What Aramaic Word Did Jesus Use for "Repentance"?

Here’s a question that I recently received from a reader: “What Aramaic word would Jesus have used to express ‘metanoia’ (Change of mind)?”

In my research, the best answer to this question is from the eminent and learned theologian Dr. John Lightfoot (1602-1675). Commenting on the words of Jesus in Matthew 4:17 and Mark 1:15, Lightfoot writes the following:

“worth our consideration in this our Saviour’s doctrine, is the word by which he calleth for repentance. What Syriack word he used speaking that language it is uncertain (the Syriack translator useth Return or be converted) but the word which the Holy Ghost hath left us in the Original Greek metanoeite is exceeding significant and pertinent to that doctrine and occasion. The word is frequently used in the Septuagint, concerning God, when he is said to repent or not repent, as 1 Sam. 15.29. Jer. 3.9. Amos 7.3.6. &c. but the use of it applied to man is not so frequent in them, as of the word epistraphēte [be converted], & epistrepsate apo kakias [turn from evil] as Ezek. 18.30. because that word doth most Grammatically and verbatim translate the word shub, which is the word most commonly used in the Hebrew, for Repenting, and yet do the Septuagint sometimes use metanoein for man’s repentance, as Jer. 8.6. &c.”

“The word doth first signifie a reviewing or considering of a man’s own self and condition, as Lam. 3.40. and so Brucioli doth render it in the Italian, Ravedete vi [Repent ye], view your selves, or take yourselves into consideration. Secondly, it betokeneth [indicates] a growing wise, or coming to one’s self again, as Luk. 15.17. and thereupon it is well rendered by our Protestant Divines, Resipicite, Be wise again, for so the word were to be construed in its strict propriety. And thirdly it signifieth a change of mind, from one temper to another.”

“Now the Holy Ghost by a word of this significancy, doth give the proper and true character of repentance, both against the misprisions [distortions] that were taken up concerning it, by their traditions in those times, and those also that have been taken up since.”[1]

Reference: 

John Lightfoot, The Works of the Reverend and Learned John Lightfoot, George Bright, Editor (London: 1684), 2 vols., vol. 1, p. 629, spelling and italics his. Note: I transcribed the Hebrew and Greek letters from the original statement into English. I also added apostrophes in several instances where modern English requires it (e.g. “Saviour’s doctrine,” “man’s own self and condition,” etc.).