Scripture in the Language of JesusAramaic and the Words the Gospels Keep

The Words Jesus Spoke at Home

The Lord Jesus grew up in Nazareth of Galilee, and the everyday speech of the Jews there in his day was Aramaic, a language close kin to Hebrew. The New Testament was written in Greek, but at a handful of moments the Gospel writers kept the very sound of the words he spoke. They wrote his Aramaic out in Greek letters and then translated it for their readers, usually with a phrase the King James Version renders "which is, being interpreted." One of these moments comes at the bedside of a girl of twelve, in the house of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue.

And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.

Mark 5:41
KJV

Mark kept two words of the Lord's command, Talitha¹ cumi². The first is a tender word for a young girl, and the second means rise. Matthew Henry, writing on the passage, says the Lord's word of power was "recorded in Syriac, the language in which Christ spoke, for the greater certainty of the thing." Syriac and Chaldee are the older English names for Aramaic, and the King James Version uses that older vocabulary too. For the whole account of the girl's raising, see The Raising of Jairus's Daughter.

Aramaic in the Old Testament

Aramaic was the language of Aram, the land the King James Version calls Syria, and the Bible first meets it in the household of Abraham's own kin. When Jacob and his uncle Laban made a covenant in Gilead, they piled up a heap of stones as a witness between them, and each man named it in his own tongue. Laban, whom Scripture calls "Laban the Syrian" (Genesis 31:24), called the heap Jegarsahadutha³, and Jacob called it Galeed. Both names mean a heap of witness, the first in Aramaic and the second in Hebrew (Genesis 31:47).

Centuries later, the speech of Aram had become the language of kings' courts and their envoys. When Sennacherib king of Assyria sent his officer the Rabshakeh to threaten Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah, Hezekiah's officials asked him to speak "in the Syrian language," which they understood, and not "in the Jews' language," which the people on the wall could follow (2 Kings 18:26). The Hebrew word behind the Syrian language is aramith⁴, and it occurs in only four verses of the Old Testament. In Hezekiah's day, Aramaic was a language for statesmen, and the common people of Judah did not know it.

Apart from Laban's two words, the Aramaic passages of the Old Testament come from the years of the exile and the return from it. There are four places in all:

• Genesis 31:47: the two words of Laban's name for the heap of witness.
• Jeremiah 10:11: a single verse in the middle of a Hebrew chapter.
• Daniel 2:4 to 7:28: from the Chaldeans' first words to Nebuchadnezzar to the end of Daniel's vision of the four beasts.
• Ezra 4:8 to 6:18, and 7:12 to 7:26: the letters exchanged with the Persian kings about the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its temple, and the decree of Artaxerxes that sent Ezra to Jerusalem.

Jeremiah's one Aramaic verse is a message the people of Judah were to give the idol worshippers around them, in those people's own language.

Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.

Jeremiah 10:11
KJV

In Daniel, the King James Version marks the change of language within the verse itself. The Chaldeans, the wise men of Babylon, answer the king "in Syriack," and from their opening words, "O king, live for ever," the book continues in Aramaic until the end of chapter 7.

Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation.

Daniel 2:4
KJV

Matthew Henry, commenting on this chapter, writes that the Chaldeans spoke "in the Syriac tongue, which was then the same with the Chaldee, but now they differ much." He also gives a reason for the change: Daniel wrote these chapters in the Chaldeans' own language "because designed to convince the Chaldeans of the folly of their idolatry and to bring them to the knowledge and worship of the true and living God," while the visions from chapter 8 onward, "being intended for the comfort of the Jews," are written in Hebrew. Henry gives the same reason for Jeremiah's Aramaic verse. For the book as a whole, see An Introduction to Daniel.

The Aramaic of Ezra is the language of the Persian court. The verse before it says that the adversaries' letter to Artaxerxes "was written in the Syrian tongue" (Ezra 4:7), and Ezra then gives the letter that Rehum and Shimshai wrote against Jerusalem (Ezra 4:8), the king's reply, Tatnai's letter to Darius and Darius's decree in the language in which they were written. A second passage gives the decree with which Artaxerxes sent Ezra, "a scribe of the law of the God of heaven" (Ezra 7:12), back to Jerusalem. See An Introduction to Ezra for the history these documents tell.

How Aramaic Became the Speech of the Jews

The seventy years in Babylon, followed by two centuries under the Persians, whose officials wrote in Aramaic, changed the everyday speech of the Jews. Aramaic became the language of the home and the market, and Scripture shows the Jews' own language already being lost in some homes. When Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem, he found children born to Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab who spoke half in the speech of Ashdod and "could not speak in the Jews' language" (Nehemiah 13:24).

This is the setting of the great reading of the law in Nehemiah 8. Ezra stood on a pulpit of wood before the water gate and read the book of the law from morning until midday, and the Levites helped the people to understand what they heard.

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

Nehemiah 8:8
KJV

Matthew Henry reads the verse as a description of exposition. The Levites, he writes, "showed the intent and meaning of it, and what use was to be made of it; they gave the sense in other words, that they might cause the people to understand the reading." Jewish teachers later found a translation in the same verse. In the Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 3a), the teacher Rav explains the word "distinctly" as the rendering of the Hebrew into Aramaic that accompanied the public reading. Both readings rest on the purpose the verse itself states, that the people should understand.

The Targums: Scripture Read in Aramaic

A targum is an Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and the word means simply a translation. In the synagogues of the land of Israel and of Babylon, the Hebrew text was read aloud and a translator then gave its sense in Aramaic, so that everyone present could understand. The Mishnah (Megillah 4:4) sets the pace: in the Law, the reader was to give the translator no more than one verse at a time, and in the Prophets no more than three.

Two targums came to be the accepted ones. The Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 3a) attributes the targum of the Law to Onkelos, a convert to Judaism, and the targum of the Prophets to Jonathan ben Uzziel. The written forms that survive were settled some centuries after the time of Christ, but the practice of rendering Scripture into Aramaic is older than that. Among the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran is an Aramaic targum of Job, copied in the years around the time of the New Testament. Greek-speaking Jews had the Septuagint, and the synagogues of Judaea and Babylon had the targums. In both, the Hebrew Scriptures of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings remained the text, and the translation was given so that the hearers would understand it.

Where the Strong's Lexicon Marks the Aramaic

James Strong numbered the words of the Old Testament as one Hebrew list, but he marked the Aramaic words in it. In the Strong's dictionary as this site gives it, 667 entries in the Hebrew section begin with the label "(Aramaic)" (Strong's own word for the language was Chaldee), and many of them say the word corresponds to a Hebrew one. The Aramaic word for son, bar⁵, is one of them, and it begins many names in the Gospels.

In the Greek list, Strong marks the words the New Testament borrowed from Aramaic as being "of Chaldee origin," and about forty entries carry that note. They include Abba, Golgotha and Maranatha. Others are names: Thomas, which Strong glosses as the twin; Martha; Tabitha; Gethsemane, the oil-press; and every name beginning with Bar-, meaning son of, such as Barjona, Peter's name as the son of Jona (Matthew 16:17), and Barnabas, which Luke translates for his readers as "The son of consolation" (Acts 4:36).

The Lord's Own Words

Mark keeps more of the Lord's Aramaic than any other Gospel. When a man who was deaf and could hardly speak was brought to him, the Lord took him aside, touched his ears and tongue, and looked up to heaven.

And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

Mark 7:34
KJV

The word is Ephphatha⁶, and Mark translates it at once. Matthew Henry notes that it "was nothing that looked like spell or charm," and that "Christ speaks as one having authority, and power went along with the word."

The same authority sounds again in the book of Acts. At Joppa, when the disciple Tabitha had died, Peter put everyone out of the room, knelt and prayed, and then said, "Tabitha, arise" (Acts 9:40). Peter had been in the room at Jairus's house, and his words follow his Master's.

In the garden of Gethsemane, on the night before the cross, the Lord prayed to his Father in the word Mark keeps for us: Abba⁷. The lexicon gives it as father, in the form used when speaking to him. For the night in the garden, see Jesus Prays in the Garden of Gethsemane.

And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.

Mark 14:36
KJV

Matthew Henry, writing on this verse, says: "The Syriac word is here retained, which Christ used, and which signifies Father." He adds that "it is with an eye to this, that St. Paul retains this word, putting it into the mouths of all that have the Spirit of adoption." The word occurs in only three verses of the New Testament. One is the Lord's prayer in the garden, and the other two are in Paul's letters to the churches of Rome and Galatia, written in Greek to congregations with many Gentile members.

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Romans 8:15
KJV

Paul writes the same cry in Galatians 4:6, where it is the Spirit of the Son himself, sent into believers' hearts, who cries it. In both letters the Aramaic word comes first and the Greek word for father follows. Augustine, in his exposition of Galatians, says that Paul "put together words from two languages signifying the same thing because of the whole people, which has been called from Jews and Gentiles into the unity of faith." See Adoption: From Slaves to Sons and Daughters for what that sonship means.

The last of the Lord's Aramaic words in Mark were spoken from the cross, at the ninth hour, after three hours of darkness.

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Mark 15:34
KJV

The cry is the first line of Psalm 22. Mark gives it as Eloi⁸, and Matthew gives the first word as Eli⁹ (Matthew 27:46). Strong's marks Mark's form as of Chaldean origin and Matthew's as of Hebrew origin, while the verb sabachthani¹⁰, thou hast left me, is Aramaic in both Gospels. Matthew Henry notes the difference simply: "Eli, Eli, or (as Mark has it, according to the Syriac dialect) Eloi, Eloi." The cry is the fourth of the sayings gathered in The Seven Last Words of Christ from the Cross.

Words From His Teaching, and the Names of Places

Some of the Aramaic words in the Gospels come from the Lord's teaching. In the Sermon on the Mount he warned that whoever called his brother Raca¹¹ would be in danger of the council (Matthew 5:22). Strong's describes it as a term of utter contempt, an empty or worthless man. In the same sermon he said that no man can serve God and mammon¹², the Aramaic word for wealth, spoken of as a master that demands service (Matthew 6:24). Luke has the word three more times in the chapter of the unjust steward (Luke 16:11). In 1528 William Tyndale published his treatise The Parable of the Wicked Mammon on that chapter, and the word stayed in the English Bible, untranslated, through the King James Version.

When the Lord rebuked the Pharisees for setting aside the commandment to honour father and mother, he quoted the word by which a man could declare his goods Corban¹³, a gift vowed to God, so that his parents could not be helped by them (Mark 7:11). In the Hebrew of Leviticus the same word is the ordinary word for an offering brought to the LORD.

The Lord also gave Aramaic names. When Andrew brought his brother Simon to Jesus, the Lord told him that he would be called Cephas¹⁴, and John translates the name for his readers as "A stone" (John 1:42). Paul still calls Peter by that Aramaic name in his letters to the Corinthians and the Galatians. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, the Lord named Boanerges¹⁵, which Mark explains as "The sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17). And on the morning of the resurrection, when the risen Lord spoke Mary's name at the tomb, she answered him with Rabboni¹⁶, the Aramaic form of rabbi, which John explains as "Master" (John 20:16).

John names two places of the Passion by their Aramaic names, and he introduces each with a Greek word the King James Version translates "in the Hebrew." Strong's defines that word, Hebraisti¹⁷, as the Hebrew or Jewish language and adds "(Chaldee)": it means the speech of the Jews of that day. The place of the crucifixion was Golgotha¹⁸, the place of a skull (John 19:17), and the place called the Pavement, where Pilate sat down in the judgment seat, was Gabbatha¹⁹ (John 19:13). In Acts, Luke records that the field bought with Judas's price was called in the people's own tongue Aceldama²⁰, "The field of blood" (Acts 1:19). The title over the cross was written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin (John 19:20), the three languages heard in Jerusalem in that day.

Maranatha: An Aramaic Prayer in a Greek Letter

Paul closes his first letter to the Corinthians, written in Greek to a church in a Greek city, with a word in the language of the first believers in Judaea.

If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.

1 Corinthians 16:22
KJV

The word is Maranatha²¹, and the King James Version leaves it untranslated. The letters can be divided in two ways, and faithful readers have taken it both ways. Strong's divides it as maran atha, our Lord has come, a confession that the Lord has come and is coming in judgment. Others divide it as marana tha, O our Lord, come, a prayer that matches the last prayer of the Bible: "Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20). Either way, it confesses Jesus as Lord, and the church kept it in Aramaic. The Didache, a short manual of Christian worship from the early years of the church, closes one of its prayers of thanksgiving with the same words, "Maran atha. Amen." For more on the word, see The Meaning of "Maranatha".

Which Is, Being Interpreted

The New Testament was written in Greek, and the Gospel writers wrote for readers in many lands who did not know Aramaic. That is why, almost every time they keep one of the Lord's Aramaic words, they translate it on the spot. Mark writes "which is, being interpreted," John writes "which is by interpretation," and Luke writes "that is to say." The Spirit who inspired them kept the sound of the Lord's voice and made sure every reader would understand it.

God has always spoken in this way. The Law came in Hebrew, Daniel's account of God's dealings with the kings of Babylon was written in their own Aramaic, the Levites gave the sense of the law so that the people understood it, and on the day of Pentecost the crowd in Jerusalem heard the wonderful works of God in their own languages.

And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

Acts 2:8
KJV

Paul gives the same principle to the church at Corinth: words spoken in the church must be "words easy to be understood" (1 Corinthians 14:9). Faithful translators of Scripture ever since, from the Greek and Latin of the early churches to the English of Tyndale and the King James translators, have followed it. When a believer anywhere calls God Abba, Father, he is using the word the Son used in Gethsemane, which the Spirit of adoption puts into the mouth of every child of God.