“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”<\/i>” (Matthew 27:46)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What you have chosen to ignore is that it was not man who translated the phrase “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.” The book of Matthew was written by the apostle Matthew who was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Mark’s inspired account gives exactly the same translation in\u00a0Mark 15:34. In speaking of being inspired, Paul stated, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual<\/i>” (I Corinthians 2:12-13). Take careful note that Paul states that the words taught were selected by the Holy Spirit and not by man. This is why we claim that the biblical text as originally written is inerrant; God doesn’t make mistakes. It is true that errors could be made in the copying and translation of the copies since man has been involved, but this is not such a problem in this particular passage. The translation was made by the Holy Spirit in Matthew and Mark’s original text. We don’t have to guess as to which of two possible Aramaic means should be assigned to the phrase. The Holy Spirit told us what the proper translation was into Greek. “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that\u00a0no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation<\/b>, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit<\/i>” (II Peter 1:19-21).<\/p>\n
You made another mistake when you said, “Some believed he was calling for Elij(Y)ah because the Aramaic word for God is similar.”\u00a0Matthew 27:47\u00a0states, “Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!”<\/i>” Mark’s account gives a bit more detail. “Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, “Look, He is calling for Elijah!” Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down.”<\/i>” (Mark 15:35-36). The people thought that Jesus was calling for the prophet Elijah, the one prophesied to come again in spirit (Malachi 4:5). But Jesus had already explained that the spirit of Elijah had already come when John preached in the land (Matthew 17:10-13;\u00a0Mark 9:11-13).<\/p>\n
Translators have been threatened in the past, but this is not happening in the modern world. Nor has past threats stop the production of translations. There are plenty of translations coming out each year — a few good and many bad. The reason that “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” is not translated as you believe it ought to be is for one very simple reason: the text doesn’t support your translation.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I would like to comment on the use of Aramaic in\u00a0Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. It’s not the Greek word and its meaning that’s in question or the crux of the argument. The Aramaic is the problem. The Aramaic word that the Greek word was translated from was supposed to have more than one meaning…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[228,190],"class_list":["post-1876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-crucifixion","tag-translation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23494,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-research-says-that-matthew-mistranslated-eli-eli-lama-sabachthani\/","url_meta":{"origin":1876,"position":0},"title":"My research says that Matthew mistranslated “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am sorry I am going to have to agree with the guy who questioned you on\u00a0\"Could Jesus have said \"My God, my God, for this I was kept?\". Yeshua, the Son of God, AKA Jesus Christos, Jesus Christ spoke Aramaic and while Matthew was a Greek scholar, he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14721,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-mark-have-eloi-and-matthew-have-eli-for-the-same-statement\/","url_meta":{"origin":1876,"position":1},"title":"Why does Mark have “Eloi” and Matthew have “Eli” for the same statement?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I believe that Matthew's account lists Jesus's cry\u00a0from the ancient texts when he wrote \"Eli, Eli lama sabachthani\".\u00a0 This is not a quote from Psalm 22.\u00a0 The Hebrew in Psalm 22 is 'azab, not sabachthani.\u00a0 I've seen some stretches that try to link sabachthani with 'azab, but I believe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1005,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-jesus-have-said-my-god-my-god-for-this-i-was-kept\/","url_meta":{"origin":1876,"position":2},"title":"Could Jesus have said, “My God, my God, for this I was kept?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I found an article stating that Jesus' words in\u00a0Matthew 27:46\u00a0should have been translated, \"My God, my God, for this I was kept!\" Is there any basis for this claim? Answer: And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, \"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?\" that is,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28480,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-the-new-testament-written-in-greek-or-aramaic\/","url_meta":{"origin":1876,"position":3},"title":"Was the New Testament written in Greek or Aramaic?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In what language was the New Testament written: Greek or Aramaic? Answer: The New Testament was written in Greek. All the earliest manuscripts are in Greek. The style of writing is in the Greek style, though some of the writers, such as Matthew, wrote with a Hebrew \"accent,\" if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14679,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-matthew-originally-written-in-hebrew-or-aramaic\/","url_meta":{"origin":1876,"position":4},"title":"Was Matthew originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: One of the problems I would have with\u00a0your explanation\u00a0is whether or not Matthew wrote the words in Greek or did he write the words in the original Aramaic.\u00a0 Most Bible scholars believe that Matthew wrote in Aramaic and while Mark's words are almost identical, he too was a Jew\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29671,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-matthew-only-clarifying-what-jesus-said-on-the-cross\/","url_meta":{"origin":1876,"position":5},"title":"Was Matthew only clarifying what Jesus said on the Cross?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In\u00a0Was Matthew originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic?\u00a0you stated: This verse is one of several in Matthew which shows that Matthew was originally written in Greek. You see, if it was written in Hebrew or Aramaic as has been recently popular to claim, there would be no need to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}