Mark may have felt that Abba conveyed a peculiar mix of intimacy and respect which he didn't want to lose, but couldn't exactly translate. In English we have many words ("Dad", "Papa", "Pop", "Daddy", "Pater", "Farv" etc) all of which mean father but all of which hold different connotations.
In the case of "Abba" Father (Mark 14,36) the Aramaic word Abba is retained along with the Greek word for Father. They were not addressed as Sons of Thunder, but as Boagernes. Here, Boanerges is given as a name, so it is transliterated as a name, and then its meaning given to show its derivation. The inability to fully convey the gentleness of Christ's words into Greek led Mark to leave it in Aramaic for readers who understood that language, or might learn the phrase, while also providing a better than nothing translation in Greek for other readers.īoanerges (Mark 3, 17) was given as a nickname to James and John, it is translated as Sons of Thunder. Possibly then the Aramaic phrase in English could be something like "Lambkin, get betterl". Matthew Henry says that Dr Lightfoot says kuom (arise) was also used as a way of wishing a speedy recovery when addressed to a sick person.
Hastings Bible dictionary describes links between talitha and lamb and suggests the phrase might be translated into English as "Lambkin arise", as we too have a word, Lambkin, which is both a term of endearment addressed to a child, and a small lamb. In the case of "Talitha kuom" (Mark 5, 41) the Aramaic phrase seems to have connotations which are lost in translation to the Greek. The mistake is explicable only because of the similarity between the sound Eloi and the sound Elijah. In the case of "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani" (Mark 15,34) the Aramaic is needed to explain the misunderstanding in verse 35 when some of the crowd think He is calling for Elijah.