Matthew's Infancy Narrative, 03: From Solomon to the Exile

(Part 01, Part 02)

Σολομὼν δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ῥοβοάμ,
Ῥοβοὰμ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἀβιά,
Ἀβιὰ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἀσάφ,
Ἀσὰφ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰωσαφάτ,
Ἰωσαφὰτ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰωράμ,
Ἰωρὰμ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ὀζίαν,
Ὀζίας δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰωαθάμ,
Ἰωαθὰμ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἀχάζ,
Ἀχὰζ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἑζεκίαν,
Ἑζεκίας δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Μανασσῆ,
Μανασσῆς δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἀμώς,
Ἀμὼς δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰωσίαν,
Ἰωσίας δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰεχονίαν καὶ τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς μετοικεσίας Βαβυλῶνος.


And Solomōn fathered Roboam,
and Roboam fathered Abia,
and Abia fathered Asaph,
and Asaph fathered Iōsaphat,
and Iōsaphat fathered Iōram,
and Iōram fathered Ozias,
and Ozias fathered Iōatham,
and Iōatham fathered Achas,
and Achas fathered Hezekias,
and Hezekias fathered Manassēs,
and Manassēs fathered Amōs,
and Amōs fathered Iōsias,
and Iōsias fathered Iechonias and his brothers at the deportation to Babylon.

Matthew's Infancy Narrative, 02: From Abraham to David

(Part 01 here)

Βίβλος γενέσεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ υἱοῦ Δαυὶδ υἱοῦ Ἀβραάμ.

Ἀβραὰμ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰσαάκ,
Ἰσαὰκ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰακώβ,
Ἰακὼβ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰούδαν καὶ τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς αὐτοῦ,
Ἰούδας δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Φάρες καὶ τὸν Ζάρα ἐκ τῆς Θαμάρ,
Φάρες δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἑσρώμ,
Ἑσρὼμ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἀράμ,
Ἀρὰμ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἀμιναδάβ,
Ἀμιναδὰβ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ναασσών,
Ναασσὼν δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Σαλμών,
Σαλμὼν δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Βόες ἐκ τῆς Ῥαχάβ,
Βόες δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰωβὴδ ἐκ τῆς Ῥούθ,
Ἰωβὴδ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Ἰεσσαί,
Ἰεσσαὶ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Δαυὶδ τὸν βασιλέα.
Δαυὶδ δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Σολομῶνα ἐκ τῆς τοῦ Οὐρίου,


The scroll of the genesis of Iēsous Anointed son of Dauid son of Abraam.

Abraam fathered Isaak,
and Isaak fathered Iakōb,
and Iakōb fathered Ioudas and his brothers,
and Ioudas fathered Phares and Zara by Thamar,
and Phares fathered Hesrōm,
and Hesrōm fathered Aram,
and Aram fathered Aminadab,
and Aminadab fathered Naasōn,
and Naasōn fathered Salmōn,
and Salmōn fathered Boes by Rachab,
and Boes fathered Iōbēd by Routh,
and Iōbēd fathered Iessai,
and Iessai fathered Dauid the king,
and Dauid the king fathered Solomōn by the wife of Ourias:

Matthew's Infancy Narrative, 01: "Jesus Christ, Son of David"

Since it's Christmas, why don't we have something a bit more timely? This time I'm gonna look at Matthew's infancy narrative.

(NOTE: This is a rehash of something I once did over at Catholic Answers Forums. I never got to finish the - admittedly one-man - discussion there as in many of my other threads, but at least I'd like to see this one get a proper closure.)

A History of Veronica, 02: Abgar and the Image of Jesus, Part 01

(Part 01 here)

Picking up where I left off:

It is in the 8th century that in the West we begin to see Berenice/Veronica connected with an image of Jesus on a piece of cloth. But, before we get to that, let's first talk about the earlier story of King Abgar and the image of Jesus he received known as the Mandylion.

A History of Veronica, 01: The Woman

Been a long time since I posted here, ain't it? :p

If you're Catholic, chances are you've probably heard of Veronica and her veil by which she wiped Jesus' face as He carried His cross to Golgotha. Despite her not being found in the New Testament, she is commemorated in the sixth Station of the Cross, and in addition, some Jesus films choose to include her in some form or another - examples of this would include Jesus of Nazareth or The Passion of the Christ (the clip below). The story is popular, methinks, because it epitomizes compassion: a woman helping the Lord in the smallest way she could in His hour of need and being rewarded for it in the form of an image on her veil.

But here's the thing. What do we really know about the woman we call 'Veronica'? And how did her story develop over time? And what does the so-called 'veil' of Veronica have to do with it?

The Minor, Trivial Biblical Stuff, Part 8: The Birth of the Messiah, Part 2: Giving Birth

In my humble opinion, one of the miracles of Jesus' birth that many people often overlook nowadays is a rather 'mundane' one: the fact that both Jesus and Mary survived.

Our Father...Birther of the Cosmos?

There are currently a lot of sites in the internet that claim to show a translation of the Lord's Prayer in the 'original Aramaic' (try searching for 'Lord's Prayer Original Aramaic' in a search engine), which usually run along the lines of (this particular translation by Neil Douglas-Klotz):

O, Birther of the Cosmos, focus your light within us -- make it useful
Create your reign of unity now
Your one desire then acts with ours,
As in all light,
So in all forms,
Grant us what we need each day in bread and insight:
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
As we release the strands we hold of other's guilt.
Don't let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back.
From you is born all ruling will,
The power and the life to do,
The song that beautifies all,
From age to age it renews.
I affirm this with my whole being.

Or even (alternative translation taken from here):

Oh Thou, from whom the breath of life comes, who fills all realms of sound, light and vibration. May Your light be experienced in my utmost holiest.
Your Heavenly Domain approaches.
Let Your will come true - in the universe (all that vibrates) just as on earth (that is material and dense).
Give us wisdom (understanding, assistance) for our daily need, detach the fetters of faults that bind us, (karma) like we let go the guilt of others.
Let us not be lost in superficial things (materialism, common temptations), but let us be freed from that what keeps us from our true purpose.
From You comes the all-working will, the lively strength to act, the song that beautifies all and renews itself from age to age.

Sealed in trust, faith and truth.
(I confirm with my entire being)

The questions are: Are these 'translations' accurate renderings of the Aramaic text? Is the 'original Aramaic text' used here the actual Aramaic that Jesus used? To which we answer: No.

These 'translations' mostly exploit the fact that most of the public know next to nil about Aramaic; thus, one could translate the phrase 'Abwun d'bashmaya' into something like 'O Father-Mother who art above and within' or other such variants and no one (save those who actually know or speak the language) would notice the difference!

Some would attempt to justify these translations, saying that Aramaic words has many nuances that is 'lost in translation' and that they are attempting to reconstruct the original sense and meaning of the prayer, and a few of them would even dare point a finger at the usual suspects (Matthew or Luke or whoever else they believe wrote the Greek versions of the Gospels), accusing them of mistranslating Jesus' words.

Yes, there are a lot of things that don't make it when one translates something into another language (like cultural references or whatnot) and a specific language may have different levels of meaning, but I'm afraid that what's happening here is like translating the phrase 'Macaroni and cheese' as 'Spaghetti with meatball sauce' into another language!

In my opinion these are a rather fanciful attempt at a translation (If I might add, these may not even qualify as 'translations' at all, since they do not really 'render' the text literally from one language to another faithfully, but may be entered into the 'paraphrase' category; even so, these are rather spurious and New-Agey paraphrases at that), multiple levels of meaning aside (really, what are the multiple meanings of Ab, the word for father? Can it also mean the neutral parent or even mother? And here I thought it was a singular male noun...)
Note also that the Aramaic text from which these texts are usually translated from are taken from the P'shitto (aka the Peshitta), a translation of the Bible in Syriac (an Eastern Aramaic language originally spoken in northern Meposotamia), and thus is not really the language (Galilean Aramaic, under the Late Old Western variety of Aramaic) that Jesus and His disciples spoke during the 1st century. There are also others who are attempting to reconstruct the original Galilean Aramaic of Jesus (and thus, how the original Our Father may have looked/sounded like), but that's another story.

Now another big question that comes up is: Why are these 'New Age' versions of the Lord's Prayer so popular?

I think this is because of our modern society's fascination with the mystic, the esoteric, the mysterious and the 'extraordinary' (used here in its original sense, 'out of the ordinary'); the same reason why the 'Gnostic Jesus' (a mystical guru who speaks in high pseudo-mystic jargon) and the 'Historical Jesus' (either a proto-Hippie or an angsty, misunderstood guy) are becoming popular in some circles nowadays and the reason why ideas which were once considered by society as 'subversive', beliefs that were once condemned as 'heretical' and 'blasphemous' are now becoming 'cool' and 'edgy'.

Therefore, a New Age 'translation' of the Lord's Prayer, which is presented as having layers of esoteric meaning which was undiscovered in ages before due to years of being 'lost in translation' (thanks to those incompetent Apostles, who never really did understand what Jesus really meant) would sell like pancakes in our modern society today.

What does the actual text in the P'shitto say?
The most important thing one must do when confronted with something is to check its sources to see whether this statement is true or no. Here is the relevant passage from the P'shitto (transliterated), along with a (modern?) Hebrew translation for comparison (Syriac being under the Semitic family of languages share cognate words with Hebrew and other Semitic tongues, such as Arabic):

ARAMAIC/SYRIAC:
Abwun d'bashmaya,
Nitqadash shmakh,
Tethe malkuthakh,
Nehwa tzevyanakh, aykana d'bashmaya, af bar'a.

Hav lan lakhma d'sunqanan yomana.
U'shboq lan khaubeyn, aykana d'af khnan shboqan l-khaybeyn.
U'la te'lan l'nisyouna, ela patsan min bisha.
(Metul d'dilakh hi malkutha, u-khayla, u-teshbukhta, alam l'almin.)
Amin.

HEBREW:
Avinu sheba'shamayim,
Yitqadesh shimkha,
Tavo malkhutekha,
Ye'aseh retzonekha, ba'aretz ka'asher na'asah ba'shamayim.

Ten-lanu haiyom lekhem khukeinu.
U'selach lanu et ashmateinu, ka'asher solekhim anakhnu la'asher ashemu lanu.
Ve'al-tevieinu lidei massah, ki-'im hatzileinu min-hara.
(Ki lekha ha-mamelakha ve-hagevurah veha-tiferet, le'olemei 'olamim.)
Amein.

Now let's do a step-by-step look at the words of the Prayer:

1.) 'Abwun' means 'Our Father' (Ab 'Father'; a masculine noun, not a neutral word like 'Parent' or 'Father-Mother'+un 'our'), with the pronoun suffix -un corresponding to the Hebrew -nu (Abwun would be Avinu in Hebrew) and 'd'bashmaya' (d+bashmaya) is 'who/which/that + in-Heaven'.

The word shmaya is noticeably cognate to the Hebrew word shameh (plural form shamayim) and Arabic samā' (plural form samawāt), meaning 'the sky/heaven(-s)/elevation'. Thus, 'Abwun d'bashmaya'="Our Father, who is in (the) Heaven(s)".

2.) 'Nithqadash', in the imperfect or 'future' tense, means 'will be Holy' (Note that the Aramaic/Syriac 'qadash' is cognate to Hebrew 'qadash', meaning 'to be holy, to be sanctified'). 'Shmakh' (shm+akh) is 'Your name' (shma, meaning 'name' is cognate with Hebrew shem and Arabic 'ism).

The suffix -akh is comparable with the Hebrew -kha and Arabic -ak, both meaning the singular masculine 'you'. At times, the imperfect tense is used as an adjuration, thus, 'Nithqadash shmakh'=literally translated 'Your Name will be holy', i.e. 'May Your Name be holy'.

3.) 'Tethe' is 'will come', 'malkuthakh' (malkuta+akh) is 'Your kingdom' (the Hebrew and Arabic cognates of malkuta are malkuth and mamlakah, respectively), thus 'Tethe malkuthakh'=literally translated 'Your Kingdom will come', i.e. 'May Your Kingdom come'.

4.) 'Nehwa' is 'will be', 'tzevyanakh' (tzevyan+akh) means 'Your will or desire', thus 'Nehwa tzevyanakh' is 'Your Will will be', i.e. 'May Your Will be [done]'.

'Aykana' is 'like, as', 'af' is 'also' and 'b-ar'a' (ba+ar'a; Ar'a is cognate with Hebrew Eretz and Arabic 'Ard, meaning 'Land, Earth, ground') is 'on the Earth'. All in all, "Nehwa tzevyanakh, aykana d'bashmaya, af bar'a" means "May Your will be [done]; as in Heaven, [may it be] also on the Earth".

5.) Hav lan (Hav 'give'+ lan 'to us') is 'give to us', lakhma is 'bread' (comparable to Hebrew 'lekhem'), D'sunqanan is 'which we need (lack)' (d' 'which, what' + sunqa 'lack, need' + nan 'we') and yomana (from imama, 'day'; compare Hebrew hayom and Arabic yawmana) is 'today'; therefore "Hav lan lakhma d'sunqanan yomana"='Give us today the bread which we need'.

6.) U'shboq is 'And forgive' (U+Shboq 'to allow, to forgive'), shboqan is 'we have forgiven' and khaubeyn and khaybeyn means 'debts, sins' and 'sinners, debtors, etc.' respectively, thus "U'shboq lan khaubeyn, aykana d'af khnan shboqan l-khaybeyn" is to be rendered as 'Forgive us our sins (debts), also as we have forgiven sinners (debtors)'.

7.) U'la (U+La 'No, not') means 'And not', te'lan is 'lead us' and l'nisyouna is 'unto danger/temptation'. Therefore "U'la te`lan l'nisyouna" is "And lead us not into danger/temptation".

Ela is 'but', patsan is 'deliver us' and min bisha means 'from evil'. All in all, "And lead us not into danger, but deliver us from evil".

8.) Metul is 'because, for', d'dilakh is 'of which-yours', hi malkutha is 'is [the] kingdom', u-khayla and u-teshbukhta are 'and [the] power' and 'and [the] glory', and l'alam 'almin is 'forever, unto the ages' ('alam, meaning 'eternity, forever, world' is related to the Hebrew olam and Arabic alam; it is quite similar in meaning to the Greek aion). Therefore the whole prayer runs loosely thus:

Our Father who is in Heaven,
May Your Name be Holy,
May Your Kingdom come,
May Your will be done; as in Heaven, may it be so on the Earth.

Give us today the bread we need,
And forgive us our sins (or debts), also as we have forgiven sinners (or debtors).
And lead us not into danger, but deliver us from evil.
(For Yours is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever unto the ages [i.e. forever and ever].)
Amen.

So there you have it. Even the Aramaic/Syriac text of Our Father is quite close with how we have always said the prayer and how it had been handed down to us, despite some people's claims to the contrary. Matthew and Luke can now rest properly.

This post is mostly inspired and based on an informative article entitled, "O Father-Mother Birther of the Cosmos?!" and this page.