Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com>]

Yigal Levin wrote:

> I'd have to disagree with you, Peter. The very fact that ALL of our known
> early Christian writings are in Greek would show that Greek was the common
> language used. My guess would be that the Semitic (i.e. Aramaic, Syriac,
> Nabatean, Palmyran etc.) speaking population adopted Christianity en masse
> only after it became the official religion of the Empire in the days of
> Constantine, soon after which it began persecuting non-Christians. By then
> (that is, 4th century), certainly for Jews, Greek represented Christianity.
>
> Yigal
Yigal, certainly not ALL early Christian writings are in Greek. Well, it 
depends quite how early you mean, as the very earliest surviving ones 
are, though there are those who would argue that even this is an 
accident of preservation. Also of  course urbanised and hellenised 
people were more likely to write than the less educated rural people who 
spoke Aramaic/Syriac. But there was certainly Syriac Christian 
literature from the late 2nd century CE, the works of Tatian (c.110-180) 
and Bardaisan (154-222); also the Odes of Solomon from the late 1st 
century CE.

But I take your point about Greek being identified with Constantine's 
perverted form of Christianity which persecuted Jews and indeed anyone 
who disagreed with it. That might indeed have prompted a reaction 
against Greek among Jews. But I thought we were talking about a rather 
earlier period.

--
Peter Kirk
peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com
http://web.onetel.net.uk/~peterkirk/