An Invitation to Intimacy in the Aramaic Matthew 6:6

 

by Joy Andrews Hayter
Northern California, USA

But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
– Matthew 6:6 (WEB)

When I read this beautiful verse in Aramaic, the language Jesus (Yeshua[ii], in Aramaic) spoke, I see so many lovely invitations and nuances. Tucked into this verse I have found an invitation to self-acceptance, authenticity, forgiveness, and affirmation that God loves us and seeks us out, exactly as we truly are. I also found that the verse explores true consent to the Divine Indwelling, which encourages me to let go of my own stories and the identifications I may be holding onto, both in Centering Prayer practice, and in the rest of life. It feels to me like an invitation to a “secret embrace,” borrowing language from Thomas Keating’s poem, and a call to explore what that might mean in life.

I first started studying Aramaic, the language Yeshua spoke, because I suspected that looking more deeply into his words might reveal nuances lost in translation. Before going too deeply into how I arrived there, here is one interpretation of this verse that emerged for me from some of the alternative meanings of the Aramaic words.

When you pray, enter your inner sanctum, introduce your consent and contain your inner gate from anything that would break through or burst out, and join the Divine Indwelling in the Holy of Holies. And your Nourisher who beholds you and chooses you flourishes you and sets you free, removing the veil from your face, cherishing your true being in a secret embrace.    

As you read this, how does it land with you? What sensations, feelings, images are coming up for you? This interpretation has a different flavor, for me. It seems less transactional (pray and you’ll get a reward) and far more personal, permeated with love. It sounds like a delightful invitation to intimacy.

You might be wondering how this version emerged from the same Aramaic words as the first version. Often we read a verse like this, just skimming the surface of it. But there is so much more to this passage than just the single interpretation we may have heard before, waiting to be discovered!  A native speaker of modern Hebrew recently told me that the roots of words and their many possibilities (which are in common with Aramaic) made her language like a delightful playground. This “playground” reminds me of Yeshua’s often-used phrase, “those who have ears to hear, let them hear.” In other words, the language can invite us to multiple levels of meaning and exploration, in particular when we approach it with the deeper consciousness that can be a fruit of our prayer life, our intimate walk with Ultimate Reality. Given a receptive atmosphere, of attending deeply with the heart, we could feel invited to play with the verse in a dance that could be seen more like poetry: it meets us where we are.

Enter your inner room

As Thomas Keating talked about Matthew 6:6, he often reminded us that most people didn’t have inner rooms in Yeshua’s world – daily living occurred mainly in one room. In Aramaic, the word used for inner room, tavana,[iii]  does translate into English as a small room, inner chamber, or closet. We can also explore the root word in tavana – the root that ties it back to the old Semitic origins and holds so much nuance. Its root can mean to agree, join, desire, reconcile or consent.[iv] As Yeshua invites us to enter our inner room, he could also be inviting us into our deepest desire and heartfelt consent, to whatever the Divine may be offering at that time.

It has taken time and self-acceptance for me to deepen my consent to God, or Ultimate Reality. Contemplative practice such as Centering Prayer has helped me to grow in trust that as I let go, in whatever state I find myself, I am embraced by fullness and abundance of love and connection; that this moment exactly as it is, is saturated with God. Also, as I practice entering the inner room and offering my consent, I’m reminded that it’s not “I” who is doing it. The part of me that wants to keep achieving and being in power and feeling appreciated and secure, is invited to an alternative: consent, self-emptying, and trusting that I am lovingly held, exactly as I find myself.

Close the door

The next thing Yeshua asks us to do is to close the door. The Aramaic word translated as close is achud, which can mean seize, possess, retain, contain, control, consider, or close. It comes from the Semitic root (ahaz) meaning to hold something taken, to embrace, join, adhere, or to shut. The word translated as door (tar’a) can mean gate, door, entrance, or opening; often as in an inner gate of a space within a property. It comes from a root meaning to open, break through, flow, burst out, or issue forth.

As you read these words, take a moment to feel into them – see if any of them hold a particular opening for you, as you find yourself right now. For me, as I lean into the words I wonder if closing the door might mean that I can seize responsibility for all of the thoughts or other distractions that might break through or flow out of me. Instead, I feel invited to a coherence of intention, a state where I can briefly honor what I’m feeling or thinking, but gather it in and join the embrace of Wholeness.  This feels counterintuitive to me – so many times I want to push away thoughts or unpleasant emotions, but I feel a subtle invitation here, to join in exactly as I am.

Pray to your father in secret

Next we are invited to pray to our Father in secret. The word pray (tsela) can mean to incline, bend, seek, pray, beseech, or intend. The word father (av) means much more than just a male parent— it can mean parent (of any gender), ancestor, originator, founder, author or maker; as well as nourisher, master, or teacher. It’s also offered as a title for someone deeply respected. The word secret (kasa) can mean cover, conceal, clothe, wear, or veil. In this phrase it is offered as a noun, referring to the Father as ‘One who is in secret’. As you consider these words or phrases, which ones are resonating with you? I am noticing an invitation to incline, to fully offer my intention toward the unnameable, the I AM.

I’m also drawn to the imagery of being invited under the veil. It is reminiscent of the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant had been kept. This holy area had been kept for those deeply consecrated and properly cleansed, but people are drawn to pray outside the wall in Jerusalem near that area, to feel closer to the I AM, the mystery of the Divine. It invokes for me that I’m being invited into a precious part of God’s house, the Divine Indwelling. It’s a time when I can take my shoes off, and become intimate with the ground that holds me up. And when I’m being invited into God’s house, I’m a guest. I don’t have to set the table, I don’t have to buy the snacks – I can bring a gift, which is my open heart, and my loving intention. It takes the burden off what I think I’m supposed to be doing: it’s a time of receiving.

The invitation to enter our inner room “in secret” also reminds me that the Kingdom of God can be found deep within our own being. It may not always show in outer circumstances or be entirely obvious, but I feel comforted that Yeshua often told of its nearness. “In secret” also calls up Thomas Keating’s Secret Embrace. “The Secret Embrace of the Source of all creation with Infinite Transcendence can never be revealed.” And this embrace also shows up when we look with the poetic eyes of our heart into the last few words of the scripture.

Your father who sees in secret will reward you openly

The word for see in Aramaic (haza) means to see, perceive, or observe. It can also refer to the seeing in visions or prophecies. Thus it may refer to seeing not just with our ordinary eyes, but with our spiritual faculties. It can also mean to consider or contemplate, as when we delight in the sight of something; or even to choose something for our self. Thus our Source may be delighting in us as we lean in with our desire, even choosing us in an intimate embrace. The word for reward (pora) can mean to repay, render, or reward; or even to spring up, shoot out, or bud; it is sometimes translated as “flourish.” Its old Semitic root can mean to loose or let go unbridled, make naked, or uncover. There is so much richness here – what words or invitations in this phrase may be calling to you?

One possible interpretation I see for this last phrase is that the Divine perceives and delights in our true unveiled being, choosing us exactly as we are; and flourishes us or lets us loose, revealing our spiritual nature and perhaps the divine nature within us as well. Just before Yeshua tells us about praying in our inner room, he points to the masks we put on, including our identifications as being “spiritual” people. He urges us not to “parade our good deeds before men to attract their notice” (Mt 6:1; JB[v]); and not to imitate the hypocrites who “love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues and at the street corners for people to see them.” (Mt6:5; JB)

I don’t know about you, but I’m really good at masks. I become caught up easily in a story that I’m not enough, and I need to be and do all sorts of things that would make me “better.” I need to do more, so that people will like me more. I need to pray more and serve more, so God will love me more. This can sneak subtly into my motives for wanting to be of service to people and to causes. Instead, I feel an invitation to trust, and to ask the Loving Divine for help: “Dear Holy One, I’ve been trying so hard to be someone I think you will like. Please help me to see that I am whole and complete, exactly as you made me. Help me to follow true joy, to uncover and thrive as you made me.” The intimate embrace in secret feels to me like a God of possibilities, cultivating and encouraging the me of possibilities. And with these possibilities encouraged, I feel more energy to truly serve, from who I am and what brings me joy.

When I can begin to respond to the invitation to join God in the Holy of Holies, leaving all the masks behind, I feel accepted and I find such tenderness in this embrace. In the struggle of being in this life, when I’m trying to do ten million things and I’m trying to please people, there just may be an alternative: I am enough. One night, as I was sitting in my bed feeling awfully inadequate, I also sensed an alternative feeling that was telling me “you know, if you can inhabit this moment fully, right now, I AM loving you, right now. You are loved, beloved; you are whole, holy.” What a world this would be if we all could sense this truth! The part of me that can relate to this sense of being loved and cherished is my own unveiled being, the part of me that doesn’t have to identify as something. This part knows itself as connected, as having all that it needs.

I think this is how we invite the Holy Spirit into life. We have all this polarity in this world: there’s push, there’s pull – but what might it be like, to deepen into the Secret Embrace? Might it help us to see that we are all part of one unbroken fabric, woven in compassion?

Making it Poetic and Personal

This passage points me in the direction that Centering Prayer takes us in, over time. And so I enter my inner room, with an intention and willingness to let go of anything I think that I am, what I think the prayer should be like, or what I think God might be. I enter willing to be laid bare, as what I am in the depths of my heart, and trust that I, like absolutely everything in creation, is imbued with God’s goodness at the core. Keating taught us that there’s not one single thing we can do to make God love us more. It’s so easy for me to believe this for other people, but to believe it myself is another thing. Just to find it tucked away into this message, emerging even more  clearly to me in the Aramaic, draws me to a more trusting, deeper consent to God’s presence and action.

As you look back on the words or phrases that stood out for you, what poetic interpretation might you find in this verse today – not to replace scripture, by any means, but as part of a loving dynamic relationship between you and whatever you call God, the One, or Sacred Unity. Are you ready to say YES?

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Joy Andrews Hayter is also one of the volunteers who contribute to the Q&A each month in the e-bulletin. You can find out more about Joy here.

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I offer the World English Bible version here (a direct descendent of the King James Version (KJV)) because it includes the word “openly”, as does the Peshitta version in Aramaic, found for example at dukhrana.com. NT versions earlier than the KJV may not have included this word.

[ii] Likely pronounced “Yeshu” in Galilean Aramaic.

[iii] The Peshitta is a version of the Old and New Testaments in Syriac, a dialect of Eastern Aramaic. Some people maintain that the New Testament Peshitta evolved from original sources written in Aramaic, and others say that it is a translation from Greek texts back to Aramaic. But as there are far fewer words in Aramaic, it is far easier to back translate. We know Jesus spoke Aramaic, the lingua franca of his time, because there are multiple instances in the New Testament in which the original Aramaic is included, e.g. “Talitha cumi”“maiden arise” (Mark 5:41).

[iv] Translations are from William L Holladay, Ed., A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI, 1972), and the extensive lexicon at cal. huc.edu, as well as Brown Driver Briggs and Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, the latter two found for example at blueletterbible.org.

[v] Jerusalem Bible (JB)