Did Jesus Speak Arabic at the Cross?

  Incredible as it may sound, you do get the occasional Muslim who tries to claim that, essentially, Jesus spoke Arabic at the cross. 

  The irony certainly seems to escape him, doesn't it? After all, think about it. This is a Muslim debating Christians about what Jesus said on a cross that Muslims believe Jesus was never on.

  But I digress...

  The claim is that rather than, "My God, My God, Why have You forsaken me?" in Aramaic, Jesus was calling out to Allah in Arabic, a language which had yet to be invented.

  What Jesus actually did at the cross when He said in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani" was to quote Psalm 22. This to draw the attention of His people, the Jews, to the fact that He was fulfilling the messianic prophecies laid out in that specific psalm.

  Now this Muslim dreams of getting a Christian to agree with him that Jesus is calling on Allah from the cross! Unbelievable, I know.

  He may attempt to win you over by pointing to Aramaic dictionaries left and right. But what he is choosing to ignore is the fact that our one and only source of the quotation from Matthew 27:46 is not an Aramaic dictionary, but the Greek text of the New Testament. In short, it does not matter how many Aramaic dictionaries a Muslim can pile up one on top of another, it will never change the wording of the Greek text. What it says in the Greek text is all that matters.

  But this is a sound-alike argument, and the claim is that "Eli" sounds like "Allah," so that must be what Jesus is saying.

  Foolish as that already is, some Muslims are undeterred, so one route we can take is to turn to a Jewish rabbi and let him pronounce the text of Psalm 22. 

  If you would like to hear that, just click on the link below and then select "Listen to this Chapter in Hebrew:" 

  http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt2622.htm

  Once you click Play, you will hear the rabbi recite the text of the psalm in Hebrew. You will recognize the name "David," after which he very clearly says, "ELI, ELI." Not "Allah, Allah." That is one way to put that myth to rest.

  That explanation aside, Jesus could not have said "Allah" in the first place because "alah" sounds like a Hebrew word which means "curse." And hopefully, we all know that Jesus was NOT on the cross saying, "Curse, curse, why have you forsaken Me?"

  We have one other point which comes to mind to disprove this specious claim, and that is in the verse which immediately follows:

47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling for Elijah!”

  If Jesus had been calling out for "Allah," then these Jews would not have thought Jesus was calling for Elijah. If you have trouble grasping that point, simply pronounce the name with me: E-leee-yah (Hebrew does not have a j sound). It is NOT pronounced, "ah-lah."

  Here's hoping that this will help to show just how silly the claim is to begin with.