Posted on 05/26/2014 10:50:43 AM PDT by VitacoreVision
Pope Francis and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traded words on Monday over the language spoken by Jesus two millennia ago. "Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew," Netanyahu told Francis, at a public meeting in Jerusalem in which the Israeli leader cited a strong connection between Judaism and Christianity. "Aramaic," the pope interjected. "He spoke Aramaic, but he knew Hebrew," Netanyahu shot back. Like many things in the Middle East, where the pope is on the last leg of a three-day visit, modern-day discourse about Jesus is complicated and often political. A Jew, Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the Roman-ruled region of Judea, now the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He grew up in Nazareth and ministered in Galilee, both in northern Israel, and died in Jerusalem, a city revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims, and to which Israelis and Palestinians lay claim. Palestinians sometimes describe Jesus as a Palestinian. Israelis object to that. Israeli linguistics professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann told Reuters that both Netanyahu, son of a distinguished Jewish historian, and the pope, the spiritual leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, had a point. "Jesus was a native Aramaic speaker," he said about the largely defunct Semitic language closely related to Hebrew. "But he would have also known Hebrew because there were extant religious writings in Hebrew." Zuckermann said that during Jesus' time, Hebrew was spoken by the lower classes - "the kind of people he ministered to".
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The pope is a dope.
I always figured He spoke Latin.
. . . . And by the way, the land was covenanted by God to the children of Israel forever.
Careful, “Pope” Francis, your ignorance and pro-Muslim bias is showing.
Back in those days most people spoke multiple languages. Latin the language of govt because of the Roman occupation, Greek because it was the language of trade, as well as Hebrew and Armaic.
King James English. Everyone knows that.
The Pope would be saying the equivalent of today’s Israelis speaking English most of the time, but know Hebrew. LOL!
How? The Romans spoke Latin. The Jews read their Tanakh in Hebrew, except for the section in Daniel that was written in Aramaic; and they talked to each other in Aramaic. (The differences between Hebrew and Aramaic are no more than the differences between Spanish and Portuguese.) Everyone's "second language" was Greek, just as everyone's second language today in east Africa is Kiswahili, and is English in India. Francis was making a linguistic point, Netanyahu an ethnic one, and they both were correct.
"Jesus was a native Aramaic speaker," he said about the largely defunct Semitic language closely related to Hebrew. "But he would have also known Hebrew because there were extant religious writings in Hebrew." Zuckermann saidIt's in the article.
"Aramaic," the pope interjected.
"He spoke Aramaic, but he knew Hebrew," Netanyahu shot back.
So the pope was right and Netanyahu was also right.
Yep. He sounds more and more like a liberal politician.
This pope has a loose screw.
Scripture reference?
I don't recall Jesus ever saying that His purpose was to keep the land for Israel, and why didn't any of the New Testament writers mention it at all? Didn't Jesus weep over Jerusalem and say that no stone would be left?
Jesus said clearly that He made a new covenant with his blood.
We hear a lot of English from Israelis when they are speaking in various media. But there is strong pressure for western-born Israelis to learn Hebrew. For the most part, Israeli children learn Hebrew from the get-go. It is a matter of national identity.
I’m pretty sure God could speak any language that existed.
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