LEARN (A LITTLE) ARAMAIC FROM YOUR NEW TESTAMENT

Edward M. Cook, M.Div., Ph.D.

 

One of the things that makes Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ a biblical movie with a difference is its use of the original languages of first century Palestine, Aramaic and Latin. Although one could argue with his choice of Latin – most non-Jews at the time would probably have spoken Greek instead ­– no one can deny that Aramaic was widely used.

 

The languages that descended from first-century Aramaic are still spoken in a few places in the Middle East, and the Aramaic dialects are studied by many more, both scholars and laypeople, who want to read and research ancient texts vital to the history of both Judaism and Christianity. Parts of the books of Daniel and Ezra in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament are written in Aramaic, as are many of the Dead Sea Scrolls. A large percentage of the Jewish books of law, the Talmud, are written in a form of Aramaic, as well as early works of Christian theology.

 

It all sounds pretty esoteric, and most church members will get along fine without knowing Aramaic or any other ancient languages. But those who are interested in “the language of Jesus” can learn more than they think just by paying extra attention to the pages of their own New Testaments.

 

Take, for instance, the name “Bartholomew,” one of the original disciples mentioned four times in the New Testament (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14; Acts 1:13). In Greek, the name is read Bartholomaios, behind which lies the Aramaic name “Bar Tolmai.” Bar is the Aramaic word for “son,” and Bar Tolmai means “the son of Tolmai.”

 

Once you know what bar means, other “bar” names start leaping out at you: Barabbas, who was released in place of Jesus by Pilate, “the son of Abba”; Barjona, the surname of Peter in Matt. 16:17, means “son of Jonah”; Barnabas, the companion of Paul on his missionary journeys, means “son of consolation”(Acts 4:36); one of the early candidates to replace Judas was “Joseph called Barsabbas” (Acts 1:23), that is, Joseph son of Sabba, or “the elder”; and of course blind Bartimaeus, whom Jesus healed, “the son of Timai” (Mark 10:46).

 

Another common Aramaic word occurring in the names of places is the word beth, meaning “house,” or more broadly, “place.” This is a word that Aramaic shares with Hebrew; and everyone will already know the name of Bethlehem, “place of bread” – a location well known in the book of Ruth for its wheat fields.

 

Less familiar, perhaps, is the village of Bethsaida, where Phillip, Andrew, and Peter were from. Its name means “place of fishing,” which will be no surprise for those who remember Peter’s occupation. A village only a short walk from Jerusalem was Bethany, “the place of the poor,” where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived, according to John 11:1, and the place where Jesus was last seen before his Ascension, according to Luke 24:50. It was close to Bethphage, the “place of ripe fruit” (Luke 19:29).

 

The place Bethesda, which has given its name to so many hospitals, is something of a mystery. That was the name of a pool where, according to John 5, Jesus healed a lame man; and the name Bethesda looks plainly like a form of the Aramaic beth hisda, “the place of mercy,” which fits the story well. However, the most reliable ancient manuscripts read in place of Bethesda the name Beth Zatha, which might mean “the place of olives” – which is much less apt! If this were not enough, yet another ancient manuscript reads Bethsaida, and still another reads Belzetha – which has no meaning in Aramaic that I can discover. It could be that no one was sure of the exact name of the place; in any case, we are not.

 

One of the peculiarities of Aramaic compared to its sister languages is that Aramaic puts the definite article ­– the word meaning “the” – at the end of a word instead of at its beginning. So if you take the word keph, meaning “rock,” and add the article ­– simply the syllable a – you get kepha, “the rock,” which also happens to be the original Aramaic name of “Peter,” the nickname of Simon Bar Jona. It shows up in English bibles as “Cephas” (e.g., I Cor. 1:12).

 

You can also see the definite article in golgotha, “the skull,” from Aramaic gulgulta. It also appears in the name of Martha, which means “the lady,” Tabitha, “the gazelle,” and in the word talitha, “the little girl,” used by Jesus during a healing according to Mark 5:41. And it shows up in the word “messiah,” Aramaic meshiha, “the anointed one,” a word shared with Hebrew.

 

The New Testament gives only a few complete sentences in Aramaic. A short one is ephatha, “be opened!” in Mark 7:34, which Jesus utters while healing a blind man. In Aramaic, someone who has full use of their eyes is said to be “open.” Another example is talitha kum, “little girl, arise!” (Mark 5:41).

 

The most famous Aramaic sentence in the gospels ­– perhaps in all of Christianity – is Christ's cry of dereliction from the cross, eli eli lama sabachthani, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34). Public reading of the scriptures often results in butchered pronunciation of this sentence. The word eli “my God” should be pronounced to rhyme with “daily,” lama “why?” should rhyme with “momma” and sabachthani “you have forsaken me” should rhyme with “sock hop Johnny.”

 

Outside the gospels, Aramaic is rarely quoted. The apostle Paul uses the sentence marana tha, “our Lord, come!” in I Corinthians 16:22. That's the word mar, "lord," with the suffix ana, "our," and the verb "to come" in the imperative.

 

The early church quickly moved into Gentile circles, where Aramaic was less commonly spoken, and that's why the New Testament was originally written in Greek. But the Aramaic language left its traces on its pages. Now you know what some of them are!