Ambiguity of the Aramaic Text: Exhibit IX, A (Jn 12:34)
Continuation of Our Translated Gospels: Some of the Evidence, by Charles Cutler Torrey:
John 12:34. This is a passage of especial interest and importance, in the present demonstration. Taken in connection with the unmistakable Semitic tinge of John's Greek, and in view of the fact that the whole adjoining context is characteristically Johannine, it is quite sufficient in itself, without the aid of any other evidence, to show that the Gospel is a translation. For it presents us with a riddle in the author's well-known manner, a mystifying play on words which is the only key to the meaning of an extended passage (verses 31-36), and which can be seen only in the Aramaic.
I discussed the passage at length in the Journal of Biblical Literature, 51 (1932), pp. 320-322; it will suffice here to give the essential facts.
The author of the Fourth Gospel puts into the mouth of Jesus, from time to time, words which have a hidden meaning, sayings which the people understand one way, while they are meant in another way. Conspicuous among these cryptic utterances are those in which Jesus, addressing the multitude, predicts his own death, in phrases necessarily equivocal. On three occasions he alludes to the manner of his approaching death, by crucifixion. In 3:24, the words spoken to Nicodemus seemed a figure of speech, an allegory; in 8:28, his hearers naturally supposed him to speak of "exalting" the Son of Man; in the present passage, 12:32, the meaning really intended by the phrase employed could be seen only by the disciples after his death; those who were listening at the time heard a saying of utterly different import, for the play on words was such as to turn them aside inevitably.
All those who are acquainted with Palestinian Aramaic know that the verb which may mean "to be lifted up" is ordinarily used in the middle-voice signification, "to take oneself off, depart." Examples in multitude could be given, if there were need of illustration. No one of Jesus' hearers could have supposed him to speak of being "lifted up from the earth" (the evangelist himself has to explain this curious phrase, for any reader of the Aramaic would have missed the intended sense!); the words which they heard were: "If I depart from the land,* I will draw all men unto me." They had heard something similar on a former occasion. In 7:33 ff. Jesus had said: "Yet a little while I am with you, . . . where I shall go you cannot come"; and they had reasoned: "Will he go to the Greek Dispersion, and teach the Gentiles?" Now therefore they retort (verse 34): "You claim to be the Messiah. We read in the scriptures that the Messiah is to remain here forever; how is it, then, that you say that you are to go away? What sort of 'Messiah' is this?" Jesus permits them their interpretation, saying, "Yet a little while is the light among you, walk while you have the light."
The evangelist's riddle is admirably conceived and presented, perfect in every detail, but the Greek misses it completely. This of necessity, for (aside from the fact that there could be no similar play on words) verse 33 had provided the translation of the Aramaic phrase.
To be continued...
Continuation of Our Translated Gospels: Some of the Evidence, by Charles Cutler Torrey:
John 12:34 according to Greek: The people answered him: We have learned from the law that the Messiah is to remain (with us) forever; how then do you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up (לְאִסְתַּלָּקָא)? Who is this "Son of Man"?
True rendering: . . . how then do you say that the Son of Man must go away (same word)? What (sort of) Son of Man is this?
True rendering: . . . how then do you say that the Son of Man must go away (same word)? What (sort of) Son of Man is this?
John 12:34. This is a passage of especial interest and importance, in the present demonstration. Taken in connection with the unmistakable Semitic tinge of John's Greek, and in view of the fact that the whole adjoining context is characteristically Johannine, it is quite sufficient in itself, without the aid of any other evidence, to show that the Gospel is a translation. For it presents us with a riddle in the author's well-known manner, a mystifying play on words which is the only key to the meaning of an extended passage (verses 31-36), and which can be seen only in the Aramaic.
I discussed the passage at length in the Journal of Biblical Literature, 51 (1932), pp. 320-322; it will suffice here to give the essential facts.
The author of the Fourth Gospel puts into the mouth of Jesus, from time to time, words which have a hidden meaning, sayings which the people understand one way, while they are meant in another way. Conspicuous among these cryptic utterances are those in which Jesus, addressing the multitude, predicts his own death, in phrases necessarily equivocal. On three occasions he alludes to the manner of his approaching death, by crucifixion. In 3:24, the words spoken to Nicodemus seemed a figure of speech, an allegory; in 8:28, his hearers naturally supposed him to speak of "exalting" the Son of Man; in the present passage, 12:32, the meaning really intended by the phrase employed could be seen only by the disciples after his death; those who were listening at the time heard a saying of utterly different import, for the play on words was such as to turn them aside inevitably.
All those who are acquainted with Palestinian Aramaic know that the verb which may mean "to be lifted up" is ordinarily used in the middle-voice signification, "to take oneself off, depart." Examples in multitude could be given, if there were need of illustration. No one of Jesus' hearers could have supposed him to speak of being "lifted up from the earth" (the evangelist himself has to explain this curious phrase, for any reader of the Aramaic would have missed the intended sense!); the words which they heard were: "If I depart from the land,* I will draw all men unto me." They had heard something similar on a former occasion. In 7:33 ff. Jesus had said: "Yet a little while I am with you, . . . where I shall go you cannot come"; and they had reasoned: "Will he go to the Greek Dispersion, and teach the Gentiles?" Now therefore they retort (verse 34): "You claim to be the Messiah. We read in the scriptures that the Messiah is to remain here forever; how is it, then, that you say that you are to go away? What sort of 'Messiah' is this?" Jesus permits them their interpretation, saying, "Yet a little while is the light among you, walk while you have the light."
The evangelist's riddle is admirably conceived and presented, perfect in every detail, but the Greek misses it completely. This of necessity, for (aside from the fact that there could be no similar play on words) verse 33 had provided the translation of the Aramaic phrase.
*Palestine is always "the land"; hence the mistranslations in Luke 2:1 and Acts 11:28
To be continued...
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