“Das zur Zeit Jesu in Palästina gesprochene Aramäisch” by Paul Kahle Research on Aramaic, Then and Today

A reading of two publications by Paul Kahle (‘Das zur Zeit Jesu in Palästina gesprochene Aramäisch’, 1949 and ‘Das palästinische Pentateuchtargum und das zur Zeit Jesu gesprochene Aramäisch’, 1958) is presented in the light of later and espe¬cially very recent views on “hot topics” in Aramaic studies: 1) the languages spoken in Palestine in Jesus’ lifetime; 2) the relationship between Official Aramaic and Middle Aramaic; 3) Palestinian and “Babylonian” targums. Attempts have been made to shed some light on Kahle’s contribution to Aramaic dialectology and the reception of his ideas in later Aramaic studies, to outline the theoretical background in which his linguistic thought has developed and reconstruct the research agenda on Aramaic that he envisaged.