Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

It seems that Hebrew was also in widespread use in the 1st century. From an
article "The New International Jesus", by David Bivin
(http://www.jerusalemperspective.com/articles/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=1720,
but you need to log in to see the whole article):

The notion that first-century Jews in the land of Israel predominantly spoke
Aramaic was widespread from the middle of the last century until the middle
of this century -- and continues to circulate -- in academic and popular
literature... Since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, however,
scholarly opinion has been migrating to a position which recognizes that
most first-century Jews in the land of Israel were polyglots who spoke
Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek.

From another article by David Bivin, "A Gospel in Hebrew?"
(http://www.jerusalemperspective.com/articles/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=1471):

Contrary to what one might expect, however, the book of Hebrews is written
in the purest Greek of any book in the New Testament.

Peter Kirk


> -----Original Message-----
> From: ian goldsmith [mailto:iangoldsmith1969 AT yahoo.co.uk]
> Sent: 15 November 2001 11:40
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: Re: The Gospels being in Hebrew originally
>
<snip>
>
> Aramaic and Greek seem to have been the language of
> the day. Perhaps Jesus preached in both, perhaps when
> quoting OT he quoted in Hebrew, but as far as I know
> the quotes of the OT that he used match the
> LXX/septuagint better, perhaps someone could clarify
> that point.
>
> It's possible, but it doesn't really matter, does it?
> Certainly at least one letter in the NT was written to
> the Hebrews and if there was any candidate for a
> Hebrew text perhaps it would be here?
>
> Perhaps if I've overlooked something someone would be
> kind enough to fill in.
>
> Many thanks
> Ian.
>
> --- "Harry W. Jones" <hjbluebird AT aol.com> wrote: > To
> All
> >
> > Does anyone knew if the Gospels were originally
> > written
> > in Hebrew and translated into Greek by the apostles?
> >
> > Harry Jones
> >