Subject: Original language of Revelation |
Bible Note: "Here's a few differences in how the Greek and Aramaic versions of Revelation read: Rev 2:22 "I will cast her into the COFFIN." The original Aramaic word here is spelled Ayin, Resh Sammekh Alef and can be translated as either "coffin" or "bed". "Bed" appears in the Greek text, but perhaps "coffin" makes more sense. Why would he throw her on a bed with her companions? Note Rev 2:23 says "I will kill her sons..." Why would God's judgement be to kill her sons and not kill her...but just throw her on a bed? Beds are where nice things happen - rest, relaxation....this is clearly a judgement, not a free pass to a spa. It's also easy to see how this could have been translated from Aramaic to Greek the way it was. Rev 10:1 Greek - "and His FEET were like pillars of fire" Aramaic - "and His LEGS were like pillars of fire". The Aramaic word for "legs" here can mean legs or feet or both. But since they are compared to "pillars", "legs" is probably a better translations. So we see how the imagery of the Aramaic version makes more sense. Rev 1:15 strongly suggests an Aramaic origin to Revelation: Greek - "...And his feet were were like brass (calko) burnished (libano) as if in a furnace, glowing/afire." Now the KJV translates "libano" as "burnished", but the word has no real meaning in Greek. It's actually a Hebrew/Aramaic word. Aramaic has two possible translations... "...And his feet were in the form of the Lebanese brass that is burned in a furnace" "...And his feet were in the form of the whitening brass that is burned in a furnace" The first is the most common, while the second is an arguably possible translation. When brass is burned in a furnace, it turns white. "Lebanon" in Hebrew/Aramaic shares roots with the Hebrew word for "to make white". It could be saying the brass is from Lebanon or it could be using this to say the brass is turning white. The same descrepency also appears in Rev 2:18. The Greek text is definitely using a Hebrew/Aramaic word - no question about it. A Hebrew/Aramaic word just simply suddenly appears in the middle of this otherwise Greek sentence. It would appear that when Revelation was translated from Aramaic to Greek, they simply transliterated this word instead of finding a Greek equivalent. Perhaps the translators did not know what it meant, so they just transliterated it. One problem with Aramaic is that it is a rather fluid language with several dialects, and the Greek traslators may not have known the dialect they were translating from, but only had info on a close, but not identical dialect of Aramaic. Rev 9:11 Aramaic - "...whose name in Hebrew is 'Avadu' and in Aramaic 'Sh'ra'" Greek - "...whose name in Hebrew is 'Abaddon' and in Greek 'Apollyon'" Rev 8:2 says the angels were given 7 Shofars -indicating what type of trumpet it was. The Torah discusses the Shofar made from a Ram's horn as well as silver trumpets. These two types of trumpets were used for different purposes in different times. So the fact that the Aramaic text could be telling us what kind of trumpet this was is significant in that this is lost in the Greek version. Now there's other subtleties that come through in the Aramaic that don't come through in the Greek. For example, when Jesus said He was the "Alef and the Tau", there's something hinted here that doesn't come through by translating this as "Alpha and Omega" or "A and the Z". Alef and Tau spell the word "ET" in Hebrew, which has an important grammatical usage that parallels Jesus's atonement in a spiritual way. Genesis 1:1 says... "In the beginning God created it; the heavens and the earth" This is probably the most literal way you could translate "ET". "ET" here is translated as the word "it". When an indirect object appears in a Hebrew sentence, it has to be preceeded by the word "ET", spelled Alef Tau. So it takes the place of an indirect object and must come before it. Now just as "ET" takes the place of an indirect object, Jesus took our place on the cross, and He had to come before us! Praise Him forevermore!!!!" part 2 of 2 (Taken from a thesis of the authorship of Revelation from my friend who is a Messianic Jew) |