Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Peter

> Well, there are several apparently Aramaic words recorded in
> transliteration in Mark's gospel, e.g. TALIQA in 5:41 and SABACQANI in
> 15:34 (Q = theta, C = chi), and an apparently Hebrew one, ELWI = Elohi
> in 15:34 (W = omega). Translations into Greek are given for all of them,
> just as for "Abba". One interpretation is that Jesus was always speaking
> Aramaic. Another is that Jesus was normally speaking Hebrew which was
> translated into Greek, and the few Aramaic words preserved are preserved
> to show their distinctively Aramaic nature.


HH: Here is somebody on the faculty of Emory University who 
understands Mark 15:34 to involve Aramaic:
http://www.religion.emory.edu/faculty/robbins/SRI/Examples/textures/inter/recontextualization.html

The third instance of intertexture creates the speech in Jesus' mouth 
in the scene of his crying out and death (15:33-39). In this 
instance, Markan discourse creates a chreia directly out of Psalm 
22:1:
And at the ninth hour Jesus called out with a loud sound,
"Eloi, Eloi lema sabachthani?"
which is translated, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me." 
(Mark 15:34) This time an entire line of Psalm 22 is recontextualized 
as speech of Jesus himself. In Theon's terms (Hock and O'Neil), this 
is a chreia with a "commentary" that provides a translation of the 
Aramaic sounds.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard