shouldnt the catholic church use aramaic instead of latin?

Question

If that was the language that Jesus Spoke then why do the church sticks with and uses latin?

Answer 1

The Church was not trying to emulate the spoken language of Jesus when it chose to use Latin as it's official tongue.

Christianity started in the Roman Empire. While it took a few centuries, Christianity eventually became the state religion of said empire.

Given that the majority of people living in the Roman Emptire spoke Latin, not Aramaic, it only makes sense to spread the Good News in Latin, so more people can receive it.

Answer 2

Because the Catholic Church is the universal Church. So, it needed a universal language. At the time in Europe during the formation of the Church all the way up into medieval times, Latin was the common tongue. Aramaic is a dead language, therefore it was not used in the liturgy.

Unfortunately, because of Vatican II, the traditional Latin Rite was taken out and replaced with the Novus Ordo Mass - which means that the Mass isn't required to be said in Latin and can be said in any language. The Mass also changed some, causing some to abuse its purpose. But, it is a legitimate Mass, although the Latin Mass is the true Mass, and some parishes offer an indult Latin Mass. There are alot of folks in the Church who are making advances in getting the return of the Traditional Latin Mass. All we can do is pray that it returns and that Tradition is restored in this area.

Answer 3

Some Catholic Churches do.

The Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, and the Maronite Catholic Church use Aramaic as their liturgical language and are in full communion with the Pope and the Catholic Church.

Jesus could probably speak and/or read Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek.

Aramaic was the language of his native people.

Hebrew was the language of the religion and religious writings of this people, the Jews.

Greek was the common language of most people doing business in the Roman Empire. Jesus also grew up at least partly in Egypt which was Greek speaking at the time.

All of the New Testament writings were written in Greek except for a few Aramaic words scattered about in important places.

The Catholic Church switched to Mass in the language of the people over forty years ago.

With love in Christ.

Answer 4

Because Latin was the language of Rome at the time St. Peter(the first Pope)came to Rome.

Though I am quite certain that some of the middle eastern Christian churches probably use Aramaic.

I know that the Greek Orthodox Church uses ancient Greek for their Masses.

Answer 5

They're not trying to imitate any words Jesus might have spoken. Rather, they're going with their liturgical tradition. The Latin Rite was written in Latin, and plenty of people liked it (especially when Latin was *the* academic language), so it continued on until the Novus Ordo.

Orthodox Christians have their Masses in other languages, because that is their tradition.

Saying it's not the same language as was spoken in 1st century Judea is to build a strawman.

Answer 6

The early Church used the lingua franca of the day, and that just happened to be Latin. Whatever your natal tongue, if you lived in the Mediterranean basin in the first couple of centuries AD, you either spoke Latin or you didn't do business. Even captured and enslaved people had to learn it.

If you have an important message to get out to folks it just makes good sense to say it in a language that the greatest number of people can understand.

Understand?

Answer 7

The Roman Catholic Church uses Latin for two reasons:

a) they're Roman, and latin is the language of Rome

b) Latin is considered to be a 'dead' language, so it cannot change... this is supposed to keep people from mis-interpreting scripture... not that it works, as seen from a long, bloody history (Crusades, Inquisition, Witch burnings, etc)...