Filmed entirely in Aramaic and Latin with English subtitles, "The Passion of the Christ" has revived interest in ancient tongues and in the ramifications of their translation into modern languages.

Aramaic is a Semitic, evocative language, open to multiple interpretations, experts say. It is likely that Jesus and some Romans spoke it. "Jews in Jesus' time did not speak Hebrew, they all spoke Aramaic," explained Rabbi Monty Eliasov of Austin.

Scholars, clergy and students consider the ancient dialects of Judea and old Hebrew to be the language of the prophets of the Bible — mystical, idiomatic and powerfully rich in ability to impart layers of meaning beyond modern English translations.

"Aramaic is a very allegorical, storytelling language. Aramaic and old Hebrew are almost twins," says translation expert Neil Douglas-Klotz, author of "Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus" and "The Hidden Gospel."

Christians might be surprised at the biblical nuances. In Aramaic, for example, "good" means "ripe," and "evil" means "that which is unripe."

"This is a different concept than what developed later in post-Constantine Christianity," said Douglas-Klotz, whose research of Jesus' language shows that the ancient Semitic mind of Jesus and the Hebrew prophets saw nature and creation as unified, predating the overriding idea of heavenly perfection and the fall of nature.

"It has a different world view than our language. There is no real strict separation between heaven and earth; between inner spiritual life and outer communal life; no strict separation between mind and body or soul or emotion," Douglas-Klotz said from Edinburg, Scotland.

"There's much that a non-Hebrew-speaking person really cannot understand in the Bible," Eliasov agreed. Hebrew, once considered a dead language, was revived at the end of the 19th century.

Most scholars study Jesus' words from Greek versions of the New Testament (though many Aramaic words remained in Greek texts). But most agree Jesus did not teach in Greek. Jesus may have been bilingual, speaking Aramaic and some Greek (which along with Latin was the language of the Romans), says Douglas-Klotz. Others believe interpreters were used when Jesus was before Roman procurator Pontius Pilate.

New Testament text was originally written in post-classical Greek some 800 years after Homer. Jesus is quoted in Aramaic in the Greek. "There is strong evidence that parts of the New Testament are based on Aramaic sources," Harvard linguistics expert Malcolm Hyman said, but not the entire Gospel.

"Quite possibly there was a collection of sayings of Jesus in Aramaic used by some of the authors of the New Testament."

The Archimedes Project at Harvard University's Department of Classics has developed modern computer technology to allow anyone easy access to large collection of ancient texts. There is a revived interest, said project software expert Hyman.

Gibson's movie only underscores what appears to be a growing passion for unlocking "dead" languages, he said.

"Putting the dialogue in Aramaic and Latin is putting it closer to the actual words and energy of the words," said local peace activist Barbie Gorelick at the Tri-Faith Council, who studies Hebrew for its higher spirituality. "That's the part of the movie that is fascinating to me as a non-Christian."

"It makes it more real, more realistic," agreed Laura MacKay, 16, a second-year Latin student at Incarnate Word High School, who plans to see the film. "If you learn Latin, then you can learn other languages real quick."

Her teacher, Amanda Sieber, is quick to note that Latin is NOT a dead language, explaining that all modern romance languages owe a debt to Latin.

Some passionate local classical musicians say Jesus' ancient language is best appreciated with the ears.

Christopher and Covita Moroney of the San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble (SAVAE) recently recorded "Ancient Echoes," a CD in Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic. It was painstakingly researched for almost three years.

"We were trying to re-create music from the time of Jesus," Christopher Moroney, SAVAE artistic director, said. He discovered there is a power and satisfaction that comes from reading the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic.

"There is some (mystical) power there. It's taking you closer to the source," Moroney said. What exactly is gained? Layers of meaning, according to Moroney. "There is something very moving about these ancient texts." "Ancient Echoes" is available at Borders bookstores and amazon.com.

Aramaic is sometimes described as the more common, colloquial street dialect of Jesus' time. And it once was the most important language of trade. It is similar to biblical Hebrew, the formal language of Judaism's most sacred modern text: the Torah — the five books of Moses — whose alphabet and inherent idiosyncrasies are said to have come from God. All of it is open to interpretation, experts and students of ancient scriptures agree.

"It's the primordial DNA code of creation," Gorelick explained. "There's a lot of mystical understanding and interpretation and gleaning when you use the original language. It's very different because the language is multi-dimensional."

Rabbi Allison Bergman Van at Temple Beth-El explained that Aramaic is part of Jewish liturgy. When she reads from the Torah in its ancient Hebrew, she is reading a document that does not have punctuation or vowels.

"It's sort of like Shakespearean English versus modern English," Bergman Van said, explaining the differences between so-called dead, ancient and modern languages. "You can get it. It's really the same story in all languages."

In Berlin, Germany, Kahlil Khalil teaches the proper way to read and pronounce the holy Arabic of the Koran , another Semitic language. "The holy scriptures — whether in Hebrew, Aramaic or (the language of ) the Koran — are materials from God for all mankind," Khalil said. His workshops around the world teach that there is a connection to God through these ancient languages.

Rabbi Eliasov agrees. "You can see it in the Islamic world," Eliasov said. "The way that the Koran is chanted has certain spiritual overtones built into the chanting."

For his part, Khalil said that Gibson's film "will add to understanding."

Harvey Martin, a Savannah, Ga., publisher of religious texts specializing in Western Aramaic studies, says that there is renewed interest in the ancient language because of the movie.

"This will be the first time in the history of Western Christianity that anyone has ever heard the words of Jesus spoken in his own language," Martin said.

"To hear the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic, there's just something about it. ('The Passion') will ignite interest in the ethnic Jesus, that Jesus was actually a product of a specific human culture that had specific language and beliefs," Martin said. "Aramaic lets you reach back through the millennia and connect with Jesus in a way that isn't available in English."

Rocco Errico, 67, is a Christian minister, biblical scholar and author of 10 books on Aramaic. He has no doubts that Jesus spoke a dialect of Aramaic. He says that even in Jesus' time there were idioms that he used from northern Galilee that were misinterpreted.

Aramaic offers "the cultural sense" of the age of Jesus, Errico said from Smyrna, Ga., near Atlanta. "That's the trick, and that's what throws light on scriptures."

There is resistance from those who refuse to acknowledge that Jesus' language was similar to the Arabic of Muslims. "Some Christians believe that if English was good enough for Jesus, it's good for me," said Douglas-Klotz.

But Errico insists that no cultural context is needed to understand his Aramaic version of a Bible passage that would put to rest recent fears that Gibson's movie may incite blame for the death of Christ on the Jewish people: In John 10:17-18, Jesus says, "No man takes my life from me. I lay it down willingly and will pick it up again."

By Hector Saldaña