1Cor. 10:25 - An Insight from the Aramaic

All,

Someone recently asked what difference it makes which is the original language of the NT. One of the answers was that it matters what language we do our word studies from for exegesis.

Recently while doing such a word study I found a unique insight that opened my understanding of the original Aramaic of 1Cor. 10:25.

Before I explain the word study in question let me preface this with a brief explanation of what Paul is discussing in this section of 1Cor. 8 & 10:

Now in 1Cor. 8:1-13; 10:7, 14-28 Paul agrees that one may not knowingly eat meat offered up to idols. The halachic issue Paul questions, is whether or not one must ask, when purchasing meat, whether or not it has been offered to idols. Paul argues (based on Ps. 24:1=1Cor. 10:26, 28) that meat is not actually altered by the idol but that eating such meat appears to others to endorse the idol to which it was offered. If meat is advertised as having been offered to idols, then believers may not eat it, since this would appear to endorse the idol. However, since the idol has no real power over the meat, believers are not required to ask, since this would imply that the believer believed that the idol had power over the meat, thus ascribing power to the idol and endorsing idolatry by acknowledging the idol's alleged power.

A basis for Paul's argument can be found by comparing Paul's summation of his argument in 1Cor. 10:28 to the story of the martyr Eleazar in 2Maccabbes 6:1-29. Eleazer was a prominent Jew under the Helene rule. A day came when all of the Jews were to show their loyalty by eating meat offered to idols at a public feast. Eleazar was not willing to do so, but because of his prominence, the authorities offered to allow him to sneak kosher meat into the feast and eat it instead, thus only appearing to eat meat offered up to idols. Eleazer refused, knowing that this would appear to endorse idolatry, despite the fact that the meat would be kosher. As a result Eleazar was executed. This story demonstrates that eating meat offered to idols is wrong, not because of the meat itself, but because of the implied endorsement of the idolatry. Thus, Paul's interpretation does not conflict with Acts 15 but actually implies a very strict interpretation, by which eating kosher meat would also be forbidden, if the meat were falsely advertised as having been offered to an idol.

OK now to the Aramaic word study. 1Cor. 10:25 says:

Whatever is sold in the shambles, that eat,
asking no questions for conscience sake:

The question has been posed: why would these people be buying meat from anything other than a Kosher butcher? Why would they be buying meat at the gentile market-place anyway?

The answer lies in the Aramaic word which appears in 1Cor. 10:25 where the KJV has “shambles”. The Aramaic word is MAKLON. This Aramaic word appears in the Talmud in b.Hullin 95a. The Talmud uses this word to describe meat-stands run by Gentiles but where Jewish butchers are used. This section of Talmud proposes several hypothetical situations involving such markets and lays out debates by various Rabbis as to whether the meat from this market should be presumed kosher or not.

The use of this word in the Aramaic keys us in on the fact that the “shambles” in 1Cor. 10:25 are Gentile run meat-markets that use Jewish butchers as we also see in b.Hullin 95a.

James Trimm

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Comment by fred on February 27, 2011 at 7:06pm: The Jews of Jesus time spoke Hebrew

the Four Gospels were written in Hebrew

Paul a former Pharisee also wrote in Hebrew

while it is true most were converted to Aramaic shortly thereafter

The study of the Dead Sea Scrolls is confirming this stronger and stronger

as the scholars study these scrolls.

The late Dr Robert Lindsey a baptist pastor who grew up in Israel he set out to translate the present greek New Testament into Hebrew, He wrote the following in his book Understanding the difficult words of Jesus, New Insights from a Hebraic Perspective: "It gives me pleasure to commend this book to those who desire a closer acquaintance with what Jesus said and did in Galilee and Judea at the beginning of the Christian ers. Scholars David Bivin and Roy Blizzard have here provided an introduction to the basic question of how best to approach and understand the words of Jesus--- whether by limiting ourselvesto the translation of the Greek texts, preserved so faithfully by the Church, or by exploring more into the Hebrew texts lying behind our Greek ones.

there is much to gained by reading this book

CC Torry has an interesting comment in his book "Documents of the Primitive Church" where he states that the Hebrew Gospels were later translated into Greek. and the study of the word "gilyon" Mr Bevin and MR Blizzare also quote The late Johoshua M Grinty who wrote an article :Hebrew as the spoken and written Language in the Last Days of the Second Temple where he say Hebrew was the main Vehicle of "SPEECH in Jerusalem and Judea in the second Temples time

all These people state the bible New Testament was originally written in Hebrew

Eusebius , Ecclesiastical History III 39, 16

Irenaeus, same book as above V8, 2

Origen same book as above VI 25,4

Eusebius ,same book as above III 24,6

Epiphanius say The Jewish-Christian sect of Nazarenes have the entire Gospel of Matth

Comment by Mikha El on February 27, 2011 at 8:47pm: Quote fred: "preserved so faithfully by the Church"

Not sure I can agree with you on the above point, Fred. Your kidding, right? The king jimmy translators mangled the writings of the Nazarenes to the point one could almost believe the dispensationally oriented lie they put forward in it. The "church" they put forward in it is not a "new testament" entity either!

Comment by James Trimm on February 27, 2011 at 9:40pm: While the Jews in Judea may have spoken Hebrew, most Jews of the time lived in Babylon. Anyway the use of Aramaic by first Century Jews, especially in the diaspora, is well known.

Comment by Lionel Robinson on February 28, 2011 at 4:42am: Fred has commented correctly. All Scripture was written in Hebrew and also Paleo Hebrew was used and known by Moses himself.

Since ancient Babylon, the tongues (languages) of the nations have been babbling. The pure language, HEBREW, was undisturbed because Shem and his clan settled apart from his brothers’ clans, the Babylonians. The babbling nations of today have in excess of 2,600 languages.

This is what is called the Lashon Qodesh, or Set-apart tongue, which will be restored during the 7th Millennium, Zephaniah 3:9. The word comes from Abraham’s great, great, great-grandfather, Eber. It was the language our Rabbi spoke to Shaul (Saul, Paul) when he was thrown to the ground, and at Acts 26 Paul explains to Agrippa that he heard a voice speaking to him in Hebrew. Actually, that’s the only language Yahudim spoke to each other, except for those living in foreign lands. Aramaic is a dialect of Hebrew. Paul spoke many tongues, but wrote in original Hebrew, not modern or any other dialect. This has been proven by Theologians, Eytomologists and Archaeologists and most of by the Creator Himself.

The ideal is to seek the origin of words all the way back to the confusion of tongues at Babel. If the whole world was originally speaking one language, what was it? Since the Creator had conversations with Adam and many others before the Flood, all His children spoke His language (Hebrew –Palaeo) rather than Him adapting to theirs. The Creator has been with us all through history, and all the prophets spoke and wrote in His language.

Comment by will brinson: ferguson on February 28, 2011 at 6:06am: Keep in mind none of the Apostle, including Shaul, where born much less living in Babylon before, during, or after writing the Gospels.

But I do believe that they were more faithfully preserved into the Aramaic language than the Greek language, as most of the Greek text were perverted by the Catholic church to condone their pagan beliefs and practices.

So at this point Aramaic is the best we got!!! Amein.

Comment by will brinson: ferguson on February 28, 2011 at 6:10am: P.S. - Thank you James for pointing out this, as it helps to bring clarity to the point that Shaul had made.

Comment by Lionel Robinson on February 28, 2011 at 10:28am: Belief: A mental act or habit of placing trust or confidence in an opinion, or the acceptance of something as true or real; to expect or suppose. When something believed-in is exposed as being false, a reaction is aroused. How an individual reacts depends on how well-equipped they are, and the degree to which they want to believe the falsehood. Dresden James wrote: “A truth’s initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. It wasn’t the world being round that agitated people, but that the world wasn’t flat. When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous, and its speaker a raving lunatic.”

This means that people may think they have the facts, but all they really have are beliefs. If we are imputed “righteousness” by our belief alone, then why did Ya’akob (James) write “show me your belief without deeds, and I will show you my belief by what I do. You believe there is one Elohim—good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder…You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by belief alone.

We can believe “He knows my heart” ~ but without LOVE, shown by our obedience, we have profited nothing.
We do many things because it became customary to do them, never knowing about the “law of first discovery”. When we go back to Scripture and historical truths and explain the TRUE reasons for things, and not the “invented” interpretations, the messenger of the truth is often labeled “heretic”. Study on your own, and expose the insidious lies to everyone around you, but do it with love. All knowledge without love is worthless.

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