The Hidden Gospel: Decoding the Spiritual Message of the Aramaic Jesus

This book has given me a wealth of new ways to understand what Jesus said and likely meant based on the culture he lived in and the language he spoke. I feel it is a book to relish and use for meditation for years to come. If I can nurture the spiritual growth potential my world will become a better place!

The book is in perfect condition and showed up 4 days sooner than predicted.

This book changes so much in regard to truly understanding what Jesus is actually teaching (Though his names was actually pronounced Yeshua which means "the unnamable saves and restores).In the early pages of this carefully researched book Neil D-K provides the most lucid overview of the effect of translation, and how different languages frame up different realities, that I have ever come across - and this has been an area of interest of mine for decades.It is clear from this book that the vast majority of the edifice of Western Christian Theology (and so Western Evangelism) is based on fundamental mis-translations which are filtered through a world view that western language supports AND that actually interferes with what Jesus teaches.For Example the difference between the standard translation(from Aramaic to Greek to German to English) of Jesus words as "He who is not with us is against us" vs one based in Aramaic that translates as "If he is not against us he is one of us" changes so much. This quote has been used by Christians and especially Catholics to insist that people must make a choice to oppose Jesus or submit to there interpretations. Yikes. The usual version doesn't really sound like Jesus if you think about it and has been the cause of a lot of mischief!But so much deeper than that this book unveils the Unity Jesus knew and taught and how to live it. This is a book to be savored and read and re-read and re-read again.And for all you fear-guilt-shame based Catholics out there - Pope Pius XII actually stresses the importance of diligent study of these original languages so as to arrive at a deeper and fuller knowledge of the meaning of the sacred texts, in his encyclical entitled "Divine Afflante Spiritu" in 1943, so be at Peace!!

This is not scholarship. It's pure guesswork--informed guesswork, but guesswork just the same. First, the New Testament is written in Koine Greek. It was never written in Aramaic and translated into Greek--there are only a handful of Aramaic words in the entire book. There are no extant Aramaic texts of the source documents used to create the synoptic Gospels and those source documents--if they were documents--were probably not in Aramaic. AND we can't even be sure what Jesus actually said and what is cadged together from several oral traditions. The Gospels were written by faithful people who were trying to tell a story as they understood it, using sources--many of which were probably oral--decades after the events took place. We don't even know if the source materials were contemporary with Jesus. Ever play the game telephone?So what does the author do with this dilemma? He basically says, "In Aramaic, Jesus would have used this word, and this word can be translated into English as...." BULL! He has no more idea of what word Jesus would have used than you do. He has one rung up on you--he happens to know Aramaic. Well, I happen to know Hebrew. That doesn't mean I can tell you what word Josephus was thinking when he wrote his history in Latin.There is nothing wrong with conjecture, interpretation, even outright fiction when dealing with faith material. I have nothing against imagination. You can certainly come to deeper understandings using metaphor and imagination. It might not be orthodox, but if it helps you lead a better life, I don't much care what the Church has to say about it and there are churches--mainstream denominations--that encourage developing a personal understanding and faith. My problem is when a person tries to foist off his imagination as solid scholarship. There are a lot of people in this world who want to know more, but don't have a theological education to fall back on (and I'm not talking about years of Sunday School, here, I'm talking about serious study). Those are the people who can be duped into thinking that this book is real and true and after reading it they know the exact truth about Jesus.For people with an open mind (especially people of faith in the first place), or who read it in a group led by someone with an historical theological background, there is some historical cultural background that most people might not know and there are many, many interesting theories in this book. But they need to be recognized as that--theories and guesswork from the author's imagination. NOT FACTS. While it's possible to come away with a deeper faith, you won't come away with a deeper understanding of the historical Jesus. You have to know that going in and read it with that in mind. I think there are better faith-building books that use imagination as their source--but if this works for you with the caveat that you accept this is a work of imagination rather than scholarship, then have at it.

Neil Douglas-Klotz is not trying to stand with King James, Tyndale, JB Philips, etc. He is giving us linguistic and cultural context for the words of Jesus in a way that is unique from (but not in conflict with) the Interpretation Series or Barclay. His sense of ancient language and the cultural tendency to hold paradox gives me another lens through which to read the scripture that I feel is solidly accurate of the time and much needed in our divisive, individualistic contexts within which we exist. Many of the criticisms written about his books on Amazon are people who are bound to our American need for "one right way" This limits God and our understanding to something we can control and define when in reality, any God worth believing in will be way more complex than our understanding. JB Philips would be the first to confirm this statement were he alive still.

This book claims to present fresh insights into the words of Jesus by looking at the multiple meanings of Aramaic words the author believes they would have first been written down in. There are some interesting ideas such as that the parable of the seeds may be referring to aspects of the self e.g. the seedlings which wither in the sun are compared to 'an aspect of the self that moves impulsively and does not search deeply or give up any preconceived ideas.'However this book is hard work to read and understand and on the whole I did not find that his translations really helped to find fresh meaning in the words of Jesus whom he calls 'Yeshua.' He repeatedly replaces good and evil with ripe and unripe yet to me his meanings remained obscure. His alternative translation of Matthew 5.7 'Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy' is given as, 'Blessedly ripe are those who radiate from a new self within; they shall be shown a waking vision: the womb of the One surrounding them with compassion.' I can see what he is getting at but it is hard work and his language is not inspiring.He repeatedly uses unfamiliar words instead of translations, such as 'naphsha' which he describes as the 'subconscious soul-self' so when you come across it again it is hard to relate to it or be sure you are understanding it. The meditations he gives use these words and ask you to chant other unfamiliar words such as 'ra-hm' which is apparently 'the first unconditional face of love' (???) I really didn't relate to these or find them useful.On the whole I think he takes all the poetry, feeling and sometimes the meaning out of the usual bible quotations. For example he translates, 'I am the good shepherd' as 'simple presence is the shepherd of ripeness.' Really?!

This book left me with some mixed feelings. Firstly, the positive. The author reinterprets many of the key gospel verses using his knowledge of Aramaic to highlight possible other meanings. This is quite interesting and engaging. The downside, however, is that the paraphrases that he comes up with, are not as uplifting as the original verses. Some of them are actually quite wooden. Various spiritual exercises then follow on from these paraphrases. However, I did not feel impelled to do any of these exercises, as the paraphrases did not inspire. The author is a practising Sufi; so there will surely be many who will want to understand the teachings of Christ from this point of view.

An interesting but rather complicated book which seeks at times to find solutions to things which can never be certainly ascertained. However an interesting book to read and does cause the reader to think about the origins of the gospels There needs to be an awareness that the writer although sympathetic to the Christian perspective is not himself a Christian and this perhaps enables the reader to follow some of his arguments better. Peter Baden

A different slant on a message that was never explained from later English and Greek translations.You're let with an insight into a Middle Eastern mystical religion and philosophy; made more sense to me.

Language is one of my loves and to have what I considered as the difficult language of the Bible given deeper, more understandable meanings was fantastic. Well worth the read