Aramaic idioms
Before I venture into some of the Aramaic idioms written in the bible, let me give some background on the meaning of idioms.
The bible is FULL of idioms.
When the bible was translated from Aramaic => Hebrew => Greek => Latin => English => other languages of the world, many of these idioms have been wrongly translated, and misunderstood because they were not explained in its original Aramaic context and culture of the Near Eastern people.
(That was one of the reasons why we have so many different WRONG translations and interpretations of the bible today, resulting in about 40,000 Christian denominations, each claiming to be better and more correct than the other. This is still creating mis-understanding among churches and believers.)
In one of my previous writing, I gave a personal example of how mistranslation happened:
https://advancingtruth.blogspot.com/2021/04/timeline-of-written-translation-history.html
Some years ago, I was under the tutelage of a Kiwi missionary in New Zealand. He told me that in one area of his mission, there was no translated version of the bible for their language, and as a result, they had to translate the New Testament for them to understand. However, these people never knew what sheep is, and how they look like or behave. So in order to make them understand, they replaced the word "sheep" with "pigs", which is their most prized possession.... hahaha..
Imagine us reading that "Jesus came for the lost pigs of Israel" in Matthew 15:24 in their bible.
Question: What are idioms?
Answer:
Idioms are words with a form of expression that is used specifically to a particular language, people or people groups.
Idioms are part of the language and dialect of those people that live in a particular culture or location of their country.
Idioms are not easy to understand if you do not understand the culture and the context of the language of that particular group of people.
Idioms cannot be translated literally into another language.
Idioms are expressions of speech that say one thing but actually mean something else. The meaning is totally different from the individual words forming the idiom.
Idioms are used commonly by the people that were living during that particular era, and can be understood easily because of their popular use. They are non-complicated normal words that have a special meaning that is known by almost everyone of their similar language culture.
The Near Eastern people (also the Middle Eastern people) use idioms in their language on normal, secular and sacred usages on a daily basis.
The contemporary Western civilizations use less idioms in their languages, and remain quite ignorant of the Near Eastern idioms.
In view of the above, I should say that there are also idioms in all language groups in the world. Idioms have always been with us since antiquity till today. It’s a matter of more or less usage and how common these idioms are.
I am a Chinese living in Malaysia, and my father and ancestors come from China. So you can say that we are an Eastern people group. Even within our Chinese language, we have myriads of idioms that a Western English-educated person will never understand unless it is explained to him/her.
(Just a note: that among the various dialects of the Chinese people, such as the Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, Hainanese, etc. there are also unique idioms that are found particularly within that dialect only.)
Examples of English Idioms
(These English idioms are commonly used, and we take it for granted that when we use them, everyone should understand what we mean. But when I translated it literally word for word and used it in another language like Indonesian or French, it may be disastrous, causing major misunderstand.)
Idiom: “See eye to eye”
This means “to agree with somebody”.
Example: The two friends can finally see eye to eye on their new venture.
Idiom: “speaking of the devil”
This means “the person you were referring to suddenly appears at that moment.”
Example: Sam, speaking of the devil, I was just telling him about the direction to your house.
Idiom: “Once in a blue moon”
This means “an event that doesn’t happen frequently.”
Example: Once in a blue moon, we can give ourselves an expensive treat.
Idiom: “cost an arm and a leg”
This means “something that is very expensive.”
Example: That car cost me an arm and a leg.
Idiom: “let the cat out of the bag”
This means “to accidentally let out a secret to others.”
Example: He let the cat out of the bag to his competitor about his financial plans.
Idiom: “to kill two birds with one stone”
This means “to resolve two problems at one go.”
Example: By eating healthily to reduce weight, he killed two birds with one stone, when his skin condition also disappeared.
Idiom: “beat around the bush”
This means: “not speaking directly about the issue or main topic.”
Example: He told his employee to stop beating around the bush and quickly say what is on his mind.
Examples of Cantonese (dialect of Chinese language) idioms
Idiom: “pulling a cow up a tree” or “laai ngau soeng syu”
This means: “having a vain attempt at a difficult task”
Example: Getting his son to fold his blanket in the morning is like “laai ngau soeng syu”.
Idiom: “pretend to be a ghost and pretend to be a horse” or “baan gwai baan maa”
This means: “to deliberately trick or deceive somebody”
Example: He dressed up as a girl to deliberately “baan gwai baan maa” to the headmistress.
Idiom: “eat a dead cat” or “sik sei maau”
This means: “becoming a scapegoat or tricked into taking the blame for something not their fault”
Example: His mother was very angry at him for dirtying the floor but actually he was “sik sei maau” for his sister.
Idiom: “greedy devil” or “waai sik gwai”
This means: “being a glutton”
Example: He rushed for the food like a “waai sik gwai”.
Idiom: “to throw a paper aeroplane” or “fong fei gei”
This means: “to break a promise, a commitment, or fail to turn up for an appointment”
Example: He really “fong fei gei” and didn’t even call when he missed our date.
Idiom: “a two headed snake” or “leuhng tauh seh”
This means: “a person who betrays and works for both sides in a deal”
Example: Don’t believe everything he said because he is a “leuhng tauh seh”.
Idiom: ” to eat slippers rice” or “sihk to haai faahn”
This means: “a man who is dependent on a woman for support”
Example: He lazes around the house everyday since he is good at “sihk to haai faahn”.
I believe that you can understand more about idioms now, and as we proceed to understand Aramaic idioms in the bible, you may do one or more of the following:
Label me as teaching false doctrine,
Refuse to accept the truth because of your personal opaque excuses,
Appreciate that the bible was written in an Aramaic context, within their language and culture, and the use of Aramaic idioms was very common within their common period.
There are literally more than a thousand Aramaic idioms in the bible and readers have mistakenly understood these idioms “literally”. Some translators have done a great job translating them accurately word for word but by taking them literally, the actual meanings have been interpreted wrongly.
I will address some of these idioms in future writings.
Extra:
How to interpret the bible by Charles Meek
https://advancingtruth.blogspot.com/2020/05/how-to-interpret-bible.html
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