{"id":3339,"date":"2024-01-26T08:05:17","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T13:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3339"},"modified":"2024-01-26T08:05:17","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T13:05:17","slug":"the-last-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/26\/the-last-word\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Word"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,<\/em> <\/a>click here<\/a>

What language did Jesus speak?

For Bible scholars, that\u2019s always been an interesting question.\u00a0 \u00a0

We know that Judea in the first century was a tri-lingual culture.\u00a0 Hebrew was the \u201cofficial\u201d language of Israel \u2013 the mother-tongue that would be heard in the synagogue and in the prayers of God\u2019s people.\u00a0

Aramaic \u2013 which looks and sounds a lot like Hebrew (see above) \u2013 was the dominant language of the Levant, the eastern Mediterranean region that included the historic areas of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan.\u00a0 A Syrian trader who spoke Aramaic could do business in any of those places without having to master the local tongues.\u00a0

Greek was the truly international language.\u00a0 It provided a common linguistic foundation for commerce and culture across the entire Mediterranean world \u2013 all the way from Gibraltar to Persia (present-day Iran).\u00a0 To add one more layer, Latin was the language spoken by the Romans, those ruthless people who had conquered the entire Greek-speaking world.\u00a0 The people of Israel had little desire to learn Latin.

Historians generally agree that most residents of Jerusalem during New Testament times would have been fluent in Aramaic and Hebrew, and probably knew some Greek.\u00a0 An educated person would have been able to shift from one language to another as the circumstances warranted.

Americans \u2013 we who complain about how hard it is to master a few bits of conversational Spanish, and wonder why everyone in the rest of the world doesn\u2019t speak English \u2013 should feel profound respect for the people of ancient Israel.\u00a0 They were far more linguistically sophisticated than most of us.\u00a0

So, what about Jesus?

The four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were all written in Greek.\u00a0 That ensured that the details of his life might reach the widest possible audience.\u00a0 One of the strongest clues that Jesus spoke Aramaic on an everyday basis is the handful of Aramaic words and phrases that appear to be specially preserved in the Gospel texts.

There\u2019s Amen<\/em> \u2013 a word that has somehow retained its original meaning after thousands of years, not to mention jumping from one hemisphere to another.\u00a0\u00a0

There\u2019s Abba<\/em>, the Aramaic word for \u201cpappy\u201d or \u201cdaddy,\u201d which Jesus daringly uses to address God Almighty in the Lord\u2019s Prayer.\u00a0 And Hosanna<\/em>, which roughly means, \u201cLord, save us!\u201d (Mark 11:9), the word shouted by the crowds as Jesus enters Jerusalem just before his death.

The fourth Gospel rolls out the Aramaic word rabbouni<\/em> (\u201cteacher\u201d) in John 20:16.\u00a0 That\u2019s how Mary Magdalene addresses Jesus at the moment she encounters him near the empty tomb.\u00a0

He says ephphatha<\/em> (\u201cbe opened!\u201d) while touching the ears of a deaf man in Mark 7:34.\u00a0 And to the young girl that he dramatically brings back from the dead, Jesus says talitha cum<\/em>, a tender phrase which we can translate, \u201cWake up, sweetheart!\u201d (Mark 5:41).

But the most poignant Aramaic expression in the Gospels is Eli, eli, lema sabachthani<\/em>, which means, \u201cMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?\u201d (Matthew 27:46).\u00a0 Those were among the famous last words that Jesus cried out on the cross.

It is impossible to overstate their power.\u00a0 Everyone who heard that cry, with the probable exception of the Roman soldiers who were actually crucifying Jesus, knew that it was the opening salvo of Psalm 22, where David the King shrieks in pain in the midst of suffering and loss.

Tim Keller, in his book King\u2019s Cross<\/em>, points out that as Jesus is dying he doesn\u2019t scream, \u201cMy friends, my friends,\u201d or \u201cMy head, my head.\u201d\u00a0 He shouts, \u201cMy God, my God!\u201d\u00a0 This is the language of intimacy.

Think of the way we might say, \u201cThat\u2019s my<\/em> Jennifer,\u201d or \u201cThat\u2019s my <\/em>boy.\u201d\u00a0 Keller writes:\u00a0 \u201cIf after a service some Sunday morning one of the members of my church comes to me and says, \u2018I never want to see you or talk to you again,\u2019 I will feel pretty bad.\u00a0 But if today my wife comes up to me and says, \u2018I never want to see you or talk to you again,\u2019 that\u2019s [overwhelmingly] worse.\u00a0 The longer the love, the deeper the love, the greater the torment of loss.\u201d

Think about the fact that \u201cthis forsakenness, this loss, was between the Father and the Son, who had loved each other from all eternity.\u00a0 This love was infinitely long, absolutely perfect, and Jesus was losing it\u2026 Jesus, the Maker of the world, was being unmade.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Jesus was experiencing our judgment day.\u201d\u00a0

A special word was even coined to express such pain. It\u2019s \u201cexcruciating\u201d \u2013 which literally means, \u201cout of the cross.\u201d\u00a0

So why would the Messiah, if he really were at the heart of God\u2019s will, ever have to suffer like this?

Here\u2019s what we know:\u00a0

If you have ever felt utterly abandoned; if you\u2019ve ever been betrayed by someone who once promised a never-ending love; if you\u2019ve ever been cut off from the health and the hope that used to sustain you \u2013 then you can know that the One to whom you are entrusting yourself today knows how you feel.

And he alone knows how to make you whole.

No matter what language we speak, that is arguably the most transforming word of assurance we can possibly hear.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here What language did Jesus speak? For Bible scholars, that\u2019s always been an interesting question.\u00a0 \u00a0 We know that Judea in the first century was a tri-lingual culture.\u00a0 Hebrew was the \u201cofficial\u201d language of Israel \u2013 the mother-tongue that would be heard in the synagogue and in the prayers of God\u2019s… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3341,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339\/revisions\/3341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}