Unity Church of Practical Christianity (Clear Lake)

Study Corner

Comments on the Origins of the Aramaic Lord's Prayer

The prayer is the English translation I composed and offered on my two-cassette tape on the Lord's Prayer.

Aramaic is a multi-layered and multi-leveled language that does not translate very well into the linear and limited structure of the English language, for many complex reasons.

During my lengthy study of, and meditation on it, I studied and contemplated the works of George Lamsa, Rocco Errico, and Neil Douglas-Klotz. But of most importance, I considered deeply the insight and guidance I was receiving directly from Jeshua/Jesus over a several year period beginning in 1987 after he extraordinarily appeared in my living room in a blaze of light.

I came to feel that Neil's work on the prayer is the closer of the three (scholarly research into Aramaic is shockingly limited, considering that Christianity is supposed to be based on Jesus life and teachings; we come much closer to Him through its Eastern forms than its Western...); that he was closer to the 'feeling tone' of the prayer.

Much of the composing of the prayer is from Neil's work although certain wording was refined/arranged in my effort to express the essential vibratory effect I had experienced directly from Jeshua. My tape set offers the prayer in Aramaic as I heard it from Him - it took me several years to 'get it' - then goes on to explore its meaning (using English, ugh!) and then offers a format for learning to chant it.

So, in summary, it is my compilation in English, and is deeply steeped especially in Neil's excellent work, as his word choice most often comes the closest to the heart of the prayer, although it is my own sense that even this composition is but a finger pointing to the moon, and not the moon itself; something happens when this version is utilized in contemplation consistently over time that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Those who write who have taken the time to learn the Aramaic itself report ever-deepening revelation, insight, and a growth of peace.

I think anything we can do to bring out the essence of Jeshua's brilliant teaching and expression of Christ Mind and give it to a world culture steeped in profound theological distortion of His deeper, even mystical elements, is a treasure. Therefore, thank you for having the prayer posted.

No doubt, anyone who really lives in the constant seeking of what the prayer reveals and directs the soul to, will find themselves shaping new refinements of it into English, and perhaps in that is found the true power of this most precious of prayers ever gifted to mankind, by any master of any epoch.

blessings,
jayem (jon marc hammer)

Received November 14, 2002