Throwback Thursday: Did Jesus Speak Greek?
[Note: This was originally published March 17, 2023. ~ Ed.]
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.