ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – POSSIBLE –  Shakach שׁכח

Matthew 19:26: “But Jesus beheld them and said unto them: With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Here lies the rub. There are many things that are impossible for God. It is impossible for God to lie, to sin. It is impossible for God to break a promise. It is impossible for God to create a rock too big for Him to lift, it is impossible for God to perform a contradiction.

Actually, translators are just walking in lock step with the Middle English understanding of possible or the KJV. Every modern translation says with God all things are possible nothing is impossible. To say anything less would cause a real uproar among the brethren and a sudden drop in sales of that particular translation. But the simple fact that in the English of the KJV the words possible and impossible means something much different than they do today. When we say impossible today we mean nothing can accomplish a task. But if you use the words in Middle English you said that nothing is impossible that is within the strength, character and skills. It is impossible for one lacking the strength, character or skills. Thus in old English nothing is impossible for God that is within His strength, character, and nature.

In the Aramaic there is no word for impossible. Impossible is loshekach – lo (not) possible (shekach). Actually, in the Targums and Talmud the Aramaic word shekach is used to express the idea of uncovering something that is hidden.

In other words the disciples ask how one can be save. Jesus said that we in our human state cannot uncover this mystery, it is hidden from us but with God it is not hidden.

Our Salvation our redemption is really a mystery. We try to understand it in our study of theology under Soteriology, the study of Salvation but really the whole concept of the Trinity, the Diety of Jesus being both man and God at the same time, why Jesus had to die on a cross to redeem us is beyond our comprehension our human capability to understand. With God it all makes perfect sense. Our only recourse is to just put our trust in the one that such a mystery is revealed.