I learned something new:

Aramaic is an ancient language with a history of its own and is not derived from Hebrew

another item with which to rethink everything i thought i knew.

by the way, this reminded me of something. for the folks to whom i made my belief known that the gospels were originally written in greek, i must make a trivial item known, something that might actually overturn this theory of mine. i once heard a biblical scholar, who was giving free public lectures on the new testament, declare that the sayings and parables of christ were so easily remembered by his followers because when they were originally given in aramaic, they were actually lyrical and rhyming. so i guess, for example, the folks who were originally listening to christ relating the story of the good samaritan would've been humming it and the parable would've been easier to transmit orally to other believers because it was "fun" to memorize. in a contemporary setting, it would be like christ telling the parable to the tune or rhytmic structure of "leron, leron sinta."

again, i could be wrongly interpreting those things. i welcome your clashing views in my comment box below.