Jesus named the Antichrist---and it’s Barack Obama-Fiction!

Jesus named the Antichrist---and it’s Barack Obama-Fiction!

Summary of the eRumor:
A video on the Internet from an unnamed person that suggests that a behind-the-scenes look at the languages Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew reveals that in the Bible in Luke 10:18, Jesus may have revealed the name of the Antichrist. The video suggests that it’s Barack Obama.

The Truth:
The Antichrist, according to many Christian teachers, is a person who will fulfill Biblical prophesy by becoming a powerful leader in the world but will be an evil ruler, a false messiah, a person who is either against or the opposite of Jesus Christ.

TuthOrFiction.com has not found any scholar of Greek, Aramaic, or Hebrew who can vouch for the interpretation of Luke 10:18 pointing to Barack Obama.

The video is based entirely on the verse in Luke 10:18, in which Jesus says, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” KJV

The video says that the words in the verse were translated into English from the Greek New Testament, but were spoken by Jesus in Aramaic. It also says that Aramaic is “the most ancient form of Hebrew.” It goes on to say that the Hebrew word for “lightning” is “baraq.”

Then the video goes to the book if Isaiah in the Bible, chapter 14:14 where Satan is quoted as saying “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most high.” According to the video, there are several references to Satan as having fallen from the “heights” or the “heavens” and that the Hebrew word used for heights is “bamah.” Further, according to the video, there are conditions in Hebrew in which “bamah” would have sometimes been pronounced “U-bamah” or “O-bamah” and would have been translated literally as “Lightening from the heights.”

Therefore “Baraq U-Bamah” or “O-bamah.”

To get some insight into these claims, TruthOrFiction.com contacted Dr. Tom Finley, Professor of Old Testament and Semitics and Chair, Old Testament and Semitics Department at Talbot Theological Seminary in La Mirada , California . Let’s look at them one at a time:

Dr. Finley says that most scholars agree that Jesus probably spoke and taught in Aramaic, but that there is debate on that topic.

He did point out that it is not accurate to say that “Aramaic is the most ancient form of Hebrew?” Not at all. According to Dr. Finley, Hebrew and Aramaic are two distinct languages, although closely related.

He confirmed that the word for lightning is indeed “baraq” in Hebrew. In Aramaic it’s “beraq.”

Dr. Finley said that in Hebrew "bama" means "back," "hill," or "high place, place of worship" (Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament). In Isaiah 14:14 the term refers to "the heights of the clouds" (KJV) or "the back of a cloud" (a Jewish translation called Tanakh) or "the tops of the clouds" (NRSV).

However, he said that the normal word for "heavens" in Hebrew is "shamayim," and that is the word used in Isaiah 14:12 ("How you are fallen from heaven.")

“Even if we granted that bama could mean "heaven" by itself (that is, without adding a word like "clouds" after it),” Dr. Finley said, “the combination that the video makes, "baraq u/o bama," could only mean "lightning and heaven," not "lightning from heaven" or "the heights").

Further, according to Dr. Finley, “What Jesus said in Luke 10:18 was, in the KJV, "Satan as lightning fall from heaven." If he spoke it in Aramaic, then "from heaven" should be "min shemayya." If Hebrew it should be "mehashamayim." It is impossible that he would have used "bama" for "heaven," whether in Hebrew or Aramaic. In Greek it is "ek tou ouranou." And of course this doesn't address how to account for "and" in the alleged name "baraq u/o bama."

Dr. Finley concluded, “Someone has been playing around with these languages in a rather silly way.”

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

Video as seen on YouTube