קָלָא דְּיֵשׁוּעַ

Qala d’Yeshua

An Aramaic-aware translation of the four Gospels

Jesus taught in Aramaic. The Gospels were written down in Greek. This is a translation that listens for his voice beneath the Greek to try to learn from him on the firmest possible ground.

What is this?

A new combination of long-existing sources.

Qala d’Yeshua is Aramaic for the voice of Jesus.

It is a rendering of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that starts from the Greek text and listens for the Aramaic beneath it.

Read and listen

The four Gospels.

Matthew
28 chapters
Read & listen
Download: Word · MP3 · 92 MB
Mark
16 chapters
Read & listen
Download: Word · MP3 · 58 MB
Luke
24 chapters
Read & listen
Download: Word · MP3 · 98 MB
John
21 chapters
Read & listen
Download: Word · MP3 · 76 MB

These are living drafts.

Matthew 5 · The Beatitudes
“Flourishing are those poor in Ruha, for the reign of the heavens is theirs.”
Where the evidence supports it, the Aramaic shapes the English:
Turn around, not repent
Release, not forgive
Reign, not kingdom
Flourishing, not blessed
The Immerser, not the Baptist
John 14 · The parting gift
“Wholeness I leave with you; my wholeness I give to you, not as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.”
Shlama is wholeness. A truce is the smallest part of it; the word carries integration, balance, and harmony.
Method

How can we find firm ground?

The Greek text is the base, yet Yeshua spoke Aramaic. With care we can sometimes know what his specific words were, and we can be methodical about how confident we are in a given word.

So we ask of every word in the four Gospels: what Aramaic most likely stood beneath this, and how surely can it be known? The answer places the word on a ladder with four rungs, and the rung decides which language governs the English. The English then blends the Greek and the Aramaic beneath it.

T1Certain→ Aramaic-governed
The Aramaic word is known beyond reasonable doubt, either preserved in the Greek text itself (Talitha, qum. Abba. Amen.) or locked by the language, one standard word with no serious competitor (Ruha, malkūtā, bar-nāshā). The English is translated from the Aramaic. The Greek supplies context and syntax.
T2Confident, not certain→ Aramaic-enriched
Strong confidence in the specific word, with real uncertainty remaining. The Aramaic governs or enriches the English, and the Greek stands beside it as the translation witness.
T3Uncertain→ Hybrid
It was spoken in Aramaic, but the word cannot be pinned: two or more candidates survive. Both feet stay planted on the Greek: the Greek governs the meaning, and the rendering bends toward Aramaic rhythm and concreteness where it honestly can.
T4Narrative frame→ Greek-governed
Words that were never spoken: this rung is for what is not dialogue. The evangelist’s own frame, composed in Greek: the narration, John’s prologue, the seams between sayings. The Greek decides the English here. Most T4 words still show an Aramaic word beside them; T4 means it did not get a vote.
Tiers attach to words, not verses.
A single verse can hold a T1 word inside a T4 line. There is no global tier because it can vary case by case. More →
A note on the witnesses.
Yeshua spoke Western Aramaic, the Galilean dialect; the Syriac witnesses are Eastern and later. More →
The scriptures inside the scripture.
When Yeshua quotes the Torah, the words underneath are Hebrew: the 88 Old Testament quotations render from the Hebrew source. More →
Two layers.
Two layers are tracked separately on every entry: which Aramaic word stood here, and what English best carries it. More →
Study the Gospels

The apparatus is open.

Behind the reading text is the full working apparatus: an 89-chapter talk-along interlinear with each evidence row a toggle, the felt-sense glossary of 1,308 root-grouped entries, and the Living Map, which draws the Gospels’ vocabulary as one network.

Try it: open Talitha, qum · Mark 5:41, where the Greek itself preserves the Aramaic.

Or go deeper and learn Aramaic by root: the 75 core roots of the Gospels, one page a day.