What language did Jesus speak?

Question

How did the apostles translate it for others and spread the word?
how far down the line was latin version of the scriptures?
did the apostles speak latin?

Answer 1

It's Aramaic.

Answer 2

Jesus spoke Aramaic, which is, in basic terms, Hebrew written w/Greek letters. He lived in a Greek speaking world so he probably also spoke some Greek (at least enough to get by) as well as some Latin, as the Holy Land was a Roman province at the time. It was a multi-lingual culture in that area at that time, and if a person wanted to do business, preach, or just buy some figs she/he might have to deal w/someone who didn't speak their natural language. Jesus might also have spoken some form of Egyptian, as his family lived there for a short while when he was a kid.

The apostles probably also spoke some Latin (Peter definitely did, as he went to Rome), but their everyday language was either Aramaic or Greek, depending upon which apostle you're talking about. Some of the apostles were relatives (cousins etc) of Jesus, so would have spoken Aramaic. Others were converts from the non-Jewish community, and spoke Greek. They also wrote in Greek.

The New Testament was written in Greek, the Old in Hebrew. The Latin versions of the Bible came much later...about the 4th century CE.

Answer 3

Jesus spoke Aramaic, which is a Semitic language, similar to Hebrew and Arabic. It is still spoken today. Neo-Chaldean Aramaic is the most widespread and is quite common among the Chaldean populations in Iraq and other Mideast countries. Europe also has a fair number of Neo-Chaldean Aramaic speaker, Germany alone has over 3,000.

There are also a few reasons to believe that Jesus had some knowledge of Greek. He could at least speak basic Greek. Whether or not he had a full grasp of the language is debatable. Greek was the language of scholars at the time, so everything was written in Greek. Most people spoke it and educated men, such as Paul, could read and write it quite well.

The first Latin version of the Bible was written in about 200 CE, however, it did not contain some of the books which are now found in the New Testament. The famous Latin version, the Latin Vulgate, or versio vulgata, was not published until the early 5th century.

As for whether or not the apostles spoke Latin, most of them probably spoke a limited amount of a dialect of Latin, but not frequently. Latin was not common in the eastern part of the empire. Additionally, the common form of Latin spoken at the time was quite different from the Classical Latin which elite members of society in the city of Rome used.

Answer 4

In the home, he spoke his native language, Hebrew
With close friends, probably Aramaic, which is the street-form of Hebrew
On the streets and whenever he gave a public address: Greek.

Matthew was a tax-collector so he would have received a good education and know several languages

Mark spoke at least Greek and Hebrew

John, Peter, and James and the rest of them, being commercial fishermen, would have conducted business and thus knew Greek (the world-language of the time). However the fishermen, as appears in their writings, knew basic-level Greek. Their writings are very easy to translate from the Greek, especially John, which surprised me because his writing seemed the most poetic. But he really wrote elementary Greek and even made some errors like saying "that you may have eternal life", when he should have said "everlasting". Because eternal has no beginning or end, but everlasting has a beginning but no end..... But apparently to him it made little difference. However John also does use Attic Greek, or "ancient" Greek in a few verses, indicating he did know Greek pretty well but he just wrote like any fisherman would

Paul spoke just about everything. His writing is incredibly complex, PhD level Greek. He used Doric Greek, Attic Greek, he knew Roman and Greek sports, and he used play on words a lot.

For instance in the passage "Some say I follow Apollos, others I follow Paul" he literally said, "On one hand some say I follow Apollos, on the other hand some say I follow Paul, on the other hand some say I follow Barnabas, on the other hand some say I follow Peter" or whatever the last two were..... I said to my Greek teacher, "So.... Paul has four hands?" and he laughed and said how Paul was making a joke about how divided people are and how they can't make up their mind who they are following and... thus the joke about four "on the other hands"

The Gospels and epistles were not written in Latin, it wasn't for nearly 400 years till the Latin Vulgate was authorized.

Answer 5

in this question there is considerable difference of opinion between scholars. besides the incontrovertible fact that, regarding languages used in Palestine while Jesus Christ became on earth, Professor G. Ernest Wright states: “countless languages have been positively to be heard on the streets of the main suitable cities. Greek and Aramaic have been needless to say the straight forward tongues, and a great variety of the city peoples could desire to probably comprehend the two even in such ‘present day’ or ‘western’ cities as Caesarea and Samaria the place Greek became the greater straight forward. Roman squaddies and officers could be heard speaking in Latin, at an analogous time as orthodox Jews might have spoken a prior due variety of Hebrew with one yet another, a language that all of us know to have been neither classical Hebrew nor Aramaic, regardless of its similarities to the two.” Commenting further, on the language spoken by utilising Jesus Christ, Professor Wright says: “The language spoken by utilising Jesus has been a lot debated. we've not have been given any specific way of understanding whether he could desire to talk Greek or Latin, yet in his coaching ministry he usually used the two Aramaic or the exceptionally Aramaized regular Hebrew. while Paul addressed the mob interior the Temple, that's stated that he spoke Hebrew (Acts 21:40). scholars many times have taken this to intend Aramaic, besides the incontrovertible fact that that is extremely achievable that a favored Hebrew became then the straight forward tongue between the Jews.”—Biblical Archaeology, 1963, p. 243.

Answer 6

It's traditionally believed that Jesus spoke the ancient language of Aramaic.

Since Luke was a doctor, he'd speak Latin and probably Greek. Matthew was a tax collector for the Romans, so he'd need to have a working knowledge of the language of his bosses. Peter, Andrew, James and John were humble fishermen from 'oop north'. They'll have spoken only Aramaic.

Answer 7

Most probably that Jesus of Nazareth was multilingual. He had to speak Hebrew because He was a Jew; Latin because Judea was ruled by the Roman Empire; Greek because it had been the international trade language of the area; Aramaic because it was spoken by a large number of surrounding communities of Israel. His native language, however, had to be Hebrew because he was a member of a Jewish family.
The New Testament was written in Koine Greek (ancient dialect not spoken at present) and was translated to (vulgar) Latin along with the Old Testament at the end of the 4th century.
You can assume that not all of them did speak Latin, maybe just the learned Apostles like Luke and Matthew. Luke was a physician and Matt a tax collector who had to communicate with Roman authorities.

Answer 8

Jesus spoke Hebrew, and the apostles were able to spread the word because God gave them the gift of tongues on Pentecost

xxx

Answer 9

Aramic, later on St Paul wrote in Greek (from the island od Patmos in Greece) and the bible was written in Greek. As far as I am aware the apostles did nto speak Latin at all.

Answer 10

He likely spoke Aramaic in Galilee and Hebrew in Judea.

Hebrew was the language that tied together all the hoards of Jews that came from all over the world to celebrate holidays in Jerusalem. When he taught from the steps of the temple, he would have had to use this language to get through to them.

Back in Galilee, the common language was the Galilean dialect of Aramaic.

Greek was common in Palestine, but Jews abhorred Greek culture and likely avoided it unless they were conducting business.

(Umm...the "Passion of Christ" was in Aramaic with subtitles...)

Answer 11

Jesus was a Jew, therefore He would have spoken Aramaic and Hebrew.

The Apostels would have Spoken the same, but Paul would have been able to learn some Greek and possible other dialects

Joseph (Barnabas) was a Greek.