“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”

 Aramaic is believed to have been the language recorded at Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 when #BlackJesus cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”   Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. 

By Eric Stradford, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired, and Stephanie A. Walker Stradford

April 18, 2025 – In the midst of chaos and confusion over the future of the American family, there is good news from Mother Africa. Ka TUMELO re lelapa: By faith, we are family.

Good Friday ends the Lenten Season for 2.4 billion heirs of salvation. Each year, Jesus’ True Family celebrates diversity, equity and inclusion (DEIty) over a period starting Ash Wednesday and lasting for 40 days (excluding Sundays).

Select factions within The Black Church of Jesus The Christ have invested wisely in things hoped for, while others frantically react to perceived threats on their temporal existence.  Meanwhile, the Black Family has been asked to believe “trouble don’t last always” by religious leaders and government officials who deny #BlackJesus as undisputable evidence of things not seen. 

In the biblical context, “signs, wonders and miracles” refer to divine indicators of God's power and presence.  Approximately 37 phenomena are recorded in the four Gospels of Jesus The Christ.  These reports of “miracles” justify one’s own belief of God's intervention in human affairs.

The Gospel of Mark, captured faithfully by John Mark acting as Peter's scribe, records 18 miracles of Jesus. They include calming a storm, feeding 5,000 plus women and children, walking on water, and cursing a fig tree. 

While Mark did understand Jesus as the Son of God, he typically made sure that people understood his humanity as being a part of the unique personhood of Jesus. “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then Jesus looked at those sitting around him. He said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  My true brother and sister and mother are those who do the things God wants.”  Ka TUMELO re lelapa: By faith, we are family.

Mark’s report on Family, included in the fourth of seven last words of #BlackJesus, comforts the world’s historically disadvantaged.  In this Word of Abandonment,  'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' -- which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Jesus was fully God and fully human at the same time.  He was not some less powerful demigod as the Romans or Greeks would have understood. He had and has the attributes of God and humanity fully expressed and fully powered. 

Mark was believed to have been born in or around 5 AD in Cyrene. Perhaps by coincidence, or family relation, Mark records at 15:21, the role of another brother from Cyrene. 

“There was a man from Cyrene coming from the fields to the city. The man was Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus. The soldiers forced Simon to carry the cross for Jesus.”  According to the Coptic tradition, Cyrene is a city in the Pentapolis of North Africa, which is now Libya. Aristopolus was believed to be his father, and his mother’s home was believed to be in Jerusalem, which served as a center for Christian life.  

Aramaic is believed to have been the Afroasiatic language recorded at Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 when #BlackJesus cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”   Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew, Maltese, and numerous other ancient and modern languages. These languages are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, North Africa, and parts of the Horn of Africa. Semitic languages are divided into three major branches: East Semitic, West Semitic, and South Semitic.

The Semitic languages of Ethiopia are believed to have been influenced by a range of Cushitic languages, and vice versa. 

While the Chadic and Cushitic languages are diverse and poorly studied, the Semitic languages have a more well-studied history and are part of a wider linguistic family called Hamito-Semitic.

To understand the languages Jesus might have used on the cross, it’s crucial to picture the linguistic melting pot that was first-century Judea within a broader dynamic of “family migration” by Noah’s sons Shem, Ham and Japeth.

The primary languages in the region studied as Judea were:

Aramaic: This was the vernacular language, the language of the people. It was the everyday tongue spoken in Galilee, where Jesus grew up, and likely the language he used most often in his daily life.

Hebrew: While no longer the primary spoken language, Hebrew remained the language of religious scholarship, the synagogue, and the sacred scriptures. Educated individuals, especially those involved in religious life, would have been familiar with it.

Greek: Following Alexander the Great’s conquests, Greek had become the lingua franca of the eastern Mediterranean, the language of commerce, administration, and higher education. Many people in Judea, particularly those in urban areas, would have been able to understand and speak Greek.

Latin: While less common, Latin was the language of the Roman administration and the military. It’s plausible that some individuals, particularly those who interacted with Roman officials, would have had some knowledge of Latin.

Followers might note here, the number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated at between 1,250 and 2,100, and by some counts at over 3,000.  In every generation, the Free African must reclaim his or her own value. 

Ka TUMELO re lelapa: By faith, we are family.

A kingdom that fights against itself cannot continue. And a family that is divided cannot continue.  And if Satan is against himself and fights against his own people, then he cannot continue. And that is the end of Satan.