Keeping the Speech: How John's Verbs Support the Aramaic Connection
The companion article, The Speech in John 1:1, establishes what John's Speech is — the Aramaic Memra, God's active speaking presence preserved in the Targumic synagogue tradition. This article asks a different question: what does the Speech do? And do those actions point to a specific Aramaic background?
When a text passes through translation, nouns change but verbs often preserve important patterns. A translator may replace a divine title — rendering מימרא (memra) as λόγος (logos), then as ܡܠܬܐ (milta), and eventually as 'Word' — while the actions attached to that title still reveal the source-world behind the translation. Six verb patterns in John's writings correspond closely to established Targum Memra collocations. UPDV's corpus checks argue that the closest match is the Johannine writings alongside the Aramaic Targums, especially in the personal and covenantal 'keep the word' profile.
🔗The Six Verb Patterns
The following table presents the six verb+logos constructions that John uses across his writings, alongside their Peshitta Syriac renderings and their Targum Aramaic parallels. Because the Peshitta is a translation from the Greek, it cannot serve as independent proof of John's Aramaic source. But it provides a striking linguistic mirror: when John's Greek is rendered back into a closely related Aramaic dialect, it often falls into the same Targumic root field we hypothesize he was drawing from. In five cases, the Peshitta verb is a direct cognate of the Targum verb; in the dwelling pattern, it is a theological equivalent within the Shekinah/tabernacle cluster rather than the same root.
| Pattern | John | Greek | Peshitta Syriac | Targum Aramaic | Cognate? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receive | 1:11-12 | παραλαμβάνω (paralambanō) | ܩܒܠ (qabbel) | קבל (qabbel) + memra | Yes — same root |
| Believe in name | 1:12 | πιστεύω εἰς ὄνομα (pisteuō eis onoma) | ܗܝܡܢ ܒܫܡܗ (haymen b-shmeh) | הימנו בשם מימרא (heymenu b-shem memreh) | Yes — same construction |
| Dwell | 1:14 | σκηνόω (skēnoō) | ܐܓܢ (agen) | שכן (shaken) + Shekinah | Yes — theological equivalent |
| Hear/Obey | 5:24 | ἀκούω (akouō) | ܫܡܥ (shma') | שמע קל מימרא (shma' qal memra) | Yes — same root |
| Keep/Guard | 8:51; 14:23; 17:6 | τηρέω (tēreō) | ܢܛܪ (ntar) | נטר (ntar) מטרת מימרא (matrat memra) | Yes — same root |
| Judge | 12:48 | κρίνω (krinō) | ܕܢ (dan) | דן (dan) קדם מימרא (qodam memra) | Yes — same root |
The six patterns form a close cluster: five exact cognates sharing the same Semitic root, plus one theological equivalent where the Peshitta's ܐܓܢ (agen, 'to shelter/tabernacle') belongs with the Targum's שכן (shaken, 'to dwell') — the root from which 'Shekinah' derives. Both express the same concept: divine presence pitching its tent among people.
🔗The Patterns in Detail
🔗Receive: 'His own did not receive him' (John 1:11-12)
John 1:11 reads: εἰς τὰ ἴδια ἦλθεν, καὶ οἱ ἴδιοι αὐτὸν οὐ παρέλαβον — 'He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.' The Peshitta renders the verb as ܩܒܠ (qabbel), and this is the exact verb used throughout the Targums for receiving or rejecting the Memra:
- Targum Onqelos Exodus 19:5: 'If you indeed receive my Memra (קבל מימרי), you will be to me a holy nation.'
- Targum Jonathan Jeremiah 34:14: 'Their fathers did not receive my Memra.'
- Targum Jonathan Isaiah 1:19-20: 'If you are willing and receive my Memra... if you refuse and do not receive my Memra, by the adversary's sword you shall be killed.'
The pattern of acceptance and rejection that structures John's Prologue — 'he came to his own and his own did not receive him, but to those who did receive him' — is the dominant pattern in Deuteronomy and Jeremiah, where Israel repeatedly receives or rejects the Memra of the Lord.[1]
🔗Believe in the Name (John 1:12)
John 1:12 continues: ὅσοι δὲ ἔλαβον αὐτόν... τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ — 'but to those who received him... those who believe in his name.' The Peshitta reads ܕܡܗܝܡܢܝܢ ܒܫܡܗ (d-mhaymneyn b-shmeh), and the identical construction appears in the Targums:
- Targum Neofiti Exodus 14:31: 'The people believed in the name of the Memra of the Lord' (הימנו בשם מימרא דייי).
- Targum Psalms 106:12: 'They believed in the name of his Memra.'
The phrase πιστεύω εἰς ὄνομα ('believe in/into a name') is itself Johannine in the New Testament — it appears in John 1:12, 2:23, 3:18; and 1 John 5:13, but not in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or Paul, who consistently use πιστεύω with a simple dative.[2]
🔗Dwell: 'The Speech became flesh and tabernacled among us' (John 1:14)
John 1:14 uses the striking verb ἐσκήνωσεν (eskēnōsen, 'tabernacled'), a word loaded with biblical tabernacle and divine-presence associations. The Targumic background here is not a one-to-one verb match but a Memra/Shekinah/Yeqara cluster: the Memra is associated with God's active presence, while Shekinah language supplies the dwelling imagery. The Peshitta renders the verb as ܐܓܢ (agen, Aphel of ܓܢ), meaning 'to shelter' or 'to spread a tent over,' and the Targums pair divine presence with שכן (shaken, 'to dwell') language:
- Targum Neofiti Leviticus 26:11-12: 'I will make the glory of my Shekinah dwell among you... my Memra will go among you... my Memra will be to you a redeeming God.'
Ronning supports this Memra/Shekinah/Yeqara cluster at John 1:14: 'The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory' — Memra, Shekinah, and Yeqara in one sentence.[3]
🔗Hear/Obey: 'He who hears my word' (John 5:24)
John 5:24 reads: ὁ τὸν λόγον μου ἀκούων — 'the one hearing my word.' The Peshitta renders this as ܕܫܡܥ ܡܠܬܝ (d-shma' milty), using the root ܫܡܥ (shma'), the same root as in the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4). The Targum parallel deploys the identical root with the Memra as its object:
- Targum Neofiti Deuteronomy 28:2: 'If you diligently listen to the voice of the Memra of the Lord your God' (שמע קל מימרא דייי).
🔗Keep/Guard: 'If anyone keeps my word' (John 8:51)
This is the most consequential pattern. John 8:51 reads: ἐάν τις τὸν ἐμὸν λόγον τηρήσῃ — 'if anyone keeps my word.' The Peshitta renders the verb as ܢܛܪ (ntar, 'guard, keep, observe'), and the Targums use the identical root נטר (ntar) with the Memra:
- Targum Onqelos Genesis 26:5: חֲלָף דְקַבֵיל אברהם לְמֵימְרִי וּנטַר מַטְרַת מֵימְרִי — 'Because Abraham received (קבל) my Memra and kept (נטר) the charge of my Memra.'
- Targum Onqelos Leviticus 8:35: וְתִיטְרוּן יָת מַטְרַת מֵימְרָא דַיוי — 'You shall keep the charge of the Memra of the Lord.'
- Targum Onqelos Numbers 9:23: יָת מַטְרַת מֵימְרָא דַיוי נָטְרִין עַל מֵימְרָא דַיוי — 'The charge of the Memra of the Lord they kept, by the Memra of the Lord.'
Genesis 26:5 is particularly striking because it contains both the RECEIVE and KEEP patterns in a single verse — Abraham received the Memra and kept the charge of the Memra — closely mirroring John's Prologue, where those who receive the Speech (1:12) are those who keep it (8:51, 14:23).
This pattern appears repeatedly across John's writings, including John 8:51, 8:52, 8:55; 14:23; 15:20; 17:6; 1 John 2:5; and Revelation 3:8, 10. It is the most frequently repeated verb+logos construction in the Johannine corpus.
🔗Judge: 'The word that I spoke will judge him' (John 12:48)
John 12:48 reads: ὁ λόγος ὃν ἐλάλησα ἐκεῖνος κρινεῖ αὐτόν — 'the word which I spoke, that one will judge him.' The modifying clause ὃν ἐλάλησα ('which I spoke') explicitly identifies the logos as a spoken utterance, and any careful reader will note this. Yet even while identifying it as something spoken, Jesus attributes independent judicial agency to it at the last day — the word itself will be the judge. This goes beyond prophetic rhetoric (cf. Deuteronomy 18:19, 'whoever does not listen to my words... I will require it of him'). The Peshitta renders the verb as ܕܢ (dan, 'judge'), and the Targums use the same root with the Memra:
- Targum 2 Chronicles 19:6: 'You are judging before the Memra of the Lord' (דנין קדם מימרא דייי).
- Targum Psalms 7:9: 'The Memra of the Lord judges the peoples' (מימרא דיהוה ידין עממיא).
No other New Testament writer attributes judicial agency to the logos. In the Synoptics and Paul, God judges, Christ judges, the law condemns — but the word does not judge. The Targumic Memra, by contrast, regularly exercises judicial functions because the Memra is a divine agent, not merely a divine message.[4]
🔗Greek Control Tests
The construction τηρέω τὸν λόγον ('keep the word') is the most consequential evidence in this analysis. While τηρέω itself is a perfectly ordinary Greek verb — used for keeping oaths, laws, agreements, and peace — UPDV's checks did not find pre-Johannine examples applying it to a personal divine λόγος in a covenantal sense. The vocabulary is Greek; the semantic combination is where the Aramaic background becomes significant. This is supported by lexicographical and corpus checks, provided the claim is kept to the personal and covenantal Johannine λόγος profile:
TDNT (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament) catalogues τηρέω with ὅρκους (oaths), εἰρήνην (peace), πίστιν (pledges), νόμους (laws), and other ordinary objects rather than the Johannine personal λόγος construction.[5]
LSJ (Liddell-Scott-Jones, the standard classical Greek lexicon) lists τηρέω with δώματα (houses), πόλιν (a city), κύνας (dogs), ἀσφάλειαν (safety), ἀρχήν (office), ἀξίωμα (rank), τεῖχος (walls), and similar objects rather than this Johannine use of λόγος.
Moulton & Milligan (the definitive papyri vocabulary) attests τηρέω with persons, embankments, wine, friendship, pledges, money, and land, but does not supply the same personal/covenantal λόγος profile.
BDAG (the standard New Testament Greek lexicon), under τηρέω §3, lists τηρέω τὸν λόγον with Johannine citations: John 8:51, 8:52, 8:55, 14:23, 15:20, 17:6, 1 John 2:5, and Revelation 3:8, 10. No non-Johannine example is cited.[6]
Philo of Alexandria — the one Hellenistic Jewish writer who personifies the Logos extensively — did not yield the same τηρέω + λόγον behavioral profile in corpus checks. Philo shares the Logos title but not this Johannine cluster of behavioral verbs.
The individual words are Greek. The theological profile is where the Aramaic connection becomes significant. John did not need to invent new vocabulary; UPDV argues that he applied existing Greek verbs to a personal divine λόγος in ways best explained by the Targumic Memra collocations, especially נטר + מימרא.[6]
🔗The Control Tests
🔗Test 1: The Synoptic Gospels and Paul
If John's verb patterns simply reflected common early Christian Greek rather than a distinctive Aramaic background, the same personal/covenantal λόγος profile should appear broadly in other New Testament writers. It does not.
| Pattern | John | Matthew | Mark | Luke | Paul |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| τηρέω + λόγος | 8:51, 8:52, 8:55, 14:23, 15:20, 17:6; 1 John 2:5; Rev 3:8, 10 | 0 (τηρέω + commandments only) | 0 (τηρέω + tradition, 7:9) | 0 | 0 |
| σκηνόω (tabernacle) | 1:14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| λόγος as agent of κρίνω | 12:48 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| πιστεύω εἰς ὄνομα | John 1:12, 2:23, 3:18; 1 John 5:13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| λαμβάνω/παραλαμβάνω + logos (personal) | 1:11-12 | 0 | 4:16 (parable) | 0 | 0 |
| ἀκούω + logos | 5:24 | 7:24 (sermon) | 4:16 (parable) | 8:21 (sermon) | 0 |
Four of six patterns are exclusively Johannine — found nowhere else in the entire New Testament. The 'hear the word' pattern is the weakest of the six, since hearing a word is a universally human expression: Matthew 7:24 (ὅστις ἀκούει μου τοὺς λόγους, 'whoever hears these words of mine') uses the same verb+noun pair in the Sermon on the Mount. What distinguishes John's usage is the theological sense: in Matthew and Luke, people hear teachings; in John 5:24, the one who hears Jesus' word has passed from death to life — the logos functions as a saving divine agent, not a sermon to be applied. The two Mark 4:16 cases use λόγος to mean a preached message, not a divine person. The Synoptic logos is the message of the kingdom; UPDV argues that John's logos is the Memra.[7]
🔗Test 2: The Septuagint (LXX)
If John's τηρέω + λόγον reflected a standard Greek-biblical pattern inherited from the Septuagint, the LXX should provide close precedents for the same singular, personal, covenantal λόγος profile. It does not.
At the critical verse — Genesis 26:5, where the Targum reads 'Abraham kept the charge of my Memra' — the LXX renders the Hebrew entirely differently:
| Source | Verb | Object |
|---|---|---|
| Hebrew (MT) | שָׁמַר (shamar, 'kept') | מִשְׁמַרְתִּי (mishmarti, 'my charge') |
| LXX | ἐφύλαξεν (ephylaxen, φυλάσσω) | τὰ προστάγματά μου ('my ordinances') |
| Targum Onqelos | נטר (ntar, 'kept') | מַטְרַת מֵימְרִי (matrat memri, 'charge of my Memra') |
| John 8:51 | τηρήσῃ (tērēsē, τηρέω) | τὸν ἐμὸν λόγον ('my word') |
John matches neither the LXX's verb at Genesis 26:5 (φυλάσσω, not τηρέω) nor its object (προστάγματα/ἐντολαί, not λόγον). That makes the Targumic collocation a closer background for this particular receive/keep/logos pattern than the Greek of Genesis 26:5. Across the LXX, τηρέω does appear with institutional objects such as βουλήν (counsel, Proverbs 3:21) and ἐντολάς (commandments), and there are non-identical plural words examples; but the LXX does not supply the same singular, personal, covenantal λόγος profile found in John.[8]
🔗Test 3: Classical Greek (18.7 million words)
A systematic search of the classical Greek corpus — 18.7 million words spanning Homer, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, the Stoics, Philo, and hundreds of other authors — was conducted for τηρέω in all its forms. The results:
- 1,714 occurrences of τηρέω across the corpus
- No close match for covenantal 'keep the word' (τηρέω + λόγον in the sense of guarding or observing a personal divine speech)
Classical uses of τηρέω fall into well-defined categories: physical watching or surveillance (Thucydides, military contexts), empirical observation (Artemidorus, Ptolemy), maintaining agreements with τηρέω + πίστιν (Polybius, 'keep faith'), and medical preservation (Soranus, pseudo-Galen). The closest approach is Isocrates, To Demonicus 22: τήρει τὰς τῶν λόγων παρακαταθήκας ('guard the deposits of words/confidences') — but λόγων is a genitive modifier, not a direct object, and the context is fiduciary trust, not covenantal obedience to a divine person.[9]
🔗Summary of Negative Controls
| Corpus | Size | τηρέω + λόγον (covenantal)? |
|---|---|---|
| Classical Greek | 18.7 million words | No close personal/covenantal divine λόγος match found among 1,714 τηρέω hits |
| LXX (Rahlfs) | 624,000 words | No same singular personal/covenantal λόγος profile; non-identical plural words examples exist |
| Philo | 8,073 articles | No same behavioral profile found |
| Synoptic Gospels | — | No |
| Paul | — | No |
| John | — | Yes (8:51, 8:52, 8:55, 14:23, 15:20, 17:6; 1 John 2:5; Rev 3:8, 10) |
| Targum Onqelos | — | Yes (נטר מטרת מימרא: Gen 26:5, Lev 8:35, Num 9:19, 9:23) |
Approximately 19.4 million words of Greek literature were searched. Within that checked corpus, the closest parallel to John's covenantal 'keep the word' construction is the Aramaic Targum pattern of keeping or guarding the Memra.
🔗The Four-Way Chain: Genesis 26:5
Genesis 26:5 provides the clearest single-verse demonstration of how John's language relates to each textual tradition. The Hebrew text says Abraham 'listened to my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.' Four different traditions render this verse, and their divergences reveal John's source:
| Tradition | 'Listened' | 'Kept' | Object of 'kept' |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hebrew (MT) | שָׁמַע (shama') | שָׁמַר (shamar) | מִשְׁמַרְתִּי ('my charge') + commandments, statutes, laws |
| LXX | ὑπήκουσεν (ὑπακούω) | ἐφύλαξεν (φυλάσσω) | τὰ προστάγματά μου ('my ordinances') + commandments, statutes, laws |
| Targum Onqelos | קַבֵיל (qabbel, 'received') | נטַר (ntar, 'kept') | מַטְרַת מֵימְרִי ('the charge of my Memra') |
| John | ἔλαβον (λαμβάνω, 'received') / παρέλαβον (1:11) | τηρήσῃ (τηρέω, 'kept') | τὸν λόγον μου ('my word') |
The Hebrew uses שָׁמַע ('heard/obeyed') and שָׁמַר ('kept') with institutional objects — charge, commandments, statutes, laws. The LXX follows the Hebrew faithfully, using different Greek verbs (ὑπακούω, φυλάσσω) and the same institutional objects. The Targum departs: it replaces שָׁמַע with קבל ('received'), replaces the institutional objects with 'the Memra,' and retains the root cognate נטר for 'kept.' And John's receive/keep/logos cluster is closer to the Targumic pattern than to either the Hebrew institutional-object wording or the LXX rendering of Genesis 26:5. He uses λαμβάνω ('receive,' mirrored by the Peshitta ܩܒܠ and Targum קבל) and τηρέω ('keep,' mirrored by the Peshitta ܢܛܪ and Targum נטר) with a personal divine object (τὸν λόγον μου, 'my word'), which UPDV understands against the Memra background.
UPDV therefore argues that this is not simply a case of a Greek writer drawing on Greek sources. It is better explained as a bilingual writer whose theological vocabulary — the verbs he assigns to the divine Speech — is shaped by the Palestinian synagogue tradition preserved in the Targums.[10]
🔗Conclusion
The Memra's name was obscured through routine translation. מימרא (memra) became λόγος (logos), which became ܡܠܬܐ (milta), which became 'Word.' At each stage, the theological specificity of the original term could be diluted. But the Memra's behavioral profile remained visible. What the Memra does in the Targums — it is received or rejected, believed in by name, dwells among its people, is heard and obeyed, is kept and guarded, and judges on the last day — closely resembles what John's logos does in the Gospel. Five of the six patterns use the same Semitic roots when the Greek is translated back into Syriac, and the sixth belongs to the same divine-presence cluster.
The negative controls make the case strong, but the point must be stated carefully. These patterns are not generic Greek, and they are not simply Septuagintal, Synoptic, Pauline, or Philonic. They are distinctively Johannine in their personal and covenantal λόγος profile, and they correspond closely to Targumic Memra usage. The best explanation is that John was drawing on the Aramaic Memra tradition — a tradition preserved in the Targums and available to synagogue-formed readers.
The translation 'Speech' captures what 'Word' obscures: a divine person who acts, not a static concept that sits on a page. When Jesus says 'if anyone keeps my Speech, he will never see death' (John 8:51), his wording fits the language of the Targums — the language of Abraham who 'received the Memra and kept the charge of the Memra' (Genesis 26:5). The verb is an important clue. The name changed. The actions did not.
🔗Footnotes
[1] The receive/reject pattern (קבל + מימרא) is one of the densest Memra collocations in the Targums, appearing throughout Deuteronomy and the Prophets. Key instances: Tg. Onq. Deut 1:26, 9:23; Tg. J. Jer 7:28, 25:7, 35:14-15; Tg. J. Zech 1:3-4. Ronning, The Jewish Targums and John's Logos Theology (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2010), ch. 10.3, 'The Consequences of Not Receiving the Word of the Lord.'
[2] The construction πιστεύω εἰς ὄνομα is distinctively Johannine. It appears in John 1:12, 2:23, 3:18; and 1 John 5:13. The Synoptics and Paul use πιστεύω with a dative object or with εἰς + a person, but do not show this same εἰς ὄνομα pattern. Cf. Ronning, ch. 1.3.3.4, 'Receiving/Not Receiving the Divine Word.'
[3] Ronning, ch. 1.3.3.5, 'Word, Glory, Shekinah.' The three Targumic theological terms — Memra (Word), Shekinah (dwelling presence), and Yeqara (glory) — converge in John 1:14: 'The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.' On the Syriac Peshitta's ܐܓܢ (agen) as a Shekinah equivalent, see Sebastian Brock's discussion of magenanutha as the standard Syriac rendering of the divine indwelling.
[4] Tg. Ps 7:9. Aramaic text from the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon: מימרא דיהוה ידין עממיא. Cf. Ronning, ch. 11.7, 'The Divine Word as Judge.'
[5] H. Kleinknecht et al., TDNT, s.v. τηρέω. The article catalogues τηρέω + object constructions across classical, Hellenistic, and LXX Greek. Objects include ὅρκους (oaths, Democritus), εἰρήνην (peace, Demosthenes), πίστιν (pledge, Polybius), and νόμους (laws, Diodorus Siculus), not the Johannine personal λόγος construction discussed here.
[6] W. Bauer, F.W. Danker, W.F. Arndt, and F.W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (BDAG), s.v. τηρέω, §3.
[7] The one partial overlap — Mark 4:16, where hearers 'receive the word' (λαμβάνουσιν τὸν λόγον) in the parable of the sower — uses λόγος to mean a preached message, not a divine person. The theological sense is entirely different: the Synoptic logos is a sermon to be heard; John's logos is a Person to be received or rejected, kept or abandoned, obeyed or defied. This distinction is precisely the difference between the ordinary sense of 'word' and the Targumic Memra.
[8] The LXX data was verified against the Septuagint (Rahlfs edition, approximately 624,000 words) with attention to the construction being claimed. The verb τηρέω does appear in the LXX — notably with βουλήν (counsel, Proverbs 3:21), ἐντολάς (commandments), and other institutional objects. It also appears near plural words language, as at 1 Kingdoms/1 Samuel 15:11 (my words he did not keep). These are not the same construction as John's singular, personal, covenantal λόγος profile. At the critical verse, Genesis 26:5, the LXX uses ἐφύλαξεν (φυλάσσω, 'guarded') with τὰ προστάγματά μου ('my ordinances'), τὰς ἐντολάς μου ('my commandments'), τὰ δικαιώματά μου ('my statutes'), and τὰ νόμιμά μου ('my laws') — a different verb and different objects than John's τηρέω + λόγον.
[9] Isocrates, Ad Demonicum 22. The phrase τήρει τὰς τῶν λόγων παρακαταθήκας means 'guard the deposits entrusted through words/confidences' — a fiduciary duty, not a covenantal obligation to a divine speech. The corpus search was conducted across approximately 18.7 million words of classical Greek (733 works), encompassing Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Polybius, Philo, and the major classical Greek collections. It did not produce a close personal/covenantal divine λόγος match to John's usage.
[10] Matthew Black, An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967); C.F. Burney, The Aramaic Origin of the Fourth Gospel (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922); Martin McNamara, Targum and Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972); Daniel Boyarin, 'The Gospel of the Memra: Jewish Binitarianism and the Prologue to John,' Harvard Theological Review 94:3 (2001): 243-284; Maurice Casey, Aramaic Sources of Mark's Gospel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). Ronning's The Jewish Targums and John's Logos Theology (2010) provides the most comprehensive treatment of the verb correlation evidence, with detailed analysis of each pattern across multiple Targum traditions.
🔗References
- John L. Ronning, The Jewish Targums and John's Logos Theology. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2010.
- G. Kittel and G. Friedrich, eds. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Eerdmans, 1964-1976.
- W. Bauer, F.W. Danker, W.F. Arndt, and F.W. Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. University of Chicago Press, 2000.
- H.G. Liddell, R. Scott, and H.S. Jones. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th ed. with revised supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
- J.H. Moulton and G. Milligan. The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1930.
- Daniel Boyarin, 'The Gospel of the Memra: Jewish Binitarianism and the Prologue to John.' Harvard Theological Review 94:3 (2001): 243-284.
- Matthew Black, An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts. 3rd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967.
- C.F. Burney, The Aramaic Origin of the Fourth Gospel. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922.
- Martin McNamara, Targum and Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972.
- Maurice Casey, Aramaic Sources of Mark's Gospel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.