Why was the New Testament written in Greek? Why were the Gospels written in Greek?
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Why was the New Testament written in Greek originally? Why not Latin, Hebrew, or Aramaic? This is a great question.
The short answer is that the whole eastern portion of the Roman Empire was primarily Greek speaking, because Alexander the Great had conquered that part of the world four centuries before the New Testament was written. Greece after Alexander had been a world civilization, and the Greek language was common through the Eastern Mediterranean, northeast Africa, and the Middle East. Many of you have heard that the New Testament was written in "koine" Greek. "Koine" is Greek for "common."
The easiest date to remember in ancient history is 333 BC. Just remember three 3s. That's the year Alexander began the conquest of the Near East.
What about Latin? Why is the New Testament not originally in Latin? Great question. Latin was not the original language of the New Testament. Yes, Christianity developed during the Roman Empire, so many people wonder why Latin wasn't the original language of the New Testament. Latin existed, of course, but largely in the western Empire, like Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal. The common language in the eastern part of the Roman Empire was Greek, even during the Roman era. Greek simply had been there for so long it was "endemic" ("endemic" is Greek for "among the people"). Greek remained a major language in the Near East until the Arab conquests in the Middle Ages, when Greek was replaced by Arabic.
What about Hebrew? Jesus, the Apostles, and the early Christians were Jewish. So why wasn't the New Testament in Hebrew? Believe it or not, Hebrew was already an ancient, classical language during the Roman Empire. Priests, scholars, and rabbis knew Hebrew, but many lay Jewish people did not use Hebrew. Jewish people may have said certain prayers in Hebrew during the Roman era. But by the time of the Roman period, most Jewish people spoke the common language of the eastern part of the Roman Empire, Greek.
What about Aramaic? Many people think Jesus was a native speaker of Aramaic. Aramaic was spread by the Persian civilization in earlier antiquity. Aramaic was a language in the countryside. It's possible that many early Christians spoke Aramaic. However, the language of broad communication, commerce, business, scholarship, and other public enterprises was Greek. If you wanted to get a message across in the first century Roman Empire, you wrote it in Greek.
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Latin itself is deluged with Greek words, since the Greek colonies of Southern Italy (Magna Graecia) civilized the barbaric, Latin speaking peoples to the North.
Besides that, its vocabulary and its semantics were superior to any theocentric Semitic tongue.
The latter is due to the philosophical and scientific mindset of the Greeks demanded a wider spectrum of diction to express higher thought.
Greek continues to be the main contributor to the formation of scientific neologisms
Correction: Aramaic was a Semitic language from the kingdom of Aram that eventually was known as Syria. If Greek was spoken in the eastern Mediterranean and all the way to India, Aramaic was confined to the Levant and up to a point to the Fertile Crescent of which the Levant is part. Because Aramaic is a Semitic language it’s closely related to Hebrew and of often spoken instead of Hebrew even in the Holy Land. Abraham spoke Aramaic.
Persian, as the name says, was the language of Persia, a country that only a century ago changed its name to Iran. Nowadays Persian is often known by its national variants: Farsi (Iran), Dari (Afghanistan), Tajik (Tajikistan)…
Aramaic is a Greek dialect I was told that existed before the common Greeks of today. I was confused because that would make us semitic too. but if they read books that gave that info we may not really know.
0:08 Why was The New Testament originally written in Greek?
0:27 Why was it not written in Latin, the language of Romans?
0:35 Why was it not in Hebrew, the language of the Jewish People?
0:39 Why was it not in Aramaic, Jesus' Native Language?
0:53 These are all really good questions.
*The Reason the New Testament written in Greek*
1:03 Greek in The Eastern Roman Empire during the 1st century (0-100)
1:14 Greek was *The Common Language* used among many different classes, many different peoples.
1:45 In The Eastern Mediterranean
*Alexander The Great's Conquest*
2:14 400 Years before The New Testament Period, Alexander The Great Conquered The Eastern Mediterranean World.
2:37 Alexander The Great is why Greek Language was so widespread at the time.
3:28 The Greek Culture was the dominant Culture of the day.
*Why not Hebrew?*
3:50 Hebrew is so old, it would have been, a classical language. Something rabbis, scribes, and the scholars would know. Hebrew would have been rather unknown by those people in the countrysides.
6:32 Prayers may have been said in Hebrew
*What about Aramaic?* 4:42
4:57 Aramaic comes from The Persian people.
5:26 Jesus would have known Greek too. 6:08 Jesus was a tradesman.
5:35 People in these societies lived multicultural lives. The Different languages of Aramaic and Greek were intersecting.
6:15 The tradesman, language of business in those days, was Greek.
*What about Latin?*
6:54 Latin would have been more distant.
Roman Administrators could have spoke Latin
In Italy
In France
In Spain
In Portugal
*East West Split in terms of Language and Culture*
7:18 Greek Speaking Romans in The East.
7:37 The Western Roman Empire was seen as "The Boonies in the sticks" by The Eastern Roman Empire.
Thanks for breaking it down!
Resonable explanations If you want to listen how Marcos Gospel sounded in original greek idioma listen to the following song in youtube .Marcos Chapter 15 27,28 La Balada De Los Bandidos. Papamichail The singer is a native Greek speaker
🪔 It was Originally written in Aramaic... It's without a shadow of a doubt.
The region had been under Greek rule since the days of Alexander. There was a major School if Cynicism, a school of Greek philosophy, near Nazareth, which may explain the style of many of the sayings of Jesus.
And anyway, the Greek language and Greek rhetoric had an oversized influence on world history, and Christianity is just one example of that. So people read the New Testament because it was written in Greek. If it hadn't been written in Greek it wouldn't have have been read or survived, so asking why it was written in Greek sort of misses the point.
Yes, Greek was the dominant culture in the Eastern Mediterranean for centuries following Alexander. And yes, for people with a background in ancient history, it's not a huge surprise that the New Testament is in Greek. But most people do not major in ancient history in college or devote large amounts of time reading about it in their free time. I have found that many people are curious why Greek is the language of the New Testament instead of Latin or Hebrew. It's actually a great way to open up into a wider discussion of the ancient Mediterranean world. Thanks for watching!
@@JeffreytheLibrarian “I then had the opportunity to spend all of my free time on researching those possible links that I suspected existed between Biblical Hebrew and Greek. Following the acquisition of some rudimentary knowledge of Greek grammar, I submerged into the translation of the Septuagint, solely based on my memory of the meaning of the numerous pages that I had chosen to read. Then I read Homer, comparing him to the Bible. One page from the translation of the Iliad, one page from the Old Testament, line for line, page by page; I started with Genesis and the first book of the Iliad, along with the last book of the Odyssey and the 2nd book of ‘Chronicles.’ Day after day, the list of similar words grew longer, until it reached 600 words - including words related to different views and activities of life - which could not be attributed only to the borrowing factor. In any case, history has not witnessed circumstances where such elaborate borrowing would be possible on such a large scale. I was convinced that this phenomenon went past the limits of borrowing, reaching the limits of a genetic relationship. The door of genealogical descent stood before me and I could not attempt to pass through it or climb above it. It should open freely and widely and the key to this was the grammar.
[...]
From the beginning, I based a lot of my work on Arabic. With my theory, it became possible for me to correct the translation of the Septuagint, using the Septuagint and the translation of the Bible, using the Bible. These discoveries cured me of my dyslexia in relationship to Greek and Hebrew and made me capable of reading a Hebrew word as if it had been a variation of the word. I formed a series of phonetic and morphology rules. I gradually gathered a number of valuable facts. Some examples are that the declension dotiki [dative] exists in Hebrew, that the masculine plural is the same in Hebrew and Greek, and that, in general, a compound Greek verb is equivalent to a Hebrew compound verb. I estimate that 9 out of each 10 words of the Bible can be proved to have a purely Greek equivalent. Many issues were resolved which prove that the Greeks and Judaeans (fify) hold some customs and religious convictions in common, whereas the Hebrew language is proven to be richer and more beautiful than believed until today because of the existence of these groups of words. This whole matter is, in practice, consistent with the following two proposals: Biblical Hebrew is Greek; and, the Judaeans were Asian Greeks. In reality, the conclusion of this massive, extended and complicated research can be summarized in the following brief sentence: Hebrew is ‘Greek wearing a mask.'” (Joseph Yahuda, Hebrew Is Greek, 1982)
"Areus, King of the Lacedemonians (Spartans), to Onias, sendeth greeting.
We have met with a certain writing, whereby we have discovered that both the Judaeans and the Lacedemonians are of one stock, and are derived from the kindred of Abraham. It is but just therefore that you, who are our brethren, should send to us about any of your concerns as you please. We will also do the same thing, and esteem your concerns as our own, and will look upon our concerns as in common with yours.
Demoteles, who brings you this letter, will bring your answer back to us. This letter is four-square; and the seal is an eagle, with a dragon in his claws." (Josephus, Antiquities 13.5.8)
"Jonathan having thus gotten a glorious victory, and slain two thousand of the enemy, returned to Jerusalem. So when he saw that all his affairs prospered, according to his mind, by the providence of God, he sent ambassadors to the Romans; being desirous of renewing that friendship which their nation had with them formerly. (Daniel 9:25-26, Romans 4:1, 4:12, 9:10, Jeremiah 31:31-33, Matthew 10:6, 15:24, James 1:1)
He injoined the same ambassadors, that, as they came back, they should go to the Spartans; and put them in mind of their friendship and kindred.
So when the ambassadors came to Rome, they went into their senate, and said what they were commanded by Jonathan the High Priest to say: how he had sent them to confirm their friendship. The senate then confirmed what had been formerly decreed concerning their friendship with the Judaeans; and gave them letters to carry to all the Kings of Asia and Europe, and to the governours of the cities, that they might safely conduct them to their own countrey. Accordingly, as they returned, they came to Sparta; and delivered the epistle which they had received of Jonathan to them. A copy of which here follows:
“Jonathan, the High Priest of the Judaean nation, and the senate, and body of the people of the Judaeans, to the Ephori and senate, and people of the Lacedemonians, send greeting:
There were letters sent in times past unto Onias the high priest from Darius, who reigned then among you, to signify that ye are our brethren, as the copy here underwritten doth specify. At which time Onias entreated the ambassador that was sent honourably, and received the letters, wherein declaration was made of the league and friendship. Therefore we also, albeit we need none of these things, for that we have the holy books of scripture in our hands to comfort us, have nevertheless attempted to send unto you for the renewing of brotherhood and friendship, lest we should become strangers unto you altogether: for there is a long time passed since ye sent unto us. We therefore at all times without ceasing, both in our feasts, and other convenient days, do remember you in the sacrifices which we offer, and in our prayers, as reason is, and as it becometh us to think upon our brethren: and we are right glad of your honor.
As for ourselves, we have had great troubles and wars on every side, forsomuch as the kings that are round about us have fought against us. Howbeit we would not be troublesome unto you, nor to others of our confederates and friends, in these wars: for we have help from heaven that succoureth us, so as we are delivered from our enemies, and our enemies are brought under foot. For this cause we chose Numenius the son of Antiochus, and Antipater the son of Jason, and sent them unto the Romans, to renew the amity that we had with them, and the former league. We commanded them also to go unto you, and to salute you, and to deliver you our letters concerning the renewing of our brotherhood.
Wherefore now ye shall do well to give us an answer thereto.
And this is the copy of the letters which Oniares sent. Areus king of the Lacedemonians to Onias the high priest, greeting: It is found in writing, that the Lacedemonians and Judaeans are brethren, and that they are of the stock of Abraham: now therefore, since this is come to our knowledge, ye shall do well to write unto us of your prosperity. We do write back again to you, that your cattle and goods are ours, and ours are yours. We do command therefore our ambassadors to make report unto you on this wise.” (Antiquities 13.5.8, 1 Maccabees 12:1-23)
"They say also that those who set forth with Danaus, likewise from Egypt, settled what is practically the oldest city of Greece, Argos, and that the nations of the Colchi in Pontus and that of the Judaeans, which lies between Arabia and Syria, were founded as colonies by certain emigrants from their country..." (Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, Bk. I, xxviii, 1-5)
"[Hecataeus (of Abdera) says,] “Once, when a pestilence had broken out in Egypt, the cause of the visitation was generally ascribed to the anger of the gods. As many strangers dwelt in Egypt, and observed different customs in religion and sacrifice, it came to pass that the hereditary worship of the gods was being given up in Egypt. The Egyptians, therefore, were of opinion that they would obtain no alleviation of the evil unless they removed the people of foreign extraction. When they were driven out, the noblest and bravest part of them, as some say, under noble and renowned leaders, Danaus and Cadmus, came to Hellas [Greece]; but the great bulk of them migrated into the land, not far removed from Egypt, which is now called Judaea. These emigrants were led by Moses, who was the most distinguished among them for wisdom and bravery.” (Professor Max Duncker, The History Of Antiquity, I:456-466)
“A group of Sea People bore the name of ‘Dan.’ The Bible tells how a segment of the seafaring (Judges 5:17) Danites [were part of] the tribal system of ancient Israel...The Danites were widespread. Cyprus was called Ia-Dnan ‘The Island of Dan(an).’ The same people were called Danuna, and under this name they appear as rulers of the Plain of Adana in Cilicia. Greek tradition has their eponymous ancestor, Danaos (Dan), migrating from the Nile delta to Greece...” (Dr. Cyrus Gordon, Before Columbus, p. 108)
"Even among the ancients some considered that the [Danaan] settlers who arrived [in Greece] from Egypt were at any rate not of Egyptian descent, but adventurers of Semitic race, who, having been expelled from Egypt, had some of them turned towards Greece” (G. F. Schomann, Antiquities Of Greece, p. 12)
“Neither do I think that the eponymus [i.e., founder] of the Argive [Greek] Danai was other than that of the Israelite tribe of Dan; only we are so used to confine ourselves to the soil of Palestine in our consideration of the history of the Israelites, that we...ignore the share they may have taken in the ordinary history of the world” (Dr. Robert Latham, Ethnology of Europe, p. 137)
@@JeffreytheLibrarian these grey areas don't confuse a lot of people, it most certainly confuses your explanations.
Greek was the 'English' of the the eastaren part s of the Roman Empire; in fact it was widespread in much of the western parts of the Empire also. Greek was an official language of the Roman Empire together with Latin.
Because the first Christians were the Greeks.Jews never became Christians.Also old Testament is just a copy of Greek myths.
You also have to factor in that the Septuagint Bible (one of the main early versions of the Bible) was written by the Jews of Egypt. Egypt then was deeply Greek because of the Ptolemaic dynasty descended from one of Alexander the Great’s generals. The celebrated Cleopatra was an Egyptian princess descended from the said Hellenic Ptolomeous a wise king that developed some of the earliest most advanced maps of the ancient world. Cleopatra is a Greek name, the same as the Egyptian city of Alexandria and even the very name Egypt. Egypt in Arabic (another Semitic language) is known as Misr.
There were no "Jews" in ancient Egypt, there were IOUDAIOI, ie JUDAEANS. citizens of Judaea. Judaeans and Jews are NOT the same people, regardless of how many times the word Jew is injected into bible translations by ignorant or corrupt translators. A biblical Judaean is someone from the kingdom of Judaea, a Jew is someone born to parents who are Jews. Two completely different classifications of people. One was based on citizenship, the other on heredity.
On top of that God's people are the 12 tribes of Israel, not Judaeans or Jews, and only a remnant of 2 Israelite tribes lived in Judaea, but so did the Canaanites they didn't drive out (Jdg 1), and after the 2nd century BC, the entire nation of Idumea, so being a Judaean in and of itself didn't tell anyone who you descended from - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or Canaanites, or Edomites, or many others who inhabited the region alongside the Israelite remnant.
"Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a Jew, or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or Hebrew." -The Jewish Almanac, 1980, p3
As for hellenization, forget Egyptian influence, most Greeks descended from dispersed Israelites and they Hellenized Judaea and parts of Samaria and Galilee.
Tiny little mistake, Farsi is in the Indo-European family, Aramaic is Semitic, Aramaic came from the Assyrians not the Persians.
As an example the majority of the Dead Sea scrolls are in Hebrew with a few in Greek and Aramaic.
So Mathew Mark Luke and John spoke Greek? Or did they not write the gospels? Seems if they wrote the Gospels it would have been in Aramaic?
Luke and John most likely spoke Greek. Mathew and Mark have Aramaic idioms, and they are also the oldest. Luke was a medical doctor, and his Greek is actually really good. Mathew was a tax collector for the Empire, so he probably did read and write in Greek. Mark has the reputation of being a scholar, and the scholarly language of the eastern Mediterranean was Greek.
Luke was a greek .
@@JeffreytheLibrarian ... I think gospels were true stories passed on to Greece then someone wrote them down, later people 20p years later put titles "Matthew" "mark" "Luke" but the original text was anonymous , which is fine.
Is it me or does Jesus' style of questioning in LUKE resemble the Socratic Method?
If you see that too, it leads me to question whether Jesus was made in the image of the Greek and not the other way around. Which would be strange, right? I'm presupposing Jesus' wisdom and skillset would be distinctly Jewish and not borrowed from a B.C. Greek philosopher.
@@JeffreytheLibrarian "most likely" ?
Jesus Christ's language was only Aramaic (also known as Syriac) and used Aramaic Old Testament. Not Greek or Hebrew. Aramaic New Testament (Aramaic Eastern Peshitta) is actually the original New Testament which was later translated into Greek by Greek scholars who knew Greek and Aramaic. Aramaic Old Testament available today is known as Aramaic Peshitta Tanakh.
Hebrew Priest and Historian Josephus points out his nation didn't encourage the learning of Greek and Hebrews knowing Greek were extremely rare in first century AD (Antiquities of Judeans XX, XI).
Mattathias, his 5 sons, and their Hebrew supporters defeated Seleucid Dynasty and kicked Hellenism out of Israel which we read in 1 Maccabees. They also were in alliances with the Romans and the Spartans who opposed Seleucids (1 Maccabees 8, 1 Maccabees 12, 1 Maccabees 14). In 142 BC, Israel became fully independent under Simon (the brother of Judas Maccabeus) and it was Government of Israel. Government of Israel became Kingdom of Israel in 104 BC. Starting from 63 BC, Kingdom of Israel became semi-autonomous with Romans when the Romans (under Pompey) conquered Jerusalem in support of Hyrcanus II and threw out Hyrcanus II's younger brother Aristobulus II who was in power.
Fourth Kingdom in Book of Daniel was Kingdom of Israel which was destroyed in fire in 70 AD (Daniel 2, Daniel 7 verses 11, 23).
Aramaic completely replaced Old Hebrew as the language of Hebrews during Babylonian Captivity. Hebrew was revived only during Bar Kokhba revolt (132 AD to 135 AD) by False Messiah Simon Bar Kokhba as part of his false messianic idealogy. This Hebrew is called Mishnaic Hebrew which evolved and later became Masoretic Hebrew. Masoretic Hebrew was used to write Hebrew Old Testament (also known as Hebrew Masoretic Text) which was written several centuries after Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, many people mistakenly calls Masoretic Hebrew as Biblical Hebrew.
I also covered many details at my posts at quora under my name.
PALEO HEBREW is Reversed Ancient Greek Letters This is on the MOABITE STONE PHOENICIAN is PALEO Hebrew
Western World got its Alfa BET from the the PHOENICIANS It's all Phonetics ITS ALL GREEK😅
@@Kikap6001What you wrote are nothing but baseless assumptions.
Greek was the common intl language even in the Roman empire as well. The oldest known bible around 300 ad is in Greek. Note that biblical letters to the Romans (Latin) and to the corinthians(Greek)
Lord Jesus Christ has himself chosen the Greek language or couldn't He choose another language. He is God and he guided Alexander the Great to spread out the Greek language and literature and civilization to the most known world so to be expressed more deeply and efficiently the mysteries that the Holy Spirit explains to the world. He is not co-operative with the Luck or Symptoms.
It was Originally written in Aramaic.... I can Prove it, over, and over and over again
I am in full agreement would like to know some sources to review it so I am better equipped and informed. I am the Alef and Tav not the Alpha and Omega.
How can you prove it?
@@pxoopitix5920 When Messiah Proclaimed I am the Alef and Tav it would have been in his native language. If the gospel is to the Jew first does it not stand to reason that it would be written in the language of the Jews? Also there are euphemisms or idiomatic expressions that are clearly Hebraic ie.. the evil eye and the good eye. Also He is the chief cornerstone. In Greek it is lithos-stone but in Hebrew it is "EBAN" EB or AB meaning Father and Ben meaning Son. So it should read the Son of theh Father who was rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Why would God use the language of a pagan culture to convey His message that is in the original. Written in Hebrew and immediately translated into Greek.
Lol. The jews were strictly religious and also very very by the book with their race,culture and religion. The fact that you cant find the Bible in ancient Hebrew or Aramaic tells us that they were never written originally in them languages. Its was first written in greek bc thats what language the Roman's adopted from when they conquered the Greeks. Then translated to Hebrew after the fact. It is in fact all a lie made by the Roman's to control the rebelling jews.
Orrrrrr Greeks turned the Son Of Mary into their Hercules or other man god hybrid myths.
So why the Greek speaking Romans... who were Jesus enemy ending up writing Jesus life story.Something is amiss here.The Jews up to this day doesn’t merit these gospels.They seems to be Roman propaganda.
thanks for addressing it... I was searching for answers this may. God brought you on time.
Thanks for watching! I'm glad it was helpful.
@@JeffreytheLibrarian What other Jewish literature was written in Greek?
Very interesting. Thanks
Thanks for watching! I'm glad it was interesting!
Africa suffer all invasion
Call a spade a spade
Remember Egypt
Respect to all
what are you saying?
Is asia minor africa
But the truth is that the greek language in the Roman Empire was the language of the aristocrates, so the Flavians who wrote the ''gospels'', spoke it but more, they were able to write (it) , in general.
In the eastern Empire, Greek was the common tongue.
EXACTLY. PERFECTLY SAID!!!! it was the common language just like English is today. my dad told me both the Romans and the Jews spoke greek before their own language. Their language was more for the peasants
Again if he was Aramaic why not speak Aramaic for the gospel ???? well Jesus chose greek to speak it and make it noticed. When he saw the Greeks coming towards him. he said " now has come the time for my name to be glorified " He knew that Greeks were going to have him as #1. Remember the Jews rejected him so we Greek got the biggest honor for accepting him. Also in the holy sephulcre, The holy light lights for the Orthodox Patriarch forJerusalem. and no one else, no pope no pastor or even other Orthodox. Only the Greek!!! This was God''s way of showing the world that the Greeks are his favorite!!!!!
What gets me is that the word of God was Given to the Hebrews First, so if the word of God was Given to the Jews FIRST, why would it be written in Greek.
It was written in Hebrew, translated to Greek, Latin, and then English. If they were Jewish why would they speak Greek.
Paul to the Romans and to the corinthians, all three languages from the beginning but all started in Aramaic!
it is all written in greek ,because of greek god! so simple.. creece is the big mystery and secret of the ancient and future world
the holly light only greek priest can take , from the panagios tafos,, the armenians try once and the history is know what happent
So if Aramaic is the official language of the New Testament and of Jesus, why would Jesus choose to say " I am the alfa and omega " rather than say the aleph and the last letter of the Aramaic sorry I don't know it. Alfa and Aleph is not too different
In Aramaic revelation (survives in Crawford Codex), Jesus Christ said He is Alap and Tau. In Greek NT, they changed it to Alpha and Omega. In Greek NT, they changed many things into Greek. I covered this in my post at quora.
Where do you get that Jesus was a trade man?
He was a carpenter. Some claim that the "carpenter" is more of a stone mason, but either way, this is a skilled trade.
The Persians didn’t spread Aramaic. Aramaic is native to the Levant and is a Semitic language like Arabic and old + new Hebrew. Persians aren’t Semitic or native to the Levant.
Like I said Greek and Aramaic are related despite that Greeks are not semitic peoples but the language is close and my dad read somewhere that it was Greek, how I can't explain it. I will try to ask him where he got that from but he studied ancient languages and they are a Greek race that came before other Greeks so the Ancient Greek may have similarities. I think this will drive me to learn Aramaic
Incorrect! Holy Bible was written in Aramaic originally, and same with the Quran.
Prove it
You actually have proof that Jesus spoke Greek or you just speculating?
Nobody would have "proof" of which languages Jesus spoke. Contextually, he lived in Roman-occupied Palestine, and the dominant language then was Greek. Jesus was a skilled laborer, who worked in cities. In order to communicate with a wide number of people, he would likely know Greek as either a primary or secondary language.
@@JeffreytheLibrarianJesus grew up in Galilee (Matthew 2:22), otherwise known as "Galilee of the Gentiles" (Matthew 4:22-16). So he was most likely bilingual. He could certainly read Hebrew (Luke 4:16-20), too. Given that Pilate was unlikely to have known Hebrew or Aramaic, the conversation Jesus had with him (John 18:33-38) was probably in Greek.
Simple. Greek was the language of the educated classes as well as being that of the eastern part of the empire. Anyone educated male and it was only men learnt Greek as the norm.
You are correct that Greek was the dominant language of the eastern Mediterranean. Those that are acquainted with ancient history are well aware of that, but for many people it is confusing, because many associate the Roman Empire with Latin not Greek. There's also additional cultural associations with Hebrew and Aramaic that add another level of complexity. Thanks for watching!
its like French had became the special language in the west in Europe. Later English grew and English is now the common language.
Greeks were in many parts of India down to the south so Alexander is not the reason. Rather it's the fact that major port cities in India were visited by Greeks, Romans and others. Greeks settled in many parts of India. There are words of South Indian Tamil origin in Greek.
I have reason to believe at least Matthew is originally in Hebrew. Because of research done on that subject and early fathers such as Clement of Rome say so. Mark is supposedly writing down what Peter dictates and Mark is a gentile so it may be Greek but Peter would’ve spoken in Hebrew. Luke seems Greek by the way it was written. To “Theophilus” seems like a give away. John, I have no reason to think anything but my gut tells me it is originally Greek. I think it’s more nuanced than people like to make it seem. Grouping them all together. I have heard very good evidence that Revelation, James, and Jude are hebrew works. Especially Revelation.
Marcos Gospel was writen in Greek You can listen how this text sounded in original language in the following song on youtube The singer is a native greek speaker Marcos chapter 15 27,28. La Balada De Los Bandidos. Papamichail
They were targeting gentiles, so they used Greek (they wanted all the world to worship their god), while the talmud was being written in Aramaic because it was exclusively for the Jews.
When you said only the teachers would know, that sounds a lot like what Catholics think that only the priest are able to read the word of God.
Hmm. Good to hear different ideas. Israelis were poor, dry hills, coast and fertile valleys taken by Phoenicians then Greeks then Romans, the Israelis rightly weren't happy w outsiders but stopped short of rebellion.... So probably mainly Aramaic, some Hebrew, , , ,. Only 5% could read usually split Green and Hebrew. Apostles were dirt poor from rural Nazareth and Galilee inland from Greeks. Would a welshman in deep wales in 1500ad speak any English as he rarely left his farming village when 90% were farmers and rest worked for farmers and herders.. the "weird" theory is that markets and trust arise when Catholics said to trust strangers and banned cousin marriage to break up isolated clans, Israel was farming clans w 1 main Jerusalem temple of 100 priests under Roman control in desert hill country.... Olden life is soo hard to grasp, illiterate poor manual laborers being taxed harshly and with jerk priests executing any possible leaders what a depressing place, poor Jesus he fought bravely. Just suggesting, I don't know what's true, fun to talk.
so meaning to say that the aramaic n hebrew people at that time are illiterate,.? no way.. those days were intelligent people.. the jews, look at the history of jews, still baffled me!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
You're welcome!
Neither Jesus nor any of the apostles were Jewish. The word Jew doesn't even belong in the bible, but the only word mistranslated as "Jew" in the NT is Ioudaios, the Greek word for Judaean, ie a citizen of Judaea. Jesus and his apostles lived in Galilee - 2 countries north of Judaea in a different kingdom.
Herod incorrectly assumed he lived in Judaea due to the prophecy of messiah coming from Bethlehem, but everyone who knows the whole story knows his mother went into labor while traveling from Nazareth in Galilee to Jerusalem in Judaea to register for the Roman census.
"Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a Jew, or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or Hebrew." -The Jewish Almanac, 1980, p3
"
This information can also be seen in the video "Jesus Christ vs. Pharisaism." I put the link to it in my youtube channel. I also want to point out that Jesus Christ spoke Aramaic. Not Greek or Hebrew.
Aramaic completely replaced Old Hebrew as the language of Hebrews during Babylonian Captivity. Hebrew was revived only during Bar Kokhba revolt (132 AD to 135 AD) by False Messiah Simon Bar Kokhba as part of his false messianic idealogy. This Hebrew is called Mishnaic Hebrew which evolved and later became Masoretic Hebrew. Masoretic Hebrew was used to write Hebrew Old Testament (also known as Hebrew Masoretic Text) which was written several centuries after Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, many people mistakenly calls Masoretic Hebrew as Biblical Hebrew.
I also covered many details at my posts at quora under my name.
Amazing closure , thank you so much for sharing this knowledge
Listen to youtube fragment of Marcos Gospel chapter 15 in original greek idioma Title of the song La Balada De Los Bandidos Composer E Papamichail
Greeks enslaved the israelites. Hence creating a new testament after forbidding Hebrews from the true testament. Presenting them with a "new god" christos, zeus, Jesus.
huhh... i would not trust the polytheistic greeks(believers of gods n goddess) writing my trusted holy book... yeah its true.. why isn't it in hebrew or aramaic.. loved jesus
Βecause it was written for the world to know what is English now was that time greek
La Balada de Los Bandidos Marcus Gospel in originsl greek idioma
so he said that aramaic n hebrew wasn't spoken widely at that time, still doesn't make any sense ON WHY it is in GREEK, torah is in hebrew /aramaic ... hmmmm funny..
Because the world spoke greek that time and the text was written to greek speaking people
Much appreciated, thank you!
and to say that the greeks forced people at that time to speak their language... weird
Not forced by necessity just like English now
Jesus just live for 33year of that only 3years as prophet or teaching
And 33 was much older in ancient times than today.
A question to people asking why the NT was written in Greek. What language is Jewish literature written in the United States for the most part?
That's a very good analogy.
@@JeffreytheLibrarian Thanks.
Thank you
What is the total number of Aramaic words in the New Testament?
There are a few references to Aramaic words and phrases that are translated within the text (often with the phrase "that is to say"). These are a handful of instances. However, some scholars think the Gospel of Matthew contains many metaphors, especially the agricultural metaphors about reaping and sowing, that are likely derived from an Aramaic original.
Jesus did not speak Greek, Aramaic was the language of the Jews, Hebrew was the native language of the Canaanite people adopted by the Jews. Jesus and his apostles were illiterate, though hence the new testament was written over 100 years later bye the Greeks or Romans that spoke Greek.
I don't know if Jesus was illiterate. He was a skilled laborer, and in the Gospels, he reads in the synagogue. Greek was widely spoken, and there's no reason that he wouldn't have had some familiarity with it.
Jesus Christ only spoke Aramaic and he used Aramaic Old Testament. Aramaic completely replaced Old Hebrew as the language of Hebrews during Babylonian Captivity.
Hebrew was revived only during Bar Kokhba revolt (132 AD to 135 AD) by False Messiah Simon Bar Kokhba as part of his false messianic idealogy. This Hebrew is called Mishnaic Hebrew which evolved and later became Masoretic Hebrew. Masoretic Hebrew was used to write Hebrew Old Testament (also known as Hebrew Masoretic Text) which was written several centuries after Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, many people mistakenly calls Masoretic Hebrew as Biblical Hebrew.
I also covered many details at my posts at quora under my name.
Remember that Jesus wrote on the sand the sins of each of the ones that wanted to stone the adulterous woman?
Not only he knew how to write but had a handwriting so good that other could read from what he wrote on the sand.
Also in the temple he read parts of the Torá as well.
So true
Thank you for explaining that I really needed it people saying that Christianity is fake that the Romans just brought it up
I will criticize you because I admire your content, Historians look down on this.
- NT is originally Aramic, I'm a Syrian and I speak Aramic, so hear me out.
First: The Persian did not spread Aramic, and idk how you figure it out like this.
The Assyrians who spoke Aramic and conquered the Fertile Crescent are the ones who spread it as a diplomatic* language, and people of the Levant spoke Aramic dialogues and Phoenician which it's an Aramic dialogue, and that's long before the Persians dare to conquer Babylon, it's the language that Hebrew and Arabic comes from.
The numbers 1234 are Syrian numbers!
Second: originally the NT is Aramic and written by people who spoke Aramic with an Aramic names but many books in that early years rather disappeared or burned, but still you can find some 1800 years old papers.
Third: well the first people who converted to christianity were Syrians native to the Aramean language, and when we converted our language started to be called as Syriac! and a Syrian actually means a Christian from the Levant and that's what the Greeks called us as Syrians regardless.
And that's comes to your orginial question: there is no doubt about what you said is true except "the Persian spreading thing" but there's another reason, many Syrians considered Jesus as Syrian with a religion reflect his identity, and that was dangerous for the Romans to have a sort of a Social Relgious Nationalism so they tried to distinguish it from Syria, and Byzantine were more successful and effective, so it was a political down play from the Romans- Greeks, this is important to look at, or to take into consideration.
Most of the early saints are Syrians and there stories still in our traditional folklore, all the cities and places who walk on it was Syrian, just look at how many times they mentioned Damscus or Antioch or Lebanon etc.. and I respect the Romans and I don't consider them as occupation in the Imperial period.
And my opinion does not come from a national or religious zealot, it's just a historical fact I realised it after I studied theology and history, and when I say Syria I mean the whole of the Levant including Cyprus and Cilicia.
Thanks for your comments. You're right: I should have been clearer about Aramaic coming from the Aram people. What I meant about the Persians was that the cultural layer immediately proceeding the Greeks was Persian, and Aramaic was widely used throughout the Persian period. Antiochean Orthodox is an ancient community, and anybody that wants to hear and see what ancient Christianity was like should attend. I have also read that passages in Matthew and Mark appear to be originally derived from Aramaic, especially the ones dealing with agricultural "binding and loosening" metaphors. Thanks again for your comments.
Jesus can understand and speak all languages, He is God. And He chose Greek to be the language of the new testament.
So Jesus wrote everything in the New Testament?
Not true. Greek was the lingua franca of the WESTERN part of the roman empire. Aramaic was the lingua franca of the EAST and the Parthian empire. It had been since around 700 BC. The New Testament was originally in Aramaic and then very quickly translated into Greek. And alot of it was not actually Greek. But "translation" Greek. They preserved the particular word order and grammar of the Aramaic when translating into Greek. That's why the Greek is so inferior.
The original new testament was in Aramaic which was language of Jesus and his imminent people. The Greek is its translation.
sure buddy
So Paul would have sat down and written his letters to Greek speaking Gentiles in Aramaic first, and then translated them into Greek. This would mean that he had foreknowledge that his letters would later be considered Scripture, otherwise there would be no reason to do that. Surely that doesn't make sense.
@@ronmey7500
New testament was revealed to Jesus not to Paul . This is nonsensical to think that the Gospel which was revealed to Jesus would be in Greek . Jesus was born in Middle east. There were three prominent and interlinked languages ( Hebrew , Aramaic and Arabic) that came out of that region , Greek wasn't one of them .
@@Sid-MMA Sorry, I thought you were referring to the writings of the New Testament, like the epistles of Paul.
@@Sid-MMA By your logic all books in America are translated 💀💀💀💀
Jesus was only sent for the house of Israel. It doesn't make sense that he preached a translated Greek new testament to Jews. Plus there was no new testament in the time of Jesus. Did Jesus go around preaching Mark's, Matthew's, Luke's and John's gospels in his hands? Those books were only written in Greek for the gentiles after Paul decided to convert them into Christianity. The original gospel in Aramaic possibly perished with those who reject Paul. Again it also doesn't make sense that the old testament in Hebrew could survived, but non of the Aramaic new testament manuscripts couldn't. It only showed that there were a systematic destruction of original teachings of Jesus by certain group of people. It clearly explains how Jesus claimed that he was not sent to destroy the law (Torah), but to fulfilled, and the teachings of Paul contradicted Jesus' in order to please the larger gentile audience. There were no more daily prayers, fasting, circumcision, observation of Sabbath and food laws, and many others because it caused too much of a hassle. Paul make it simple, it is about love and belief. It became worse when the Romans, through a pagan Constantine, hijacked the religion in Nicea and included paganism practices within the church, i.e., trinity, idol worship, statue and figures in Church, pictures of God in human form, Christmas, and many others. These are some of the reasons that convince me that Christianity has been corrupted and in search of the truly truthful belief. By all means, you may believed whatever you wish for as long as it gives you a peace of mind. But for me, truth is much important than peace for eternal life.
When I read Paul's teaching he doesn't contradict scripture, Christ or the law. Paul's teaching was to highlight that Christ ushered in the Spirit of the Law rather than focusing on the Letter of the Law. Romans 7:6 another example of focusing solely on the Letter of the Law is the topic of circumcision the Jews thought you had to be circumcised in the physical sense in order to be considered "saved" in Acts 15:1 but Paul was saying circumcise your heart, meaning truly follow the laws, statues and commandments because you love God not just because it says to, in Dueteronomy 10:16 & Colossians 2:11 both illustrate this point. Also I haven't read were Paul contradicts Christ by saying don't keep Sabbath, food laws, praying, fasting etc. If you have those verses please share them with me.
i admire the loaded info. how did you come up with these. thanks in advance
The Bibles texts were first written in Hebrew and Greek.
@@CanadianStreetPreachers we only have the Greek manuscripts, we have nothing in Aramaic which was the language of Jesus and his disciples, so we have nothing written from Jesus or his disciples. We also don’t know who the writers of the 4 gospels really were
@@pantherapixels Ill say this again, the Old testament part of the Bible/Torah was originally written in Hebrew, new testament was originally written in Greek. Greek was the common language in that region. We have thousands of these ancient manuscripts some of them written extremely early like 30ad considering Christians were persecuted and killed for the forst couple hundred years, and compared to manuscripts of Alexander the great which were recorded as early as hundreds of years after Alexanders life. No excuses man do the research.
It wasn't 👌
This is what your theory doesn't work
Hebrew WAS NOT THE COMMON LANGUAGE AT MT SINAI
EGYPTIAN WAS
YOUR FALSE BOOK WAS WRITTEN BY HELLENIZED GRECO-ROMAN PAGAN AUTHORS
Also it's not true that is was written by jews
WE DON'T KNOW WHO THE AUTHORS WERE
PLEASE TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH
MAY HASHEM BRING YOU KNOWLEDGE
So explain the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Ketef Hinnom scroll...
Jesus dropped everything when they said to him, the Greeks are here to speak to him. Immediately he went to hear them.The Greeks are the ones that spread early christianity.
The New Testament says nothing about Jesus involving himself with those Greeks. Read John 12:20-23.
Wasn't Paul secretly working for the Flavian Dynasty? Weren't all of the original Roman Catholic Saints' members of the Flavian Dynasty? Weren't all of the original symbols used by the earliest Christians identical to those of the Flavian Dynasty? And isn’t one of the earliest iconographic symbols for Christianity, located in a catacomb, under the city of Rome, which was owned by a Flavian Princess?
Weren't all of the original Jesus cult texts produced under the oversight of the Flavian Dynasty? Didn't the Flavian Dynasty posses the only remaining copy of the Hebrew Tanakh other than the Greek Septuagint translation? Isn't there Flavian typology in the Gospels? Weren't the canonical texts all back dated like the historical fiction of Gone With The Wind? Wasn't Emperor Vespasian known as the Jewish Messiah? Wasn’t Pope Clement of Rome a Flavian? Wasn't Josephus a temple whore for the Flavian Dynasty? Weren't the Flavian’s, as well as Paul, descended from King Herod?
There was no separation of Church and State in the Roman Empire. And Christianity is clearly a Greco-Roman hybrid form of Judaism created by the Flavian Dynasty. As an attempt to adapt, pacify, and integrate the rebellious and defiant Jews into the rest of the Greco-Roman Empire. Just like the Greeks created Hermes Trismegistus to integrate Egyptian mythology with Greek mythology.Then finally Neo-Flavian Constantine chose the Flavian family religion to be the official religion of the entire Roman Empire. In order to consolidate power in his fractured Empire. And then Eusebius edited and rewrote the history of the previous 3OO years. Destroying all contradictory evidence. Such as all of the non-canonical Jesus cult texts. It isn't history it is all simply Greco-Roman mythopoetic literature. Today it is known as Historical Fiction.
“What profit hath not this fable of Christ brought us.”
Pope Leo X 💙
There was no flavian dynasty in Paul's lifetime and the RCC didn't come into existence till centuries later. History 101.
@@Berean_with_a_BTh
Do we actually know when those early tiny fragments of canonical texts were written or by whom? Do we know whether they are from the 1st or 2nd centuries? And wasn't Constantine a Neo-Flavian? Which is why he adopted the Flavian family religion? And wasn't Emperor Vespasian known as the Jewish Messiah? And didn't the Flavian's possess the only surviving copy of the Hebrew Tanakh? And weren't all of the original Roman Catholic Saints all members of the Flavian dynasty? Oh... how I could go on. 💙
As I said History 101. Why don't you at least look up when St Paul lived and died? Why don't you also look up when the RCC actually came into existence as an entity in its own right? I'm not going to do such basic fact checking for someone who's too lazy to ascertain even the most basic details before rushing off to their keyboard to peddle arrant conspiracy nonsense.
I doubt if any Jewish Aramaic speaking rabbi or religious scholar would have written anything that was revelation in any language other than Hebrew. Especially if the earliest Christians were Jews. The reason that the New Testament is written in Greek is because this is what we have left. That were many Hebrew written Gospels. However during the council of nicaea a decree was given that all Gospels written in Hebrew and Aramaic were ordered to be burned and any person found possessing them would be killed. This was because those Gospels had statements that clearly didn't support the doctrine of the trinity or the Divinity of Jesus. Another thing that is very strange, is that more than half of the New Testament was written by Paul. Paul never actually met Jesus and never heard the actual words and teachings of Jesus. Whereas the disciples walked and live with Jesus and spoke Hebrew and Aramaic, as Jesus spoke Hebrew and Aramaic. Another very strange thing، is that Paul's writings were written before any of the four Gospels. This is very suspicious.
Why don't you search the greek manuscripts in Dead Sea before making such a comment
What?!?! Paul never met or heard Jesus speak?? You clearly don’t know the Scripture!! Paul was confronted on the road to Damascus!! Remember where He blinded him and turned his name from Saul to Paul? Wow
@@alantate25 the story about the road to Damascus, are only Paul's claims. Paul was a liar, and he corrupted the Old Testament verses of the Bible, by misquoting them and taking them out of their context. This is why the Jews rejected Christianity. The doctrine of the trinity is clearly idolatry according to the Old Testament and common sense.
The New Testament being origionally written in Greek is a misconception that keeps being passed on. It was originally written in Hebrew. The earliest copies that have been found were Hebrew. The Greek texts date almost a century after the Hebrew texts that are on display in the museum in London.
Thank you
UTTER NONSENSE!
The very fact that the Greek texts of the Gospels contain transliterated Aramaic & Hebrew expressions and their Greek translations tells against the Gospels being translations from Hebrew or Aramaic. There are also well-recognised Christological Greek hymns in some of the gospels and epistles (e.g. John 1:1-17, Colossians 1:15-20, Philippians 2:6-11, etc.) proving them to not be translations from Hebrew or Aramaic.
Moreover, the Hebrew primacy argument overlooks the New Testament's use of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is quoted 283 times in the New Testament. Those quotes differ from the Septuagint about 185 times (65%). Hardly a ringing endorsement of it. But why would someone writing a Gospel or an Epistle in Hebrew quote from the Septuagint rather than from an Hebrew version of the Old Testament? Departures from the Hebrew text are even worse, at 212 (75%).
No recognised NT scholar supports the claims that the NT was written in Hebrew. The claim is ludicrous. Why would Paul, Luke or John, for example, write to mostly Greek-speaking Gentiles in Rome, Galatia, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, Thessalonika, etc. in Hebrew - a language few of the intended recipients would understand?
To date, we have over 5,800 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, 11 of which date to the 2nd century. The earliest and most famous of these is the Ryland Papyrus P52, dating to 100-150AD, which contains a portion of John's Gospel. That is over 1,000 years earlier than _any_ known Hebrew manuscript.
@@Berean_with_a_BTh the Tanach is NOT quoted in the New Testament, it is Misquoted, rewritten, and taken out of context in the New Testament
@@WH6FQE And when did you last read the New Testament?
Quotations directly from the Hebrew text of the Tanakh include Matthew 2:15 & 4:15-16, John 19:37, and 1 Corinthians 15:54.
Jesus in the new testament is a completely fictional character. In the book of jasher jesus was made a ruler in israel. Clearly the new testament jesus never ruled in perusalem
yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...
The Macedonian Empire is not Greek and Greek or Hellenic is Not Hellenistc. The Kingdom of Caria is Hellenistic but it is not Hellenic or Greek. The Greek Language was Lingua Franca in Asia because of the Greek colonies not because of the Macedonian Empire which has nothing to do with Greece that was used for slaves by the Macedonian Empire that was Barbarian to the Greeks who couldn't understand the Macedonian language. “Shell we being Greeks, be slaves to Archelaus, a barbarian?”