Did Jesus speak Greek?

[cj.23]

Marc suggested kindly I should perhaps give my reasons for believing in John's gospel being the earliest. I'll pass for now - it might bore people to death.

However, I have noticed one thing in my wanderings through the Gospels which hardly ever gets mentioned, but seems apparent to any casual reader.
I think Jesus spoke Koine, a Greek language.

Now i know very little about linguistics, so I'm happy to be shot down. I would not post this here is I was not willing to be critiqued! It strikes me as quit obvious, so I'm almost certainly wrong...

To explain briefly --
In the period, there are three key languages we need to concern ourselves with.

Koine is the lingua franca of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Life of Brian aside, Roman soldiers by my understanding would be correcting your grammar on "Romans go the the house" in Koine not Latin?

Hebrew is primarily used as a sacred, liturgical language. Jesus knew it, because he often uses it in quotations apparently - Biblical Scholars who know the language attest to this. I seem to recall teh final cry on the cross "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" is in a mix of Aramaic and Hebrew?

Finally there is Aramaic. This is the common spoken language of the area. Jesus and his disciples speak with rustic Galilean accents, making them stand out in Jerusalem, as we know from evidence in the Gospels.

Now my question, and it is a very obvious one. All the Gospels are written in Greek. If all Jesus's words were in Aramaic, why were certain phrases and not others translated across the gospels???

So we have "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" - Mark 15:33-34
Talithi cumi "wake up little girl" - Mark 5:41

I think there are other examples - two will suffice. My question is, if you are translating all the saying from Aramaic, why would you choose on some ocasions to offer the actual words, and a translation? Is it not entirely possible Jesus actually frequently taught in Koine Greek, and therefore when he spoke in Aramaic it was worthy of remark?

I'm mildly curious about this, and having not much work on thought I'd ask, as you chaps and chapesses all seem to know your stuff. No knowledge of Bib Crit is required here - it seems to be just a common sense thing. So any suggestions?

cj x

 

[Foster Zygote]

Actually, I've never heard any scholar claim that Jesus and his followers spoke anything but Aramaic.

 

[Freddy]

Educated people throughout the Roman Empire spoke Greek. But Jesus was the son of a carpenter and the apostles were mostly fishermen. I doubt they spoke Greek.

 

[cj.23]

Educated people throughout the Roman Empire spoke Greek. But Jesus was the son of a carpenter and the apostles were mostly fishermen. I doubt they spoke Greek.

Yes. I see your point, though I understand carpenter might be closer to "skilled builder?" Anyone cast light on that? Wasn't Galilee at the time actually undergoing major economic changes and two large Greek cities in the region? I'm not certain of these things, but I seem to recall them. I'll go look it up...

cj x

 

[Zep]

Who actually wrote the gospel to which you refer? What languages was he conversant with? Where was he when he wrote it? And who was he writing it for?

 

[Tricky]

Educated people throughout the Roman Empire spoke Greek. But Jesus was the son of a carpenter and the apostles were mostly fishermen. I doubt they spoke Greek.

Well, ya know, Jesus went missing for 20+ years. Maybe he was in finishing school. (Actually, I have heard that he travelled during that time.)

 

[ceo_esq]

Actually, I've never heard any scholar claim that Jesus and his followers spoke anything but Aramaic.

I've never heard of any serious scholar claiming that Jesus spoke anything but Aramaic as a primary language, but I've often seen it suggested that he may well have known some Hebrew, Greek and/or Latin too.

 

[cj.23]

Who actually wrote the gospel to which you refer? What languages was he conversant with? Where was he when he wrote it? And who was he writing it for?

Mark's Gospel was written in Greek (all of them were.) He would have been conversant in Aramaic (based on internal textual evidence) and was writing for the gentile Churches, possibly in Rome. Hence my curiosity as to why he would have translated all the words, yet on a couple of occasions preserved the original?

There are strong arguments against my theory. John's Gospel if translated back in to Aramaic apparently preserves the classic features of Hebrew Poetry - and there are plenty of other textual reasons to doubt it. Yet still these exceptions bother me...

cj x

 

[Merko]

I don't think Jesus existed so I don't think he was speaking Greek. However, I think that some or all of the people who made up the New Testament Jesus quotes were speaking Greek (although they seem to have taken almost everything from the Old Testament). So I think you do have a point.

 

[jjramsey]

Educated people throughout the Roman Empire spoke Greek.

Actually, Koine Greek was the lingua franca of the time. It's certainly plausible for Jesus to have known some Greek, though they wouldn't necessarily be fluent in it.

 

[Zep]

Mark's Gospel was written in Greek (all of them were.) He would have been conversant in Aramaic (based on internal textual evidence) and was writing for the gentile Churches, possibly in Rome. Hence my curiosity as to why he would have translated all the words, yet on a couple of occasions preserved the original?

Perhaps for a certain je ne sait quoi?

 

[geni]

Actually, I've never heard any scholar claim that Jesus and his followers spoke anything but Aramaic.

I've seen it argued. The general counter argument is that even Josephus admited his ( Josephus's) greek wasn't that good and had taken him a fair while to learn.