ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – OUR FATHER – ABBNU אבני Aleph Beth Nun Yod
Luke 23:34: “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”
This verse has always had me wondering. Just ten chapters earlier Jesus Himself said in Luke 13:3 “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” These people have not even yet repented and already Jesus is forgiving them.
There are many explanations for this ranging from the people Jesus was addressing to the nature of sin, that is if you are not aware of sin are you then not held accountable? Well, in the latter, if they were not accountable why would Jesus ask for their forgiveness? As far as who he was addressing, does it really matter? We are all sinners. But who might give us a clue? Six weeks later there would be a great revival when the Holy Spirit fells on the believers at Pentecost and they begin evangelizing and 3,000 people were saved. Many of them were the ones standing at the foot of this cross.
This is just my opinion, I believe Jesus was addressing those who would be saved on Pentecost. He knew their hearts and He knew if they knew what was going on, they would not have to support all that madness. Jesus knew that in just 42 days their eyes would be open and they would then know what they had done and would be repenting. In the spiritual realm, time does not exist. The past, present, and future are all the same plain. We can’t wrap our brains around it but in a sense, Jesus was asking forgiveness for the repentance He knew would come. After all, did he not forgive David even before he repented? II Samuel 12. God knew David’s heart and knew that once he was aware of his sin, he would immediately repent. So in the natural realm, God forgave David before he repented but in the spiritual realm, it all happened spontaneously.
But why at that time does he grant the forgiveness? This is what is of interest to me in this verse. You see the High Priest on Yom Kippur would confess the sins of the people as he offered a sacrifice on their behalf. Only the High Priest who goes through a purification process could offer a sacrifice for the sin of the people and ask God for their forgiveness. Jesus was now stepping into the role of our High Priest. It would be His job as a High Priest to make a sacrifice and ask forgiveness from God on behalf of the people.
Would you like Chaim Bentorah as your personal Hebrew teacher?
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Now to be sure Jesus was God but He was also the intercessor for our sins like the High Priest. We go to Jesus to ask forgiveness for sin and Jesus goes to the Father saying: “I made the sacrifice for that sin with my blood now grant forgiveness under the law that you established. On the cross, Jesus was demonstrating to the believers that He was now their new High Priest and also their sacrifice for their sins.
Note that He says: “Father forgiven them.” In the Aramaic, which was the language Jesus spoke on the cross he said ‘Abbiwhich being translated means, My Father. In the Lord’s prayer where Jesus is telling the people how to pray he instructs them to say Abbun – our Father. To say my Father shows His identification with God the Father as one with the Father. Jesus did not instruct the people to pray “My Father” like Jesus prayed because we are not God just children of God. That is not clear when translated into English but in the Aramaic, it would have been very clear to the people hearing Jesus pray My Father rather than Our Father. They would hear Jesus declaring His Divinity there on the cross and that He was one with God, as the physical manifestation of the Godhead and our source of forgiveness, our intercessor for God Himself in the manifestation of His Son who also made the sacrifice and is now the new, permanent High Priest.
Does that mean we cannot pray “My Father” Of course not? My Father in English does not mean the same thing as My Father in Aramaic. In English, it only says He is our personal Father God. If we pray abbi in the Northern dialect of Aramaic it would still be ok because we are making no claim to being God in our hearts and thoughts. Since the Northern Galilean dialect of Aramaic is a dead language there is no one around who can misconstrue it as a claim to Divinity. Now if you were to pray Abbi in Galilee two thousand years ago, that would not sound right with the people of that day. But we are not time travelers like Jesus and we live in a different era where we are free to say My Father as much as we wish and no one should mistake us for claiming deity.
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Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!
I am so tired of this notion that “repentance” means groveling in sorrow before God for your sins. There isn’t a single instance of Jesus requiring “being sorry” prior to granting salvation.
Why is the Christian church so intent on shoving the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in every’s mouth when it was the ONE tree our Daddy didn’t want us eat from?
If you are truly in love (and submitted) to Another – you WILL be sorry and repentant for knowing how your actions/words hurt them. If you don’t you’re a psychopath. But it has nothing to do with Jesus welcoming us THROUGH BELIEF in our hearts and confirmation with our mouth.
The Scriptures remained clear that Jesus and the apostles preached that in order for men to be saved, they must “metanoia” (ex. Luke 13:3, Acts 3:19, etc.) – and the real problem was not in the order of salvation and repentance, but in the word “repentance” itself. The Roman Catholics understood the order correctly, but had the wrong definition of metanoia, while the Reformers understood the order incorrectly, and likewise had the wrong definition of metanoia! This incorrect order and definition has caused the strange unapostolic juggling of sola fide and repentance within Protestantism, a juggling we have has seen for the last 500 years, and which is still just as prevalent today.
Was the major proclamation of Jesus and the apostles “Repent! Feel sorry for your sins”? Or was it “Metanoia! Think a new way”!
“Changing your mind” metanoia (I’m curious what it is in Aramaic) doesn’t seem to suggest some state of self-humiliation or regret as a condition ANYWHERE that I can see – as a condition of salvation. (There is an a separate call in Eph, etc but not as a condition of acceptance by God the Father).
The gospel is the GOOD NEWS for sinners, that as sinners, we are “justified FREELY by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24) through nothing but faith alone. “To the one who does not work, but believes upon Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted unto righteousness.” (Rom. 4:5)
Why not then drop the erroneous and awkward doctrine of “Repentance unto Life” for the Scriptural and apostolic doctrine of metanoia unto life?
“Whosoever will, let him take freely of the waters of life.” (Rev. 22:17) “‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ And they said to him, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” (Acts 16:30-31) “The Lord is… not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to metanoia.” (2 Pet. 3:9)
God calls sinners to eat freely of the bread of life, the broken body and shed blood of His Son. This is a meal He has set for the ungodly, not for the righteous nor for some phony level of righteousness. He wants sinners to eat of it, and He does not set up signs that say: “Only for those who are penitent”. God sees our dire need and says, “Eat, sinner, and live! Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ! Look and your soul shall be filled! Do not think that you must worthy to receive My salvation. Behold and believe My righteous generous grace for you displayed in the cross of Christ.
Jesus didn’t come to give us Old Testament 2.0. The idea of a law based relationship with God WAS ABOLISHED and fulfilled. GRACE AND TRUTH CAME through Jesus. So many Christian teachers are still trying to make the scripture their warped concept of the GOOD NEWS to include this sense of groveling repentance rather than acknowledge the myriad of evidence to the contrary. Why didn’t Jesus’ story of the Prodigal include a lengthy speech, recounting all of his errors. We’re told HE HAD ONE ready to give – but his Father cut him off and embraced him before he could get to it.
God is so desirous of us to eat freely from the Tree of Life and yet we rob the power of Jesus’ sacrifice (also putting up false hurdles to others) by keeping them from the scandalous revelation that got Jesus killed – that He just paid for it all and we receive it by BELIEVING IN HIS ASTOUNDING unmerited favor.
To Rightjb:
We’re on the same page here, though few, it seems to me, know of this concept. And you stated it so very well about grovelling before God about our sins and Jesus requiring some deep sorrow before we can receive salvation.
It’s been less than 10 years ago that I looked up the Greek and saw that metanoia doesn’t hold this deep sorrow concept at its center. Nor does this word mean “change” from some deep sorrow as its first meaning. The word meta means “after.” The word noia means “thoughts” or something that is a product of the nous, or “mind.” Meta-noia literally means “after – thoughts.”
Therefore, how would it be possible for God to “grant us repentance”? Would He be loading upon us great sorrow, regret, and shame? …from a God who IS love? No. He gives us all new “after thoughts” about His desiring to receive us, about a new way to walk not by laws, but by being led by His Spirit. The after – thoughts are positive, uplifting, and are GOOD news to us about Him. When we walk in repentance, we are walking in the new life full of the new positives of our new selves!
Nor have I ever read in the Bible that regret and sorrow must always precede the initial point of the “believing” of the Gospel. It’s just not there. Praying a sinner’s prayer is not there either. Paul speaks of “when you first believed…” as the beginning, not when you said this little prayer. I have seen much greater trust, peace, and assurance of salvation in those who are actually walking in the new and full life of the new self, meta – noia, than in those that are trying to retain in their memory the words of a prayer they once prayed or the feeling of how deep was their shame and sorrow when they first believed.
Many thanks again Chaim. I eagerly await your “Daily Word Study”! I also bought your book “Treasures of the Deep ” and it really is a treasure to me. I highly recommend it to everyone.
When Jesus tells His Father to forgive them for they not what they do He is simply practicing what He preached . God told us to
Even today some Christiansforgive our enemies and pray for them. Remember Jesus was sinless , however the was still time for Him to sin . He asked for forgiveness not only because He was sincere in prayer ,but also so no one could claim that He sinned by not forgiving .
In Luke 13: 3 Jesus is telling people that bad things don’t just happen to bad people .In those days people thought that bad things happened to you because you sinned .See the book of Job . He was also telling them to repent quickly because they don’t know how much time they have left
Even today some Christians still believe that if something bad happens to someone it is because God is punishing them . One lady would not help the people in Africa dying of AIDS because she said God was punishing them. It caused me to think about the story of Job .I wonder was God testing Job or was He really testing Job’s so called friends ? I wonder I wonder ?
Wow.
Amazing revelation.
Thank you