Aramaic Word Study – Nurturing Love – Kasa – כִ֣סַאֹ Kap Samek Aleph

Matthew 26:39:  “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

“There is no love without pain.”  Irving Stone

For me, one of the great mysteries of this story is when  Jesus was praying in the garden and He was asking that the cup would pass him by.  I have always been troubled by this passage of Scripture. Just what is the cup?  I had been taught, even as a child, that this was the greatest lesson in obedience.  Here Jesus is facing torture and death and is struggling against the will of his Father, not wanting to give up his life, but in the end, he submits and voluntarily gives up to the torture and death that awaits him  saying: “Not my will but thine be done.” 

The other day in my disability bus I drove by the Olive –Harvey City College in Chicago.  I asked my passenger who Olive–Harvey was.  I was told that this college is really two colleges that merged and both were named after two Vietnam soldiers who won the Medal of Honor.  Both died in action. Benton Harvey, Jr. died when he charged a machine gun position to allow his comrades to carry two wounded soldiers into a helicopter and PFC Milton Lee Olive died when he threw himself on a grenade to save his comrades.  Both knew exactly what they were doing and they did not hesitate to save the lives of their comrades knowing full well it would cost them their own lives.

If human beings are capable of such heroic acts, then how much more is the God who created them capable of?   This begs the question, if God is perfect in love and loves us with this perfect love, why did He hesitate to go to the cross as this passage suggests?  Did He really have this time of indecision, worried about His own gizzard?  Then finally, after a long struggle give up and say: “Alright, already, Father you win, I’ll go, I’ll go if you order me.”   Ok, maybe you read this differently, maybe this passage does not trouble you but it does me.  I spent 40 years of my life studying Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic so I could come to some peace over passages such as this one. So, you will have to forgive me if I happen to read my own bias into this passage. 

Jesus spoke an Old Galilean form of Aramaic  (not Greek) which scholars are just beginning to understand.  When reading from the Aramaic version of the Bible, the Peshittta I come up with a little different rendering.    First and foremost is the use of the word that is used for cup in Aramaic which is the word kasa.  It is identical to the Hebrew word kavas which is also the word found in other Semitic languages that is used for a stork.  The stork was noted for its tender loving care of its young.  Legend has it that if one of the stork’s chicks died, the mother stork would resurrect its young with its own blood.   This is the same word Jesus used at the last supper when He said that this cup (not this wine) is my blood.   In other words, this nurturing love is my blood. The Semitic mindset of the disciples would have allowed them to see a little play on words in this context.  It would be his blood that would resurrect us and restore us to a rightful position with God. 

In the garden, Jesus is praying that this kasa (cup, nurturing love)  will pass from Him.  In Greek, the word pass is parelthato which means to avert, avoid, or pass over.  But if this word for pass was spoken in Aramaic and later translated into Greek, it is possible the Aramaic might be closer to what Jesus said which was avar.  Now avar in Aramaic is the same word in Hebrew which has a wide range of meanings.  The word itself is the picture of a river overflowing onto its banks.  You could say that it is passing over, but it more correctly it would be overwhelming.   Yes, the human part of Jesus was not looking forward to the coming torture and pain but Jesus was not praying to get out of this situation but that this cup, or this nurturing, sacrificial love would overwhelm his physical body so it would not dread the coming pain.

Note in verse 37 it says he became sorrowful.  The word sorrowful in the Aramaic is kamar which means to burn or kindle and is used for a burning love or compassion. As Jesus was about to make the sacrifice of His own life his entire being was filled with a burning love and compassion for mankind such that he said: “If it is possible let this cup  or this nurturing love  avar or overwhelm me.”  The words if possible in Aramaic is shekev which literally means if this happens.  In other words, Jesus is saying that if this is to happen tonight, then let this burning love, this nurturing love for mankind just overwhelm me so that all I will think about is this burning love that I have.  Just as Olive and Harvey thought only of their love for their buddies when they faced their final moments, it was that love that helped them to endure the agony of those moments.  It was also that sacrificial love that Jesus had for each one of us that helped Him endure such horrendous pain and torture. 

I don’t believe Jesus sweat drops of blood over the fear of his impending torture and death, nor do I believe that the pressure of taking on our sins caused Him to sweat drops of blood, what I do believe is that He saw and knew at that moment the tremendous agony, pain, and suffering of mankind, He was so filled with love for each one of us that he could not endure the knowledge of what our pain and suffering were like. As God, he could not understand human suffering until he took on human flesh.  Just like a mother prays that the suffering and pain of her child could somehow be removed from that child and placed upon her so that she would suffer rather than her child, so too our Heavenly Parent, Jesus, at that moment understood our suffering and pain and knew He could take it on.  It was that knowledge and understanding of what sin had done to us and His empathy for our suffering that caused Him to suffer drops of blood. Being sinless Jesus could not understand the torment of sin. In that moment by taking on the sin of the world Jesus understood what the torment of guilt was really like.

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