ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – BELIEVE – HAYMAN הימן Hei Yod Mem Nun

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Acts 16:30-31: “And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? (31) And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

I have always wondered about this passage as it is a favorite salvation passage.  The jailor fell to his knees before Paul and Silas and asked what must I do to be saved and they replied believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.  There is not a word in that little evangelistic scene about admitting you are a sinner and repenting.  

I mean what about James 2:19: “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” James goes on to say in verse 20:“But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?”

The word faith and belief in all these passages in the Greek are the same word which is from the same root pistis which is a legal term meaning to entrust, place something in the hands of another in confidence and trust that it is well taken care of.  It would seem that this guard was pleading for his life when he asked what he must do to be saved.  The word saved in Greek is sozo which means to seek divine safety.  As a Roman guard over prisoners he would forfeit his life if a prisoner escape but not only his life but his family’s life as well.   I doubt he was pleading for his soul salvation at this point.

In fact, the Aramaic makes it much clearer. The word for being saved is ‘acha’ which means to be spared you life in a physical sense, not a spiritual sense.  What the jailor was asking Paul was “What must I do to live and not be put to death by the Romans for failure in my duty.”  Paul’s response was; “Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Here is the key to the whole thing.  In the Aramaic it to trust in our Savior the Messiah.  This is a Gentile and Paul is a Jew but he is including this Gentile in the work of the Messiah saying that this Jewish Messiah is also your Messiah – our Messiah.  Grammatically in the Aramaic that our meant all who were present in the conversation. It was not an exclusive “our” as in the Jewish Messiah.

I believe this is where the process of salvation begins with this guard.  He had to first trust in a Jewish Messiah and then accept Him as his God. To make Him his. His own personal God, a God that he will worship and learn to love.  So, what about repentance?  There is not a word about repentance.  Is that not a part of salvation? 

What is repentance? It is a turning away from something and moving in another direction.  For  this Gentile, he knew to make the Messiah, Jesus Christ, his own personal God he would have to turn away and forsake all other gods. He would have to make a commitment to this new God. That commitment meant putting his life and his family’s life, which would not be worth a shekel if any prisoners escape, into the hands of this Messiah God.  He heard Paul and Silas singing hymns and witnessing to the other prisoners.  He got the full Gospel message.  He knew about repentance, but to put his life and the life of his family into hands of this Messiah God and trust him to protect their lives, repentance would follow. It would easily be a part of the whole package. 

Paul did not have to say repent.  This was a desperate man and if saying a sinner’s prayer would get him off the hook, he was ready to that.  He even said; “What must I do.”  The word believe in Aramaic is hayman.  This is also a legal word which means to give a loan in trust or to admit as evidence.  It is also a word for confiding in someone.  The guard would recognize that what Paul was saying was to give your life that you are afraid of losing and put it in trust to the Messiah. 

You see Paul went to the very root and heart of the salvation experience. One can pray a sinner’s prayer but not really mean it in his heart. One can say he is entrusting his life to Jesus but not really mean it in his heart.  But here was a desperate man who knew his life was on the line and he knew if this Messiah God was to spare his life he would have to be in good stead with Him. He would have known from Paul’s witness to the other prisoners that this Messiah died for their sins and rose again and was alive.  This old boy was already repenting. All he had to do was tell this Messiah God, Jesus, someone he could not see but believe, that He did exist and that his life now belonged to Him.

There was another time when a Pharisee was praying to God and bragged on all his good works and next to him was a publican who said “Lord be merciful to me a sinner.” Luke 18:13. Jesus said this publican was justified or dikaioo in the Greek which is another  legal term meaning to be right or declared innocent as does the Aramaic word used in this verse masadaq.   Jesus said nothing about believing in this situation.  The very fact of his repentance to an unseen God justified him. He didn’t even pray in Jesus name, nor did he acknowledge Jesus. But in his heart if he knew there was a Messiah who would die for his sins, he was ready to believe in Him.  This guard acknowledge Jesus and the Messiah, the Son of God, he clearly was in a state of repentance so all he had to do was hayman, give his life over to Jesus.  

Here is something interesting, the word hayman for entrusting or believing is also the word for hymns.  A hymn is a song of dedication and surrender of your life, entrusting your life into the hands of Jesus.  Every time you sing a hymn you are confirming your commitment to believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation.  

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