Hebrew and Greek Important, Not Aramaic
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Testimony, February 2003 53 “look upon me whom they have pierced” (Zech. Hebrews. Animal sacrifice may be described as a 12:10) they will repent and Ezekiel will “shew visual aid to teach those involved the serious- them the form of the house, and the fashion ness of sin and the enormous achievement ac- thereof”. Thus the prophet who witnessed the complished by our Lord in his perfect sacrifice. abominations of the house of Israel (ch. 8) will be The mortals of the coming age who wish to draw privileged to show a repentant nation the new near to the Lord will have to learn this. When house of prayer, which will not be defiled. the righteous King reigns in Jerusalem, and the I believe this will be fulfilled at the return of priesthood has been purified, for the first time in the Lord Jesus Christ for the following reasons: its history the nation will give acceptable offer- 1 Ezekiel clearly states: “For in Mine holy ings on a regular basis which will be pleasing to mountain, in the mountain of the height of their God. Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the Regarding Revelation 21, this is surely a sym- house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve bolic vision that speaks of the spiritual Jerusalem. Me: there will I accept them, and there will I Every symbol in Scripture requires something require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your literal as a foundation. Ezekiel speaks of the lit- oblations, with all your holy things. I will eral Jerusalem, a literal river, literal trees, etc. accept you with your sweet savour, when I These literal things are used by the Spirit as sym- bring you out from the people, and gather bols to describe the qualities of spiritual Jerusa- you out of the countries wherein ye have lem. There is no temple in this vision, and the been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you reason for this becomes apparent when the pur- before the heathen” (20:40,41). pose of the literal temple is considered; it is to 2 Again Ezekiel declares: “And the heathen separate between holy and profane. Everything shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, in Revelation 21 is holy, it comes down from when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them God; thus there is no need for a temple. for evermore” (37:28). Thus will the Divine Geoff Cave purpose with Israel, which was declared from their beginning as a nation (Ex. 19:5,6), be accomplished. Hebrew and Greek important, not 3 It is surely inconceivable that nine detailed Aramaic chapters of Scripture were given in the knowl- edge that they would never be fulfilled. As a Christadelphian, I have always believed 4 Ezekiel is not the only prophet who speaks of and understood that the Old Testament Scrip- animal sacrifice and the temple in the age to tures were originally written in Hebrew, with come. parts in Aramaic, and that the New Testament 5 Part of Ezekiel’s vision concerns the waters Scriptures were originally written in Greek. I which flow from under the threshold of the believe these original Scriptures were Divinely temple; these waters become a river which inspired, and are utterly incapable of error ex- divides into two. The result of this is the heal- cept for errors in transcription or translation. This ing of the waters of the Dead Sea. For this to view is undermined by the Catholic Church, for be accomplished, geological changes will have example, which regards the Latin Vulgate trans- to be made in the land of Israel. These changes lation as Divinely approved, and therefore inca- will be the result of the earthquake described pable of error even where it conflicts with the by Zechariah when the feet of our Lord touch Hebrew or Greek. the Mount of Olives. Unfortunately, the article “The importance of This being said, it is important to restate that the Aramaic” (Dec. 2002, p. 459) in my view goes animal sacrifices will only be for the mortal popu- down the same route by stating that the patri- lation of Israel and for any Gentile who wishes archs spoke Aramaic, that the Jews abandoned to be joined to the Lord (Isa. 56:3-7); the immor- Hebrew for Aramaic after the exile, and that tal saints will not be involved. This is possibly Aramaic was used by Jesus and the New Testa- the reason why Brother Hughes cannot see any ment writers and even by non-Jews. An extension hint of a mortal and immortal population coex- of this is that the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures isting; in this respect they will not. are merely translations and either not inspired The purpose of animal sacrifices was never to or not as inspired as the Aramaic. This mistaken take away sins, as Brother Hughes shows from view is vigorously promoted by a ‘Christian’ 54 The Testimony, February 2003 group on the Internet, who believe that the origi- Let us remember the importance of Hebrew, nal manuscripts of both the Old and New Testa- rather than Aramaic, in the plan and purpose of ments were in Aramaic. Unfortunately, the article God. Hebrew is the only language which God is in The Testimony corresponds with some of their recorded as speaking. The superscription on arguments, and in my view undermines the in- Christ’s cross was written in Latin, Greek and spiration of the Bible. Hebrew, not Aramaic (Lk. 23:38; Jno. 19:20). The The article quotes the late Aramaic scholar Greek New Testament reveals to us that Beth- George Lamsa as claiming that the differences esda is in the Hebrew tongue (Jno. 5:2), that between Aramaic and Hebrew are small, like Gabbatha (the Pavement) is in Hebrew (19:13), those between “American English and English that Golgotha is Hebrew (v. 17), that Abaddon is spoken in England”. The Holy Scriptures them- Hebrew (Rev. 9:11) and that Armageddon should selves prove that this is wrong; Isaiah 36:11-13 be understood as a Hebrew name (16:16). The records that Rabshakeh was asked to speak in number of the beast (666) in Revelation 13:18 Aramaic (“Syrian” in the AV), rather than He- works out as the Roman system in Hebrew, Latin brew, precisely in order to stop the ordinary and Greek, but not in Aramaic. Jews from understanding what was being said. There may appear to be a smattering of Ara- If native speakers of Hebrew could not under- maic words in the New Testament, but this does stand Aramaic, this clearly proves that the two not mean that the New Testament was originally languages are mutually unintelligible. Anyone written in Aramaic. English has a smattering of who has learned enough Hebrew to do the daily French words and phrases, such as bon appetit, readings, for example, will come to a standstill coup de grâce, and coup d’état, due to the historical on coming to the Aramaic portions of the Old links between England and France, but this does Testament. It is true that anyone familiar with not mean that all English speakers speak fluent Hebrew will make very rapid progress in Ara- French or that French was the original language maic because of the similarity of the grammar of England. Similarly, Hebrew has always had a and much common vocabulary, but this is not few Aramaic words due to the connection be- the same as understanding it automatically. tween the holy language and Aramaic. Regarding the claim that the patriarchs spoke It is even doubtful whether words claimed to Aramaic rather than Hebrew, Abraham is called be Aramaic in the New Testament are Aramaic “Abram the Hebrew” (Gen. 14:13) precisely be- at all. Those who can read Hebrew will have met cause he spoke Hebrew. Abraham came into Syria these words in their reading of the Old Testa- at a time when Ebla (Tell Mardikh) was a great ment and will be very familiar with them from city. The language of Syria at that time was not the Hebrew portions of the Scriptures. Regard- Aramaic, but a Hebrew dialect, as was shown in ing the first three examples in Table 1 of the The Testimony itself in a Quarterly Special on the article, raca means ‘empty’ or ‘vain’ in Hebrew significance of the Ebla discoveries.1 Far from (Strong’s numbers 07385 and 07387) and “Talitha the original language of Syria being Aramaic, it cumi” comes from talith, meaning ‘a lamb’ was in fact Hebrew; Hebrew was already a writ- (Strong’s numbers 02922 and 029240), and kumi, ten language and flourished as far back as the the feminine imperative form of the ordinary third millennium B.C. Abraham and Sarah were Hebrew word for ‘to rise’, used over 600 times told to call their son Isaac, a Hebrew name. It is (Strong’s number 06965 and occurring in this true that Laban spoke Aramaic, but, when La- exact form in Isaiah 60:1 and many other pas- ban and Jacob made a covenant between them, sages). In the case of “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani”, Laban used an Aramaic name, Jegar-Sahadutha, El is one of the Hebrew words for God, used 245 whereas Jacob used Hebrew names, Galeed and times in Scripture (Strong’s number 0410), with Mizpah (31:43-49). Clearly Jacob preferred He- Eli simply meaning ‘my God’. In fact, this cannot brew. Joseph, too, spoke Hebrew. He was called be Aramaic, because in Aramaic ‘my God’ would “the Hebrew servant” (39:14,17; 41:12).