the story of Jesus

Why Syriac?

The gospel of John is written in Greek, expressing Hebrew concepts. When I read it in Modern Hebrew, I found that some of its meaning become clear for me, because it uses the concepts that I learn from the Old Testaement. I realize that many concepts are flowing from Old Testament to New Testament.

Suposely, Jesus was speaking this lanague to communicate with his message. I was curious know to cultural equivalent between two worlds: the world of Jesus and of ours. In that sense, any translation is an interpretation of two cultures. It is an art in itself. So, I would like to explain how John the gospel writer, tells the story of Jesus in Hebrew or Aramaic/Syriac.

When we read the story of Jesus in Hebrew and Syriac, knowing Semitic culture, we can catch something different from the story. For examples:

It is easier to understand John 8: 13-14 if we know that in Semitic thought, the phrase “I am” conveys a thought of eternal existence reserved only by God. Othewise you would have thought, “Why do they try to kill him?”

When I study John 8: 26, I learn that the phrase can be trnalsted as “You do not empty yourselves to (make room for) my word.” I love that imagery.

When we read John 3: 8, if we read in Syriac or Hebrew, it is easy to see the wordplay. The dual meaning of the Hebrew “Ruach” and Aramaic/Syriac word “Rukha,” can mean, spirit and wind. When we say that Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, in Aramaic, we can sense why Jesus compared the movement of spirit with wind. It is because in Hebrew and Aramaic/Syraic language spirit can mean wind.

Also, we can imagine the story little differently when we read know Syriac and Hebrew. For examples, in Hebrew and Syraic, they use a same word to express “work,” “service” and “worship.” (John 9: 4)

In Semitic cuturre there is a concept of purifying oneself, especially in the context of a ritual washing prior to worship or priestly service. (John 9: 7) Musilms do that still today before their prayer. It is more cultural.  

In Semitic culture, prostrating oneself before God is the most submissive form of worship.

When I read the gospel of John, I even wonder whether John the wirter was thinking in Aramaic. He uses only limited vocabularies. For exnaple, other gospel writer, Luke used way more vocabularies than him.

My possible guess is that John was teaching for awhile among those who speak in Aramaic. But now he is telling the story to Greek speaking people. So, some nuance was lost in translation. That is why some stories were able to be explained through Aramaic expressions, as it seems.  

Religious concepts can be very cultural concepts. So, those who study Syriac version of the gospel of John are finding a lot of possible wordplay in the story. For examples,

In John 7: 9-10, in Hebrew and Syriac, John seems to use the irony in the wordplay. In Syriac, “in Galilee (v 9)” is b’Galeela and “openly (v 10)” is b’Galeea.  “Jesus went up to the feast secretly, not openly.”

In John 8: 10-11, Jesus seems also use wordplay between Mawtha (death) and Matha (to come). “You will die in your sins and where I go you cannot come.”

             So, I use the Syriac Peshitta version of the gospel of John instead of Greek, in order to know how John might have understood Jesus to be. I am not saying the Syriac version is more authoritative. So, to be fare, I would like to note how John is telling the story of Jesus in Greek.

The most popular example appears when Jesus was asking Peter whether he loves him. Jesus asked Peter two times, whether he loves (agape) him. Peter answers two times that he loves (phileo) him. And at the end Jesus then says whether he even loves (phileo) him. Peter is saying that at least he loves (phileo) him. In this conversation Peter does not dare to say he loves (agape) him. When he denied Jesus, some humility came on him. Jesus then simply guided to love him and thus serve him. You can see a lot of thoughts were passing between Jesus and Peter in this short conversation. John was obviously catching those unheard conversation and sharing with us.

After all, when I read and translate the story in Syriac, I found that how some concepts are Greek and/or Hebrew. It helps me to comprehend the story of Jesus more.

Translation

I am writing this to help you get used to reading Syriac Gospel. I assume you have studied Syriac. This will be enourmously helpful if you know some Syriac, like basic gramaer. The purpose of here is to read the story of Jesus in Syriac and learn their way of storytelling. .

If so, I would like to help you to read the Gospel of John. As you read over and over the gospel of John, which is easiest, you will boost your confidence. One day you will find yourself frequent in Syriac. Learning a language is like that.

             Translation is an art. I want to be faithful to original Syriac expression as well as English expression. But I tend to translate literally into English. Syriac is a poetic language. Its expression may differ. Since my goal is to teach you Syriac, my translation shows you how Syriac gospel is telling the story. That means I didn’t use any idiomatic phrase of English. Here I try to translate the Gospel of John literally, for those who would study Syriac. But I confess that in some part I chose to translate certain way for theological reason.

Some of you may study to teach the language. Anyhow, reading the stryo of Jesus in Syriac and Modern Hebrew has good benefit. If you read in Modern Hebrew, you can see how Jesus might have been thinking when Jesus used certain words. I could see how people of 1^st century might have thought, according to their Jewish tradition and the Old Testament konwldge. I could sense better what Jews including his Jewish disciples would have thought about certain teachings of Jesus.