[Patrick1]

Aramaic

[allmendream]

Unfortunately it is NOT so obvious (to some) that it didn't need to be said.

Of all the crazy things overheard on a public bus this one had to take the cake.

Old batty woman complaining about some foreigner with bad language skills “If English was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for everyone else!”

[piytar]

Generally Aramaic I believe, but also on occassion in a “language” that anyone who saw and heard Him could understand as if it were their native tongue.

[BibChr]

He probably was quadrilingual (Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew, and some Latin).

Most of His teaching was in Greek. It was the lingua franca of the day, the Gospel writers recorded all His conversations as in Greek, and they made a special note of those occasions when He spoke Aramaic ("Abba," "Talitha kum," "Ephphatha," and so forth).

Of course it matters.

[thefactor]

stop it. everybody speaks english! even in galaxy’s far, far away and all aliens that the starship enterprise came into contact with!

[rface]

I believe he spoke King James English, and then it was translated into latin or some such thing...

[ctdonath2]

Not a surprising question considering how many people think the Bible was originally written in Latin.

[BibChr]

Actually, the piece's author illustrates why it matters, though he does it by getting it wrong.

Asserting without direct evidence that Jesus' primary language was Aramaic, he goes on to explain something Jesus taught in Greek, by appealing to what (he thinks that) the Aramaic that (he thinks that) Jesus spoke would have meant.

Get that. He takes the only record we have of Jesus' words — which is Greek — and pushes it aside in favor of an interpretation based on a wholly-conjectural Aramaic original.

So yeah. It matters.

[HiTech RedNeck]

OK I’ll trans-bite.

You said, if I grok it correctly, Jesus wouldn’t have understood Hebrew spoken in the manner of a living language. No matter that the grammar was there.

I suppose I could disagree if only because of His deity status. But it doesn’t need a god to know how to construct sentences in Hebrew....

[Gaffer]

The language of faith and truth

[Proverbs 3-5]

Just for the sake a discussion, the other side: Jesus Spoke Hebrew
by Dr. Roy B. Blizzard, Jr.
http://webbpage.bravehost.com/Yavo/1_2_Bliz_JesusSpokeHebrew.html

[Nosterrex]

He has a gift for stating the obvious. Anyone with the least bit of knowledge about Christianity knows that Jesus’ primary language was Aramaic. I suppose the author’s next revelation is that Jesus was male. It really doesn’t matter what language Jesus spoke, but what does matter is knowing the original languages of the Bible, especially Koine, if you are minister. The laity can do very well by using the NASB, NJV, or ESV versions.

[Mind Freed]

I personally believe that concentrating on matters like this, takes away from the message of WHAT He spoke and not HOW He spoke it.

[Stat-boy]

“Are you ready? Jesus didn’t speak English.”

Anybody see My Fair Lady or Pygmalion? I always laugh at the Higgens line, and I find myself to be one of the very few in the theater who is laughing at that time.

“”Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible; and don’t sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon.”

— Henry Higgins

[SoCalPol]

There are over 30,000 Iraqis in San Diego, most are Chaldean Christians and speak Aramaic

[boatbums]

Are you ready? Jesus didn't speak English.

He could if he WANTED to!!!

[right way right]

My guess is he speaks the truth in any language and still does today.

[Iscool]

But this is not what Jesus meant when he used the Aramaic phrase malkuta dishmaya (which appears in the Greek of Matthew as he basileia ton ouranon ). For one thing, the Aramaic word we translate as "kingdom" referred, not only to the place where a king rules, but to the authority of the king. Thus malku could be translated as "kingly authority, rule, or reign," and should be in the case of Jesus' usage. He's not saying that the place where God rules in coming near, but that God's royal authority is about to dawn, and is in fact dawning in Jesus' own ministry. Moreover, the Aramaic term we translate as "heaven," literally a plural form meaning "heavens," was often used as a circumlocution for God, much as my grandmother used to say "Good heavens!" rather than "Good God!"

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...