In May 2014, Pope Francis conducted a three day visit to the holy land. During his visit, he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the two had an interesting disagreement. Speaking through a Spanish-Hebrew interpreter, Netanyahu told the Pope, "Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew." "Aramaic," Francis said, disagreeing. "He spoke Aramaic, but he knew Hebrew," replied Netanyahu. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/05/27/what-language-did-jesus-speak-the-pope-and-israels-prime-minister-disagree/?utm_term=.f5b8260e34d8] The two did not pursue the subject further, so it’s not clear how wide the disagreement between the two was. However, the Pope’s statement reflects an idea that developed in the 19th century: that Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic as their first language, and that Hebrew was not widely used as a spoken language in the land of Israel during the New Testament time period. This view developed within the Christian academic environment and has grown to be almost universally accepted, but it is not a view shared by the Israeli Jewish community [https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-why-jesus-was-a-hebrew-speaker-1.5250513]. This chapter will attempt to show that Netanyahu was correct; that Jesus and the disciples spoke Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek all three, but that Hebrew was their first language. This understanding can improve the analysis of the development of the New Testament.
The prevailing idea that Aramic was ascendant during Jesus time is expressed by Bruce Metzger in his classic textbook The New Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content. Metzger says “For the ordinary Jewish populace, Hebrew was approaching the status of a dead language.” Metzger was one of the preeminent New Testament scholars of the 20th century, and his view represents the consensus among both secular and Christian scholars. It is safe to say that Pope Francis and Bruce Metzger would be in agreement. The Passion of the Christ was an enormously successful movie produced by Mel Gibson in 2004 in which Jewish characters all spoke Aramaic.
Contrary to the Pope, Metzger and Gibson, I assert that Jesus and his disciples were essentially trilingual, speaking Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. There is nothing inherently unusual about individuals being trilingual if they are raised in an appropriate setting – many western Europeans today speak three or more languages nearly fluently. We will address each of these languages individually.
Aramaic
Essentially everyone agrees on this point: Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic. Aramaic was the main language used throughout the Middle East at this time. The books of Daniel and Ezra in the Old Testament contain lengthy Aramaic sections, and those would be familiar to Jews in Israel. A number of Aramaic words and phrases are retained in the gospels, especially in Mark. When Jesus spoke to local gentiles, such as the Syro-Phoenicean woman, Aramaic would probably be the only language choice available. It should not be necessary to argue the point in more detail, as I am aware of no general objection to stipulating that Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic.
Greek
Jesus and his disciples also spoke Greek. This may be a more problematic idea but it really shouldn’t be. The New Testament authors Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James, Jude and whoever wrote Hebrews were all Jews (except maybe Luke) and they all wrote in Greek. Judea had been a Greek province from 333 B.C. through about 167 B.C., and Hellenistic influences still abounded. Some of Jesus’ speech includes words like “hypocrite,” which is pungently descriptive in Greek but doesn’t have a good equivalent in ancient Hebrew or Aramaic. When Jesus spoke to Romans, especially Pontius Pilate, Greek would be the most likely language choice. The same applies to Peter and Paul in their interactions with Roman soldiers and authorities. None of these interactions have any mention of translators or difficulties in understanding. Greek was the lingua franca of the Roman Empire. Paul and other early Christian missionaries in Europe would need to speak Greek. Of course, it is not out of the question that some of the disciples also learned Latin, but Greek would still be the first language choice throughout most of the Christian church once the number of gentile converts became significant.
Hebrew
Jesus and his disciples spoke Hebrew, and did so as their primary language. Because this is a more controversial assertion, I will develop multiple lines of evidence.
First, major literary works in the land of Israel were written in Hebrew before, during and after the New Testament period. The books of Ecclesiasticus (Ben Sirach), written 180-175 B.C., and Tobit, written 225-175 B.C, are in Hebrew. Jubilees was written in Hebrew between 175 B.C and 100 B.C. All the major works of the Essenes written during the New Testament period and preserved in the Dead Sea Scrolls, such as the Temple scroll, the Community Rule scroll and The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, are written in Hebrew. The Mishna is a collection of Jewish oral traditions completed by the beginning of the third century A.D. The Mishna codifies oral traditions from the time period before, during and slightly after the New Testament period. It is also written in Hebrew.
The Dead Sea Scrolls overall provide an additional argument for the prevalence of Hebrew during the New Testament time. The Dead Sea Scrolls were written between 250 B.C. and 68 A.D., with most of them in the range 100 B.C. to 68 A.D. There are more than 1200 Dead Sea Scrolls identified here (https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/explore-the-archive, retrieved 12/18/2018) and more than 70% of the scrolls are in Hebrew. If scriptural texts are subtracted, the margin shrinks some, but there are still many Hebrew scrolls, including scrolls with no religious connections (such as the Copper Scroll, which is basically a treasure map). Also, a number of scrolls not found in Qumran (and so not associated with the Essene community, lest some should suggest that the Essenes were unusual in their selection of Hebrew) are written in Hebrew, like the Nahal Hever Lease of Land scroll fragments (132-135 A.D.), and letters found in Wadi Muraba’at (before 135 A.D.).
Second, coins minted by Jews in the land of Israel at this time used Hebrew. Many examples are present here: [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ancient-jewish-coins]. Shekels from the first Jewish revolt of 66-70 A.D. contain Hebrew inscriptions that read “Shekel of Israel” on one side and “Jerusalem the Holy” on the other. Maccabean coins and coins from the Bar Kochba rebellion of 132-135 also have Hebrew inscriptions.
Ossuaries, or burial boxes, were common in the Jerusalem area in the period 40 B.C. through 135 A.D. Many of these have inscriptions, and the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek languages are all generously represented in these inscriptions. (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ossuaries-and-sarcophagi, retrieved 12/18/2018)
So to summarize the archeological evidence: books, letters, coins and burial inscriptions all commonly used Hebrew. This should be sufficient to demonstrate that Hebrew was the language commonly used by Jews in the land of Israel during the New Testament period. In a subsequent post, I will develop some ideas as to how this can help our understanding of the New Testament.
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