Biblical Hebrew Forum

["David Kimbrough (CLWA)" <dkimbrough AT clwa.org>]

 Charles,

My understanding, as a man of little Latin and less Greek, is that Latin was
dominant in the west and Greek (Koine) in East.   Aramaic was very common in
the east as well.  However for official documents, Latin was the main
language in both the east and west.  Similarly it was considered a sign of
refinement and education to know Greek, much in the same way many English
speaking people consider it a sign of refinement to be able to speak French.
There were also Greeks (in the ethnic sense) as well as Judeans (again in
the ethnic sense) scattered through the Empire so one could go to just about
any city and find someone who could speak Greek and Aramaic.  The ordinary
people of the west then spoke Latin or one of its local variations, as they
do now.

In regards to the second question, it is my understanding that the early
church documents are in Greek is that Christianity took root earlier in
eastern cities than the western cities.  Among the goyim, it was Greeks who
showed the most interest Jesus.  Many, if not most, Judeans also spoke Greek
as their first language, hence the need for the LXX centuries before Jesus
or Christianity.

-----Original Message-----
From: Charles David Isbell
To: Peter Kirk; Harold R. Holmyard III
Cc: b-hebrew
Sent: 2/24/04 2:36 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Linguists hope for Aramaic revival

What can we make of the NT witness about the inscription that was
written
about Jesus? The synoptics simply record that "an inscription" was
placed
above him, while John adds the specifics that (A) "Pilate wrote an
inscription and put it on the cross" [19.19] and (B) the inscription was
trilingual: Hebrew, Latin and Greek [19.20].

A second question. If Latin was so pervasive in the Roman Empire at this
time, why was the entire NT composed in Koine Greek?

Charles David Isbell

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