Aramaic, one of the great international languages of antiquity, left an indelible mark on the New Testament. Jesus and his first followers knew it because for centuries Aramaic had been a primary means of communication in the Middle East, and it remained current long after their time. Usage of Aramaic within Jesus' movement, initially with or without recourse to other languages, helped provide the fledgling community with a cultural as well as linguistic identity. Precise examples of the words of Jesus' teaching in Aramaic, reinforced by portrayals of him among Aramaic speakers, are explicit in the Gospels. Whatever other language choices he may have made, the Greek Gospels portray him as employing Aramaic as his medium of teaching. Bruce Chilton's Aramaic Jesus is a groundbreaking study in pursuit of this 'Aramaic Jesus,' a pursuit that requires awareness of the kind of Aramaic in play. In the past, sorting out dialects and types of Aramaic relied on sources composed well after the