The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1897-02-10
THE LANGUAGE OF CHRIST.
Arguments Tendi1s SC Show That 1t Was
Syriac Aramaic.

syriao o. Aramaic.
Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis, the orr
entail scholar who not long ago dis
covered an ancient Syriac text of
the four gospels in 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
Speak3" While many scholars be-
lieve he spoke Greek, because three
of the four gospels are supposed to
have been written in that language,
others believe he spoke a Semitic
tong1,e, probably Aramaic, 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 q 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
prayers of the synagogue were
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 in 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
and 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, Benz 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 (the mistress),
Tabitha (the gazelle), Bethsaida
(house of fishing, Nazareth (watch),
Gethsemane Can oil press, Col
gotha (place of a skulll, Aceldama
(the field of blood. 1t may as well
be explained that the final syllable
of most of these names, a, is dis
tinctive Syriac termination. The
words Mammon (NIatthew vi, 2D
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 i'll
this connection. She has poured a
flood of light upon a most abstruse
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 down
single line in writing of his doe
trines or teachings, and, second, be
cause no one took down those teach
ings, they having been written in
their present form from memory
years after his ascension The dis
cussiOn of this question will engage
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 viewtintroduced by Mrs.
Lewis
Tf CbraA