In my recent post, “‘Jesus Christ,’”, Yesu, Abiyah,” I mentioned that I wasn’t sure about the words I heard that sounded like, “change a lot.” In Hebrew, there doesn’t seem to be a “ch” sound as in “change”. But, in thinking about it later, I remembered that I’ve often heard the sound when hearing Aramaic being spoken (as in a recording I heard of the Lord’s Prayer in Galilean Aramaic, in which the word for “your kingdom” is pronounced “malchutuk,” with the usual “ch” sound that we’re used to in English). (I also heard it in a documentary about Jesus that I recently watched.)
So I was thinking about what I heard last night about seeing “with compassionate eyes” and having “God’s grace.” On a hunch, I looked up the word for “grace,” and found “chen.” It’s listed as a Hebrew word, but someone who spoke Aramaic (it may be the same word in Aramaic; I’m not sure) might pronounce it as “chain,” if I’m right.
Then I looked up “chalat,” which means, “to pick up/catch.” (The second word may also still be “shalat,” which means to have power/mastery.” So “change a lot” could mean either “pick up grace” or “have mastery of grace.”
So he really was explaining to me last night what he’d meant a day or so earlier–”to see with compassionate eyes is to gain God’s grace” was at least a part of it. A big part.
