ARAMAIC, the language of Jesus, was and is
a very different language from Greek.
Our written source for the Aramaic text is the Peshitta, which was
started in the 1st century, finalized in the 4th century,
subsequently copied in the following centuries. The name “Peshitta” in Aramaic
means “straight”, in other words, the original and pure words of Jesus and
stories about him. The Peshitta is the
only version of the New Testament written in Aramaic, the language of Mshikha
(the Messiah) and of his disciples.
The Peshitta is the text of the New Testament
used and translated from, by the Church of the East. It is possible that some of the books of the
New Testament were originally written in Aramaic, but later, in the West, translated
into Greek by first-century Christians.
This never happened in the East, where Aramaic, or various forms of it, was
the Lingua Franca of the Persian Empire.
In the West, which had become largely Greek and
then Roman-speaking, the Aramaic texts
were mostly discarded and then forgotten.
Unfortunately, Greek is a very different language from Aramaic, based on
a different, dualistic philosophy: e.g.
heaven – earth. Aramaic has no word for
“heaven” as (a place) outside of or different from “earth”: they saw heaven and
earth as part of a whole, forming the cosmos or universe. There are some words and ideas in Aramaic
that are simply not able to be exactly translated into Greek, or they are
changed considerably in translation.
Unfortunately all our Scripture translations today in the West: English,
German, French, Italian, Spanish, etc. are translated from the Greek. They are therefore a translation of a
translation. Often the original meaning has been lost in in this double translation process.
The Aramaic is much closer to what Jesus actually said and meant because
Aramaic was his language.
Note that Aramaic can have several layers of meaning in each word or
phrase, so words or phrases can be translated in various ways. This can be very confusing for us. Greek is much more precise and fixed in its
meanings.
Summary of Beatitudes in English:
Matt.
5, 3 – 12 Lk. 6, 20 -23
“Sermon
on mount”
“Sermon on the plain”
1. Poor
in spirit
1. Poor
2.
Meek
3.
Mourn
3. Weeping
4. Hunger & thirst for righteousness 4. Hungry
5. Merciful
6. Pure in heart.
7. Peacemakers
8. Persecuted in the cause of uprightness.
THE BEATITUDES; TRANSLATED FROM THE ARAMAIC
based on Matthew’s version:
Tubwayhun = ripe, mature; having reached a stage of the fullness of the
person I am meant to be. The Beatitudes
show us what a mature disciple of Jesus is like.
1. Tubwayhun l’meskenaee b’rukh: d’dilhounhie malkutha
d’bwashmaya.
Ripe
are those who find their home in the breath (the Spirit); they shall be attuned to the inner reign of
God.
l’meskenaee: rooted in, firmly
based on; “meskenaee means a solid home base or resting point in a fluid, round
luminous enclosure and of devotedly holding fast to something, as if one were ‘poor’
without it”. (Douglas-Klotz, 49)
b’rukh: breath, Spirit, the
Divine, God
d’dilhounhie: to be in tune with, attuned to
malkutha: the reign of God.
(Great Mother of Middle East, thousands of years before Jesus.)
d’bwashmaya: core of this word is “shm” or “shem: vibration, radiation, resonance, name. ... vibrating throughout the universe.
BREATH
“Tuned to the Source ... breathing unity”
rukha / ruha/ rukh = breath, soul, spirit.
Another name for Alaha (God) is Sacred Breath. Our breath is part of the Sacred Breath that
fills all of life.
The Aramaic tradition is that the universe came into
being through sound, vibration, breath: ruha
d’qodsha (creating breath).
When feeling out of rhythm with yourself, others or your situation,
experiment with breathing in and out, feeling the sound of the word rukha, or
Alaha (Jesus’ name for God: Source of
Unity.) Let the rhythm of the word and
the rhythm of your breath merge in a way that feels natural. Allow the sensation of the breathing to touch
your entire body. Gradually let go of
the word and allow the feeling of your breathing to cradle and rock whatever
part of yourself has been ignored or starved from tis connection with the
source of life.
(Douglas-Klotz: Prayers of the Cosmos, 49)
to pray: shalu =
to open oneself, to make space within oneself for the Divine; to become a “resonating space for your
vibrations”.(nethqadash shmakh in the Our Father.)
(For the other 7
Beatitudes, we will focus mainly on key words).
2. Tubwayhun lawile d’hinnon netbayun.
Ripe
are those who mourn/ weep/ grieve for people who are suffering; they shall be comforted / shall be united inside
by love. (cf
Barbara Fiand, In the Stillness You Will Know, p.21 ff)
lawile. mourners; those
who long deeply for something to occur;
those who suffer with people who are suffering/ are troubled or in emotional turmoil
netbayun: comforted;
returning from wandering; united
inside by love.
3. Tubwayhun l’makhike d’hinnon
nertun arha.
Ripe are the gentle;
they shall be open to receive strength from the earth (universe).
l’makhike: gentle, one who has
softened what is unnaturally hard, one who has submitted or surrendered to God.
nertun: receiving from the
universal source of strength; softening
the rigid places within leaves us more open to God, who acts through all of
nature.
arha: earth (origin of English
word); understood as the universe
4. Tubwayhun
layleyn d’kaphneen watzheyn l’khenuta d’hinnon nisbhun.
Ripe
are those who hunger and thirst for justice (righteousness); they shall be encircled by the birth of a new
society.
layleyn: those who
wait intensely
d’kaphneen: hungering
watzheyn: thirsting
when one is parched
khenuta: justice, an
inner and outer sense of justice, a base upon which things
can rest, the perfection of natural ability.
nisbhun: satisfied,
encircled by birthing.
5. Tubwayhun lamrahmane dalayhun nehwun rahme.
Ripe are the compassionate; upon them shall be
compassion.
Lamrahmane, rahme: compassion, mercy. The ancient root means “womb” or an inner
movement from the centre of depths of the body radiating heat, warmth,
tenderness. (The association of womb and
compassion leads to the image of “birthing mercy”.)
Karen Armstrong: Charter for Compassion; Twelve
Steps to a Compassionate Life.
Judy Cannato: Field
of Compassion< Sorin Books, 2010.
Barbara
Fiand: Embraced by Compassion,
Crossraod, N.Y. 1993.
6. Tubwayhun
layleyn dadkeyn b’lebhon d’hinnon nehzun l’alaha.
Ripe are those who are consistent in heart
/whose lives radiate from a core of love;
the shall contemplate the One (the Divine, God).
dadkeyn: consistent in love; having a fixed, electrifying purpose. The old roots calll up the image of a flower
blossoming because that is its nature.
lebhon: heart;
any centre from which life radiates;
vitality, direction, desire, courage all rolled into one.
nehzun: to see, but more especially to have inner
vision or contemplation.
alaha: God,
the Unity, the One.
7. Tubwayhun lahwvday shlama dawnawhie d’alaha nitqarun.
Ripe are those who plant peace in each
season; they shall be named the children
(or emanations) of God.
lahwvday: being committed to an action; planting, tilling the ground, laboring
regularly, bringing forth fruit and celebrating.
shlama: same root as “shalom”: peace.
it also means health, safety a mutual agreement or a happy assembly.
dawnawhie: children;
any embodiment or emanation.
nitqarun: digging a channel or well that allows water
to flow In this sense, as we ‘plant
peace’ we become channels or fountains for hastening the fulfillment of the
divine will.
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8. Tubwayhun layleyn detrdep metol khenuta
dilhonie malkutha d’bwashmaya.
Ripe are those who are persecuted for the sake of justice (or righteousness);
the reign of God is in them.
detrdep: persecuted,( dominated,
dislocated, discriminated against).
khenuta: justice
malkutha
d’bwashmaya: the reign of God lives /vibrates within them,
and radiates outwards.
Conclusion:
Ripe are you when you are conspired
against, dislocated and wrongly labeled as immature for my sake; no matter where you turn, you will find the
Name (Unity, God) inscribed in light. It
is the sign of prophecy to be persecuted.
This retreat
has been based mainly on books and tapes by Neil
Douglas-Klotz, especially “Prayers
of the Cosmos – Meditations on the
Aramaic Words of Jesus” and “The Hidden Gospel – decoding the Spiritual
Message of the Aramiac Jesus”. Also
the set of CD’s: “Healing Breath”
- Body-based Meditations on the
Beatitudes”. Study-guides and
teaching tapes for all of these are available.
There is a German CD called “ABWUN” from Düsseldorf, Lichthaus Musik,
1997. A program is available on the internet by Rev. Elizabeth Reed in a course
called Self-healing Expressions.
Reed works with Douglas-Klotz.
(Patricia Fresen, DTh, RCWP)
1 comment:
Thank you for posting this article/retreat summary.
It is filled with insight and wisdom. Ed Hoeffer
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