Jesus' Own Aramaic Appears 4 Times in Mark — and Follows One Pattern

Almost every word of Jesus you have ever read is a translation. Four times, Mark refused to translate. He kept the sound of Jesus' own voice. What does "Ephphatha" mean? What did Jesus say when He took a dead girl by the hand, "Talitha koum"? Why did He pray "Abba" in Gethsemane, and what did He mean by "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani" on the cross? In this Bible study we read the four Aramaic sayings in the Gospel of Mark the way the first listeners heard them. We look at why Jesus sighed before He healed the deaf man in Mark 7:34, the rare Greek word that ties that healing to Isaiah 35, what "Abba" really means (and why it isn't "Daddy"), and the single Greek verb that links the torn heavens at Jesus' baptism with the torn veil of the temple. Which of the four scenes are you standing in today: the girl's bedside, the crowd, the garden or the cross? Tell us in the comments. And if you wrote the one word we asked for, you now know why it is yours. 📖 Scripture in this video (Berean Standard Bible, BSB): Mark 5:21–43 · Mark 7:31–37 · Mark 8:17–18 · Mark 14:32–41 · Mark 15:33–39 · Mark 1:9–11 · Mark 3:17 · Mark 7:11 · 2 Kings 18:26 · Nehemiah 8:8 · Matthew 26:73 · Numbers 19:11 · Isaiah 35:4–6 · Isaiah 64:1 · Exodus 2:23–24 · Psalm 22:1, 24 · Romans 8:15, 22–26 · Galatians 4:6 · Hebrews 5:7 · Hebrews 10:19–20 · Psalm 116:1–2 🕓 Chapters 0:00 Four times, untranslated 1:21 The language of a Galilean home 4:58 Talitha koum 8:40 A man shut out of sound 13:16 Be opened 16:30 Abba, in the dark 19:45 What we can and cannot say 21:57 Eloi, and a torn curtain 26:22 When heaven seems shut 📚 Sources & further reading • Eusebius, Church History 3.39 (the testimony of Papias) • Ambrose of Milan, On the Mysteries 1.3 • Joachim Jeremias, The Prayers of Jesus (1967) • James Barr, "Abba Isn't Daddy," Journal of Theological Studies 39 (1988) • R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark (NIGTC, Eerdmans, 2002) • Joel Marcus, Mark 1–8 and Mark 8–16 (Anchor Yale Bible, 2000 and 2009) Some words were too precious to translate. Here we slow down over one word at a time and listen for what its first hearers heard. #BibleStudy #Ephphatha #GospelOfMark #Jesus #BibleExplained