format_quote Originally Posted by
naidamar
So you are claiming the Jesus (pbuh) spoke to his disciples and followers in 1st century greek?
Please show us the evidence.
YUP!!
It is commonly held that Jesus spoke only Aramaic. Contrary to this notion, Jesus used Aramaic or Greek according to the demand of the occasion. He regularly taught and ministered to Hellenized crowds and individuals in Greek. In fact, he conversed in Greek not only with Greek-speaking “Gentiles,” but also with Jews.
Two of Jesus’ siblings are the supposed writers of the New Testament books of Jude and James. Their Greek proficiency level reflects early language acquisition coupled with formal training. It would be unthinkable that Jesus’ brothers, with whom Jesus grew up, would be so proficient in Greek while Jesus was not. Of course some dispute there authorship as Jesus' actual brothers, but none dispute that they were written by 1st century Jews and in Greek. Like other Jews of the day, Jesus (and his brothers) grew up speaking Aramaic and Greek and being educated in both.
The Jews who gathered to hear Jesus in the synagogues and in the temple knew that he could teach also in Greek. It is in fact the Jews that inform us that Jesus did teach in Greek. The following is recorded about Jesus' activities in the Gospel of John: "Where does this man [Jesus] intend to go that we will not find him? Will he go to those scattered [among the] Greeks and teach the Greeks?" (John 7:35) The question the Jews are asking here is related to
wherethey could find Jesus, not whether Jesus could teach in Greek. These first-hand eyewitnesses of Jesus’ teaching methods obviously knew that Jesus taught in Greek.
Jesus ministered extensively in Galilee where were many Greek-speaking traders and travelers. He taught in Decapolis, a Greek region. He preached also around Tyre and Sidon (Phoenicia), where Greek was necessary, and conversed with a Greek Syro-Phoenician woman. East of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus ministered, the Gadarene swine owners came to beg Jesus to leave their region; and in Samaria, a region heavily Hellenized, he spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well. Near Caesaria-Philippi, another Greek region, Jesus spoke to the people at the foot of the mountain after his Transformation. During the Sermon on the Mount Jesus spoke to people from Decapolis and Perea, a region predominantly Hellenized, besides the mixed multitudes from Galilee, Jerusalem and Judea, Tyre and Sidon, and Idumaea. In Capernaum he conversed with the Roman centurion, as he did later with Pilate in the praetorium. It is hardly possible that Jesus communicated with such crowds or individuals in Aramaic. To put it another way, it is hardly possible that these Greek-speaking “Gentiles” spoke or even understood any Aramaic.
Jesus at times spoke even with Jews in Greek. Encounters Jesus had with Jewish individuals reveal that he used Greek more extensively than presumed. Semantic elements peculiar to Greek provide insights that are in harmony with the thought pattern and outcome of certain dialogues. Consider the following:
Peter and Jesus
In John 21:15-17 Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” He asks this question twice, both times using the verb
agapó (15, 16). Peter responds each time using a different verb,
philéo—as if to say that he can only say he cares for Jesus but feels unworthy to say that he loves him. When Jesus asks Peter a third time he uses not the verb
agapó (as he did the first two times), but Peter’s verb,
philó. It is as though Jesus is saying, “Even so, Peter, do you care for me as a friend?” In Peter’s ears each question has a ring of forgiveness for each time he denied Jesus. But in the third question Peter sees Jesus willing to not only accept him as he is, but also to step down to his own expression of unworthiness and lift him up. Peter feels overwhelmed. The absence of this distinction in most translations leads the reader to surmise that Peter’s “grief” was caused by the fact that Jesus asked him the same question three times. While Jesus’ thrice-asked question was undoubtedly a caustic reminder to Peter of his denial of Jesus three times, the Greek text shows that it is how Jesus
rephrased his question the third time that triggered Peter’s sorrowfulness (rather than the fact that he asked Peter the same question three times), a distinction not allowable in English or in Aramaic.
That Jesus and Peter could freely converse in Greek as they could in Aramaic does not sound remote to a thoroughly bilingual person. This situation is hardly different today from that in which two close friends, or brothers, both from Mexico but raised in a bilingual community in Los Angeles, end up at times conversing in their own hometown in Mexico intimately, and just as naturally, in English.
As a fisherman, Peter of necessity spoke Greek, the common language of the mixed multitudes in Galilee. Regarded as uneducated (Acts 4:13), he nevertheless proved to be an effective public speaker. On the Day of Pentecost we see Peter delivering an eloquent speech (Acts 2:14-36) to the multilingual multitudes (2:9-11) whose common language was Greek, and in Acts 10 preaching in the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion. Had Peter been limited on these and other occasions to the use of Aramaic alone, his ministry—and fishing business—would have been seriously hampered, if not impossible.
Nicodemus and Jesus
John gives an account of a Pharisee named Nicodemus, an admirer of Jesus. Nicodemus is resolved to find out for himself once and for all who Jesus truly is, so he visits Jesus secretly by night and attempts to size up the Master (John 3). “Master,” Nicodemus says, “we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no man can do the wonders you do except God be with him.” Jesus brushes his visitor’s introductory accolades aside and immediately brings into the discussion a topic unrelated to Nicodemus’ inquiry, yet more relevant to his spiritual need: “Truly, truly, I tell you,” Jesus says, “unless one is born from above (
ánothen), he cannot see the kingdom of God”. The adverb
ánothen comes from
áno “above” + -qen –
then, a suffix denoting origin of motion from a locality, hence, “from above.” In New Testament times
ánothen also meant “(over) again,” “anew,” or “a second time.” It becomes clear from the rest of the dialogue that what Jesus relates to Nicodemus is the need for every person’s spiritual birth, a birth related to the Spirit from above and to heavenly things (above), specifically to the only one who “came down from heaven” —
o ánothen erhómenos --“the-from-abovecoming one”.
Jesus’ use of
ánothen takes place early in the dialogue—before Nicodemus has had ample opportunity to “test” Jesus and form a solid opinion of him. While it may sound logical that Nicodemus misunderstood Jesus (as some Bible translations intimate for lack of an obvious alternative), the likelihood cannot be discounted that Nicodemus’ misunderstanding was intentional, particularly because the opportunity for a witty wordplay appeared enticing. Jesus seemed to have rashly plunged himself into a quagmire with the words he had uttered—a welcome chance for an audacious Nicodemus: “How can a man, being old, be born?” Nicodemus says with an air of sanctimony. “Is it possible for him to enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”. Jesus patiently explains the need for every human being born from the womb (water) to be born also of the spirit. But when Nicodemus makes a thwarted attempt to challenge Jesus a third time—albeit awe-struck by who he had probably by now found Jesus to be—and groping for words, mutters, “How can these things be?”, he receives a jolting exclamation of surprise from Jesus, who tells him that as a leading teacher of Israel he should know better than to be puzzled by such truths. Nicodemus was a well-educated rabbinic Pharisee. Like Paul, and judging by his Greek name
Nikóthimos “people’s victor,” which is suggestive of strong Hellenistic influence, he was a Hellenized Pharisee; and, as such, most capable of an instantaneous linguistic twist in his conversation with Jesus. Jesus used this “people’s victor” to reveal insights that hinged on a bifurcated Greek word that allowed the dialogue to take the double path it did.
I suspect that Jesus even spoke Greek from the cross. I know you are familiar with Jesus' famous cry from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). What Matthew reports there is actually a quotation from Psalm 22 in Hebrew:
“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” But "Eli, Eli" sounds very similar to "ilía, ilía" which is the Greek name for the prophet Elijah. And lo and behold, this is exactly what Matthew reports that some people misunderstood Jesus to have been crying out. Now, why would they have misunderstood Jesus quoting a famous Psalm in Hebrew? Because many (not all) of the people gathered around the cross were more accustomed to hearing Greek. Who were these bystanders, whose ears were so attuned to Greek but who also knew about the prophet Elijah, except Greeks or Greek-speaking individuals that mingled with Jews?
Lastly, Jesus gathers all of his disciples to him before his ascension and commissions them to go into all the world. That world was a Greek-speaking world. If they only spoke Aramaic they could not have left Palestine. Indeed they would have been virtually restricted to Jerusalem and the area immediately around it. The only way they could even hope to attempt the mission that Jesus had set before them was if they spoke Greek.
Now, I'm not saying that Jesus always spoke Greek. There are enough Aramaic words that are used in the Greek text of the New Testament to know that there were also times when either he or his disciples spoke Aramaic. But there is likewise no doubt that they also spoke Greek. My personal guess is that not only were they bi-lingual, they might have been tri-lingual. And then Jesus in his ministry, being thoroughly multi-lingual, used Aramaic or Greek, Hebrew or Latin based on the demand of the occasion. And though it may not always be possible to determine what words of Jesus in the Greek text were spoken in Greek and what words were translated from Aramaic, a safe way to hear all of Jesus’ sayings is the way they were recorded: in Greek.