins, John J.; Flint, Peter W.; VanEpps, Cameron (eds.). The Book of Daniel: Composition and Reception. BRILL. ISBN   978-90-04-11675-7.
• Byrne, R. (2005). "Asia, Ancient Southwest: Middle Aramaic Scripts". Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Elsevier Science. ISBN   978-0-08-054784-8.
• Di Segni, Leah (2022). An Introduction to Late Antique Epigraphy in the Holy Land. Edizioni Terra Santa. ISBN   979-12-5471-118-7.
• Müller-Kessler, Christa (2012). "More on puzzling words and spellings in Aramaic incantation bowls and related texts". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 75 (1): 1–31. doi:10.1017/S0041977X1100084X. JSTOR   23258892.
• Mansoor, Menahem (1978). Biblical Hebrew Step by Step: Volume 1. Baker Publishing. ISBN   978-0-8010-6041-0.
• Mitchell, T. C. (1988). Biblical Archaeology: Documents for the British Museum. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-36867-4.
• Meyer, Anthony R. "Chapter Five: Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls". Naming God in Early Judaism. Brill. pp. 90–129.
• Müller-Kessler, Christa (April–June 2005). "Review: Of Jesus, Darius, Marduk...: Aramaic Magic Bowls in the Moussaieff Collection - Reviewed Work: A Corpus of Magic Bowls: Incantation Texts in Jewish Aramaic from Late Antiquity by Dan Levene". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 125 (2): 219-240. JSTOR   20064328.
• Longacre, Drew (2017). "4.1.3.2.1 Hebrew and Aramaic Palaeography". Textual History of the Bible, Vol. 3.
• Newsom, Carol Ann; Brettler, Marc Zvi; Coogan, Michael David; Perkins, Pheme (2018). The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha: an Ecumenical Study Bible. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-027609-6.
• Reeves, John C. (2000). "Giants, Book of the". In Lawrence H. Schiffman & James C. VanderKam (ed.). Encyclopaedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Volume 1). Oxford University Press, 2000. pp. 309–311.
• Tov, Emmanuel (2025). "Scribal Habits of the Aramaic Qumran Texts". Textus. 34 (1): 1–14. doi:10.1163/2589255X-bja10047.
• Vanderhooft, David S. (2021). "Chapter 4: Aramaic, Paleo-Hebrew and "Jewish" scripts in the Ptolemaic Period". In Christophe Nihan, Oded Lipschits, Sylvie Honigman (ed.). Times of Transition: Judea in the Early Hellenistic Period. Penn State University Press.
• Van De Water, Rick (June 2000). "Reconsidering Palaeographic and Radiocarbon Dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls". Revue de Qumrân. 19 (3 (75)): 423–439. JSTOR   24663113.