Preceded by the late Bronze Age civilisations and their dramatic demise, and followed by the first world empires, the Neo-Hittite and
Aramean kingdoms flourished in a dynamic period of uncertainty.
The very beginning of the existence of Jewish people as an identifiable group commenced with a long journey: that of Abraham, the wandering
Aramean. The Jewish history, as we know it today, was passed mostly in Exile.
Wandering
Arameans:
Arameans Outside Syria: Textual and Archaeological Perspectives
Questions of how the people of God relate to the peoples of a world they do not govern have been with us at least since the calling of Abram, the wandering
Aramean. Perhaps these questions are essential to the definition of what it means to be a messianic people given our hope for human existence together--our sense that the new in Christ has come and that the church, as the distinctive social project we call the kingdom of God, is in the midst of other social projects.
In September, Gideon Saar, the Israeli interior minister known for his anti-Palestinian views, ordered the country's population registry to allow Christians to register as "
Aramean" rather than "Arab" on official identification documents (supposedly a reference to ancient Aramaic-speaking peoples in the region).
The Israeli Interior Ministry has announced that its efforts to differentiate between Christian and Muslim Arabs have become successful with the Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Saar ordering the population registry to register a separate "
Aramean" identity group.
He also studies non-Israelite sites (Philistine, Phoenician,
Aramean, and Transjordanian) and destruction levels in the Judahite sites that provide evidence for the collapse of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
The tension between the Assad regime and Assyrian nationalists inside and outside of Syria contrasts notably with the relations certain Christians, who identify themselves as
Aramean nationalists, have maintained with the Syrian government.
He confines the treatment to the eighth century BCE, from the end of the
Aramean incursions in the north to the Neo-Assyrian campaigns in Judah during 701.
It was all very nice to remember "a wandering
Aramean was my ancestor" and to remember the stranger and alien among us as our people had once been strangers too.
This pilgrim dimension, Walls's "pilgrim principle," is a constitutive element of Christianity since its origins, that is, from its roots in Jewish traditions--"a wandering
Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an immigrant" (Deut 26:5)--to its affirmation in the life of the itinerant prophet of Nazareth and his followers who continue to walk throughout the world to proclaim the gospel.
Regarding religious freedoms, the European Parliament notes that there have been a number of positive gestures but stresses that a systematic approach towards Alevis, as well as the Greek, Armenian,
Aramean and other Christian communities is needed.
Elisha prayed to God that he open the eyes of his servant so that the servant could see the supernatural horses and chariots of fire that would protect them from an
Aramean raiding party sent to capture him (2 Kings 6:15-17).
G-d came to Laban the
Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, Take heed that you speak not to Jacob either good or bad."
This is an excerpt from Levenson's comment on Genesis 31:19-21: Given Laban's own deceit (29.21-28), the phrase "[Jacob] stole the mind of Laban the
Aramean" constitutes a delicious wordplay.
