Is there any evidence that the early New Testament books were written in Aramaic first?

Question

Were the books always written in Greek first?

Answer 1

Yes.

I suggest a book called the Jesus Dynasty by Dr. James Tabor, an archaeologist who worked with James Cameron on "finding the Jesus tomb". The documentary, and the book, are popularizations of facts surrounding the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Not great, but interesting because it reminds you about the life of the times and how people then were a lot like people today. The Jesus tomb is rubbish, but, there is a lot of good info.

The book has a bibliography.

Just remember a couple of things. People have been copying and translating scripture for thousands of years. Some people copied verbatim and some probably "improved" or paraphrased, just like people do now.

It is pretty hard to find a first edition of a book published by the thousands on a printing press a hundred years ago so finding a first edition of a hand copied "book" from two thousand years ago is a slim to none chance.

This is why the earliest copies of the NT documents we have date to late first and early second century and are in Hebrew and Greek.

Good question.

PS: Scholars have taught for many years that the Jewish people learned Aramaic when taken as slaves to Babylon and did not return to their language of Hebrew until hundreds of years later. It is often taught that Hebrew was a dead language.

This is based on historical documentation, primarily compiled by Romans as Roman friendly Jewish Historians such as Josephus. It is probable that Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic were all spoken at the time of Christ.

Greek was a primary trade language and used when talking to people from different places such as Romans. Hebrew was a primary religious language,probably in use the same way Latin is used by priests and classically educated people. Aramaic was probably the language of the common people.

It is therefore probable that some documents were originally written in all three languages. Exactly which documents were written in which languages at what time is unknown. We can only analyze documents that we currently have. We cannot analyze documents that are known to have existed but that we do not have. Q is a good example of this.

Answer 2

I am by no means a bible expert but from what I know the OT is written in Amaraic and Hebrew, and it is only near the end that Koine Greek makes an entry. The NT as we know it is in Koine Greek.

From wikipedia:
"The New Testament was probably completely composed in Koine Greek, the language of the earliest manuscripts. Some scholars believe that parts of the Greek New Testament (in particular, the Gospel of Matthew) are actually a translation of an Aramaic or Hebrew original. Of these, a small number accept the Syriac Peshitta as representative of the original. See further Aramaic primacy."

Answer 3

while there are four common languages known in the palestinian area, greek, hebrew, latin and aramaic.
aramaic was not Written on the tablet that hung over jesus that said KING of the JEWS. it was written in the first 3 languages so that the population of that area could be able to read it, even despite the Jewish leaders protest. Pilate who wrote the sign, couldve used aramaic and although Jesus is said to have called upon Eloy, in aramaic, he did not Say ALLAH. and although jesus attended a Hebrew Temple of Jewish origins. it cannot be likely that jesus spoke anything other than his native toungue of Hebrew. He also grew up in Egypt, so he mustve married an egyptiam princess when his miracles came known to the pharoah or king of his generation. but then again some people say Jesus married susanah, johannes, marth and elizabeth and a couple others as well.
Jesus mustve been learned in several languages, but hebrew and aramaic had to be native to his culture.

The greek culture was widely known throughout the roman empire, and though americans speak english most do not learn a second language, even though english is often a second language throughout the restof the world.
NO Greek texts were secondary translations. Hebrew was the first common language of a jew. if aramaic were the first common language of the disciples and Jesus, Pilate wouldve written in aramaic.

Answer 4

I'm not an expert, but there is an argument that the New Testament books would have been written first in Aramaic because that would have been native language of the authors. The theory runs into a significant obstacle in that the earliest manuscripts that we find are written in Greek.

Answer 5

There have been people who even insist that the New Testament was originally written in Hebrew! Here are the facts.

Contrary to popular belief, Aramaic was not the language of Israel during the time of Jesus - Hebrew was. Jesus was a Jew and raised by extremely devout "parents", and all of His apostles were devout Jews, and Paul himself was a member of the Sanhedrin and a Pharisee. The very idea that they commonly used Aramaic instead of their native tongue would have made their very patriotic skins crawl. That would be like saying that Hispanics in Florida commonly speak Chinese instead of their native Spanish (and trust me, they hate speaking anything BUT Spanish). The land of Israel was surrounded and in tribute to enemies, especially Greece and Rome at the time, and they were in constant rebellion against outsiders and clung to their Hebrewness for life.

The New Testament, which was written entirely by Jews except Luke and Acts, was written cheifly to Gentiles in Greece, with only one book specifically directed to the Hebrews and one to the Romans. Paul, who wrote 90% of the New Testament, spoke fluent Latin (Roman) and Greek, as evidenced by his direct face to face conversations with Greeks and Romans. There are over 40,000 existing copies of New Testament manuscripts from the first three centuries - more than of any other ancient manuscript in history - and ALL of which were written in Greek, even the ones found in other countries like Turkey. There is no evidence at all to support that the New Testament was originally written in Aramaic, and this also further blows away the bizarre theory that the Hebrews spoke Aramaic in Israel. The very thought would make them turn in their graves.
--Rev. Jim Cunningham
King James Bible Ministry
GayChristianSurvivors.com

Answer 6

Most books were written in Greek, however, as Aramaic was widely spoken, some books were written in that language too. As these books are almost 2000 years old, we do not have the original manuscripts and therefore can only rely on scientific theories which are only rough estimates.

Answer 7

No, the new testament is based on the Sumerian writings of 4000 BCE. This is before Christianity,Islam and the Jewish teachings of one Deity. Genesis in fact, is based almost in it's entirety on the chronicles of earth and explains in detail on why and how we were created.

The Sumerians civilization appeared from no where with written language,laws, technology that we use to this day, social structure, cities, economies etc.

One Deity that is all supreme did not appear in any writings until 500 BCE, when the Jews changed their written history and linked one God to their complete history.

The Sumerians have given through their teachings and writing almost every religion in the world their foundation of belief.

Would you believe the preponderance of evidence elicited from ancient and scholarly sources support rather precisely this radical view?



Peace

Answer 8

yes they were written in hebrew and aramaic later in greek

Answer 9

some old manuscripts were found in Qumran sites, known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, containing some controversial manuscripts of old and new testaments, were written in aramaic.

go to google or yahoo search, and search for Dead Sea Scroll, Qumran site, and Nag Hammadi library, and you'll be amazed of how history should be re-written.

Answer 10

dont think so Ive heard its Hebrew......greek for the NT