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  • From: Susan Jeffers <SusanJeffers AT compuserve.com>
  • To: GMark Post <GMark AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: language of Jesus
  • Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 11:29:11 -0500


Greetings!

I'm sorry to bother this august body with a trivial question, but I wonder
if someone could outline for me the arguments for the assertion that Jesus
and his followers spoke only or mostly Aramaic. I've been travelling the
last couple of months and haven't had access to either my own books or a
good library.

The only thing I've been able to come across is the fact that there are
various Aramaic phrases in the gospels, and semiticisms (which could
possibly be from Hebrew or Aramaic) in the Greek. And that Aramaic and
Greek were both widely used in the region at the time.

All sorts of popular books and articles state "Jesus spoke Aramaic" as
fact, often with an implication that the Greek manuscripts of the NT are
thereby suspect. Neither the assertion nor the implication seem to me to
be self-evident.

Thanks for any help you can offer. Off-list responses welcome.

Susan Jeffers

PS I was explaining my question to my husband, and giving the examples of
Aramaic phrases to my husband, who said, Oh, so that's like someone
concluding that my use of phrases like "deja vu" and "c'est la vie" means
my native language is French.




  • language of Jesus, Susan Jeffers, 02/20/2001

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