Did Jesus Speak Greek?

The conventional wisdom is that Jesus mainly spoke Aramaic, and that the New Testament was only written in Greek in order for the Gospel’s spread among the Gentiles. In his 2015 book, Did Jesus Speak Greek?: The Emerging Evidence of Greek Dominance in First-Century Palestine, author Dr. G. Scott Gleaves explains how he began to question this “Aramaic Hypothesis” that Aramaic was the “dominant language” in first century Palestine. This is based on a number of reasons, including the fact that the New Testament Scriptures were written in Greek, the common language for trade was Greek, and the prevalent language of literature and culture of Galilee and Judea was Greek. Moreover, internally, the New Testament texts do not appear to be translations, but rather original compositions, many of the Jewish cities and regions have Greek names, many names of Jews in the New Testament are in Greek rather than Aramaic, and even ossuaries are dominantly inscribed in Greek rather than in Aramaic.

This is an interesting question, especially as there is a kind of fetish for Hebrew among many Evangelical Christians, referring to Jesus as Yeshua, for example - a name that never appears in the Bible as the name of our Lord. The author argues that especially within Galilee, Greek was the dominant language for both Jews and Gentiles. And so the New Testament is written in a Palestinian dialect of Greek that retains some “Aramaic words and Semitic expressions” - and that this reflects the language of Jesus and the disciples.

It makes sense to me, as in my state of Louisiana, there are a lot of people with French last names and extensive French heritage who don’t speak a word of French. And yet, their English may have a slight - or even not so slight - French accent, with an entire lexicon of Cajun words. And yet, they speak only English. This is not that unusual for a conquered people - whether overtaken militarily or culturally.

The book is scholarly and well-footnoted (571 footnotes, in fact) - documenting the historical analyses of the past regarding the language spoken by Jesus and the disciples - and yet it is a concise paperback of only 240 pages). It contains passages in Greek (and some in Hebrew), but always includes translations, so it is useful whether you read the biblical languages or not.

It was also interesting to learn that most Jews by this time did not even understand Hebrew, and even synagogues were using the Greek Septuagint in services rather than the Hebrew Old Testament. This certainly explains why in the New Testament, quotations from the Old Testament come mainly from the Greek Septuagint.

There is also a good bit of internal evidence cited by the author that suggests that the Gospels contain the actual words of Jesus rather than Greek translations from an original Aramaic. This is based on wordplay, and other internal evidence, and the case is strong.

Aramaic was more common in the south, in Jerusalem. But Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, was mainly Greek speaking. And this explains the occasional use of Aramaic in the Gospels (e.g. Ephphatha, talitha cumi, Abba), as those were instances where Jesus probably did speak Aramaic with people. As the author says, “Would it not be odd for Mark [the Evangelist] to have preserved the Aramaic words that Jesus spoke if it were his custom to speak in Aramaic.” The disciples probably spoke Greek in their day to day lives, as it was the language of commerce - of fishermen and tax collectors. We also see Jesus overwhelmingly teaching from the Septuagint. The author provides a good number of examples.

The fact that Jesus, praying Psalm 22 in Aramaic from the cross, was misunderstood, is further evidence of Aramaic having fallen into disuse for many Jews. The author gives a scholarly history of the rise and fall of Hebrew and Aramaic, and the rise of Greek as the dominant language, even among Jews. The author drills down and analyzes the linguistics of various cities and regions, especially Capernaum and the Decapolis. There is also a lot of external evidence, such as the writings of Josephus, that bolster Gleaves’s thesis. He also examines the names of the apostles, the “brothers of Jesus,” and the Evangelists. There is a surprising amount of Greek at work here.

Gleaves conducts an analysis of the Aramaic words used in the Greek New Testament, as well as the Semitic turns of phrase, to bolster his theory. He also looks at inscriptions of the period, and analyzes Jewish names, showing the shift away from Aramaic to Greek. He also takes on the various claims that Matthew was originally written in Aramaic. Of course, there are no Aramaic manuscripts, and this evidence is really just speculation. He also looks at statements from the early church, including Papias, Irenaeus, Epiphanius, Jerome, and Eusebius. The author does accept the existence of Q, and makes use of this terminology in his analyses. He also uses the abbreviations BCE and CE instead of BC and AD - which is probably the editorial standard of the publisher.

There is an extensive bibliography, and, again a whopping 571 footnotes. And again, the book is only 240 pages, and can be understood whether or not one reads Greek. It is well-written and easy to follow. You can either skim the book, or pore over it. The conclusion is an excellent summary that encapsulates all of the arguments that Gleaves makes in the text.

Amazon sells the book (at the time of this writing) for $37.18 in hardcover, $33.00 in paperback, but if you get the kindle, you can save a good bit, as it is only $9.99. The book has 23 ratings on Amazon, with a 4.1 average.

There is an amusing 1-star review from “Apollonius” entitled “fundy-land”, dated August 5, 2022:

Only a rabid fundamentalist would still accept the "traditional" authorship and dating of the gospels on the (no doubt misunderstood) testimony of Papias. Like if Ken Ham wrote a biology book, this is basically that but with linguistics in the first century Levant. For the ignorant, the gospels are all anonymous as are most biblical books, both old and new testaments. Gleaves needs to go back and redo his undergraduate training in my opinion. As to whether Jesus spoke Greek, he probably knew "hello" and "merry saturnalia" but that's about it.

For me, 1-star reviews often sell the book.