Revisiting Elijah
(originally November 2, 2007) And when some of the bystanders heard it, they began saying, “Behold, He is calling for Elijah.” Mark 15:35
This one is worth repeating. About a year and a half ago I wrote this Today’s Word. It was the keystone in the arch of my understanding. For thirty years, I had been working in two worlds. One side of the arch was the Greek world – my life in business and in the church. Some things worked but nothing really fit together and made sense. On the other side of the arch was my exploration in Hebrew thought, a process of discovery that began ten years before I wrote my Ph.D. on the differences between the Greek and Hebrew view of time. Suddenly, this one insight, that Jesus spoke Hebrew, was the keystone at the top of the arch. Both sides finally met in the middle, and a whole new way of seeing the integrated world came into being. It was an “ah ha” moment. I want to share it with you again, so that you can have another look at a new way of seeing the integrated Bible.
Unraveling Translations
Elijah – I was wrong. In spite of the common theological idea that Jesus spoke Aramaic, and that the Greek New Testament was a translation from Aramaic, I have discovered that this is a mistake. It’s amazing what you can learn when you get old enough to admit your mistakes. But my confession to you has a much bigger implication than just that the teacher learned something new. The implication changes a great deal about how we understand the New Testament – and the teachings of Jesus. So, bear with me. We are about to make some startling corrections.
This word, Elijah, is the interpretation that people placed on the words of Jesus spoken from the cross. According to Mark 15:34, Jesus said, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani.” Mark tells us that this is translated as “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” We often take this to be an Aramaic phrase. That’s why we think it needs translation. But if it were in Aramaic, then it would have been impossible for the crowd to confuse Jesus’ words with the name for Elijah, since only in Hebrew does the word Eli have the double meaning of “my God” and the shortened name for Elijah. If Jesus spoke the words in Aramaic, no one would have been confused at all. But Mark records that they were confused. They thought Jesus was calling for Elijah. That means that Jesus must have uttered the words in Hebrew, not Aramaic.
You may say, “So what? What’s the big deal?” The big deal (and it is a very big deal) is that if Jesus conversed in Hebrew as His native tongue, then it is simply impossible to understand what He taught without knowing the culture and grammar of Hebrew, not Greek or Aramaic. We already know that Jesus used Scripture (the Old Testament) exhaustively. But if He commonly spoke Hebrew, then all of His thought forms, expressions and idioms will have to be understood from a Jewish perspective. That is a very big deal. It means that Christians are much closer to Jewish thinking than we have commonly believed. It means that Jesus was the greatest rabbi who ever lived, and that He taught in the fashion of the rabbis. It means that if we are going to practice what Jesus commanded, we will have to enter into the Jewish worldview in order to understand what those commands really mean. We will have to throw away centuries of segregation between Jewish thought and Christian thought and re-discover the Judaism beneath the soil of Christianity. This will rock our world!
Concepts of the church, evangelism, discipleship, tithing, prayer, blessing, confession, repentance and many, many more will have to be reconsidered from an Old Testament perspective. When Jesus said that He did not come to abolish the Law, we will see this in a radically new light. God has not changed. The plan is the same as it has always been from before the foundation of the world. Jesus came to open our eyes to what God had already been doing for thousands of years with the nation of Israel. The Christian Bible starts in Genesis, not Matthew. So, I’m sorry. We have so much to learn – again. Are you with me?
Topical Index: Elijah, eloi, Hebrew, Aramaic
If you want more on this critical subject, read The Hebrew Gospels.
Hi Skip – regarding Jesus speaking Hebrew. Isn’t he just quoting the Psalms? Maybe he was giving the Jewish religious leaders one last chance to connect the dots and reach THEIR Aha! moment that he truly was the Messiah. Only they would have known the meaning.
What other evidence do you have that Jesus spoke Hebrew besides this?
Maria in Newport News, VA
Maria, I remember asking this same question to Skip about a year ago because I was so shocked at the implications. Here’s a supporting article that he wrote.
https://skipmoen.com/subscribe/hebrew/the-hebrew-gospels/
Thanks for this reminder, Skip. I have always been kind of ‘backward’ about the Bible. For some reason, I only remember hearing about the Old Testament as a child, and the New Testament as an adult. Thus, the NT always seems to me to be ‘Bible lite’. I don’t see how anyone could possibly understand it on its own, but some seem to have no difficulty. I need the whole thing! I feel like there’s no AUTHORITY for the NT without the OT to back it up.
About the community: Isn’t it funny how God works! Isn’t it marvelous to actually witness Him doing this! I am grateful and amazed to be here now.
Yehshua did fulfill the law in his death. That was the fulfillment of humankind breaking the law…Death That did nor does mean we are not to continue to follow the instructinos for a good life written in the “law”. As Yeshua said about the Sabboth, “Man was not made for the Sabboth, but the Sabboth for man”, so it is with the law. We don’t keep the law-the law keeps us!
Here are some books that will help you resolve this misunderstanding. Anything by Brad Young (like Meet the Rabbis or Jesus:The Jewish Theologian), Tim Hegg – The Letter Writer, Biven and Blizzard – Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus and New Light on the Difficult Words of Jesus, anything by David Flusser (although most of his work in in German) and the mp3’s of Rabbi Robert Gorelik (available from http://www.eshavbooks.org – especially the series called “The Basics”)
Skip
I just ordered the Biven books from Amazon. This looks like the most exciting journey yet. Let’s go!
don’t you just love those “aha” moments. It gives us a passion for learning from the greatest teacher of them all- the Ruach HaKodesh. (John 14.26)
And G-d always speaks to a human heart through a human heart. Maybe He could use us today to speak His words of comfort and healing. He is able if we are willing. His blessings to all.. carl
I am so lucky in that I have never doubted that Jesus spoke in Hebrew. It never occurred to me that He would have spoken any other language since He was a Jew, living in the land of the Israelites. What escaped me all of these years is that to truly understand God’s Word and the teachings of Jesus I would need to read the Bible from a Hebrew perspective and with the mind of a Hebrew. Now, before my studies, I ask God not only to illuminate His Word, but to bring it home to me in the Hebrew perspective. I very recently just started doing this, so this year’s study will be very different. In addition, I went on-line to find a chronological order of the Bible and read it in the chronological order of events. Not just from Genesis – Revelation, which is how I’ve always done it (unless I have doing a topical study). God’s best to all! Pam
Speaking of Eshav Books,
I thought the Protestant authorities’ model took pride in keeping tradition as a lesser source, but the past few months I have come to question that stance, and Bob Gorelik, David Stern, and Rabbi David Fohrman have highly contributed to my questions. But it started the day you originally posted this message, Skip, and David Stern’s Complete Jewish Bible and “Restoring the Jewishness of the Gospel”.
It appears to me that Protestantism looks down its nose at Oral Tradition as a source of truth in Judaism. It decries Catholicism’s Apostolic Tradition and Teaching Authority. But Protestantism shows a definite Traditional priority in their non-questioning acceptance of the various ecumenical counsel decisions and opinions of the Founding Fathers. All translation and interpretation passes through that lens. It hasn’t been until the past few months that I have seen that mirrored in myself; I didn’t realize until now that my glasses were so thick!
Most of the New Testament uses of “paradosis” seem to be Jesus questioning the placement of Oral Tradition in Judaic priorities, but several occurrences of the word paradosis seem to indicate that Tradition should hold some value in our theological model. … It is another tension in worldview. It looks to me like the law of non-contradiction takes another flop-e-roo. But I have difficulty in knowing WHICH traditions; only the ones from Paul?
-Truthful L. Kindness & “Blessing”, the wheelchair Service Dog
… I guess I wasn’t done after all.
These questions were more triggered from studies that STARTED with this message from Skip, but the studies themselves were triggered by lessons from both Rabbi Gorelik & Rabbi Fohrman. But I don’t see any kind of forum in Rabbi Gorelik’s website, and I’m not ready to be this transparent (in fact, I’ve never posted) on Rabbi Fohrman’s. Besides that, due to the variety of student beliefs, he (Fohrman) has requested that we restrict our conversations to the Torah.
… so I posted it here.
– Truthful L. Kindness & “Blessing”, the wheelchair Service Dog
Oops; was this Too Much Information? I notice that my reply above has somehow “closed” the thread since yesterday afternoon. Somebody needs to tell me what I’m doing wrong because I am clue-less (other than maybe Too Much Information in today’s thread).
-Truthful L. Kindness, & “Blessing” the wheelchair Service Dog
truthfulkindness@sbcglobal.net
this is/was one amazing man.. He is/was the ultimate Rabboni, teaching even unto His last breath.. “Psalm 22, Psalm 22.. remember Psalm 22, you’re seeing in fulfilled in the flesh before your eyes.” How his heart loved them and loves us. I wonder if there were any in the crowd that made the connection then and I wonder the same for today’s crowd.