Fan S. Noli Wrote:PREFACE

Millions upon millions of Christians and non-Christians recognize Jesus as a great teacher. Very few of them know that he is also a great poet. This anomaly can be explained by the fact that the greatness of Jesus as a teacher is brought out by the Four Gospels, the most famous didactic books of all times. On the contrary, the greatness of Jesus as a poet is obscured by the literary form in which the Four Greek Gospels have reached us.

In the first place, the original Aramaic poetry of Jesus has been irretrievably lost. It has come down to us only in the form of a literal Greek translation, word for word and in prose. Well, when poetry is translated from one language into another word for word and in prose, it simply ceases to be poetry. It becomes prose, and a very poor prose indeed. That is unfortunately what happened to the poetry of Jesus as we find it in the Four Greek Gospels. In the second place, the rigid tradition of reading our Gospels in word for word translations and in poor prose has been maintained for nineteen centuries down to the present day. No wonder that so very few people think of Jesus as a poet.

Yet there is no doubt that Jesus was a poet. Like all the great Rabbis of Israel, Jesus had to formulate his doctrines in a poetic and epigrammatic form for mnemotechnic reasons, that is to say to make them easy for his disciples to memorize. As a matter of fact, almost all the sayings of Jesus, including the Lord???s Prayer, have their poetic and epigrammatic parallels in Rabbinic literature. It is this poetic and epigrammatic form that saved the saying s of Jesus until they were translated into Greek and incorporated in our Four Greek Gospels. Last but not least, the sayings of Jesus, in spite of their Greek prose garb, have all the unmistakable characteristics of Hebrew poetry. Curiously enough, some of them are even rhymed in their Greek translation as they were in their original Aramaic. Now, in order to have a clear idea of Jesus as a poet, his sayings should be translated rhythmically as poetry. That is what I have tried to do in this version, in which about three fourths of St. Matthew???s have been rendered in blank verse, with a few rhymes here and there. In this respect, this book happens to be the first of its kind ever published in English. St. Matthew???s Gospel was chosen because it contains the most complete collection of the sayings of Jesus.

Under the circumstances it is practically impossible to restore the original beauty of the sayings of Jesus. So I am far from thinking that my version of St. Matthew will solve that problem, but I am quite sure that I am on the right track as pioneer. I hope that somebody else will do a better job some day and give us a version worthy of the great poet of Nazareth.

Quote:Blessed are the humble-minded
Theirs will be the Realm of Heaven

Blessed are the mournful-minded
Comfort they???ll obtain from Heaven

Blessed are the gentle-minded
They???ll inherit earth and Heaven

Blessed are the righteous-minded
They???ll be filled with grace from Heaven

Blessed are the mercy-minded
Mercy they???ll obtain from Heaven

Blessed are the chastely-minded
They will see the Lord in Heaven

Blessed are the peaceful-minded
They???ll be called the Sons of Heaven

Blessed are the godly-minded
Mamed and shamed for truth and faith
Theirs will be the Realm of Heaven

Blessed are you martyr-minded
When men curse and persecute you
When men slander and pollute you
For me and the Realm of Heaven

Then be glad and joyful-minded
Your reward is rich in Heaven
Thus they???ve hunted down all the prophet-minded

Quote:Our Father, high in heaven,
Thy name be holy and revered
Thy Kingdom be revealed
Thy Will be now fulfilled
On earth exactly as in heaven
Give us this day our heavenly bread
Forgive us our offences
As we forgive those who offend us
Let us not fall into temptation
Save us from Satan???s domination
The Kingdom, and power, and the glory
Are thine forever and forever. Amen.

Quote:In the first place, the original Aramaic poetry of Jesus has been irretrievably lost.

Quote:How could we have irretrievably lost the most important Words ever uttered in any language?

Paul Younan Wrote:Shlama Christina,

What a great man, and wonderful book. Unfortunately His Eminence (God rest his soul) had this opinion:

Quote:In the first place, the original Aramaic poetry of Jesus has been irretrievably lost.

What a horrible thing to resort to believing! To even think the "words" of the Word were irretrievably lost......that they somehow needed to be reconstructed. I can only imagine what the history of Judaism would be if the original Hebrew of Moses were irretrievably lost, survived only in Egyptian translations where variants were rampant. I wonder how many sects Judaism would be splintered into over doctrinal disputes leading to ever-changing revisions of yet further translations into other languages....each sect having their own favorite translation because it supported their own doctrinal position.

Oh wait....I just described Christianity!

How could we have irretrievably lost the most important Words ever uttered in any language?

Christina Wrote:I know one day His Bride will be spotless and without blemish, she just needs a couple of good "spankings" from her loving Father, which will come prior to her bridegrooms return.