Jesus in Aramaic.

The word mshikha (משיחא)-the Messiah is related to the word mishkha (מישחא) which means oil or olive oil in Aramaic.

"He shall be called Nazarene."

                          Matthew 2:23

ܕ݁ܢܳܨܪܳܝܳܐ ܢܶܬ݂ܩܪܶܐ

 netiqreʾ d݁noṣroyoʾ

Jesus Nazarene,(Hebrew: נָצְרַת‎, Natzrat; Aramaic: ܢܨܪܬ) from the city of Nazareth which was a town in Galilee. The name Nazareth comes from the Hebrew word Nazara meaning truth.

The Language of Jesus: Introducing Aramaic

Jesus spoke Galilean Aramaic natively the common spoken language of the people in area at the time. By that time Hebrew was long gone as a spoken language since the times that Jews were expelled to Babylon, being used almost exclusively as a language of liturgy.

There they picked up and shifted to Aramaic, the second common language of the Persian Empire.

Upon their return they brought their newly acquired language to Judaea.

Today little is known about the Galilean dialect and it is currently being reconstructed and constantly being revised.

The historical name of Jesus (Ιησούς) in Amaraic was Yeshua ישוע  or (ܝܫܘܥ) in Classical Syriac. In Eastern Syriac dialects there is the variation Isho (ܝܫܘܥ) written the same as Yeshua. 

The name of Jesus is also often written in abbreviation as ܝܗ.

Mshikha- the Messiah- the annointed

Annointing with oil was a common inauguration ceremony for new kings all over the Middle East. Daniel was annointed with oil ,even Xerxes was annointed when he became King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire.

The act of annointing with oil played an important part in rituals of many ancient middle Eastern peoples and had the meaning of making something sacred or godly. Oil was also considered to have healing properties.

Jesus the Messiah was annointed as he became the new king of his heavenly kingdom.

The word Christ did not exist in Aramaic.It comes from the Greek word Χριστός which means 'the anointed one' and is a translation of the Aramaic Msheekha מְשִׁיחָא (Messiah).So Jesus Christ is Yeshua Msheekha in Aramaic.

The word mshikha (משיחא)-the Messiah is related to the word mishkha (מישחא) which means oil or olive oil in Aramaic.

The shemen ha-mshikha (שמן המישחא) was a balm for annointing. In Biblical context it was the annointing for kingship.

So Jesus Christ in Aramaic is Yeshua Msheekha .In Syriac there are of course variants ,Yeshuo Msheekho in Western Syriac,Yeshua Msheekha in Eastern Syriac.You may also see Eeshoo instead of Yeshua.

Yeshua in Syriac

The following video shows you how to write Jesus in the Estrangelo script.

Estrangelo evolved from the Palmyrene alphabet , ultimately from Aramaic.

Yeshua written in the Herodian script which is a variant of the square Aramaic alphabet used in Judea during Herod's time.

The Language of Jesus: Introducing Aramaic

Herod was a client king to the Romans of the kingdom of Judea and he ruled during the time that Jesus ministered.

Jesus in the Herodian script

Jesus in the Imperial Aramaic alphabet.

And this is how to write Yeshua in the Imperial Aramaic script.

The Imperial Aramaic alphabet was not used at the times of Jesus since it was the standard alphabet of Aramaic in the Persian Empire.

I'm using it here retrospectively just to give you an example of the script.

Now watch this video about the origin of the name of Jesus.

 

Back to short Aramaic lessons.