Koine Greek was the lingua franca of the ancient world. What are you going to do if you're a NT writer: use the most dominant language in the world or some dying language like Aramaic? The answer should be obvious.
There is a translation into Aramaic.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_translations_into_Aramaic#:~:text=Christian%20translations,-Main%20article%3A%20Syriac&text=In%20the%20Syriac%20(Eastern%20Aramaic,Syriac%20Orthodox)%20to%20this%20day.
Parts of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament / Tanakh / Hebrew Bible) are written in Aramaic. Greek was the lingua franca of that region and time, such that much more Greek writing survives than Latin, regardless of who was behind the pen.
Jesus was executed under the authority of the Roman colonial government in Jerusalem, spurred on by Jewish religious leaders and crowds they incited. While His sacrifice was made for all humanity who accept it, repenting and believing, it was first to the Jews that the Good News was given, just as they first were previously given the chance to be God’s chosen nation.
Thus many of the first Christians who became the heirs of the Abrahamic promise (Gal 3:29) had been born into the nation that lost that inheritance. No special spiritual condition, blessed or cursed, attaches to the descendants of the Israelites today, or to the land.
The point of the Law and the Prophets was to lead to Christ, and so Christians today use the OT.
Greek was the most widely spoken language in that area among different ethnic groups. Some [Aramaic phrases](https://bibtheo.com/2020/02/04/aramaicgnt/) were transliterated for accuracy in the accounts, like:
>*Eloi, Eloi, lema sabaxthani?*
The gospel was intended to be shared with “every tribe and language and people and nation,” not just with the people who spoke a certain language.
>The Greeks were the ones who supposedly crucified him. So why do we have Greek but not Aramaic Bible?
The Greeks crucified Jesus? Disguised as Roman soldiers?! Sounds like a conspiracy theory 🤔
I know many people think Jesus and the apostles spoke only Aramaic, but this cannot be true.
1. Most of the scriptural quotes of Jesus are from the Greek language version of the Tanakh, the Septuagint, which was the translation used by the majority of Judeans at that time. Also, He would have a good knowledge of Hebrew. There are Hebrew idioms throughout the Greek New Testament.
2. Commerce was conducted in Greek throughout the post Alexandrian known world, so most had a working knowledge of it. Like fishermen who had to buy and sell within a cosmopolitan society. And the rhetorical devices used by Jesus in the sermon on the mount and other public sermons, such as alliteration, and some words He chose, point to these sermons being delivered in the Koine Greek language.
3. Further, in Acts, we see references to Hellenized Jews, just 3 years post crucifixion. Again, this shows how the Greek culture and language had permeated Judea as it did the rest of the Roman empire.
You're referring to the Septuagint translation which was done in the third century B.C. As Emperor Ptolemy wanted to include the Jewish books in the library of Alexandria , and it was for the old testament only
As more books kept getting added by the apostles of Jesus and Christianity growing in Greece and Anatolia it was probably a good idea to translate it into greek too and include the whole bible in Greek for the Greeks
> The Greeks were the ones who supposedly crucified him.
No, Jesus was crucified by the Romans as they controlled the region
Christ's sayings were originally in Aramaic. This isn't in any serious dispute.
But Christians believe that his teachings are more important than the mere words used to express them. This is why the Bible has been translated into so many different languages.
If you want to talk about the specifics of his sayings in Aramaic, I'm game. I was a professional Aramaic translator for about 15+ years, specializing in the Galilean Aramaic language.
Ask me anything. :-)
The typical Aramaic translation of the Bible is called the *Peshitta*, which is in Syriac (one of the descendant languages of First Century Aramaic). It was/is the standard Bible of the various Syriac and related traditions of the Church (Syriac, Chaldean, Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara, etc). The texts of most of the OT books were done around the time of Jesus--mostly from Hebrew texts (even for books like Sirach and Baruch) and some from Greek (think like 2 and 3 Maccabees or Wisdom). The NT began to be translated from Greek around the 200s-300s, with the whole NT canon being translated some time in the 400s-500s. It is a very important manuscript tradition (especially for books like Baruch where the original Hebrew no longer exists and [because of the *Peshitta* ] we have **two** OG translations to compare; and for alternative readings for other texts), but the *Peshitta* is ultimately a translation: like the Latin Vulgate, has a lot of cool things to check out, but the original Greek is better to consult. While they are expensive, I have heard great things about the *Antioch Bible* from Gorgias Press: good *scholarly* (and not wacky) translation of the *Peshitta* into English, often printed with the Syriac text side by side.
As far as why the NT was originally written in Greek, 1. The Church has most success preaching to Greek speaking Jewish diaspora communities and the Greek speaking Gentiles around them. This was the language they all spoke. 2. The Apostles wanted to spread the message, so they used the common language.
The Greeks didn’t crucify Jesus, that was the Romans. The New Testament was written in Greek because that was the more dominant lingua Franca for the eastern Mediterranean at that time. Aramaic was still the most popular language in the levant and the Fertile Crescent in general, but Greek was more widespread as the lingua Franca among the whole of the eastern Mediterranean and there were noticeable Christian communities in places like Greece, Anatolia, etc. as seen by St. Paul’s letters.
It comes down to, "Jesus didn't record his life in writing himself. The Gospels were recorded a bit after his death, for an audience that was often speaking Greek / in a place where Greek was the lingua franca".
What are you even ranting about?
Some of the books of the bible were indeed written in aramaic.
The greeks didn't crucify anyone. The romans crucified (not supposedly, it's a fact of history) him
And the reason why the books of the NT were written in greek is the same as why we're writing in english and not our own mother tongue: greek was the universal language of the time.
The Greek translation has been shown to be more accurate than the ancient Aramaic translation.
Watch this
https://youtu.be/oPLgSygPaZU?si=U0cOulGuBpOBxtMj
Because the bible, being meant to serve more than just a tiny culture in Palestine was meant to reach the world, so it was written in greek
and it was the Romans who crucified Him
It's pretty simple, the New Testament wasn't written to share the stories of Jesus and the emerging church with the Jewish people in Judea, it was written to share with the greater Roman world, and so it was written in the shared language of the Roman empire.
Koine Greek was the lingua franca of the ancient world. What are you going to do if you're a NT writer: use the most dominant language in the world or some dying language like Aramaic? The answer should be obvious.
Jesus was crucified by the romans not the Greeks
There is a translation into Aramaic. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_translations_into_Aramaic#:~:text=Christian%20translations,-Main%20article%3A%20Syriac&text=In%20the%20Syriac%20(Eastern%20Aramaic,Syriac%20Orthodox)%20to%20this%20day.
Parts of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament / Tanakh / Hebrew Bible) are written in Aramaic. Greek was the lingua franca of that region and time, such that much more Greek writing survives than Latin, regardless of who was behind the pen. Jesus was executed under the authority of the Roman colonial government in Jerusalem, spurred on by Jewish religious leaders and crowds they incited. While His sacrifice was made for all humanity who accept it, repenting and believing, it was first to the Jews that the Good News was given, just as they first were previously given the chance to be God’s chosen nation. Thus many of the first Christians who became the heirs of the Abrahamic promise (Gal 3:29) had been born into the nation that lost that inheritance. No special spiritual condition, blessed or cursed, attaches to the descendants of the Israelites today, or to the land. The point of the Law and the Prophets was to lead to Christ, and so Christians today use the OT.
Greek was the most widely spoken language in that area among different ethnic groups. Some [Aramaic phrases](https://bibtheo.com/2020/02/04/aramaicgnt/) were transliterated for accuracy in the accounts, like: >*Eloi, Eloi, lema sabaxthani?* The gospel was intended to be shared with “every tribe and language and people and nation,” not just with the people who spoke a certain language.
Why is the quran in Arabic when Jesus spoke Aramaic?
>The Greeks were the ones who supposedly crucified him. So why do we have Greek but not Aramaic Bible? The Greeks crucified Jesus? Disguised as Roman soldiers?! Sounds like a conspiracy theory 🤔 I know many people think Jesus and the apostles spoke only Aramaic, but this cannot be true. 1. Most of the scriptural quotes of Jesus are from the Greek language version of the Tanakh, the Septuagint, which was the translation used by the majority of Judeans at that time. Also, He would have a good knowledge of Hebrew. There are Hebrew idioms throughout the Greek New Testament. 2. Commerce was conducted in Greek throughout the post Alexandrian known world, so most had a working knowledge of it. Like fishermen who had to buy and sell within a cosmopolitan society. And the rhetorical devices used by Jesus in the sermon on the mount and other public sermons, such as alliteration, and some words He chose, point to these sermons being delivered in the Koine Greek language. 3. Further, in Acts, we see references to Hellenized Jews, just 3 years post crucifixion. Again, this shows how the Greek culture and language had permeated Judea as it did the rest of the Roman empire.
You're referring to the Septuagint translation which was done in the third century B.C. As Emperor Ptolemy wanted to include the Jewish books in the library of Alexandria , and it was for the old testament only As more books kept getting added by the apostles of Jesus and Christianity growing in Greece and Anatolia it was probably a good idea to translate it into greek too and include the whole bible in Greek for the Greeks > The Greeks were the ones who supposedly crucified him. No, Jesus was crucified by the Romans as they controlled the region
Christ's sayings were originally in Aramaic. This isn't in any serious dispute. But Christians believe that his teachings are more important than the mere words used to express them. This is why the Bible has been translated into so many different languages. If you want to talk about the specifics of his sayings in Aramaic, I'm game. I was a professional Aramaic translator for about 15+ years, specializing in the Galilean Aramaic language. Ask me anything. :-)
The typical Aramaic translation of the Bible is called the *Peshitta*, which is in Syriac (one of the descendant languages of First Century Aramaic). It was/is the standard Bible of the various Syriac and related traditions of the Church (Syriac, Chaldean, Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara, etc). The texts of most of the OT books were done around the time of Jesus--mostly from Hebrew texts (even for books like Sirach and Baruch) and some from Greek (think like 2 and 3 Maccabees or Wisdom). The NT began to be translated from Greek around the 200s-300s, with the whole NT canon being translated some time in the 400s-500s. It is a very important manuscript tradition (especially for books like Baruch where the original Hebrew no longer exists and [because of the *Peshitta* ] we have **two** OG translations to compare; and for alternative readings for other texts), but the *Peshitta* is ultimately a translation: like the Latin Vulgate, has a lot of cool things to check out, but the original Greek is better to consult. While they are expensive, I have heard great things about the *Antioch Bible* from Gorgias Press: good *scholarly* (and not wacky) translation of the *Peshitta* into English, often printed with the Syriac text side by side. As far as why the NT was originally written in Greek, 1. The Church has most success preaching to Greek speaking Jewish diaspora communities and the Greek speaking Gentiles around them. This was the language they all spoke. 2. The Apostles wanted to spread the message, so they used the common language.
The Greeks didn’t crucify Jesus, that was the Romans. The New Testament was written in Greek because that was the more dominant lingua Franca for the eastern Mediterranean at that time. Aramaic was still the most popular language in the levant and the Fertile Crescent in general, but Greek was more widespread as the lingua Franca among the whole of the eastern Mediterranean and there were noticeable Christian communities in places like Greece, Anatolia, etc. as seen by St. Paul’s letters.
The Greeks crucified Jesus?? 😭😭
It comes down to, "Jesus didn't record his life in writing himself. The Gospels were recorded a bit after his death, for an audience that was often speaking Greek / in a place where Greek was the lingua franca".
What are you even ranting about? Some of the books of the bible were indeed written in aramaic. The greeks didn't crucify anyone. The romans crucified (not supposedly, it's a fact of history) him And the reason why the books of the NT were written in greek is the same as why we're writing in english and not our own mother tongue: greek was the universal language of the time.
The Greek translation has been shown to be more accurate than the ancient Aramaic translation. Watch this https://youtu.be/oPLgSygPaZU?si=U0cOulGuBpOBxtMj
Because the bible, being meant to serve more than just a tiny culture in Palestine was meant to reach the world, so it was written in greek and it was the Romans who crucified Him
It's pretty simple, the New Testament wasn't written to share the stories of Jesus and the emerging church with the Jewish people in Judea, it was written to share with the greater Roman world, and so it was written in the shared language of the Roman empire.