The Lord’s Prayer in the Original Aramaic Part I

By
Andrew Missick
Copyright 2005

I had determined to study the life and teachings of Jesus in the most authentic way possible. I traveled by myself to the Holy City of Jerusalem to live in the land Jesus knew so I could find a connection with him. I wanted to find the pure teachings of Jesus so I determined to study the words of Jesus in the original Aramaic so I could know the mind of Christ better and know his words in the form they were originally spoken. I traveled to Syria and visited the last Aramaic speaking Christian villages outside of Damascus in a Aramaic Christian town called Maloula. I also lived in villages founded by Assyrian Christian refugees who were fleeing massacres of Christian that were being carried out by Moslems in Iraq. Later, I sat and studied Aramaic beneath native Aramaic speaking Assyrian and Chaldean Christians as I served as a soldier in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Then while I was studying in Oxford, learning in the town of Latimer & Ridley, John Wesley, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, I came across the research of the great Aramaic Bible scholar Joachim Jeremias. After these experiences I have decided to teach Jesus through the Aramaic perspective so that more people can understand the life and teachings of the most important live ever lived in light of his language, culture and times.


This is how the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples is pronounced by the Assyrian and Chaldean Christians in the Middle East. While Aramaic is still spoken in modern dialects this is the ancient form in Classical Syriac Aramaic which is virtually identical to how it was first uttered by Jesus the Messiah (Yeshu Meshikha) when he taught his disciples about his heavenly Father (Abba) and the Kingdom of God (Malkutha Dalaha) almost two thousand years ago. Aramaic Christians preserved the Lord’s Prayer in this ancient form in their church services. Also, we have the Syriac Peshitta, a version of the New Testament that preserves the words of Jesus in the Aramaic. With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls we know have Aramaic scrolls from the time of Jesus in this language. Maurice Casey is using the Aramaic of the Dead Sea Scrolls to illuminate our understanding of the Jesus of history.


Our Father which art in Heaven
Awoon Dwashmaya
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Nethqaddash shmakh
Thy Kingdom Come
Tethe malkuthakh
Thy will be done
Nehweh sebayanakh
On Earth as it is in Heaven
Aykana dwashmayya aph ara
Give us this day our daily bread
Hab lan lakhma dsunqanan yowmana
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
Washboq lan hawbayn aykanan dap hanan shwaqnan l-hayawayn
Lead us not into temptation
Wa la talain lnesyona
But deliver us from evil
Ella passan min beesha
For thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever. Amen.
Mittol d’lakh hee malkootha wa khaylan w tishbookhta alalam almeen Amen

It was a moving experience for me to standing in churches in the Middle East and listening to Aramaic Christians worship the Lord Jesus in his language. The Assyrians have endured over one thousand years of persecution by Moslems and have yet remained faithful to Jesus the Messiah and his message and are an example to the world of faithfulness and perseverance.

Though carefully examining the Lord’s prayer in Aramaic it is determined without a doubt that Jesus uttered this prayer in Aramaic and not in Hebrew or Greek (we know this because of the use of the word ‘Abba’, how the word ‘debt’ is translated from the Aramaic in the Greek New Testament and also because of the similarity of the Prayer of Our Lord to the ancient Aramaic Jewish prayer called the Kaddish). A greater depth of understanding is found in the Lord’s Prayer when it is carefully examined in its original Aramaic form.

Thaddeus the Heart

By
Andrew Missick
Copyright 2005

The Gospel of Matthew declares that the fame of Christ spread throughout all of Syria—meaning Aramaic speaking areas—during his ministry (Matthew 4:24). Two apostles carried the Gospel to the East, Thaddeus and Thomas. (Paul may also have preached to Aramaic speaking people first. It is possible that when Paul went to Arabia that he went to the Nabatean Empire of Petra in Jordan and preached to the Aramaic speaking Arabs under King Aretas. King Aretas was probably trying to arrest Paul for his efforts at converting his fellow Aramaic speakers to faith in Jesus. See Galatians 1:17 and 1 Corinthians 11: 32-3. When Paul says he is a “Hebrew of the Hebrews” in Philippians 3:5 he means that he was raised an Aramaic speaking religious Jew. Both Tarsus and Damascus were Aramaic speaking cities.) One of the reasons we know that Aramaic was the language of Jesus is because he gave his disciples Aramaic names, or they had Aramaic names already. Simon the Son of Jonah was given the Aramaic nick-name Cephas, meaning ‘Stone’. James and John were nick-named Boanerges, Aramaic for “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17). Judah was given the Aramaic nick-name Thomas, meaning ‘Twin’ because of his close physical resemblance to Jesus (John 20:24). The other Simon was called Simon the Terrorist. In Aramaic it is Canaanean and is usually translated as Simon the Zealot (Mark 3:18). Zealots used violent means to oppose Roman occupation. Jesus was willing to accept people with shameful pasts if they were willing to follow him. Judas Thaddeus has a very interesting name. Simon as a Zealot was a man who had been a man of anger prone to violence. But Judas’ Aramaic name shows him to be a very tender and loving man. In Aramaic Thaddeus means “breast”. In Aramaic there is also a connection to the word for nipple. This Judas, not Iscariot, also had another name besides that of Thaddeus (John 14:22). It is Lebbaeus. This is the Aramaic word for heart. Thaddeus Lebbaeus means “breast” and “heart”(Matthew 10:3). Thaddeus was obviously “all heart”. He was a tender and sensitive man who loved people. It was this meek and loving man who converted the Assyrian Kingdom to faith in Jesus. This man of love is the father of the Aramaic church. In Modern Aramaic Thaddeus is called Addai.
Eusebius Pamphylius, the father of church history, wrote of the Conversion of Abgar the king of the Aramaic peoples. According to this tradition Abgar, who was ailing, heard of the miraculous power of Jesus and sent a letter to him requesting that he visit and heal him. Jesus responded that after his glorification he would send a disciple to minister unto him. After Pentecost, Saint Thomas sent Thaddeus and the disciple Mari to preach to King Abgar. Thaddeus prayed for Abgar and Abgar was immediately miraculously healed. Thaddeus baptized King Abgar into the church. After seeing the miracles and listening to the gentle wisdom of a kind and caring man that Thaddeus was many of the Aramaic speakers and the Assyrians also were converted. Eusebius, called the Father of Church History, writing in 325 says he found the records of the Apostle’s ministry to the Assyrians written in Aramaic among the official records of the city of Edessa.[1] Eusebius translated these documents in the archives from the original Aramaic. This letter reads as follows

Abgarus, King of Edessa, to Jesus the good Savior, who appears at Jerusalem, greeting. I have been informed concerning you and your cures, which are performed without the use of medicines and herbs. For it is reported, that you cause the blind to see, the lame to walk, do both cleanse lepers, and cast out unclean spirits and devils and restore to health who have been long diseased, and raiseth up the dead; all which I heard, I was persuaded one of these two: wither that you are God himself descended form heaven, who do these things, or the son of God. On this account therefore I have wrote unto you, earnestly to desire that you would take the trouble of a journey hither, and cure a disease which I am under. For I hear the Judeans ridicule you, and intend you mischief. My city is indeed small, but neat, and large enough for us both.

Jesus verbally responded,

Abgarus, you are happy, for as much as you have believed on me, whom ye have not seen. For it is written concerning me, that those who have seen me should not believe on me, that they who have not seen might believe and live. As to that part of your letter, which relates to my giving you a visit, I must inform you, that I must fulfill all the ends of my mission in this country, and after that be received up again to him who sent me. But after my ascension I will send one of my disciples, who will cure your disease, and give life to you, and all that are with you.

Thomas also ministered to the Assyrians and went on to preach in India. The Doctrine of Addai is an Aramaic work describing the ministry of Thaddeus and other of the apostles to the Aramaic peoples. The Acts of Thomas, also written in Aramaic, describes the ministry of Thomas in India. The Doctrine of Addai not only tells the amazing and fascinating story of Thaddeus and the founding of the Assyrian Church it also introduces the core principles of Christianity. This book is one of the best books written introducing Christian doctrine in a way that is easy to understand for the layman. Thaddeus the Heart loved people and he wanted them to understand the Good News of Jesus in a simple way. This important theological work of Thaddeus has been preserved for us in the original Aramaic by the Assyrian nation. The Diving liturgy used by Assyrian Christians called “The Hallowing of the Holy Apostles Mar Mani and Mar Addai” is also believed to have been composed by Thaddeus. It has been determined to be the oldest liturgy still in use in the world. This liturgy is still recited in the ancient Aramaic language of Jesus. Ian Wilson believes that St. Thomas, Thaddeus and Mari brought the shroud of Jesus and gave it as a gift to Abgar. This shroud, Wilson has determined, was stolen from the Assyrians by western Christians, and eventually found its way to Turin Italy.

[1] Issac Boyle, trans. The Ecclesiatical History of Eusebius Pamphius (Baker Book House, 1989) p. 43-47

Introduction to Aramaic I

An Introduction to Aramaic: Part One
By Andrew Missick
Copyright 2005

The Cry from the Cross

Eloi,Eloi, Lama Sabachtani!!

Turn with me in your Bible to the Gospel of Mark 15:34. Here we find Jesus Christ on the cross of Golgotha suffering for the sins of the whole world.

“And at the ninth hour (three o’clock) Jesus cried out with a loud
voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama Sabachtani?” Which, translated
(from the Aramaic), is, “My God, my God why hast thou
forsaken me?”

In Hebrew it is, “Eli, Eli, lama azabtani”. Jesus was not speaking Hebrew but Aramaic, the sister language of Hebrew. [1] Jesus spoke these words shortly before he died. Many have been confused at the meaning of these words. Some people believe that Jesus cried these words in despair as he neared death and realized that his messianic hope was false.[2] Many Christians understand this to mean that God the Father looked away from Christ because, “he who knew no sin became sin on our behalf”- (2 Cor. 5:21). In this understanding God the Father looked away from God the Son when the Son took upon himself the guilt of the sins of all humanity on the cross.
Jesus was quoting Psalm 22 from the cross. This prophetic Psalm was written 1,000 years before the birth of our Lord. It perfectly describes everything Christ endured on our behalf upon the cross.
When comparing Psalm 22 with the story of Jesus’ crucifixion amazing parallels appear:
· Jesus is mocked for his trust in God
Psalm 22:6-8 and Mark 15:29-32
· Jesus suffers thirst
Psalm 22:15 and John 19:28-29
· Jesus’ hands and feet are pierced
Psalm 22:16 and Luke 23:33[3]
· Roman soldiers took Christ’s clothes, divided them up and gambled for them
Psalm 22:18 and Matthew 27:35
Many people wonder why it was necessary for Jesus to die. The answer to this question is found in a prophecy written several hundreds of years before the time of Christ.
Isaiah wrote about Jesus in Isaiah 53:3-12.
“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and by
his stripes we are healed.”[4]
Jesus took the punishment for our sins that we deserve upon himself when he died on the cross. He made a way for everyone to be saved by trusting in him. He proved that he accomplished this by raising from the dead 3 days after his suffering (Acts 17:31, 1 Peter 1:3).

What Languages Did They Speak?

The Word of God contains two sections, approximately 4/5 of the Bible is the Old Testament, which is the Bible of the Jews, and approximately 1/5 of the Bible is the New Testament, which contains the story of Jesus, the early church and the Christian message. The Old Testament is written in Hebrew and Aramaic. The New Testament is written in Greek, but it also contains many Aramaic words and phrases.
Aramaic is a Semitic language, which means it is related to Hebrew and Arabic. Aramaic is not Arabic, neither is it a form of Hebrew, nor is Hebrew a form of Aramaic. They are distinct Semitic languages.
At the time of Jesus in the Holy Land, Jesus and the Apostles spoke and taught in Aramaic. They learned Hebrew through schooling and were fully literate in it. Many Jews in the Holy Land at the time of Christ were also familiar with Greek. From many references in the scripture, such as Mark 15:34, we know that Jesus spoke Aramaic as his first language. Biblical archeologist and author Alan Millard stated that, “A Jewish Craftsman’s son brought up in Nazareth, a town on a main road, could be expected to talk in Aramaic, to use Greek when necessary, and to have more than a reading knowledge of Hebrew.”[5]
[1] F.F. Bruce The Books and the Parchments (Pickering & Inglis, London 1978 p. 56
[2] Harry Kemelman Conversations With Rabbi Small (Fawcett Crest, New York) p. 155
[3] Also note John 19:37 and Zechariah 12:10. There was a controversy concerning Psalm 22:16. The Hebrew Masoretic texts reads “Like a lion are my hands and my feet”. Jews accused Christians of altering the text. The true culprits were exposed by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Here the original reading of “They have pierced my hands and my feet” has been preserved. Martin Abegg Jr, Peter Finch & Eugene Ulrich The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible: the Oldest Known Bible Translated for the First Time into English (Harper, San Francisco, 1999) p. 518-519
[4] Rabbis say the “Suffering Servant” spoken of in Isaiah 53 is the nation of Israel, but the Aramaic Targums identify the Suffering Servant as the Messiah. See Y’shua: The Jewish Way to say Jesus (Moody Press, Chicago) p.69-78
[5] Alan Millard Discoveries From the Time of Jesus p. 194-195