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To: RaceBannon
I personally believe Jesus spoke Hebrew. Hebrew is the language of the Jews, their formal language and also their common language, regardless of how common Aramaic was in that time period.

And this is really what it comes down to - your personal opinion, completely untrammelled by any historical knowledge.

Aramaic was the common language spoken among the Jews in the time of Jesus. Not Hebrew. There really isn't any historical doubt about this. In fact, so FEW people read Hebrew any more that the Old Testament had been translated into Greek by the Jews of Alexandria so that people could read the Scriptures. You may have heard of the Septuagint . . . so called because traditionally seventy Jewish elders participated in the translation. It was completed between the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. used widely in Jesus's time, even by the rabbis. In fact, the majority of the Old Testament quotes in the New Testament (slightly more than half) are taken directly from the Septuagint, including those which Jesus himself spoke.

This "your own personal interpretation of Scripture" stuff can get out of hand pretty quickly.

653 posted on 07/16/2005 4:37:59 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . Ministrix of ye Chace (recess appointment), TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary . . .)
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To: AnAmericanMother
Aramaic was the common language spoken among the Jews in the time of Jesus. Not Hebrew.

Prove it.

There is NO EVIDENCE that Aramaic was the only 'common' language spoken of at Jesus Time.

The archaelogy of items found are items written in Hebrew, just like the recent scrap of papyrus found, just like the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Since the passge of so many armies through Israel in the recent centuries before Christ, there was a plethora of langyages spoken. Latin from the Romans, Greek for the times of the grecian occupation or the Egyptian armies that fought back again or the Syrian armies that fought through...

Hebrew was the national language, not Aramaic. Aramaic may have been the common language of an area, but the scrolls in the temple were writtten in Hebrew, the sermons in the temple were in Hebrew, and the quotes of Scripture came from the Hebrew, not the Aramaic.

The simple usage of singular words in Aramaic do not prove Aramaic a commmon language, else, the New Testament would not have so many Greek writtten copies.

664 posted on 07/16/2005 5:47:49 PM PDT by RaceBannon ((Prov 28:1 KJV) The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.)
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