What language or languages did Jesus speak? The scholarly debate which has been raging for over a century can be briefly summarized by dividing the protagonists into two major schools of thought:
Hebrew advocates — these scholars believe that Jesus spoke the language which the Israelites had spoken for centuries and which the Old Testament Scriptures were written in. They also maintain that Hebrew was probably the language most used for literary purposes during this period.
Aramaic proponents — Aramaic was the language of the Aramaeans, a people from Aram in north Syria. It was in use in the early centuries of the first millennium B.C. for religious and state purposes in Syria. It gained in usage and eventually became the official language of the Persian Empire (539-332 B.C.). Although Greek later displaced it as the official language of the Near East, Aramaic continued in use as the common speech of the people. Scholars who hold the view that Aramaic was Jesus’ language say that this was the only language used by the masses at that time and therefore it had to be the language of Jesus and His disciples.
The Archaeological Evidence
The truth of the matter is that there is abundant evidence that both Hebrew and Aramaic were in use in the early decades of the Christian era. While Aramaic was the common language of the entire Near East, Hebrew continued as a living language in Palestine at least up to the defeat of Bar-Kochba (A.D. 135). Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek words are found on ossuaries of the first Christian century.
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Murrabba’at yielded manuscripts written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek (see. p. 7), and of a bundle of 15 letters bound together in a cave at Nahal Hever, nine were found to be composed in Aramaic, four in Hebrew and two in defective Greek (see p. 8). They were all authorized by “Simon Bar Kosiba” (Bar-Kochba), but written and signed by different scribes, each apparently using the language most familiar to him, or, presumably, to the recipient. Since this can only mean that Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek were all spoken languages during Jesus’ time, Jesus could have used any one of, or all three of, those languages. It will be necessary, therefore, to discover from the gospels what languages Jesus used and the ways He used them. First, however, a context will be provided by examining the ways other speech communities divide the functions of languages when more than one are used at the same time.
The Functions of Languages
Rabbinic literature, the synoptic gospels and the Nahal Hever letters prove the simultaneous usage of both Hebrew and Aramaic beyond reasonable doubt. The fact of their reciprocal interpenetration — Aramaisms and Aramaic passages in the Old Testament and in the Hebrew of the Mishnah (the Jewish law); and Hebraisms galore in Palestinian Aramaic — only seems to corroborate the assumption that Mishnaic Hebrew and Palestinian Aramaic coexisted some two millennia ago in a state of mutually complementary Diglossia. This term refers to a state when two varieties of a language exist side by side throughout the same speech community, with each having a definite role to play.
A study of Arabic (classical and popular), Modern Greek (Katharevusa and Dhimotiki), Swiss German (Schriftsprache and Schwyzertuutsch) and Haitian Creole (French and Creole) by Charles A. Ferguson indicates that the cognate language pairs should be separated into High (H) language — utilized in conjunction with religion, education and other aspects of “high culture” — and Low (L) language — used in everyday pursuits of hearth, home and livelihood.
That Hebrew — both biblical and Mishnaic — like Koranic Arabic, Vulgate Latin and New Testament Greek, continues to enjoy the (H)-status of a “sacred tongue” in which Divine Revelations were originally committed to writing, is a fact that goes without saying. Thus the Levites in the Temple conversed in Hebrew, the language in which most words of religious comfort and praise are recorded in the Talmud. When zealous Jews tried to kill Paul in the courtyard of the Temple on suspicion of sacrilege, he spoke to the people in the “High” language of Hebrew: “And when there was
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made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue…And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence” (Acts 21:40, 22:2). This was in contrast to using Greek when speaking to the chief captain (Acts 21:37). Jesus, as well, spoke to Paul “in the Hebrew tongue” when He appeared to him on the road to Damascus (Acts 26:14).
Conversely, the fact that Aramaic was not acceptable for theological and liturgical use as late as the third century A.D. is borne out by several Rabbinical authorities. From the second century A.D. on, the Rabbis recommended Hebrew even for worldly discourse. It was a losing battle, however, because by A.D. 200 Aramaic was beginning to displace Hebrew as the Jewish vernacular in Judea and Galilee.
Written proof to the effect that matters of religious import were committed to writing mainly, if not exclusively, in Hebrew is furnished for the first century (B.C. and/or A.D.) by the Dead Sea Scrolls; for the second century by the Bar Kochba letters of Murabba’at and the Nahal Hever finds, and for the early third century by a body of Mishnaic literature.
The number of Qumran texts written in Hebrew far outnumber those in Aramaic. The relatively few Aramaic texts discovered at Qumran are all non-biblical, popular in style and of a narrative character.
Clear evidence to the functional division characteristic of Diglossia can be found in the documents discovered in the caves near Murabba’at. While biblical texts, a liturgical fragment and two letters from “Simon Prince over Israel,” the leader of the revolt, are composed in Hebrew, deeds of sale, grain transactions, contracts and a financial statement are in Aramaic — with several letters written, to everybody’s surprise in defective Greek. Similarly the bilingual family archives of Babatha, daughter of Simeon, found in 1961 at Wadi Habra, contain contracts and receipts for payment written in Aramaic, followed by a translation into Greek.
The Use of Hebrew and Aramaic in the New Testament
What language did the historical Jesus speak? The gospel evidence confirms His bilingualism, which upon closer scrutiny turns out to be Diglossia. Jesus, in common with His generation of Palestinian Jews, used Hebrew for (H) purposes, reserving Aramaic for (L) functional categories.
The Hebrew words in the New Testament are the following:
Abbadon — Rev. 9:11
Amen — Matt. 31 times, Mark 13 times, Luke six times
Armageddon — Rev. 16:16
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Beelzebub — Matt. 12:24; Luke 11:15, 18, 19
Belial — 1 Cor. 6:15
Cherubim — Heb. 9:5
Gehenna — Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28 and eight more times.
Hallelujah — Rev. 19: 1–6
Hos(i)anna — Matt. 21:9, Mark 11:9, John 12:13
Hyssop — John 19:29, Heb. 9:19
Immanuel — Matt. 1:22
Manna — John 6:31, 49
Messiah — John 1:41, 4:25
Qorban — Mark 7:11
Rabbi — Matt. 23:7-8; 26:25, 49; Mark 9:5, 11:21, 14:45
Rama — Matt. 2:18
Sabbath — Matt. 12:1; Mark 1:21–25, 2:17; Luke 4:16…42 times in all.
Satan — Matt. 4:1
Zion — Matt. 21:5
All of these terms are either theological, or belong to the scriptural, liturgical or homiletic vocabulary of Jesus and his listeners. It therefore stands to reason that Jesus preached, prayed and prophesized in Hebrew.
The five most authenticated Aramaic terms in the New Testament are Abba in Mark 14:36, Ephphatha in Mark 7:34, Mammona in Matt. 6:24, Luke 16:9, 11, 13, Raca in Matt. 5:22, and Talitha cum(i) in Mark 5:41. These are all of the “Low” vocabulary of common, secular speech. It seems, then, that Jesus used Aramaic for non-religious purposes. To this may be added the graecized Aramaic words translated as “cummin” in Matt. 23:23, “measure” in Matt. 13:33, “measure” in Luke 16:6, “measure” in Luke 16:7, “strong drink” in Luke 1:15, and “tares” in Matt. 13:25. What we have here is a group of popular, common terms: a veritable glossary of the marketsquare.
The Use of Greek in New Testament Times
In addition to Hebrew and Aramaic, it is also known that Greek was widely used in Palestine in the time of Jesus. A number of Greek writings from Palestine are known (4 Esra, 2 Maccabbees, parts of Esther, etc.), a Greek inscription forbidding non-Jews to enter the inner courts of the Jerusalem Temple has been found, as well as Greek texts in the Murabba’at caves and the family archives of Babatha at Wadi Habra. Countless inscriptions on ossuaries and graves from Jerusalem and its vicinity have also been recovered.
It would not be out of place, then, to expect that Jesus spoke
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Greek in addition to Hebrew and Aramaic. It is quite possible that Jesus spoke Greek to Pontius Pilate in Matt. 27:11–14 and John 18:33–38, to the centurian in Matt. 8:5–13, and to “the woman of Canaan” in Matt. 15:22–28. Jesus was considered to be a scholar as the forms of address — Rabbi, Lord, Master — used for Him indicate. That a scholar of His rank, like most persons of the upper strata in Roman Palestine, used Greek in their contacts with the political authorities, with Gentile notables, and with Jews from other parts of the empire seems more than likely.
In answer to our original question of what language or languages Jesus spoke, we must answer that He probably spoke all three of the languages that were in common use in Palestine in His day. Which language He spoke at any given time would have depended on the circumstance — Hebrew for religious purposes, Aramaic for common everyday conversation, and Greek when talking with other Greek-speakers.
(“Insights From Qumran into the Languages of Jesus” by Pinchas Lapide in Revue de Qumran, No. 32, December 1975 (Tome 8, Fascicule 4), pp. 483-501.)
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:5–7
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