Language of the New Testament
The
Hellenistic Judaism
The New Testament gospels and epistles were only part of a Hellenist Jewish culture in the
Koine Greek
Whereas the
In the
During the following centuries,
Koine Greek remained the dominant language in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, extending into the Byzantine Empire as Byzantine Greek. In the city of Rome, Koine Greek was in widespread use among ordinary people, and the elite spoke and wrote Greek as fluently as Latin[citation needed]. Jewish Koine Greek did not exist as a separate dialect, but some Jewish texts in Koine Greek do show the influence of Aramaic in syntax and the influence of Biblical background in vocabulary.
Languages used in ancient Judea
After the
After Alexander, Judea was ruled by the
Currently, 1,600 Jewish epitaphs (funerary inscriptions) are extant from ancient Judea dating from 300 BC to 500 AD. Approximately 70 percent are in Greek, about 12 percent are in Latin, and only 18 percent are in Hebrew or Aramaic. "In Jerusalem itself, about 40 percent of the Jewish inscriptions from the first century period (before 70 C.E.) are in Greek. We may assume that most Jewish Jerusalemites who saw the inscriptions in situ were able to read them".[9]
Languages of Jesus
The languages spoken in Galilee and
Language of the New Testament
Most biblical scholars adhere to the view that the Greek text of the New Testament is the original version.
Even
- Greek text
καὶ τῇ ἐνάτῃ ὥρᾳ ἐβόησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς φωνῇ μεγάλῃ· ελωι ελωι λεμα σαβαχθανι; ὅ ἐστιν μεθερμηνευόμενον Ὁ θεός μου ὁ θεός μου, εἰς τί ἐγκατέλιπές με;
kaì tē̂i enátēi hṓrāi ebóēsen ho Iēsoûs phōnē̂i megálēi: elōi elōi lema sabachthani? hó estin methermēneuómenon HO theós mou ho theós mou, eis tí enkatélipés me - Syriac text (with rough transliteration)
ܘܒ݂ܰܬ݂ܫܰܥ ܫܳܥܺܝܢ ܩܥܳܐ ܝܶܫܽܘܥ ܒ݁ܩܳܠܳܐ ܪܳܡܳܐ ܘܶܐܡܰܪ ܐܺܝܠ ܐܺܝܠ ܠܡܳܢܳܐ ܫܒ݂ܰܩܬ݁ܳܢܝ ܕ݁ܺܐܝܬ݂ܶܝܗ ܐܰܠܳܗܝ ܐܰܠܳܗܝ ܠܡܳܢܳܐ ܫܒ݂ܰܩܬ݁ܳܢܝ܂
wbatša‘ šā‘yin: q‘ā’ yešua‘ bqālā’ rāmā’ we’mar, ’ēl ’ēl lmānā’ šbaqtāni di’aiteyh ’elāhi ’elāhi lmānā’ šbaqtāni - King James
"And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
In the Peshitta:
- Mark 7:34 does not contain the doubled-up meaning.
- Mark 15:34 has two versions of the same expression: the former in Jesus's spoken dialect, the latter in another dialect.
Other views
Critics of the mainstream consensus that Greek is the original language of the New Testament claim logical improbabilities in the Greek text compared to the Syriac/Hebrew texts and vocabulary containing wordplay in the Syriac/Hebrew New Testament texts that parallels Hebraic wordplay in the Old Testament.[19][20]
References
- ^ Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland The text of the New Testament: an introduction to the critical 1995 p52 "The New Testament was written in Koine Greek, the Greek of daily conversation. The fact that from the first all the New Testament writings were written in Greek is conclusively demonstrated by their citations from the Old Testament, .."
- ^ Archibald Macbride Hunter Introducing the New Testament 1972 p9 "How came the twenty-seven books of the New Testament to be gathered together and made authoritative Christian scripture? 1. All the New Testament books were originally written in Greek. On the face of it this may surprise us."
- ^ Wenham The elements of New Testament Greek -p xxv Jeremy Duff, John William Wenham - 2005 "This is the language of the New Testament. By the time of Jesus the Romans had become the dominant military and political force, but the Greek language remained the 'common language' of the eastern Mediterranean and beyond, and Greek ..."
- ^ Daniel B. Wallace Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament 1997
- ^ Henry St. John Thackeray Grammar of New Testament Greek ed. Friedrich Wilhelm Blass, 1911 "By far the most predominant element in the language of the New Testament is the Greek of common speech which was disseminated in the East by the Macedonian conquest, in the form which it had gradually assumed under the wider development ..."
- ^ David E. Aune The Blackwell companion to the New Testament 2009 p61 CHAPTER 4 New Testament Greek Christophe Rico "In this short overview of the Greek language of the New Testament we will focus on those topics that are of greatest importance for the average reader, that is, those with important ..."
- ^ Joseph Mélèze-Modrzejewski The Jews of Egypt: from Rameses II to Emperor Hadrian
- ^ Hor., Epist. 2. 1. 156–7
- ^ Pieter W. Van Der Horst, "Jewish Funerary Inscriptions - Most Are in Greek," Biblical Archaeology Review, September-October 1992, p. 48.
- ^ a b James Barr, Which language did Jesus speak, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1970; 53(1) pages 9-29 [1]
- ^ ISBN 90-04-09921-2pages 110-112
- ISBN 1-59751-017-3page 3-4
- ISBN 0-87975-332-3page 98
- ^ James Barr's review article Which language did Jesus speak (referenced above) states that Aramaic has the widest support among scholars.
- ISBN 978-0-567-04360-3. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
- ^ The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia p281 ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley - 1959 "Almost all scholars agree that our Gospel of Matthew was originally written in Greek and is not a translated document. Matthew's Greek reveals none of the telltale marks of a translation."
- ^ "Problems with Peshitta Primacy". aramaicnt.org. 20 October 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
- ^ F. F. Bruce The New Testament Documents
- ISBN 9780567082053.
- ISBN 9780791423110.