What Was the Language Spoken

Chapter 5

Day 4

Contrary to what some would have you believe, the bible was not written in English. You will also find, if you study the languages, English is a poor substitute for the languages used in the bible so the translations are not exact. I did not say there were mistakes in the bible. There are NO mistakes in the scripture, however, there are some questionable translations we will discuss later.

The bible was written in three languages; Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The following articles were copied from the Holman Bible Dictionary (with permission):

HEBREW (Hee' broo) The language in which the canonical books of the Old Testament were written, except for the Aramaic sections in Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Daniel 2:4b-7:28; Jeremiah 10:11, and a few other words and phrases from Aramaic and other languages. The language is not called “Hebrew” in the Old Testament. Rather, it is known as “the language (literally, lip) of Canaan” (Isa. 19:18) or as “Judean” (NASB), that is the language of Judah (Neh. 13:24; Isa. 36:11). The word “Hebrew” for the language is first attested in the prologue to Ecclesiasticus in the Apocrypha. See Apocrypha. In the New Testament the references to the “Hebrew dialect” seem to be references to Aramaic.

Biblical or classical Hebrew belongs to the Northwest Semitic branch of Semitic languages which includes Ugaritic, Phoenician, Moabite, Edomite, and Ammonite. This linguistic group is referred to commonly as Canaanite, although some prefer not to call Ugaritic a Canaanite dialect.

Hebrew has an alphabet of twenty-two consonants. The texts were written right to left. The script was based on that of the Phoenicians, a circumstance which did not make it possible to represent or to distinguish clearly among all the consonantal sounds in current use in classical Hebrew.

The distinguishing characteristics of Hebrew are for the most part those shared by one or more of the other Semitic languages. Each root for verbs and nouns characteristically had three consonants, even in later periods when the use of four consonant roots was increased. Nouns are either masculine or feminine. They have singular, plural, or even dual forms, the dual being used for items normally found in pairs, such as eyes, ears, lips. While most nouns were derived from a verbal root, some were original nouns which gave rise to verbs (denominatives). The genitive relationship (usually expressed in English by “of”) is expressed by the construct formation in which the word standing before the genitive is altered in form and pronunciation (if possible).

The Hebrew verb forms indicate person, number, and gender. There are seven verbal stems which serve to indicate types of action: simple action, active or passive; intensive action, active, passive, or reflexive; and causative action, active or passive. In classical Hebrew the isolated verb form did not indicate a tense, but rather complete or incomplete action. Thus verbs are often referred to as perfect or imperfect, there being no past, present, future, past perfect, present perfect, or future perfect. The tense can be determined only in context, and sometimes even that procedure produces uncertain results. Classical Hebrew is a verb oriented language rather than a noun oriented or abstract language. The usual word order of a sentence is verb, subject, modifiers, direct object. The language is quite concrete in expression. However, the relatively simple structure and syntax of classical Hebrew did not keep biblical writers from producing countless passages of unparalleled beauty and power.

While historical development took place in classical Hebrew from the eleventh century to the emergence of Mishnaic Hebrew, it does not seem possible to write the history of that development. It is generally agreed that the most archaic texts are poetic, such as Genesis 4:23-24; Exodus 15; Judges 5, although often it is difficult to decide what is archaic and what may be the result of an archaizing style. Books written toward the close of the Old Testament period, such as Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles, and Ecclesiastes, show the Hebrew language undergoing a number of significant changes due primarily to Aramaic influence. Most of the Hebrew Bible now shows a homogeneous style which was most likely due to scribes in the late pre-exilic period copying the older texts in the dialect of Jerusalem. Thus, to be able to date an extant text does not necessarily mean that one can date the material contained in the text. There is some evidence of dialectical variations in the Hebrew spoken in biblical times. For example there is the shibboleth-sibboleth incident in Judges 12:5-6. Some Bible students think many of the difficulties of the text of Hosea may be clarified by considering the Hebrew of that book as an example of northern or Israelite idiom.

The growing number of Hebrew inscriptions dating from the pre-exilic age provides an important supplement to the study of classical Hebrew. These inscriptions were chiseled into stone, written on ostraca (broken pieces of pottery), or cut into seals or inscribed on jar handles and weights. Some of the most important inscriptional evidence includes the Gezer calendar (tenth century), the Hazor ostraca (ninth century), the Samaria ostraca (early eighth century), the Siloam inscription (late eighth century), Yavneh-yam ostracon (late seventh century), jar handles from Gibeon (late seventh century), the Lachish ostracon (early sixth century), and the Arad ostraca (late seventh and early sixth centuries). To these may be added the Moabite Stone (Stele of Mesha, ninth century) and the Ammonite stele (ninth century) which contain inscriptions in languages very similar to classical Hebrew. Several benefits may be gained from these and other inscriptions for the study of classical Hebrew. First, we now have available an adequate view of the development of Hebrew script and orthography from the tenth century to New Testament times. Second, it now appears that literacy was earlier and more widespread in Israel than was thought previously. Third, the addition of new words and personal names and the like have enriched our knowledge of classical Hebrew. and fourth, details of the texts add new data on matters of history, material culture, and religion.

ARAMAIC (ar uh may' ihk) A north Semitic language similar to Phoenician and Hebrew was the language of the Arameans whose presence in northwestern Mesopotamia is known from about 2000 B.C. Related Old Testament Passages—2 Kings 18:26; Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Dan. 2:4b-7:28; Jer. 10:11. Related New Testament Passages—Mark 5:41; 14:36; 15:34.

Old Testament Although the Arameans never founded a great national state or empire, by the eleventh century they had established several small states in Syria, and their language came to be known from Egypt to Persia.

The oldest inscriptions in Old Aramaic are from Syria around 800 B.C. In the ninth century official or Royal Aramaic appeared. This was a dialect known from documents from Assyria and known best from documents from the Persian empire, for which Aramaic had become the official court language. Before 700 B.C. Aramaic had begun to supplant Akkadian as the language of commerce and diplomacy (2 Kings 18:26). Important for biblical history are the fifth century papyri from Elephantine, the site of a Jewish colony in Egypt. Official Aramaic continued to be used widely throughout the Hellenistic period.

Parts of the Old Testament were written in Aramaic: Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Daniel 2:4b-7:28; Jeremiah 10:11. Two words in Genesis 31:47, Jegar-sahadutha (heap of witness) are in Aramaic. A number of Aramaic words came into common Hebrew usage, and several passages in the Hebrew Bible show Aramaic influence.

New Testament The wide diffusion of Aramaic, along with its flexibility and adaptability, resulted in the emergence of various dialects. In Syria-Palestine the western group includes Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, Samaritan, Palmyrene, and Nabataean. Jewish Palestinian Aramaic words and phrases occur in the New Testament, such as Abba (father) (Mark 14:36), talitha, qumi (maiden, arise) (Mark 5:41), lama sabachthani (why hast thou forsaken me?) (Mark 15:34). The Palestinian Talmud and the Targums (translations of Old Testament books into Aramaic) also were written in Palestinian Jewish Aramaic. The eastern (Mesopotamian) group includes Babylonian Jewish Aramaic, Mandaean, and Syriac.

GREEK LANGUAGE The Greek language has had a long and illustrious history and continues to this day as a vital and viable language. In contrast, Latin survives only in the current romance languages. Greek was the language of Homer, Plato, and Aristotle. It is also the language of modern day Greece.

Like English, Greek is classified as a part of the Indo-European family of languages. It is a more highly inflected language than English. These inflections identify the uses and functions of the words in a sentence. The stems of Greek words are modified by the addition of prefixes, by the changing of the endings of words, and by the insertion of a letter or letters in the midst of words. In the hands of a skilled writer, the Greek language is able to communicate the nuances of philosophy and the deep emotional feelings of a Sophoclean tragedy.

The origins of the Greek language are buried in antiquity. Its development centered in the Greek mainland and the coastal areas around the Aegean Sea. Prior to the time of Alexander the Great, there was no central form of government which held power over all Greek-speaking people. Their territory, for the most part, was comprised of a series of independent city-states. Because these city-states were relatively isolated a variety of Greek dialects developed. The major literary dialects were Attic, Ionic, Doric, and Aeolic. In time the Attic dialect became dominant. The less influential dialects did continue to be used in many parts of the land.

The extant literature which represents the earliest form of literary Greek begins with Homer and the Iliad and Odyssey. These epic poems reflect the richness of the language from ancient times. Homer used the Greek language to portray the heroic portions of humanity. On the other hand, Hesiod, who lived about a century later, left a different type of poetic literature. In his Works and Days, Hesiod pictured the daily human struggle to survive. Although these writers used different dialects, they both wrote in the same basic language known as Greek.

The Golden Age of Greece differs from the other periods in two ways. It spanned a relatively brief period of time, lasting less than a century. In addition, the literary brilliance of the period was limited primarily to the Attic Greek dialect and to Athens. Its influence, however, has been far reaching. The tragic and comic playwrights left an indelible imprint on the theater of succeeding generations. Similarly Plato, Aristotle, and other writers from the Golden Age of Greece have influenced modern philosophy, logic, ethics, and even science.

The Golden Age of Greece was followed by the Hellenistic Greek period. This period lasted from about 300 B.C. to A.D. 600. It was succeeded by the Byzantine period with its political and ecclesiastical separation between East and West. The Greek Orthodox Church began during this period. Later, the fall of Constantinople ushered in the Modern Greek Period.

Of all of the linguistic periods in the development of the Greek language, the Hellenistic period is of particular importance. During this time Greek became the universal language of the “known” world. The Greek language had already spread to the West through the colonies which had been sent out from the Greek mainland. It spread to the East as a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great. His conquering armies carried with them the Attic dialect from their Greek homeland in Macedonia and Achaia to the West as far as India.

Although Rome was the dominant military and political force throughout Europe and Asia Minor during the Hellenistic period, Greek rather than Latin maintained its domination as the language of the people. Latin was the language of the Roman government; Greek was the language of the Empire, the lingua franca. Popularly, it has been referred to as koine Greek. The word “koine” is a transliteration of the Greek word which means “common.” The word itself had reference to that which was everyday, that which was of ordinary people, that which was “vulgar” or common.

Biblical scholars have long known that the Greek of the New Testament is considerably different from the Greek of the Golden Age. The differences were explained by referring to the New Testament Greek as “Biblical Greek” or “Holy Ghost Greek.” This implied that, although the roots of the New Testament were in the Greek language, its style and form differed sharply from the literary Attic Greek with which scholars were familiar.

Toward the close of the nineteenth century, archeologists began to find fragments of papyri, the “paper” of the ancient world. Much of this papyri was found in Egypt in the garbage heaps of some of the major cities. Adolph Deissmann, one of the important scholars of the day, realized that much of the Greek which he was finding in the papyri was similar to that found in the Greek New Testament. He published the results of his investigation in a work called Light from the Ancient East. This work along with that of others revolutionized biblical study. Scholars were able to demonstrate that the Greek found in the New Testament was the same as that found in other writings of the day. It was not some special dialect or Holy Ghost language. The New Testament was written in the universal language of the Empire.

The understanding of the New Testament has been enhanced by the discovery of secular texts which were written during the Hellenistic period. These texts include the papyri, pieces of broken pottery called “ostraca,” inscriptions on monuments, as well as a number of formal works by such authors as Josephus, Epictetus, Philo, and Plutarch. A study of this material has revealed a wide variation in literary skills and style of the writers. They ranged from the semiliterate to the highly stylized. The latter attempted to imitate style and form of the Golden Age of Greece and were called Atticists. As should be expected, the literary style of the writers of the New Testament falls somewhere between these two extremes. Consequently, the average citizen who lived in Alexandria (Egypt), in Jerusalem, or in Rome could have easily understood the writings found in the Greek of the New Testament.

Earlier I mentioned some questionable translations. Here is an example of just one of many. In 1 Corinthians 14:34, Paul states; “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. ³⁵And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.” The word used for women is the Greek word “gune (goo-nay). This word translates both woman and wife, the translators assumed the plural because of the context of the statement. However, not all women have a husband at home. The word should have, in keeping with the context of the statement, been translated wives. Paul said this because the men and women did not sit together in the early church. If a wife did not understand what the speaker said, she would yell across the room to her husband. This caused disorder in the early church.

Paul gives many accounts of women preachers in his letters, which would indicate he did not mean women were supposed to stay totally silent. (Romans 16:1-16)

Remember, God inspired the scripture but King James ordered the translation. You should look for suspect translations and look them up to see what was really said..

Knowing the language used and the true translation can help you to understand the bible.

Daily Bible Readings:

Read 1 Corinthians 7