If Greek put an "a" before "men" it would actually negate its meaning. These weren't translated into Greek wit an equivalent, for example, you could say "Men" in Greek for "Amen" but we don't see that, we see the Aramaic "Amen" why is that? These words were never translated into Greek, they were transliterated, meaning letter for letter equivalent. Xrusaoros Pegasos: Many words that just seem scattered, or just pop up in Aramaic, like "Abba" "Amen" or "Satan" and many others, in the middle of a sentence are interesting to note. Jesus speaks to Greeks, and Romans in the gospel.īut the most interesting thing to read are the wordplay usage in Greek that Jesus so oft employed, it is a blast to read in the original language. Acts 19:10 And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia (Today Turkey which was a Greek speaking country at the time) heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. It also wouldn't make sense from Jesus point of view to "teach" in Aramaic when the known world was Greek. In john 20 the Greeks come to His disciples asking to hear Jesus speak.
It makes sense to use your native tongue in intimate moments and times of stress. And another example is when Jesus cried out to God on the cross in Aramaic. This makes sense since in small localized villages and especially with little children, they probably only speak Aramaic, so it makes sense for Jesus to use Aramaic here.Īnother example of Jesus incorporating Aramaic is just before His arrest on the mount of olives, Jesus is praying to the Father "Pater abba" repeating the word "Father" twice in both Greek and then Aramaic. This is interesting to note because if it was just and only Aramaic, why is there little bits and pieces being translated? This points toward the idea that Jesus taught in Greek and incorporated Aramaic, in intimate moments and times of stress.įor example, when Jesus tells the little Jewish girl after bringing her back to life "Little girl, I say unto you, arise." in Aramaic. It's interesting to note how that sometimes we get translation of the Aramaic in the gospel written by the author. Some of Jesus apostles had Greek names, though Jews they were.
Evidence of some of the Jewish world being Hellenized is the ancient Greek translation of the OT or Pentateuch, and after that the whole Septuagint. These word plays and puns only work in Greek, and Jesus used a lot of them.Īnother reason is that in the 1st century it was common to speak more than one language in the known world, even in Israel, which was primarily Aramaic and then Greek. Xrusaoros Pegasos: In the GNT Gospels Jesus uses a lot of word plays and puns that can't be translated from Aramaic into Greek, they would not make sense anymore.