The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1897-02-25
THE LANGUAGE OF CHRIST.
Arguments Tending to show That It Was
Syriac Aramaic.

Arguments Tending to show That At W@m
Syriac Aramaic.
Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis, the ori-
entail scholar who not long ago dis
covered an ancient Syriac text OF
the four gospels in a monastery at
Mount Sinai and translated it, con-
tributes an article to The Century
in which she discusses the ques-
ton, "What Language Did Christ
Speak," While many scholars be-
lieye he spoke Greek, because three
of the four gospels are supposed 70
have been written in that language,
others believe he spoke a Semitic
tongue, probably Ararnaic, which
was at that time the vernacular of
Palestine, and with this belief Mrs.
Lewis sympathizes.
In the course of this discussion
Mrs Lewis brings out many points
of interest. Syriac, or Christian Ar
amaic, was the first language into
which the New Testament was
translated, Aramaic not being a cor
rupt form of Hebrew, as many sup
pose, but distinct language. Again,
Hebrew had ceased to be the Ian
guage of the common people before
Christ's advent The rabbis spoke
to the common people in Aramaic,
all the documents pertaining to law
and business were written in that
language, and even some of the
nf hn
translated into it. The weight of
evidence favors the theory that
Paul used the language in writing
to the Romans, or at least thought
in it, and that the most interesting
of our Lords discourses were deliv-
cred in it. One of the most impor-
tant of Mrs Lewis arguments is
contained i'll the following illustra-
ton of her subject:
I'VE have, first of all, the various
Aramaic phrases actually embodied
in the Greek text as having been ut
tered by our Lord, such as ephpha-
tha Che opened), talitha, cumi (maid-
EN-, arise), where the word cumi
might be Hebrew or Syriac or Ara
bic And the last despairing cry of
our Lord on the cross, "Eloi, Eloi,
lama sabachthani - is not translated
in the Sinaitic palimpsest, for the
good reason that it is a natural part
of the Syriac text.
Take next the names of persons
ard places in the New Testament.
The Syriac word for son is bar, and
SO we have Bartholomew, Barabbas,
Bar Jesus, Bar-Jona, Barnabas, Bar
TimRus. Had Hebrew been the
spoken tongue these names would
have run Bartholomew, Ben-Jesus.
etc. We have also cepha "a stone,
feminine gender), Boanerges-that
is, Beni-rogaz (sons of thunder),
Sapphira (the beautifully, Thoma
(the twin), Martha Cthe mistress).
Tabitha (the gazelle), Bethsaida
(hOuse of fishing, Nazareth (watch)
Gethsemane (an oil press), Col
gotha (place of a skull), Aceldama
(the field of blood. 1t may as well
be explained that the final syllable
of most of these names, a, Is a dis
tinctive Syriac termination The
words Mammon (Matthew vi, "a
and raca (Matthew V, 22) and abba
are Syriac also.
Mrs. Lewis cites many other con
vincing indications that Christ spoke
in Syriac or Aramaic, the most OF
which are too technical for use in
this connection. She has poured :
flood of light upon a most abstrust
subject with the aid of her recent
important discoveries - abstruse
first, for the mysterious reason
which probably no one will ever ex
plain, that Christ did not set dowI
a single line in writing of his doc
trines or teachings, and, second. be
cause no one took down those teach
ings, they having been written il
their present form from memory
years after his ascension. The dis
cussiOn of this question will engag,
the attention of scholars, and many
interesting contributions to the lit
erature of the subject may be ex
pected, especially from the new
point of view introduced by Mrs
Lewis.