A.L. Lukaszewski

Abstract: "The Markan Parable of the Sower and Its Interpretation in the Light of Qumran Aramaic"

Albert L. Lukaszewski

The redactional question of the earliest tradition behind various pericopae has been a recurring issue in historical Jesus studies for many years. Of the different genres represented in the gospels, the parables take pride-of-place as the one most likely to represent the formative stages of Christianity and, possibly, the preserved teaching of its founder. Further, the common assumption in New Testament Aramaic studies is that sources which reflect the syntax and style of first-century Palestinian Aramaic are more likely to convey the teachings of the very early church, if not the historical Jesus himself (cf. Fitzmyer and Stuckenbruck). This paper, based on a descriptive grammar of Qumran Aramaic developed by the author, will test this hypothesis.

Previous studies on this issue of Aramaic backgrounds (cf. Black, Jeremias, Fitzmyer, and Casey) consequently have assumed that, given an understanding of the Aramaic of the period, scholarship is able to deduce Aramaic interference in Koine Greek. Even in the light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it is well known that there is still insufficient evidence of Aramaic interference to legitimate anything close to 100% confidence on this matter. However, if one acts on the justified assumption that there is an Aramaic substratum behind the Greek manuscripts, certain elements may be seen to point to the Aramaic copy or copies used to produce the Greek texts based upon their frequent appearance in Qumran Aramaic. Among the elements considered in this study are the following: articular infinitives, prepositional complements, word order and hyperbaton, subordinate clause types, parataxis, and the distinctive use of exclamations.

Many scholars have agreed that the Parable of the Sower represents an earlier tradition than its interpretation. The opinion commonly held is that the parable may represent an early Jesus tradition. However, the interpretation is thought to have been developed later by the church. In the course of the paper, I propose to analyze both the parable and the interpretation through the lens of Qumran Aramaic which I have developed. The results call into question the conclusions of previous studies and delimit the Aramaic language backgrounds to the pericopae with greater certainty than previous research. The number of Aramaic elements in both the Parable and the first half of the Interpretation suggest an Aramaic source behind the pericopae while also leaving open the question of different sources for each.

(c) 2001
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