Murray Watson, SSL, Ph.D.
February 1, 2025
Bat Kol Winnipeg
The Hebrew question asked at the beginning of the Passover Seder:
Mah nishtanah ha-layla ha-zeh mi kol ha-laylot?�(What makes this night different from all other nights?)
My question was very similar:
Mah nishtanah ha-targum ha-zeh mi kol ha-targumim?
(What makes this translation different from all other translations?)
Comparing Chouraqui’s translation with 8 other mainstream French translations:
(Loosely translated: “Let’s hear it �for our differences!”)
Restoring Hebraic proper names �to first-century places, people and groups
J E S U S
“Jesus the Christ” 🡪 “Yéshua’, Messiah”
Iṣ’hac = Isaac Ia’acob = Jacob
Iehouda = Judah
Shelomo = Solomon
Hizqyahou = Hezekiah
Chouraqui’s translation of�Matthew Chapter 1, emphasizing the Hebraic/Semitic forms of the proper names in Jesus’ genealogy
(No “J” or “U” in ancient Latin)
Iēsous
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yēshua‘
ישׁע
Y - sh -‘ �(“to save, rescue, �bring salvation”)
Yēshua‘
= “He will save, rescue,�bring salvation”
Matt. 1:21 [Mary] will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
(lit., You are to name him ‘HE-WILL-SAVE,’ for he will save his people from their sins)
Matt. 27:40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself!”
Matt. 27:42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself.”
Mark 15:30 save yourself, and come down from the cross!”
Luke 23:37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”
Luke 23:39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
Yēshua‘
= “He will save, rescue,�bring salvation”
John the Baptist → Yoḥanan the Immerser
James, son of Zebedee → Ya‘akov ben Zavdi
Mary → Miriam
Joseph → Iosseph
Simon Peter → Shim‘ôn Petros
Galilee → Ha-Galil
Magdala → Migdal
Bethlehem → Beyt-Lekhem
Samaria → Shomron
Chouraqui wanted his translation to forcefully remind Christians that their Lord and Saviour, in his humanity, had been a son of the Holy Land, and that his culture and language were quintessential parts of his identity and mystery that Christians needed to take seriously in their theologizing.
Behind the Greek of the Gospels, there was a Jewish individual speaking a Semitic language
Father John Meier, “The Present State of the ‘Third Quest’ for the Historical Jesus: Loss and Gain,” in Biblica Vol. 80, No. 4 (1999), pp. 459-487, quoting page 486:
… I would suggest that one definite gain [from the search for the historical Jesus] that must be incorporated is … the true and thorough Jewishness of Jesus. From the Council of Chalcedon onwards, the touchstone of genuine Christian faith in Christ has been the formula “truly divine and truly human”. Yet it is not too much of an exaggeration to say that, in defense of the “truly divine,” the “truly human” has sometimes been obscured or swallowed up …
What the third quest [for the historical Jesus] can supply as an aid to regaining the Chalcedonian balance is the [steady undercurrent] of “truly Jewish” as the concrete, historical expression and underpinning of the theological “truly human” … When the Word became flesh, the Word did not simply take on an all-purpose, generic, one-size-fits-all human nature … The Word became truly flesh insofar as the Word became truly Jewish. No true Jewishness, no true humanity … I think that a proper understanding of the Chalcedonian formula, illuminated by the third quest, necessarily leads to a ringing affirmation of the Jewishness of the flesh the Word assumed. Even if the third quest has no other impact on contemporary Christology, the emphatic reaffirmation of the Jewishness of Jesus will make the whole enterprise worthwhile. Something lasting will have been gained.
Reinvigorating “stale” terms, or language that had been co-opted (or corrupted?) by theological orthodoxy
Angels
Angels
Messengers
Apostles
(from Greek apostellō, “I send you out on a mission”)
Therefore → “Envoys/Ambassadors”
… the names of the twelve sent-ones
Speculating about possible Hebraic meanings behind Greek words and expressions
Peace → Shalom
(Even today, the common greeting in Israel —and Shalom in Hebrew connotes much more than simply an absence of hostilities - it means wholeness, totality, everything in one’s life as it ideally should be – a wish for holistic goodness)
Anointing→ Messier (“To Messiah”)
In Hebrew, the term for the Messiah (māshiaḥ) is derived from the verb “to anoint” (māshaḥ)
To underscore this connection, Chouraqui creates a new verb in French, messier, “to messiah” (Messie is “messiah” in French). This also reminds readers that there are other “anointed ones” in the Bible, including both kings and high priests (and even things get anointed!)
“Jesus did not say makarioi [Grk: Happy/ Blessed], but ashrei, an exclamation … from the root ashar which implies, not the idea of a vague and essentially hedonistic happiness, but the idea of uprightness, yashar—the uprightness of the person who is walking on a path clear of obstacles —the path that leads toward Adonai [God]” … a term of encouragement for the downtrodden.
“En marche!”�(“Rise up!” “Forward!” �or “Let’s get going!”)
His unwillingness as a translator to sweep awkward theological or linguistic questions under the rug
The recent European tradition of Stolpersteine, “stumbling stones” (engraved brass bricks placed in the pavement in front of the homes of Jews who were deported and murdered during the Holocaust). They are slightly higher than the surrounding pavement, to make people ‘stumble’ … to stop and take notice of something significant in front of them
God: Elohim in Hebrew
(but -im is the masculine plural ending!)
Why is this? What does it mean?
Chouraqui: “God” becomes “Elohims” (with an -s, to signify the presence of a plural form to non-Hebrew-speakers, to make them stop and scratch their heads)
Jerusalem: Yerushalayim in Hebrew
(but -ayim is a dual ending, indicating something that exists in nature as a pair!)
Why is this? What does it mean?
Chouraqui: “Jerusalem” becomes “Yerushalayims” (with an -s, to signify the presence of a dual form to non-Hebrew- speakers)
Efforts to reproduce certain aspects of Semitic style that seem to shine through in our Greek text
Cognate forms
(Where verbs and nouns from the same linguistic “family” are used in close proximity to each other, to amplify or emphasize meaning – “I dreamed a dream”)
(Typical of Semitic style, but usually not reproduced in translation)
(Cognate clusters are boldfaced and underlined in the following transliterations for ease of identification)
Mark 4:41
ἐφοβήθησαν φόβον μέγαν
(ephobēthēsan phobon megan)
NRSV: “they were filled with great awe”
Chouraqui: “they trembled with great trembling”
Luke 11:46
φορτίζετε τοὺς ἀνθρώπους φορτία δυσβάστακτα
(phortizete tous anthrōpous phortia dysbastakta)
NRSV: “you load people with burdens hard to bear”
Chouraqui: “you burden people with difficult burdens”
Luke 22:15
ἐπιθυμίᾳ ἐπεθύμησα
(epithumia epethumēsa)
NRSV: “I have eagerly desired”
Chouraqui: “I have desired with desire”
Thank You! Merci!
The majority of the photos used in this presentation have been taken from the Web site of the Friends of André Chouraqui:
For a bibliography of Chouraqui’s main publications:�https://andrechouraqui.com/lecrivain/bibliographie/
I am grateful to the Chouraqui family�for their kindness and support.�I hope this presentation�does justice, in a small way, to André’s memory and vision�Z”L