Posted on 09/18/2009 12:54:26 PM PDT by Nikas777
What Language(s) Did Jesus Speak and Why Does It Matter?
by Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts February 2004 (updated 2/2007)
Copyright © 2004 by Mark D. Roberts Note: You may download this resource at no cost, for personal use or for use in a Christian ministry, as long as you are not publishing it for sale. All I ask is that you give credit where credit is due. For all other uses, please contact me at mark@markdroberts.com. Thank you.
Part 1: Introduction
Although responses to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ movie varied widely, every viewer was struck by the fact that not one word of English was spoken in the film. All dialogue was in one of two ancient languages, Aramaic or Latin. Without the English subtitles, most of us wouldn't have been able to understand a word in The Passion of the Christ .
I expect that many people who aw this movie wondered about its odd languages. What is Aramaic, anyway? Was this really the primary language of Jesus? Didn't he speak Hebrew? And, since the New Testament gospels were written in Greek, is there any reason to believe that Jesus also spoke Greek?
These questions are not merely matters of intellectual curiosity, however. Knowing something about the language (or languages) of Jesus will do much more than help you win a game of Trivial Pursuit. In fact this knowledge opens up new windows of understanding into the world and ministry of Jesus.
In my next few posts I will address the questions: What language(s) did Jesus speak and why does it matter? But before I begin to address these questions, I want to begin by saying something that seems so obvious that it doesn't need to be said. Are you ready? Jesus didn't speak English.
(Excerpt) Read more at markdroberts.com ...
I see your point... Didn’t mean to sound all high and mighty.
I took no offense and you made a very valuable and valid point. There is no Greek or Jew in Jesus.
And the person taking your order at the McDonalds Drive-Thru will back him up!
There are over 30,000 Iraqis in San Diego, most are Chaldean Christians and speak Aramaic
lol Did Jesus also work for the Daily Planet?
“But even more, it simply shrugs off the rock-solid accounts we have which are (hel-lo?) in GREEK. And it makes no sense of the occasional notes of Aramaic in the records. Why interject these little Aramaic spurts, if that was His characteristic language? There’s no deep significance to “Talitha kum” that couldn’t have been communicated by korasion, egeire, or some other Greek phrase.
But if He didn’t characteristically speak Aramaic in public, these rare little dabs make sense.”
Of course, the Dead Sea Scrolls provide for us one of the most dramatic and significant of the epigraphical evidences for Hebrew. The Dead Sea Scrolls include nearly 600 partial manuscripts, both biblical and non-biblical, indicated by some 40,000 fragments. The most telling evidence of the scrolls is found in the sectarian scrolls and the commentaries on the biblical scrolls. In the sectarian scrolls, the ratio of Hebrew to Aramaic is, again, nine to one, but all of the commentaries are in Hebrew. It is impossible to conclude that a commentary on the Scripture would be written in a language other than the popular language of the people.
That was a quote from the link at #35
He could if he WANTED to!!!
Sorry, but it exhausting trying to understand them.
Once they used the "Universal Translator" they could. Don't u remember the problems they had with traveling in uncharted space and running across a race of beings called the Antianna. The Antianna had a complicated language and it falls upon Ensign Hoshi Sato to translate this language and find out whether they are friend or foe.
Maybe one day?
Exactly. That part of the world had been under Hellenistic influence since Alexander the Great. That is why the New Testament is written in Greek. Even the literary form of the epistle, used by St. Paul, is a Greek literary form.
My guess is he speaks the truth in any language and still does today.
I was living in San Diego in an Apt with a “No Soliciting” sign on the front door from a previous tenant. So when I got a knock at the door I was a bit perplexed to find someone giving me some spiel. I guess my dumbfounded look got the better of him because he asked me “Do you speak English?”
To which I replied, pointing at the sign, “Do you read English?” and shut the door on him. :)
So when Jesus said "the malkuta dishmaya has come near," he didn't mean that the kingdom of the "the place we go when we die" has come near, but rather that God's kingly authority was at hand. Jesus proclaimed the reign of God and demonstrated its presence through doing mighty deeds, such as healings and exorcisms.
Bunk...
When Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, He was speaking of the Kingdom of Heaven...A physical Kingdom...With a King...On a Throne...
Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
in earth,
Just as the prayer says, When the Kingdom of Heaven comes, on earth, it will be like the Kingdom in Heaven...When Jesus rules on the earth during the Millennium, we will be in the Kingdom of Heaven...
Had the Jews accepted Jesus as their Messiah, they would have lived in the Kingdom of Heaven (on earth) with Jesus as their King...
Act 1:6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
And Jesus spoke any language He wanted to speak...The author implies that Jesus was 'only' a man and limited to what knowledge he could pick up on earth during his short lifetime...
There is no 'lost' Aramaic bible...The NT was written in Greek, not Aramaic...
ROTFL!
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