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Historical context

The languages of Jesus’ time

Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek and Latin

Jesus spoke Aramaic in daily life, read Scripture in Hebrew and lived in a world where Greek and Latin were the languages of trade and power.

A world of four languages

In first-century Judea and Galilee, four languages lived side by side, each with its own territory. Aramaic, the official language of the old Persian Empire, had become the everyday speech of the region’s Jews. Hebrew was the language of Scripture, prayer and some teaching. Greek, spread since the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BC, was the language of trade, cities and Diaspora Jews. Latin was the language of Roman power: the army, official documents, rulers’ inscriptions. An ordinary person rarely mastered all four, but almost no one was exposed to just one. Most scholars think Jesus spoke Aramaic at home and when teaching, knew the Hebrew of the Scriptures, and may have used some Greek in a trading region; exactly how much is still debated.

Aramaic, the language of home

The Gospels were written in Greek, but they keep Aramaic words the way one keeps the voice of a loved one. Mark above all preserves sayings of Jesus in the original language and then translates them: Talitha koum, spoken to a dead girl; Ephphatha, to a deaf man; Abba, in the prayer at Gethsemane; Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani, on the cross. We also find Corban, Boanerges, Golgotha, Cephas and Rabboni. Paul, writing in Greek to Greek-speaking Corinthians, uses the formula Marana tha, come, Lord, a sign that the first communities prayed in Aramaic and did not want to lose these words. Galilean Aramaic had its own accent: on the night of the arrest, Peter’s way of speaking gave him away in Jerusalem. Not even the priestly elite escaped the people’s language: the ossuary attributed to Caiaphas’ family, found in 1990, bears the name written in Aramaic.

Hebrew, the language of Scripture

For a long time it was thought that Hebrew was dead in Jesus’ day, confined to the sacred scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered from 1947 onward, changed that picture: the great majority are in Hebrew, including texts composed at the time, not just copies of the Bible. Letters from the Bar Kokhba revolt (AD 132–135) were written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, and the Mishnah, around AD 200, was composed in Hebrew. In synagogues, the Law and the Prophets were read in Hebrew, often followed by an Aramaic paraphrase, the targum; fragments of targums, such as one of Job, were found at Qumran. In Nazareth, Jesus is handed the scroll of Isaiah and reads. When Acts says Paul addressed the crowd in the Hebrew language, many scholars understand Aramaic, which Greek of the time also called Hebrew; others think it really was Hebrew.

Greek, the language of the world

Common Greek, the koine, was the language that crossed the Mediterranean. In Alexandria, Jews translated the Scriptures into Greek between the third and second centuries BC: this is the Septuagint, which became the Bible of many early Christians. In the land of Israel itself, cities such as Sepphoris, Tiberias and those of the Decapolis used Greek in trade and administration. Two of Jesus’ disciples have Greek names, Andrew and Philip, both from Bethsaida, and it is Philip whom certain Greeks approach to see Jesus. The Jerusalem church had Hellenists, Greek-speaking Jews, alongside the Hebrews. Even the Temple spoke Greek: a stone plaque found in 1871 warned foreigners that anyone who went past the balustrade would be responsible for his own death. Josephus wrote his works in Greek, but admits he never mastered the pronunciation and relied on assistants for style.

Latin, the language of power

Latin was hardly spoken by ordinary people in the East, but it appeared wherever Rome wanted to be remembered: official inscriptions, milestones, army documents. The Pilate Stone, found at Caesarea in 1961, is in Latin and calls Pilate prefect of Judea. The Gospels, written in Greek, let slip Latin words that Greek itself had borrowed: legion, denarius, centurion, praetorium and census, in the question about the tax to Caesar. Mark is especially rich in these Latinisms; he even explains two small Greek coins by the value of a Roman quadrans. For many scholars this fits the ancient tradition that he wrote in Rome or for Roman readers. In Jesus’ Galilee, Latin was the language of soldiers and public notices, a constant reminder of who was in charge.

Three languages on a cross

John records that Pilate had the charge written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek, and that many read it because the place was near the city. Hebrew there probably means the Aramaic spoken by the people. The three languages sum up the world of that moment: Israel’s faith, Rome’s power and Greek culture. The title, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, was meant as an accusation and a warning, and it became, unintentionally, a proclamation in every language that mattered. Weeks later, at Pentecost, Jews from many regions hear the Galilean disciples speak of God’s mighty works in their own languages. From the start, Christianity has been a translated faith: the Gospels give Jesus’ Aramaic words and then, right after, which means. The message was not locked inside a sacred language.

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