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• The other approach, where we could have treated the different scripts as completely separate, and offered several "streams" of learning - such as an Ashuri stream, an Estrangela stream, and a Serta stream - or an Old Testament Aramaic stream and a New Testament Aramaic stream - that approach would also have been possible. But that approach would have left you with a very disjointed understanding of Aramaic. Instead of understanding Aramaic as one single integrated language, you would have seen Aramaic as a series of small stand-alone islands, all incomprehensible to each other, with no travel between the islands, without seeing the bigger picture - that the "islands" are not really islands at all, but are part of a larger whole.