Proof That Aramaic Is Not Original
Open your Bibles to Mark 15:34. The English rendering of this verse reads: "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' which is, being interpreted, 'My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?' "
Notice this! The last half of verse 34 proves that Mark was writing his gospel account, including these final words of Christ, in a language different from the one in which Jesus spoke! Jesus' own words are quoted from the Aramaic, but translated into Greek.
Now consider the Aramaic Version. If Aramaic were the original language of the New Testament, there would be no reason to insert in the Aramaic Version the words "which is, being interpreted, 'My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?' " because every Aramean would have understood Jesus' words without translation. Yet the Aramaic New Testament repeats the exact Greek original word-for-word! This proves Aramaic NOT to have been the original language of the New Testament, but merely a translation from the Greek.
There are at least a dozen places in the New Testament where Aramaic words are quoted and are translated into the Greek for the Greek-speaking people — and in most cases the Aramaic New Testament retranslates the original Greek word-for-word!
Another example is John 1:41: "He [Andrew) first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, we have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ." The word Messias is a Greek spelling of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means "the Anointed." But the Greek-speaking people were not generally acquainted with the meaning of the word Messias; hence John translates it for them into the Greek word Christos which means "the Anointed One."
Some sects today claim that we should use only the word "Messimi" and never the word "CHRIST." Their assumption is that the word "Christ" comes from the name of the Hindu god Krishna! "Christ" does not come from the name of the Hindu god Krishna! Christos is a common Greek word which means "to anoint."
The New Testament was inspired to read that Jesus is "the Christ." Even the enemies of the early true Church called the disciples "Christians" (Acts 11: 26). The disciples would not have been called "Christians" in the city of Antioch if they had not been followers of Christ! They would have been called the "Messians!" Now turn to I Peter 4:14: "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ (Christos in Greek) happy are ye." The Scripture does not use some unknown Hebrew name; it uses the "name of Christ." And now verse 16 — "Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf." The disciples in the New Testament Church could not have suffered as "Christians" unless they were the followers of Christ!
False Churches Use True Name
Notice Jesus' startling prophecy in Matthew 24:4-5: "And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name (using His Name), saying I am Christ, and shall deceive many." In whose name are the many coming? Are they coming in some "Hebrew names"? No! They are coming in the name of "Christ" — in the name of "Jesus." And Jesus said these would be using His NAME.
Now turn to Acts 4:10. What is the only name given among men whereby we may be saved? "Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of JESUS CHRIST of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole" — the man who had just been healed. Verse 12: "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
Notice! According to the inspired Greek New Testament, there is no other name given whereby we must be saved than the name of Jesus Christ!
The English word "Jesus" is an anglicized spelling of the Greek word lesous. The Greek word for "Jesus" is but the common Greek name used to translate the Hebrew name Joshua. The meaning of the Hebrew word for "Joshua" is "the Eternal is the Savior." Over 910 places in the New Testament God inspired the New Testament writers to use the Greek word lesous as the personal name of Christ, the Messiah!
EITHER YOU WILL HAVE TO ACCEPT THE NAME OF JESUS AS YOUR SAVIOR — or you will have to throw away the entire New Testament!
But — reason these "Hebrew Name" sects — doesn't the Greek word lesous come from the pagan Greek god Zeus? This is absolutely untrue! In fact, the Greek word Zeus and the Roman word Jove are both ultimately derived from the Hebrew YHWH — or JHVH. But the Greeks — and other heathen — did not like to retain God in their knowledge. So they took the names of God and attached them to their idols! The ancient Hebrew-speaking people did the same thing by calling their idols El or Elohim, meaning "God" in Hebrew.
So the name "Jesus" is actually derived from YHWH!
Jesus said if any would deny Him — which means deny His Name — before men, "Him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 10:33). If you deny the name Jesus, He will deny your name before the Father in the Judgment!
What Is the Father's "Family Name"?
Notice Psalm 83:18: ". . . that men may know that Thou, whose name alone is YHWH, art the Most High over all the earth." This verse does NOT say, as some assume, that the Creator has only one name — it plainly declares that the Creating Family alone of all whom men worship is YHWH or eternal.
But did you know that the Father in Heaven has also a Family Name?
In Ephesians 3:14-15 we read: "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is NAMED." Jesus Christ is the Father's Son. Every son bears his father's last name.
Jesus said in John 5:43, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not." What was Jesus' family name? Notice the surprising answer in John 10:36: ". . . say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the SON OF GOD?" Jesus claimed to be "Gm's Son." We, too, may be called GOD'S Sons (I John 3: 1). The Supreme, Divine, All-ruling Family is the GOD Family! It is the Family or Kingdom OF GOD! Jesus' Gospel — His entire Message — was about the Kingdom or Family of God and how you may be born into it! His whole Message was about the DIVINE NAME — "GOD"!
Just before Jesus was crucified, He prayed that His Church would be kept "in the Father's Name." Notice John 17:11-12, "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through Thine own Name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy Name."
What is the Father's NAME in which the New Testament Church is to be kept? The name of "God"! In 12 passages in the New Testament, the name of the church is called "the Church of God." Paul wrote, "unto the Church of God, which is at Corinth" (I Corinthians 1:2). Paul wrote to the Gentile Thessalonian converts: "For ye, brethren, became followers of the Churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus" (I Thessalonians 2:14).
Either your entire New Testament is a fraud and must be rejected or the true name of the true Church is "the Church of God!" "God" is the "Family Name" of the Divine Creative Kingdom.
The Hebrew name YHWH — the Greek Kyrios, the "Eternal" or "Lord" in English — is but one of God the Father's numerous given personal names. It is also one of the personal names of the Son, because both are eternal. But the whole message of Jesus Christ, the Gospel, was the message about the Family NAME — the "God" Family. Jesus Christ came in the name of God, His Father. He called Himself the "Son of God" numerous times.
Read John 9:35, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?"
See also Matthew 16:16-17 and especially Mark 1:1, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God"! Jesus came bearing His Father's name — "God's Son" — the "Son of God."
Jesus' whole message — which He spoke "in the name of the Lord" — or "by His authority" — was to explain that the name "God" — the Hebrew Elohim — is a family NAME! His Gospel, or good news, is the message that we may also bear that name God — that we may be called the sons of God and be "born again."
Notice that even the Church today is to bear the Father's Name — God. The Church today — before which Jesus Christ is opening the doors of radio and the printing press to preach His Gospel, His message, to all the world — this Church has "kept my name," said Jesus, and has "not denied my name" (Revelation 3:8). God's Church today is to be named the Church of God.
Jesus Called the "Word"
The true Church is even promised to have forever the name of God (Rev. 3:12) and Jesus' "new name" — Revelation 19:12. Jesus not only is to receive a new name, but He even now — and from the beginning — is called "the Word of God." And, in verse 16, He has "on His thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords."
In Amos 4:13 and 5:27 another one of the names of the Divine Family is "the God of Hosts." Jeremiah 46:18 and 48:15 call Him "the Lord of Hosts." Another of His names is "Zealous" (sometimes spelled "Jealous") in Exodus 34:14.
Yes, "God" is the Father's Family Name! And "Jesus" is the name of His Son! But they both have many other names! It is time we called on GOD for His mercy in the name of Jesus Christ! It is time we believe the Bible — and recognize that God is God!