The Important Key of Aramaic Culture to understanding the bible
To understand the Culture of the Semitic (or Aramaic) people, will help you understand the bible and the spirit in which it is written.
The writers of the bible were greatly influenced by their own Culture.
Their Culture in turn dictates their Social Habits, their Customs and their Mannerism. These played an important part in the lives of the Semitic people (Jews also), and forms the Culture of the nation of Israel.
For example, when the writers were living under certain social norms of their era, they write according to what they know and practice in their lives.
Let me illustrate (from the book "Manners & Customs of the bible"):
Example 1: When Peter was praying on the housetop in Acts 10:9.
What was Peter doing on the housetop (which is flat). He could have easily prayed in his room, inside his house.
Culture tells us that the Semitic people (Jews and non-Jews) always pray on their housetops. Those who worship God, do so on the housetops. Those who worship idols in their houses, also do so on the housetops. It is their culture, not ours.
The Jews also prayed on their housetops for another additional reason, and that is so that they can have privacy and that they can more readily look in the direction of the temple in Jerusalem.
Today, we cannot imitate this, because we will fall down, and we are not able to view Jerusalem from our roofs.
Example 2: Woman kissing the feet of Jesus in Luke 7:38
This practice of kissing the feet of someone was part of the Semitic Culture. It is a common practice among the Jews as well as the Greeks and Romans.
It shows the highest form of reverence and affection.
It is also a show of submission and obedience to the person.
If there is a particular important request from that person, the one who request will also kiss the feet before presenting the request.
Today, we can't imitate this because most of us wear socks and shoes, and the practice is not part of our present day Culture.
Example 3: Naming the baby child in Luke 1:59
On the eighth day, Elizabeth brought her son John to the temple to be circumcised according to Jews tradition.
In this verse you read that the baby was not named before that, but only at the moment of circumcision. This was the Jewish Custom to give names to children at the time of their circumcision.
Why?
Because the temple Rabbis tell the Jews of their time that this was because God changed the names of Abram and Sarai at the same time that God introduced circumcision.
This custom and culture was also seen in the circumcision of Jesus, and the naming at the same time in Luke 2:21.
The custom of naming the child on the 8th day is traditionally a Jewish Culture because it is tied to circumcision.
The Romans gave names to their male children on the 9th day, and to the female on the 8th day. The Athenians gave names on the 10th. Some others on the 7th.
Today, we can name our new born babies even before they are born! And baby circumcision is not our culture.
Culture of the Kurds in Kurdistan
Today in the mountainous regions of Kurdistan, there exist a people group or an ancient race of people (part of the Kurds) who lived and practice the same Semitic Culture as in the olden biblical days of Jesus time. They were thought to be extinct until their discovery around the middle of the 19th century.
This surviving remnant was descended from the Assyrians of Assyria, a powerful nation that once ruled the ancient Near East. These descendants have mixed with the blood of the Ten Northern tribes of Israel, and they still live, think and speak as did the people of Jesus' times.
See my write up in the Northern Tribes here:
Scholar Write-up
According to a British scholar who lived among these people, the late Dr. William Ainger Wigram, he wrote:
"We have now traced the history of a strange nation, from very early days to what is practically our own time - up to, in fact, the eve of the Great War ... A strange survival in an isolated corner of the world, these last representatives of the ancient Assyrian stock have hitherto
'kept up the most primitive of Semitic Customs to an extent that can hardly be paralleled elsewhere, even in the Mesopotamian marsh districts. '
One thing is certain, that the Assyrian boasts with justice that they alone of all Christian nations still keep as their spoken language what is acknowledged to be the language of Palestine in the First Century, and that therefore they alone among Christian nations, if we except a few villages that may still exist in Lebanon, use regularly the language of Christ."
For more reading:
For more reading:
When you understand their Culture, you gain a greater understanding of the writings of the bible.
