Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Mark 15:34 At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" which is translated, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?" |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Mark 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?"--which is translated, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?" [Ps 22:1] |
Subject: "Eloi" or "Eli"? |
Bible Note: Hello again, Tim! As for Mark, this is my friend's 'hypothesis' on the origin of Mark.. "I believe it is possible that Mark was written originally written in Latin, translated to Aramaic, and then translated into Greek. It may have been originally written in Aramaic and translated from there into Latin and Greek. I don't think it was originally written in Greek. Here's why... Textual Evidence The Cry from the Cross Perhaps the best evidence that Greek was not the original language of Mark is found in some important textual comparisons of Mark in the various languages. The most striking evidence that Greek wasn't the original language is in how the gospels quote Jesus on the cross as saying... Mark 15:34 "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani" Matthew 27:46 "Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani" (also spelled "sabaktani" or "sabaqtani") Now the fact that these two verses don't agree would suggest at least ONE of them was not originally written in Greek. Of course, with the overwhelming evidence that Matthew was originally in Hebrew (and the Shem Tov version of Matthew omits any translation of Matt 27:45), could Mark ALSO be a translation? Well Matthew says "Eli", which means "My God" in Hebrew. Mark says "Eloi", which means "My God" in Aramaic. "Lama" is Hebrew while "lamna" is Aramaic. Now there is some debate as to whether "Shabaqtani" is a Hebrew or Aramaic word. It's never used in the Hebrew Tanakh except in places where the Tanakh was written in Aramaic. But where it is used in the Tanakh, it clearly means "foresake". It's equated with the more common Hebrew word for "foresake" in the Targums as well since. "Shabaqtani" is considered part of the modern Hebrew vocabulary for "foresake" or "leave". The Aramaic phrase "Eloi, Eloi, lamua shabaqtani" can mean "why have you foresaken me?", but can also mean "My God, My God, for this reason I was kept" or "My God, My God, why have You spared me". This makes it easier to understand why the crowd was so confused and debated what He was saying when He spoke these words. For look at the possible meanings... "Eli, Eli" can mean "My God, My God" or can mean "My Strength, my strength". So they could have debated whether He was saying "My God, My God, why have you foresaken me?" verses "my strength, my strength, why have you foresaken me?" Surely He was weak at the time. And after the Babylonian captivity, Jews dropped the pronunciation of "yah" from people's names such that "Elijah/Eliyah" was simply called "Eli", "Toviah" was called "Tovi", and "Yahshua" (meaning "Yah" or YHWH is Salvation") was simply called "Yeshua" meaning "Salvation". This was done to avoid pronouncing the Divine Name, either in full or in short form. (Though in modern times, the short form as part of people's name has returned in pronunciation). So the first part, "Eli, Eli", could mean 3 or more things in Hebrew. And the last part, "lama sabaqtani" could mean more than one thing too. No wonder the crowd was so confused! If Mark was originally written in Greek, we would expect a direct quote from the Greek translation of Ps 22, but that's not what we have. Instead, we have the Aramaic "Eloi, Eloi", which only makes sense if the Greek version of Mark was translated from the Aramaic. Matthew has the Hebrew "Eli, Eli" because Matthew the Greek Matthew was translated from the Hebrew. The Greek Mark has the Aramaic "Eloi, Eloi" because it was translated from the Aramaic version of Mark. But the Aramaic text leaves doubt about whether it is the original too. For the Peshitta (Aramaic version) of Mark 15:33 says... "Eil, Eil, lamna shabaqtani", that is "Eloi, Eloi, lamna shabaqtani" This is rather awkward and not much of a translation. In fact, it uses "lamna" in both cases - a possible sign that even the first part was translated from something else. The idea it could have been copied from the Latin, which gave the quote and then a translation, would be rather plausible here. It wasn't "Eil" in the Greek text, so they weren't transliterating from that. (I'd love to see what the Latin says.) But here it's awkward to give an interpretation unless it was copied from another language that itself gives an interpretation. The Peshitta of Matthew 27:45 says, "Eil, Eil, lamna shabaqtani" and no translation is given for it. So I'm guess that it's possible that "Eil" is an Aramaic notation of the Hebrew "Eli" I'm not familiar with." Interesting stuff! Nolan |