Speaking of Jesus: The Art of Not-Evangelism

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The same is true, by the way, if Jesus spoke Greek. In my next post in this series I examine this possibility.

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In the next verse, in both accounts, some who hear Jesus' cry imagine that he is calling for help from Elijah ( Ēlīyā in Aramaic). We do not have in the New Testament Gospels a quotation of Jesus in Hebrew such as we have in Aramaic ( Talitha koum). We do have his use of words, such as abba, that are Aramaic but are also found in some Hebrew dialects. More importantly, we do have a few instances in which a Hebrew word is preserved in the Gospels as having been spoken by Jesus. Perhaps the most well-known example is his frequent use of amen, which is a Hebrew word (for example: Matt 5:18, John 3:11, and many others). (I think amen was absorbed into Aramaic at some point in its history, but I can’t remember the details.) And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” John 20:16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. (KJV) There is one story in the Gospels that strongly suggests Jesus knew and spoke Hebrew. In Luke 4, Jesus went to his hometown synagogue in Nazareth. In the midst of the gathering, he read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. This reading was most certainly in Hebrew. Even though he spoke Aramaic as his first language, Jesus had learned Hebrew, like almost all Jewish men in his day. But we don’t know whether Jesus, upon finishing his biblical reading, continued to speak in Hebrew, or rather transitioned into Aramaic.Aramaic also appears in the Old Testament. Some parts of the books of Daniel and Ezra are not written in Hebrew, but in Aramaic. Aramaic now The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Aramaic was the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean during and after the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Achaemenid empires (722–330 BC) and remained a common language of the region in the first century AD. In spite of the increasing importance of Greek, the use of Aramaic was also expanding, and it would eventually be dominant among Jews both in the Holy Land and elsewhere in the Middle East around 200 AD [9] and would remain so until the Islamic conquests in the seventh century. [10] [11] Dead Sea Scrolls [ edit ]

What Language Did Jesus Speak? Why Does It Matter? What Language Did Jesus Speak? Why Does It Matter?

No one can serve two masters: for either they will hate the one, and love the other; or else they will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Acts 4:36– Joseph who is called Barnabas (Βαρνάβας from bar-Navā meaning "son of prophecy", "the prophet", but given the Greek translation υἱὸς παρακλήσεως; usually translated as "son of consolation/encouragement", the Greek could mean "invocation" as well).She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Many of the top biblical translators, including those with conservative theological convictions, believe that the phrase te Hebraidi dialekto actually means “in Aramaic,” not “in Hebrew.” So when Paul used this phrase and when the author of Acts included it in his account of early Christianity, they were actually referring to what we would call Aramaic, not Hebrew. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John, you shall be called Cephas", which is translated 'Peter'. (New International Version) Note, the name Barabbas is a Hellenization of the Aramaic Bar Abba (בר אבא), literally "Son of the Father". So, the evidence for Jesus’ speaking Greek will be circumstantial only. But this evidence is not insignificant.

Speak Jesus (feat. Steven Musso) [Live] Charity Gayle - I Speak Jesus (feat. Steven Musso) [Live]

It is certainly possible that Jesus knew enough Greek to conduct at least a basic conversation. But maybe his Greek was even fluent. Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6:3) and as such he may have been involved in the major building projects in Greek-speaking towns near Nazareth. Although this is a bit speculative, this is how he could have learned to speak some Greek. This argues, however, against the fact that, later, he avoided precisely these cities. Tiberias and Sepphoris, the places in Galilee where Greek was spoken, do not appear in the Gospels at all. Therefore, some scholars suspect that Jesus' knowledge of Greek was very minimal. The remarkable silence of Jesus during his trial (Mark 15:4-5) is also sometimes blamed on this language barrier. Did Jesus speak Latin? Once again, the Aramaic word is given with the transliteration, only this time, the word to be transliterated is more complicated. In Greek, the Aramaic is written ἐφφαθά. This could be from the Aramaic ethpthaḥ, the passive imperative of the verb pthaḥ, 'to open', since the th could assimilate in western Aramaic. The pharyngeal ḥ was often omitted in Greek transcriptions in the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) and was also softened in Galilean speech. [31] Since my days in grad school, however, some credible scholars have begun to argue that Jesus either spoke Hebrew as his first language, or used Hebrew when he taught, or both. (By “credible scholars,” I mean people who have mastered the relevant languages and historical/cultural data, whose arguments are taken seriously by others with similar credentials, and who don’t seem to have an agenda that forces the evidence in a predetermined direction.) I am thinking, for example, of members of the Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research. Unfortunately, many of those who make the case for a Hebrew-speaking Jesus seem to be motivated by something other than a desire to know which language(s) he actually spoke.) Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” In the movie The Passion of the Christ, Jesus speaks Latin in addition to Aramaic. It is, however, very unlikely that he actually mastered that language. Latin was used by the Roman government in Palestine, but only for administrative purposes. According to the evangelist John (John 19:20), the cross was inscribed with the words “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. This is consistent with the administrative use of Latin. Yet the chance that Jews such as Jesus spoke Latin is very small. MultilingualAround the ninth hour, Jesus shouted in a loud voice, saying "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" which is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"