Which Language did Jesus Speak?

Asher Chee |

The prevailing view among Christians today is that Jesus spoke Aramaic primarily, since he was Jewish. Others think that Jesus must have spoken Hebrew primarily, since Hebrew was the language of the Israelites, and the language which the Jewish (“Old Testament”) Scriptures were written in.

In this article, I lay out a few indications that Jesus and his fellow Jews living in the land of Israel during the first century CE spoke Greek primarily as the language of everyday life.

1. Jewish preference for the Septuagint

The term “Septuagint” refers to Greek translations of the Jewish Scriptures which were produced by Jews between the third and second centuries BCE. Their production seems to have been necessitated by the fact that many Jews at that time were more fluent in Greek than in Hebrew and Aramaic, and hence could not properly understand the Hebrew Scriptures in their original languages.

By the time of Jesus, these Greek translations were already being used extensively by the Jews living in the land of Israel. In fact, in most of the instances where the New Testament writers quote the Hebrew Scriptures, they would often quote from these Greek translations rather than follow the original Hebrew text more closely.

This Jewish preference for the Septuagint is exemplified in the Gospel account of Jesus reading from a scroll of the Book of Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth:

Luke 4:16–19 ESV And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.”

It is well known that Jesus was reading from Isaiah 61:1–2. Many people assume that Jesus must have been reading from a Hebrew scroll, since the Book of Isaiah was originally composed in Hebrew, and Jews in the land of Israel would have known how to read Hebrew. After all, if Hebrew or Aramaic was indeed the primary language of the Jewish people, then it would be natural to expect that they used Hebrew or Aramaic for religious purposes—especially when reading or reciting their Scriptures, which were originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic anyway.

However, the text which Jesus read in the synagogue at Nazareth is actually closer to the Greek translations of Isaiah 61:1–2 than the original Hebrew text. Thus, it is evident that Jesus was reading from a scroll which contained a Greek translation of the Book of Isaiah, rather than the original Hebrew text of the Book of Isaiah itself. If, even for religious purposes, these Jews living in the land of Israel were using Greek translations of the Hebrew Scriptures rather than the original Hebrew text, then it is very likely that for them, Greek was also the language of everyday life, rather than Hebrew or Aramaic.

2. Greek-only particularities in the New Testament

The four gospels record things that Jesus said which would only make sense in Greek, but not at all in Hebrew and Aramaic. One example of this is Jesus’ conversion with Nicodemus, as recorded in the Gospel of John:

John 3:3–4 ESV Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”

The Greek word commonly rendered “again” in translations is the adverb anōthen, which could also mean “from above”. Jesus was actually talking about being born from above, but Nicodemus misunderstood Jesus to be saying that a person must be born again, “entering a second time into his mother’s womb and be born.” This misunderstanding would only be possible if Jesus and Nicodemus were conversing in Greek rather than Hebrew or Aramaic. This is particularly striking because both Jesus and Nicodemus were among the foremost Jewish theologians of their time. Nicodemus was even known as “the teacher of Israel” (John 3:10). If anyone among the Jews of that time could speak Hebrew, it would have been them, and yet here they are, speaking in Greek to one another.

We find this also in Jesus’ conversation with Peter:

Matthew 16:18 ESV You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.

The Greek word for “rock” here is petra, which sounds similar to—and is actually related to—Peter’s name, Petros. The pun was intended, and it would only work in Greek, rather than in Hebrew or Aramaic. Again, here are two Jews, living in the land of Israel, speaking to one another in Greek, even though the languages of their people were Hebrew and Aramaic.

3. Hebrew and Aramaic expressions in the New Testament

Some assert that Jesus spoke Aramaic primarily based on the fact that in the four Gospels, he is recorded to have used Aramaic expressions in speech. In the Greek text, these Aramaic expressions are transliterated; written in Greek letters. Examples of these Aramaic expressions are:

Ironically, however, the fact that these Aramaic expressions appear sporadically in the four Gospels actually prove otherwise. If Jesus had been speaking Aramaic primarily, then these Aramaic expressions would not have been recorded in Aramaic, since they would have been likewise translated into Greek along with the rest of the things he said. Therefore, it is more reasonable to conclude that Jesus spoke Greek primarily, and only in those few, isolated instances where he used Aramaic did the gospel writers record the Aramaic words that he spoke.

Conclusion

In the fourth century BCE, Alexander the Great spread the Greek language and culture throughout the lands he conquered. Thus, Greek became the international language among these lands, including the land of Israel. The result of this was that Jews living in the land of Israel were trilingual; they used three languages. Although Hebrew and Aramaic remained the languages of the Jewish people, they spoke Greek primarily as the language of everyday life, since that was the international language of the Mediterranean world during that time.