L'Bar Nash b'Nishaq

If you have seen the anti-stem cell cloning advertisement "Response to Michael J. Fox" opposing Missouri's Amendment 2 and featuring Jim Caviezel, Jeff Suppan, Kurt Warner, and others, you've probably wondered what Caviezel was saying in Aramaic to open the advert.

Also wondering are the New York Times and most other news sources. Working harder than them for you is Global Review, which went the extra mile and (along with our Senior Latin Correspondent) watched The Passion of the Christ last night in search of the words I heard on the ad.

The words were: l'bar nash b'nishaq. The "l" is the definite article, "bar" means 'son', "nash" is 'man', similar to Arabic "nass", "b" is 'with' (same as Arabic), and we can infer from context that "nishaq" means 'kiss'. In the film, this is the last part of the sentence that is rendered in English as: "Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?" Literally, it means "Son of Man with a kiss".

The only other source that has translated the ad is the Washington Times, which says the words include the meaning 'betray'. While Global Review hasn't consulted Aramaic scholars as the Times claims to have, we're reasonably sure that the word for 'betray' is not in fact included in the ad. The Times also talks to the producers of the ad, and confirms what we suspected:

Cathy Cleaver Ruse, a spokeswoman for Missourians Against Human Cloning, which produced the ad, said the group had Mr. Caviezel say the Aramaic phrase in a contemporary setting but without subtitles "to make the ad a little more intriguing."... "It means 'You betray me with a kiss,' which means Amendment Two is a betrayal because it is deceptive," Ms. Ruse said. "It promises one thing and delivers another."

How did they find somebody whose name is almost "Clever Ruse" to pitch this?

If you don't know the background, note that Michael J. Fox was featured shaking and weaving from the effects of Parkinson's Disease in an ad aired in Missouri during the first game of the World Series. The ad is paid for by Claire McCaskill's senatorial campaign, but relates equally to Amendment 2, which would make stem cell research a constitutional right in Missouri. The response was hastily prepared for last night's game (though the game was rained out, it seems from the news stories that the commercial ran), and was constructed to oppose Amendment 2, and is not affiliated with Jim Talent's campaign.