What language did Jesus speak ?

Question

it might be Aramaic, but ... What is Aramaic !?
any people still speak it nowadays ? .... and who did translate the Bible to english ? when ?

Answer 1

you are right , he spoke Aramic. Aramic is still spoken and studied in some eastern countries. it is the first language for many people who live in the northern areas of Syria and Iraq and in some areas of Turkey. Search in Wikipedia for Aramaic or Assyrian. Masses in many churches there and other places are still held in Aramic.

Answer 2

In Jesus' time, most scholars accross the ancient world used Koine Greek. It was the English of its day. Apart from that Jesus and his disciples may well have written and spoken Hebrew perhaps as a second language to Aramaic, which was most likely only spoken, not written. The Christian New Testament is widely agreed to have originally been written in Greek, although some scholars hypothesize that certain books (whether completely or partially) may have been written in Aramaic before being translated for widespread dissemination. One very famous example of this is the the opening to the Gospel of John, which some scholars argue to be a Greek translation of an Aramaic hymn. Nevertheless, the received text of the New Testament is Greek, and nearly all translations are based upon the Greek text.

As many people Jesus preached to were not literate, many of the teachings would have been passed down in oral tradition, which partly explains why parables were used.

The bible was translated from Koine greek to Latin. From Latin, translation were made into Old English and German.

Answer 3

Yes he spoke Aramaic. There is no evidence that he spoke Greek, though many of his disciples clearly did so maybe he did too. But his words are quoted in Aramaic in the New Testament a couple of times, e.g., Elli elli lamma sabakhtani? He must have understood Hebrew to quote from the Old Testament but it does not seem that anyone spoke Hebrew except perhaps in some remote areas in his day. Aramaic, though greatly changed, is spoken in some parts of the Middle East even now, often called Assyrian though. As to what it is, it is a Semitic language quite different from though related to Hebrew. You can understand some words if you know one of them but that's all. It is really a separate language.

Answer 4

Aramaic is a "dead" language. The writings that now compose the Christian bible underwent a series of translation that roughly goes from Aramaic to Greek to Latin and finally to the English and other languages in use today. Of course something is always lost in the translation process. And that is why there so may varied interpretations of the what the bible really meant to convey.

Answer 5

Yes, an Aramaic dialect was what Jesus spoke

There are people in Syria who still speak Aramaic

Aramaic is a Semitic language like Hebrew and Arabic and it lost out to Arabic as the common spoken and written language of the Near East of" Greater Syria". Aramaic or its form as Syriac is still the liturgical language of many ancient Eastern Churches like the Assyrian and Jacobite.

Answer 6

Inscriptions and letters from 1st century Galilee indicate the predominent language was Greek, but that most folks were probably conversant in Hebrew and Aramaic as well.

Answer 7

Yes, Isa (AHS), the one you call Jesus (latin: Iesus , compare it to IULIUS, as in Julius Caesar), did speak in Aramaic, and the Injeel (Gospel) was first written in Aramaic. Aramaic is a semitic language that has influeced mordern arabic dialects in the Levant, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq to a great extent. Jesus's Aramaic name is believed to be Ezu, and his Hebrew name was Yahshua.
Aramaic is an endangered language. It is mainly spoken as Syriac by the Assyrians, who are now a very small Christian minority in Northern Iraq, living in a few scattered villages. It is also spoken by very few in Israel, in a mutually unintelligible dialect.

Answer 8

Aramaic and YES I saw a piece on TV where there are people that still speak this language and are teaching it to their children! Cool eh?
The bible wasn't written in Aramaic, it was written in Latin by monks

Answer 9

I believe it was Aramaic. And I don't know if anyone still speaks it. I believe so, though.

Answer 10

Well he was learned in the Old Testament (Torah) and the Torah is in Hebrew so I imagine he spoke Hebrew.

Many people today speak Hebrew. One of my best friends can speak Hebrew and is quite excellent at calling me an idiot in Hebrew.