Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lewis Reich" <LBR AT sprynet.com>]

On 24 Dec 98, at 14:41, Eric Weiss wrote:

> Re: the assumption that Jesus spoke Hebrew/Aramaic to the Jewish leaders
> (assuming John's gospel transmits to us Jesus' words), I understand that
> the ANWQEN "again/above" wordplay in John 3:3 in Jesus' discussion with
> Nicodemus does not work in Hebrew or Aramaic (i.e, they don't have a
> single word with these two meanings), which suggests that Jesus spoke with
> Nicodemus in Greek

This of course, as Eric notes, assumes that the incident is historical and 
was 
accurately transmitted to the author of John's gospel.  Another possibility 
is 
that the author constructed his account based on a paraphrase.

> - and, as my 1st-year Greek teacher mentioned, Nicodemus is a Greek name (I
> never verified this, though). 

That I first-century Jew had a Greek name would not necessarily imply that he 
did not speak Hebrew or Aramaic.

Lewis Reich
LBR AT sprynet.com



> If Jesus spoke Greek, then the LXX translation of Exodus 3:14 as EGW EIMI
> hO WN might have been the referent for John 8:58 and the other EGW EIMI
> statements in GJohn. Is that possible?