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    Jesus' Greek

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    sinless


    Posts : 5
    Join date : 2009-05-31

    Jesus' Greek Empty Jesus' Greek

    Post  sinless Thu Jul 02, 2009 8:21 am

    Why is it not intellectual fraud, perpetuated upon the ignorant, to make points regarding what Jesus meant or didn't mean, by saying, "Jesus did not use <that Greek word>, but used <this Greek word>," when Jesus didn't use any Greek words?
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    birks10


    Posts : 36
    Join date : 2009-02-15

    Jesus' Greek Empty Re: Jesus' Greek

    Post  birks10 Fri Jul 10, 2009 2:18 pm

    Sinless,

    Thye fact is, we do not know if Jesus did or didn't speak Greek. It's possible either way. Since Greek was the lingua franca of the world at that time, it is likely that he did. We know that Aramaic (which is a close cognate language of Hebrew) was what was spoken and written in at that time especially with Hebrew being used almost exclusivly in the Temple and synagogue structures. On the other hand, the version of the OT that was used then in the first century was the Septuagint(LXX), which as you probably know is the OT translated into Greek. Again, the common language and the common version of the day including in the market places of Judea and in many business delings.

    When we speak about what Jesus said (for instance) in the gospel accounts as being in Greek, we are speaking to the fact tnat all the available manuscript evidence has been preserved in the Greek language. There exists no credible manuscripts of the NT in any other language for the first 5 centuries of manuscript transmission. The Aramaic translations don't really show up until the late 5th century. Aramaic does not possess the same details and intricasies of communication in grammar and syntax that Greek does. If what was communicated to us as the words of Jesus by the NT authros was originally written in something other than Greek, then we have a problem as the the Greek language contains the type of details within the langugae format that other languages are unable to replicate well. Even the LXX does not accurately portray the original Hebrew in many spots.

    So since what the NT documents were originally written in was Greek, and the Holy Spirit inspired that language and those Greek forms of grammar to be used, it is logical to understand that what the Greek text has Jesus saying is in fact what he originally communicated. On the other hand it is possible that the Holy Spirit added further meaning through the clarity of the features of the Greek language to bring us even more info on what Christ said, even though it is possible he communicated some of those thihgs in say, Aramaic.

    Dr. B...

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