Aramaic Word Study – Take Up Snakes Chauuta Nashaqalun  חוותא נשקלון Cheth Vav Vav Taw Aleph   Nun Shin Qop Lamed Vav Nun

Mark 16:18: “They shall take up serpents.”

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophies.” Shakespeare  Hamlet, Act I, Scene V.

Shakespeare presented the character of Horatio into his play Hamlet, to lend creditability to the appearance of the ghost of the King of Demark, Hamlet’s father who was murdered.  Horatio is presented as a close friend to Hamlet who studied together in Wittenberg and was a scholar and the embodiment of the Elizabethan skeptic of all things supernatural.  For Horatio to believe he saw a ghost would make this appearance more credible to the audience.  It also presented Horatio as an honest and trustworthy man who despite his skepticism did believe the appearance of the ghost was real when confronted with the evidence.  When Hamlet told Horatio that there were more things in heaven and earth than ever dreamed of in Horatio’s philosophies he was speaking to the scholarship of his friend and telling him how little most educated people could explain away such things as the existence of ghosts.  Horatio, however, was now a believer in ghosts. The question he faced now was whether this ghost was from heaven or hell. 

I can paraphrase Shakespeare by saying that there are many things in Scripture that are not dreamt of in our theologies.  However, once we accept something as truly supernatural, we then must figure out if our revelation is from heaven or hell.  

I remember an Arabic teacher explaining how he struggled to learn the English language.  He explained how confused he was when he first came to America and his wife was invited to a bridal shower.  In his home country where they spoke Arabic it was a custom for the bridal party to actually bath the bride before the wedding and of course he wanted to make sure his wife went to this party with plenty of soap and shampoo. 

Yes, I am talking about idioms and colloquialisms.  The hardest thing, for me, in the study of Aramaic is wadding through all the idioms, many of which are totally lost today.  Jesus spoke Aramaic and preached in Aramaic to the simple and poor people who could understand Him. Latin was spoken by Roman officials and Jews who were attached to the court of the Roman Government. Greek was understood by a few cultured business men and merchants.  But the masses spoke Aramaic.  Hebrew was only spoken in the synagogues and used as a ceremonial language.  Even the Hebrew Scriptures were interpreted by the priest and Pharisees in Aramaic. 

First century Christianity was nothing more than a perfected Judaism inspired with Jewish traditions and hopes. First century Christianity was primarily a Jewish movement appealing to Jewish racial aspirations and thought.  In the second century the Jewish Christians saw the incorporation of Greek and Egyptian traditions and religious commercialism crept into their new Jewish movement.  Doctrines and dogma were replacing the teachings of Jesus and the Jewish prophets and there was a danger of this new, pure religion becoming assimilated into Gentile culture and losing its Jewish identity.  By the time of Constantine many Jews dropped their interest in what was now becoming a Gentile movement.  The Gospels were written for the Jews and in the language of the Jews. The style of writing and composition of the Aramaic is not easily translated into other languages.  Therefore, we find Aramaic thought and manner of speech dictated into the Greek New Testament.

What this means is that the New Testament is filled with many Aramaic idioms.  There are about five hundred words in the English language which have more than five thousand meanings.  Now if English, a modern language, has so many idioms and words with different meanings, then it must stand to reason that ancient languages have more idioms than English and are much more difficult to understand. 

How important is if for Christians today to recognize these facts?  Perhaps it could be a matter of life and death. Let’s assume that the book of Mark was originally written in Aramaic and later translated into Greek.  The King James Version was translated in 1611 when little regard to the Aramaic and its idioms.  Hence, we have Mark 16:11 telling us: “They shall take up serpents…”   I recently read where a Baptist pastor, albeit, one who was uneducated and preaching in some back woods church, demonstrated his faith by picking up a rattle snake expecting his faith to protect him from the snake’s venom.  It didn’t, and he died. 

Would it have made any difference had he known that when the King James Version was translated the study of sociology and linguistics was primitive at best.  As a result, the translators had no way of knowing that “taking up snakes” was an Aramaic idiom which meant to unknowingly collaborate with an enemy? The picture was that when you share the Gospel unknowingly with an enemy and that enemy uses your testimony against you, you will not be harmed.  

This is such a wonderful promise except that when totally misunderstood due to lack of linguistical and sociological knowledge it can have deadly results.

We love reading and appreciate all comments. Please leave you comments below in the comments section. Chaim does not read email replied to this mailing. Blessings, Laura

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