From: Rolf Furuli (furuli@online.no)
Date: Fri Apr 21 2000 - 18:19:09 EDT
Michael Ryle wrote:
> Mark 15:34 reports that Jesus cried out in a loud voice: ELWI ELWI
>LEMA SABACQANI; The Jerome Commentary indicates that this is an Aramaic
>version of Psalm 22:2. For a long time I have have been curious about
>this passage. Why does Jesus quote the Hebrew scriptures in Aramaic? On
>the cross under the extreme stress of the moment did he spontaneously
>translate the psalm as he knew it into his own spoken language? Or was
>he quoting from an Aramaic source, a targum? If so, why would he quote
>from that instead of the Hebrew which he surely would have known? In the
>gospels when Jesus quotes scripture, except for this one case, I believe
>it's true that he always does so in Greek -- at least I can't think of
>another instance. Why is this case different and what does it mean? I'm
>curious to know if anyone else has wondered about this. I am a newcomer
>both to Biblical Greek and to this list and I would like to express my
>gratitude to Jonathan Robie and the other members of the list for the
>tremendous help you offer to someone like me who is struggling to learn
>how to read the New Testament in the eerily beautiful language in
>which it was written.
>
Dear Michael,
I have the following philological comments: Both Hebrew and Aramaic were
spoken in Palestine in the days of Jesus. But we do not know whether Hebrew
or Aramaic was the language used by the common people. In my view, the
evidence points in the direction that Jesus normally spoke Hebrew, and that
is also the name used for the language in John 5:2; 19:13,17,20;20:16; Acts
21:40; 22:2 and 26:14. In some of these instances words that have Aramaic
characteristics are said to be "Hebrew",but these words are names, so the
word "Hebrew" need not be understood as "Aramaic". We can for instance say
that the islands in the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean with Norwegian
jurisdiction in Norwegian is called "Spitsbergen", but the name is actually
German
The cry of Jesus is not unproblematic, when we ask which language Jesus used.
It is clear that SABACQANI which is found both in Mark 15.34 and Matt.
25:47, is Aramaic. The word LEMA, found both in Matthew and Mark, is
Aramaic as well, but Codex Vaticanus has LAMA in Mark, and this is Hebrew.
The word HLI in Matthew is Hebrew and Mark's ELWI is "more" Hebrew than
Aramaic. The word "my god" in Aramaic is ELAHI (long "a")/Greek ELAI/, in
Hebrew: ELOHAY /Greek ELWAI/ if ELOHIM is the noun; and possibly (but not
witnessed): ELOHI /Greek ELWI/ if ELOAH is the noun.
Thus Mark has two Aramaic words and one (used two times) Hebrew/hebraized
word. Matthew has two Aramaic words and one (used two times) Hebrew word
(or, according to Vaticanus: one Aramaic word and two Hebrew ones).
It is interesting that Codex Bezae in Mark has four Hebrew words: HLI ELI
LAMA ZAFQANI, and the last one evidently is a transcription of the Hebrew
)AZAFTANI "to leave", which is found in Psalm 22:1.The Targum to Psalm 22:2
(=22:1) has ELI,ELI (but it has two other words instead of LEMA). This
shows that a Hebrew word (ELI) *could* be used in an Aramaic text. But this
also implies that the reverse could occur and an Aramaic word could be used
in a Hebrew text. Thus we cannot with certainty know which words were
spoken, and whether the language was Aramaic or Hebrew or a mix of both.
But the evidence at our disposition favours the view the verse was spoken
in Aramaic.
Regards
Rolf
Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo
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