LEARN (A LITTLE) ARAMAIC FROM YOUR NEW TESTAMENT Edward M. Cook, 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 Messiah Yahushua's cry of dereliction from the cross, eli eli lama sabachthani, “my God, my God,

The five gold rings have now been added ... And ... something I learned while doing this ... On the Fourth Day of Christmas...Four Calling Birds In the discussion dealing with the Partridge in a Pear Tree in the first stanza of the song it was pointed out that the gift of a partridge in a pear tree may have come about because of a mix-up between French and English. The Four Calling Birds in this stanza is due to a mix up between the English language as spoken in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the English spoken today. It could also be due to a mix up between English as spoken in England and English as spoken in England's former colonies, particularly the United States and Australia. When they get to this stanza many people may wonder just what is a calling bird. Most probably just assume that it is the name used in past centuries for one of our common birds that goes by a different name today. It's Colly Birds, Not "Calling Birds" The verse, four calling birds, is actually a corruption of the English word colly or collie. So, we are referring to "four colly birds" or four collie birds (the words to the song were probably written before the creation of the dictionary, so the spelling of old words tends to be flexible). What is a colly bird? It is a black bird. In England a coal mine is called a colliery and colly or collie is a derivation of this and means black like coal. For a long time in England, blackbirds have been referred to as both blackbirds (as in the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence) and colly birds as in The Twelve Days of Christmas. Even in Tudor England these birds went by two different names so it is not so unusual that there would be some confusion three centuries and a couple of continents later. While the name blackbird migrated beyond England, the name collie bird remained behind in England where, even there, it tended to diminish in use over the centuries. Today, many published versions of the song in the U.S. and Australia give the birds' name as calling birds rather than collie birds. As to why the person in the song would give his true love a gift of blackbirds, the answer is that this would have been another gift of food. Blackbirds were plentiful and were a common food. From the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence we see them being served as a meat pie and this may have been the way they were commonly served. In times past in Great Britain, pies were a convenient way to serve and eat a meal with the meat, potatoes and any vegetables all cooked together in an easy to handle crust (forks not having been invented at that time, table utensils consisted of knives, spoons and one's fingers). It wasn't until the British began establishing colonies in what is now the United States that pies (at least in the United States) evolved from being a main course to being a desert.