JHU-PTS Doctoral Symposium

One week ago today (Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025), I gave a lecture at the first annual doctoral symposium for graduate students in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and Northwest Semitics who attend Johns Hopkins and Princeton Theological Seminary. The symposium, held at the campus of PTS in Princeton, NJ, consisted of a Roundtable Workshop Session where we each discussed our ongoing research (dissertations, class papers, etc.), which gave me the opportunity to present an overview of my dissertation research on the social and sociolinguistic history of Aramaic (prospectus in progress).

The afternoon session consisted of two formal conference-style lectures–one from a Hopkins student and one from a Princeton student. I was invited to represent Hopkins and give the inaugural lecture, where I presented an aspect of my dissertation research on principles of Aramaic-based code-alternation in the Hebrew Bible. Building off the work of previous scholarship (see bibliography below), I attempted to categorize the motivations and functions of code-switching using Aramaic throughout the Hebrew Bible.

It was a fantastic opportunity to connect with PTS faculty and students, including Mark S. Smith and F. W. “Chip” Dobbs-Allsopp from whose work I’ve learned much. I’m currently preparing a more focused version of this talk for an upcoming conference and will also include my findings in the dissertation. For now, here’s an introductory bibliography (chronologically arranged) for those interested:

Tur-Sinai, Naphtali H. 1957. The Book of Job. (Hebrew original: 1954).

Tur-Sinai, Naphtali H. 1965. “Aramit: Hašpa’at ha-Aramit ‘al ha-‘Ivrit šel ha-Miqra'”

Rabin, Chaim Menachem. 1967. “An Arabic Phrase in Isaiah”

Greenfield, Jonas C. 1981. “Aramaic Studies and the Bible”

Kaufman, Steve A. 1988. “The Classification of the Northwest Semitic Dialects of the Biblical Period and Some Implications Thereof”

Rendsburg, Gary A. 1991. “The Strata of Biblical Hebrew”

Rendsburg, Gary A. 1992. “Kabbîr in Biblical Hebrew: Evidence for Style-Switching and Addressee-Switching in the Hebrew Bible”

Noegel, Scott B. 1994. “Dialect and Politics in Isaiah 24-27”

Rendsburg, Gary A. 1996. “Linguistic Variation and the ‘Foreign’ Factor in the Hebrew Bible”

Rendsburg, Gary A. 2006. “Aramaic-Like Features in the Pentateuch”

Bompiani, Brian A. 2012. “Style-switching: The representation of the speech of foreigners in the Hebrew Bible.” PhD diss., Hebrew Union College.

Rendsburg, Gary A. 2013. Entries in the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics: “Addressee-Switching”; “Foreigner Speech: Biblical Hebrew”; and “Style-Switching”

Bompiani, Brian A. 2014. “Style Switching in the Jacob and Laban Narratives”

Colasuonno, Maria Maddalena. “Linguistic Variation in Ancient Hebrew (1000 BCE-200 CE).” PhD diss., University of Naples.

Rendsburg, Gary A. 2015. “Style-Switching in Biblical Hebrew,” in Hackett fs.

Ahmed, Mohamed A. H. “Arabic Codes in Hebrew Texts: On the Typology of Literary Code-switching”

Bompiani, Brian A. 2016. “Style Switching in the Speech of the Transjordians”

Kirk, Alexander T., and Robert Holmstedt. 2016. “Submersive Boundary Drawing in Jonah: The Variation of אשר and ש as Literary Code-Switching”

Suchard, Benjamin. 2016. “Two cases of Aramaic style-switching in Biblical texts set in Egypt,” unpublished paper.

Rendsburg, Gary A. 2019. “Style-Switching” (ch. 24) and “Addressee-Switching” (ch. 25) in How the Bible Is Written

Noonan, Benjamin. 2020. “Register, Dialect, Style-Shifting, and Code-Switching,” in Advances in the Study of Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic

Power, Cian. 2022. The Significance of Linguistic Diversity in the Hebrew Bible: Language and Boundaries of Self and Other.

Lewis, Theodore J. 2022. “A Magical Aramaic Curse in Jeremiah 10:11 – A Performative Sociolinguistic Solution,” in Younger fs.

About The Author

Matthew Saunders

Matthew Saunders is a PhD student in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He researches the languages and literatures of the ancient Near East, especially Aramaic Studies, Ugaritic Studies, and Comparative Semitics.

See author's posts