04-20-2008, 11:04 PM
April 20, 2008
Shlama Akhi Dave,
After carefully considering your well written arguments for Jesus as ???forsaken??? by God, I return to my personal opinion that the wide range of possible meanings makes ???forsaken??? an inapropriate English word. Paul???s semitic metaphor not withstanding, I believe that Jesus??? sacrifice was God???s gift to mankind, and that Jesus was not the target of God???s wrath. That position makes no sense to me based on my reading of the scriptures.
According to Lamsa, ???The Aramaic word shabakthani is derived from shabak which means to keep, to allow, to spare, to leave, and to forgive. The meaning of this word, like the meanings of many other Aramaic words, is determined by the context. For example, shabak li, which means allow me. Saul killed all males, but he shabak, spared the women, shabaklan khoben, forgive us our trespasses.Shabak li lakhma, keep me some bread. Even today in Aramaic we say God has kept us, or spared us for this cause, or for this mission, or for this destiny.???
It seems to me that the original meaning of "Eli, Eli, lemana shabak-thani."must be something less extreme than ???forsaken??? given the wide range of meanings for shabak-thani, and more directly related to Jesus??? immediate condition. I believe it would be unlikely that he was reciting an Aramaic version Psalm 22, but even that would make more sense to me than your interpretation.
Blessings,
Otto
Shlama Akhi Dave,
After carefully considering your well written arguments for Jesus as ???forsaken??? by God, I return to my personal opinion that the wide range of possible meanings makes ???forsaken??? an inapropriate English word. Paul???s semitic metaphor not withstanding, I believe that Jesus??? sacrifice was God???s gift to mankind, and that Jesus was not the target of God???s wrath. That position makes no sense to me based on my reading of the scriptures.
According to Lamsa, ???The Aramaic word shabakthani is derived from shabak which means to keep, to allow, to spare, to leave, and to forgive. The meaning of this word, like the meanings of many other Aramaic words, is determined by the context. For example, shabak li, which means allow me. Saul killed all males, but he shabak, spared the women, shabaklan khoben, forgive us our trespasses.Shabak li lakhma, keep me some bread. Even today in Aramaic we say God has kept us, or spared us for this cause, or for this mission, or for this destiny.???
It seems to me that the original meaning of "Eli, Eli, lemana shabak-thani."must be something less extreme than ???forsaken??? given the wide range of meanings for shabak-thani, and more directly related to Jesus??? immediate condition. I believe it would be unlikely that he was reciting an Aramaic version Psalm 22, but even that would make more sense to me than your interpretation.
Blessings,
Otto