The Semitic Background of the New Testament is a combined edition of two books by Joseph Fitzmyer that have influenced and shaped New Testament studies during the past few decades.

This second volume, A Wandering Aramean: Collected Aramaic Essays, explores the relation between the host of recently discovered Aramaic texts and the writings of the New Testament. The first volume, Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament, includes papers written over a fourteen-year period that reflect on a variety of New Testament problems that have been illuminated by data gathered from the Semitic world of the eastern Mediterranean.

These works bring to light important aspects of New Testament study missed by those who concentrate on its Greek or Hellenistic background. Volume II includes an appendix containing additional notes and updated bibliographic references in connection with both of these Fitzmyer volumes.